Originally, I was very skeptical about Voyager, I was avoiding it at all costs. I was thinking that only the original (TOS) could be good, and the rest is just junk. Hell I was wrong, but don't jump that far ahead yet.
My basic idea was "A female captain? That can only be bad" So I was avoiding it in every way I didn't watch it in television, not even the n+1th rerun. In fact I haven't seen a single episode of it until last year. I only turned to it because when I finished TNG I had nothing to watch. And a friend recommended it, said that it's not as bad as I think. So I gave it a try. The first episode (the Caretaker) hasn't changed my opinion too much, but what came after that, surely did.
I was hooked immediately. Sometimes I watched 8-10 episodes in one day. I thought nothing could be better than TNG, but Voyager is better, it's more enjoyable. Yes there were some brilliant episodes in TNG, but on the whole I think Voyager is clearly better.
---SPOILER in next paragraph----
I loved all the characters in the series (except B'Elanna) but that doesn't mean she was not a good character. I just didn't like her. I was even a bit disappointed when Tom and her became involved. I thought he deserved so much better than a hysterical, arrogant, cocky half-Klingon who wasn't even pretty IMHO. I didn't like Neelix at first, but It changed after season 3. I realized that it was his exaggerated jealousy about Kes what was annoying me, so after Kes was gone, I started to like Neelix.
---END of spoilers---
I heard many ppl refer to voyager as the dumb star trek, or the worst of the franchise, but that's just untrue. I think it's not dumber than any other science fiction series, or Star Trek series. Of course there are some goofs in it, but which series doesn't have its own factual errors? Anyhow what I noticed is that the people who tend to like DS9, doesn't like Voyager. So if you hated DS9 you'll love Voyager, because I can't stand DS9, I tried to watch it many times, but failed at each attempt, I was ... but this would belong to a review about DS9, so I'll skip it now.
In my opinion Voyager is the Best Star Trek series. It has everything I love about Star Trek, while it has very little that I dislike.
---SPOILER Below---
The only thing I could complain about was the series finale if anything was dumb about voyager then that was it. The whole time travel thing and that armour thing was simply dumb, of course they could integrate a technology thirty years more advanced than their own into their ship in a matter of hours, at such scale. But what annoyed me even more about the finale that it didn't take the time, to tell what happened to the crew after their return to earth. It could have been at least one more episode about that.
But fortunately what was missing from the series finale was in the first part of the Voyager: Homecoming book by Christie Golden, so if you felt empty after Voyager, go on and read it. I'd love to see it make it to the screen, much more than this new "young kirk and young Spock craziness" but that just doesn't gonna happen. :(
My basic idea was "A female captain? That can only be bad" So I was avoiding it in every way I didn't watch it in television, not even the n+1th rerun. In fact I haven't seen a single episode of it until last year. I only turned to it because when I finished TNG I had nothing to watch. And a friend recommended it, said that it's not as bad as I think. So I gave it a try. The first episode (the Caretaker) hasn't changed my opinion too much, but what came after that, surely did.
I was hooked immediately. Sometimes I watched 8-10 episodes in one day. I thought nothing could be better than TNG, but Voyager is better, it's more enjoyable. Yes there were some brilliant episodes in TNG, but on the whole I think Voyager is clearly better.
---SPOILER in next paragraph----
I loved all the characters in the series (except B'Elanna) but that doesn't mean she was not a good character. I just didn't like her. I was even a bit disappointed when Tom and her became involved. I thought he deserved so much better than a hysterical, arrogant, cocky half-Klingon who wasn't even pretty IMHO. I didn't like Neelix at first, but It changed after season 3. I realized that it was his exaggerated jealousy about Kes what was annoying me, so after Kes was gone, I started to like Neelix.
---END of spoilers---
I heard many ppl refer to voyager as the dumb star trek, or the worst of the franchise, but that's just untrue. I think it's not dumber than any other science fiction series, or Star Trek series. Of course there are some goofs in it, but which series doesn't have its own factual errors? Anyhow what I noticed is that the people who tend to like DS9, doesn't like Voyager. So if you hated DS9 you'll love Voyager, because I can't stand DS9, I tried to watch it many times, but failed at each attempt, I was ... but this would belong to a review about DS9, so I'll skip it now.
In my opinion Voyager is the Best Star Trek series. It has everything I love about Star Trek, while it has very little that I dislike.
---SPOILER Below---
The only thing I could complain about was the series finale if anything was dumb about voyager then that was it. The whole time travel thing and that armour thing was simply dumb, of course they could integrate a technology thirty years more advanced than their own into their ship in a matter of hours, at such scale. But what annoyed me even more about the finale that it didn't take the time, to tell what happened to the crew after their return to earth. It could have been at least one more episode about that.
But fortunately what was missing from the series finale was in the first part of the Voyager: Homecoming book by Christie Golden, so if you felt empty after Voyager, go on and read it. I'd love to see it make it to the screen, much more than this new "young kirk and young Spock craziness" but that just doesn't gonna happen. :(