Fans, what don't you like about VOY?

[Zameaze]

It would have been a much better show without Chakotay and without the Maquis. I cringed every time they mentioned the irritating Maquis. The writers never made me care about the Maquis: Make up a name, say that they were persecuted, and we’re supposed to feel empathetic. Say the words 'war criminal' and we're supposed to become Pavlov's dog. The writers were lazy.

There, I feel better. It’s sort of like confession, I guess.

 

[Anwar]

It would've been better if the other crew had a crew of Cardassians or Romulans and not Maquis. Then they'd REALLY be different from the Fleeters, have actual ideological and political differences with them and there'd be no way they'd just get along after episode 1.

 

[andersonh1]

I do like Voyager quite a bit, but here's what I noticed. I'll try to stick to broad strokes rather than nitpicking everything.

The major problem the show had was a lack of continuity/consequences over time, and even this wasn't consistent. Seasons two and seven had some story arcs where one thing built on another, but almost the entirety of seasons five and six were stand alone episodes where continuity was almost deliberately ignored.

An example would be the crews encounters with the Malon. They first run into them in "Night" and then an episode or two later. They then make two 10,000 light years jumps in "Timeless" and "Dark Frontier"... and then encounter the Malon again. There's no way those guys would be 20,000 light years apart. I don't think the writers had a clue just how far away that would be. And there were other examples where the sheer distance Voyager had covered was ignored.

Then of course there were episodes where the ship was trashed in a fight, and yet would be spic and span the next week, with no word of explanation offered. There's a show in the seventh season where the ship is sitting on the surface of a planet, surrounded by mesas, and the crew have stripped it down for repairs due to wear and tear. Had they shown something like that more often, it would have made up for a lot.

In short, a lot of the time the show feels like it's "episode of the week" and the writers hoped we'd ignore things that contradicted what had come before. Voyager as a show really was made for ongoing story momentum, and it didn't have it more often than not.

 

[Tachyon]

I liked that Voyaget was "an episode of the week" kind of show. So for me it is not a flaw in writing at all.

 

[Zameaze]

Then of course there were episodes where the ship was trashed in a fight, and yet would be spic and span the next week....

And with all that damage to the ship's electrical components: They always showed sparks flying from the computer and electrical panels during an attack. I guess circuit breaker technology was beyond them in the future.

 

[AdmiralSteven]

Then of course there were episodes where the ship was trashed in a fight, and yet would be spic and span the next week....

And with all that damage to the ship's electrical components: They always showed sparks flying from the computer and electrical panels during an attack. I guess circuit breaker technology was beyond them in the future.

I liked Voyager a lot, probably my favorite out of all of them, but I never understood this one myself.

 

[Zameaze]

Then of course there were episodes where the ship was trashed in a fight, and yet would be spic and span the next week....

And with all that damage to the ship's electrical components: They always showed sparks flying from the computer and electrical panels during an attack. I guess circuit breaker technology was beyond them in the future.

I liked Voyager a lot, probably my favorite out of all of them, but I never understood this one myself.

I guess showing those electrical sparks flying was the simple and flashy way to visually demonstrate damage to the ship. Maybe it was just too much for lazy writers to pass up. What do you think?

 

[Anwar]

It also saved money on sets. People can whine about how WOK did the best ship damage all they want but the truth is that they could afford to do that sort of damage to the sets because it was a movie and not a weekly show. If VOY did that they'd have to rush the sets being fixed and spend a lot of money on them.

 

[flemm]

I guess showing those electrical sparks flying was the simple and flashy way to visually demonstrate damage to the ship. Maybe it was just too much for lazy writers to pass up. What do you think?

Certainly laziness and habit were a part of it, but I think the sparks and ship-shakes have mostly been there from the beginning to demonstrate the imminent threat to the crew moreso than damage to the ship.

Often the bridge is not targetted, and anyway it would have to be one of the most protected areas of the ship, so probably it wouldn't be damaged at all unless it was targetted specifically. However, that would mean you would have the main characters calmly sitting there reading damage and casualty reports. So you end up with the vastly overused device whereby a random panel explodes on the bridge or wherever a key character happens to be standing.

Of course the thing to do would have been to generate that feeling of danger in other ways, but yeah... stuck in a rut by the end there.

 

[KayArr]

Because Picardo was so wonderful in the role, they started going way over the top with what they should have been doing with holograms by the last 2 seasons.

 

[Tachyon]

People still whining about how the ship should have been more damaged? Geez.

 

[TheGodBen]

I not whining about it, I'm suggesting it in a measured tone.

 

[Anwar]

Money people, money. Back in 1995 it would've cost a lot more to keep changing the CGI model of the ship as well as making new models of the ship (in real life) than it does now (which is why it's easy for BSG to do it). Same with constantly changing the uniforms and sets. BSG didn't even do that (it hardly changed or damaged the sets at all, it just uses camera and lighting techniques to make it seem like that).

VOY was made to make up for the money lost on DS9, not to spend more on something that may not have worked (serial drama).

 

[TedShatner10]

I thought it would've been cool if Voyager retained most of the grafted Borg technology for the rest of the series. But I agree that SFX and production limitations put a cramp on that.

 

[Tachyon]

I not whining about it, I'm suggesting it in a measured tone.

Lolz.

 

[Zameaze]

Money people, money. Back in 1995 it would've cost a lot more to keep changing the CGI model of the ship as well as making new models of the ship (in real life) than it does now (which is why it's easy for BSG to do it). Same with constantly changing the uniforms and sets. BSG didn't even do that (it hardly changed or damaged the sets at all, it just uses camera and lighting techniques to make it seem like that).

VOY was made to make up for the money lost on DS9, not to spend more on something that may not have worked (serial drama).

Okay, then we'll settle for a little black paint sprayed on the model to suggest scorching.

 

[Anwar]

And then they'd have to alter the CGI model as well and redress interior sets to show it's more than just minor model alteration. Again, lots of money.

 

[TheGodBen]

It wasn't so much SFX limitations because Year of Hell showed that they could do it, but it would have prevented them from using stock shots. Every episode where they had a battle the ship would get more damaged and they would have to create new stock shots of the ship flying past the camera, so they had to choose between more action or more damage.

BSG managed to do realistic damage because they had less action on the show than Voyager, Galactica herself was only involved in 8 or 9 engagements throughout the four seasons. The only time they seemed to completely switch the stock shots was after the exodus from New Caprica (because she took one hell of a beating in that episode) and in late season 4 when it became obvious that FTL jumps were tearing the ship apart.

In comparison, Voyager was getting involved in 8 or 9 engagements a season, the producers clearly chose action over atmosphere, it's up to each individual as to which they prefer.

 

[Zameaze]

And then they'd have to alter the CGI model as well and redress interior sets to show it's more than just minor model alteration. Again, lots of money.

Nope. This is Star Trek, we're easy: we're a very story-centric and character-centric lot. Just a quick shot of the model to suggest scorching, and we're happy.

 

[TheGodBen]

Nope. This is Star Trek, we're easy: we're a very story-centric and character-centric lot.

Have you seen the reaction to Trek XI?

T'would be nice were it true, though.