@MLClark My Voyager binge has begun!
S2E13 "Prototype," directed by Jonathan Frakes, meaning it will be a step up. And it was.
It was the typical trope teaching the consequence of violating the Prime Directive, but Jonny's directing made it interesting. He found some thoughtful ways to shoot a scene, e.g. dialogue off-camera while POV focuses elsewhere.
Voyager must have a Shuttle factory aboard, because they sure do lose a lot of them ...
SO MANY SHUTTLES.
And the worst part is that this series also implements the idea of replicator "rations", which is both an annoying deterioration of a key part of the universe, and an added reason to SAVE YOUR SHUTTLES.
Yes, scarcity economics creates plot points - LD uses them all the time in S1&2 - but makes a real hash of the world-building.
I'm enjoying S4 more than I thought I would. Just finished "Year of Hell". SO glad the writers didn't try to make a season out of it!
@MLClark Part of the original VOY premise was finite resources. We've never seen a crew before struggle with losing resources. That was the promise, but the production team never followed through.
The BSG reboot did, though.
@MLClark I found on Archive.org an early draft of the VOY Season 1 bible, if you want to read along ... Janeway is still "Elizabeth."