What continuity errors are there on Voyager?

[Anwar]

It's sloppy writing.

They should have mentioned it in an episode instead of leaving fans to fanwank it.

If they mentioned it, it would be as bad to the audience as the "Holodecks have their own power source" explanation was. If commerce planets, the exact process of making more torpedoes and how self-repair was done on the ship were all mentioned then the complaints would just be that there ARE Commerce Planets, that they can make more torpedoes and that they can fix damage.

 

[MacLeod]

^I disagree, if you have a line saying you have no way to replace the torpedeos when they are gone. Then you need to explain or at least mention in passing that you've manged to replinish them. The exact mechanics not so much so. If that line wasn't mentioned then there is no issue. As it could have been carrying 300 warheads.

As soon as you draw attention to something you need to show/mention you have addressed/resolved the problem.

As for Battle damage, but there was a freidly spacedock in between each instance of the ship getting damage and looking brand new the following weak. Possibly but it begins to stretch credability if it occurs too often.

 

[Satyrquaze]

If they mentioned it, it would be as bad to the audience as the "Holodecks have their own power source" explanation was. If commerce planets, the exact process of making more torpedoes and how self-repair was done on the ship were all mentioned then the complaints would just be that there ARE Commerce Planets, that they can make more torpedoes and that they can fix damage.

Quite the contrary, I've found that SF fans in general and Star Trek fans in particular will readily accept anything that comes down as "Word of God/from TPTB". The only 'Word of God' in cases about the leaps in the logic in the writing for Voyager forces you to make is that "We made mistakes" or "We couldhave done better in these instances". And I tend accept the writers at their word here.

It's when fans are left in a vacuum of information (as they often are with the writing of Voyager) is when we (as fans) run into trouble. We form our personal answers to the questions that these voids of information raise with bits of our own personalities. And this is why we as the rabid fans we are take attacks upon 'our' answers as personal affronts, which we respond to with all the fervor of a religious fanantic.

 

[zar]

In response to suggestions of ways Voyager could have been done differently, Anwar has literally been repeating almost verbatim for years some variation of the phrase "the audience would have hated that too" to all manner of subjects. His mythical Audience™ is a single-minded malevolent entity that attacks every possible quantum reality where Voyager exists and can't be reasoned with. It's probably best to just ignore him when he starts talking about it.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's sloppy writing.

They should have mentioned it in an episode instead of leaving fans to fanwank it.

You really want to be spoonfed every factoid so that there's nothing left to speculate about?

It's when fans are left in a vacuum of information (as they often are with the writing of Voyager) is when we (as fans) run into trouble. We form our personal answers to the questions that these voids of information raise with bits of our own personalities.

But that's the fun bit!

 

[CaptainMatt]

I agree, fans should not have to have everything explained in 1-2-3 fashion.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

You really want to be spoonfed every factoid so that there's nothing left to speculate about?

No, but the occassional mention of exactly how the ship is in brand new condition every damned episode despite being stranded thousands of miles from Federation space MIGHT have been nice.

 

[Therin of Andor]

You really want to be spoonfed every factoid so that there's nothing left to speculate about?

No, but the occassional mention of exactly how the ship is in brand new condition every damned episode despite being stranded thousands of miles from Federation space MIGHT have been nice.

Quoting fail, You_Will_Fail.

 

[zar]

You really want to be spoonfed every factoid so that there's nothing left to speculate about?

Well that really depends on the nature of the factoid, doesn't it? Leaving the origin of the Borg, for example, to speculation was probably for the best; while something like the complete lack of backstory or motivation for the shadowy future guy in Enterprise is just sloppiness.

I think the original intentions of the writers have something to do with it as well. It's one thing to deliberately insert mysterious elements to your story, and quite another to be too lazy to continue something you started.

I'd say Voyager's unexplained lavish resources despite all the obvious references in the earlier seasons of how conservative they would need to be easily falls into the latter category.

 

[Anwar]

^I disagree, if you have a line saying you have no way to replace the torpedeos when they are gone. Then you need to explain or at least mention in passing that you've manged to replinish them. The exact mechanics not so much so. If that line wasn't mentioned then there is no issue. As it could have been carrying 300 warheads.

The only solution to this problem the audience would've approved of would've been them never ever being able to find torpedo replacements and never ever use any type of torpedo weapon again for the remainder of the series from that point on.

As soon as you draw attention to something you need to show/mention you have addressed/resolved the problem.

They tried that with the holodeck plot point, and the reaction they got from THAT was enough to convince them that if they had gone with "We found enough torpedo supplies to last us another 200 warheads" they'd just get disapproval for that as well.

As for Battle damage, but there was a freidly spacedock in between each instance of the ship getting damage and looking brand new the following weak. Possibly but it begins to stretch credability if it occurs too often.

We saw the logical end of the "Voyager gets damaged" type of plot in YoH. That's where that plot point inevitably leads to.

And if they just had them spend episodes smartly avoiding combat and avoiding damage so they don't need to get repairs, then it's all just "These writers are pansies, they don't have the guts to have the ship get damaged and would rather show us that the Captain is smart enough to avoid those situations."

 

[Harvey]

The only solution to this problem the audience would've approved of would've been them never ever being able to find torpedo replacements and never ever use any type of torpedo weapon again for the remainder of the series from that point on.

Ah. Yes. The "audience."

 

[Anwar]

Easy to expect, seeing how these are the same folks who wanted Voyager to remain the way it was in YoH: permanently crippled with no hope whatsoever.

 

[Harvey]

Permanently crippled? With no hope whatsoever?

Nobody is expressing that sentiment except you, Anwar.

 

[Anwar]

Hell, even Ron Moore wanted that. He says that the series should've been YoH, and in YoH it was shown that VOY became a crippled husk of a ship and any hope of going home was shattered. So the series should've been about the ship becoming hopelessly crippled and all hope of going home should've been destroyed.

It wasn't about "taking lasting damage", it was about failing in their goals and just getting beat up constantly until they're crippled.

 

[Harvey]

Show me a link where Ron Moore claims that the ship should have been "permanently crippled" and that it should have "no hope whatsoever."

I'll wait.

 

[Anwar]

He says it should have been Year of Hell for the whole series, and that's the only episode he thinks is what Voyager should have been.

Year of Hell is about the ship becoming hopelessly crippled and the crew's hope being destroyed to such an extent that the reset button is the only way they could have a next episode. It's a perfect example of why the reset button exists in the first place. Hilariously enough, Moore misses out on that.

 

[Harvey]

You're taking the phrase "Year of Hell -- the series" a tad literally there; in no sense do Moore's complaints indicate that he wanted the ship to be permanently crippled or all hope to be expunged from the series. And you still didn't provide a link.

 

[Anwar]

Where's that bitter rant that Moore did, the 4-part one? It's in there somewhere.

If he didn't want the ship to be permanently crippled or hope dissolved, he shouldn't have chosen a story where those are important elements of the plot as his example of "My Voyager".

 

[RyuRoots]

Still no link.

Also, it's funny how effective this argument is in your own head when you deliberately twist someone's words to mean whatever you want, huh?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Not crippled.

You actually start each episode with them still repairing the last weeks bollocks.

Explaining things like "Those pesky Malon did this" or "You know how Seska sold us out, marooned us, and was just an all round nasty piece of work, well, I still wanted to bang her... Before she died. Not after she died, but jebus Tom fried the entire bioneural gel pack system when he whacked her."

OH!

They said they couldn't replace the Bioneural Gel Packs.

but just because they didn't have any spares in the quartermasters office, that doesn't mean they they couldn't have made more with a little ingenuity and luck?

A small swimming pool full of viscus goo.

There's no way that doesn't lead to something hilarious or sexy by the 40 minute mark.