Whatever your opinions may be of DS9, they made fantastic use of recurring characters to help flesh out the universe and made some truly great allies, enemies and Garak for the audience to enjoy. Given that VOY is a far more contained show, with only 150-ish crew onboard I always think it was a missed opportunity for them not to do the same, to help fill out the ranks with some interesting and dynamic characters in the mix to play a much greater role in the show as the seasons progressed. They did try it a few times but they never really seemed to make the most of them (Carey especially springs to mind). What characters on the Voyager crew roster would you have wanted to see more of over the years, maybe given a storyline or two in which to truly shine?
For me personally, I'd loved to have seen more of Seska. Rather than have her run off and side with the Kazon for some bizarre reason, have her true nature exposed to the crew but keep her onboard, locked up in her quarters until an event when she winds up saving the ship and crew, over time earning back a little trust to see her return to duty as a fully-fledged Cardassian once again. I think it would've created a great source of stories between her and the Maquis, not to mention her and Chakotay--give him the dilemma of facing his feelings for a woman whose very nature he despises. It would be the sort of arc that BSG would later explore with Athena.
Tal Celes. Golwat. The Delaneys. Chell and the others from "Learning Curve". Ensign Jurot. That cool-looking redhead redshirt woman on the Basics planet. The helmsman from "Captain" Kim's night shift.
They killed too many of the more memorable recurring characters off early on. For example I always liked Hogan (for his OTT reaction faces if nothing else). They also should have kept Suder around, it was a total waste having him sacrifice himself for the crew, how much better would it have been if they were suck with an unbalanced murderer on the ship for the whole journey? It also would have given Tuvok more to do, since he was helping to rehabilitate him. I second the Tal Celes thing, in fact all three of the "Good Shepherd" crewmen. (Although obviously they appeared relatively late in the show.) More Chell, not because I liked him particularly, but I do think there was a wasted opportunity for many hilarious altercations with Neelix. And then maybe Kes's character wouldn't have been hamstrung by such an icky and unlikeable relationship all the damn time, especially early on. What happened to the other ex-Maquis that Tuvok had to train in "Learning Curve" we should definitely have seen them from time to time. There should have been more Vorik and Carey (hell, Carey would have been chief engineer if not for Torres so why was he so rarely part of the engineering solutions?) Also, Ayala, there should always be more Ayala.
I was fine with not having many stories about recurring characters. I would much rather that screen time be used on the main charcters.
Ahh... well I never said he had to talk. It's not so much that I think there should have been whole episodes dedicated to recurring characters, more that they should have been seen around the ship more frequently and perhaps been given the odd bit of dialogue in scenes where there were crew recreational gatherings or emergency situations, perhaps even see the main characters hanging out in the holodeck with the recurring characters from time to time. The crew were supposed to be a 'family' after all, by the end.
DS9 did well with recurring characters largely because it's setting was primarily stationary. Voyager's whole premise was non stop travel towards earth. So sure they'd pass through Kazon space, Borg Space, Hirogen hunting parties, etc... but logically they shouldn't be running into the same people over and over again.
I disagree with this thought. They had 9 main characters. I'd much rather see screen time used on a main character than some nobody ensign we'll never see again
I tend to agree. Someone mentioned Vorik, he seemed to have a little extra screen time. Obviously Naomi. I liked Suder but appreciated that he had his impact in the story lines even though he featured in only three episodes.
That's why they'd be recurring so you'd see them throughout and get to know about them, so any crew losses would actually have an impact. Think how much more could've been made of Lynsey Ballard before she was killed off only to return a couple of seasons later, maybe she would've stayed, maybe we would have actually cared about her decision and what it meant for the main characters.
I did feel sorry for Joe Carey, first B'Ellana took his job and then he dies, is killed, like last season.
Yes but it's not like they were getting new crew members from the academy. They could have made better use of them, as others have mentioned when they kill one off wouldn't it have more impact if we knew that person?
I suspect the reason why we hadn't seen Carey for years is they thouht they had already killed him off. So they had to bring him back to correct that oversight and kill him off.
You mean like, I thought you were dead? Well wacko, you're not.. beauty (I've gone all Australian, lol), we can kill you off in this episode!