Voyager does get a bad rap. The cast had great chemistry and as a kid, it was the most accessible Star Trek I watched. The others left me confused 1/3 of the time.
I'll add a third category and that is Trek had more competition in the sci-fi category, which drew me away. It certainly is the most accessible of the Treks, and has some pretty high rewatch value from episode to episode.
As fireproof has already mentioned increasing competition in the genre could also have been a factor. But I suspect the causes were TV viewership was in general decline anyway Increased competition And some will have felt that VOY didn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of overall storytelling. But that's true of other genres not just Sci-Fi. Also some part of the audiance simply isn't willing to allow a TV show to find it's feet. Some will give it a full season, others half a season and some just a few episode before thy decide if the show is worth their loyalty One other factor to consider is that people might have recorded it to VHS to watch later and I don't think time-shifted viewings were recorded back in the 90's.
I remember hearing about Tivo(is that what it was called?) all the time and thought it was dumb. I finally got cable when I was 18 or 19 after moving out and it had "On Demand" where some shows could just be watched anytime(I don't think it was streaming). Good times...
Viewership ratings for both DS9 and Voyager (and possibly even late TNG)were in an equal, steady, but slow decline throughout their runs. Enterprise experienced a sharp ratings drop halfway into season 1, and an even more violent drop in season 2, and despite an increasingly positive critical reception throughout seasons 3 and 4, ratings continued to get worse and worse, often below the 3% threshold. So despite Enterprise's critical successes, without ratings, the show was cancelled(cancelled twice actually) TNG, a uniquely successful sci fi show, had literally no competition.
Oh yeah, I remember Oprah touting Tivo. I couldn't reconcile how you could ever catch up, lol. How can I can squeeze in what I missed with what I want to watch and haven't watched yet? My poor little brain. And what was the idea of dual shows running at the same time. Big screen and little screen on the same screen, madness. Now I can watch five things at once, most of them pop ups that I don't want to watch..
Precisely so. Competition was something TNG and TOS, really, didn't have as much as other shows. Science fiction grew in terms of popularity at the time, and gave a lot of different choices for viewers.
Unfortunatly whilst there was a burst of Sci-Fi genre programming in the ninties and early noughties how many actually where a success? X-Files, SG-1
I'm not saying they are all success stories. Just that there was more than TNG ever dealt with. At least, in my experience.
Also Babylon 5. It was popular too, wasn't it? Noughties. That's funny. I never heard the first years of the new century referred to like that.
I was reading an article about TOS after I wrote that earlier, and it said that TOS averaged a "thirty share" which is quite remarkable until you factor in that there were only 3 channels. Nonetheless, TOS usually held second place in its' time slot, and often first. WP has the ratings for each TNG episode in their guide. It looks like the first season average was about 10-11, and rarely went below 10 ever. The highest rated season on average was 6, which averaged 13-14. Not that season 7 did poorly. Now I'm curious to look at the ratings for Cheers, Mash, Seinfeld, Frazier, and a bunch of other sitcoms.
For a long time, VOY was a Star Trek series I liked but had ranked #3. I'd seen a majority of the episodes, but not in order and with some unwatched. I finally got myself a DVD set and have been watching the series, in a semi-binge mode. There's so much about VOY to appreciate. I think in many ways it was the best of the Star Trek series. It offered a great deal. Not just a revisit and continuation of some elements from the earlier series, but it also built upon them rather nicely. The most interesting aliens. Some of the most perplexing and complicated scenarios. But I think overall the writing was spectacular. Yes, there were some duds. I recently saw "Lineage" and found it the most boring of episodes. But then something like "Shattered" comes along and really makes you think. VOY achieved many great milestones. At this point in time, I have to admit that I've ranked it up alongside TNG. Earlier, I couldn't have imagined saying that. But now, I feel it's much deserved.
I'm one that gave up on Voyager fairly quickly (mid-season 1 sometime). For some reason, it just felt hokey to me. I don't know why, now that I'm rewatching some of it. It's still not my favorite Trek, by far, but it's not as bad as I remember. That said, perhaps it changed, but I found Janeway's writing to be horribly inconsistent, not that Kate Mulgrew didn't handle it the best she could. One moment she was exceptionally conservative with the ship and crew, then next she was all gung-ho. That's how it seemed at the time, anyway. I've still not seen the entire series, so my views may change when I do, but I wanted to give first-hand experience of someone who did give up (perhaps too) early.
Those were similar sentiments I had when I watched this show in the 1990's. The writers were still trying to find the character of Janeway. I think they also needed to react to Mulgrew's personification of Janeway. Over time, it does stabilize. She is conservative, to a degree, but... she's a dynamic thinker. She will take calculated risks. You find that in many cases, had she stuck with the conservative mindset, Voyager would have been worse off or destroyed. So... it worked.
It has always been the biggest disappointment to me. I was very excited when it was announced. I just feel that they had some great actors and characters to work with they just failed to do so. I really enjoyed Russ and Picardo..but that was about it.
VOY was a great series overall, maybe not the best but definitely not the worst. Just for the record, the worst series was, I gotta say, DS9. Look, I'm sorry, any DS9 fans out there, I swear I mean no offense, but it is the one series that I just plain did not like. I mean, to me it's not really even Star Trek: it's a soap opera disguised as Star Trek. But, not to get too far off track: the only thing I didn't like about Voyager was the guys. OK. I mean, to me it was in that way the complete 180-degree opposite of the original and TNG, because, on those first two series, the men absolutely ruled while the women were scenery - very nice scenery, but scenery nevertheless. On Voyager, the women rule, hands down, while the guys there are just... well, there.
No doubt some do dislike Voyager because of sexist reasons. There are other reasons to dislike it however. It is my least favorite series (I do still enjoy it though) because it failed to make anything of it's great set up - other side of the galaxy with a crew made topped up Marquis. I loved Janeway, and Tores was always a favorite. The writing and lack of risk taking was the problem with the show. One of the many reasons I hope Discovery is fantastic is so the ignorant factions can't blame the female leads/diversity for it being bad, which unfortunately would likely happen. I also wish Voyager had been better for this reason. Trek is all about gender and racial equality. It's deeply disheartening when people who profess to be Trek fans fail to embrace this.
Should they have taken a more hamfisted approach? Janeway and Torres have to face an onslaught of sexist men in the workplace. Villains won't take her seriously because of their prejudice. If anything, I hope Discovery does not go down that road.