As I understand, there are many hard core ST fans who hate the show and its producers. I have to admit that I really enjoyed Voyager and I found it much less cringeworthy than TNG or DS-9 (oh, man...i hated Odo so much, great show though, loved Bashir-O'Brien relationship).
What's, in your opinion, wrong with Voyager?
I've yet to be able to watch an entire without getting bored: technobabble, talk-talk, minimal action.
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I had the DVDs and watched through once and wasn't impressed. As someone else pointed out, not much action. Recently, started watching again on BBC America (- the marathon) and sort of found a new appreciation of it this second time through. Two things that stand out to me are 1) the excessive techobabble, and 2) the bad makeup. The makeup on the alien species and crew members looks very poorly done. But, as I said, I am enjoying it more this second time through.
shareOne thing is any damage is immediately repaired from one episode to the next. They should have allowed the ship the "wear down" from one year to the next and show what it has gone through! (Think of the new Battlestar Galatica)
shareVoyager lacked character development. I think STV was summed up in one review by the following statement. " Star Trek Voyager is in trouble when a hologram is the most interesting character" and "Harry Kim started out an Ensign and seven years later he was still an Ensign, that tells us all we need to know about character development in Voyager "
shareGarret Wang complains about that a lot, and my thoughts were you are an ensign on your first mission and already a senior officer (before getting thrown across the universe)he was where many SF people would have been after seven years already. Granted they promoted B'elanna to LT. with out even finishing SFA but did he miss the four years they never bothered to give Seven a bedroom, they let her live in Storage the whole time, they had portable regenerators she could have been given a room.
share100% agree with character development. The writers must be krap ...TNG had issues, but even TNG has some of the most beloved crew members in ST history.
shareAgree with everything said above. The very best Voyager episodes are some of the best of any series but the worst of them are really bad. The series could have been fantastic - losing crew members, making short lived alliances with new species, accidentally messing with other cultures, having disastrous first contact experiences and so on.
The main issues are well known:No character development, the ship and shuttle pods were fixed and replaced far too easily, the producers took the easy way out far too often, the Maquis crew were far too happy to join the Star fleet crew with very few instances of the conflict we were told to expect from the start, too much technobabble, an overrelaiance on the Doctor and Seven to carry whole episodes while Harry and the like were ignored, need I go on?
The biggest missed opportunity was near the end in the double parter Workforce. Janeway fell in love and was due to move in with a man on an alien planet - it would have been great to have her stay and show how the crew responded - but instead she went back to Voyager and that was the end of that.
Having said all that, it's still a decent series and I've been watching some of the better ones on Netflix and enjoying them.
Why is it considered "bad star trek"
It's not bad just decent IMHO. I watched Voyager until it's final episode, and have been watching it again on BBC America. It is fond to watch it again, but I am also reminded of it's many failings. It was as if the creators and writers did everything in their power to be the anti- DS9 show in terms of mini-arcs which made that series a solid performer.
Also, I found that Voyager got lazy with the introduction of the character of 7 of 9 (Look, fans, our show has tits!). We saw hardly any character oriented episodes regarding the other cast as we did the first few seasons.
Read up regarding Ronald D. Moores account of why he left Voyager. It is the best description of what was wrong with the show.
Read up regarding Ronald D. Moores account of why he left Voyager. It is the best description of what was wrong with the show.You just inspired me to google it myself (http://www.lcarscom.net/rdm1000118.htm). Moore basically elaborates on the same issues people have brought up here: the maquis seamlessly integrated with the rest of the crew by the end of the pilot, the ship was always in pristine condition with fully functional holodecks, there were no major story arcs or continuity, it was bogged down with inane technobabble, etc. I encourage anyone who wants to understand the criticisms of this show to read it. I definitely don't hate Voyager, but I can't help but think of what might have been. As Moore points out, most of the episodes could easily be adapted to a TNG format. They really squandered the premise of the show. share
Like all series, it has its great, good, okay, mediocre, and disappointing episodes. But I don't think it is altogether bad Trek, though.
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