I recall the first season very well. It would come home on Sundays and I would watch after getting off from "Dunkin Donuts" and taking a nap since I worked at night. Well for the first month, anyways. Got fired because I failed to mention I didn't know how to make donuts but I still watched. I know back then I was even enjoying the show more than Ds9's third season which was also on during that time period. Jason
Three years ago when it was 20 years old, I made the following wallpaper to commemorate the event (and I'm more than happy to do something for its 25th anniversary if someone reminds me of that in two years' time or else I might forget - sorry VOY ):
Hard to believe that 23 years ago, I totally didn't care of ST: Voyager (besides, I didn't even know that ST was still aired on TV, with other characters than Kirk & Spock in TOS!). In fact, thanks to my sister, I just discovered the world of The X-Files with the fantastic Gillian Anderson. :-) I tell you, one of TV channels bosses (CBS, Netflix for ex), always very inspired, will well end up getting us out a Voyager's reboot in a few years, with younger and sexier people wearing more modern uniforms /avant-garde costumes and a lot of special effects. By cons, about written material... . In short, not sure that we will find again that same spirit! -> for me, the most of the reboots made for 5/6 years was a mess!
In 1995 I was living in a flop-house on the east side of Providence and was about two-thirds of the way across an 8 year stint of not owning a television.
Although it's my favorite series, I have to admit that this might have a bit to do with the order in which I was introduced to "Star Trek." Before "Voyager," the only other "Star Trek" I'd had a lot of exposure to was the Original Series. So all of the overdone "Trek" cliches that Trekkies were sick of when "Voyager" came around were new enough for me. And I didn't start watching "Voyager" until nearly the end, after it had already "Grown the Beard" so to speak. Had I been introduced to it in Season 1, who knows if I'd have given the show a chance to get better. That said, even if I had been introduced to all the "Star Treks" in order, "Voyager" would probably still be my favorite or maybe second favorite to DS9, simply because of characters like B'Elanna, Seven and the Doctor. Not entirely sure how relevant that revelation was to this discussion, but I felt like sharing.
Twenty-three years ago, when the show debuted, I was already hard at work on a VOYAGER novel, based on a twelve-page bible that I still have in a box somewhere.
For me, Voyager started 8 January 1998. Some months earlier, one of my TV channels had started airing Deep Space Nine. The night for the airing of the episode "Move Along Home" I had other commitments (read: a rock performance I wanted to see) so I decided to tape the episode and watch it the day after. However, when I was watching "Move Along Home" on my VHS, I could only watch for about 15 minutes when the episode was replaced by endless black which continued for the whole episode. I learned later that there had been som technical error somewhere. The 8th of January I got the splendid idea of visiting a shop which rented video tapes with movies and TV series to see if they had "Move Along Home". I discovered that they had some DS9 episodes there but not "Move Along Home". But they had the whole first season of Voyager. Why not? I thought and borrowed "Caretaker". And it was an excellent episode. Exciting from beginning to end and the main characters were introduced in a great way. I took an immediate liking to all the main characters in the series. The only one I did have some doubts about then was The Doctor. I found him slightly annoying in "Caretaker". But it didn't take many episodes before he became a favorite too. After watching "Caretaker" I became a Voyager fan and couldn't wait for next episode so I borrowed "Parallax" and "Time And Again" the next day. And so it went on. When my TV station started to air Voyager 4 months later, I was halfway into season 2! Despite some setbacks later on, Voyager has remained a favorite. I still remember watching Voyager the first time and getting goosebumps when Kim says: "We're on the other side of the Galaxy!" "Now the adventure really begins", I thought at that moment. In a way it still continues!
VOYAGER gave great closure to 24th Century STAR TREK and though others seem to not appreciate it as much, I'm a fan of that TNG vibe it has going for it. Almost a quarter century old and this show can still charm the pants off almost anyone ...
Well, it was completely by accident that I fell on ST: VOY's "The Caretaker", on late 2016. In fact, it was even "Mrs Colombo"'s DVD box, offered to me as a birthday's present, which brought me to Star Trek Voyager. Two different styles (and decades) but the same face, Kate Mulgrew. Although I wasn't a sci-fi fan and, let's be honest, all stuff about Star Wars and Star Trek always annoyed me a lot, I decided to give a chance... helped by the lack of interesting programs on a cold Saturday's afternoon and well, maybe because I had neither expectation or apprehension, I watched "The Caretaker" peacefully and at the end of the TVmovie, I thought why not watching a few other episodes before deciding if I continue or stop ... . Result: 4 or 5 months later, I ended with the finale after to have watched the 7 seasons. Of course, since the first viewing, I re-watched the series but the choice of episodes was random, and good ones rubbed bad or disappointing ones. Whatever, I'm glad to have decided to follow ST: VOY and as a bonus, I managed to shut my sister up, after she has dared me to watch a ST series from the beginning to the end. Indeed, I have an unfortunate tendency not to be loyal TV shows viewer, often because or an actor/actress left during the process, or just because, the show became a total mess or both (ex: Glee, Criminal Minds, L & O: SVU).
All right guys - this thread has become a melting pot for nostalgic stories so here's my two cents: In Hungary, Star Trek was virtually unknown before the year 2000. The communist governments of the seventies and the eighties allowed Star Wars to be shown but never Star Trek. I guess Star Wars was too big to ignore and perhaps they thought that the nature of Star Trek was subversive to their regime. God knows why things happened the way they did so I first saw Picard and co sometime around 1999. TNG was on at 11 at night on one of the weekdays and since already twenty years ago I was suffering from insomnia (and since then it's become worse - hence the time for making wallpapers ), I started watching it. Today when I can't bear to watch Picard for a minute, I find it incredible that I actually loved it back then. My first reaction was that hell yes, in addition to Star Wars we have something else that has starships in it. Yay! That was basically it. I didn't particularly care about the characters (except perhaps Geordi because I had learnt I had known him from that childhood series about the bad fate of black people - I don't know any more what it was called), let alone about [SIZE=4][FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]the social aspects of the show. So I kept watching TNG.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [LEFT][SIZE=4][FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] A few years later a miracle happened: I caught an episode of DS9 and of VOY at the same time. The very same channel started showing these spinoffs, they showed two DS9 eps first, followed by two VOY eps on Saturday afternoons. This was an excellent time for me and I was really looking forward to Saturday afternoons. I found DS9 a lot more interesting than TNG (still do, of course) but the real thing was VOY. The first episode I saw must have been ONE and after a few episodes I realized that these guys must have been lost somewhere in the galaxy. That permise clinched it for me: I fell in love with the show. And guess what? Watching it for the 37th time today I still feel I am in love with this show. The only show, in fact, that I love - probably because in spite of its flaws this show has a heart and a soul (not to mention Thomas Eugene Paris ). I can't stand TNG, I'm fine with DS9 and I really like the first two StarGate shows ... but there's nothing like VOY in my book and I doubt that there ever will be. The direction sci-fi shows (esp Star Trek) is going these days is what accounts for my pessimism ... Good old family shows seem to be going out of fashion ... Action-packed crap is obviously the way into the future. Hopefully only into the future of making movies and not into the future of mankind. But I haven't completely given up hope yet and can't wait to see a new Star Trek show that takes place AFTER the events on VOY - a century later or so, which would also account for the better visuals. It would be nice to have a show where the Borg is the main enemy. Or send a ship into another galaxy - and for Heaven's sake into a real galaxy, not into a mirror one - and give us new aliens and new adventures with a loveable crew and long story arcs. I think that's pretty much the recipe of a good sci-fi show for me.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/LEFT]
(Sorry about the FONT SIZE COLOR thing I don't know why that the case is and I can't make it go away ... In fact, the more I edit a text, the worse it becomes so I'd better leave it the way it is - no idea why this is happening to me ...)
In the UK, Voyager "premiered" on VHS in June 1995. I had been following development of the series in the official "Star Trek Monthly" magazine, and was excited to finally see it. Pretty sure I picked up vol 1.1 "Caretaker" on day of release. Really, really enjoyed it and though I never really got passed season 2, I have nostalgic memories of watching those early episodes on the CIC releases...
For me, the first Voyager story I saw/read was “The Escape” in 1996. I also saw “Future’s End” Pts 1 & 2 around the same time and a few other S3 and S2 episodes. My local channel was suppose to air Voyager in 95 (I even have it on tape CHRO’s commercial announcer stating that they were getting Voyager to air alongside TNG & DS9), but in the summer of 96 the cable company had a promotion on for about 3 months that allowed me to see my first episodes on WUHF FOX Rochester.
Interesting coincidence... in the original timeline of "ENDGAME", it took the ship 23 years to get home. So, they should have just made it now...