Star Trek Voyager follows signs of the caretaker's mate to find Ocampa on a mini caretaker array. The Ocampa there have very advanced telepathic powers.
Unfortunately, we only ever meet one Ocampa who is outwardly pleasant but creepy. That Kess can't visit the array or meet any others is a big warning sign but then the writers throw it in our face with a short clip of the Ocampa man talking to the caretaker who says "You can have the Ocampa, I want that ship!" (paraphrasing). Surely it's not necessary to be so blatant, to take away any question in the viewer's mind as to whether the caretaker will be friend or foe. Takes away all suspense and makes it only a question of "how will she try to take the ship", not whether she will try, or whether this Ocampa man is really the caretaker in disguise. Ruins the episode.
When Janeway captures the caretaker in a force field, she explains that the first caretaker died of natural causes and then drop the field and the caretaker runs away. That's incredibly boring an uninteresting!! Instead, Janeway could have spent 10 seconds explaining that they the first caretaker missed her, that he was looking for someone to replace him but failed. Once he died, the Kazon were trying to take over the array so that they could raid the Ocampa and steal their water, so Voyager needed to destroy the array to protect the Ocampa even though it meant making enemies of the Kazon. Then there could have been an interesting conversation about why the mate left. And of course found some reason why the caretaker could not or would not send them home, or could have sent them 1/10th the distance because the array was 1/10th the size. Lots of ways to have an interesting ending rather than "I'm outta here."
Voyager is full of "explorers" who rarely take the time to learn about the many fascinating people they meet.
So many lost opportunities to make the stories more interesting.
Unfortunately, we only ever meet one Ocampa who is outwardly pleasant but creepy. That Kess can't visit the array or meet any others is a big warning sign but then the writers throw it in our face with a short clip of the Ocampa man talking to the caretaker who says "You can have the Ocampa, I want that ship!" (paraphrasing). Surely it's not necessary to be so blatant, to take away any question in the viewer's mind as to whether the caretaker will be friend or foe. Takes away all suspense and makes it only a question of "how will she try to take the ship", not whether she will try, or whether this Ocampa man is really the caretaker in disguise. Ruins the episode.
When Janeway captures the caretaker in a force field, she explains that the first caretaker died of natural causes and then drop the field and the caretaker runs away. That's incredibly boring an uninteresting!! Instead, Janeway could have spent 10 seconds explaining that they the first caretaker missed her, that he was looking for someone to replace him but failed. Once he died, the Kazon were trying to take over the array so that they could raid the Ocampa and steal their water, so Voyager needed to destroy the array to protect the Ocampa even though it meant making enemies of the Kazon. Then there could have been an interesting conversation about why the mate left. And of course found some reason why the caretaker could not or would not send them home, or could have sent them 1/10th the distance because the array was 1/10th the size. Lots of ways to have an interesting ending rather than "I'm outta here."
Voyager is full of "explorers" who rarely take the time to learn about the many fascinating people they meet.
So many lost opportunities to make the stories more interesting.