Often the subject of disagreement, Voyager is talked about poorly by some and praised by others. Seeing plenty of posts about it here. Well ya know - I think Voyager is underrated.
That show took risks. They ran some stories that were just risky in terms of writing and production - sometimes it was a hit, sometimes a stinker. That's why it has some amazing episodes and some really really stupid ones, because they were willing to take a chance on something uncertain. And I respect that, too many shows these days feel like the same recycled crap because television has become so risk-averse and they're not willing to take a chance on something that might turn out dumb.
So we got ones like the infamous warp 10 episode, and those are remembered as cases where the show got really dumb. But as an example, Seven of Nine could've completely bombed that show. Yes it looked like they were bringing on a bimbo for sex appeal, and they absolutely could've went that route with her. Fans might've hated the change no matter what. I mean, that's a big deal, losing a main character and adding a new one - shows don't always survive that.
Also there are things I notice from a production standpoint. From reading about the making of TNG, one thing I remember is them talking about never wanting to damage the costumes or get them dirty, or damage the set. That increases their production costs, cheaper to just not do that.
But Voyager does this all the time. Uniforms are always getting burned and torn, Neelix spills things on his shirt, the bridge is shown being blown up or completely transformed. All the times they have smoke inside there, there's something with water, parts are broken off - that's something they had to clean up for the next episode. If they show burn marks on the captain's chair, that means they'll have to be cleaned or the whole prop replaced, at the risk of it not being identical or impossible to fix.
So the point is - respect for taking those risks. Didn't always land, but plenty of them did.
What are episodes people think are dumb?
I think the last seasons the writers really had some fun and the actors must have loved those.
Let's see, I don't remember episode titles but from memory:
The one where Harry Kim is having visions of a planet full of hot desperate women who want him for a mate
The one where they're on a prison colony and Chakotay has to fight The Rock. And this was before Dwayne Johnson's film career really took off.
The one where they go Warp 10 and devolve into lizard creatures. The lizard versions of Tom Paris and Janeway have lizard babies.
The one where Janeway falls in love with a holodeck character
The one where Kes comes back and she's evil
It's a real mixed bag. Sometimes you swing and you miss, and I respect them for even giving these stories a chance. Also I rather like Tuvix.
With Threshold I always was mildly impressed with how they made a point that evolution doesn't necessarily mean that a species will become super advanced somehow. That they evolved "in-place" instead of over generations is still a pretty bonkers misunderstanding of evolution that they always fall for, but I guess watching them turn into lizards over the next several decades probably wouldn't make the best TV lol
I agree. Honestly Threshold was a decent episode up until that ending. But the ending.... was just too much.