Needless to say, I was psyched and ready for the next Star Trek series, Star Trek Voyager. The concepts was great. Another "different" premise with a lot of potential. I was okay with the idea of a woman captain. I figured they'd do that at some point; just not make such a big deal of it. I was happy that the uniforms weren't going to change again. Lol. It never bothered me from TNG to DS9, but it did seem to be a trend. So, I tuned in enthusiastically for another installation of Star Trek. But, ultimately I was disappointed.
I don't want to complain too much. What took the wind out of the sails for me is that with all the progress the Trek franchise seemed to be making, it's like it did an about-face and tried to revert back to TOS or the first two seasons of TNG. Shame on America for the Indians. Shame on America for women. Shame on humans (Americans) who still need to be brought down a peg or two. Shame, shame. I went over all of this in my TNG review, so I'll not dish it all out again. I quit this series very quickly, I'm afraid. Later, I caught some reruns and I tried to give it a second chance, but I still couldn't shake the feeling of a condescending attitude off this show.
I liked the Doctor, Kes, and Neelix. When the comic elements are good, like the doctor, I appreciate it. I also liked the idea of a beauty and the beast type of relationship between Neelix and Kes. The character of Kes was interesting to me... this elf or fairy-like, gentle being. I though she had a lot of potential. I was also interested in Tuvok because Vulcans hadn't had any real representation since Spock. But, in all the episodes I saw, I never saw any more cultural development of Vulcans through this character. You know how I feel about Janeway. If they'd just let her stand without the political crutch, I may have liked her a little better. Chakotay and Kim didn't interest me much at the time. I don't know why I've had it in my head all these years that Torres was supposed to be half Klingon and half Vulcan, which seemed like kind of a stretch. I've read since that she's just another Klingong/Human hybrid. She seemed high strung and hard to watch. My biggest disappointment was in Tom Paris. I mean, the character was okay, but all I could see him as was a missed opportunity to connect this series ever so slightly to the other two, just as there was a small Picard-Sisko connection in DS9. Why didn't they just reprise him as Nick Locarno? Disgraced cadet working a civilian job aboard Voyager gets to prove himself a worthy and honorable officer again over the course of Voyager's run. It's ready made! And, in flashbacks, you could sneak in a guest appearance by some former TNG people or even DS9. Who knows.
I think it's obvious that Star Trek Voyager is my least favorite of the Star Trek franchise. I admit I didn't give it a huge chance, but everything I did see seemed to encourage my initial reaction to it. I understand that it had a definite ending like DS9 did. I appreciate that as well. Perhaps one day I'll watch it all the way through, if for nothing else than just to make sure my Trek knowledge from this era (of the 4 big spinoff series) is complete.
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