Okay, that’s too cool not to do a slight hijack. That’s the other guy I was talking about. Do you agree that he could be a doper?
I’m not a Mulgrew fan, but I’d say writing, but also the straitjacket of Star Trek itself, limiting character development in a number of annoying ways:
[ul][li]No intercharacter conflicts of any maturity of significance, which strikes me as full-on impossible considering the basic premise of the show was (or at least was supposed to be) a forced merging of a Starfleet and Maquis crew. Sure, we had Bellana throwing her half-Klingon tantrums (most of them off-screen) and that one episode where Tuvok pulls four former-Maquis crew members into line (none of whom were ever seen again), but an ongoing mutual dislike between two characters that was a fraction that of Tigh/Thrace? Not even a hint. Siska hates Janeway? It can’t be that she just hates Janeway - she has to be a Cardassian double agent![/li][li]Determinedly kid-friendly storylines. Naomi Wildman (soap-opera aged from infant to preteen practically overnight) and her education becomes an ongoing theme. Neelix is just a big ol’ teddy bear, telling stories, annoying “Mister Vulcan”.[/li][li]Adult but not too adult storylines - Kes in her later appearances and 7 of 9 through all of hers wear those catsuits. Why? To titillate the fanboys in an overbearingly blunt and obvious way. But when it’s time for the characters to actually have sex, it’s so layered with pointless complexity and baggage that even a determined fanboy would ask “why bother?”[/ul][/li]
I figure the problems with Voyager is that it represents a concentrated version of the problems of Star Trek itself in its post-1987 incarnation.
Wait what? I like Dax! What was wrong with her?
Dax was fine.
Terry Farrell often zoned out in scenes. Like she was doing her grocery list in her head for after work. Or wondering if the drying cleaning is ready to pick up. She wasn’t giving any energy to the other actors. She was just sort of standing there like a piece of cardboard. Actors I knew in college hated working with actor like that. They are working their butts off projecting energy across the stage and it sort of dies in a black hole where a bad actor is standing and shuffling his feet…
Terry did ok delivering lines. Even then there was little connection between her and the other actors.
Robert Beltran was the same way on Voyager. I think in his case he really didn’t care after the first season or two. A few times I’d swear he was asleep in the background of the scene. 
Just my opinion after seeing Actors up close. I took the same classes, but never was any good. I liked being off stage, stage manager, hanging lights, or whatever they wanted. I recall being up past 2Am with the lighting plot, cutting and insert the color gels. Then we needed to focus the lights and that took people on stage.
I don’t know if he is a Doper, but he’d certainly fit in. And I could sure as hell see Dopers tearing into “Threshold” (the Warp 10-newts one) and Enterprise’s “Dear Doctor”* even worse than he did, and in greater detail. 
*(The one where they take an extremely poor grasp of the theory—I’d go so far as to say the concept—of evolution to essentially justify genocide by the ship’s doctor. And treat it like a good thing. And apparently the executives made them change the written ending to eliminate any disagreement on that point between the officers by the end.) :eek:
I missed the early Voyager episodes with the Kazan, but watched much of the last few seasons. It wasn’t BSG, it was the replacement for TNG, & it apparently was successful enough to keep going for seven years.
It was pretty goofy, but I guess watching it late at night, I didn’t pick it apart as much as you guys.
I saw most of the series, only missing a few episodes here and there. I think a few of the episodes stood out. Year of Hell, a 2-parter, was one I found enjoyable, but once again, they hit the reset button. However, at least the reset button allowed them to explore what some of you are talking about - the terrible wear-and-tear on the ship, the loss of crew, etc. For a couple episodes, it showed what it would be like for a ship to be 70,000 light years from home.
The fact that someone greenlighted a pilot in the first place…
What is a “retelling”?
I don’t think she was doing that because she was a bad actor. I think she was playing the character that way on purpose. She figured someone who lived several lifetimes would be serene and wise and tend to be above it all.
Later she realized, instead someone who lived several lifetimes could have the attitude, “What the Hell!” and she started playing that way and the show was much better for it.
Was that the one with Neelix having a holographic lung? Really stupid idea.
Actual Robert Beltran quotes about Voyager:
One of the purest kinds of Hells has to be the one where an actor is in a position of performing a role in a work where he absolutely loathes both, but his contract/bills demand that he stay aboard and at least make a pretense. I honestly don’t know how they can do it.
NM
Writing.
After the abysmal pilot episode, the first series episode could have been titled “Voyager falls into a hole”. It had all the ST cliches, right down to two characters with animosity inventing a new particle to solve the problem.
I stopped watching. Every season I heard more and more about how the next season was going to be better for stupid reasons the producers thought up: “We’re dumping the stupid villains!”, “We’re adding T&A in place of the Space Elf”, “Hey Look! We’re nerfing the Borg and making introducing something WORSE!”, “We’re REALLY dumbing down the science next season!”.
Thanks for posting that comment. It confirms some of the good things I’ve heard about Picardo. As an Actor he’s being totally honest. Great line, but it belongs to someone else. You can’t get more unselfish than that.
I know in the later seasons the Doctor character took over a few too many episodes. I guess the writers found him easy to write for. At least it sounds like Picardo tried to say, “hey there’s other actors here too.”
He was the un-Shatner.
I’m pretty sure you have misunderstood Robert Beltran’s characterization of Robert Picardo. He’s quoted there saying Picardo is “the same way” as Kate Mulgrew.
The story where the former Maquis (was he Betazoid?) was a serial killer, and Tuvok tries desperately to understand him, and getting into trouble with mind melds.
(Found it: Season 2, episode 16, Meld)
The Doctor had a funny line: "Vulcan mind melds - utter foolishness. Anybody with an ounce of sense wouldn’t share his brain with someone else. Would you? I certainly wouldn’t. And of course, when something goes wrong, and believe me, it does more often than they’d like to admit, the first thing they call out is “Doctor!”
Anyway, I thought Crewman Sudor was well played by Brad Dourif.
From what I’ve seen of her out-of-character, going over her grocery list in her head would have been beyond her mental capabilities.
And since we’ve moved on to talking about the Doctor, Picardo had a really great ad-lib in one of the earlier episodes. He was complaining about how nobody ever turned him off when they were done, and quipped “Damn it, I’m a doctor, not a light switch”. The truly great part being that he never watched any of the previous Trek shows, and didn’t know about McCoy’s famous (and much-parodied) line at the time.