I’m pretty knew to this site, but really appreciate everyone’s thoughts. I’ve watched TOS, TAS, Next Generation and am on the final season of DS9. I would be watching Voyager for the first time if I start it. From other threads in the Next Generation and esp. DS9 boards, it seems like Voyager wasn’t great. Should I go in with low expectations if I do decide to watch? Is that the best way to appreciate it? If I do decide to watch, should I just watch in order? Or skip ahead to a particular season? The other reason I want to maybe watch is the new Picard show with Seven of Nine appearing, I am really looking forward to Picard...and I figure zi should probably know more about Seven of Nine since she will be appearing. Thanks ahead of time for any opinions!
Voyager worth watching? Well I like Voyager and I admit it can be quite a flawed show. What season to start with, well you should probably watch it from the start but for me Voyager became most enjoyable around the end of Season 3 (Scorpion part 1) but I liked "Distant Origins". Then Season 4 which has somewhat of a feel of the crew moving on from Borg space, has the double parter "Year of Hell" and introduces one of my favorite aliens in Voyager; the Hirogen, the mini arc story with the message from Starfleet, and ending with Hope and Fear which has continuity to "Scorpion" without giving spoilers. Season 5 also has some good episodes. I would recommend skipping "Dark Frontier" but if you really want more Seven of Nine background you should perhaps watch it. (but this is where the Borg got really "neutered"). Loved "Bride of Chaotica" for its 50s matinee serial cheesiness. "Equinox" had a good premise but ended up rather flawed because of plotholes and how unbalanced Janeway is written. Season 6 has some good and okay episodes (not many but some) but I recommend you skip all the Borg stuff including the terrible "Unimatrix Zero" Season 7. Well it brings back the Hirogen but it further makes their concept flawed after S4 "The Killing Game" which I think would have been better if it had been a "The Most Dangerous Game" with Voyager's crew instead of... well I don't want to give spoilers. A few good episodes but the rest can be skipped. So Season 4 and parts of Season 5, and a few episodes from Seasons 6 and 7.
Of you are just wanting some Seven of Nine background probably just watch Caretaker ( pilot) then jump to end of season 3. They won't really address the Maquis. And that is perhaps the first hurdle of disappointment. There are some good singular episodes between then and there but you have to wade through Kazon and early season Neelix. I loved my show even if it was a bumpy ride. It's the cast and characters that made it for me. And that beautiful theme it really made me feel like going the distance.
Oh yeah, forgot about Caretaker, probably should start with that one. And yeah, you can skip the Kazon stuff. They were never really interesting antagonists.
Right, for PIC, the Borg episodes are really the only relevant ones. No Kazon, no Hirogen, no Vidiians, no Krenim. Later on, some of the Vidiian episodes are worth going back and watching, along with the Krenim ones, but most of Voyager's enemies were very forgettable - as the ship was just passing through.
I personally still like the Hirogen, at least in "Hunters" and "Prey". "The Killing Game" did not really work for me with the comparisons and felt more like an excuse of having he cast act like stereotypical WW2 characters. The Hirogen were okay in "Flesh and Blood" but were really toned down. The Borg were at their best in "Scorpion". I liked "Drone" though in a way it was a little like "I, Borg" but the rest of the Borg episodes are a downhill slope.
Absolutely worth watching. It isn't my favorite Trek series but there are certainly a number of episodes that any Trek fan will enjoy, imo.
Voyager starts really strong in it's first season, the second seasons ok then it's a case of diminishing returns after that, much like the original series or any long running television programme. Of course this is just my opinion.
I just watched Voyager for the first time about 3 months ago. The pilot starts off kind of cool but then gets super corny and, well, it just ends badly. It is kind of like a reverse Gilligan's Island. The 2nd and 3rd episodes are really lame disturbance in the space time continuum episodes. It was almost like they ran out of ideas by the 2nd show. I also admit that I was usually doing other stuff around the house...cleaning, working out, etc. while it was on, so it was kind of background noise mainly because the episodes were usually pretty bland. If you are a fan of time travel episodes where nothing that happens really matters because at the end of the episode everything goes back to normal, then the show will appeal to you. There are a bunch of time travel shows and other ones where people are jumping around in time. If they could manipulate time so easily, why not just go back before they get stranded? The acting is certainly not as good as TNG and everyone on board the ship worship Janeway, even though she does nothing at all to deserve it. She strands them away from home and they all love her for it. There is an episode where a character gets his lungs stolen and the crew capture the baddies but she refuses to take the lungs back because it would kill the baddie. If you were that crew member, would you worship her after that? The first major aliens in the show, the Kazon, are so ill conceived that every show with them in it is pretty much complete garbage. Season 4 and part of 5 is by far the best part of the series. It's probably not as awful as I make it sound, but it's just not really memorable either.
Personally I'd suggest starting at season three, maybe look at an episode list for the first two seasons and pick out any that look particularly appealing to you. Season four is where to start if you want Seven but she works better if you're familiar with the existing cast, because she plays off them a lot, especially Janeway and the Doctor. Season three is enough to learn pretty much everything about the crew. You also get to see Kes this way, who is pretty interesting and comes back later. From season three all the way through to season seven, it's pretty much the same quality as an average TNG episode (by which I mean it doesn't reach the great heights that TNG does, but neither does it quite reach the same catastrophic lows). If you're looking for testimonials, I really like the show and I'm to this day genuinely confused by why people hate it so much - it's honestly consistently better than most of season six and seven of TNG, which I couldn't even get through on my last rewatch. It's got a lot of running plot threads and attempts at episodic-style continuity - it doesn't match DS9 for continuity, but it easily matches or even surpasses TNG.
If you like the other 90s Treks, it's worth it. It's got its ups and downs, and can be really uneven, but it has some really good episodes too.
Very flawed show. The low-points are really low, though the high points are really high. I'd say it is worth it overall.
I want to thank all the members here who have given their thoughts! You guys are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I watched the two part Caretaker tonight. I thought it was pretty decent. Not sure if I will continue in order, or perhaps skip around as some has suggested. I still need to finish DS9, as I’m at the very end of Season 6.
If you want the true Voyager experience, I suggest watching in order. Just think of some of it as faux-self torture.
It's my second favorite series. It's fun and has a quirkiness TNG didnt. A bit more verve. It's the closest to TOS if you like that. It's decent, normal-good Star Trek. It's a disappointment more than dislike, that some people have. I don't want to get into why, for spoilers.
I like Voyager. It's flaws are not subtle. And they are maddening. But I like it anyway. This was probably not at all helpful.
Unlike the other Trek shows, Voyager had cast and characters that I disliked at the beginning and still disliked by the end. Mulgrew and Russ in particular spectacularly failed to grow in me. The early abandonment of the conflict with the Maquis, the handwave to the shortage of supplies and the big reset by the next episode all grated, as did the TNG lite polish on what has looked like a gritty survival premise. Definitely the least of the Trek shows imho, but hey, more Trek's always good...