• JovialSodium@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    Huh. Yeah Neelix wasn’t great. Which made me think a little further on it. I wasn’t particularly fond of many of the Voyager crew. For comparison I’m fond of most all the crew from the other shows of roughly the same era, TNG and DS9.

    I liked The Doctor, 7 of 9, Tom Paris, and Ensign Kim. Captain Janeway was a badass and I think Kate Mulgrew’s performance in the role was quite good. But didn’t find the character likeable. I did find her character likeable in those… I want to say two episodes where she played her descendant.

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Tom Paris is the worst character on Voyager, fight me.

    If you took a spoiled 6 year old from the 1950’s and suddenly turned him into an adult, that child would be Tom Paris. He’s overly childish, and not in a cute way. He character has practically zero depth. He’s like Wesley Crusher if Wesley was an idiot.

        • treesquid@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Chakotay is memorable because the “Native American” advisor they hired to help write the character was a total fraud, just some honky from LA pretending to be Cherokee and making everything up, That’s why Chakotay sucked so hard, he was made of some loser’s stereotypes.

    • Apeman42@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      He’s also responsible for all the awful Captain Proton episodes that I always skip.

      • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Yep, that’s one of the main reasons I compare him to a 6 year old from the 1950’s.

        Tom Paris is the kind of character that would sleep in a racecar bed and think it made him cool.

    • UPGRAYEDD@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The thing i do like about tom, is that hes a pilot, and wants to be a pilot. Making a hot rod shuttle, building old muscle cars on the holodeck. Wanting to enter a star race… just wants to go fast.

    • InputZero@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yeah it’s like they were going to give him a strong character arc by showing him growing up side by side with Harry Kim… But then the writers forgot to actually grow their characters. So they’re just children the whole time.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Tom Paris was a pseudonym. His real name was Nick Lacarno and he got kicked out of the academy while Westley Crusher was there.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        A pseudonym cleverly concocted to avoid paying royalties to Naren Shankar, the writer of TNG 5x19: The First Duty, who was let go after TNG finished its run.

      • milkisklim@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Lower decks squashed that theory.

        That’s like saying Brunt of the FCA and Weayun are the same person.

      • FrChazzz@lemmus.org
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        3 months ago

        Like Boimler, I don’t see the resemblance between the two.

        EDIT: Posted too soon as I see someone else made basically this same joke below. Leaving it here as both a testament to my unoriginality and to save everyone from thinking that God deleted my comment

    • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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      3 months ago

      Darth Jar Jar was the original plan, Lucas changed it after the backlash against the character. He was supposed to be the new trilogy’s foil to the goofy character in a New Hope, Yoda. Lucas has said that he was making the new trilogy rhyme with the original, no other character matches with that initial Yoda introduction. That is also why Grievous and Dooku come out of nowhere despite supposedly being big characters, to fill the gap.

      • LedgeDrop@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        Darth Jar Jar was the original plan, Lucas changed it after the backlash against the character.

        Was this ever confirmed? I just thought it was a fan theory.

        That said, if Lucas had actually gone down this path, it would have totally redeemed Jar Jar.

        • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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          3 months ago

          Oh it’s just a fan theory, but it makes sense and matches with comments Lucas has made with regards to the overarching themes. It also explains odd things the character does, which must have been intentional since he was a CG character.

          Lucas will probably never confirm or deny it officially because it would confirm that either he got scared and made a huge mistake abandoning that plotline and making the story worse in the process, or that he made a bad character a pivotal linchpin of the storyline since Jar Jar is the deciding vote that gives us the Empire.

  • Triumph@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    You know what? The real world is filled with people like that. On any given day, you might be one. Embrace mediocrity.

  • Big Baby Thor@sopuli.xyz
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    3 months ago

    Oh come on! Not a compelling story? He’s a space scavenger, his people are nomadic because OF GENOCIDE, who are wandering space in search of a new home.

    He’s an ex-soldier, ex-criminal, who can’t quite come to terms with his past because he wants to be morally and ethically good, he has SEVERE “people pleaser” issues and tries to be everyone’s friend - BUT is not so weak that he can’t fight or stand up for himself or his friends. He’s multi talented, but doesn’t always know when to reign it in and he serves as a motivational character for the Voyager crew who are lost in space – and actually does a good job of it!!

    This is the character of our generation. Wtf do you mean “not a compelling story”?

    Bad acting? Actually agree, but you can also say that it’s the mannerisms of his people, because it seems to be a mainstay that they are all sort of “whimsical forest creatures” - for lack of better terms - which could be a writeoff in terms of acting.

    But Neelix is just so endearing to me. To see how Tuvok struggles to understand him or even accept him - being the “LoGiCaL VuLCaN” that he is - is just one of those Star Trek duos that’s up there with Bashir and Garek, Kirk and Spock, etc.

    He might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but a bad character, bad story? That’s boulderdash. Now cut a little jig and make a pot of space weavels - bring some light into your friends life, you low energy having, negative nancy ass bastards.

    Be like Neelix.

    • tomenzgg@midwest.social
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      3 months ago

      I wouldn’t say it’s bad acting? It seems right in line with an anxious people-pleaser who doesn’t know when to quit. I thought he was spot on.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Bashir and Garek, Kirk and Spock

      How about Quark and Odo? I love both of these stick-in-the-mud cop vs lovable rogue duos!

        • nomy@lemmy.zip
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          3 months ago

          There’s so much comedy in the Quark/Odo relationship that’s played perfectly and isn’t at the expense of either of the characters.

          The uptight lawman/morally good criminal will-they-wont-they frenemyship is one of my favorite dynamics in the show and is up there with Garak/Bashir or even La Forge/Data.

          • tomenzgg@midwest.social
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            3 months ago

            isn’t at the expense of either of the characters

            It always felt like Odo had the slight upperhand (or narrative sympathy?) in every scenario which was a tad annoying when a major theme of his character arch is his possible propensity for outright authoritarianism (a character arch I thought was brilliant to give him and, sadly, not explored nearly enough).

            I still love both of them but that aspect of the dynamic will always bother me.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    He’s comic relief to counter the rest of the crew, but The Doc does that a thousand times better.

    • kieron115@startrek.website
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      3 months ago

      Now imagine if Robert Picardo had gotten the Neelix role like he wanted and Ethan Phillips was cast as the Doctor.

  • Donebrach@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The thing about Voyager is all the characters kinda suck but all the actors portraying them were pretty fucking great. Excellent cast; film school writing.

      • kieron115@startrek.website
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        3 months ago

        Oh, wow, I used to watch the a-team whenever it would come on at work (overnight office job) but I never even noticed that it’s the same guy who plays Barclay! So he’s just a little bit crazy in all his roles.