Often the subject of disagreement, Voyager is talked about poorly by some and praised by others. Seeing plenty of posts about it here. Well ya know - I think Voyager is underrated.
That show took risks. They ran some stories that were just risky in terms of writing and production - sometimes it was a hit, sometimes a stinker. That’s why it has some amazing episodes and some really really stupid ones, because they were willing to take a chance on something uncertain. And I respect that, too many shows these days feel like the same recycled crap because television has become so risk-averse and they’re not willing to take a chance on something that might turn out dumb.
So we got ones like the infamous warp 10 episode, and those are remembered as cases where the show got really dumb. But as an example, Seven of Nine could’ve completely bombed that show. Yes it looked like they were bringing on a bimbo for sex appeal, and they absolutely could’ve went that route with her. Fans might’ve hated the change no matter what. I mean, that’s a big deal, losing a main character and adding a new one - shows don’t always survive that.
Also there are things I notice from a production standpoint. From reading about the making of TNG, one thing I remember is them talking about never wanting to damage the costumes or get them dirty, or damage the set. That increases their production costs, cheaper to just not do that.
But Voyager does this all the time. Uniforms are always getting burned and torn, Neelix spills things on his shirt, the bridge is shown being blown up or completely transformed. All the times they have smoke inside there, there’s something with water, parts are broken off - that’s something they had to clean up for the next episode. If they show burn marks on the captain’s chair, that means they’ll have to be cleaned or the whole prop replaced, at the risk of it not being identical or impossible to fix.
So the point is - respect for taking those risks. Didn’t always land, but plenty of them did.
Tuvix.
What are episodes people think are dumb?
I think the last seasons the writers really had some fun and the actors must have loved those.
Let’s see, I don’t remember episode titles but from memory:
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The one where Harry Kim is having visions of a planet full of hot desperate women who want him for a mate
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The one where they’re on a prison colony and Chakotay has to fight The Rock. And this was before Dwayne Johnson’s film career really took off.
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The one where they go Warp 10 and devolve into lizard creatures. The lizard versions of Tom Paris and Janeway have lizard babies.
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The one where Janeway falls in love with a holodeck character
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The one where Kes comes back and she’s evil
It’s a real mixed bag. Sometimes you swing and you miss, and I respect them for even giving these stories a chance. Also I rather like Tuvix.
I don’t think all of those were that bad lol.
Though Kes is fucking terrible in general.
With Threshold I always was mildly impressed with how they made a point that evolution doesn’t necessarily mean that a species will become super advanced somehow. That they evolved “in-place” instead of over generations is still a pretty bonkers misunderstanding of evolution that they always fall for, but I guess watching them turn into lizards over the next several decades probably wouldn’t make the best TV lol
In my view, having rewatched Voyager again decades after first run, the show not only took successful risks in several episodes like the Demon duology or The Thaw, it has some ‘best ever’ episodes for employing some classic Star Trek tropes.
At the time, I suspect some fans focused on the ‘not new idea’ more than ‘did it better than’ but at this point it’s fairly clear.
For fans who came to Voyager first (including our kids), the original TOS and TNG episodes that Voyager built upon just seem weak by comparison.
More, when SNW does something similar, people are viewing these kind of episodes from the perspective of how well done within a type rather than criticizing them for reworking a trope.
Probably an unpopular opinion but I quite liked season 1 of voyager with the kazon. Had a bit of an exotic wild west feel.
It always amuses me that Seasons 1&2 had the most serialisation, but are often the least liked by the same people that complain the show wasn’t serialised enough
I do agree with you, had no idea people disliked Voyager whe. I first watched it, and I overall enjoyed it very much. Yeah, the show has a bunch of out there episodes, but they tried new things and all great star trek shows have their good share of wacky episodes.
It’s not even like it doesn’t have good criticism points, Kes character was very mishandled and her relationship with Neelix was terrible, he becomes a 1000% more likable once she’s gone, and Chakotay whole botched native American heritage disaster… (Which granted, they tried, they just sucked at finding a specialist)
And Tuvix is one of the topics that guarantees a philosophical discussion in any star trek group I’m in without fail. I pretty firmly hate Tuvix, but that’s power.
I liked Kes better than Neelix, and also liked Seven of Nine.
I don’t know where they possibly could have gone with Chakotay’s character after the initial Maqui subplots.
There were a number of angles for Chakotay I think.
The romance with Janeway was obviously squashed by Mulgrew but could have been an interesting one to explore.
But the biggest missed opportunity was not making him into a more official counsellor/advice position - we have here a highly spiritual man who manages to keep a cool head in most situations. Use that. Don’t have Seven go to The Doctor for social lessons (as fun as blind leading the blind plots are), have it be Chakotay.
I feel like they kind of realised this angle in S7 when they had Seven working with the Chakotay hologram, but the less said about how that turned into that ridiculous romance the better.
Honestly, same. Kes is likable from the get go, she just unfortunately treated as a prop most of the time instead of a character, specially for Neelix. I loved Seven, she became one of my favourites in Voyager.
About Chakotay, I don’t know where they could have gone either, he was one of my favourites at first because of the character’s potential and he looked hella cool. I don’t dislike him, but he’s bland, he’s honorable I guess.
Tuvix is definitely a stinker. I love this video reviewing it: https://youtu.be/wVY63nx74_U
