u/Upbeat-Cat726

I'm a long time Trek fan. Also an older one who grew up watching the TOS syndicated reruns in the 1970s. It's a beloved cherished classic series for people of my generation (late boomers). I did not get onboard with TNG until the 3rd season, when it really grew on me. When DS9 started, I saw a few episodes here and there but did not really connect with the series until the Dominion arc got going.

But with Voyager, I did not see any of the first three seasons at all for whatever reason - I think mostly for life reasons as I was having a career and starting a family though I did watch DS9 on a irregular basis. But with Voyager, I didn't start watching the series until season 4 for an obvious reason. Yes, Seven of Nine is a compelling character and that got me hooked on the series. Even decades later when it was streaming on Netfix, I only binged season on 4-7. Similar to how I would skip a first season TNG episode if I see a clean shaven Riker, I was not interested in it if Kes was in it (or more presicely Seven was not in it) or if Janeway had her hair bun.

Have just retired, I have more free time, so now I am bing watching the early seasons. I am at the end of Season 2, and I have to say these episodes are much better than I thought.

Some thoughts:

I have always found Janeway to be a strong character, but these early shows really laid the foundation, especially on her mission to get the crew home safely. She is trying to enforce Starfleet rules and discipline on unruly Marquis personnel of her new crew and whether or not these rules have any meaning in the unknown Delta quadrant. Her background in Engineering and Quantam Mechanics were more prominent early on than later in the series, it seems.

I did not know much about Kes other than she was on the ship and used to be Neelix's girlfriend. I did like her, especially her interactions with the Doctor. She seemed played a part in the Doctor's character development, despite being a hologram. I also like how Janeway seems to have a mother/daughter relationship with her.

I found it interesting that there are very few scenes where Paris and Torres interact with each other given that they ended up together. Other than "Faces" where Tom counseled the human B'Elanna split from her Klingon side, they barely interacted. Actually it seem like B'Elanna and Harry was going to be a thing since they had a lot of scenes together and her calling him "starfleet" was becoming an endearing term.

One thing I did not like in the later seasons was how little character development was given to Chakotay and Tuvok. But in the first two seasons, they definitely had more screen time to shine. I particularly like how Chakotay had to literally knock down his Marquis crew members to accept Janeway has their new captain. Also how Chakotay was betrayed by Sheska. I don't know why he seemed to have faded later on. His later romance with Seven seemed so derived as if he needed something to do. Tuvok wasn't treated as bad, but he had an strong episode in Season 2 in "Innocence".

Then there were episodes like "The Thaw" and "Tuvix" that at first glance look like ludicrous episodes but turned out to be intense and thought-provoking.

In short, I did myself a disservice for skipping the first three seasons of Voyager. I am looking forward to watching season 3 and to see how Kes leaves Voyager and how Seven is introduced (please no spoilers!)