What if...Season 4 was one of change?

[Anna Yolei]

Other Treks got away with stuff VOY would've been condemned for. They could undo bad changes to their characters quickly and casually and no one cared.

TNG had the benefit of the being the first Trek wed gotten in decades. And frankly, the bloom has started to fall off that particular rose for a number of Trek fans.

If Voyager had done something like the Xindi arc and then found a safe port in the finale, and then have the next season premiere take place a month or two after that with the ship fully repaired...they'd still get complaints with the audience completely forgetting how much they enjoyed the prior story-line.

FWIW, I too felt Enterprise, in their attempts to woo back fans that had left the show years earlier with what amounts to fanservice IMO, left the Xindi arc behind way too quickly. They needn't dwell on it, but it's so odd that it was never brought up ever again.

That said, Trek fans are a cantankerous bunch, but I don't think showing the crew struggle a LITTLE bit more than they did would've hurt any. The problem is that the writers, the producers, the studio, or any combination of the three had no faith in their premise to explore it further. DS9 was gritty by 90s standards, but I never felt that was too depressing.

If "Scorpion" and "Living Witness" didn't satisfy people, nothing will.

Both were good episodes. Hell, Seth MacFarlane actually made a direct reference to the latter in Family Guy in one of ten scenes in that show that I ever found funny. It shows that the writers were capable of better things that were rarely explored.

 

[Anna Yolei]

Actually, one very good example of lasting consequences was Paris's demotion in Thirty Days that happened in mid season 5 and I don't think he got promoted back to that rank till nearly a year later.

 

[LJones41]

During Season 4, Kes left the crew, Seven-of-Nine became part of the crew, Voyager had encounters with both Species 8472 and the Hirogen that had consequences, and the crew made contact with the Alpha Quadrant for the first time.

Actually, it took Tom over a year-and-a-half to regain his old rank.

Hmmm . . . so, no changes?

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

During Season 4, Kes left the crew, Seven-of-Nine became part of the crew, Voyager had encounters with both Species 8472 and the Hirogen that had consequences, and the crew made contact with the Alpha Quadrant for the first time.

Actually, it took Tom over a year-and-a-half to regain his old rank.

Hmmm . . . so, no changes?

Well, if I remember well, Tom's demotion's happened in Thirty Days (5x09) then he was seemingly reinstated to lieutenant without notice in Course:Oblivion (5x17).
Tom Paris truly regains his rank in Unimatrix Zero: Part 1 (6x26), so, about a year-and-a-half after. Except the fact to be be called Enseign from time to time, he has never really lost the privileges which were associated to the rank of lieutenant.
And during this probationary period, he wasn't sanctioned more when he arrived late for his taking of service it was not and it seems that it happened often!

 

[2takesfrakes]

Seven of Nine taking over Voyager, basically, was something I can't imagine having gone any differently, considering Jeri was the only one going out with a producer of the show. Still, there was room-enough for adjustments to be made on other characters - like Chakotay, for example. He ended up becoming a simply "functional" character. He was - more, or less - limited to his XO duties and that couldn't have been much fun for Beltran. You know, you get a starring role on STAR TREK and you can't help but think that means a lot of creativity for an Artist to explore, and he really didn't have a lot of that. More importantly, I would've had Chakotay completely get over Kathryn. There was nothing there, he'd never had her, she didn't want him ... what's he clinging to? Take that out of the equation, completely. Allow my favourite VOY character to have some Manly pride, for goodness' sakes ...