Abandoned ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Finale Ideas Could Have Given the Sendoff It Deserved

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Voyager' started by USS Excelsior, May 24, 2021.

  1. Akiraprise

    Akiraprise To Ꝏ & BEYOND! Moderator

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    VOY was mostly non serialized and about the journey home. Having crazy adventures week after week. This TPTB did by design so it could be TNG 2.0. Unfortunately the entire premise of the show doesn't lend itself to being TNG 2.0. But that's the hand it was dealt from UPN etc.

    We were never going to have even a couple episodes of them making it home and seeing family reunions or any of the things after 7 years we probably should have. But a little 10 minute montage similar to what DS9 did with "What You Leave Behind" showing some quick reunions wouldn't have been out of line.
     
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  2. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    But were any of those other episodes an advert for Star Trek The Las Vegas Experience?
     
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  3. Mogh

    Mogh Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's the crux, really, isn't it? They wanted to repeat the TNG formula, with the Delta Quadrant providing a TOS-style novelty.

    Which led to a feeling of retread as the seasons wore on (gee, where have I seen this whole 'first officer falls in love with woman whose culture forbids it and who then reprogammes her to no care any more' story before?).

    Sadly it was sold on the premise of "lost in space, trying to get home" and whilst there were some tremendous standalone episodes, by the last two season I kept feeling "so what?" at the end of each episode as the crew did more or less anything other than make any serious attempt to get home (at least the first two seasons' constant hunt for shortcuts and attempts to build and feed a crew who could do it were in service of that).
     
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  4. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    This comment is incorrect. To repeat something I just said elsewhere, Voyager is a rare Science Fiction example of a subcategory of television that I refer to as the Serialized Procedural, which is a series that, on the surface, seems Episodic in nature, but actually tells serialized stories that are linked through character progression, recurring guest characters, direct callbacks to previous episodes, and story arcs that are spread out over multiple episodes or seasons.
     
  5. Oddish

    Oddish Admiral Admiral

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    That is true, of course. Yes, the cast fluctuated... Kes left, Seven came. Naomi was born. The Borglets came, three left. The Doc began strolling around outside the holodeck. Tom and B'Elanna got married, and Miral was conceived. People died. Tom lost a rank, and he and Tuvok both gained one. And, the number of light years to go decreased every now and then. But... given that we were talking about a ship of 150 souls over 7 years, that's not much change, is it?
     
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  6. Akiraprise

    Akiraprise To Ꝏ & BEYOND! Moderator

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    Some of what you say is true. There was of course some serialized story telling over the years. Seasons 1 and 2 especially. But we should have seen far more follow-up to some themes and recurring crew appearances. Dragon's Teeth, Distant Origin, the proposed Year of Hell arc all would have been great if expanded? I want to know what the big mystery was in Janeway's Victorian holo novel. Maybe let Ayala speak. You know things of that nature. :lol:
     
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  7. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe have the appearance of the ship itself change over time as they needed to make repairs without access to Starfleet facilities...

    Crazy talk!!!
     
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  8. Oddish

    Oddish Admiral Admiral

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    Ahh, Ayala... the Morn of Voyager. :lol:
     
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  9. darrenjl

    darrenjl Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I'm actually of the opinion that Voyager heading back to Earth orbit surrounded by the Starfleet armada as the credit rolled was the best ending it could have had, and that anything further showing the crew 'home' would simply be a tacked on scene or finale that would end up an anti-climatic bookend. The whole premise of Voyager was it was about the journey of the ship through the Delta Quadrant and trying to get home- not the question of what would happen when or if they get there.

    However, where I think there is disappointment is TPTB could have been more clever about answering this question within the series itself. There were hints throughout the show in episodes of what could have happened; Voyager becoming a museum, Mark getting back with Janeway, Tom being forgiven by his father and Naomi and Icheb becoming Starfleet officers, albeit through different episodes and different time shifts. There was even a mention from Starfleet asking about 'the status of the Maquis', a question that was pretty much addressed by the captain there and then. By the end of their seventh year of the journey, Starfleet was seeing Voyager returning to its original duties and missions with the retrieval of Friendship One and I expect with further and further integration of Pathfinder technology, their daily calls would become more regular, more streamlined and whilst returning home would be its primary mission, it would become less about the captain and more about Starfleet controlling Voyager. Which brings me onto my thoughts, what if the writers had brought forward this seamless communication with Earth and Starfleet, and the 'journey' changes; the crew is no longer on their own, and the decision Janeway makes are more scrutinised by Starfleet, and this brings them into conflict on their missions and vulnerabilities. The Voyager crew feel they are the experts of the Delta Quadrant, but Starfleet push them and this turns into a conflict within Janeway, who is best apprised to decide Voyager's fate? As the crew are now in regular contact with their families and peers, this change amongst the crew as they start to realise they are no longer that special, do they even want to return to their lives before Voyager, before they were pioneers of the Delta Quadrant?

    By already answering many of the questions of what life would like for the crew when they get home; the promotions, the exoneration of the Maquis, Janeway promoted to Admiral, all answered before the series ends, it starts to question if the Voyager crew really want that, and if the journey home is less about returning to a place they call 'home' but more appreciating what they are about to lose when they do.
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2021
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  10. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure that kind of tension is something the fans really wanted to see or TPTB would have been in a position to satisfactorily deliver.
     
  11. Phoenix219

    Phoenix219 Commodore Commodore

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    I would say that it isn't a rare sci fi example at all, considering the X-Files pioneered it, and since then, just about every sci-fi/fantasy/horror show on network TV has followed the formula..... Buffy, Supernatural, Grimm, Fringe, Person of Interest, the entire slew of DC shows on the CW, right up to modern shows (whether they last or not) like Debris. It is a *very* common style of storytelling.
     
  12. Oddish

    Oddish Admiral Admiral

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    I'm afraid I don't have much confidence in Voyager's TPTB, given the sheer number of easily fixed inconsistencies the show had.
     
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  13. HappyMcWonderful

    HappyMcWonderful Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Voyager was too ambitious for it's era. A Voyager-esque series could do very well now. We have the ability to beat the crap out of the ship and show the damage/changes over time thanks to cheap CGI. And audiences demand serialized stories now, back then stuff had to be formatted for eventual syndication and reruns out of sequence.

    With the media platforms we have now, this isn't an issue. A direct reboot of Voyager set in the same era with the same episodes and some minor tweaking would be a crowd-pleaser.

    I often lamented that the problems Voyager had detracted from it's overall enjoy-ability... Let's get into a situation, use finite resources to solve the issue and leave with lasting repercussions or damage. That rarely if ever happened in the series. Unlimited torpedoes, unlimited shuttles, a lack of crew issues... ship infrastructure that seemingly cured itself of all ills between episodes...

    Yeah...

    I'd love a modern do-over.
     
  14. Oddish

    Oddish Admiral Admiral

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    Sometimes I think that the writers of Voyager deliberately wrote stories that showed how much better the show could be, then used the Big Red Reset Button to return things to status quo ante.

    "Year of Hell" gave us damage, deprivation, and consequences. Then took them away.
    "Before and After" gave us marriage, family, character evolution, development, and even people taking new responsibilities when key characters died. Then it was erased.
    Hell, even "Favorite Son", lousy as it was, showed the potential for a neglected character to go in a new direction... then undid it.
    Between that and the easily fixed inconsistencies... you just wonder what they were thinking, or if they were thinking at all!
     
  15. HappyMcWonderful

    HappyMcWonderful Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    That's not far from the truth, the show was a mess internally behind the scenes. They WANTED to do a lot more than they could, because of infighting, drama and all of that.
     
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  16. Oddish

    Oddish Admiral Admiral

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    I read somewhere that in TNG and DS9's third seasons, those shows really hit their stride and discovered their identity. Voyager, by contrast, retreated even further from its "ship on its own far away from home" premise.
     
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  17. suarezguy

    suarezguy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Why assume that getting to Earth a few years earlier would lead to particularly different outcomes then what we initially saw (aside from those of a handful of people, Tuvok and Seven and Chakotay, being better)?
     
  18. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    How could it not?
     
  19. suarezguy

    suarezguy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^I think the show had already effectively established that Tom and B'Elanna would stick together (and Admiral Paris be proud of Tom), the Maquis members would be pardoned, the Doctor would generally and increasingly be respected as a sentient individual.
     
  20. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    But we have no idea how much of what we saw in the future was because of things that have now no longer happened.