Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Second Season
List Price:
Our Price: $38.99
You Save: $30.99 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $26.97 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Kate Mulgrew, Robert BeltranBrand: Paramount
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Published), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1183 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Second Season
DVD Review: A second season marked by lots of unfulfilled potential
Summary: 3 Stars
STAR TREK: VOYAGER was a show that from the beginning was marked by substantial potential, almost none of it that was fulfilled. From the outset it had two major things going for it, several interesting characters and a great premise. But it failed to develop to any great extent any of the characters and neglected the narrative format demanded by the premise.
To see what I mean by the failure to develop characters, contrast VOYAGER with a show it overlapped for several years, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. In a way this is unfair since BUFFY was one of a handful of television series that completely changed the rules of how TV was done. BUFFY altered the way characters were handled on a TV show, but VOYAGER had its format established well before the debut of BUFFY. Still, retroactively the one show makes watching the earlier one more difficult to watch because of how it expanded what a television series was allowed to do with character. Here is an experiment: take any character on BUFFY and see where they started out on the series and where they ended up. One is immediately struck by the enormous journey each undertook. Willow, Anya, Spike, Cordy, Buffy herself all go through so many changes and crises that by the end of the series they are completely different people. Now, contrast this with VOYAGER. Just about every character on the show is very close to the same character at the end of the series as at the beginning. There might be some alterations in romantic attachments and there might be some added depth, but all the characters pretty much remain the same throughout. This is even true of characters you would have expected to have nothing except potential to grow, like the Doctor and later Seven of Nine.
I've argued a lot with myself about precisely why VOYAGER -- and indeed, most of the STAR TREK series -- are so timid with regard to character development. I have no completely satisfying answer. Certainly I think the show's writers were determined to focus more on story than character, with the latter ancillary to whatever tale is being told. The trend in TV since the mid-nineties has been to character over story (Damon Lindelhof of LOST has explicitly stated that while they want to have a good story, they have taken BUFFY as their template as the way to develop narrative by primarily focusing on character). On VOYAGER, though lots of things happen to the characters, nothing much in fact ever happens to the characters.
The second great failure on the show was the overall failure to focus on an overarching narrative. The premise of the show would seem to demand this, but instead the show persistently -- especially in Season Two -- stresses episodic storytelling at the expense of serial elements. Again, this is partly the fault of timing. TV historians usually cite TWIN PEAKS as the first show with a long overarching narrative, followed somewhat more successfully by THE X-FILES, before BUFFY perfected the format. (The usual way of telling the story is this: TWIN PEAKS introduced the idea of a long narrative, but proceeded to collapse under its own storytelling. THE X-FILES told a long and often compelling story in its alien colonization story, but failed to integrate this sufficiently with character development and failed to make the narrative terribly consistent over the years [e.g., all the different explanations about what happened to Mulder's sister and the evolving explanation as to who Mulder's father was]. BUFFY managed both to tell compelling season-long stories while engaging in breathtaking character development.)
The episodic nature of the show wouldn't have been so bad if the writing hadn't so often failed. There are many episodes in Season Two that are torturous to watch. A prime example is "Non Sequitur," in which Harry Kim wakes up in San Francisco in what he gradually realizes is an alternative reality. The plot is so hackneyed and tedious to watch that visiting the dentist office would be preferable. Unfortunately there are many such episodes.
Adding to the problems are some of the ongoing elements that do make their way onto the show. I'm not a fan of aliens on SF shows (the only SF series that I can truly say that I love that had aliens was FARSCAPE -- on all others aliens were at best an irritant), but STAR TREK has a genius for bad aliens. The Kazon were a constant presence on the show in the first half of its run (though they thankfully disappeared after Voyager made its way past Borg space). Their main characteristics were their extreme militarism combined with plaster-of-paris hair. The most I can say for them is that they weren't as awful as the Ferengi.
Still, amidst all this were some good elements. I find a couple of the characters irritating -- Jennifer Lien is lovely to look at (except for those horrid ears), but she was just way too timid and mild-mannered for my taste, while Neelix has to join any short list of the most irritating characters in the history of TV -- but most of the main characters I really liked. I felt that way, way too little was done in the first few seasons with B'Elanna Torres. The idea of a half human and half Klingon individual had wonderful possibilities, but for some reason the show at most merely gestures at them. Roxann Dawson was really good in the role, but as mentioned above, the show remained primarily a series that focused on plot rather than character. Too bad. I also enjoyed Tim Russ as Tuvok. Although I hate aliens, I must confess to enjoying Vulcans. Though many criticized Kate Mulgrew as Janeway, I loved her and though she gave the show some backbone through her presence. I always though that Harry Kim was the show's weakest link, but I absolutely loved the Doctor. One of the things that cyborgs, robots, and other kinds of artificial people do is make us ask questions about what it means to be human. No character I know of in the history of TV does this quite to the extent that Voyager's Emergency Holographic Doctor does. Even so, I felt that the show didn't do as much with the kinds of questions his presence raise as it could have.
In short, VOYAGER is a show that persistently was less than the sum of its parts. Mainly this is because the show's producers and writers failed to provide a compelling overarching framework and narrative to develop characters. But at least it got some things right.
Description of Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Second Season
STAR TREK:VOYAGER COMPLETE SECOND - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Complete Third SeasonParamount; Release date: 2003-06-03; DVD
Best price: $41.65
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: Voyager Season 6Release date: 2012-01-10; Amazon Instant Video; TV Series Season Video on Demand
Best price: $41.99
Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Seventh SeasonPARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2004-12-21; DVD
Best price: $46.99
Price in other shops:
Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Fourth SeasonParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $45.90
Price in other shops:
Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Fifth SeasonParamount; Release date: 2004-11-09; DVD
Best price: $45.90
Price in other shops:
Star Trek Voyager - The Complete First SeasonPARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2004-02-24; DVD
Best price: $34.00
Price in other shops:
Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Third SeasonPARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2004-07-06; DVD
Best price: $37.95
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: Voyager Season 4Release date: 2012-01-10; Amazon Instant Video; TV Series Season Video on Demand
Best price: $41.99
Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Sixth SeasonPARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2004-12-07; DVD
Best price: $45.00
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: Voyager Season 1Release date: 2012-01-09; Amazon Instant Video; TV Series Season Video on Demand
Best price: $30.99