Recently I read an interview with Kate Mulgrew, the actress who play Captain Katherine Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager. She stated she would like to see a Voyager film detailing what happens to the crew after Voyage returns to Earth. I though about it. Janeway gets promoted. The Maquis are pardoned. There’s a party… I tried to imagine it more and more and I couldn’t think of anything good. I know there are apocryphal paperbacks out there, but I really done with Voyager. For me it was the ugly step sister of the Star Trek universe. The writers refused to give us something different, or take us someplace new despite going to the other side of the galaxy. The characters were bland, through no fault of the actors. More was needed.
Its a shame cause in its conception Voyager was a proto Battlestar Galactica. Both are space operas portraying a ship(s) in hostel territory searching for home with limited supplies. Both have crews who have to come to terms with their desperate situation, under the constant threat of mutiny. Janeway parallels Roslyn, the leader and maternal figure to the crew who is very diplomatic. Both women represent civilization of a society that is far away. Their struggle to maintain their integrity and ideals parallels the crews struggle for survival. Chakotay is Adama a more militaristic leader who wants to save the people but is more willing to resort to violence, or force. Both men represent a more pragmatic school of thought to survive in the wilderness. Belanna Torres is very similar to Starbuck, kick ass women with a troubled childhood. Both characters past frak up their lives causing them to be self destructive, and keep their surrogate family at a distance. The two series each have a hot robo chick trying to understand humanity named after number in the forms of 6, and 7 of 9. The problem with voyage is it didn’t take these characterizations far enough. Janeway’s personality shifts wildly as though the writers where writing a new character depending on the script. Chakotay is largely two dimensional and loses his essence as a rebel leader. Belanna’s self destruction would switch on and off as though a band aid and a stern talking to straitened her out. Voyagers biggest offense was Seven of Nine, a character who on paper sounds fascinating. A Borg drone struggling to reclaim her humanity. Instead she devolved into dominatrix space tits. I’m no fool Star Trek has never shyed away from portraying sexy ladies. Dianna Troy, Jedzia Dax,Yoeman Rand, and Uhura were all sex symbols, but they had personality and depth to them. Number 6 was a sex symbol as well, but it made sense she was trying to manipulate a philanderer. The sexuality of 6’s character was so aggressive it left the audience feeling slightly uncomfortable. It was toned down when she stopped being a Barbie doll, and learned more about humanity. Seven pandered to the audience and episodes with nothing do with her would be billed as Borg drone sex romps.
Voyager went the safe route when they could shown a gritty survival story, as the characters tried to maintain Gene Roddenberry’s ideal. They shoe horned it into the Next Generation mold. The at tension between Starfleet and Marquis is a holodeck fantasy imagining mutiny. Voyager was supposed to be struggling to survive. Their big sacrifice was that they had to cook instead of using the replicators. It didn’t stop them from using the much larger holodecks. The Borg was turned into a weekly villain. I understood that because first contact came out and was really popular. They became nonthreatening. After the ship suffered damage it was always good as new the next episode. The only exception was the “Year of Hell” two parter. Which was probably the series best storyline, but was undone with a time travel redo. BSG explored the crew tension, the diametrically opposed leaders, the lack of supplies, and overall struggle brilliantly. Anyone could die. Anything could happen. Every episode demanded a follow up with the next episode. If the crew of the Voyager had to fight to maintain Rodenberry’s utopia and emerged from the darkness intact, it would have been a more powerful story.
So no thank you Kate Mulgrew. No Voyager movie, however maybe a Deep Space Nine movie would work. The second coming of Sisko perhaps… But that’s the story for another article.
