What happened?
It sucked.
Frank Capra once explained how to make a successful film in one line:
"Give 'em somebody to care about." That's what it comes down to. There should be at least one, preferably several, likeable characters in any series who we can root
for, rather than just rooting against the bad guys. Put another way, "Give 'em somebody to
like." To my way of thinking neither
DS9 nor
Voyager had many characters I could simply
like and root for and look forward to spending an hour with every week. Doom 'n' Gloom Sisko had all of Sinclair's weaknesses and none of his strengths. The only half-way interesting characters were the Cardassians, Dukhat and that tailor/spy, and only one of them was really likable. Everyone else was either boring or seriously annoying.
Voyager was much the same except the interesting non-human characters were the Doctor and the Borg Babe. (And yes, catsuit asisde I thought T of A was a more genuinely interesting person with curiosity and conflicts and a point of view than her more robotic peers. And Neelix just made me want to go skinny-dipping in a live volcano.)
I liked the crew of the original Enterprise. They were
fun. You wanted to hang out with them. I tolerated the crew of the
Enterprise-E. I couldn't stand most of the subsequent crews. When your most interestiing characters are supporting players, you've got problems. I
really liked the people of
B5. Who would you rather have over for dinner? There isn't a regular or even major recurring character from
B5 that I wouldn't choose over just about anyone from the
Treks. Picard might have some interesting things to say about Shakespeare or classical music, but I suspect I'd have to keep plenty of coffee on hand. Now picture dinner with Londo or G'Kar. Londo
and G'Kar!
It is simply no contest.
Regards,
Joe
