star trek voyager
is the story of a starship flung across
the galaxy
two crews won the upstanding starfleet
and the other the rebellious maquis
joined together to find their way home
voyager debuted in january 1995
in the midst of a golden era of the franchise
franchise
star trek is often divided into eras
never officially and more as shorthand
for fans
trek fans consider the original series
and the animated series as the early era
of trek
the original cast movies as its own era
and so forth
if you ask a star trek fan what the best
era of trek was
they will probably say the time between
the late 80s
through the turn of the century when the
next generation deep space nine and
voyager were on the air
they may or may not count enterprise
among its era considering how different
it was
from the rest for a long time the next
generation in deep space 9 were heralded
as the best of this era
and with good reason the next generation
was iconic and deep space 9 was a kind
of precursor to
the peak television style of writing in
which there were season long
arcs completely unheard of in star trek
prior to this
voyager was often considered lesser trek
by the nerdy faithful
or even just flat out bad my
observations about trek fandom
comes from personal experiences
everything from late 90s trek message
boards through modern day facebook fan pages
pages
if your experiences with the fandom are
different that's okay
our experiences are not universal this
general consensus of voyager being
lesser trek has been challenged in
recent years by new star trek fans
according to netflix data star trek
voyager episodes are re-watched more
than any other trek
imdb user ratings for star trek episodes
from shows
before voyager average at 7.466 for the
original series
7.400 for the next generation 7.586 for
deep space 9
and 7.4 for voyager
that's approximately the same as tos and tng
tng
and just below ds9 bear in mind
i don't think a bunch of numbers can
determine some
objective ranking of quality that's nonsense
nonsense
but these numbers do seem to indicate
that a lot more people love star trek
voyager than the uber nerds of the 90s
believed or
at least indicate that those feelings
have broadly changed
a lot of people are re-watching voyager
or watching voyager for the first time
on netflix hulu
amazon and cbs all access and thinking
is this good i would argue
yes it is and before anyone jumps up and
says in your opinion
like yeah i know when i put actually in
the title
i'm being facetious this is just me
kidding around about a thing
that i like and voyager is just a show i like
like
and it would be amazing if we could all
just chill
now with that out of the way why do i
sing the praises of star trek voyager
it's not my favorite trek that's steep
space nine but what is it about
this series that makes it worth watching
to answer that
we actually need to explore the characters
eager young space cadet operations
officer and verified snack
harry kim in trek fan circles ensign kim
is sometimes seen as a disappointing
character who never lived up to his potential
potential
forever trapped in his rank aboard a
starship with little room for upward mobility
mobility
and at the same time forever settled
with a rank that makes everyone look at
him as if he's falling off a turnip truck
truck
a young man at the beginning of his
career but one of the things you'll
learn as you move up the ranks and get a
little older
oh captain don't toy with him kim works
best when paired with someone because
his personality is otherwise confined to
being sincere
officious and shy but it is in these
relationships where kim shines brightest
his closest friendship is with tom paris
right from the beginning
we're introduced to kim in cork's bar in
deep space nine
quirk is attempting to sell him some
lovely stones that are not worth all
that much
and kim newly made an ensign says
we were warned about the frankie at the
academy racist
quark is rightly offended but paris
swoops in with his big dumb chin
and convinces kim not to buy from quirk
repeating kim's line about the dangers
of ferengi
didn't they warn you about ferengi at
the academy racist
from then on kim and paris are
inseparable playing games on the
holodeck according the delaney sisters
the friendship is one of the highlights
of the entire series
season 3 episode 3 the shoot features
paris and kim
unjustly convicted a clamp that
functions as a torture device
is implanted in both of their heads the
psychological and neurological damage
causes them to turn on each other but
kim eventually regains control
and defends paris until they're able to
escape leading to this touching scene
you wanna know what i remember someone's saying
saying
this man is my friend nobody touches him
in the early seasons kim has a strong
friendship with bologna tourists
stemming from their shared incarceration
by the ocapa
she calls him starfleet and he calls her maki
maki
kim is a by the book starfleet ensign
and torres is the hot-tempered maquis
who does
things her own way the duo becomes more
of a trio of friends which includes
paris and then
kim becomes more of a third wheel once
paris and torres get together
nevertheless the early interactions
between kim and torres are great and
their unlikely friendship is one of the
strong parts of the first two seasons
kim's relationship with 7 of 9 starts as
a crush then forms naturally into a
friendship based on mutual respect
for what it's worth it won't be the same
episodes that focus solely on kim are a
mixed bag
season 1 episode 9 emanations is
arguably kim's first starring role but
he is such a passive
entity in it season 2 episode 5
non-sequitur is the next time kim gets
his own episode and it's easily among
his best
kim wakes up in san francisco with no
idea how he got there or what happened
to voyager and his determination is the
first time we get to see kim get
tough it's also just a compelling story
and a favorite among the early seasons
kim does not get another starring
episode until season 3 episode 20.
favorite sun where he stranded on a
planet of women
and it's not great
harry working best as a companion to
other characters might seem like a
failing as if he's not
engaging enough to hold an episode on
his own but it could be argued that this
aspect of his character actually reveals
he's simply a very likable character and
watching him play off other characters
is kim being utilized well he does get
major roles in some classic episodes like
like
timeless and demon where he gets to say this
this
need i remind you winston that there is
no environment less hospitable to
humanoid life than a class y
actually tuvak no you needn't remind me
in season 7 episode 8 nightingale we get
to see kim take a leadership position
which really should have happened
earlier in the series but better late
than never
kim is perpetually embarrassed by his
parents a hopeless romantic
and a loyal friend all qualities that
make him relatable
also he toots he toots real good harry
kim for captain of voyager in a revived
series please [Music]
jakote is the first officer of voyager
former maki rebel and also just
kind of a low-key hunk right sexy and an
understated sort of way
handsome man like you in the first two
seasons of voyager chicote
is the conscience of the ship always
giving sound advice and guidance about
respecting local cultures and traditions
not disturbing burial sites and such his
conscience is what made him want to join
the maquis
resigning from starfleet under moral objections
objections
djokote is an anthropologist at heart
helps the crew through
spiritual matters and in his spare time
he likes the box
he's a well-rounded character with a
rich backstory and it's a real shame
that after season 3
he takes such a back seat to a lot of
the cast but early on chicote had a much
larger role
fans who seemed to think that the series
did not really start until seven of nine
is debuted
tend to forget the chicote of seasons
one two and three
chicote was the main character in the
best perhaps
only really good caisson episode in
which the commander befriends a case on child
child
played by the late aaron eisenberg
jakote's relationship with cesca is one
of the most intriguing parts of the
early seasons
beginning as a friendship with a
previous romantic backstory
to cesca revealing herself as a secret
cardassian to cesca stealing chicote's
dna to impregnate herself okay that is
admittedly some weird sci-fi soap opera
stuff right there but it's also hilarious
hilarious
you're going to be a father hahaha i
stole your junk
takote has major parts to play in
episodes like unity
and a bizarre fan favorite slash goofy episode
episode
nemesis in which chicote is brainwashed
into fighting in a conflict against
aliens who are clearly just predators
it's an emotional journey
undercut by aliens who look exactly like
humans but use synonyms for words we
commonly use
in the trunks did you glimpse any
you've got the trembles if you don't
wrestle your trembles to rage's ally
the nemesis will nullify you like i get
it we're seeing indoctrination as
chicote begins to speak like them but
it's also hard not to laugh chikote and
tuvak have an antagonistic relationship
stemming from the fact that tuvak was a spy
spy
posing as a maquis their differing views
come to a head in the season 3 opener in
which tuvak assumes the indigenous
people of an alien world are dangerous
and cannot be trusted whereas chikote tries
tries
successfully to work with them the best
way to describe chikote is that he's
just a good
dude and maybe that's not compelling for
some people but i find a character whose
traits and actions are defined by his
righteousness and decency
to be very compelling it's the same
argument that splits people on
superman basically if you don't like
superman you won't like jakote and if
you like superman
you just might like chicote one common
complaint about the character
is that he is an amalgamation of various
native american tribes and that the
consultant for the series was actually a fraud
fraud
it's a genuine drawback to the character
and whether or not djokote
works as good representation is a matter
of some debate among native american
star trek fans
and it's one i do not feel qualified to
offer an opinion
the problem with chicote is not chikote
when chicote
is on he's on the problem with chicote
is that there was not enough dukote
compared to other first officers like
will riker and kira nuris
chukote does not get a lot of focus the
biggest missed opportunities for chikote
to break out as a character are probably
all the romantic possibilities that the
series squandered
the most notable being with captain
janeway they had chemistry their
friendship was one of the best
relationships in the series
it was teased in a season 2 episode in
which chicote and janeway had to live
together on a planet
possibly forever but nothing came of it
there was also a tease for milana and
chicote one episode confirmed she had
feelings for him but it was never
addressed afterward poor chicote it will
never be pon far night at the vulcan nightclub
kes is an o'compen which means that like
many aliens in star trek she looks
exactly like a human
except for one defining facial
characteristic unfortunately kessa's
role in the first season
centers around her associations more
than herself
she is nelix's girlfriend she is the
doctor's friend
cass doesn't get to do much except be a
supporting character at the best of times
times
by season two kess featured in the
episode illogium in which kess needed
nelix to decide very quickly whether or
not to be a father due to
some sci-fi shenanigans that affected
her body it's an okay episode
but it only reinforced kessa's character
as being nelix's girlfriend
the only ongoing story cass had in the
first two seasons is nelix being jealous
that she was spending
time with tom paris and she became more
of a prop than a character
someone for paris depined for someone
for nelix to covet
kess is not even involved in the
resolution of the storyline
in which she is the conflict she has a
kind of mentor relationship with tuvak
so there's that i guess
in cold fire cass gets some character
growth but after that
it became clear that the writers simply
did not know how to write
kes as a character who could be the
center of the episode
unlike the other characters she is not
the head of a department and she has no
major role on the ship an episode of the
next generation
starring commander riker could simply
have him on assignment when he
encounters danger but kes
never goes on away missions an episode
of deep space 9 starring dr bashir could
start with an unusual medical problem
that only he
can solve but kess is the doctor's
assistant not the doctor
now the writers could have written her a
role that would have made her
part of the action everything that she does
does
is changeable by the writers but someone
made the decision that kes
is a nurse and that was that kes is sweet
sweet
kind compassionate various other
synonyms for the same thing
and star trek fans just hate her kes
hate comes in many flavors
the first is that trek fans hate the
actor's performance
but they never seem to have as many
qualms about wooden performances from
other trick actors the second is that
she didn't do anything but that should
be cause for disappointment about lost potential
potential
more than hate the third is that they
associate kess with the pre-7f9 version
of voyager
if seven f9 needs a counterpart to
always compare them to
it's kess ocampa aged quickly which
meant that if kess were to last
to season 5 or season 6 she would have
had to wear old woman makeup in every episode
episode
we never got that far though as season 3
turned to season 4 the producers decided
either for creative reasons
or financial reasons or both kess needed
to go
she went super saiyan in season 4 and
disappeared forever
until the end of season 6 when she
returned as a villain to destroy voyager
but then she remembers that she was not
filled with hate
and learns the true meaning of christmas
and then she's gone forever again
kess could have been a lot more than she
was but i will always remember her fondly
fondly
[Music]
voyager went through a variety of
changes as the series progressed
at the end of season two michael piller
one of the series creators
left his role and rick berman and
brandon braga became more involved
character relationships character
emphasis and even the focus of the
series itself
changed starting with season 3 and
reached voyageur's
normalcy by the beginning of season 4
with the introduction of 7 of nine
when people think about voyager they are
more likely to think about this
not this voyager in the first two
seasons had season long
arcs something that rick berman famously despised
despised
so these arcs were gone by season 3.
the arc in season 1 is the integration
of the maquis and starfleet crews into one
one
various episodes show the characters
initially not getting along
then being given senior staff positions
then being instructed
by tuvak the ark in season 2 was about
cesca and the quezon and chicote's
donation to that storyline episodes referenced
referenced
previous episodes and foreshadowed
future episodes
it's the basics of television in the
21st century but was still new to star trek
trek
in the 90s these arcs these developing
relationships made voyager feel like a home
home
the crew like a family their quarters
lived in
their disagreements serious because they
could go over to the next episode
trek fans today remark on how much
better the series became
starting with scorpion part 1 but when
the premise and focus of the series
changed that meant that we would never
see what could have been
kim and torres stopped being besties
paris and torres suddenly had feelings
for each other that the series kept
insisting began in season 1
but there was no real evidence of that
or even the idea that the writers were
setting that up
cesca died in the season 3 premiere
ending the series primary antagonist
before voyager was even halfway home
imagine if q only had encounter at
farpoint and then maybe two more
episodes before pulling the character
altogether not allowing the audience to
see his relationship with picard develop
in classic episodes like tapestry
imagine if gul dukat
perished in an explosion in that early
episode of deep space nine when thomas
riker takes off his sideburns
we would have never seen him in the
dominion or with zeal
or anything else trek fans might scoff
at this because
cesco was no ducat but they didn't
really give her a chance to be
voyager switched her out for the board
queen as the primary antagonist
a character that might have had a more
striking aesthetic but without much
potential for depth
motivation and an arc the kaizon were
not much of a threat but they always
seemed more powerful and more cunning
with cesca leading them
season 3 also largely saw the end of the vedians
vedians
a complex antagonist species that
performs unspeakable
acts out of desperation to save their
culture and their population from a plague
plague
the other notable change in focus after
the end of season 2
is that the maquis were an afterthought
not the characters torres gets a lot of
screen time
but the fact that they were maki is
rarely brought up
they are simply starfleet officers now
in the crowd-pleasing season 3
two-parter future's end
chakote even seems to renounce his
former membership in the maki
contrast that with kira at her days in
the majorin resistance
in the season 3 episode worst case
scenario tuvak confirms that there are
no more major disagreements between the
starfleet and maki crew members
the premise of the series no longer exists
exists
they are still working toward finding
their home but all of their struggles
are external
rarely internal the first three seasons
are often dismissed
but there are simply too many good
episodes in them
and it's a shame that they are seen with
such derision
caretaker is a better pilot than most of
what trek normally gets
looking at you encounter at farpoint eye
of the needle is this
quiet desperate story about voyager
trying to convince a romulan on the
other side of the wormhole
to help them and the twist ending is heartbreaking
heartbreaking
state of flux with cesca is a fine
mystery in which the crew tries to
discover who is the spy
the 37s is just fun voyager finds amelia
earhart on the other side of the galaxy
and it's played up so sincerely
despite the cornball premise projections
really has the doctor come into his own
as he struggles with his own identity
meld introduces lon suitor the best
supporting character crew member voyager gets
gets
he's a murderer with a redemption arc
and it's actually very satisfying
it also gives us emotional creepy tuvak
the early seasons also get two of the
best q episodes in all of trek
the later season q episode is the worst
real life with the doctor's holographic
family and koda with janeway preparing
for the afterlife
both pack an emotional wallop i also
have strong feelings about tuvix
and the ethical conundrum in that
episode my feelings are as follows
that information is not available and
that's what i have to say about tuvix
the first three seasons particularly
seasons one and two
really are worth re-watching in an era
when season-long arcs are more appreciated
tom paris joins voyager straight out of
prison to hunt down the maquis
before that he was with the maki before
that he was in a flying accident at
starfleet before covering it up
and before that he was nick licarno
paris eventually earns the respect of
the maquis and the respect of captain janeway
janeway
opinions on all star trek characters
vary but opinions on tom paris specifically
specifically
vary so wildly i have seen trek fans
think of him as a goofy cringy space chandler
chandler
i have seen star trek fans think of him
as a lovable geek
doofus i have seen people call him the
worst and best
voyager character in fairly equal measure
measure
it also seems to change with the times
he was a very popular character back then
then
and now there's a kind of backlash i
don't know
i i side with liking tom paris
shock horror he's a space pirate of
privilege who develops as a character
throughout the series until he's a dad
and a hollow novelist all that and he
gets the best line in all of star trek
that was us so where's the child
we ate him paris's biggest weakness is
that so few great episodes are those
centered solely around
him his starring roles are in alice
wherein paris falls in love with a shuttlecraft
shuttlecraft
and threshold wherein paris breaks warp 10
10
becomes a salamander and mates with
salamander janeway
paris best central character episode is
30 days
in which he breaks the prime directive
to save a planet and gets sentenced to
the brig
and demoted in rank hashtag tom paris
did nothing wrong
hashtag free tom paris paris works best
when he's paired with his eventual wife
like in the famous
i love you scene from day of honor if
paris gave us one unassailable good
it's the inclusion of captain proton
paris and kim's hollow adventures are
funny and adorable and they feature
satan's robot
the best of captain proton comes from
bride of chaotica with holodecks gone
wrong like they always do
and captain janeway dressing up like
this to save everyone
paris does have a lot of memorable
moments like walking down the street in
world war
ii era france using 20th century lingo
traveling back in time and pretending to
be a secret agent to fool
sarah silverman it's funny that tom
paris became the best comic relief
character in a series that already came
with a pre-packaged designated comic relief
relief
character it's also funny that the
pre-packaged comic relief character gets
some of the most serious episodes but i
will get to that when i get to that
paris has father issues in the episode
hunters the crew is preparing to get
letters from home for the first time
in years it's an ensemble episode but
paris is a big part of it
he tries not to get his hopes up about
hearing from his father and it's just a very
very
quiet warm episode that also features
the heroine
so what about tom paris's wife [Music]
half human half klingon and the series
will constantly remind you about that
bolana torres is a former maquis and
chief engineer on voyager
she is characterized by her fiery temper
that again she blames on being half klingon
klingon
season one episode faces splits torres
into two women one human one klingon
all the way to season 7 episode lineage
in which torres is concerned that her
daughter might look like a klingon
she does get to star in some memorable
episodes like prototype in which she
befriends an android
and dreadnought in which she tries to
disarm her weapon that she programmed
there is an episode of voyager in which
anton vorak is so
haunt that he almost dies blood fever has
has
forec accidentally transmit the ponfar
to torres
for anyone who hasn't watched star trek
the ponfar is a chemical imbalance that
vulcans get every seven years that can
only be resolved by mating or by ritual
combat for some reason
those two things are nothing alike
usually how can that happen
anyway torah's gotta have it and paris
is like not gonna happen because your
judgment is impaired but then tuvak is like
like
no do it and then both vorak and torres
resolve their respective pon fars by just
just
wailing on each other it nearly taints
the whole
paris torres thing fortunately their
actual relationship once it gets started
is mostly sweet they argue but they're a
good pair
and they get married twice due to some
sci-fi hijinx malana has asked me to
forego the rigors of
klingon pain sticks in favor of a more
traditional ceremony
they're saving the pain sticks for the honeymoon
honeymoon
torres gets some good development over
the series resolving her feelings about
her mother and learning to let her walls down
down
so that she can fall in love with
chandler bing [Music]
seven of nine did not replace kess in
the way that dr pulaski replaced dr crusher
crusher
seven of nine did not become an
assistant to a holographic doctor and
minor character
she became head of astrometrics and
arguably the series star from season four
four
through seven it was more like she was
added very suddenly to boost failing ratings
ratings
she became extremely popular and was
given a lot of credit for keeping the
show afloat
criticism of seven of nine is mostly
criticism about how
much intention she was given at the
expense of other characters
and that's certainly fair the more the
series was about seven of nine the less
the series could be about djokote
torres and even captain janeway this
might be a little reductive but
there are two kinds of star trek
episodes episodes that center around a
main character
and ensemble episodes in which the
entire main cast is working towards
solving some problem
in the latter seven of nine began
getting more and more screen time
compared to the others in the ensemble
and in the former episodes centered
solely around seven of nine were a lot
more common than an episode centered
solely around
say harry kim this grew as the series continued
continued
season four had about four episodes that
are mostly about seven of nine
season five had about seven episodes
that were mostly about seven of nine
so this is a valid complaint but with
all of that being said
seven of nine still is a great character
played very well by jerry ryan
she was the star of so many great
episodes and was clearly the breakout
character of the series
the scorpion part 2 obviously but also
the raven when she learns about her parents
parents
drone when jerry ryan says you are
hurting me
and we all cried i did and you did too
seven had great relationships captain
janeway her parental figure
perry kim lost in his perpetual crush
that eventually just develops into a friendship
friendship
tuvak her ally against the emotionals
the doctor her mentor remember that time
seven of nine got rock bottomed by
dwayne the rock johnson on a martial
arts planet run by the reanimator
so good one common complaint among trek
fans who don't like voyager is that the series
series
ruined the borg by ruined they usually
mean that the borg were no longer
threatening as an antagonist or no
longer interesting as a mystery
what once was a species so completely
beyond the power of the federation
became a threat on the level of
say the romulans you know steady stock antagonists
antagonists
there's q who that acts as a cue episode
as much as a borg episode
the classic best of both worlds
two-parter then
iborg one of the best trek episodes of
all time
and then the descent to parter i do not
argue that
voyager ruined the borg i would argue
that the borg
peaked too soon after the best of both worlds
worlds
where do you go you do a more
philosophical episode
to humanize them and then you just
completely botch it
in descent the borg were basically a
hired goon squad for lore
data's evil twin star trek first contact
better answered
the where do you go from here question
following the whole low cutest thing
time travel it's ludicrous and it's
great but after that
it seemed like the borg really were just
another antagonist
the borg was this top shelf threat right
up until the closing credits of first contact
contact
voyager didn't have the scorpion episode
until after first contact
voyager did not play out the borg as an
antagonist the tng
series and movie did they did the only
thing left with the antagonist species
that can ever be done in trek they
joined the main cast
it happened with the klingons an
antagonist in the original series and
then in the main cast of the next generation
generation
it also happened with the ferengi in the
next generation getting new life in the
main cast of deep space nine
and then the same thing happened with
the borg in voyager
they explored the borg through seven of
nine and through
unimatrix zero yes exploring their culture
culture
demystified them but again after first contact
contact
they didn't really have anywhere else to go
some of the complaints trick fans have
with voyager tell you a lot about trick fans
fans
why is the number of photon torpedoes so inconsistent
inconsistent
is an actual constant wine that has
lasted for over 20 years
why didn't voyager take the wormhole in
the gamma quadrant
well allow me to answer these questions
with the question who cares
they bought or made new torpedoes and
they went with the direct
space route instead of the wormhole
route because wormholes are unstable
and if they traveled for decades to
something that might not exist when they
got there
they would have wasted half of their
lives minutia
and lore are not plot holes and series
breaking errors
the only star trek canon i care about is
the photonic canon
i do have actual complaints you know
genuine complaints with star trek
voyager based on what is actually
in the series and not how well it
adheres to canon or
roddenberry's vision voyager did a poor job
job
with its supporting characters the main
cast is very likable and has great chemistry
chemistry
but the series spent little time on
developing supporting recurring characters
characters
supporting characters in trek flesh out
the world of each series and offer new
opportunities for the same characters to
emerge and present new challenges
deep space nine had garrick nag dukat
wynn and so many more the next
generation introduced
q gainen gauran barkley
lore and more voyager by contrast
reused q and barkley and got rid of cesca
cesca
color and suitor in the same episode the
season 3 premiere
they didn't really do much with vorik
except the aforementioned
extremely gross episode afterward he
became a background character like
so many nameless ensigns in star trek as
the series progressed
various children were introduced naomi wildman
wildman
and icheb eachab is a deeply boring character
character
i'm sorry i'm glad as i got pulled out i
don't care
the other complaint is that there were
some disastrous episodes
this is true of any star trek but
voyager had some whoppers
1159 is often hailed as its worst
janeway learns that her ancestor was not
as important as she once thought
and it plays out in a modern day
romantic drama
the funny thing is that the scenes on
the ship with the crew chatting together
about their families
are actually really good and have that
unmistakable voyager chemistry
if the whole episode had been this quiet
story on the ship
instead of the story of someone's car
breaking down in front of a bookstore
it might have been salvaged retrospect
feels like the writers were arguing
against the me too movement 20 years early
early
avoid at all costs false prophets is
your standard ferengi episode meaning
obnoxious and painful to watch
proving that only deep space nine seemed
capable of writing good for angie stories
stories
these episodes along with a few others
make for some indefensible stories and
moments in voyager
tuvak is the sassiest vulcan vulcans are
always written to be humorless but tuvak
has such
contempt for some characters that he
can't help but be sarcastic
an uncommon trait among his people well
shall i flog them as well i love to
this is how he dances look at him go two
box stars on a lot of voyager's best episodes
episodes
the aforementioned episode meld with lon
suitor is intense and powerful
flashback with tuvak remembering his
time serving under captain sulu is not
only fan service but actually a
compelling story with some funny moments
gravity has tuvok paris and the doctor
stranded on a planet and lori petty
falls in love with tuvak and
it's beautiful tuvak has two major
relationships throughout the series
janeway and nelix tuvak and janeway are
old friends their relationship is one of
mutual respect but also
almost familial comfort the scene and
end game between them is so
touching and so sad trek fans often cite
kirk and spock or o'brien and bashir as
the best written friendships in trek but
janeway and tuvak is up there
and then there's nelix nelix is the
comic foil to the sirius tuvak
the relationship actually gets more
development than that though
in the season 3 episode rise tuvak and
nelix must
work together and tuvok's contempt for
nelix is called out
nelix's last episode is also the
resolution of tuvak's relationship with
him as the wise vulcan encourages nelix
to save his people
the talaxians and admits to nelix's
great variety of skills
and leadership qualities unlike most of
the crew
tuvak is not given many relationships
but the two that last
throughout the series are among voyagers
felix is introduced in the pilot episode
as a kind of
junk merchant who persuades the voyager
crew to help rescue kes
unbeknownst to them nelix starts off as
a kind of con artist with the heart of
gold and becomes
arguably the most valuable member of the
crew he's the cook
ambassador morale officer at time
security officer
nelix was designed to be a comic relief
character but it doesn't take long
before the audience
realizes that his nervous talking is a
side effect of a traumatic life
nelix's home planet was conquered his
home on the moon annihilated
his sister lost nelix has been
practically homeless for a long time prior
prior
to boarding voyager nelix gets some dark
and serious episodes that really allow
actor ethan phillips to shine
in the episode phage the elix's organs
are harvested by the vedians and he asks
the doctor to pull the plug on him
jatrel is not a good episode and has a
really problematic resolution
nevertheless it does contain a great
performance by phillips as nelix
mortal coil has nelix recognized that
his religion is false and that there is
no afterlife
and that without his faith his life has
no meaning
i was dead for 18 hours i should have
experienced something i should remember something
something
the episode once upon a time is mocked
because it's the one with flutter but
the story is actually extremely serious
as nelix godfather to naomi wildman
struggles with whether or not to tell
the young girl that her mother may have
been lost on an away mission
when you were her age you were safe and
sound on earth with two healthy parents
to take care of you
you never had to worry about the
possibility of being alone
i feel like star trek fans have referred
to nelix as a jar jar binks character so
many times
that it has created a kind of mandela
effect misremembering nelix as a goofy character
character
when he was just as often portrayed as sincere
sincere
in the first two seasons nelix is
portrayed as having a character flaw
jealousy this manifested most in his
relationship with kess
however the series never portrays this
character flaw positively
always negatively and nelix successfully
overcomes it
nelix and kess breaking up is handled
rather poorly
kess breaks up with him while she is
under the control of an
alien but the breakup somehow stuck and
was never
properly explained i can't defend that
and i won't try
in the end nelix leaves the ship to
defend his people from
space miners and gets a good send-off
it's a little disappointing that he only
gets a
cameo in the series finale but writing
him out as the hero of his people
made more sense for him he is the only
character who lasts
the whole series who had no personal
interest in going to earth [Music]
the doctor is an emergency medical
hologram that due to the passing of the
chief medical officer takes over
responsibilities in sickbay
he begins his life with a terrible
bedside manner but as he becomes more
accepted as a real person
that starts to change particularly in
season 2 episode life science in which
he shows a romantic interest
in a patient the doctor's character
growth throughout the series is
arguably the best out of the cast that
was there from the pilot
the doctor spends a lot of his time
arguing for his own rights
sometimes against the otherwise
enlightened captain janeway who
sometimes is not ready to see the doctor as
as
anything more than a tricorder this contrasts
contrasts
greatly to the relationship between data
and captain picard
the latter defending the rights of the
former from others in starfleet such as
in the measure of a man
and the offspring janeway by comparison
plays both supporter of and opposition 2
the doctors rights depending on the situation
situation
it makes the dynamics between them
really engaging
even tense as janeway holds the keys to
his freedom
but sometimes stands in his way for
reasons of pragmatism
the doctor stars in some of the best
episodes of voyager
message in a bottle is behind only bride
of chaonica as
voyageur's best comedy episode the
doctor is sent across the galaxy to
deliver a message to starfleet
where he encounters the mark ii version
of his holographic program
stop breathing down my neck my breathing
is merely a simulation so is my neck
stop it anyway
living witness is easily one of
voyager's best episodes carried by the doctor
doctor
we are actually seeing a backup file of
the doctor a duplicate
trying to set the record straight on a
planet that trafficks in historical
misinformation about voyager
latent image is a great mystery episode
mixed with a character development
episode for the doctor as he must
resolve the fact that he made a decision
based on his personal feelings and not
his ethical subroutines
it's also the episode that best resolves
how janeway
sees the doctor there are more and more
doctor-centric episodes as the series progresses
progresses
partly because the writers must have
found him a great character to write for but
but
also because he was a very popular
character among star trek fans
the doctor sometimes gets the same
criticism as seven of nine
too much focus on this character means
less focus
for other characters but the audience
decided they loved the doctor
captain catherine janeway of the
federation starship voyager
a scientist an explorer and arguably the
most controversial character in the series
series
there are those who love janeway for her
sometimes measured and sometimes
forceful approaches to problems and some
who have noted that
men trying to write women as tough
sometimes mistake
tough for mean and janeway is sometimes
portrayed that way
and probably for that reason janeway's sometimes
sometimes
erratic behavior is mostly the result of
different writers
having different takes on her but the
in-universe explanation was delivered by tuvak
tuvak
in the episode night i've been observing
her behavior for the past four years
guilt has been her constant companion
janeway feels guilty about stranding her
crew in the delta quadrant
she saved the ocompa but her actions not
only kept her crew far from home but also
also
indirectly resulted in the demise of
many of her crew along the way
including harry kim except they had a
spare it's complicated
anyway with all that being said janeway under
under
incredible stress always delivers in the
episode's scientific method
her crew was subjected to dangerous
medical experiments by aliens and when
one of her crew
tragically passed because of this
janeway was like this
ends now and flew voyager into the sun
the aliens bailed out but not before one
of their ships exploded
presumably vaporizing everyone inside
counterpoint is this wild episode in
which janeway trafficks telepathic
refugees across an alien
empire and submits to inspections like
border patrol in outer space
she gets seduced by the head alien
fooled into thinking he was on her side
but uh oh she
tricked him and it's actually just a
very fun episode
janeway is the star of endgame the
series finale
this finale is fine the bad aspects of
the episode are chakote and seven having
no chemistry
and the series ending only seconds after
voyager makes it home
some fans were bothered by that last
part but considering much of the first
half of
end game shows what will or at least
what could happen to the crew following
their return
anyway this seems like a minor complaint
to me
future janeway versus present janeway is
cool because
of their different philosophies the
aforementioned scene with tuvak is one
of the best in the series and the battle
with the borg
mostly works whether or not the borg
being the final boss of voyager works
for you probably depends on whether or
not you liked the borg in voyager at all
anyway fought a macro virus got assimilated
assimilated
so why have i been referencing every
possible good episode of voyager
and spending so much time on individual characters
characters
well because it's related to why i think voyager
voyager
is good actually in the end star trek
voyager just has more
decent to good episodes than bad episodes
episodes
the good episodes stand out and the
decent episodes
though unremarkable are populated by
likeable characters
someone to watch over me may only be a
decent episode
but because we care about the doctor in
seven seeing him fall in love with her
makes the episode engaging
it's a very low stakes episode but the
doctor is so
likable that we want him to be happy and it's
it's
hard watching him fail in the end the
decent episodes become more than that
as for the outright good and even great episodes
episodes
i have mentioned a lot of them already
but who can forget year of hell
a two-parter with a compelling
complicated antagonist and a kind of
micro version of what some people wanted
voyager to be
constantly under threat and barely
making it through the quadrant
prey with the heroine and species 8472
was a good one
relativity is a fun time travel episode
equinox is star trek doing what it does best
best
pondering morality renaissance man is
the doctor
at his height as he evades tuvak and
tries to save the captain
the voyager conspiracy is just bonkers
but a real crowd pleaser
basically seven absorbs too much data
and starts to think voyager
being in the delta quadrant is either a
starfleet plot or a maquis plot
my argument that voyager is good
actually is
simply that there are too many good episodes
episodes
of course this is all subjective but if
you want to argue against this
you're gonna have to explain why you
think living witness and timeless and so
many other classic episodes are bad
actually so good luck with that i freely
admit that saying
it's good because it has good episodes
is not going to convince anyone because
it's kind of circular
so instead of trying to convince you i
am instead trying to challenge you
go back and watch it or if you've never
seen it before
and have just heard it's bad judge for
yourself and go see it
it's on so many platforms that you must
be subscribed to one of them
or if you're not most of them have like
free trials or whatever
that's it it's actually not that
complicated i just felt like inundating
you with classic episodes and moments to
make my point
i hope we all learned something
to i understand you are a vulcan
man you have just gone without
for seven years about paris please find
a way
to load a hypo spray i will give you the sign
sign
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