The Original Concept for Star Trek Voyager?

[USS Artorius]

So I have heard from many different people that the original concept for STV was a gritty survivalist nightmare with constant onslaught by aliens of the week, struggle for resources and overall hardship. Imagine the walking dead but in space, and the zombies are aliens. Could have seen the ship docked on planets for weeks at a time whilst resources are gathered for travel. Some claim that this would dull down the show but IMO it would have done the exact opposite. Giving more realism to the idea of being lost in space and how Starfleet would struggle without their seemingly utopian backdrop in TNG. If the writers and showrunners had kept to this idea and developed it, how would you imagine the story or journey diverge from what I would call the soap opera in space that Voyager became.
If you disagree feel free to tell me why and we can all discuss it.

 

[Doctorossi]

This is what I thought the first few episodes promised. And then the powers that be decided to run with 'warmed-over TNG retread', instead.

 

[plynch]

It was part of, or flagship show of, the UPN network I think, yes? Wasn’t there network pressure to do more normal-Trek. I think it was from even more on-high than the almighty Berman.

 

[fireproof78]

So I have heard from many different people that the original concept for STV was a gritty survivalist nightmare with constant onslaught by aliens of the week, struggle for resources and overall hardship.

I don't think I imagined a "survivalist nightmare" or as others have characterized it "nuBSG in Trek." That's not what I expected nor wanted. What I did expect was more of a "Lost in Space" meets "Farscape" type adventure yarn. There would be a struggle for resources, but also the efforts to actually make sense of where they were in the galaxy. I think one of the biggest strikes against Voyager for me is that the aliens of the week were treated like TNG aliens of the week. "Oh, they are slightly different. Let's visit then leave."

I do think it would have worked far better to have hardship as part of the crew, to create some conflict and drama between the different factions, rather than creating a rather unceremonious homogenized whole. I think "Prime Factors" (if I'm recalling the episode name right) was a good example of Tuvok decided he needed to violate the captain's orders to help the crew get home. That kind of attitude, as well as tension between Starfleet and the Maquis, would have gone a long way to creating a dramatic series, rather than one were drama is left behind at the end of each episode.

 

[at Quark's]

Let's say that I liked Year of Hell, but seven years of that level of unrelenting misery would have been far too much for me.

But I do think they could have ramped up the problems a bit, rather than seeing a ship in pristine condition nearly every week.

 

[drt]

So I have heard from many different people that the original concept for STV was a gritty survivalist nightmare with constant onslaught by aliens of the week, struggle for resources and overall hardship.

For what it worth, before it premiered I don't recall the premise of Voyager being all that dark, certainly never a "gritty survivalist nightmare", that sort of thing didn't really come about until after 9/11. The only item I remembered they said would be limited would be photon torpedoes, but even that was kind of silly, since they should have been able to manufacture those on the fly. It also couldn't have been too terrible for them, because Voyager was supposed to have been more advanced technologically than most of the Delta Quandrant races (transporters in particular as I recall). I suppose that was to give Voyager better odds than the aliens they'd encounter. Most of the conflict was intended to be internal, i.e. tensions with the Maquis, but even that was quickly dropped.

A dark and gritty Voyager sounds more like what someone ten years later thought maybe the show would have been.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

I would have loved to see Moore's NuBSG version of Voyager instead of the lesser version of TNG it became.

The only redeeming factor are the Doc and Seven, the only characters i love while the others were all either unlikeable or indifferent for me. But not even both together could raise the show from the sea of blandness and mediocracy it traveled in.

What a contrast to the awesomeness of early NuBSG and Farscape, which used the same concept

 

[Akiraprise]

The show was never going to be a "gritty survivalist nightmare" but TPTB back then did have different plans for it before it became TNG-Lite. Reading the article below from a newspaper clipping I cut out advertising the new series you can see that Berman, Taylor, and Piller had grander plans for it. Teaming the Starfleet crew up with a band of "outlaws" and structuring Voyager like an "18th century sailing schooner." Forcing them to "forage and explore unexplored planets in order to survive." They wanted a "real adventure" show.

That's, unfortunately, not what we ended up getting entirely. But the intention was there.

I chuckle when reading Taylor's comment in regards to the ship having biological components saying the ship will not gain consciousness. "You can tip over the edge of believability into hoke soup very quickly." Poor Zora.
(Not really out of the realm of possibility with all of the advancements in A.I. since 1995.)

 

[fireproof78]

he show was never going to be a "gritty survivalist nightmare" but TPTB back then did have different plans for it before it became TNG-Lite. Reading the article below from a newspaper clipping I cut out advertising the new series you can see that Berman, Taylor, and Piller had grander plans for it. Teaming the Starfleet crew up with a band of "outlaws" and structuring Voyager like an "18th century sailing schooner." Forcing them to "forage and explore unexplored planets in order to survive." They wanted a "real adventure" show.

Which was part of the appeal, at least for my teenage brain at the time. I wasn't huge on the outlaw perspective but I did like seeing how two disparate sides had to work together. Also, I would enjoy the 18th century schooner style adventure in my Star Trek.

 

[Akiraprise]

Which was part of the appeal, at least for my teenage brain at the time. I wasn't huge on the outlaw perspective but I did like seeing how two disparate sides had to work together. Also, I would enjoy the 18th century schooner style adventure in my Star Trek.

I thought the same thing. I was looking forward to a different take on Trek. For a short time that's what we got. I was also one of those crazy fans that counted how many torpedoes they were firing, and was aghast at how many they launched at the Malon in season 5's opener Night.

 

[somebuddyX]

I get the impression that when they were thinking up the series it was merely meant to be a continuation of TNG type stories, with the character conflict of early DS9 by having two groups what were forced to work together, and taking it back to a TOS like universe by throwing them over to the other side of the galaxy. And that's it. Now I thought there were comments by Rick Sternbach about the original model of Voyager that implied the series might be a bit more focused on resources and I know Ron Moore has said after the fact that he thought that the show didn't live up to it's original premise about characters and resources. Brannon wanted to do "Year of Hell" as a year of hell but got turned down. When Ron came on board he wanted to give the show some continuity and have parts of the ship be customised by the crew to imply that the crew was believing that Voyager would be a generation ship and they all might live and die on this ship, and he wanted the crew to put Janeway on trial. But I don't think even Ron was going to go full BSG at that point in time, it would have been more a Voyager with a DS9 feel. Unlike TNG and DS9 who were syndicated Voyager was the flagship show for the new network UPN who perceived continuity as something that would make new viewers hesitant about tuning in. Season 2 tried some of this under Michael Piller with guys like Hogan, Suder, Jonas and the Tom Paris arc, which if you think about is the first bit of serialisation in Star Trek history, and it was perceived as a failure so much that Jeri Taylor killed everybody off by the start of Season 3.
I remember watching "Caretaker" "Parallax" and "Time and Again" at a convention in Sydney and I understood what the show was going to be there. I liked Season 2 with the continuity a lot, like how DS9 had it's secondary roster of characters. I guess they did it again with Naomi and the Borg kids but I think it would have been nice to have kept it up from the start, especially once they added the Equinox punks.

 

[Oddish]

chuckle when reading Taylor's comment in regards to the ship having biological components saying the ship will not gain consciousness.

Given that the ship can carry programs who are effectively human in its computer, i see no reason why it couldn't develop those qualities itself.

was also one of those crazy fans that counted how many torpedoes they were firing, and was aghast at how many they launched at the Malon in season 5's opener Night.

They stuck to the limit for four seasons; they were still below 38 by then. I think S5 was when they went full TNG Lite, and stopped caring about such things.

EDIT: Check out the newspaper, which is for back when the Doctor actually was supposed to have a name...

 

[Dee1891]

So I have heard from many different people that the original concept for STV was a gritty survivalist nightmare with constant onslaught by aliens of the week, struggle for resources and overall hardship. Imagine the walking dead but in space, and the zombies are aliens. Could have seen the ship docked on planets for weeks at a time whilst resources are gathered for travel. Some claim that this would dull down the show but IMO it would have done the exact opposite. Giving more realism to the idea of being lost in space and how Starfleet would struggle without their seemingly utopian backdrop in TNG. If the writers and showrunners had kept to this idea and developed it, how would you imagine the story or journey diverge from what I would call the soap opera in space that Voyager became.
If you disagree feel free to tell me why and we can all discuss it.

I find this very hard to believe. Even to this day, the Trek franchise is incapable of following through to or stick with something like this - in ALL of its productions. They'll allow their shows to dip their toes into "gritty" or nightmarish tales but would never allow its productions to be fully immersed into such a setting. So, the idea that "Voyager" should have done because it was in the Delta Quadrant is a load of hypocritical crap to me, considering that other shows had failed to do so when they had the chance.

 

[Miltonic]

It sounds terrible if this was the original plan. Such a thuggish interpretation of Star Trek would be popular with modern audiences though who are thugs themselves.

 

[Firebird]

It sounds terrible if this was the original plan. Such a thuggish interpretation of Star Trek would be popular with modern audiences though who are thugs themselves.

 

[Akiraprise]

Such a thuggish interpretation of Star Trek would be popular with modern audiences though who are thugs themselves.

Modern sci-fi shows do tend to skew towards the season long arc dark side nowadays. But I sometimes wonder if that's really what we want to see. I personally prefer the more optimistic 90s versions of sci-fi shows to try and escape some of the bitterness in the world right now but I'll dabble in the dark from time to time. I wouldn't go so far as to call modern audiences thugs. Perhaps polarized and confused because there are so many options with streaming series now. Maybe there is just too much to choose from?

 

[Oddish]

Maybe there is just too much to choose from?

Or the opportunity to watch what you like, and still have plenty of options.

 

[Miltonic]

Or the opportunity to watch what you like, and still have plenty of options.

The problem is the writing in modern television isn't very good. Everything has to be 'dark' with a warped moral code. I haven't watched Picard but I read Seven of Nine is now a vigilante? Utterly ridiculous.

 

[Sumire]

Maybe you would enjoy Prodigy @Miltonic. It will be streaming on Netflix in the U.S. on December 25th but I’m not sure about the UK (if you don’t have a VPN). You definitely can purchase it in the UK so you may also be able to get it from the library. It’s animated and targeted at children but I loved it and I’m 46 and childless. It’s a very hopeful and idealistic look at the Federation. I find the characters charming and full of wonder. It also includes some former Voyager characters. If you are at all open to animation, I definitely recommend you give Prodigy a try!

 

[Oddish]

Maybe you would enjoy Prodigy @Miltonic. It will be streaming on Netflix in the U.S. on December 25th but I’m not sure about the UK (if you don’t have a VPN). You definitely can purchase it in the UK so you may also be able to get it from the library. It’s animated and targeted at children but I loved it and I’m 46 and childless. It’s a very hopeful and idealistic look at the Federation. I find the characters charming and full of wonder. It also includes some former Voyager characters. If you are at all open to animation, I definitely recommend you give Prodigy a try!

Indeed. It might be a show written with kids in mind, but it's Trek to the core.