Who was your favorite foil species for Voyagers crew? Which do you wish were developed more/larger screen time? Kazons Viidians Hirogens Borg Species 8472 Voth Krenim Other
Difficult.... I loved the entire concept of the Viidians, that they aren't evil by nature but are forced to perform these gruesome acts for survival. However, so many times we see them they are simple the bad guys, with only one or two exceptions. The Kazon, again, had a good concept. Based on streetgangs, they fight amongst sects and other aliens. I appreciated them more now that I'm watching Voyager for the second time then I did when watching Voyager years ago for the first time. Hirogen were pretty cool, interesting social structure, but also a bit bland in execution, mostly very 2 dimensional. The Borg.... I'm going to reserve judgement here untill I've rewatched Voyager to it's end. I was a bit displeased the first time watching Voyager, since the Borg seemed more gimmicky then true adversaries. But now, early in season 4, they are still quite edgy. Species 8472: I dunno.... I suppose they were pretty creapy when we first saw them, but they got a bit goofy IMO later on. The Voth were great for a single episode, but I'm glad they were only that; a one time species. It was a fun concept, but revisiting them to often would get a bit wacky. C'mon, dino's in space? We never really saw the Krenim for who they really are, did we? We only dealt with Annorax and his crew. The Krenim them selves were also altered during Annorax' tempering. Only at the end of the Year Of Hell do we get a glimpse of how they are in the 'proper' timeline, and they aren't epicly powerfull or anything. Having said that, Annorax and his ship were a force to be reckoned with. At the end, I think I'd say the Viidians though, they had a good solid concept, that could've used more screentime. I'd love to see how there could be internal struggling on the Homeworld, were some parties fight for a more agressive stance to non-Viidians, going so far as to invade other species to harvest organs and stockpile them, while others feel they should attempt to pull resources with other species into developing a cure. Perhaps even some sort of religious group that feels this a plague sent by their deities to punish them for some sort of amoral behavior or event that happened on their Homeworld. We could have had some fantastic political and social struggling for this species, but ultimatly all we got were baddies with fancy rayguns.
The Swarm. What the Borg used to be--a hive-minded race you really couldn't have polite conversations and make deals with. They simply came after you, wearing down all of your defenses along the way. I'm also one that liked the Kazon too.
The Viidians. A lot of potential for good story telling there, since they were bad because they had to be to survive. They were almost portrayed as having a Federation like system of government until the Phage struck. Explorers by nature forced to become monsters to live. A cool concept that was underused in the series. Too bad.
Agreed, the Vidiians were an interesting concept, for the aforementioned that that these were potentially good guys driven by circumstances to do evil and also for the fact that they were damn creepy to the same level the Borg were to begin with.
I really liked the Viidian's and wish they got more stories and followed up on in later seasons. There was a reference to the phage being cured by the think tank correct? It would have been nice to see what became of them and for the Doctor to see Denara Pel again. The Hirogens however were my favorite, so much potential there to be mined. With the lack of knowledge of their past ex: dont know where their home planet was, the culture, everything about them was fascinating to me. The Alpha that was in charge during Voyager's occupation was a good character, the follow up with with the holographic uprising was a good story arc. I wanted the crew to have regular run ins with a Hirogen hunter on some quest, not neccesarily a friend or enemy but something a bit more shades of gray.
The Vidiians were great, but I'd have loved them more if instead of beaming bits out of people, the crew would wake up in bathtubs full of ice with new scars... they'd have been so much more effective if they're methods were more rudimentary and brutal.
Viidians - certainly a missed opportunity by the writers for some great storylines, particularly from an ethical and moral perspective (which in Star Treks strength).
I voted Hirogen, because they were probably the most noble of the antagonists on Voyager. Their entire culture was based on the hunt, and they had a deep respect for their prey. I got the sense that they were in it for the adventure, not because they were evil (Borg), stupid (Kazon) or heartless (Viidians).