Ever notice that Robert Picardo change his voice inflection

[Jayson1]

I like both versions of the Doctor. He is more of curmudgeon in the early seasons and has his Rodney Dangerfield "I don't get no respect" thing going on but the later seasons where he is growing as a person is good as well and the actor is playing it up a little more.

 

[Oddish]

Admittedly, I watch TNG and VOY more than I do DS9 because I still can't watch Trek on my big TV, and bingeing on a smartphone doesn't really work for me. For me, the whole TNG Lite thing is like Riker on TNG staying around when he showed he belonged in the Big Chair. Yeah, it's pretty darn dumb, but done for a legit IRL reason, so I can sort of tolerate it.

But really, VOY also did ridiculous things for no good reason. Can you say "Threshold", boys and girls?

 

[fireproof78]

Of course, does any individual spinoff need to - especially after the first one?

It doesn't. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop them from trying because...because people are competitive I guess.

Exploring Vulcans with Tuvok was definitely a consistently high point for the show and it takes a lot to look at the original show, make note of how Vulcans control or repress emotions, and then actually flesh out detail that fits with the previously told narratives, or at least not going over the top with it. Pairing Tuvok with lone-survivor-happy Neelix was also a stroke of genius; the restrained character adjacent to the hyper one and, if nothing else, the actors hired (Russ/Phillips) go so far above and beyond that anyone else wouldn't make the clunkier stuff work.

Agreed. And I do think Voyager had awesome character moments, and a lot of characters who could feel like regular people. Voyager's biggest downfall was the fact that it wasn't consistent. When it succeeded, it did very well. But, more often than not, it relied about a simple formula. Which, seems to work now for it in it's favor, but at the time it was definteily the last thing I wanted.

 

[Summer Solstice]

The show clearly ditched original potential to become "TNG-lite", though with DS9 losing ratings and the dislike of serialized storytelling, it's understandable to see why VOY became TNG-lite.

I wonder if TNG-lite is as subjective as anything else. The thought-provoking planet-of-the-week episodes that TOS, TNG and VOY have so many of (and the other shows have to a lesser extent) are one of the things I really love about Star Trek so it that is what TNG-lite means then I'm fine with it. Having TNG characters show up when it didn't necessarily make sense in the narrative and using new characters would help with the world-building ("Pathfinder", "Death Wish", "Life Line") I'm less OK with. I like "Pathfinder", and I think it's probably the best example of Troi being a councillor, but imagine if instead of Barclay trying to reach Voyager it was Harry's young cousin. He could have been inspired by Harry to join Starfleet and promoted to Lieutenant unusually quickly. It would be an opportunity to see the families of the crew and how they were coping.

 

[Oddish]

...imagine if instead of Barclay trying to reach Voyager it was Harry's young cousin. He could have been inspired by Harry to join Starfleet and promoted to Lieutenant unusually quickly. It would be an opportunity to see the families of the crew and how they were coping.

I saw what you did there.

That's part of why VOY is called TNG Lite... it brings characters from TNG in, for fanservice. Of course, other series did this too, but it was prevalent with VOY, especially where a certain group of assimilation-happy cyborgs in bondage suits were concerned.

 

[Summer Solstice]

The EMH seemed very threatened and insecure in the first season and much more relaxed and confident in the later seasons. I'm not sure how much of that was Robert Picardo's voice and how much his body language.

I saw what you did there.

Excellent. I thought of you as I wrote it.

That's part of why VOY is called TNG Lite... it brings characters from TNG in, for fanservice. Of course, other series did this too, but it was prevalent with VOY, especially where a certain group of assimilation-happy cyborgs in bondage suits were concerned.

YMMV, clearly, but I think the Borg were VOY aliens that happened to be introduced in TNG. You could argue that TNG, DS9 and DISCO are TOS Lite for using the Klingons so much, but I don't think they are.