Although I've seen it in action myself, I never could understand the elitism that Robert and others (?) have mentioned exists in regard to many ST fans. In their enthusiastic love of aspects of the series, they often seemed to miss other aspects, most especially (and ironically) the spirit of much of what Roddenberry was saying ("Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" or IDIC), in a sense reducing them to giving lip service to their own favorite series. How ironic... and how sad for so much of what has followed since ST (e.g. Why wasn't S19 considered in as part of the "Infinite Diversity" part of IDIC?).
S19 was, in a sense, caught in another no-win situation. They couldn't win with ITC's ratings expectations and meddling (initial pronouncements to limit "forward momentum" and later demands for radical changes, etc.); and it couldn't survive the high level of pre-conceptions and/or hostility many Trek fans greeted the new series with--an science-fiction audience that S19 needed. It was no-win because many ST fans wanted a ST clone of some sort (which S19 wasn't)--but at the same time, would have derided a clone as a rude knock-off of their favorite series, as Robert described.
In a sense, when S19 got bashed by ST fans looking for another ST, S19 changed, only to find itself being criticised for seemingly trying to copy elements of ST.
Oddly, though, even this could be contradicted in the most unexpected ways.
Maya, for example. Labeled a "resident alien," and often compared to Mr. Spock of ST, she nonetheless had many differences in characterization. Sure, they were both were highly intelligent, and each had an additional interesting ability or two. Emotionally, they were worlds apart (pun half-intended). Their respective roles, as well, varied in as many ways as they were similar. Hardly the same, hardly exact opposites either. Even if you consider her addition a bald attempt to add a "resident alien" to Alpha as ST had on the Enterprise, then intentionally give her opposite personality characteristics in some ways to make her seem different from Spock... well, in a sense, it almost seems her character was caught in as bad of a no-win situation as S19 itself. Too much like Spock, too much single-alien-caught-in-human-crew angst, or act too logical and (mostly) unemotional, and she'd have been pegged as a female Spock for sure. Be a total opposite, and she'd seem too obviously intentionally opposite from Spock. The comparisons were between the two series were inevitable, and did indeed occur, so was there any way to escape them, no matter what would be done?
I don't know; maybe I never saw the two series as being mutually exclusive.
(In fact, that reminds me of a very curious thought I had many years ago was... Spock and Maya as a couple! Could you imagine that? Eh, maybe not. Probably wouldn't have worked, but it was funny to think of the idea. The "Infinite Combination" part of IDIC, perhaps? :-)
But even if the characterization of Maya was caught in a no-win situation, does this mean they handled it the best way possible?
Well, no. In some ways, they did; in other ways, they did not.
Like Robert, Marcy, and others, I've always been disappointed at how quickly Maya adjusted to Alpha. In fact, for years, before I saw the series again, I thought there must have been an episode that demonstrated Maya starting to adjust to the Alphans and /vice versa/, not to mention what had just happened to her father and her planet. Such an episode doesn't exist, and that was probably one of my largest disappointments when seeing the series again.
But notice a few things. First, she was quite a lot more subdued in the earlier episodes than the later episodes, and seemed to slowly open up as time went on. Like many people, she seemed to erect a facade around her pain, as a way to deal with it so that she would not burden the troubled Alphans with her own troubles, especially given what her father had done (and tried to do) to the Alphans. What right would she feel she had to complain? What good would it do to do so? Maybe she felt that would only draw more attention to herself. Hiding the pain and adjusting as quickly as she could would be her way of attempting to make herself less noticed (not that she could ever go unnoticed).
Furthermore, she obviously had a very happy, friendly, and energetic personality to start with, and despite the multiple shocks, she may have decided, consciously or unconsciously, to hold onto this, and continue expressing it, as a way of coping with the devastation she must have felt.
Furthermore, as metamorphs, perhaps the ability to transform and adjust would seem almost second nature, not just physically, but mentally. After all, when she transforms her body, she has to be able to adjust the way she acts, reacts, talks, etc. A metamorph has to be able to put on an act--if not perfect then good enough to hold up to some partial degree of scrutiny (being an act, it would break down with enough scrutiny, of course). This sort of rapid adaptibility may have been ingrained right into Psychon culture.
Of course, that doesn't wipe out anything at all. But putting on a facade....
Ever notice how hard it was for even Tony to get her to express many things? She was reserved about many things, until it would break through that here and there.
Think of "Dorzak." All of a sudden, circumstances brought a fellow Psychon to Alpha. Suddenly, you could hear the absolute yearning in her voice, the overwhelming desire to see him--and then the nearly absolute refusal to believe the growing accusations against Dorzak, until she was finally convinced, by the people she had come to trust for the last several years, to test Dorzak.
Additionally, how many times did we see barely visible trepidation show up? The slightest mention of returning to Earth, or even getting off her current home (Alpha), set her on edge. She didn't even know how to react to the other apparent Earth people in "Bringers of Wonder")--showing a confused mixture of curiosity and shyness.
I'm probably missing some factors here, but these are some of the immediately apparent things.
Ironically, I always thought these subtle signs of displacement played out
in way not unlike the subtlety seen in Year One characterizations! This
was, in fact, rather frustrating!
Lynn, a list member, commented that she
"always wished that they kept Victor to be sort of a father figure to Maya, helping her to adjust."
I would have absolutely loved to see Victor and Maya interact! The fact
is, Victor is my second favorite character, and I had always wished he
would have been around to meet Maya. He's definitely a character I missed
in Y2. In ITC's quest to make extensive changes, and Freiberger's
interpretation, we lost what I felt was the best character of Y1. Like
Robert said in another post, so much attention was lavished on guest
characters that the core characters weren't deepened anywhere near as far
as they could have been. Good guest characters are certainly needed to
interact with--and reveal aspects of--the main characters. But in S19,
this was carried too far: the main characters languished, and were later
seen as too easily replaceable, which is exactly what happened or almost
happened to all of them.
One other point about Maya--or more generally, an alien, that I've not seen
brought up as such: is it so surprising that Alpha eventually gained a
resident alien? A lot of people liked the character of Maya (and/or
Catherine's portrayal of her), or simply did not like Maya. But
regardless of her, consider that with all the alien life the Alphans
encountered, it was likely that sooner or later, by some set of
circumstances, one or more aliens would have joined Alpha. Is it not a
logical development in a general way, regardless of whether you agree with
the character that took up this role?
In a story I've nearly completed, for example, I briefly mentioned a
situation in which the dozen or so more "civilized" (using that word for
convenience's sake) Darians (from "Mission of the Darians") were forced to
flee with the Alphans when the more "barbaric" Darians refused to sway to
Koenig's peace-making efforts at the end of the episode, and made it clear
they would kill their "civilized" tormentors the first moment they could.
The Alphans, having been the ones how disrupted the relative stability
(however morally reprehensible), would have been essentially obligated to
take these very few survivors aboard.
It might be an interesting thread to consider: what would have happened if
things went just a little differently, and not resolved themselves quite
the same way. What other alien(s) could have ended up resident on Alpha?
Just some things to consider....
(From a note I mailed to the list on 02/28/97)