If a Different Series Did That Episode

[WarpTenLizard]

In this thread, you take the plot of an episode from one "Star Trek" series, and reassign it to another.

Please refrain from jokes about real ripoff-episodes. ("Lol, all of TNG to Voyager...oh wait!! Lolz") I've heard it, it bores me.

Some ideas:

TNG: "The Next Phase"
Give to "Voyager"

Torres and Kim take the places of Ro and Geordie, getting lost in the transport accident. This plotline has the feel of an early-seasons episode, with the pair's friendship still forming. Like Ro, B'Elanna initially thinks they're dead, and wonders if the Barge of the Dead is still a myth, or if she's been rejected by the Klingon afterlife altogether.

Tom Paris--who B'Elanna hasn't confessed her feelings to yet--fills the role of Commander Riker, in this sense:

TOM: "I'd like to say a few words at the memorial service."
JANEWAY: "Of course, Harry was your best friend."
TOM: "Actually, I was thinking of B'Elanna."
B'ELANNA: (Invisible to them) "What are you going to say about me?!"

Neelix arranges the oddly festive "memorial service." Kes probably senses that B'Elanna and the Dweeb are still alive. Replace the evil Romulan with a Kazon; it's fun to see those dunderheads tumbling stupidly through space. And of course, B'Elanna doesn't get to find out what Tom was going to say about her, until "Day of Honor" in Season 4.

DS9: "Children of Time"
Give to "Voyager"

While an interesting concept, it felt like a random story to toss into the saga of DS9. Not to mention the contrivance of getting the entire space station's staff onto one ship for some relatively unimportant mission, right as the Federation is on the brink of war.

IMO, this story idea makes far more sense for "Voyager," both logically and thematically. Instead of yanking the most important officers from DS9 away for some contrived mission, just have the entire small starship Voyager and it's full 140 crewmembers fall into a strange anomaly--one they'll soon learn is fairly well-known to regular travelers in this region of space, but of course, they had no preparation for. Faced with their future descendants, Janeway and her crew must decide if they're going to give up on their journey home and settle on this planetoid, or find a way out of this and erase their descendants from the timeline.

Set this some time after Seven of Nine joins the crew, but before Voyager makes contact with Starfleet, and before Tom and B'Elanna have gotten really serious. Tom and B'Elanna get used to the idea of someday having a family together; Janeay and Chakotay start to reconsider their relationship from "Resolutions" (but as a heathy adult relationship rather than a bad romance-novel one); Harry, naturaly, is the most distressed about the situation.

Voyager's knowledge of the Borg, 8472, and other threats comes into the ethical debate. Tuvok points out that Voyager may save more lives in the long-run by continuing home, if only to make it far enough to contact Starfleet and give them the information they've gained in the Delta Quadrant; Neelix or someone then points out that Tuvok might be trying to use logic to justify his desperation to get home to T'Pel and his children.

In the end, one person makes the cold calculation that Voyager's knowledge of the Borg and 8472 getting back to Starfleet is more important than this stranded colony, and resets the timeline. But it isn't Tuvok or Seven of Nine that does it. It isn't even Harry. It's the Doctor. But not the "real" Doctor, the future-Doctor, that's been living with the colony for the last ten generations. He's centuries evolved past his initial programing, and being stranded and constantly seeing friends die around him wile he's the only immortal has changed him. Future-Doc decides that Voyager will save more lives, and their descendants will have higher-quality lives, if they aren't stranded on this planet. Naturally, present-Doc is horrified by his future self's decision to ignore the Hipocratic Oath (though that itself is up for debate, if timeline-erasure is the same as "doing harm.")

VOY: "Before and After"
Give to "Deep Space Nine"

Instead of Kes simply going backwards through her life, Dax is moving backwards through all of its past and future hosts! It starts in the future, when Dax is about to retire to the Pools of Mocha (or whatever they're called). Something happens that causes the Dax symbiont to move backwards through its life, and all its past hosts.

In the alternate future seen here, Ezri is never joined to Dax; instead, Jadzia lives a longer life, and has children with Worf. But things are less happy for everyone else. The Dominion caught the Federation off-guard, causing the Dominion War to last decades, and claiming the lives of Ben Sisko and many other major characters.

In the end, only Jadzia Dax's friends on DS9 are able to help stop the time-jumping. The episode ends with Dax's life reset shortly before the Dominion War starts. Jadzia Dax decides to break the Prime Directive and warn Sisko about the Dominion's surprise attack/Martok being a Changeling/whatever the main factor in the old timeline was, saving her friends and the Federation, even knowing that it might cost her her own happiness. In fact, Dax's knowledge of the future of the war might even be the reason she is eventually murdered.

Seasons later, this makes Jadzia's parting words to Worf, "Our baby would have been so beautiful," so much more tragic and heavy. And Ezri Dax is even more confused, as she knows she wasn't originally "supposed" to be joined, and Dax no longer has any future knowledge to go off of here.

VOY: "Latent Image"
Give to "Next Generation"

After a season or so of the series acting like Tasha Yar never existed, this episode explains why: Data was so affected by her loss that his program malfunctioned, and Picard had all of Data's memories of Tasha erased. Geordie, being the engineer, had to erase his best friend's memories to save him. Guilt and angst all around.

DS9: "Empok Nor"
Give to "Discovery"

"Empok Nor" isn't a bad episode, but like "Children of Time," it's quite random for DS9. On the other hand, have the Discovery find an abandoned space station, after they've jumped into the 32nd Century. Maybe the space station was built in their time period, hence why the tiny remnants of the Federation send them to investigate it. And obviously Saru is the one to go berserk and start killing people, because he needs something to make him interesting.

VOY: "Flashback"
Give to "Discovery"

Adira Tal, still suffering some amnesia, must dig into old memories of a past host to solve some mystery. Perhaps some 32nd Century tech allows Paul or Michael to "mind-meld" with Adira, and "accompany" them into the "past." If it's a memory from Gray Tal's life, Adira's Force-Ghost boyfriend can be the tourguide to the past.

DS9: "Honor Among Thieves"
Give to any post-2009 "Star Trek"

Seriously, trying to do a plot about an undercover cop spying on the space mafia does. Not. Work. With '90s TV censorship. Let Dr. Juratti, ranger-Seven, Michael Burnham, or Book go undercover in a series that can actually show a gritty criminal underworld, with naughty language.

Maybe make it "Discovery," and use this to introduce Book's cat, as the original DS9 episode did for Chester.

GIMME MORE.

 

[Finn]

^The first one, replace Kazon with Vidiians or Trabe. There's absolutely no way the Kazon could play the role of the Romulans...

 

[Brobdingnag]

The Game ---> Voyager: Chak brings a game from shore leave on a pleasure planet in the Delta Quadrant, Kim and his "girlfriend of the moment" discover that there is something fishy about it and the Doctor is disabled before he can do anything about it. Kim is the last one chased around by all and forced by an authoritative Janeway to put the thing on... When the Doctor comes and saves the day... Kim managed to bring him back...

 

[Tim Thomason]

I got some ideas. But in the meantime, here's some stuff I wrote a few years ago on a similar topic

I used a list randomizer for the following series:

ENT, DIS, TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY

And after a few tries (to prevent series winding up in the same spot), I got this:

VOY, ENT, DIS, TNG, DS9, TOS, TAS

So, here's my try:

Voyager (2151):

Captain Kathryn Janeway, the daughter of deceased Starfleet founder Edward Janeway, is given command of the NX class Voyager, which she launches early over protests following the Klingon first contact. Although a science vessel, she pushes it more towards exploration. Her first mission runs afoul of the Suliban, and Voyager is nearly destroyed, pieced together with a marauder ship captained by the rogue Chakotay. They manage to fix their ship, somehow, in the course of four days and wind up in Klingon space, where they deliver a wounded Klingon and go on their way. Janeway recruits the marauders into her ship, to fill vacancies in her ship, over objections from Starfleet, and continue on their journey into the unknown. Other crew include Tom Paris, a disgraced former cadet recruited by Janeway for the mission, B'Elanna Torres, an alien engineer with mysterious ties to the Temporal Cold War, and Doctor Zimmerman, a civilian medical doctor who experiments with holography, and the Vulcan nurse T'Kes with her Denobulan smuggler boyfriend Neelix. In the second season, a Vulcan named T'Menos (played by Jeri Ryan) is assigned to the ship in place of T'Kes (who is taken by mysterious time traveller Crewman Braxton into the future), to the annoyance of some fans.

Star Trek: Enterprise (2256):

Commander T'Pol is a valued member of Starfleet, raised in a human family after the death of her Vulcan one in a Klingon attack many years prior. She is assigned to the USS Columbia under Captain Hernandez for seven years, and following an attempted mutiny and martyring the Suliban religious figure Silik (which leads to a long protracted war with the Suliban), she is drummed out of the service and imprisoned for life. She is then recruited by the mysterious Captain Jonathan Archer, of the USS Enterprise (NX-1301), to investigate a special spore drive invented by Denobulan new age scientist Dr. Phlox. They manage to rescue the colony on Paragaan II using the spore drive to surprise the Suliban. The spore drive is navigated by a giant monstrous figure nicknamed "Tripper" by the now-deceased security chief Reed.

Star Trek: Discovery (2266):

Captain Lorca, Commander Burnham, and Mr. Saru, of the USS Discovery (NCC-1731) travel the stars week after week, going where no man has gone before. They encounter strange new creatures (like the salt-eating tardigrade in "The Man Trap"), new life and new civilizations (the Preservers of Amerind). They also encounter colorful rogue Harry Mudd (played by Stanley C. Carmel) on two seperate occassions. The Klingon Kol is an enemy in one memorable episode of the first season. Other colorful members of the supporting cast include Doctor Culber, Engineer Stamets, and Lieutenant Tyler. The first pilot, featuring Captain Georgiou, was not picked up by NBC and had to be drastically rewritten to be less cerebral. Most of the cast (minus Saru and Burnham) were dropped, and a new Captain developed. In the second pilot, Captain Lorca loses his best friend Al Landry due to an encounter around a rare "Binary Star".

Star Trek: The Next Animation (2269):

The animated adventures of Captain Picard and crew. Join the USS Enterprise as it travels to distant lands (the Deneb Triangle), encounters a being claiming to be a god (Q), and the outrageous rogue Okona. The dialogue can be a little stilted, and its hard to understand the weird accent used by Counselor Troi (Majel Barrett). The pink coloring on Lieutenant Worf was due to the directors color-blindness.

Star Trek: The Deep Generation (2364):

Returning to television after many successful movies (including most famously Star Trek II: The Wrath of Voq), Gene Roddenberry's utopian vision of the future included the bald Captain Sisko of the USS Defiant, a former commander of the Saratoga (lost in battle), who commands a ship including kick-ass Commander Kira, raised on a world controlled by roving gangs, the shapeshifter Odo who wants to become human, and the lothario Lieutenant Dax. Sisko punches a godlike being in the first episode, and later is sent into the Gamma Quadrant (briefly) where he meets the mysterious Dominion. This becomes a plot point later on in a couple episodes, and the movie Star Trek: Past Tense. Captain Sisko also has a flirtation with Doctor Claire Finn, and the alien Nog (nephew of the Two Forward lounge host, Quark) is derided by fans as too much of a wunderkind. He's shipped off to Starfleet Academy and only comes back in the seventh season. The series is followed by four movies, although the last one (featuring Sisko fighting a Cardassian head of state Dukat in some sort of weird action movie scene) was not well-received.

Star Trek: Deep Space K-7 (2369):

James Kirk is a man recovering from the death of his crew on the Farragut, when he's assigned to Deep Space K-7 near Sherman's Planet, a planet recently freed from Klingon control in a treaty. Working alongside his alien liaison, Mr. Spock, his British engineer Montgomery Scott, and his best friend, "old man" Leonard McCoy, he quickly finds himself exalted to godlike status amongst the colonists of Sherman's Planet. Eventually, the Romulan Star Empire enters into a state of cold war, and then real war, with the Federation following Kirk and Spock's espionage in one story arc to steal a cloaking device (which they use on their ship, the Enterprise). In a seven-episode arc in the final season, Kirk and crew manage to end the war with the Romulans and also save Sherman's Planet from a Klingon invasion (the Klingons having entered into an alliance with the Romulans), with Kirk seeming to die in a fight with his Klingon nemesis Kor (the man who shot and killed Uhura after Nichelle Nichols left the show).

Star Trek: Enterpriser (2371):

Ignore that last one. Anyway, Captain Kirk is assigned to the Enterprise as they investigate a group of Orion pirates, when they are sent out into the far off reaches of the Delta Triangle. There, an alien being known as Kukulkan has abducted many races, before he was too die. Kirk, to protect it from the Orion pirates, destroys Kukulkan's ship and only means to escape the Triangle, and begins the long journey back home. Many of his crew (including Chekov) did not survive the trip to the Triangle, but they are joined by the alien smuggler Arex, and his girlfriend M'Ress, who promptly accept positions onboard the Enterprise. When the ratings start to dip, the producers bring back Klingons over and over again. The most popular episode is the one where the Vulcan crewmember time travels to an earlier time in his life.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

The Game ---> Voyager: Chak brings a game from shore leave on a pleasure planet in the Delta Quadrant, Kim and his "girlfriend of the moment" discover that there is something fishy about it and the Doctor is disabled before he can do anything about it. Kim is the last one chased around by all and forced by an authoritative Janeway to put the thing on... When the Doctor comes and saves the day... Kim managed to bring him back...

I like it, but I'd argue swapping Kim for Icheb. His proto-Borg/Brunali physiology could contribute to why he wasn't originally affected. His sidekick could be a girlfriend, or Naomi as a platonic friend. (Unless we set this in a reality where Voyaher stays lost long enough for Naomi's next Ktarian growth spurt.)

, replace Kazon with Vidiians or Trabe. There's absolutely no way the Kazon could play the role of the Romulans...

Seska could. She could be the real villain of thd episode, and lost a Kazon henchman at the end.

 

[Finn]

Seska could. She could be the real villain of thd episode, and lost a Kazon henchman at the end.

The problem with that is that the Cardies on their own couldn't come close to Starfleet. Both the Phoenix and the Defiant took on Cardassian warships on their own easily. I don't really see Seska coming up with technology that the Romulans were working on.....aboard a Kazon ship.....

 

[FederationHistorian]

VOY: "Tuvix"
Give it to ENT

Mayweather and Phlox are merged in a transporter accident. Archer has to decide if he must save Phlayweather – a very valuable crewmember in his own right - or to bring back Mayweather and Phlox. Archer must also address anxiety regarding the transporter, specifically with Hoshi and Starfleet Command.

TNG: "I, Borg"
Give it to DS9

Sisko finds remnants of a Borg ship and some Borg drones on a remote planet. He agrees with Admiral Nechayev to kill off the Borg for good, to deal with a lingering threat, and to get revenge on the Borg. But Sisko has to deal with the individuality of Hugh, which makes him reassess his position on the Borg years removed from the battle of Wolf 359

ENT: "Cogenitor"
Give it to Voyager

Replace Trip with Naomi Wildman, who is curious about the cogenitor and decides to help her, while Janeway tries to find a way home for the crew with the more advanced Vissian ship interacting with Captain Drennik. Tuvok interacts with Veylo discussing weapon systems, and Torres and Seven work with the engineering couple.

The cogenitor dies, and Janeway has to deal with the fact that while Naomi is in the wrong, she’s also a child and not a senior member of the crew.

 

[t_smitts]

VOY: "Nemesis"
Give it to TNG

Riker's shuttle is shot down over the Vori planet and he is slowly indoctrinated into their fight with the Kradin, while the Enterprise crew work with the Kradin to find him. Riker is eventually found by Data (playing the same role Tuvok did in the episode), explaining that it is all a simulation. Later, aboard the Enterprise, Picard, Troi, and Dr. Crusher explain what happened and how the indoctrination worked. Worf walks in with the Kradin ambassador, who wants to express relief that Riker was rescued, but Riker just gives him a cold stare and leaves. Picard and Troi catch up to Riker in the corridor, where Riker simply says "I wish it were as easy to stop hating as it is to start."

 

[FederationHistorian]

Some more...

VOY: "Timeless"
Give it to ENT

In the 2170, Mayweather and T’Pol attempt to alter history after Enterprise was sent to an icy doom on a remote planet while testing an advanced warp engine 15 years earlier, while being considered fugitives by the fledgling Federation.

VOY: "Endgame"
Give it to ENT

In 2204 – 10 years removed from Enterprise finally returning home from the Romulan War, Admiral Archer travels back in time to alter history to save the lives of some of his senior officers, and to prevent his crew from being stranded in Romulan space and missing the founding of the Federation in the process.

DS9: "Past Tense"
Give it to TOS

Kirk, McCoy, and Uhura are trapped in 2024 San Francisco, while Spock and Scotty try to find them across time. When Gabriel Bell dies by accident, Kirk has to replace him to keep the timeline on track

ENT: "Minefield"
Give it to TNG

The Ent-D is hit by a Romulan mine. After a mine injures and traps Worf on the hull, Picard goes out to save him. Meanwhile, Riker has to deal with Romulans firing warning shots at them as the Ent-D navigates its way out of the minefield while the Romulans claim they are in their space.

TOS: "Space Seed"
Give it to DIS

Discovery finds a long lost 1200 year old Earth sleeper ship from the Eugenics Wars, and awakes Khan Noonien Singh from his sleep amid a post-Burn environment.

DIS: "The Vulcan Hello"
Give it to TNG

Riker disobeys orders from Captain Pressman and starts a war with the Klingon Empire, and is charged with mutiny.

TNG: "The High Ground"
Give it to DS9

Ansata terrorists kidnap Dr. Bashir while the Defiant is on an errand of mercy on Rutia IV, and later kidnap Captain Sisko and attempt to blow up DS9.

 

[Brobdingnag]

"The Most Toy" give it to DS9:

Odo's abducted while the kidnapper makes it look like he's been killed in an explosion (it was before they discovered the founders so Odo was still thought to be unique) and makes Odo part of his collection of unique things in the Quadrant. KIra doesn't want to believe in Odo's death and listening to a recording of his last words with Jake realizes that he said something strange. They suspect KIvas Fajo of foul play, while Odo in his cell manages to assure the complicity of one of Kivas aids. Despite Odo's dislike for weapons he picks up a disruptor and almost kills Fajo before being beamed away to the Defiant.

 

[Brobdingnag]

"The City On the..." give it to DS9:

Bashir injects himself accidentally with a powerful psychoactive drug and ends up jumping through the Guardian of forever donut thus completely disrupting the timeline Sisko and Odo have no other choice than to jump through the donut and try to find him to change back whatever he did. There Sisko falls in love with a Social worker and later finds out that he has to let her die in order to restore the timeline. This leaves Sisko writhing in pain on the ground (sort of like in Far Beyond The Stars) until Odo has to deck him and take him away to the present time.

 

[dupersuper]

TOS: Turnabout Intruder
give to...really any show.
Which Captain would you like to see possessed by a crazy ex?

TAS: The Teratin Incident
give to Discovery
Special effects have gotten to the point they can do shrinking easily enough, and a lighter, lower stakes Discovery episode would be a welcome change.

TNG: Relics
give to Voyager
Have Scotty join the crew (he couldn't very well fly off at the end, though Voyager did seem able to spare the shuttle). B'elanna has to not lose her temper with him.

DS9: Dramatis Personae
give to Voyager
Maybe if the characters get possessed we'll get some mutinous drama on the show with a bunch of conscripted Maquis crewmembers.

Voyager: Faces
Give to TOS
Human Spock meets Vulcan Spock!

Enterprise: A Night in Sickbay
give to Prodigy
It might be more believable in a kid's show with kid/teen characters crewing the ship. They need a CMO though.

Discovery: Choose Your Pain
give to DS9
Surely there were Federation prisoners during the Klingon war building up to the Dominion War.

Short Treks: Children of Mars
give to Picard
It's already a prequel anyway.

Picard: Stardust City Rag
give to DS9
Let's see Quark open his franchise on space Vegas.

Lower Decks: Temporal Edict
give to TNG
This is basically what happened below decks when Jellicho took over.

Prodigy: Dreamcatcher
give to Enterprise
Hopefully using the secondary characters: let's learn more about them through their fears.

Continues: Fairest of Them All
give to TOS
We get to see the Mirror Mirror follow up with the actual cast.

obviously Saru is the one to go berserk and start killing people, because he needs something to make him interesting.

Seriously? I find Saru easily the most interesting character on Discovery.

 

[FederationHistorian]

DS9: "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost"
Give it to ENT

Suliban bomb a conference between Earth and representatives from the Delphic Expanse on Earth while impersonating a Triannon. Earth responds with blood screenings, with the family members of the crew reacting differently - Sally Archer, the Tuckers, the Satos, & the Reeds.

After the global power grid is destabilized, Archer and Admiral Black push for Minister Samuels to declare a state of emergency, and to hand over control of the weapons systems. MACOs begin patrolling the streets, marching in front of the 602 Club and Madame Chang’s

Archer and Reed later point out to Minister Samuels that Admiral Black was behind destabilizing the power grid and committed treason, but Samuels won’t remove the state of emergency without proof, or there will be riots in the street as the measures are popular. Archer confronts Admiral Black, who then dismisses Archer back to Enterprise.

A Suliban impersonating a member of the crew reveals to Archer that 1) only four of them are on Earth , 2) they aren’t they only ones that have infiltrated Earth; its rumoured that Romulans are impersonating Vulcans and have been on Earth dating back to the founding of the Warp 5 complex, and 3) it was the Romulans that bombed the conference and the Suliban were trying to stop it on the orders of their benefactor, as another conflict would distract Earth from the plans that the Romulans have for the quadrant. Archer also learn that Admiral Black has been reassigning officers to be under his authority and attempts to present proof of this to Samuels, but is detained.

Enterprise under T’Pol engages the Intrepid under Captain Ramirez and a pair of Deltas, who are told that the crew of the Enterprise are Suliban and are later told to destroy Enterprise. But all ships involved refused to destroy each other. Meanwhile on Earth, Archer gets out of detention and confronts and arrests Admiral Black while Reed present evidence to Samuels, leading to the state of emergency being lifted. Starfleet then makes preparation to refocus o the growing Romulan threat.

 

[Brobdingnag]

....
TNG: Relics
give to Voyager
Have Scotty join the crew (he couldn't very well fly off at the end, though Voyager did seem able to spare the shuttle). B'elanna has to not lose her temper with him.
...

Let's hope she won't break his nose...although that could happen with Seven as well!!! Poor Scotty!

 

[Brobdingnag]

Voyager: Remember give it to DS9

I can easily picture Kira as playing the part of B'elanna, perhaps even better than she did.

 

[publiusr]

Relics to Discovery. I want to see new EFX

 

[at Quark's]

Caretaker (TNG)

Picard & Crew are abducted by the Caretaker entity to the Delta quadrant. Most of the episode goes as in Voyager, except that Picard finds himself in a long debate with the entity about the morality of abducting alien crews. Picard is so persistent in this debate that the Caretaker -who turns out to be dying- has no time left, in fact, to send them back. Picard then considers it 'a moral imperative' to destroy the Caretaker's array to protect the Ocampa from the Kazon. The Kazon aren't really too pleased about this, but considering the might of the Enterprise -D initally don't dare attack. However, Troi's psychobabble ('I sense you're angry, but why?') and attempts to get them in a more cooperative mood still send them over the edge. The real ri

During the weeks that follow nerves are frayed. Data annoys everyone with his attempts to become more human, while everyone else has long term basic survival at their mind. Beverley keeps whining about her son at Starfleet. The only one that seems to come more into his own in this unruly quadrant is Riker.

 

[Brobdingnag]

"The Measure Of A Man" give it to Voyager:

Wait, we already have that, it's called "Author, Author"...

 

[Qonundrum]

"Paradise" - give it to TOS. It'd be a refreshing change from the ever-reliable YAGBOLTJBCHOT trope*... TOS has "The Gamesters of Triskeleon" but with a few changes. True, Kirk would do his weekly habit to teach the leader all about luuuuuuuuuurve , but he's the only other Captain who'd actually oppose so flagrantly and I don't think TNG, VOY, or ENT could really sell "the cult in space" anywhere as good. Plus, TOS with a more three-dimensional villain would be nice. Alixus would be up there with Kor...

* Yet Another Glowing Ball of Light That Judges Boring Corporeal Humans (Often in Togas)​

 

[Verteron]

New Eden - give to Voyager

Voyager detects a transmission from a planet in the Delta Quadrant and finds a human population that seem to have left Earth during World War 3. Chakotay leads an away mission finding a primitive society with a religion combining multiple human faiths, including element of his own Native American beliefs alongside Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and more. He finds himself connecting deeply with this.

However, As the investigation in to their history continues, an anomaly produces an extinction-level radiation shower.

Janeway concludes that the Prime Directive forbids them to intervene.

Chakotay, in meditation concerning the town's beliefs, experiences an intense vision of a Native American spirit who provides clues on how to avert the crisis. He goes against Janeway's instructions and saves their society. Janeway is angry but he explains he had to take a leap of faith, particularly as he discovered depictions of his same 'spirit' - an angelic figure bathed in a red aura - in the religious texts of the town.

His 'Red Angel' was the same force that brought them to the new world from war-torn Earth. Something or someone protecting them who is far more powerful than any of them.