What went "right" for you with Voyager?

[JanewayRulz!]

I'm serious, folks. What did you especially like about Voyager? Story lines, characters, solitary ship against the odds, specific seasons, weapons?

I assume most people can point to something, since we're still hanging around a website dedicated to a show that went off the air 9 years ago this spring, with no prospects of a new movie (I LOVE this icon, thanks to whomever just used it in the Dark Frontier thread!) or miniseries in our lifetime.

 

[Joeman]

Right after I first joined here, I saw someone post that they thought that the premise of a solitary starship being lost far from home was a bad idea. I feel exactly the opposite. I loved the fact that they were alone and fending for themselves, and discovering new races along the way.

Sure, it may be "unrealistic" that the ship could take so much damage time after time, yet always bounce back to being showroom new. But I guess that sort of thing never really bothered me. That seems to be a real sticking point for some people.

I was not a huge fan of Janeway at first. She grew on me though. I ended up liking how she was quite a bit bipolar, and you never really knew what you were going to get with her.

Also, unlike so many people, there really aren't any crew members that I despise. Though not my favorite characters, I even like Harry, Neelix, and Naomi Wildman.

 

[Danny99]

I liked the camaraderie between the characters. It was like a family. With them being stranded away from home, they had to rely on each other and formed bonds like that of a family.

 

[kimc]

I liked the characters. I thought they were well-conceived and up until mid Season 7 evolved pretty naturally. I also like episodes that don't include borg or time travel - just interesting aliens/situation that act as social metaphor.

 

[plynch]

It is more fun than TNG or DS9, to me.

My daughter really liked Janeway; Kate Mulgrew sent her an autographed picture.

Tuvok, the Doctor, Kes's voice. Although Neelix is . . . wait . . . must stay . . . positive.

Voyager is better looking than Ent-D. There was an overall arc to the series as they went to different parts of the quadrant, and got closer to home.

My second favorite series, I'd say.

 

[Finn]

This website is decidated to Voyager?

 

[M-Red]

The premise - a very creative idea and a great way to distinguish it from the other series while allowing them to do whatever they wanted. A crew all on their own with only each other....great story premise and setting.


The ship - it had a lot of new functions (atmospheric entry, planetary landing) and technologies (circuitry, holodecks, etc.) we'd never seen before. And it looked good: a believable extension of the SF design while still being unique. As a ship, the USS Voyager was a quality addition to Star Trek.


8472 - one of the most terrifying and dangerous villains in all of Trek, and VOY is the only place we get to see them. Regardless of what one thinks about how they were eventually used, VOY hit a home-run in creating them


Seven of Nine - they took a gamble here and it paid off. Not flawless by any means, but it was a good move overall. Not just a catsuit...she could rebel against Janeway and she linked the crew into the Borg arc -- it revitalized the show

 

[RyuRoots]

I agree with M-Red on all points except that I think the bio-neural circuitry was silly and I loathe catsuits. Additionally however, I must add...

The Doctor - I always liked him, right off the bat from Caretaker, and I honestly probably would've liked him if he remained sort of static. But he really grew and developed in interesting ways, but he never lost what made him himself, and Picardo was amazing at bringing him to life. He had one of the best character arcs in Trek.

 

[Michael]

For me it's the characters, too. I guess I wouldn't have watched Voyager if it weren't for the camaraderie among the crew. Some of them had a great chemistry going on.

This website is decidated to Voyager?

Well, yes, the Trek BBS is dedicated to the Star Trek franchise, of which Voyager is a part. Also, this particular subforum is exclusively dedicated to Voyager.

 

[Arix]

Hmmm, interesting thread, I spend what little time I do here usually commenting about what Voyager did wrong, now I get to prove I'm not a Voyager hater.

What Voyager got right for me -

The sense of family. I've always loved the sense of family and closeness that grew over the course of the series, and Janeway's evolution from tight, bun-wearing 'school teacher' into a short haired mother hen.

The characters - even if most of them were woefully undeveloped in the later season - I even liked Harry and Neelix.

The Doctor - deserves a mention all of his own. His character growth, his terrible bedside manner, and personality... all made believable and real thanks to Picardo's wonderful acting skills. The Doc has always been one of my favourite Trek characters.

Seven - while I'd rather she lose the catsuit (come on, if they wanted to make her sexy, they should have put her in a slinky dress!), it didn't matter to me that she was added for sex appeal, I just loved the character for her growth and development. And Jeri Ryan also has amazing acting abilities!

The ship itself - I've always loved the design of Voyager and the Intrepid class. And the Delta Flyer was just COOL.

The fun and silliness - like visiting Fair Haven, or the Doc pretending to be the Captain in Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy (that was my favourite Voyager episode growing up!) - while these days, I tend to gripe about the ridiculousness of the holodeck's 'separate power source', when I actually watch Voyager, I can suspend my inner Trek critic and just enjoy it for what it is.

All in all, its no DS9, but its still Star Trek, and it was my first Trek series, so I can love it for what it is.

 

[T.D. Possum]

I was not a huge fan of Janeway at first. She grew on me though. I ended up liking how she was quite a bit bipolar, and you never really knew what you were going to get with her.

I agree. I did not like Janeway for a while, either, but now she's a favorite. I understand that the bipolar aspect of her personality (personalities?) was supposed to have been due to bad writing, but I prefer to think of her as having periodic mental stability problems due to the pressures of her life in the Delta Quadrant. Anyway, it's fun for me, as a first time viewer, to watch for crisis situations and then guess if I'll be seeing Captain Janeway or Captain Insaneway in the next scene.

Really, I think the reason I've been enjoying Voyager so much is the "fill in the blank" factor - not just with Janeway's character, but with everything else on the show. Voyager challenges me to use my own imagination to make the show make sense. I suppose that's technically an indication of bad TV, but I do find it fun.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Torres - I loved how she offered a lot of conflict with the rest of the cast. So much more so than a character like LaForge, who had about no personality.

Good Shepherd - My favorite episode. It did the whole concept of "lower decks characters" much better than TNG.

 

[Lynx]

The characters. Very likeable and somewhat different than the usual Starfleet characters. Many of them had very interesting background stories as well.

The interaction between the characters.

The premise for the show. A ship with a mixed Starfleet and Maquis crew lost in unknown and uncharted space.

 

[Navaros]

What went right is the one episode (AFAIK there is only one, but I'm am not extremely familiar with all the episodes so I could be wrong) that actually stuck to the premise of show: The Void. That was a truly brilliant episode.

Another thing that went right was Think Tank, which presented very interesting moral questions and an intriguing concept.

I would have liked to have seen a lot more of both of those kind of things in Voyager as opposed to the much more numerous episodes devoted to things like holodeck soap operas, singing clowns, etc.

 

[Anwar]

Anyways, disregarding the post immediately above for a SANE opinion, I liked a lot about VOY and how they stuck to their morals instead of discarding them immediately like all the generic "traveling in space" shows we have today. Frankly, stories about them forming a Delta Federation and all that stuff just didn't belong in the show so it's good they didn't waste their time on that or on dozens of stories where the ship was an utter wreck incapable of moving while the crew blathered on about the meanings of their lives.

I DO think that they should've just done what Berman wanted to do and not make the show until after DS9 was over. By then CGI would've been cheaper, and the intervening years would've been enough to refine the premise more (since the existing premise needed work. Seriously, there shouldn't have been Maquis on the ship for the tensions, they don't work in that role). But I'm happy with what we got.

 

[Withers]

I'm going to echo that I really liked the Doctor. While I had a problem with most of the characters in Voyager (either how they were depicted or what they were initially based on) I thought they Doctor was excellent. Finally, a character "on the outside looking in" who wasn't brooding (like Odo), incompetent about common sense things that any self help book could educate a person on (like Data) or superior in a serious/irritating way (like Data and Spock.) The Doctor was able to see the bitterly funny situation he and the crew were in and had no reservation about making such observations. In my opinion he is one of the finest Trek characters created and is probably my favorite part of Voyager.

-Withers-​

 

[JanewayRulz!]

to see the bitterly funny situation

ITA!

EMH: Missing. The Captain is missing. It seems I’ve found myself on the voyage of the damned. Very well. Please advise the highest ranking officer who is not missing, to see me at his earliest convenience. You may shut off my program now.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I'm serious, folks. What did you especially like about Voyager? Story lines, characters, solitary ship against the odds, specific seasons, weapons?

I assume most people can point to something, since we're still hanging around a website dedicated to a show that went off the air 9 years ago this spring, with no prospects of a new movie (I LOVE this icon, thanks to whomever just used it in the Dark Frontier thread!) or miniseries in our lifetime.

Things I like in VOY:

*I liked Seven of Nine in that shiny gray catsuit she was introduced in...

*I liked Kes in that blue duty skirt and boots....she wore every now and then.

*I liked 8472...

 

[Withers]

to see the bitterly funny situation

ITA!

EMH: Missing. The Captain is missing. It seems I’ve found myself on the voyage of the damned. Very well. Please advise the highest ranking officer who is not missing, to see me at his earliest convenience. You may shut off my program now.

Exactly. Rather than coming off as funny because he was acting out of character (like when a Vulcan tells a joke, Odo misunderstanding a relationship situation, Data asking Worf about his boobs, or Worf getting his feelings hurt over Martok's wife not liking him) it was funny because that was his character. Trek rarely gets humor right so consistently. When they try to be funny we more often than not get the silly Ferengi episodes of DS9. But that's not the case with the Doctor- he is consistently on point with the humor and it is a big credit to not only the actor but to the writers as well that it played off as well as it did for so long.

-Withers-​

 

[Zameaze]

I agree that The Doctor was the best thing about Voyager. And Seven of Nine the best Voyager eye candy.

Here's my list--best to worst:
The Doctor
Seven of Nine
Neelix
Tuvok
Tom Paris
Harry Kim
Kes
B'Elanna Torres
Chakotay
Captain Kathryn Janeway