The *Worst of All Possible Worlds

[Arpy]

The most recent episode of the Inglorious Treksperts podcast includes a nod to Tuvix, and it got me thinking. How might Voyager have gone if characters (or ships) weren’t saved because TV?

If and when Voyager finally returned home, how might have it been radically different from the version, the universe, we know?

Some thoughts in I think chronological series order:

Tuvix lives. Tuvok and Neelix died and Tuvix was alive; the organ harvesting that brought them back was state sponsored murder. After the accident Tuvok’s lieutenant took over his position at tactical until Tuvix proved himself and maybe was reappointed to the position.

Harry Kim was eaten alive by the parasitic cells after first contact with 8472. These are the biggest bads in two universes that not even the Borg can combat. It’s super tragic, but isn’t that the point? Bright young Ensign Yar, er, Kim met the dangers of space, and the dangers of space won.

The Borg upgrades to the hull and systems were kept indefinitely.

Voyager was forever altered after the events of “Year of Hell” never looking quite the same after being patched up with all manner of alien technologies reconfigured to Starfleet parameters.

The Doctor’s program was lost after the events of “Latent Image,” and had to be rebooted from the start. Safeguards were added to that similar tragedies to “Darkling” and here wouldn’t repeat. Through great effort and strife (including against the crew who rebooted and altered him years earlier) he surpasses who he was at the point of reboot, and ultimately evolves beyond what anyone ever imagined possible.

 

[Oddish]

Harry finds himself on Earth in "Non Sequitur"... and faced with the choice between (a) staying put, enjoying great sex with Libby, raising rug rats, advancing rapidly through the ranks in the SCE, drinking Vulcan mocha, and basically living happily ever after... or (b) going back to Voyager, striking out with one woman after another, dealing with a captain who is determined to keep him at ensign until the heat death of the universe, dying repeatedly, eating Neelix's cooking, and hanging out on a tin can half a zettameter from home... yeah. He makes the sensible choice. Sayonara, Harry.

 

[somebuddyX]

Does Chaneway stay on that planet together or do they still get rescued?
Bring on more than five Equinox people and they become a new third faction to Voyager crew and Maquis.
Continually bring on more civilians like Neelix and Kes along the journey.
I don't get worked up about the shuttle or torpedo situation because plenty of people have made the case that if the Voyager can build (and rebuild) the Delta Flyer and keep the ship in pristine condition that making torpedoes and shuttles should be a piece of cake. But on the other hand, I think it would have been interesting as story elements (in a more serialised Voyager show) if they did have say the Equinox crew down building shuttles in a shuttle factory or changed to different torpedoes and given new torpedo effects.

 

[Oddish]

Maybe both B'Elanna's in "Faces" survive, and so now Voyager has a Klingon and human crew member. Human B'Elanna stays at chief engineer; Klingon B'Elanna becomes the head of the Hazard Team, which isn't just a video game thing anymore. Over the course of the series, they also recruit a couple of stray Kazon, a Hirogen heavy weapons guy, and a bunch of the Maquis who like shooting stuff.

 

[Lynx]

The scenarios in this thread looks like a typical series made in the 2020's.

Star Trek-Worst Of All Worlds.

 

[Oddish]

Here's one... everyone's memory gets erased, a la "Conundrum", but instead of an extra crew member, they get a messed up manifest...
Captain: Harry Kim
First Officer: Neelix
Doctor: B'Elanna Torres
Head of Security: Kathryn Janeway
Cook and Morale Officer: Chakotay
Chief Engineer: EEH (Emergency Engineering Hologram)
Astrometrics: Tom Paris
Helm: Seven of Nine
Operations: Tuvok

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Kes remains aboard until the end of the series after they learn how to extend her lifespan like the Ocampa with Suspiria. 7-of-9 is still brought aboard at the same time she normally was with no change to her character arc. Instead of having Paris serve as the backup medic / nurse just keep Kes in that role and have her continue to develop her powers with Tuvok's help, though not to the extent that she gives Voyager long distance jumps all the time or anything.

Keep Lon Suder alive and in custody and eventually have to decide if his subsequent redemptive actions and treatment by Tuvok have made him trustworthy enough to return to limited and eventually full duty and privileges.

The Voyager crew don't cruelly leave behind Janeway's and Paris's three (possibly intelligent) salamander babies to fend for themselves on an alien planet where they are likely to die without their mother caring for them, and if they do survive are now an invasive species that can wreck the planet's ecosystem. The doctor is able to use the same BS technomagic that turned Tom and Janeway back into humans to use the baby's human DNA to turn into three human infants that Janeway and Paris have to raise as co-parents, but not in a relationship because they're not interested in each other. Their names are Thad, Polly, and Sally. They hang out with the Borg baby and Naomi. Neelix babysits.

 

[Oddish]

Voyager picks up more Delta Quadrant refugees as she journeys onward, and adds them to the crew.

 

[Arpy]

The scenarios in this thread looks like a typical series made in the 2020's.

Star Trek-Worst Of All Worlds.

See the title of the thread. And the lump of coal in your stocking.

 

[somebuddyX]

Chakotay brings Kar the Kazon from "Initiations" back with him to stay on the ship and then Aron Eisenberg has to be a regular on two Star Trek series at the same time.
Seska's kid is actually Chak's and both the kid and Seska move onto Voyager. Seska reveals she was actually T'Rul all along.
The second Voyager from "Deadlock" survives and both ships free themselves somehow and head back to the Alpha Quadrant. And then Liquid Voyager from "Demons/Course: Oblivion" comes too.

 

[Oddish]

A fleet of Voyager's, and everyone is identical triplets... that could create some hijinks. But the downside would be Harry Kim spending twenty-one years as an ensign.

 

[at Quark's]

In that case the EMH spent thousands of years without rank.

After all, there are (probably at least) hundreds of copies of him.

 

[Oddish]

Janeway finds out that the Ocampa, with the Caretaker out of play, learned how to use their mental abilities, and ultimately combine them to make space-time conduits. All Voyager her to do was just hang out in orbit around the Ocampa home world first a few months, and they'd have sent Voyager zooming home, "The Gift" on steroids.

 

[Ragitsu]

Voyager would have been a patchwork ship, most likely.

 

[Arpy]

I can see one version of the story with the ship taking seventy years to reach Federation space — not Earth specifically as not everyone on the ship is human or from our solar system. A journey made shorter by technological advancements and alien conduits, and longer by necessary detours like that around Borg space. A detour taken after great tragedy — the loss of a series regular or half the saucer? And an overall journey so long and arduous, if wondrous and storied, that no one on the ship expect maybe Tuvok and some of the younger background extras have any first-hand memory of the Federation. Everyone else, who we know intimately and love fully, are the many children and fascinating additions to the original crew. Perhaps on an expanded ship or fleet slowly amassed on the long journey of hope. Arrival itself becomes an exploration of a strange new world.

 

[Oddish]

Here's a thought...
Chakotay and Janeway never get off New Earth (the "Resolutions" planet)
B'Elanna gets stuck with "Muse" dude.
Tom stays with the Talaxian convoy.
Harry finds himself waking up on Earth... and stays.
Tuvok isn't released by that lonely lady from the holodeck.
The EMH decompiles himself after his impossible triage decision.
Seven joins the Think Tank.
That leaves... CAPTAIN NEELIX!

 

[Arpy]

Here's a thought...
Chakotay and Janeway never get off New Earth (the "Resolutions" planet)
B'Elanna gets stuck with "Muse" dude.
Tom stays with the Talaxian convoy.
Harry finds himself waking up on Earth... and stays.
Tuvok isn't released by that lonely lady from the holodeck.
The EMH decompiles himself after his impossible triage decision.
Seven joins the Think Tank.
That leaves... CAPTAIN NEELIX!

All part of his plan….to become the Delta Quadrant’s premier water salesman and provider! “The water must flow.”

 

[Oddish]

Speaking of which, here's how Voyager could have solved the "Borg problem"

A Borg cube approaches Voyager.

BORG: "We are Borg. Lower your shields and surrender. You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own."

Voyager goes on screen. Neelix is in the captain chair.

NEELIX: "This is Neelix, Mr. Borgs. I'll lower my shields and surrender right now. You can have all the biotechno-whatever distinctiveness you want."

BORG: "You know what? Never mind."

Voyager passes through Borg space completely unmolested. As a matter of fact, the Borg give them a few transwarp coils just to get rid of them faster.

 

[JoseNoodles]

Nana Visitor successfully petitions Rick Berman to cast her as Janeway when Geneviève Bujold jumps ship, so now we have two Star Trek characters who look and sound the same, deal with it. In season 2, in response to several shuttle loses, Janeway authorizes the use of the Aeroshuttle on tough missions. It serves the crew well for several years before it too is destroyed and replaced by the Delta Flyer in Season 7. Voyager now has this big airplane shaped hole where an Aeroshuttle used to be until the series finale.

 

[Oddish]

Nana Visitor successfully petitions Rick Berman to cast her as Janeway when Geneviève Bujold jumps ship, so now we have two Star Trek characters who look and sound the same, deal with it.

And Nana is so double-decker awesome, they cast her as an Andorian in "Enterprise", too.