I have finished watching Star Trek Next Generation and Deep Space 9 following a friend’s recommendation. I enjoyed both shows and started watching the other one, Star Trek Voyager.
So far, I’m not finding it as enjoyable as the other two. I want to try to see it through the eyes of someone who enjoys the show, maybe it will also help me understand why it feels different somehow.
Yeah, at the time Voyager came out I considered it the worst of the Star Trek live action series. It’s since been surpassed many times over for that title, but there’s still a lot of episodes that are not very good individually and the overall premise of the show was wasted.
That said, there are a few very good episodes, and a couple of the characters were really enjoyable. The Doctor and 7 of 9 became some of my favourite Star Trek characters across the franchise.
Unfortunately Janeway was an inconsistent psychopath and Chakotay was a block of wood. So they had to struggle against the background.
It’s been too long for my memory to be able to dredge up a recommended viewing list of the best episodes to focus on, but perhaps you could scrounge one up on the web somewhere. Voyager was back in the day when series had a lot of episodes and a lot of them were relatively stand-alone so skipping over a bunch likely won’t hurt if you pick them well.
The guy who played Chakotay (Robert Beltran) literally did not want to be there. He kept asking to quit and they kept giving him more money to stay.
Whether the living wooden totem was a result of the character or the actor, or a little bit of both is kind of hard to say. But you’ll notice he stops doing all the “isn’t it cool he’s a Native American” business fairly early in the run, so someone clearly got bored with it all, writers or actor.
I love this discription. It also begs the question; could another captain have brought Voyager home? I’d argue Janeway’s psychopathy was what kept them alive. Essentially she spent the entire time in a state of emergency, and had to act accordingly. Tuvix (as hated as the episode is haha) was a great example. Boiled down, Voyager needed it’s chief tactical officer and even Neelix, who showed usefulness multiple times, more than a new being who would leave the ship. Ethical or not, she consistently did what had to be done for the ship and crew. I’m not sure Picard’s integrity would have kept them alive.
it could be she was plagued with guilt the whole time, after standing them and she wouldnt act rationally most of the time anyways.