What if Voyager had simply been a movie? Imagine a big screen production like First Contact with movie grade actors cast in the roles. Instead of getting stranded in the DQ, Janeway stays behind to destroy the array. The ending being Janeway lefr behind, the crew vowing to go back for her if they can find a way. The final scene of the movie, Janeway landing her shuttle on Ocampa, geared up, braving the desert, ready to find a way down to the friendly people below. Anyone got another what ifs?
If Janeway started interbreeding with the Ocampa, it would destroy their society. Dozens and eventually hundreds of essentially immortal descendants that will not die customarily, choke-holding all the limited natural resources. These hybrid Supermen with 10 times the life expectancy of any one else under Ocampa would also think that they should be in charge, watching idiot generation after generation making the same mistakes every 3 years. Although, they all die in the dark from cannibalism when the replicator power runs out at year 5, so it doesn't matter what plans these Janeways have for the future.
What crew, exactly? I mean, at that point the Maquis crew was anything but loyal yet so they might be just as happy to be home again, and the Starfleet crew was in tatters, half of them having died, and they had probably been together a few days at best, too, as this was their very first mission. It only became a true crew out of sheer necessity, which wouldn't be the case anymore had they all gotten home save one. I mean, had such a scenario happened in, say, season 5, sure, they'd go back. But at the time of Caretaker ?
Have to spend a brief period of time explaining who the federation is, and that they're the good guys. Who the maquis are, and that the federation (the good guys) sold them out. Short mention of the cardassians, so the audience can know who seska is. That Voyager is in the bad lands looking for the Jean-whatever. Log entry would probably do. Rest of the movie could pick up with the displacement wave. Mid-nineties movie, figure about 100 minutes. Good luck.
The only problem with this scenario would be the fans complaining about Voyager going to the Delta Quadrant and not encountering the Borg, just some dinky Klingon wannabes. I wouldn't have minded seeing an R-rated Equinox movie. Show Ransom and his EMH conducting all kinds of morbid, fucked up experiments on the trans-dimensional aliens to really get us hating him. Then, have Janeway go fucking bonkers trying to bring him to justice. Maybe have an epic ship battle between Voyager, Equinox and other ships Equinox had fucked over.
Sorry, this makes absolutely no sense. First of all, why would anyone want to pay money to go to a theater to see a cast of complete strangers playing characters they've never heard of or care about, in a story about their ship being stranded on the other side of the galaxy for only two hours before they just came right back home? And the fact that Janeway would be left behind would be meaningless to the audience because they don't even know who she is.
I get what you're saying, but 99.99% of all the movies ever made are about characters new to the audience. A well written movie can take care of all the problems you mentioned.
I’m talking about a Star Trek film. Yeah, die-hard fans would go see it, but it would bomb at the box office.
A 1995 movie with a bunch of characters shanghai'd to the back end of nowhere by an ancient technology, they face off against alien warlords, some of them get killed, some go home, but one stays behind? You know what the reaction would be? "I saw this movie last year. It had Kurt Russell and James Spader in it."
the scenario included "movie grade actors." To most movie goers people like Steward and Shatner barelyt fall under that definition. So you put half dozen a-list actors of the 1990's (e.g. Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner, etc.) in a big budget scifi movie with a good script, and the star power alone would draw people to go see it.
What if they stopped the Voyager series with the double episode 16-17 - season7 - "Workforce". Only they didnt escape the planet or got their memories back, so they just lived and worked there and had a normal life there.? so next year,( 20 years after the workforce episodes), we could re-cast all the original actors and make a film about them getting their memories back and plotting about how to escape the planet and continue their journey to the Alpha Quadrant.
Why not keep the original actors and have them conflicted between their 20 years of their new lives and what they knew before?
I always thought Voyager would make for a good reboot movie, a little like the 1999 Lost in Space. They jump to the Delta Quadrant into the middle of Borg space (probably taken by the Borg for some reason instead of the dull Caretaker), pick up Neelix and liberate Seven of Nine then battle the Queen and get home via transwarp hub. All while learning the true meaning of family, or something.