What if the events of TNG had gone differently, how might the stories have evolved? For example: Captain Picard, as Locutus, regains his humanity and sacrifices himself to save Earth. Commander Riker is promoted to Captain following Picard’s death, and takes command of the Enterprise-D. He decides to keep Commander Shelby onboard as his “Number One”. Following the discovery of Lieutenant Riker, Captain Riker and Counsellor Troi rekindle their relationship. Doctor Crusher never returned to the Enterprise, opting to remain in charge of Starfleet Medical. Doctor Pulaski served as Chief Medical Officer for a second year, before retiring and being replaced by Doctor Ogawa. Lieutenant Commander Data lost his trial to be recognised as a sentient being and is taken away by Commander Maddox to be examined. After years of study and work, androids are successfully developed. Counsellor Troi marries Captain Riker, and rather than going in for promotion to Commander she becomes a mother. Lieutenant Commander La Forge undergoes Doctor Pulaski’s treatment to “grow” new eyes. Lieutenant Yar wasn’t killed in action and remains as Chief Security Officer. Lieutenant Worf was made Chief Flight Control Officer after La Forge became Chief Engineer. After Data was relieved of duty, he was made Operations Manager. Wesley Crusher was accepted into the Academy on his first attempt and graduates a full year ahead of his classmates. As an Ensign he is assigned to the Enterprise as Chief Science Officer. Ensign Ro remains aboard the Enterprise as Chief Conn Officer. She even turns down a promotion to First Officer of Deep Space 9. So by the end of Season 7 the crew would be: Commanding Officer - Captain William T. Riker First Officer - Commander Elizabeth Shelby Chief Security Officer - Lieutenant Commander Natasha Yar Chief Engineering Officer - Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge Chief Counsellor - Lieutenant Commander Deanna Troi-Riker Chief Operations Officer - Lieutenant Worf Chief Medical Officer - Lieutenant Alyssa Ogawa Chief Flight Control Officer - Lieutenant JG Ro Laren Chief Science Officer - Ensign Wesley Crusher
Any one of those changes in the history could have significant consequences, both good and bad... but it's hard to focus on them all and say anything coherent about it except for 'I'd have watched it still.' You certainly have the imagination for it. -Withers-
You could say, if Tasha was still around for BOBW, Picard might not have been taken by the Borg. She'd have given them the single handed beat down.
When Worf spares the life of young Duras, and gives him to Kern so Kern can teach him what it means to be a Klingon, this results in House Duras being absorbed into House Mogh, making Worf (and his regent, Kern) one of the most politically powerful Klingons in the Empire. Not just an influential friend of the Emperor, but someone it would be politically disastrous for the Emperor to turn on. Thomas Riker was, at the time of his creation, the kind of guy who would put his career before his personal relationships. But in the years he's spent trapped and alone, he hasn't been fantasizing about the ships he could be commanding, he's been fantasizing about the date he stood up. The Riker that Troi eventually marries is Tom. Wesley Crusher stays with the Academy (does not become a god-like being in any way), manages to graduate near the top of his class, and gets assigned as the OPS officer on USS Voyager, where the helmsman is his former schoolmate Nick Locarno.
One quibble with this: Doctor and nurse aren't like military ranks, where you put in your time as one and eventually get promoted to the other. They're completely different medical disciplines with completely different educational requirements. While it's not unheard-of for a nurse to decide to go to med school, most people pick one or the other. So for Ogawa to replace Pulaski as the Enterprise's chief physician, this timeline would have had to diverge from the "real" one several years before the show began, because she would need to have chosen a different career path.
We have seen nurses become doctors before, in the TOS movies, Parallels, and in the novelizations (Tarses sorta). It may be a Starfleet norm. We don't know how it works. We shouldn't compare how things work in our era to the 24th Century. Ogawa may have become a doctor while on the Enterprise.
Conundrum's Ensign Kieran McDuff turns out to be a real person, assigned as first officer, Riker being demoted for his past killings (the clones, that one chick who was really older than she looked, that scientist guy ). Preemptive Strike, Riker defects to the Maquis, not Ro Laren. Riker winds up in the Delta Quadrant and meets Janeway.
Currently in the process of writing an orginal piece of fanfic (though my laptop is still in the shop for repairs). I may give my alternate universe a go, maybe see how different First Contact would have turned out with the new crew.
My thinking behind this is that in the episode where Worf goes between different realities (I think its Parallels), Ogawa served as CMO. My thinking was that she opted to go for a full medical degree rather than going into nursing. Patti Yasutake, who played Alyssa, was 37 when she first appeared in TNG, so she could easily have trained as a physician and have several years experience before coming aboard. I loved the character of Ogawa, I wished she'd had more screen time.
I was considering how different Worf would be if he had not traveled to Khitomer with his father, Mogh, and his mother and Worf grew up in the Empire. He would have been the eldest of the House of Mogh and probably would have also vied to become Chancellor. But would he be the honorable, uber-Klingon Worf we knew in the original timeline, or more of a political opportunist like Gowron, intent on seizing power of the Council? My bet is he'd be closer to the uber-honorable Worf, as it seems Mogh was a straight shooter and honest Klingon, so the apple probably doesn't fall far from the tree. Kurn certainly didn't support Gowron, so if Worf had grown up in the Empire, I expect he wouldn't either. Or perhaps this Worf would be even more shrewd politically and allied with Gowron to get rid of Duras, or perhaps uncovers evidence that Duras' father betrayed Khitomer to the Romulans. Rather than challenge Duras and the Council, I see Worf challenging Duras to a battle to the death, in return for keeping quiet about Duras' father's involvement. Worf kills Duras. Then, Picard becomes involved in the succession fight to K'Empec, and chooses Worf over Gowron, but to ensure Gowron's loyalty, Worf makes a deal with him giving him a top military title. Now, does this mean special emissary K'Ehleyr become involved in finding out what happens to Khitomer, or not, as she has no personal stake in it, that is, her relationship with Worf who, in the original timeline, accepted discommodation to protect the Council's secret. Naturally, without Worf, another person would have become security chief when Tasha is killed. I'd like to see an Andorian become security chief, but perhaps Tuvok joins Enterprise instead. Or perhaps Geordi becomes security chief. Or maybe Picard makes Miles O'Brien an officer and puts him in charge of security, as he's an experienced tactical officer from his time on the Rutledge with Captain Maxwell. Or perhaps another change in the timeline leads K'Ehleyr to become a Starfleet officer, eventually becoming Enterprise's security chief. They showed she could kick ass in the first ep she appears in, when she takes on Worf's holodeck monsters.
Mogh's son would certainly have been more honorable than, say, Duras. But part of why Worf was the way he was is that he grew up with the ideal of Klingon honor, rather than the practical reality. Adolescent Worf never saw his father compromise his honor for political reasons, never learned the lesson that reality sometimes doesn't live up to the ideal. I like your stuff, though.
Hmm...in my virtual series, Yar is still alive and became First Officer of the ship my series focuses on, the Portia. It's an Akira class, if you happened to be wondering. I actually haven't changed any other TNG characters for my fanfic, but you all mentioned some great ideas. As for Worf, I think he'd be a bit more like Gowron simply because of being raised in that environment but still 'uber-honorable', just a bit more devious and probably less reserved. Worf and Kurn would probably have become very influential and a force to be reckoned with. Like Kurn said, the Sons of Mogh should never have been separated. Also, maybe Alexander would have been less of a loser that way... altough he'd still be torn between his human desires and the need to make his Klingon father proud in some way. Lore is reactivated by some poor naive traveler and learns that his 'brother' is being held against his will and stages a devious 'jailbreak'. The more emotional Lore wants revenge, but Data wants to explore his desire to be human...but is conflicted because he has been ordered to comply with Starfleet. All Lore and Data agree on is their desire to find their father. I wonder how FC would have gone without Data...or with Data and Lore...Lore and Data fighting Borg together would be great. Especially if Lore was a little less evil, still not quite 'a good guy' but more of an anti-hero. Just as crazy, however. The androids created by Starfleet aren't as developed personality and intelligence wise, but some still desire more freedom. Instead of a holographic rights movement, there would be an android rights movement eventually.
I like your ideas concerning Data and Lore. When I was younger and a bit naive, I considered submitting a script to TNG where Enterprise comes across a planet that found the plans to Soong's androids and constructed them, constituting a whole race of androids. But they're denied basic rights and respect, basically ensalved androids, which prompts Data to side with them despite Starfleet's Prime Directive. I envisioned them having the same skin and eye color as Data, as well. I should still write a novel based on this idea. A what if I always wondered about is suppose it was Lore that was reactivated by the Starfleet away team that found Data. Would Lore have joined Starfleet? What kind of Starfleet officer would he have made? Or would he just have continued to be a "bad robot," wreaking havoc?
I was actually thinking that after Data is taken away for testing and experimentation, a few years later Lal comes aboard the Enterprise as an officer. I was also thinking about this further and I decided I would have Ro leave the ship to becoem DS9's First Officer, which would of course re-invent DS9 as well. Would Worf come aboard the station and would he be willing to follow Ro as his senior officer? What if K'Ehleyr had been assigned to the station as a Liaison Officer instead? Alexander's rapid development would make him an accomplice for Nog and Jake. -Bry
I've always wondered what would have happened if the Federation made peace with the Romulans instead of the Klingons. Of course, no Worf on Enterprise. Perhaps we'd have a Romulan officer on board the ship. I sometimes missed having the Klingons as the main bad guys in ST.