Star Trek: Voyager made a big mistake by immediately making Maquis refugees Starfleet officers. In Voyager's very first episode, "Caretaker," the titular ship finds itself violently transported to the Delta Quadrant, a region of space approximately 75 years away from Earth at warp speed. Voyager had been in pursuit of a Maquis ship before being propelled to the Delta Quadrant. The Maquis were a resistance group that emerged in the aftermath of the Federation-Cardassian conflict, which controversially ceded some former Federation planets to the Cardassians.
The Maquis ship, commanded by former Starfleet officer Chakotay, was also pulled into the Delta Quadrant. The Maquis and Voyager joined forces to escape a Kazon attack, resulting in the destruction of the Maquis ship. Chakotay and his surviving crew would not only take up residence on Voyager, they were given temporary Starfleet commissions by Voyager's captain, Kathryn Janeway, with Chakotay even becoming the ship's first officer. It was a disastrous creative decision that robbed the show of some much-needed tension and set the stage for the sort of half-measures that would plague Voyager over its entire run.
Voyager's Maquis Becoming Starfleet Right Away Was A Mistake
Star Trek: Voyager had an incredibly enticing premise. With a large chunk of its crew killed when the ship was thrown into the Delta Quadrant, Voyager would have to survive without the seemingly limitless resources of the Federation and Starfleet, and align themselves with the Maquis, a group that actively despised Starfleet. The idea of a Starfleet ship operating completely on its own in a hostile region of deep space with potential traitors in its midst was genuinely exciting.
Yet, Voyager immediately sidestepped all that potential. Star Trek's Maquis crew members were in Starfleet uniforms by the end of "Caretaker," a distinction they very much did not earn. Not only that, but their philosophical disagreements with the Federation were essentially forgotten, as they became one big happy crew just trying to get home. Any notion of any ideological conflict on the ship disappeared.
Voyager's Maquis Mistake Set A Bad Precedent For The Series
Despite its bold premise, Voyager became one of the blander, safer Star Trek series over its seven-year run. The idea of the ship having access to limited resources was never a real issue; the ship's bridge was blown to pieces on more than one occasion and was always clean as a whistle by the next episode. Voyager never ran afoul of any truly intimidating adversaries until it came across the Borg three seasons in, and even then the cybernetic zombies felt decidedly less dangerous than they did on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
One of the most common criticisms of Voyager is that it mostly ignored its original premise to become a weaker version of TNG. Voyager's ensemble cast was never as compelling as TNG's, with characters like B'Elanna Torres and Star Trek's Ensign Harry Kim often fading into the background. Trying to recreate TNG did the characters no favors, and Voyager often chose the safe path narratively where TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would have explored rougher terrain. Had the show explored the inherent tension between the Federation and the Maquis, perhaps Star Trek: Voyager would be remembered as a more narratively daring series.