Star Trek Voyager - A Thread for Fans (1 Viewer)

[Greg_S_H]

I always thought it was unfair how people called her "Barbi Borg." Yeah, the actress is smoking, smoking hot. But, she played completely against that. Seven doesn't realize or care that she is hot, and she is so offputting and cold (and superhumanly strong) that she finds herself alone because every man on board is intimidated or even outright scared of her. Her quest for her humanity was a welcome element for the remainder of the show, since the doctor pretty much had already gained his by then. It seems to be a favorite Trek theme. Data, Odo, the Doctor, Seven. Even Spock.

 

[Nelson Au]

I agree Jeri Ryan did a very good job playing the character in a very un-sexy way.

 

I've completed Season 6 and I started S7. Unimatrix Zero was an okay cliffhanger. It wasn't as compelling as past ones because you knew they were going to get out of that one! Over all, S6 was a solid year with a lot of good episodes.

 

The next episode after Unimatrix Zero, in proper chronological order because they rebuilt the Delta Flyer was Drive. I enjoyed that one a lot more then before. It was a fun one with lots of comedy built in with a serious story. The bit with Neelix calling the race was really good. And the by-play between Janeway and Tuvok in Astrometrics was a hoot.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Now that I'm finished with my complete run through That '70s Show, I can put Voyager S7 back in the player. Of course, now the fall season starts up.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

After Star Trek: Beyond got me hyped up and then the thread about the feasibility of remastering DS9 and Voyager for HD, I want to tackle this series again. I watched "Caretaker" and "Parallax" again shortly before seeing Beyond and enjoyed them.

On the other hand, I remember there being a lot of crap and a lot of episodes derivative of earlier series. So I don't want to rewatch every episode. I'm hoping the passionate Star Trek fans here can help me out. After doing a little research, I've come up with this streamlined list:

Season One:

1. "Caretaker" -- already watched
2. "Parallax" -- already watched
3. "Phage"
4. "Eye of the Needle"
5. "Prime Factors"
6. "State of Flux"
   
7. "Faces"
8. "Jetrel"
9. "Learning Curve"

Season Two:

1. "Projections"
2. "Elogium"
3. "Persistence of Vision"
4. "Cold Fire"
5. "Maneuvers"
   
6. "Resistance"
7. "Prototype"
8. "Alliances"
9. "Meld"
10. "Dreadnought"
11. "Death Wish"
12. "Lifesigns"
    
13. "Investigations"
14. "Deadlock"
15. "The Thaw"
16. "Resolutions"
    
17. "Basics, Part I"

Season Three:

1. "Basics, Part II"
2. "The Chute"
3. "Remember"
4. "Future's End, Part I"
5. "Future's End, Part II"
6. "Blood Fever"
7. "Unity"
8. "Rise"
9. "Before and After"
10. "Distant Origin"
11. "Worst Case Scenario"
12. "Scorpion, Part I"

Season Four:

1. "Scorpion, Part II"
2. "The Gift"
3. "Nemesis"
4. "The Raven"
5. "Scientific Method"
6. "Year of Hell, Part I"
7. "Year of Hell, Part II"
8. "Random Thoughts"
9. "Concerning Flight"
10. "Mortal Coil"
11. "Message in a Bottle"
    
12. "Hunters"
13. "Prey"
14. "The Killing Game, Part I"
15. "The Killing Game, Part II"
16. "The Omega Directive"
17. "Living Witness"
18. "Hope and Fear"

Season Five:

1. "Night"
2. "Drone"
   
3. "Timeless"
4. "Infinite Regress"
5. "Thirty Days"
   
6. "Counterpoint"
7. "Latent Image"
8. "Bride of Chaotica!"
9. "Bliss"
10. "Dark Frontier, Part I"
11. "Dark Frontier, Part II"
12. "Someone to Watch Over Me"
    
13. "11:59"
14. "Relativity"
    
15. "Equinox, Part I"

Season Six:

1. "Equinox, Part II"
2. "Survival Instinct"
3. "Barge of the Dead"
4. "The Voyager Conspiracy"
5. "Pathfinder"
6. "Blink of an Eye"
7. "Virtuoso"
8. "Collective"
9. "Child's Play"
10. "Good Shepard"
11. "Live Fast and Prosper"
    
12. "Life Line"
13. "Unimatrix Zero, Part I"

Season Seven:

1. "Unimatrix Zero, Part II"
2. "Imperfection"
3. "Drive"
4. "Shattered"
   
5. "Lineage"
6. "Prophecy"
7. "The Void"
   
8. "Human Error"
9. "Q2"
   
10. "Author, Author"
11. "Friendship One"
    
12. "Homestead"
13. "Endgame, Part I"
14. "Endgame, Part II"

Do you guys see any unmissable episodes that I should have included? Any real stinkers I'm better off avoiding? Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Simon Massey]

Isn't The Thaw the one with that weird jester character? I thought that was pretty bad

 

[Stan]

I always liked this show. Had its ups and downs, yet it ran for seven seasons, so overall pretty decent. Wish I could help you Adam, but never really paid attention to the episode titles. There are definitely a few major duds that are unbelievably bad. Haven't watched the series in several years. Might be time to dust them off, vacuum the cobwebs and go through them again

Also bought all the Next Gen and Enterprise DVDs. For some reason, never saw a single episode of DS9, maybe worth a try.

 

[B-ROLL]

I always liked this show. Had its ups and downs, yet it ran for seven seasons, so overall pretty decent. Wish I could help you Adam, but never really paid attention to the episode titles. There are definitely a few major duds that are unbelievably bad. Haven't watched the series in several years. Might be time to dust them off, vacuum the cobwebs and go through them again

Also bought all the Next Gen and Enterprise DVDs. For some reason, never saw a single episode of DS9, maybe worth a try.

Writer's guide for last three seasons of DS9: "Our guest star takes a Runabout into the wormhole. Our principals now must find out why ... Universe must be placed in jeopardy - solution for same but be at or close to last commercial position ...at least one character must take their shirt off ... Comedy tag at the end ... NO CHANGES TO CANON WILL BE ACCEPTED (unless can tie in with TNG cast films ...)"

 

[Sam Favate]

I've been watching Voyager lately, mainly because my wife never saw it and wanted to. We just finished the 5th season, and I'm amazed at how much I stand by my original assessment that the show is very much a disappointment. The writers clearly didn't know what to do with many characters, and consequently some of the actors seem bored. So many stories are imaginary, alternate realities, holodeck stories, etc. the writing seems tired and not up to Star Trek standards. It is, by far, my least favorite Trek, and I doubt I would buy it on blu-ray. DS9, on the other hand, I am very eager to see on blu.

 

[Stan]

I've been watching Voyager lately, mainly because my wife never saw it and wanted to. We just finished the 5th season, and I'm amazed at how much I stand by my original assessment that the show is very much a disappointment. The writers clearly didn't know what to do with many characters, and consequently some of the actors seem bored. So many stories are imaginary, alternate realities, holodeck stories, etc. the writing seems tired and not up to Star Trek standards. It is, by far, my least favorite Trek, and I doubt I would buy it on blu-ray. DS9, on the other hand, I am very eager to see on blu.

Oh Sam, it's not that bad. For something to run seven seasons there must be some redeeming qualities. Not the best of the Star Trek franchise, but for the most part, I enjoyed it.

I'm also looking forward to DS9. Never saw a single episode, but I'm going to dive right in and buy all the seasons. Heard enough good things that I think I'm safe and won't be disappointed.

Speaking of holodeck stories. Loved Next Gen, but the holodeck episodes bored me to tears. Throwing the characters into ridiculous situations. A smoky jazz bar. Old-time San Francisco, and others.

For some reason, the Klingon based episodes were not my favorites, just so over the top with the acting and the macho attitudes. Wish they had killed off Worf, let him die in a glorious battle. Ugh....

 

[Sam Favate]

Oh Sam, it's not that bad. For something to run seven seasons there must be some redeeming qualities. Not the best of the Star Trek franchise, but for the most part, I enjoyed it.

I'm also looking forward to DS9. Never saw a single episode, but I'm going to dive right in and buy all the seasons. Heard enough good things that I think I'm safe and won't be disappointed.
....

Oh, there are things to enjoy in Voyager, but the lack of skillful writing really is something I can't get past. The cast just isn't engaged in the same way the other casts are, including Enterprise. The premise of Voyager never worked for me - if their goal is to get home, why do they stop every week to explore something? And when the focus is getting home, the show suffers from Gilligan's Island syndrome, because they can't for the sake of the show. I also disliked the treatment of Tuvok and Vulcan culture. He's almost always disregarded, since logic can't match old fashioned human instinct. That's not Star Trek to me.

As for the show's longevity on TV, I don't deny it had a lot of people who enjoyed it, but it was also the flagship (and best known) show on the UPN network, which pushed the show (and constrained it).

 

[Scott-S]

Nice bump of a very old thread. So old, I didn't even remember starting it. LOL

I still think that the one reason I had a slightly different perspective was how I watched it the first time. Basically I watched all 7 seasons over the course of a few weeks.

This made it easier to remember the past episodes callbacks and notice the characters changing.

I will be flogged for saying this but I prefer Voyager more that TOS. Here is my order as far my preference.

1. DS9
2. TNG
3. Voyager
4. Enterprise
5. TOS.

please don't revoke my fan card. I just never really enjoyed TOS. It was just too 60's or too campy or something for my taste.

 

[Stan]

Nice bump of a very old thread. So old, I didn't even remember starting it. LOL

I still think that the one reason I had a slightly different perspective was how I watched it the first time. Basically I watched all 7 seasons over the course of a few weeks.

This made it easier to remember the past episodes callbacks and notice the characters changing.

I will be flogged for saying this but I prefer Voyager more that TOS. Here is my order as far my preference.

1. DS9
2. TNG
3. Voyager
4. Enterprise
5. TOS.

please don't revoke my fan card. I just never really enjoyed TOS. It was just too 60's or too campy or something for my taste.

Having never seen DS9, 2-5 on your list are exactly what I would have chosen.

Also never a real TOS fan, even though I was just a kid when it started, definitely too '60s and too campy, so maybe there will be two floggings. The sets, the other races they came across, the villains, that one episode with the silly "Rock" creature, just didn't work. Special effects were awful. When you're eight years old and you notice how cheesy it is, something's wrong with the show.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I've watched through "Projections" on my list above, and I'm enjoying it. My main complaint so far is my complaint with the Berman/Braga era of "Trek" generally: The vast majority of the Starfleet characters are too bland, bordering on milquetoast, and the moral issues are a little too tidy.

In one episode, Voyager encounters a hedonistic people with sophisticated transporter technology that allows them to travel instantly up to 40,000 light-years in any direction, or over half the distance home. Janeway hems and haws as to whether she should make a vaguely shady under-the-table deal to obtain the technology. Are you fucking kidding me? Just about any human being alive would have made that deal. Now, it turns out the technology wouldn't have worked with Voyager anyway, but the idea that she would subject her crew to decades of additional isolation from their friends and family so she could avoid getting her hands just a smidge dirty is frankly infuriating.

Another episode plays out an allegory for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in which Neelix is in the position of a Japanese survivor who is forced to interact with the alien stand-in for J. Robert Oppenheimer. And near the end, Kes explains how he's not really angry at the alien Oppenheimer, he's angry at himself for being a draft dodger. Um, no; he may very well feel a lot of guilt for being a draft dodger, but he's angry at the alien Oppenheimer because the alien Oppenheimer developed a WMD that destroyed his world. In an admirably dark episode, the desire to tie things up in a neat little bow really turned me off.

On the other hand, Kate Mulgrew is right up there with Patrick Stewart as the strongest actors to play Starfleet captains. She wrings moments of beautiful humanity out of scripts that can be fairly antiseptic. Her video conversation with her lover in "Caretaker" before they departed on their mission was achingly human for all its mundanity.

Robert Beltran is also great as Chakotay, probably the character with the richest backstory of the main cast. Here's someone who was a high-level Starfleet officer and excelled within that regimented framework. Then, much like Robert E. Lee resigning his commission in April 1961, Chakotay decided his loyalty to his home colony was greater than his loyalty to the Federation. As a result, he is someone familiar and comfortable with both worlds. It gives him a less insular perspective than most of the characters.

Robert Picardo's EMH is the standout, though, taking the themes TNG explored with Data and extrapolating them out further. In some ways, his journey is more engaging, since none of it was planned; the Doctor evolved because circumstances required him to evolve. He is a personified metaphor for the Voyager's journey as a whole.

I found the Neelix/Kes relationship icky when it originally aired, and I find it icky now. It's a grown man in a romantic relationship with a two-year-old. Even accounting for the compressed lifespan of Ocampa, he would have met her when she was the equivilant of an eleven- or twelve-year-old, since she's only at the equivilent of her early to mid teen years (despite her evident physical maturity) at this point in the series. Just an ill-conceived story thread all around.

 

[TJPC]

My favourite episode of Voyager bar none is the one where they re-create the Flash Gordon period of science fiction in the holodeck. Captain Janeway is especially hilarious.

 

[B-ROLL]

My favourite episode of Voyager bar none is the one where they re-create the Flash Gordon period of science fiction in the holodeck. Captain Janeway is especially hilarious.

It it would have been entirely different with their original choice for the role that became Janeway ... Genevieve Bujold ...

Mulgrew seemed to handle the technobabble better a sample of what it might have looked like

 

[DavidJ]

I watched TOS in reruns and went to the original movies. I watched TNG from the beginning to its end. For some reason, I never watched DS9. I picked up again with Voyager and watched Enterprise. Voyager has always been my favorite of the series. I know that's heresy to some. I loved the main conceit of them being stranded so far from home and having to figure it out. I also like the looming Borg threat (and species 8472). And as mentioned above, Mulgrew is very good and Picardo is great.

 

[Stan]

On the other hand, Kate Mulgrew is right up there with Patrick Stewart as the strongest actors to play Starfleet captains. She wrings moments of beautiful humanity out of scripts that can be fairly antiseptic. Her video conversation with her lover in "Caretaker" before they departed on their mission was achingly human for all its mundanity.

As B-ROLL mentioned, the original choice was Genevieve Bujold. I can't even begin to imagine how awful the show would have been with her as the captain. Thank goodness she chose to leave. I forget exactly why, but wasn't it something to do with how tough it would be to do long series, to much time commitment or something like that?

Watch that little clip he provided. "Wooden" is probably the politest term to describe her acting ability.

 

[ScottHM]

please don't revoke my fan card.

After you burned it, revocation seems pointless.

---------------

 

[KPmusmag]

My favorite episode is "Rise" from the third season. There is something about Neelix gaining a modicum of respect from Tuvok that touches me.

I like this show a lot, and the reason is that I like the characters. They are people I would like to know. So even when an episode might not be up to the writing standards generally seen in the other Trek series, I enjoy spending time with the characters.

 

[B-ROLL]

As B-ROLL mentioned, the original choice was Genevieve Bujold. I can't even begin to imagine how awful the show would have been with her as the captain. Thank goodness she chose to leave. I forget exactly why, but wasn't it something to do with how tough it would be to do long series, to much time commitment or something like that?

Watch that little clip he provided. "Wooden" is probably the politest term to describe her acting ability.

I don't believe it was "her" choice ... but only her hairdresser knows for sure
http://www.blastr.com/2013-1-18/why-voyagers-1st-capt-thought-she-was-good-fit-wasnt
Rick Berman's quote is telling ... "This was a woman who, in no way, was going to be able to deal with the rigors of episodic television."