mike_9000

One of those spin-off series which deserved a much longer run. It follows the adventures of a groups of eccentric characters - conspiracy theorists and 'investigative journalists' (the publish a newsletter) who inhabit the same fictional universe as the X-files.

During their original appearance in their parent series they were presented a rather creepy, but were humanised (rather well) for this outing. It was quirky, entertaining and fun and is still well worth watching.

Voyager marked the point that the Star Trek formula became too familiar and just ran out of new possibilities.

The new situation could have introduced a number of number of moral dilemmas centring around the question of how to maintain your high ideal without having the rest of the Federation around to support you. It didn't really.

It started with the same old 'aliens' (who were rarely very alien (prostheses notwithstanding) and situations but it was hard to come up with something new after all those other episodes in all those other series. The Borg livened things up for a while... but they were too big and too bad to make the survival of Voyager feasible - and the ending just came out of nowhere, stuck on so the series could be brought to a satisfactory end.

Worthwhile for fans, but it never managed to say anything new or interesting.

The basic premise struck me as painfully derivative i.e. Time Masters = Time Lords, Rip Hunter= Dr Who (English renegade Time Lord/Master).

If you're happy with undemanding, episodic plots (and you don't tune into a 'minor superheroes' show for great drama) it's fun to watch in the background while you're doing something else. If you want a series with an overarching plot that at least seems to be going somewhere, forget it. The whole experience is saved by engaging characters.

You get the feeling that this concept could work much better than it does but, as it stands, it's entertaining, and I suppose that's the objective.