Add and subtract characters

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Based on something @rocketscientist said here, that replacing characters every so often makes shows last longer:

What would have changed in Seaon 4 episodes if Kes would still be aboard Voyager?

I have been thinking about what would happen if Kes was still aboard Voyager during Season 4. Assuming she still transported Voyager across this distance but managed to stay aboard (and the transport was a one - time thing that she cannot replicate). How would that affect plots of Season 4...

www.trekbbs.com

Imagine that at the time a Trek show was being made, you could make a character leave for whatever in universe reason you wanted, and replace them with a different character, all your own invention. What species and what sort of character? Who would they replace?

 

[Shawnster]

At one time Kate Mulgrew was considering either leaving or greatly reduce her role on Voyager. I think this was around the time she was pregnant with one of her children, or she wanted to spend more time with her children or something. I don't remember now.

Anyway, I had an idea to reduce her role greatly. Voyager encounters another array controlled by the other spotocystian being (this might have been before we met Suspiria). Not wanting to pass the opportunity, Voyager prepares to return home. Just like last time, the array is in the middle of a grudge match and nefarious agents are in position to take the array unless Voyager stops them. Janeway does not let history repeat. She stays behind on the array and sends Voyager home in a season finale. Voyager returns to the Federation, but Katherine Janeway is lost.

Jump to the next season opener. Voyager crew, scattered upon their return gather for the anniversary of their return and the loss of their beloved captain. However, this is not a typical anniversary. Chakotay and the crew have been conspiring on a plan to rescue Janeway. Using a working copy of the device Lenara Kahn invented to create artificial wormholes (DS9 Rejoined), the crew "borrow" Voyager and return to the Delta Quadrant.

The rest of the series focuses on Voyager searching for Janeway. Occasionally each season would be a Janeway focused episode showing her continued journey to try to get home. As the seasons progress both parties find clues as to the whereabouts of each other. The finale restores the entire crew of Voyager and they all return to the Federation.

 

[Oddish]

I'll provide top two choices for my favorite series...

Well, with Voyager, eliminating certain characters is easy at that point. Probably the best choice is Chakotay. His main reasons for being are his Native American heritage (based on a charlatan, so no real loss), his Maquis status (meaningless by Season 2), and his incipient romance with Janeway (which was vetoed). Tuvok is a stronger character and will be a better first officer. Harry can fire the guns, Ayala can cover security. You could also dump Harry, with minimal fuss: the only thing anyone noticed about him was his low rank. If he expires when that rank still makes sense, he's like Tasha Yar only minus the half-Romulan progeny.

Best DS9 elimination is either (a) send Jake off to writing school, or (b) send Jadzia on a crucial mission in S7 and go without either her or Ezri until the series finale where Jadzia and Worf reunite. There was too little time in S7 to develop a new character properly, so don't.

TNG... multiple choices. Going with Riker because it gets Data a well deserved promotion, and he really didn't do all that much. He could get censured and relieved of duty in "The Pegasus", giving his actions sore real teeth. Of course, Data takes his place, and has to deal with the more people-oriented job of first officer. Alternatively, they could just dispense with Deanna, and kill the poorly conceived Worf/Troi pairing.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Enterprise :

I'd do a "Babylon 5" and get a new captain after the first season. I'll be nice and give Archer a "heroic" death saving humanity or something. Porthos is then adopted by Trip, and the loss of Archer heightens the tension between Trip and T'Pol.

Archer's replacement is...well frankly anyone else would be fine for me. Gender, nationality, acting ability, I don't care. But the new captain is a human who was raised offworld. This gives them valuable experience in space, but causes political strain in humans who question Earth being represented to the galaxy by someone who wasn't raised there. The new captain is sandwiched between T'Pol who finds them too human, and Trip who finds them not Earthling enough. The new captain is firm without being an utter dickhead, and is forced to admit when they're wrong. And if Phlox tries to commit genocide, the new captain doesn't let him.

If I am to choose the specifics, then I choose a Middle Eastern or South Asian woman. The show used Season 1 to draw in the rednecks and Neanderthals, in this post-9/11 era of anti-Muslim bigotry and objectifying women, so now that they're hooked, force them to get to know a heroine from "that" part of the world, who wears regular clothes.

I'll add ones for other series in the morning.

 

[Artoo Atari]

TNG: Guinan. After a brief one-shot appearance, I would have sent her off on a transport (or out an airlock) off-screen never to be seen again. The show had an empathic counselor, yet the crew took their problems to the insufferable bartender. Keep Troi in unifrom and let her do her job.

DS9: Yeah, Jake was probably expendable, but I really enjoyed how father-son relationship was portayed. So, I'd probably leave DS9 alone.

VOY: Definitely Chakotay. Wouldn't even be missed. After the 2-crew tension element was largely abdondoned by the writers early on, the justification for his role evaporated. Replace with Tuvok or a new DQ native that does more than cook. And definitely send Neelix off with Kes.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Sometimes people find it easier to talk to a friend. Not to slight Deanna - she can't develop non-clinical close friendships with all her patients, and some people can't look beyond "this is a psych session". Knowing you're not being so much analyzed by a trained counselor as advised by a friend with many years of personal experience, not just textbooks and a comparatively shorter life, helps.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

EDIT: I don’t know why I forgot the premise of this thread. I'm tired.

TNG:

I realize that if Tasha Yar had stayed, we mist likely wouldn't have gotten Ro Laren. But assuming we could get both, I'd have Tasha survive the chocolate monster, rescued by some ingenuity from Wesley Crusher, resulting in Wesley being granted a scholarship to the most prestigious science school in Federation space. So off he goes.

When Ro joins the crew, Tasha tries to connect and mentor her, due to their similar backgrounds. But Ro has little of Tasha's optimism or worship of Starfleet, so they're often at odds.

Tasha and Data have an ongoing romance, and Data has a hard time understanding all of her intense emotions and trauma. Tasha is friends with Worf as they both likto shoot stuff, but she helps rein him in a bit.

This of course screws up "Yesterday's Enterprise," as well as many poignant moments of Data remembering Tasha after her death. So, much as I diskike Weskey, maybe we should leave he show as is.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

In retrospect, it would be cool if Dax left DS9 in the middle of season 3 to become the carry-over character on Voyager. She could be replaced by a spunky new science officer, fresh out of the Academy, called Beckett Mariner.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Whose place would Dax take on Voyager?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Whose place would Dax take on Voyager

Must it be anyone?

(If yes, Harry Kim. Or Chakotay. Or Tuvok.)

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Where would she fit in, duty, romance, and friendship-wise?

 

[WarpTenLizard]

In retrospect, it would be cool if Dax left DS9 in the middle of season 3 to become the carry-over character on Voyager. She could be replaced by a spunky new science officer, fresh out of the Academy, called Beckett Mariner.

If Voyager was to have a joined Trill, it would be a massive waste not to work it into the Starfleet/Maquis conflict....in a way that would require a change of hosts.

I'd say, a member of Voyager's original crew is a joined Trill. The host is fatally wounded in the Caretaker incident. An unjoined Trill from Chakotay's crew takes the symbiont. At first the other Maquis don't notice much change, but soon their comrade is scolding them for their scuffed boots, and trying to get them to see Starfleet's side. And confusingly, she remembers the Caretaker incident and the war with the Maquis from two radically different points of view. She ends up acting as a bridge between the two crews.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Or alternately, a formerly honest Trill winds up being joined to the symbiont of a dead infiltrator/traitor and the symbiont begins to flip her to its side.

 

[Aspot]

In TNG, Deana Troi. As a telepath and as a counselor, she's quite useless: she says what we can all see. Guinan was far better at advising people with problems. Besides, Worf didn't really need yet another dead wife. But I'd miss Lwaxana, so I'd want an excuse to bring her in somehow - once in while, not as a regular.

In Voyager, Neelix can extremely annoying. I'd much prefer Joseph Sisko as the chef.

In DS9, the only charactert that really annoyed me was the grand Negus. I could do with a few less Ferengi in general. But they're a whole lot more believable than the way they were depicted in STNG.

 

[Oddish]

In DS9, the only charactert that really annoyed me was the grand Negus. I could do with a few less Ferengi in general. But they're a whole lot more believable than the way they were depicted in STNG.

If we're talking side characters, I'd go with either dispensing with Ishka, or modifying her part in the story. Instead of having her literally transform Ferengi society singlehandedly, I'd take a lesson from Riker in "Angel One", and have the change be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

 

[Aspot]

In fact, that whole sub-plot about Ferengi culture could go missing and I wouldn't miss it. Yes! Less rainy planet, more time travel.

 

[Moonglum]

In DS9, the only charactert that really annoyed me was the grand Negus.

INCONCEIVABLE!

 

[Moonglum]

Can I replace everyone on DS9 with a deformed sentient rutabaga? Except we can keep Garak, Worf, O'Brien, Jadzia Dax, the Cardassians, and the Jem Hadar. (I would also keep the Vorta guy played by Jeffery Combs). All other races and characters on this show can go away as I did not care for them much.

 

[at Quark's]

Voyager returns to the Federation, but Katherine Janeway is lost.

Probably not what this thread is intended for, but I had a similar idea. Except to have her die permanently in Endgame.

Bit of a downer ending perhaps, but it would make for a dramatic 'Moses not living to see the Promised Land' narrative.

 

[Oddish]

Funny thing is, she could have easily accomplished that, way back in Season 3.

"OK, Q, quid pro quo. You send Voyager home, I go with you and have your kid. Do we have a deal?"