because otherwise the show would end.
Speaking of "otherwise the show would end", the first episode ends with a space battle where the Voyager is outnumbered and outclassed with even more enemy dreadnoughts coming, Chakote has to sacrifice his own ship just to buy them a few seconds. And then the alien leader says, "You made an enemy today," and LEAVES. I was like, wait, what?? Because yeah, I get it, if they stayed and finished the fight, Voyager would have easily been destroyed and the series would have been over. But holy shit, what lazy, sloppy writing. They couldn't have thought of a less nonsensical way to resolve that?
The other couple things that stood out to me were Paris sexually harassing the female pilot on the shuttle ride to Voyager. Fucking aggressively. That wouldn't have made it on tv today. Then later, Paris calling Chakote an "Indian" and playing up some Indian stereotypes. Just crazy shit by today's standards. And are we calling them Indians in the future? But it got me thinking, what would they be called? "Native American" wouldn't make sense, either. Or maybe just don't bring it up at all. Trek human characters haven't been defining each other by race before. Why start?
Still, I easily could have brushed all of that aside if any other part of the show had been done well. But nope.
Again, if anyone wants to watch a show about a group of people being sent across the galaxy and trying to get back to Earth/find a new home, I recommend season 1 of Space:1999. Much better.