From my previous post it's obvious I'm not a big Voyager fan, but let's be honest here - I've watched and purchased every episode of every Trek show and don't regret a minute. If Voyager was on now and the only Trek show, I'd still be watching it and still be grateful.
Only for lore, not as quality television or even Star Trek, and from Season 1 of course (“do or do not” and all that).
It’s obviously as Trek as any of the series (I said it isn’t quality Trek), but clearly no TNG, DS9, Babylon 5 or The X-Files (if we were to be generous and use only shows of the period for comparison). The reasons for that are probably a combination of the good TNG writers moving to DS9 and Rick Berman/Paramount taking more of an interest in VGR, which didn’t seem to have strong showrunners.
DS9 and Voyager shared a showrunner, and many writers, not to mention just about every director. Michael Taylor wrote dozens of Voyager episodes. He also wrote DS9's "The Visitor," and "In the Pale Moonlight" Too bad he didn't write more for DS9 Voyager is also one of the most popular of all the Trek series. You may not personally like it, but you cannot judge its quality for others. Babylon 5?
Rick Berman wasn’t a showrunner since he didn’t write scripts or break stories in the writers’ room, but only made notes in conference with showrunners; they had to go to him for final approval and pick their battles. If you mean Michael Piller, he did contribute a lot to VGR, but the real showrunner was Jeri Taylor in those early years. Yes, Michael Taylor is great and wrote a number of episodes (I know him mostly from nBSG), but so was Ron Moore for the brief moment he was on VGR — they weren’t showrunners, and as you know the teleplay writer writes the script but the story is created beat-by-beat in a group. TV directors (aside from pilot directors) don’t really affect this either since their job is to execute the script, never act like movie directors (who are closest to TV showrunners). VGR may be popular among Star Trek fans, but the general public really knows mostly TOS and TNG — that’s why VGR doesn’t even have a movie, let alone a revival show. Just look at the awards it received and see how many of those weren’t for story.
If you liked TNG a lot you'll probably think Voyager is at least OK, if you thought TNG was just OK you'll probably think Voyager is pretty weak. I think it's at least OK if you accept it will be pretty episodic and a little repetitive, some don't like it mostly because it isn't enough like Deep Space Nine. Probably best in order. There isn't much continuity, the only real must-see episodes from season 1 are "Caretaker" and "Parallax", but there is some character growth that's probably best from in order. The first two seasons in terms of quality are pretty representative of the rest of the series, Seven starts at the end of season 3/season 4 and plays a big role but doesn't really change the series that much.
Just finished DS9 for the first time tonight after binging for 3 months. Overall, terrific show. Now on to Voyager. Despite what seems like a lot of negative fan reaction to the show, I’m going into it just glad to have another Trek series to watch that is new for me
Well you've been told it's bad and you already agree with that assessment, so I'm sure you'll hate it.
After watching seven seasons of DS9, you might want to put yourself back into a TOS/TNG mindset of always being on a ship exploring the unknown, with less of the soap/ongoing drama elements, and more of the sci-fi/what if type stories. If you like the characters, or grow to like them, you'll surely enjoy the show.
I’ve watched the first 5 episodes of season 1 and I’m enjoying it. Agree that it has a lot more of a Next Gen feel to it as opposed to DS9. That’s ok with me. As much as I liked DS9, it’s refreshing.
It's comfortably Trek all the way through. The premis is great and I was hoping something with more TOS attitude would develop. They were a ship alone and a crew that was very mixed with Maquis and Star Fleet. However, it does tend more to TNG, especially with the crew after a while. It's a good show that might have taken more chances but TPTB had a successful formula with the previous two series so they didn't do much to get away from that format.
I’m about 6 episodes now into Season 2. I’ve really enjoyed it overall. It seems to kinda be an unpopular opinion on this board, but from what I’ve seen so far, the stories have been for the most part interesting. I also like the main crew. I’ll definitely keep watching !
I didn't go through any of the replys or your responses to them (if any) in between so this is a direct response to your original post. Of course you should watch it from beginning to end. In my opinion, Voyager is not just the greatest series of the Star Trek universe, but perhaps the grandest t.v. series broadcast thus far. But I also hate it when I'm trying to watch a movie or something with friends/family then they just walk off for a period of time missing crucial parts of the storyline, then later commenting they don't get it or deciding it wasn't as good as they expected or whatnot. Watch the whole thing, season by season, episode by episode, minute by minute. Then you can rightfully decide if it was a success or a flop. You watched the rest of the series before it in its entirety, why not continue on with your journey.
So often it's our expectations that cause us to be disappointed. I really didn't then and don't now want it to be something different. It was . . . fun. I liked the characters more than TNG's overall. And Janeway mattered to me as an example to my daughters.
The teleplay credit is the higher credit, and earns the writer more money. The story credit can be anything from a few notes to a rough outline. For example. Peter Allen Fields has the story credit for "In The Pale Moonlight." A Jake Sisko episode, about a scandal involving Minister Shakar and his days in the resistence, where Jake uncovers the secret. The story is about the chaos that would erupt on Bajor if the secret got out Michael Taylor wrote the teleplay, and totally changed the story to something similar to the final version, where Sisko and Garak are conducting shady dealings to get the Romulans to enter the war by doing what they did, except in Taylor's script, Jake is still part of the story. Jake gets curious and figures out a few things, and the focus of the story is more on father and son. lastly, Ron Moore(who remained uncredited) revised the script, removing Jake from the story entirely, and made it about Sisko having to reconcile his actions to himself. TNG was nominated for 58 Emmy Awards, and won 19. The categories were Make-up, Costume Design, Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Music Composition, Art direction, Special Visual Effects, and one nomination for Cinematography. DS9 was nominated for 32 Emmy, and won 4. The categories were Make-up, Costume Design, Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Music Composition, Music Direction, Art Direction, Special Visual Effects, one nomination for Main Title Theme Music, and one nomination for cinematography. Voyager was nominated for 35 Emmy Awards, and won 7. The categories were Make-up, Costume Design, Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Music Composition, Music Direction, Art Direction, Special Visual Effects, one nomination/win for Main Title Theme Music, one nomination for cinematography, and one nomination for Graphic Design in Title Sequences. Seeing the similarities? There aren't even any emmy awards for the actors in any series. All three shows were nominated for and won Saturn Awards for "Best Actor/Actress," "Best Supporting...," etc. Where are these "awards for story?" TNG was nominated for 3 Hugo awards for best dramatic presentation, and won 2. When it comes to sci-fi, nearly all awards are for technical achievements.
By ‘story’ I don’t mean that one writer has an idea and another fleshes it out. It’s a group effort where the showrunner and staff writers discuss everything and someone writes the script. That’s why it really matters a) who the showrunner is b) who the other writers are, not just who wrote the script. And yes, I’m saying VGR just wasn’t winning awards in the core creative departments, but that’s not a matter of it being sci-fi. Just look at how well LOST did in the Emmy department.
"Caretaker" is brilliant from start to finish, and it feels completely fresh to this day, though the production looks dated in contrast to today's Trek. It's a great start on multiple levels.
Though I'm more of a DS9 fan myself, VOY is not bad. For some reason, it's remained more in the public consciousness than DS9 (though the "big guns" always have been TOS and TNG as someone commented above). Personally, I like the 1st season more in that it still attempted to create an original "feel" (from season 4 or so onwards they clearly found their own "success formula", which resulted generally in smoother episodes, but also in a slightly more formulaic "feel" to many of them (not all)). On the other hand, the later seasons have the advantage that the characters played better off the strengths and weaknesses of each other, (As would happen in any multi-year show I suppose)/
I'd watch "Caretaker" and then skip most of the first three seasons to "Scorpion, Part I" (there's a REASON the show was facing cancellation after S3). If you REALLY want to see Jeri Ryan rock n' roll, watch "The Gift" and "Infinite Regress" (The woman can turn on a dime. She is THAT damn good.) The competition is stiff now (Game of Thrones was shut out of the Golden Globes this year).