What if the Original first officer was never killed?

[C.E. Evans]

I think if Cavit had survived, there would have been a great deal more tension between the Starfleet and former Maquis throughout the series. Chakotay would have been second officer and unofficial ship's counselor, and there would have been a third seat added to the command well on the bridge.

Cavit would initially disagree with Janeway's decision in integrating the Maquis into Voyager's crew, but would gradually loosen up and become friends with many of them as the series progressed. There might have been a Janeway-Cavit-Chakotay triumvirate representing the id, ego, and superego concepts.

 

[Oddish]

He would have recommended a time-delay charge, thereby destroying the station AND allowing Voyager to return to the Alpha Quadrant, thereby bypassing the whole mess.

Then of course Tuvix would have never happened, but if it had, he would have reminded Janeway that she was sworn to respect new life in all its forms, even weird Vulca-Talaxian transporter fusions.

 

[puzzledtea]

I think if Cavit had survived, there would have been a great deal more tension between the Starfleet and former Maquis throughout the series. Chakotay would have been second officer and unofficial ship's counselor, and there would have been a third seat added to the command well on the bridge.

Cavit would initially disagree with Janeway's decision in integrating the Maquis into Voyager's crew, but would gradually loosen up and become friends with many of them as the series progressed. There might have been a Janeway-Cavit-Chakotay triumvirate representing the id, ego, and superego concepts.

That would be an interesting what-if for voyager's crew.

I bet before then though, if Chakotay wasn't first officer and thus perhaps less accepted, I wonder what the situation with Seska would be? I get the feeling, perhaps even for just 1 episode he might be more easily pulled to her side. Not an all out mutiny but something could happen

 

[C.E. Evans]

That would be an interesting what-if for voyager's crew.

I bet before then though, if Chakotay wasn't first officer and thus perhaps less accepted, I wonder what the situation with Seska would be? I get the feeling, perhaps even for just 1 episode he might be more easily pulled to her side. Not an all out mutiny but something could happen

I think there definitely would have been a planned mutiny if Cavit had been XO, but Chakotay would have become a mediator and be instrumental in shutting it down before it got serious. Seska's boobytrap still likely would have happened though, and maybe with Cavit taken out of the picture early, IMO.

 

[at Quark's]

He would have recommended a time-delay charge, thereby destroying the station AND allowing Voyager to return to the Alpha Quadrant, thereby bypassing the whole mess. Y'know, like Kirk and Spock would have done.

At the moment that Tuvok notes he can access the system to send them back, but it will take him several hours, Voyager is already in combat with the Kazon, and they have called for more ships to reinforce them.

In short, execution of that option might have required Voyager to be able to ward off multiple Kazon ships for several hours. And while we know Voyager is superior to a single Kazon ship, we also know that they cannot prevail against three Kazon warships (Tuvok says so in State of Flux).

So depending on the precise tactical situation, execution of the 'enable send back mechanism while rigging the Array with time bomb' option may have never been feasible to begin with.

 

[Jedi Marso]

At the moment that Tuvok notes he can access the system to send them back, but it will take him several hours, Voyager is already in combat with the Kazon, and they have called for more ships to reinforce them.

In short, execution of that option might have required Voyager to be able to ward off multiple Kazon ships for several hours. And while we know Voyager is superior to a single Kazon ship, we also know that they cannot prevail against three Kazon warships (Tuvok says so in State of Flux).

So depending on the precise tactical situation, execution of the 'enable send back mechanism while rigging the Array with time bomb' option may have never been feasible to begin with.

Kirk would have scared them off with the Corbomite Maneuver, never before seen in the Delta Quadrant.

 

[at Quark's]

Might not have worked on the Kazon. They seemed the irrational type, the 'oh yeah? Even if that's true, we'd rather go down fighting than allow you access to the Array!' wouldn't have been improbable.

Probably that's one of the factors that made Kirk a great commander. His ability to size up his specific opponent of the week and guess which approach would work and which wouldn't.

But I agree they could have tried something like it.

 

[DonIago]

^I dunno, the Kazon-Ogla disengaged when the Caretaker's array was destroyed, rather than being pissed off enough to continue fighting Voyager.

I also wish we'd gotten to see more of the original crew in some form or another.

As for Cavit running for his chair, I think I understand the point (that he's trying to brace for impact but isn't fast enough), but it is poorly-executed. Though how those chairs constitute 'bracing' is a good question.

 

[at Quark's]

True, though there's still a significant difference between seeing a Starfleet captain bluffing (even if you don't know whether it's a bluff or not) and an actual demonstration of the ship's destructive potential. Also irrational types aren't necessarily consistent in their responses.

 

[Oddish]

One does wonder, though... given that Voyager was not built to accelerate from normal speed to warp 9.99999-whatever, fast enough to cross the galaxy in minutes, maybe seconds. It's unlikely her inertial compensator would be powerful enough. So the question isn't why did Cavit die, it's why wasn't everyone on that ship reduced to a layer of protein paste a molecule thick, by the sheer acceleration?

 

[DonIago]

Clearly sitting down made a difference.

 

[at Quark's]

Then again, perhaps the displacement method to the DQ was so fundamentally different that it didn't need any inertia dampener on the target ship at all. After all, it might have been useless for the Caretaker to start transporting all kinds of more 'primitive' (but interstellar) races with insufficiently advanced inertia dampers if all he would have gotten was a mush.

Which would in turn raise the question what those crew members that did die, died of.

 

[DonIago]

Well, whatever the method of transit was (Quantum Quantum Slipstream? ), it clearly wasn't something the ship was designed for, as it damaged Voyager enough that it almost lost antimatter containment among other issues.

 

[at Quark's]

That's absolutely true. Still. it surprising how the impact could be so severe that some died, sitting in chairs or not, and others weren't even wounded (Janeway, or Kim, who just grabbed his work station and didn't even sit down). Cavit might have had a better chance of survival had he simply grabbed the railing he was running along, instead of jumping in the air just before the moment of impact ...

 

[C.E. Evans]

Blunt force trauma. He may have simply been in a wrong place at the wrong time at the point of Voyager's transit.

 

[at Quark's]

Possibly but why did he keep running when it was highly probably he wouldn't reach his 'bracing spot' in time? Why not go for 'second best but reachable'?

 

[Kor]

They should have activated the photonic cannon.

Kor

 

[Oddish]

Maybe Cavit would have also worked with Tuvok and Harry (who helped design pretty much everything) and developed the photonic cannon.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Possibly but why did he keep running when it was highly probably he wouldn't reach his 'bracing spot' in time? Why not go for 'second best but reachable'?

I don't think anyone knew how hard Voyager was going to be hit. As viewers, we have the benefit of hindsight, but at that moment Cavit didn't know, IMO. He had a split second to decide to go for his post or not. His decision cost him his life.

 

[at Quark's]

I don't think anyone knew how hard Voyager was going to be hit. As viewers, we have the benefit of hindsight, but at that moment Cavit didn't know, IMO. He had a split second to decide to go for his post or not. His decision cost him his life.

In general, I agree with you but I would also expect their professional military combat reflexes to kick in at that moment, instilled by training and drilling, on maximizing their odds of survival.

Oh, I forgot, Starfleet isn't a military ...