The longest away mission ever
So I finished my Trekkie obligation. I finished watching "Voyager." Except for a few eps that Spike inexplicably skipped, but which I have on my computer.
All in all, while I found that the overall quality definitely improved, I continued to be just...bothered in a general way. Trek (except for DS9, which was so superior that it can hardly be called Trek...I prefer to think of it as the trial run of BSG) is not known for character and plot continuity, especially between series. Anybody remember the TNG episode where Starfleet prohibited travel above warp 6 except in emergencies? Nope, neither do the writers. And they have a disturbing tendency to focus all the character development on the "non-human" characters. The most extensively developed characters on Voyager were Seven and the Doctor, because they had the furthest to come. And it still puts forth that implied assumption that humanity is just the end-all be-all of existence. Even ODO used to get the "exploring his humanity" episodes when he really should have been exploring his Bajoranity. Odo trying to become more human would be as ridiculous as if Data had decided to aspire to being Klingon.
Anyway. By the end of the series they were doing some interesting things. The whole female-captain thing left me a little cold, because they never let Janeway be what Picard and Kirk had been. She had the traditional problem of female leaders in fiction in that she could be a woman or she could be captain but she couldn't be both at once, and in trying to prove how progressive they were they made her inexplicably "bad ass" at times and inconsistent at others.
And of course, once Seven joined the show, everything became about her. Torres devolved into a mere shadow of her former fiery self, Chakotay became a non-entity, and everybody was suddenly defined via their relationship to Seven. Janeway was her surrogate mother, the Doc was in love with her, Harry crushed on her, and so on.
At times, the character I appreciated the most was Neelix. He was consistent, he was funny without being stupid, he had heart and when asked to carry an episode he always got the job done. I also really liked Icheb, the second Borg refugee Voyager adopted.
I'd forgotten the travesty of the Seven/Chakotay relationship that was abruptly shoved down our throats in the last few episodes. I'd made my peace that they had, for reasons unfathomable, ditched the really effective Janeway/Chakotay chemistry they had going on, but to pair him with Seven? He was arguably the male crewmember with whom she had the LEAST contact. Icheb would have been more believable as a romantic interest. I'm inclined to think the writers just decided that Janeway was too old for anybody to want to see her in a romance, which is ironic since Robert Beltran is two years older than Kate Mulgrew and fifteen years older than Jeri Ryan. Grumble. Death to the patriarchy. And it kinda broke my heart to see her go for Chakotay, for no other apparent reason other than that he's hot, when her friendship with the Doctor had been so well developed and he obviously still had feelings for her, which she showed zero regard for.
Speaking of the Doctor, he had an episode late in the series that addressed whether he had rights as a person. Despite being a huge callback to the similar episode Data had, no reference was made to those android-rights issues, AND the episode contained a HUGE oversight in plot. There was a lot of guff about the Doctor having grown as a person and being self-aware and being a real person, all of which is great, but they overlooked one huge thing...the Doctor was different because he could leave sickbay. I don't think you can possibly grant person status to a hologram that has to stay where there are holoemitters. His mobile emitter gave him freedom. And despite the fact that the emitter was mentioned extensively during the episode no one seemed to remember that he's the only hologram who has one! Did they all forget that Starfleet didn't invent the thing? That it's 29th century tech that was stolen? And the episode ended with holograms mining dilithium. Did they install holoemitters in the MINE? One could fanwank that once Starfleet knew of the emitter's existence they were able to design their own. But I think the writers just forgot that bit.
I still don't know how I feel about the series finale. After all that two hours of stuff, they just pop back to Earth and...credits. Whoa, whiplash.
All in all, while I found that the overall quality definitely improved, I continued to be just...bothered in a general way. Trek (except for DS9, which was so superior that it can hardly be called Trek...I prefer to think of it as the trial run of BSG) is not known for character and plot continuity, especially between series. Anybody remember the TNG episode where Starfleet prohibited travel above warp 6 except in emergencies? Nope, neither do the writers. And they have a disturbing tendency to focus all the character development on the "non-human" characters. The most extensively developed characters on Voyager were Seven and the Doctor, because they had the furthest to come. And it still puts forth that implied assumption that humanity is just the end-all be-all of existence. Even ODO used to get the "exploring his humanity" episodes when he really should have been exploring his Bajoranity. Odo trying to become more human would be as ridiculous as if Data had decided to aspire to being Klingon.
Anyway. By the end of the series they were doing some interesting things. The whole female-captain thing left me a little cold, because they never let Janeway be what Picard and Kirk had been. She had the traditional problem of female leaders in fiction in that she could be a woman or she could be captain but she couldn't be both at once, and in trying to prove how progressive they were they made her inexplicably "bad ass" at times and inconsistent at others.
And of course, once Seven joined the show, everything became about her. Torres devolved into a mere shadow of her former fiery self, Chakotay became a non-entity, and everybody was suddenly defined via their relationship to Seven. Janeway was her surrogate mother, the Doc was in love with her, Harry crushed on her, and so on.
At times, the character I appreciated the most was Neelix. He was consistent, he was funny without being stupid, he had heart and when asked to carry an episode he always got the job done. I also really liked Icheb, the second Borg refugee Voyager adopted.
I'd forgotten the travesty of the Seven/Chakotay relationship that was abruptly shoved down our throats in the last few episodes. I'd made my peace that they had, for reasons unfathomable, ditched the really effective Janeway/Chakotay chemistry they had going on, but to pair him with Seven? He was arguably the male crewmember with whom she had the LEAST contact. Icheb would have been more believable as a romantic interest. I'm inclined to think the writers just decided that Janeway was too old for anybody to want to see her in a romance, which is ironic since Robert Beltran is two years older than Kate Mulgrew and fifteen years older than Jeri Ryan. Grumble. Death to the patriarchy. And it kinda broke my heart to see her go for Chakotay, for no other apparent reason other than that he's hot, when her friendship with the Doctor had been so well developed and he obviously still had feelings for her, which she showed zero regard for.
Speaking of the Doctor, he had an episode late in the series that addressed whether he had rights as a person. Despite being a huge callback to the similar episode Data had, no reference was made to those android-rights issues, AND the episode contained a HUGE oversight in plot. There was a lot of guff about the Doctor having grown as a person and being self-aware and being a real person, all of which is great, but they overlooked one huge thing...the Doctor was different because he could leave sickbay. I don't think you can possibly grant person status to a hologram that has to stay where there are holoemitters. His mobile emitter gave him freedom. And despite the fact that the emitter was mentioned extensively during the episode no one seemed to remember that he's the only hologram who has one! Did they all forget that Starfleet didn't invent the thing? That it's 29th century tech that was stolen? And the episode ended with holograms mining dilithium. Did they install holoemitters in the MINE? One could fanwank that once Starfleet knew of the emitter's existence they were able to design their own. But I think the writers just forgot that bit.
I still don't know how I feel about the series finale. After all that two hours of stuff, they just pop back to Earth and...credits. Whoa, whiplash.