It may not have been a story arc in the traditional sense, but it motivated their actions in nearly every episode of Voyager, just as the Dominion War motivated their actions in nearly every episode of DS9. Borg, Klingons, Worf, Data, Picard, Romulans, Cardassians, Bajorans/Ro, Q. I agree that the story arcs weren't as epic as the one in DS9. There's time in between episodes, sometimes weeks or even months. It was supposed to be a three week tour. A three week tour. Agreed to some extent, but it's not like they were incapable of fixing their ship. So VOY would have worked if it was made in the late '60s or late '80s?
It very well might have worked way back then, because then it'd have been a new idea, instead of mostly re-hashed garbage. I doubt very much they'd give the spaceship a new paint job every episode. It was a 7 year series and that was how much time passed in the show. It made it home BETTER than it was when they got there. No damage, no nothing. And no, TNG really did not have arcs, especially not TOS. A 2-3 episode theme is not an arc. Every episode could be watched as a stand-alone and you'd be completely current and up to date with what was going on. And NO the dominion war did not motivate nearly every episode of DS9, that's not what the show was about like Voyager getting home was the theme of the show. The dominion war did not dominate the whole of DS9, nor was it its theme, in fact, it only was apart of the last couple seasons.
I have to admit, now that it's back on tv, and after you get over Mulgrew's audacious acting during seasons 1-3, it has actually really grown on me. I'm starting to really dread it whenever I have to miss my afternoon Voyager fix on Spike.
I really dug Kate Mulgrew, it's the writing of Janeway's character that was schizo. She did the best with what those stunted perpetual adolescents, B&B gave her.
Not unless if you've already familiar with the majority of TNG. Just off of the top of my head, I can think of both Picard's experience with the Borg and Worf's entire storyline as two major developments that do require previous knowledge of the show in order to really grasp. I'm not really comparing TNG with DS9 in terms of sheer "serialization" - DS9 wins hands-down, but there was definetly continuing storylines within TNG.
Like I said, there was a definite arc regarding the Klingons/Worf, the Borg/Picard, and even Data/Lore. There was even one regarding Bajorans/Cardassians/Maquis.
Worf's storyline was definitely one huge arc. It starts with his stupid mate and Alexander and ends when he becomes Ambassador to the Klingon empire. Picard's encounter with the Borg... well, to understand First Contact, you need to watch The Best of Both Worlds. That episode actually carried into the other series (Wolf 359).
It's a shame that Voyager squandered so much potential. Even though DS9 ran alongside VOY for five years, DS9 was superior in almost every way. It had a larger, more diverse cast of characters. Deeper character building, stronger character relationships. Better storylines, better dialogue, better humor. Better battle sequences. A better premier and a better finale. More socially relevant, politically themed episodes. Heck, it even had better female characters. Some of them may have been villainous but they were played wonderfully. Even recurring characters like Weyoun, Dukat, Winn, Martok, etc. had better development than most of the VOY regulars. The only thing on par with both shows was the special effects. VOY did have some pretty great CG work in the later episodes. 'Scorpion' had some really great sequences with the Borg and the 8472. And the episode where Voyager crashes into the ice planet was pretty spectacular. Just as good as the Ent-D crash in Generations. Alas, everything else about the show was mediocre. I'll never understand those Mulgrew harpies that prefer VOY over DS9.
