rewrite a Star Trek character

[The Borgified Corpse]

I would have made Kes more interesting and better utilized in the series. But I'd be more cautious about how "child-like" and "curious" I'd want her to be, just to avoid another Wesley debacle.

"Childlike" & "curious" wasn't Wesley's problem. He was too much of a super-genius was the problem. This is supposed to be the best crew in Starfleet yet its top minds are often getting out-thunk by a teenager.

I'd play Chakotay older & more experienced--like, most cadets mention him in the same breath with Kirk & Picard--and played by a different actor. (Who? I don't know but anyone's gotta be better than Beltran.) Then go with a younger Janeway played by Susan Gibney who was originally Voyager's XO before the captain was killed when they were 1st pulled to the DQ. Granted, Janeway & Chakotay's youth vs. experience conflict might seem a bit cliche but at least it would be conflict of SOME kind!

 

[C.E. Evans]

My choice is Travis Mayweather. In the 22nd C, Earth shouldn't be so Starfleet-perfect and the Boomers in particular should be wild pioneer types who go off into space for fun & profit & freedom, without the blessing of any government. They should be a bit like those charming folks from Deadwood and Travis should fit right in with that crowd, while also being able to reign himself in, to fit in with Starfleet. He would always have that good/bad tension - he can play the Starfleet role to perfection, but you're always aware that with him, it is a role.

He should have a dangerous, unrestrained edge you didn't see from any of the rest of the cast (which would have made him good to pair up with repressed-nut Reed and naive good old boy Trip - three wholly different characters who could have played well off each other). Since Boomers know what's out there, Travis rather than T'Pol should have been Archer's guide to the universe, being able to draw upon an extended network of family, friends, and allies of various degrees of trustworthiness.

Travis would be a unique asset, which would allow him to get away with behavior that Archer might not tolerate in the rest of his crew. He would introduce a loose cannon element, or at least the risk of it.

Actually, the sounds very much like the original version of the character--a slightly older character back then known as "Lieutenant Joseph Mayweather"--before the role was pretty much gutted and lines that should have been his were given to T'Pol instead.

Personally, though, I would have rewritten Chakotay. I would have made the character a woman--Commander Miramanee, perhaps--and would have cast a sexy, rebellious female type that would have eliminated the need to bring in Seven of Nine...

 

[Orintho]

Wesley Crusher. I once read an interview with Wil Wheaton and was pleased to see that his favorite Wes episode and mine coincided - 'The Final Mission'. In that episode, we all got to see Wes the ordinary real human. After that episode, I (never a big fan of the character before) truly regretted that Wheaton left the show.

So if I recreated Wes, I'd follow what we saw in that episode and eliminate the annoying 'boy wonder' quality that got under the skin of a lot of fans. I would simply have presented Wes as an ordinary kid who got lucky when mom got a great assignment. And of course, no one is Wes but Wil Wheaton.

My Wes would have never met a Traveler, there would be no nonsense about Wes being the next stage in evolution (or whatever he was supposed to be), and no acting ensign. If Wes was to work in some official capacity on board the Enterprise, it would be something a lot more realistic, akin to a student co-op or something. Plum assignments on the flagship of the Federation would not go to non-qualified teenagers.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Recast with some younger actor who can do arrogant and clueless---Hayden Christensen?

So you want to turn Data into Byron from B5?

The only reason to have "arrogant, clueless" characters is so you can have the fun of seeing them pushed out an airlock.

 

[MikeGainer]

What kills me the most about Voyager is that they had an EXCELLENT characters but the writers didn't know how to use them. Each character had a wonderful chance to develop turn Voyager into a very unique and popular series in the Star trek Universe.

I wouldn't have killed off Ensign Lon Suder because he was the only one who gave us a dark glimpse of the Betazoid psyche. In TNG, we always saw Betazed as this peaceful and Utopian world but would about the Betazoids with personality disorders? Can they be effectively rehabilitated into society indefinitely? All these questions could have been answered by Lon Suder.

 

[Anwar]

That was mainly because of UPN and Jeri Taylor. She didn't want the chars to not get along and wanted them all to be redeemable good guys, which is why she killed Suder.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Lt. Janeway: Science officer aboard USS Voyager, and senior surviving Starfleet Officer when her Captain is killed and the ship snatched by the Caretaker
.

Commander Chakotay: Former Commander in Starfleet, now a Maquis leader. Chafes at the bit because Lt Janeway is legally in charge of Voyager even though he's more experienced and was her senior in rank.

You may now rewrite Voyager more interestingly...

 

[Anwar]

Lt. Janeway: Science officer aboard USS Voyager, and senior surviving Starfleet Officer when her Captain is killed and the ship snatched by the Caretaker
.

Commander Chakotay: Former Commander in Starfleet, now a Maquis leader. Chafes at the bit because Lt Janeway is legally in charge of Voyager even though he's more experienced and was her senior in rank.

You may now rewrite Voyager more interestingly...

...Have you been reading this? http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=34029

 

[Lonemagpie]

Lt. Janeway: Science officer aboard USS Voyager, and senior surviving Starfleet Officer when her Captain is killed and the ship snatched by the Caretaker
.

Commander Chakotay: Former Commander in Starfleet, now a Maquis leader. Chafes at the bit because Lt Janeway is legally in charge of Voyager even though he's more experienced and was her senior in rank.

You may now rewrite Voyager more interestingly...

...Have you been reading this? http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=34029

Nope, never seen it - I was thinking more Roslin/Adama in nu-BSG...

 

[Anwar]

Well that kind of idea has been used in scifi for decades really. First instance I remember was in the first Gundam series in 1979 where the only surviving Bridge officer after an attack in the first episode is a 19 year old cadet officer. The captain lives for a few more episodes as a bedridden wounded officer to explain the situation to any base commanders they encounter, but as soon as they end up in enemy territory on their way to HQ he dies.

 

[stj]

Robotically competent and task oriented was meant to carry over from the old Data. And guilt ridden self absorption and histrionic speechifying were not to be added. So much for Byon.

That said, Dr. Zachary Smith and his current incarnations, Dr. Gaius Baltar and (partly anyhow) Dr. Rodney McKay, prove viewers don't merely wish to see the incompetent and clueless thrown out the airlock. Besides, the modern viewer is apparently happy to see anyone thrown out the airlock.

Going further, a robot hero who does not flatter us by wanting to be us, fulfills the real dramatic potential of the rather tired robot cliche far better. A hero of any sort who is not cool nor lovable nor a stick figure (for maximum viewer identification of course) in an angstfest would be an orignal one regardless. It is true that it is hard for viewers wanting feelgood TV to care about a flawed hero. But we can dream, can't we?