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The list of shows that, according to you, "have proven that you can loose cast members if done right and the majority of your audience will still follow."
I think shows like Trek, B5, ER, LOST & Law & Order have proven that you can loose cast members if done right and the majority of your audience will still follow.
As for Lost, come on, how many people cared about Boone and Shannon in the first place? They were never the most popular characters, and certainly weren't particularly important for the show's mythology. You couldn't even tell many flashback stories about them. 5 years later, and most of the original cast are still on the show.
Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Hurley are all still alive at least by season 5 finale; Locke is debatable, but we only found out he may be really dead in season 5 finale, and Terry O'Quinn has most definitely been still in the cast and in almost every episode. Popular characters introduced in season 1 like Ben and Desmond, are also still alive (Eko is dead, because AAA wanted to quit the show). Juliet may or may not have died in season 5 finale, but we've been told that she's definitely coming back in season 6.
Where is that big change of cast that you speak of? And now it's even been heavily hinted in posters and interviews that
everyone will be back in season 6, somehow - all or most of the major characters who have been on the show, including Charlie, Boone, Shannon and perhaps Eko.
I'm sorry but so what?
Have you not seen that most wish for the characters
to be gone are the ones just like Boone & Shannon? If Neelix got killed off, do you think it would greatly affect Voyager?
People are already telling you that they'd watch the show with or without them. Jadzia Dax was popular, yet DS9 still held strong without her because the story transended her. TNG survived without Yar & Wes, while Voy. did well without Kes. Trek has already proven it regardless of what type of show it is. The fans still followed.
Of course a show can survive without one character. Especially if they're not among the more important or popular ones (Yar? Wesley? Why not kill off Picard, if the characters don't matter?). But to change half the cast of the entire cast - sorry, but that just doesn't work and I doubt anyone would try it.
The list of shows that, according to you, "have proven that you can loose cast members if done right and the majority of your audience will still follow."
L&O was never a character-based show.
As for Lost, come on, how many people cared about Boone and Shannon in the first place? They were never the most popular characters, and certainly weren't particularly important for the show's mythology. You couldn't even tell many flashback stories about them. 5 years later, and most of the original cast are still on the show.
Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Hurley are all still alive at least by season 5 finale; Locke is debatable, but we only found out he may be really dead in season 5 finale, and Terry O'Quinn has most definitely been still in the cast and in almost every episode. Popular characters introduced in season 1 like Ben and Desmond, are also still alive (Eko is dead, because AAA wanted to quit the show). Juliet may or may not have died in season 5 finale, but we've been told that she's definitely coming back in season 6.
Where is that big change of cast that you speak of? And now it's even been heavily hinted in posters and interviews that
everyone will be back in season 6, somehow - all or most of the major characters who have been on the show, including Charlie, Boone, Shannon and perhaps Eko.
I'm sorry but so what?
Have you not seen that most wish for the characters
to be gone are the ones just like Boone & Shannon? If Neelix got killed off, do you think it would greatly affect Voyager?
People are already telling you that they'd watch the show with or without them. Jadzia Dax was popular, yet DS9 still held strong without her because the story transended her. TNG survived without Yar & Wes, while Voy. did well without Kes. Trek has already proven it regardless of what type of show it is. The fans still followed.
Of course a show can survive without one character. Especially if they're not among the more important or popular ones (Yar? Wesley? Why not kill off Picard, if the characters don't matter?). But to change half the cast of the entire cast - sorry, but that just doesn't work and I doubt anyone would try it.
I like Harry, but I'd rather lose him than just about any of the other characters. Of course, then Timeless doesn't really work, and since that's one of my favorite Voyager episodes, I'd hate to see it altered. But I've always liked Kes, and I hated to see her go. Even in the days when I wasn't a Voyager fan, I liked Kes.
Ideally I'd love to have kept Kes in the crew while bringing Seven on board.
Maybe my recollection of Timeless is a little foggy, but was Harry really that essential to the plot? Couldn't it be about anyone else from the crew without having to change much in the script?
Maybe my recollection of Timeless is a little foggy, but was Harry really that essential to the plot? Couldn't it be about anyone else from the crew without having to change much in the script?
It could be, but in my opinion it works so well because of the contrast between the younger, more idealistic Harry and the jaded older version. I can't really see any of the other characters working so well in that role. The story could work with someone else, but not it wouldn't be quite the same episode.
For me, Chakotay should have been the one to go. Apart from a few episodes, and I mean a few, he seemed like he was going through the motions, just happy to have a regular pay check. I can see the arguments for Kim, but he was criminally under used and poorly written for. Neelix could have gotten off much earlier too - they could have got 'new' guides as they got into different parts of the Delta quadrant.
Reading through some of the comments, I agree Neelix's "use" came to an end once they reached areas of the Delta Quadrant he'd never reached. It would have made sense if he were established as an older person who had traversed half the Delta Quadrant in, say, 50 years -- Marco Polo of the Delta Quadrant. As for Chakotay, if he had been killed off, as I mentioned upthread, it could have changed a number of characters' jobs and roles on the ship. -- RR
Reading through some of the comments, I agree Neelix's "use" came to an end once they reached areas of the Delta Quadrant he'd never reached. It would have made sense if he were established as an older person who had traversed half the Delta Quadrant in, say, 50 years -- Marco Polo of the Delta Quadrant. As for Chakotay, if he had been killed off, as I mentioned upthread, it could have changed a number of characters' jobs and roles on the ship. -- RR
Maybe but Neelix' only job wasn't just as a guide, he was Voyager's supply guy & trader.
You have to keep in mind, Voyager had a bad rep. in the Delta Quad. due to them being strangers and in a region of space full of Borg, Hirogen & Vidiians, nobody trusts strangers. Neelix is Talaxian, a native to that quaderant. Talaxians have a reputation of being innocent and fairly trust worthy. People aren't going to associate a Talaxian with Voyager, so Neelix can blend in, trade for supplies and leave undetected. Neelix being overly nice natrually makes people less suspicious. He the perfect guy to send out for supplies covertly.
Not saying he still couldn't get the boot, just showing that he's a hidden resource.
If you know what I mean! Eheheh...yeah, don't mind me.
But yes, I agree it would've been cool to actually see them talk and interact beyond a single line in Fury. Especially because, in different ways, they would both be undergoing a process that changes what they are and what they're capable of.
If the Doctor supplied casual wear for other crew, he's so vain why wouldn't he want to control fashion on the ship(?), would that make seven feel part of the crew or less distinctive?
Kes and Neelix were both very unique characters in Trek for me and they give the first three seasons of Voyager a very unique feeling compared with the rest of Trek, neither of them should have got the booth when boring, stale cut outs like Kim were hanging around.
Chakotay. He was the most superfluous. I can't think of anything he did in Seasons 4-7 that couldn't, with minimal rewrites, be reassigned to one of the other characters like Tom Paris or Harry Kim.
Harry Kim wasn't that vital either but I liked his bromance with Tom Paris and his constantly doomed love life. As an awkward high school student, he gave me someone to relate to.
Neelix was annoying. He's the Jar Jar of Star Trek. However, he provided a unique perspective. I could see what they were doing with him, even if I didn't always enjoy it.
I agree with all the others that Kes was just finally starting to come into her own when she left. She was the heart of the show.
My knee-jerk reaction was to vote Harry off the ship, but I really ought to have voted for Chuckles. Certainly I'd rather have seen either Kim or Chuckles depart than Kes. I've often said that there was a gold mine of potential in a Kes / Seven friendship; of all the wasted opportunities in Trek (never mind Voyager), that one is right up there near the top of the list for me.
Kim was a largely boring character who was "saved" from complete uselessness by his friendship with Paris. Chuckles was pretty much completely useless. They were played by the two most mediocre actors on the show and didn't contribute anything that other characters couldn't have done - and better. YMMV.
I'm glad it was Kes who left, as I never liked her from the get-go. She was just a shorter version of Deanna Troi, with funny ears and an attitude of entitlement. Neelix saved her life on the Ocampan world, and her people are embarking on a whole new challenge - the first they've faced for their very survival in how long? And the first thing Kes does is run away with a guy she just met. And once on the ship she continually tells Neelix that she doesn't like his being concerned about her, and to quit "involving" himself in her life. Ungrateful brat.
What with Kes developing all those superpowers, she would eventually have made even the Doctor redundant.
My other choices of characters leaving:
Tuvok: Again, I never liked his character. Ever. The actor did very little subtle nuances of character development that made other Vulcan characters (ie. Spock and Sarek) so dynamic. Tuvok was cardboard at the beginning of the show and was cardboard at the end. He went through absolutely zero growth over the seven years. If Tuvok had left, Chakotay could have been moved to the job of Tactical Officer and actually had something to do.
Mind you, I can see his trying to handle alien threats by telling them stories...
"There is a legend among my people--"
BLAM, ZAP, BOOM! The aliens blow up Voyager because they just aren't into being condescended to with Chakotay's preachy stories.
My next choice, of course, would be Chakotay for the above-mentioned tendency to bore the hell out of people with his stories, preaching, and his "A-koo-chee-moy-a..."
Neelix served another purpose besides cooking and morale officer... who else had time to babysit Naomi and the Borg children?
Why not kill off Picard, if the characters don't matter?). But to change half the cast of the entire cast - sorry, but that just doesn't work and I doubt anyone would try it.
