#and even more inevitably - the power struggle between janeway and chakotay

[tunemyart]

Sometimes it’s impossible for me to watch Voyager without thinking about what the concept inevitably would have been translated into had it aired 5-10 years later. Battlestar Galactica was on in 2004 - which is mindblowing to me! Especially when Voyager went off the air in 2001. Especially knowing that RDM cut his teeth on and was hugely influenced by Star Trek.

I’m 100000% sure I’m not saying anything that hasn’t already been said, but like - what a huge departure in worldview, re: how our culture circled around this new, grittier, more “realistic” vision of exploring the possibilities opened up by the science fiction genre. Two space operas about a disparate group that has to either pull together or die while stranded in the unknown: Voyager and its rampant idealism, an arguably sanitized process of telling ourselves stories about the human condition and its constants now and the future the story envisions for ourselves, vs. the endless fault lines and compromises of self and scraping for survival and humanity, and if you’re lucky you get both together, of BSG.

#i just watched 'the void' in s7 voyager #and was just flabbergasted all over again by the comparison i can't get out of my mind #how if this story had come to air just five years later #inevitably voyager would have been the story of the power struggle between maquis and federation that never would have been dropped #in the face of the extreme situation they found themselves in struggling for survival in the delta quadrant #and even more inevitably - the power struggle between janeway and chakotay #a kind of prototypical roslin and adama #and i just think how sad i would have been to watch that show #bc i love voyager so much for what it is #is it escapist? sure! #but that's a function of science fiction too #an escapism into the best of humanity vs. always the worst of humanity #idk what i'm really saying here #at a particular time #and ofc by the real world politics and concerns influencing that evolution #i loved bsg for what it was #but god i'm so glad we have voyager as it is #maybe a window to a past #but so good and relevant for at least me personally in 2020-present too #and that's worth something isn't it? #voyager