VOY: Pathfinder

[RobbyB1982]

I really wish that the Maquis officers had kept their not-starfleet outfits for a chunk of the series. If they hadn't all just jumped right into Starfleet uniforms immediately it might have helped in the sense that they WERE in fact different and had different viewpoints, and keyed in more for the actors and the writers... rather than them basically all being homogenized by the third episode. Over time they could have gone into starfleet outfits one by one... or maybe after a season opener for a bunch of em.

Neelix and Seven always kept to different outfits and it made it clear they were outsiders, it would have bene nice for more of that to be in place.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

They were just trying to pacify Neelix making him a staff.

The Maquis were actually different for the first few seasons, more than for the uniforms would let on.

[Taurian Patriot]

Looking back, I think the Voyager episodes I like the best tend to be the ones where they broke their pattern. I thought this one was a little too predictable, but seeing Dwight Schulz act crazy and like the Big Man in the Neighborhood was nice, and having Starfleet get communication with Voyager felt like they actually accomplished something for a change. It's not my favorite, but it's up there.

Voyager was not a bad a show as far as bad shows go. It was a formulaic one and wasted its potential as a result.

I have to wonder whether any of the executives responsible for smashing the weekly reset button had regrets after seeing the success of the 2000's Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, whoops, it turns out that a show where consequences mattered from one week to the next might have been really good. And while I don't have a tally off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure most of Voyager's best episodes are ones where they actually remember how desperate their situation is.

They're usually my favorite episodes at least, because those are pretty much the stories I was hoping to see since the pilot, when I thought they were going to do like DS9 and look at the standard Trek premise from a new, less-comfortable angle.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

It doesn't seem like it, but Barclay actually makes more appearances on Voyager than TNG, albeit once as only a hologram. The Barclay episodes are also surprisingly good. TNG Barclay episodes are strong, but his episodes range from very good for Voyager or near the best.

Besides Barclay being a well-performed, enjoyable character, I'd agree that his episodes work because they're a change of pace and that they tend to refocus the show back onto Voyager's actual problem. On a better show a change of pace might be an unwanted diversion, but on Voyager the "normal" episodes settled into such a rut of mediocrity that it was nice to take any chance to break free from that.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Okay, so we got validated transporter phobia, holodeck addiction, and Deus Ex Machina bait on one hand, then we have the guy whose brilliance is played for more than a macguffin and he has prominent agency as a character trying wholeheartedly to bring the ship home.

Barclay's portrayal is totally vamped in Voyager to the point of practical spinoff status.

[CrypticMirror]

Looking back, I think the Voyager episodes I like the best tend to be the ones where they broke their pattern. I thought this one was a little too predictable, but seeing Dwight Schulz act crazy and like the Big Man in the Neighborhood was nice, and having Starfleet get communication with Voyager felt like they actually accomplished something for a change. It's not my favorite, but it's up there.

Voyager was not a bad a show as far as bad shows go. It was a formulaic one and wasted its potential as a result.

I have to wonder whether any of the executives responsible for smashing the weekly reset button had regrets after seeing the success of the 2000's Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, whoops, it turns out that a show where consequences mattered from one week to the next might have been really good.

Might have been, but wasn't on Galactica. That reboot was one big boring pile of miserable crap. Lots of pointless bickering caused by writers desperately trying to avoid having people speak normally in case they accidentally solved a season long conflict in a single honest bit of communication, interspersed by long periods of people staring blankly into space (but not into outerspace) which was drawn out beyond all reasonable limits simply because each season had about a single episode's worth of plot and story to it. The Galactica reboot was a bad show with good publicity.

[Mecha82]

Looking back, I think the Voyager episodes I like the best tend to be the ones where they broke their pattern. I thought this one was a little too predictable, but seeing Dwight Schulz act crazy and like the Big Man in the Neighborhood was nice, and having Starfleet get communication with Voyager felt like they actually accomplished something for a change. It's not my favorite, but it's up there.

Voyager was not a bad a show as far as bad shows go. It was a formulaic one and wasted its potential as a result.

I have to wonder whether any of the executives responsible for smashing the weekly reset button had regrets after seeing the success of the 2000's Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, whoops, it turns out that a show where consequences mattered from one week to the next might have been really good. And while I don't have a tally off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure most of Voyager's best episodes are ones where they actually remember how desperate their situation is.

They're usually my favorite episodes at least, because those are pretty much the stories I was hoping to see since the pilot, when I thought they were going to do like DS9 and look at the standard Trek premise from a new, less-comfortable angle.

That's possible. IMO one of biggest weaknesses of Trek has been returning to statis quo after every episode and nothing mattering. DS9 being Trek version of B5 was good thing because it allowed more possibilities when it comes to both stories being told as well as characters getting growt thanks to having story arcs. Sure some people miss consequences free Trek but at end of day they only want what is safe.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting original format simple episodes. I think it's pretty lucky that they gave a breakdown of more galactic political drama and adventurous encounters in the form of two concurrent shows.

[CrypticMirror]

You can tell a far greater range of stories in far more genres if you don't have to worry about advancing your overall plot. If you are being serialised, you gotta keep the story progression safe and not take risks on less common and format breaker stories. Exploring an issue with a guest cast, and then drawing things back to a conclusion and seeing the ramifications on that guest cast allows for big issues to be explored in a way serialisation, soapification, simply does not allow.

[Mickey_Rat15]

I do like the touch that while Barclay was using the holograms of the Voyager crew to deal with his isolation, but they indicated it was not with the actual crew by showing holo Torres and Chakotay in their Maquis clothing and Janeway in her original hairstyle. He really does not know them as they are now, nor they him.