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Star Trek Voyager - The Complete First Season

Star Trek Voyager - The Complete First Season

List Price: $129.99
Your Price: $103.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Safe, Restrained, Reset-Button Ladden Blah.
Review: In 1993, Deep Space Nine's Nielsen ratings were sinking. Many fans were not ready for a show that so radically different from their fluffy and comfortable TNG, others simply claimed DS9 was boring (what drugs they were obviously on, I do not know).

Rather then start plaguing DS9 with ridiculous stunts to bring up those falling ratings, Paramount opted to develop yet another Star Trek series. In hopes that DS9 would fade away as a forgotten "mistake", this third spin-off would return to the premise of a starship journeying where no one has gone before. This spin-off's name was Star Trek: Voyager, and its premise would involve a new spin on the exploration bit: In the pilot episode, the Voyager would be thrown all the way to the other side of the galaxy, isolated from home, and spend the next 70 years trying to get back. It would also have a fragmented crew, as some of them would be Maquis terrorists who were sucked away in their rather miniscule ship with Voyager.

In my opinion, this was the perfect premise for a Star Trek show. It didn't carry as much risk as DS9, and had far more potential for conflict and emotion than that show, let alone TNG and TOS. Coupled with the best cast Star Trek had been privileged to at that point (though DS9's cast would later prove itself worthy of that title), Voyager was expected to carry the franchise to new levels of popularity. Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way.

What fustrates me so much about this show is that all the great facets mentioned above where completely, utterly wasted. Rather than have it's crew struggle to survive alone in a hostile climate without the comforts of those starbases the Enterprise liked to retreat to when it needed repairs or replenishing, and have it's captain face numerous mutinies by what could have been an increasingly fractured crew, everything was played out nice, happy, and safe. The threats of Maquis rebellion were gone by episode 2, and the crew never had to deal with diminishing supplies at all. By the end of it's first season, Voyager had become a remake of TNG, and not a very good one.

Where TNG developed it's characters and made them interesting, VGR continuously ignored them in favor of silly pseudo-intellectual plots and/or extreme preachiness. Only in the last few seasons were some (as in two) of the characters even somewhat developed, while the rest--namely Chakotay, Kim, Paris, and Tuvok went neglected.

Worst of all is Captain Janeway, who while competently portrayed by actress Kate Mulgrew, was written horrendously. In one episode she would be willing to murder a Starfleet officer because he violated Federation morals (S6's "Equinox Pt2"), in the next she would wipe out an entire timeline to get her crew home faster ("Endgame", the series finale.) This is not good writing, this is inconsistant sloppiness which, if I were to take seriously, would mean that Janeway is a bipolar maniac whose promotion past the rank of Cadet casts doubt on the very sanity of those giving the promotion.

However, Voyager does have it's moments. Some episodes, such as season 5's "Course: Oblivion!" and season 7's two-parter "Flesh and Blood" do show hints of brave storytelling, and [gasp!] force the characters to endure the consequences of their actions in previous episodes. If only these types of stories had been there series norm, what a thrill ride the show would have been. Sadly, this is not the case, and Voyager turned out to be the weakest and lowest rated Trek show. Until its down right atrocious successor came along in 2001, that is.

As far as this specific season goes, it is by far VGR's strongest year. Premise-abandonment aside, the first few episodes, namely "Caretaker", "Time and Again", & "The Phage" are remarkably strong as far as first-few-episodes go. The season rapidly nosedives into dullness after them, but that is more excusable here as this was the freshman year. Also, the less major characters had not yet been regressed into two-dimensional cardboard cutouts, as happened later on. If your are going to own any season of Voyager, Season 1, for all its flaws, is probably the one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great entertainment, Star Trek style!
Review: I enjoyed Star Trek TNG but this series semmed to just go so much further. It was a little shaky at the beginning, like most of the other Star Treks but Kate Mulgrew (Capt Janeway) delivered such an engaging performance and was supported so well by the other quality acting that it is near impossible not to be pulled into and mesmerized for the duration of this 'voyage'. I think the creators should get a social service award for the positive role models they portray. The world is a better place with Star Trek Voyager in it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Take Me, Janeway!
Review: I've always been a Star Trek fan but was majorly disappointed by Deep Space Nine and its copycat plot (Babylon 5 was much, more interesting, probably the best sci-fi TV show ever). Si imagine my delight when Voyager was launched! And the captain was...a woman! That was a serious departure from Captain Kirk's macho attitude and even from The Next Generation, where women were still assigned the "caregiver" roles (psychologist, physician). And Kate Mulgrew really delivered...oh, man, was she good! And she certainly didn't need to show a ripped physic and get into constant fistifights, unlike Enterprise's Scott Bakula...Also, the concept of the crew being isolated in a faraway galaxy, with a very slim chance of getting back home worked beautifully, making for some very compelling stories. No, you Jeri Ryan fans, Seven of Nine wasn't part of the crew in the first season...but you should check it out anyway, it's a real delight for any sci-fi fan.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Star Trek Voyager season 1
Review: I am a big fan of the Classics and Voyager. Voyager started out poorly. They were confronted with the Kazon far too long. It wasn't until Seven-of-Nine and the Borg did the series get interesting. Seven did to the Borg what Mr. Spock did for the Vulcan. The series really developed well after the Borg was introduced. Season four through seven were great. I give them five stars. I was sad to see the series end. It will be great to have this series in my collection of DVDs.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: C'Mon People
Review: Voyager sucked harder than a hull breach on Deck 5!!!

Can anyone honestly say they felt like they got to know any of the characters in their seven year "journey"?

Did the crew learn anything on their voyage except that every space-faring race in the Delta-Quadrant always happened to have spare dilithium and deuterium when they were running out?

Far-scape and Babylon 5 are much better written. As a matter of fact, I'd love to see Lameway and her crew go toe to toe with the Shadows any day!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: the fall of trek.
Review: Trek has a proud history of creativity, engaging stories, rich charachters and an ability to make social comments without being a blunt instrument. All that ended with this series. Set with an over the top PC crew Voyager drags us along offending any true star trek fans sensibilities. All the major charachters could have been replaced by the life sized card-board cutout counterparts and delivered approximatly the same performance. The total lose of imagination is clearly evident in the seemingly never ending stories of the ships holodeck, or some rogue hologram. As if the adventure of unexplored space could'nt provide infinatly more excitement than dragging out the tired old cliche "haywire holodeck" routine. It didnt work for Star Trek TNG and it CERTAINLY does'nt work here either. The villians are no more thoughtful than the primary charachters. Carbon copies of the mustache twirling archtype or some other ripped off race idea such as the Hirogen being nearly stolen bodely from the "Predator" films. When this series was still running originally it was doing very poorly, so what did they do. They took out the only charachter that even remotely had an unusaul clever background and replaced her with some top heavy woman in a slinky outfit to try to lure viewers to the show instead of acutally working on plot or the intellegince of the show. That is not what Star Trek is about. Janeway, the first female captain is self-serving and sanctomonious in her attitude,yet holds others to the very highest code of morality. However when she breaks such rules of conduct, all is forgiven. This is not to mention the fact that she was made so overpowered that one wonders why she even needed a crew. Two-faced and pompous she is not likeable nor is she a good leader, Her ship would have been aptly named "THE BOUNTY". Using the Maque, a rogue organization broken away from starfleet, removed any adventure from exploration and turned it into a self absorbed hunt to get home at ANY cost. I dont want to get into specifics of the series,( a requirement to writing a review is not to reveal plot points), but lets say the borg should have no problem conquering Earth and the Alpha Quadrent after its run in with Janeway, especially the last episode. Though this does'nt happen until later seasons, just giving a heads up. In summation,...don't waste your hard earned money on this dvd series set. It is an insult to Trek and Trek fans. If you have never seen it and are thinking about it,do this instead,..get 1 video and watch it. More than likely it will be the same plot line as 9/10 of each other episode. Just with the charachter roles switched around a bit. If you don't like Trek and love monotinous stories, tired plots, cliche charachters and non-sequitor logic this series is for you. Otherwise the disks themselves make good coffee cup coasters.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice try but a complete miss
Review: Voyager, despite its many problems, started off decent. A ship 75,000 lightyears away from home with a culturally deverse crew was a good idea. However, the way in which the show was handled was awful. The dealta quadrent looks just like the alpha quadrent, with aliens that are identical and plots that jump right off TNG story lines. Although a good try, Voyager missed the mark completely as the show progressed. If you are looking for good sci-fi shows check out DS9 and Babylon 5. Not only are the boxsets cheaper, but they are better shows to boot.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The summit of change for Paramount
Review: A Long Long time ago in a place not so far away we had a series in the late 60's that changed the world & history. Yes Yes we have Naval Ships & Even a space shuttle named after the great enterprize.

It took thirty years to do it again ! But voyager was the event that Sci Fi Fans world wide were waiting for.

In the mid 60's Star trek pushed the limits of racial acceptance and the place of women in the future... All those Decades ago we had Nichelle Nichols, an african american woman in a major role in a popular TV Series.

Finally in the 90's UPN got so bold as to do it again. A FEMALE STARSHIP CAPTIN! It was a longshot , espescialy when we had just been so spoiled with Patrick Stewart playing Picard for 7 years!

Kate Mulgrew & her cast seemed to steal our hearts with original Charecters & Stories that followed true to the Star trek beginnings.

Season one sets up a plot that many never figured would ever work . It broke away from the safety of starfleet's turf, and created a new concept. Leaving behind the squables with the Romulans & The over acted charectors like DuKat , it created it's own crew, it's own adventure, and left just enough of the classic style of trek to impress us all . Bringing us the ever ornary & comical doctor , the Curvy 7 of 9 , the tempersome half klingon b'lanna to name a few as well as hundreds of cameo's over the years no one can say this series was boring... OR un related to its predecesors.( HEY Deanna & Barkley even appeared in this one! )

And Let's not forget Our favourate friends the borg ... after all Picard picked the fight with them ... but it took Janeway to finish it. ( For more info see season 7)

Aside from the fact that the real voyager is still sending back data about the universe arround us to this day , I think it will be a very long time before we see the pinache of Janeway ever again.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Hello, Reality check
Review: How people can write reviews for a DVD set that has not been released yet is beyond me. Morons, the purpose of these reviews is to let other people know whether this DVD set is worth getting. Hello, it hasnt been released yet!!
I guess this is just more proof of how stupid people really are. Oh, how I long for the day when humans are extinct and animals rule the Earth!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Death of the Franchise
Review: Fans of "Voyager" must have spent the years of the Original Series, "Next Generation," and "Deep Space 9" living in a cave. "Voyager"'s consistently miserable writing, mediocre effects, miserable writing, uninteresting/poorly developed characters, and miserable writing ruined the "Star Trek" franchise for good. No wonder "Nemesis" and "Enterprise" fared so poorly!

Paramount could give me these DVDs for free and I still wouldn't want them.


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