What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
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I feel like they never really banked in on the fact that he was full on Maquis serving his first officer to a bunch of loyal Starfleet officers. I can’t imagine Harry Kim jumping in line behind someone he viewed as a traitor to Starfleet
Don't add Seven. Kill off Kim, lose Chakotay. Make Tuvok first officer and B'Elanna second officer. Keep Kes.
I like both characters, but given they were glorified extras in most episodes, this would have not only given the impression that the Delta Quadrant really IS dangerous, but you save money from the salary they were paid. That saved money could have then be used to have actual recurring characters on VOYAGER, not the token 1 or 2 engineers like Carey and Vorik, both of whom were almost never around anyway.
When Ensign Ro on TNG makes more appearances in 1 season, and 2 additional episodes in seasons 6 and 7, than ALMOST ALL your 'recurring' characters did in 7 seasons, on a ship with less than 10 percent of the Enterprise-D crew compliment... that's a problem. If budget was indeed an issue, that would have solved it.
When Ensign Ro on TNG makes more appearances in 1 season, and 2 additional episodes in seasons 6 and 7, than ALMOST ALL your 'recurring' characters did in 7 seasons, on a ship with less than 10 percent of the Enterprise-D crew compliment... that's a problem. If budget was indeed an issue, that would have solved it.
I actually disagree there. Anthony Montgomery was the worst, simply because he didn't come across as believable. What I mean by that is I didn't feel he was making his lines real or alive. Beltran did give some solid performances when he had focus episodes... "DISTANT ORIGIN", "NEMESIS", "MEMORIAL", and his talk with Janeway in "SCORPION" immediately spring to mind, to name a few.
I think he had his moments, but started phoning it in more often than not starting around season three.
Eww...
I feel bad for Jennifer Lien. They never really seemed to have anything dramatic for her to do. She did well when she had something dramatically meaty, like in "Warlord".
Only because they had a solid backstory. They made Kes' too convoluted, and tied her to Neelix, which always felt weird despite the sci-fi explanation. Seven started wide open on a road of discovery. Hell, even when they brought Kes back for that one episode the idea was botched, completely ignoring her former non-corporeal status. That's what happens when writers half-ass continuity. But yes, when Lien was given a solid story, she rose to the task admirably. Basically Voyager ended up being the Janeway, Doctor and Seven show.
It did make Neelix look like a pedophile.
I never thought that. I just thought they're not fleshing this thing out well. And then they dropped it.
I don’t necessarily agree with that.
I think the concept of a sentient humanoid species with a 7 year life span is inherently flawed.
All I know is that the character seemed instantly less gross once Kes was written out.
And you're right, it was a flawed concept that someone should have caught well before they started shooting "Caretaker".
yeah, her lifespan was always an issue. But her being Neelix’s lover was always creepy.
You could have had him be an adopted/surrogate father and it would have been roughly the same. The Tom Paris stuff from S1 might have even worked better as an overprotective parent instead of an ultra jealous boyfriend.
I'd rather they got rid of Neelix than either Kes or Harry. I just couldn't stand that character. Nothing against Ethan Philipps. I loved him on BENSON. But Neelix... ick.
Neelix was not a deal breaker for me but he didn't really add anything of lasting value, either. Once the crew was in parts of the Delta Quadrant where Neelix had no experience with his old ship he was just the Morale Officer and almost anyone else could have filled that duty. Phillips did great work with what he was given and "Mortal Coil(VOY)" is probably his opus as Neelix but yeah, he was just another alien character that stayed on just because he was the one in the main cast who got to wear the heaviest makeup(see: Armin Shimerman, Michael Dorn, John Billingsley).
Wang denied he was ever on the chopping block.
Seven provided a vast source of ongoing conflict, both inner and externalized. Kes did not. Drama thrives on conflict.
It's not a question of backstory, it's a question of who the writers conceived the character to be. When it came to Kes, they had a blank slate to work with. They just didn't conceive of her as very often being the character to drive the story with some sort of dramatic conflict.
In fairness, Janeway did make him an ambassador too... but in fairness, he wasn't really fleshed out as much as he could have been.
Part of the problem was that a lot of what the creators wanted to do with VOY and its characters, the writers couldn't really do due to clashes with Berman who wanted to keep the show in episodic form.
Braga actually clashed with Berman on The Year of Hell (along with Fuller who wanted to make this a season long arc) and other decisions where some characters ended up in limbo.
I'm thinking that perhaps Neelix only temporarily being revived in 'Mortal Coil' but ultimately dying may have had more of an impact.
Or just have him leave the ship after 'Mortal Coil' - perhaps this could have been a catalyst which prompted him to leave VOY on his own over the course of next few episodes.
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