Federation Starship Voyager Questions

Cafe Society
21

I actually thought the restrained, generally uptight persona that Rene Auberjonois brought to the character of Odo was rather effective. After all, think how easy it would have been to have the shapeshifter be the merry prankster type, and how that would have grated.

I have to say, I didn’t think he’d turn gay though.

Voyager was an odd fish, I grant you that. The show never really had any focus, which is unfortunate, as I thought it had real potential as a concept. It had its moments, I admit. Although it probably wasn’t the best series to follow up DS9 with. Interesting idea, but shallow execution.

The way I see it, the show had several problems First and foremost, it didn’t really have the “strange new worlds” appeal. Granted, there was new life and new civilizations, but Voyager was mostly trying to get AWAY from them. Then, of course, they ran into the Borg. KER-YAWN! Fer crying out loud, what’s the point of having your crew thrown halfway across the damn galaxy if you keep setting them up against the same damn villains that they could have been fighting back home?!

Also, despite the show’s premise (halfway across the galaxy, no Federation, etc.), the actual shows were not really all that different from the other series. Same uniforms, same technology, same curious absence of restrooms… If they had, for example, been somehow deprived of the replicators during the pilot episode, I think it would have been a much more intriguing start.

Hmm, I actually started out trying to be supportive of the show. Got a bit sidetracked there.

I liked most of the characters, especially Captain Janeway. Katherine Mulgrew reminds me of my grandmother a little (not in terms of age, but personality-wise. Granny was a sharp, take-no-prisoners type of lady). The character of Tuvok seemed just right to me, a great understated Nimoy impression. The Paris/Kim banter was generally lively. Neelix was… tolerable. Chakotay was fairly inert. But of course, the most interesting character on the show for me was always Seven of Nine’s costume. How did that thing even work? Must have pinched like hell.

Great idea, though: “We’re halfway across the galaxy and rescue a stunning blonde with no memory or identity. First order of business? Make her dress in a sprayed-on catsuit with stiletto heels!” Brilliant!

And, seriously, did anyone else find it disturbing that they kept on using the number as her name? I mean, wasn’t the whole point to try to get her more humanized? Wouldn’t this be like rescuing someone from a prison camp, whose spirit has been crushed by torture or despair, and then continuing to call him by his serial number? “Yes, you are now a free man, Mr. 22714.” Yeah, real compassionate.

Of course, if she had ever regained her humanity, she might have decided not to wear the catsuit.

22

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not particularly fond of Odo but I don’t dislike him. It wasn’t even until the later seasons that he started to annoy me with his single-mindedness. He was always either A) Trying to catch Quark B) Trying to find his people C) Trying to get in Kira’s uniform or D) All of the above. None of them really clicked with me either.

Jake, on the other hand, was nothing but Wesley with darker skin. Die, damn you, die!

So far as Voyager goes, I watched it for the first four seasons. I didn’t miss an episode and actually enjoyed the vast majority of them. Then somewhere around the fifty millionth Borg episode, my interest just went POOF. No matter how much I loved Chakotay’s placidness, B’ellana’s fiery spunk, Tom’s rogue-ishness, Harry’s naivete, and so on… I just got tired of the same freakin’ premise every single week.

You’re in uncharted space, damn it… go chart it! Seek out new life and new civilizations! Go boldy where no one has gone before! Instead, they spent the whole time dodging cubes, pissing off the locals, and making mad dashes for the Alpha Quadrant. Gah.

Also… did they never make it to the Beta Quadrant? It always annoyed me that they never seemed to make it out of the Delta Quadrant until whenever.

23

I too, eventually ejected from Voyager, so I can’t say for certain if they ever hit the Beta Quadrant. I would tend to doubt it, though. I caught a few episodes from the final season and… it seemed just the same as ever. I’m pretty sure any references to the Beta Quadrant would have caught my attention.

Shame, though; they could have had one of those wacky “crossing-the-equator” type hazing rituals for everyone.

But be fair, now! you can’t very well claim that there wasn’t any progress; over the course of the series, the ship traveled from that area without any Borg, through that area that had the Borg, to that one other area that had a whole lot of frickin Borg.

24

Concerning Majel Barrett-Roddenberry:

She’s always been the computer voice for Star Trek, except for DS9. She’s had a part in all of the incarnations, starting as Nurse Chapel in TOS.

So, no, you’re not crazy. You just missed that in addition to being Troi’s mom she was also TNG’s Enterprise’s computer’s voice. I haven’t seen (by far) all of the TNG episodes, so I have to wonder if she, as Troi’s mom, ever addressed the computer with the subtle hint that she was the computer… :slight_smile:

25

Applause for the “sprayed on cat suit” comparison for 7 of 9’s outfit, and for somebody noticing the camp. Captain Janeway is the camp–her every gesture is in parentheses or quotation marks. She thinks–and acts, “I’m now thinking,” and then she acts and she thinks, “Now I’m acting.” “I’ll be in my ready room” is something no day should go by without someone saying it. And she’s very beautiful. Am I the only one who remembers the actress when she was in a recent rerun of CHEERS as a politician that was “using” Sam?
I also wondered about why they didn’t change 7’s name (to, for instance, Artemisia, Felina,
or Gertrude) as long as they were humanizing her,
but I’m glad they didn’t. It also served sometimes as even something that made sense, as when one of her hallucinations reminds her that she is 7 of 9, part of a mechanistic work crew.
I actually think Voyager was the best of all the Star Trek and has the best characters, especially the doctor, B’Lana, 7, and the Captain.
And alter what I said above: even campier than the Captain is the Doctor!
But I still don’t understand about the quadrants. If I were dividing the galaxy into four parts I would list them in order as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta around in a circle. But I think somabody told me that alpha and delta were across from each other instead of right next to each other.
And I think they should do something like THE FOUR DOCTORS, I think it was called, for Dr. Who, the best science fiction by far because it had the British wit in it, which makes one realize how there is no wit at all in American entertainment. They would have Kirk, the bald captain, and Janeway brought onto the same spaceship, by means of time travelling them. Also there would be Trip instead of that captain of his who is kind of dull or else hysterical, I forget his name but he has that dog; Neelix, B’Lana; Troy’s mother who was another camp; the dog; the doctor with the two solid worms on the sides of his face; the hologram doctor; 7 of 9 and a new character that they rescued from the Borg, who would be called 3 out of 5; a newborn foal called Primrose Joy Out Of
Morning Dew; the lovely and beautiful Vulcan lady that had such a steamy session in a boat with Trip in one episode that it almost blew out the tv; tubes when she brought him to a magical lake; and some others, but not the guy with the British accent who is wooden or Troy who is too much of a goody-goody or Spock or the African American Vulcan, who are annoying. Jordy La Forge wouldn’t be there either, as he is busy on several other television programs for children, both without his sunglasses and I think in one of them he has dreadlocks or is that somebody else.
And I must hijack a little more and speak of another great show and big huge camp, Blake’s 7, which most of the time had less than 7 on it. It was the brilliant Jacqueline Pierce I think her nanme is that played the wicked Empress Servilan, aka Supreme Commander, aka Commissioner Sleer, with her metallic flowers and cocktail dresses that she wore even when walking around in slave mines that she sent everybody to. She should have received an acacademic award.
And am I the only one who thought that Eldrad of “Eldrad…Must…Live!!!” in a Doctor Who episode, who was a creature made out of rock, was actually Cher?

26

Okay, imagine a circle. Got it? Okay… now divide it into four equal parts.

The upper left hand would be the Gamma Quadrant, home to the Founders, the Dominion, and the ending terminus of the Bajoran Wormhole.

The upper right would be the Delta Quadrant where Voyager was flung and is home to the Voth, Kazon, Caretaker, Borg and so on.

Below that in the lower right hand section would be the Beta Quadrant, the home of the Klingon and Romulan Empires and also some portion of the UFP itself… Earth itself is right on the edge between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Lame I know, but eh… what’re you going to do?

Finally, in the lower left hand corner, you have the Alpha Quadrant: home to the Cardassian Union, Ferengi Alliance, United Federation of Planets, and the opening of the Bajoran Wormhole.