How Voyager Pushed The Boundaries Of Star Trek

[USS Artorius]

Hi everyone. I just wanted to make this post as a sort of tribute to Voyagers impact on the Star Trek Universe as a whole. I've made previous posts on how it didn't live up to expectations but a lot of the concepts and ideas were there throughout and are still ripe for expanding in a new show.

To get started I will state the obvious, Star Trek Voyager takes place in an entirely (almost) undiscovered region of space - an entirely new region of the Milky Way. This in an of itself is a bold move for a Trek Show, especially given Discoveries marred attempts to portray new events and eras. The execution might not have been perfect, like Disco, but it's still a great idea and some aspects were written very well. The concept was very sturdy to start off with but as we know the show began to fall into the old traps seen on TNG. But this is the kicker, I believe that the transformation into a TNG copycat actually benefited the Trek universe massively. Firstly I would like to point out that if every crew on every Starship had a TV show of its own, many would be boring and very very similar to each other. Patrolling the core worlds of the Federation or charting Gaseous anomalies can't be the most exciting of gigs after all. The Voyager cast mimicking and tipping the hat to certain characters on TOS and TNG only strengthens the legacy of those original programs and highlights the consistency and noble attitudes that starfleet personell should always strive for. Yes Kirk was bit of a rebel and reckless at times, but Janeway had real B@LLS. She wasn't afraid to go down with her ship much like Picard but unlike Picard she had no quarms with taking a less noble path towards a solution for that weeks problems. The End Justifies The Means, as it were. And it does work sometimes, but not everytime and this is when lives are lost and trust breaks. It perfectly showcases that no captain is without flaws and no crew is invincible (a problem that the modern shows seem to perpetuate). Whilst aspects of the plot in particular episodes are especially lacking, the discovery of new civilisations and worlds happens nearly every week and that after all has been Starfleets mission profile since its inception. In the majority of the main cast driven episodes, the motivations for the "main" character make perfect sense given their background and situation. For example when Harry Kim disobeys orders and gets it on with an alien female. He's young fresh and not as disciplined as the rest of the crew and it must be very lonely travelling for years on a ship of only 150. So it makes perfect sense. Secondly I would like to state that the introduction of species 4872 and the concept of fluidic space has made it clear that the milky way is not the only final Frontier, much like what we see in the TNG episode Where No One Has Gone Before. You can't knock the creativity of the writing team when Janeway makes a deal with the Borg, the freakin Borg! And while some fans moan about how Voyager ruined the Borg... Sorry to burst your bubble but to those I'm addressing, by our own logic, First Contact did that. Some episodes that highlight my points include Year Of Hell, Timeless, Scorpion, Blink Of An Eye, Distant Origin, Prototype, Projections, Flashback, Futures End, Night and many more. What is everyone's thoughts?

 

[valkyrie013]

First.. Less 1 massive paragraph.. some spacing would make that easier to read.

Second. I agree, it did push some borders, moved forward on things, but to me it wasted a very novel premise and made it Tng 2.0. I hardly ever rewatch season 1-3 and even after that certain episodes. Some are so Cringe worthy..
But in all I like the series, but I put it at the bottom of my favorite series lists.

 

[Lynx]

Hi everyone. I just wanted to make this post as a sort of tribute to Voyagers impact on the Star Trek Universe as a whole. I've made previous posts on how it didn't live up to expectations but a lot of the concepts and ideas were there throughout and are still ripe for expanding in a new show.

To get started I will state the obvious, Star Trek Voyager takes place in an entirely (almost) undiscovered region of space - an entirely new region of the Milky Way. This in an of itself is a bold move for a Trek Show, especially given Discoveries marred attempts to portray new events and eras. The execution might not have been perfect, like Disco, but it's still a great idea and some aspects were written very well. The concept was very sturdy to start off with but as we know the show began to fall into the old traps seen on TNG. But this is the kicker, I believe that the transformation into a TNG copycat actually benefited the Trek universe massively. Firstly I would like to point out that if every crew on every Starship had a TV show of its own, many would be boring and very very similar to each other. Patrolling the core worlds of the Federation or charting Gaseous anomalies can't be the most exciting of gigs after all. The Voyager cast mimicking and tipping the hat to certain characters on TOS and TNG only strengthens the legacy of those original programs and highlights the consistency and noble attitudes that starfleet personell should always strive for. Yes Kirk was bit of a rebel and reckless at times, but Janeway had real B@LLS. She wasn't afraid to go down with her ship much like Picard but unlike Picard she had no quarms with taking a less noble path towards a solution for that weeks problems. The End Justifies The Means, as it were. And it does work sometimes, but not everytime and this is when lives are lost and trust breaks. It perfectly showcases that no captain is without flaws and no crew is invincible (a problem that the modern shows seem to perpetuate). Whilst aspects of the plot in particular episodes are especially lacking, the discovery of new civilisations and worlds happens nearly every week and that after all has been Starfleets mission profile since its inception. In the majority of the main cast driven episodes, the motivations for the "main" character make perfect sense given their background and situation. For example when Harry Kim disobeys orders and gets it on with an alien female. He's young fresh and not as disciplined as the rest of the crew and it must be very lonely travelling for years on a ship of only 150. So it makes perfect sense. Secondly I would like to state that the introduction of species 4872 and the concept of fluidic space has made it clear that the milky way is not the only final Frontier, much like what we see in the TNG episode Where No One Has Gone Before. You can't knock the creativity of the writing team when Janeway makes a deal with the Borg, the freakin Borg! And while some fans moan about how Voyager ruined the Borg... Sorry to burst your bubble but to those I'm addressing, by our own logic, First Contact did that. Some episodes that highlight my points include Year Of Hell, Timeless, Scorpion, Blink Of An Eye, Distant Origin, Prototype, Projections, Flashback, Futures End, Night and many more. What is everyone's thoughts?

Voyager had a great premise and great characters but unfortunately those in charge wasted it.

Season 1 was good, season 2 was great but season 3 had more bum episodes than the others.

I get the impression that they started to lose interest and inspiration in season 3 and from there on it was all about playing as safe as possible by making the show a lightweight copy of TNG and adding certain attributs to attract certain fans, like:

"Let's add a sexy babe. The viewers love sexy babes."
"Let's have a lot of explosisons. The viewers love explosions".
"Let's have more Borg. The viewers love the Borg."
"Let's bring in TNG characters. The viewers love TNG characters."

And at the end it was:
"Let's finish this crap off as soon as possible so we can start a series which will show how TOS should have been done from the start."

Simply, they stopped caring for the show.
And the way Kes and Jennifer Lien was treated was awful.

Voyager could have been much, much better than it was.

Still I like it in some way, at least I like the characters and the premise.
Or maybe it is nostalgia.
Or both!

But I don't understand the comment: "The execution might not have been perfect, like Disco"

Disco perfect?
I really have to disagree on that!

First.. Less 1 massive paragraph.. some spacing would make that easier to read.

Second. I agree, it did push some borders, moved forward on things, but to me it wasted a very novel premise and made it Tng 2.0. I hardly ever rewatch season 1-3 and even after that certain episodes. Some are so Cringe worthy..
But in all I like the series, but I put it at the bottom of my favorite series lists.

Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are the only ones I watch!

Voyager is still a favorite of mine, I still like the characters and the premise but I have to admit that DS9 and TNG were better made.

As for other Star Trek series, I really like TOS but I can live without those made after Voyager.

 

[Oddish]

Voyager had immense potential to break new ground. And yes, it broke some... but far less than it could have. Indeed, the most neglected characters were arguably the ones that could have broken the most.

Kes, because of her mayfly lifespan, could have been a microcosm of life, marrying, having kids, growing old... basically, what happened in "Before and After". Instead, we got a slightly altered variation on "Transfigurations" and "Journey's End".

Harry could have been our first Lower Decker main character, where we follow his journey from obscurity to importance. Instead... in this regard, he was not an ensign for seven years; he wasn't an ensign at all. He was a senior officer who just happened to only have one pip on his collar.

And Chakotay could have been even more of a rogue than Kira was, ever straining at the proverbial leash... nope. He was a better Starfleet officer than Janeway was.

For example when Harry Kim disobeys orders and gets it on with an alien female. He's young fresh and not as disciplined as the rest of the crew and it must be very lonely travelling for years on a ship of only 150. So it makes perfect sense.

Aside from the fact that no one else in Trek history gets disciplined for banging an alien. Not even Riker, after he almost got the Enterprise enslaved by a video game.

 

[100Pic]

A lot of people focus on Voyager’s faults, but growing up watching it on TV and a kid/teen — I loved it.

I think the one thing people overlook with VOY is just how many risks it took. So many episodes are pretty out there — The Doctor talks down a sentient missile, anyone?

It has some pretty amazing episodes, but people get so fixated on the “squandered premise” thing or the “Neelix and Kes are weird” thing, they overlook the many wonderful, creative episodes that often feature stellar performances from a fantastic cast.

Don’t get me wrong, I do concur with most of the common criticisms… but there is more to the show! Relax and enjoy it, that’s my approach.

 

[Oddish]

Don’t get me wrong, I do concur with most of the common criticisms… but there is more to the show! Relax and enjoy it, that’s my approach.

Not saying it was bad. I regularly watch it still, and wouldn't do that with bad shows. Just saying that if you're looking for a show that pushed boundaries, nearly any other Trek has it beat.

TOS was the groundbreaking original.
TAS took it into animation.
TNG brought Trek into a new era.
DS9 introduced conflict, complexity, serialization.
ENT also fell far shy of its potential for pushing boundaries, but it gave us the first full season story arc.
DIS brought a new level of diversity to Trek.
LD was a Trek that was determined not to take itself seriously.
PRO gave us Trek from an non-Federation outsider's perspective, and also was the first Trek to use Pixar-style animation.

VOY's primary advancement was putting a woman in the Big Chair. Certainly a boundary push, but the other two Berman Treks had already done much to pave the way even in that regard: TNG regularly showed women in high ranking positions, even captaining ships and wearing admiral braid. And, DS9 had a female first officer and another in a STEM role.

 

[Sumire]

I do think Trek should be lauded for regularly showing women in high ranking positions but there is a very big difference between having an admiral passing through who is a woman and having the first person on the call sheet be a woman.

The captain, and the person playing them, defines a lot about the show. Sisko being the first black man to lead a Trek cast mattered a great deal. Commodore Stone mattered, he showed what the world of Star Trek was like, but he didn’t shape the original Star Trek in the same way Captain Kirk did, no matter how high his rank.

Plots are shaped around the captain, background characters are there to serve the plot. (I am not calling any woman on the bridge crew/senior staff background characters by the way. Even Hoshi Sato got a few [very few] plots that revolved around her.) Whatever one thinks about the portrayal of Captain Janeway and about the plots Voyager gave her to grapple with, it mattered a great deal that she was a woman.

 

[Oddish]

Whatever one thinks about the portrayal of Captain Janeway and about the plots Voyager gave her to grapple with, it mattered a great deal that she was a woman.

That is very true. It was an important glass ceiling to break. And in general, I don't object too much to the decision to "play it safe" with Voyager. My only severe issue with the show was their sloppiness, i.e. their refusal to address some major inconsistencies that could have been dealt with by a few lines of dialogue. As seen here: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/how-to-resolve-6-voyager-inconsistencies-in-85-seconds.309089/

 

[100Pic]

Can’t disagree that Voyager played it safe in many respects; my point was more that individual episodes were often surprisingly risky. And sometimes that gets overlooked because people focus on the shows broader faults.

I think the execs were so nervous about having a woman in the big chair that they made everything else extra vanilla to compensate. Add to that declining ratings and… well…

Nearly every Trek pushes some boundaries in their own way. That’s why we love it! It takes risks and challenges us to find the better part of ourselves. Is VOY the perfect example of this? Perhaps not, but it still has plenty going for it.

 

[DonIago]

But are the individual episodes really risky if we have every reason to believe that by the end of the episode, or at worst the beginning of the next episode, the status quo will be restored?

Was TOS risky for having horrible things happen during the episode only to in some cases have the Big 3 laughing together at the end?

Maybe, maybe not.

 

[somebuddyX]

I like Voyager a lot and as I get older I do love the standalones quite a bit and being able to watch things in any order. It can often be great. My all time favourite Star Trek episode is probably "Latent Image." But it also made me quit Trek until Enterprise Season 3. I think there's a middle ground that would have been fun where they did some more serialisation. Hint at things to come ahead of time, like upcoming villains or Equinox ahead of time. The suits at UPN didn't want that and Berman, Braga and Jeri Taylor didn't really push it. Great, great cast, every one of them.

 

[Phaser Two]

I come to praise Voyager, not to bury it . . . . It was very good for its time, and the principal reasons were the exciting premise and the amazing acting, particularly but by no means exclusively by Kate Mulgrew and later Jeri Ryan.

But now I find that the show has gotten better with age. Part of that lies in the astonishing attention to viz effects and set design. I watched "Distant Origin" last week and at no point did I think it looked 26 years old. It's perfectly at home in today's world; in fact, there are very few Voyager episodes that appear aesthetically dated. That gorgeous ship is outstanding, inside and out. That cavernous bridge set, with awesome colors and lighting that probably did not remind many of a dentist's office? Wow.

I also adore the wonderful themes, and the relationships among the characters. For all the well-worn complaints about the Reset Button and how sweet repeated shots of grimy mechanics or fraying carpets could have been, there are plenty of moments of pure joy, laughter and sadness conveyed by the brilliant cast in their allegedly pristine environment. To take just one example, and from an ep not universally acclaimed, if Seven's letter to the Doctor at the end of "Virtuoso" doesn’t generate the feels, I guess I should be made of sterner stuff.

The current Voyager renaissance is very well grounded.

 

[vulcancicada]

My favourite thing about Voyager is how if you summarise an episode out loud, it sounds completely insane. They had a lot of off-the-wall plots that I often cannot remember upon rewatch, despite having seen the whole series 10-12 times. I love that, because it's like a semi-brand new trek each time I rewatch it.

However, they played it far too safe in many ways. I wish they'd made a bit more 'peace' with being lost and become a generational ship and gathered more new people from different worlds or something. Also the 'safe' political arc of the times kind of saw a waning of Picard-style cultural relativism to Archer's cowboy diplomacy and Janeway was somewhere in the middle.

 

[Ragitsu]

And Chakotay could have been even more of a rogue than Kira was, ever straining at the proverbial leash... nope. He was a better Starfleet officer than Janeway was.

I like the idea that Chakotay was a very specific kind of rebel for a very specific kind of cause and that he grew into the mold of "ideal Starfleet officer" instead of being born that way; once he attained that character, he was loath to relinquish it no matter the cause (which meant that he viewed his time among the Maquis as a necessary evil at best instead of a calling like a certain someone...). It's possible to be principled on the topic of resistance without expressing a generally rebellious attitude.

So many episodes are pretty out there — The Doctor talks down a sentient missile, anyone?

Wasn't that Harry? To the best of my recollection, the Doctor's avatar was controlled by that missile's AI.

 

[Phaser Two]

(about Chakotay)

(which meant that he viewed his time among the Maquis as a necessary evil at best instead of a calling like a certain someone...). It's possible to be principled on the topic of resistance without expressing a generally rebellious attitude.

Well put! Was that an Eddington reference?

(About "Warhead")
Wasn't that Harry? To the best of my recollection, the Doctor's avatar was controlled by that missile's AI.

You are correct. At ep's end, Kim modestly credits the Doctor's expansion of his programming as an inspiration to bond with the weapon, and Torres was on hand throughout, but the talkdown job was all Harry. Janeway - the much-maligned Harry Oppressor - even went along with Harry's final plan, the details of which she was unaware, without hesitation based on his simple request for her trust.

Harry Kim detractors and fans alike seem to cite his romantic misadventure eps to justify their views about the character or the unfair shake he got, as applicable, but "Warhead" is almost never mentioned, and it's arguably his most shining moment other than "Timeless." I think people think of "Warhead" as a Doctor episode because of Picardo's nice acting turn as the (mostly) heavy. But it's a Kim episode for me, and a great one.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

@USS Artorius

First.. Less 1 massive paragraph.. some spacing would make that easier to read.

Please, yes.

I can't agree that VOY becoming TNG 2.0 strengthened the franchise as a whole. I think doing so created arbitrary limitations on what Trek *should* be like and the after-effects of that are still being felt in fandom in 2023.

I don't agree that it should have gone as dark as NuBSG, something people often hold up as an example of what 'could' have been, but if you are going to make half the crew a diametric opposite to the usual Starfleet people, then do nothing with it, why do that? If you're going to throw the ship into a new quadrant and then give us something half-baked like the Kazon, why bother?

I can agree however, that Janeway kicks ass. Mulgrew finally put to bed the idea that a woman couldn't be a starship captain and she is superlative in the role.

 

[Takeru]

"Let's add a sexy babe. The viewers love sexy babes."
"Let's have a lot of explosisons. The viewers love explosions".
"Let's have more Borg. The viewers love the Borg."
"Let's bring in TNG characters. The viewers love TNG characters."

DS9 and Enterprise did all of that too. They all chased TNG's success, that was not exclusive to Voyager.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Of all Trek shows, I think performer for performer, Voyager has the strongest cast. They are my favourite set of Star Trek characters as a whole and I love the setting of the Voyager itself. I think someone nailed it above when they said the overall premise isn't developed nearly well enough, but there are tons of smaller episodes that are quite strange and experimental.

I can see why Voyager still stands up and why it was so popular on Netflix a few years back.

 

[Oddish]

Let's add a sexy babe. The viewers love sexy babes."
"Let's have a lot of explosisons. The viewers love explosions".
"Let's have more Borg. The viewers love the Borg."
"Let's bring in TNG characters. The viewers love TNG characters."

DS9 and Enterprise did all of that too. They all chased TNG's success, that was not exclusive to Voyager.

But DS9 did those things on its own terms. The sexy babes wore standard uniforms (most of the time). The explosions made sense in the context of the story. They went all-in with TNG characters Miles and Worf. And they left the Borg to Voyager.

As for Voyager... like I said, I find it infuriating that so many of its flaws could have been corrected so easily. But I still enjoy watching it (some episodes more than others).

As for Enterprise, I think that it squandered its premise far worse than Voyager did: T'Pol's outfit was ludicrous, given that Vulcans normally wear loose-fitting robelike garments. Including transporters and 24th century weapons was just dumb. And don't get me started on the temporal cold war.

 

[Takeru]

But DS9 did those things on its own terms. The sexy babes wore standard uniforms (most of the time). The explosions made sense in the context of the story. They went all-in with TNG characters Miles and Worf. And they left the Borg to Voyager.

You might prefer how they did it but they still did it. They added Worf to hopefully get some of the TNG audience, that was literally the only reason, they took away Kira's bajoran standard uniform and gave her a cat suit, Leeta was initially included as a sexy babe and not much more before she was allowed top grow beyond that. And of course DS9 had a massive war with battles on a scale never seen before where shields didn't seem to exist to make ships go boom faster, that was mostly the rule of cool at work.

As for Voyager... like I said, I find it infuriating that so many of its flaws could have been corrected so easily. But I still enjoy watching it (some episodes more than others).

I don't disagree but of course we have the advantage of looking back decades later without the studio and network breathing down our necks making demands and we don't have to deal with audience expectations and possible repercussions of not making them happy.