Would Have Been Nice to See More LT Carey

[hux]

As stated above.

At which point the complaints become that they don't try hard enough to have them be in more episodes. Even if it's reasonable they couldn't be in every episode.

That Voyager is smaller than Enterprise is irrelevant; it's still a huge ship. The complaint is that we should have seen more of the background characters as well as learnt more about them.

We should have seen them more often (but not every episode). Just going about their business. And characters that we did see quite a lot - like Ayala - should have been given a few more lines.

Enteprise didnt need to do this because it was just a Starfleet ship doing its job whereas Voyager was supposed to be a family lost in space. It should have attempted to demonstrate this more (by utilising the background characters).

 

[Anwar]

That Voyager is smaller than Enterprise is irrelevant; it's still a huge ship.

It's not, really. It's size and the small crew number meant that once you introduce someone new, you'd have to find some excuse to not see them the rest of the time. And you'd have to make sure that excuse was in every episode they weren't in.

Enteprise didnt need to do this because it was just a Starfleet ship doing its job whereas Voyager was supposed to be a family lost in space. It should have attempted to demonstrate this more (by utilising the background characters).

That's like saying we needed to see every last person on the Destiny in Stargate Universe.

 

[hux]

It's not, really. It's size and the small crew number meant that once you introduce someone new, you'd have to find some excuse to not see them the rest of the time. And you'd have to make sure that excuse was in every episode they weren't in.

This is idiocy. What excuse was given for not seeing Andrews, Baxter, Celes, Dalby, The Delenay sisters, Fitzpatrick, Gennaro, Hogan, Harren, Jarvis, Lang, Nozawa, Rollins, Tabor, Telfer, etc? We don't need to see them every week. We don't need to see them beyond their own stories. Frankly, the only time you would need to see them is when the episode involves them or you're in their quarters. Otherwise, they're just elsewhere doing something (fixing a conduit, playing tennis, screwing an ensign).

IThat's like saying we needed to see every last person on the Destiny in Stargate Universe.

No it isn't.

 

[Anwar]

This is idiocy. What excuse was given for not seeing Andrews, Baxter, Celes, Dalby, The Delenay sisters, Fitzpatrick, Gennaro, Hogan, Harren, Jarvis, Lang, Nozawa, Rollins, Tabor, Telfer, etc?

None, which is why there are still complaints over how they weren't seen more often.

We don't need to see them beyond their own stories. Frankly, the only time you would need to see them is when the episode involves them or you're in their quarters.

And if they were seen sporadically, would that satisfy anyone? At all? Odds are the complaints would change from "We want more recurring characters!" to "We want to see the recurring characters twice as often!" or "5 recurring characters isn't enough, we want 10!"

No it isn't.

How is it different?

 

[hux]

None, which is why there are still complaints over how they weren't seen more often.

And you're suggestion that if this was remedied - and the background characters had their screen time increased - it would somehow require aj explanation for the occasions where they weren't seen, is ludicrous. Many weren't happy with the lack of involvement of background characters but we dealt with it. Had it been better, then the tiny minority who would have desired yet further involvement would also have dealt with it.

And if they were seen sporadically, would that satisfy anyone? At all? Odds are the complaints would change from "We want more recurring characters!" to "We want to see the recurring characters twice as often!" or "5 recurring characters isn't enough, we want 10!"

This is faulty reasoning. It isn't simply a case of increasing until everyone is happy. It's a case of recognising that a number of Voyager background characters were incrementally established then later ignored completely. For the average Trek show, this is understandable but for the one show in the franchise where, due to lost in space circumstances, a family atmosphere was engendered, it is harder to dismiss. The criticism therefore has greater legitimacy when directed at Voyager.

 

[MacLeod]

The Ent-D was a lot bigger than Voyager, which is all the explanation needed for why we wouldn't see everyone all the time. Voyager didn't have that luxury.



TOS only had three major characters, that leaves a lot of extra room for other characters to fit into stories and scripts.



Voyager was a much smaller ship with little room to stow unwanted characters off-camera, they would have to explain where they were whenever we didn't see them.



As stated above.



At which point the complaints become that they don't try hard enough to have them be in more episodes. Even if it's reasonable they couldn't be in every episode.

VOY unlike the other Trek shows couldn't get new crew to replace those who had been lost. The other Trek shows could easily explain away new faces, crew transferring in and out. VOY didn't have that luxury they had what crew survived the trip to the DQ on VOY and the Maquis ship. If anything the case is stronger for recurring secondary characters in VOY than the other trek shows.

 

[Drone]

Oh, I forgot to answer the original question. Yes, it would have been nice to see him on more. Be'lanna being the brains alone down there made her look like a manager at Mc donalds and the background were the burger makers. Yes, Janeway would come down and give her two cents then we had Seven later, but in the end Be'lanna seemed to run that section on her own with drone like crew about. They were so two-dimensional. More carey!

How you can forget the ever resourceful and dependable Nicoletti???

VOY unlike the other Trek shows couldn't get new crew to replace those who had been lost. The other Trek shows could easily explain away new faces, crew transferring in and out. VOY didn't have that luxury they had what crew survived the trip to the DQ on VOY and the Maquis ship. If anything the case is stronger for recurring secondary characters in VOY than the other trek shows.

Yup, yup, yup!!!!!

 

[Anwar]

VOY unlike the other Trek shows couldn't get new crew to replace those who had been lost. The other Trek shows could easily explain away new faces, crew transferring in and out. VOY didn't have that luxury they had what crew survived the trip to the DQ on VOY and the Maquis ship. If anything the case is stronger for recurring secondary characters in VOY than the other trek shows.

And what if the writers introduced some recurring bridge or engineering crew characters, and we didn't see them in every single episode? What if we had Shuttle pilot recurring characters, and we didn't see them in every single episode that involved shuttles?

Would any kind of excuse written in to explain why they weren't there be enough to satisfy the audience?

 

[hux]

You've moved the goal posts. We've gone from background characters to background characters on the bridge and in engineering.

The beauty of Voyager was that you could easily avoid needing to explain why they're sometimes there and sometimes not specifically because of their circumstances. People would be asked to go above and beyond. To be flexible. To share responsibilities. To trade shifts etc.

 

[Anwar]

And if they didn't explicitly explain why they weren't there every single time we didn't see them?

 

[MacLeod]

From memory in TNG from S2 onwards we didn't always see O'Brien as the Transporter Chief, did we really ask were he was? Or did we just assume he was off-duty?

So we don't need to see them every episode or need an eplanation for why they aren't in this particular episode.

 

[Anwar]

The Ent-D was big enough and had a large enough crew we knew that it would be impossible to see everyone all the time. VOY didn't have that luxury being such a smaller ship.

If Voyager had been some ship that could hold a crew of thousands but only had about 150 people on it (and only needed a small crew to run things) we would have all the excuse necessary for why we didn't see those Secondaries all the time.

 

[fireproof78]

People being off duty or the story taking place on specific parts of the ship and not others are reasons enough.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Carey looked a lot like Colm Meaney, another nice touch by the Berman co. to mimic TNG.