The One Thing You Could Change, VOYAGER Edition...

I decided on a thought exercise for myself, and wanted to see what other people would come up with. I am going to do this for each series, except DISCOVERY and PICARD, as they are still currently in production.

Come up with only ONE thing you would change about a series. It can be something about a character, a storyline, or even something physical, like a different ship design. It can be anything you like, provided it would be used for more than just one episode.


For VOYAGER, this is hard, because despite my great enjoyment of the show, there are a number of things I would have liked to see more/less of.

So my pick will be something not typical of most people. I would like to have seen more species with less of a technological edge. More along the lines of seasons 1 and 2. I say this because ironically, the Voyager itself seemed to also need more supplies/help during that time. It felt slightly more believable than later years. The lack of tech edge seemed to mirror them on the practicsl stuff, and I don't know if that was on purpose or just a weird coincidence.

It definitely would have put the series in a more arc driven mode, I think.

Your ideas, everyone?

 

There are a few things I would like to change but if I'm allowed to change only one, then it's that a certain horrible episode in season 6 should never have been done. Instead should my fanfiction story "Coming Home" has been a two-parter in its place.

 

Have "Year of Hell" cover an entire season as the showrunners wanted it to.

 

I'd just get rid of 'Fury.' For me, this would vastly improve the entire franchise!

 

More Maquis conflict.

 

Admit that Janeway is suffering from PTSD or some other kind of mental breakdown and that her crew realizes it, but they don't know how.

This could be her first command and once they are sucked half way across the galaxy, she still tries to cling to her Starfleet ideals, but finds more and more that they don't work in this area of space. These edicts that she has had drilled into her no longer apply and she begins to fracture. She starts taking risks to get the crew home and after some initial success, those decisions begin to backfire and cost lives. She is lost, but feels she needs to maintain a command image for the crew. The crew has no idea how to approach her.

One minor nitpick I'd also change: don't make it Janeway's decision to stay in the Delta Quadrant at the end of the pilot. It is an easily picked apart decision.

 

Make it feel like they're lost in space. I've seen a couple episodes of it while it was airing, and I had no idea the crew were lost or stranded anywhere until a few months after the series was over. I thought they were just exploring space like in the previous Star Trek shows.

 

Ditch Harry, keep Kes, still add 7.

 

It's going to take 70 years to get home. Encourage the crew to have children!

 

This.

 

The biggest overall change I would make would be to have the show more serialised, with events from past episodes having impact on what comes after--the whole concept of the show screams out for this approach, as then you could really get in that the ship is always being patched up and running low on supplies as morale dwindles, you know, all the kinds of things these poor people would have to endure.

If that was off the table, my change would be to keep the Doctor restricted to sickbay. When he had limitations and lacked the freedom of the other crew there was some sympathy for him (feeling trapped due to circumstances is something we can all relate too, especially right now), when he got the mobile emitter his ego and narcissism became overwhelming and he turned into an arrogant, overly-hammy, and thoroughly insufferable character, at least stuck in sickbay he had some level of modesty.

 

Even if Voyager was in the delta quadrant, no Borg. Before Voyager the Borg was a real threat. In Voyager more like the villain of the week. Not having the Borg would also leave out the stupid Hansen storyline where they hunt the Borg that "robbed" TNG of their first contact with the Borg.

 

I know, it's a bit of cheating, but my answer would be: elaborate all the good ideas they had and transform than into some bigger storylines (while I wouldn't make VOY into a real serial). Those ideas are:

A big point is, of course, the "Maquis situation". I understand why there are no bigger differences between the ex-maquis and the original starfleet crew in the later seasons, but at the beginning, it was a bit too fast for me. I wouldn't need a real conflict like in Tuvok's programm, but it would be better, if I really could "feel" how they grow together. Maybe, Seska's storyline could have made with this in mind: While some of the ex maquis follow Seska's way, the other begin to understand, how "wrong" this way really is.

Another big point, is of course, the year of hell. It would have put a real "learning curve" into VOY, when the crew, just after the conflict between Maquis and starfleet has been solved, would have gone into the year of hell. This year really could have been a "fire test" for the 'new crew'.

Just to make the Borg a bit scarier, I would have put them AFTER the year of hell (which wouldn't have been deleted, of course). As the last real hurdle on Voyager's way home. So, after a very dark and gritty year of hell and the Borg as the ultimative "bossfight", in the last season(s), the crew could become hopeful again.

It would have brought more variation into the series.

 

Give Chakotay more of a presence on VOY, I never liked what was done to his character.

 

Actually stick to the premise.

Have Janeway be capable but out of her depth, with somewhat skewed priorities, which she needs to work out over a couple seasons. Sometimes she gets it right herself, sometimes she listens to Chakotay, sometimes he is wrong, sometimes she is wrong, but no matter what she should keep learning and adapting.

Chakotay as ex-Starfleet finds it easy to integrate himself despite some resentment, but has to do all the heavy lifting getting the never in Starfleet set and ejected from Starfleet set to work with the Starfleet crew. There's also trouble between the Starfleet and Maquis crews he has to settle, which is harder when the respect from the Starfleet crew is not instant. He has yet more work convincing Janeway not to pretend everything is alright, and that stopping to scan every errant space rock is a bad idea, and that facing situations with the take the first hit method is going to really bite them in the ass in the long run due to lack of support structure. He has his own issues trusting and commanding Tuvok.

Tuvok has a bad time getting respect from the Maquis crew and his story arc involves earning it back. Considering he is a spy, which means he knows how to get people's trust, and would have Chakotay's grudging support this story should follow a fairly straight line.

Take damage to the ship more seriously and tackle the torpedo and shuttle limitations head on, explain the fuel limit straight off. Over all set hard limits, track them, and tackle them before they become problems. Some should be easy, others should be long term projects, and yet others should crop up only occasionally and be serious. Replicators explain a lot, but given bad enough damage the ship should have to find an asteroid to scrape and a safe place to lie low for a week.

Kim, I think, is the only person with no family back home and starting at the very bottom of the chain of command. He has a built in arc which will fit perfectly with sticking to the premise. He is positioned in such a way that he could make friends with everyone, climb in rank steadily and help integrate the crew. He would also be in line with Janeway's desire to take being stranded as an opportunity to explore new space, like Data in "Where No One has Gone Before."

 

Another vote for more conflict between Starfleet and Maquis. Not stick them all straight into Starfleet uniforms. Not have them effectively integrate perfectly with only some superficial issues. Maybe not have the two Maquis senior officers already be Starfleet trained.

 

No, thank you; two episodes were enough. This is not the 2004 Battlestar Galactica, or any other dystopian SF & F show, but Star Trek. If you want to make some episodes dark, that's fine, but having them be subjected to this would be a disaster and would invite criticism from the 'silent majority' of fans who liked Voyager as is. I'd suggest that the people who want something like this watch something else, or create their own SF show(s) that would have episodes like this.

As for myself, a change I'd like to make if I was the franchise runner would've been to include Sarah Silverman's character of Rain Robinson as originally intended, but to get rid of Garrett Wang as Harry Kim; his character seems to have no real reason to be there, as he never really progressed in rank and just seems to be there as the buddy of Tom Paris. Rain Robinson as a young, intelligent lady scientist who is now in the 24th century because of what happend in the episode she was introduced in and who would be an asset to Voyager because of her being a woman out of her time (like Buck Rogers or Steve Rogers) but loving the opportunities for scientific work and exploring the stars up close and personal, is better than Harry Kim going nowhere with his career. There would be, however, the question of what to do with Kes, after Rain's introduced, and also what to do with Rain after Seven is introduced.

 

Starfleet vs Maquis conflict. Let them come to blows, resulting in the deaths of Chakotay and Kim, and in the process contributes to a season long Year of Hell situation that ends with the Voyager crew encountering the USS Equinox.

 

never put the marquis in starfleet uniforms. chakotay would at most agree to put them in clean untatered clothing, not being starfleet official they are civilian consultants or allied foreign military.

of course the marquis would resent and even hate starfleet. yes the marquis are fighting the cardassians, but it was the federation that threw them to the wolves. and it's starfleet that enforces the federations decisions.