Aw, I wish people could take this thread seriously.
Both Lazarus and I would like feedback and to hear some real story ideas.
Uh oh, Serious Cat ask for Serious response. Just remember you asked for it!
SURVIVOR / SEASON TWO
Voyager detects a Starfleet transmission coming from a nearby world, and changes course to investigate. Upon arriving they discover a world that is home to a holographic doctor and a handful of survivors, eeking out a life on the desolate planet with what little they were able to cannibalise from a damaged USS Voyager.
A five-hundred year-old Doctor explains that in his past, Voyager was investigating an ancient machine burried beneath the surface that may have the ability to transport them all home, when an accident hurled the ship two centuries into the past and caused it to crash-land on this world.
In the following five hundred years following the crash and deaths of the crew, the Doctor has been studying the machine, left behind by a very advanced civilisation, and thinks he has discovered what went wrong. With a fresh chance at success, the old Doctor wants to try again.
Captain Janeway realises that she stands at a crossroads between continuing home as they have been, or chancing the old Doctor's scheme to get them home in the blink of an eye that will kill them all if it goes wrong.
This is the plot of DS9: Children of Time, except with Voyager characters. Be that as it may, that probably would make a good Voyager episode assuming the DS9 version didn't exist.
Reflections/Season 2
(snip)
becomes increasingly torn up over her decisions made during the pilot and the situation in general and grows frantic, overworking the engineering team and putting in long hours there herself to get the engines at maximum efficiency and keeping the ship at warp 9.5. When Janeway decides that they should not go off course to help a civilian transport ship issuing an SOS beacon, the crew know something is really wrong.
Janeway realizing her own stupidity and then responding to that realization by acting stupidly has a certain symmetry that is common to Voyager episodes.
The crew get Chakotay to have a heart to heart with her and she reveals the problem to him. He enlists the help of Kes and Neelix (who use the holodeck again for this) to remind her of all the good she has done so far in the quadrant and that as they have learned more about Federation history, the more they realise their situation is not so different and it is part of a Starfleet member's job to sarcifice themselves for the greater good (citing cool examples, ooh continuity etc.) and cites mistakes made by even the greatest starfleet captains and admirals (with some references made to Kirk and Picard too for some fun).
This bit seems ripe for a clip episode.
After they've cheered up Janeway and made her realise that she should not leave those trapped on the transport ship to salve her own conscience about her mistakes but rather that she should do the best with her situation, they go to the transport ship. Janeway, seeing the survivors of the radiation leak on the transport ship and the young children and such is touched.
She walks into the holodeck and deletes the program from the memorybanks.
This is a typical Voyager ending to a Voyager episode. I think you've gotten the "feel" fo Voyager exactly right, this episode would fit right in with the rest of the episodes.
Personally, I find this sort of thing pretty basic, and we've seen Captains doubting their own decisions (that's even a plot element from the TOS "the cage" pilot). I don't really care at all about the Janeway character, though that's not your doing.
So, I can hear you now "Oh Klaitu, hater of Voyager, what WOULD make a good Voyager episode?"
The Federation decides on the rights of holograms in the Alpha Quadrant, the decision is that sentient holograms are outlawed, and to be deleted. Voyager can't possibly comply since The Doc is their only Doc. I think there's room to explore the differences between a holodeck character and the doctor, and what qualifies as sentient, while still correcting the problem that sentient holograms create for the rest of Star Trek.
Or, how about..
Icheb invents a device that can temporarily create an artificial wormhole, but the only thing that could possibly power the device is the Omega molecule. The activation of the device destroys the Omega molecule in the process, and will destroy subspace for lightyears.. but in an uninhabited region of space. The crew must decide if they want to follow the Omega Directive even though there's no risk to anyone, or obey the Omega Directive and take the long way home. Essentially a "Spirit of the law vs letter of the law" debate..
Other basic ideas:
- Paris reconciles with his father via the midas array.
- Janeway disovers a casualty list from the dominion war and discovers that many of her friends are dead, questions what the point of retuning to earth is.
- Ensign Kim finally makes Lieutenant after redesigning Voyager's warp plasma system (something he picked up in an alternate reality)
- Seven of Nine considers the prospect of having children, but discovers that she can't because her.. lady parts were borgified.
- The ship encounters a subspace rift that renders everyone except Kim and Naomi wildman unconscious.
- Voyager discovers a dying Wesley Crusher on a Delta Quadrant planet. They want to discover how he got there, and if he can get them home. Maybe Chakotay knows him.
So there you go. That's all I got.
