Lower Decks

Here’s one of the big ones. I know, it’s called “How I Got These Scars.” Most of the topics I’ve covered in this column since I launched it two falls ago have been big ones. I’ve found it surprisingly easy to find material to sustain the column. I don’t know what exactly that says about me. Anyway, this week’s topic is ‘Star Trek: Voyager,’ the one element of the franchise I haven’t covered yet because, well, it’s the one that really counts where this column is concerned. You could call ‘Voyager’ the series that broke the franchise’s back.

In previous incarnations of Lower Decks, I’ve written pretty extensively in my past efforts to try and convince readers that ‘Voyager’ didn’t deserve the reputation it developed, either as a ‘Next Generation’ knockoff or a disappointment after the ‘Deep Space Nine’ character-driven storytelling. Of course, for some people, ‘Voyager’ is preferable to ‘Deep Space Nine,’ and others might argue that it was ‘Enterprise’ (and/or ‘Nemesis’ and ‘Insurrection’) that killed Star Trek prior to ‘Star Trek’ (2009), but it was certainly ‘Voyager’ that broke the camel’s back in the general perception that Star Trek just wouldn’t go away during the 1990s, when the franchise had the chance either to finally break away from its geeky reputation or become so mired in it even the geeks would get around to rejecting it.

Launched in 1995, half a season after ‘Next Generation’ ended and midway through the third season of ‘Deep Space Nine,’ ‘Voyager’ famously launched the UPN network (for all you kids out there, UPN ended up merging with the WB, launched around the same time, and formed the current CW network) and featured a crew that was stranded far away from familiar territory and thus tasked for the long journey home. To complicate matters, the traditional Starfleet crew was also asked to merge with a group of rebels known as the Maquis, who’d formed after a group of Federation colonists found that their homes weren’t worth protecting against a hostile Cardassian Empire. The leader and several members of this Maquis faction had once been a part of Starfleet, but for various reasons and at various points in their careers, they left service to join the fight. The crew also consisted of a disgraced Starfleet officer and a pair of aliens from the region the ship had become stranded in, making for a motley group that might presumably generation its own drama.

The extent to which episodes actually dealt with these scenarios became an intricate part of the debate that emerged around ‘Voyager,’ about whether or not it became a superfluous, easily criticized show or (and there weren’t too many people arguing otherwise) it was still worth watching through its seventh and final season, which concluded in 2001, the season before ‘Enterprise’ launched. Suffice it to say, I was an enthusiastic viewer throughout the series, and so found myself in the uncomfortable position of trying to defend it on a constant basis, whether on the Internet or in my own home, which had actually begun to outgrow Star Trek around the fourth season of ‘Deep Space Nine.’ Believe it or not, I still don’t consider myself to be what might be considered a “classic” Star Trek fan. I’ve only ever attended a single convention (a modest one even at that, which would have allowed me to see Robert Picardo in person, if I’d been able to stick around long enough). I don’t dress up or speak Klingon. I haven’t filled my home with collectables. I never made it to the Star Trek Experience. There was a time where my reading schedule consisted almost solely of Star Trek books, but that’s more than ten years in my past at this point.

No, I’m simply the guy who started watching Star Trek, and never seemed to stop. I watched the original series in syndication, followed ‘Next Generation’ religiously (since it became a fixture of pre-primetime programming and thus was a nightly ritual for years), became obsessed with ‘Deep Space Nine,’ and yes, continued watching, enthusiastically, through ‘Voyager’ and ‘Enterprise.’ I never got into the “odd film curse,” since I enjoyed ‘The Motion Picture’ and even found some worth in ‘The Final Frontier.’ ‘Nemesis’ became one of my favorites.

No, what made me so unusual as a fan is that I found each of the crews endearing, and their stories consistently worth following. Where some fans watched ‘Voyager’ with the expectation that the Starfleet/Maquis conflict should have lasted years, I found that the first season covered that material not only thoroughly but satisfyingly, from B’Elana Torres and her fight to win the job of chief engineer to Tuvok and the day he spent trying to integrate the most difficult stragglers. I was more interested in how Janeway would keep everyone motivated, and ‘Voyager’ in that regard consistently adhered to Gene Roddenberry’s hopeful message that we can work it out. I suppose that’s what always attracted me to Star Trek, that there was this guy who believed it really was possible that we’d eventually figure out our differences, solve our problems. This doesn’t mean that I believe it was impossible, like Roddenberry himself did, for conflict to still exist between people (which wasn’t even what ‘Deep Space Nine’ did, so much as demonstrate, before ‘Lost,’ how easy it is to have the conflict other shows visit actually stick around on a weekly basis and expand every season). What ‘Voyager’ did was to show that even people who have every reason to hate each other can still get along, whether it be Chakotay, who should have been resentful of relinquishing his Maquis power to become Janeway’s first officer, or Tom Paris, who had to rebuild his reputation, several times, using Harry Kim along the way, or even the Emergency Medical Hologram, who was actually specifically designed to serve only a single function, but learned to explore his potential. When Chakotay turned out to be the most rational mind of the crew, it must have been curious indeed, since it just isn’t natural in most people’s experiences. The truth is, our modern perspective is not used to Roddenberry’s ideas, not even after having watched thirty years of it at the point ‘Voyager’ premiered. When Chakotay comes around and isn’t the angry, resentful person people might have expected him to be, he becomes that much harder to swallow, less believable, less convincing. When the series runs seven years and he remains a stoic presence, a new Spock, he rings phony, and that’s what the general opinion of the whole show becomes.

Why take it seriously? Because, time and again, the series pushes forth its central themes. The Doctor (EMH) expands into the central figure, in some ways, his story builds and builds. He’s the new Spock, the new Data, the outsider, but he’s not like Spock, and he’s not like Data. He’s our chance to observe from an unusual perspective the human experience, but he knows exactly what he is, and so does everyone else (unlike, subconsciously, Spock). He’s an artificial being, but only Kes really seems eager to embrace him as an individual (unlike Data). His entire journey is put out there in front of us. Even in the seventh season he’s struggling to be recognized as an autonomous being. It just is completely outside the Star Trek experience. Neelix, meanwhile, is just as abrasive, the new Wesley Crusher if you will, who knows exactly who he is, and like the Doctor among the crew at least, proves to be incredibly grating because of it. He’s not just there to serve a function, to fill a role or to be perversely endearing (like, say, Quark).

Then there’s Seven, the addition cynical viewers will observe filled out only with curves, even though she serves an invaluable role from the start, adding new dimensions to Janeway’s position at the very least, supplementing The Doctor’s observer status in still more intriguing ways. Some will say the Borg ruined ‘Voyager,’ or that ‘Voyager’ ruined the Borg, but as a fan of ‘Voyager’ through and through, I always thought the Borg were a natural development, and in the end no more than the successors to the Kazon, the antagonists of the first two seasons. The Borg transitioned in during the third season, the same year the Kazon arc finally concluded.

Anyway, I’m not trying to convince anyone why they should give ‘Voyager’ a second (or third or whatever) chance. I could fill a column with the many things I loved about the series. I could bring back the favorites list format and fill the column with the episodes I still treasure, or the ones I think best represent the series, or just spend time talking about each of the characters. I could spend a column trying to rehash the old arguments and really dig back in with my responses. I could, but the fact of the matter is, I am and always have been a fan of ‘Voyager’ and that’s all that I really need to know.

You might say HYGOTS is turning a corner. It’s a good thing that the column is no longer strictly called “How I Got These Scars,” because I no longer really care what anyone else thinks.