Voyager Season 3 Wrapup
I'm sorry my season-wrapup reviews (as well as the last few reviews of the season) are so late. They were delayed by the untimely death of my old computer (and by various and sundry disasters since). My DS9 summary review will be done, er... well, when I do it. In the next couple of weeks, maybe. Definitely before the new season begins....
Anyway, herewith, my season summary of Voyager. It's not intended as flame-bait, although I've no doubt I'll be hearing from unhappy Voyager fans. All I can say is, I call 'em as I see 'em.
For my season-spanning critique, I will shamelessly ape Tim Lynch's format, and do a brief episode-by-episode breakdown of the Year That Was, and then end with my more general thoughts.
A new addition for this season wrapup will be numerical ratings for each episode. I didn't give the episodes ratings like this in my weekly reviews, but I've decided to do so now. Actually, I'll be giving two ratings for each episode. I will first grade each episode using a broad-based 10-point scale (10 being an all-time classic, immeasurably [well, not quite, I guess, by definition] great, wonderful outing -- think "City on the Edge of Forever" [TOS], "Yesterday's Enterprise" [TNG], "The Visitor" [DS9], "Love's Labour Lost" [ER], "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" [X-Files], etc., and 1 being all-time crap -- think "Genesis", "Masks", "Shades of Grey" [TNG], "Threshold" [VOY], the entire run of "Perfect Strangers", etc.). I will then also give it a 1-10 ranking, comparing it only to other Voyager episodes -- 10 being achieved so far only by the pilot, 1 -- well, "Threshold" is crap on any scale, isn't it? Now, this may seem a bitchy, Voyager-bashing tactic. I dunno. Maybe it is. But it just seems to me that by using only the broad-based scale, all of Voyager is going to bunch up pretty badly in the low-to-mid range, and therefore it makes sense to try to distinguish between the episodes some more. Of course, what this means is that Voyager is having some problems as a series -- but see my end notes for more on that.
On to the ratings!
Basics, Part II.
The season premier was, as expected, a fairly lame resolution to a cliffhanger that simply never generated any genuine suspense. The Doctor and Suder work together on Voyager to re-take the ship, aided by the late-arriving Tom Paris. Down on the planet, Janeway and Co. are forced to deal with some primitive locals (who, despite the fact that they have developed tool-making only to the point of making big wooden clubs, wear clothes made up of scores of small pieces of cloth sewn together into shirts and pants -- what?!?) and some nasty CGI cave-lizards. For this we waited 3 months? Sadly, Suder, perhaps the most interesting character yet introduced on Voyager, is senselessly killed off in Jeri Taylor's purge of all things Piller. Seska is also killed in a completely unconvincing, and unnecessary, way. Not an auspicious beginning -- but, sadly, a sign of things to come.
Rating: Broad scale: 3. Voyager scale: 5
Flashback
Voyager's attempt at a 30th anniversary episode. Sulu appears, but only in flashbacks to what we'd already seen in STVI -- a cruel underutilization of a great opportunity. Now looking back, after having seen "Trials and Tribble-ations", this already middling episode appears even worse. Tributes like this, Trek can live without (ditto the cringe-inducing Live Star Trek Gala thingie seen on UPN. Sheesh!) Great production values, but no story (or soul). Plus, the whole thing is a giant tease, promising a stunning revelation about Tuvok's past, but delivering only a brain virus.
Rating: broad scale: 3.5. Voyager scale: 5.5
The Chute
For my money, the most over-rated Voyager episode ever -- with the possible exception of "Scorpion". But no, I think this tales the cake. True, it has an impressively grim atmosphere, and there's lots of shouting, fighting, and stabbing. But much of the shouting is bad, and other critical plot flaws (Harry never catches on to what The Clamp does, even when told, Janeways completely ignoring the Prime Directive, etc.) torpedo the episode's effectiveness. A couple of nice Tom & Harry moments, but not nearly enough.
Broad scale: 5. VOY scale: 7.5
The Swarm
The most deceptively titled episode of the season -- the Swarm actually take up about 15 minutes of screen time; most of the episode is concerned with the Doc. It's easy to forget that in this episode, the Doc loses his memory of the first two years of the voyage. It's easy to forget this because this major plot point is virtually never picked up on again -- the Doc seems completely unchanged by the wiping of his personality. I'd say that constitutes a problem....
Broad scale: 6. VOY scale: 7.5
False Profits
Oh, my. The long-awaited run-in with the Ferengi from TNG's "The Price" turns into a nightmare for VOY viewers. All attempts at humor fall flat, and to make matters worse, the story is a Gilligan's Island one, with the Voyager narrowly missing a chance to get home. Add to that the total disregard for the Prime Directive and everything it (and Trek) stands for, and you've got one bad episode.
Broad scale: 1.5. VOY scale: 2.5
Remember
An attempt by Voyager to do a serious, thoughtful, "important", allegorical story. They forgot to make it interesting, too -- and the story is a bit muddled and unconvincing to begin with. Plus, almost the whole episode takes place in flashback. Cruelly marketed by the brain trust at UPN as being about Belanna's sex dreams, it's really about a past genocide on one of the interchangeable Delta Quadrant planets.
Broad scale: 5.5. VOY scale: 7.5
Sacred Ground
Another attempt at a serious, "important", allegorical story -- but this one manages to be painfully, insultingly bad, rather than merely bland. An attempt is made to throw science and faith up against each other, but all we really get is Janeway acting like the dumbest, most bigoted Captain in Starfleet history. Again, in hindsight, comparing this to "Rapture", on DS9, which successfully tackled the same theme, this episode looks even worse -- and that's hard.
Broad scale: 1.5. VOY scale: 2
Future's End, Parts I&II
Here things pick up a bit. The first part of this time-travel outing is pretty solid fun -- Voyager returns to present-day Earth, and the cast gets to shoot on location in normal clothes. It plays basically as a fun adventure, and on that level it mostly works. There's nothing as compelling or funny as there is in STIV, of course, but it's certainly entertaining. Part II is the predictable let-down, with an inexplicable foray into survivalist country and yet another unconvincing reset-button ending including a forced "family" scene in the mess hall. Young Earth Scientist Rain (Sarah Silverman) stands as the best guest-star of the season.
Part I: Broad scale: 7.5. VOY scale: 9
Part II: Broad scale: 5.5 VOY scale: 8
Warlord
Another fun outing. Again, it's not a particularly deep episode -- just a better-than average alien possession outing. What makes this special, then, is Jennifer Lien's outstanding work as Kes and Kes possessed. OK, maybe it's just the leather outfits... but no, her performance was just so much fun, it made an episode which, on paper, should have been mediocre, a lot of fun. However, it gets demerits for not making clear that Kes and Neelix really did break up, even though she was possessed at the time.
Broad scale: 7. VOY scale: 8.5
The Q and the Grey
Q makes a return appearance to Voyager -- and if this is the best they can do, I can only hope it will be his last. Here, Q has lost all menace and edge -- and, in fact, pretty much any interest for the viewer. The story is about a civil war in the continuum, but none of it makes a lick of sense. The Civil War-era costumes don't really add anything, and Janeway is given pontificating speeches that would make even Picard wince with embarrassment (and to make matters worse, she's delivering these speeches to omnipotent beings thousands of times older than herself...) .
Broad scale: 3. VOY Scale: 5
Macrocosm
Awful science, and a lame, obvious attempt to recast Janeway in a Terminator/Aliens action-heroine mode. It doesn't work. Plus, a too-long flashback wrecks any atmosphere that might have been built. The giant viruses offer conclusive proof that Voyager's effects crew shouldn't do everything digitally...
Broad scale: 3 VOY scale: 5.5
Fair Trade
Neelix at his annoying worst. Here he proceeds to get himself into trouble (just a little murder and drug smuggling), and then worms his way out of it. Apparently, there's a lesson in there. The question of Neelix' role on the ship is raised, but never actually answered. What was the point of this again?
Broad scale: 4 VOY scale: 6.5
Alter Ego
An alien, posing as a holo-babe, falls for Tuvok, much to the dismay of Harry. When Tuvok rejects her, the alien threatens to destroy the Voyager, until Tuvok explains that that wouldn't be very nice. Bonus points for having a character try to kill Belanna with a lei, a truly unusual weapon.
Broad scale: 5 VOY Scale: 7
Coda
In my original review, I said that "Coda" was fine, but not exceptional. In retrospect, I was wrong. It's just plain bad. It begins with Janeway getting killed for half an hour, then ends with her arguing with some damn brain alien for another half hour. None of it makes any sense, and it's all very annoying.
Broad scale: 3 VOY scale: 4.5
Blood Fever
A ridiculous story about Belanna "catching" pon farr from Vorick. Huh? This gives Tom the chance to be all noble by refusing to have sex with Belanna, even though doing so risks her life. Huh? Looking back, this should have more resonance as an important step in Tom and Belanna's relationship... but it's still just bad.
Broad scale: 3 VOY scale: 5
Unity
The first Voyager Borg episode -- except it's actually about a band of former Borg. Still, it's a pretty interesting outing, actually raising intriguing questions about the costs of unity. Plus, a Voyager crewmember actually has sex -- and there's nothing juvenile about the way it's presented. One of the few "thoughtful" episodes to work at all.
Broad scale: 7.5 VOY scale: 9
The Darkling
Awful, terrible, pointless stuff about the Doctor messing with his program and spawning an evil, psycho-killer second personality. Yecch. Some interesting stuff about Kes becoming involved in a romance with a non-Voyager crewmember and contemplating leaving the ship gets quickly lost and then simply dismissed in the end.
Broad scale: 2.5 VOY scale: 4.5
Rise
A headache-inducing elevator ride with Neelix and Tuvok. This is an obvious attempt to establish these two characters as a Spock and McCoy-like sparring duo, and it completely fails. Plus, a bunch of logical flaws concerning the atmosphere in & around the lift, and about some other things as well. Docked some points for awful UPN promos advertising this as being an asteroid-disaster show to coincide with NBC's highly-rated, though lame, miniseries.
Broad scale: 2.5 VOY scale: 4
Favorite Son
Perhaps this was meant as an homage to cheesy 1950's and 1960's sci-fi movies... Harry is tempted by those nasty, evil, beautiful women, who really just want his DNA! Run, Harry, run! Plus, there's some really bad science! But dig Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander on Bab5, here doing stunt work) as one of the women trying to squeeze Harry's genes out of him.
Broad Scale: 2.5 VOY scale: 4
Before and After
Time-travel, this time along Kes' lifetime. On the plus side: lots of screen time for Kes, plus that really cool stuff during the "Year of Hell". On the minus side: that "Year of Hell" never actually happens; the episode isn't ever actually about anything; more really bad science. Another opportunity wasted.
Broad scale: 6 VOY scale: 8
Real Life
The Doc gets a holo-family. As you all know, I loathe holodeck episodes. Guess how I feel about this one? Probably the most emotionally manipulative Trek episode ever (cute little girl dying, but just slowly enough to really drag out the bathos). Fails both as far-out sci-fi and as human drama.
Broad scale: 1.5 VOY scale: 2
Distant Origin
When I reviewed this one the first time, I think I let what's wrong with this episode (and there's plenty) completely distract me from what's good. What's good -- good enough, anyway -- is the Galileo-type allegory of a scientist whose theories run up against orthodoxy. Even better is the fact that Chakotay's tedious speech fails to save the day. That's all good stuff. What's distracting is the hideously awful science (Janeway telling the holodeck to "show her what the dinosaur would look like if it evolved for a few million more years"; the idea of dinosaurs evolving into a sentient species while leaving no physical evidence behind, etc) and the complete lack of imagination in the presentation of the sentient dinos and their 65 million year old society.
Broad scale: 7 VOY scale: 9
Displaced
Another basically mindless action story. This one has an above-average set-up -- Voyager crew members are mysteriously replaced by seemingly confused aliens. However, about halfway through, it switches gears into a thoroughly run-of-the-mill story simply going through the mechanics of getting the ship back. Not a lick of imagination is in evidence during the entire second half of the show, and thus it is pretty much completely without interest. Plus, these highly advanced aliens have never heard of the idea of placing guards near critical bits of ship equipment.
Broad scale: 5 VOY scale: 7
Worst Case Scenario
Another story that didn't enchant me as much as it did many other people. A holonovel about a crew mutiny piques the interest of the crew, and Tuvok and Tom try to finish it -- but are trapped by a killer holoprogram left by Seska. Again, the first half and second half of this episode are completely different -- the first half, just characters running through the deeply uninteresting mutiny program; the second, a tiresome example of a killer holodeck story. The episode that highlights just how irrelevant the Maquis/Starfleet conflict has become to the show.
Broad scale: 4 VOY scale: 6.5
Scorpion
The big, cliffhanging, Borg-returning season finale. Again, I think it's pretty overrated. Still, it's enjoyable. Lots of great special effects, including all those Borg cubes. But as enjoyable as the episode is on a just-plain-action level, there are serious problems lurking underneath. First, there is simply no longer any visceral "oh, crap!" punch when the Borg show up -- the scripts aren't written to provide it, and we've seen too many lame Borg stories ("Descent", "First Contact") for it to happen automatically. Further, the Borg are relegated to second-string baddies here, as an even meaner, even more faceless bunch of aliens have come to town, armed with their own pointless "Resistance is futile" -style catchphrase. I'm sorry, but the Borg didn't need replacing as the ultimate, scary bad guys -- and a whole season in Borg territory, with the Borg as the enemy, would have been enormous fun (granted, it would have only further enhanced the Battlestar Galactica feel to the show, with the Borg taking the place of Cylons, but what can you do). Instead, we now have Species 8472. [Speaking of Species 8472.... I am not among those fanatical Bab5 fans who, in their desire to prove their superiority over equally annoying fanatical Trek fans, try to prove that everything good about DS9 and VOY is stolen from B5. However, it is hard not to notice that the 8472 space ships look just like Vorlon ships, seem to jump out of hyperspace just like Bab5 ships, and the critters themselves are just Shadows with their foreheads moved back a bit. Lack of imagination at Foundation, or worse? You make the call.] There are some good scenes between Chakotay and Janeway, debating what course of action to take. Such arguments (while present in essentially every episode of TOS) have been almost completely absent from Voyager, and it's nice to see them here. However, their weight is lessened considerably by the fact that when Janeway actually makes her decision, she's talking to a holographic representation of DaVinci -- with an English accent, no less. This is a terrible idea, and merely demonstrates how little foundation Voyager has laid for these kinds of soul-searching conversations. Plus, Janeway's decision -- to make a pact with the genocidal Borg -- is questionable at best. (If it leads to more soul-searching discussions with other actual, non-holodeck characters, though, that might be a blessing.) Stuff blowed up real good, though.
Broad scale: 7.5 VOY scale: 9
So, what's my overall assessment of the State of Voyager? Well, obviously, I think the show's got some serious problems. In fact, at this point, there's a heck of a lot more wrong with Voyager than there is right with it. It doesn't make me happy to say this; I haven't been rooting for Voyager to fail. I'd be one happy camper if there were two good Trek series on at once. But, right now, there's only one -- and it isn't Voyager.
One of the aggravating things about Voyager has always been that it has great potential, but fails to follow through. It's got a top-notch cast; it's got all the money it needs to make the show look good; the premise makes possible really interesting, innovative Trek storytelling. You could make a fantastic show out of these elements. So what's going wrong?
First of all, Voyager fails to actually follow through on its premise. For those who have forgotten, Voyager is about the crews of two ships -- a Maquis ship and a Starfleet ship -- who are thrown across the galaxy and must work together, despite their antagonism, to get home through this thoroughly alien part of space, far away form any support. But there simply is no conflict between the Maquis and the Starfleet crew anymore, as "Worst Case Scenario" made perfectly clear. A Maquis mutiny is so far out of the realm of possibility, it's laughable. In fact, it's hard to tell who the Maquis members of the crew are. Sure, we know about Belanna and Chakotay, but who are the others? No one cares. That's a shame. The whole point of getting these two crew together, as I understand it, was to generate some conflict among the crew -- and thus create good stories and good scenes, and avoid the overwhelming blandness that marked the crew interactions on TNG. But there is very little conflict among the crew. Oh, sure, everyone hates Neelix, but that's only logical, given how he's written. And what about Tom's troubled past? Is that still causing trouble for him? Not likely. No, this crew is headed for TNG-style monotony, and there's no excuse but bad planning and bad writing.
Voyager also consistently fails to deal with the consequences of being 70 years from home and from all means of support. When Voyager is damaged, it ought to be tremendously difficult to make repairs -- remember, even replicator technology was unknown to the residents of the Delta Quadrant, at least the bit in Kazon space -- so it should be awfully hard to find anyone with sufficiently high levels of technology to help Voyager make repairs. And yet, whenever Voyager is damaged at the end of an episode, it is back in perfect shape the next week. This is, of course, ridiculous, and makes it all the more difficult to really buy into their situation. There is the additional aggravation of the near-weekly shuttle crashes. Shuttles ought to be very hard to replace, and thus these constant crashes ought to have consequences. (According to one site on the Web, Voyager has lost at least 10 shuttles thus far.) Obviously, the writers don't want to deal with these mundane facts if life -- but if that's so, they shouldn't have created a situation where such issues need to be addressed. In fact, the only visible consequence of being far from technology is the need for replicator rations -- a twist introduced in the very beginning, but which has never made a shred of sense. The one bit of continuity they have, and it's the one thing that most needs to be dropped.
There are other ways in which being isolated, far from home, ought to effect the storytelling on Voyager. First, it would make sense to see really wild, far-out planets and races, completely unlike anything we've seen -- but, of course, that doesn't happen. Things in the Delta Quadrant look pretty much like the Alpha Quadrant. There's nothing really new in the kinds of stories being told. Further, it would make sense to have a lot more continuity between episodes and, yes, continuing storylines. For example, it would make sense to make brief alliances as Voyager passes through certain regions of space, possibly picking up guest stars for several episodes in a row (as suggested with Kes' love interest in "Darkling".) Perhaps we will see something of the sort with the upcoming Borg stories. But we've had three seasons of Voyager already, and this kind of thinking has been nowhere to be seen -- and that's a shame. (The Kazon fail in this regard as they stuck around far too long to make any sense) It might be interesting to have a story that takes place over several weeks, trying to solve some mystery surrounding a region of space -- but within that story, each week could be a mostly self-contained episode dealing with an individual planet (say, a better written version of the structure of Dr. Who's "Trial of a Time Lord" season). There's lots of kinds of stories that could be told, taking advantage of the fact that the crew simply don't know anything about these areas of space they are moving through. As it is, there have been only a couple of episodes that couldn't have fit just as easily on TNG.
Now, I know, Jeri Taylor decided never to do any continuing stories after the whole Tom-acting-weird/ spy-aboard Voyager debacle. The problem with that storyline, though, wasn't that it was continuing; the problem was that it was a not-very-interesting story which was badly written, and under-written at that. The lesson to learn from it shouldn't be that you should never do continuing stories; it should be to choose good continuing stories, and develop them fully.
An equally serious problem is that the scripts, regardless of whether they are innovative or not, are often simply badly written. For whatever reason, many of the scripts being produced by the Voyager staff are quite badly constructed. This season we've seen several shows in which the first and second halves are more or less completely unrelated in content and style ("Coda", "Displaced", "Worst Case Scenario.") Other shows too obviously lift major story elements from past shows ("Before and After", "Coda", "Darkling", "Warlord", etc.). Cliche-riddled dialog pops up all over the place, whether it's the "you've gotta leave me behind" -- "I won't do that" stuff in "The Chute" or "it's getting dark, daddy!" in "Real Life." Worse, many episodes now end with forced happy, "family" moments, like the "Oh, that Kes!" ending of "Before and After." I know Jeri Taylor wanted a more upbeat feel to the show, but making it more like the Brady Bunch just isn't the way to go. (Further, the premise of Voyager -- people lost and alone years from home and family -- makes a happy tone all the more inappropriate.) There is just a pervading feeling of sloppiness about the writing on Voyager which is quite depressing. Even the best episodes ("Future's End", "Distant Origin", etc) are marred by obvious plot holes and hideous science. The over-reliance on technobabble has gotten worse this season, with such babble often substituting for actual plots ("Before and After", "The Swarm", etc.)
When Voyager does succeed -- "Future's End, Pt I", "Scorpion", etc -- it is almost always when the story is a straightforward action/adventure tale, with no attempt at greater meaning. And Voyager can be successful on that level -- even the best Voyager ever, the pilot movie, was more or less a pure action vehicle, certainly far less thoughtful than "The Cage" or "The Emissary" (but far, far better than the awful, terrible, horrible "Encounter at Farpoint"). Voyager's attempt at "deep" or "meaningful" or "allegorical" episodes often fail horribly -- such as the awful science-vs.-faith mess of "Sacred Ground", the manipulative "Real Life", or the tedious "The Q and the Grey." When such episodes aren't truly bad, they are often lifeless -- such as "Remember" or "Before and After". The lightweight tone of the show is emphasized by the ridiculous Baywatch-style set used for lounging in the holodeck. So, at its best, Voyager is just plain action-adventure fun. But is that good enough?
Well, I'll answer my own question. A plain action-adventure show is a fine thing, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But a good action-adventure series is not good Star Trek. What makes Trek Trek is the fact that it is both an action-adventure show and a thought-provoking, "meaningful" show at the same time. We wouldn't still be watching the original Trek 30 years later if all they did was blow up guys in monster suits every week (especially since their monster suits weren't that great). It's the stories about the meaning and costs of war ("Balance of Terror", "A Taste of Armageddon", "Day of the Dove"), about hatred ("Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", ""Devil in the Dark"), about what it means to be human ("The Enemy Within", "Who Mourns for Adonais"etc) that keep us interested (that and wild aliens, 'splosions, and fistfights.) Even the more action-oriented outings have a more serious element going on as well -- ie, "The Doomsday Machine", "The Galileo Seven", "Space Seed". "A Private Little War", "Wrath of Khan", etc. What makes DS9 so compelling is the fact that weighty notions are woven into the fabric of almost every story, and in a completely natural way. Voyager has yet to find that kind of voice for itself -- after three years, it's still best at telling fundamentally lightweight stories. (And, of course, even in pure action stories, Voyages missed the mark a lot of the time -- "Basics, Pt. II", "Macrocosm", "Displaced", etc.).
And what about the characters? After all, what really makes a series memorable is the characters it tells stories about. How are the characters faring on Voyager? Again, the answer is, not very well. The problem here is that there has been little or no development for most of the characters on the show. Do we really know these people more than we did at the beginning of the first season? Have the characters changed any since then? The answer, it seems to me, is "not really." The character who changed the most over the first couple of years was the Doctor, who did have some noticeable development. Then the writers decided to wipe all that out. Strangely, that hasn't really had much effect. At this point, I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Other characters remain undeveloped. Chakotay's a nice guy, sure, and we can see he has a thing for the Captain, but beyond that, what do we know about him? This guy was a leader in the Maquis -- surely we should be able to see something of a ruthless terrorist in him, at least peeking through, from time to time. But no; he's about as good and noble a Starfleet hero as you could want. Beyond that, we really don't know much. Tom Paris? Apparently he had a wild past. Seems to be getting along just fine these days. I could go on, but you get the point.... we don't know much about these folks, and they haven't changed much.
The one place there was some character development was in the Kes/Neelix pairing. At some point during the season, this previously happy couple broke up. I say "at some point", because the only break-up scene we saw took place when Kes was possessed. But, sometime, they really did break up. (I read an interview with one of the producers, who said that there was a line somewhere, in some episode, which was supposed to establish that the two had broken up, but it must have been cut along the way. Nice writing). Afterwards, there was a bit of stuff about Kes trying to find herself, trying to find her way into adulthood. That was all good -- but there was far too little of it (it also raised some very troubling questions about her relationship with Neelix, which were never addressed). And Neelix, he seems not to have even noticed that he split up with the love of his life. He's his usual chipper, annoying self. Another lost opportunity. Speaking of lost opportunities, Kes' mental abilities have also remained undeveloped -- they played virtually no role this year, except in "Warlord." Why did they bother ever making her psychic? Is it any wonder Jennifer Lien, one of the most talented members of the cast, has opted to quit the show, saying that her character simply isn't going anywhere?
Why is all this happening? Why is Voyager the way it is? I've thought about it a lot, and I think it comes down to three things. Jeri Taylor, Brannon Braga, and Joe Menosky. Those three people are, to a large extent, responsible for the direction Voyager takes, and they are individually responsible for many of the actual scripts. The problem is, their writing has always been troubled at best. Braga and Menosky favor a kind of weirdness-for-the-sake-of-weirdness style of storytelling which usually leaves all logic (not to mention science) far behind -- like "Genesis", or "Threshold", or "Masks." As a result, they are responsible for a lion's share of the worst Treks ever made. Jeri Taylor prefers a somewhat more "cerebral" approach, preferring more character-oriented stories. She herself has said that she believes her greatest strength is her ability to "dramatize the human condition." Unfortunately, she's not as good at it as she thinks she is. "Real Life" was really just a simple story about basic family life -- but was so cliche-ridden and obvious as to be painful. That is not good human drama. Compare those scenes to scenes from any well-written drama on TV -- say, "Homicide", or "ER", or "Party of Five", or "My So-Called Life" -- is there really any comparison? No. On TNG, one of Taylor's favorite stories was "The Outcast", a hopelessly muddled affair which seemed to try to be some sort of metaphor about homosexuality, but instead merely drummed home the "message" that womenfolk just gotta have their lipstick.
It is these very qualities -- bad "wacky" adventure stories and poorly-executed "message" stories -- which are among Voyager's biggest problems. In TNG, at least some of the time, these sorts of stories were balanced by better written stories ("Best of Both Worlds", "Family", "Who Watches the Watchers", "Chain of Command", "Yesterday's Enterprise") written by Ron Moore, Hans Beimler, Michael Piller, Ira Steven Behr, and others. Most of those writers went on to DS9 (explaining why that show is so well written), leaving Braga, Taylor and Menosky to shape Voyager. (I know, Piller was involved, especially in Season 2, which was also very bad. No one's perfect...) The question then becomes, can these three make the changes necessary to make Voyager a much better show? Have these three demonstrated that they have the vision to take Voyager into new, uncharted waters? Sadly, I think the answer has to be "no." They've already had three seasons to make Voyager good -- the length of the entire run of TOS. Heck, by now, even TNG had done it's best episodes -- "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "Best of Both Worlds, Pt. I". But more than that, these three writers spent years on TNG as well -- they have almost a decade's worth of experience doing Trek. If they haven't got it right yet, is it logical to expect they will next year? No.
Still, I try to retain at least some hope. Maybe this upcoming season, which ought to have at least a bunch of stories about the Borg and Species 8472, will inject some life into the series. (Though I still think the introduction of 8472 as "worse than the Borg" is a serious mistake....) Voyager still has all that potential, still untapped. But the one thing we know for certain about the upcoming season is the introduction of a new female Borg character -- and in the piece I saw about it on Entertainment Tonight, the actress was shown in a form-fitting silver costume, which emphasized her enormous breasts. This does not seem to bode well for a new, more serious tone, to take hold. To quote from a recent magazine cover, Can Voyager be saved? Well, it can certainly be made better, and I sincerely hope it will be. I want watch all the good sci-fi TV I can. But series will always be saddled with these first three seasons, which will be part of its reputation, no matter what happens from here -- and so I think it's already too late for Voyager ever to be considered a great series. For now, if someone asked me whether they should watch Voyager or Xena, I'd say "watch Xena" -- it's more fun, it's sometimes more serious, the relationships are more interesting, and it's often better written. But as much as I like Xena, I still think Voyager could be -- should be -- better than Xena.