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[Jackpot]

Just reading more of Moore's interview:



Voyager to me feels like a bunch of checked boxes. This sums it up nicely.

"By the end of the pilot, you have the Maquis in those Starfleet uniforms, and— boom—we’ve begun the grand homogenization. Now they are any other ship. I don’t know what the difference is between Voyager and the Defiant or the Saratoga or the Enterprise or any other ship sitting around the Alpha Quadrant doing its Starfleet gig. That to me is appalling, because if anything, Voyager—coming home, over this journey, with that crew—by the time they got back to Earth, they should be their own subculture. They should be so different from the people who left, that Starfleet won’t even recognize them any more.

If you think about it in somewhat realistic terms: you’re on Voyager; you are on the other side of the galaxy; for all you know, it is really going to take another century to get home, and there is every chance that you are not going to make it, but maybe your children or grandchildren will. Are you really going let Captain Janeway [Kate Mulgrew] rule the ship for the next century. It seems like, in that kind of situation, the ship would eventually evolve its own sort of society. It would have to function in some way, other than just this military protocol that we repeat over and over again because it’s the only thing we know. You’ve got the Maquis onboard. From the get-go they are supposed to be the anti-Starfleet people. They behave exactly like the Starfleet people with the occasional nod towards B’Elanna [Roxann Dawson] making a snide remark about Starfleet protocols, or Chakotay [Robert Beltran] getting a little quasi-spiritual. But in essence, they are no different than any other ship in the fleet.

You are trying to tell the audience on the one hand, ‘We’re so far from home, and it’s going to take us so long, and we really wish we could get home. It’s rough out here.’ Janeway wrings her hands about all the things that she has sent the crew through. Then, it’s off to the holodeck. You can’t talk with any kind of a straight face about food rations and energy conservation, and having a real kitchen in the mess hall, when at the same time you’ve got the holodeck going. It’s such a facade, and no matter what kind of technobabble bullshit you come up with, the audience intuitively knows, again, that’s not truthful.

"What is the difference really between Voyager and the rest of the fleet? When that ship comes home, it will blend right in. You won’t even know the difference. They haven’t personalized the ship in any way. It’s still the same kind of bare metal, military look that it had at the beginning. If you were trapped on that ship and making your way home, for years on end, wouldn’t you put something up on the walls? Would you put a plant or two somewhere in a corridor? Wouldn’t you try to make it a little more livable? That is the challenge that I think they have really dropped.

right on.

 

[Lagamorph]

They did personalise the ship though. It had alien and Borg technology all over the place, they'd created an airponics bay, a Borg Cargo Bay, an Astrometrics Lab, they were getting prepped to essentially become a generational ship with the gradual arrival of more children. They even put together a custom Shuttlecraft with the Delta Flyer.

You can't exactly put stuff in the corridors on a starship like that though. People need to get through quickly in emergencies, everyone needs to know exactly what is where when they're dashing around to make emergency repairs/get to escape pods/get to their stations/fight off intruders.The crew were able to personalise their quarters, hell Tom Paris had an early 20th Century TV, Janeway was regularly taking apart and putting her replicator back together, Neelix decided to put up curtains.

Keeping to a Starfleet way of life was also essentially a strong reminder for the crew of where they came from and where they were going back to. Though more than once it was demonstrated that regulations had become somewhat relaxed and Janeway considered cracking the whip to bring everyone back up to standard.
You're talking about a relative small amount of time too. Within 5 years Voyager was back in some limited contact with Starfleet. By about 6 years they're in pretty regular contact. That's hardly enough time for them to start developing their own distinct and unrecognisable culture.

 

[DrForester]

They did personalise the ship though. It had alien and Borg technology all over the place, they'd created an airponics bay, a Borg Cargo Bay, an Astrometrics Lab, they were getting prepped to essentially become a generational ship with the gradual arrival of more children. They even put together a custom Shuttlecraft with the Delta Flyer.

You can't exactly put stuff in the corridors on a starship like that though. People need to get through quickly in emergencies, everyone needs to know exactly what is where when they're dashing around to make emergency repairs/get to escape pods/get to their stations/fight off intruders.The crew were able to personalise their quarters, hell Tom Paris had an early 20th Century TV, Janeway was regularly taking apart and putting her replicator back together, Neelix decided to put up curtains.

Keeping to a Starfleet way of life was also essentially a strong reminder for the crew of where they came from and where they were going back to. Though more than once it was demonstrated that regulations had become somewhat relaxed and Janeway considered cracking the whip to bring everyone back up to standard.
You're talking about a relative small amount of time too. Within 5 years Voyager was back in some limited contact with Starfleet. By about 6 years they're in pretty regular contact. That's hardly enough time for them to start developing their own distinct and unrecognisable culture.

It should when half the crew is not only not Starfleet, but hates Starfleet. The instant integration was absurd. There were some nly two episodes where it really was an issue. Episode where Torres is made Chief Engineer, and when Tuvok has to train a few Maquis misfits.

 

[Lagamorph]

It should when half the crew is not only not Starfleet, but hates Starfleet. The instant integration was absurd. There were some nly two episodes where it really was an issue. Episode where Torres is made Chief Engineer, and when Tuvok has to train a few Maquis misfits.

The Maquis crew didn't necessarily hate Starfleet though. Plenty of them were former Starfleet officers who joined the Maquis as a moral point. Their issue was more with Federation policy than Starfleet. And as I said, a lot of people within Starfleet had a hell of a lot of sympathy for the Maquis cause. There might have been some tension, but there certainly wasn't anything that could be called hatred on either side.

 

[TDLink]

The Maquis crew didn't necessarily hate Starfleet though. Plenty of them were former Starfleet officers who joined the Maquis as a moral point. Their issue was more with Federation policy than Starfleet. And as I said, a lot of people within Starfleet had a hell of a lot of sympathy for the Maquis cause. There might have been some tension, but there certainly wasn't anything that could be called hatred on either side.

Right and with this in mind and them being stranded in the Delta Quadrant away from Starfleet and the Federation, it's not really that unbelievable that they started cooperating together somewhat quickly. Especially with some of them in positions of power.

 

[Matt]

They did personalise the ship though. It had alien and Borg technology all over the place, they'd created an airponics bay, a Borg Cargo Bay, an Astrometrics Lab, they were getting prepped to essentially become a generational ship with the gradual arrival of more children. They even put together a custom Shuttlecraft with the Delta Flyer.

You can't exactly put stuff in the corridors on a starship like that though. People need to get through quickly in emergencies, everyone needs to know exactly what is where when they're dashing around to make emergency repairs/get to escape pods/get to their stations/fight off intruders.The crew were able to personalise their quarters, hell Tom Paris had an early 20th Century TV, Janeway was regularly taking apart and putting her replicator back together, Neelix decided to put up curtains.

Keeping to a Starfleet way of life was also essentially a strong reminder for the crew of where they came from and where they were going back to. Though more than once it was demonstrated that regulations had become somewhat relaxed and Janeway considered cracking the whip to bring everyone back up to standard.
You're talking about a relative small amount of time too. Within 5 years Voyager was back in some limited contact with Starfleet. By about 6 years they're in pretty regular contact. That's hardly enough time for them to start developing their own distinct and unrecognisable culture.

You're actually trying to argue why it makes sense that the show chose to ignore the potentially interesting elements of its foundation.

 

[DrForester]

Right and with this in mind and them being stranded in the Delta Quadrant away from Starfleet and the Federation, it's not really that unbelievable that they started cooperating together somewhat quickly. Especially with some of them in positions of power.

But there wasn't really cooperation. There was an immediate falling in line to Starfleet ideals and an instant acceptance of following the idiot Captain that just stranded you on the other side of the Galaxy.

 

[BorkBork]

Also, what's the point of having the Maquis then if they serve no narrative purpose? Saying that the differences between the two crews are trivial eliminates a huge source of potentially compelling drama and completely undermines the original premise of the show. For what? To become a episodic TNG retread without the fresh stories, the connected world, or actors that can carry the show?

That's the real beef I have with the show. Have the guts to do something different. I can at least respect Enterprise for going for it, even if it eventually had to resort to literal Space Nazis.

 

[ExVicis]

You're actually trying to argue why it makes sense that the show chose to ignore the potentially interesting elements of its foundation.

This is my problem really with defense of Voyager and it's problems. Sure you can make excuses for why this is this way and why this is that way, but that doesn't make those elements of the show any more interesting. Especially since it's not the show giving me or even hinting at those things. That's a big failure on the show's part if we as the audience have to collectively think up solutions to the conflicts they create but the show or it's creators never resolve in any way that's meaningful or satisfying.

Also, what's the point of having the Maquis then if they serve no narrative purpose?

This as well, if you removed the Maquis element and barely anything changed with how characters interact or with any of the conflicts the Voyager crew faces then it's completely pointless.

 

[Technosteve]

Hello I just want to inform you that this exists and it's terrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2hs0oZ6JuQ

Via https://twitter.com/Papapishu/status/770726922980646912


This is on par with a typical Voyager episode