Poll Would you watch a Voyager reboot?
- Thread starter Reyman
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Except that Three's Company is itself a remake of a 1973 british sitcom called Man About The House.
And M*A*S*H was a reboot of the feature film.
No!?! Really?
I suppose next you're going to tell me that All in the Family is an adaptation of Till Death Do Us Part and Sanford and Son is an adaptation of Steptoe and Son.
Trust me, there's very little about American and British tele, cinema and pop culture that I don't already know.
Oh, and an adaptation for an overseas market is an adaptation, not a remake within the same country years later to appeal to a younger generation.
But regardless, remakes, reboots and reimagined shows have zero appeal to me.
Voyager has such good bones. Great situation and characters, although I dislike the introduction of Kes and Neelix on every level. I don't think a reboot would work if they actually did it, but it could be pretty good. Couple of tweaks and you could turn something ok into something great.
The inherent problem with a Voyager reboot is the same problem that the original Voyager had: The concept of being stranded in an unexplored part of the galaxy took a back seat to the trope of actually trying to leave that setting to return to the familiar (i.e. the premises of 'getting back to Earth' and 'we're a Starfleet crew,' etc., which ended up being translated as 'this unexplored part of the galaxy is really not all that different from the galaxy we're already familiar with.') So you just end up with more of the same, which Voyager (and ENT) was accused of being.
Take Farscape, for instance. The show was about an Earth Everyman stranded in a place that is completely different from what he's used to. But does he constantly try to leave it and find ways to return to Earth? No. He acclimates himself into this new place, but still never loses his inherent humanity in spite of that acclimation, and as such, provides the audience with a reality anchor for this new and unknown world.
If Voyager were to be rebooted, they would have to place the crew in a situation where everything is different, and have them acclimate to it rather than run away from it or have it morph into something more familiar. Because that's the whole point of putting them in that situation in the first place. If you're just going to make more of the same, then there's no reason for them to be lost.
Take Farscape, for instance. The show was about an Earth Everyman stranded in a place that is completely different from what he's used to. But does he constantly try to leave it and find ways to return to Earth? No. He acclimates himself into this new place, but still never loses his inherent humanity in spite of that acclimation, and as such, provides the audience with a reality anchor for this new and unknown world.
If Voyager were to be rebooted, they would have to place the crew in a situation where everything is different, and have them acclimate to it rather than run away from it or have it morph into something more familiar. Because that's the whole point of putting them in that situation in the first place. If you're just going to make more of the same, then there's no reason for them to be lost.
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I agree that Voyager needed to focus on them being lost, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'd have to stay put as in Farscape.There's no reason the basic idea of being stranded and trying to get home couldn't work.
The problem was the original scenario lent itself more to conflict and storylines within the ship, but for whatever reason they decided to resolve all that basically right away and make something that was trying too hard to be TNG. A good reboot would:
- Keep the Maquis separate for much longer.
- Develop more tension between Janeway and Chakotay - that relationship is probably the biggest missed opportunity in all of Trek. I'm still staggered they tried to tease a romance between them. Terrible.
- Make the characters the main story.
- Replace the episodic monster/planet of the week thing with larger stories spanning multiple arcs or seasons.
- Focus in on what makes Voyager's situation different. No fucking holodeck. Actual wear and tear to the ship. Much greater focus on the lack of supplies and resources.
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Similar to what was recently done with lost in space. Now, Lynx won't like this, but that style of storytelling might also make it possible to show the Ocampan lifespan in real time. Indeed, I've already seen something close to that done in the animals of Farthing Wood, a very serialised animation based on a series of novels about a group of animals searching for a new home. Of these, some turned out to be short lifers, even within a four season timespan.
In fact, many more were lost to human activity. While this might sound grimdark, I was only six when it aired, and I loved it, as it also proved that there is room for happiness, even within such a premise.
I agree with this and really would like to see this. The other side is the potential for reconnecting with Starfleet. Not as a "we made it home" bit but as an encouragement that they are not always alone. Again, a bit of hope and not the oft heard complaint of "Well, they definitely are not making it home so why care?"
Now, my big thing is seeing that relationship building and that tension of these different people having to work together.
It reminds me of a story told by a former US Air Force servicewoman who had to do a joint operation with US Marines. She stated it was a bit of culture shock for her because her unit had been trained to be independent, to solve the problem and to move on. The Marines were very unit focused, very much not moving forward until each member had their assignment and precise assignment. There was little flexibility within the mission parameters.
I think that Starfleet vs. Maquis would be a similar (note, not identical) way of thinking. I know that the Tuvok training episode certainly touched on that theme but I would enjoy seeing that work done over a season.
I think maybe bringing the time from 80 years down to something like 20 or 30 might also have been a good idea. Makes the decision to return a little more sensible.
Yeah, it's crazy that such an interesting idea was just made into one fairly bland episode. I've said this before, but I'd have Janeway as the more introverted intellectual captain who didn't really have much charisma or 'the common touch'. Then Chakotay would be more of a people person with combat experience and bags of charisma, and you'd have Tuvok to appeal to Janeway's more scientific side in the same sort of way Spock balanced out Bones.
You'd have the more withdrawn official leader who could perhaps be a little more objective about things when you need to make tough decisions set aginst the more passionate and 'natural' leader who could command authority but wouldn't actually be the best person to get them home. Conflicts between Chakotay and Janeway would have actually had something behind them, and you'd have the underlying threat of Chakotay simply seizing command or even having command thrust upon him. As it is, Janeway was portrayed as essentially flawless, which meant Chakotay and Tuvok didn't have much to do from a storytelling perspective.
The butcher bird impaling the baby mice was pretty horrific.
I think that is one of the big challenges in VOY is allowing actual conflict within the personalities. I think having those leadership styles, especially if there is a couple of more junior officers stepping in to those roles, and getting things wrong. And, I think you're right that Janeway often could be portrayed as flawless or at least always right. Which means there is no room for getting things wrong because Janeway is going to fix it.
Also, incorporating some more survival style techniques or combat techniques with the Maquis. They are not going to be adept at the back and forth type combat Starfleet ships often does. They would use more hit and run, hide, and have strategies that would conceal their ships without use of cloaking. And that brings more conflict since Chakotay may be reluctant to share with Janeway since it betrays Maquis tactics.
Again, fun with the conflict of these different approaches.
I don't want it to be rebooted because "rebooting" is such bull. After the success of the TOS movies, they wanted to revive ST on TV. They didn't remake TOS, they opted for fresh new characters and ideas, something different and unique. And it worked.
I was disappointed in the movie "reboots" because I didn't want to see different actors play the TOS characters any more than we'd like to see someone else play Picard. It felt like a cop out to recreate what had already been done, and it really robbed us of a new generation of new Star Trek.
Why would I want to see Voyager rebooted? Do something new.
I know what you mean, but then the new movies are about as different from TOS as you can get. That's the kind of reboot I don't mind so much. They have a bad name for good reason, but just because most reboots are bad doesn't mean they all are. Just look at the latest (at least for now) Battlestar Galactica. It's a reboot, but it's still something new.
Oh trust me, they'll have a new and younger Picard actor ready by the time Sir Patrick Stewart hangs up the tights in a couple of years. Just like they did on X-Men.
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