By stephen on Friday, November 22, 2002 - 7:43 pm:

In the Enterprise Kitchen Sink, in a conversation called "Reflections on Enterprise", somebody who called himself FutureGuy said,

Well, its been a fun seven years, and now lets discuss what we found to be the most surprising, interesting, or just plain weird plot twists of Enterprise.

I'd like to try the same thing here. Fanfic welcome.

Well, it's been an interesting seven years for Voyager. It certainly was daring of the producers to decide that one season of episodes would cover ten years on board the ship!

I liked how the creators showed how the Voyager crew changed and adapted during their seventy-year voyage. Part of it, of course, was through the Beta Quadrant; I'm glad the creators didn't expect the fans to be confused about that.

As we all know, that meant the series finale took place on 25 April, 2441, and we got to see some fascinating glimpses of the future of the Federation, the Romulans and the Klingons.

What were your most favorite and least favorite episodes?

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By Sven of Nine to the rescue on Sunday, December 01, 2002 - 4:57 am:

What troubled me was the future glimpse of Earth in 2441 - it's been overrun by humpback whales! Seems that George and Gracie had been particularly busy all this time and no-one noticed... Though I did like Kim's pet inbred whale Billy-Bob, with seven flippers and the vestigial saxophone.

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By Stone Cold Steven Of None on Saturday, December 14, 2002 - 9:55 am:

Check out the Season 8 episode, "Sleepwalker", in which the Borg Queen takes over Ensign Kim's sleeping body using the nanoprobes in his bloodstream from "Scorpion, Part 2" and attempts to take over the ship. Also, Season 9's "Ghost In The Machine", in which Seska's hologram returns, takes over the Doctor's program and, using his mobile emitter and morphing ability, lures Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay into Holodeck 1 - and into a deadly trap; it's up to Ensign Kim and Seven Of Nine to rescue the First Couple from Seska's posthumous revenge. And finally, Season 10's "Where The Heart Is", in which the crew, along with Klingon ex-Borg drone General Kurok, must prevent a group of Cardassian ex-drones from returning to their empire with Borg technology.
I was glad the Powers That Be came to their senses and decided to let the show go on.

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By Adam on Saturday, December 14, 2002 - 9:10 pm:

Yeah. But I think they went a little to far in season 12. Sure the ratings were at an all time low for any series ever put on TV, but did they really think having Deforest Kelly's decaying corps put in a 'very special' guest appeareance as McCoy's dead body would help????
All I can say is thank God they finally realised a few episodes later all they needed to do to increase viewership was have 7o9 walk around naked and devote 15 minutes of each episode to unedited scenes of Paris and Torres having sex.
And thank God again that Voyager was on UPN were they were willing to air that kind of stuff in primetime.

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By Sven of Nine More Seasons To Run on Sunday, December 15, 2002 - 7:44 am:

Season 11's "Stuck in the Middle", which if you'll remember was the great Love Triangle episode, was a particular favourite of mine. Who'd have thought that Naomi, Chell and Harry would have settled their differences so well? I thought the love scene between these three at the end was very sensitively done. Another good ep was Season 10's "Answering Machine" where the Doctor ends up gouging Janeway's eyes out in order to save her life from that hidden Borg probe strategically placed up her behind. Very touching, even though from a medical standpoint much of it didn't make sense.

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By Cadet_OnFire on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 10:42 pm:

I just wan't to say I love all of the Trek's (TOS TNG ect... Except "Enterprise") and my fave would have to be "Scorpion." Anyways, I really like all the episodes and think the creators did a very nice job on it!
Thanx!

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By Jesse on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 1:46 pm:

Actually, my favorite was the season 62 episode "Crimestoppers" when COPS and Voyager teamed up. That was pretty crazy, seeing the Atlanta PD have to break up a fistfight between Torres and Paris because Tom drank the last of the beer and dangit, Torres just needed a beer that day after learning that she was pregnant with their seventh child. The fights about who was going to clean up around the trailer and her threat to have the Delta Flyer (up on blocks in the back next to an old refrigerator) hauled away for scrap--all classic.

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By Zul on Tuesday, March 04, 2003 - 6:20 pm:

Just a question while remembering early Voyager episodes. Remember that pool hall in the holodeck from the early seasons? Who was the actress who played the lady who ran it? What was her name?

If anyone can remember...

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By Merat on Tuesday, March 04, 2003 - 8:12 pm:

Sandrine was the character and Judy Geeson was the actress. She was in "The Cloud" and "Twisted".

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By Eight of Nine on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 12:05 pm:

I did enjoy the Season 75 finale: "The Voyage to the Home" - Seven of Nine hadn't aged a day since joining the ship way back in Season 4, but Grandma Janeway and Great Grandpappy Chakotay sure had!

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By Torque, Son of Keplar on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 10:15 am:

I think I've been doing too much aerodynamics homework lately...

I took a break and put on a Voyager episode and as I'm watching the opening credits, I notice that Voyager is generating a Karmen vortex street as it flies through that nebula...

Since Voyager's dimensions can be known from observation and dimensions given in books, is it possible to calculate how fast Voyager may be going in the opening credits based on a likely Reynolds number, typical density and viscosity of a gas in space, and the sizes of the vortices being shed?

Of course... I'm not certain whether vortices could shed in such a manner in space. (Where's ScottN when you need him )

But supposing they can and a Karmen vortex street does develop, it appears to be relatively 2D despite the fact that Voyager is traveling through a 3D nebula, not to mention Voyager itself is 3D...

To conclude, I'd say there's a nit somewhere... whether vortices being shed like that in space or from a lack of 3D details...

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By Torque, Son of Keplar on Thursday, October 05, 2006 - 12:24 pm:

What is the main mission profile for an Intrepid-class ship, or suggested possible mission profile? I made a list of what I think would be the main ones for a few ships. Excelsior and the Galaxy strike me as the same mission profile but for different time periods. Excelsior with its trans-warp drive would suggest long range exploration had it come to fruition. However, Voyager doesn't strike me as a deep space exploration vessel since it its crew


Hope - Medical Ship
Excelsior - Deep Space Exploration
Galaxy - Deep Space Exploration Cruiser
Defiant - Short Range Tactical Warship
Nova - Short Term Planetary Research
Oberth - Science Vessel
Promemethius - Medium Range Tactical Warship (probable mission profile)

According to the website: www.m-w.com, intrepid means: characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance.” Given that definition, are Intrepid class vessels nothing more than unyielding pursuit ships? What does this imply about the Federation or Starfleet? I guess its fitting based on the mission to capture the Maquis, and possibly what Voyager has to do, that is get back to Earth, but it doesn’t really makes sense with the inventory of an Intrepid class ship; very limited number of photon torpedoes, shuttle craft, and deuterium storage not of significant quantity. (Look at the Master Situation Monitor.) Additionally, what would a likely mission profile be for a ship that can land on a planet?

Am I missing the mission profile of an Intrepid class starship or is this a big error by the creators?

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By dotter31 on Sunday, October 08, 2006 - 5:27 pm:

I believe the Prometheus was built for 'deep space tactical assignment' according to the episode it appeared in.

Your analysis seems OK to me. I don't think TPTB were concerned with it- they just thought landing on a planet would be cool.

A few years ago, I read a letter someone submitted to SFX magazine. He made a comparison between all the Trek series and famous musical groups.

TOS was like Elvis(the trendsetter, and he even compared the TOS films to the King's white jacket period).
TNG was like the Beatles(took what came before and, in some ways, improved on it)
DS9 was like the Rolling Stones(took a 'darker' turn)
Voyager was like Oasis(a one-hit wonder)
I forget the comparison he made with Enterprise but I know it wasn't flattering.

Here's a horror film comparison:
TOS is like Psycho(the trendsetter)
TNG is like Halloween(same format with different twists)
DS9 is like A Nightmare on Elm Street(ditto)
Voyager is like Friday the 13th(it has its moments but is too non-sensical to be considered 'good')
Enterprise is like Seed of Chucky(a story that just didn't need to be told)

How many officers and crew died in Voyager? (Not counting when the whole crew dies)

Off the top of my head I can think of:

- Harry Kim (episode where his double continues the rest of the series)

- Kes (I don't remember but I thought she actually died in some episode)

- Lindsey Ballard (Ashes to Ashes)

- Tuvok (Shattered)

- Joe Carey (Friendship One)

- Kathryn Janeway (Shattered, Time and Again)

- Chakotay (Shattered)

- B'lanna Torres (Fury)

- Tom Paris (Time and Again, Threshold

- Lon Sudar (forget the ep)

He was in Voyager's Meld,Torq.
Janeway also died in Coda.( and Again, and Again and again).

I believe he died in Basics II, helping Tom.

Suder was helping the EMH re-take the ship in Basics part II when he was killed. (Although it could be argued he was also helping Tom, who was attacking Voyager at the time).

The same episode had a crewmen being killed and eaten on the planet (How quickly we forget the fallen...). This same crew members remains are part of the fundamental plot behind the later episode with the Dinosaurs.

The first officer, helms-women, Original doctor, Nurse and chief engineer were all killed in 'Caretaker'. (others may have been killed too, but these are the ones I recall seeing being dead).

Tuvix was murdered by Janeway.

B'Lanna was half killed when she was split into her Klingon and human sides.

Hey i forgotten about them dinasour episode!

Cyber- mind me asking what was your first Trek and how old and where you at?


B'lanna was in episode Faces.

Well, of all the "humans lost in space" shows, this is the only one that has any resolution. Voyager gets home at the end.

The poor denizens of Lost In Space, Space: 1999, and now Stargate Universe are left drifting in space (although there was a fan made ending for 1999 starring Zenie Merton that gave that show some kind of resolution).

Peter David mentions what the story bible was like when he was offered to write the first Voyager novel, and how the episode scripts contributed to his decision in this post on his blog.

Well, there is no argument that Deep Space Nine is way better than Voyager. Of course, Voyager had several strikes against it.

1. The Utterly Pointless Network. Unlike DS9, VOY was manacled to UPN and, as such, had much less creative freedom of movement. It was network interference that ordered an end to the conflict between Starfleet and the Maquis crew by the second episode or so. Would VOY have done better without UPN, I guess we'll never know. However, as we saw in the 1960's, Star Trek and networks just don't mix. Of course, back then, it was the three networks and nothing back. However, by the 1990's, that had changed. Neither Next Generation or Deep Space Nine needed a network to thrive, and I think Voyager could have thrived without one too.

2. The wrong person in charge. When The Next Generation ended in 1994, Deep Space Nine lucked out when it got Ron Moore. Unfortunately, Voyager got Brannon Braga. For reasons only the dead gods of Krypton know, Jeri Taylor decided to put him in charge, and the show suffered for it.

Ron Moore was smart to look around and see that science fiction on televison was changing. The old "everyone happily back on the bridge" at the end was becoming out moded. Shows like Babylon Five were now using serialized concepts, a concept that Moore helped adopt for DS9's final two seasons.

While Ron Moore was looking forward, Brannon Braga was looking backward. Voyager stuck to that old format. When DS9 ended, Ron Moore joined the writing staff at VOY, but soon left. He never gave a reason, but I suspect it's because he wanted to serialize VOY like DS9 was, and Braga wouldn't let him. If you ask me, they should have kicked Braga out and kept Moore.

Now, I'm not saying Voyager was bad, it wasn't, but, IMHO, it could have been so much better with better writings and no meddling network.

Ron Moore indeed gave reasons, in interviews such as this one. I seem to recall a more detailed one I read with him on his reasons for leaving, in which he mentioned the quality of the show and its premise, but a Google search did not turn it up.

TrekMovieDotCom/2008/06/21/exclusive-interview-ron-moore-fighting-the-trek-cliches/ contains some of that material.

Ooh, here's a New York Times piece that mentions the same thing. He didn't think the show lived up to its premise, and he became isolated from the rest of the writing staff as a result, which also resulted in a personal rift between him and Braga that later faded.

Sounds like Ron Moore would have been good for Voyager.

Well, he gave us Survival Instinct.

And Barge Of The Dead, which I greatly enjoyed.

Ron Moore was the right man for the job. Season Seven would have probably followed the same path the final seasons of DS9 did, with continuing storylines. The Voyager makes it home could have been done in a multiple episode arc that showed them getting back to Earth, what happens to the crew (Maquis and such), and finally, seeing some of them going their own ways (like some of the DS9 crew did at the end of What You Leave Behind).

No, they let the wrong guy go. Notice that Ron Moore went on to better things, like the new Battlestar Galactica, while BOTH of Brannon Braga's series since Trek were flops. Need I say more.

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quote:

BOTH of Brannon Braga's series since Trek were flops. Need I say more.

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And..."Terra Nova" was cancelled being reaching a full season. No comments about that from me, it's not worth it, I feel.

I didn't know where else to put this, put longtime Trek director Winrich Kolbe passed away last month. He did a lot of Season 7 TNG (dont get me started) and then directed "Caretaker".

And apparently he and Kate Mulgrew became friendly on and off the set, if you know what I mean. She had just divorced, I dont know his situation. But they were together for about a year, I believe. And remember, this is back when Mulgrew was, in my mind, still pretty hot!

Yeah, I said it. And with absolutely NO comparisons to Katherine Hepburn, either. On that note, I wish they had given her a different name than "Kathryn", dont you? I mean, if the comparisons to her and Hepburn had already begun before the series even started? You know what I mean?

And yes, there was once a "redshirt" character on TNG also named Janeway, who Troi had no sympathy for in their counseling session. She didnt matter at all in the big scheme of things, and neither did that officer from "The Loss", either. And you know what? Neither did Marla Aster from "The Bonding"! Like Phil said, there were no attempts at rescusitation, and no attempts to even get her stabilized. It was just a "she's dead" and she was wheeled out! Aster just wasn't "worth the effort", as she was just an expendable extra. But at least the actress got some dialogue as the alien re-creation! Oh well.

Like I said, I didnt know where else to put this!

I have now seen the whole series for the first time since originally aired years ago(although I did quickly turn off "The Disease" and I think a couple of other episodes-- but managed to sit through both Fair Haven episodes). All these years later, the series still has some very good episodes-- continuity including its own internal continuity on the other hand, well just plain bad, and I'm still trying to figure out Janeway's behavior in Part 2 of the Equinox all these years later. Whoever decided to pair 7 of 9 with Chakotay should be in an asylum--but I think what happened there was that Beltran complained they were doing nothing with his character(as he should) for totally disregarding his character since the third season, and some "genius" said "let's pair him with 7 of 9" as a solution. :P Interestingly, I took a peak at the novel Homecoming, and their relationship ends by the time they hit the planet (even the novelizers did not know what to do with that! :P ).

It still holds up as a series and was one of the better television examples in the 90s, (well, not Deep Space Nine or TNG or B5 or going into other genres Northern Exposure, West Wing, etc., but you know what I mean)-- in fact, what surprised me is with the exception of Threshold, Season 2 wasn't really that bad (Season 3 seems to have a few real stinkers by comparison)-- UPN is mainly to blame (although they lucked out by getting a good actress to play 7 of 9 as they were trying so hard season 3 onwards to show skin)-- Even if our bad haircut aliens were rather forgettable (even the creators had their joke on the Kazon later with 7of9 saying the Borg didn't see they were worth assimilating :P ).

I'm now going to try to give Enterprise a new watch after all these years. Wish me luck! :P I know the joke is watch some of season 1 and skip to Season 4, but you know what I mean. :P I'm going to watch all of it again.

I'm now going to try to give Enterprise a new watch after all these years. Wish me luck! :P I know the joke is watch some of season 1 and skip to Season 4, but you know what I mean. :P I'm going to watch all of it again.

Just skip season 2 (except for the finale)

In the middle of Season 2 right now (Enterprise). Some episodes are very slow and some plots have been done before (i.e. the invisible Hoshi episode harkens back to several different familiar TNG/Voyager episodes). Although the Princess episode harkens back more to the Original Series. :P
I can say easily Voyager's second season is much more interesting than Enterprise's. In fact, I'd argue it was the second season that probably killed the series more than anything, with an impatient and dying UPN at the helm. A lot of the episodes in the second season were just plain boring and territory explored much before. And the magic from the first season seemed lost.

The problems started right at the beginning. Even the series tittle is wrong. It had been established in the previous series that USS Enterprise, NCC 1701 was the first ship with that name in Starfleet. When you start things off with such an unforgivable slap in the face of the fans, there's nowhere to go from there but down.

Actually, it was established that it was the first starship with that name. No "Federation" or even "Starfleet" qualifier.

True enough, but that makes "Enterprise" an even less acceptable name for the series.

Let`s not forget getting to the Klingon homeworld in only a few days which given the speeds they`ve established the Enterprise travelled at is impossible. Even at Warp 5 (i.e. 125c) 3 days travel only gets you a little over a light year.

This show had a promising premise. The ship was stuck, thousands of light years from the Federation, and a much of its crew was now made up of non-Starfleet personnel. It was the idea that this would cause much interpersonal conflict and generate interesting storylines.

Unfortunately, all that was deep sixed by, IMHO, the worst thing that ever happened to Star Trek, the Utterly Pointless Network. Ever since the late 70's, Paramount had chased this dream of launching their own network. Finally, with a Star Trek show, they felt that now was the time. So, unlike TNG and DS9, which thrived in syndication, Voyager found itself manacled to a network. So, from practically Day One, Voyager fell victim to Executive Meddling of the worst way. One of the first things to go was the conflict storylines. UPN basically wanted TNG Mark II, so the crews became chummy only a few episodes in (DS9 had good conflict stories, but it was syndicated and out of UPN's reach).

Voyager is, like Enterrprise, considered one of the weaker Trek shows. Interesting that both these shows were on UPN. Star Trek and networks just don't mix. Sadly UPN would hang over Modern Trek, like the Sword Of Damocles, for the rest of Modern Trek's television life.

One year after Enterprise ended, UPN took over the WB, and mutated into the CW.

While the misery was over for Trek fans, for fans of other shows, like Beverly Hills 90210, the worst was yet to come...

As I said, UPN was the worst thing to happen to Star Trek.

A new video; the Voyager credits done with the TNG theme and graphics;
https://youtu.be/uKJLEbGfT2w

Here's another Voyager opening, this time alongside the Enterprise-D;
https://youtu.be/IWg68e9k1tQ

A couple months ago I posted a youtube video of STNG in the animation form of Star Trek The Animated Series.
Here's one for Voyager in the style of TAS;

https://youtu.be/luEDui2zAUw

Fascinating.