# Would Star Trek: Voyager have worked better in today's television **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990 "2014-09-20T00:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/21 "2014-09-21T14:11:00Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Though at the end of the day, in all incarnations (at least, that I saw), the Maquis never seemed to amount to more than Canadian Terrorists, too polite and whitebread to ever actually amount to any sort of threat to anyone (or interest the viewer). When we met Tom Riker again (can’t recall if it was DS9 or NG) - he was with the Maquis, and IIRC, they were actually doing bad things. well, actually here - [Thomas Riker | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Thomas_Riker) - on re-read, seems rather tame. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/22 "2014-09-22T03:54:22Z")
I’ve said this here many times, the problem with \*Voyager \*wasn’t the premise or the actors themselves. It was the characters they portrayed. It was a perfect opposite of _TNG_, where on that show every main bridge character was likeable, and not just in terms of having a pleasant demeanor but in terms of remaining respectable by (most) always making logical, sensible, intelligent decisions. \*Voyager \*was the complete opposite. Every main character was an idiot, a milquetoast, and/or a total jerk. They only respectable one was Seven of Nine. She was essentially brought in to be the show’s Spock, restrained but not absent of emotion, extremely intelligent and practical when the shit hit the fan. The closest things to likable characters were the Doctor and Neelix. But they weren’t the least bit respectable because they were nothing more than ineffectual comedy relief. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/23 "2014-09-22T14:50:15Z")
[http://blip.tv/confused-matthew/star-trek-voyager-intro-6633080](http://blip.tv/confused-matthew/star-trek-voyager-intro-6633080) This is a long (and NSFW) review of why Star Trek: Voyager didn’t quite work… but there’s a great point around 3:15… centered on where the writing screwed the show over. Lines like “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the warp coil!” ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/24 "2014-09-22T15:12:30Z")
Neelix was not likeable. IMHO YMMV He was a Jar Jar character. Comic annoyance. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/25 "2014-09-22T15:14:14Z")
And he was sleeping with a 3 yr old. :eek: 😛 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/26 "2014-09-22T15:19:50Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I’ve said this here many times, the problem with \*Voyager \*wasn’t the premise or the actors themselves. It was the characters they portrayed. I agree with your last, and disagree with your first two points. The problem with _Voyager_ was that the actors sucked, the premise was stupid, the writing barely broke the 3rd grade level, the producers were lazy, and so on. There wasn’t a single redeeming factor in the whole show. It was the Anti-Trek in every way. So to answer the OP’s question: No, with what they had to work with, it wouldn’t have worked any better today. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/27 "2014-09-22T18:19:47Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > … > However, they weren’t explored in Voyager or the later Enterprise series, except in the most trivial and shallow ways. The reason comes down to the writing staff, which was simply not, as a general rule, up to the standard necessary. As concepts, these two shows had great recipes. I would go so far as to say that conceptually, they’re extremely strong. But almost immediately, both shows decided to drop the concept’s strong points. This left them void of meaningful character conflict. Good points. Voyager had a really strong concept but had trouble going anywhere. A ship separated from the rest of the Federation for years, having to struggle with things that the Enterprise could just resolve by going back to Stardock for a few days? Great idea. Problem was that they didn’t explore that well enough. There should have been much more emphasis on preserving supplies, manufacturing or acquiring new supplies, growing food, and forming alliances. If I were Janeway, I wouldn’t just keep going after blasting up the alien ship du jour - I would stop (if reasonably safe) and send salvage teams to strip it of fuel, weapons, shuttlecraft, starfighters, warp cores (why don’t Federation ships ever carry more than one? It’s not like it’s incredibly huge anyway), food, computer cores, etc. They also should have seriously considered capturing a few enemy ships to form a fleet. Surely they had enough crew to offload a few dozen people to form a skeleton crew to operate that Hirogen battlecruiser or whatnot. Enterprise did have some better writing, but perhaps not to the level desired. The subplot with Tucker and his obsession with avenging the death of his little sis was reasonably well done and did help to flesh his character out a bit. ENT did, however, concentrate too much on referencing Bush’s “War on Terror” to the exclusion of other relevant social issues of its time. The original series with Kirk managed to jump back and forth and explore a lot of issues - economic, social, religious, ethnic, political, etc. Enterprise just went with ZOMG more religiously-motivated terrorists ELIMINATE THEM!!!111!!11one and use more underhanded tricks to find the rest of them that we know exist! The first time was cool, but there came a point where people just got tired of phaser jihad and changed the channel. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/28 "2014-09-22T18:25:25Z")
Energy is at such a premium that Janeway can’t even replicate a cup of coffee but Tom Paris can spend hours in the holodeck french bar ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/29 "2014-09-22T18:31:05Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > …piss poor writing that resulted in the magical reset button being pushed on a regular basis and I was driven away from the show. The only episode I can remember liking was “Think Tank” though “Year of Hell” gets a nod even for the magical reset button… The other series used the magic reset button quite a bit, and managed to explore some interesting what-ifs related to the characters and nations. E.g. what would happen to the fragile peace of the Bajoran system over the next several decades if Sisko were to just up and die in the middle of it all? Or the TNG episode where they explore how the Federation barely avoided a TNG-era war with the Klingon empire with a single rescue mission to aid a Klingon outpost. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/30 "2014-09-22T18:41:43Z")
I thought the Temporal Cold War subplot on _Enterprise_ was one of the silliest things ever. Apparently the network said, “Hey, we’ve got Bakula. Let’s do another _Quantum Leap_.” I’m glad they finally put and end to it once and for all. It must have felt good to Bakula when Archer told Daniels, “I’ve had it. I don’t want to see you ever again.” Sort of like the anti-Sam Beckett. 🙂 The fourth season of _Enterprise_ was getting to be more like “Star Trek,” but unfortunately they grew the beard too late. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990/31 "2014-09-22T20:30:28Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I thought the Temporal Cold War subplot on _Enterprise_ was one of the silliest things ever. Apparently the network said, “Hey, we’ve got Bakula. Let’s do another _Quantum Leap_.” I’m guessing the reasoning was _“It’s a prequel, so we know Earth won’t get blowed up real good; it’s still around in Kirk’s day. And the Federation won’t fall to the Klingons; it’s still around in Picard’s day. A biological weapon is set to wipe out all Vulcans? Yeah, I’m pretty sure T’Pau is going to be just fine – and Sarek is still going to be an ambassador, sure as T’Pring is still going to make eyes at Stonn, and Sybok is still going to become a cult leader, and don’t get me started on Tuvok; absent time travel, we know how everything’s going to play out.”_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-star-trek-voyager-have-worked-better-in-todays-television/698990.md?page=1)