2) Janeway, despite constant protestations to the contrary, feels no sense of responsibility for the crew under her command, and sends them flying into almost certain death for pointless reasons and with narry a thought spared for the morality of it.

3) I’m convinced that the ‘accidental’ catapulting of the ship to the delta quadrant was actually planned by starfleet, who wanted to rid themselves of an abortion of a ship design and the most useless crew to ever stumble their way through the academy. The ONLY thing the ship does well is move fast, and that’s the one facet of the ship’s capabilities that Janeway chooses to never employ, preferring to stand and fight every hopeless battle she comes across.

4) Janeway is clearly someone’s misguided attempt at forcing the “strong female” role into a universe that should and (as evidenced by TNG, is) above that sort of thing.
The mother of Worf’s child, who was also half-klingon, managed to be strong and proud without coming across as petulant like Torres.
Despite not being a captain herself, I could have more comfortably seen Beverly Crusher filling the chair on the Voyager and getting the ship and crew home safely within an episode or two. Not to mention she would have more justifiably earned the crew’s respect so that viewers didn’t have to convince themselves that Janeway was worth anything less than a mutiny.
Basically, despite being accused of sexism by people who disagree with my opinion of Janeway, I think that it’s the writers and Janeway’s fans who are the sexists that somehow equate “strong women” with “annoyingly whiny, gender-bashing stereotype”.

5) The first officer is an irresponsible idiot who lets mistakes from his own distant past regularly creep up and put the entire crew at risk.

6) TNG gave me philosophical space stories that gave me cause to pause for though. DS:9 gave me strong, compelling stories that added a before-unseen level of action to Star Trek, without too much dumbing down for the sake of laser-junkies. Voyager gave me nothing at all but a loss of respect for Star Trek, and nerd-rage induced ulcers.

Claims to respect other cultures, but…

1. Rescues Klingon rebels because they cannot fend for themselves; seek freedom from Klingon annexation.

THEN…

2. After being found guilty of crimes against the Klingon Empire, has enough respect for the culture to escape from prison, and then escape capture one more time aboard a Klingon vessel.

3. Condemns a cogenitor to sexual slavery when initiating first contact out of respect for the new species. Then has the balls to blame Trip for the cogenitor’s suicide when all he was trying to do was advocate for it’s rights.

THEN…

4. Rescues a sex slave from a market because he doesn’t believe one person can own another.

5. THIS ONE’S THE MOST IMPORTANT: The Vulcans lead around humans on a leash, Archer included. Why would you allow the Vulcans to “lead” humanity into intergalactic space when as a species you feel that everyone is equal. BTW: Enterprise portrays Vulcans as hella racist and prejudiced… basically ruining decades of bad ass precedence established by Spock. For shame.

Archer is the only one who is truly inconsistent, and every episode is basically “Let’s just do all the whimsical crap Archer wants to do because there’s no prime directive.” I feel that Janeway was grumpy mostly due to plot holes, which by midseason of DS9 become rampant because all major plot lines had been recycled in one form or another through the different series.

Watch the episode Basics, parts 1 and 2, the cliffhanger enclosing the end of season 2. In it, Janeway risks everything Voyager and her crew have to rescue a test tube baby of a traitor working with the Kazon. The entire mission should’ve been scrapped before they even had their first senior staff meeting. Everything after the opening credits should have been ignored. As you watch the crew undertake this pointless mission, pay attention to everything they lost: Lives, resources, time. Did they even eventually succeed in their mission?

Then there are 5 seasons left where Janeway has clearly lost the ability to command. Either by mutiny from below or stripped of rank and court martialed from above, Janeway should no longer lead.

This would’ve been an excellent time for Janeway to declare the matter a Kazon internal affair, and move on. Let the Prime Directive work for her for a change. Instead, Janeway does what she does best. She interprets the Prime Directive so Voyager can take the longest, slowest, and most dangerous path home.

People say Janeway had to make X decision for her crew but in the Equinox she goes crazy chasing after Ransom. Ransom broke Starfleet laws, so what does Janeway do? She goes on a suicide rampage to get him even going to far as to threaten execution of one of of Ransom crew members. At that point Chakotay asks “What’s happened to you, Kathryn?” I think most of the audience was probably asking the same thing.

Tuvix was badass

Everyone has different taste, some loved, like or hated voyager for different reasons.

Janeway seem to take decisions based on her needs, not on what is best, and she doesn’t seem to ever pay the price, she always seems to get lucky. The series had good ideas and stories, they just sucked at ending the episodes, they kept getting out of snags in the cheapest ways. And not the mention the most of characters where not as interesting.

Ex:
When facing Borg space she decided to go trough it, re-watch just those few episodes, after the threat of the # race. If it wasn’t for Kess “Evolving” And sending them trough borg space safely. Voyager and all it’s crew would have been assimilated. The End. There is no way they could survive that journey. But they got lucky.

Just watch it and change it to Kess gets killed… what would they have done? Janeway was determined to travel trough Borg space Alone and against all odds! They could have made it interesting, maybe meet a race that’s been struggling against the borg and keeping them at bay for years, which is the reason the borg didn’t take over more space. But instead they cheap it out, skip it all by a cheap character “death”, “evolve”. Janeway pays nothing for her stupid decision.

And Kess is replaced by Space Barbie. … Come on. I have nothing against any of them, but whoever was behind it didn’t do as well as they could have.

I don’t necessarily agree the Voyager ruined Star Trek, but it did implode under the gravity of it’s own awfulness.

Unlike other captains she has a unique and dangerous task of guiding her crew home safely – against all odds.

Overcoming all obstacles they make it. I loved watching the series.

Voyager and Captain Janeway ftw

However, I stumbled across this because I couldn’t believe I was the only one who noticed Janeway’s hypocrisy. Anyone remember the episode Tuvix? The one where Tuvok and Neelix were merged in a transporter accident. He became an individual who decided that he wished to remain the way he was. He had made many relationships as his new self and even though Tuvok and Neelix were now gone, there was indeed, a new life formed. Isn’t that the mantra of Star Trek? To seek out new life… ? Well Janeway discovers an amazing hybrid of two different species who becomes an individual in his own right but at the same time retains many of the features of the two. What does she do? She drags him kicking and screaming for his life to sickbay. She orders The Doctor to implement the new-found reverse procedure in which he refuses under his medical oath. (And rightfully so..) The episode ends with everyone pretty much unsympathetic that a being had just been dragged to his death. Now… that wouldn’t have been such a big deal if she was consistently like that.

Just from memory – what about Season 5 2nd episode “Drone” where a baby drone begins to develop after yet another transporter accident. Instead of immediately destroying the fetus (which posed a certain risk) she lets it grow! After she has screwed so many other races and beings over, she lets a borg live! I could go on and on and continue to bring up examples but I think most people who just don’t see the hypocrisy are never going too… and those that do already feel what I feel so there’s no point in talking more about it.

Oh yeah – one more thing – what right did Janeway have to destroy the Caretaker when it was from an entirely different quadrant. She technically had no Jurisdiction and she had no right to interfere. For all she knew the Ocampa could have been evil and deserved the Kazon aggression. And yes – she started the fight with the Kazon. It would have probably happened eventually but it could have been a much more less antagonistic relationship.

Did I hate Voyager? Nope… did I love it? No.

Regarding your comment on Battlestar Galactica: Laura Roslin was also insanely stubborn and people loved her for it. Strong female characters are not the problems, bad female characters are and Janeway is a bad character. Furthermore, Adama allowing his XO to remain his XO after being discovered to be a Cylon happened at a point where the ‘Cylons are evil’ distinction had been mostly done away with, so it’s not a fault of the show. In fact, it’s a sign that the show operated in a world where characters genuinely changed and followed coherent arcs, something Voyager never accomplished.

Regarding your comment on Stargate Universe: the strong conflict between those two characters is exactly the sort of thing missing from Voyager. They were not only stranded decades away from home, but they were two separate groups forced to work together, and those separate groups used to be enemies. There should be much much more conflict between people on Voyager, but by halfway through the first season any sign of past conflict is basically gone except for when there’s a need for it in the episode’s storyline which was rare.

Finally, DS9 was much less ‘procedural’ — I think you’re misusing the term procedural and what you’re looking for is episodic, but that’s irrelevant — than Voyager and it’s one of my favourite Star Treks. To be honest, TNG had more character growth than Voyager. Looking at the dynamic between any of those characters you can see that it had changed from the first to the seventh season and it had changed in realistic ways. Granted, Voyager did this as well, but the realism of the changes in interaction is more debatable due to the lack of strong characters on the show.

Ultimately, you can enjoy Voyager if you like. My opinion of the show is exactly that: my opinion. That said, I think that the show did a great disservice to the legacy of Star Trek by replacing the strong rich characters previous shows employed with weak thin caricatures with little standing beyond the needs of a given episode.

There’s something endemic to our culture that we see exploration as so masculine an endeavor; blame the pirates and explorers of the western Renaissance, if you will, for intruding into the affairs of other cultures and singularly pronouncing “Dibs!” wherever they landed. There is something ultimately imperial about these lost-in-space shows, with their trials and tribulations for 40 years in deserted lands trying each to reach their proverbial Canaan.

But why are men seemingly given passes on this behavior that you find so reprobate? Look at Cmdr. Adama of BSG–insanely stubborn, absolute in his judgments, yet entirely willing to keep a KNOWN cylon on the ship as his CO! Or Col. Young of SG:U, whose reliance on and civil war with Dr. Rush forms an integral part of the storyline, effects on the survival and operations of the ship notwithstanding. Hell, look at Capn. Kirk, whose own bravado and machismo routinely threatened the lives of those on his ship; yet, because he has “lots of sex” or smirks in just the right way, he gets a pass?

I would ask you to reexamine the bases for Janeway’s hard, cold behavior: being tasked by her starfleet training never to interfere, she realizes that her morals (especially her compassion) are directly in conflict with the prime directive–keeping the Kazon from scavenging tech from the Caretaker’s array, foraging/bartering for supplies, and even navigating hostile territories in space.

Technical/scriptural limitations of the series notwithstanding (yes, the writing and effects are at times rather dull; but then, why did Kirk encounter so many “alien” worlds that had miraculously developed into extremely earthlike cultures?), her “journey” as a character is the ship’s journey. Unlike previous ST shows (prime example is Next Gen, which was incredibly procedural, and had almost no growth or change (other than Data) of ship or characters between episodes), Voyager can’t rely on anything but itself for survival. So yes, most of the episodes are about finding particles or exploring random phenomena, but when you’re completely alone and in a strange land, that is the thing you should be doing; the best Janeway could have done is what she did–to keep exploring and finding new opportunities for getting home without sacrificing her crew or her morals for expediency. The writing may not have been the best, but in my opinion, it’s worth the time and interest.

First, you know absolutely nothing about me, so don’t assume I haven’t written a television script. And even if you know I haven’t, your argument is still invalid because just because I haven’t written something doesn’t mean I couldn’t write it.

Second, critics have absolutely no requirement to be producers of art, they are merely discerning consumers willing to produce an opinion on the record.

Third, I am an avid fan of Star Trek, TNG and DS9 in particular, so to claim that because I dislike Voyager, I am somehow not a legitimate fan of Star Trek is ridiculous.

Fourth, Voyager’s ratings weren’t as good as DS9′s, and they were much worse than TNG’s. So, if “majority rules” it seems clear that Voyager was a failure.

Fifth, “majority rules” has no bearing on my opinion of a show. If everybody in the world but me loved something, that doesn’t mean I have to.

Sixth, just as I have no obligation to write about Voyager, you have no obligation to read my opinion nor do you have any obligation to comment here to tell me why I’m wrong about Voyager.

Seventh, I can watch whatever I want, even if it’s something I’m watching merely to criticise. That is, in fact, the job description of a critic. I might not be a professional critic, but that doesn’t mean I need to shut up.

All that said, come back anytime. I love dissenting opinions; that is, when they’re more persuasive than demands that I shut up.

Sam is correct, if you dislike it so much don’t watch it. Get something better to do then find things to make you mad.

Related to this, I believe it was Brannon Braga who was dating Jeri Ryan at the time they introduced Seven of Nine, a character who I thought brought Voyager down in quality, despite its increase in cup size. So I think it’s more than fair to blame Voyager’s weaknesses on Braga.

It’s true that none of the (living) characters regret their long journey, but that says nothing for the people of Voyager’s crew who died lightyears from their families. Had Voyager left initially, the injured could have been returned to their families, the dead could have been mourned, the living could have lived the rest of their lives away from the troubles of the Delta Quadrant. If anything, that shows that the crew of Voyager are selfish and prefer their freedom over the lives of others. (Besides, in a few years the Cardassians would have been at war with the Federation and the Maquis probably wouldn’t be considered such a dangerous threat to galactic stability.) Additionally, the reason they don’t really regret the journey is because it wasn’t really all that hard. If they had had the (more realistic IMO) travails of the Equinox, they certainly wouldn’t have wished to do it all over again. The reset-button mentality employed in TNG simply doesn’t cut it in a journey like what Voyager endured.

And regarding Insurrection, Picard actually didn’t disobey the prime directive, because he was fighting to ensure an advanced race (specifically a prospective member of the Federation) wouldn’t contaminate and subjugate an inferior race. He did violate it slightly in order to defend that latter race, but it was less of an infraction than had he not interfered. Also, I kind of though Insurrection sucked.

Also, I thought the new movie was much much better than Nemesis or Insurrection. It had lots of fun geeky stuff while still appealing to a larger audience. And the characters felt right, while each successive TNG movie was more about amping up the action rather than treating the characters properly (why for example did Picard have a romance with that woman in Insurrection when the show was leaning towards a Picard Crusher romance for years?). But to each his/her/their own.

With all due respect, she didn’t destroy the Caretaker’s array because she didn’t want the Kazon to get the tech – she did it because if they had taken the tech, they would have destroyed the Ocampa. To be honest, this is a common thread through the series (see her guilt in Night (S5 premiere) over saving another species over her crew) – which technically, you should know if you’ve watched the series

Picard disobeyed the Prime Directive in… Insurrection, I think it was for a very similar reason? It can’t always apply. Sure, she can follow it and not blow up the array and be directly responsible for the extermination of a species just so she could get her crew back home… I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t live with that.

Also, if you watch ‘Shattered’ (S7), none of the crew – past the initial few months – are particularly sad about being stranded. Actually a better example of this is 11:59 (S5) when Janeway has another guilt session and B’Elanna basically tells her none of them would ever have gotten to know each other. After all, had she gone back home, Paris would have been back to New Zealand and B’Elanna and the other Maquis would have been off in jail.

And yes… perhaps every Trek has been dumbed down successively, but this movie is a HUGE leap away from Nemesis in style, glam, everything. It’s pretty obvious – to me at least – considering the amount of people who can’t stand Trek (including any of the previous movies) but will go see this.

I take your remarks about the Hirogen, but to be fair it is still hypocrisy. In the first episode, she destroyed the caretaker’s array rather than use it to leave and let the Kazon take the technology on board. She essentially abandoned her crew 75 years away from their families, friends, and homes because she didn’t want the Kazon to get new technology. If she’d been consistent, she should’ve let herself and her crew die before she gave the Hirogen their holodeck technology.

As for the Kazon, the Kazon did not betray them first. I said in a later post that I’m going through the old episodes and I’ve already begun. In the premiere, the Kazon say they’d like the replicator technology, Janeway says “that would be difficult” and then Neelix holds their Maje at phaser point, then destroys the water Voyager’s crew brought to the Kazon in the first place. It was absolutely Voyager and Neelix who started it with the Kazon.

And when I say she destroyed Trek, obviously I don’t mean that there was no Trek after that, but rather that she was the beginning of the end. She was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria if the end of Star Trek was the beginning of World War 1.

Finally, your remark about the new Trek movie being “dumbed-down” seems rather ignorant of history. Every Trek movie, except perhaps the first one which I enjoyed but was far too masturbatory, has simplified and watered down Trek. Star Trek was destined for television, that’s where it does its thing best. The new movie merely followed in the footsteps of all the other Trek movies.

Sure, she wasn’t always consistent – a couple eps in particular pop to mind – but it certainly seems like you’re leaving half the story out when you complain about the Kazon. Giving them water is not a violation of the Prime Directive. And they (the Kazon) tried to double-cross first!

As for the Hirogen… what would you have had her do? The only reason the Hirogen agreed to a truce was because she gave them the tech. If they hadn’t, either they’d all have died fighting on Voyager or the Hirogen hunting parties would have come after them again.

Besides, she didn’t destroy Trek – Enterprise went on 4 years after it. It’s just not cool enough for anyone to care about it – note the complete dumbing down of the new movie for mainstream appeal.

I also don’t deny that the other Star Trek shows had flaws. All TV shows, all movies, all entertainment media, has its flaws. But Voyager was vastly more flawed that TNG or DS9, and a lot of those flaws stem from the way Janeway was written. That is, inconsistently and hypocritically.

The writing was poor in comparison to generations, we could not empathise with the voyager crew as we could with picard, data or worf. Who cares if Paris wants to fly the delta flyer..the character growth was so limited. Even seven’s character did not grow too much beyond the box!

Bring back a new enterprise with a real captain please!!!!!