In 2371, the U.S.S. Voyager is carrying out a survey mission of the Badlands, as well as reconnaissance of the Cardassian border. Deep inside the plasma field they pick up a coherent tetryon beam followed by a massive displacement wave. Despite their best efforts, the ship cannot escape the phenomena and is transported 70,000 light-years to the Delta Quadrant. Once there, they discover the remains of several ships that didn't survive the wave in as good condition as the top-on-the-range Starfleet vessel. Shortly after, the surviving crew (about 2/3 of the original 141 complement) are beamed onto an alien array where they are experimented upon. After several days aboard they awaken to find that they aren't the only displaced crew on the Array, a handful of survivors from the hulks outside remain on the station, with no ship to return to and no means of making it home. Facing a long journey home, with significant crew losses, Captain Janeway offers the aliens transport back to the Alpha Quadrant, under the condition that they will be onboard a Starfleet ship and will therefore be held to Starfleet rules and regulations. With agreements from the aliens, Voyager takes on over fifty officers and crew from non-Federation ships for the seventy-five year journey home. In this version, the crew would be made up of non-Starfleet individuals, some of who would find themselves in senior positions due to their experience (as well as trying to better integrate the mixed crew together), so there could be representatives from the: Bajoran Militia, Cardassian Union, Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire, Talarian Republic, etc. In this set up, what species would you include? What roles would they fill? Who would be the characters be?
Each week, one of the new factions steals the ship, gets into a space fight, blows the thing up, then hits the reset button.
I like the idea of having to take on more non-Starfleet survivors. Like a couple Romulans or Cardassians who naturally feud with the Maquis.
Whilst I like the idea, I doubt much would have been different from what we got. The Maquis were supposed to fulfil the role of adding potential conflict to the show. But on the other hand adding say a Romulan could have perhaps led to opportunities to explore that species more, TNG and DSN explored the Klingon's somewhat, DSN explored the Cardassian's, Bajoran's
Then, the breeding starts, and we get the new cast of inter species children in season 2. High school starts at age six. Building Cylons on the Holodeck. Written by Ron Moore!
No,I'm not fond of these suggestions. I was very happy with the premise of Voyager and wouldn't change anything of that. It was how that premise was ruined later on which made me dissapointed.
I always thought it would have been cool if Gul Evek's ship had been pulled through, too, and only a few people survived from his ship and had to be taken aboard Voyager. Preferably at least one Cardassian of both sexes.
The Maquis were outlaws but they came from a Federation or Bajoran upbringing. It would have thrown more of a loop if they had to win over people from a culture with a completely different morals.
Playing along with the OP's premise, about twenty Deltans for the obvious sexist stereotypical reasons. Hubba hubba.
I always thought it'd be cool if it was a constitution class ship set somewhere after TUC. A generational ship that then got back shortly after TNG. Dunno who you'd pick up though. Klingons are only good in careful doses.
And even though the premise was to get away from the alpha quadrant,and the myriad of races that we saw in every series until then,the producers couldn’t look past having both a Vulcan and Klingon crew members.Races that had been done to death really.
I prefer the idea proposed by SFDebris, that the episode "Alliances" should have been the start of Voyager building a quasi-Federation in the Delta Quadrant, starting with the Trabe, being joined by some Talaxian traders, the Equinox crew etc etc a more diverse cast of recurring characters.
Well I agree that a more diverse crew could have added more story ideas, doing it on a tv budget kind of scales down what your abble to do, some face tatoos, some ears, one half klingon, one full talaxian, remmeber, your having these people come in early and sit for maybe a couple hours to get into there kit.. I like Rikers crew in the books, think it was over half is non human, with a Velociraptor as a chief medical officer! Thats why I wish the non comedy upcoming animated stuff wasn't just for kids ( I mean.. I watched TOS as a 5 year old.. but now adays its all pg-13 .... sad) Star trek is perfect for animated showing a whole bunch of non humanoid characters. On another idea, maybe have a lost ship that Can't get back? That was stuck in another galaxy and it would be 200 years to get back, so they can't, and then they set up there own mini federation..
Some proper exploration. This would've been great to have seen. The roster would've needed a proper counsellor, given issues people would have with never seeing family or home again, which would allow for some great character-driven stories (regardless of what species were onboard). Also another universe would also mean more non-humanoid species encountered, given that the "Progenitors Species" didn't go further than the Milky Way.