Should Voyager have had more Delta Quadrant characters?

[Anwar]

The whole draw of the show is that it's The Odyssey in space and they're on an unending journey with constant surreal shit, massive tonal variation between episodes, and moral tests; you're basically describing a different series altogether, like saying "DS9 should have been set entirely on Bajor and focused around the post-occupation mood, and the protagonist should have been a Cardassian charity worker" - that could be a great series but it's also explicitly not what the show's goal is.

You DO know that most of the Odyssey is just Odysseus trapped on Calypso's Island, right? He doesn't really travel much in the story, he spends a lot of it stranded or trapped.

7 years with Calypso, then 1 year with Circe.

 

[Farscape One]

But the goal is still trying to get home.

Earth, or even just Federation space in general, makes sense as the home goal only if a majority of the crew is from there. A couple stragglers along the journey who like the idea of the Federation want to go there thinking it's better than the Delta Quadrant, sure. But if half or most of the crew isn't from the Alpha Quadrant? That's a big difference.

 

[DonIago]

no real goal in mind other than to get back to Earth (which the audience already knows will never happen until the final episode.)

TBF, I don't think I'm alone in hoping that there'd be some wrap-up when Our Heroes reached Earth. Which is to say, I would have been fine with them reaching Earth before the final episode and then having an episode or a few episodes of resolution.

 

[Anwar]

But the goal is still trying to get home.

Earth, or even just Federation space in general, makes sense as the home goal only if a majority of the crew is from there. A couple stragglers along the journey who like the idea of the Federation want to go there thinking it's better than the Delta Quadrant, sure. But if half or most of the crew isn't from the Alpha Quadrant? That's a big difference.

And potentially makes for a more interested story. About whether or not the AQ people will "Go Native" or not the longer they're stuck in the DQ. Especially if a way home isn't readily apparent.

 

[Farscape One]

And potentially makes for a more interested story. About whether or not the AQ people will "Go Native" or not the longer they're stuck in the DQ. Especially if a way home isn't readily apparent.

Maybe more interesting, maybe not. Considering the network VOY got, and how it would have gotten it no matter the concept due to it launching UPN... I lean toward it not being interesting.

 

[Dee1891]

I've been watching/rewatching the show recently, and I have a lot of thoughts similar to yours here. I feel like the Delta Quadrant in Voyager mostly feels like Alpha/Beta Quadrants, but worse. Part of that's because species recurred so little, and part of it's because we only had two main viewpoint characters who were actually from the Delta Quadrant, Neelix and Kes.

The show was also short on new recurring characters outside the main cast, too — in a way that TNG and DS9 arguably weren't. I think a Delta Quadrant local as a major recurring antagonist throughout the series would have been interesting, and could've helped give more of a "Deltan" perspective.

(Arturis, for example, interests me for how his existence frames Voyager's actions in "The Scorpion" — and, by extension, frames the ship and Janeway's decisions in general. I would've liked to see more about how Voyager was affecting the quadrant as they moved through it, but they kept leaving the consequences of their actions behind. We got a little of that in Prodigy, but it would've been nice on Voyager proper.)

Voyager had a weird, "cruise ship" take on the quadrant, where it seemed like we were always just traveling to a new location where we'd only stay the day, then move on. I find it a frustrating creative choice on the writers' parts.

Since Voyager was in a constant state of traveling . . . no, I don't think the series should have featured more recurring Delta Quadrant characters.

Also, since Voyager's travels were always about trying to get home, I find it odd that one would criticize about the starship traveling to a new location, where it would stay for a day or two. Such a complaint makes no sense to me, considering the show's premise.

 

[Anwar]

Maybe more interesting, maybe not. Considering the network VOY got, and how it would have gotten it no matter the concept due to it launching UPN... I lean toward it not being interesting.

Well, yes....UPN's stagnation and incompetence is well known around here. I'm just offering ideas of how to make Voyager a show with more of its own identity instead of the TNG wannabe that UPN wanted. Frankly, I'd be more interested in a AQ group that are trapped in a new area of space without any major option to go home and struggle with whether they should just adopt the DQ as their new home, or not.

I had other ideas for external hooks, like making the Equinox crew the first villains of the show.

Since Voyager was in a constant state of traveling . . . no, I don't think the series should have featured more recurring Delta Quadrant characters.

Also, since Voyager's travels were always about trying to get home, I find it odd that one would criticize about the starship traveling to a new location, where it would stay for a day or two. Such a complaint makes no sense to me, considering the show's premise.

Because frankly...the whole "Lost in Space" thing is boring. I always felt an external hook beyond that was needed.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Could've trapped them backwards in space and time, I suppose. Even if you get home, it's not the home you know (and for reasons time travel isn't the cinch it is in TVH; perhaps you're in a parallel universe where it doesn't work.)

 

[Farscape One]

Or... they get trapped in another galaxy. No way the crew would get home in their lifetime, so they stay there.