How would you change the show?

[Bork359]

I would have:

-Had them travel in a straight line toward the alpha quadrant at warp 9+ the entire time, only stopping when absolutely necessary

-Shown how the physical ship changes throughout the years as more stuff gets added and removed from it based on whatever alien technology they manage to utilize.

-Greatly reduced the number of one-off episodes and established many more season and series-long story arcs, more like DS9.

-Recast Chakotay from day 1

 

[Oddish]

Whenever Rick Berman was about to veto an idea that would have made the show better, duct tape his mouth shut.

 

[Vale]

I recently read an idea recently that spun the idea that Ro Laren was originally intended to join Deep Space Nine (Kira was originally created as a Ro expy when Michelle Forbes declined to appear) and had Ro Laren joining the Voyager crew instead of Tom Paris.

I really like this idea – I hate Tom Paris anyway, cutting his smug ass from the show would have only been a benefit in my opinion – and think this would have given the show a boost right out of the gate. Janeway and Ro could have cultivated a great mentor-student relationship of the sort we didn't get to see until Seven joined the crew in season four, and she'd have been the obvious conduit between Starfleet and Maquis crews early on.

 

[Oddish]

It would have been a natural progression, given the events of "Preemptive Strike".

 

[Vale]

It would have been a natural progression, given the events of "Preemptive Strike".

Precisely! There's even that hinted professional relationship with Chakotay too.

 

[Oddish]

Tom Paris was actually supposed to be a recycled character as well, i.e. Nick Lacarno. It was just changed due to some copyright nonsense.

It was actually funny... the casting call was supposedly for a "Robert Duncan Macneil" type. The actual Robert Duncan Macneil heard of this and obviously wanted to audition, since who's going to be more like Robert Duncan Macneil than the actual Robert Duncan Macneil?(students of geometry would call this the Reflexive property). Once they decided to let him read for the part, the decision was pretty easy.

[Something just occured to me... in the "Non Sequitur" timeline, where Tom was a bar-hopping loser... might he have met up with Nick, who was probably also reduced to a similar sad existence?]

 

[Vale]

Tom Paris was actually supposed to be a recycled character as well, i.e. Nick Lacarno. It was just changed due to some copyright nonsense.

There's a fan theory that Nick Locarno and Tom Paris are the same person, Locarno is just his mother's maiden name that he was using at the Academy to avoid special treatment due to his father being a well-known admiral. There's tiny bits of evidence to support this – for example, in a later episode Torres reminds Paris that he was "expelled from Starfleet Academy", which Locarno definitely was, whereas Paris previously claimed he'd graduated and been assigned to the USS Exeter.

It was actually funny... the casting call was supposedly for a "Robert Duncan Macneil" type. The actual Robert Duncan Macneil heard of this and obviously wanted to audition, since who's going to be more like Robert Duncan Macneil than the actual Robert Duncan Macneil?(students of geometry would call this the Reflexive property). Once they decided to let him read for the part, the decision was pretty easy.

I don't know... Charlie Chaplin once famously came in third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition

 

[Oddish]

I don't know... Charlie Chaplin once famously came in third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition

Touché.

 

[suarezguy]

• Get rid of Chakotay.

Janeway actually dying/being marooned at the start of Season 5 and continuing with Chakotay as Captain would definitely be controversial but I think could have worked.

I think I can solve almost all the problems with one thing.

Keep the same head writer for the series... or at least most of its run.

It could be interesting to see what Jeri Taylor had continued to do with Seven and the rest of the cast, probably some more ensemble-feel, in the years after the one where Seven was introduced so of course a big focus (though, especially with Braga still third-in-command, I don't think the product would be that different).

 

[suarezguy]

Drop all holodeck episodes.

Some of them were good ... and it made sense to have at least some given the Doctor. It would be amusing if for at least a few episodes, maybe more the ship ran out of energy so that they couldn't use the holodeck.

 

[Oddish]

If Voyager was a bus...
Kes got thrown off the bus.
Chakotay got sent to the back of the bus.
And Harry got chucked under the bus.

Maybe this should have been rethought.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Keep Stadi alive (make her the Ops Manager instead, another redshirt dies at the Conn)

The problem with keeping Stadi alive is that she'd be redundant, as a character. I mean, I love her as much as everyone else does, they really fleshed her out in her small role in "Caretaker," but they did so by giving her traits that the "real" main characters would take over for the series. Ace pilot? Tom Paris. Snarky tough girl having sexual tension with Tom? B'Elanna. Telepath? Tuvok, Kes. Strong leader woman? Janeway. Stadi's cool, but if they kept her alive, they'd have to come up with some totally new side to her character not seen in "Caretaker," to make her stand apart from the rest of the cast.

Make Neelix younger and rugged (a more Solo-esque rogue with a heart of gold)

....so....Tom Paris?

Have Janeway actually raise the Borg Baby

I've seen a handful of fanfics where Marla Gilmore, of the Equinox, adopts the Borg baby, on her path to redemption. This could've been a great twist, IMO.

I do like most of your other ideas.

Tuvix returns as a hologram, with his memories intact in the ship’s database. And will have a mobile emitter like The Doctor.

Why is everyone so set on saving Tuvix? First of all, any solution involving an "extra" Tuvix still has the same moral dilemma as the first; no Tuvix wants to "die," and every Tuvix is sacred. Second, Tuvix long-term would just be redundant as heck. A watered-down version of Tuvok and Neelix, and, if he's a hologram, the Doctor.

- Harry has an existential crisis at some point in the series due to the events that occurred in “Deadlock” as to whether of not it’s the real him. Not being promoted plays a role in the crisis.

- Vorik should have been Taurik from TNG. And Lavelle should have joined him.

Now THESE ideas, I love! That would add so much more to the young Vulcan character, besides also having someone to remind/inform the captain about TNG plot threads if they come up as relevant on "Voyager."

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The problem with keeping Stadi alive is that she'd be redundant, as a character. I mean, I love her as much as everyone else does, they really fleshed her out in her small role in "Caretaker," but they did so by giving her traits that the "real" main characters would take over for the series. Ace pilot? Tom Paris. Snarky tough girl having sexual tension with Tom? B'Elanna. Telepath? Tuvok, Kes. Strong leader woman? Janeway. Stadi's cool, but if they kept her alive, they'd have to come up with some totally new side to her character not seen in "Caretaker," to make her stand apart from the rest of the cast.

Admittedly a little reworking of characters might be needed. Stadi as Ops Manager wouldn't need to be an ace pilot, she'd be able to do it but would have a far wider remit of duties to attend to. Stadi put Paris in his place and I don't see her falling for his charms, she could be the confident, sassy one of the crew with a quip always locked and loaded, whilst Torres could be turned into a more tragic character, someone whose brilliant but whose constantly at war with herself, dealing with a lot of things by cutting herself off--though this would ease over time as she'd come to accept herself more and deal with all her anger issues. Stadi could also take on the teacher role for Kes and teach her about connecting with her developing telepathic abilities, whilst Tuvok could become a mentor for Torres (something that was originally planned for the two but scrapped before production). What would be bad about having another strong female character with leadership skills, DS9 had Kira and Dax and it worked for them.

....so....Tom Paris?

Paris is a Starfleeter who thought he could be a mercenary (but failed miserably). Neelix would be a soldier who witnessed the devastation of his people in their war, maybe even abandons his post to get out of there, but after all he saw he can't let others suffer when he can take a stand to do something. He'd definitely be a more swashbuckling character, more in line with the likes of Okona than anything else, so he'd be a soldier/scout/scoundrel all rolled into one to give him more options of what he could do to help out (rather than being relegated to chief cook and bottle washer).

I've seen a handful of fanfics where Marla Gilmore, of the Equinox, adopts the Borg baby, on her path to redemption. This could've been a great twist, IMO.

If VOY had done anything with potential recurring characters then Gilmore could've been an option, though having Janeway become a single mother could provide her with so much more growth over the rest of the show.

I do like most of your other ideas.

Thank you.

 

[Oddish]

Keeping Tuvix, either instead of his "components" or in addition to them, is a common suggestion, but a problematic one. Keeping all three characters makes having enough storylines very problematic. And, replacing Tuvok and Neelix with Tuvix created a character who is less distinctive because he "averages out" Tuvok's logic and reserve with Neelix's emotion and ebullience. And also, one with far fewer weaknesses.

A better way to "bring back" Tuvix is to write an episode set in a parallel universe, in which Janeway winds up on an alternate Voyager where she made different decisions. Maybe she retreated from the Krenim, or made a deal with the Kazon, or even didn't blow up the Caretaker array but couldn't get it to work. And of course, she let Tuvix live at the expense of Tuvok and Neelix. She could have a conversation with him, reveal that she never completely forgave herself for her decision. Tuvix would assure her that he understood, and "her" Tuvix undoubtedly did as well, and even mention that he sometimes felt guilt about living at the expense of two others.

Kes could also return in that episode, a much more satisfying return than the abomination that was "Fury".

 

[Oddish]

I just watched a video that ranked the main characters of Deep Space 9. And while I didn't agree with all of it (Nog was #12, and he should have been in single digits, and Weyoun [ranked once] was also way too low), I noticed that it had 28 characters on it. That means it had the nine main ones, and nineteen more: good guys, bad guys, and everything in between.

Can you imagine if they had paid more attention to a few of the Voyager crew? I mean, Voyager had the ten main ones (includes both Kes and Seven), Naomi, Samantha, Suder, Seska, maybe Vorik, and... uhhh... I don't know? Redshirts?

Given that they were supposed to be a family, we sure didn't get to know many of them.

 

[Farscape One]

Agreed about VOYAGER. The premise of that show was tailor made for a lot of recurring characters, simply because there were only about 150 people aboard with no ability to transfer.

I will say this, though... I feel like they tried to do this in season 1 and 2. There we got: Seska, Carey, Baxter (only 2 episodes in season 1, but he could have had more), Maje Culluh, Chell (once in season 1 and once in season 7, and mentioned in the finale), Samantha Wildman, Hogan, Jonas, Suder, Swinn (2 episodes in season 2). Culluh and Seska would obviously never have lasted the entire run... at the very least, Culluh, because I have heard someone come up with an idea where she stayed aboard, and I like that.

From season 3 onward, we got: Vorik, Naomi, Icheb, and the other Borg kids.

Almost no development for any of them, though.

 

[Summer Solstice]

There are so many good ideas in this thread.

It was a bit unbelievable that Tom was the pilot and the nurse and had every hobby. Perhaps some of the recurring characters could have had some of Tom's hobbies? Maybe Chell knows everything about 20th Century Earth history?

 

[thribs]

-Had them travel in a straight line toward the alpha quadrant at warp 9+ the entire time, only stopping when absolutely necessary

They wouldn't be able to keep that speed for long though. Constant use would just wear out the engines.

 

[at Quark's]

Janeway: 'I want us to take the absolutely shortest route home. No deviations, no matter how small'.
Tuvok: 'Captain, that will take us straight through the very center of the central black hole of the galaxy.'
Janeway: 'Over the years I've learned that sometimes you just have to punch your way through.'

 

[Danja]

I don't know... Charlie Chaplin once famously came in third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition

OT: Roma Downey once auditioned for an Irish Spring soap commercial.

She didn't get the job. The ad agency told her she wasn't "Irish enough". (This lady was born and raised in Northern Ireland! )