I re-watched Caretaker yesterday...............

[Lynx]

........and I still got the same feeling of excitement as I got the first time I watched it, about 100 years back or so.

I know that I've been a bit critical to VOY in some posts recently, about how it didn't keep its premise and how certain things could have been done much better, comments that I still stand for.

But I still like the series and the characters for some reason and I still feel a certain excitement in waching some of the older episodes!

And Caretaker was an excellent pilot episodes.

The changing scenarios, how the main characters were introduced in the series, the whole premise with a ship and its crew lost on the other site of the galaxy with only themeselves to count on.

OK, when VOY started, I had watched TNG on re-run for about three years and also became very disappointed when the stupid channel which aired DS9 quit airing the show after one season so VOY was something new and excting then. I don't know if I had been the same VOY fan if I had had the opportunity to watch the two fists seasons and maybe more of DS9 before VOY arrived.

But VOY still has something likable depite some plot holes and sloppy writing. There are many episodes which I still watch with great pleasure after many years.

 

[Oddish]

Voyager had a cast of great actor with strong chemistry, and that compensates for many of its weaknesses, frustrating as those weaknesses could be.

 

[Weyoun 251]

........and I still got the same feeling of excitement as I got the first time I watched it, about 100 years back or so.

I know that I've been a bit critical to VOY in some posts recently, about how it didn't keep its premise and how certain things could have been done much better, comments that I still stand for.

But I still like the series and the characters for some reason and I still feel a certain excitement in waching some of the older episodes!

And Caretaker was an excellent pilot episodes.

The changing scenarios, how the main characters were introduced in the series, the whole premise with a ship and its crew lost on the other site of the galaxy with only themeselves to count on.

OK, when VOY started, I had watched TNG on re-run for about three years and also became very disappointed when the stupid channel which aired DS9 quit airing the show after one season so VOY was something new and excting then. I don't know if I had been the same VOY fan if I had had the opportunity to watch the two fists seasons and maybe more of DS9 before VOY arrived.

But VOY still has something likable depite some plot holes and sloppy writing. There are many episodes which I still watch with great pleasure after many years.

Ran into someone on a night out on Saturday who was in the TOS science uniform - got chatting to her expecting her to be a fully signed up member of the Trek-eratti but turns out she came across TOS (via JJ films I believe) and is watching it all for the first time ever (she is roughly up to S4 of DS9 and just about to start Voy)

Your post made me think about how exciting it must be for her seeing this all for the first time ever, without knowing anything at all (ish - everyone knows a little bit I guess), and I'm a little jealous of her (and of you being able to get that same buzz all over again)

That said - I've recently binge re-watched Farscape and am mid SG1 and I'm getting that buzz a bit and there are still moments that give me the same feelings that they did first time round (the moment in Revelations S5 ep 22 at the end where O'Neill is getting in the lift and feels that gust of wind and feels it is Daniel still got me in the feels)

 

[tomalak301]

Voyager had a cast of great actor with strong chemistry, and that compensates for many of its weaknesses, frustrating as those weaknesses could be.

I've always felt that what Voyager lacked in writing, made up for in it's characters. I liked the chemistry of this cast, and while the show did focus more on Seven in the later seasons, we still got some good stuff with the rest of the cast, especially Tom and B'elanna.

As for Caretaker, it still is a very strong pilot, though I really do wish the idea of how about setting a timer on the Torpedos to destroy the array was even brought up. You could use it to get home, and then it's destroyed, probably taking the Kazon ship with it. Of course you have no series, but a simple explaination of maybe that would take too much time would have addressed that variable.

 

[Tosk]

And if you're doing a rewrite for that, maybe do something about the Kazon scrabbling for a barrel of water while flying around in warp-capable starships.

 

[Lynx]

And if you're doing a rewrite for that, maybe do something about the Kazon scrabbling for a barrel of water while flying around in warp-capable starships.

I can do it right now!

First of all, I like the Kazon. I think thwey were great villains and also find their background story plausible.

It has actually happened in our Gray Universe that dictatorships have been overthrown and occupants being driven out but the happines over freedom has ended with different fractions fighting another. Iraq is a good example from recent times.

As for the Kazon-Ogla water problem, I do agree that it was one of many mistakes made by those in charge. But let us assume this possibility and rely on a reliable source, The Kes Website :

The Kazon-Ogla and the water problem​

According to what we saw in "Caretaker" the Kazon-Ogla who were living on the Ocampa planet had problems with finding water. Neelix too did seem to have that problem. Now, that looks and sounds a bit strange because there would always be a chance to find ice in space, at least on some planet nearby. They did have spaceships of rather good quality after all.

But there's a possible explanation for that problem. If we look at the Ocampa system, Ocampa is the fifth of six planets. According to the book "Star Trek Roleplaying Games, Aliens" which is the only source of information about the Ocampa system, except for the official Star Trek sources, the Ocampa system is the sun Caeleron plus six planet, five smaller ones plus a gas giant. The four inner planets are to small, hot and rocky to have any water. The fifth planet which is Ocampa has no water on the surface and the sixth planet is a gas giant, apparently without moons, maybe some small rocky asteroids orbiting it but in that case they are too small to contain any water or ice.

We can also assume that the wars and conflicts between the Kazon sects has made it very difficult for the Kazon-Ogla who are living on the Ocampa surface to travel outside the system. Maybe they are under siege from the Kazon-Nistrim or some other Kazon sect which makes it difficult for them to travel outside the system and difficult for other Kazon-Ogla ships to deliver water to them. As they don't want to leave Ocampa with its valuable Cormaline which they use to trade with, they have to live with the water problem, at least until they can make peace with other Kazon sects nearby or find water in some other way.

 

[rocketscientist]

I know that I've been a bit critical to VOY in some posts recently, about how it didn't keep its premise and how certain things could have been done much better, comments that I still stand for.

But I still like the series and the characters for some reason and I still feel a certain excitement in waching some of the older episodes!

And Caretaker was an excellent pilot episodes.

I echo your sentiments. Voyager imo and others, including you, didn't fully exploit its premise, which was set up, as you said, by a solid first episode. One of the reasons TOS, TNG, and DS9 all worked because each were distinct in their premise and they had enough great episodes and, even for weak episodes, had strong characters to get you through them.

With Voyager, despite not going all out on its premise and largely following in the same steps as TNG, they at least had some really enjoyable and strong characters that viewers could invest in. For me, those characters were Janeway, Tuvok, Seven, and the Doctor. I also liked Paris and B'lanna too.

It's a little hard for me to rank Voyager and Discovery. I really loved some of Voyager characters, while I only really loved Tig Notaro's Jett Reno and Michelle Yeoh's Empress Geourgiou on Discovery. The rest ranked from likable to irritating. On the other hand, Voyager always felt like a rerun of TNG again while Disco, whether you loved or hated it, was doing everything differently. Some of it hit well for me, including the action, the imperfect characters, some of the scifi, etc., but some of it fell flat. Kind of a mixed bag, but I give the creators a lot of credit for aiming for the fences and really trying to break away from that TNG formula that was used for VOY and ENT too.

Ran into someone on a night out on Saturday who was in the TOS science uniform - got chatting to her expecting her to be a fully signed up member of the Trek-eratti but turns out she came across TOS (via JJ films I believe) and is watching it all for the first time ever (she is roughly up to S4 of DS9 and just about to start Voy)

Your post made me think about how exciting it must be for her seeing this all for the first time ever, without knowing anything at all (ish - everyone knows a little bit I guess), and I'm a little jealous of her (and of you being able to get that same buzz all over again)

That said - I've recently binge re-watched Farscape and am mid SG1 and I'm getting that buzz a bit and there are still moments that give me the same feelings that they did first time round (the moment in Revelations S5 ep 22 at the end where O'Neill is getting in the lift and feels that gust of wind and feels it is Daniel still got me in the feels)

Wow. That girl sounds like she really fell for ST! And good for her with starting with (and apparently really enjoying) TOS! That's the way it should be!

I can do it right now!

First of all, I like the Kazon. I think thwey were great villains and also find their background story plausible.

The Kazon idea, in itself, wasn't a terrible idea at all. Maybe if they'd fleshed them out more.

I dunno, what does everyone think about the initial bad guys, the Kazon and the Vidians?

I personally think the later Borg and Species 8472 and even the Hirogens were more interesting adversaries (even if the Borg were taken from TNG).