What if the Val Jean had been the ship to lead the series?

[retroenzo]

Suppose for a moment that instead of a show called Star Trek: Voyager, we ended up with Star Trek: Val Jean. When USS Voyager and the Val Jean were teleported to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, what if Voyager was destroyed instead?

Would Janeway have become first officer to Chakotay? Would the Starfleet crew now live by Maquis rules?

What else would be different on that show?

(Incidentally has there been any comics or novels written with this idea as I'd love to see that.)

 

[Takeru]

Would Janeway have become first officer to Chakotay? Would the Starfleet crew now live by Maquis rules?

No, the starfleet crew would have taken over, they had the numbers, there's no way Janeway would have agreed to serve under Chakotay and abandon starfleet protocol. The Val Jean was also much smaller, starfleet didn't need the Maquis crew to run it, in fact the ship seems way too small to accomodate all of them.

It would have made the most scenes for starfleet to arrest the entire maquis crew, confiscate the ship and then abandon them on some planet. They were terrorists so screw them.

 

[RandyS]

The Miniseries Star Trek Mirror Universe dealt with this briefly.In the Mirror Universe the Voyager crew were escaped slaves that wound up on Chakotay's ship after a battle with the Cardassians. Janeway became his first officer and lover and secretly worked against him since she considered the Terran Empire (and therefore Humanity) to be monsterously evil and would do anything she could to see that humans were never free again. I don't remember the title or what volume it was in but I do remember the crew having to take in Kes and Neelix who were sent to the Alpha Quadrant by the caretaker. The stuff with Janeway was a side plot.

 

[Markonian]

^ In that universe Harry skins Libby alive because she's an Alliance spy.

Source: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Obsidian Alliances: The Mirror-Scaled Serpent.

 

[Sophie74656]

I don't think that little ship couple handle 150 (ish) people.

 

[psCargile]

^ My thoughts exactly. Just started rewatching the series and cringed at that line.

 

[Devilpogostick]

Yeah...I really can't see the Val Jean last that long in the Delta Quadrant compare to Voyager unless we double the amount of reset buttons for it.

The Val Jean was a raider that's been around for quite some time while Voyager is basically a new ship.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Did they ever actually call Chakotay's ship "Val Jean" on the show?

This concept would have made for a cool "what if...?" episode

 

[Sophie74656]

No there is no canon name for Chakotay's ship

 

[Thomas Eugene]

PARALLAX:
CHAKOTAY: Can I ask you a question, off the record? If things had happened differently, and we were on the Maquis ship now instead of Voyager, would you have served under me?
JANEWAY: One of the nice things about being Captain is that you can keep some things to yourself.

This, to me, suggests that she wouldn't have served under him. Why else wouldn't she have answered that question with a simple "yes"?
In which case, of course, we must also assume that Janeway would have used some form of violence to grab the Maquis ship. This would have given us a very different Janeway ... so I'm glad that things worked out the way they did.

 

[Timo]

Did they ever actually call Chakotay's ship "Val Jean" on the show?

For a rare once, Memory Alpha is right on the map with this. The name appears on screen, and is legible enough, in "Repression". It is not spoken in dialogue, but OTOH it does not come from an unreliable source, an alternate timeline or the like.

What remains completely unknown canonically is the class name for the ship type flown by Chakotay and Eddington. The name Ju'Day came from the studio, sort of, but did not make it to any actual episode, and never was intended to. The name Condor which Memory Alpha attributes to the Customizable Card Game actually came from me, of all things (or then it's one of 'em cosmic coincidences). Tangentially canonical things ranging from Antares to Peregrine have been offered as well, creating more problems that adoption of such would solve.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wagnergrad96]

It would have made the most scenes for starfleet to arrest the entire maquis crew, confiscate the ship and then abandon them on some planet. They were terrorists so screw them.

I don't think Janeway would have gone that route. Especially since they would have needed every hand they could get.

P.S. My first post :-)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

No there is no canon name for Chakotay's ship

Yes, actually, there is. The name Val Jean appears on computer readout screens in "Repression".

(Specifically, the computer used by Teero, the Bajoran terrorist who experiments in mind control. He's checking on the service records of the members of the Maquis he's about to "recruit".)

 

[F. King Daniel]

Screen graphics are done by the art department, often with little or no communication with the people who write the show - hence the big Voyager cutaway at the back of the bridge having 2 warp cores and 2 computer cores, despite episodes establishing only one of each. I'm curious if they were instructed to call Chakotay's ship that or if it was a touch of their own.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Actually the name was chosen BY one of the episode's writers.

 

[Sophie74656]

I don't think Janeway would have gone that route. Especially since they would have needed every hand they could get.

P.S. My first post :-)

Welcome!

 

[Sophie74656]

Yes, actually, there is. The name Val Jean appears on computer readout screens in "Repression".

(Specifically, the computer used by Teero, the Bajoran terrorist who experiments in mind control. He's checking on the service records of the members of the Maquis he's about to "recruit".)

Interesting...one of those things I never noticed before. I have a new giant tv, I'll have to see if I can see that when we get to that episode

 

[Sophie74656]

Screen graphics are done by the art department, often with little or no communication with the people who write the show - hence the big Voyager cutaway at the back of the bridge having 2 warp cores and 2 computer cores, despite episodes establishing only one of each. I'm curious if they were instructed to call Chakotay's ship that or if it was a touch of their own.

My head canon is that the Intrepid class ships do have secondary warp cores but Voyager had to leave in a hurry to rescue Tuvok so they left before it was installed. Also why they don't have the Aeroshuttle.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

PARALLAX:
CHAKOTAY: Can I ask you a question, off the record? If things had happened differently, and we were on the Maquis ship now instead of Voyager, would you have served under me?
JANEWAY: One of the nice things about being Captain is that you can keep some things to yourself.

This, to me, suggests that she wouldn't have served under him. Why else wouldn't she have answered that question with a simple "yes"?
In which case, of course, we must also assume that Janeway would have used some form of violence to grab the Maquis ship. This would have given us a very different Janeway ... so I'm glad that things worked out the way they did.

Correct. Janeway would have NEVER accepted to serve under Chakotay, firstly, out of (personal) pride and secondly, because well, as a Starfleet commanding officer, she would never have laid down arms so easily as Chakotay made it, what means that she would have patiently bided her time for staging a mutiny with Tuvok and the rest of her crew, escaping and finally getting back her vessel. And according to the number of Starfleet officers and Maquis crew, she ould have surely pulled it off!

 

[Sophie74656]

I can't see Janeway staging a mutiny. I see her not wanting to accept being second officer to Chakotay on a maquis run ship because of her Starfleet oath. But I can see her coming to some kind of deal with Chaktoay in order to get her crew home. She will sacrifice her own needs, feelings, dignity to help her crew.