While Voyager does have a number of brilliant episodes, the majority are extremely predictable and very much bog standard trek. I sometimes wonder if the producers have a few story templates to use when they run out of ideas.
Example Template:
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1. Voyager is flying along in space.
2. Voyager discovers planet/anomaly/ship.
3. There is some sort of problem with planet/anomaly/ship.
4. Voyager's crew solves the problem with the help of some extremely lame techno-babble and everyone is happy.
5. Voyager continues on it's merry way to the next predictable episode.
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As far as the characters go, they are extremely under-developed. The only way to tell apart a season one episode from a season seven episode is Janeway's hair style and whether Kes or 7of9 is in it. Some characters also do complete backflips in their behaviour and ideas from episode to episode. In some episodes Janeway refuses to break the prime directive to even the smallest degree, but in other episodes she doesn't think twice about breaking it. A good example of this type of attitude change is the way she refused to share transporter technology with the Kazon, but later in the series she shares holodeck technology with the Hirogen. While the other characters don't have quite as many contradictions, they also aren't given the opportunity to develop contradictions because they are often just there to support Captain "Inconsistent" Janeway.
They also killed off some great story possibilities by making the ex-Maquis crew fit in so well. There was so much potential for some great stories filled with tension between the Starfleet and Maquis crew, but instead they turned Voyager into one big happy family after only a few episodes.
Basically I think Voyager is the weakest of the Star Trek series. It only has minimal character development, it is very predictable and has some of Star Trek's worst ever episodes (eg: the great Tom Paris turns into a giant catfish episode :-) ). However, Voyager is Star Trek and it has its moments of brilliance. Overall it is still a good series and is much better than a lot of the other rubbish that has been produced for TV.
6/10
Example Template:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Voyager is flying along in space.
2. Voyager discovers planet/anomaly/ship.
3. There is some sort of problem with planet/anomaly/ship.
4. Voyager's crew solves the problem with the help of some extremely lame techno-babble and everyone is happy.
5. Voyager continues on it's merry way to the next predictable episode.
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As far as the characters go, they are extremely under-developed. The only way to tell apart a season one episode from a season seven episode is Janeway's hair style and whether Kes or 7of9 is in it. Some characters also do complete backflips in their behaviour and ideas from episode to episode. In some episodes Janeway refuses to break the prime directive to even the smallest degree, but in other episodes she doesn't think twice about breaking it. A good example of this type of attitude change is the way she refused to share transporter technology with the Kazon, but later in the series she shares holodeck technology with the Hirogen. While the other characters don't have quite as many contradictions, they also aren't given the opportunity to develop contradictions because they are often just there to support Captain "Inconsistent" Janeway.
They also killed off some great story possibilities by making the ex-Maquis crew fit in so well. There was so much potential for some great stories filled with tension between the Starfleet and Maquis crew, but instead they turned Voyager into one big happy family after only a few episodes.
Basically I think Voyager is the weakest of the Star Trek series. It only has minimal character development, it is very predictable and has some of Star Trek's worst ever episodes (eg: the great Tom Paris turns into a giant catfish episode :-) ). However, Voyager is Star Trek and it has its moments of brilliance. Overall it is still a good series and is much better than a lot of the other rubbish that has been produced for TV.
6/10