Season-by-Season Character Swap Out

[Bry_Sinclair]

An interesting little thought experiment (game?) popped into my head as I was trying to get to sleep, so thought I'd post it and see what happens. I started with TNG as it did sort of happen with the show, but the idea is that for each season of the series you must select one of the main cast to be booted out and replaced with another character so that by the end of Season 7 it'll be pretty much a whole new cast. The new characters can be ones we did see throughout the series promoted from guest/recurring up to a starring role or a newbie of your own devising.

A little example of what I mean:
Season 1 = Yar replaced by Worf (after she was killed by Armus)
Season 2 = B. Crusher replaced by Pulaski (after she left to join Starfleet Medical)
Season 3 = Data replaced by Mendon (after he was presumed dead dealing with Kivas Fajo)
Season 4 = W. Crusher replaced by Rager (after he leaves for the Academy)
Season 5 = Worf replaced by Ro (after he decides to remain with the KDF)
Season 6 = Riker is replaced by Xon (after he falls to his death saving his transporter clone)
Season 7 = La Forge replaced by Barclay (after not recovering from Lore's experiments)

So by "All Good Things" the crew looks like:

• CO - Captain Jean-Luc Picard (almost had his not returning from his undercover mission in S6)
• XO - Commander Xon (the ship's resident Vulcan)
• Conn - Lieutenant (jg) Sariel Rager
• Eng - Lieutenant Reginald Barclay
• Ops/Sci - Lieutenant Mendon
• Sec/Tac - Lieutenant Ro Laren (almost had O'Brien here but he's needed on DS9)
• CMO - Commander Katherine Pulaski
• Coun - Commander Deanna Troi

Anyways, like I said, it was a fun little thought I had when I should be trying to nod off, so make of it what you will (expand it out to other shows as well if you'd like).

 

[Oddish]

Season 1 - Tasha replaced by Worf (dead)
Season 2 - Crusher replaced by Pulaski (promoted)
Season 3 - Wesley replaced by assorted redshirts (Academy)
Season 4 - Riker replaced by Data as first officer (takes own ship). Data replaced at ops by a new character.
Season 5 - Assorted redshirts replaced by Ro Laren.
Season 6 - Pulaski replaced by Selar (turbolift fall)
Season 7 - Geordi lost in "Interface" incident. Replaced by Barclay, who's been recurring for some time.

 

[Qonundrum]

S1 - Yar replaced by Worf, only this time Yar wasn't killed off by a giant tar slug, but was so instrumental in saving Starfleet Command from the "takeover of the galactic crawdads"* that she got promoted.

Season 2 - Crusher replaced by Pulaski (because Crusher let a bunch of people die by doing nothing except act all up-nosed like how she did in that awesome season 5 episode with the guest Doctor who was alleged by some to be a return of Pulaski, but thankfully wasn't.)

Season 3 - Wesley replaced by alien talking cabbages, who - like Balok's people - wanted someone to study, so they got the best of humanity: Wesley Crusher.

Season 4 - Riker becomes captain as Locutus is hauled away and protected better by the Borg.

Season 5 - Data is transferred to become captain of a ship, and at the end of every episode he calls up Geordi via subspace to talk about things.

Season 6 - the show is running out of steam, so Worf eats the steamed cabbages in the sweeps week episode, since fans were getting steamed and causing a ratings drop - shame on them.

Season 7 - Worf's gas from his cabbage buffet becomes a problem for the rest of the crew and is replaced by Space Farmer Super-Wes in a very special two-parter where war breaks out between the Federation and the great galactic cabbage patch that Wesley insulted by introducing a new exotic fertilizer that caused the latest crop of cabbages to be larger and more deadly, turning on their society. (That, which is admittedly half the plot of "Star Trek Insurrection" and I didn't realize it until I wrote "society", is still better than Archer letting Porthos pee freely on the planet of the big trees...)





* Speaking of crawdads,

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[somebuddyX]

ColeMercury did something similar here for the fifteen season TNG. By the end not an original TNG character remains.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/tliad-star-trek-the-next-generation-1987-2002.335882/

 

[Oddish]

ColeMercury did something similar here for the fifteen season TNG. By the end not an original TNG character remains.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/tliad-star-trek-the-next-generation-1987-2002.335882/

Interesting, but it really just combined TNG and VOY. I would have enjoyed seeing how TNG itself would have worked as a longer show.

EDIT: Doing one of these for DS9 might be interesting.
Start - Original S1 cast, except Ro is there for Kira.
S1 - Lt. Ro Laren leaves early. Replaced by Kira, a major in the newly formed Bajoran militia.
S2 - Jadzia Dax becomes Verad Dax, and is a recurring villain.
S3 - Odo rejoins his people, st least for a time. Enter Worf as security chief.
S4 - Miles has to have some intensive mental therapy on Betazed, after "Hard Time" incident.
S5 - Bashir replaced by Changeling. Real Bashir is found incinerated in a conduit, later on.
S6 - Jake goes to Earth to discuss insights on Dominion, stays to write about his experiences on the Resistance. Verad is finally defeated, but Dax survives and returns as Ezri.
S7 - Sisko vanishes into the wormhole when it closes, and stays closed. Kira takes over the station, with Worf as her exec. Sisko returns triumphantly in series finale, but retires to Bajor.

 

[somebuddyX]

I remember making a timeline once where I wanted to incorporate some dialogue from "Legacy" which I thought implied the Enterprise had missions prior to "Encounter at Farpoint" and one was at Carnelia and was when Picard met Tasha. So I had Picard's original first officer (Kyle Summers from the "Farpoint" draft) and chief of security (Macha Hernandez) killed and then Riker and Tasha took their spots. As it is, that "Legacy" dialogue never mentions the Enterprise but simply implies Picard commanded some ship between Stargazer and Enterprise. Whether a little while or not it's something I hadn't thought of until today.

 

[Silvercrest]

I'd either
1) Season 4: promote both Picard and Riker after BOBW (Riker as permanent captain, Picard as recurring admiral who has the Ent-D as his flagship)
or
2) Season 6: kill off Will Riker, permanently replace him with Tom Riker, and see where you could take the character.

Can't do both, though ... Tom would not have been ready for the captain's chair yet.

 

[FederationHistorian]

S1 – Yar replaced by Worf as security officer (Yar transfers to a different starship)

S2 – Crusher replaced by Pulaski as chief medical officer (Crusher transfer to Starfleet Medical)

S3 – Wesley replaced by redshirts (Wesley enters Starfleet Acadamy)

S4 – Picard replaced by Riker as captain (Picard is assimilated by the Borg)

S5 – La Forge replaced by Barclay in engineering (La Forge's body vanishes in a Romulan cloaking accident)

S6 – Will Riker replaced by Tom Riker; Data becomes captain, Troi becomes first officer, and Tom takes the helm (Will is promoted to Admiral and returns to Starfleet HQ)

S7 – Captain Data replaced by Captain Troi; Worf becomes first officer (Data is deactivated after participating in the Lore-led Borg rebellion and sent to the Daystrom Institute for study)