Year of Hell

[Ro_Laren]

Someone in another forum said that the two episodes Year of Hell was supposed to be a whole season, but the studio heads said no. Is that true??

I personally think that could have been cool... or at least it would have been cool if it had been more than 2 episodes. Some of Voyager's best work, IMO. Of course, as I noted in the other forum, it could have made some of the actors mad. Those that were killed off (later to be brought back) probably wouldn't be too happy with the idea. They could go months without filming an episode waiting for the timeline to be reset and their character to be brought back to life.

In a way I am suprised that I like the season long Year of Hell idea seeing as I was never a fan of the season long Xindi arc. But, in a way it would have been more realistic to the hardships that a ship stranded in the Delta Quadrant would go through (with the ship falling apart, people dying, etc.)...

 

[startrekwatcher]

link

Q: How come Voyager isn't more damaged from the years of constant attack?
Dave F.

BF: When we were breaking "Year of Hell" during the fourth season, we talked about having a multi-episode arc in which Voyager was severely damaged. Of course, in that scenario, the crew would be making constant repairs. What we decided, given the way "Year of Hell" resolved with the crew having no knowledge that any of those events ever took place, we thought it might become tedious to do a series of episodes where the ship was in disarray. That and if you take into account that our crew can manufacture shuttles lickity-split, they very well should be able to repair damaged bulkheads and seal various ruptured conduits with out too much trouble. They're a Starfleet crew and as such they wouldn't leave the ship in a state of disrepair for too long.

 

[misskim86]

I think it would have been totally awesome if it had been a year BUT they would have to have skipped the stupid reset button.

I recently saw this episode and I was "this" close to post a big apology on this forum how Voyager didn't suck when they had that stupid STUPID reset button in the end. I bet even my neighbours heard my groan when it came.

If they would have made a 1 year long arc with a reset button they would never have heard the end of it.

 

[Laren]

Ro_Laren said:
Of course, as I noted in the other forum, it could have made some of the actors mad. Those that were killed off (later to be brought back) probably wouldn't be too happy with the idea.

I doubt that they would have used the reset button in the end. In a two-parter they could undo the events, but showing us a full season that actually didn't happen? As a viewer I would have felt cheated.

 

[Ro_Laren]

Laren said:

Ro_Laren said:
Of course, as I noted in the other forum, it could have made some of the actors mad. Those that were killed off (later to be brought back) probably wouldn't be too happy with the idea.

I doubt that they would have used the reset button in the end. In a two-parter they could undo the events, but showing us a full season that actually didn't happen? As a viewer I would have felt cheated.

LOL, they would have pulled a Dallas on us! Well, using the reset button would allow them to do a lot that season that they couldn't otherwise do (like kill main cast members, etc).

But, I can see how pushing the reset button after a whole season would drive people nuts!!

BTW, nice screen name Laren!

 

[Deks]

They could have used a season long story arc for this and also use the reset button at the end.
It could have been referenced later on that resetting the timeline had another effect.
They can also use that to restore the memories of what happened during 'year of hell' (or parts of it) thus making the crew use that knowledge to get out of new dire situations.

 

[Anwar]

Originally it was going to be all of S4, but UPN said no and told Braga to reset it in the end. That's why he included chars dying and stuff, because he knew they'd comeback anyways and wanted to add to the drama of the episode while it was on.

I doubt they'd have killed anyone important in the season arc, but they would've left stuff like Tuvok going blind in.

 

[Smiley]

Are people in love with the idea of a whole season of Krenim, or do they just want lasting consequences? The latter is understandable, even if UPN's attitude made it extremely unlikely that anything would change in that regard by Season 4. However, there's the problem of why the difficulties would cease or lessen after the year if it's more than just the Krenim harassing Voyager. It would be more logical to be years of hell.

 

[Anwar]

I think the idea would've been that the Krenim's temporal weaponry would be the main cause of why they could do so much more damage to VOY, and they had a larger area of space under their control VOY would have to go through, whereas after they left the other races wouldn't be as powerful or control as much space so VOY could catch a break.

 

[Laren]

Ro_Laren said:

BTW, nice screen name Laren!

You too!



Kes' return that rewrote pretty much the whole show up to that point bugged me enough, so I don't think I would have liked much a season of constant reset button.
A reset button - free season of terror and destruction might have been interesting, but it would have completely changed the tone of the show. I don't know how that would have fit in with the previous seasons.

 

[Anwar]

Isn't that what everyone keeps complaining about? That the show should've been some hopeless, dark thing where people abandoned their morals and basically became a bunch of worthless @$$holes trying to go home no matter what?

 

[Laren]

Anwar said:
Isn't that what everyone keeps complaining about? That the show should've been some hopeless, dark thing where people abandoned their morals and basically became a bunch of worthless @$$holes trying to go home no matter what?

Yes it is. I'm just not sure the writers would have been able to pull it off what with their allergy to continuity and character development...
"Squeaky clean" Voyager was enjoyable enough for me, but going from that to "damaged and desperate" Voyager only to return to the previous version would probably not have worked for me.

 

[Candlelight]

Stop calling my name.

All of you.

 

[Anwar]

Laren said:

Anwar said:
Isn't that what everyone keeps complaining about? That the show should've been some hopeless, dark thing where people abandoned their morals and basically became a bunch of worthless @$$holes trying to go home no matter what?

Yes it is. I'm just not sure the writers would have been able to pull it off what with their allergy to continuity and character development...
"Squeaky clean" Voyager was enjoyable enough for me, but going from that to "damaged and desperate" Voyager only to return to the previous version would probably not have worked for me.

It wasn't the writers who were allergic to continuity and development, it was the network continually replacing the Exec Producers. From Michael Piller to Jeri Taylor to Braga to Biller. Unfortunately they each had different ideas on how to do the show with little to no collaboration, unlike DS9 which had the same Producers the whole run (Piller did most of his work with Behr at his side before leaving).

I'm sure if Braga stayed on and had been allowed to stay in charge from S4 onwards with S4 being the "Year of Hell" it would've remained darker from that point on.

 

[Moocey]

Ro_Laren said:
Someone in another forum said that the two episodes Year of Hell was supposed to be a whole season, but the studio heads said no. Is that true??

I personally think that could have been cool... or at least it would have been cool if it had been more than 2 episodes. Some of Voyager's best work, IMO. Of course, as I noted in the other forum, it could have made some of the actors mad. Those that were killed off (later to be brought back) probably wouldn't be too happy with the idea. They could go months without filming an episode waiting for the timeline to be reset and their character to be brought back to life.

In a way I am suprised that I like the season long Year of Hell idea seeing as I was never a fan of the season long Xindi arc. But, in a way it would have been more realistic to the hardships that a ship stranded in the Delta Quadrant would go through (with the ship falling apart, people dying, etc.)...

A whole season with the reset button at the end? I don't think so.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I don't think there was going to be a reset buton if Year of Hell was a season long arc.

 

[Moocey]

Jack Bauer said:
I don't think there was going to be a reset button if Year of Hell was a season long arc.

Then it would have probably been my favorite season of Voyager.

 

[NovusInceptum]

I haven't seen Year of Hell, but I know how it all works out. So here's the opinion of a newbie: I liked the idea, but a whole season or series of that would be too much. So yeah, keep it the same.

 

[EnsignRicky]

Well if they went ahead and did it and it was a ratings disaster, at least they would have already had a good name for it.

 

[exodus]

NovusInceptum said:
I haven't seen Year of Hell, but I know how it all works out. So here's the opinion of a newbie: I liked the idea, but a whole season or series of that would be too much. So yeah, keep it the same.

I agree.

People complain about how Voyager has too many writing flaws as it is, is anybody honestly willing to give them the chance to screw up an entire season of YOH?