Most aspects of Voyager were really good. It was just put in the hands of showrunners who (among other things) tried to turn it into something it wasn't really meant to be.
This is excellent and sums up a lot of things which was bad in the show.Found this, thought it funny. Because maybe at least some of the criticism was justified...
- You've been on this tiny ship in the Delta Quadrant beyond any hope of recrew or resupply for over a year, but you keep seeing ensigns you don't recognise. Everyone tells you that they've always been here.
- You go down to Engineering looking for Lt. Carey. B'Elanna tells you that he's just stepped out. He's been "just stepped out" for days.
- A shuttle crashes on a desert planet. You speak with Chakotay about the possibility of trading for some new shuttles, but he looks at you funny and says "but we already have a full complement of shuttles".
- You run to the shuttlebay and inspect them personally. There is a full complement of shuttles. And none of them even have a scratch.
- The next week, a shuttle is torn to pieces in a plasma storm. You're not even surprised when you find intact it in the shuttlebay an hour later.
- You stop mentioning shuttles.
- The ship has an encounter with some Kazon, but manages to get away. Their ships are primitive and slow and you shouldn't run into them again.
- Two weeks later, you meet the same Kazon, now somehow in front of you. You begin to suspect that you're driving in circles.
- You go to Engineering looking for Lt. Carey. You haven't seen him in two years. He's "not there right now, but should be back in a minute".
- Janeway and Paris travel at Warp 10 and turn into salamanders. You're *sure* that it happened. You *remember* it happening! But no one brings it up. When you ask Tom about it, he doesn't even register the question.
- You scream "BUT YOU WERE A SALAMANDER!" into his ear. He doesn't even hear you.
- You see another Ensign you don't recognise. You finally just ask the computer for the crew complement of Voyager. You are told that the answer is: 121.
- A month later, the Hirogen conquer the ship, spend weeks brainwashing and surgically altering the crew into believing that they are actually characters in holographic simulations, and then hunt them for sport. This culminates in a pitched battle between the crew and the Hirogen in which the ship is utterly wrecked and dozens of people are killed.
- Afterwards, you ask the computer for the ship's crew complement. You are told that the answer is: 147.
- The next day, you wake up and find Voyager restored to its original state.
- You make a discreet inquiry about Lt. Carey. Now everyone acts like he's dead but can't tell you precisely when or how.
- The Captain takes you aside one day and specifically instructs you not to mention Ensign Jetal to the Doctor. She says that she knows that this will be difficult, given how close we all were to her (and you in particular), but that for the greater good of the crew, you need to act like Ensign Jetal never existed. You solemnly nod your head and consent, and she gives you a comradely pat on the shoulder and leaves the room.
- You have absolutely no idea who Ensign Jetal is.
- Voyager absorbs the remaining crew of the USS Equinox. Well at least you'll finally have an explanation for the new crew you see around the ship! You never see any of them ever again.
- You've now travelled almost 40,000 light years towards home. You check the star charts; somehow, you're still in the Delta Quadrant. You begin to wonder if the Beta Quadrant even exists.
- The Delta Flyer is destroyed by Borg torpedoes. You don't even bother to check the shuttlebay for it, you just instinctively know that it will be back.
- A few months later, the Captain gives you the sad news: Lt. Carey is dead.
- You finally make it back to the Alpha Quadrant, say your tearful farewells, and receive a handshake and a promotion from Admiral Paris. As one last thought before leaving Voyager forever, you pay a visit to the shuttlebay. You find it utterly empty, except for one lowly crewman with a mop and pail, swabbing the deck. "I...guess that Starfleet must have already cleared out the remaining shuttles?" You say uncertainly, your voice echoing in the cavernous, empty room. The crewman breaks off his mopping and looks at you like you've lost your mind and says: "Voyager never had any shuttles."
I have thought about this for a long time and I totally agree.Regarding Janeway handling the Vidiians...
If the situation in "PHAGE" is what is being referred to, I completely agree that she handled that badly. VERY badly.
Neelix's lungs were stolen by those two. She is finally able to capture them... and her solution is to let them go?!
That sends a very, very bad message to her crew. She's basically telegraphing to them that their safety doesn't mean anything to her as long as her principles are being upheld. She's saying to the crew, "I'm not going to bother defending you or fight back when you have been violated." Why would anyone want to follow a leader who doesn't have their back when they are attacked? Especially the Maquis crewmen.
Janeway is supremely lucky that the one Vidiian decided to help Neelix. Otherwise, there could (and frankly SHOULD) have been a mutiny.
(And before you throw in the 'only Janeway gets picked on specifically out of all the other captains' card, Archer did the same thing in season 1's "FUSION". And I absolutely hated his decision there of just letting Tolaris go after he basically mind-raped T'Pol. At the very least, he should have been kept under guard until the Vulcan High Command can come by and grab him. Not just get a stern talking to and get released to the Vulcan ship.)
I agree that the entire premise of VOY almost expects serialization, possibly even more so than DS9... especially since with VOY, there is no chance of getting new Starfleet crew for transfers, replacements for deaths, etc. And the first 2 seasons did have some semi-serialization and some arcs. I wouldn't say it disappeared completely from season 3 onward, but it was certainly cut back.
If Captain Lynx had been in charge of the ship, he would have taken a terrible revenge on the Vidiians for what they did to one of the crewmembers. He would have said "Give him the lungs back or die, not only you too but all Vidiian we'll encounter. Fix this thing or you will all suffer."
As for the comments about Archer abnd his decision, janeway did the same thing when it came to Vorik when he mind-raped B'Elanna. He got away with it and dremained an Ensign on the ship.
Despite such errors, I actually like Janeway. She was OK in seasons 1-3 but badly written in the rest of the seasons.
I do't find Wang and Beltran bad in any way. At east Beltran did his best with "writes" gave him until he got tired of it. Wang didn't even get a chance.It doesn't help that they ended up hiring some lazy, bad actors like Wang and Beltran and didn't have the stones to just get rid of them when it became apparent.
If anyone were lazy, then it was the writers and producers of the show. They had good actors and a good premise for the show and messed it up.
It certainly was the worst and enjoyed competing with Enterprise.
TOS, TNG and especially DS9 are great series. VOY was bound for greatness with great characters and a good premise but the writers and producers messed it up. However, it was good in season 1, 2 and 3.
As for ENT, it was ten times worse than Voyager's seasons 4-7 (except for one episode in Voyager's season 6 which is the worst thing ever in Star Trek).
And DSC and PIC were ten times worse than ENT.