Voyager: Revisionist History

[vidiianborg]

I've always wanted to start a topic like this one: If you could take all 9 of Voyager's original main cast (including Kes here and not Seven) and re-write Voyager from the beginning of the series, what would you change?

What would the characters be like?

What relationships would there be?

What main plots and storylines would unfold?

How would Voyager get home?

These are just some of the questions I've always asked myself whenever I reminisce about the show and it's early beginnings. I really think the show could've been improved a lot--especially towards the end after DS9 ended and Voyager became the only trek series on TV.

So I'll start with the things I would've changed:

1. The crew: Maybe Neelix, Kes, Seven, the Maquis, the crew from "Equinox", and eventually the Borg children weren't the only long-term characters to be a part of Voyager's journey through the Delta Quadrant. There were a few episodes featuring characters who potentially could've remained on Voyager for the long haul and also potentially provide opportunities for romantic relationships and other storylines:

Lifesigns (2nd season): The Vidiian woman, Denara Pel, could've remained onboard as not only the Doctor's love interest, but as an assistant nurse to the Doctor and the medical/science staff on Voyager. Potential stories that could've evolved from this are the Borg's assimilation of the Vidiians and the Phage and Denara Pel being cured by the "think tank" (in the episode of the same name).

Unforgettable (4th season): The Ramuran "chaser", Kellin, could've remained on the ship as Chakotay's love interest and a member of Tuvok's security detail. Potential storylines from this are a potential rift between Kellin and Captain Janeway and possiblly rift between Kellin and Tuvok as well.

Drone (5th season): Perhaps the 29th-century-created Borg called "One" doesn't die after sacrificing himself to destroy the Borg vessel towards the end of that episode. All sorts of storylines could stem from his stay on Voyager, including his relationships with Seven, his relationships with the Borg children released from the Borg in "Collective", the Borg possibly assimilating him, Species 8472 mistaking him as a componet in a potential Borg-Federation alliance and re-initiating the Borg/Species 8472 war, and so on.

It would've been cool if Voyager had picked up many new crewmembers in this way along their journey to extend the "family", so to speak.

Also, showing more of the minor characters a little more regularly would've been great to give us a sense that the senior officers weren't the only ones on the ship all the time. TNG did this a lot with such characters as Ensign Ro, Barcaly, Guinan, Nurse Ogawa, Chief O'Brien, and Keiko. On DS9, there were a ton of them--Nog, Rom, Cassidy Yates, Garak, Weyoun, Gul Dukat, Kai Winn, and many others. But on Voyager, we rarely saw them. They were more prominent in the show's first couple of seasons where we saw people like Seska, Ensign Wildeman, Ensign Hogan, Lt. Carey, Michael Jonas, and Lon Suder than towards the end when we saw characters like Ensign Vorik, Tal Celes from "Good Shepherd", and Naomi Wildeman. Sure, Voyager was a small ship with a small crew, but there was certainly time and opportunity to include more re-curring characters to the show's mix.

2. Romance: In my opinion, there simply wasn't enough of it on the ship. Other than Neelix and Kes in the show's beginning, B'Elanna and Tom Paris midway and beyond, and Chakotay and Seven at the very end, romance really didn't seem to exist except for a scattering of episodes were some of the main cast members had flings with other aliens for just an episode. I wanted to see more romance between just the ship's crew. And ALL of the main characters should've had a permanent love interest at some point. My wishes:

Neelix and Ensign Wildeman: With Naomi Wildeman, they were sort of a family anyways. And with the prospect of Ensign Wildeman perhaps never seeing her Ktarian husband again, it only makes sense.

Harry Kim and Kes: They were almost alike--both being young and innocent. And the complete opposites of Tom Paris and B'Elanna.

Tuvok and Seven: The ship's most intellectual pair probably had more in common than with anybody else on the ship. Both were somewhat loners and liked to isolate themselves and keep to themselves. Vulcan romance, other than the "pon farr", is something that hasn't seemed to be shown much on Star Trek anyways.

Janeway and Chakotay: So what if they're the captain and first officer, respectively? Technically, Chakotay isn't really the first officer--just the rank handed to him back in "Caretaker" due to the precarious situation the Maquis crew were in of being stranded in the Delta Quadrant on a Federation ship. I think towards the end of the show, their gradual frienship should've eventually escalated into full-fledged romance as they finally admit their true feelings to one another.

3. Voyager getting home: I think waiting until the absolute last episode of the series to get back to the Alpha Quadrant and then not explore anything else after that was somewhat of a disappointment.

First of all, I think the crew should've gotten back to Earth (for real) midway through the 6th season around the Borg episodes "Collective" and "Child's Play" and thus had a little "Borg arc" going on. Here, combined events from both "Unimatrix Zero, Part 1 & 2" and "Endgame" could've been properly inserted, and Voyager has one last run-in with the Borg Queen and the Collective before accessing the transwarp hub to get back to the Alpha Quadrant.

The next few episodes thereafter show the crew getting reacquainted with family, friends, and colleagues at Starfleet. Perhaps there are even special appearances by characters crossing over from TNG and DS9, since they'd done this already with Barcaly and Counselor Troi making a few appearances.

Then in the 6th season finale, Species 8472, Voyager's deadliest enemy, returns one last time! In the same vein that the Dominion War ruled the latter half of DS9's final season, a military war with Species 8472 would rule Voyager's final season after the 6th season finale. We discover that "Boothby" was unable to convince his superiors back in "In The Flesh" to not invade Earth. This would mark the beginning of a huge invasion where the Federation would have to ally itself with the Klingons, the Cardassians, the Romulans, the Vorta, the Jem Ha'Dar, the Vulcans, and everyone else in the Alpha Quadrant to prevent the galaxy from being destroyed.

However, every episode wouldn't need to involve space battles, warfare, and constant fighting. We would learn more about Species 8472. We'd learn more about "fluidic space" and we'd see several little side-missions where crewmembers have to go to fluidic space to obtain information. We'd see their strange worlds, their culture, and maybe even learn their real name. There would be the opportunity for open dialogue and diplomacy with some memebrs of the species in human form in much the same way as in "In the Flesh". Perhaps Species 8472 aren't as hostile as we think they are and some of them side with the Alpha Quadrant alliance.

Perhaps throughout the invasion, entire planets and colonies and ships are destroyed, family and friends are displaced, and people are lost--like some natural disasters do in real life. In the end, some parts of Earth are even decimated and some members of Voyager's crew no longer have a family and home to return to.....

Sorry I wrote so much, but I tend to get carried away with this wishful thinking stuff. It's almost enough to write a book about

How would you revision Voyager?????

[squiggy]

Wouldn't change one bloody thing.
Wait.. yeah I would. The Doc and 7 should have been together, not 7 and Chakotay at the end.
Otherwise, i wouldn't change it

[Leo Wyatt]

i wouldn't want it any different except for Seven to be with the doc or harry.

[TrekkieMage]

Hm. Interesting. Voyager was a good show and it had so much potential, looking back on the series there are so many things they could have done to make it a great series.

I would want to make the characters more powerful and interesting.

Janeway: Love her But, in the interest of critique, I would have like to see her become much more haunted by making her decision. Being the captain, she has to keep all of her emotions and personal life in check in front of the crew, and being under that kind of pressure for seven years? Seeing some cracks in her facade would have made things very interesting.

Chakotay: Very interesting the first season, then they kind of forgot him. I wish he could have gotten more of a role in keeping involved with the crew and keeping the captain informed. It would have been interesting if Janeway had continued to not know how to connect with her crew, and this renegade captain did.

Tuvok: Nothing comes to mind ^-^

Paris: I would have like to see him pull more pranks, and try very hard to impress Janeway (she knew his dad, knows him, has kind of a personal/maternal connection) but always manage to get in trouble. It also would have been interesting for him to have a slightly harder time adjusting to the rules - they must have changed since he was in the Academy.

B'Elanna: Maybe more of her just liking to tinker with machines? Nothing springs to mind, I think they did a good job developing her.

EMH: <3 Can't complain! I loved his obvious crush on Seven while thinking he was keeping it secret. I would have liked to see Paris prank him by changing his visual perameters ^-^

Seven: One of the best developed characters on the show.

Kes: I wanted to see her have a little fear about this huge change in her life or some homesickness. Also, she was abused by the Kazon. Some residual fear of aliens would have added some more depth to her character, as would have some shock at her telepathic abilities later on.

Harry: Poor Harry. I would have like to see him much more developed. Homesickness, making mistakes. Also, it might have been interesting to have his clarinet break during a battle, then have Paris and B'Elanna pitch in to replicate him a new one. He was the baby of the crew in some ways, it would have been nice to see the crew take on an older sibling-type relationship with him.

Voyager: She was a character too I hate the magic reset button. It would have been brilliant of them to have a part or two that always broke, and they just couldn't replace it. Also, battle scars would have been nice.

Bah, this is so much more fun than my homework

[Founder]

Good topic and trust me, I can write about nine books on the subject alone. I made a topic a while back on all the missed oppurtunities of Voyager and it's crew. The amount of potential that this show went down the drain really fast. I won't say the show was flat out bad as it did have it's good moments, but they numbered in the few...

Lets see....

1. More crew conflict. They kind of did it at the beginning in season 1, but after a while they dropped that point to make the crew united and TNG part 2. DS9 and TNG handled the Maquis so much better then VOY, which is sad as the Maquis were meant to be in every episode of VOY. The Maquis were a group of people that lost their homes, and some of them their lives, to the Federation and Cardassia. Granted, DS9 and TNG made points that the Maquis didn't mind the Federation as much as they did the Cardassians, but still. There should have been more conflict. Chakotay fell in line far too fast. Cal Hudson and Michael Eddington would probably have been disgusted by his quick turn around to Starfleet. I understand the point that after being with each other for so long and depending on each other, the crew would lose the old hatreds. I'm fine with them eventually losing it, but it happened far too fast. I had actually thought a Maquis rebellion arc would have been cool. Civil war about VOY. Some of the Maquis attempt to take the ship by force, tired of Janeway's Starfleet rules. Chakotay would have led the Maquis and it would have strained a lot of friendships. Would have been way more interesting then some of the episodes seen on the show.

2. Another thing I would change is battle damage!!!!! For goodness sakes, the Enterprise-D and the Defiant are like ten times more powerful then Voyager, yet they had to go to space docks for repair. Voyager never seems to have to, why is that? Every episode, the ship goes through a reset phase where it's back to perfect condition. That was so stupid. Before anyone points out that they probably stopped at alien space docks, that too is a stupid thing. What is the point of them being lost and alone if they have a nice space dock around the corner. Also, you can't possibly expect me to believe that there is a space dock in every system do you? It would have been brilliant continuity and showed them desperate at times, like the Equinox. Of course, we can't have our hero ship ever in bad condition. There is a reason that Year of Hell is one of the most popular VOY episodes. It's not just the CGI . It's the fact we finally saw VOY in terrible condition...

3. No Borg! VOY ruined the Borg, plain and simple. VOY fans don't like it when people say it, but it's the truth. Obviously, it only makes sense for the Borg to appear frequently since they come from somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, but I'm willing to ignore that discrepancy, as VOY has a million others. The Borg would not really be that interested in VOY as it's a weak science ship. The only thing they'd might want out of VOY is Seven of Nine, Kes for her telepathic powers, and the Doctor's 29th century Mobile Emitter. That's it. VOY should not have beaten the Borg so damn much. It got stupid after a while. The only interesting idea, other then the war between them and Species 8472 on the show, that I can think of is doing another Wolf 357. Have VOy create a fleet of alien ships, like they kind of did in Year of Yell, and fight some massive tactical cube. Seeing all those alien ships swarm a cube would be fun, but that's all I can think of.

4. vidiianborg your idea on changing Endgame is pretty awesome. However, I would have done things a bit differently. I would have brought them home earlier, but not as early as you. I would have gone down the route of DS9 and created like a 9 episode arc. One that followed after the other. I probably would have brought them home 9 or so episodes before the finale and I would never use the horrible way they did on the show. The future technology is stupid and causes too many problems, old hag Janeway is a hypocrite about screwing up time to save her crew, yet only saves some of them, and the attack on the Borg was without any explanation. The problem with Endgame is it created more questions then answered them and that is a no no in a finale. I would have had VOY get home, by some other way, but instead of them settling down, I would have made things REALLY hard for them. We have to understand that VOY is filled with pre-Dominion War Starfleet crew. The Dominion War changed the Alpha quadrant drastically, but of course, VOY never showed that. They barely even mentioned the Dominion, which was ridiculous. I would have had them get back home and each crew would go through something that made them feel that this was not the Earth they were meant to return to...

Janeway: She'd return and find Earth empty now that she no longer had Mark. No, I hate the Janeway-Chakotay stuff as it's gross. She's like 20 years older then him. He can do better then that. There would be other problems for her, but I care so little for the character that it's hard to even think of any....

Chakotay: Chakotay and the other Maquis would visit a grave site with all the dead Maquis, killed by the Dominion. They'd be terribly hurt by the fact that their entire family and friends were slaughtered and they have no one to return to. Chakotay and the other Maquis are then arrested by Starfleet, as Earth did not have the oppurtunity to get to know the Maquis as the VOY Starfleet crew did. This sets off a rescue adventure for them.

Tuvok: Nothing really bad for him. He returns to find his family alive and well, but out of loyalty, joins Janeway to free the imprisoned Maquis.

Paris: Paris comes back and finally is able to become close to his father. His past is finally forgiven.

Torres: She goes back to the Klingon home world and shows her people her baby, the supposed chosen one of the Klingons. The Klingons revere Miral Paris and she's treated as a god amongst men. B'Ellana grows fearful as they take the child away from her and imply she will not raise her. Perhaps meanwhile, Romulan agents kidnap the baby in an effort to plunge the Empire into further chaos.

EMH and Seven of Nine: Both of them return to find an Earth that absolutely hates them. The EMH is not considered a human and ignored constantly. Seven of Nine is distrusted for being a former Borg. Both of them eagerly wish to return to VOY and escape this Earth that they don't recognize.

Harry Kim: Harry is given everything he ever wanted. A promotion, his girlfiend, Libby, and a return to Earth. However, he finds that this Earth is much more militiristic and paranoid since the Dominion War. He doesn't recognize it at all.

Neelix and Kes: Uh....they're both hated for being ugly? I don't know. Perhaps they're a bit bothered by this Earth as well, as it doesn't look anything at all like the one the Starfleet crew constantly described on VOY.

Anyways, the crew comes together, realizing that all of this wrong. They come to realize that they had always reached home, a long time ago, on VOY. They unite to free the Maquis and steal VOY. Quickly, they flee and warp towards the unknown, leaving that alien Earth behind.

While that idea may seem really depressing, it really isn't. Think about it, VOY was always home for the crew. It is there that they were a family. Isn't it a bit strange that they finally reach home only to be seperated by new positions aboard new ships? Hell, Janeway took a promotion to admiral and stayed at Earth. I guess it shows how much she loves her crew....

[TrekkieMage]

[Founder]

[TrekkieMage]

I couldn't find Janeway's birthdate - the one time it showed up it was inaccurate (if it were right, she'd have been in her late 20s at the start of VOY ).

But Chakotay was born in the 2720s, and Janeway must have been born sometime in the 2730s - assuming she was the same age as Mulgrew (39) at the start of the series.

I think that Voyager got lost before the Dominon War actually broke out full force, so I think that it's quite plausable that they didn't realize the deepness of the distrust and paranoia - whereas DS9 was right on the battle line. So having the shock of coming back to the aftermath would really have been interesting. Plus they'd have to get caught up on what happened - which could have tied up some loose ends for DS9.

[Lord Borg]

[JupiterPrime]

You could not have had the "DRONE" episode without 7 of 9 so you really cant exculde her from the topic

[TrekkieMage]

JupiterPrime, we haven't excluded her.

[vidiianborg]

Wow--very nice and interesting ideas from everyone! Thanx to everyone who replied to my post!

TreekieMage, I like your comment about Voyager itself being a character. It does seem very unrealistic that it always looks so nice and clean and in perfect working order after every battle. A lot of times after a huge battle and towards the resolution of the show, we get like a captain's log message from Janeway, so I guess we were supposed to assume that a few days later, the ship is in perfect condition after a few days of extensive repairs. But yeah, showing it battered and flickering and emitting gas and whatever would've been realistic to see. And to comment on Founder's comment about Voyager sometimes looking damaged like it did in the "Year Of Hell" 2-parter--brilliant idea! It really would give Voyager a sense of being lost and desperate and just drifting through space alone without anyone to rescue them in sight.

I also agree more crew conflict would've been good. A real Maquis mutiny instead of the holodeck-created one in Season 3's "Worst Case Scenario" is realistic. Maybe several incidents that jeapordize some of the crew's missions such as like in Season 1's "Prime Factors" and "State Of Flux" where they're constantly breaking the rules and abandoning Starfleet methods to do things their way. Perhaps in some cases, it works to Voyager's advantage to get them closer to home or access to powerful technology, but ends up jeapordizing several alien species as a result. Maybe even Janeway is sometimes desperate enough to abandon her Starfleet ways to give in to Chakotay's methods. The popssibilities with the Maquis were endless.

I did like the Maquis-related stories of Michael Jonas being a spy for the Kazon during Season 2 (discovered in "Investigations") and Suder murdering the crewman in "Meld". More stories like these would continue to add to the hostility between the Maquis and Starfleet and made the situation on Voyager a lot more realistic.

And about the Dominion--I can't believe it was never mentioned either! In all of the episodes where Voyager finally made conflict with the Federation, it should've been mentioned. At the very least, when the crew got their letters from home in Season 4's "Hunters", courtesy of the Hirogen's relay network, there should've been mention of it, as DS9 was in their 6th season and in the heart of the Dominion war. I always thought it would've been cool if there was a crossover episode where the Dominion experiments with wormholes in an attempt to bring other alien species besides the Jem Ha'Dar, the Vorta, the Cardassians, and eventually the Breen into their alliance. And in doing so, they make a mistake and access a portal to the Delta Quadrant. It looks like an opportunity for Voyager to get home, but the portal accidentally rips into another dimension and brings in Species 8472 from fluidic space, in much the same way the Borg opened a singularity in an attempt to assimilate other species back in the "Scorpion" 2-parter. But yeah, no mention of the Dominion war was a disapointment as well.

Founder, I also like your comments about Voyager getting home. You're right--maybe Earth isn't the place they'd envisioned when they finally reach it. Family, friends, and colleagues are dead and it doesn't feel right. Earth has become like some huge military base constantly fighting and preventing galaxian invasions. This is wher I think a final multi-episode seaosn long invasion by Species 8427 would've been perfect. It seemed that after oyager's final encounter with them back in "In The Flesh", there were loose ends. Besides, Janeway never did get that tour of fluidic space as "Boothby" mentioned to her at the end of the episode And we never found out of his superiors agreed with him about invading Earth. So there was plenty of potential here as well.

[Lord Borg]

I definitly agree that the ending was very weak for the build up they had given it for the entire series.

Also, I'd like to point out that...DAMAGE! Damn...that was...unexpected .

Yes, they repaired far to easily, way to much, the first handful of episodes mentioned a limit on Starfleet technology that can be repaired/replaced. yet for seven years (Give or take) they always fixed a battle damage? Pfft....

Interestingly enough, a couple of the producers inteded for that to happen...

Also, the never ending supply of torpedoes! The class has a stock of 55 casings (thats not torpedoes, casings, as the casings can be used for probes or other things) and by the end of the series, they had fired at least 90 something photon torpedoes....

[Andi McDougal]

The last note I saw was that Janeway was supposed to be around 30 at the start of Voyager, but who knows!

[squiggy]

[TrekkieMage]

Those systems were also limited - it requires energy to replicate things.

Also, I seem to remember Janeway saying (point blank) in the first season that they had a limited supply and they couldn't be replaced. Or it was very hard to replace them.

I could be wrong though.

[squiggy]

Other concepts: Could have bought them. What about the Equinox? Certainly they could have salvaged some from that ship. Plus they had borg technology on thier side. You don't think Seven couldn't have found a way to alter the replicators to permit them to do this kind of thing? Come on... lol Plus!!! Alot of those photon torpedoe shots DIDN'T EXIST! We're talking temporal mechanics now. For example: Any weapon fired during the "year of hell" episode didn't exist because of the end result of that limited timestream... There are literally an infinite amount of ways they could have acquired or replaced this technology.

[Lynx]

1. Kes should have remained in the series and got a prolonged lifespan.

2. The integration of the Maquis crew should have taken a little longer.

3. No Borg. More contacts with other Delta Quadrant species.

4. A final confrontation with the female Caretaker in the end episode which should have been a two-parter with a real homecoming for the crew in the last episode.

5. And why not a "happy ending" between Chakotay and Janeway?

[Founder]

[Lord Borg]

Not to mention, the Equinox was always fighting Voyager, and at the end of the second part, it blew up, when did they have time to salvage anything? I also wasn't mentioning things like "Year of Hell"

[squiggy]