Voyager reset button

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Voyager' started by Solarbaby, Sep 23, 2009.

  1. Solarbaby

    Solarbaby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I keep hearing of the Voyager reset button. I am familiar with the concept. I haven't watched the show in a long while. Can anyone give me at least 10 examples of the rest button that weakened the show? Thanks
     
  2. nx1701g

    nx1701g Admiral Admiral

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    One of the biggest ones I can think of is in Voyager's Deadlock: Voyager is nearly falling apart at the end of the episode and by next it looks shiney and new again like it just completed construction at Utopia Planitia. They seemed to do that a lot after major battles actually come to think of it.

    The whole Year of Hell episode with its major reset at the end (why wouldn't Paramount agree to let Year of Hell be an actual season like was planned with major repercussions?).

    Pretty much every time travel episode is a reset of some form.

    They reset the rules in Equinox by letting Janeway live.
     
  3. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    Paramount didn't want YoH as a full year because they hate serialization and they didn't want to spend the money on the constantly changed sets and ship models it would require.
     
  4. MeanJoePhaser

    MeanJoePhaser Admiral

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    Threshold, At the end, everyone's back to normal and the transwarp mods, the mutations, Tom raping Janeway (for all we know!) and their evolved newt kids are never mentioned again.
     
  5. Cyke101

    Cyke101 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Timeless has perhaps the most satisfying reset button, partially because Kim himself wasn't *truly* reset!
     
  6. RyuRoots

    RyuRoots Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Seriously? Just go watch the show. Trust me, you'll see plenty. Pretty much any time the ship takes any damage or deals with any issue that SHOULD have repercussions, with a few notable exceptions.
     
  7. crouteru

    crouteru Captain Captain

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    10 that annoyed me:

    1 "Year Of Hell" - Destruction of the temporal weapon resets the entire episode.
    2 "Timeless" - Harry's new calculation prevents the destruction of Voyager and the future shown in the episode.
    3 "Threshold" - Still a terrible episode, but being able to restore Tom and Janeway back to normal seemed unlikely.
    4 "Mortal Coil" - Neelix dies (woot!), but is restored and will require regular nano-probe injections for the rest of his life (but in reality just the rest of the episode).
    5 "Living Witness" - The Doc is lost and recovered far in the future, but wait, it's just his back-up, despite being told he can't be backed-up, so he'll be on the next episode.
    6 "Drone" - The Doc's mobile emitter is lost, but apparantly recovered in time for the next episode, somehow.
    7 "Unforgettable" - A species that has a reset button built into their genetic make-up? A bit daft.
    8 "The Voyager Conspiracy" - Seven was just going mad, despite all the REAL evidence she uncovered, would never be addressed again.
    9 "Course: Oblivion" - Some initial big things, like the wedding, but it's.... not.... the.... real.... crew.... yawn!
    10 "Deadlock" - Harry dies, Naomi Wildman dies, the ship gets trashed, but you wouldn't know this by the next episode.
     
  8. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    1) It would have cost too much to keep altering the sets and making new ship models in CGI and real life. Plus with that kind of damage there'd be no way to fix it.

    2) If they didn't do that everyone would be dead.

    3) If Transwarp can somehow make Paris a lizard, then it shouldn't be hard to do it in reverse.

    4) Why waste screentime every episode having him injected?

    5) The backup was created between episodes and then lost to the Kyrians during "Living Witness"'s many flashbacks.

    6) Happened off-screen.

    7) Eh, weirder things have happened.

    8) Mindscrew episode, all of Trek has them

    9) The show would be over with this episode

    10) They got replaced, and it would've cost too much to maintain the Deadlock damage.
     
  9. Solarbaby

    Solarbaby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Thanks for the replies.

    Now I understand what the reset button is. I think in terms of YOH it wasn't a reset button because the show was about time travel. Lots of Trek shows have ended up with the time line restored and the events never happened. Time and again -VOY Yesterdays Enterprise TNG as a couple of examples.

    I dont see how would it could have cost too much to change the sets. They did it for YOH. I'm sure they could have stretched it out over the seasons. Same for the CGI models.

    So I take it from the answers that the reset button is when things like torpedo counts and major structural ship damage are back to normal in subsequent episodes. Were these down to continuity problems or just sloppiness? The producers would surely have thought of these repurcussions before making the show, so it seems very bad television to have clicked the reset button so many times and an insult to the intelligence of the fans.
     
  10. fek'lhr1

    fek'lhr1 Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    The reset button hurt the series primarily because it removed the realism from VOY. I don't think the actual instances where we see it happen matter as much as the fact that it happens at all.
    A ship badly damaged in an area nearly devoid of means to repair damage in such a way that a ship looks brand spanking new should not come clean by next episode.
    It takes you out of the story and that in itself is a big blow to the series.
     
  11. Cyke101

    Cyke101 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I get the feeling from many of these replies that if the writers/producers wanted to go to such extremes, they would have the foresight to know how costly it would have been to keep it going. Thus in my mind, they shouldn't have gone to such extremes in the first place. There are other ways to push the envelope than to just go "balls-to-the-wall" with major damage, especially when you know you can't maintain it for the next episode.

    IIRC, a good case in point in the past was how the TNG writers wanted to destroy the E-D at the S6 finale/S7 premiere, but Berman nixed that idea. One of the major reasons he cited was cost, another being how to build and maintain new sets for what would ultimately be only one season (and maybe a couple films).
     
  12. crouteru

    crouteru Captain Captain

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    Some of these excuses are the very thing that's wrong with Voyager. Things that happen off-screen or things that would have cost too much each episode. If they're not prepared to follow through with anything, then don't do it at all!
     
  13. diankra

    diankra Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    On a general level: The magic shuttle replacer. If they could replace them, they didn't have supply problems, which contradicts immense amounts of Neelix-related stuff. If they did have supply problems, then loss of shuttles should have turned into a problem (which was eventually addressed by Tom suggesting the Delta Flyer, but not in the 'We're down to two now' issue it should have been).
     
  14. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    Then there'd just be complaints of them not even bothering to even do single episodes where damage was done to the ship, etc. VOY was in a no-win scenario.
     
  15. RyuRoots

    RyuRoots Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I would like to meet some of these VOYAGER WILL SUCK NO MATTER WHAT IT DOES RAAAAGHG fans that you've apparently met. :wtf:

    I've seen this kinda thing for Star Trek XI, but not VOY.

    Or if you mean SOME complaints period, then yes. You'll never make everybody happy, but that applies to every show.
     
  16. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    Go to the DS9 board.
     
  17. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    I think that's nonsense. You'd actually have a hard time finding people on this board's Deep Space Nine forum who say they wouldn't have enjoyed Voyager (more) if some of its problems would have been resolved. In my experience Niners are a rather reasonable bunch. ;)
     
  18. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    Niners hate Voyager for existing. Guys like Navaros, Temis and Gotham Central being the best examples.

    And for Voyager's "problems" to have been solved (in the eyes of a Niner) the entire crew, with no exceptions, would have to have completely fallen to pieces within the first two episodes and spend the entire series hating and plotting to murder one another. At least in their spare time while the rest of it would comprise of them all becoming vicious bloodthirsty space pirates who revel in being free of the Federation and go around ravaging, destroying and stealing everything from every sentient race encountered (especially the nice ones who welcome them) because that's "more true to life" and "better drama" than people who decide to overcome their differences and accept the aid others give them.

    THAT is the only good way to do Voyager, if you ask a VOY hater.
     
  19. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    Well, I certainly don't. And I consider myself a Niner and a Voyager fan, even though I concede that both shows have flaws. :)

    Wow, you must have read my mind. Not. :rolleyes:

    But – and I think that's the important thing here: Voyager Hater ≠ Niner. ;)
     
  20. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    That description is drawn from what a vast majority or VOY haters I've encountered (who are also mostly Niners...) pretty much described as what VOY should have been like.

    But – and I think that's the important thing here: Voyager Hater ≠ Niner. ;)[/QUOTE]

    As unfortunate as you may think it is, there is a large overlap of Niner and Voy Hater. They also hate TNG for the most part as well.