Now on the main topic-
I've had the exciting experience of introducing Star Trek to my partner Tim. He had watched some Next Generation (TNG) as a child but didn't really remember much of it and he certainly didn't really consider himself a fan. However, since being with me we've watched all 176 episodes the TNG, all the feature films, and a few original series and animated series episodes. Now we've moved onto Star Trek Voyager. We're about 3/4 the way thru season 3. It's fun watching with Tim because has an outsider perspective. He's always making interesting observations and comments. Let me share a couple of them here:
1. Before diving into Voyager Tim warned me "I might not like it". He loved TNG but would make no promises about Voyager. Once we did start watching Voyager he realized "Well, this is just like Next Gen! Why didn't they just keep making that show?". Ya know, he's really right. There are a number of Voyager episodes that could easily be TNG stories. In some cases, the Voyager writers took unused TNG scripts and adapted them. What am I talking about? Well, Take the season 3 episode "Remember". A group of telepaths come on board and one of them forces his/her thoughts onto Torres. Wait a second... doesn't that sound like the TNG episode "Violations" where a group of a telepaths come on board and one of the forces his thoughts onto Troi? I know the similarities end there. "Remember" is ultimately about the Holocaust and "Violations" is about.. well.. violations. But still- the set up is very similar. There are other examples. Just take compare the Voyager episode "Ex Post Facto" with the TNG episode "A Matter of Perspective". Sometimes the "This is just like that Next Gen episode..." problem can be annoying when watching early episodes of the Voyager. Of course, TNG had this problem too. Do we need to talk about "The Naked Now"?
2. "Roxann Dawson is talented actress! Why haven't we seen more of her?" I totally agree with this observation! Upon some research, Ms. Dawson had a nice theatre career before Voyager. She must be a good dancer too because she was on Broadway in one of the most difficult dancing shows in the history of musical theatre-- A Chorus Line. But where is she now? Well, a little digging on IMDB shows that she's moved into the world of television directing. She's even directed episodes of Caprica and Lost. :)
Like I said, Tim and I are heading towards the end of Season 3 and you know what that means. The world is about to change! Voyager experienced a change in producers around season 4. Michael Piller left the show in 1996 and Jeri Taylor left in '98 just as Brannon Braga came onboard. Kenneth Biller joined the show in 2000. These changes really influnced the show. I think Voyager evolved nicely over it's run and just got better and better. TNG experienced a similar evolution. Oh! And we're just around the corner from 7 of 9!! Ok.. back to watching DVDs...
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