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Why Do I Still Love Voyager?

By: Mildred L. Perkins 

Comments? mlperkin@indiana.edu

Every week, after the end credits wind down I ask myself that same
question and I really don't have a good answer.  Fortunately, I have the
ability to watch a TV show or movie without much critical thought the
first time I see it.  Coupled with a long-honed appreciation for really
bad screen fiction, it allows me to enjoy such fine art as Porkys, Streets
of Fire and Star Trek: Voyager.

When you really stop to think about it, Voyager, as a high-priced
product-of-a-MAJOR-studio piece of work is really crapola.  If we, as
normal citizens, were to try and send a story like the ones beamed out
each week from UPN to a magazine like, say, Azimov's, we would be sent The
Rejection Letter From Hell that Dozois is so fond of handing out.  The one
that tells you you're a literary idiot and try a non-paying zine instead
of his.

So why do I continue to watch Voyager, despite its butchering of the Star
Trek ideal on a weekly basis?  In a word, it's the babes.

Every week we get a dose of Janeway, Seven and sometimes, if we're
really lucky, B'Elanna.  Have we ever been blessed with a such a trio of
gorgeous, intelligent, brave, gorgeous, resourceful, sexy women
characters? Well all right, there was the second season of Xena: Warrior
Princess, but we're talking about Star Trek here.

The three are all so very different from each other that, if pressed, I
would find it impossible to pick a favorite.  Janeway with that voice,
Seven's tall, cool Borgness and B'Elanna with the dancer's moves.  Never
mind the plot (Plot?  What plot?), just let me watch Janeway stride
forcefully down the corridors of Voyager with a long-legged Seven trying
to keep up.  We only get a bare few seconds a week (if any) of the women
of Voyager interacting, so we have to make the most of them.

Then, when the weekly episode is over we can, in our minds, wait for
B'Elanna along with Janeway in her quarters, and picture the good Captain
sliding that heavy Starfleet uniform off B'Elanna's shoulders and the two
coming together sweetly for a kiss.  Or, if you prefer, you can imagine
Seven invading Janeway's personal space until she's close enough to bend a
blond head and kiss the diminutive Captain.

Cause you know good and well you're never going to see that on any
episode.  Which brings me back to my original question:  Why do I still
love Voyager?  Because it gives me a visual background to set the
wonderful fanfic stories based on these wonderful women characters.

I did say I don't have a really good answer.

End