It's apples and lasagna.

Living on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier for eight months with moldy showers is not at all like being on a spick-and-span starship with seemingly plentiful amenities (despite lipservice to the need for food occasionally) and the ability to spend your off-hours literally anywhere thanks to the holodecks.

Sooner or later, cabin fever is going to catch up to you.

You're away from your family and loved ones. You're don't know when (or if) you're coming home. How long before a person breaks?

At some point, things will start breaking down. What we saw was the end result of UPN's decision to turn the show into Happy Happy, Joy Joy TNG-lite.

Sooner or later, cabin fever is going to catch up to you.

You're away from your family and loved ones. You're don't know when (or if) you're coming home. How long before a person breaks?

Sure. Probably true for many people.

But that doesn't mean the two situations are the same. That's all I was disagreeing with.

People of the future are better and tougher (especially Starfleet material). If you dislike the premise, there are other shows that will scratch your itch for bleakness.

The long term deployment frustration I get but without looking into any detail of what you've stated about the Abraham Lincoln I find it hard to believe that the modern US military industrial complex would allow one of it's most state of the art warships to not be supplied properly. Does it not have cleaning supplies or is the crew just choosing not to clean the showers, for example? I've worked with slobby people that expend no effort in keeping their work area clean and it is not because they don't have enough time in the work day. Basically the "It's not my job" mentality. Like they enjoy wallowing in filth of their own making. It's gotta be hard keeping a crew of several thousand happy. Basically a floating city.

In Voyager's case with a crew of only 140 we know that their are automated bots, unseen by the audience, that assist the crew in making repairs and with general maintenance. While the crew could get homesick being 70 odd years away from the Federation it means they should keep their ship in the best condition they can. If the ship breaks they are doomed. So I don't see the show ever getting crazy dismal and allowing the ship to get depressingly unlivable. A worn lived in look is acceptable, like an old house or car, but such things can still be clean and up kept.

But that doesn't mean the two situations are the same. That's all I was disagreeing with.

I never saw OP as saying they were. The real life triggered the thought process. I agree with Danja that cabin fever would soon kick in.

The movie Sunshine I seem to recall addressed this a bit. That even tech can only hold it off so long.

I think Night gave us a good glimpse into this.

I don't like the current SNW episode which deals wth shore leave but Voyager could have been served by more planets visits.

Ad to the original concept I don't think they ever really abandoned it so much as they never embraced it. It was setup and not much else.

I like how a thread about the premise of Voyager has now turned into rewriting real-world events and ways to spice them up Add some Kurdish crew to your vessel, US military! (Although aren't US sort of quasi allies at times as they are useful tools for the US? Iranian would be more intriguing. Or I guess most countries around the world at the moment...)

It's apples and lasagna.

Living on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier for eight months with moldy showers is not at all like being on a spick-and-span starship with seemingly plentiful amenities (despite lipservice to the need for food occasionally) and the ability to spend your off-hours literally anywhere thanks to the holodecks.

If the show had stuck to the its premise of needing a real cook instead of replicators and not being able to use the holodeck that much because of power, it would have become a lot more interesting.
Add to that, not being able to repair your ship so easily, getting a bad reputation because of dealings with the Kazon but also other species in the quadrant so trading for supplies and repairs becomes hard. Not always having the right parts at hand because of different tech.
Man, I wish we could have seen stuff like B'Elanna being forced to integrate alien tech that's hardly compatible with Starfleet tech because they're out of isolinear chips and they can't replicate new ones. Stuff like that.
I think that's what OP ment with original premise. Janeway said it at the start, things were not going to be easy for the crew. Turns out it was pretty easy.

The "premise of Voyager" always had the "real world" Maquis / guerrilla fighters joining the crew analogue, not sure how you are so baffled by it.

You only read half of what I wrote, you are the one that is thus confused.

Your summary of voyager's premise is rather reductive, and was largely setup for the show - and doesn't reflect the majority of the show. I think Janeway herself said it well: "Both crews are going to have to work together if we're to survive. That's why Commander Chakotay and I have agreed that this should be one crew. A Starfleet crew. And as the only Starfleet vessel assigned to the Delta Quadrant, we'll continue to follow our directive to seek out new worlds and explore space. But our primary goal is clear. Even at maximum speeds, it would take seventy five years to reach the Federation, but I'm not willing to settle for that. There's another entity like the Caretaker out there somewhere who has the ability to get us there a lot faster. We'll be looking for her, and we'll be looking for wormholes, spatial rifts, or new technologies to help us. Somewhere along this journey, we'll find a way back. Mister Paris, set a course for home."

I don't know much about this real-world incident, but if VGR had stuck to the darker premise, then I doubt the the Xindi-arc in ENT would've been as effective.

Or, maybe not even done at all, because Dark-VOY only just did it.

Okay…

For many years I have read about “Voyager abandoning its premise.”

Personally, I don’t think that’s true.

Optimism and resilience are baked in to the premise of Star Trek. Our heroes can overcome anything with ingenuity and teamwork. They are resolute, and can manage any challenge they face.

They can negotiate with anyone, find common ground with enemies, fix anything that’s broken. They are clever, moral people.

To me, that’s Voyager.

It seems to me there are many who wanted Voyager to be Battlestar Galactica. All crisis and drama and people screaming at shaky cameras. Yuck.

I love Voyager exactly the way it is.

A political divide was never going to be viable long term when one was 70,000 light years from home. Really needed a religious divide, but DS9 was already working that side of the street.

Voyager's original premise was 'ship stuck on other side of galaxy must find its way home.' That's it.

So it did indeed stick to its original premise, because the premise itself was just a general statement. It's only when you add in all the peripheral stuff that went into that premise that you see how the show failed.

Interpersonal conflict between the Starfleeters and Maquis? Pretty much gone after the first episode.

Worry about loss of shuttles, torpedoes, weapons, etc.? Was so bad that it became a running joke.

Worry about food? We got Neelix as the most useless cook in the DQ, since there seemed to be no problem with replicator power.

Worry about low power? What low power? Voyager seemed to have infinite amounts of power if they could run holoprograms all the time.

Worry about encountering new species? Every time Janeway ran into some new alien race, she'd introduce herself as "Kathryn Janeway, captain of the Federation Starship Voyager." And those new aliens would act like they knew exactly what she was talking about.

Worry about the intense damage the ship would receive after being pummeled by every above new species they would encounter? Ship is brand-new by the start of the next episode.

Worry about getting home? No worries at all, because the audience already knows that any time it looks like they found a way home, something will happen to fuck it up, because they can't get home until the end of the show. It's like Gilligan's Island in space.

Wasn’t the issue that the network didn’t want two gritty, serialized Treks running at the same time?

I wonder if they’d have been better off sleeping on Voyager for a few years and having an adventure-of-the-week show to air opposite DS9.

Wasn’t the issue that the network didn’t want two gritty, serialized Treks running at the same time?

No. The issue was that UPN wanted VOY to be an episodic show; one that anyone can tune in to at any point and not be confused as to what's going on. Having any kind of major changes or deviation from the status quo was not something that fit with that idea. So VOY ended up just being planet of the week/Holodeck/Janeway-Seven-The Doctor episodes.

I wonder if they’d have been better off sleeping on Voyager for a few years and having an adventure-of-the-week show to air opposite DS9.

Wasn't going to happen. UPN had just been formed and DS9 was just syndicated. They needed a flagship show, and VOY was it.

Worry about food? We got Neelix as the most useless cook in the DQ, since there seemed to be no problem with replicator power.

The introduction of Leola root probably motivated them to find way to use the replicators more effectively with less need for rations.

I like how a thread about the premise of Voyager has now turned into rewriting real-world events and ways to spice them up Add some Kurdish crew to your vessel, US military! (Although aren't US sort of quasi allies at times as they are useful tools for the US? Iranian would be more intriguing. Or I guess most countries around the world at the moment...)

I'll admit that it's not a perfect match (but it most certainly rhymes).