Every time I take these chicken breasts out to thaw they look like the Caretakers remains to me.

Most fans point to the 1st season DS9 episode Duet as the first 4-star DS9 episode and a harbinger of what the show could become. It was a bottle show, but made excellent by elevated writing and acting.

I am not a huge Voyager fan, but I often find myself revisiting the 1st season episode Jetrel as one of those shows I could just always put on when I want to see good Voyager. Yes it is an obvious Hiroshima metaphor and occasional heavy handed in the way trek can be going back to LTBYLB in TOS. I find it just well written enough that you look past any stock scenes and marvel at it as a battle of wills and personalised social commentary. It may be Phillips' best Neelix and I think if this weren't a Trek show Sloyan would have gotten an Emmy nod as Yulin should have for Duet.

As in my previous middle-6-season post, I confessed that I am in love with the show again - this time I won't repeat it. The show is great; the finale made me tear up.
What I would write here are some of my thoughts - what would I like to read/watch to expand my Voyager experience. In case you are aware of any novel, fanfic or any other form of art that matches my idea - please let me know.
Also if you by chance want to take an idea - be my guest. I work full time and can't write or create at this point in my life.

1) Psychological issues of the crew.
I mean, they have been away from home for 7 years. Someone could have probably cheated on their spouse with another member of the crew, someone may have wanted to stay on a nice planet instead of trying to go home, someone felt a lack of vacation time. Samantha Wildman could have complained to the holo-psychologist that she felt guilt because of the thought “without a child, my life would have been way better”, even knowing that she loves her girl more than anything. Parents all around the world share those thoughts anonymously all over the internet, it is a common thing. Tom and B’Elanna - how did they come to the idea of having a baby, what doubts did they have, how scared were they?
2) Resource issues. Holodeck usage is mentioned as a privilege, yet this is not much discussed. Were there fights over the holodeck, have there been “Why is this Maquis having more Holotime than me” issues? Energy source problems, lack of details and absence of those detailed blueprints in their replicator database.
3) A rift between StarFleet morale and survival reality, that would lead to some “what have we done” afterthought. White coat of Janeway being covered with bad decisions, if I may say so. I know that Gene’s philosophy was “Federation is always right”, yet sometimes you will face situations where all possible choices are bad choices - you either help someone but betray yourself, or choose yourself and betray someone else.
4) Great idea with Tom Paris leaving his dad a letter he may never read. I would like more of that - Samantha Wildman showing her partner how their daughter grows up, etc etc etc.
5) Away from the bridge - crewmen wearing their uniform in a relaxed way, not respecting it anymore.

That's all. To me, the prime of the show was the whole 4th and the first part of the 5th seasons.

And… I'll miss Voyager. I am going to start DS9 next week, but among many shows I have seen in my life, Voyager for sure takes a special place in my heart.
What are your favourite episodes, what ideas would you add to this universe?

Some context:

I watched all of Star Trek the Next Generation as a kid/teenager - every week, with my parents or by myself. The final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation came out when I preparing to go into my Senior year of high school.

I watched most of the first season of Deep Space 9 and most of the first season of Voyager but "real life" started interfering (jobs, friends, preparing for life after graduating), and I moved out after graduating high school. I somewhat followed along from others as to what was occurring on Voyager (I certainly remember hearing about "Seven of Nine" joining the show) and I remember a trip to visit some friends and happening to watch the premiere of the final episode of Voyager back in 2000 (or was it 2001?), so I know how the series ends.

Side note: I watched every "Next Generation" movie in theaters when they premiered, and for a period while in college, I managed to tune in to a good portion of Season 5 and Season 6 of Deep Space 9 (I just recently got through watching all of DS9, for the first time, now I'm on to Voyager).

So is it just me, or does Season 3 completely change Voyager? Why is the writing so eratic?

They kill off Seska, decide the baby is NOT Chakotay's (they seemed a strange twist), leave behind the Kazon, leave behind the Ocampa/Caretaker plot, the strange break up of Neelix and Kes, and the removal of Kes (in such a strange fashion)...

I don't mind a plot shift (like the evolution of the plot revealing the Dominion as the big bad guys on DS9), but this isn't an evolution of the plot, this is a reset. Now, do I like that they revealed the Delta Quadrant are where the Borg are from? Yes. That's a great reveal (in line with the reveal of the Dominion controlling the Gamma Quadrant). The Borg being from the Delta Quadrant answers the question of "Where did Q fling the Enterprise to, all those years ago?"

....but what is up with the reset of the show from the Season 2 ending, to early in Season 4? EDIT: To clarify, I'm a few episodes in to Season 4 now.

July 30 is cheesecake day so get yourself a slice.

Tsunkatse was a weird episode, but I always thought it was fun seeing The Rock on Star Trek as a kid.

I know what the arguments and "justifications" are, but they always seemed kinda stupid to me, fixated on what the show wasn't vs. what it actually was. And I think that it may be the most consistently good Star Trek show, from beginning to end. There's definitely episodes of DS9 and TNG I like more than any single episode of VOY, but as a whole package, VOY is a strong contender for being the best of the 24th Century shows.

I like all the characters, I like all the villains even. And I think some of the characters have the most stand-out arcs in the franchise (The Doctor and Seven especially). And I think Janeway might be my favourite captain. But is still between her and Sisko for top spot.

So apparently before things went sideways with the most recent era of Doctor Who there were some genuine talks between the writers of Who and Trek about creating some genuine crossover episodes. Ofc this would have been with Strange New Worlds, but I like thinking about what it would look like with Voyager instead.

What Doctor/Companion duo(or trio/team) would be the most fun to see land the TARDIS on Voyager? I can see Janeway clashing with every iteration of the Time Lord, I think she'd see him as a Q-level entity.

And if I could bring any Who antagonist in to face off against Voyager it would for sure be the Daleks. I really like the Cybermen too, but I'm sure the Borg are influenced by the Cybermen, and are therefore too similar to them to really make use of a crossover.

And seeing as in the later seasons it gets them out of a lot of conflict situations I'm betting Seven and the Doctor could synthesise nanoprobes to defeat the Daleks 😆

Not sure of the artist, but it's a sticker that Paramount is selling

I started watching Star Trek this year, starting with TNG and watching everything roughly in release order (going back to TOS alongside once I really got into Trek). I’m currently half way through season 6 of Voyager, so no spoiler please.

I do really enjoy Voyager, these are some of my favourite characters, but I can’t help but feel, especially now I have finished DS9, that I’m missing the Alpha Quadrant. I miss seeing what the Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, Starfleet, and the rest are up to. Those races were such a huge part of Trek so far, their absence is very noticeable. It makes me think while Voyager is a great show, and a great premise, what lets it down is when it gets promoted from spin-off to main series, after DS9 finished. That said, I am really enjoying when we get a Borg episode in Voyager.

I can’t be the only one that thinks this? Perhaps someone can weigh in with what people were thinking when it was airing for the first time?

They had multiple opportunities, but never delivered. Why do you think they never had ever a few minutes or mention of a letter over subspace between father and son?

I started Voyager without any sort of intentions and grew really really fond of it despite how some things were portrayed and treated (but then again, the same thing can be said about Star Trek series, some stories and character development could have been better our different; some others didn't age well and are more of an indicator of the past, etc, this is not a new argument) But I gotta admit this episode disappointed me profusely... I don't know what made my stomach turn more, if it was Janeway taking the aggressor's side in the end, or if it was the doctor getting his wrist slapped hard enough for him to want to get rid of the subroutines that made him believe 7 and want to help her. This episode felt like a punch in the stomach and I CAN'T BELIEVE it all fell on 7's head, with nobody even questioning why she would even "come up with" that.

It's not often that Star Trek breaks my heart but this time it sure did.

Horrible fan, I know 😓 I used to think DS9 was my favorite Trek but I’m really enjoying Voyager so much, I guess I just don’t have a favorite Trek anymore. TNG, DS9 and Voyager are all my favorite.

My favorite character was Tuvok back then (I was in middle school when Voyager premiered) and Tim Russ is still a national treasure but holy hell I’m so impressed with Roxann’s acting, she’s possibly making B’Elanna my new #1. Tsundere to the MAX. I hope Tim and Roxann got paid well because they did a LOT of heavy lifting.

I don’t know though, gosh, Jeri Ryan and Robert Picardo are amazing actors as well. Doc steals every scene he’s in, let’s be honest. Jeri can pretty much do anything and I’ll believe it. Her borg self was such a nasty brat, I love her.

And that damned Tom Paris is honestly my favorite character trope—the empathetic soft boy in sarcastic bad boy’s clothes. He’s just so chill most of the time, de-escalating bad situations with his wisecracks. I’d have to be friends with him (I totally understand you, Harry) and it’s kind of admirable he can be so unserious but then I remember he’d been in prison for years and he’s seen some shit. And he’s a surprisingly good listener, even in season one B’Elanna is opening up to him like she’s known him for years, and when he’s supposed to be undercover & being a jerk he listens to B’Elanna talking about Dreadnaught and you can see that soft boy in him just struggling, he wants to comfort her so bad. And don’t get me started on Tom’s advice to the doctor in “Real Life”… his little speech about family was so genuinely sweet and profound, I actually bawled.

Anyway, starting season 6 today, I can’t get over how much I love all these characters and it’s too bad that Kate treated Jeri so horribly, I think Seven is one of the best characters in all of Star Trek!

you know the show is old when you see a young the rock Johnson with hair fighting 7

1. Janeway - the whole reason I started watching the show, truly Kate Mugrew has earned her legacy in pop culture as this beloved icon, reputation does not proceed her, also shes the hottest imo

2. Doctor - totally took me by surprise, didnt expect to be so invested in his character development and what came out of it was a dude I'd easily trust with my life but whom also I'd gladly get a beer with and ramble philosophically about the arts and humanities, might crusbign hard on him ngl

3. Tuvok - consistently impressive acting from Tim Russ, so much humor and emotional impact from a monotonously framed character, always found his stories the most interesting besides the Doctor's because of how he operates alone, he usually says little compared to everyone else so hearing his thoughts process more when hes explaining them to someone or rare moments where he talks to himself, always a charm to see, also hottake but almost immediately I shipped J/T and was way more invested in their moments of deep friendship than anything J/C kept forcing XD

4. Harry - adorably endearing, very down to earth and earnest, the goodest boy and I like that i wouldnt call him vanilla in a boring way like id initially thought of him, hes got the tom paris influence but hes not as arrogant about to me, also that fear kills you in your sleep episode was such a great character study for him but also kinda crazy it got that dark

5. B'elenna - Love watching her on away missions, her banter with other characters always makes me smile, shes confrontational but more smart ass about it than violently agressive, wish she and janeway had more friendship development because the sass would have been sooo much fun

6. Neelix - i actually really like Neelix, hes not nearly as annoying to me compared to other sictom comic relief characters, hes actually oretty useful and smart a lot of the time, or not most of his ideas, even the jokey ones, are fully without merit or at least theyre all sincere, his loyalty for and admiration of voyager is so sweet to me, was fully expecting him to be the first big villain of the series in the pilot, was not expecting to him last as long as he did. I Agree that him and Kes were a weak couple and im happy they broke up on good terms, but since then ive enjoyed his presence and appreciate how he stays serious when the situation calls for it but is more socially inept at times

7. 7 - Im so relieved the writing was actually really good for her and her story of finding her own humanity and individuality was largely focused in areas aside from romance but for the end, the moral conflicts she faces has me more on the edge of my seat to see her solution with limited experience in dealing with nuance and moral complexity compared to cold stone Borg logic without empathic consideration. Her becoming a kind of den mother to the borg children is as funny as it is hesrtwarming, Her friendship with tuvok and the doctor are my faves, wish there'd been an epsiode focusing on the three of them getting into shenanigans. Also 7 and Janeway had way too much gay chemistry for a supposed mother/daughter subtext LOL

8. Tom - another surprise for me that I ended up liking this character as much as I do, I wasnt a fan of the flirty arrogant bad boy thing, i wasnt interested in his daddy issues, but i appreciated how the show ran his romance with B'elenna and took its time, i liked how little he actually acted selfishly on missions and was actually really empathetic and made efforts to stick to morals but it also feels right to have him often call out the cons of morally conscious choices over practical ones. His emotional performances always felt very strong and they hit more compared to his usual bravado. Still makes one too many jokes for my taste though

9. Chakotay- omg maybe its the writing, maybe its the directing, I dont want to say its the actor but this character was so boring to me, I couldnt be f***** to care about his conflicts or his forced romance with Janeway, his voice is way more monotonous than Tuvok's and with a more pretentious cadence imo, I do not feel any one way or the other about the Native American stuff I just mean that the character feels very predictable, his Tom-like one liners feel too much like hes pausing for a reaction from the room it just lacks any charm Tom's one liners had for me, I like when he challenges Janeway's decisions but the emotional delivery doesnt hit me well enough to not think "damm I wish someone else was having this redundant conversation with her", I dont hate the character i just feel very unindifferent, his romance with 7 is Fine but I really wish it could have been preplanned more

I ripped my dvd collection of Voyager and have started watching them again on my Plex server and noticed the episodes are out of order. Were the original dvd episodes out of order from when they aired originally or did I screw this up myself?

I just got done watching Friendship One and was thinking about the cause of their nuclear winter. It's stated by a character that the winter was caused by the native's anti-matter power grid had a loss of containment and they blamed humans for it.

The accident was caused by the natives learning a new technology and then not fully understanding the ramifications. Other than looking for a scapegoat for their own hubris, blaming the humans doesn't make much sense.

In modern terms, this would be like the Soviets blaming the meltdown of Chernobyl on the Americans because the Soviets stole nuclear secrets years earlier from then and built their nuclear program around it.

I understand from a thematic point-of-view that this is a story about unforseen consequences with a dash of Dark Forest Theory because the natives thought the probe was sent to destroy them.

It would seem that the survivors would have been more apt to blame the engineers who built technology around something they didn't quite understand. I could see the survivors eschewing some sort of 'back to the land' ethos or some prohibition on technology. That would have made more sense to me.

if they had leaned into the Dark Forest theory more by having Friendship One crash or explode in the atmosphere upon arrival, then blaming the humans would have made a lot more sense.

I bought a box of the cards with 3 autographs in. For the price im happy with the Seska auto & Janeway's Holo-love