Poll One Must Die...

[DonIago]

...or at least be written off. Probably.

It's late season three of the series, and Voyager is about to enter Borg space. In the writers' room there's been much discussion of a possible new regular character, a Borg who will be liberated from the collective.

While this idea is compelling, budgetary realities dictate that if this character is introduced, one of the existing regular characters will need to be removed from the series.

In the end, you and you alone are given final responsibility for choosing who will be fired from the series to make way for this new character. Or you can exercise the nuclear option and declare the series is fine as-is, and veto the new character altogether.

Bonus points if you're able to put yourself in the mindset of the series as it was at the time, rather than the series as it became.

 

[Sophie74656]

Well if you're in the mindset of the people who were in the room then your main concern is how to make money.

Janeway is the captain and main character so I think she would always be safe.

Harry becomes safe because of his appearance in the sexy people magazine which will bring in ratings.

Chakotay, B'Elanna, and Tuvok are minorities so removing one of them could pose PR problems.

Tom is the bad boy "heart throb" and appeals to the ladies so he needs to stay.

The Doctor fills the artificial life form slot which is popular in Trek.

That leaves Kes and Neelix. As the resident DQ aliens they fill the role of outsider observing humans so you need to keep one of them. After that i guess it would come down to the contract terms and who would be cheaper to let go

 

[at Quark's]

^nicely reasoned!

However, I'm not certain I agree with the Harry argument. I mean, I know it is said this actually was the argument to keep Harry, when the intention was to ditch him earlier.

But what if the consensus would have been 'nice that he's been mentioned there, but that effect will probably fade away in a month or two at most .... Now let's look to who's a structural asset or liability in terms of viewership and ratings'?

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

To be honest, once Endgame was over, I was quite surprised (and even disappointed) to notice that the group of main characters, composed by Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Tom, B'Elena, Harry and the Doctor, remained unchanged (and perfectly well) from the events, which happend in Caretaker.
Indeed, I think that it would have been necessary to remove, preferably violently, at least one of main characters, just to significantly undermine this group of people, who ended to see/consider themself as a family. Of course, viewers who shared this feeling, would have been shaked to guts, especially after a so long time spent together, week after week, but let's be honest, it would have been a (logic) eventuality after a journey of 7 years where they escaped death so often, while some other crew members died, sometimes so stupidly and/or in presence of one of main characters.

And then, if you look at Star Trek history under Rick Berman's commands, you will see that almost each of his series saw one of its main character die violently, whatever on big or TV screen (Cpt Kirk in 1994's Generations, Jadzia Dax in DS9's s6) and later, Tucker, in Entreprise's s4 and finally Data in 2002's Nemesis. And if the Paramount's executives were not heavily implicated in Voyager, Seven* would have died, in deciding to sacrifice herself for the well being of her new Collective. But as seeing as they did it, Voyager remained the only series of ST saga to have kept his senior staff safe & sound during the 7 years of the journey!

* For me, and even if Seven became an essiential new addition to the crew, through the seasons, and so emotionally dear to Janeway, Tuvok & the Doctor (and supposedly to Chakotay in Endgame), she wasn't a part of the initial crew we long met in Caretaker. Same for Kes & Neelix we met in the 3rd episode of S1, when Voyager was already stuck in DQ. So even if their deaths would have upsetted me, I would have been even more for "the famous 7".

As for the name of the eventual victim, I have a "preference" but even if my favourite character, Janeway, had to die further to an attack or because she
had decided to sacrifice for her crew, I would have accepted it as the story warranted and if it was well done.

 

[Tenacity]

Well if you're in the mindset of the people who were in the room then your main concern is how to make money.

If it's a money matter, then Kate Mulgrew is out. She was the highest paid actor on the show. And the death of Janeway would have been a major event .

With the addition of Seven, and the retention of Kes, the male-female mix on cast would have remained the same. Chakotay would become captain (first Native American captain) and Tuvok first officer. I never felt that those two liked each other and that would place a interesting dynamic on the command team.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Chakotay. Nobody would even notice.

 

[Refuge]

Can't do it. Liked them all.

Reminds me of the.. I don't know if it's an urban myth, where people are asked that if a lifeboat is about to sink and in it there's a politician, priest, scientist (I can't remember who now), but which one do you put overboard to save the rest?

Apparently a child said.. the 'heaviest'.

 

[Tracy Trek]

I know it's not what the poll is asking, but my choice would be no one is let go and they still get Seven. No one was let go when Worf joined DS9.

 

[Thomas Eugene]

I know it's not what the poll is asking, but my choice would be no one is let go and they still get Seven. No one was let go when Worf joined DS9.

Spoken in true Voyager spirit. Anyone who is a genuine fan of this show will agree with this - and will understand the feelings behind the words.

 

[DonIago]

I understand the feeling, but it does sidestep the question. I mean, I think most people would choose "keep them all" if that was an option.

 

[Jayson1]

I would have killed 3 of them during "Scorpion" and that would be Kes,KIm and Choctay. That way Seven of NIne wouldn't be the only new regular but you would have 2 others as well to help create a new dynamic on the ship, which makes sense if your trying to shake things up and increase the ratings.
As for the 2 new characters I kind of like the idea of a clone of Kes being made where she has a more darker personality from the real Kes and maybe a gay character who is a 24th century nerd who is promoted because of the death's.

Jason

 

[DonIago]

Interesting to see Kes and Kim tied given that they were the two who fell under scrutiny, and kind of hilarious to see Chakotay also tied.

A little surprised that nobody's voted for Neelix.

 

[at Quark's]

^Even though some may find the Neelix character obnoxious, he is nevertheless a very distinct character with his own unique 'flavour', and he adds something unique to the voyager mix (for better or for worse). That's perhaps more than can be said about characters such as Kim or Chakotay (who seemed to add not that much once you started looking beyond that 'native american background').

 

[questella]

Kes had to go, her race only lived 9 years anyways, better than making her an old lady by season 7 imo. At least she went out better than Tasha did.

 

[Jayson1]

Kes had to go, her race only lived 9 years anyways, better than making her an old lady by season 7 imo. At least she went out better than Tasha did.

You know what I thought off that I'm surprised I never had before but what if instead of killing Kes they recasted her with Jeri Ryan? We know she was going through somekind of change in "Scorpion" but what if it manifested itself into a physcial change? Then still let Lien return from time to time as maybe a visual hallucination that Kes talks to as she adjusts to her new body.

Jason

 

[Lynx]

I know it's not what the poll is asking, but my choice would be no one is let go and they still get Seven. No one was let go when Worf joined DS9.

I totally agree with you here!

Jason1 wrote:

You know what I thought off that I'm surprised I never had before but what if instead of killing Kes they recasted her with Jeri Ryan? We know she was going through somekind of change in "Scorpion" but what if it manifested itself into a physcial change? Then still let Lien return from time to time as maybe a visual hallucination that Kes talks to as she adjusts to her new body.

Now that would have been a terrible insult to Jennifer Lien, even worse than the original firing was.

And a downright insult to the Kes/Lien fans too.

 

[Refuge]

I totally agree with you here!

Jason1 wrote:

Now that would have been a terrible insult to Jennifer Lien, even worse than the original firing was.

And a downright insult to the Kes/Lien fans too.

Agreed, what a horrible idea.

 

[at Quark's]

I don't like the idea at all either. I think Kes added something specific and valuable to the show, just like Neelix did.

However it made me wonder who exactly it is that the Kes fans missed more: the character Kes or the actress Lien playing her?

So, suppose that you'd have to choose between two ugly alternatives: either ditching Kes but keeping Lien (i.e. she gets to play another character on the show), or keeping Kes but ditching Lien (i.e. Kes will be played by another actress), which would it be?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Have the EMH programme deleted by a Borg-induced power surge, which would see Kes step up as the ship's only medic--which would make any future medical-themed episodes all the more tense as the ship doesn't have a doctor onboard to rely upon. Also could've added a nice little dynamic between her and Paris (if he still became her helper), which could either become an alternative to Paris/Torres or seen the two of them developing a more sibling-like relationship (him seeking her advice when he hits a snag with Torres).

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Either Neelix or Kim. Neelix could have been a good character if they wrote him a little differently but most of the show he was just annoying for the sake of annoying and failing to be funny. Kim they clearly weren't interested in writing anything interesting for.

They could have easily found a way around aging Kes. They already established in Cold Fire the Ocampa could live a lot longer under different circumstances. The Ocampa living to 9 could be like ancient humans living to 21.