Losing Voyager

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Should Voyager have gotten lost later in the first season? We could have seen a little more of how their mission was supposed to work, get to know the characters who died better and feel their loss more keenly.

Also, would you have liked to see what was going on back in Federation space a bit sooner, regarding their disappearance - from the POV of their families? Maybe a partially set on DS9 episode where family of Voyager crew come to process their loss?

 

[Dukhat]

Voyager getting lost wasn’t the problem. Voyager getting lost and the formula essentially still being exactly the same was the problem.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If we had gotten a sense of what Voyager's specific status quo was, interpersonally among specific characters and procedurally, the disruption would be more apparent.

 

[Finn]

Should Voyager have gotten lost later in the first season? We could have seen a little more of how their mission was supposed to work, get to know the characters who died better and feel their loss more keenly.

Also, would you have liked to see what was going on back in Federation space a bit sooner, regarding their disappearance - from the POV of their families? Maybe a partially set on DS9 episode where family of Voyager crew come to process their loss?

Maybe they could have written in that someone on Chakotay's ship was close to Keiko and Janeway decided to take her due to reasons. Boom, we watch Keiko grieving over not seeing Miles and Molly while on Voyager, and Miles and Molly mourning the loss of their wife/mother on DS9.

 

[fireproof78]

If we had gotten a sense of what Voyager's specific status quo was, interpersonally among specific characters and procedurally, the disruption would be more apparent.

I would agree with this. There was a status quo, then the ship was lost, then they had a new status quo that was largely taken in by the third episode. It was a lot of acceptance of the situation and then moving on. Getting to know them and building it up might have helped.

I don't know.

 

[Oddish]

An interesting thought... though I'd still rather have seen an episode set after they returned. Show us what did happen to them when they got home, not what didn't.

 

[Finn]

Of course, they'd have to find another reason for Nana Visitor being pregnant, or having her wear a lab coat like Gates did...

 

[Oddish]

Of course, they'd have to find another reason for Nana Visitor being pregnant, or having her wear a lab coat like Gates did...

I'm sure they could have managed it.

 

[Lynx]

Should Voyager have gotten lost later in the first season? We could have seen a little more of how their mission was supposed to work, get to know the characters who died better and feel their loss more keenly.

Also, would you have liked to see what was going on back in Federation space a bit sooner, regarding their disappearance - from the POV of their families? Maybe a partially set on DS9 episode where family of Voyager crew come to process their loss?

I could actually have imagined something like that.

Maybe the events in Caretaker should have went on for 3-4 episodes, starting with Tuvok becoming an undercover agent on Chakotay's ship, then we would have seen janeway becoming captain of this newly built ship Voyager and the development which lead up to the events in Caretaker.

I must also state that I always found it odd that the disappearance of Voyager never was mentioned in DS9. It could at least have been mentioned in some episode.

And as you suggest, it could have been some scenes from, let's say Earth, maybe from Starfleet Headquarters and maybe some memorial as well in some episode in the VOY series. It would have been better than the very unrealistic scenario in season 4 when Voyager got in touch with Earth from about 60 000 lightyears....... or what it was. That episode ruined the whole premise for the series.

 

[Finn]

^It would have been nice to have Sam Wildman's husband at least name dropped, like Dax working with him.

"We had drinks last night before a dabo game"

"Really? so soon?"

"It has been two years...."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I must also state that I always found it odd that the disappearance of Voyager never was mentioned in DS9. It could at least have been mentioned in some episode.

With speculation that they were MIA due to the war, or was that too soon?

 

[Finn]

Voyager got lost two years before the war.

 

[Oddish]

Voyager got lost two years before the war.

Actually, more like three. Voyager was lost at the start of DS9 S3, and the war officially began at the end of S5.

 

[Finn]

^Okay 2 1/2 years? Voyager's premiere stardate was past 483....

 

[FederationHistorian]

Even if there is some exploration of the original crew before they are thrown in the DQ, it does not address VOY straying from the original concept. And that all BTS.

I must also state that I always found it odd that the disappearance of Voyager never was mentioned in DS9. It could at least have been mentioned in some episode.

Maybe instead of Jadzia Dax being killed off, a ship Jadzia’s commanding during the Dominion War gets lost in the DQ, and is found in one of the final seasons of VOY. While Worf discusses it with Samantha Wildman’s husband sometime during the seventh season of DS9.

 

[Finn]

Wouldn't Dax's ship be quite behind Voyager in that scenario....?

 

[Lynx]

^Okay 2 1/2 years? Voyager's premiere stardate was past 483....

The events in Caretaker takes place somewhere between the DS9 episodes The Search and Meridian.


The events in The Search takes place at Stardates: 48212.4-48214.5
Friday 19 Mar 2371-Saturday 20 Mar 2371

The events in Caretaker takes place at Stardates 48308.2-48315.6
Friday 23 April 2371-Monday 26 April 2371

The events in Meridian takes place at: Stardate: 48423.2
Friday 04 Jun 2371

Unfortunately the DS9 episodes The House Of Quark, Equilibrium, Second Skin, The Abandoned and Civil Defence are without Stardates so it's impossible to find out exactly where teh events in Voyager fits in.

I remember that I tried to write a Timeline for the events in DS9 in the same way that I made a Timeline for the season 1-3 episodes in Voyager but I gave up because there were simply too many episodes which didn't have a Stardate.

In Voyager it was much simpler. I could easily come up with something unofficial or made up, like Kes's Birthday on 12 December due to the fact that Twisted didn't have a Stardate but the episodes before and after it (Elogium and The 37's) had.

But maybe I can come up with something for the Stardate-less episodes in DS9 but they wili be very inofficial.

 

[Phaser Two]

I like Voyager just the way it is. It's more enjoyable to me than Deep Space Nine.

 

[teacake]

If we had gotten a sense of what Voyager's specific status quo was, interpersonally among specific characters and procedurally, the disruption would be more apparent.

It was a short mission and a new command for Janeway. Unless they knew each other already the crew was, as I understand it, all newly assigned to Voyager and wouldn't have developed relationships yet. They got to know each other in the Delta quadrant.

 

[somebuddyX]

I don't think they needed any episodes before they got lost. I think they needed more episodes after they got lost to have the characters actually coming to grips with the new reality they found themselves in, but that's coming from a modern mindset and not what I thought at the time. When I watched "Caretaker" I understood this was the new paradigm and that shows were going to be like TNG 2.0.
I think it would have been interesting to do an episode later in the show where it was set before "Caretaker" and you see the original dynamics of the Maquis and Janeway before she became captain, or see the pre-Delta Quadrant crew Voyager again. People have mentioned before that "Shattered" might have had more weight if the past elements had included that pre-Delta Quadrant crew, to give Janeway's choice more punch if for things to continue to the present a bunch of her crew have to die in the process.