Neelix's shuttle, the Baxial, was a total missed opportunity. This is something the show's creators should have fleshed out. It should have been small like Voyager's shuttles, maybe a little bigger. As a set piece, it should have been a cabin seperated into a cockpit and a rear cabin. The exterior should have been alien, Talaxian, a piece of home Neelix escaped in when his home world was destroyed. Episode to episode, his shuttle could have served Voyager when an away team needed to be stealthy and not give away they're from Voyager. In the episode where he left the ship, imagine if he'd sacrificed his ship, only to be saved by the Delta Flyer's transporter beam. Janeway rewards him by giving him a Voyager shuttle to keep as he rejoins his people. Thoughts?
No offense, but the problem wasn't Neelix's shuttle being a missed opportunity. It was Neelix himself that was the missed opportunity. He was supposed to be Voyager's guide through the Delta Quadrant, but not only did he know extremely little about that area of space, he was given a job (cook) that was completely unnecessary, since the ship seemed to have unlimited energy to power things like the replicator and the holodeck. So Neelix was pretty much pointless. He certainly wasn't even believable as Kes's boyfriend, as they had zero chemistry. And the character's main role as 'comic relief' was pale at best. So yeah, they should have had Neelix pilot his ship in front of Voyager every episode so that he could scout around for them, since he really had no other purpose.
Right, I'm suggesting he should have been used like this on the regular. Given there were no other Starfleet or friendly alien ships to aide Voyager on the regular, they should have made regular use of the shuttlebay. Imagine if we saw shuttles coming and going on a regular basis. It doesn't always habe to be a major plot point either. Shuttle returns to Voyager with supplies to find the ship crippled. Plot happens. The Delta Flyer and Neelix's shuttle fly in opposite directions for help. I wanted to see more of that. Granted, 45 minutes without commercials, 42 minuted without intro and end credits. Basically, the shuttles should have been used as often as DS9 featured the Runabouts.
Ah, ok. The problem with that, however, is that every alien race Voyager came across acted like they already knew who Janeway, Voyager, and the Federation was. So there was really no need for Neelix to be some type of ambassador between the two. I'm not trying to be argumentative here; most of this was an inherent problem of the show.
Neelix's role as guide would have been rendered moot after a certain point no matter what. I think they timed this with "FAIR TRADE" pretty well. As far as cook, yeah they did a rather sloppy job of him being there when they gad all the replicator energy soon after. Now his ambassadorial duties, that was worth getting more mileage out of. I thought he did well in that regard. Plus he is a cheerful person... a good front face when you want to deal with new aliens.
I think the value would have come from just offering a different more alien place to film scenes. Make it more alien looking and give the ship some personality and something a little different from the Starfleet look you see in all the other standing sets except when they go to the holodeck. Nice thing about DS9 after they got the Defiant and still had the Runabouts is you had the alien look of DS9 but also the Starfleet look of the ships for some variety. Jason
There's a fan theory that the Aeroshuttle wasn't installed yet on Voyager, and that it's just a hatch as a placeholder. I mean, I guess that works. But really though.... The entire idea of the Delta Flyer being uniquely suited to the Delta Quadrant.... What made the Delta Quadrant so different in terms space conditions than the rest?
Rick Berman didn't want VOY to use the dropship idea, because the Captain's Yacht was to be featured in Insurrection. Couldn't they have introduced the drop ship the following season? Maybe they abandoned the dropship once they had the Delta Flyer?
The best explanation I've read is that they didn't wanna risk leaving a huge gap in the hull if they ever lost the aeroshuttle with no replacement available
Why though? I mean, I warpfield or anything else isn't depending on a aerodynamic shape, right? I mean, a friggin Cube can do warp. We've seen many weird shapes do it. Structural integrity? Nah. Basically, it would mean the main ship is useless when the Wing goes on a mission.
To be fair, in "MANEUVERS", they couldn't go to warp because that Kazon ship was rammed on Voyager. But you do have a point... tyat aeroshuttle was a part of the ship's design, so it shouldn'y matter.
The shape of the aeroshuttle on the primary hull bottom is so flat and smooth that I'm thinking it's but a hatch, covering the real deal. I know the separation test VFX doesn't show this, but it would be weird for the bottom of the craft to really be that featureless: even the humble shuttles were given more ventral detail. If this is a cover plate, it might be what all Intrepids have there, covering either the aeroshuttle or the empty space. Or then only the Voyager has this plate while regular ships of the class have the aeroshuttle visible there instead. Timo Saloniemi
The Cousteau's ventral hull was part of the Enterprise hull. I guess the same was true for the Calypso.