How would you change the show?

[Bry_Sinclair]

Had a thought about a bigger shakeup of the show.

Instead of just Starfleet and Maquis crews coming together, what if the Array still held dozens of other races from ships the Caretaker snagged in the weeks/months prior to Voyager being transported to the DQ, though all the other ships were in far worse condition following their transit, meaning the only way any of them have of getting home is on Voyager.

This could see a mix of Romulans, Cardassians, Wadi, etc all needing to find a way to fit in with the Starfleet way of doing things.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

As for whether Janeway made the right call or not, if I have to choose between the Dominion and the Borg I'll take the Dominion every time.

But like I said, depending on the wormhole would be a bad idea in and of itself, because it might not have been there anymore. Imagine if Voyager had gone that far out of its way only to find that the wormhole had been shut down or destroyed? That's an even worse risk than the Dominion.

 

[Summer Solstice]

Yeah, another problem was that the writers of both DS9 and VOY didn't do a good job of really making the Maquis out to be more than some Rebel Group. We never learned their differing philosophies on intervention, their tactics or what made them truly different from Starfleet.

DS9 DID do that...but only years later.

Frankly, this is why I think they should've used pre-established groups who had been given truly different characteristics.

IE, make the second crew Romulans. Make Beltran a Romulan Captain who agrees to work with Janeway as an equal rather than XO.

I wonder if some of the reason the second crew weren't Romulans/Klingons/Cardassians was so they wouldn't have several characters who would be in most bridge scenes who needed the prosthetic make up that the aliens needed. It might have committed them to spending quite a bit of the budget on that every week.

 

[fireproof78]

Had a thought about a bigger shakeup of the show.

Instead of just Starfleet and Maquis crews coming together, what if the Array still held dozens of other races from ships the Caretaker snagged in the weeks/months prior to Voyager being transported to the DQ, though all the other ships were in far worse condition following their transit, meaning the only way any of them have of getting home is on Voyager.

This could see a mix of Romulans, Cardassians, Wadi, etc all needing to find a way to fit in with the Starfleet way of doing things.

I would enjoy that and see a little bit of a mix. Honestly, I think a more diverse crew in Voyager could have the laid some great groundwork for development, and exploration, giving viewers something a little familiar, while still have the alien elements of the Delta Quadrant.

 

[Anwar]

Had a thought about a bigger shakeup of the show.

Instead of just Starfleet and Maquis crews coming together, what if the Array still held dozens of other races from ships the Caretaker snagged in the weeks/months prior to Voyager being transported to the DQ, though all the other ships were in far worse condition following their transit, meaning the only way any of them have of getting home is on Voyager.

This could see a mix of Romulans, Cardassians, Wadi, etc all needing to find a way to fit in with the Starfleet way of doing things.

In fact, if Janeway and maybe like...3 or so others are literally the only Starfleet characters in the show it would get the Prime Directive thing out of the way. Because they're not a Starfleet crew but a ragtag bunch and thus acceptable.

IE, instead of a Starfleet ship, Janeway and a few others are on a shuttle that gets pulled to the Array and instead of a Starfleet ship Voyager is some alien ship from the Array they all use to escape.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

In fact, if Janeway and maybe like...3 or so others are literally the only Starfleet characters in the show it would get the Prime Directive thing out of the way. Because they're not a Starfleet crew but a ragtag bunch and thus acceptable.

IE, instead of a Starfleet ship, Janeway and a few others are on a shuttle that gets pulled to the Array and instead of a Starfleet ship Voyager is some alien ship from the Array they all use to escape.

I'd love to go the alien ship route, something built into the Array that the Caretaker bestows to Janeway and her new ragtag crew after she convinces him to give them all a chance to get home, so its a mixed crew struggling to get along onboard an alien ship they can barely understand or control at the beginning, with next to nothing to their names as they head out into the unknown.

However, after just having predominantly non-Starfleet sets for the last series I doubt the PTB would allow that for this one as well (though they could still have that Janeway's runabout is in the alien ships hangar so they could reuse that set, hehe).

 

[Anwar]

I'd love to go the alien ship route, something built into the Array that the Caretaker bestows to Janeway and her new ragtag crew after she convinces him to give them all a chance to get home, so its a mixed crew struggling to get along onboard an alien ship they can barely understand or control at the beginning, with next to nothing to their names as they head out into the unknown.

However, after just having predominantly non-Starfleet sets for the last series I doubt the PTB would allow that for this one as well (though they could still have that Janeway's runabout is in the alien ships hangar so they could reuse that set, hehe).

And instead of being the Medical Program, the EMH is the ship's AI that used "Human" as it's baseline appearance when it scanned Janeway or something. So it's the core AI that runs the ship for them.

 

[JR TREK]

It was never a forgone conclusion that Voyager would run into them.

"We don't know exactly how many vessels are out there, but their space appears to be vast; it includes thousands of solar systems - all Borg. We are no doubt entering the heart of their territory." - Captain Janeway

Scorpion clearly establishes the Delta Quadrant is where they originate and the amount of space they occupy. The most we knew up until then came from Q, Who? where the cube is discovered 7,000 light years from the Enterprise's previous position. This is all news to the crew of Voyager as well.

How much Starfleet knows about the Borg by the time of "Caretaker" isn't explicity stated, but by that point they have what Data downloaded through Locutus, and what Picard himself remembers, and whatever they learned from studying Hugh, and whatever Data learned from Lore later on. Come to think of it, Lore should know nearly everything about the Borg; and Starfleet has Lore in storage somewhere. Since Starfleet already has a "Borg Expert" (Commander Shelby) by "Best of Both Worlds," I don't think it's unreasonable to assume they have people dedicated to studying the Borg who would have downloaded everything in Lore's positronic network. So Janeway should be well informed about the Borg.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

And instead of being the Medical Program, the EMH is the ship's AI that used "Human" as it's baseline appearance when it scanned Janeway or something. So it's the core AI that runs the ship for them.

That would definitely make the over-achieving hologram make more sense.

 

[JR TREK]

But like I said, depending on the wormhole would be a bad idea in and of itself, because it might not have been there anymore. Imagine if Voyager had gone that far out of its way only to find that the wormhole had been shut down or destroyed? That's an even worse risk than the Dominion.

There's a thought, but the wormhole is part of ancient Bajoran history, no? Did Sisko keep the wormhole aliens and his role as the Emissary a secret? If I'm Janeway and I know what Sisko knows, then I'm not worried about the Bajoran Wormhole disappearing. Not compared to how worried I'd be about being assimilated by the Borg.

 

[Farscape One]

The wormhole did disappear during DS9's run. Twice. (In the pilot when they were about to go to find Sisko, and the pah-wraith inhabited Dukat.) First time, it came back within a say or so. The second time was at least 3 months later. Janeway obviously couldn't know about the second time, but that is still risky, because if it did disappear and they set course for it, a LOT of years would have been wasted. Janeway would likely have been phasered.

 

[Amasov]

How much Starfleet knows about the Borg by the time of "Caretaker" isn't explicity stated, but by that point they have what Data downloaded through Locutus, and what Picard himself remembers, and whatever they learned from studying Hugh, and whatever Data learned from Lore later on. Come to think of it, Lore should know nearly everything about the Borg; and Starfleet has Lore in storage somewhere. Since Starfleet already has a "Borg Expert" (Commander Shelby) by "Best of Both Worlds," I don't think it's unreasonable to assume they have people dedicated to studying the Borg who would have downloaded everything in Lore's positronic network. So Janeway should be well informed about the Borg.

Possibly, but, again, none of that is ever stated on screen nor does anyone even suggest this is the case. Sorry.

 

[Oddish]

Do we even know where the wormhole is vs. where Voyager was? The wormhole's Gamma Quadrant exit and the Caretaker's location could easily have been more than 70,000 LY apart.

 

[Anwar]

TNG did say that the Borg were from the Delta Quadrant though, in "Descent" when they're studying the Transwarp Conduits the screen says "Exit Point: Delta Quadrant" on the screen.

So even by TNG S7 they'd already determined the Borg were there.

 

[at Quark's]

Yes, it's entirely consistent with what TNG established about the Borg and therefore logical that they would come across Borg space when in the DQ , but still not a foregone conclusion. The galaxy is huge and even if the Borg held millions of systems, that would still be a vanishingly small percentage of all systems in the galaxy.

 

[Anwar]

On that subject, Voyager probably shouldn't have been in the Delta Quadrant or 75 years away from their home. I mean, we all knew they weren't going to really stick to that and have it take that long to get back.

Farscape had Crichton not know where he was and how far he was from Earth till Season 3.

Similarly, Voyager shouldn't have known exactly where they were or how long it would take them to get home. And when they do find out, it should've been something more like 20 years or something.

 

[Vale]

Similarly, Voyager shouldn't have known exactly where they were or how long it would take them to get home. And when they do find out, it should've been something more like 20 years or something.

Not really. If we were to suddenly find ourselves catapulted into the Delta Quadrant today we'd already have the technology to approximate our location in the galaxy to within a few thousand lightyears based on the position of things like the Milky Way's satellite dwarf galaxies, certain powerful pulsars, and galactic radio sources; all we'd need is maths and telescopes. For a 24th century starship with a stellar cartography department it would be child's play to approximate their location and plot a path home.

 

[fireproof78]

How much Starfleet knows about the Borg by the time of "Caretaker" isn't explicity stated, but by that point they have what Data downloaded through Locutus, and what Picard himself remembers, and whatever they learned from studying Hugh, and whatever Data learned from Lore later on. Come to think of it, Lore should know nearly everything about the Borg; and Starfleet has Lore in storage somewhere. Since Starfleet already has a "Borg Expert" (Commander Shelby) by "Best of Both Worlds," I don't think it's unreasonable to assume they have people dedicated to studying the Borg who would have downloaded everything in Lore's positronic network. So Janeway should be well informed about the Borg.

They knew enough that a small research crew was willing to take the risk and go "out there" to find them. You don't go that way unless you know where you might be going.

 

[Anwar]

Not really. If we were to suddenly find ourselves catapulted into the Delta Quadrant today we'd already have the technology to approximate our location in the galaxy to within a few thousand lightyears based on the position of things like the Milky Way's satellite dwarf galaxies, certain powerful pulsars, and galactic radio sources; all we'd need is maths and telescopes. For a 24th century starship with a stellar cartography department it would be child's play to approximate their location and plot a path home.

Kind of kills the potential drama though. A story like this requires them to stay in the same area to flesh it out, not always be on the move.

Farscape wouldn't have been very good if they had to leave the Peacekeepers behind after 1 season, then the Scarrans and all the others.

 

[fireproof78]

Farscape wouldn't have been very good if they had to leave the Peacekeepers behind after 1 season, then the Scarrans and all the others.

Had the potential to be. It's all in how it is handled. What made Farscape so interesting was the way the characters reacted to very stressful situations, as well as the fact that Crichton had dangerous information in his head. That made him a target, in a very unstable region. As well as his desire to protect Earth, him being on the move has a measure of potential that handled well could work.

Voyager could have been treated a similar way. Maybe the Caretaker had been scavenging vehicles to ensure none of the parts could be utilized by regional powers. Voyager could well be a threat just by virtue of their technology. So, staying the move for two reasons, while still have familiar powers who are hunting them. I know they tried that with the Kazon but another power could take interest too.

It's all in how you balance it out. Staying on the move requires a consistent antagonist for a period of time, as well as investment in the characters. Farscape demonstrates this well enough because Moya is on the move, hunted by Crais, hunted by Scorpious. It can be done.