No. It was stagnant and I felt the 1st 2 seasons wasted a lot of time dealing with the Kazons; I don't recall if the Borg was even mentioned during those seasons and I would've had some fear within the 2 Voyager factions about the horrors of ever meeting the Borg. I did appreciate Kes' development of the series for a bit but then... there were ridiculous conflicts between Paris and Neelix which I thought had zero weight.
The two seasons needed more of a struggle of ethics between the Maquis and the Federation which would later formulate a compromise and their own sub-culture NOTHING LIKE that crap from "Equinox" but something reasonable. Still had hopes it would have more exploration of the human condition than a little ship, lead by it's SUPREME Captain, fighting big enemy war vessels in a large canvas where its dictated by the horrible writing.
There were some episodes Like "Night" and the Ronald D Moore episode "Survival Instinct" where I thought hints and samples of his work could've been in the right direction for the characters but I can't quantify a full season of this series because of it's inconsistency to being its own and was TNG 2.0.
I found season 1, 2 and 3 of Voyager very entertaining and exciting.
Season 1 was good, season 2 excellent and season 3 was OK even if it had more mediocre episodes than the other two.
As for the Kazon, I find them good villains and quite realistic too. It has happened many times in human history that a resistant movement has overthrown a tyrant or foreign occupant just to have their freedom ruined by internal conflicts between rivalizing factions, just lika what happened to the Kazon after overthrowing the Trabe.
The Borg weren't mentioned in seasons 1 and 2 and I'm grateful for that. I could actually have lived without them in Voyager.
As I wrote in another post some time ago, I must admit that they were really scary and dangerous in the first episodes, "
Q Who and
Best of Both Worlds where they were mysterious, technically superior and invincible.
However, the problem when such a dangerous enemy is created in a series, the point comes where the good guys must defeat them or they kill humanity, conquer the Earth or whatsoever.
To defeat them and stop them from achieving their goal, the good guys must come up with some super-weapon which break their superiority.
And that's it!
From that moment, the invincible, scary bad guys lose most of what made them so scary and interesting and that can never be redone. That what's happened to The Borg. After "Best Of Both Worlds" they were just another bunch of bad guys. Stil scary but not as much as before that episode.
To add more damage to The Borg, they came up with Hugh.
AsI see it, one of the worst thing to do with a former scary, invincible super-enemy is to sugar-coat them by humanizing them. Now they were suddenly reduced to the same level as any other dangerous species. Adding the Borg Queen was another nail in the coffin. In
First Contact she was more like a lovesick schoolgirl out for Picard than a dangerous alien leader for an empire.
Some people claim that Voyager ruined The Borg but that's noy true. Thet were already ruined by the events in TNG which I already have mentioned. What happened in Voyager just made it worse where The Borg were over-done and became downright boring. And no, I won't go into Seven Of Nine here.
As I see it, the best Trek villains were actually the Cardassians!
They weren't as scary, mysterious and superior than the Borg but they were cunning, calculating, manipulating, cruel and ruthless. They could be your best friends one day and stab you in the back the next. OK, they fought together with the Fedration at the end of DS9 but that was not because they were humanized or domesticated in any way, more because they and the Federation had a common enemy.
Not to mention all the bad guys or at least unreliable characters they came up with: Dukat, Enabran Tain, Lemec, Evek, Seska, Madred, Garak, Marritza, Damar.
I also consider the Dominion as a better villain than the Borg. They were downright evil and genocidial, maybe with a touch of that super-villain thing that the Borg was from the beginning but at least they were never invincible from the start.
As for a possible conflict on Voyager between Starfleet and Maquis, I'm happy that the writers never went unto that path.
You just have to look at the horrible
Stargate Universe to see what I mean.
One of the things that really ruined that weak series was the constand squabbling between the Military Faction and the Civilian faction on that ship. I can't remember how many episodes which were nothing more than endless and stupid arguments between them when what they really needed was to cooperate, something they did on Voyager.
Although I must admit that the maquis may have been domesticated a little too early. I would have like to se Torres a little mor rebellious for at least 4-5 episodes.
As for the Kes-Neelix relationship, it was good to start with but tehy should have broken up already in season 2, some time after the events in Parturition and it should have been domnr during two-three episodes and not as it was in Warlord when Kes breaks up with Neelix when Tieran controls her and no other explanation why they broke up.
As for the jconflicts between Paris and Neelix over Kes, I don't find them ridiculous, rather quite expected and actually entertaining.
The "Spaghetti Fight" between them was hilarious!
Not to mention this funny dialogue between The Doctor and Kes:
KES: There are some things you can't cure. Neelix and Tom Paris had a physical fight over me.
THE DOCTOR: How delightful.
KES: Delightful?
THE DOCTOR: You should consider it a high compliment. Throughout history, men have fought over the love of a woman. Why, I can quote you autopsy reports from duels as far back as 1538.
KES: That's not funny.
THE DOCTOR: It's not meant to be. You've always been interested in autopsies.
KES: On my homeworld it's so much simpler. You choose a mate for life. There's no distrust, no jealousy, no envy, no betrayal.
THE DOCTOR: Hmm. Your world must have very dry literature.
But to what costs?
