Star Trek: Voyager failed for a lot of causes together with Kate Mulgrew’s off-camera points, B’Elanna Torres’s character flaws, and racism round Chakotay.
By Joshua Tyler
The 90s had been an incredible time for science fiction. Each tv channel and movie show was stuffed with explorations of a future past creativeness. However one of many decade’s greatest sci-fi reveals has, lately, developed a really totally different status from the one it had when it was on the air.
It was a present that obtained caught on a tv community, so bizarre that it doesn’t exist anymore. It had main clashes between its leads. It misplaced virtually its complete viewers by the ultimate season. It started with what could be the most excellent premise any Star Trek sequence has ever had.
Why Star Trek: Voyager Failed
Star Trek: Voyager was the fourth Star Trek sequence to reach on tv. The three that preceded it had been all, in their very own manner, resoundingly profitable. Even Star Trek: Deep Area 9, although it by no means fairly obtained the rankings of Subsequent Era, proved to be a stable, critically acclaimed, award-winning success. Then got here Voyager.
It’s not that Star Trek: Voyager was a foul expertise. The present lasted the requisite seven seasons, and amongst these seasons, there have been impressed moments. Voyager didn’t kill Star Trek, but it surely was the start of a development that may ship Star Trek right into a deep coma, a coma it could not awaken from till 2009’s Star Trek reboot.
It was in Voyager that we, the franchise’s followers, all began to sense one thing is likely to be going incorrect with Gene Roddenberry’s imaginative and prescient, and it solely obtained worse after Voyager went off the air. The following Trek sequence, Enterprise, was cancelled early in its run. Few of The Subsequent Era motion pictures had been any good, and what’s worse, by the top, few had been displaying as much as see them.
Voyager didn’t kill Star Trek, but it surely signified the start of the slide. The issues that quickly stalled the franchise, placing it in a tailspin that resulted within the 2009 reboot, all began there.
Janeway Wanted To Be Extra Kirk And Much less Picard
In a number of interviews for the reason that present’s finish, Kate Mulgrew, who performed Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, has admitted that she by no means actually gave the function her all. It wasn’t that she was disinterested, however her house life was in turmoil, and based on the actress, she was struggling to discover a stability between elevating a household and having a profession.
Regardless of these points, Kate Mulgrew wasn’t the issue. It’s the character they got here up with for her to play that by no means fairly labored. In creating Star Trek’s first feminine Captain, it appears clear that Voyager’s producers went out in search of a feminine Picard, when what they need to have performed is forged a feminine Captain Kirk.
Picard labored brilliantly as a result of he subverted the normal Captain Kirk alpha male stereotype. However a feminine Picard largely performs into stereotypes. What they wanted was a take-charge, dynamic feminine Captain; what they gave us was a moralizing pushover all too keen to throw her crew’s life away for no cause in any respect if it made her appear superior and at the least as eager about prancing round in frilly clothes on the holodeck as she is in main her crew.
Janeway had her moments of loopy toughness, and Mulgrew’s efficiency was satisfactory. Nevertheless, the concept behind the form of Captain Star Trek that Voyager was initially saddled with was wrongheaded. Perhaps an actress who was extra engaged and targeted than Mulgrew was on the time may have performed one thing to make all of the items match collectively.
It’s not Mulgrew’s fault, although; it’s not even many of the writers’ fault. They had been caught with a very unhealthy thought, a foul thought which was sadly probably the most central character on the present, and nobody ever actually found out a approach to erase that beginning premise fully.
B’Elanna Torres Is Meg Griffin
When the Star Trek: Voyager group got here up with B’Elanna Torres, I think about they anticipated her to be the sturdy, fiery, balls-to-the-wall, take-no-prisoners feminine character Janeway ought to have been persistently. The present is written as if that’s what everybody expects from her. Characters reference her legendary Klingon mood, her unbelievable Klingon toughness, and her intimidating demeanor.
It’s all speak. Not one of the issues Voyager appears to suppose Torres is, really, ever transform true. As an alternative, what they obtained, thanks at the least partly to persistently horrible performances from Roxann Dawson, was Meg Griffin. Meg Griffin is the worst character on Household Man. She exists primarily as a working joke, by which everybody acknowledges how terrible she is. That’s B’Elanna.
Her legendary Klingon mood by no means actually strikes past the realm of “bitchy.” Her legendary Klingon toughness is usually a variety of pouting. If her crewmates are intimidated by her, it’s solely as a result of they’re afraid she may begin whining earlier than they’ll get out of the room.
B’Elanna has the uncanny capacity to stroll into any state of affairs and make it miserable. She takes a sledgehammer to any plot she’s concerned in and turns the grins of everybody round her into frowns. Tom Paris is worked up a couple of incredible house race? Don’t fear. B’Elanna will power her manner into the episode to verify it turns right into a dialogue of their relationship and that none of that enjoyable racing stuff ever occurs.
Everyone seems to be joyful as a result of she’s having a child? Don’t fear, B’Elanna’s not, and it’s solely a matter of time earlier than she begins bitching about how a lot she hates her unborn child. Placing B’Elanna Torres within the engine room was like giving Voyager’s warp core most cancers. It was solely a matter of time earlier than she triggered a core breach.
It’s price noting that since Star Trek: Voyager went off the air, actress Roxann Dawson has turn into a profitable and extremely gifted tv director. Perhaps it was a latent intuition for making attention-grabbing leisure that obtained her the a part of Torres within the first place, and fortunately, Dawson has since found out her skills are a greater match behind the digicam.
Chakotay Is A Racist Character
Chakotay is Star Trek: Voyager’s Native American first officer. I’ve described him that manner as a result of it’s the one factor I learn about him, even after watching all seven seasons a number of instances. It’s not that they don’t give him display screen time. The issue is that when the present tries, they solely appear eager about taking part in up the Native American angle.
Tune in to any one of many present’s all-too-rare Chakotay episodes and also you’re certain to listen to the beating of vaguely tribal-sounding Native American drums within the background. Odds are that the episode’s plot will contain some form of imaginative and prescient quest, or an obsession with the sweetness and majesty of some primitive alien species that’s in contact with the land. Perhaps you’re considering that that is nice, it is a high quality instance of Voyager embracing range within the Star Trek universe. Isn’t that what Gene Roddenberry needed? Not the way in which Voyager did it.
Whereas the unique Trek included characters primarily based on their share of racial stereotypes, it didn’t completely depend on them. Scotty didn’t put on a kilt within the engine room, and Chekov, regardless of a bent to credit score Russia with each development in human historical past, didn’t wander round making an attempt to persuade everybody to turn into a communist. Sulu didn’t subsist completely on a food regimen of sushi, as an alternative, he was actually into the Three Musketeers and Euro-style swashbuckling. And that was within the 60s.
Voyager was on the air in 2001 and contained a personality whose solely cause for current was to wander across the ship, espousing the advantages of utilizing high-tech, digital peyote. We’re fortunate Chakotay didn’t discover a approach to convert the shuttle deck right into a on line casino or make his uniform out of buffalo.
All of it is sensible whenever you uncover that the character of Chakotay was invented by a person well-known for being a Native American fraud. His title was Jamake Highwater and within the 80s he handed himself off as a Native American with a view to e-book profitable consulting gigs.
However Jamake Highwater wasn’t Native American, and in 1984, an investigative journalist uncovered him. Someway, the producers of Voyager missed this exposé, and practically 10 years later, in 1993, they employed him to assist provide you with the character of Chakotay, believing Highwater really knew one thing about Native People. It appears what he instructed them is that Native People like smoking peyote.
The Decrease The Rank The Higher The Character
Voyager’s most attention-grabbing characters are those they haven’t put answerable for something. The Captain is a bleeding coronary heart, borderline incompetent, obsessive about espresso (okay, the espresso factor is definitely fairly nice). The primary officer might be excessive, and their chief engineer is a space-faring Debbie Downer.
The remainder of the bridge crew isn’t significantly better. Garret Wang’s Ensign Kim ultimately turns into an attention-grabbing member of the ensemble, however Tom Paris’s receding hairline isn’t very convincing on a devil-may-care unhealthy boy. Plus, Paris is romantically eager about B’Elanna Torres, so one thing is clearly incorrect with this man.
I’m unsure the ship’s safety officer, Tuvok, regardless of the pointed ears, is definitely a Vulcan.
The present’s greatest characters are: a holographic Physician who spends most of his time confined to sickbay and possibly isn’t actual anyway, an alien explorer who they’ve determined to stay behind a range of their kitchen, and a lately liberated, unusually engaging Borg (Jeri Ryan) who spends her time standing round in a cargo bay or sitting in entrance of a map someplace within the bowels of the ship.
In fact, the present rapidly realized how nice these characters had been, leading to a gradual food regimen of episodes centered round The Physician, Neelix, and afterward Seven of 9. However since they aren’t actually answerable for something, it’s onerous to maintain inventing excuses for the ship’s cook dinner to go on away missions.
Star Trek Voyager’s Squandered Premise
The present’s inconsistent forged of characters is a facet impact of a a lot bigger drawback: they by no means knew what to do with their premise. It’s a very good premise, one that might have revitalized the complete Star Trek universe by turning it on its head.
A by-the-numbers Starfleet vessel is stranded so distant from house that it’ll take them 70 years to get again. They don’t have any sources, they don’t know the place they’re, and when half their crew is killed, they’re pressured to exchange them with a bunch of rebellious, borderline house pirates and make them their bunkmates.
How does Voyager reply to this predicament? They determine to faux they’re nonetheless in Starfleet and hold doing all the things by the e-book.
These insurgent marauders, the Maquis? By episode two, they’re just about indistinguishable from each different Starfleet officer on the ship. They placed on the uniform and observe the principles. Apart from the occasional plotline involving the holodeck, the variations between them and the precise Starfleet crew are hardly ever talked about once more.
Probably the most irritating factor about Voyager is that they used a present a couple of stranded ship in determined circumstances to inform tales that might have been instructed on virtually any previous episode of Star Trek. Fairly than being a staple of the tales they selected to inform, the Voyager crew’s predicament is extra like a sidebar that the present’s writers cease to revisit each time they don’t appear to have something higher to do.
Know-how Babble
Among the many record of issues Voyager’s writers would relatively do than deal with the present’s central premise is to spend time on the holodeck. Actually, Voyager spent extra time on the holodeck than virtually another Star Trek has earlier than or since. Fairly than coping with the true world, most of the present’s episodes contain holographic worlds the place the crew battles B-movie sci-fi villains, engages in Klingon rituals, or often has intercourse with holographic Irish bartenders.
Hey, she could also be a Captain, however Kathryn Janeway remains to be a lady with wants, wants which she meets with a futuristic intercourse doll whereas carrying a wide range of frilly clothes. The issue isn’t solely the present’s overuse of the holodeck; it’s their overuse of practically each technological marvel they suppose followers may love.
All too usually, Star Trek: Voyager feels extra like fan service than an precise storytelling venue. Replicators are used a lot, they turn into much less expertise than magic. They’re the moment answer to any drawback, issues which could have been extra attention-grabbing in the event that they couldn’t be solved by pushing a button. Operating out of shuttles? No drawback, we’ll replicate a dozen extra so you may blow them up once more. Want one thing to eat? Replicate it! Operating out of alternative components? Replicate them!
Different Trek technological staples get overused, too, whether or not it’s the transporters, the turbolift, the warp engine, or the ship’s sensors. In some unspecified time in the future, all that once-marvelous expertise turns into so overused that it loses any and all that means. It stops turning into expertise and turns into a sequence of magic MacGuffins the writers use each time they get lazy.
The Legacy Of Star Trek Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager’s legacy is the story of final alternative paired with inconsistent execution. Voyager had nice moments, however most of all, it had potential. Plenty of it. It may have been the very best of Star Trek, and as an alternative become one thing that by no means fairly was what it deserved to be, and the place the place the franchise began to fracture.
