What You Loved and Hated About Voyager

[Captain Kathryn]

I'll have to come back to this when I'm at my computer and can type!! But in short I loved how close-knit the characters were with one another, the comedy, and the fantastic new character concepts shown by Janeway, Seven, and the Doctor.

 

[hux]

I am not sure it is a "touch" at all. We hear the word "Gaharay" before in the episode. I am sure of it.

Janeway is referring to that.

Why would she randomly refer to a word that was said earlier. Seems to me that she's hearing it again in the ready room when he says "outsiders" and seeking clarification as it's still not being understood by the universal translator. Speaking of which, why would the Universal translator not have picked up on the word during previous inspections (since this isn't actually their first one) For that matter why is Kashyk even referring to Voyager as a Gaharay vessel since this is not their first encounter

It was a Minbari situation. In Babylon 5, humans attacked the Minbari in a misunderstanding and they raged out and almost destroyed Earth before they came to their rational senses. It's the same deal with Species 8472.

At the time, 8472 was seething with anger and bloodlust toward anything with two legs and two arms. It's not immoral to defend against an imminent threat to your life just because that threat comes from a misunderstanding

If Voyager had engaged with them through a misunderstanding that would be fine. What's immoral is the fact that Janeway is helping one species (in this case the Borg) to entirely eradicate another species simply to get closer to home

 

[STEPhon IT]

I appreciated the series boldly going where no woman or man has gone before. I was disappointed at the direction the writers went to tell their stories. I didn't like Janeway being all knowing, and didn't have any vulnerabilities. At times she appeared to be a mother hen and found her boring. I know she was part of the political correctness of it's era and she was the symbol for that, but I wish the writers took chances with her.

As for the crew, I wanted them - -like DS9- - to become it's own sub-culture so when they returned to Earth they would be so different from what Star Fleet is. I'm not saying it had to be as stupid and ridiculous like the bumbling Equinox crew but see the Universe with different eyes and expand on Star Fleets values in a more positive manner. Being fresh, and taking chances without killing like DS9.

When Seven got on board, I thought she, the Doctor, and Janeway became show hogs; they had a lot of stories. It sold the other characters short, I know Beltran was very open about this and cost him a lot of screen time. What I hated most about the show was the writers made Voyager have a lot of enemies through out the Delta Quadrant. I guess they were piggy banking on the blood shed of cliches' going on with DS9's seasons 4 through 7.

I thought a crew, with a small ship would be making more friends and allies then constantly fighting alien forces every week. The writers at times forgot the crew were 70,000 light years away.

I thought the shows biggest sin was trying desperately to bring back TNG fans to the show, by making the Borg into their main bad guys. To me, the Borg will always be TNG villains and never Voyager.

 

[Anwar]

Considering the alternative was to let the more powerful species destroy the Galaxy, it's not really immoral.

The Borg don't have the Nano-Weapon at the end of the day, so they can't beat the 8472.

And anyways, we already knew there were species out there that could annihilate the Borg like they were nothing so it's not like the Borg are some uber-threat anyways.

 

[Lynx]

I love the characters, the ship and the premise of the show.

I hate the way those in charge messed up a lot of things in the later half of the show, like how Kes was dumped, the show focused on three characters when the others were shoved aside, the character destruction in "Fury" and how "Endgame" was such a lousy end of the show.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I liked the ship as well, but I thought the warp engine was quite convenient for the crew's travel through 70,000 light years away from Earth.

 

[Makarov]

Loved:

-Theme song
-Some great episodes, lots of good ones
-Didn't mind the episodic nature that much
-Characters
-Feels like TNG
-Overall a really good series imo

Hated:

-Seven of Nine's outfit and dominance over other characters
-Chakotay not being given more episodes
-Kim not being promoted ever
-Sometimes the camerawork is very.. 90's. I don't know how to describe it.
-Species 8472 / Borg not scary enough
-That two part episode where they are actually in modern day with Sarah Silverman. Almost so bad it's good though but mostly bad.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Unlike ENT, that barely made it to four seasons, Voyager made a seventh season with 26 episodes, IOW complete. In a dog eat dog world, that's something to be proud of.

 

[Fashion Victim]

For the Q episodes, I think Death Wish was a great episode but the other two were embarrassing. Who thought it was a good idea to have the continuum represented as a civil war theme? It made no sense for the crew to be able to hold a Q at gunpoint just because they picked up a Q weapon that was metaphorically represented in their minds as a gun.

I agree as a HUGE fan of John De Lancie (the man got me to into a show about brightly colored poinies....) and the Q continuum being one of my favorite Trek aliens I was so happy with Death Wish. But the "Q and the Grey" was one of the most nonsensical convoluted and poorly written episodes I have ever seen. The Civil War representation was uncreative it made the whole thing feel, like they were in the holo deck, and the way Q tried to seduce Janeway was...cartoonish what happened to his those amazingly suave skills we saw TNG. :P Oh yeah and they forgot about Amanda.

Q2 was funny I liked it even though it was an obvious rehash of Deja Q.

 

[Lynx]

But, it was pretty clear in Scorpion they intended to kill everybody in the alpha quadrant because of what the Borg were doing to them. Maybe they could have been diplomatically talked down, but there was a legitimate self defense need. And I'm not sure that applies to Equinox, Equinox were murdering aliens to get home and only a handful of them had last minute changes of heart.

How was it clear? because Kes said so? There was some ambiguity about them but it was never clear cut (and self defense doesn't justify genocide.....that was just utter madness on Janeway's part) But even if we do accept that they were truly malevolent and destructive to everyone.....then why turn them into fluffy, rational nice aliens later on?

All that does is ruin them, makes Janeway look incompetent and immoral and makes Kes look like an idiot

Hence my dislike of the whole thing

Kes is always right!!!!

As for the "fluffyfication" (Nice word I invented there!) of Species 8472, they did the same with the Borg in TNG and it continued in Voyager.

As for evil enemies, I must mention the very old cult series "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) which has a sort of cult status in Europe. The enemy there was really mean. They sent a burning planet to collide with Earth, used long distance beams to brainwash people and (according to the Space Patrol books) when they were about to be defeated and were leaving "Federation" space (or whatever the Earth empire was called there) their reply to the Earth governments offer for negotiating were: "We don't want any contact with you. We hate you!"

Not to mention that they were immune to laser (or phaser) shots because they were non-corporeal, they looked like human-shaped fog creatures. But oxygen killed them!

 

[Melakon]

If I am having deja vu.I can only imagine how redundant this is getting for people whom have been here 8+ years :-)

I've only been here 2 years, and it's already redundant.

Hated nothing, loved it all, but both emotions are more intense than what I actually felt. I reserve the word hate for people like Rush Limbaugh.

 

[Lance]

I actually think that a lot of the individual things that VOYAGER did (Seven's and the Doctor's explorations of humanity, Tuvok and the Vulcan mythology, Janeway and the pressures and loneliness of command) were actually done much better than the equivalent attempts made on earlier Star Trek shows... it's like the people behind the scenes had honed this "Star Trek thing" down to a fine art form by this point and could do it all in their sleep... but, unfortunately, that meant the show retraced the steps of past instalments in some ways, which meant there was an overall feeling of 'franchise fatigue' for the audience.

Taken on it's own merits though, I find VOYAGER to be a truely spectacular show.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I actually think that a lot of the individual things that VOYAGER did (Seven's and the Doctor's explorations of humanity, Tuvok and the Vulcan mythology, Janeway and the pressures and loneliness of command) were actually done much better than the equivalent attempts made on earlier Star Trek shows... it's like the people behind the scenes had honed this "Star Trek thing" down to a fine art form by this point and could do it all in their sleep... but, unfortunately, that meant the show retraced the steps of past instalments in some ways, which meant there was an overall feeling of 'franchise fatigue' for the audience.

Taken on it's own merits though, I find VOYAGER to be a truely spectacular show.

There are aspects of Voyager that I definitely like a lot (otherwise I wouldn't still watch it). I like Characters like the doctor that seem able to save even the most badly written scenarii. I like that some of these characters have really good chemistry. I like that even when the story itself is complete bunk, there are still some scenes that make the episode worth watching.

 

[Lance]

Kate Mulgrew was amazing.

Even all these decades later, it never ceases to astonish me when I rewatch the show just how well she handled the material. She lifts even the poorest stuff to another level.

Her screen chemistry with all of the other actors feels so natural.

 

[hux]

Agree about Seven (probably the fact that she actually is human makes her journey more meaningful) and you're right, Tuvok did flesh out Vulcan culture which was required since TNG kinda avoided it and went for Klingon culture instead

I like Janeway as a captain but that's because she is by far the most flawed we've ever seen (purposely so in my opinion) and it was interesting to see that for a change

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Agree about Seven (probably the fact that she actually is human makes her journey more meaningful) and you're right, Tuvok did flesh out Vulcan culture which was required since TNG kinda avoided it and went for Klingon culture instead

I like Janeway as a captain but that's because she is by far the most flawed we've ever seen (purposely so in my opinion) and it was interesting to see that for a change

Not to mention that DS9's Vulcans were assholes or even serial killers...

 

[Anwar]

Vulcans have always been assholes. Nearly every Vulcan we met in TOS was asshole-ish one way or another, and Spock himself was a jerk half the time.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Vulcans have always been assholes. Nearly every Vulcan we met in TOS was asshole-ish one way or another, and Spock himself was a jerk half the time.

Still, he was Kirk's best friend. The whole senior staff loved him, the way they risked everything to save him in "The Search for Spock" was quite moving.

 

[Orphalesion]

Vulcans have always been assholes. Nearly every Vulcan we met in TOS was asshole-ish one way or another, and Spock himself was a jerk half the time.

This. And they have stupid hair.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Vulcans have always been assholes. Nearly every Vulcan we met in TOS was asshole-ish one way or another, and Spock himself was a jerk half the time.

This. And they have stupid hair.

It's called the bowl cut...