s955120 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2020 2:04 am
I think the episodic nature of 1990s TV show greatly limited Voyager. Maybe the writers don't want to write themselves into a corner, or they just don't want to take the risk. But insist on keeping the show episodic and not break the status quo hurt the show in the end.
No, they just poorly used the episodic nature and undervalued continuity that was in harmony with it.
Examples of good use of continuity in episodic shows goes back a long way. Two early ones that stand out for me are Peter Gunn and Trackdown. Trackdown especially, I was shocked at the turn the second season took in taking an itinerant Texas Ranger and then fixing him in a town where he had to function as acting sheriff after recusing the place.
Darth Wedgius wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 8:21 pm
Having Voyager accomplish more out there would have been nice. They could have done a lot more with their concept than they did.
The episode where Janeway fell in love with the duplicitous anti-telepathist had some nice character work. Mulgrew was able to show that being betrayed hurt. If he'd been an honest love interest, she would have had to decide between abandoning her duty to her command or keep trying to get her people home, because she's as irreplaceable as the doctor is. Real burden of leadership stuff that should have been weighing heavy on her.
They lose people, and that probably means other people being promoted into positions they lack experience and/or training for.
If they'd kept the torpedo limitation it would have been a nice reminder of how isolated they are. Or someone could have gotten sick with something that they can cure at a starbase or medical ship.
I think the episodic nature of 1990s TV show greatly limited Voyager. Maybe the writers don't want to write themselves into a corner, or they just don't want to take the risk. But insist on keeping the show episodic and not break the status quo hurt the show in the end.
A lot of limitation can be resolve easy and reasonable ways. For example, in any space station/ friendly planet, they can make a lip service that the supplies they purchase include material for building new torpedoes. So in the early season they can make a big deal with their torpedo limitation, knowing they can easily fix the issue later along the way. However, they decide to fix every problem in the episode itself and off screen too often.
I agree. Over all maintaining status quo has been serious hinderance with 90's ST and with no other ST show from that era it has been more clear than with Voyager. TNG got away from it by taking place in Alpha Quadrant and DS9 got away with it by it being only part of whole show with there also being some actual story arcs. Voyager had neither of those things.
"In the embrace of the great Nurgle, I am no longer afraid, for with His pestilential favour I have become that which I once most feared: Death.."
- Kulvain Hestarius of the Death Guard
Thebestoftherest wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 12:11 am
Yeah, honestly feel they should have made discovery as soft reboot of Voyager
I liked RLMs blue skying about Picard that was like that. Their idea was that he gets sent out as an advisor to a mission to recove a derelict Galaxy-class ship and then things go wrong.The survivors are forced to transfer to the Galaxy and its sent a long distance from the AQ, resulting in them having to get the ship back online and repaired as they need to use it at the same time to get back home while Picard has to stand up and assume command.
AndrewGPaul wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 8:58 pm
The song that comes to mind for me is this one:
https://youtu.be/F_HoMkkRHv8
Years too early I know, but I can't help but think the episode would have been improved by addition of this Expanse cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCyGIJl1XUA
Voyager was hit by a couple of significant things which proved to be a big hindrances eventually.
-Berman & Braga's creative successes were becoming slowly outweighed by their failures, with Berman especially never seemingly interested in expanding what the show was capable of, even when Braga was.
-UPN's directives about Voyager which frequently emphasized the show being more like TNG and episodic, leading to a show that seemed uninterested in continuity and a near slavish devotion to the status quo despite the potential in even occasional serialization.
-The lack of a consistent showrunner meant the show never really found any strong direction. Between Piller, Taylor, Braga, & Biller over the entire run, Voyager just never really seemed to get real momentum from its core ideas. Even the introduction of the Borg and Seven, while giving the series a shot in the arm and enough stable ratings to make it to 7 seasons, ultimately didn't feel like it fundamentally changed it as much as it should have.
In some ways it was the perfect storm of various stifling elements that largely turned the show into the TV Dinner of Trek; a fate which stands out all the more given how much current television has moved away from that model.
