Death is a part of life. My big complaint about Voyager was how safe the writers played things, they didn't take chances with their characters, not allowing anything that would affect them significantly. The death of a character would have been a good story. Just because a character dies doesn't make things instantly dark. Yes, in the aftermath, there will be depressing moments, but that depression does not stick around forever. I love the cast of Voyager. I thought there was some great chemistry among them. But if there'd been a story that would really focus on the effects of death and stick to them, not just kill a character at the start and revive them by the end of the hour, I'd have been willing to lose some of them. I'm interested in a good story, which doesn't necesarily equate to sticking to the status quo. The reality of life is that people will die. Some die gracefully, others abruptly. Star Trek doesn't do much on the reality of death, which I find actually reminds me that it's fiction more than the spaceships and aliens do. Part of my perspective may just be because I've recently lost a few family members who, despite knowing they'll one day die and leave you forever, it was still feels like it shouldn't have happened. When I look to a world of fiction, I don't just go into it looking to escape my problems, I want to see people overcoming their problems, to remind me that yes, these things happen, you can go on, it isn't just something that's happening to you. So the utter lack of a loss that we as the audience can feel and relate to is jarring for me.
Darn, I've been trying to convey that a million times and...failed. Well said and I absolutely agree. The characters and their interaction made me fall in love with the show, not the adventure itself. Perhaps that's why I've never warmed to any of the other Star Trek shows - they just don't have the same family feeling. Edit - I voted no, but only because I take character death as being main characters dying. I wouldn't want to see most of those disappear. However, minor characters would have been find and I'm sure it would have added to the show.
I can only agree here. I don't want the Voyager characters to be killed off simply because I like them. Anyone of them who "leaves" will create an empty space which no one can fill.
The impact of Tuvix and One's deaths would have been a heap more awesome if they'd actually stayed around for 3 of four episodes and built some indexable baggage before the reset button got them. What about Jonas? He was around for fair swag laying ground as a right cad that when Neelix finally killed him it was all "yay" for the hedgehog, water finds it own level and you kicked its ass. Hogans death actually got to me. He was just such a cute lug and suddenly "AH! Snake!!" Wow. I just had a Buffy Flashback. Then there's Commander Bartlett. That Poor bastard.
I think more than more character deaths, if we had gotten to know the characters that died off screen, that would have been enough. One of Voyager's failingings (IMO) is that they had a limited crew and we should have been seeing the same characters over and over again. I know that we did see several and hear about others, but I'd have liked that to have been more consistant. In other Trek shows this wasn't a problem as they could realistically have all kinds of crew transfers and such, but Voyager's crew was basically the same for the seven years, with a few exceptions. One of the things that disappointed me about Voyager was that it had this wonderful built in concept that would force it to be different than Next Generation, and then seemed to jettison those sorts of things and play it like they were still in the Alpha Quadrant. I could say more on this topic, but it's hours passed my bedtime.