DS9 brought in a TNG character - Worf - to spice things up. Although the impact of that can be debated as being a detriment or improvement to the show, the principle of "The Worf Effect" exists nonetheless. By means of Q, Will Riker appeared on Voyager. If you could've put any TNG character onto Voyager as a regular crewmember, who would it be and why? For the sake of logistics, let's just assume they've been transplanted by Q (nice and easy). For me, maybe Beverly. If something had happened to the EMH, her character might have been more interesting in the Delta than she was in TNG, using her experience and expertise in a way that wasn't always so intertwined/overshadowed by Jean-Luc. Your choice?
My first choice would be Deanna Troi because a councillor wouldn't have gone amiss aboard VOY. But then we would probably have lost those three episodes she was in on VOY so on second thought, no. Perhaps Data would be an interesting choice. Let's see who outwits who: Seven or Data?
Data probably would have technobabbled them home in the space of one episode. Riker would have been fun. Imagine the tension between him and Janeway...
Troi would be the most logical candidate, given the trauma the crew should've endured being ripped away from all that they knew and the relative safety of Federation space, facing unknown perils and ever increasing stress as the years wore on. But my choice would be Dr Crusher. I'd much rather have a flesh and blood doctor treating me than a smug, smarmy, ego-driven hologram.
There was an Ensign Janeway in TNG Man of the People, who i had a crush on, way-way back, when she was on Dougie Howser, and maybe she was Kathryn's cousin?
Honestly, I'm gonna pick Geordi. It could have made for some interesting drama if a top of the line chief engineer was suddenly stuck on a lost ship with a (surly) chief engineer already in place. Do I think they would have actually exploited that drama? No, probably not. That was DS9.
Adding Data to any TV show would almost certainly improve it. So that's too easy a choice. I'll go with Dr. Crusher because the ship is so low on medical professionals. Why did Tom Paris arbitrarily became Voyager's nurse when he clearly had no interest in it?
Tasha Yar. In "The Neutral Zone" great swaths of planets are gobbled by some unknown force. This includes both Romulan and Federation worlds. It is referenced in Q Who? That the surrounding planets had the same happen to them before a Borg ship appears. The Borg, at that point, simply consume technology, do not assimilate. In "Yesterday's Enterprise," Yar is returned to the past to fight Klingons. She is then killed, according to Sela, for attempting to escape a compound, with her small half-Romulan child. Perhaps she is put on one of the worlds that is destroyed by the Romulans. Twenty years older, because of going back in time, she is assimilated by the Borg. When the Borg make contact with Voyager, a la Locutus and Seven of Nine, they offer Denise Crosby as a Borg, to be a liason. She is not Seven, assimilated at a young age. She was a Borg for 7 years. This makes contacting Starfleet all the more important and relevant to the TNG cast, as they would want to know Tasha, again. Her backstory of being rescued by Starfleet twice (the colony, being Borg), helps Janeway sell to the crew Starfleet's best ideals. Reacclimating to life as a human, introduces guilt a la Picard, knowledge of the Borg, and ties in nicely what I would do with the show--use Starfleet's knowledge of the Borg to end the threat permanently and unite three factions into one crew--mercenaries, Maquis, and Starfleet. Since she would want to know about Starfleet since we last saw her, it allows them to summarize the past twenty years of events in Star Trek. Sela. Her sister. Crosby then becomes integral to Star Trek, her death overcome. Picard, Riker, Troi, Data all can be on the show, sending messages. It gets them involved in bringing Voyager home. Just a thought.
Yes she is! I have to quote an authority of this subject here, who in fact is myself! This quote is from The Kes Website at http://www.lynx677.tk/ where you can find explanation to some odd things and contradictions, including information about Lucy Janeway and Nicole Janeway.
Most of the TNG crew are too professional and serious-mature to fit in on Voyager, so I vote Barclay.
Riker would have been interesting. At his heart, he's a very insecure character. By the end of TNG, he'd turned down multiple chances at a captaincy, worried that he was "too comfortable" on the Enterprise, and generally starts acting like a petulant child whenever he feels professionally threatened by someone like Jellico, or Shelby (or himself, in the case of Tom and Will throwing lots of shade toward each other). Having him be the outsider trying to fit into this group could have exploited this insecurity, and forced Janeway to build a working relationship with yet another first officer. Poor Tuvok, though, getting shoved aside again. Having a similar sort of checkered past as Ro, I think the initial relationship between him and Tom Paris would have been quite chilly. From a real-world perspective, it would've given them the opportunity also to replace Robert Beltran. I don't mean that as a shot at his acting ability, as much as it is just a statement that he didn't enjoy the material he was given or the work in general... so why have him stay? Frakes at that time probably would've jumped at any chance to be back in Star Trek.
If Picard and Janeway were both there, Janeway would be the Captain because it’s her ship, right? Might be interesting to see Picard adapt to a first officer role. I don’t think Ro at the end of her arc overlaps with Torres. She matured a lot, and her treason doesn’t negate that. Maybe Ro could see a prior version of herself in Torres. Moreover you’d have a bridge between the camps who Starfleet loyalists may still see as a traitor.
If Q is the reason, then I’d have to pick Worf, and have him remain on DS9 too, but without an explanation.