By CHAD TAYLOR
Voyager is the fourth instalment in the Star Trek legacy and deserves more success than it has enjoyed with hardcore fans.
It boasts the most romantic theme and the sharpest ship. Trek's traditionally male audience is treated to three original female leads and the crew is journeying through a
lush, uncharted part of the galaxy.
Logically, it should be compelling and different. But for all the good choices the series has made, its writers consistently avoid being dynamic. They prefer stories to plot, narrative to intrigue.
The characters are variations on a theme rather than bold contrasts. Janeway is isolated, B'Elanna Torres is angry, and Seven of Nine is very isolated and very angry. Tuvok is detached and cool while the Doctor is detached and fussy.
Paris and Kim are the disenfranchised frat boys Wesley Crusher probably grew up to be. Chakotay is the sex symbol female fans would wish on Janeway, but the producers are holding back, directing him instead to meditate.
They all talk too much. No stone is left unscanned for traces of nucleogenic particles. We could do with more action and more amore, even if the days when a Captain could dropkick the bad aliens and kiss the pretty ones are well past.
Maybe the writers are confounded by the Trek mythology and the nit-picking fan sites. Maybe their work is being spoiled by TV's many cooks who change the flowers in Janeway's cabin and have teenage passengers appear and disappear from week to week.
But season six of Voyager is making a better start. Janeway finally pops a hatch and tries to hunt down and kill another Federation ship. She has no real reason to do it, but at least she is doing something.
Tomorrow, Seven bumps into some old friends in a grim Borg flashback. The suspenseful story includes a decent reason for Naomi Wildman, even if the moral is dispensed with rather quickly.
B'Elanna confronts her Klingon self in the Barge of the Dead, a good idea that opens and closes on the right note.
The following week the Doctor takes command of the ship for an extremely funny second run at the Corbomite Manoeuvre.
Visually, the series remains luxurious. The crew's quarters look better than the apartments on Coruscant. There are probably paper wrappers around the toilet seats and mini-bars loaded with Saurian brandy.
Gene Roddenberry wrote the first draft of Star Trek in 1963 with the high-minded premise that humanity would evolve into a better species to reach the stars.
Voyager is true to his vision. Instead of a bang or a whimper the Trek universe is ending with a streamlined, mood-lit cruise with the crew poring over every detail.
* Star Trek Voyager, TV4, Saturday, 8.30 pm
By CHAD TAYLOR
Voyager is the fourth instalment in the Star Trek legacy and deserves more success than it has enjoyed with hardcore fans.
It boasts the most romantic theme and the sharpest ship. Trek's traditionally male audience is treated to three original female leads and the crew is journeying through a
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