I think DS9 was pretty developed already by the end of TNG, so once it started there wasn’t that much left to figure out. This can be seen by the TNG crew visiting DS9 towards the end. TNG, however, felt a little more uncertain in the first season in that the actors didn’t have their characters nailed down yet, and it shows.

I suspect that Voyager might be a bit more like TNG in this regard - the concept was a bit more uncertain when they started. However, it does improve massively as it moves on.

I for one really like the temporal war storyline. And 7of9 is a great addition even if the writers’ intent was mainly that of providing boobage.

I can’t speak for everyone of course, but as someone who genuinely was not fond of DS9 (not because of writing quality or anything like that, it was great for what it was in that regard.)

After DS9, Voyager had the audacity to try to be FUN again. It offered a really good mix of some serious episodes with some downright goofy episodes. For every “Year of Hell” or “Equinox”, you would get an episode where they were attacked by giant viruses, or a good old fashioned holodeck program goes haywire episode.

It wasn’t afraid to dive into Shlock after DS9 tried to be sooooo fucking serious.

To me, that was a breath of fresh air.

Also:

1. Janeway is easily the best captain overall. She doesn’t give “Picard Speeches” like Stewart of course, but in every other aspect, her leadership is amazing throughout that series.

2. Voyager 2 parters were usually epic. This of course comes from the fact that the CGI had come a long way from the TNG days, but with the exception of Best of Both Worlds, I’d put Year of Hell, Equinox and Scorpion ALL better than any other two parter from any other series.

If your comparison is to DS9 and you want “super serious” than yeah…of course Voyager isn’t going to be for you. But if you want something that isn’t afraid to be a little silly sometimes, Voyager is hella-fun.

The first season or two are rough. The Kazon stuff is just… Blah, imo. After that it picks up. The character development, I think, is the best part. Mostly the Doctor, if I’m being honest. Later when Seven joins, her character arc is great, too, and while she was definitely supposed to be sex appeal, her actress, Jeri Ryan, crushes it as a character and not just a sex symbol.

I’m guessing the whole Neelix thing is throwing you? He’s definitely incredibly grating, but he’ll weirdly grow on you as the show progresses.

In my opinion, it’s definitely the weakest of the three you mention, but it still has its merits. Even after we leave the Kazon stuff behind, you’ll get a one off episode here or there that just falls flat.

I’d suggest trying to power through a bit longer to see if you can pick up anything you start enjoying. And if not, there’s no shame in not finishing. Not every series hits for everyone and that’s okay.

I loved it when it was new, but I’m not sure I’d watch it now.

The idea I got from it was, it was supposed to be like a cross between The Next Generation, with a Starfleet ship exploring the unknown, and Deep Space Nine, with epic arcs as opposed to self-contained episodes. Essentially it seemed like they wanted another TNG but in the DS9 format. They also wanted to try having a female captain and I think they were going for that for a while. They gave us a Black captain and that went over well enough, so they were going with Roddenberry’s vision of inclusion and diversity. Not everyone agreed at the time, that a crew would follow a woman. Now it seems like it wouldn’t be a problem, but 30 years ago?

I liked the premise of being stuck in the Delta Quadrant trying to get home, until Janeway started refusing shortcuts to get the ship home during their lifetime. The episode “The Omega Directive” where she doomed a pre-warp civilisation to never being able to go to the stars made me dislike Janeway, though honestly the directive, which overrides the Prime Directive, was set up by Starfleet. She was just following orders. And the alternative would have been to allow a “competitor” to warp drive that would have made warp drive through that system impossible (due to the omega particles). The solution should have been to just teach them warp drive, but then the Prime Directive says you can’t do that, so she left them in the stone age or something. IMO the worst episode. That one everyone hates with the forced evolution? That was just dumb. Omega Directive had a lot of thought put into it and it ended up being stupid and a slap in the face to anyone who supported Starfleet.

I was kinda ace-leaning in my teens, so Seven’s outfit didn’t do much for me. Once I heard Jeri Ryan didn’t like the “cat suits” they put her in, I really started disliking how the show was being run. They did a similar thing to Mariana Sirtis (Troi) on Next Generation.

I always liked Neelix, too. I thought he was funny, and his self-appointed position as “morale officer” is where I saw myself if I were on the ship. Sure, we all wanted to be Chakotay or Tuvok or, more accurately Tom or Harry. We all (straight guys I mean) argued over who we wanted to be with, between Torres, Kes, Seven, and even Janeway herself (my pick). No one ever said they wanted to be Neelix. Nobody liked him. But Neelix was always my boy. And then when that kid showed up and he was helping her, and she was afraid of Seven and he showed her that there was nothing to be afraid of, that’s when I realised Neelix was me on the ship. So yeah, Neelix is kinda why I like Voyager. And Janeway. And Tuvok, because while Data was cool, he wasn’t quite Spock, and DS9 didn’t really have such a character. Odo maybe? Hardly. I think the “logical character” got shuffled between Dax, Odo, Kira, Bashir, O’Brien sometimes… there basically wasn’t one. I loved Tuvok though. Data’s his own character, but I liked the Vulcans better. So, much as I think I’d hang out with LaForge on the Ent-D, I felt that Voyager was more “my crew.” They were the misfits, and they made it work. They also felt the most like family to one another, IMO.

The show did have a lot of problems. I won’t argue against them. It also had Blink of an Eye which is easily a Top 5 Trek episode (along with DS9’s In the Pale Moonlight, TNG’s The Inner Light, TOS’s The City on the Edge of Forever, TNG’s Best of Both Worlds, TNG’s All Good Things, DS9’s The Visitor… which ones take the top 5 spots varies, but The Inner Light and In the Pale Moonlight stay in the top 3 always.

“Computer, delete that entire personal log.”

Like the other two, it takes a season or so to find it’s footing. I like a female captain, former enemies working together, and ship out of water stories. The redemptive and maturity arc of Paris, and his friendship with Kim. The Doctor and 7 learning what it is to be human. Chakotay’s beliefs aren’t made fun of, but explored. The hopefulness that even thrown across the galaxy, humans can (most of the time) stay true to their beliefs. That you can overcome your upbringing to become a better person. There’s lots to like.

It depends on how far you’ve gone. Most Star Trek shows of the era took a while to get up to speed.

Voyager has a cadence similar to TNG except that the various species that Voyager interacts with changes over time. After the Kazon, the new species are better designed and fleshed out.

Seven of Nine is a far better designed character than Kes and the writing for her was so much better. It also seems like the show was able to identify the characters that could carry an episode.

It was still a lot better than whatever else was on TV at 8 PM in 1997. That’s pretty much where I’m at with it.

I hadn’t watched any Star Trek for years. Then, just yesterday, I was watching regular TV and this episode of Voyager came on. Me and my son watched it. It was the one where it turns out they’re all clones and basically, in the end, they all melt just before the real crew can help them. It was such a cool story, aided, in no small part, by a scene in a Jeffrey’s tube where 7 of 9 discusses monogamy with B’elanna.

Voyager has more and good horror episodes, so if you like those you’ll like VOY. It’s best enjoyed an episode a day rather than binged. Put one on after work l, that’s how I watched it

So far, I’m not finding it as enjoyable as the other two.

That’s 'cause it’s not.

It’s still good enough to be worth watching, though.

It definitely gets better as it goes along. It’s a great concept for a ST show, and the cast is strong. And aside from resting too heavily on the holodeck, and having a few real lemon episodes (like the one where Janeway and Paris turn into amphibians), it’s pretty dependable. But yeah, the first 2-3 seasons can be a chore to watch.

It got a lot of hate for the first 15-20 years, but it seems like it’s getting a bit more appreciation these days. So I think it’s agreed pretty well.

On a non-ST show topic, I highly recommend Stargate SG-1 if you haven’t already seen it. Really fun show that also gets better in the later seasons (especially around seasons 6 and 7). Some very clever ideas, a lore-rich universe, a very solid cast, and it manages to hit hard with the drama sometimes while still not taking itself too seriously (and actually has a surprising amount of comedy).

Voyager is a very different feeling show but still 24 century based. I think it’s got better with age - but also, when compared to most of the modern shows, it is more political and follows the usual concepts of a Trek show. Not the action focused stuff it is now (sadly)

My favourite thing about Voyager is Seven of Nine, but she doesn’t debut until season 4

The more I’ve been thinking about this, the more I realize that because Voyager (or most trek of that era) isn’t totally serialized, there’s no real reason that you HAVE to watch it sequentially for the first time.

As long as you’re avoiding spoiler episodes, there’s no reason that you can’t just watch some random stand-alone episodes, and I’m confident that watching some of those first will make you want to go back and watch the entire thing to see “how they got there.”

So with that said, if you want to understand my love for Voyager, these are the top ten episodes I would recommend that are stand-alone and don’t contain spoilers and epitomize why I say that Voyager is better than most people give it credit for.

• Living Witness (S4)
• Blink of an Eye (S6)
• One Small Step (S6)
• Timeless (S5)
• Scientific Method (S4)
• The Void (S7)
• Relativity (S5)
• Counterpoint (S5)
• Shattered (S7)
• Deadlock (S2)

There are others that I would put in there, but those would include character spoilers that I’d want to avoid.

I believe if you watch those standalone stories, you’ll get the gist of what people love about Voyager.

Far away from everything just needing to survive resonated with me and is a good concept. And at that time the 3d rendering wad a massive leap.

The content was a pretty mixed bad but with some good stuff. The missing reference to the directive all the time was a welcome change.