There is one advantage to Riker being the Captain of Voyager.
I would no longer have to listen to people complain about "bipolar Janeway" blowing up the array and stranding Voyager in the DQ instead of setting a timer on the bomb and flying home.
But I wonder...
Would these same people
deride Riker when he decides to blow up the array and strand Voyager in the DQ?
Or would they think it was a
BOLD, TAKE NO PRISONERS move that only a "highly seasoned, balls to the wall" Officer that sat 2nd chair for 7 years on the FLAGSHIP of the fleet would make?
As for them simply flipping the sexes of the rest of the main characters, I doubt it.
DS9 already had a female XO with a male Commander / Captain, so
Chakotay/Beltran's job is safe. To spice things up, they could always make Chakotay gay and have him crushing on Captain Riker.
Maybe
Kim's sex would have been changed, but not the
EMH. They already had an irascible female Doc on
TNG (Pulaski Rocks!)
B' Elanna would still be female, cuz we've had a male (full) Klingon on both TNG & DS9 (yeah, I know, it was the same guy) so why go there again?
Maybe
Paris could receive the "Starbuck" treatment, and provide enough bridge level sexual tension to upset the Betazoid that follows Riker to this new command... cuz SOMEBODY has to upset that woman SOMETIME.
Neelix and Kes are safe in their current genders, although it is still debatable whether Kes would ever be safe around Riker. Especially if
Deanna didn't join the crew for this simple "3 week journey" to capture the Maquis.
(Hmmm, if she
did come along AND if
Chakotay wasn't gay then we could upset the applecart by having Chak crushing on his
Captain's wife.
That sure would keep up the Maquis - Starfleet tension for more than 2 seasons.
)
Likewise,
Tuvok is safe since we haven't really had a Vulcan regularly on TNG & DS9 since the female Lt. Selar on TNG. (Spock and his daddy don't count, they were merely on loan from TOS
)
