Roads not traveled....

[teya]

Commander Chakotay[/B]: An ex-Starfleet science officer (specializing in archaeology and anthropology) and a native of Dorvan V, Chakotay is of Mayan descent. He left Starfleet to join the Maquis to defend his home world. He is the classic "man of peace become man of war." He does not enjoy violence and is at heart a very gentle and soft-spoken man, yet is firm in his convictions. He is also something of a contradiction: a man of science and man of faith. He is a leader of a Maquis cell that has recently been tracking some unusual Cardassian activity near the Badlands. When Janeway and Chakotay reach an agreement to integrate the crews, Chakotay's Starfleet commission is reactivated and he becomes first officer, splitting his time between this and the science console. Janeway relies on him for his understanding of science matters. In the lead trifecta of VGR, Chakotay is perhaps most like McCoy of TOS - his concern is for the well being of others first, and he may be the most empathetic member of the senior staff. Yet, he also possesses the scientific curiosity of Spock. Chakotay later fathers a son with the traitor Seska, which he is left to raise when she dies..

Gods, man, you make my heart sing.

 

[Praetor]

Glad to make at least one person happy Teya.

Praetor, your reworking reminds me of one of the things I would have done in the pilot - I would have had Janeway as the Science Officer, not the Captain, given Janeway's love of the sciences. The actual captain and first officer would get killed and put her in the center seat as the ranking officer from the Starfleet crew. This would also generate some friction between her and Chakotay, given that before he joined the Maquis, he outranked her, but she refuses to let a criminal take command of a Starfleet ship.

I like that idea too - it would work especially well if the Captain or XO lived just long enough to field promote Kathy.

Also, in some of my ideas, I'd also made Harry gay, but the way I'd figured it was that Harry would be repressing his homosexuality - he's the only child of an older couple, so I would figure that at least for him, there's the want to please the parents and 'continue the family line,' so that'd be a continuing storyline. Given that I'd have Tom be openly bisexual, it'd be because of him that Harry comes out.

That might be an intriguing metaphor for homosexual repression in modern society that I hadn't considered. Plus, Tom did always strike me as kinda... open-minded. Bravo

 

[Tachyon]

Well, there are many roads not to traveled, but isn't that why the fanfic is for?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Should have kept the Maquis/Starfleet tension going on for much longer than they did. To have them effectively become a part of the same crew after 1 or 2 episodes was a weak decision. Don't get me wrong, Chakotay was probably my favorite character on the show, but putting the two crews together so early in the show was just bla.

The show got very quickly to the "one big happy ship." What I'd have done was this...

Set the entire first season in the Alpha Quadrant, with Janeway and the Voyager hunting down the Maquis. That would be the overarching plot thread, and there would also be time for Next Generation-like strange new worlds shit.

Chakotay is the season's "big bad." We would see him as a recurring character throughout the first season, and perhaps even on Deep Space Nine.

"Caretaker" is the first season cliffhanger.

So, not only does it kill half the characters we think are the series' main characters (like the chief engineer, first officer, and several others), but characters we've spent a season seeing as the bad guys are now regular characters.

"Caretaker" is good on its own as it is, but if it had the backstory that a season of Alpha Quadrant adventures could provide, it could have been brilliant.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

I agree with a lot of what has already been said here.

I'm going to get a little more specific.

Lon Suder should have been kept alive. Would have added a whole new dimension to the crew's interaction.

 

[Skywalker]

Praetor, your reworking reminds me of one of the things I would have done in the pilot - I would have had Janeway as the Science Officer, not the Captain, given Janeway's love of the sciences. The actual captain and first officer would get killed and put her in the center seat as the ranking officer from the Starfleet crew. This would also generate some friction between her and Chakotay, given that before he joined the Maquis, he outranked her, but she refuses to let a criminal take command of a Starfleet ship.

Damn, I was gonna say that. Well, something along those lines. The first thing I'd thought of when I saw this thread was "make Janeway originally the XO or third-in-command, have the CO and/or XO die, and leave her and Chakotay constantly struggling over who should be in command for a while."

I guess I'm not as clever as I'd thought.

 

[Navaros]

They could have stuck to the official premise and traveled that road instead (instead of completely discarding it by the end of the first episode, which they did).

Namely:

Pulled to the far side of the Galaxy, where the Federation is 75 years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.

 

[Praetor]

Should have kept the Maquis/Starfleet tension going on for much longer than they did. To have them effectively become a part of the same crew after 1 or 2 episodes was a weak decision. Don't get me wrong, Chakotay was probably my favorite character on the show, but putting the two crews together so early in the show was just bla.

The show got very quickly to the "one big happy ship." What I'd have done was this...

Set the entire first season in the Alpha Quadrant, with Janeway and the Voyager hunting down the Maquis. That would be the overarching plot thread, and there would also be time for Next Generation-like strange new worlds shit.

Chakotay is the season's "big bad." We would see him as a recurring character throughout the first season, and perhaps even on Deep Space Nine.

"Caretaker" is the first season cliffhanger.

So, not only does it kill half the characters we think are the series' main characters (like the chief engineer, first officer, and several others), but characters we've spent a season seeing as the bad guys are now regular characters.

"Caretaker" is good on its own as it is, but if it had the backstory that a season of Alpha Quadrant adventures could provide, it could have been brilliant.

So, the Whedon Approach? I like it.

Lon Suder should have been kept alive. Would have added a whole new dimension to the crew's interaction.

Yeah, that's a good one, too. Imagine if Suder had been deemed sane and given a "work-release" and expected to interact amongst the crew.

Also, Brad Dourif was awesome.

Praetor, your reworking reminds me of one of the things I would have done in the pilot - I would have had Janeway as the Science Officer, not the Captain, given Janeway's love of the sciences. The actual captain and first officer would get killed and put her in the center seat as the ranking officer from the Starfleet crew. This would also generate some friction between her and Chakotay, given that before he joined the Maquis, he outranked her, but she refuses to let a criminal take command of a Starfleet ship.

Damn, I was gonna say that. Well, something along those lines. The first thing I'd thought of when I saw this thread was "make Janeway originally the XO or third-in-command, have the CO and/or XO die, and leave her and Chakotay constantly struggling over who should be in command for a while."

I guess I'm not as clever as I'd thought.

No, no. "Great minds," remember?

They could have stuck to the official premise and traveled that road instead (instead of completely discarding it by the end of the first episode, which they did).

Namely:

Pulled to the far side of the Galaxy, where the Federation is 75 years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.

Man, when you read it like that it sounds so... difficult. And interesting.