To each their own. Voyager disappoints me out a multitude of levels.
What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
- Start date
I think as a seven year story, Voyager disappoints. As a series of largely unrelated 45 minute stories, it succeeds. I suppose it depends what a person wants from their Star Trek.
At the time Voyager aired, I wanted something different. The premise was promising enough that I felt it could have succeeded in being a different kind of Star Trek. In the end, they just went for more of the same Berma-Trek formula that, in my opinion anyway, had grown old and stale by Next Generation season 7, and just grew more old and stale through each passing season of Voyager.
@Turtletrekker Differing perspectives then. I didn't come to a Trek show as it aired until Discovery. I first watched Voyager in a Star Trek back to back marathon in the 00s that went:
TOS
TOS Movies
TNG
TNG Movies
DS9
VOY
ENT
It took me five years to do the whole thing funnily enough and about a year and a half to do TNG movies/DS9. At that point VOY for me was a nice blast back to TNG times and something very different to DS9.
I like it all though, to some extent at least.
TOS
TOS Movies
TNG
TNG Movies
DS9
VOY
ENT
It took me five years to do the whole thing funnily enough and about a year and a half to do TNG movies/DS9. At that point VOY for me was a nice blast back to TNG times and something very different to DS9.
I like it all though, to some extent at least.
I think that was the original intent, just as the "limited resources" angle was.
It's not a dictatorship, it's a cult. The only people who didn't drink deeply of Captain Janeway's Refreshing Grape Koolaid were Michael Jonas and Seska.
I like Janeway very much, but she did seem to have an unrealistic hold over pretty much the whole crew. Look at the end of "The 37's"...
For my usual practice of "watch one episode" (you can't get a good binge on a six-inch screen), I do as well. I hope to get back into DS9 when I can watch it in 40 inches of glory on my TV.
As Q*Bert said in Pixels, "Bull crap!"
They seem to be the ones I watch the most (along with Lower Decks) for reasons stated above.
And it works great in that regard, as long as you ignore the sloppiness of the showrunners.
And it delivered some of that: a female captain, a former Borg, and a breakout character in the EMH. But it could have done so much more.
Definitely. And the seeds of Star Trek: Voyager's problems are sewn in the very first story. At the end of "Caretaker, Part II," all the Maquis characters are wearing Starfleet uniforms and assimilating into the Starfleet system instead of holding onto their own identity. We're supposed to believe that these guys felt strongly enough about defending their homes that they would literally take up arms and rebel against the Federation's authority on their worlds... and then suddenly they're wearing the uniform of the government they violently rebelled against?
It would be like if a group of Minutemen and Redcoats were stuck trying to make their way to England from the South Pacific, and the Minutemen started wearing British Army uniforms. It's just not plausible.
Well, I don't know if I'd go that far. I can definitely understand why people would feel inspired by her leadership; Kate Mulgrew gave the kind of performance where I can believe that most of the crew would feel loyal to her and willingly follow her as their captain.
What I can't believe, though, is that a significant portion of the crew would be willing to be governed their entire lives by the Starfleet chain of command. Because, remember, to these characters, this is not just a tour of duty that's going to end in a few years -- as far as they're concerned, they're gonna be spending the rest of their natural lives aboard the USS Voyager, trying to get back. And when a third of the crew were already rebelling against Federation rule, and none of the crew had intended to literally live under a military hierarchy for their entire lives, I find it really hard to believe that a significant portion of the crew would not insist on establishing some kind of democratic governance. Because without that, Voyager really is a miniature Starfleet dictatorship. I have a hard time believing that the crew would not eventually insist on some version of democratic governance to serve as a check against the C.O.
To me the most plausible scenario would be if they established a democratically-elected legislature whose confidence the commanding officer would need to keep in order to stay C.O. That would preserve a chain of command necessary to keep the ship running while also establishing some level of democratic representation and democratic accountability for the captain. I can buy the idea of someone being willing to live with that system for decades to come; I can't buy the idea that 140 people from a democratic society would be willing to spend the rest of their lives governed by an unelected, unaccountable leader.
Exactly.
I've often wondered about this myself. At what point would Maquis and even Starfleet people have come up to Janeway, and said: 'serving in Starfleet is all good and fine, but I never signed up to do so for the rest of my life - my intention only was for two years. But I still want to get home. Can you honestly expect us to serve in a rigid military structure for the rest of our lives simply because this ship is our only option of getting home? Shouldn't we introduce democracy now that it seems we might be in for much longer? Your command also wasn't mandated for such a long-term mission.
I mean, they would have had a point. Janeway probably would have replied that they needed to maintain structure in order to keep the ship running, which also would have been true - to some extent. Resolving problems of this kind could have been a longer story arc in the background.
He may want to get that checked.
There are a few specific bits I'd like to forget...
I only drink one beer per day.
This one is for May 29th, 2272.
Hey, you've reached the Federation years!
Sure, but talk about the lowest of low bars...
Thus did I learn why I find TNG much more rewatchable than did my fellow poster.
It not only would have given them seven years, it would quite literally have given them seventy years if they had wanted!
We could be watching season 30 now!
Sir! Sir! I have a question for you! …are you married? And if not, would you like to be?
In all seriousness, I completely agree.
Btw, which two parter are we talking? Because Year of Hell is my favourited Trek, period 
Or with, dare I say it, a movie?
If it had prevented the abomination that was Nemesis, I'll take it.
End Insurrection with the Troi/Riker wedding. Riker goes off to take command of the Titan. Data gets the first officer spot he spent a decade earning. Then ST X focuses on the Voyager crew. We find out what actually happened to everyone after they got back. It's a frickin' win-win!
We're not married, just good friends.
In all seriousness, I completely agree.
Year of Hell is definitely my favorite. Several others are good, too.
So good, they can make a Vulcan smile.
Long Live Voyager!
We're not married, just good friends.
Year of Hell is definitely my favorite. Several others are good, too.
So good, they can make a Vulcan smile.
Long Live Voyager!
You glorious bastard!
Any links? Maybe it is just as well…
V
Vale
Guest
Ditto! I definitely need to re-watch it at some point.
OTOH, if you have the chance to see Shatner at a con, go. He's *really* funny!
I saw him at a convention in Boston, back in '97.
Ditto! I definitely need to re-watch it at some point.
OTOH, if you have the chance to see Shatner at a con, go. He's *really* funny!
I love the ‘mute’ icon that shows up on the LCARS.
Lower Decks is full of tiny things like that. So rewatchable.
Similar threads
- Locked
