How much does watching VOY as a kid affect people's opinions?

It premiered 18 years ago, it will be 19 before 2014 is over.

 

Hell, I'd already written two Trek novels by the time Voyager came along, so I wasn't exactly a wide-eyed kid. In fact, I was already working on a Voyager book before the show ever hit the air.

 

Before it got to the air, so you admit to having a time machine? I knew that's where SF writers got their stuff.

 

When I was a kid, Voyager (first run) was being shown in my country in ridiculous timeslots -- if we were lucky it'd be before midnight, but usually it crept just after. The show was also about three years behind the US broadcasts. So I never really formed an attachment to it. I liked it, and I still hired out the VHS volumes as they became available at my Blockbuster. But my viewing of it was sporadic by its very nature. I kinda dipped in and out simply because I had to. It wasn't like that with TNG, which was broadcast proudly in prime-time.

I didn't really get to watch VOY properly until DVD afforded me the opportunity to own all episodes. And I was an adult by then.

 

Nostalgia probably plays some part in it. I'd seen reruns of TOS in the mid-80s when I was just hitting my teens, but the first Trek I watched more or less regularly on its first run was TNG. In my area they started broadcasting the show in 1989 when I was in my late teens. That said, DS9 made me a fan, even if my local broadcaster decided to stop broadcasting it in the middle of the 3rd season due to poor ratings. Same thing happened to Voyager as well.

These days I admit that VOY ties with TOS as my least favorite Trek show, and that's mainly due to the fact that for some reason I don't find the characters as engaging as on the other shows, and VOY ruined the Borg for me, and while Seven was interesting to start with, I think far too many episodes focused on her alone. While I think Mulgrew is an okay actress, I pity her for the material they gave her to work with, as she didn't get the chance to really make Janeway into a cohesive character. That said, I still enjoy VOY a lot more than many other shows out there.

 

Nostalgia definitely plays a role in my love for VOY. I was 13-19 when the show aired, so it definitely resonated in my easily-influenced mind as I came of age. VOY was the soundtrack to my life in those years. Even though the episodes themselves had their ups and downs — and there were times I wondered why I watched this show — it was the community of VOY fans that made the show so important to me. I met some of my closest friends due to our mutual interest in the show. We celebrated the show's triumphs and grumbled about its weaknesses all the same. Even now, VOY has this impact on my life, as evidenced by the fact that I do a weekly VOY podcast.

TNG and DS9 also have a nostalgic effect on me in their own ways, but VOY was the first show I watched from episode one on the day it first aired all the way to the last. It stands out not because it was the best Trek show out there, objectively speaking, but because of how much of an impact it's had in my life.

 

Nope. Just a series bible and a xeroxed copy of the script for "Caretaker."

 

I am there with you my friend. Hell, it freaks me out to talk to Trek fans who watched TNG as a kid. The only one I saw as a kid was TOS.

 

Plausible deniabilty, I see.

 

I have only started watching Voyager as an adult, so you can completely trust my opinion above all others as unbiased.

In fact I didn't watch any of the Treks as a child. I started watching TNG in college and that has remained my favorite. I decided to start watching Voyager a few months ago because it's on Netflix, even though I knew it didn't have the best reputation. Now that I'm watching I really can't understand why that is. I love the show. I think it's got the most interesting premise of any Trek series and a really great cast of characters. I don't enjoy it because of any nostalgia, I just think it is a fun show to watch.

 

Spot's Meow it is super fun! That's one thing I love about it and one way it does differ (stands out) from the other Treks. It's quirky and light hearted and has some excellent comic acting. And soon (since you are on your way into season 4) it will achieve greatness and have many compelling moments.

I only saw TOS as a child. I was looking at Misc and there is a thread about the ten most influential books in your life and my first thought was "TOS" but of course that is not a book.. but truly had far more impact on me than books did. Just a bit of TOS music evokes strong emotions in me, though I can see the cheese element it is irrelevant.

We never had good Trek coverage here, I watched all the series via video rentals and then the high seas for ENT which was shown here sporadically at midnight.