Voyager had to do everything from scratch, which is a strength and a curse. They had whole new enemies and quadrant dynamics and at times did build these into wider stories, but it often became a quick hit “monster of the week” situation that would gin something up and throw it away. The “always be going home” mcguffen added friction to the plot at points that TNG “we just exploring, yo” didn’t have, which hurt the plot lines.
They also clamped down on some dynamics like romance between the crew, which made it feel wooden at times. Id also note the convenient “tom paris loves the 50-90s pop culture for some reason, so we can totally write about current day LA and old monster movies” to be painfully stale decades later.
Voyager had to do everything from scratch, which is a strength and a curse. They had whole new enemies and quadrant dynamics and at times did build these into wider stories, but it often became a quick hit “monster of the week” situation that would gin something up and throw it away. The “always be going home” mcguffen added friction to the plot at points that TNG “we just exploring, yo” didn’t have, which hurt the plot lines.
They also clamped down on some dynamics like romance between the crew, which made it feel wooden at times. Id also note the convenient “tom paris loves the 50-90s pop culture for some reason, so we can totally write about current day LA and old monster movies” to be painfully stale decades later.