Simple premise. Not a terribly original one either, I'll admit (in fact, I think I vaguely recall a thread like this on the old forum). But then, Voyager is distinctive among Trek shows, I think, in the gap between its potential (interesting new premise; a chance for new stories, challenges, and settings; and a strong cast) and what it actually achieved.
So, if you could reboot Voyager, what would you do? Anything goes. Any timeline. Any actors. Any medium. The only things that have to stay the same are that the setting is recognizably Star Trek, that its set on a ship called Voyager, and that it spends at least a significant chunk of the story stranded in a distant region of space.
Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
this is an idea i came up with as a kid, after the season 2 premier
really really commit to the idea of a 70+ year journey home. no teasing with fake wormholes and 'will voyager make it home?' plots. no 'we shaved 2 years off our journey' endings.
instead, make them take the whole damn 70 years, and have the show jump forward by a decade or so with each new season. the original crew would age, eventually retire, some would die. kids would be born, grow up, eventually take over. the ship itself would change as well, growing worn and battered, having to be modified to suit the conditions and tasks it was never designed for.
each season would be largely self-contained, with its major story arches closed by its finale. aside from the crew and the ship, there would be very little that caries over between seasons; each premier would be a new and fresh start. each season would have a unique and distinct sense of identity to make it stand out from the others, maybe some sort of a theme.
i think it could have been something really different and interesting from what had been done before. i cant think of any tv show i've seen that's ever had that sort of a sense of long-term scope and scale.
that said, looking at it now i find that there is at least one massive problem with this idea that never occurred to me as a kid: makeup. by season 4, most of the cast would have to wear heavy old age makeup for every single damn episode. that would not only eat into the budget, but probably cut down on the number of actors willing to be on the show. i wonder if anyone here can maybe think up a good way around that problem.
really really commit to the idea of a 70+ year journey home. no teasing with fake wormholes and 'will voyager make it home?' plots. no 'we shaved 2 years off our journey' endings.
instead, make them take the whole damn 70 years, and have the show jump forward by a decade or so with each new season. the original crew would age, eventually retire, some would die. kids would be born, grow up, eventually take over. the ship itself would change as well, growing worn and battered, having to be modified to suit the conditions and tasks it was never designed for.
each season would be largely self-contained, with its major story arches closed by its finale. aside from the crew and the ship, there would be very little that caries over between seasons; each premier would be a new and fresh start. each season would have a unique and distinct sense of identity to make it stand out from the others, maybe some sort of a theme.
i think it could have been something really different and interesting from what had been done before. i cant think of any tv show i've seen that's ever had that sort of a sense of long-term scope and scale.
that said, looking at it now i find that there is at least one massive problem with this idea that never occurred to me as a kid: makeup. by season 4, most of the cast would have to wear heavy old age makeup for every single damn episode. that would not only eat into the budget, but probably cut down on the number of actors willing to be on the show. i wonder if anyone here can maybe think up a good way around that problem.
Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
Some options:J!! wrote:that said, looking at it now i find that there is at least one massive problem with this idea that never occurred to me as a kid: makeup. by season 4, most of the cast would have to wear heavy old age makeup for every single damn episode. that would not only eat into the budget, but probably cut down on the number of actors willing to be on the show. i wonder if anyone here can maybe think up a good way around that problem.
1) kill everyone reoccurring before that happens.
2) replace the actors as they age
3) use an anti-kes to maintain continuity
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ChiggyvonRichthofen
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Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
I'm afraid that most of my ideas would probably just come across as a BSG ripoff. Or alternatively, like the original Year of Hell idea. I would like a more extended cast of secondary characters, characters whose well-being and potential death would truly have an impact because of the show's premise.
But all I would really want is for the series to actually logically play out the premise from week to week.. Instead of going with the typical TNG-lite story of the week, figure out what the consequences of a Starfleet-Maquis crew being stranded 70,000 light years away from home. The idea is a great one- the producers/writers simply never dealt with it properly.
But all I would really want is for the series to actually logically play out the premise from week to week.. Instead of going with the typical TNG-lite story of the week, figure out what the consequences of a Starfleet-Maquis crew being stranded 70,000 light years away from home. The idea is a great one- the producers/writers simply never dealt with it properly.
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Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
I had thought about this a long time ago. Like, back in the late 90's/early 00's. Was a fun fanfic experiment, if nothing else.
I don't remember a lot of the details I had in mind. I remember that I had Voyager being a different class of ship: a small NX testbed for a new drive type, around the size of a Nova class. The drive tech would be the reason for the stranding: basically, it worked too well, chucking them way further way faster than expected, and burned itself out in the process.
Character wise I remember I had a male human captain (who I imagined being played by Robert Patrick), and a female Andorian second officer. I imagined the andorian being played by an African American (or British or actual African or whatever) actress, simply because I thought African facial features would suit the makup in an interesting way. I didn't have a specific actress in mind, just someone with that sort of Grace Jones tall and willowy yet strong look.
I imagined a revamped andorian makeup that suggested some of their alleged insect evolutionary origins by separating the skin of the face into regions via skull suture like seams, and contacts that made the entire visible part of the eye a gold iris with a cross-shaped pupil. Also short white hair that up close looks like something halfway between hair and feathers, and antenna rising from the back of the head that ended in little cillia fans instead of cups.
I did drawings of both the above makup, and the ship, which I imagined being shaped a bit differently from a conventional ship of the era because of some subspace/warp equivalent of aerodynamics. I imagined that the hull plating was part of the drive, and generated some kind of field that actively effected the way spacetime or whatever flowed around it, and thus the shape was important. It had a delta-shaped primary hull, with a forked orifice at the tip resembling an oversized torpedo launcher. When the drive was engaged, a glowing pellet would slowly emerge from the "launcher" and suspend itself ahead of the nose. The distance of the pellet from the nose would extend or contract proportional to acceleration and deceleration, with a max distance of about half a ship length. The nacelles were wide and crescent-shaped in cross section, so if you looked at the ship from behind, they would imply a cylindrical tube of negative space directly behind the primary hull. With the drive engaged, there would be some kind of distortion or glow effect showing space being "split" by the pellet ahead of the hull, then passing over the hull and through the "tube" between the nacelles in a laminar flow that would accelerate as it went the length of the ship. I think i still have those in one of my sketchbooks somewhere, but I'd have to go digging for them. I still remember what I wanted the bridge and main engineering to look like, but I don't think I ever put them to paper.
The really important thing about the ship though, was that it was a pure tech testbed: a small, one-off proof-of-concept frame/hull with no facilities for an actual cruise or mission beyond that. Somewhat claustrophobic inside, with a bare-bones infirmary, no shuttlebay, holodeck, cargo bays, or weapons.
Each season would be comprised of episodic stories with a through-line theme in the background. The first season theme would be cobbling together a functional conventional warp drive from the remains of the experimental one. Lots of stops and starts, arrangements that would only work long enough to get to the next star system, at which point they'd be stuck for a couple episodes while they rejiggered something new together. Eventually between constant rebuilding and the occasional part acquired through one means or another from encountered races, they'd end the season with a stable functioning conventional drive. At the same time, halfway through the season it would come out that the CO had been a section 31 informant (though the audience would have already known this since the pilot). This would cause some trust issues and conflict, but but mostly it would be about her having to internally deal with her old worldview and priorities being suddenly, completely irrelevant, and having to reestablish trust with the captain and crew at the same time. At the end of the season both threads would come together with some ultra-hairy situation where they'd finish the warp drive JUST in time to escape, but the captain would be killed in process, leaving the CO in command of a crew that's still only beginning to learn to trust her again.
I remember I had an idea for the second season, but I don't remember what it was.
I don't remember a lot of the details I had in mind. I remember that I had Voyager being a different class of ship: a small NX testbed for a new drive type, around the size of a Nova class. The drive tech would be the reason for the stranding: basically, it worked too well, chucking them way further way faster than expected, and burned itself out in the process.
Character wise I remember I had a male human captain (who I imagined being played by Robert Patrick), and a female Andorian second officer. I imagined the andorian being played by an African American (or British or actual African or whatever) actress, simply because I thought African facial features would suit the makup in an interesting way. I didn't have a specific actress in mind, just someone with that sort of Grace Jones tall and willowy yet strong look.
I imagined a revamped andorian makeup that suggested some of their alleged insect evolutionary origins by separating the skin of the face into regions via skull suture like seams, and contacts that made the entire visible part of the eye a gold iris with a cross-shaped pupil. Also short white hair that up close looks like something halfway between hair and feathers, and antenna rising from the back of the head that ended in little cillia fans instead of cups.
I did drawings of both the above makup, and the ship, which I imagined being shaped a bit differently from a conventional ship of the era because of some subspace/warp equivalent of aerodynamics. I imagined that the hull plating was part of the drive, and generated some kind of field that actively effected the way spacetime or whatever flowed around it, and thus the shape was important. It had a delta-shaped primary hull, with a forked orifice at the tip resembling an oversized torpedo launcher. When the drive was engaged, a glowing pellet would slowly emerge from the "launcher" and suspend itself ahead of the nose. The distance of the pellet from the nose would extend or contract proportional to acceleration and deceleration, with a max distance of about half a ship length. The nacelles were wide and crescent-shaped in cross section, so if you looked at the ship from behind, they would imply a cylindrical tube of negative space directly behind the primary hull. With the drive engaged, there would be some kind of distortion or glow effect showing space being "split" by the pellet ahead of the hull, then passing over the hull and through the "tube" between the nacelles in a laminar flow that would accelerate as it went the length of the ship. I think i still have those in one of my sketchbooks somewhere, but I'd have to go digging for them. I still remember what I wanted the bridge and main engineering to look like, but I don't think I ever put them to paper.
The really important thing about the ship though, was that it was a pure tech testbed: a small, one-off proof-of-concept frame/hull with no facilities for an actual cruise or mission beyond that. Somewhat claustrophobic inside, with a bare-bones infirmary, no shuttlebay, holodeck, cargo bays, or weapons.
Each season would be comprised of episodic stories with a through-line theme in the background. The first season theme would be cobbling together a functional conventional warp drive from the remains of the experimental one. Lots of stops and starts, arrangements that would only work long enough to get to the next star system, at which point they'd be stuck for a couple episodes while they rejiggered something new together. Eventually between constant rebuilding and the occasional part acquired through one means or another from encountered races, they'd end the season with a stable functioning conventional drive. At the same time, halfway through the season it would come out that the CO had been a section 31 informant (though the audience would have already known this since the pilot). This would cause some trust issues and conflict, but but mostly it would be about her having to internally deal with her old worldview and priorities being suddenly, completely irrelevant, and having to reestablish trust with the captain and crew at the same time. At the end of the season both threads would come together with some ultra-hairy situation where they'd finish the warp drive JUST in time to escape, but the captain would be killed in process, leaving the CO in command of a crew that's still only beginning to learn to trust her again.
I remember I had an idea for the second season, but I don't remember what it was.
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
Really Nessus? You'd go out of your way to replace Star Trek's sole leading female captain with another white man? A human character again too, for maximum genericness?
I mean, Robert Patrick is cool. But still.
Me, well, for a start...
To me, there are two obvious pitfalls to avoid right off the bat. The first is to do what Voyager often did: no major consequences, the infamous reset button, just more of the same old same old. The other is to pander to the hyper-grimdark crowd.
I'd like to fall somewhere between those poles- realistic and serious, but fundamentally optimistic. More season/half-season arcs, with a focus on the sense of community forming between an initially divided crew stranded far from home, and how they act as basically the only representatives of the Federation, under pressure in a new part of space.
From there:
I'd stick with the female captain, but make her an alien maybe. Or maybe not. Played by either Ming Na Wen or Sarah Michelle Gellar, just 'cause (if I get my casting pick).
Tom Paris becomes Locarno, or rather, Locarno and Tom Paris are the same guy under a different name. Either Locarno took the name Tom Paris to escape the shame of his mistakes in Starfleet Academy, or Tom Paris is the real name (fitting with Admiral Paris being his father) and he took the name Locarno at the Academy so he wouldn't be given special treatment on account of his father. Or something.
Otherwise, characters mostly stay the same, except that we get a darker and edgier Neelix.
Not sure how I'd recast the roles right now. Hmm, maybe Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones for Neelix? 
Borg would remain the overarching Big Bads, but used sparingly, mostly kept as a background menace, who's impact would be felt indirectly, through the damage left in their wake.
Part way through the show, contact is reestablished with the Federation. Voyager becomes the emissaries to the Delta Quadrant in a more official capacity.
Or, in the reboot timeline, they're in another galaxy, since reboot Trek seems to have faster FTL. And 8472, not the Borg, are the main villains, perhaps (and likewise, used sparingly).
Seven is introduced sooner, I think.
Another, maybe more out-there possibility: rather than the bizarre Caretaker breeding explanation, the reason for Voyager and the Marquis being transported ultimately turns out to be an experiment/test by Q (perhaps using the Caretaker as a smokescreen). Though I feel like I'm stealing someone else's idea here (at least for the Q experiment/test part) but I can't recall whose. There have been a lot of discussions about rewriting Voyager over the years.
My other main thought is to do a Voyager: The Next Generation sequel, staring Tom and Be'lanna's daughter leading a Starfleet return to the Delta Quadrant, and borrowing some ideas off of Star Trek Online.
I mean, Robert Patrick is cool. But still.
Me, well, for a start...
To me, there are two obvious pitfalls to avoid right off the bat. The first is to do what Voyager often did: no major consequences, the infamous reset button, just more of the same old same old. The other is to pander to the hyper-grimdark crowd.
I'd like to fall somewhere between those poles- realistic and serious, but fundamentally optimistic. More season/half-season arcs, with a focus on the sense of community forming between an initially divided crew stranded far from home, and how they act as basically the only representatives of the Federation, under pressure in a new part of space.
From there:
I'd stick with the female captain, but make her an alien maybe. Or maybe not. Played by either Ming Na Wen or Sarah Michelle Gellar, just 'cause (if I get my casting pick).
Tom Paris becomes Locarno, or rather, Locarno and Tom Paris are the same guy under a different name. Either Locarno took the name Tom Paris to escape the shame of his mistakes in Starfleet Academy, or Tom Paris is the real name (fitting with Admiral Paris being his father) and he took the name Locarno at the Academy so he wouldn't be given special treatment on account of his father. Or something.
Otherwise, characters mostly stay the same, except that we get a darker and edgier Neelix.
Not sure how I'd recast the roles right now. Hmm, maybe Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones for Neelix? Borg would remain the overarching Big Bads, but used sparingly, mostly kept as a background menace, who's impact would be felt indirectly, through the damage left in their wake.
Part way through the show, contact is reestablished with the Federation. Voyager becomes the emissaries to the Delta Quadrant in a more official capacity.
Or, in the reboot timeline, they're in another galaxy, since reboot Trek seems to have faster FTL. And 8472, not the Borg, are the main villains, perhaps (and likewise, used sparingly).
Seven is introduced sooner, I think.
Another, maybe more out-there possibility: rather than the bizarre Caretaker breeding explanation, the reason for Voyager and the Marquis being transported ultimately turns out to be an experiment/test by Q (perhaps using the Caretaker as a smokescreen). Though I feel like I'm stealing someone else's idea here (at least for the Q experiment/test part) but I can't recall whose. There have been a lot of discussions about rewriting Voyager over the years.
My other main thought is to do a Voyager: The Next Generation sequel, staring Tom and Be'lanna's daughter leading a Starfleet return to the Delta Quadrant, and borrowing some ideas off of Star Trek Online.
Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
Hmm, I'd keep a lot of things from the original show, but just tweak things a bit.
The tweaks:
We get to know more of the secondary crew. Vorik, Carey, Chell, The Delaney Sisters, the crewmen from 'Lost Shepard', etc.
Do what they did in season 4, and start it in the middle of season 2. That is, emphasize that this isn't a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew, but a Starfleet ship with a very odd family full of oddballs, criminals, rejects, etc., but they ARE a family. We are going to have deaths on the ship, and we will feel the loss due to knowing everyone.
Continuing on this point, bring on more couples and children. Naomi Wildman was the first, she won't be the last.
Do bring *some* grittiness to Voyager, as the ship can't resupply, rearm, or be fixed without help. This does not mean go for BSG's "All life is pointless, you might as well do what Dee does and shoot yourself", they will have rough times. But they won't break.
See Voyager make itself more of a community. Janeway's point about the fact that they are 70,000 lightyears away from the Federation, and will need to make their own art and culture should be explored more. Tom Paris makes Captain Proton holonovels in his free time, the Doctor performs opera, Harry Kim and his jazz band perform, maybe Neelix's morning show if you're desperate, etc.
BUT........, if I was to make a rewrite, this is what I'd change:
The characters:
Janeway makes mistakes, due to her following protocol and this does get people killed, but it's usually the lesser of two evils. She is diplomatic, but when pushed, pushes back. But in the end, she's a good leader, and acts like a maternal figure for her crew. Keep the maybe unintentional arc from later seasons that the responsibility of all the deaths under her watch is breaking her. Have others notice, and talk to her about it.
Chakotay is not a Yoga-instructor, but a former Cell leader. He will warm up, and become softer over time, but anytime we see him, he should be military first, spiritual and peaceful second. We will see what he does in his off-time, boxer, craftsman, and historian. At first, he butts heads with Janeway, but they do get along, and appreciate the different ideas their different backgrounds come up with.
Tuvok is good as is. Let's just see more explorations of Vulcan culture if we can, and why a Vulcan would choose to be a soldier and Tactical Officer, as opposed to a science officer like Spock, or a diplomat like Sarek. Explore his friendship with Janeway, and act as a good sounding board.
Torres, let's explore her backstory in the first couple seasons, not in season 7. Let's find out WAY early that she's afraid everyone will leave her, and have her slowly realize that Tom Paris is different. He won't leave her. That Voyager's crew won't leave her. They will all stick with her.
Tom Paris. He's a scoundrel, and he is haunted. He cheats, he hits below the belt, and he's apathetic about things like regulations and procedures. Torres and Harry are people he protects. Because they were kind to him, and that is something he hasn't seen in a long time. This eventually makes him open up and embrace being part of a crew.
Harry Kim. Like in the series proper, he starts out green. Earnest, kind, dutiful. An audience surrogate for other characters to explain things to. But by season 3, he will be seasoned, and won't be caught off-guard the same way anyone did in season 1. However, he keeps his good nature, and though the Delta Quadrant sends him pain, he is still what he always was, a good man. Eventually, he meets Seven/Annika, and they hit if off. She is who he was a few years ago. Unused to people, and needing someone to look after them.
Neelix. He's a smuggler, a cheat, a con man, and a mapmaker. He did run from the draft from his planet's invasion, and the near capitulation of his people. He joined Voyager because it was a safe place for him and Kes. We see that he's looking to see for a good opportunity to pull off a con on Voyager, and leave with Kes while striking it rich. We then see his slow realization that people from the Federation are honestly out to improve the galaxy, and feels guilty. The Federation isn't like Talax, a corrupt military power, full of conscripted, terrified soldiers, waiting for their day to die. Like everyone, Neelix evolves, and sets out to ensure that Voyager makes it home.
Kes. Like Harry, she's someone who hasn't really seen the world, as she grew up on Ocampa. She prefers to help people, and eventually wants to become a doctor, hence her training under the EMH. However, unlike Harry, she has a hidden darkness tied into her strength, and has untold powers beneath the surface, coming closer to the surface with the smarter she becomes. She will persevere, but she knows why the Ocampa took the path of dwindling their minds, for fear of what their society would become.
The Doctor. At the start, a walking computer program. But, as Voyager needs him 24/7, he slowly gains more of a personality, interests, hobbies, and becomes interested in Kes. Their relationship is explored, as while he is a teacher and father figure for her, she is also a guide and mentor for him for becoming a fully emotional person.
Seven: We go with both the interpretation the writers had, that of a walking database, and proud of it, as well as the actress's, that of a child in an adult's body. She is no longer Borg, and while a lot of what they gave her is a point of pride, she slowly learns that they ripped a lot away from her, and doesn't want to go back. She finds Harry interesting, and finds him comforting. They eventually grow together. She will eventually lose more and more of the implants, and the catsuit will go away as she wears blouses and dresses. Starfleet isn't for her, but she does want to help serve the ship and be part of their 'collective'.
[/b]The story[/b]
They will deal with the Kazon, and the various in-fighting they have to deal with. Eventually, they hit the idea of making a Defense Pact with local species from the Kazon. This grows into a rougher Federation. Season 1 is the culmination of the Defense Pact's formation. Season 2 is the Defense Pact taking on the Kazon, and taking out their power structure, freeing that part of the galaxy.
This leads to some problems, as there is a power vacuum, one that the Defense Pact is going to have to fill. They set it up, and have to deal with people who wish to take advantage of the apparent lack of strength. The Hirogen, the Vidians, and Kazon sects that were separate from the main faction, etc.
They build up the Defense Pact, and make the Delta Quadrant a better place. Voyager moves onward, with gifts from the species they've made friends with, pieces left over from the Caretaker, and go faster than they thought possible. Good news, they're making their way home.
Bad news? They've hit Borg space, in the middle of their war with the Undine/Species 8472, and they're using unique technology that the Borg are interested in. On the one hand, the Borg want to assimilate them, as it will give them an advantage against the Undine. On the other, the Undine want to destroy the 'Borg abomination', and that includes anything they consider their food supply(local systems and worlds). Voyager does what it did before, unite those under persecution, and save the innocent from harm. While the Borg are evil incarnate, the galaxy can survive them better than they can the Undine, and work with the Borg to kick them out of the galaxy.
From this point on, as DS9 is over, Voyager is starting to get in touch with the Federation, and is able to make it home. We see how the Federation is rebuilding. And we see that while they do get a helping hand, they do have to clean up the mess they made in the Delta Quadrant. They work to bring the Defense Pact into the Federation, and deal with the consequences of both two different defense societies being near each other, how might not get along, and the Borg being near their space, who are looking for new resources to tap into.
The Federation is currently safe from harm, but the friends they made on the other side of the galaxy are in danger, and they will have to work to help them.
That's what I'd do, anyway.
The tweaks:
We get to know more of the secondary crew. Vorik, Carey, Chell, The Delaney Sisters, the crewmen from 'Lost Shepard', etc.
Do what they did in season 4, and start it in the middle of season 2. That is, emphasize that this isn't a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew, but a Starfleet ship with a very odd family full of oddballs, criminals, rejects, etc., but they ARE a family. We are going to have deaths on the ship, and we will feel the loss due to knowing everyone.
Continuing on this point, bring on more couples and children. Naomi Wildman was the first, she won't be the last.
Do bring *some* grittiness to Voyager, as the ship can't resupply, rearm, or be fixed without help. This does not mean go for BSG's "All life is pointless, you might as well do what Dee does and shoot yourself", they will have rough times. But they won't break.
See Voyager make itself more of a community. Janeway's point about the fact that they are 70,000 lightyears away from the Federation, and will need to make their own art and culture should be explored more. Tom Paris makes Captain Proton holonovels in his free time, the Doctor performs opera, Harry Kim and his jazz band perform, maybe Neelix's morning show if you're desperate, etc.
BUT........, if I was to make a rewrite, this is what I'd change:
The characters:
Janeway makes mistakes, due to her following protocol and this does get people killed, but it's usually the lesser of two evils. She is diplomatic, but when pushed, pushes back. But in the end, she's a good leader, and acts like a maternal figure for her crew. Keep the maybe unintentional arc from later seasons that the responsibility of all the deaths under her watch is breaking her. Have others notice, and talk to her about it.
Chakotay is not a Yoga-instructor, but a former Cell leader. He will warm up, and become softer over time, but anytime we see him, he should be military first, spiritual and peaceful second. We will see what he does in his off-time, boxer, craftsman, and historian. At first, he butts heads with Janeway, but they do get along, and appreciate the different ideas their different backgrounds come up with.
Tuvok is good as is. Let's just see more explorations of Vulcan culture if we can, and why a Vulcan would choose to be a soldier and Tactical Officer, as opposed to a science officer like Spock, or a diplomat like Sarek. Explore his friendship with Janeway, and act as a good sounding board.
Torres, let's explore her backstory in the first couple seasons, not in season 7. Let's find out WAY early that she's afraid everyone will leave her, and have her slowly realize that Tom Paris is different. He won't leave her. That Voyager's crew won't leave her. They will all stick with her.
Tom Paris. He's a scoundrel, and he is haunted. He cheats, he hits below the belt, and he's apathetic about things like regulations and procedures. Torres and Harry are people he protects. Because they were kind to him, and that is something he hasn't seen in a long time. This eventually makes him open up and embrace being part of a crew.
Harry Kim. Like in the series proper, he starts out green. Earnest, kind, dutiful. An audience surrogate for other characters to explain things to. But by season 3, he will be seasoned, and won't be caught off-guard the same way anyone did in season 1. However, he keeps his good nature, and though the Delta Quadrant sends him pain, he is still what he always was, a good man. Eventually, he meets Seven/Annika, and they hit if off. She is who he was a few years ago. Unused to people, and needing someone to look after them.
Neelix. He's a smuggler, a cheat, a con man, and a mapmaker. He did run from the draft from his planet's invasion, and the near capitulation of his people. He joined Voyager because it was a safe place for him and Kes. We see that he's looking to see for a good opportunity to pull off a con on Voyager, and leave with Kes while striking it rich. We then see his slow realization that people from the Federation are honestly out to improve the galaxy, and feels guilty. The Federation isn't like Talax, a corrupt military power, full of conscripted, terrified soldiers, waiting for their day to die. Like everyone, Neelix evolves, and sets out to ensure that Voyager makes it home.
Kes. Like Harry, she's someone who hasn't really seen the world, as she grew up on Ocampa. She prefers to help people, and eventually wants to become a doctor, hence her training under the EMH. However, unlike Harry, she has a hidden darkness tied into her strength, and has untold powers beneath the surface, coming closer to the surface with the smarter she becomes. She will persevere, but she knows why the Ocampa took the path of dwindling their minds, for fear of what their society would become.
The Doctor. At the start, a walking computer program. But, as Voyager needs him 24/7, he slowly gains more of a personality, interests, hobbies, and becomes interested in Kes. Their relationship is explored, as while he is a teacher and father figure for her, she is also a guide and mentor for him for becoming a fully emotional person.
Seven: We go with both the interpretation the writers had, that of a walking database, and proud of it, as well as the actress's, that of a child in an adult's body. She is no longer Borg, and while a lot of what they gave her is a point of pride, she slowly learns that they ripped a lot away from her, and doesn't want to go back. She finds Harry interesting, and finds him comforting. They eventually grow together. She will eventually lose more and more of the implants, and the catsuit will go away as she wears blouses and dresses. Starfleet isn't for her, but she does want to help serve the ship and be part of their 'collective'.
[/b]The story[/b]
They will deal with the Kazon, and the various in-fighting they have to deal with. Eventually, they hit the idea of making a Defense Pact with local species from the Kazon. This grows into a rougher Federation. Season 1 is the culmination of the Defense Pact's formation. Season 2 is the Defense Pact taking on the Kazon, and taking out their power structure, freeing that part of the galaxy.
This leads to some problems, as there is a power vacuum, one that the Defense Pact is going to have to fill. They set it up, and have to deal with people who wish to take advantage of the apparent lack of strength. The Hirogen, the Vidians, and Kazon sects that were separate from the main faction, etc.
They build up the Defense Pact, and make the Delta Quadrant a better place. Voyager moves onward, with gifts from the species they've made friends with, pieces left over from the Caretaker, and go faster than they thought possible. Good news, they're making their way home.
Bad news? They've hit Borg space, in the middle of their war with the Undine/Species 8472, and they're using unique technology that the Borg are interested in. On the one hand, the Borg want to assimilate them, as it will give them an advantage against the Undine. On the other, the Undine want to destroy the 'Borg abomination', and that includes anything they consider their food supply(local systems and worlds). Voyager does what it did before, unite those under persecution, and save the innocent from harm. While the Borg are evil incarnate, the galaxy can survive them better than they can the Undine, and work with the Borg to kick them out of the galaxy.
From this point on, as DS9 is over, Voyager is starting to get in touch with the Federation, and is able to make it home. We see how the Federation is rebuilding. And we see that while they do get a helping hand, they do have to clean up the mess they made in the Delta Quadrant. They work to bring the Defense Pact into the Federation, and deal with the consequences of both two different defense societies being near each other, how might not get along, and the Borg being near their space, who are looking for new resources to tap into.
The Federation is currently safe from harm, but the friends they made on the other side of the galaxy are in danger, and they will have to work to help them.
That's what I'd do, anyway.
Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
Well, had you actually read further, you'd have discovered his job is to die early and be replaced for the rest of the series by an alien woman played by a minority actress, who's makeup I wanted to redesign explicitly to make her less human.The Romulan Republic wrote:Really Nessus? You'd go out of your way to replace Star Trek's sole leading female captain with another white man? A human character again too, for maximum genericness?
If it makes you feel any better, that starting captain's gender race and race are not plot relevant, and could be changed to whatever without effecting anything (beyond a species change that would drastically effect personalty, like Vulcan or Tellerite). No politics were involved in that choice (beyond he idea that he maybe should be a bit generic for max effect, for reasons outlined below), nor in any of the choices regarding the character who would replaces him in command for the duration of the series. I pictured Robert Patrick for literally no other reason than because I've just kinda wanted to see a captain played by him.
I think andorians are cool and interesting, and at the time hadn't been seen as anything but deep background extras since TOS. I wanted a major character that could be a platform to explore andorian culture and psychology the way Spock and Worf had been for their respective species. I though a tall, willowy black woman would look particularly cool in the makeup, and I wanted to give the species a proper post-TOS update like the klingons got. The only remotely political thing about her was that I wanted an alien central/POV character because Azetbur's comment back in TUDC about the federation being a "humans only club" always rang a bit true on a Doylist level, and I wanted to counter that at least a bit.
The reason for starting with the"generic" captain and switching to the "minority" later in the fist season one was for several reasons:
1) In this fantasy, I assumed the show has a long run, like the real show ('cause it's a fantasy, so why not?), so I planning for the setup to take up the first season rather than be something something shoved out of the way all at once in a pilot episode. At the time, I would have pointed to Babylon 5 as an example of what I was thinking of, but these days this kind of long term story planning is commonplace.
2) I wanted to use the starting captain as a bait and switch. I wanted the death that sets up the real series captain to feel dramatically earned rather than being just be a throwaway event in the pilot, and as a bonus, it would make the audience think that "anyone can die". If I may be anachronistic, I wanted to pull a bit of a Ned Stark.
2) This winds up and launches the actual series' captain on a character arc in front of the audience, so they can watch her actively develop into role model-hood over the series, rather than just being a static character who enters fully formed and leaves pretty much unchanged like was normal for past captains (including Janeway, excepting Sisko).
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Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
My apologies. To be fair, it was tucked in at the very end of a long post, but I should have read more carefully.
That's actually an interesting idea, never done in a Trek series before- to change captains part-way through. Though I do recall that it was considered with Picard in BoBW.
That's actually an interesting idea, never done in a Trek series before- to change captains part-way through. Though I do recall that it was considered with Picard in BoBW.
Re: Reboot Voyager: A Hypothetical.
To be fair also, I'm just recalling stuff I came up with back in the late 90s. Looking at it now, there's stuff I'd definitely do differently.
Just thinking about it now, something that REALLY jumps out at me is that Robert Patrick played a very similar plot/character function in the Stargate Atlantis pilot. An initial lead commander, who gets killed so the series' real lead commander can step up, with accompanying trust issues the new commander has to overcome. My idea was handled differently and to different ends, but some of those bones are similar enough that I'd want to throw out or rejigger it significantly if I were doing it today.
Just thinking about it now, something that REALLY jumps out at me is that Robert Patrick played a very similar plot/character function in the Stargate Atlantis pilot. An initial lead commander, who gets killed so the series' real lead commander can step up, with accompanying trust issues the new commander has to overcome. My idea was handled differently and to different ends, but some of those bones are similar enough that I'd want to throw out or rejigger it significantly if I were doing it today.
