If you could rewrite Voyager
- Thread starter Trekboy1993
- Start date
Remember what Kira said to Dukat about thinking like a terrorist? If you don't have a hammer, use a pipe.
The Maquis are resourceful, and it gives you an edge when you're seventy light years away from the closest Star Fleet repair station.
Which is ridiculous, at best, especially with how quickly they get essential jobs to sensitive equipment. "Hey, we were hunting you as fugitives but now you get to be trusted members of the crew."
Only in Star Trek.
The same could be said about Tom Paris.
Of this, I am well aware. He also has a ridiculous amount of special abilities that would make a Navy SEAL seem inadequate.
And treated with trust in sensitive situations, technology, rather than being hardened criminals who loathed Starfleet. No tension, brief skirmishes of "Starfleet Way" vs "Maquis Way" and Chakotay kowtows to Janeway fairly quickly, buries the hatchet with Paris even faster and can only be fully explored in holograms and time travel.
It doesn't need a lot more, but an increase in tension would be a part of my rewrite, as well as having some truly unique skill sets among the Maquis that Starfleet doesn't use. Take some more unorthodox ways of making repairs, harvesting food (besides Nelix's cooking).
It's a little thing, but it helps with my suspension of disbelief to have distrust between Maquis and Starfleet the norm, rather than an occasional episode blip.
I'm new to this forum but a long time star trek fan (in particular the original series and Voyager). They deal with the unknowns of space exploration and the characters created on these two series are wonderful. I watched them when they first came out, then on Space, and finally Netfex. That said I would change one thing on this series. I would have sent Voyager home at the beginning of season 6. This was just after Equinox when Janeway lost herself and made some highly questionable decisions. As soon as they returned to the Alpha Quadrant I would have had Starfleet immediately demand she turn over the Maquis crew for trial and 7 of 9 for 'examination' of her borg implants. Still raw from risking her crew over Equinox she responds 'over my dead body' and goes rogue. She intends to drop the maquis and 7 of 9 off somewhere and return to 'face the music' but each time something goes wrong. Suddenly they are the hunted. Does the crew agree? Do some betray them? We get alliances formed with other rebel groups and betrayal by those they thought they could trust. How do they honor the Starfleet principles while hunted by the same organization? It also gives the characters a chance to evolve in different directions as circumstances and goals have changed. Tjmo.
Last edited:
Since when were the Maquis "Hardened criminals who loathed starfleet"? Not even Eddington loathed starfleet. Nor did Ro, or Hudson, or Chakotay...
Santos, Kalita, and Macias were goody-two-shoes colonists in over their heads, as were Hudson's group, like Sakonna.
Maybe Sudor was a hardened criminal, but he's on Voyager, or maybe Seska...
Santos, Kalita, and Macias were goody-two-shoes colonists in over their heads, as were Hudson's group, like Sakonna.
Maybe Sudor was a hardened criminal, but he's on Voyager, or maybe Seska...
In the eyes of Starfleet, that's what they are. At least criminals. Perhaps "hardened" and "loathe" were hyperbolic.
- Give Chakotay some real Indian tribes in his heritage, and cut the "crackers from space gave my people their culture" BS entirely. The funky tattoo and made-up name would be from some newer subcuclture among Native Americans in the 24th Century. (Actually this is already fanon, or even canon depending on your interpretation, but I'd make it more clear.)
- Have the Maquis and Starfleet stay as partially separate crews, like the Starfleets and Bajorans on DS9, with Chak's crew keeping their uniforms--until Season 4, when they learn the Maquis are no more; THEN Chakotay and Janeway decide to integrate everyone into a Starfleet crew.
- Make Kes more quirky and alien, like someone Zooey Deschanel would play. Tom "the playboy's" crush on her would then actually seem genuinely ironic, on multiple levels, especially the "wanting the one girl he can't have."
- Make Neelix less of a douche in early seasons, and have B'Elanna and Chaktoay stay in character during Season 2 instead of acting stoned
- Kes and Seven overlap for Season 4, with Kes's arc in "the Gift" basically stretched out over the season. Kes teaches the Doctor how to mentor Seven, and Kes is one of Seven's first friends. As Seven becomes more human, Kes less so, as her powers evolve. At the end of the Season Seven must say her first goodbye to her first friend.
- More development of minor characters, especially Naomi.
- Some better allies for Seska. Maybe have her hop from one race to another, as she chases Voyager. (Imagine her teamed up with Vidiians!)
- Give Harry a god-frelling-damn promotion for frak's sake!
The problem with that is that it exposes you to lawsuits, each time you make a mistake that could in any way be interpreted as demeaning, plus it requires you to be actually knowledgeable, something the writers are obviously incapable of achieving. In fact, some of the things that Chak says about his tribe would be downright insulting if applied to any real tribe whatsoever.
Hi catshadowi8, welcome to the forum
I was so on Janeway's side regards Ransom and the Equinox. If it had been me I would've hunted him down too and kicked his arse.
I like the tattoo. It reminds me of something from part of my own culture.
I agree with everything @Brennyren says!
I am male but have always liked to see series with strong female characters throughout, so when VOY came along I was all onboard with it and for a time it took second place in my list of Favourite Trek Shows. But over time the faults in the premise set up and writing dragged it down, as there was nothing that set it apart as a ship alone in the galaxy, there was no sense of peril or despair or hardship, the crew fought the alien of the week and carried on as though nothing had happened. With a premise like VOY had, it could've been something great, exploring just how far people would go to get home when they have nothing but each other and their wits to get by on. Shows like BSG and SGU show the struggles people faced when they have nothing and an endless journey ahead of them, which is what VOY should've touched on (ok, maybe not quite that dark, but both shows had genuine divisions between the people which only made things harder, but they were struggling to get by).
I am a hardcore Niner (that show will always be my favourite Trek) but lots of people hate it, I don't take it personally and if people start staying about ways they'd change the show I'll jump on that bandwagon and have my saw as well, because it's fun to look at the different creative paths others would have wanted to explore. If people, start saying they hate a show because the lead is a woman or black or two-headed then they've clearly missed the point of Trek--all our current pettiness and differences don't matter, we are one people who could achieve great things if we just worked with instead of against one another.
I think some people do resent Janeway being female...
There will always be fans that utterly miss the point. Like when before DISCOVERY came out there were a bunch of racist/sexist people on twitter ranting about how they hate how Trek is becoming too PC with the lack of white males in the cast. Thankfully I haven't seen this shit in this forum, but it's out there. I have to assume these kinds of fans were only into Trek so long as it was just white dudes in charge. In a way, I'm happy DISCOVERY exists to make them into the crybabies they are.
The worst Maquis related episode for me was "Repression" from season seven. It's such a gimmick of an episode that came way too far late in the show that nothing felt honest about it. 30 mins in Choktay and others take over the ship and are gonna do... what? Chakotay talks about stranding the Starfleet crew on a planet, but they need a certain number of people to run the ship and there's not enough Maquis. What was the motive of the voodoo Bajoran priest besides "he's craaaazy!"? And then everyone reverts back to normal at the end via captains log, because nobody knew how to end the episode properly. That was such a frustrating episode. It felt like it was designed just so we could actually see a Maquis takeover, but without thought put into how it would make sense.
I do think there should have been more genuine tension in the first season. Only by the end of that both crews have become one and learned to trust each other. I always did like "Prime Factors" as a favorite of the first season because it was about the crew starting to come together, but it was also about both Starfleet and Maquis conspiring mutiny against Janeway! Having Tuvok be the guy making the deal for trading technology was a stroke of genius, and that he was doing for Janeway as her friend so he could take the fall for her! I really wish Tuvok had more to do on the show. I always liked when the show touched on their friendship when it did. Those early episodes made it seem like it would be something we'd see more of but it got dropped along the way, only to be rarely brought up.
The only issue I have with the cast is it's too human heavy. Where are all the aliens!!!!As for Discovery it isn't its cast that is the problem... it's everything else
(Not to derail... but I liked the Tardigrade... sweet Ripper
)
