Maybe it's a good idea to skip around a bit at first. Pick episodes that are good and that give you a good first impression of the characters. Like for Janeway you might want to start with the excellent episode "Counterpoint" instead of "Tuvix" or another controversial episode. There are some good recs in this thread: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-characters-best-episodes.106659/
Honestly, I think that it's better to watch the whole show to see the whole development of it. Just jumping from episode to episode is not a good idea. I remember when I watched DS9. Due to stupid policy from the station which aired the show, I could only watch season 1. After that, I watched one episode here and episode there visiting friends who happened to have a station where the show was ired or picking up certain episodes from Youtube or video tapes. It was just when I got the chance to watch the whole series from start to finish that I realized what a great show it is.
Thanks all who have given their thoughts. I appreciate it and I feel like I’ve learned some things about the show already just from reading your comments. I just started Season 7 of DS9. I’m going to finish that off first. From there, I think I’m just going to watch Voyager from season 1 in order. I guess if some episodes get too bad, I’ll just skip them. Please keep any thoughts about particular episodes, story arcs or even entire seasons coming. I enjoy reading about it! Thanks again.
Phew, just finished a list of Voyager episodes per Season for GlennSTL of which episodes are essential Voyager, which ones are worth watching, which are questionable, and which can be skipped, and I am quite pooped to be honest as I spend a lot of last night on it. I honestly did not mind as it also gave me the opportunity again to go through the episodes per season to see which I liked and what I enjoyed about Voyager. Now this one is going to put me at odds with a sub forum dedicated to Voyager but I have to say that a lot of Voyager has rather aged and some of it not well, and I also think it (and Enterprise) stretched the episode-of-the-week formula with thing usually returning to the status quo to the limit. I like Voyager. Yes I like it more than DSN as I could not stand the Bajoran religion and how damn preachy that show could sometimes be. I don't hold the Federation as some perfect thing as Roddenberry tried to have it portrayed but definitely as something that has learned from its mistakes and strives to become better even if people within it have different ideas of what better is. But one of Voyager's major problems along with tropes it created itself that it depended on was a waste of potential but also how incredibly non interesting the characters sometimes could be. The break-out characters really were the Doctor and Seven of Nine, how much I sometimes felt that Seven of Nine took to much of the spotlight. Personally I think during Voyager runs the producers and writers should have focused more on long running arcs and plotlines which we saw glimpses of during the week and ditch some of the "episode formula theme of the week". Especially a lot of the time travel episodes and some episodes that include "civilization of the weeks that are either totalitarian or have bizarre laws". In that regard I think a more serialized Trek would be a good breath of fresh air. But Enterprise Season 3 was not it for me and Discovery definitely is it not for me because of personal reasons.
Ghost, I also replied to you in a PM. Suffice to say, for anyone who didn’t already know, Ghost is The Man! Seriously! Amazing work..,I know it must have taken hours. You have really helped a newbie around here and I truly appreciate you going above and beyond!
I haven't read all the replies but to be honest, my reply is to watch Voyager from the beginning. I started watching Star Trek from TNG but Voyager is my personal favorite of all the series. There is a lot of opinions that slate it as the worst in the series, but that's their opinion. To wet the interests here is a into that someone on Youtube has upgraded to 4K: If you skip episodes you will lose the integral link between storylines.
The good ones ain't that great. But if you watch all the worst ones first, the good ones will seem amazing by comparison. 6 episodes of Space Cases last night and I'm willing to put up with the Ministry of Time's subtitles.
There are several VOY episodes that I think are great. Or at least very good. A few of my favorites: One Small Step Timeless Year of Hell Drone Living Witness Nemesis Someone to Watch Over Me Blink of an Eye Voyager had a lot of bad episodes, I admit, but so did TOS. TOS had a more likable crew (at least for me anyway) which helped to compensate a bit. There is some really good stuff to be found in Voyager's run though. You just have to do a little digging.
I watched an episode of Game Of Thrones. To me, it lacked compelling writing and relied upon the extreme storyline. I was told, “you have to eat h a whole series to get into it”. That is too much commitment for me. If it’s not gripping enough in the first two episodes... ⚖️ Every tv series and movie has “average” moments. Those are what makes the “Series” of events more enjoyable. I will admit that I’m currently watching Voyager again for the third time and I’m looking forward to 7 of 9s entrance. But Nelix, for example, has as much an important storyline as Tom Paris.
Janeway can be a tough person to like at times. Her voice is grating. The writers just made all the characters worship her, when she had done nothing for their affection. And of course, Mulgrew isn't even close to the same class of actor as Patrick Stewart and others from TNG. The acting was below TNG for sure. Chakotay, Janeway, Kes, and Kim were all disappointing most of the times. And the time travel shows and the episodes where something causes the entire events of an episode to never have happened and everything was the way it was before really suck.
Mulgrew is an A-List TV star. Nearly all of the actors(except Wang and Tim Russ) in Voyager had a strong background in theatre, in New York, before coming to TV. They are good actors. Many of them have gone back. The other series do time travel stories just as much as Voyager. The episodes you're specifically referring to (Year of Hell, Timeless), are some of the most widely acclaimed stories in all of Star Trek. Surely you need better examples.
Personally I feel when Voyager is good it is really good. Unfortunate the good episodes are alternated with quite a number of average or really bad episodes. IMO "Scorpion" for example is the best Borg two parter since "Best of Both Worlds" though the second episode feels weaker than the first. My main problem with time travel episodes like "Year of Hell" and "Timeless" is that they depend too much on the reset button. I went back to the list I made for GlennSTL and expanded per episode per season if they were a "watch", "skip", "watchable but can be skipped", and "you decide" for episodes which I may or may not like but other people did like or did not like. Quite a lot of the earlier season episode and final seasons episodes can be skipped.
I had a handy list of phrases that I used to help me decide whether to watch an episode or skip by the time I got to the last three seasons after watching the rest in order. If any of these words or phrases appear in the summary, move straight along. Holodeck Harry Kim Tom Paris Any hint of a certain Irish village (you'll know when you get there) And somewhat controversially, Seven of Nine. The show becomes absolutely obsessed with her to the detriment of everyone and everything else.