Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.

[Arkle]

Random thought I've had lately while playing ME: Andromeda.

What if that had been the premise of Voyager all along? Imagine, none of the stuff with the Maquis happens (or it all happens on DS9). Now, we know from TOS there is a race coming from the Andromeda galaxy (taking the long way as it were) to invade the Milky Way. So, let's say (all assuming this is still the mid-90s, when Voyager was being dveloped IRL, so naturally Mass Effect doesn't exist yet) our pilot opens with Starfleet explorers getting the find of a lifetime. A massive, working, Iconian gateway. In space. Basically think like the Ori gates from SG-1's later seasons. And tests show that one of the places this gateway can gio? Andromeda. Where the invading Kelvans (yes, that's what they were called in the TOS episode) are coming from. Seeing an opportunity to gather intel on an enemy hundreds of years in advance, the brand-spanking new starship Voyager, with all it's new tech that literally no other ship (except the new Intrepid of course) has gets tapped for the recon mission to end all recon missions.

Only, gasp, when Voyager reaches Andromeda, the Iconian gate on the other side? Broken. And the Voyager crew lacks the technology to fix it. So the mission becomes two-fold. Get the information on the Kelvan, and search for technologies they can use to fix the gateway. And perhaps along the way learn more about the Iconians than any Alpha or Beta Quadrant power ever has before.

Feel free to ignore this, it is after sun down and still over 90 fucking degrees where I live. If this idea seems stupid, chalk it up to heat storke or something.

[FaxModem1]

Random thought I've had lately while playing ME: Andromeda.

What if that had been the premise of Voyager all along? Imagine, none of the stuff with the Maquis happens (or it all happens on DS9). Now, we know from TOS there is a race coming from the Andromeda galaxy (taking the long way as it were) to invade the Milky Way. So, let's say (all assuming this is still the mid-90s, when Voyager was being dveloped IRL, so naturally Mass Effect doesn't exist yet) our pilot opens with Starfleet explorers getting the find of a lifetime. A massive, working, Iconian gateway. In space. Basically think like the Ori gates from SG-1's later seasons. And tests show that one of the places this gateway can gio? Andromeda. Where the invading Kelvans (yes, that's what they were called in the TOS episode) are coming from. Seeing an opportunity to gather intel on an enemy hundreds of years in advance, the brand-spanking new starship Voyager, with all it's new tech that literally no other ship (except the new Intrepid of course) has gets tapped for the recon mission to end all recon missions.

Only, gasp, when Voyager reaches Andromeda, the Iconian gate on the other side? Broken. And the Voyager crew lacks the technology to fix it. So the mission becomes two-fold. Get the information on the Kelvan, and search for technologies they can use to fix the gateway. And perhaps along the way learn more about the Iconians than any Alpha or Beta Quadrant power ever has before.

Feel free to ignore this, it is after sun down and still over 90 fucking degrees where I live. If this idea seems stupid, chalk it up to heat storke or something.

Interestingly, the fan made series, Star Trek: Odyssey, did something rather similar. Odyssey and Helena Chronicles were direct spin-offs of Star Trek: Hidden Frontier. Odyssey was about the people who went on a mission to the Andromeda galaxy to end a war dealing with invaders from the Andromeda galaxy, eventually ending in the Odyssey being stranded there. Helena Chronicles being about the colleagues and family members of those lost, working to reestablish a way home. They eventually wrapped it all off in a finale movie. It's not bad. Not good, but not bad.

Personally, I think if Voyager went this way, it would remove one of Voyager's biggest strengths, their sense of progress. Knowing that they had cut down their journey a decade or two every few years, giving the crew, and the audience, hope, and making it feel like they weren't just stuck there. If you did such a thing in the Andromeda galaxy, they couldn't go back, as it's a 300 year journey, with nothing but void between the two galaxies.