Star Trek: Voyager

Many people I know dislike this show, I really don't see why people hate it so much, sure it's had more than it's share of lame episodes but like I said before it's tons better than the stinkburgers of the first two seasons of TNG. The sets are better, the cinematography is better, the acting is better.

All they really need is a decent script or two and they'll be a great show! If they accept freelance stuff (Anyone know) maybe I'll write one, it can hardly be worse than some of the ones they've already done!

The first episode I ever saw was one where Neelix has his lungs stolen by some diseased aliens and has to be kept alive with holographic lungs while the crew try to retrieve his lungs. Man is that a crappy premise! And being that this was my first encounter with Neelix, I found him whiny and annoying. I didn't like his character at all, but since then I've really begun to like him. Ethan Philips is actually an excellent actor, he's made me jump a couple of times from the power behind his performance. I've actually been shocked into silence by how good he was.

Tuvok's character is GREAT! I've not seen a Vulcan played more convincingly by anyone. He's completely believable as an emotionless being, although I have seen evidence of exasperation with Neelix, isn't that an emotion, Tuvok?

Janeway... Hmm what can I say about Janeway other than... AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! OK, I'm better now. Well for the first ten or so episodes I couldn't stand her voice, it sounds like she's breathing helium, but I've gotten used to it now and it seems to fit, what I still can't get used to is the terribly overused emotional angle. OK, she's a woman, we get it we don't need all these emotional scenes to have it pointed out to us. Maybe I'm just weird but I don't think the captain of a starship should break down in tears at the slightest provocation. She should also not attempt to be overly aggressive or abrupt with others in order to compensate, she just comes off as a lunatic when she does. She's female, Paramount, pretending she's a man by having her bark orders then attempting to compensate by making her overly emotional does not work. Let her be a female, let her make requests instead of demanding things, maybe in the future women can be as aggressive as men and people won't think twice about it, but the viewers are not from the future, they're from the present which is a male dominated society in which women (For the most part) are caring compassionate people and generally very pleasant to be around. Janeway just comes off as an emotionally unstable b*tch. She should be more accessible, friendly. Not necessarily chummy which I understand would be inappropriate in her position but at the very least amiable.

I commented to a friend of mine that I thought Kes was hot, he pointed out that she's only 2 years old... DOH!! Well I don't know how Neelix handles it but I just like to think of it in terms of how old the actress playing Kes is, which has to be somewhere in her early 20s. She seemed a rather gratuitous character in that I cannot see what purpose she serves aboard the ship. But I guess they can always use her mysterious psychic powers as a plot device on a slow day. Are they going to kill her off soon, she only has two years to live, doesn't she? Or perhaps real-time doesn't coincide with Star Trek time, though in TNG they often referred to the number of seasons in reference to how many years they've been together, meaning a 1 year = 1 year ratio. Well I guess we'll all find out together!

There was one episode in particular which kind of left me hanging. In it Belana discovers a way to exceed Warp 10 which could theoretically get them back home instantly (Yet in "All good things" in TNG Warp 13 was just a faster speed than Warp 10 with no disproportional speed increase, but I digress) So Paris pilots a ship equipped to do this, he ends up breaking the warp barrier and finds that he can travel to any one place just by thinking about it, when he gets back he starts changing, Evolving even... as if the discovery of the new technology triggered a spontaneous mutation into whatever the human race will eventually evolve into. Which in itself is a lame premise in that there is no "Evolutionary goal" we're not all at a certain stage in any transition from state X to state Y, we are adaptive creatures and will adapt to our environment as best we can. But anyway, in this episode, the brain-dead writer has Paris, and later Janeway evolve into Salamander-like creatures. Then they mate and have babies, the crew finds them, and brings them back to normal, they all have a good laugh about it and go on with their lives. WHAT?!?!? Ummm excuse me, you've found a way to get home... you can go now! Oh well but then the series would be over. Well, that episode was good, except for the evolving into salamanders bit then the ignoring the new technology bit.