Recurring Characters That Were Shortlisted to Be Killed Off

[Ro_Laren]

I was reading the Memory Alpha article of the reccurring minor Voyager Vulcan character Vorik when I read this:

Alongside Joe Carey and Samantha Wildman, the character [i.e. Vorik] was one of the recurring characters shortlisted to be killed off before the series came to end. Eventually, the writing team decided to kill off Carey in the episode "Friendship One".

Did anyone else ever hear this? I kinda remember that there was one episode when Samantha Wildman was in danger and people were trying to keep Naomi in the dark or something. What would they have done with Naomi if they killed off her mom? That would have been sad! Since Neelix was her godfather (he was, wasn’t he?), I wonder if he would have stayed on Voyager if Sam had been killed and he was raising Naomi. If not, I wonder if Janeway would have let Neelix take Naomi to live with him on a Talaxian asteroid colony!

I can't even remember all of the Vorik episodes, so I'm not sure what episode they would have killed him off in. Maybe they just would have substituted Vorik for Carey in the episode Friendship One.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Way too Disney to kill off her mom.

Vorik was repulsive/wonderful depending on who you talk to. He was also not human which is always a positive.

Carey was dull, other than serving as B'Elanna's punching bag to establish B'Elanna's personality he did nothing.

GOOD CHOICE WAS MADE

 

[Guy Gardener]

Carey and Vorik each appeared in near abouts 7 or 8 episodes each depending on how you count two parters, at least half of which is clustered near in the season they originated in.

The episode were they thought Sam (She was in 8 episodes total.) might be dead and no one wants to tell Naomi is the beginning of season 5 and the last time we see Samantha in the present. her only appearance after that is in Fury which was mostly set in season one.

Sure they didn't have much of a budget for recurring guest stars, when simple guest stars who are bussed in and bussed out in the same week are so so much cheaper to lion tame.

A main cast member should have died, Vorik, Carey and Sam Wildman should not have rated as memorable since they were in about 5 percent of the episodes made, which is just lazy story telling.

On family Guy last week, they randomly mentioned a guy that was in an episode 7 years ago, and the hash tag crawled across the screen "# We've been on for fricking ever."

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

A main cast member should have died, Vorik,

I agree, Kes should definitely have died rather than blowing up and then coming back all sorry about it eventually.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

They should've had Chakotay and Neelix on the list of characters to kill off.

 

[2takesfrakes]

STAR TREK always kills off entertaining recurring characters in favor of catering to the lowest denomination - kind of like replacing Kes with Seven, in a way. Whatever their reasons, it happens far too often. I never understood it and I still don't.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

STAR TREK always kills off entertaining recurring characters in favor of catering to the lowest denomination - kind of like replacing Kes with Seven, in a way. Whatever their reasons, it happens far too often. I never understood it and I still don't.

I think that's because many stories are driven by the guest (and situations) of the week more than by the main characters, who are in reactive roles. Consequentially, the guests can often outshine the regulars.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I would have rather characters like Carey and Vorik just kind of like vanish than be redshirted. If they vanish, it's an acknowledgement "These characters are boring and not particularly important and we don't want to spend any more script on them". If they are brought in just to be killed off, you kind of see the writer's intentions through the fourth wall, "We are killing these unimportant characters for cheap shock". The latter just comes off as hacky.

If any Trek show needed a strong, consistent cast of recurring characters it was Voyager. DS9 and Galactica had a sense of community for the very reason that they had a consistent cast of recurring characters.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It "accidentally" leaks that "X" is going to bite it, so an additional 4 million people tune in to see the gore, and another 8 million demand a rerun because they didn't keep on top of the information being held top secret.

 

[exodus]

I was reading the Memory Alpha article of the reccurring minor Voyager Vulcan character Vorik when I read this:

Alongside Joe Carey and Samantha Wildman, the character [i.e. Vorik] was one of the recurring characters shortlisted to be killed off before the series came to end. Eventually, the writing team decided to kill off Carey in the episode "Friendship One".

Did anyone else ever hear this? I kinda remember that there was one episode when Samantha Wildman was in danger and people were trying to keep Naomi in the dark or something. What would they have done with Naomi if they killed off her mom? That would have been sad! Since Neelix was her godfather (he was, wasn’t he?), I wonder if he would have stayed on Voyager if Sam had been killed and he was raising Naomi. If not, I wonder if Janeway would have let Neelix take Naomi to live with him on a Talaxian asteroid colony!

I can't even remember all of the Vorik episodes, so I'm not sure what episode they would have killed him off in. Maybe they just would have substituted Vorik for Carey in the episode Friendship One.

"Counterpoint"
They were hunting and killing telepaths in that one.
As an example to Janeway, Kashyyk could have killed one of her crew that's telepathic.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Then we could have had one of those exciting AIDS stories..

 

[LeadHead]

I seem to remember that during Voyager's run, one proposal that never happened but made the rounds on the internet was for them to revisit the Vaadwaur, the battle which would end up killing Samantha Wildman and increase Seven's role in Naomi's life. So it makes sense that she was on the short list for "Friendship One."

 

[Harvey]

I seem to remember that during Voyager's run, one proposal that never happened but made the rounds on the internet was for them to revisit the Vaadwaur, the battle which would end up killing Samantha Wildman and increase Seven's role in Naomi's life. So it makes sense that she was on the short list for "Friendship One."

That would have made more sense than what happened -- which was the exact same thing, except that Samantha Wildman just vanished for no good reason.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It "accidentally" leaks that "X" is going to bite it, so an additional 4 million people tune in to see the gore, and another 8 million demand a rerun because they didn't keep on top of the information being held top secret.

That's exactly right. But it's hacky when they think that way, designing situations for characters to be killed off rather than deriving deaths naturally from the story.

 

[Rarewolf]

It's almost as if the writers forgot Carey was still alive after season one until his last episode - both his season five and six appearances were set during the first year.

 

[Harvey]

It's almost as if the writers forgot Carey was still alive after season one until his last episode - both his season five and six appearances were set during the first year.

And, after season five, the only time we see Samantha Wildman is in "Fury," an appearance that takes place during season two, I believe.

 

[Guy Gardener]

All stories naturally lead into sweeps week.

(A lot don't really make it out the other side.)

 

[Guy Gardener]

It's almost as if the writers forgot Carey was still alive after season one until his last episode - both his season five and six appearances were set during the first year.

And, after season five, the only time we see Samantha Wildman is in "Fury," an appearance that takes place during season two, I believe.

KES: Computer, has long has Voyager been in the Delta quadrant?
COMPUTER: Fifty six days, seventeen hours.

You would think that it was barely past the pilot, but the Vidiaans who first tussled with Voyager in episode 5 were a known quantity.

 

[Ro_Laren]

I was reading the Memory Alpha article of the reccurring minor Voyager Vulcan character Vorik when I read this:

Alongside Joe Carey and Samantha Wildman, the character [i.e. Vorik] was one of the recurring characters shortlisted to be killed off before the series came to end. Eventually, the writing team decided to kill off Carey in the episode "Friendship One".

Did anyone else ever hear this? I kinda remember that there was one episode when Samantha Wildman was in danger and people were trying to keep Naomi in the dark or something. What would they have done with Naomi if they killed off her mom? That would have been sad! Since Neelix was her godfather (he was, wasn’t he?), I wonder if he would have stayed on Voyager if Sam had been killed and he was raising Naomi. If not, I wonder if Janeway would have let Neelix take Naomi to live with him on a Talaxian asteroid colony!

I can't even remember all of the Vorik episodes, so I'm not sure what episode they would have killed him off in. Maybe they just would have substituted Vorik for Carey in the episode Friendship One.

"Counterpoint"
They were hunting and killing telepaths in that one.
As an example to Janeway, Kashyyk could have killed one of her crew that's telepathic.

Now that would have been interesting. Counterpoint is one of my favorite Voyager episodes. I wonder how it would have changed the episode if Vorik would have been killed.

 

[I am not Spock]

The writers must have forgotten that Samantha Wildman didn't die in 'Once Upon A Time', because excluding flashback appearances, she never appeared in the present day again! Same with Carey. He didn't appear after season one, excepting episodes set in the past like 'Fury' and 'Relativity', until his one shot return and death in 'Friendship One'.