Star Trek Voyager Reviews Written by Someone Who Actually LIKES the Show!

No? Well, then, If you have any suggestions about something you'd like see here, or would like to chat about the show, or just spread some gossip and rumors, if that's your thing, I answer all e-mail. Homespon@aol.com.

Now, you may ask why I've started up yet another site dedicated to Voyager. Am I the type of person who isn't happy until everyone knows what I think? Yes, definitely. Is there more to it than that? I hope so.

It seems to me that all over the net and other media, people are reviewing and discussing Voyager primarily to complain about how bad it is. Now, this would be fine, except many of these complaints seem to have the ulterior purpose of being negative just to be negative. In other words, we've got a lot of people out there who don't seem to be reviewing the show as much as expressing their disgust that Voyager is not TNG or DS9, or TOS...or Babylon 5, for that matter. Seen in that light, Voyager will never be good, because Picard isn't the captain, Worf will never guest-star (except as a hologram, maybe -- never rule anything out!), Kirk will never come along and beat the crap out of the Vidiians, and there's no Zack to describe Daffy Duck as the Household God of Frustration.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge added his immortality to the critical cosmos (a much smaller universe than critics like to think about) by noting that the enjoyment of fiction requires "the willing suspension of disbelief." You must take your knowledge that fiction isn't real and put it on a shelf so that you may be moved by the story's unreal events.

Science-fiction needs this suspension of disbelief in spades. Not only do you have to say to yourself, "Prince Charming never lived but I still sympathize with his heart-break," you have to add, "and what a cool inter-jet, transwarp speeder he's driving!" Star Trek has created a complex universe with 30 years of history, which can help us to overlook its unrealness, but we still must be willing to narrow our eyes and make the effort to say, "I'm going to accept this," before any science-fictional magic can do its work on us.

Those who watch Voyager while resenting that it's not one of the other Star Trek series obviously have a vested interest in refusing to suspend any disbelief whatsoever. A typical comment that I heard from a Star Trek-loving, Voyager-hating acquaintance the other day sneered at the Doctor's new-found mobility because of his 29th century autonomous emitter. This person had no trouble with holograms existing and talking or even being sentient enough to become a character -- after all, they've been doing that since TNG -- but he drew the line at an autonomous emitter.

Why, I ask you? It made sense when they presented it on the show, and is certainly a better solution than rigging up the whole ship with holographic projectors. The reason why my acquaintence and others won't accept Voyager's new holographic premise for the Doctor, it seems to me, is simply because they don't like the show and therefore don't want to change their understanding of holograms as they exist in the fictional worlds of TNG and DS9.

And, of course, that's their prerogative. Let them love every bit of Star Trek except Voyager. Let them make holographic voo-doo dolls of Janeway and Neelix and stick trans-mojo pins in them. I remember all the people who hated that "bald grouch" on TNG when it first came out, and called Sisco "the sleepy nonentity" in the early days of DS9. If you don't like a show, it's your job to say so.

But, personally, I've gotten tired of listening to Voyager be the Trekker's whipping-boy. I think it's great, and so I'm making this site to say so. Let Janeway debate the Prime Directive! Let the Doctor's program run amok! Let Paris try to bed every bipedal specimen that looks remotely female! Let Tuvok mind-meld with a grapefruit! Let freedom ring from the mighty hilltops of Mississippi! Let -- whoops! Sorry.

Anyway, the ultimate reason (besides e-mail) that I'm making this site is so that other people can enjoy it as much as I enjoy the sites which already exist. Surely if there's room for everyone on the net, there's room for me and for my love of a show that portrays a future worth living for...as Edith Keeler would say. If you feel the same way about something, make your own site and send me the link. I'll probably ask permission to use it in these pages.

And speaking of permission...Star Trek and everything commercial about it is owned by Paramount -- the lucky dogs! -- so I wouldn't dream of trying to make money off of it myself. Viacom, leave me alone! As for the original stuff, that's my ideas, I retain the rights to it. If you actually want to use it for something, you'll need to ask me first.