Usually Star Trek: Enterprise is cited as the moment when Trek “lost it.” I think it was a little earlier, with Star Trek: Voyager.

Which is painful to say; I grew up watching Voyager almost as much as the previous two. I clearly remember going and buying VHS tapes (each containing two whole episodes!) which I certainly didn’t do for the other shows. But… this show really is the definition of “missed opportunity”.

During the events of Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation, the USS Voyager is tasked to round up Maquis insurgents. But upon entering The Badlands, the ship is suddenly transported thousands of light years into the Delta quadrant. A vast sector of unknown space. Now, without Federation support, Captain Katheryn Janeway and her crew must side with the Maquis terrorists and find their way home.

Airing way back in 1995 (with both TNG and DS9 running simultaneously) Voyager was entering Star Trek at its peak of popularity. In fact, the show was a launch title for Paramount CBS channel, and therefore received a lot of attention and financing at the time. The “showrunner” would change regularly before it ended after seven successful seasons in 2001. I suspect this is why, in hindsight, the show is the most muddled. Both narratively and thematically.

With Deep Space Nine doing its own thing, Voyager feels like it wants to be a new Next Generation. Set on a space ship, finding new aliens and worlds. Exploring the unknown. Indeed, the premise is harrowing: a ship alone in space, without supplies, without allies or support. At least the Enterprise had many safe harbours it could stop at between episodes. The USS Voyager has none. Add to this, the crew is mixed with Maquis! Terrorists who featured in the other shows, and who hate the Federation. Drama!

So what if I told you that by episode 9 of season 1, the Federation and Maquis crew are acknowledged to be “finally getting along.” There were no issues displayed in episodes 1-8 either. Yeah, baffling, right?

Personally, my favourite episodes/seasons of Voyager are within seasons 4 and 5 (we will get to why in a moment) so rewatching the whole thing was quite insightful. The first three seasons are divisive. The Kaizon are new antagonists. Who don’t have water but have… starships? With the Maquis basically neutered immediately, there’s a lot to dislike in the early seasons. But there is a certain innocence and joviality. Voyager bumbles through space, causing incidents and gaining a questionable reputation. Or just find weird space phenomenon. There’s a sense of geography: they are so far out that physics are just a bit… bizarre. This answers into the Captain’s science background; Janeway is, more or less, the ship’s science officer.

There’s some good episodes early on, and some good villains. Seska is a fascinating villain in the early seasons. The Vidiians are excellent and definitely underappreciated. They are aliens suffering from a disease that forces them to steal organs from other people. They literally teleport your internal organs out. The crew have room to grow; with helmsman Tom Paris being an ex-convict, a first officer who is a Maquis leader. The vulcan security officer, and half-Klingon chief engineer. Even two new species, with Kes and Neelix, operating as guides in the Delta quadrant.

But there’s also a lot to dislike… The show immediately makes modern viewers cringe by referring to first officer Chakotay’s native American heritage as “Indian.” Multiple times. There’s an obsession to explain everything with metaphors, like the audience is ten years old. There is a fantastic leniency to crew creating other crewmembers in the holodeck. This was a massive no-no in the other shows but here it is commonplace, dare I say encouraged.

But other broad stroke issues would be… a lack of persistent narrative. Deep Space Nine was unique in choosing to play out a steady narrative. But Voyager feels like it deserved one; it is literally about a ship trying to get home. Not only does the ship look completely unchanged from beginning to end, but they get enough resources to make their own state-of-the-art shuttle craft. HOW? There are so many reasons why that doesn’t work in this setting.
But the writers seem almost wilfully ignorant of their own character stories as well. Chakotay, for example gets less and less to do as the show goes on. This is something actor Robert Beltran was frustrated about during the show’s run. Should you compare the characters and their arcs from all three shows… Voyager is woefully under-committed. An example: Naomi Wildman is the first child born on the ship. A big deal! Her mother… simply vanishes. Samantha Wildman isn’t dead. She just… stops being present. All the while Naomi gets into situations where we ask the screen: “WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER??” This small girl wandering the ship, getting tutored by the Captain, an alien, and an ex-Borg. When you consider DS9‘s family units such as the O’Brians or TNG‘s dedication to having schools on board… this makes zero sense.

Speaking of which…

The Borg, introduced in The Next Generation and then skyrocketed in audience’s perceptions with the movie First Contact in 1996, printed money. As fans at the time, we knew the Borg would feature in Voyager prominently, as they are from the Delta quadrant. The overpowering, vast, unstoppable race, that has surely conquered most of the quadrant will surely have an entire season dedicated to crossing their region of space.

Nah, just two episodes.
Now the Borg feature a lot in the show. Too much, actually. In fact, the show ruins the Borg long before Star Trek: Picard could in 2020. The terrifying, unknowable foe becomes a complete farce by the final episodes of Voyager. Dark Frontier, Unimatrix Zero, and Endgame are all terrible two-parter episodes. This isn’t just broad stroke storytelling issues, it is small devaluing of the race’s mystery over time. For example: Borg ships are so threatening because they have no weaknesses, no central points. Voyager slowly starts saying “Oh, there’s a central nexus here” or “there’s a warp device there.” All so that Voyager and crew can actually stand a chance… Because in reality they shouldn’t.
This has been a lot of negativity, and we haven’t even talked about the episode were Janeway-and-Tom-Paris-turn-into-salamanders-and-have-baby-salamanders-because-they-went-beyond-warp-10. But let’s ease off now.

With all this negativity… it is unfair how good the two-part episode Scorpion is. It is like all of Voyager’s karma fused into a solid gem in that one instance. This is the first Borg encounter, and introduction to the character of Seven of Nine. They smash the ball out of the park with it. Excellent. All of the characters have a purpose, the performances are compelling. The Borg are acting correctly while in a new scenario. Don’t get me wrong, the series has many good episodes: the Year of Hell two-parter, Bliss, Survival Instinct, Meld. But none match Scorpion.

With that, Seven of Nine… Now, I was fifteen when Jeri Ryan appeared and suffice to say… I was exactly the target demographic for this. In hindsight, it is ridiculous. Why would producers say “Ah yes, let’s make the fanboys want to fantasize about the Borg character“. The catsuit is absurd. The cruel reality is, Ryan had difficulties with lead star Kate Mulgrew, who took offense at this objectified blonde bombshell walking over her turf. It caused a schism in the family, which affected other actors and characters. Mulgrew has since apologized for her behaviour, but really… you cannot blame her. Mulgrew is a very smart, scientifically-minded individual, perfect for this role. But there is a very defined change in the show’s focus, away from the supportive Janeway and towards the intrigue of Seven.

But for the most part, Seven of Nine is an excellent character (for the most part), which is fortunate because the showrunners pushed her to the forefront regularly. Right up until the Borg are ruined, her character added more subtle intrigue about the race. Her antagonistic behaviour toward the crew added much needed drama to the show.

This review is much longer than the other two, and mostly because there’s more to talk about. TNG and DS9 are, by comparison, better shows. Voyager is too eccentric for its own good. It doesn’t evolve its characters properly, it tonally wants to be fun but it is in a grim setting. Its episodes generally aren’t that memorable, and the highs are infrequent. Audiences cling to the characters who are most consistent and best treated: Tim Russ as Tuvok, Jeri Ryan as Seven, and Robert Picardo as The Doctor. These three characters have the most integrity and/or consistent/focused development. The rest of the cast are scattershot at best.

I can’t say I enjoyed rewatching all of Voyager, but I did find it intriguing. The quality is undulating; I cannot say which seasons to avoid as they all have good episodes amongst the bad. I don’t even take pleasure in this ribbing… I have memories of watching Voyager episodes with my late mother, there are a lot of fondness here (mostly season 4). But in watching all of it, it really does feel like a missed opportunity.