Where did Voyager go wrong?

[AndrewLyon 0]

Now I watched Voyager for 7 years. I buy allot of trek books (new & Used), and I want to know if its just me. Where did it all go wrong? I have finished the Captain Tables deluxe book (all 7 in one), and I skipped Voyager's part of it after 50 pages. Maybe someone can show me how "good" Voyager is, since I know some of Treks better book writters (Peter David, Michel Jan Friendman), do not seem to touch this series

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

I don't know about books, but as far as TV series, voyager was my favorite, i thought it brought a lot of new stuff...and it was the best starship class we had seen yet (gallaxy=ugly) so there's my opinion. But like i said, i don't know about the books

[koolaidman 0]

i have seen around 5 episodes of voyager, and that was en i was young er and didn' tknow what i was watching anyway (if you had told me it was Star Trek would have screamed and then turned star wars on to clense myself) wel i think form what i rememgber that voyagber waqs pretty good, eh

[Seiben 0]

Dunno how Voyager went wrong. Probably the poorly written episodes earlier on, or noone was really interesting in Star Trek anymore, or maybe even the addition of Seven just to improve ratings.. ::shrugs::

[Garnoopy 0]

Alrighty, from an all time fan of Voyager, (Voyager was my first Trek series) I shall give my opinion on the issues regarding the series, good and bad.

 

Voyager started out badly. The first two seasons, in my opinion after seeing the entire series, were the worst. This is true though of most Trek series. Star Trek TNG was terriable the first season, not only were the uniforms scary, but the acting and plots were all over the place. It took time and feeling things out for the series to really take shape.

 

That being said, we can all note how teh beginning of Voyager wasn't all that great. Janeway looked downright frightening in that bun (which I still assert was a great place to hold a phaser), The Doctor was a hologram which we didn't understand, Neelix was just plain annoying, and the confusion with the amount of shuttles Voyager had still reigns today.

 

As the series moved on though and the plots developed, you can note that there were some excellent episodes that developed out of this series. The standard episode, in which the ship had some problem which was inevitably solved, has been used across teh Trek saga's. However, when you find a good episode that doesn't follow the standard plot scheme you can note that Voyager made progress and kept you attached to the show. The question of holographic rights, which TNG had a similar plot on regarding the question of Data's rights as an android, were discussed and debated in the series. If you watch it over time you note that in the beginning hte Doctor is regarded as a tool, and it does take seven years before the crew changes to seeing him as a real person. This did not occur in one episode, but occured over many many years. In order to see this you have to watch the whole series.

 

Which brings me to my next point, many people have called Deep Space Nine the "Soap Opera" of Star Trek. The show contaied romance and threw in several wars between the Klingons and Federation, Federation and Dominion, Federation and Cardassians, and probabaly a few other I've missed inbetween. I held this viewpoint of DS9 for many years untill I finally sat down and watched the entire series, I have reached Season 7 but have not had time to finish it. DS9 needed two seasons also to get its footing, but once it set off the series was very interesting, under teh assumption you had watched the whole thing. It was not a series that you could truely enjoy if you were watching each individual episode alone. In-jokes and other plot twists that would be missed by teh casual observer can only be noticed by the serious watcher.

 

And that probabaly explains one of the issues with Voyager, and all of Trek. You cannot watch many individual episodes and be "blown away" persay. You need to watch many episodes to understand why something is so downright hilarious. Having seen nearly all of Deep Space Nine I find comedy in places on the show that I would have missed had I just glanced at the episode. Voyager was not a series to be watched episode by episode, but to be looked at as a whole, as it is. Today, I will get emotional watching an episode in which they "nearly" get home but don't make it, because I have seen it all. The casual observer wouldn't understand why this was such a tradgedy.

 

Putting all technical concerns aside (How did they get so many photon torpedoes? Where did all the shuttles come from? How did they travel so many light years?) and you get a show that is only truely at its best when you see it beginning to end. But, I think the same thing regarding TNG and DS9. Although TNG may have stood alone episode wise better than Voyager or DS9 it still was only at its best when you viewed it in order, beginning to end.

 

Despite all of this though you may not have liked the series. We all have that at times. No matter how hard I try I cannot seem to bring myself to enjoy TOS or ENT. This does not mean in any way, shape, or form that those two series are bad, it just means that I don't hold an interest in them. You may just not believe that the series was all that great and that's your opinion to hold. It doesn't make you right and me wrong, it's just an opinion as we all have the right to hold.

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

excellent point, Garnoopy. This is true of everything in life (even driving :) ) you really have to get the big picture. Series are more close to simms than you may think. The plot and character development happenes over a long time (you old foggies on decade-old simms) and is what really makes it unique and pulls it together. The entire concept of voyager was a really new one for Star Trek, and the crew had to be really creative to deal with that new twist. That's what makes it my favourite seires. But like I said, ^_^ I don't know about the books

[Tachyon 0]

The series was good. I've found that in particular, the Voyager books are my least favourite of all the series' books. For some reason, the story and the characters seemed not to have transferred very well from the small screen to literary format.

 

For the series, I enjoyed most of it because it was a mix of TNG and DS9. It had the same storyline-quality that made DS9 so great, with Voyager's continued mission of trying to get home. But it was set on a starship, with a changing environment that was rather refreshing. I've always regarded Voyager as my favourite series, although when I got the season 1 DVDs of DS9 for Christmas, I think that DS9 is also great.

 

I agree that the first two seasons were a little shaky. I'm not sure whether the decision to get rid of Kes was the right thing to do, but it was done anyway. I resent that Seven of Nine was added for popularity reasons, but I think that at least the writers got some very good stories out of her. Voyager had the advantage of being able to, as I said before, integrate what the writers had learned when doing TNG and DS9, and shape a better series.

[Dustin_Marks 0]

I really felt the same way about Voyager in that it took a while for the show to really take off. As far as novels go, I never really enjoyed the Voyager series either because they seemed to spin-off the same concept too many times. I believe that's why Peter David and Michael Jan Friedman stayed more with TOS and TNG books because there was a lot more opportunity to write on.

 

On an unrelated note, I started thinking about the whole "taking a couple seasons to catch on" thing. For me, the first two seasons of TOS and the first season of ENT were really great. However, I feel Enterprise has really gone downhill with only some brief shows of redemption (Brent Spiner gets a lot of credit for that.). I also think that with Voyager and DS9, the only times they really had a "great" show was when they revisited stories that were established in other Series and/or movies. The Voyager episode with the Excelsior comes to mind as does DS9's Trials and Tribulations.

[Saek tr'Vosh 0]

Au are ALL wrong...where Voyager went wrong was that there were NA Rihannsu ^_^

 

Just a bunch of silly Lloan'nna's, a wanna-be Vulcan, a do-NA-wanna-be Borg..and an annoying alien (Neelix) :lol:

 

 

Now that au all have thrown whatever au had handy at the screen..I will be serious

 

I will agree w the Garnoopy in that every show needs time to develop...(ie, TNG was utterly frightening in seasons 1 and 2 )

 

If Voyager did anything wrong, I think it attempted to sell out...give a new generation of viewers some bubble gum trek...na too in depth, just a weekly dose of technobabble and phasers set to frag to get them by...adding the obvious eye candy of Seven was an blatent attempt to snag the male 17-34 audience..and it worked to a certain degree...honestly, her acting improved as did everyone elses in the show.

 

I actually Liked Voyager...Tom Paris, Harry, Tuvok...loved 'em all....Io thing that I did NA like..and Enterprise did this quite nicely with its Xindi Arc....if au are in a battle...aus ship will take damage (especially the puny Lloan'nna vessels) Voyager would be in a massive battle..then next week..be nice and shiny once again..where exactly in the Delta Quadrant did they find a body shop...Ablative armor only goes sooo far, really....Enterprise after the Xindi battles looked like hammered crap..and I LOVED it...because it was realistic....

 

IF DS9 was the soap opera of trek..perhaps that was why I did na like it (sorry tr'Fred) and I do watch every episode so the plot twists were na lost on me..I just never liked it..too many prophets maybe.. I do na know...

 

thats my opinion....now au give aus....it will be wrong of course..but au are welcome to commment :)

[Tachyon 0]

On an unrelated note, I started thinking about the whole "taking a couple seasons to catch on" thing. For me, the first two seasons of TOS and the first season of ENT were really great.

TV was different back in the '60s . . . the idea of a sort of series story arc wasn't really around, which is why we don't see many epic 'series finales' from shows there, such as Trek. Because each episode of TOS didn't really affect the other that much (there was a lot of freelance writing going on too), pressures amongst the show's production crew combined with network apathy were what got made the third season the least-liked of all.

[Dumbass 0]

Au are ALL wrong...where Voyager went wrong was that there were NA Rihannsu ^_^

Well, they had one - remember that episode where they made contact with a Romulan scientist and then discovered he was from an earlier time and died before political reality would let him tell Starfleet "Don't do that mission!"

[Captain Huff 0]

Wow, a lot of cool points. I hadn't thought about how syndication effects the way a series is written. In TOS time, there wasn't nearly as much syndication (who knew it would be a cult?), which makes the independant episodes and cheap effects make more sense. When TNG came along, we could have more soap stories, nuances and continuity, as in all the series thereafter.

 

I've always loved Voyager from its very beginning. Having just got it on DVD, (and being stuck home sick as a dog and fused to my couch) I am having a ball re-watching it in sequence. ::happy sigh:: Ironically, the few things I disliked about it originally don't bother me now. (Neelix, and fast end-of-show wrap-ups). The amazing shuttle supply never bothered me at all. I say it just gave Engineering something to do between episodes, lol. "Hey, let's build another shuttle this month." I missed Kes, but loved Seven. Being a woman and not interested in her enhancements, I truely think the girl can act and was a great character addition. And if the catsuit grabbed more viewers, well good, lol.

 

I've noticed that whether or not people like TOS, seems to be whether or not it was the first series they watched. If you had another Trek first, you tend to not like TOS in the way the older Trekkies do. Ah well.

 

My reasons for holding DS9 and Ent at a little bit of a distance have more to do with my opinions of the cast, not the writing. (Okay, the whole Prophets thing irritated the bejeebers out of me, lol). But when time and money allow, I'll probably invest in them too, especially after reading this thread. I think I watched enough TNG syndication to have that one memorized, so I can save a few dollars there.

 

I had another point, but I've been away from the couch too long and can't remember it now. Must re-commence assimilation. Later!

[Ki'rok 0]

I don't know about books, but as far as TV series, voyager was my favorite, i thought it brought a lot of new stuff...and it was the best starship class we had seen yet (gallaxy=ugly) so there's my opinion. But like i said, i don't know about the books

:)

 

If I were you..I would rethink the Galaxy class comment...if you want to graduate.. :lol:

 

But you didnt hear that from me..... ^_^

[Kansas_Jones 0]

Wow. good stuff. where did Voyager go wrong?? Hmmmm....

 

Ill start with my series preferences and go from there:

 

1.) Original Series: Wasn't around for the original airing. I was introduced to it throughout the 70's (re runs) and 80's (movies) and got hooked. It ROCKS!

 

2.) ENT: the closest I'll ever get to watching the original in prime time, in my opinion. I like the show. A lot.

 

3.) TNG: hands down, the BEST of the TV series. 'Nuff said.

 

4.) DS9 and VOY: Somewhere around the running of both these series, my Trekking sorta lagged, but I did catch these series of and on. Didn't really have a problem with either.

 

Now I can't speak for the Voyager books (dont read), but as for the series? I do think the ending episode was a bit...rushed?....wrapped up way to quickly? but other then that a solid series with a few quirks like all of them. I did find a few of the characters annoying, more so then other series, and I think near the end of the show it was "ready" to be done.

 

All in all, my vote for VOY is a solid show. Not great, solid.

Edited January 4, 2005 by Kansas_Jones

[Cptn Moose 0]

I must confess that out of all the series, cat suit aside, Voyager was my least favorite. I feel that the concept was flawed in three ways:

 

a. It was a very neat idea, force the Federation and the Maquis to work together. However, that in itself couldn't last for seven seasons. They vitually wrote it out after the first couple of years. But once it was no longer an issue, there was no reason to keep them in the Delta quadrant. Being stranded worked against them.

 

b. They're heading home, always travelling in one direction. So how do they establish a credible, re-occuring villian? Or a cast of guest-stars that we come to love (ala Barkley, Lwaxanna Troi, Dark Kira, etc.) Any guest star who was reasonably interesting overstayed their welcome after four weeks or they danced with credibility. The first season cliff-hanger, where they had their final conflict with Sessca and the Kazon, was absolutely ridiculous. If Voyager was a year into it's journey at that point, we're supposed to believe that the Kazon followed them a year away from home just to one-up them? We were supposed to belive that Nelix could find another Talaxian at a point in space that was a 40 year journey from where he first met Voyager? And all of the worm holes, Borg trans-warp conduits and other ways to shorten the journey only served to pull the bite out of the "stranded in space" story. There were too many shortcuts across the galaxy. It was just a matter of time...

 

c. They wussed. They fought using the "stranded in space" idea to populate Voyager with odd alien cultures and hitchhikers they met through the years (like Kes and Nelix started out being). Instead, they kept contriving ways to bring the Voyager crew back to familiar Trek environments. Q, temporal ships, lost Federation ships, abducted or assimilated humans (sorry 7), alternate time-lines, aliens reproducing Starfleet Academy, holoprojecting the doctor, etc. Some worked, some didn't. But the point is they chose to take the ship out of the Federation galaxy, then tried every gimick they could think of to insert people and things familiar to the viewers, without actually bringing them home. Embrace your concept or throw it away. Don't do it half way.

 

That being said, there were some pretty cool things about it too:

 

The Vedians stealing body organs ... wonderful. The Ocampas only living seven years ... pretty neat, but we should have been able to see all seven of them. The Temporal Police. Tuvok satisfying his Poon Far urge in the holodeck (Quark would have been proud). A working kitchen and replicator rations. Astrometrics. Tom Paris getting demoted. Seven not being able to construct a Borg conduit. The female Q.

 

These are just the easy ones. Sometimes, the show was very clever. But after the first few seasons, I just felt like they were just treading water, waiting for it to end.

 

And on a final note ... who's idea was it to let Tuvok and Seven do scenes together? Future screen writers take note, make sure at least one character on screen shows an emotion ... any emotion.

 

:: throws his two cents into the jar and ducks ::

 

Moose the Drama Critic (isn't everyone?)

[Cougar 0]

And on a final note ... who's idea was it to let Tuvok and Seven do scenes together? Future screen writers take note, make sure at least one character on screen shows an emotion ... any emotion.

 

:: throws his two cents into the jar and ducks ::

 

Moose the Drama Critic (isn't everyone?)

I liked some of the Seven and Tuvok scenes. ^_^

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

:)

 

If I were you..I would rethink the Galaxy class comment...if you want to graduate.. :o

 

But you didnt hear that from me..... ^_^

here's how i see it, its like the 80's luxury cars...sure, they were hot and flagshipish back then, but 15 years later, we look and go 'eeewwww' (at least I do)

 

 

:P

 

In regards to TOS, i have an interesting theory...you can't watch it from the point of veiw of watching a TV series...why? IT SUCKS...hands down...yucky sets, bad acting, bad writting....BUT....you need to watch it from the p.o.v. of watching STAR TREK...see it as one chapter in the formation of the federation, bite the bullet on the bad TV-making, and its great!!!! :lol:

 

 

steamrunner is best, if you dispute it...start a new thread

[FredM 0]

Hey there,

 

Well, you had to ask, didn't you? Reminds me of the days I used to write a Trek column...used to talk about this all the time. ^_^

 

Star Trek: Voyager was a show that had a lot of promise. Yet, it was at a horrible disadvantage. Series IV should never have been created until Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was off the air. Berman and Braga caused the one thing many people later finally figured out: Star Trek overload.

 

At the time Star Trek: Voyager came on, you already had two active Star Trek series. What's worse, your veteran Trek writers were already locked in on those two shows. What's worse, you had a situation where you had to tune in to Channel 23 to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and then hope you had a Channel 12 UPN who had Star Trek: Voyager. Even worse, there were numerous cases where station's were showing the shows...at the same time.

 

Even today, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis run...but they are "seperate series" that are "coordinated" on the network level. The shows run right after one another, on the same network. They do not go against one another for audience. That often happened with Star Trek: Voyager. On top of it all, forcing the show to be on a network that didn't even start to get any percentage of the viewing audience until 2002 was a mistake. There are large sections of the United States that had horrible problems getting Series IV for years.

 

Then, when you get past this disadvantage, you have the largest problem I personally ever have/had with the show: the writing.

 

During the first four seasons, there was a complete lack of continuity and consistancy. The potential really existed to have some hard hitting episodes in the early days, but they never happened. Sure, there were some attempts to show issues between Maquis and Starfleet working together but even those were almost childish attempts at what could have been done. There was a real lack of depth to the characters and it showed.

 

The lack of continuity and a realistic approach to their situation was also a big problem. I mean, we are talking about a starship comparable to a modern day navy destroyer. Not even an aircraft carrier (aka: a Galaxy Class or larger vessel). This ship doesn't have a ton of supplies, it isn't designed for deep space exploration. Yet, I can only think of a handful of episodes where the issue of "Well you know, by this point we should be out of this" was really the focus. On top of it all, what little Trek lore was established about the Delta Quadrant was ignored. I remember thinking during the fourth season, "Why the hell did it take them this long to encounter the Borg?" Starfleet had downloaded Borg documentation before and had a lot of information about them. You mean to tell me that info didn't include something about the Delta Quadrant?

 

The realistic approach is a key one. If your ship is practically destroyed one week, it should still be practically destroyed the next. If that isn't done, at least have a scene discussing the fact you've just used up almost all of your (oh I don't know) EPS grid converters and might have a problem the next time. I mean, the simple running joke at the fact Voyager must have had somewhere near 48 shuttlecraft is a clear example of this. If they've got enough materials to make that many warcores, I have no clue why they don't have power for all the replicators and must rely on Neelix to cook.

 

There was also the issue that they never really seemed to get anywhere. After the first season, I sat there and asked "Well what's the point?" You knew that anytime they were in a situation where they might get a quick jump home, it would fail. It wasn't until the fifth season those "quick jumps home" actually started to work.

 

Mentioning the fifth season, I'd say Voyager was actually three different shows in one. The first three seasons were horrible. Complete lack of continuity, consistency, reality and in my view respect for the viewer's intelect. Every week I sat there and went "Why aren't they trying to get home?" I mean, there was never a story about trying to get the Voyager engines to work faster. Nothing about maybe making a new communications method to get something to Earth. Hell, they never even explained why in the devil they didn't head for the Gamma Quadrant Bajoran Wormhole...which according to everything Trek was closer to them than Earth.

 

The fourth season brought that insult to a whole new level.

 

I am sorry folks, Seven of Nine should never have been. Well, I take that back. In review, I think the character idea was a fascinating one. Yet, the concept your going to bring on Jeri Ryan for no other reason than to boost ratings (and don't tell me otherwise, even some of the writers admitted that's what it was)....give me a break. At that point, I remember honestly wondering if the show was going to be cancelled. I really did.

 

Yet then, somehow, something amazing happened in fifth season. It started slow at first, but it was there. The writers started to build stories on top of one another. They started to actually, oh I don't know, make progress at getting home. And a character this show should have had from the beginning was reintroduced. Let me explain.

 

In my view, "Starfleet" and the "Federation" are characters as key to any Star Trek show as the Chief Engineer. They are a backbone component. Can you imagine how different Voyager would have been if, let's say at the end of season one or in season two, they had made contact with Starfleet? Maybe only once in a blue moon like they did in the fifth season at first, but indeed made contact.

 

Season Five thru Seven were amazing. There's no other way for it. Now I'm not saying that the writers didn't sometimes fall back into their no reality/consistancy trap. They never did really expand the idea that Voyager herself should have been falling apart by season five. It remains true that even during this seasons, this show destroyed the "character" of the Borg. I mean, the fear and horror seen in Best Of Both Worlds never existed on this show. Hell, why should it? A simple destroyer classed vessel, with what should have been limited number of torpedos, was able to destroy a Borg cube when a fleet of forty or more Starfleet ships couldn't do it at Wolf 359 or during Star Trek: First Contact.

 

How could Janeway destroy a Borg Tactical Cube in one episode yet Starfleet, and their newer technology generated because of the Dominion War, couldn't do it with a fleet of ships? Oy.

 

Anyway, the last two/three seasons of this show were good. I'm not going to question that. The writing finally got it right, they were focused on the fact they were indeed trying to get home, the odd concept of having some ideas to get home actually work started happening, they had contact with Starfleet, they started actually dealing with the fact that the Alpha Quadrant was passing them by while they were trying to get home, etc.

 

Did I like the show? Did I tune in every week? Yes. However, I'd compare it to other incarnations the way people compare Star Trek V: The Final Frontier to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. I'd also have to say I agree a lot with what Moose said above. It had some very good points, especially dealing with some of the "longer term" villians they encountered. Yet, I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't have been better for them to meet a "Delta Quadrant" Confederation of Systems...something, again, consistancy.

Edited January 4, 2005 by FredM

[Cougar 0]

Very good points there, Fred.

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

Good points....bad points....timeless was a really cool episode. There were some random points along the journey where they did get repairs, or assistance from others. talked about supplies of duterium ect. but it was a bit disjoint. I like the crew, they had that going for them. i think there were a good cast of characters, even in the begining. I think the seven development can be equated to data's stuggles. You mentioned no starfleet or federation...but Janeway made it a big focus all along to stick with her principles, very commendable. and even though the final episode was rushed...it was quite cool...

 

I have one very hands-down point regarding reality (its not really that great, but food for thought) Voyager was the first time i remember there being a mention of a 'lavatory' on a starship. ^_^

 

timeless is a really really good episode.

 

But like i said, i don't know about the books...

[Cougar 0]

Season 1 was terrible with maybe 1 good/okay episode, season 2 had few good eps but at least was better than season 1. Season 3 wasn't the best but started to make the series better, I enjoyed some of the episodes in Season 3. Season 4 really made Voyager a contendable series. Season 5-7 were The BEST!

[Dumbass 0]

I have one very hands-down point regarding reality (its not really that great, but food for thought) Voyager was the first time i remember there being a mention of a 'lavatory' on a starship. ^_^

 

Well it was a long voyage after all.

 

Endgame was a better-than-average episode, but if you replace Q with the Borg you pretty much had the same plot elements as All Good Things - time travel/shifting, promotions and retirements, degenerative mind diseases, future deaths, etc.

[Grom 0]

I’m probably going to totally disagree with Huff here, but I think that Voyager’s worst problems were its characters….and the problems only got worse as the ratings plummeted. Here is my brief analysis of the Voyager characters we ratings of Exceptional, Good, Average, Poor and Abysmal.

 

Character: The Doctor

Rating: Exceptional

Analysis: One of the few characters I enjoyed on Voyager, and he was the only reason I watched it. I enjoyed his solid acting abilities from the start and his development over time. The Doctor’s journey was creative and a real plus to the show.

 

Character: Tom Paris

Rating: Good

Analysis: Tom Paris was no Michael Garibaldi, but his character still had some depth to it and his adaptability (Captain Proton) to different circumstances was exceptional. I thought that his relationship with Torres, though, hurt his character.

 

Character: Tuvok

Rating: Good

Analysis: He wasn’t spock, but nevertheless, was consistent and adapted well.

 

Character: Harry Kim

Rating: Average

Analysis: Let’s face it, Harry never got you really excited. His acting was average at best and his interpersonal relationships with the crew just didn’t come off as believable.

 

Character: B’elana Torres

Rating: Average

Analysis: Despite the inconsistencies with her character, she managed to pull off an average performance. The writers, though, tried too hard to keep her involved with the crew and I think the relationship with Tom was a mistake.

 

Character: Kathryn Janeway

Rating: Poor

Analysis: I know she tried hard, but for me, it just didn’t work. I’ve seen many strong female acting performances of other leading vessel commanders (Ex: Major Kira, Susan Ivanova), but I could never latch onto the fact that Voyager was “her crew.” I think the writers tried to hard to make her…overly rough and then overcompensated by loosening her up too much.

 

Character: Seven of Nine

Rating: Poor

Analysis: Hey, she can act a little too! I don’t want to sound like a gong here, but I’ll just echo what Fred said about her. Even with average acting ability, I don’t think she ever established a legitimacy for being on the show apart from her looks.

 

Character: Kes

Rating: Poor

Analysis: The smartest move that Voyager made was speeding up her departure. Her relationship with Neelix was annoying and her character overly mystical and dramatic…to a fault.

 

Character: Neelix

Rating: Poor

Analysis: Because of his later season development, I rate Neelix as poor rather than abysmal. But the first few seasons were utter torture.

 

Character: Chakotay

Rating: Abysmal

Analysis: My least favorite character by far. Not only was his character shallow, but the writers sucked every ounce of masculinity out of him. Once it became clear that he was never going to challenge for command of Voyager and that he was going to become Janeway’s throw mat, he became a total non-factor in the series.

 

 

All told, I think that Voyager had good characters in place of exceptional characters, and poor characters in place of average characters in comparison to TNG or DS9, for instance. Instead, the show focused on wowing the viewer with quick and explosive plots rather than working the characters to their greatest, though limited, potential. Voyager began the downward quality of Trek that we all had learned to love with TNG and DS9. And as we can see from ENT ratings, even watered-down Trek has little appeal anymore.

[Cougar 0]

Robert Picardo was probably the best actor there on the show, that's why everyone liked the Doctor.

[FredM 0]

Robert Picardo was probably the best actor there on the show, that's why everyone liked the Doctor.

Hey there,

 

This is a point that shouldn't be overlooked. As crazy as it sounds, The Doctor became a more important character to people than Janeway or the rest of them. I mean, honestly, I would have been fine with him getting back to the Alpha Quadrant and the rest ending up in a black hole. ^_^