One thing I would like to have seen would be repairs being made after all these explosions on the bridge, with all the smoke and sparks after any hit. Was there ever a hull breach there? And it’s on the top of the ship....the Ready Room is exposed to open space, and doesn’t get hit? Would have been cool to see the top of the bridge missing, sealed with a force field. Oh, look, we have a skylight.
Is Voyager Heavily Underrated?
- Thread starter Janeway_74656
- Start date
I actually have to disagree with this. All the series after TNG struggled with the idea that Star Trek had been there and done that, that coming up with original stories was difficult and that maybe the creativity was running out of steam. DS9 confronted that problem in the first season, subsequently establishing a unique tone for the rest of the series with Duet and In the Hands of the Prophets. The writers of Enterprise were constantly demoralized because all their ideas were pooh-poohed as unoriginal, only to see that the stories that were developed were as unoriginal as those they proposed. Only when they were desperate to avoid cancellation did the patter change. According to Piller, the Voyager producers were required to ascribe as much as possible to TNG's planet of the week model and keep things short and sweet à la syndication model. Kenneth Biller complained that it was almost impossible to come up with fresh stories, especially in the last season when he ran the series.
Of course, it's not entirely fair to say that there were no original ideas. Sometimes old ideas were revisited. There were interesting nooks and crannies of selfhood explore via the EMH and Seven of Nine. And some of those two-parters had interesting ideas. Many of the fresh ideas were simply too big to be explored in one or two episodes. In my opinion, these stories fight against themselves in order to fit into the requirements placed on the series by the studio. Workforce is a perfect example. Braga has an idea about exploring the lives of the crewmembers if they had to spend an extended period leading ordinary lives, an idea that would take a good part of a season to explore. It gets shelved so long that by the time Biller was desperate for something new in season 7, Braga wasn't an active part of Voyager anymore and didn't write it. The episodes that Biller and Fuller wrote may not even have 30 minutes of pure content about the crew living ordinary lives. Most of the episode is about mind control, exploring the conspiracy that brought them there and the efforts to free the crew. What became the A-story cheapened the original premise, but it had to be there in order to make sense of what would only be an abbreviated stay on the planet. Janeway's romance with Jaffen was beautiful, well acted by both players. I think after seven seasons of flirting with priggish a-holes and holograms it would have been a welcome if Janeway realized that no powerful man deserved her, and she could at least consider that she would always be the person in charge of whatever relationship she was in. As it appeared in the episode, Janeway tells Jaffen, in the sweetest terms, that she would never have allowed herself to fall in love with someone like him. The constraints placed on the writers' creativity greatly reduced the potential for Janeway to realize something about herself, to grow, even if the romance went no further.
I have always felt it was because DS9 never had a year on its own. It was a blessing and a curse... a curse because it was never allowed to stand on its own and get higher ratings than TNG, but a blessing because it was left alone for the most part so its creative wings were allowed to spread more.
DS9 was by far the darkest of the ST spinoffs. Sisko, O'Brien, Bashir were either tortured or subjected to heavy interrogation. O'brien was driven to suicide, his clone endured a terrible experience that ended in a thankless death. O'brien went to the future where he died and was replaced by his alternate self. Sisko was beaten with a club by Dukat. Bashir was subjected to interrogation by section 31... Kira, Garak, Odo also went through similar experiences... Jadzia almost bled to death and later died killed by a Path wraith!!! I bet DS9 has more of these episodes than all the other series put together.
But DS9 also had more light hearted episodes than all of the rest... "FASCINATION", "EXPLORERS", "OUR MAN BASHIR", "LOOKING FOR PAR'MACH IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES", "TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS", "IN THE CARDS", "THE MAGNIFICENT FERENGI", "PROFIT AND LACE", "TAKE ME OUT TO THE HOLOSUITE", "BADDA-BING, BADDA-BANG", and more.
Out of all the shows, I think DS9 had the best balance of dark and fun/light hearted, whether it be full episodes or scenes in other episodes.
And TOS had its share of dark endings... Kirk having to kill his longtime friend Gary Mitchell, killing the last of a species in "THE MAN TRAP", Charlie Evans' fate, Lazarus' fate, Edith Keeler, "A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR", Miramanee, Bele and Lokai, and more. STAR TREK does not always have a puppies and kittens resolution.
Out of all the shows, I think DS9 had the best balance of dark and fun/light hearted, whether it be full episodes or scenes in other episodes.
And TOS had its share of dark endings... Kirk having to kill his longtime friend Gary Mitchell, killing the last of a species in "THE MAN TRAP", Charlie Evans' fate, Lazarus' fate, Edith Keeler, "A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR", Miramanee, Bele and Lokai, and more. STAR TREK does not always have a puppies and kittens resolution.
I've noticed that as well.
My headcanon is maybe Chakotay was transporting a group of Maquis troops to another location when the Caretaker snatched them.
I did find him preachy at times and it made me sometimes not like him.
I believe there was a hull breach on the bridge in the episode Deadlock.
DS9 was syndicated and wasn't under network pressure to be super perfect and mass audience-grabbing.
It is underrated. And I personally treated it that way until I was able to buy all the DVDs and watch them in order straight through. It is just as good as any other series, and has its own unique qualities and charm. I'm glad it exists, and I yearly watch all of it over again, just like all the other shows. 
DS9 got away with it because they skated under the radar. TNG still had a lot of attention, and VOY was launching a new channel as the flagship. The DS9 production staff counted on being kind of the forgotten to do a lot of what they did.
On the OP, I think VOY is not appreciated for what it was, but I also think it played it too safe. So it's nice and easy listening music of Star Trek.
That works. I always thought of it like a Star Trek sitcom.
Seen a few posts like this, and it really confuses me. Before actually getting into Trek, I enjoyed VOY more than DS9. I useed to turn on the odd episode of DS9, not really get what was going on in the arching story, then get bored and turn off. With VOY, I used to grab the odd episode and watch right through. Didn't love it, but it was fine.
Then a few years ago I actually watched all of DS9 and absolutely loved it. Works so much better when you can binge it. Then I tried VOY thinking the same thing would happen. Really disappointed. In Netflix's age of binge watching, VOY has lost a lot of appeal.
IIRC, Rick Berman was too busy looking after TNG and then Voyager to spot what DS9 was doing on the side, and by the time he did he took the attitude of 'If it's working, carry on.'
[QUOTE="HugeLobes, post: 12660631, member: 75618
Also, does anyone else find it weird when they remember just how old these shows are now?[/QUOTE]
It’s weird that VOY seems timeless to me....But I’m in season Seven.
Next thing, I’m going to start with the last Ro ep from TNG, then to the end......
Then go to season One of VOY to observe the carbon dating.
TNG will look dated based on the photography and audio.
I’m looking to see if the VOY production values were as good in its beginning as its end. Maybe even go another round with it.
Then, I can critique with impunity.
Also, does anyone else find it weird when they remember just how old these shows are now?[/QUOTE]
It’s weird that VOY seems timeless to me....But I’m in season Seven.
Next thing, I’m going to start with the last Ro ep from TNG, then to the end......
Then go to season One of VOY to observe the carbon dating.
TNG will look dated based on the photography and audio.
I’m looking to see if the VOY production values were as good in its beginning as its end. Maybe even go another round with it.
Then, I can critique with impunity.
My own personal experience with VOY has been the complete opposite of this. It wasn't until I binged most of the series last year on Netflix that I became hooked. When I saw 3 or so random eps back in the 90s that wasn't the case.
Different strokes I guess...
The problem with Voyager is how fast they settled what should have been long-term problems. Like People hating Tom Paris for example, it went away very fast while it should have lasted at least one season to acquire some credibility. Same thing about the distrust between the Maquis and the rest of the crew, we should have seen a lot more if it and for a lot longer.
It went away fast when Paris saved Chakotay from death, and helped bridge the divide between SF crew and Maquis.
Oh, did I say bridge? Like the one with Kirk and Picard in the Nexus?
Gee, they COULD have used a cliff.
There’s always a cliff.
Oh, did I say bridge? Like the one with Kirk and Picard in the Nexus?
Gee, they COULD have used a cliff.
There’s always a cliff.
This tends to be my view. VOY did some interesting character work, but that didn't really flow from any thing logical in terms of presented conflict. Chakotay goes from "You're a traitor!" to "We're cool." It only comes back up when there is a spy for the Kazon.
It just could have done more.
I don't think it is underrated by those with good tasteIt is underrated. And I personally treated it that way until I was able to buy all the DVDs and watch them in order straight through. It is just as good as any other series, and has its own unique qualities and charm. I'm glad it exists, and I yearly watch all of it over again, just like all the other shows.
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