Here are the ten most important reasons why I love Voyager (in no particular order):
1. Captain Kathryn Janeway. Best Captain ever, can't imagine a better one. In fact, I can hardly imagine a better character - to me she was so good. I could always relate to her decisions, I also always agreed with them, I never saw that one decision contradicted her next one - in fact, I thought she was excellent when it came to decision-making. The only exception is ENDGAME but since she was so good in the previous 170 episodes that I forgave her for the last two. She is also a human being, she is allowed to make mistakes. All in all, she has become a role model for me. The qualities that have made her a role model in my eyes include the fact that she had humour, she had a big heart, she was the mother of the crew, she was a strong leader, she was never afraid to put up a good fight, she was a no nonsense person, she was an encyclopaedia of knowledge and basically I think that Voyager is Voyager because of Captain Kathryn Janeway. Although I love everyone else, if she hadn't been there OR if she had been written differently, Voyager would have been very different from what it ultimately became.
2. Thomas Eugene Paris. If Janeway is my role model, this guy is the love of my life. Seriously. He embodies all the qualities I look for in a man, I like his physical appearance too but this is not his main appeal for me. Although he is often sarcastic, he is a character with a big heart whose ironic remarks are often external signals of his internal struggles. The reason I love him of all men the most has mainly to do with the fact that we see him in all sorts of different situations - in the capacity of a friend, a lover, an ex-Maquis, a Starfleet officer, a husband, a father, a son, a pilot, a nurse, a holodeck programmer ... you name it - and all these qualities mesh into a very complex character who basically fulfils all of the abovementioned functions with perfection. He is a guy with a troubled past who has never for a second lied about it, who has always been trying to face up to it and not coming up with excuses for why he did what he did and basically he's always been trying to become better in any and all respects of his life. If he needed sarcasm to do that, then amen to it. I know that most people think that Seven's character development is the most spectacular on Voyager. I beg to disagree, I think Tom's is so outstandingly the most conspicuous one that you just can't not notice it.
3. Everyone else. Seriously, although there are some other shows I like - none as much as VOY - and generally I like most of the characters on those shows (Stargate or CSI series for example), I've never felt that I would feel all the characters so close to me. Do you remember how even Zahir in DARKLING was jealous of the closeness that existed among the crew? And he had every reason. These people just love each other in spite of the occasional conflicts that occur among them. And even more importantly, they have the courage to express this love. It flows so naturally among the crew members no matter if it's Mother Janeway, Clown Neelix, Perfection Seven or Holographic I'm-a-genius Doctor or anyone else. When two or more of these people are put together in whatever situation - from dangerous to humorous - that element of love is just there all the time. There's an ease between the characters that is mostly absent from other shows (or is there to a lot smaller extent) and this is always true no matter which two you pair up in a given situation. There are some pairs that we are so used to - J/C, To/B To/H D/K D/7 N/K Tu/N, etc - but when you think about it, these people love each other so much and behave so naturally in the others' presence that there is absolutely nothing unusual about selecting two who are normally not thought of as a typical pair and putting them in a situation - like To/N, C/H, B/S ... etc. All in all, a great crew.
4. Humour. Best humour I've ever seen in any series. I'm sorry but the so-called humour of sitcoms and any other shows that are "meant" to be humorous bores me. Whether it's Al Bundy or The Big Bang Theory, You Rang My Lord or Two And A Half Men, I get easily bored with this kind of humour and after two episodes I feel that I'd rather go back to the Delta Quadrant. Voyager's sense of humour is exquisite, basically because the show is not meant to be funny and humour only serves as a means to make it more interesting. Voyager's primary aim is not to make you laugh but it does all the time. No matter whether it's Janeway's intellectual, Tuvok's logical, the Doctor's narcissistic or Tommyboy's sarcastic humour, this show keeps cracking me up all the time. In fact, the more I'm watching it, the more I'm appreciating every aspect of it and this includes the subtleties of the humour that's there from the beginning to the end.
5. Best opening sequence. Need I say more? This isn't just the best Star Trek opening sequence, this is the best opening sequence of all time. Both musically and visually. Voyager is far superior in my book to any shows, including any other Star Trek shows and this is the one aspect where this superiority is the most conspicuous.
6. Uniforms. I am really glad they never changed over to the ugly uniforms in later seasons of Deep Space Nine. I much prefer these colourful ones, they emphasize the light-hearted nature of the show. In general, I am very happy that this was never turned into a dark show and I think the question of the uniforms was handled accordingly.
7. The premise. A ship lost in space - an excellent premise. Although a lot of people think the show never lived up to its premise, again, I beg to differ. It did in my book. To me, StarGate Universe was the series that never did it: all that dark tone on the ship, the cantankerous nature of basically the whole bunch with a hateful character as the lead ... just by talking about it, it brings back all the negative feelings I had when watching it. Voyager was great, it never took that dark direction. This was a pretty unique way of handling the premise and they did it very well: the Maquis saw there was absolutely no reason for not cooperating and focussed on getting home instead of fighting with Starfleet. This gave us an emotional closeness to the Maquis as well - if they had decided to remain hostile, the whole show would have felt a lot more alienating. You would constantly have been suspicious of everyone and everything and ultimately it would have stretched it for me. Voyager was in a difficult position anyway and very often enemies were already aboard - you didn't need to make the regular crew into a group that constantly fought with each other. The relatively little conflict we saw between the Maquis and Starfleet was enough to signal to the viewers that not everyone was happy. Also, this question could be approached from a different point of view as well: you didn't need to be Maquis to be unhappy like the three stray dogs in GOOD SHEPHERD.
8. Villains. I know that the Kazon are criticized all the time but I really liked them. They gave us the whole Seska - Michael Jonas arc, which was really interesting in earlier seasons. Also, their regular appearance gave a certain structure to the show that was unfortunately missing in the last two seasons.
Having said that, they were by far not my favourite villains - but they were all right in my book. I really love the Borg and frankly I could have done with three times as many borg episodes as what we got and would still not have felt that Janeway had somehow "neutered" them. To me, all the borg episodes are exciting ... not for a second do I feel when our main characters are inside a borg cube that I can let down my guard ... Plus Seven's whole background story was super interesting and in this way her personal story tied very well into the main borg storyline.
But of all enemies, the Hirogen were the most enjoyable one for me. I loved all their stories, I wish more had been done with them. The only villains I don't really like are the Mallon and I wish they had used season 5 for another Hirogen story arc, too. But basically I like them a lot and can't wait to see the day (which never seems to arrive) when finally a Voyager author decides to give us a good Hirogen-based novel, preferably a trilogy.
9. Episodes. I could go on and on about this ... Suffice it to say that with the exception of FURY (which I hate) I appreciate all the episodes. Out of the 172 eps at least 160 are my favourite, which only leaves me with a handful episodes that I like less or find quite boring (most notably THE HAUNTING OF DECK TWELVE - yawn). But on the whole, I find all the episodes super interesting whether they are Janeway's or Tom's holodeck adventures, big battles with the borg or the Krenim or whoever else, ethical dilemmas like TUVIX or LATENT IMAGE, hilariously funny like WORST CASE SCENARIO or BODY AND SOUL, thought-provoking like SACRED GROUND or CRITICAL CARE, showing unresolved past like TATTOO or LINEAGE, hallucinations like PERSISTENCE OF VISION or ONE, showing our characters in love like UNFORGETTABLE or FAIR HAVEN or even over-the-top ones like THRESHOLD or THE VOYAGER CONSPIRACY. Bottom line is that episodes show a great variety (my fav one being SCORPION) and no matter what kind of episodes they are, they are always good.
10. Last but not least: Voyager's contact with Starfleet (in later seasons) and the recurring characters from other Star Trek shows. There's not much to say about this, except that in this way their quest for getting home was given an extra dimension and this made room for even more emotional stories than up to that point.
