@97blackbird
I can agree with those sentiments completely. :)
[prepare your
anus eyes for a diversion]
Just my dumb thought on the series as a whole, but
Voyager wasn’t its own show, or at least it didn’t start out as one, for better
and worse. Its Season One was, in my own and many viewers’ opinions, merely ST:TNG Season Eight – don’t get me wrong, I
loved ST:TNG! It had matured FAR beyond where it had started (think of any TNG Season One episode LoL), the characters were rich, and the Trek universe had been made better. But it had also run its course; the writing had become stale, often uninspired, or merely boring. Rick Berman
[shudder] also came along for the ride/relaunch, as did a number of actually-talented people from ST:TNG, in no small part because they were the experienced hands of the franchise: Jeri Taylor (who had a straight-up girl boner for Janeway, and boy did it show lol), Brannon Braga, Ron Moore, & Michael Piller (RIP). It’s little surprise then that Voyager felt so much like a continuation of TNG, again for better and worse.
Janeway’s character had (many of) her own issues, to be sure. But the writers
as a whole didn’t seem to care about her
consistently coming across as a
Real Captain, as you’ve pointed out. For clarity, I say this was NOT the actress’ fault at all. There were some later-season episodes where Mulgrew’s performances could nearly bring a tear to my eye, how GOOD they were, and all I could think later was, “why the heck isn’t this show THIS good, ALL the time?!”
The trouble was always the script. If the writers don’t put it on the page, you’re not going to get it on the screen. Improv can only patch the rough sections together. Beyond that, it’s going to be a disjointed mess if your underlying story (plot) isn’t clear, good, or well thought out, let alone written down.
IMO, it was that ‘episodic’ writing, i.e. hitting the reset button at the end, that contributed to making Janeway inconsistent at best, and at worst, downright…I dunno, almost evil? Sometimes crazy? Sort of bipolar? With a Machiavellian bent? Her motivations and actions seemed to be all over the map, for the sake of returning everything to ‘normal’ by the end – yes, there were exceptions, but overall, it was the rule. At least with TOS, TNG, and DS9, we got
consistency from our captains.
[/diversion]
@Communist Starlight
Much squatting and yelling of BLYAT! ensued. XD
p.s. Star Wars has been dead to me since the early 2000s, I’m sorry to say. I grew up in the 1980s, with the ‘original’ movies. It was bad enough when George couldn’t keep his paws off works he’d finished 20-30 years previously – “Ooh, I know: let’s toss in some shitty CGI!
THAT’LL get people to buy it again!” – but the half-baked ‘prequels’…that was one of only two times I’ve walked out on a movie. By the time he sold out to Disney, the Great Satan of our times (lol), I didn’t care anymore. I won’t say Lucas killed my childhood. But it certainly feels like he punched his former fans in the gut, took our money, and walked away.
