I think there is probably at least one similar thread like this, so if this feels to redundant, feel free to ignore me. But I was thinking about Voyager and how it could have been really great. I feel like these were the main problems it failed to overcome (in no particular order):
1.) Excessive use of techno-babble. Now, I'm one of those people who would get pissed at season 7 of DS9 when they would throw in a whole song by Vic Fontaine - made me feel like the writers couldn't be arsed to write another scene so they threw a song in. What's even worse than that, IMO, is throwing in technobabble exposition to pad the episode or for whatever other unfathomable reason. I'm not even one of those people who cares if the technobabble explanation is remotely scientifically plausible or not - I don't watch Trek for scientific accuracy, I watch it for the same reason I watch any other show - to be entertained by a good story. I have no interest in seeing the characters technobabble their way out of a situation every damn week. I'm not saying that this was the only Trek show guilty of this, but it seems to be most prominent on Voyager, and it just smacks of lazy writing.
2.) Wasted opportunities: Mainly the ST crew and the Maquis. The tension between these two groups pretty much disappeared in like, two episodes, and they were pretty much one big happy crew after that. I wanted more of a struggle to integrate. Heck, we saw more tension between the Bajorans and the Feds on DS9, and the Feds were INVITED their to HELP them. I'm not saying the two crews had to be at each other's throats every episode, but a more bumpy integration, a gradual dissolving of tensions and slow progress to mutual trust and respect would have been more compelling to watch than the insta-integration that happened. Why bother making half the crew Maquis if you're not going to use it as a plot point for more than five seconds?
3.) Poor character development. This is not to say all the characters were poorly developed - I'd say it was mostly Chakotay and Harry who got the bum rush when it came to character development. Chakotay never got much to besides his "Spritual Indian" shtick, and Harry ... wow, what can I say? About the only Harry-centric episode I can say where we ever saw any potential for character growth was when he was in that prison with Tom - and even then, the focus wasn't so much on Harry, but on the Harry/Tom dynamic, a friendship in the vein of Bashir/O'Brien - which was about the only part of Harry's underdeveloped character that I find interesting.
4.) Little to no character growth. Strongly related to above. Even those character on VOY who were given character development remained rather static through the course of the series. I can't help once again comparing it to my favorite Trek series, DS9, where even a recurring character like Nog went through more growth than a supposed "main" character like Harry Kim. I'm not saying there was no character growth at all - Seven was good example of successful character evolution - but there should have been a lot more.
5.) Imbalance of characters (seeing a theme here? A lot of my complaints have to do with character stuff, heh). Example: When Jeri Ryan came on, VOY became the Seven of Nine show. Now, this is not to say I dislike the character. I know she was pretty much brought on because the powers that be believe the stereotype that the typical trek fan is a droolin hormone-fueled adolescent fanboy, and she provided the T and A. And heck, maybe that's true. But aside from her obvious ... assets ... Seven was an intriguing, complex character and I actually think she was one of the best-written, best-developed characters on the show. I just wish her character development did not have to come at the expense of other characters. Again comparing to DS9, we see a show that managed to develop main and recurring characters and maintain a balance between them (though arguably Jake sort of fell by the wayside towards the end). And they even managed to screw Seven up, by putting in her an out-of-nowhere romance with Chakotay. These two character had nothing in common and, despite the fact that they were both portrayed by attractive actors, have zero chemistry IMO. Yawn.
6.) Overabundance of supplies/happiness for a ship stuck however many billion light years from home. I didn't want VOY to be all doom and gloom, with them barely surviving, but it seems they could've been more of show of struggle, some scarcity aboard the ship, the ship itself showing more wear and tear than looking all magically shiny and new every episode. Look writers, if you want to do another TNG, just does do another TNG damn it! The premise was certainly successful enough. But no, you deliberately stranded them decades away from home, and half the time it's like they forgot they were trying to get back to the Delta Quandrant and were just exploring the galaxy, TNG-style. And they have all that time (and power!) to waste on the holodeck! Which leads us too ...
7.) Excessive and cringe-worthy use of the holodeck. I say "excessive" because unlike other Trek series, Voyager was supposed to have limited resources. I don't care if they gave a technobabble solution about Voyager's holodeck having a different power source than the rest of the ship (which - WTF? Who designs a ship that way?!). Holodeck episodes tend to be hit or miss when it comes to Trek, and Voyager is no exception. The only time I enjoyed holodeck eps on this show is when the did the Captain Proton episodes, because it was such cheesy, scene-chewery good fun (in black and white!) and a homage to the sci-fi days of yore. As for the rest ... well, Fairhaven.
Enough said.
8.) Character inconsistency. Yes, another character complaint. Even when characters got significant development, it was hard to tell, because it often felt like they were written differently from one episode to the next. Janeway is the most egregrious example of this. One week, the writers have her cleaving the Prime Directive like it's the most sacred, sacrosanct rule in her universe, the next week, she's throwing it out the window. Come on, people. Even if you didn't it write it, would it at least kill you to glance over last week's script! Yeesh.
So, those are my main gripes with Voyager. Feel free to add, critique, ignore, agree, or tell me I'm utterly and completely off the mark! It's all good.
1.) Excessive use of techno-babble. Now, I'm one of those people who would get pissed at season 7 of DS9 when they would throw in a whole song by Vic Fontaine - made me feel like the writers couldn't be arsed to write another scene so they threw a song in. What's even worse than that, IMO, is throwing in technobabble exposition to pad the episode or for whatever other unfathomable reason. I'm not even one of those people who cares if the technobabble explanation is remotely scientifically plausible or not - I don't watch Trek for scientific accuracy, I watch it for the same reason I watch any other show - to be entertained by a good story. I have no interest in seeing the characters technobabble their way out of a situation every damn week. I'm not saying that this was the only Trek show guilty of this, but it seems to be most prominent on Voyager, and it just smacks of lazy writing.
2.) Wasted opportunities: Mainly the ST crew and the Maquis. The tension between these two groups pretty much disappeared in like, two episodes, and they were pretty much one big happy crew after that. I wanted more of a struggle to integrate. Heck, we saw more tension between the Bajorans and the Feds on DS9, and the Feds were INVITED their to HELP them. I'm not saying the two crews had to be at each other's throats every episode, but a more bumpy integration, a gradual dissolving of tensions and slow progress to mutual trust and respect would have been more compelling to watch than the insta-integration that happened. Why bother making half the crew Maquis if you're not going to use it as a plot point for more than five seconds?
3.) Poor character development. This is not to say all the characters were poorly developed - I'd say it was mostly Chakotay and Harry who got the bum rush when it came to character development. Chakotay never got much to besides his "Spritual Indian" shtick, and Harry ... wow, what can I say? About the only Harry-centric episode I can say where we ever saw any potential for character growth was when he was in that prison with Tom - and even then, the focus wasn't so much on Harry, but on the Harry/Tom dynamic, a friendship in the vein of Bashir/O'Brien - which was about the only part of Harry's underdeveloped character that I find interesting.
4.) Little to no character growth. Strongly related to above. Even those character on VOY who were given character development remained rather static through the course of the series. I can't help once again comparing it to my favorite Trek series, DS9, where even a recurring character like Nog went through more growth than a supposed "main" character like Harry Kim. I'm not saying there was no character growth at all - Seven was good example of successful character evolution - but there should have been a lot more.
5.) Imbalance of characters (seeing a theme here? A lot of my complaints have to do with character stuff, heh). Example: When Jeri Ryan came on, VOY became the Seven of Nine show. Now, this is not to say I dislike the character. I know she was pretty much brought on because the powers that be believe the stereotype that the typical trek fan is a droolin hormone-fueled adolescent fanboy, and she provided the T and A. And heck, maybe that's true. But aside from her obvious ... assets ... Seven was an intriguing, complex character and I actually think she was one of the best-written, best-developed characters on the show. I just wish her character development did not have to come at the expense of other characters. Again comparing to DS9, we see a show that managed to develop main and recurring characters and maintain a balance between them (though arguably Jake sort of fell by the wayside towards the end). And they even managed to screw Seven up, by putting in her an out-of-nowhere romance with Chakotay. These two character had nothing in common and, despite the fact that they were both portrayed by attractive actors, have zero chemistry IMO. Yawn.
6.) Overabundance of supplies/happiness for a ship stuck however many billion light years from home. I didn't want VOY to be all doom and gloom, with them barely surviving, but it seems they could've been more of show of struggle, some scarcity aboard the ship, the ship itself showing more wear and tear than looking all magically shiny and new every episode. Look writers, if you want to do another TNG, just does do another TNG damn it! The premise was certainly successful enough. But no, you deliberately stranded them decades away from home, and half the time it's like they forgot they were trying to get back to the Delta Quandrant and were just exploring the galaxy, TNG-style. And they have all that time (and power!) to waste on the holodeck! Which leads us too ...
7.) Excessive and cringe-worthy use of the holodeck. I say "excessive" because unlike other Trek series, Voyager was supposed to have limited resources. I don't care if they gave a technobabble solution about Voyager's holodeck having a different power source than the rest of the ship (which - WTF? Who designs a ship that way?!). Holodeck episodes tend to be hit or miss when it comes to Trek, and Voyager is no exception. The only time I enjoyed holodeck eps on this show is when the did the Captain Proton episodes, because it was such cheesy, scene-chewery good fun (in black and white!) and a homage to the sci-fi days of yore. As for the rest ... well, Fairhaven.
Enough said.8.) Character inconsistency. Yes, another character complaint. Even when characters got significant development, it was hard to tell, because it often felt like they were written differently from one episode to the next. Janeway is the most egregrious example of this. One week, the writers have her cleaving the Prime Directive like it's the most sacred, sacrosanct rule in her universe, the next week, she's throwing it out the window. Come on, people. Even if you didn't it write it, would it at least kill you to glance over last week's script! Yeesh.
So, those are my main gripes with Voyager. Feel free to add, critique, ignore, agree, or tell me I'm utterly and completely off the mark! It's all good.
) What a woman would do in a Klingon fight club of course is a complete mystery, and never solving it left Torres as a question mark. She would have to be stupid to want to be a shrimp in the hand to hand combat ordeal of Klingon society, but she was supposed to be Klingon and proud. What a mess. They asked bat'leth boy Ron Moore to do something with her and he couldn't. Sticking Paris and Torres together did nothing to solve the problems with the characters. Since Paris and Torres were main characters, much more important than Chakotay, Neelix and Kim, this was a big emotional hole in the show.
