Would TNG Have Worked Without Picard?

[Shamrock Holmes]

I'm sure they could have added endearing qualities or softened the edges if she was a regular.

For starters, she seemed to work well with other main characters, including Wesley, and was a good contributor, so it's possible that it would have happened naturally.

 

[Riley]

And I, for one, am not sure I could have taken that much Shelby. I really like a lot of the strong female characters (Kira, Janeway, and most of the women on SNW), but that one rubbed me the wrong way.

Agreed. I don't think she'd have stayed on and Data would have become Riker's XO instead.

 

[Oddish]

Insurrection should have ended with the wedding, and Riker taking his place on the Titan, and Data FINALLY getting the promotion he should have had 12 years earlier. Or maybe Riker takes over the Enterprise, while Picard stays on Baku with his love interest, don't recall her name. And lives happily ever after, and we do mean EVER after.

As for Star Trek X, it should have been set on DS9, with Voyager docked there. So we see an epic crossover, and Harry is granted the promotion he deserves. The Eternal Ensign idiocy is properly silenced, before it becomes so self sustaining that Harry's post-Voyager fate can literally never be revealed.