Voyager also had Seven of Nine, one of the most iconic ST characters.

The big problem, for me, was suspending my disbelief at the sheer amount of damage the ship supposedly took, week after week. They had no space yard to repair it, and yet came out gleaming with no explanation.

Another issue was when they did create something really good, such as the Hirogen, the effect (quite brilliant at the time) of having the new foe about twice the size of the humans, must've been too expensive. Because when they next appeared they'd shrunk down to standard size. Again, no explanation.

Then there was Dr Plox...

They should just give the audience what they want... a new post Voyager series based in the future. Not one that retrospectively rewrites Trek history. I guess we will have to see what Discovery is all about.

^^ Dr Phlox was Enterprise. I assume you meant 'Nelix'. ^^

I agree that Voyager was a massively missed opportunity. I said in another thread that i've read some of the post-tv show novels of Voyager and the biggest impression you get is just how good the characters could have been if they'd been given the chance. If you compare the Doctor to Phlox, Seven to Jadzia, B'elanna to La Forge, Tom Paris to Chekov - I reckon Voyager more than holds it's own.

Also I personally think there are a large number of very good Voyager episodes. It's a huge shame that they were never able to weave them into a larger story arc and that the reset button was used so often, but as 43 mins of entertainment they stand up.

The show lost it's way a lot of the time (no joke intended) but i reckon there was a lot of good writing that was probably ruined by studio interference.

I don't have good feelings about this new show, the people running it are far too into science fiction.

Voyager had the problem that it was often a bad soap crossed with hard science fiction. Often cute but not many stand-out episodes.

Star Trek as a concept seems to work better when it's primarily a drama and the sci-fi is of a social nature, where there are strong parallels with life today.

Voyager episodes that I thought were decent:

S1

Time and Again
Eye of the Needle
Prime factors

S2

Dreadnought
The Thaw
Resolutions

S3

Fair Trade
Before and After
Distant Origin (Though i'll admit the concept was far-fetched)
Worst Case Scenario

S4

Scorpion
Year of Hell
The Omega Directive
Living Witness
Hope and Fear

S5

In the Flesh
Timeless
Counterpoint
Latent Image
Gravity
Bliss
Course Oblivion
Think Tank
11:59
Relativity

S6

Equinox
Riddles
The Voyager Conspiracy
Pathfinder
Blink of an eye

S7

Critical Care

As someone who is very much into Science Fiction and always has been I don't have any issues with the show runners being into Sci-Fi!

I'm not against strong character arcs etc. but there are plenty of shows you can get soap type drama from. If you going to have a show set on spaceships in the future you need to embrace the sci-fi!

The best thing about sci-fi is the what-if, projection of a different future. Roddenberry's vision was of a human race that had evolved past it's current problems into a much more enlightened people. So, while events can parallel current events, up to a point, I'm much more interesting in seeing how a more enlightened society copes with these events as well as seeing how it deals with events that could only happen in a future world. That's what sci-fi does and that's what I love about it.

Then again, I really liked Voyager

Too bad... she's actually in a relationship with Dominic Keaton (though I think it's a bit hush-hush)

Did you see she was also in the TV series Dead Zone some years ago, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name? She played the girlfriend/wife of the protagonist. A great little series that extended and further explored King's concept.

I hated it, and yet I thought it had the strongest premise, that of a starship lost at the other side of the galaxy trying to find its way home. I don't think I liked the characters or cast, they just felt very weak compared to TNG and DS9

I could never bring myself to hate anything Star Trek

Every incarnation of Star Trek has its share of lame episodes and problems. Some series more than others.

Voyager had a great initial premise. It could have used that to break away from the traditional Star Trek formula. It didn't. It played it safe and was spoiled by a poor (at times very poor) execution. They mishandled the characters so badly that, long before the end, I didn't care whether or not they got back to Earth. A Voyager fly past on Earth was a woefully inadequate way to end the series (only the last episode of Enterprise was a worse ending).

Fuller has confirmed that the NCC number in the teaser is a major spoiler to allow you to work out when Discovery is set.

He also hints that the idea about the section 13 speculation from the NCC 1013 may help if you understand the history of that body.

He added that he will reveal more (and by the looks of it confirm the era) at an event on 8 August.

I think it's fairly obvious then, that it'll be pre TOS, and that the ship we've seen is the fugly design they're going with.

Trek is doomed.

I guess some people are better than others at trying to build up excitement and speculation.

In my view Star Trek worked as a general appeal show when it made the people real and the science fiction of the type that impacted on human societies.

I feel this is what made the rebooted Dr Who work as a show as well, and why it's losing the more general audience as Moffat has taken it away from that people/society concept towards so-called "hard" sci-fi and where the actors are basically Basil Exposition types.

I will surely watch the new Trek (one way or another), but I will be surprised if it has any general appeal.

I think you mean Section 31.

Since they might be involved, I wonder if the ship will actually have an early cloaking device, which might explain the look of the ship.

The Dr Who fans know an awful lot more about their new series, airing next year. We've STILL no cast details, and only rumour about the premise.

It doesn't bode well.

Dr Who is filmed per UK union rules, meaning it's slower than in the US. No 18 hour days on DW production.

Interested to see how Trek is pitched tonally, presumably if it's only on streaming services they could hypothetically do anything, not that I'm expecting 18 cert level violence or anything.

Well thank goodness for unions! An 18 hour day is conducive to nothing.

I think the NHS would fall apart if staff could only work say 12 hour days.

Seemed to work out OK for TNG and DS9 when they were in production....

Yeah I dont want a soap opera in space or an interplanetary political drama - I want to see them explore new worlds like in next gen or voyager - though looking at modern space sci-fi trends I dont think anyones capable of doing that anymore.

....why does it not? Doctor Who has started filming. Star Trek has not. They don't need to spill details in advance.

For publicity? For the casual viewer?

Good drama needs character at its heart, regardless of genre. For science fiction you also need to be concerned about the science. Action adventure stories concerning risk and danger to characters you come to care about in a space exploration setting is a good starting place for me.

There needs to be just enough character moments to get the audience to care whether the characters live or die. Otherwise it's just SFX and stuff blowin' up and you get The Motion Picture. If the writers don't care enough about character and consistency, you get Voyager. And if the writers don't care about plot you get Lost in Space.

It doesn't have to be a soap opera to be concerned about character development. It shouldn't all be about encountering weird, new stuff in space.