Straight Up Niners: How Would You Have (re) Written ST: Voyager?

[Sean Aaron]

Either stick with the core premise and have more conflict within the mixed crew and actual demonstration of limited resources as others have suggested (honestly the "infinite shuttle" aspect was really taking the piss) or bring the ship home early and honestly do TNG part 2 with a different crew.

The show started out with a new and different premise and acted like it was going to take chances and then it's like they just said: let's just make TNG, except that TNG was more continuity bound than Voyager. Of course I'm still going to buy the DVDs because I'm such a whore for Trek...

 

[Anwar]

I would of gone with the idea of Voyager building a alliance in the delta, and build the series that way. Also, have more marquis/federation resistance, or have the crews as romulans.

THIS.

Seriously, the "One lone ship surviving on its own" plot is only good for 2 season at most. The plot of building a Delta Federation is a proper driving plot, and serves as a good counterpart to DS9: DS9 is about the flaws of the Federation, VOY would show how the Federation is a good force that helps people even with its flaws.

 

[Kegg]

Star Trek: Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica.

Addendum:
It's true there's problems with the oft-touted Maquis/Starfleet conflict, particularly after having a two-show build-up of the Maquis in both TNG and DS9. Part of that problem is obviously they abandoned it very quickly, but another issue is the Maquis do not have any relevant, substantive differences with the Federation in the context of Voyager.

Right, what do I mean by that?

The Maquis were Federation colonists who felt betrayed by the Federation when their worlds were made part of the Demilitarized Zone, and took private action. If the Federation had not seceded the worlds, they would have been perfectly happy living under the Federation's umbrella. That's their stated rationale, although we've seen some join because they don't quite fit in with Starfleet (B'Elanna Torres), which reduces it to just dysfunctional personality.

But the stated reason is the problem. The one major difference of substance the Maquis have with the Federation is a million miles away in Voyager. There's nothing either side can do in the Delta Quadrant to affect the situation at all. This is why the Maquis worked well on Deep Space Nine - where their problem was relevant to the area of space the station occupied - and not Voyager, where being Maquis boils down to being a former Federation citizen who's willing to bend the rules. The franchise's own reluctance to address religion in any great detail meant they couldn't really make much of the one appearant difference - human members of the Maquis, like Chakotay, were seemingly more willing to embrace religious faith than Starfleet.

This is also why Seven worked better than the Maquis in generating conflict, and not just because she didn't wear the uniform. She had an actual ideological viewpoint, largely informed by her Borg upbringing, that could be - and often was - radically different from Federation, Starfleet morality and mentality. The other crew Voyager merged with needed to be different in that way. This doesn't mean they need to be Romulans or Cardassians - if they were something like the Maquis, then the Maquis needs to be more different.

 

[Anwar]

BSG ran out of steam in 2 seasons, and sputtered on to a dismal end.

Plus, there's too many differences from NuBSG to work right in Trek. VOY was just one insignificant ship, NuBSG was about the survival of an entire civilization. It would look ridiculous for the VOY crew to start making big speeches about being "worthy of survival" and big sociological stuff when DS9 is still on and DS9's struggle is VASTLY more important.

 

[Kegg]

BSG ran out of steam in 2 seasons, and sputtered on to a dismal end.

I'm of the school of thought that while the series had serious problems in the third season, and while the myth arc and Cylon motivations weren't always as coherent or as interesting as the series thought they were, it did pick itself back together at the end of the third year, had a good fourth year, and a mostly satisfying finale, particularly cathartically.

Perfect, no. Did I like it more than Voyager? Overall, yes.


The comment does refer to the fact that Ron Moore's own vision for what Voyager should have been is pretty close to what he eventually did on nuBSG. That interview is worth looking up.

 

[Anwar]

Moore's interview was the ravings of a disgruntled ex-employee. It's no more valid than Tim Brooks' interview about the change in the Sci-Fi channel.

I do agree, that the Maquis were poorly set-up for VOY's situation and that there was no real idea about what the show should be about.

I've come up with a second alternative plot for VOY aside from my "Delta Federation" idea. It would entail Janeway, Tuvok and Paris being the only Fed personnel in the show while the rest would be DQ natives as well as random Fed criminals.

THAT, would make more better conflict.

 

[neozeks]

But the stated reason is the problem. The one major difference of substance the Maquis have with the Federation is a million miles away in Voyager. There's nothing either side can do in the Delta Quadrant to affect the situation at all. This is why the Maquis worked well on Deep Space Nine - where their problem was relevant to the area of space the station occupied - and not Voyager, where being Maquis boils down to being a former Federation citizen who's willing to bend the rules.

But isn't the very un-Starfleet willingness to bend or even break the rules, ethical rules as well, a large difference in itself? Some of them had no problems with stealing or dealing with mercenaries and shady figures, for example. Or even using WMD on civilians, actually. More should have been made of that, instead of just using the occasional "old Maquis trick".

Not to mention that the Maquis didn't just leave the Federation, they actively felt betrayed and abandoned by the Federation and by Starfleet. From their POV, instead of doing more to defend their homes from the Cardassians, Starfleet hunted them. Starfleet wasn't just a neutral party, Starfleet was very much their enemy. And I'm sure there had to have been some similar feelings in the opposite direction on Starfleet's side as well. Heck, Janeway's original mission was to capture Chakotay, wasn't it? Why not impart something of Sisko-vs-Eddington into their relationship?
The DMZ may be half a galaxy away but overcoming such feelings, achieving cooperation and building loyalty and trust should have taken much more time and effort.

And I personally feel the Maquis work much better as the "opposing side" than, say, the Romulans. Precisely because they are ex-Feds. They offer a darker, more pragmatic view of the Federation itself. And they actually have a legitimate reason and a legitimate grievance. Romulans are basically just outiside imperialists with very little "good" going in their favor. The Starfleet-Maquis relationship is much less black-and-white.

 

[Kegg]

But isn't the very un-Starfleet willingness to bend or even break the rules, ethical rules as well, a large difference in itself?

It amounts to being a little delinquent and having unorthodox thinking. It's enough to create some workplace friction - which it does, somewhat, in the show's first season - but that's about it.

They have nothing to fight for, per se. In the end it really doesn't matter whether Starfleet or the Maquis control Voyager as far as the actual Maquis concerns around the DMZ go.

The conflict is all at a personal level. You're right that personal conflict can work, and that was part of the Sisko/Eddington dynamic - although in that case, there was a chance to palpably change the DMZ dynamic. This comes down to knowing and trusting Chakotay and treating Janeway with suspicion.

Romulans are basically just outiside imperialists with very little "good" going in their favor.

If there's one thing that has been consistent about Romulans since their very first appearance, it's that they have a moral ambiguity. Mark Lenard's commander was portrayed as a noble and even peace-loving man who carried out his orders out of a sense of duty. Principled Romulans who took stands against the government would be the likes of Alidar Jarok in the Next Generation, Senator Cretak proved more than amenable in Deep Space Nine and
on Voyager itself there was Telek R'Mor.

What's consistent here? Romulans can be characters who are seen as empathetic, but they also come from a society with a very different set of ethics, and thus could have pretty basic functional disagreements with how to run Voyager entirely. The same could be said of a nubmer of alternatives really, but if the show wanted conflict, that's one way to have it.

 

[Ryan8bit]

Asking DS9 fans, those who saw a show that mostly featured around one general hub, how they would redo Voyager, a show that was constantly moving, never in the same place, and probably not as prone to consequences, seems a little strange. It seems to invite the idea to just toss out the entire concept.

I like DS9 a lot, but I think Voyager definitely deserved to be different. And it was, just not from TNG. I would have liked to see it do its own thing, its own spin. It's tough to figure out exactly what that would be.

 

[Anwar]

Even NuBSG was less about a journey than it was about a "General Hub": Since there was no life in the NuBSG's Universe aside from Humans and Cylons it didn't matter where they went since it was all empty and the Cylons kept showing up.

 

[Sean Aaron]

The "journey" in Battlestar Galactica was the the story of the characters. That's what I enjoy about that show.

 

[Anwar]

It was also more meaningful than VOY ever could have been because in NuBSG these characters were all that remained of their worlds, and were responsible for the future survival of humanity.

If they had just been one crew while there were still billions safe somewhere else, the struggle really would have come off as silly that they were going on and on about "survival of the species" and "changing society's rules", etc when they were really nothing but a blade of grass in a forest.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

-The crew would be more three-dimensional. Character development would be consistent.

-Neelix would be cool. He might even wear a bowtie. I wouldn't even bother with Kes.

-Anwar, I really like your idea of the other crew being Romulans. Most of the conflict with the Maquis felt forced - as mentioned before, they are Federation citizens. But for a Romulan crew to join forces with the Federation would be a lot more interesting.

-Romulans or otherwise, I wouldn't combine the two crews right away. The Romulans would have a small scout-ship sort of vessel and Janeway would offer to work together, but being Romulans most of them would refuse and do their own thing. In their respective searches for information, the two crews would eventually meet up. I'd have Voyager find the Romulans in the middle of a firefight and decide to intervene - the Romulan ship would be destroyed, Voyager would take on heavy damage, and the crews would be forced to work together.

-The crew would have no idea where they were. A major part of at least the first season would be gathering information and getting to know the area of space they were in.

-Voyager wouldn't stray into Borg territory - instead, the Borg presence in that area of space would be Voyager's fault. They'd find a drifting Borg ship and try to scavenge some technology, inadvertently activating it's systems once again and bringing its drones out of stasis. It would look around and tell the rest of the Collective, "Hey, look what I found! Some lovely advanced civilizations! Let's eat."

-The 8472 would be known to the residents of that area. (They'd probably call them something like The Really Scary Monsters Over There.) They'd make occasional forays into normal space from their fluidic realm, but nobody would know why. Then the Borg would try to assimilate them...bad idea.


-The entire area would be torn apart by the Borg-8472 war, and Voyager's crew would try to make up for their mistake by organizing a temporary (at first) Federation to stop both the Borg and the 8472. They'd retrace some of their earlier steps and call upon the races they encountered (both friendly and hostile) to help them turn the tides of the war.

 

[Distorted Humor]

-The crew would be more three-dimensional. Character development would be consistent.

-Neelix would be cool. He might even wear a bowtie. I wouldn't even bother with Kes.

-Anwar, I really like your idea of the other crew being Romulans. Most of the conflict with the Maquis felt forced - as mentioned before, they are Federation citizens. But for a Romulan crew to join forces with the Federation would be a lot more interesting.

-Romulans or otherwise, I wouldn't combine the two crews right away. The Romulans would have a small scout-ship sort of vessel and Janeway would offer to work together, but being Romulans most of them would refuse and do their own thing. In their respective searches for information, the two crews would eventually meet up. I'd have Voyager find the Romulans in the middle of a firefight and decide to intervene - the Romulan ship would be destroyed, Voyager would take on heavy damage, and the crews would be forced to work together.

-The crew would have no idea where they were. A major part of at least the first season would be gathering information and getting to know the area of space they were in.

-Voyager wouldn't stray into Borg territory - instead, the Borg presence in that area of space would be Voyager's fault. They'd find a drifting Borg ship and try to scavenge some technology, inadvertently activating it's systems once again and bringing its drones out of stasis. It would look around and tell the rest of the Collective, "Hey, look what I found! Some lovely advanced civilizations! Let's eat."

-The 8472 would be known to the residents of that area. (They'd probably call them something like The Really Scary Monsters Over There.) They'd make occasional forays into normal space from their fluidic realm, but nobody would know why. Then the Borg would try to assimilate them...bad idea.


-The entire area would be torn apart by the Borg-8472 war, and Voyager's crew would try to make up for their mistake by organizing a temporary (at first) Federation to stop both the Borg and the 8472. They'd retrace some of their earlier steps and call upon the races they encountered (both friendly and hostile) to help them turn the tides of the war.

What Voyager should of been! you could of had that done in seven 1 year arcs still allowing the "alien of the week" type shows and it would be much more awesome. Perhaps have the borg ASK the new federation to help, and 7 of 9 is the ambassador from the borg.

 

[Anwar]

Like I said, make the "One ship surviving" thing a secondary plot while the REAL plot is something much bigger and more important.

And also, trim down the cast. There's no reason that Kim, Neelix, Kes and Torres had to be anything more than secondary characters. It's easier to develop the main cast in every episode if the main cast isn't that big, and secondaries don't have to be seen all the time.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

What Voyager should of been! you could of had that done in seven 1 year arcs still allowing the "alien of the week" type shows and it would be much more awesome. Perhaps have the borg ASK the new federation to help, and 7 of 9 is the ambassador from the borg.

Now there's an idea! The 'Feds' would plan all along to betray the Borg, and the plan would involve severing Seven's link from the collective.

I'm glad you like my ideas. Hmm...this has intriguing fanfiction possibilities as well. I'll have to consider that...

 

[Anwar]

Have you read the Voyager re-write I did? The latest draft isn't finished yet but it's a lot along the lines of what you're thinking.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

I think I read some of it, but not the whole thing. I'll take another look, I remember liking what I read. And i certainly don't want you to to feel like I'm stealing your ideas, I'm sorry if it came across that way.

Romulans are an awesome idea.

 

[Anwar]

Here's the latest draft:

http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=180194

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

You have some cool ideas there. I like the ideas of the League wanting Voyager (or at least thinking about it) and no warp tracking. Also, the way you fleshed out the Kazon instead of leaving them as generic soldiers/thugs is interesting.

Hmm...now I think I need to flesh out my ideas some more. Yours are really, really cool, but I think I'd take it in a slightly different direction - basically just to see how different I could make it and still have it somewhat feel like Voyager.