Star Trek Voyager

Continuing my frivolous posts, let us discuss Star Trek Voyager. I am currently watching season five. As I mentioned in my profile, I like dvd collections of televisions shows because I enjoy watching shows in chronological order. I didn't watch Voyager when it was a first run show. I did see many episodes in reruns and got hooked, however, I was frustrated by the way they jumped around in time in the series. I could never figure out what had happened to Kes and where Seven came from. Thus, I started to collect the dvds of the seasons. They are pricy being around a hundred bucks a set, but that's reasonable when you considered the higher production cost of the series.

There's been a long pause in my viewing of my Voyager dvds. I finished season four last spring while living alone for the first time in almost twenty years. It kept me busy and occupied my mind. Then I got busy with the move to Maryland and...well, time passes. One of my christmas gifts this year was season five however, and I'm settled in my new home, time is once again on my side.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy the characters of Voyager. I think the series improved with the addition of Seven of Nine. Her conflicts with Janeway (Not my favorite captain in the ST franchise that is Picard forever, amen.) add something that was missing to the show. I know most of the ST series have had a limited core cast, and the added element of being lost in the Delta quadrant and having no support from Star Fleet gave this series a tenuous setting which made compelling viewing. Once the Maquis and Star Fleet angst settled down the lack of internal conflict within the crew however, (everyone had to stick together in the dangerous situation, after all) the show got a little flat. Chakotay supported Janeway no matter how wrong she was, so, when Seven came along and began to butt heads with Janeway things just got better.

My favorite episodes so far, have been Night and Drone. I love the episode Night because the plot focus was on Seven and her personal growth. Her understanding by the end of the episode that she needed relationships and interaction with the crew was very well done. A masterful episode when you think about how much of the episode Seven carried and how little dialogue they used to develop the audience's understanding of Seven's internal transformation. In Drone, we are shown that the Borg are not inherently evil and selfish. One makes a Christ-like sacrifice of self to save the crew, after all. Shades of the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. (A classic line everyone should know.) The episode begins to set up the idea that the Borg queen is the author of Borg evil, so to speak, in the Borg universe. I loved the character of One and wish he hadn't had to die to prove his point.

People roll their eyes about Star Trek and the various series have been virtually ignored for awards or Emmy's since the very first. It's too bad because the shows are written and acted so well that they've deserved recognition. It's the weird fans that give the whole franchise a bizarro world slant. Frankly, I'd place an episode of any Star Trek Next Generation or Voyager up against Desperate Housewives or West Wing for writing and acting anyday.