The Show
Voyager is a fan favorite of many readers; for many folks currently in their 20s and 30s this was their introduction to Star Trek. It has had a large influence on entire generation of Trekkies, especially young women, many of whom went on to pursue careers in the sciences.
I personally recall watching the pilot “Caretaker, as part of the launch of the brand new UPN. Voyager was certainly the high point of the network, the other show I can remember was some awful action-adventure show with Richard Grieco (Wikipedia tells me this was called Marker). Coming off the high of the finale of TNG and Generations (because it was cool to see our TNG heroes on the big screen, plot issues not withstanding), Voyager had a lot to live up to, and it mostly succeeded. Sadly, the idea of UPN did not, and it started to drag Voyager down with it.
I’ve of course revisited VOY over the years. It was syndicated once it hit 100 episodes and I recall watching those repeats sporadically on weekday evenings. I’ve been doing a rewatch more recently in earnest. I have to say there’s a lot to like about Voyager.
For as much crap as Captain Janeway gets from people, I find her to be a captain that I’d want to serve under. She watches out for her people, she came up into command from the sciences, and it shows: she’s inclusive, collaborative, and loves a good problem to solve. I think Tuvok is the best “not-Spock” Vulcan we meet in the franchise. B’Elanna is another great character, she’s a kind of extension of the (awesome) idea first explored in K’Ehleyr in TNG of a half-Klingon, half-Human character; in an early episode, “Faces,” she literally gets to see her other half. Chakotay, while the American Indian aspects are not well done, is another character that you come to see why he was a Maquis leader: he’s a fair and honest commander. The Doctor slowly becomes less of an annoying hologram and is treated like a member of the crew, though his notions of being an opera singer kinda swing him back to being annoying again. Tom is mostly redeemable after some rough early stuff where he’s quite the “frat boy,” and then of course there’s his buddy “poor” Harry Kim, who never gets promoted, but is otherwise a likable guy. Neelix I find mostly annoying. His relationship to Kes is borderline gross, and Kes, while potentially interesting, is written off before much more can be explored. We come of course to the newest addition to the crew, Seven of Nine. I have to give credit to Jeri Ryan and the writing staff for turning what was an obvious ploy by the UPN network suits for more T&A into a complex character. If only they would have let her wear a normal uniform! (shades of Deanna Troi there).
Packaging
To get to what I imagine is the first question that pops into many folks minds: sadly, no, this is not a remastered high definition release, and there likely never will be, the huge costs (in time/post-production staff/money) to remaster the show is something CBS just isn’t interesting in spending. This is the same DVD content from the individual season sets released in 2004, just packaged up in one boxed set. This boxed set is more compact than having seven individual season boxes.
Thankfully, the episodes on each disc are written on the label! This has been an ongoing issue with many of the DVD and Blu-ray sets released over the years by CBS and/or Paramount. So kudos to CBS for having episode titles on the discs.
There is also an index on the inside covers (front/rear) of the discs in each case.
Also note that there are 47 discs in this set, something I can only imagine the folks at CBS Home Entertainment found greatly amusing, and possibly something they did purposefully. The number 47 was incredibly commonplace in Voyager episodes (and TNG before it), thanks to writer Joe Menosky liking the number, so just about any time a number was needed, it was 47 — 47% shield strength, 47 kiloquads of data, and so on.
What’s on the discs
The content of the discs is the same as the 2004 DVD releases, so there’s nothing new here, but since these are effectively the same discs, you do get all bonus features that were included before. These include: character profiles, one for each season, for each member of the cast; a look at the visual effects of Voyager; designing the alien makeup of the Delta Quadrant; features focused on enemies new and old such as Species 8472 and the Borg Queen; plus much more.
The only bonus content not included are the retailer exclusive discs from the season sets that were sold by Best Buy back in 2004.
A word about DVD versus Streaming
You may be thinking: Voyager is up on various streaming services, why do I care to have it on DVD?
If you care about image quality, then you’ll care to have it on DVD. The copies of VOY, and DS9 provided to the streaming services are quite poor. While there’s no getting around the fact this is a ’90s TV show done in standard definition, the masters prepared for streaming were improperly processed for progressive scan displays (i.e. all modern computer, tablet, phone, and HDTV screens), they have noticeably poor deinterlacing; anything in motion that goes near a series of lines that intersect or anything with diagonal lines aren’t properly handled, causing “combing” for the first case and “stair-stepping” in the second case. It’s very common to see this in Sickbay because of the tight vertical lined pattern that wraps around the main diagnostic bed.
In the example below take a look at Tom Paris in motion, crossing the closely-set vertical lines of the background pattern in Sickbay. It created “combing” in the streaming version that shouldn’t be there.
Modern DVD and Blu-ray players, and HDTVs themselves, typically have very good video processing in them. They’re made to handle these exact issues when going from a standard definition show (480i) to the native resolution of the TV (1080p or more). They generally do an excellent job at motion adaptive deinterlacing, so it’s no problem feeding them this DVD, they’ll produce the best output you can expect for something so low resolution.
Final Thoughts
Owning a show on physical media is really the only way to be sure you actually own the content. Just about any kind of online format (download or streaming) is only granting you a license to play it, not to own it. If you’re a Voyager fan and don’t own the previous DVD season sets, if you’re a bit of a completist and want to be sure you own a copy of every series in the franchise, or if you’re bothered by the streaming version’s image artifacts, then this DVD release of the complete series is for you.
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I’ve adored TOS since I first saw it in 1969, but it IS a product of its time, which means that it can be quite sexist. As a female Star Trek fan, I was thrilled the first time I saw a female captain geek out with a female chief engineer in only the second episode of Voyager. I hadn’t even been aware of how hungry I’d been to see something like that in Star Trek until I got it. Thanks, Voyager!
Yes that’s an awesome moment. It’s one that I didn’t really latch on to at the time, as a teenage boy it didn’t really speak to me, but as adult, with a much better understanding of the world and other people’s points of view, I can see how important that scene is. I want my future kids to see a scene like that and be inspired by it, and know it’s normal to be passionate about science and engineering.
“Normal to be passionate about science and engineering” — Yes, and I want to live in that world. ;-)
I’d like to see a day where two women having a discussion is not a cause for praise. Sadly we’re not there yet. Funny how progressive Star Trek has always been, huh?
Makes me wonder what all the fuss over diversity in the new series is all about.
Im proud to say it never occured to me that the captain was female or that the chief engineer was either! To be honest I didnt think about Sisko being black until he raised it in episodes. I grew up watching Red Dwarf too (a cult UK sci-fi comedy series) and it never occured to me that the lead role and another (semi) lead role were black too. Sci-fi must help give you an open progressive mind :-)
The show’s ending was a slap in the face. Incredibly disappointing. Star Trek Voyager had more to do with time-travel than interstellar travel, it is a surprise that they didn’t send Voyager through time rather than to the Delta Quadrant.
There were some great episodes, character development, and aliens. But in the end it fell flat. Don’t act like the final seconds of Voyager flying through the transwarp conduit only to have the ship fly off towards Earth didn’t make you go…. wait, what?
My opinion, they should have made it home at the end of Season Six, and spent the entire Seventh Season with the crew experiencing the reality of coming home and feeling out of place. This happens to people who are stranded on islands, and also POWs.
Imagine a trial for the Maquis crew.. Janeway being court martialed for the incident and also the decision to make the Maquis starfleet officers. Where was her authority to negotiate a truce with the Borg that resulted in the murder and destruction of another race? What about destroying another Federation Ship? Not following the orders of the Omega Directive and involving the crew, some of whom were known terrorists? The Temporal Prime Directive that was disregarded time and time again? She would have to answer these questions and they would be difficult to explain.
Seven of Nine being studied by scientists and losing her rights. The Doctor being sent to Jupiter Station to be studied and losing his rights as an individual? Naomi Wildman meeting her father for the first time. Tom Paris still not seeing eye to eye with his father and seeing that Voyager was really his home and he felt more lost now than ever before.
How about how the Federation changed since the Dominion War? All the lives lost? Maybe the crew came back to Alpha Quadrant to find it was not the place they remembered. It would have been a great way to bind all the TNG era series together into one fitting goodbye.
The whole 7th Season should have been about their place in the universe…. and all the actions and events they experienced during the run of the show coming back to haunt them/affect them.
I have so many ideas on how the show should have ended… abruptly with no fan fare or lesson about the journey was not the way to go.
Another exampled of an amazing idea horribly executed.
Yep I generally agree with your point, throughout the entire series there should have more conflict among the two crews, and agree we should see how they tried to get back their lives, that would have been a very interesting and trying time for the crew.
From all the behind the scenes stuff that’s come out since VOY aired, we know they were pushed to make everyone get along, and to focus on tech, and other “Star Treky” things that the network suits thought made up Trek. It’s why ENT season 1 wasn’t spent on the ground trying to get the warp 5 engine space worthy, and so on.
Yes, I would have liked a season (or even half a season) dealing with some of these issues. The final moments of the Voyager finale felt very abrupt. When the credits rolled on the TNG and DS9 finales, I had a bittersweet feeling of completion. When the credits of Voyager rolled, I thought “What? That’s it?”
I think the ultimate thing here was that the writers did not really care all that much for character development and arcs. Voyager had basically become an exclusively episode show like TNG was from the third season. The first two seasons actually had a lot of character arcs and some decent development of characters. But this seemed to stop later. The best we got were occasional sequel episodes and a few two parters and trilogys. Basically TNG-Mark II; Trying to replicate the success of that show, but seriously flagging.
The whole concept demanded a serialised format very much like LOST (which I loved) and it needed to be a lot darker than the mostly ‘airy-fairy’ stuff we got. We already had TNG and that was great, but why try to make Voyager a retro clone of that show. It shows and complete lack of ideas from the writers because the acting was fine most of the time (although Robert Beltran is not a very good actor IMO). By the seventh season it was all ‘by the numbers’ and ‘safe’ for my taste. Based on how poorly the writers were writing, a return to Earth would have completely befuddled the them and it would have been a disaster.
All things said. Voyager is a ‘fun’ show in hindsight. If I turm my brain off and just watch an episode of Voyager after work or something, its a fun watch. Its aged quite well compared to DS9 as well, which is quite strange? DS9 had better developed characters which were changed people from Season 1 to 7 though.
Honestly? I think for me, the ending was a series of missed opportunities. I think it would have been great if at the very end the future Janeway became the next Borg Queen!
And yes, an entire season could have been written showing the cast re-assimilating (no pun intended) into Alpha Quadrant life. Even a miniseries would have been nice, as the Maquis re-integrate, Paris deals with his father, Janeway with her ex-husband, both Seven & The Doc becoming curiosities for Federation scientists.
That said, i’ve always felt that the finale should have been them getting home in the penultimate episode, but with the borg (or some other threat) following them through the wormhole, and them having to save the Earth from this unexpected attack.
That way, their return would have had them directly impacting a situation back in the Alpha Quadrant/Federation.
Janeway into the Borg queen? Whoa that is seriously out there as an idea. Most fans I think had seen well enough of the Borg by this point of Voyager. The Borg became diluted to the point of ridiculousness. They were zombie-walking clowns, not monsters! They were no longer scary. It is another sign that the writers were either no longer trying very hard, were tired, or they simply lacked the talent to do the business.
While we are pondering the possibilities, an ongoing criticism of Trek now is the notion of technology being the saving grace of the future, to the point where it’s almost considered inerrant. Trek does play it safe now – Yelchin’s Chekov won’t be recast. It’s a divergent timeline, so why can’t he die or be transferred? On day one, everyone knew Voyager would find her way home – can you imagine the shock if the last episode aired exactly as written, except for the last moment, when the transwarp conduit belches out the flaming wreck of the starship? It wouldn’t bother me one bit to see some of the mystique of Treks slavish devotion to technology stripped away….
The Borg were interesting when they remained an existential threat. As you observed, they were neutered pretty quick if the story demanded it. Show Hugh a pictogram and the collective will be shorted out. Adjusting shield frequencies. Didn’t the Voyager crew develop a nanoprobe inoculation? If Janeway were to be assimilated, there had to be no hope of rescue for the development to have meaning, or impact.
Those are good ideas. Could still have done a death thing. Or better yet, leaving someone behind. So season 7 is the homecoming for most of the crew but then showing us a stranded Chakaotay or whomever (maybe more than one..maybe X amount of crew stranded on a planet) with the idea of them trying to build a life there and struggling and the crew that got home struggling with having left some behind and wanting to “go back” somehow.
Voyager returned after the Dominion War. While DS9 mostly sanitized it, hardly an episode went by where entire fleets were obliterated or planets razed. Survivors guilt, anyone? It’s unlikely the Founders were welcomed into the Federation with open arms, and collaborators would have been viewed with suspicion. To TUP’s point, the Federation they returned to was substantially different then the one they left – the desire to go back to a fresh start would have been strong, particularly so if they left someone behind.
You’ve made me want to see every idea you’ve written here.
@Captain Realistic
Yep. In more serialised modern day television, opening season seven with Voyager already back and intercutting the ‘present day’ with flashback stories of how they returned would have been far more interesting.
I’ll still wait for the blu ray remasters. It may be too expensive now but the price to remaster will eventually drop and I have no doubt they’ll do this and DS9.
The prohibitive cost to remaster isn’t in the tech (which, yes, drops in price every year), it’s in the human labor of reconstructing everything scene-by-scene: digging out all the 35mm film from the archives, and scanning it all, reading the production notes about which takes were used on each roll of film, and then assembling it into a new digital video editing workflow, and then re-creating and/or re-rendering (if existing sources are available) all the CG assets. VOY was predominantly CGI from the beginning, and was entirely CGI by Season 5. The human cost doesn’t really drop in price.
What gives? DS9 didn’t get this treatment a couple weeks ago when we were told to see articles from years ago about the show. This type of short review would have been appreciated. Also, no cover art info on the cases inside???
Oh, and Voyager didn’t really suffer from the decline of UPN as much as Enterprise did.
Enterprise didn’t suffer because of the UPN decline, it suffered because it did nothing to attract viewers to UPN. Time shift viewing was changing the way fans watched Enterpris. They recorded Enterprise, and watched nothing lose on UPN, even fast forwarding through the ads. It was an expensive show with an expensive license fee, and did nothing to expand the demographic the network was trying to attract. It wasn’t low viewership that killed Enterprise, it was the lack of measurable audience to build an audience for other programming, despite the considerable cost to produce it. That’s why Moonves killed it as soon as he got his hands on it, and merged with Warner Bros. to reinvent the network with a unified programming slate. Look at the CW today. It’s unlikely Star Trek would fit despite the super hero shows, since they tend to skew toward fantasy as do the endless vampire/supernatural shows, and teen melodramas. For Trek to fit, it would require a fundamental restructuring. Actually thinking about it, DS9 could be re-tooled to fit quite nicely, with a much younger cast. No wonder it was never one of my favorite shows.
When will the blue ray version come out?
Voyage is easily my least favorite Trek series, but I’d buy it on Blu-Ray. Also DS9. For crying out loud, CBS. I stopped buying DVDs TEN YEARS AGO.
If you haven’t read about it, you should. The cost to remaster these in HD is EXCEPTIONALLY high. Sales would not support it. Hopefully they see it as an investment and do it anyway, though!
Yes, what’s required here is the ability to see beyond the current quarter’s profits and think long term. Star Trek is a valuable brand, and one that should definitely be the cornerstone of a CBS media portfolio. Not updating the technology of the shows, which they’ve already done for some of them, is like buying a house and not only not doing periodic renovations, but not even doing routine maintenance. These shows look horrible on a 60″ screen and are a tough watch now. In ten years, when screens are even bigger and audiences are used to 4K, they will be an absolute joke.
I guess a blu ray version would be asking too much of CBS to upgrade? Personally even if I were a HUGE Voyager fan, I’d rather it be on blu. I have started rewatching the series on Netflix. Recently finished up season one. Haven’t seen the episodes since they were originally aired. Looking forward to reliving it.
Watching on Netflix or renting on NEtflix?
My first introduction to Trek was in 1994 when I caught a rerun of Arena. I was hooked on the franchise before I even knew my mom was a Trekkie. For the next seven years I grew up watching new episodes of Voyager and DS9 while watching reruns of TOS and TNG. For seven years I watched a lot of Trek. As a kid I probably favored TOS over TNG because it had a more action/adventure feel. Despite watching four different Trek show at the same time the setting of each one made me feel like I was watching something different. Maybe I was a little bit burned out when Enterprise was aired despite enjoy several episodes. I rediscovered Enterprise in 2005 and became a fan again.
DS9 fans have just raised half a million dollars on a kickstarter campaign just for a DS9 documentary. So there is still a considerable fan base for DS9 and I’m sure many would buy DS9 in HD format. I can’t speak personally for VOY as I find most of the characters quite dull. CBS need to take note and seriously reconsider upgrading DS9 (and possibly Voyager) to HD standard else these two series will soon diminish in of the general public and will struggle to pull in new generations (who will probably be put off by the low quality of the SD picture). This franchise has made so much money over the years & is a world record holder. It would be a terrible shame to lose interest 14 seasons just because of low picture quality. I for one don’t buy dvds anymore (save only stand up comedy) but for series that are visually interesting, HD & 4K are the way to go.
DS9 and VOY are not really in the public consciousness anymore. Only Star Trek fans like us hold those two shows t heart. Even TNG is somewhat past it now. Sales of the blurays for TNG are rumored to have been disappointing. Shame.
I think its going to take them thinking they can make money off higher incensing fees for remastered HD DS9 for them to bother doing it. Hopefully they do. And sell the Blu Rays at a better price point and you will sell a lot.
People are going to get to the point where they wont watch SD on their 60″+ screens when everything else is in 4K or better. CBS will have to scuttle those programs or remaster them.
I wonder, if Discovery is a success if CBS would build a remastering budget into their All Access programming budget with the idea of remastering DS8 & Voy and airing them exclusively on ALL ACCESS (and ofcourse charging Netflix to air them internationally. Might work…
If CBS were smart, they’d give both Voyager and DS9 the HD remaster treatment, release them on Blu-Ray, and offer them for HD streaming exclusively on CBSAA. The more reasons people have to buy your service, the more people will.
Im surprised Voy and DS9 arent getting remastered if only because of syndication. One as to assume their popularity on Netflix is in that “sweet” spot of being strong enough to keep airing the lesser quality but not showing enough room for growth to warrant remastering them for higher licensing fees.
Doesnt CBS do this in-house? So the “real” cost isnt exactly the cost of the staff etc since they’d be working on something else presumably.
They don’t really do it “in house” they way you’re probably thinking. For the TOS and TNG projects they basically just used CBS Digital as a home for the staff, while a project is underway. For most of the VFX industry, and a lot of the post-production industry, teams are assembled ad-hoc, as needed for gigs, typically as contract work. So for example much of the team assembled for TNG-R has long since moved on. So it would require a lot of human time to gather up the troops again, assuming the same folks are even available.
CBS Digital itself has a full time staff, but what they mostly do is smaller/shorter-term post-production work for various TV shows, like titles for shows, digital matte background extensions, etc. CBS-D’s most known well work is probably the title sequence for Modern Family.
Here’s an older article but still enlightening about how it worked for TOS-R
https://trekmovie.com/2006/11/20/behind-the-scenes-at-cbs-digital/
Also, TNG-R was such a big task, they farmed Season 2 and Season 4 out to other production houses.
TrekCore did a big 5-part interview on TNG-R here, well worth reading:
http://trekcore.com/blog/2012/09/exclusive-trekcore-interviews-cbs-digital-part-i/
And recently TrekNews did an interview with one of the TNG-R Blu-ray producers that outlines things nicely:
http://www.treknews.net/2017/02/02/why-ds9-voyager-not-on-blu-ray-hd/
I’d love to see VOY on Blu-Ray, even more than DS9. Of course, both shows deserve the HD treatment, but in comparison, VOY was far more what I expected from Star Trek than DS9 could ever be due to its premise and setting.
Yeah, VOY had its serious flaws… the Maquis/Starfleet tension was abandoned far too soon and the Borg just weren’t dangerous enough – just to name some of the most prominent complaints… but after all, it was a show about exploring the unknown and it really had the greatest visual progress of all Star Trek series. Many exciting planets, phenomena and species, and a lot of interesting scifi concepts.
Was it too heavy on time travel? Well, sure…but I’m glad they did stuff like that a lot more often than on TNG. Future’s End, Relativity and Timeless are still very good episodes…on par with TOS classic time travel stuff that I missed so much on NextGen.
The characters were a mixed bag… I loved Janeway, B’elanna, Seven, the Doctor and most of Tuvok, but Paris, Chakotay, Neelix, Kes and Harry were blad and boring. But then… Riker, Crusher and Geordie were hardly any more exciting.
I’d give VOY 8 out of 10 any day. It’s a B+!
I disagree about the cast assessment. I’m rewatching now, and while Neelix is annoying (and I could take or leave him), the cast really compliments each other. Kes was an interesting character they simply didn’t know what to do with, but nevertheless gave them some interesting episodes (I’m not sure Neelix ever did that as part of his character traits). Seven went much further on that front. The only one that didn’t seem to sell his roles was Harry, but I blame that on the actor more than the character. Harry was given some interesting stories, but the actor didn’t really seem to know how to embrace them. But as part of the ensemble he was a perfect compliment. TNG by comparison had some horrible characters that felt shoehorned into the cast — mainly Troi. But Yar was horrific. And don’t get me started on Wesley. Geordie was like Harry to me, and I never had a problem with Crusher, but Riker could have been killed on an away mission and I wouldn’t have missed him for a minute.
Voy caat was decent. I agree about Kes. I think they liked the idea of a character who’s entire life span would be played out during the show but they didnt seem to have an over-arching story planned out for her, or anyone really.
They really missed the mark on the Maquis crew. There should have been more conflict leading to the merging. They only briefly touched on it. More conflict between Chakotay (and why Janeway trusted him) and Tuvok, who got passed over for a Maquis Commander, for example.
And Paris was the most obvious arc but he went from irresponsible, rebellious jerk to just one of the crew way too fast.
I felt like Paris, Kim, and Chakotay were written to be very milquetoast to avoid clashing with the female characters. But it was totally unnecessary. You can absolutely have both strong male AND female characters. Look at the reboot Battlestar Galactica.
a show good on high concept spectacle but unable to drop the ‘re set button’ when it needed to make real change/development to the characters and stick to it.
the paris/torres couple was as good as it got.
shows like ‘learning curve’, ‘good shepherd’ and ‘equinox’ where potential recurring characters disappeared after each story.
but torres, 7 of 9 and the EMH make it worth a watch but not classic ‘trek’.
Who the hell still buys DVDs in 2017?
ML31 still “rents”.
I’m having a great time re-watching DS9/VOY eps. on Netflix in order of air date. However, these shows are 16-24 years old and won’t be buying them unless they get remastered like TNG Blu-ray, of which I’m a proud owner.
And I’m watching them on ION. One way or the other, these shows will always be available somewhere, even if it ends up only being CBS Access. Considering the picture quality, there’s really not much point in the minute improvement these DVDs may offer. I frankly don’t care whether I own these shows from an entertainment perspective, and certainly not from a quality perspective. The reality is, once these SD videos are up-res to a 1080p display, of even 40″, much less 60″, the quality of the picture is going to suffer so much that the only thing worth watching is the story and characters (so often lacking in much of VOY). $150 will buy me a lot more entertainment on Netflix for two years, including VOY, than the slight improvement in picture quality, and the opportunity to take up more space on a shelf to gather dust that this DVD set offers. This seems like an incredibly clueless move on the part of CBS to me, that or Trek fans are far more gullible than I ever thought.
Underestimate the cluelessness of CBS at your peril. The version of TOS that’s streaming on CBSAA is the banged up, unremastered version, complete with glorious mono soundtrack. Family jewels, indeed.
And my reply to that is “who cares”. It’s still an SD image when up-resed on any decent sized HDTV is going to look like crap no matter how good the source material. Stereo audio is completely overrated in this series as well. Maybe if the music were more than stale goose-eggs for minutes at a time, it might matter. But it doesn’t. Such things are icing on a cake, that sadly won’t make it taste any better.
Well, no. The version of TOS that’s streaming on Amazon and Netflix is the HD version that was transferred from the original 35mm negatives and looks fantastic. Why CBSAA chooses got stream the old crappy SD version is beyond me, especially given that the actually own the material.
There is no other version of VOY than SD. Streaming or DVD, it’s still crap on any decent HDTV set, which is upres-ing it from 480i to 1080p. This is not the same as the remastered TOS which is native HD.
Wow really??? Is CBSAA showing the SD versions?? Why?
Honestly I never even saw the TOS remastereds until I joined up for Netflix and frankly was surprised to see it there. You would think CBS would just let Netflix have the old versions and then save those for actual Blu Ray buyers as kind of a bonus. This is exactly why DVDs are dying now. There is no reason for me to buy those when I get the updated HD version on Netflix and can watch them any time now. And I really like it. It feels updated but same time still fits in the time period of the show.
Good article, Matt.
But, I have to say that Janeway is the captain that I’d least want to serve under. For the first half of the series, Janeway regularly puts her crew in danger, and turns down opportunities to get them home, rather than inconvenience some alien culture. That’s not a captain I’d want to serve under. At some point during the latter half of the series, Janeway resolves her conscience in favor of her crew, finally.
Tim Russ’s performance as Tuvok is one of the most consistently underrated in Trekdom. Russ portrayed the most Spock-like Vulcan since Spock. The relationship between Tuvok and Neelix is one of VOY’s most notable original contributions to Trekdom—-there’s no dynamic (the annoyer and the annoyed) like it in any other series, and it’s downright moving at times (as in Season 6 “Riddles”). The Doctor (VOY’s answer to Data) was a great bit of character acting from Robert Picardo, and Jeri Ryan brought a fresh dynamic to the show as Seven. Chakotay was sort of the Riker of VOY—-the strapping, handsome first officer whose character turns out to be rather underwhelming over the course of the series. And, coming full-circle, I really haven’t got much to say in defense of Captain Janeway. In the battle between her and Archer for second-to-last place, I’d have to say that it’s a question of who’s least annoying at any given moment. There are times when it’s Archer, and times when it’s Janeway.
Agreed! Russ was an amazing Vulcan. I really loved the portrayal of Tuvok and his love/hate relationship with Neelix.
DVD’s in 2017 LOL
I watched Voyager during its original run in the 90s and early 2000s, and then bought each season on DVD as soon as it was available for purchase. I’ve let them sit on a shelf since then, but am glad to say I’m now “rediscovering” Voyager on BBC America and very much enjoying the experience during the Monday night airings of later-season episodes. The show holds up well. The adventures are exciting. The characters are, for the most part, rich and interesting. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the ridiculousness of all those “near-weekly” shuttle destructions of the first few seasons, but I’ve grown to admire Janeway and the crew even more for sticking to Starfleet principles, despite the nearly endless parade of duplicitous aliens in the “Deception” Quadrant. Bravo.
In re-watching on ION, I’m remembering one of my chief complaints … that they had such limited resources, yet somehow it didn’t affect their ability to use the holodeck. That device became a crutch for the writers much too soon in the first season, and one that undermined the potential of the series throughout.
Yes, they made a big deal about “limited resources” in the early seasons, rationing the crew’s use of food replicators and so on. The show was high on action and destruction, but low on explaining “restoration,” given no Federation starbases in the Delta Quadrant. You could drive yourself crazy thinking of all the examples. Star Trek: Enterprise learned from this example and did a better job of “maintaining the continuity” of damage to the ship from week to week.
Of course, we can’t forget that it’s the No. 1 “job” of fans to “fill in the blanks” and figure out all the ways Voyager made repairs, built new shuttlecraft, etc. It’s the only way to stay sane AND have fun. :)
I had no idea Voyager was running on BBC again. Yeah I just checked for Monday and there is an entire Voyager marathon tomorrow! Like 20 hours! Yeah thats pretty cool. Even though I have Netflix I might watch as much as I can since I don’t work tomorrow.
Yeah, but it’s Voyager.
I own the original discs and was SO excited to get them back in the day. I eventually took all the discs and put them into a futuristic looking DVD case so they are all in one place and I could take them anywhere :) But I still have the original packaging, you know, just in case that’s ever necessary… haha. I watched the entire series again with some friends several years back, watching all the extras. Voyager is one of my favorite shows and has always inspired me creatively.