After remembering Voyager as a relatively dreadful show, I thought I'd rewatch it to see if the show was, in fact, as bad as I remember. However, in some ways, it was even worse than I remember.
For a crew built off both Maquis and Starfleet, there is almost no tension, despite the fact that both groups are shown as at constant odds in (far superior) story-arcs of DS9. And yet, for the very rare exception of a tiff or two, generally speaking, everyone adapts very quickly to Starfleet life, becomes best mates, and spends an annoying amount of time on holodecks. If there are any arguments, they are resolved instantly and without any tension or believability.
For a ship stranded in the middle of nowhere with few resources, there are very few consequences of any permanence. Sure, they might run out of fruit and veg occasionally, but they can replicate more. A uniform might get a tear or a burn, but the next scene, clean uniforms.
Now, TNG had some problems - certainly, some very severe problems that could be discussed at a later time. And it also had a tendency to reboot itself with very few consequences - literally seen in an episode where they repeatedly set alá Groundhog Day. But one thing TNG did do? They killed off Tasha Yar in 'Skin of Evil'. Tasha was a main character - her name was on the credits, her picture was in the main cast images. But in killing off Tasha, they proved that anything could happen - so when other characters came into danger, like Picard being kidnapped by the Borg, there was every possibility that Picard could be killed off. It didn't really even matter that he wasn't killed off - the threat that he could be killed off was enough.
Voyager has no 'Skin of Evil' episode that proved something dramatic could happen - that we should take them seriously and understand that just because someone was in the main credits did not mean they were going to be safe. Voyager never learnt to take the risks that TNG and DS9 did - and as a result, Voyager's constant resetting at the end of every episode was never met with any dramatic tension. No one of consequence died, no one would ever really be permanently dead. At the end of the day, the fact that they are stranded in the Delta quadrant means absolutely nothing. Uniforms can be torn, a panel can catch on fire, but there is never a doubt that this will reset.
It is this element that so strongly exhausts and infuriates me.
'Deadlock' was the the only episode thus far on my rewatch that caught my attention: disaster happens with fatal consequences to several characters, including Ensign Kim and a baby of a reoccurring character. The holographic doctor loses power, and there is a problem that cannot be solved.
Now, I wasn't cheering at the death of the characters and destruction. No, I was cheering the fact that for the first half of this episode, there were going to be consequences that were not instantly resolved - things on the ship that could not be instantly fixed. Characters that were going to have to make permanent adaptations and changes. Consequences.
And then, 20 minutes in, we're told that all of the potentially interesting stuff that's happened is on a mirror version of Voyager - and once again, we see a shiny non-consequential version of Voyager that survives in the end. No consequences. And the tiny tease of real drama -- of real threat -- is stripped from the show before it even gets an opportunity to take a foot hold. Harry and the baby get to survive, The ship is repaired with no complications. The next episode, the ship is in perfect working order, and it doesn't even matter what happened in the previous episode.
This episode essentially serves as a summary of Voyager as a whole: an interesting but unformed idea, smothered with cringe-worthy dialogue, a non-existent attempt at intensity, and a promise that whatever moment you think you could -- for just a single moment, be interested in what could happen on this show -- will be crushed and wrapped up in a bland, tasteless, unsalted stale saltine.
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