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I'm a Trekkie. And like most Star Trek fans I've met, I like one series better than all the rest. There are lots to choose from because of the nature of TV shows and TV series, although I'm sure there are people out there who wish that their favorite series never stopped running.
To refresh your memory, I'll list them: The Original Series (with Kirk and Spock), Star Trek: The Next Generation (with Jean-Luc Picard and Data), Deep Space Nine (with Ben Sisko, Odo, and Kira), Voyager (with Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay), and Enterprise (which is situated time-wise to be before Kirk and Spock). I have my opinions about each of these series, as every Trekkie does, but my favorite is Voyager.
One of the main reasons why Voyager is my favorite is because it became a family tradition one summer. We got hooked on the series introduction. I was still in high school, and we watched almost every night at nine o'clock. We followed it pretty consistently; the beautiful thing about Voyager is that once you've watched the general premise of the series, the first few episodes, almost every episode stands alone with its own plot.
Each season has its own twist, of course, but there are so many variations and plot twists you can give a crew that's trying to find its way back home after being stranded out in the unknown. I have fond memories of engaged, intellectual and moral argument during the commercial breaks with my parents and siblings about the happenings of the show we were watching. At the end of the summer, we caught the very ending of the series. I'm sure we didn't watch all the episodes, but after three months of watching this show, we were so invested in these characters that it was a gratifying end, if not infuriating in some aspects.
I like Voyager also because it's got lots of strong female characters. On Jean-Luc's crew, it's a bunch of men with a female counselor and a few female villians. In Deep Space Nine, the strongest female I can think of is Kira. In Voyager, the captain of the ship is a girl, and we have Kes, who is introduced and involved heavily, who is also a girl. I could go on, wading in the details that Trekkies argue about involving traits of each series, strong versus main characters, and so on, but I'm writing all this because of Seven.
Seven is also a girl, and she's honestly another main reason why I love Voyager. At first, she's a girl in search of her identity, and once she finds her confidence, she is often critiquing all the facets of this society and culture in which she finds herself. Her character works well in a TV series because she's sometimes brash and action-oriented when everyone around her tiptoes, and other times, she's blatantly unsure of herself when everyone else is overly confident.
Seven's also the sex appeal of the show, despite all her intellectual propensities--she dresses regularly in a tight yet modest version of the crew uniform, and she wears heels and a classic French twist. She has large eyes, blond hair, a lilting eyebrow, and a temper; understandably, more than one character on the show looks at her with a romantic interest, and at the end of the series, she goes out with a bang. Because of the balance she finds in the intellectual, sexual, and emotional fields of life, she's admirable; she's the modern everywoman, I think.
I have a crush on the character, obviously. But there can't be a great character, especially in Seven's case, in an un-compelling environment. One reason she's great is because the plot and the premise surrounding her are great. Some episodes are better than others, obviously, but the series, overall, is more entertaining, more engaging, and more well-rounded than everything else Trekkie I've seen.
Feel free to argue your opinion, if you like, but I like my point.
To refresh your memory, I'll list them: The Original Series (with Kirk and Spock), Star Trek: The Next Generation (with Jean-Luc Picard and Data), Deep Space Nine (with Ben Sisko, Odo, and Kira), Voyager (with Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay), and Enterprise (which is situated time-wise to be before Kirk and Spock). I have my opinions about each of these series, as every Trekkie does, but my favorite is Voyager.
One of the main reasons why Voyager is my favorite is because it became a family tradition one summer. We got hooked on the series introduction. I was still in high school, and we watched almost every night at nine o'clock. We followed it pretty consistently; the beautiful thing about Voyager is that once you've watched the general premise of the series, the first few episodes, almost every episode stands alone with its own plot.
Each season has its own twist, of course, but there are so many variations and plot twists you can give a crew that's trying to find its way back home after being stranded out in the unknown. I have fond memories of engaged, intellectual and moral argument during the commercial breaks with my parents and siblings about the happenings of the show we were watching. At the end of the summer, we caught the very ending of the series. I'm sure we didn't watch all the episodes, but after three months of watching this show, we were so invested in these characters that it was a gratifying end, if not infuriating in some aspects.
I like Voyager also because it's got lots of strong female characters. On Jean-Luc's crew, it's a bunch of men with a female counselor and a few female villians. In Deep Space Nine, the strongest female I can think of is Kira. In Voyager, the captain of the ship is a girl, and we have Kes, who is introduced and involved heavily, who is also a girl. I could go on, wading in the details that Trekkies argue about involving traits of each series, strong versus main characters, and so on, but I'm writing all this because of Seven.
Seven is also a girl, and she's honestly another main reason why I love Voyager. At first, she's a girl in search of her identity, and once she finds her confidence, she is often critiquing all the facets of this society and culture in which she finds herself. Her character works well in a TV series because she's sometimes brash and action-oriented when everyone around her tiptoes, and other times, she's blatantly unsure of herself when everyone else is overly confident.
Seven's also the sex appeal of the show, despite all her intellectual propensities--she dresses regularly in a tight yet modest version of the crew uniform, and she wears heels and a classic French twist. She has large eyes, blond hair, a lilting eyebrow, and a temper; understandably, more than one character on the show looks at her with a romantic interest, and at the end of the series, she goes out with a bang. Because of the balance she finds in the intellectual, sexual, and emotional fields of life, she's admirable; she's the modern everywoman, I think.
I have a crush on the character, obviously. But there can't be a great character, especially in Seven's case, in an un-compelling environment. One reason she's great is because the plot and the premise surrounding her are great. Some episodes are better than others, obviously, but the series, overall, is more entertaining, more engaging, and more well-rounded than everything else Trekkie I've seen.
Feel free to argue your opinion, if you like, but I like my point.
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From:
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And... Well, Seven was very interesting in her way, but I remember being annoyed that so much of the series became about *her*, while the other characters I had time to fall in love with seemed to become secondary in comparison. Also, best friend and I were Janeway/Chakotay shippers. We wrote fan fic and everything. Therefore, Seven/Chakotay didn't work for us. I remember matching her with the Doctor.
Oh, typically reading Star Trek novels isn't exactly the best use of time, but one of the creators of Voyager wrote this novel called "Tapestry", which told the backstories of all of the crew members. It was very interesting and much more well written and substantial than any other novel of its type that I've encountered.
From:
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(spoilers ahead) Strangely enough, at the end, Chakotay falls in love with Seven, and she reciprocates. I thought that was weird when I first saw it, during that summer with my family, but only because it was so sudden ad felt like a cop-out to give her some more conclusion before she dies. Now, though, I've seen more episodes from that last season before the finale, and there is actual buildup to that climactic "I love you! Ahh, ahh, ahh!" thing.
There are lots and lots of Star Trek novels out there, so many that I suspect it just becomes poorly written fan fic, and that they speculate on every possible relationship that could ever happen in that world. To some aspect, Star Trek can get Soap Opera-ish really quickly and really easily, and all those books just take it into that realm, which isn't why I watch the episodes.
From:
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I have been watching some of the episodes from the original series lately. I spend most of my time making fun of the plots. They are so horribly cheesy and not very creative. But I do have a soft spot for "The Trouble with Tribbles." You can't go wrong with cute balls of purring/trilling fuzz.
From:
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And yeah, the original series is hokey. I can watch maybe a few minutes of an episode without getting bored/disgusted because of the corniness of it all. And I don't see an exeption with "Trouble with Tribbles"--the way they suddenly multiply: poof! The next frame shows that they've doubled! And everyone's so comically shocked... Have you seen the crossover of Tribbles into the TNG world? Good stuff.
I had a roommate whose favorite series was Deep Space Nine; she owned all the episodes on DVD, and she had an encyclopedia that had everything about everything in the Star Trek universe: all the characters, even the obscure ones, all the races, spaceships, planets, peices of technology... It was a really entertaining book to just pick up and read a random page because something from Kirk & Spock's world would be right next to something from TNG, and the after that would be something from Deep Space Nine. Very cool book. I borrowed it a lot that summer I was engaged.