Rating: Summary: Poor Packaging! Review: Who designed the package box? Naomi Wildman???The TNG DVD sets were great and included nice pictures, a booklet, and a sweet fold out cardboard box. Very classy and very well worth the $100 a pop. DS9's DVD set was a let down from the superior TNG pakaging, but still included pics and an episode timeline. Not to mention the DVDs, themselves, had pictures printed on them. Now we come to VOYAGER... What the...??? Very shoddy packaging. The discs are blank and have the episodes written (in a spiral) on the clear plastic rim in the center of the disc. Someone even forgot that "Caretaker" was the first episode. No pics either. The color is nice (compared to DS9's basic black) but the plastic splits into two awkward pieces. I cannot see spending $100 per season when it is obvious that Berman & Braga are just out to screw the fans for every last dollar they can get their grubby little hands on. I envision the ENTERPRISE packaging will consist of DVD-R discs thrown into a plastic baggy with some bubble wrap in it. Paramount should be ashamed of themselves for such a blatant rip-off.
Rating: Summary: You must be joking... Review: Voyager is without a doubt, the biggest turkey in the Star Trek universe. I hoped, like alot of other Star Trek fans, that Lameager would'nt be terrible. This series started off in poor shape and then got progressively worse, forcing the producers in the following seasons to throw in Jeri Ryan in tight fitting spacesuits and the Borg - at the same time! This DVD does contain alot of extra's, you could probably find out just went wrong with Voyager by watching all the extra features but I just don't care anymore.
Rating: Summary: Voyager on DVD, FINALLY!! Review: Star Trek creates an alternate universe, a place where you can let your imagination run wild and Voyager is no different. This series took an entirely different approach and chose to do away with the familiar. No Cardasians, no romulans and no Alpha quadrant. This threw a huge spanner in the works for who, in the history of Star Trek, had ever heard of an entire series taking place out of the familiar? At the same time this allowed the creative juices to flow at Paramount and allowed for the creation of new species and new worlds to discover. In ST Voyager you follow the crew on their journey home, you witness their trials and tribulations and sometimes you just can't help but feel like you're there with them. I think first time Star Trek viewers are at an advantage here as there is no initial shock to get over in terms of removal from the familiar. You can jus pick it up from scratch and enjoy. Seasoned fans will enjoy as the series progresses. A mixed and rebellious crew is not something that you will take easily in the beginning however give it time and Voyager will surely grow on you.
Rating: Summary: At long last, the greatest of them all... Review: Of all the Star Trek series ever made, Voyager ranks as my all time favorite. Why? If James Cameron had written and directed for a Star Trek series, it would have been Voyager. Never in the history of the Star Trek series have there been so formidable an assortment of strong female lead and supporting characters on one ship. Kudos to Kate Mulgrew for giving us one of the most heroic and formidable starship captains of all time. How's that for a novel female lead. That woman was robbed by the Emmys. This series is also what is what it was intended to be, the most intensely action packed of them all. No starship in Starfleet history has taken the beating that Voyager has. And Voyager boasts more battle sequences and Borg for your buck than any of its predecessors, including one very formidable Borg Queen. For best achievement in lighting, art direction, acting and special effects and sound, Voyager has my vote. And if you don't believe that, have a look at Star Trek the Next Generation and compare its dated special effects, make-up and horrid lighting (not to mention bad actors, with the exception of the Captain and Data). Also try comparing the acting talents and characters of Next Generation to Voyager. B'Elanna Torres compared to Geordi La Forge? Dr. Beverly Crusher compared to THE DOCTOR? Data compared to Seven of Nine? Please' Oh and let's not forget the horror of Next Generation's Natasha 'Tasha' Yar and Wesley Crusher' ugggghhh. Give me Katherine Janeway, The Doctor, Seven of Nine and the entire crew of the Starship Voyager any day. The episodes: Scorpion One and Two should have been made into a major motion picture. Two of the most brilliantly written Star Trek episodes ever. Look for those episodes in future DVD releases. Need I say more? Run, don't walk to order yours now.
Rating: Summary: Berman's Evil Empire Review: Voyager's concept was to show what would happen to a crew stranded far from home, away from the protection of Starfleet and the Federation, with a crew made up of politically correct Starfleet officers and survivors of defiant Federation constituents. Before her mission can begin, the crew is swept the crew 70, 000 light years away, into the uncharted space of the Delta Quadrant. But from the beginning, it seemed Voyager was doomed. While the series was a return to TOS old fashioned naval romance, it had a dangerous corporate utopian view that I was unable to overlook. That said, however, the opener was not half-bad, and it set up many, many story ideas that could have been expounded on. One might have been the mixing of the Starfleet crew and the Maquis crew -a strong criticism of the show has been the lack of tension between the Starfleet and Maquis crews, something which many thought should have been explored in much more detail. Or Tom's voyage from a misguided youth to redemption (something that was covered a bit in season' one and two- all part of a plan to discover who was sending transmissions to the Kazon, and then oddly picked up again in season five -which by then seemed out of character), to the plight of Harry as always an ensign and never anything more How about Tuvok, who must deal with Chakotay as his commanding officer (one guessed that Tuvok was a full commander during the pilot, and somehow was demoted). But all of that was quickly brushed aside like so much dead leaves under the TNG's jingoistic notion that we were all one, big happy family. They took away the conflict, which was odd, considering that during TNG's run, most critics agreed that its biggest problem was that was too little conflict between the characters. Voyager returned to TOS (and TNG somewhat) of episodic story telling. The only real arc to the series would be them lost in the Delta Quadrant. The issue from the start, whether from the Paramount executives or Brannon Braga and Rick Berman, was that the show should remain self-contained. So with Voyager, the show was designed not for the fans of either TNG or DS9, but for the causal fan; for the viewer who could not remember the show was on week-to-week, the "absentee viewer" as someone once put it. So the story telling of DS9 was replaced, because those themes were "too lofty for a (show like Voyager's) broad-based audience," as Michael Piller put it in an interview with the official Star Trek website. That locution, in particular, has become an over used catch phrase, which can easily be translated as straight, white males So continuity and the Prime Directive (one of my favorite examples comes in a line written Braga, the worst of the lot when it came to the Prime Directive, in the episode Prototype, where Janeway spouts something about who are we to play God and then continue on our way? The only answer, of course, was the crew of Voyager. It would only get worst as the series progressed) were tossed out airlock with the baby water, all in the name of telling a story. As the first season progressed, it wobbled, it sank, it rose, and it shifted its concept like sand in a desert. It introduced two very inferior alien enemies, the Kazon and the Vidiian's. Both failed because they weren't sinister enough to scare a cockroach back into its dark corner. The Kazon, who where to be based on L.A. gangs, were just a bunch of petulant children who had cool ships, but were always fighting to find out which sect would rule. And despite the Seska/Culluh alliance, they never were more menacing than stock TV villains. The Vidiian's, while creepy, were mishandled. Besides they weren't really evil, they just did appalling things in pursuance of their goals (and might I add here's where a continuity expert should have been hired. In Phage, Janeway makes it perfectly clear that if the Vidiians interfere with them again, she'll open a can of whoop ass on them. Alas, when they pop up again in Faces, nothing happens to them). So, these two were not the Klingons or the Cardassians. They were just boring. So, the first season limped along like a cart with a misalign wheels. And while most of the acting was good outside of Mulgrew's, the stories lacked real originality, filled with terminally uninteresting characters, and featured way to much technobabble, with Time and Again being one of the most well known episodes to go overboard using it. Most of the stories seemed to be hobbled together from other concepts; as if Piller, Berman and Braga took all the stories they had not used on TNG and DS9 and tried to make them some how work on Voyager. But proposing the same flawed ideas over and over again was not making the show good. Only Eye of the Needle and Jetrel can be said to be one of the best of the first season, and while I enjoyed Emanations (because it will become a rare treat to watch Garrett Wang at the center of a story), the rest of season lacked a certain quality.
Rating: Summary: The greatest Star Trek Series... EVER!!! Review: I grew up with Star Trek. In the 70's and 80's, when I was a kid, the reruns of all the old Star Trek episodes were playing. When TNG came out, I felt betrayed because, well, it wasn't Captain Kirk, Spock, Bones and all the other charachters that I grew up watching. Of course after watching TNG I, like most of the fans, saw the brillance in it and continued watching. Well, when DS9 came out I saw it a few times and well, just stopped watching. When Voyager came out I wasn't even interested in seeing it. All this was until 2002. Unfortunately I didn't start catching the show until the last few seasons. Then I saw all the reruns at lease twice; I never missed an episode. After watching the whole series, I would have to say that this is the best Star Trek series. Every charachter is great, the stories are great, and the journey is awesome. This is more like what Star Trek was originally since it's not so scripted; meaning, the crew never knows what's going to happen. In TNG, they were always getting calls and had to go to the Nuetral Zone to save some cat on a tree or whatever, but in Voyager, they are in the Delta quandrant and don't have Starfleet to rely on. This has become my favorite Star Trek series, even beating TNG and the original series. Tuvok by far is the best Vulcan of any Star Trek series (even Spock!), 7 of 9 is awesome (physically too, of course, but I mean her charachter). Belana, Tom Paris, Janeway, the whole crew is just awesome. Even Hector from Night of the Comet has a great role in this! Seriously though, this is an awesome series and a must for any Star Trek fan. After looking over this I realized I am a dork. I never thought about it before, but now I know. I'm a Star Trek freak but never really realized it. Wow... I wonder if it was all that Romulan Ale?
Rating: Summary: I will buy seasons 1, 2 & 3 Review: I was never able to watch Voyager after they dumped Kes, my favorite character. Seasons 1, 2 & 3 were gold. Seasons 4-7 were ludicrous due to the 7 of 9 characater. Could the producers and writers have been any more obvious in their intentions? Kes was an intelligent and subtle character. Watching 7 of 9 was the television equivalent of being propositioned by a prostitute in a catsuit! Truth be told I haven't watched any new Star Trek programming since they dumped Kes.
Rating: Summary: TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO OTHER TREK HAD GONE BEFORE Review: When the premise for the next STAR TREK series in the franchise was first released, fans rallied with mixed emotions at the fact that now the captain's seat on the bridge of the newest starship was to be helmed by a woman...but it just made perfect sense! TREK had explored all aspects of the "final frontier" and were we to believe that in the 24th century there weren't any intrepid female leaders braving the unknown of space exploration. The center gem of the third spin-off in TREK lore is of course it's captain (as it should be) Kathyrn Janeway as protrayed by Kate Mulgrew etched her own legend; a status all onto herself that may not have always worked but she made it worth tuning into every week. She is a captain not unlike her predecesors faced with own unique challenges. Janeway must get her crew home after losing them in the far reaches of an unknown part of the galaxy. The VOYAGER'S journey begins! We're introduced to the crew of Starfleet and Maquis rebels who are joined under one banner to survive the 75 year journey back home -- and along the way, they make some new friends and terrible enemies.
Rating: Summary: Great series, terrible box!! Review: Voyager was never my favorite ST show. It always seemed like ST lite. but it was still pretty good compared to Enterprise, and also Nemesis, (which was just awful). Voyager always reminds me of the line for Indiana Jones and the last crusade, when Indy snr says to 'junior' "just as you got interesting, you left..." Anyway, I will be buying this series, but what has Paramount done with the box - it looks awful! - cheap and in day-glo orange!! - I don't understand why we in the US don't get the same super-cool sleek boxes that they have in Europe... I bought TNG and DS9 from Amazon.co.uk, they have the really cool hard plastic space boxes.... It's a US show, how come we don't get the good stuff!!! - come on Paramount!!! I want the Red and silver Voyager box, but I don't want to have to pay international shipping and handling, AND have to have region free player to watch it!
Rating: Summary: The begining of the end for Trek... Review: Voyager is the Trek where the producers stopped taking chances with stories and characters and started the downward spiral of the franchise as a whole. Unlike the excellent DS9, which pushed the boundries of what Trek was, Voyager was content to play things safe and dumb things down, turning Trek from an interesting exploration of the Human condition into a mindless action/T&A show. Character development became virtually non-existant and thoughtful stories were few and far inbetween. That being said, I would probably give the first season another star (maybe even two) if it weren't so expensive. Paramount is charging the same price for Voyagers first SIXTEEN EPISODE season that they did for the 26 episode seasons of TNG and DS9.
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