Even though DS9 is the way more popular show (now) and a big part of the fandom either doesn't like Voyager nearly as much or has at least problems with aspects of it.
Why are there so many references to Voyager in Streaming Trek, and so little to DS9 in comparison?
- Thread starter Unimatrix Q
- Start date
I don't agree with the premise that DS9 hasn't been referenced. Discovery did a whole season revolving around Section 31, and there's a spinoff series for same in the works. DSC has heavily featured the Mirror Universe, which was used more often by DS9 than by any other previous series. DSC season 3 features a (half-)Trill regular and visits the Trill homeworld, drawing heavily on DS9 worldbuilding, and also features the Orion Syndicate (which was first given that name in DS9). The security chief in Lower Decks season 1 was Bajoran. There have been cameos by Lurians (Morn's species) in DSC and Lower Decks. The expanded Quark's Bar franchise is glimpsed in Picard and in the LD season 2 trailer. And so on.
Last edited:
That's a rather odd conclusion to make based upon the current references. For starters, pretty much everything has been fair game for references, especially in Lower Decks, including TAS. Christopher lists a bunch but even if DS9 wasn't that doesn't automatically mean they have issues with it.
Also, as big a DS9 fan as I am, I hesitate to agree that it's "much more popular" than Voyager now. There are probably more fans of Deep Space Nine today than there were, say, 20 years ago, but Voyager episodes have notably outperformed most Star Trek fare on Netflix, including any wormhole-affiliated offerings.
I've moved this to GTD, as I wasn't seeing a "Future of" angle here.
Also DSC had the USS Nog.
That's a fair point and true. But i was thinking more about character appearances. There are three characters from Voyager so far (Seven, Icheb Janeway), with the plan for a additional appearance of Tom Paris in Season 1 of Picard (that didn't happen), and not even one from DS9...
And while the appearance of the Voyager-J was in the spotlight, the USS Nog was a background detail that was easy to miss.
On the other side, although i don't like (to put it mildly) what Voyager had done with the Borg, Seven (and the holodoc) are two of my all time favorite characters in Trek.
Is that right? That's interesting.
Wasn't there a flashback to Mariner's old ship docked at DS9 in Lower Decks? And isn't O'Brien the most important man in Federation history in the far-future flashforward?
That's a fair point. Still, I think it's largely been driven by story relevance. Picard's first season arc involved the Borg, so it made sense to include Seven and Icheb. Prodigy is apparently set in the Delta Quadrant, hence Janeway. Not sure how to explain Paris, unless it's just that McNeill is readily available and willing to participate.
Yes.
Yes, but he's portrayed behind his TNG transporter console. We can infer that his involvement with DS9 and the Dominion War is part of his importance to future historians, but no direct reference is made.
Yup, though I should note that this is primarily based on data from nearly four years ago. StarTrek.com listed the most viewed episodes of the franchise in September 2017. Voyager did very well!
That's really nice of you. Thank you!
That might be true on this board, but not in the real world.
I wonder if that's (in part) due to Voyager being so much more episodic than DS9?
On Reddit it's mostly the same with the dislike for Voyager and the popularity of DS9 as here, from what i've seen.
I wonder if it's generational? People who were kids or teens when Voyager was on make up a larger percentage of Netflix's audience?
I'd say VOY and DS9 are fairly evenly represented. A lot of you have already spoken to much of what I would have said. TNG and TOS have (obviously) gotten the bulk of it, but the others do pretty fair as well.
Prodigy will probably swing it significantly back to VOY, though...particularly with Janeway being a character.
Prodigy will probably swing it significantly back to VOY, though...particularly with Janeway being a character.
I was thinking of the Netflix data, which I’ve heard several times. I seem to recall Europe was driving a lot of those numbers, but I might be wrong about that.
Well, I'm not saying that my anecdotal experience is scientific, but out of all many nerdy friends I have who are Star Trek fans ranging from casual to diehard, not a single one of them has a good thing to say about Voyager.
Among non-Trek fans, most people don't even know what "Voyager" is.
They probably don't know what Deep Space Nine is either. Back in the '90s, I got to pitch to DS9 and VGR a handful of times, and when I went out to stay with my cousin in Hollywood for my DS9 pitch, I was talking to him about how I hoped to pitch for Voyager too, and after some confusion, I realized he didn't actually know that those shows were connected to each other or to Star Trek. And he was actually in the film/TV industry.
Clearly your cousin wanted you to get a hotel.
Not based on science, merely my limited experience, but I have found more people are at least vaguely aware of the title/concept of DS9 than VOY. YMMV.
Similar threads
