What if the Original first officer was never killed? How would this affect the development of the show, and how would things be different?
What if the Original first officer was never killed?
- Thread starter Snowdrop82
- Start date
He was mean to one of Our Heroes (Tom Paris), and thus he deserved death.
Honestly though, how could we possibly know? All we see of him is a few moments of screen time. We don't know much about his character or abilities.
I could imagine him still having to give up the XO post to Chakotay though. Not because Chakotay would have been a better pick for the post, but in the interest of getting the new Maquis-Starfleet crewmember properly integrated and breeding not too much resentment among the Maquis members. Perhaps Chakotay as 2nd officer (3rd man on the ship) would have done as well, but not much lower than that.
Honestly though, how could we possibly know? All we see of him is a few moments of screen time. We don't know much about his character or abilities.
I could imagine him still having to give up the XO post to Chakotay though. Not because Chakotay would have been a better pick for the post, but in the interest of getting the new Maquis-Starfleet crewmember properly integrated and breeding not too much resentment among the Maquis members. Perhaps Chakotay as 2nd officer (3rd man on the ship) would have done as well, but not much lower than that.
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Cavit was such a dumbass, he suddenly decides to go running across the bridge in the middle of an attack? Poor bastard was too clumsy to live.
He was a plot device, a means by which Tom's status as a pariah could be established, and a neat contrast for both Janeway's willingness to give him another chance and Harry's willingness to reach out to him in friendship.
Remember that Chakotay disliked him for the same reason Cavit did. Chakotay had time to grow past that; Cavit did not.
Remember that Chakotay disliked him for the same reason Cavit did. Chakotay had time to grow past that; Cavit did not.
And of course the original doctor was even more of a dick to Tom than Cavit was. 
(damn shame they wasted a fine actor like Jeff McCarthy on such a one-off role with only a few minutes of screentime. )
(damn shame they wasted a fine actor like Jeff McCarthy on such a one-off role with only a few minutes of screentime. )
Do we know for sure she got to pick him in the first place? Picard got to pick Riker, yes, but that may have been a privilege reserved for the more senior captains in Starfleet (in this case the most senior captain, the captain of the flag ship). I wouldn't be too surprised if someone who had no experience being a captain (as in Janeway's case, it was her first Captain post) would not have that privilege and just would be assigned an XO.
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I don't think Janeway had personally selected him. I believe he was assigned by Starfleet to serve as Voyager's First Officer.
She was the daughter of an admiral, and it was shown that she was chummy with admirals. She was already a Captain well before she took command of Voyager. Picard was a nobody in Starfleet when he first took command of Stargazer. I don't think Janeway was a nobody to the admirality when she first took command of Voyager. I think it was fair to assume she picked Cavit for a reason. He may have been a prick to us onscreen, but something in-universe, on his record made him desirable to Janeway. I don't give a shit that he was a Lt. Commander with grey hair like some had brought up in the past. We don't know his career path and some folks start going grey in their 20s.
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Is there any evidence of that? She may have had the rank a bit longer, yes. Still all I can recall is that we see her beam onto this nearly finished Voyager in Relativity as a captain, waiting for it to be finished and immersing herself into its schematics, but I can't find anything about a captaincy (as in: holding a different command as a captain) before that. I would also say that the way she is portrayed in the early episodes of S1 -grappling with questions such as 'how much distance should a captain keep to his or her crew?' - would suggest this is her first captaincy.
But I was wrong in that I thought there was some explicit reference to this being her very first Captain posting, where there doesn't seem to be.
I completely give Cavit the benefit of the doubt. I might like Tom Paris, because I've watched a bunch of Voyager. But all Cavit can see is the son of an admiral who disgraced Starfleet, got himself thrown out, and turned traitor to join a terrorist group. Janeway and Harry are the outliers here, not Cavit and Chakotay.
Okay, maybe I can't think of "evidence" but I always had the impression Voyager was her first starship command as a Captain, but I also always had the impression she had served elsewhere with the rank of Captain before taking command. Remember, for her, being a scientist comes first. If Chakotay and Tuvok hadn't gone missing and Tuvok completed his undercover mission and came back safely. Voyager likely would have gone on scientific missions, regularly...until the war of course.
Plus she was definitely chummy with admirals such as in that episode you cited, her comment about being on a first name basis with admirals, and being a daughter of an admiral.
Hmm. Funny, I had the exact opposite impression. She certainly didn't seem like a rookie commander. And since Voyager is a new-ish ship, makes sense that she would have previously commanded another starship even if she never specifically said either way.
We have no information either way, none that made it to Memory Alpha anyway. And there's no dossier on him that we know of, so we don't know what strengths and weaknesses he would have brought to the table.
Basically, we know that...
1. He performed competently enough on the bridge.
2. He wasn't very friendly with Tom, but that was sort of understandable.
3. When Janeway said "brace for impact", he should have.
Basically, we know that...
1. He performed competently enough on the bridge.
2. He wasn't very friendly with Tom, but that was sort of understandable.
3. When Janeway said "brace for impact", he should have.
Yeah, if they could bring back Lieutenant Carey who was still an officer aboard the ship but was nowhere to be seen for several seasons just to have him appear one more time and die, they should have been able to bring back other actors who appeared early on. I can't remember which (if any) early senior officers we saw in "Shattered" in the pre-"Caretaker" timeframe. Janeway just mentioned her helmsman walking into the corridor and disappearing. Presumably that was Stadi.
Kor
Kor
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. 
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