Star Trek DS9 and Sar Trek Voyager Poll

All Good Things is the best TNG "movie," in my humble opinion. I'm glad the show went out on a high note.

 

Yes, it was a fine ending and better than any of the movies.

 

that's where I get my star trek fix too lol

 

well I am into all trek "not sure why as I am a big Dr WHo fan"so yeah please release them in Blu-ray and I will buy them!

 

I keep my fingers crossed both shows will receive the remastered treatment in the foreseeable future, especially DS9 as that was my favourite series of the franchise - and true that the show got better when Sisko was promoted to Captain not to mention the addition of Worf. Still gutted that Jadzia got killed as Terry Farrell was hawt! Still didn't mind Ezri though.

And speaking of charismatic duos, Julian Bashir and Chief O'Brien weren't far off either.

 

You'd think Paramount would remaster them for online streaming - they can charge a premium for them. People aren't buying disc-based media at all anymore because streaming is so much more convienent - nothing to store, no more chasing the latest format. Would also open them up for syndication, although that's a dying market too as broadcast goes the way of the dinosaur.

I think the problem is that while DS9 and Voyager would almost certainly turn a profit in the long run thanks to streaming, it could take years for that to happen. No American company has the patience for that.

Paramount screwed up when they failed to launch a DS9 or a Voyager movie. I think either series could have been spun off as a set of films, and DS9 was far better-positioned for that than TNG was - the cast was younger and the war-based stories they focused on for the last few years of the series were far better-suited to the big screen. They should have left the Dominion War hanging at the end of the 7th season and resolved it on film.

Their last couple of seasons were uneven, although I will say, when some of the wild stuff they tried worked it worked really well. Like this episode, which still gives me the creeps (and which, come to think of it, could have setup a killer TNG movie - better than any of the ones we got...):

Schisms (episode)

 

We've been watching STAR TREK: VOYAGER for the past couple of months, usually one each night when nothing else is on TV. We tend to rotate through the TREK series and it was VOYAGER's turn.

Either I'm getting used to the way it looks on SD DVD, or it was transferred really well, especially in comparison to DS9. Sometimes I'm almost convinced that I'm looking at a high-def picture. I'm playing the show on a Sony Blu-ray player from about 2011 on a Sony 60" TV from about 2014, and it really looks pretty good. It probably has to do with the brighter lighting that was often used on VOYAGER, where DS9 was very dark most of the time.

So if only one of these two could be chosen to upgrade to HD, I'd say DS9 is far more in need of it than VOYAGER.

 

Voyager definitely looks better than the other Treks. Might have to do with the way the effects were integrated - TNG did it on video, as did DS9 I believe. Maybe they did it on film on Voyager, or used a better video standard, or did it digitally.

The lighting on Voyager though is often as dim as it was on DS9.

After the second season or so they switched to CGI for their effects, and there's a noticeable bump in quality and also their ability to render spectacular sequences. Like this bit, which would have been unimaginable on a TV budget with practical effects:

 

I confess to regularly indulging in binge watching Voyager episodes on BBCAmerica on Mondays for hours.

It has some good episodes.

My memory of the original broadcast run was fading, so after googling I was surprised to be reminded that Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager all ran for 7 seasons each!

Still, I think catching these on broadcasts will be the way I enjoy the shows - I just don't see myself buying boxed sets and cracking open a BD case to purposely watch these.

 

This must be some cosmic coincidence because I too am in the process of binge watching Voyager ATM. What's more, there were far fewer 'unwatchable' episodes (midway through S6 now) than I'd remembered. I think it's mainly because I like the core characters so much that even a middling level script is still enjoyable. I remember during the original run, I really used to hate the Fair Haven/Spirit Folk episodes, but now I enjoy the heck out of them as simply good fun!

 

Not a fan of Voyager, although I will say that unlike TNG and DS9, it did seem to improve a bit (in general) as it went along. TNG had an awful 1st season and a wildly uneven 2nd before it finally fell into a groove in its 3rd, which lasted until the 6th or 7th, depending on your POV.

DS9 was uneven - especially in its 1st season - but got a lot better its second. Unfortunately then the whole Dominion War arc really fired up and unfortunately while the suspense that lead into it was great, I think it ultimately kinda derailed the program. I know some people love it, but too many of the actual war episodes felt like recycled episodes of Combat or something to me, and the way they were interspersed with ridiculous garbage episodes about malfunctioning holodecks or Quark having trouble with the waste extraction unit or whatever just wrecked any sense of momentum. When they finally went overboard with the whole Prophets thing, wrote themselves into a corner with the wormhole minefield situation and resorted to a deus ex machina ending, and turned Dukat into a moustache-twirling loon I thought the show went off the rails completely and stopped watching for awhile. Apparently, I missed the first half of the final season, which partially consisted of hanging around in a holographic recreation of Las Vegas...

The final wrapup of the Dominion War was alright. The whole Sisko and the Prophets and Dukat aspect was ridiculous, but the stuff with Kira, Garak and Damar on Cardassia - along with the female changeling and the parade of Weyoun clones was great. The actual battles were pretty well done as well, the first time Trek in any form was able to present convincing space battles involving numerous ships.

Voyager was a mess its first couple of seasons, like TNG. Unlike TNG I don't think it ever got consistently better, but at least they started producing occasional good episodes between the crud with their 3rd season. It probably helped to get away from the low-rent Klingons - the Kazon - and start facing off against better adversaries (the Borg and later the Hirogen and of course Species 8472).

 

I've had a Voyager craving again recently too and have been watching an episode ever day or two for the past couple of weeks. For some reason I started at the end of Season 4 (when 7 of 9 is introduced) and have nearly gone through all of season 5, which I think is the show's best, and maybe my favorite of all the Trek series (I never have liked DS9). For a period of time, it seems this show was really trying to do something different and challenging with the Trek model and science fiction TV in general. At its worst -- the dreadful Kes, Neelix's painfully contrived "humor," those two Fair Haven episodes -- it was also the lowest form of Trek. Still, Janeway, Seven and the Doctor are great characters, with the Doctor in particular adding a level of pathos and humor that added considerably to the show's depth.

 

I felt that way about DS9. Characters didn't get along but were still fond of each other, etc. once Ira Steven Behr took over the series improved by leaps and bounds on DS9.

 

Maybe I should give this show another shot beginning at season 5. I tried getting into this show a couple of times from the beginning but never made it very far. I caught a couple of episodes with Seven of Nine and found them entertaining.

 

Star Trek: DS9

My order:
Star Trek: The Next Generation/ Star Trek: DS9
Star Trek
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise

 

There are a few flowers in Voyager's run, scattered among the weeds. It does get generally better once Seven of Nine comes aboard, in part because Jeri Ryan is probably the best actress in the cast.

Which is funny, as she seems to have come in as a bit of T&A. Who knew the T&A could act?



Apart from Ryan and Robert Picardo though, the rest of the cast gets on my nerves. Mulgrew spent too many years on soap operas, and it shows. She's also terribly uneven, far better in some episodes than others (I suspect when the script was bad she just tuned out). The rest of the cast are competent at best, although I will say with the characters as-written there's not a whole lot better actors could do with them, anyhow.

Spun part of the first DS9 episode on Netflix tonight - god does it look like crap. What, did they master this from somebody's VHS?

 

I read an article the other day that noted how Voyager was at its best when it was doing hard science fiction stories, and I agree with that. The introduction of Seven, in combination with the Doctor, pulled the series more in that direction for a while, which is why seasons 4/5/6 are now probably my favorite.

I was looking back through this old thread to remind myself of some earlier episodes that I might want to go back and rewatch, and I was surprised how my opinion then was that the first two seasons were the strongest. I completely disagree with that now, having been through most of the episodes again a couple of years ago and then back through season 5 again recently.

Star Trek: Voyager- Best Episodes

@sunspot42 I agree that Mulgrew was uneven. There were times when her intensity held everything together, but I've noticed a lot of unconvincing expressions (mostly her attempts at being reassuring in various settings). Still, Janeway was a well-conceived character, someone strong and curious who makes questionable decisions on occasion, in spite of uneven writing. It's interesting that you say she spent too much time on soap operas, because now she's in another one, essentially (Orange is the New Black).

Side note: I will forever regret not going to see Kate Mulgrew off-Broadway in the late 90s doing a one woman show about Katherine Hepburn.

 

An example of a thread that has survived for over a year with an obvious typo in the title!

I like both series, but having recently gone through the entire VOYAGER series on DVD, I conclude that DS9 needs remastering FAR more than VOYAGER. At times, I was amazed how good VOYAGER looked on a Sony Blu-ray player upscaling to a 60" Sony HDTV.

DS9 by comparison, looks pretty bad. Acceptable at times, but really bad in the frequent dark scenes.

 

Other Star Trek shows or movies, yes. I'm not really a fan of those two.

 

What's also interesting is that her character on Orange was completely transformed from the first season, going from a mean, dangerous top dog character to now a comedy sidekick (but that also applies to most of the other characters now).

Heh, I didn't know she actually did that. It's funny because when I first saw her on Voyager, I instantly thought she could play Katherine Hepburn in a heartbeat!

Yes, that's true, but all else being equal (which we can't assume), the reason DS9 often looks less well defined is due to the way it was shot. They used a soft focus technique a lot of the time, which gives a softer appearance. I've done some remastering myself and was able to improve image appearance quite a bit.

 

Yeah, she'd be great at it since before she put on some weight she both looked and sounded like her.

I was stunned by how awful it looked on Netflix last night on my giant 34" Ultra WQHD monitor. Voyager almost looks like it was shot in HD in comparison.

It's not the focus. There was a color moire pattern around edges, gobs of video noise, poor contrast, the works.

 

Currently watching DS9, and it reminds me of those colourised movies in the 80s when a person nods their head up and down and the colours don't actually move. I don't recall this happening when they aired. It's especially noticeable with Cardassians (like their eyes, nose and mouth are moving but the spoon ridges remain in place) but it happens to anyone in close-up.

Plus I think every disc (I just started season 4) has frozen at some point. I can use the rewind button to go back a second or two, and resume watching, but I have to do this a few times in the next minute. Also every disc has subtitle problems. If you watch with the English subs on, they'll just stop for several minutes, and the last bit of dialogue remaining on the screen all the time. This sometimes but not always coincides with the disc freezing.

 

Yeah, that's down to poor decoding for transmission. The source DVDs were interlaced in places and had blended-frames (which leads to smearing) . These were interspersed throughout a single episode usually divided between film content and video based cgi content. It's a real nightmare to correctly decode all that into a uniform progressive scan stream.