Voyager - What if...?

[Guy Gardener]

Shelby is all about weapons.

Janeway couldn't build new torpedoes.

Shelby would have a full compliment of tricobolt missiles.

Janeway built an airponics bay.

Shelby would be making new phaser batteries.

Janeway gives fair warning.

Shelby finishes fights before the other guy has had his morning coffee.

Imagine Kazon Coffee.

You need some better inspiration to seek out the Alpha quadrant?

 

[Gotham Central]

At first I thought that it would not have made a difference, but if they'd managed to keep all of her TNG traits in tact it could have made a huge difference.

The most significant being that I doubt they would have pushed Shelby into the role of being everyone's mom. She would have been more commanding officer. That alone would have been a BIG improvement over what we got. I love the idea of having a female captain that is no nonsense and not in anykind of mood to play someone's parent.

As for her relationship with Torres, it could have been interesting for her to have the sort of mentor relationship similar to what we saw on BSG between Admiral Cain and Starbuck.

 

[R. Star]

Picard and Riker never had a problem getting together with subordinates.

Picard was with Crusher and Daren.
Riker had Troi and was often seen flirting or at a table with other subordinate officers.

So the concept that Starfleet is high and mighty about fraternization with subordinates is baseless. Even a strickler like Picard loosened up now and again.

So the concept that Starfleet forbids it, is baseless even if it's frowned upon. Sisko never did, but he never had a random female officer of the week hit on him. To say nothing of his widower issues the first half of the show, and the abundance of civilians at his posting. Turns out he married one. So he can't really count.

Janeway could have hooked up with Chakotay or anyone else if she wanted, she actively -chose- not to based on her image concerns.

 

[Melakon]

Janeway could have hooked up with Chakotay or anyone else if she wanted. . .

Harry must have turned her down, which is why he never found a little box of lieutenant pins on his chair.

 

[R. Star]

Janeway could have hooked up with Chakotay or anyone else if she wanted. . .

Harry must have turned her down, which is why he never found a little box of lieutenant pins on his chair.

So -that- is how Tom got his lieutenant rank back so quick! Janeway fondly recalled how he rocked her world in Threshold!

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Or he got his extra pips to keep him quiet.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Janeway could have hooked up with Chakotay or anyone else if she wanted. . .

Harry must have turned her down, which is why he never found a little box of lieutenant pins on his chair.

The bigger problem is the little pins between his legs.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Someone will finish the sewing up eventually.

 

[Guy Gardener]

In my head when I constructed the joke "pips" made a lot more sense, however the quote referencing "pins" had me backed into a corner.

"Sigh"

The Haunting of Deck 12 was nothing but Neelix telling the kids a scary story during a power cut.

That's pretty cool.

 

[Dale Sams]

^
Who knows? They have a pre-established character background to call upon, and by all accounts Jeri Taylor may not have had the same "heroine worship" for Shelby that she had for Janeway that let to so many absurd episodes.

Besides... I just want to see Captain Shelby for that brief snippet of Riker in Death Wish.

"Oh hello Commander," Shelby said with a smirk, "please cooperate and testify for Q. That's an order, and if you think about giving me any lip, I'll snap you back so hard you'll think you're a first officer again... oh wait, you still are!"

Riker: "I love you."

Realisticlly, if we use a WW2 analogy...by the end of the Dominion War, ENSIGNS we saw in season 2 of DS9 would have their own ships.

As I said in another thread, Lit aside, Enterprise-E must have become the USS-Bob Hope .

 

[Dale Sams]

Shelby is all about weapons.

Janeway couldn't build new torpedoes.

Shelby would have a full compliment of tricobolt missiles.

Janeway built an airponics bay.

Shelby would be making new phaser batteries.

Janeway gives fair warning.

Shelby finishes fights before the other guy has had his morning coffee.

Imagine Kazon Coffee.

You need some better inspiration to seek out the Alpha quadrant?

SHELBY: "Wait...this guy has Neelix's LUNGS? Well take them back!"

TUVIX: "Captain, I am a living, sentient..."
SHELBY: "STFU."

SHELBY: "You delete that Cardassian program Doctor, and I delete you."

CHAKOTAY: "You see Captain, in my culture..we call this a 'Vision Quest'.
SHELBY: "Wasn't that a really shitty wrestling movie?"

 

[Guy Gardener]

So, she's mellowed with age?

 

[tighr]

Realisticlly, if we use a WW2 analogy...by the end of the Dominion War, ENSIGNS we saw in season 2 of DS9 would have their own ships.

Realistically, with the increase in life expectancy of humans, most officers would remain an Ensign for 10+ years, and wouldn't make Captain before 50 years in the service. There should be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of officers in the Starfleet, and there just shouldn't be that many Captaincy's to go around.

The fact that we saw so many officers make Captain inside of 10 years out of the Academy is plain bewildering (Picard included). The only thing more egregious is nuKirk getting promoted to Captain prior to ever graduating from the Academy in the first place.

I realize this contradicts what we see on screen, so working within the framework of "it's ridiculously fucking easy to become Captain by 30" means Riker should have been Captain by 30.

I compare it to the apprenticeship line from ST:INS, where the students are making master quality quilts prior to even becoming apprentices. When you have that much time to get it right, then take your time and get it right.

 

[Melakon]

In my head when I constructed the joke "pips" made a lot more sense, however the quote referencing "pins" had me backed into a corner.

"Sigh"

I'm sorry I ruined the set-up for you, Guy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You're forgiven because your avatar is awesome.

Casualty reports were supposed to be in the trillions.

Is that because planets were expected to be sacked or is star fleet numbers in the billions?

Getting ont a Star Ship is hard. especially if there are only 100s of thousands of spots and billions of Officers jockeying for pole position... If you get on a star ship you're super special.

There are millions of lieutenants just maintaining/guarding random transporter pads on planets and never see space.

Positions on star bases is difficult, positions on Starships, permanent ones at least, are impossible. The Boy who could fly said that that there was a mandatory minimum required time that ensigns had to serve on starships to keep rank.... Which was just a couple weeks I think.

 

[Winterwind]

Besides... I just want to see Captain Shelby for that brief snippet of Riker in Death Wish.

"Oh hello Commander," Shelby said with a smirk, "please cooperate and testify for Q. That's an order, and if you think about giving me any lip, I'll snap you back so hard you'll think you're a first officer again... oh wait, you still are!"

It's times like these I wish the boards had a "Like" button.

 

[propita]

Who cares if the casual fans didn't recognize Shelby? I doubt they recognized Janeway before Caretaker? I would've enjoyed seeing a series centered on Shelby, all while laughing that she made captain before Riker.

Riker was offered Captaincy no less than three times in the first two seasons (one of which was prior to taking the Enterprise assignment). For whatever reason, Riker just wasn't interested anymore in becoming a Captain (despite earlier admissions about wanting to be a Captain by 30).

Any chance this could have happened when he was split? Maybe, akin but less than Kirk, the split was uneven? Tom Riker still seemed gung ho about being a captain, though now his chances sucked (and didn't he join the Maquis anyway? or was that a fanfic?)

 

[Melakon]

You're forgiven because your avatar is awesome.

Thank you. I was starting to think it was too distracting, and changed it to a single photo a couple hours ago, until I saw your reply just now.

 

[tighr]

Any chance this could have happened when he was split? Maybe, akin but less than Kirk, the split was uneven? Tom Riker still seemed gung ho about being a captain, though now his chances sucked (and didn't he join the Maquis anyway? or was that a fanfic?)

That's a great retcon, and would be nice if that had been followed up on, but the episodes in season 1 all portray a gung-ho Riker, just one who kept turning down Captaincy. It wasn't until later that we discover the transporter accident, but there's no way the writer's had planned for that back in season 1.

And yes, Tom Riker does end up in the Maquis on DS9, and presumably is still at large (in canon; I've never read the novels). He's supposed to be in a Cardassian prison camp.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

You're forgiven because your avatar is awesome.

Thank you. I was starting to think it was too distracting, and changed it to a single photo a couple hours ago, until I saw your reply just now.

There have been many seizure inducing avatars here but yours isn't one of them