Voyager - What if...?

[Bry_Sinclair]

I was thinking about this a little while ago, so I thought I would throw it out there and get some other opinions.

What if, when the producers were developing VOY, they decided to give it a more direct connection to TNG. So instead of Captain Nicole/Kathryn Janeway, they managed to get Elizabeth Dennehy to return to Trek, but this time as Captain Elizabeth Shelby of the U.S.S. Voyager?

Still young and ambitious, a bit of a hot-head, she would have strong views and opinions that would see her and Chakotay clash more often. Tuvok could become her former mentor at the Academy, who taught her all she knows about tactics and combat.

[SonicRanger]

Wouldn't have made much difference. "Janeway as scientist" was hardly ever used. Elizabeth Dennehy is only five years younger than Kate Mulgrew, so that wouldn't matter much either. And what portion of the audience would recognise a character in only two episodes of TNG years earlier?

[teacake]

Shelby's a bit more akin to Ransom. It would have been interesting. She wasn't a wooer, that dynamic which defined Janeway's Captaincy would have been missing. I would have liked to see hard ass Shelby in the chair, I think she would have created conflict among the crew by being so strong minded. Would she have placed Chak at her right hand like that? I doubt it.

[Bry_Sinclair]

Chakotay as XO was really more of a political/PR assignment than anything else. Tuvok would have made a fine Number One, but with 30ish terrorist Maquis onboard, they need to be kept in line somehow. Having their former Captain as second-in-command would see them fall into line behind him.

Shelby may not have liked it, but I think she would do the same thing, so as to install order into the Maquis. Though I do get the feeling she'd address him as lieutenant commander every so often--especially if were pissed off at him (so probably frequently in the first couple of years).

[Guy Gardener]

I'd Prefer the captain dies, and Robin Lefler is instantly promoted in the wake of such a...

Was Missing really that bad last year?

The action scenes (In Missing) where Ashely Judd went Charles Bronson on the entire continent of Europe were epic, somehow she's wasted all that time on crappy rom-coms when she has all the chops to be a first class female action hero.

[Dale Sams]

1) Who would have recognized Shelby?? Everyone!

2) It would have been interesting if Shelby's driving characteristic had been "Delta Quadrant hunh? Let's git us some Borg!!!"

[Melakon]

I suspect Tuvok didn't become First Officer because producers didn't want to veer too closely to Spock allusions. And considering how some people around here think Janeway fought the Borg too many times, would we have given up completely if Captain Shelby went gunning for Borg as early as first season?

[R. Star]

Who cares if the casual fans didn't recognize Shelby? I doubt they recognized Janeway before Caretaker? I would've enjoyed seeing a series centered on Shelby, all while laughing that she made captain before Riker.

I could see her being rather hard on the Maquis, which could lead to some interesting friction, which was supposed to be there all along anyways. It would be a great character arc for her to instantly distrust these these terrorists, but slowly become to rely upon them.

As for the Borg? At least she'd have a reason to want to take on the Borg so often, and when she came up with a technobabble solution of the week to beat them at least we wouldn't be muttering bs so loudly. Though I don't see her siding with the Borg over 8472 at all. More like the other way around.

[SonicRanger]

Let's be realistic here. Elizabeth Dennehy as Shelby would have changed very little, if anything, because the writers would still have been the same. There's no reason to think that they'd have written Shelby any differently than Kate Mulgrew as Janeway.

[R. Star]

^
Who knows? They have a pre-established character background to call upon, and by all accounts Jeri Taylor may not have had the same "heroine worship" for Shelby that she had for Janeway that let to so many absurd episodes.

Besides... I just want to see Captain Shelby for that brief snippet of Riker in Death Wish.

"Oh hello Commander," Shelby said with a smirk, "please cooperate and testify for Q. That's an order, and if you think about giving me any lip, I'll snap you back so hard you'll think you're a first officer again... oh wait, you still are!"

[tighr]

R. Star wrote:

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Who cares if the casual fans didn't recognize Shelby? I doubt they recognized Janeway before Caretaker? I would've enjoyed seeing a series centered on Shelby, all while laughing that she made captain before Riker.

Riker was offered Captaincy no less than three times in the first two seasons (one of which was prior to taking the Enterprise assignment). For whatever reason, Riker just wasn't interested anymore in becoming a Captain (despite earlier admissions about wanting to be a Captain by 30).

[R. Star]

tighr wrote:

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Riker was offered Captaincy no less than three times in the first two seasons (one of which was prior to taking the Enterprise assignment). For whatever reason, Riker just wasn't interested anymore in becoming a Captain (despite earlier admissions about wanting to be a Captain by 30).

Yes, I did watch Best of Both worlds too.

Those reasons really didn't make sense at all, especially after Riker was brevetted captain of the Enterprise and basically had the rank if he wanted to keep it given that Starfleet was stated to be expanding and building new ships.

Really the reasoning boils down to they don't want to break up the cast mid run and we'll plug in a quasi on screen explanation.

Shelby did have more ambition and drive than Riker to be certain.

[teacake]

It really didn't suit Riker's personality that he turned down a Captaincy. Sure it's the flagship but it still seemed likely HE would have that flagship someday or some new flagship if he took a smaller series of Captaincies first. Do I care about Riker's career path? NO

But Shelby, she was a great character. I can see her clashing bad with B'Elanna.

[tighr]

teacake wrote:

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But Shelby, she was a great character. I can see her clashing bad with B'Elanna.

Shelby was a maneater. It's very likely she would have ended up WITH B'Elanna.

[teacake]

And everyone would have been happy

I can't imagine her putting up with anything that came out of Neelix's mouth either.