Star Trek: Voyager First Season
Original air dates: January – May 1995
Executive Producers: Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor
Captain’s log. After setting up the Maquis-Federation conflict on both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, Voyager debuted in January 1995, kicking off the brand-spanking-new United Paramount Network with a Starfleet ship searching for a Maquis vessel that disappeared in the Badlands. Both ships were hijacked across the galaxy by a powerful, dying alien being who cared for a species known as the Ocampa.
Voyager becomes trapped in the Delta Quadrant, forced to destroy the Ocampa caretaker’s array to keep it out of the hands of the Kazon—one of several antagonistic species in this region of space they meet. They also come into conflict with the Vidiians—who harvest other species for body parts due to a disease they all have called the Phage—and the Sikarians—who start out friendly, but become less so.
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Several of Voyager’s crew die in the initial jaunt to the Delta Quadrant, with Maquis crew filling in their positions. They also take on one of the Ocampa, Kes, who grows food in a hydroponic bay and serves as a nurse to the Emergency Medical Hologram (which has been pressed into permanent service as the only medical professional on board), as well as her paramour, a Talaxian scavenger named Neelix, who serves as native guide, cook, and morale officer.
Their initial adventures range from finding a micro-wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant—but, sadly, the other end is in Romulan space twenty years earlier—to a singularity to numerous first contacts which go pear-shaped in various ways. They also acquire some trading partners.
The first season was already shortened due to starting in January, but the final four episodes were held back for the second season, in part to allow the season to start sooner, so the fledging network could get a jump on its competition, starting the season the last week in August instead of after Labor Day, so they’d have new episodes before any of the “big four” networks.
Highest-rated episode: “Jetrel,” the only 10 this season, and which earned it, as it’s one of Voyager’s best.
Lowest-rated episode: “Faces” with a 3, as I didn’t think much of their riff on “The Enemy Within” with B’Elanna Torres.
Most comments (as of this writing): “Caretaker” with 169. Not surprising that the first episode brought out the most comments. Honorable mention to “Phage,” as the introduction of the Vidiians has 135 comments and is the only other episode to so far reach three digits.
Fewest comments (as of this writing): “Faces” with 35. Apparently the show’s lowest-rated episode also wasn’t all that comment-worthy…
Favorite Can’t we just reverse the polarity? From “Parallax“: Neelix explains to Kes that an event horizon is a force field surrounding a singularity, which is so totally what it isn’t. This wouldn’t be so bad—I remember one person telling me years ago that this was just what Neelix thought it was and he was talking out his hat to Kes—but (a) none of the bridge officers correct him and (b) much more to the point, the rest of the episode treats the event horizon like a force field, when it is, in fact, just a “point of no return” orbiting a singularity that has no mass or shape.
Favorite There’s coffee in that nebula!: From “The Cloud“: This is the episode where this phrase comes from, as Janeway is desperate for coffee, not wanting to use up all her replicator rations on the beverage, nor is she thrilled with Neelix’s coffee substitute.
She also pretends not to know anything about pool (“Is this billiards or pool?” “Right, pool is the one with pockets”) before running the table on everyone in two seconds flat.
Favorite Mr. Vulcan: From “Prime Factors“: Tuvok, in the fine tradition of Spock in “The Menagerie” and Valeris in The Undiscovered Country, uses logic to justify spectacularly illegal behavior.
Favorite Half and half: From “State of Flux“: Torres proves she’s not Montgomery Scott, as she makes it clear that when she says she needs a day to do something, it means she really does need a day and she can’t shave the estimate because the captain says so.
Favorite Forever an ensign: From “Heroes and Demons“: Kim has all of one line of dialogue at the very end of the episode, but at least he gets to wear a cool costume while he does so.
Favorite Everybody comes to Neelix’s: From “Phage”: Neelix has taken over the captain’s private dining room and turned it into a galley (and also a fire hazard), so he can make food with the fruits and vegetables Kes has been growing in hydroponics. Janeway is dubious, and also annoyed that he did so without asking her, but after he gets his transplanted lungs, Janeway says she’s looking forward to tasting his meals.
Favorite Please state the nature of the medical emergency: From “Phage”: The EMH hits on the notion of creating holographic lungs for Neelix, since the holoemitters can create solid matter. However, it only works if Neelix never moves a muscle.
He is also getting increasingly cranky over his lack of staff and his need to be on call constantly, particularly if it means constant care for Neelix (though that becomes moot when the transplant option becomes viable). Kes gives him a pep talk.
Also he demonstrates how holograms are solid by slapping Paris. Which was epic.
Favorite What happens on the holodeck, stays on the holodeck: From “Learning Curve“: Janeway has progressed to the part of her Gothic holonovel where Mrs. Davenport meets the (rather obnoxious) children she’s now responsible for, Henry, the Viscount Timmons, and Lady Beatrice. The urging by Lord Burleigh to avoid the fourth floor in “Cathexis” is possibly given more context by Beatrice insisting that her mother isn’t dead and she saw her yesterday.
The holodeck is later used by Tuvok for training by re-creating the bridge for a war game simulation, and then again to try to get to know Dalby over a game of pool at Chez Sandrine.
Favorite No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: From “Faces”: At one point, B’Elanna tries to convince Sulan to let her out of her restraints by waxing rhapsodic about Klingon women’s sexual prowess. This doesn’t work, and probably at least partly leads to Durst’s death, since Sulan knows that B’Elanna finds him repulsive, but figures if he grafts a friend’s face onto his head, she’ll be more inclined toward him.
Favorite Welcome aboard: Fittingly for the inaugural season, several recurring guests make their debuts in this season: Josh Clark as Joe Carey, Martha Hackett as Seska, Tarik Ergin as Ayala, Tom Virtue as Walker Baxter, Anthony De Longis as Maje Culluh, Derek McGrath as Chell, and Judy Geeson, Angela Dohrmann, Larry A. Hankin, Michael Cumptsy, Thomas Dekker, and Lindsay Haun as various recurring holodeck characters.
Alicia Coppola, Jeff McCarthy, and Scott Jaeck all appear in “Caretaker” as members of Voyager‘s crew who do not survive the unexpected trip to the Delta Quadrant, and whose characters are utterly, totally, completely forgotten as if totally irrelevant by the second hour of the episode.
Trek regulars Scott MacDonald (Rollins in “Caretaker”), Vaughn Armstrong (Telek R’Mor in “Eye of the Needle“), Jerry Hardin (Neria in “Emanations“), Michael Keenan (Hrothgar in “Heroes and Demons”), Carolyn Seymour (Mrs. Templeton in “Cathexis”), Brian Markinson (Durst in “Cathexis” and “Faces,” and also Sulan in the latter episode), and James Sloyan (the title character in “Jetrel”) all return to the franchise at various points to play new roles.
Three superb character actors show up and kick serious ass: Ronald Guttman as the sleazy Gathorel Labin in “Prime Factors,” Marjorie Monaghan as the passionate Freya in “Heroes and Demons,” and Rob LaBelle as the fast-talking Talaxian prisoner in “Faces.”
But the top spot has to go to Armin Shimerman and Richard Poe for their appearances in “Caretaker” as, respectively, Quark and Gul Evek, thus making them the first actors to have played the same role on three (or more) different Trek series, having both played the roles on TNG and DS9. They will later be joined by Jonathan Frakes (TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, Picard), Marina Sirtis (TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, Picard), John deLancie (TNG, DS9, Voyager), Michael Ansara (the original series, DS9, Voyager), Brent Spiner (TNG, Enterprise, Picard), and Sir Patrick Stewart (TNG, DS9, Picard).
Favorite Do it: From “The Cloud”:
“A nebula? What were we doing in a nebula? No, wait, don’t tell me—we were ‘investigating.’ That’s all we do around here. Why pretend we’re going home at all?”
–The EMH, cranky about Voyager’s tendency to be all Starfleety instead of just going the fuck home.
Favorite Trivial matter: Probably from “Caretaker,” as it was the longest, and gave me the chance to mention my own The Brave and the Bold Book 2, one of two Trek tales (the other being John Vornholt’s Double Helix: Quarantine) that took an extensive look at Chakotay’s Maquis cell pre-“Caretaker.”
Set a course for home. “At ease before you strain something.” My biggest issue with Voyager when I watched it as it was happening twenty-five years ago remains my biggest issue with it while rewatching it two-and-a-half decades later: it doesn’t properly embrace its premise.
In 1994, Paramount spent a great deal of time and effort to promote Voyager, not in the least because it was the flagship show of a new network. Five hours of TNG and DS9 (the former’s “Journey’s End” and “Preemptive Strike,” the latter’s “The Maquis” two-parter and “Tribunal“) were dedicated to setting up the concept of the Maquis, which was solely done in order to facilitate Voyager. The new show was to have as its central conflict the struggle to get home while two crews, one Starfleet, one Maquis, had to integrate.
Even if you hadn’t been hit with all that hype, though, even if you hadn’t watched TNG or DS9, “Caretaker” itself set up that premise quite nicely. You had the general resentment between Maquis in Starfleet that was established on the other two shows, but also tensions right there in the pilot episode itself, most notably with Tuvok, who infiltrated Chakotay’s cell on Janeway’s behalf, and Paris, who sold Chakotay out to get out of jail.
On top of that, you’ve got the crew stranded 70,000 light-years from home, which means the chances of getting back home in the crew’s lifetime is infinitesimally small, even taking into account things like wormholes and spatial anomalies and tetryon-based transporters and so on.
Neither of these aspects played nearly enough of a role in the season’s episodes. The conflict between Maquis and Starfleet crew members was barely even acknowledged, not even in episodes where it would’ve played a role—”Cathexis,” e.g.—and the one episode where it was front and center (“Learning Curve”), it was utterly, totally, thoroughly botched.
And at no point does it appear that the crew is actually struggling. Oh, lip service is paid to replicator rations, but it’s a minor aspect, and mostly an excuse to do kitchen comedy with Neelix making his semi-successful dishes. But everyone does their duty and wears their uniforms and follows Starfleet regs and there are no difficulties whatsoever.
Worse, they come up with a nonsense notion that holodecks run on a different, independent power system, which is absurd on every level, solely so the crew can still go to the holodeck and play dress-up, because heaven forfend we not have access to the holodeck. True, it also gave us “Heroes and Demons,” which was delightful, but still, holy crap! I mean, first of all, this is Star Trek where characters come up with crazy-ass workarounds all the time. You’re trying to tell me that Torres, the great out-of-the-box-thinking Maquis engineer, can’t come up with a way to dump holodeck power into other systems so they don’t have power-supply issues?
It’s particularly maddening because the makings of a great show are here, and it only manages to be good. In Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Roxann Dawson, Jennifer Lien, and Tim Russ they have a solid acting core. Mulgrew in particular shines as the science-nerd captain who also cares deeply for her crew and is incredibly protective of them—and also of Starfleet and its values.
They also have Ethan Phillips, woefully misused as a comic-relief doofus except for one episode (“Jetrel,” where Phillips is magnificent).
Unfortunately, they also have Robert Duncan McNeill being skeevy as Paris, with the added lack-of-bonus of some writers being inexplicably more interested in Paris’s redemption than focusing on the actual lead of the show. Paris was set up as a self-centered ass, and yet the show twists itself into a pretzel to show that he’s not that bad a guy.
The season is full of strong individual episodes, and episodes like “Eye of the Needle,” “Prime Factors,” and “Jetrel” showed what the show could be when it cuts loose. “Eye of the Needle” is a brilliant tease-with-getting-them-home episode. “Prime Factors” turns the Prime Directive nicely on its ass and shows the ethical dilemma of getting home at all costs versus staying true to your principles. “Jetrel” presents a brilliant character study. All three have fantastic guest actors in Vaughn Armstrong, Ronald Guttman, and James Sloyan, which also helps.
My goal in this rewatch is to reconsider Voyager, which I was not fond of on initial airing. I still have issues, but I find myself more looking forward to the upcoming episodes. Part of it is that I know that Voyager is never going to embrace its premise, so while I will likely still continue to sometimes ding individual episodes, it’s something I already know is a given.
Part of it is also that the biggest strike against Voyager‘s first season when it aired in 1995 was that it was airing alongside the latter half of DS9‘s third season, which is a really tough comparison, as the latter show was firing on all thrusters at that point. It was sometimes irritating to watch something like “Improbable Cause” and “The Die is Cast,” which upended the status quo of Star Trek‘s socio-political structure, and then see the show that should entirely be about consequences not really deal with them with any depth.
In 2020, though, I find myself enjoying many aspects of the show—in particular, the strength and compassion and science-geekery of Janeway, the spectacular snarkiness of both the EMH and Tuvok, and the lovely voice of Jennifer Lien.
So Thursday, we’ll kick off season two with “The 37’s.”
Warp factor rating for the season: 5
Keith R.A. DeCandido is grateful for everyone who has commented on this rewatch so far. You guys are great.
How would you say it compares to TNG and DS9’s first season? I’d say better than TNG but worse than DS9 but that’s more off their reputations than what I actually remember.
I suspect I’m going to frequently complain about the limits of adherence to episodic storytelling. Already in this season there’s a lot of stuff that would have been great if played with over several episodes but get resolved in 40 minutes.
Though I’m not sure Voyager would be served by current fashions in TV. Serialization is powerful stuff but it has its own problems.
noblehunter: I’d agree — better than TNG‘s first season, which was much more cringe-worthy, but not as strong as DS9‘s first season, which had more gems.
There’s a middle ground between standalone and serialization that DS9 in particular did quite well with, and that would’ve been ideal for Voyager. Still have each episode (or two-parter) be on its own, but have a consistent supporting cast and develop character arcs and issues like supplies and power consumption and resource allocation over several episodes while still having each individual hour be about one particular story.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I suspect that VOYAGER’s fairly conservative approach to STAR TREK might owe something to its being the almost-literal Flagship of a brand new channel; it seems likely the Powers that Be were reluctant to go too far from Formula on the understanding that fans willing to follow the brand to a new channel would very likely be the sort of fans looking for that same TREK taste no matter what brewery it happened to be coming from (In other words the sort for whom DEEP SPACE NINE’s upending of the Status Quo might have been a negative rather than a positive).
Metaphorically speaking they didn’t want to risk the cash cow kicking over the bucket after being fed daffodils instead of daisies.
Anyway, I’m glad you find it easier to like VOYAGER after enjoying the benefit of hindsight, Mr DeCandido; at this rate you’ll be reviewing ENTERPRISE while laughing into your blood wine, rather than swearing an almighty Oath of Vengeance … (-;
Voyager is still my second least favourite series, but I also find it more enjoyable rewatching it all these years later, with no expectations to live up to. It baffled and annoyed me at the time that TNG and DS9 did a number of episodes setting up Voyager’s core conflict, which fizzled out instantly. Voyager, like DS9, was set up to be a show about consequences, but unlike DS9 then spent most of the time pretending there were none. For anything. It became an extension of the tired later seasons of TNG, with silly stories with arbitrary decisions to resolve or explain them. Still, some good characters, some occasional good stories, and if the other shows did better with concepts like the Maquis, I guess it was worthwhile. (“Pre-emptive Strike” was the best episode of TNG’s last two or three seasons.)
@3/ED: I think you’re exactly right. Voyager was UPN’s anchor. Given that the network itself ceased to exist not long after Enterprise ended, it’s safe to say UPN couldn’t survive without Star Trek, and they knew it. So they were extra-cautious about VGR, wanting it to be safe and comfortable TV rather than something that took risks. DS9 was syndicated, and thus was under looser control from on high.
@3, 5: And it is a sad thing too. Imagine if VGR had aired just a few years later, after DS9 really started to shine.
I came fresh to VOY to follow KRAD’s reviews. I’ve never seen other series, with the exception of the original and now the two new ones. So far, I am continuing to watch only because it acts as filler but not because it has captured my interest. Until “Jetrel” I was so disgusted with the Neelix character that it required active refusal not to turn to something else as soon as he was involved. And Kes? No. Just no. That voice and manner of speech is so superficial and artificial that I brindled every time she spoke. But . . . other comments have suggested that it gets better, so I’ve decided to continue. I’ve watched through Season 2, episode 5, and they include a couple that are *much* better. So I’ll continue to see you all here in the future!
@7 I’ve been skipping through most of Neelix’s scenes except for “Jetrel.” Streaming the show makes it way easier to skip over the embarrassing parts.
@3: CLB:
Given that the network itself ceased to exist not long after Enterprise ended, it’s safe to say UPN couldn’t survive without Star Trek, and they knew it. So they were extra-cautious about VGR, wanting it to be safe and comfortable TV rather than something that took risks. DS9 was syndicated, and thus was under looser control from on high.
Yeah.
I know that Rick Berman gets the lion’s share of the blame for what went wrong with VOY. And there is merit to some of those criticisms given the horror stories Ronald D. Moore, Garrett Wang, and others have shared about their experiences with him either on VOY, DS9, or TNG.
But given that kind of obsessive, cautious oversight from UPN…I mean, even if Berman had been more daring and open-minded like Ira Behr was over on DS9, I don’t think it would’ve made much difference. Friction would’ve just built between Berman and the Network suits or they’d have gotten another Berman-esque EP to take over.
srEDIT: for what it’s worth, having met Jennifer Lien a couple times in person (in both cases, many years after she left Voyager), she really does talk like that. Nothing mannered or artificial about it, it’s just the way she speaks.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Definitely stronger than TNG’s first season, but it can’t help itself but be a little too derivative of later era TNG. Being the chief show of a new upstart network was both a blessing and a severe curse.
There were definitely expectations placed upon Voyager. Not expectations of charting new paths for the franchise, but rather go back to previously traveled paths. Voyager was a very conscious attempt to bring back the spirit of the original 60’s show while also serving as a continuation of what made TNG work. Doing something bold and different the way DS9 was doing at that point was a no-go for a new network hoping to establish itself.
And with the three showrunners being Berman, Piller and Taylor, it was natural that Voyager was going to coast by on already proven effective storytelling formulas (Piller’s early DS9 work notwithstanding; his biggest contribution to DS9 serialization was primarily that Circle three parter).
Season 2 will try to add some serialization into the mix through the Kazon/Seska arc. And it will fail miserably. On the plus side, the episodic approach isn’t all ineffective, and getting a show like Jetrel every once in a while makes it worth it.
But not addressing the issues Caretaker presented was obviously Voyager’s biggest sin. As we’ll see in Deadlock later on, these issues should have been cumulative, not forgotten by the following week. Alas, we’ll never know whether Voyager could have generated better stories had the show been first run syndication. I’d argue it could have rivaled DS9.
Wasn’t Voyager more popular than DS9 during their initial runs?
It’s hard to compare 1-to-1 because Voyager wasn’t available in all markets — not every location had a UPN affiliate station — and DS9 didn’t have a consistent time slot from market to market, but Voyager‘s ratings were generally a skosh higher than DS9‘s, but not by a huge margin.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@12/remremulo: I think DS9 was always overshadowed in popularity by both TNG and VGR, but that’s exactly why it was freer to take risks and innovate and be so good. Popularity is often more a curse than a blessing, because there’s more pressure to play it safe and please the crowd.
@13 Krad, During Voyager’s first season I was living in Buffalo, NY which didn’t have a UPN affiliate but the show was shown in the area in syndication on the same station that broadcast DS9.
Second the praise for Tim Russ. His was the first really good portrayal of a Vulcan since Nimoy and Lenard defined the type. And ENT would … not exactly raise the bar.
S
@11 / Eduardo:
Season 2 will try to add some serialization into the mix through the Kazon/Seska arc. And it will fail miserably. On the plus side, the episodic approach isn’t all ineffective, and getting a show like Jetrel every once in a while makes it worth it.
Yeah, the failure of the Kazon-Seska arc in Season Two, combined with Piller’s ouster, pretty much killed any further long-term story arcs on VOY beginning in Season Three. I can only wonder how the rest of the show might’ve looked had that arc ended stronger.
@14 / CLB:
I think DS9 was always overshadowed in popularity by both TNG and VGR, but that’s exactly why it was freer to take risks and innovate and be so good. Popularity is often more a curse than a blessing, because there’s more pressure to play it safe and please the crowd
Yeah, and DS9 is very much like TOS in that it’s been increasingly vindicated as time’s gone on.
I think the DVD release of the show in the early 2000s and the proliferation of streaming (not to mention the collapse of Berman’s tenure and the long TV Trek dry spell) have been very beneficial. It’s allowed people who ignored DS9 on its original run another chance to experience it and it’s allowed a new generation of viewers to discover it and why it’s so lauded.
With VOY, at least there, the series has been posthumously redeemed for me thanks to Kirsten Beyer inheriting custodianship of the VOY Relaunch in 2009. I wish Piller had lived to see those novels because I think he’d have been delighted to see the glimpse of what the show could’ve been on-screen.
@10 krad: Nothing mannered or artificial about it, it’s just the way she speaks.
Thanks for telling me. While I still find it unpleasant, knowing that it’s genuine makes it easier to accept, somehow.
@18/srEDIT: Well, I’m with Keith on this: Lien’s voice is gorgeous.
Count me in as one who’s always appreciated Lien’s work as Kes, especially that soothing voice. That voice alone made Kes the wisest thoughtful character this early on, which made losing her later in the show all the more tragic.
And nothing against Ryan either, who did both hard and admirable work as Seven afterwards.
Well, for a full confession: I find Mulgrew’s voice somewhat too “soothing” as well, when she’s not being the decisive captain.
What saddens me is the wait till my favorite Jennifer Lien episode, season 3’s “The Warlord.” Wish that episode happened much earlier.
Over the years, when I get in the mood to rewatch a Trek episode, I tended to automatically go TOS or TNG, mainly because during the run of DS9 and VOY, we had such an overabundance of Trek: two episodes a week and two novels a month, plus a few movies thrown into the mix. All the new stuff started blending together in my head. Until I started reading these columns, the only VOY episode I rewatched was Bride of Chaotica (I love 1930’s science fiction). After about a month of reading these rewatches, I started my own rewatch and have definitely been enjoying it. Also, I had almost completely forgotten about Kes, because she was so overshadowed by Seven that it is nice to see how much she added to the show.
I think that’s the big reason that Voyager was a letdown for me as well, the fact that it doesn’t embrace its premise. I like probably a good third or a good half of its individual episodes which have strong stories, especially in later seasons, but I would have preferred a structure more similar to DS9’s, where they tried very hard to create a good balance between an episodic format and a serial format.
I personally liked the new Tom Paris and his redemption, and I like seeing how in “Fair Trade” he says “my mistake was lying” and not “my mistake was not keeping my mouth shut.” I never liked Kes or Neelix, but that’s not the fault of Jennifer Lien or Ethan Phillips.
@3: Agreed.
@24:
I like probably a good third or a good half of its individual episodes which have strong stories, especially in later seasons, but I would have preferred a structure more similar to DS9’s, where they tried very hard to create a good balance between an episodic format and a serial format.
Yeah, DS9’s shift from stand-alone to ongoing arcs and serialization…in hindsight, I’ve realized Stargate SG-1 followed that exact same model during its run. While the Pilot did set up driving engines and while there were ongoing acs, the early years of SG-1 were pretty stand-alone Planets of the Week. It gradually became more and more serialized as time went on and it built up a backdrop of mythology.
I definitely think Stargate built upon the model DS9 (and B5 to an extent) established with doing that kind of balance.
It’s also funny bringing up SG because I remember KRAD pointed out during the Rewatch that the Brad Wright-era shows followed the same basic premise of the original three 24th Century Trek shows (TNG and SG-1 being the flagship exploratory teams, DS9 and SGA being remote outposts, and VOY/SGU being stranded from home).
SGU in many ways, and despite its own flaws, is very much what I’d expected VOY in hindsight to become and that’s why it was fun watching it during its tragically short run.
As long as we’re counting votes on Lien’s manner of speaking, count me among those who find it distracting at best, off-putting at worst. That said, I think Lien really grows into the role as Kes as her time on the series progresses.
I grew up watching Voyager. I missed both TNG and DS9 but fortunately my parents bought the VHS of TNG and later the DVD of the other two series. My only real complaint about VOY will always be their fixation on reaching Earth. Not so much the Alpha quadrant or federation space, just Earth. I feel if you live in an intergalactic community, your view of home shifts and there are plenty of humans born on different planets.
If I’d known this was coming (and, to be fair, I really should have done, because it’s how Keith does this), I might have saved some of my comments on “Learning Curve” until now. But yeah, the show didn’t really commit to the Maquis conflict. It came up occasionally, and got referenced a bit more, but Chakotay and Torres, the two Maquis regulars, have slotted into being members of the team pretty quickly. You do get tension between Chakotay and Tuvok, which as of “Learning Curve” hasn’t quite been resolved, but that’s more professional than personal or political.
I continue to strongly disagree over Tom Paris, who I don’t see as “skeevy” at all. He’s a straight-up guy, good friend and decent officer who’s struggling to overcome his reputation and people’s inability to see past the surface. He continues to be one of my favourite characters and one of the ones I always look at in an episode. The fact that he’s not quite one of the perfect 24th century types (dare I say, closer to being a TOS character?) adds to the appeal.
And Kes remains one of my other favourites. I’ve been thinking, whilst watching a bit ahead, that the perception of Terry Farrell might be very different if you only watched the first 15 episodes of DS9. Both Dax and Kes started out as very calm, emotionally controlled and eternally wise characters, then around the beginning of the second season, it feels like they were allowed to loosen up a bit. Kes’ glare at the Doctor in “Learning Curve” feels like it’s a pointer going forward. I will forever curse the short-sightedness in axing the character so soon and I think she, along with the more serialised structure and proper supporting cast, is one of the big reasons why I prefer these early seasons to the later ones.
So…we’re going by original broadcast order then? Not originally intended order? And I’ve just watched “Projections” and “Elogium” in anticipation…There’s pretty much no chance I’ll be able to watch “The 37s” by Thursday, there’s a reason I’m commenting a bit later than usual and it’s sheer dog-tiredness, so I might be chiming in on that one from memory and then coming back to it later.
@37 Since this is a rewatch, I think it makes sense to go through in the order viewers first experienced the series, the airdate order.
Wow, we just got spammed by nine consecutive robo-posts for airline tickets. Never seen that before.
@38/Rowlf: I see it the other way. Since it’s a rewatch instead of a first watch, we aren’t required to duplicate how we experienced it the first time. The advantage of revisiting something is that you can do it differently, experience it in a way you didn’t get to originally. I always prefer to rewatch a show in production order, and it really frustrates me that DVD sets and streaming seasons almost always default to airdate order even when it’s explicitly wrong and creates continuity errors.
@39 Is there an online reference from which to get production order? I’m watching along with this rewatch series so will do whatever Keith does, but it would be interesting to compare.
@40/Stacy: Memory Alpha’s episode list defaults to release order, but the third column lists production order and you can click on it to order them that way (though it won’t change the season breaks).
@38 and @39: Sometimes initial experience has to give way to common sense. The Supergirl Season 1 DVD listed the episodes in the originally intended order: Two episodes were swapped on first airing, creating a continuity error where a couple who got together in what should have been the previous episode were mentioned as being on holiday together. No Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan is going to advocate calling “Earshot” the third season finale just because it aired last. On the other hand, you get instances where production order is clearly wrong: As was mentioned a while back, the two episode of Voyager’s “Basics” weren’t made as consecutive episodes. If you watch TNG in production order, then “Skin of Evil” isn’t Tasha’s last episode. So I think it’s best to go with intention rather than sticking rigidly to airdate or production.
As I mentioned in the “Learning Curve” thread, the intended finale/premiere is a better fit than ending the first season on what was intended as a mid-season episode, but the only real continuity issue is that the airdate order has Janeway’s hairstyle bouncing between long and short on a weekly basis for a few episodes.
Keith’s feelings really match my own with a bit of a twist. Voyager was the first Trek I was really old enough to watch weekly as it was airing, and I adored it through that lense. Then with the onset of streaming in the mid 2000s when I was in college I got to watch all of TNG and DS9 and Voyager fell hard in my estimation exactly because it failed to deliver on what was unique about it. I spent the next decade or so mostly ignoring Voyager except a handful of episodes I really love (Scorpion, Equinox, Message in a Bottle). Finally in the last year I did a complete rewatch and I found myself loving this show again in spite of itself. These characters mean so much to me, Kate Mulgrew remains electrifying, and there are so many good episodes that if you let yourself enjoy them for what they are and not what they could have been there’s a lot to be gained from the experience. And I’m glad Keith is doing a Voyager Rewatch because his commentary and the community in the comments of his rewatches is always so warm and insightful.
I agree with you, krad, this show could have been so much more. But even before I realized that, back when I was first watching it (later than 95), I still felt something was missing. It was trying to be TNG II, and it had so much more potential.
@10 – krad: So, she wasn’t acting as Kes?
@42/cap-mjb: Sure, of course there are instances where episodes are meant to be shown out of production order. For instance, the M*A*S*H episode that introduces BJ Hunnicutt was produced after the episode where Col. Potter arrived and BJ was already present, and for years, the syndication package released them in production order, which was blatantly wrong. And of course TNG’s “Unification” 2-parter was filmed in reverse order due to Leonard Nimoy’s availability.
But those are the exceptions. Most of the time, production order makes more sense and often is clearly correct. For instance, in the 1990 The Flash, there are two instances where a pair of consecutive episodes were clearly out of order because the one released first referenced an event in the one released the following week: “Watching the Detectives” has a newspaper headline about an explosion in “Honor Among Thieves,” and “The Trickster” has characters joking about the events of “Tina, Is That You?” In both cases, production order is clearly correct, but the DVD set has them in premiere order, which is frustrating, especially since the first pair are on different discs and I have to swap them out twice to watch in the correct order.
See, this is what’s so frustrating about the tendency to default to airdate order. Most of the time, production order will be more correct, so they have the default the wrong way around.
It seems obvious to me that one watch a series to match whatever internal chronology is available, unless it was intended not to be watched that way. Production order vs broadcast or whatever seems like a red herring.
@42/cap-mjb @45/Christopher: Also, DS9’s Through the Looking Glass. That mirror universe adventure was filmed between Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast. The writers took a while to realize Improbable Cause needed to have an actual sequel (it wasn’t originally designed as a two parter). By that point, Looking Glass was already in prep, which forced a drastic last minute rewrite of Cause‘s last two acts, while Cast was in the story breaking process.
Explorers was also likely postponed because of this, and I feel that’s the reason why that episode feels so oddly placed in comparison to what happened the previous week, with the Obsidian Order wiped out and all… Because the idea of Dukat and the Cardassians putting a fireworks show for Sisko’s Bajoran liner voyage was already in play before that two parter came together.
@@@@@19.ChristopherLBennett & @@@@@20. Eduardo Jencarelli: Chalk me up as one who enjoys Ms. Lien’s speaking voice!
@@@@@21.srEDIT: I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to differ – to each their own – for anyone who can dislike Kate Mulgrew’s dulcet tone of Authority has tastes so divergent from mine as to seem outright extraterrestrial! (-;
On a more serious note, might I please ask what speaking voices on the show you find preferable?
@46/noblehunter: Of course you should follow a show’s intended story chronology, but the point is that that’s usually production order with some exceptions. There are only infrequent cases where a show’s makers deliberately produce episodes out of their intended or required story order, so it makes more sense to go with production order except when the story demands otherwise. The problem is that too many DVD and streaming releases default to airdate order as the “correct” one even when it’s clearly wrong. In older shows, airdate order tended to be chosen by the network rather than the show’s makers, and could be based on any number of arbitrary factors having nothing to do with story sequence.
Like Krad I grew up watching TOS in syndication on WPIX in NYC which broadcast the episodes in production order. The first DVD release of the series (in a sequence of DVD’s with two episodes each) was also sequenced in production order. I found it bizarre that when Paramount finally released DVD sets by season they sequenced the episodes in broadcast order which, to me at least, made no sense at all.
@50/remremulo: Indeed. Ever since The Star Trek Compendium listed TOS episodes in production order in 1980, that was the standard order used by just about everything — syndication packages, video releases, reference books, the 20th-anniversary James Blish collections, etc. A whole generation grew up with production order being the universal standard. So it was jarring when the 2004 DVD release abruptly went back to airdate order and suddenly that was the standard again, as if it had never been otherwise. It’s bizarre.
Count me among the fans of Jennifer Lien and her portrayal of Kes. She sounded older than she appeared, at least emotionally. Calm and cool and collected. I can see why Neelix was attracted to her although I cannot understand what she saw in him. She struck me as almost Spock like but with emotions. For the most part, she was a steady ship in rough seas. Defiantly a high point among the characters who were frustratingly scattershot in their characterizations.
So much potential in this series and it was squandered so fast, it made your head spin.
This overview resolves a lingering question I had for this rewatch, Krad: were you going to watch “Projections”, Eloguim”, “Twisted” and “The 37s” in production order, and then close out season 1, or watch the season as it aired originally in 1995, ending at “Learning Curve.” I had assumed the former, and after “Learning Curve” I moved on to “Projections” and “Elogium”, with “Twisted” up next. This will be the first time in 25 years I’ll watch the season in production order ( easier since, unlike other rewatches, I’m not overlapping with the other Trek shows and movies released at the same time, and am watching Voyager on its own).
Oh well. I’ll sync up again early in season 2.
Normally, I would stick with production order, except where it obviously shouldn’t be (several examples are listed above), but having episodes in different seasons complicates matters, especially since the episodes are grouped by season in this rewatch. If the change wasn’t across a seasonal gap, I probably would’ve considered changing to production order, but with the four episodes held to season two, I think it makes more sense to do them as part of the second-season rewatch. Further complicating this is that they did it again with four episodes filmed as part of the season two filming block, but held for season three, but those episodes were always intended to be part of season three — it was a budgetary decision to amortize the cost of season three by putting those four episodes in season two’s budget.
Given the complications, I think it’s just easier to go with how it’s done in the DVD/streaming sets, and do it in airdate order for Voyager.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
In this case, I think there’s a fairly large amount of evidence that points to them being Season One episodes, not Season Two. (The exception being the admittedly very large detail that they were broadcast in Season Two.) They were grouped with Season One in early home media releases, and in guide books, and broadcast as part of it in some markets. They all have stardates that place them in the timeframe of Season One. They resolve character arcs from Season One. Even Memory Alpha seems rather schizophrenic on the subject, listing the episodes in airdate order but also dating them to Season One timeframe.
That said, I strongly disagree with the idea that production order is the default. Yes, you get shows where they were made to be shown in one order and then aired in a different one. But the reverse is true just as much. Pretty much every time 20th century Doctor Who was made out of airdate order, the airdate is clearly the correct one. (“Castrovalva”, always intended to be the first full Peter Davison story, was made fourth. Season 12 was made out of order in order to have the two stories set on Nerva made back to back, but they all continue straight into each other. Adric’s introductory story wasn’t his first story made. Same with Tegan’s return in Season 20.) The same goes for the 21st century variant, where episodes are made completely out of order, often with the big season finale and accompanying cast changes not being the last one made. The first four episodes of Blake’s 7 were made out of order but carry straight on into each other, and there are similar instances in later seasons. (“Killer” was made second for Season Two, but broadcast seventh, because it’s clearly set after Gan died.) The third season of Survivors was made completely out of order because of actor availability and even script availability (the season premiere was written and produced fairly late in the day when it was realised the episodes made earlier needed more set-up) but it’s so serialised you couldn’t watch it any order other than how it aired. They once released a season of The X-Files on VHS in production order and it was a mess, with a two-parter that wasn’t made consecutively and the season premiere that carried on from the previous year not being made first so there was another episode before it.
I think, aside from TOS, airdate order is the sensible way to go with Star Trek, for reasons plenty of people have already stated, and it looks wrong to me when guidebooks list the shows in production order even when it’s clearly wrong (or even when it’s not: I’ll never accept “Haven” as Episode 5 of TNG). This however is the exception, because the production order clearly reflects the intent of the show makers better than airdate order, which was dictated by promotional reasons. Not trying to browbeat anyone here, but these things do need to be judged on a case by case basis rather than saying “Airdates are always right” or “Production order is always/nearly always right”.
@55/cap-mjb: “That said, I strongly disagree with the idea that production order is the default.”
I never said it should be the default, so there’s nothing for you to disagree with. I said that airdate order is the stupidest possible default; that does not mean I endorse the opposite, just that I find it bizarre how popular airdate order has become as a standard. Obviously intended story order should be the default — but airdate order is usually going to be even further off from that than production order would be, so it’s bizarre that the industry these days has consistently chosen the option that seems designed to maximize error.
” I’ll never accept “Haven” as Episode 5 of TNG”
Whyever not? It feels like an early episode; for one thing, Deanna’s still calling Riker “Bill.”
@cap-mjb/55: I agree with how Krad puts it: production order where it makes sense. I certainly would not have watched, for example, “Unification II” before “Unification I” on TNG, though that’s the production order. I certainly won’t watch, after “Basics, Part I”, “Sacred Ground”, False Profits”, “Flashback”, then “Basics, Part II” (again, the production order). Voyager is unique with this approach, so I fully agree with watching in airdate order for this series.
@57/Dante: Again, it doesn’t make sense to apply either order as a blanket absolute. Cap-mjb is right that it should be case-by-case, based on the order the producers intended. Yes, there were one or two instances in VGR where episodes were deliberately produced out of the intended story order, but those were exceptions. Aside from those cases, production order usually works better where there are discrepancies. For “Projections,” “Elogium,” “Twisted,” and “The 37s,” production order works better; those episodes resolve lingering threads from the first season or introduce concepts that belong in the first season (like the Doctor’s creator being established or Kes having her first shipboard birthday), and “The 37s” works at least slightly better as a season finale, a coda to the season’s quest-for-home narrative, than as a season premiere. Those episodes were written and shot to take place in that order, so they work better in that order. It’s different with the episodes held back for season 3, because those were written to take place in a different order than they were filmed in.
Basically, what matters is why the episodes are out of order. If it’s the producers’ decision that they should air in a different order than they’re filmed in, then that’s a decision that’s done for story reasons and it should be respected. But if it’s the network‘s decision to air them in a different order than the producers intended, that’s when airdate order is wrong. That’s the case with the last four season-1 VGR episodes, which were delayed by the network for strategic and budgetary reasons having nothing to do with the show’s storylines. And that was the case with TOS as a whole.
@58/CLB: I think I only default to production order when it comes to Trek. I don’t have a blanket absolute for other shows, I’m just picky with Trek. That reminds me…
@42/cap-mjb: I always watch “Skin of Evil”, then “Symbiosis” in my TNG watches; that’s how they always aired in syndication as I was growing up.
Btw, what’s with the spam above me?
@56/CLB: “Whyever not? It feels like an early episode; for one thing, Deanna’s still calling Riker “Bill.””
To be honest, I suspect the answer is “because that’s the order I learned”. That said, I believe (and if I’m wrong here, then I’m sorry) it’s also the order in which the show’s makers supplied the episodes to be syndicated, so it feels they had more control over the order in which they were broadcast than TOS and Voyager who were at the mercy of the networks. There are enough cases in TNG of production order clearly being the wrong one (the already mentioned “Unification” and “Symbiosis”/“Skin of Evil”, “Evolution” being made after “The Ensigns of Command” even though it’s clearly designed as Crusher’s return) to go for airdate order in the case of the whole series rather than watching some in production order and some in airdate.
@65/cap-mjb: Memory Alpha reminded me why broadcast order creates a problem for “Haven” — because it’s explicitly the first time Deanna has seen her mother in years, yet it aired a week after “Hide and Q” in which she was away visiting home. Although I suppose you could rationalize it by assuming that Lwaxana was off-planet, perhaps already at Haven, during Deanna’s visit.
I’m not sure why the episode was delayed until later in the season, but such delays are not always done for story reasons. Often they’re the result of delays in post-production or visual effects, problems that can require releasing episodes out of order even though it creates story inconsistencies to do so. I don’t recall “Haven” being an FX-intensive episode, but maybe there were issues with the editing or something.
@CLB/66 It strikes me that Majel Barrett’s Guest Starring role was one of TNG’s first attempts at an event episode…I seem to vaguely recall it being promoed as such…Perhaps as a result it was felt to be better used for the November Sweeps (though technically most stations would have aired it first weekend in December)…They may have always plannedsuch an airing time, but produced earlier to fit Barrett’s schedule…
@66/Christopher: I don’t recall Troi’s absence in Hide & Q having anything to do with a trip to Betazed. As I recall, the Captain’s Log contains a line about dropping her off in a shuttlecraft, heading towards a Starbase, without specifying the actual reason of the errand.
And regarding whether airing order or production order make the most sense, I’d argue there’s a third order no one has taken into account: the script order.
Case in point, the X-Men Animated Series. The last three seasons of that show are chock-full of continuity issues. Neither the original airing order nor the order the episodes were produced in make much sense (which had not only episodes delayed due to animation problems, but also FOX choosing to air certain event episodes whenever they felt was more convenient). The only order that arranges those episodes in a completely coherent, continuity-wise order is the script order.
@68/Eduardo: The line was, “Having dropped off Counselor Troi at Starbase G-6 for a shuttle to visit home…”
http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/111.htm
And yes, as I already said, script order (the intended story order) is obviously the best option. I’m just saying that episodes will usually be produced in intended story order except in cases where there’s a specific reason not to. I don’t understand why everyone insists on misreading that as some kind of stupidly absolute statement when it explicitly acknowledges the existence of exceptions. It’s wrong to say I haven’t taken it into account — I’ve made a point of doing so every single damn time.
@60/DanteHopkins: I don’t see how “Symbiosis” could have ever aired before “Skin of Evil” in syndication unless your local station was an exception, because (1) the listed airdate for the latter episode was 4/25/88 and the former episode was 4/18/88 and (2), and most importantly, Tasha died in “Skin of Evil” so it doesn’t make sense really to watch that one first and then “Symbiosis” when she’d be alive again for only one episode unless you’re just a stickler for watching the series in production order.
So something interesting I noticed: prior to Faces, not one episode of Voyager scores less than a 5. And after that, there’s only Jetrel, which rates a 10 and Learning Curve with a 4. And while I might quibble here or there, I’d say that most of these ratings aren’t too far off the mark.
So I’m a little surprised that the season as a whole rated just a 5. Yes, I get that the season rating isn’t just an average of the episode ratings, nor should it be. And yes, the whole issue of the Maquis-Starfleet conflict should have been played up a great deal more. There are lots of missed opportunities here.
But all in all, even in its shortened form, this strikes me as perhaps the strongest first season up to this point in Trek history (I can’t speak to Discovery or Picard as I don’t have access to them). And there is a lot on the show that they were getting right, clearly, including some very strong writing in a couple episodes and some of the characterization as well (the Doctor was clearly a breakout character right from the start, unlike, say, Worf). And, my Dog, did they ever make the right decision to go with Kate Mulgrew as Janeway!
It strikes me that they had a sound premise here with the show, a very solid ensemble cast, and a good suite of initial shows that gave almost everyone, aside from poor old Chakotay, a chance to shine. Even Faces is somewhat redeemed in my eyes thanks to the opportunity it offered to delve into Torres’s character.
I have memories of losing interest in Trek around the time Voyager was coming out. I watched the first few episodes and remember being disappointed by the lack of follow up with what we’d been promised. But my life was also intervening at the time (I enlisted in April 1995 and had zero access to TV for several months as I went through Basic Training and Airborne school, and then finally got to my first duty station) so Voyager never really got much chance to latch onto my brain the way TNG had.
What I’m seeing so far suggests that I seem to have missed out by not watching it religiously when it was first broadcast
@71/corydon:
Thank you for your service.
Also, I submit that while Voyager’s first season wasn’t as bad relative to bunch of other Trek series’ first seasons, it still doesn’t compare to the first season of DS9 which had several standout episodes, strong characters and characterization, a good mix of serialized arcs and standalone episodes, and also living up to the promise of its premise.
@71: Oh you know what? I totally forgot about TOS (probably because I didn’t grow up with it) but that series has perhaps the strongest first season of any Trek series. It has a bunch of iconic, classic episodes like “The City on the Edge of Forever”, “Space Seed”, and “The Devil in the Dark”.
@70/GarretH: I understand that traditionally, in syndication repeats, they showed the episodes in production order despite the obvious continuity issue.
@74/cap-mjb: Ah, interesting. Of course that was decades ago and I was a kid so I have no memory of that. I just recall that I did watch the first airings of “Symbiosis” and “Skin of Evil” in airdate order, otherwise I would have been majorly confused. It was only when the “Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion” was published mid-way through the series’ run did I discover the production order of those particular episodes were reversed and that in Denise Crosby’s last scene on “Symbiosis” she waves to the camera so I went back to look for that.
@76: When TNG first aired around here (in Rio) it was using the production order. I distinctly recall Symbiosis airing after Skin of Evil. Needless to say, it was jarring to see Yar alive and well and giving that Reagan-era drugs are bad speech to Wesley.
@70/GarretH: “Skin of Evil” was filmed before “Symbiosis”, so my local syndicate was clearly going with production order. These days, I watch the episodes in that order with full knowledge that “Symbiosis” was Denise Crosby’s last regular appearance on TNG, and I look for that moment toward the end of the episode where Crosby breaks character and waves goodbye; I’m glad the producers kept that part in the episode.
One of the things I’ve always liked about this show is Jerry Goldsmith’s beautiful theme: it’s both triumphant & lonesome at the same time, and I think he managed to capture the essence of the show in that piece.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only audience member sitting in the theater in 1979 watching ST:TMP who was disappointed the film didn’t open with Alexander Courage’s ST:TOS theme–but then completely fell in love with Goldsmith’s score. I find his work on Trek just incredible. I attended one of his seminars at UCLA just to have the chance to meet him & tell him how much I enjoyed his work on that film. And I was glad to see the theme resurrected for ST:TNG.
As an aside, my favorite Trek score (and favorite film score) has to be James Horner’s work on Wrath of Khan. I was so happy when Film Score Monthly released the expanded soundtrack, as my Atlantic Records LP had seen much better days :)
Ahh Voyager.. the problem was that it had a fatal flaw in the characters, basically most of them just aren’t very interesting, (pretty much all of them bar the Doctor) a couple are just boring, (Kim and Kes) and one is downright irritating (no prizes for guessing)
A show where it’s first season breakout character was a hologram was going to have problems going forward, hence the mobile emitter.
The Real wasted opportunity was of course Tim Russ as Tuvok he had terrific potential but was hampered by the constraints of the show. How I wishedTuvok had transferred to DS9 and not Voyager.
79: The closest we got to that was the Mirror Tuvok in Through the Looking Glass.
Is there actual evidence from showrunners that the Maqui was introduced in TNG and DS9 just to set up Voyager? Given how little role it plays in Voyager, and the fact that Voyager is 70,000 light years away from the Maqui conflict, this seems extremely unlikely. On the contrary, the Maqui were supposed to be a main plot line in DS9, but given the flagging ratings, they dumped it in favor of the Dominion War and adding Worf to the cast.
Also totally disagree with the writer’s take on Tom Paris. No where in the show is he ever set up to be a skivvy, unlikable character. Within Caretaker (the first episode) he risks his life for others, gains Chakotay and Janeway’s respect, and is immediately promoted to Lieutenant (which I do think was silly). On the contrary, he’s more akin to Voyager’s take on the playboy character like Bashir, Riker, and Kirk before him.
The first season is actually quite strong in a number of respects, not the least of which is that its the only season in the show where Neelix gets any interesting character development (in Phage and Jetrel). Actually I think Jetrel should have been a two-part episode. It was such a wasted opportunity having Voyager go to the Talaxian system and never actually visit Talax or more deeply explore the conquest of the system and what that means for present-day Talaxians.
Is there actual evidence from showrunners that the Maqui was introduced in TNG and DS9 just to set up Voyager? Given how little role it plays in Voyager, and the fact that Voyager is 70,000 light years away from the Maqui conflict, this seems extremely unlikely. On the contrary, the Maqui were supposed to be a main plot line in DS9, but given the flagging ratings, they dumped it in favor of the Dominion War and adding Worf to the cast
Yes, Ronald D. Moore’s confirmed the Maquis were specifically always part of the march towards VOY:
“When I was working on ‘Journey’s End’, Michael [Piller] told me quite explicitly about their plans for the role of the Maquis on Voyager and that he wanted ‘Journey’ to show the roots of the Maquis even though they would later be named on DS9.”
@81: The Maquis being on Voyager was literally hyped up to be this big thing because it was supposed to be a primary source of conflict on the show between the characters. So it was quite bizarre that that conflict seemingly was resolved by the end of the second episode of the series!
And I also have to agree that Tom Paris comes across as skivvy during the first couple of seasons, pawing on every girl that comes across his way, holographic or not, and getting in trouble for it sometimes (“Ex Post Facto” and rubbing Neelix the wrong way by blatantly flirting with Kes). He’s the show’s bad boy with a chip on his shoulder who is slowly redeemed over the course of the series. Even on Robert Duncan McNeill’s podcast with Garrett Wang, he admits his character was very unlikeable and he cited the “Future’s End” two-parter as a good showcase for Paris becoming likable what with being a hero during those episodes and having a cute romance with Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman).
@84/garreth: The first season maybe at a pinch, although “Ex Post Facto” is the only episode where he actually goes past flirting with a real person and even then he pulls back when a married woman shows an interest in him. I definitely wouldn’t say he’s “pawing on” people, at least not on screen: His womanising seems mainly confined to references to trying his luck with at-that-stage unseen crewmembers like the Delaney sisters. I’d say the shift comes at least as early as “Parturition”, with his acknowledgement that Kes is in a relationship and he only wants to be friends with her, after which he spends the entire second season not actually being involved with anyone at all.
@83/garreth: “The Maquis being on Voyager was literally hyped up to be this big thing because it was supposed to be a primary source of conflict on the show between the characters. So it was quite bizarre that that conflict seemingly was resolved by the end of the second episode of the series!”
Essentially, I think, the idea behind the Maquis was not to develop conflicts about the Maquis situation per se, but just to have an excuse for following DS9’s precedent of having much of the cast be from a non-Starfleet background and thus less perfect and clean-cut than “Roddenberry’s rules” demanded of Starfleet characters. So you could have a disreputable scoundrel like Paris, a rebellious hothead like Torres, even a spy like Seska or a traitor like Jonas. Thus, the initial Starfleet/Maquis conflict was set aside, but you still had characters with the potential to generate new conflicts that wouldn’t happen with a pure Starfleet crew like TNG had.
Also, it could be that at the time they were developing VGR, the producers didn’t realize how much UPN would resist continuity and story arcs. Or, just guessing, maybe it was Piller who was more interested in such things, and once his attention was split between VGR, DS9, and eventually Legend, it turned out that Berman and Taylor were less motivated to pursue them.
Also, it could be that at the time they were developing VGR, the producers didn’t realize how much UPN would resist continuity and story arcs. Or, just guessing, maybe it was Piller who was more interested in such things, and once his attention was split between VGR, DS9, and eventually Legend, it turned out that Berman and Taylor were less motivated to pursue them.
It sounds like it was a combination of the two:
Ronald D. Moore: “”The initial idea for Voyager was that the Maquis who joined the crew would not put on the Starfleet uniforms…[Michael Piller] lost that fight.”
Rick Berman: “We wanted to get the Maquis into Starfleet uniforms, with a captain who had to pull together diverse groups of people into a functioning, solid, effective unit.” The actual reason the rebels were incorporated into the Starfleet crew, by the end of the episode, was that [Berman] felt having tension between the two groups in every installment of the subsequent series “would get pretty irritating, and cumbersome.”
Michael: Piller: [Because Paramount viewed DS9 as a ratings failure compared to TNG] the driving philosophy [behind VOY] was to recapture the bright, optimistic, ship-driven energy of ST:TNG..The most notable decision in this regard was to put the Maquis into Starfleet uniforms at the end of the pilot.”
I really enjoyed this season once I stopped judging it against my idea of what I thought it should have been and simply took the stories on their own merits. I really enjoyed over half the episodes and only actually disliked one of them, which makes for a very strong season in my book.