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My Voyager Rewatch

Odo

Odo

Commander
Red Shirt
I'm watching Voyager in its entirety for the first time with my wife - I'd seen about maybe 60-70% percent of the show before, from all seven seasons. Instead of continuously making new threads as I watch (I've already made two, one on who's the protagonist in the pilot, and the other on broadcast vs production order), I figured I could keep my thoughts here.

So far, we're enjoying it! I think Kate Mulgrew is a great actress. However, I think the pilot was just okay, and foreshadowed some of the problems that the show would have down the road IMO. That said, overall I think most of the episodes have been pretty good on the whole so far.

One thing that's bothered me though is Tom's frequent references to Chakotay as "the Indian" and related comments, such as when he saves his life in the pilot and in the pool room in "The Cloud". Does that go away soon?

Looking forward to watching more.
 
I remember the references to Chakotay's heritage being fairly infrequent, though certain episodes focus on him. It never gets as offensive as it did in the pilot at least, unless you count the fact that it's all rubbish invented by a fake Native American advisor to be offensive.

I've actually seen about 60-70% of the series before myself and I'm currently watching it in full for the first time as well. In fact I've been watching it along with the Original Series, Next Generation and Enterprise, and honestly, the first season isn't all that bad in comparison. I'm a little surprised, considering its reputation.
 
I think that Voyager found its footing faster than either TNG or DS9 did. But, those series went on to better things on e they decided where they wanted to go.
 
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Props on the thread. When I saw VOY in its entirety for the first time about 5 year ago I made a thread for every season. The forum seemed way more active back then though.
I'm curious if you can expound on what you said about the pilot foreshadowing future series problems. I haven't seen that ep in so long that my memory of it is vague (and when I saw pilot I had only seen 1 or 2 other eps of VOY prior to that,s o really had no frame of reference for "problems")...
Glad you are enjoying it so far!

Odo said:
One thing that's bothered me though is Tom's frequent references to Chakotay as "the Indian" and related comments, such as when he saves his life in the pilot and in the pool room in "The Cloud". Does that go away soon?
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It's been long enough since I've seen VOY to comment on this, but I can understand why you find it annoying. I was in my 20s in the 1990s and sometimes when I look back on past media/TV there are things that make me cringe.
 
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cosmic mouse said:
Props on the thread. When I saw VOY in its entirety for the first time about 5 year ago I made a thread for every season. The forum seemed way more active back then though.
I'm curious if you can expound on what you said about the pilot foreshadowing future series problems. I haven't seen that ep in so long that my memory of it is vague (and when I saw pilot I had only seen 1 or 2 other eps of VOY prior to that,s o really had no frame of reference for "problems")...
Glad you are enjoying it so far!
Click to expand...

Basically, if we look at the various pilots for all the Trek shows (except for TAS, which is a continuation of TOS, and Short Treks, which is an anthology), we'll find a significant amount of focus on the show's lead, which the exception of Caretaker. In Caretaker, Janeway doesn't really have an arc. She's well characterized, but there's no significant growth she undergoes through the course of the episode. What's more, as I said in the "Who's the protagonist in the pilot?" thread, Paris seems to be more of the protagonist than Janeway in that episode. Or, more accurately, he's our POV character and as such is more focused on than she is. To me, this relative lack of concern for building Janeway's character foreshadows her inconsistent characterization throughout Voyager. Being more strongly defined from the outset would have made her less subject to the shifts she underwent depending on the producers or writers who took charge of Voyager at various times. And unlike Kirk, who was also written in an inconsistent fashion IMO, Janeway didn't have a second life in a film franchise to further flesh her out and give us a stronger vision of who she is. That said, I still think she's a good character, and Mulgrew is a good actress who's able to stabilize the character in ways the writing couldn't. If Janeway had been played by weaker lead, or someone who was miscast, the show would have had even more problems.
 
Ray Hardgrit said:
I've actually seen about 60-70% of the series before myself and I'm currently watching it in full for the first time as well. In fact I've been watching it along with the Original Series, Next Generation and Enterprise, and honestly, the first season isn't all that bad in comparison. I'm a little surprised, considering its reputation.
Click to expand...

Oddish said:
I think that Voyager found its footing faster than either TNG or DS9 did. But, those series went on to better things on e they decided where they wanted to go.
Click to expand...

I think the argument could easily be made that while Voyager had the weakest pilot of Berman Trek, it had the strongest first season. That's not my position - I'd put DS9 S1 above Voyager S1 - but yeah, Voyager S1 gets unfairly associated in memory with the dysfunctional second season.
 
Odo said:
If Janeway had been played by weaker lead, or someone who was miscast, the show would have had even more problems.
Click to expand...

She almost was. It's a tribute to Kate Mulgrew's incredible screen charisma that she made a character as inconsistently written as Kathryn Janeway the icon that she was.

Odo said:
yeah, Voyager S1 gets unfairly associated in memory with the dysfunctional second season.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call it that... the second season had some of the show's strongest episodes: "The Thaw", "Deadlock", "Meld", and "Death Wish" to name a few. Yes, I know it also gave us the salamander drive episode.
 
Oddish said:
I wouldn't call it that... the second season had some of the show's strongest episodes: "The Thaw", "Deadlock", "Meld", and "Death Wish" to name a few. Yes, I know it also gave us the salamander drive episode.
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Those are all excellent episodes. Perhaps dysfunctional isn't the best word, but I found season 2 on the whole to be very awkward with the main Kazon/Seska/Chakotay/Paris storyline. It didn't land for me, but maybe I'll enjoy more on my rewatch.
 
Voyager was so much better on my recent rewatch — mainly (I think) because I accepted that it was “alien of the week” Trek — and I stopped hoping for a more serialised story. It’s flawed, yes, but even the bad episodes are actually a lot of fun. And there are some brilliant, risk-taking episodes too.
 
Ray Hardgrit said:
I remember the references to Chakotay's heritage being fairly infrequent, though certain episodes focus on him. It never gets as offensive as it did in the pilot at least, unless you count the fact that it's all rubbish invented by a fake Native American advisor to be offensive.

I've actually seen about 60-70% of the series before myself and I'm currently watching it in full for the first time as well. In fact I've been watching it along with the Original Series, Next Generation and Enterprise, and honestly, the first season isn't all that bad in comparison. I'm a little surprised, considering its reputation.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if "Indian" is considered that offensive. I remember debating with a person of Native American heritage on this forum many years ago and I actually asked her if the word was offensive and she replied that she was so used to it that she didn't bother.

Still, I avoid that comment, using "native American" instead.

I must also state that using the comment in the way it was used about Chakotay in some episodes is not the way it should be used even if it was meant to be friendly in a way. I mean, if you work with a couple of persons, like Tom actually did, then it's not common to use words like this about your mates. It's more likely to call them by names.

I also totally agree that the whole thing about Chakotay's fake tribe was rubbish. They should have given him a proper tribe and done some research about the tribe. What I know, Chakotay is supposed to be Mayan. Is it so difficult to do some research about the Mayans and use it in the show.

"Rubber tree people"! Now that was "rubbish" to say the least. That crap ruined the whole Tattoo episode which otherwise could have been a great episode focusing on Chakotay's background. Fortunately the subplot with The Doctor's simulated flu is funny and saves the episode from being almost unwatchable.

As for the series itself, I really love the first three seasons.

Season 1 was great, season 2 was excellent and season 3 was good. But then it took a turn to the worse.

The sad thing with Voyager is that it could have been so much better than it was. Imagine if Voyager had had the DS9 writers, what stories they had been able to come up with.

I still like Voyager (at least seasons 1, 2 and 3) and I really like the characters. But I must state that when it comes to quality, great episodes and character development, DS9 has clear advantage.
 
I used to binge on the VHS boxsets and would become so engrossed I felt like I was part of the crew while watching it. Usually because it was after a night on the town and I was chewing on a kebab.
 
So I recently picked up the entire Voyager series on dvd. Particularly the 2004 box sets that are packaged in the clam shells. However, dvds I bought were second hand and without the clamshell boxes. I contacted Paramount about replacing them but they told me they only replace them if the box sets arrived damaged. Anyone know where I can find replacement cases or have someone 3D print me some?
 
SirMurderFace said:
So I recently picked up the entire Voyager series on dvd. Particularly the 2004 box sets that are packaged in the clam shells. However, dvds I bought were second hand and without the clamshell boxes. I contacted Paramount about replacing them but they told me they only replace them if the box sets arrived damaged. Anyone know where I can find replacement cases or have someone 3D print me some?
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These boxes? They cracked & chipped. I got rid of them and put my DVDs in a binder.

 
Voyager was never as horrid as a lot of the fan base thought. It just didn't follow it's premise as laid out in the first season. If you can get past that the series is entertaining. At the end of the day that's all that matters. Comfort Trek. :lol:

I know these DVD cases aren't what you're asking for but maybe they can substitute.

Maxtek 7mm Slim Clear Double CD/DVD Case, 50 Pieces Pack. (2 Discs Capacity per Case)
by YoKool
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K6W4YYH/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_SDZYHPD49PVTTYJ34GW2
 
Akiraprise said:
Voyager was never as horrid as a lot of the fan base thought. It just didn't follow it's premise as laid out in the first season. If you can get past that the series is entertaining. At the end of the day that's all that matters. Comfort Trek. :lol:

I know these DVD cases aren't what you're asking for but maybe they can substitute.

Maxtek 7mm Slim Clear Double CD/DVD Case, 50 Pieces Pack. (2 Discs Capacity per Case)
by YoKool
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K6W4YYH/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_SDZYHPD49PVTTYJ34GW2
Click to expand...
The box set I own is the 2004 UK box set. The box set are in their individual cardboard boxes. But I really want to find the plastic outer shell cases.
 
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