If you could rewrite Voyager

[Tenacity]

I would keep Kes and lose Kim.

Reduce Kim to a reoccurring character, a few dozen appearances . Only use Kim when they had something important for him to do, there were a small number of episodes where Kim really shined. Most of the time he could have been replace with a random day player.

I can appreciate the wish to have a East Asian actor as a regular, but Kim's character usually wasn't important.

Since then we have had the original Star Trek rebooted in the movies and Discovery doesn't suffer from the whole 'Janeway is the first Starfleet captain'

The Voyage Home features the first (seen) Starfleet female ship's captain. Given the brevity of her screen time I thought Madge Sinclair (the actress) did quite well.

She would have made a interesting Janeway, died before the show premiered of course.

Bride of Chaotica

This episode speaks to one of Voyager's strengths, the abilities to convincingly do a wide variety of episode types, from deadly serious to goofy comedic. It would be impossible to image the current incarnation of Star Trek so wonderfully executing the story of "Bride of Chaotica."

 

[Discofan]

Contrary to some of my friends, I am fond of "Bride Of Chaotica". I thought it was an effective pastiche of Flash Gordon/ Buck Rogers types of comic books.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Could you say the same about her alliance with the Borg? It was against every single principle she defended the rest of the series. She did everything against the book on that one and was later called on it by the guy who's entire people went extinct because of her.

Janeway's alliance with the Borgs* was purely strategic and above all, a matter of life against the same enemy, known too to be the most dangerous species - even the Borgs, who were so proud of the ir‎invincibility, feared them - living in DQ: Species 8472. ‎And I'd add that at the relevant time, Voyager and her crew had nobody to defend than themselves as seeing as there were only them, the Borgs and Species 8472. It is called survival instinct and this one sometimes forces people to associate with their worst enemy.
-> IF there had been innocent people to save at that moment, Janeway & her crew would not have hesitated to engage in the battle to repel the enemies, in order to help even if this means sacrificing themselves.

(*I don't think that she has felt any pride or joy to ally with them but she had to do it to avoid the deadly fate of her owns. By the way, I remind that it wasn't the only time she made unnatural alliances with unfriend species : the Kazons, the Hirogens, even if the result‎ has not always been satisfactory).

Could she know that afterwards, the Borgs finally got rid of their mortal enemy, would pursue their desire for hegemony on the DQ?! Maybe ‎could she have guessed & warned other people via the sending of a message, especially after to have having studied all that was possible to know about them, but she had other concerns - indeed real ones - in mind when she decided to propose the deal to Borgs: save ‎by all means, her crew, including "making a deal with the Devil" if necessary..

On the other hand, Janeway's reproaches/judgement towards Ramsom, after she learned what he and his crew has done to the nucleogenic creatures (even if these ones couldn't be compared to Species 8472 or Borgs), was full hypocritical in my opinion. There too, it was a matter of survival instinct. There is not always the luxury of choosing what is right and what is wrong when people faces ‎an extreme situation, like ‎the survival of his/her people.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I can appreciate the wish to have a East Asian actor as a regular, but Kim's character usually wasn't important.

Unfortunately he was more of racial diversity box ticked than a decent character (same as Mayweather).

 

[Discofan]

Unfortunately he was more of racial diversity box ticked than a decent character (same as Mayweather).

MayWeather was worse. At times, I wondered if he was still part of the crew.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

He was a glorified extra, which really did make him just a token character.

 

[Discofan]

He was a glorified extra, which really did make him just a token character.

I remember that in Twilight we only see him dead, not even dying, just dead. Talk about an insulting part for a recurring character.

 

[Dukhat]

I usually give Voyager a bad rap (along with Enterprise). VOY wasn't a bad show, but to me its two greatest flaws were:

1. Its complete unbelievability and suspension of disbelief, and

2. It was just more of the same.

Granted these decisions were made by the producers a few seasons into the show, but the bottom line is that the show's initial concept (strand the ship in an unexplored part of the galaxy without the usual Federation, Klingons, Romulans, etc. thereby creating a new universe where the old Trek rules didn't apply) was basically dropped and the status quo returned, because neither the producers nor the writers could or wanted to do something different. UPN liked playing it safe and not taking chances. They mistakenly thought that "more of the same" would be what the viewers wanted. And it's a shame, because I could see early in the show certain things that I thought would made this series different. Like how they initially focused on Chakotay's spirituality and the vision quests/animal guides. Instead of relying on technology to survive, they would rely on their own inner selves. But we ended up getting none of that, and technobabble to the extreme in its place.

But I could have handled "more of the same" if the show took itself seriously. But it didn't. You don't have every episode entail the ship getting blown to pieces only to have it back in pristine condition by the start of the next. You don't have characters complaining about lack of resources while at the same time having everyone use the holodeck every other week. You don't have a magically unlimited supply of shuttlecraft. You don't have the Delta Flyer explode into a million pieces and back to the same way it looked immediately. You don't have personnel with uniforms that looked like they just stopped at a starbase yesterday and got new ones. You don't have Janeway constantly addressing every new alien race they encounter by saying "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager" and have those aliens act like they know exactly who she is and what the Federation is.

So the show didn't need to change much. I liked most of the characters, even if most of them were underused and the focus went to the Big Three (Janeway, Seven, and the Doctor), but that's not new in Star Trek. They just needed to stick to their core concept, and give us some believability about a ship stranded in a distant part of the galaxy with no help, and the crew adapt to that in a believable way.

 

[F. King Daniel]

You don't have personnel with uniforms that looked like they just stopped at a starbase yesterday and got new ones. You don't have Janeway constantly addressing every new alien race they encounter by saying "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager" and have those aliens act like they know exactly who she is and what the Federation is..

Just gonna nitpick these two. They replicate fresh uniforms every morning, so they should look fresh. And they established pretty early on that Voyager had established a rep that was preceding them through the Delta Quadrant.

 

[Lynx]

I would keep Kes and lose Kim.

I totally agree.
But I don't want to dump anyone of the original main characters. They were all good.
Kim was definitely the weakest but he did have some potential. In the books he's actually doing something.
But dumping Kes was a stupid and rude move.

 

[STEPhon IT]

HughLobes- regarding character development I believe that a lot of what you are asking for was present at the beginning of the series. Janeway is portrayed as a first time captain of Voyager. She is more scientific than other Captains, often researching scientific situations on her own (Parallax).

Janeway would've been an interesting character if she actually act like a first time Captain. Nothing would've been more gripping if the Captain, who never experienced any space combat has to rely on Maquis/ex starfleet officers like Chakotay to help her out. This character was infallible and seems to be right on every turn on that show.

*I wish us members here could actually create a legitimate Voyager story thread and type up a tale of our own. Not that redundant, very retarded 5 word gimmick which has plagued most of the boards, but something thought out and taken seriously.

 

[STEPhon IT]

MayWeather was worse. At times, I wondered if he was still part of the crew.

Berman and Braga were not thinking having the black guy driving the ship. Jesus Christ.

 

[catshadowsi8]

Spoiler Alert for those not into Season 6.

Ghislaine H.B. BRAEME- I agree about Janeway and the alliance with the Borg. She has two choices. Rock...hard place. She choose the rock. It's a matter of survival no matter what choice she makes.

As for Arturis his people were doomed anyway. It was assimilate or be eaten alive. (Ok that's the end of my lunch.) They were doomed either way so it's not on Janeway his people are gone imo.

With Ransom though the choice was between survival or revenge. She choose the latter not once, but twice. First when she refused to find the Ankari to stop the attacks on her ship and secondly when she pursues the Equinox into the atmosphere. If not for Chakotay yelling at her she would have lost shields and the aliens would have attacked her crew. Tjmo

 

[STEPhon IT]

Having the Borg make deals with anyone is like trying to negotiate with a tick or a mosquito not to suck your blood. Alliances with the Borg is not the Borg!

 

[Dukhat]

Just gonna nitpick these two. They replicate fresh uniforms every morning, so they should look fresh. And they established pretty early on that Voyager had established a rep that was preceding them through the Delta Quadrant.

I don't recall anyone saying they constantly replicated new uniforms, but my memory about that show isn't the sharpest. And wouldn't replicating new uniforms every morning be a complete waste of their resources? Oh wait, yeah, wasting resources doesn't matter because I'm suspending my disbelief that they are in any kind of dire straits at all by being stranded on the other side of the galaxy.

As for their "rep," I'm not sure that's entirely accurate either. I got more of an impression that the aliens-of-the-week just didn't care who she was, not that they knew her or the Federation by secondhand knowledge. Or perhaps it was the writers who didn't care. Yeah, I think that's more accurate

 

[Discofan]

I totally agree.
But I don't want to dump anyone of the original main characters. They were all good.
Kim was definitely the weakest but he did have some potential. In the books he's actually doing something.
But dumping Kes was a stupid and rude move.

Some say that she left because she'd developed an allergy to make up and that would explain why she changed her hairstyle toward the end. He ears were covered and they could dispense from making them up. I am not sure I believe that.

 

[Tenacity]

I thought the reason (main reason) Lien's character was dispensed with was they were bringing Ryan onto the show (a move I agree with), and for budget reasons one of the existing main cast members had to go. Wang had just receives a magazine award which gave the show visibility (but which did nothing to increase Wang's acting ability), so by default Lien was fired.

The fact that the writers seemed to have trouble figuring out what to do with Kes probably didn't help Lien's chances.

Berman and Braga were not thinking having the black guy driving the ship.

That what Roddenberry initially did with LaForge, and TOS had the Asian driver, and DS9 often had the woman driver.

Not sure what point you were trying to make.

You don't have characters complaining about lack of resources while at the same time having everyone use the holodeck every other week.

Compare this with the story arc on nuBSG where the ships completely run out of all food and people start to starve, get too weak to move, and are in physical pain.

There's one scene in the pilot's bunk room where one of the pilots is at the point of death, and the other pilots scrape together the last of their food, which amount to about one cracker worth of crumbs, and feed it a pinch at a time into the starving pilot's mouth.

I haven't seen nuBSG for years, and that scene is still vividly with me.

 

[Tracy Trek]

Just gonna nitpick these two. They replicate fresh uniforms every morning, so they should look fresh. And they established pretty early on that Voyager had established a rep that was preceding them through the Delta Quadrant.

I don't recall anyone saying they constantly replicated new uniforms, but my memory about that show isn't the sharpest. And wouldn't replicating new uniforms every morning be a complete waste of their resources?

I thought what they did was just refresh the uniforms through the replicator which (if I understand correctly) recycles the same matter back minus the dirt/stains/whatever that might be on the uniform. Not quite the same and maybe less of an energy drain as replicating a whole new uniform.

Or is this just something I may have seen in one of the novels?

 

[Catarina]

I remember reading "Year of Hell" was going to be a season-long arc, but somebody nixed the idea.

IIRC, The network nix'd it. Braga wanted it. UPN..Utter Preposterous Nonsense.

Oh, having said that, I still didn't like the network even if what they decided was for the best because they didn't deliver a consistent concept and that is probably why they shot it down. Beat the ship out of hell like that and you can forget a reason to get to season 7 is probably what they were thinking and the show was more episodic than serial arcs so they were keeping to the tone.

 

[Prax]

Yeah, they recycle uniforms through the replicators. I don't know where it's specifically mentioned, but I know they talk about it a couple of times. There's no laundromat or maids on Voyager. They replicate clothes, and Riker says "The ship is self-cleaning."

If Year of Hell was to be made a season long, it would make for a good single season series, but not a seven year star trek show. On the wiki, it says it was always planned to be a two-part episode, but originally intended as the season 3 finale.

I think the confusion comes from statements about the story's concept as "taking place over the course of a year," which is referring to in-universe time(which it does. Example: "day 12," "day 79," "day 231," etc). It's a cool idea, and made for a cool episode(s).