Triaxiansilk.com

OK, I was bored and inspired by some discussions in other threads I dug around my computer to find a brief outline for a Star Trek show I knew I had written some years ago. I expanded it a bit and present it here.

This - or something similar - is what I could get on board with for a new televised Trek. What do you think? How would YOUR favoured Trek series be like (excluding obvious ones as ENT season five)?

Anyway, below is mine. Yeah, I know it needs another name since that one is already taken by a novel/comic series.

*****

Title: Star Trek: The New Frontier

Time period: The beginning of the 23rd century.

Setting: The Federation starship USS Hibernia is dispatched to a distant border province to the "south" of the galaxy, facing the outer spiral arms. Its main mission is to explore and observe the mostly uncharted space beyond. Their homebase is a colony/starbase on a planet that is also the seat for the resident Federation Governor General, show is the Hibernia Captain's immediate superior.

Ship: The USS Hibernia is a Starfleet cruiser with a crew complement of 220 and four shuttles, two smaller ones and two medium sized. The interiors look like a cross between the NX-01 and the not so colourful version of the early NCC-1701.

Uniforms: Modelled to resemble the ones worn on The Cage/WNMHGB, albeit with a more elaborate rank insignia and accessories (like jackets).

Main characters:

• The Captain - a veteran of deep space travel in his mid-forties. Modelled after Christopher Pike and Scott Glenn's character on The Hunt for Red October.
• Chief Medical Officer - an older physician who's been friends with the captain for a long time. Modelled after Philip Boyce.
• Executive Officer - Middle-aged woman. Think Brenda Strong or Marg Helgenberger. Bound for a command of her own in a few years. Has a husband and family back on the homebase colony.
• Science Officer - A tall Vulcan woman. Think actress Bridget Moynahan.
• Weapons/Tactical Officer - A lean and fiery latina. Modelled after actress Tia Texada (Third Watch).
• Chief Engineer - a brilliant and introverted geeky guy. Modelled after actor Jeff Goldblum.
• Junior Officers - rotating bridge officers for helm, navigation, communications and officer on deck, including a young Andorian ensign. They will also be used for landing and boarding parties.

• Marine Commander - a no-nonsense black man, good friends with TAC. Think actor Don Franklin (Seven Days, SeaQuest DSV).
• Marine commandos

• Intelligence Operative - Outside the normal chain-of-command, he's somewhat disillusioned but has some knowledge of the new territories the ship is visiting. Clashes often with TAC. Think actor Michael Biehn.

Recurring characters:

• The Governor General - not the normal obnoxious Starfleet brass, but a sympathetic, yet tough man. Modelled after Admiral Chegwidden (John M. Jackson) on JAG.
• The Captain of the USS Ariel - a tough female commander on a smaller Starfleet destroyer that encounter and helps the Hibernia from time to time. Modelled after the Angelina Jolie character on Sky Captain. Has a previous history with the Captain of the Hibernia. Could be played by Jolene Blalock.
• The Husband of the XO - he's an executive of an agricultural corporation.

Beginning of story: Starfleet intelligence assigns it's operative to the Hibernia just prior to that ship venturing out into deep space. He's reluctant since he had been promised a lengthy shore leave back home. But he's needed. While outside the normal chain-of-command he nevertheless has a lot of influence as an advisor. He has previously worked undercover in some of the more unknown parts of space that the Hibernia is now patrolling. His loyalties are ambiguous (is it to the ship or his Intelligence superiors) and he's resented by a lot of the crew. He especially disagrees with the ship's tactical officer, since she thinks he invades her area of responsibility. Potential for a 'ship?

Potential story arc: The frontier province and the area beyond borders in some cases Klingon space. Not a lot has been heard of the Klingons since they suffered the "flathead affliction" some four decades ago. But now signs are emerging that they're making their presence known again, and this breed is more cunning (as the TOS Klingons were) and they're bound to clash with the Federation again. This is what Picard probably referred to when he said that first contact with the Klingons turned violent.

Looks good to me, though I can't help but think of Goldblum as the science officer. Stereotyping his Jurassic Park character no doubt! And I'd rather have a male Vulcan this time around. Let HIM play off a fiery latina!

Jeff Goldblum as a Vulcan? Hm, that could work.

But I have so been picturing Bridget Moynahan as a Vulcan ever since I saw I, Robot.

I could completely get on board with this, KTR!

My own Trek is less well-developed, but goes something like this:

A year after the Dominion war, a new ship is sent out to explore the Gamma Quadrant. No title has come to mind.

The Ship USS James Cook
The Captain Human, male, late 40s. He does not join away missions or landing parties.
The First Officer Commander, Trill, unjoined, female, late 30s.
The Engineer Lt. Commander, new species, female, 30s. Has been part of the Federation for a while, but she's the first to join Starfleet because these aliens are short, light, and have wings. But not fairy wings, bird wings. Anyway, since not a lot of flying can be done on a ship, these aliens tend to stay at home or on their own ships.
The Tactical/Security Officer Lt. Commander, Andorian, male, age unknown. Has a core group of three or four recurring yellowshirts who provide security on away missions and landing parties.
The Ethnographer Lieutenant, female, another new species here, late 20s. A mission of exploration needs someone who's trained in cultural studies. Cross-trained as shuttle pilot during Dominion War, which she spent shuffling brass around the Sol system. Is the younger daughter of the matriarch of her home planet; while this is a ceremonial position, she is royalty. The captain knows this, but she doesn't want anyone else to. It will come out a few episodes in when a new species will only speak with royalty.
The Ops Officer Lieutenant, human, male, late 20s/early 30s.
The Helmswoman Lieutenant j.g., human, female, late 20s.
The CMO Lt. Commander, human, male, late 30s.

Nice ideas!

I had two idea of my own, one of them I've been working on for a few weeks is called the Long Night, I won't bore you with it but CX has been dropping a few pointers as a "Virtual Series Consultant" I've been writing a spec script for it, maybe I'll post it somewhere when I'm done.

The other idea is a little more nontraditional and a lot more unusual, where the focus would shift away from Starfleet and examine something that's really only been covered in Fanon:

UFP Marines

Since the formation of the Federation, Starfleet has explored the galaxy. They charge into the unknown to fill in the blank areas of the map and do exactly what it says in their charter: "Seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no one has gone before". But what happens to a planet after it's explored? Who defends the settlers and Federation citizens brave enough to live on an unknown new world?

They're called the United Federation of Planets Marine Corps and they are the proud men and women who struggle to keep the galaxy civilized. One part police force and one part standing army, the UFP Marines fight to uphold their own charter: "To Defend the Weak, Bring Order to Chaos, and Maintain the Rule of Law."

The Series would be set pre-Dominon War and mainly focus on a small frontier planet of farmers and traders and the battalion of Marines dedicated to protect it from raiders and pirates. But as the series unfolds, the Marines find themeselves caught up in the events of the coming Dominon War and the horrors of intergalactic war.

Since the Star Trek Universe is so big, I thought it would be fresh to show the same universe and the same events but from a perspective of Ground Up, rather then the usual Sky Down look that we normally get. No starships, no holodecks, just the people of the Star Trek universe. The ones that Starfleet flies over.

I haven't thought of any characters yet though, but I sort of imagine the Marines being lead by the anti-Picard. A large, imposing man who rallies his men like an experienced military commander but sometimes lets his ego get in the way of doing his job. A lot of the stories at the beginning would be sort of police style stories, growing more military in focus until finally reaching the Dominion Wars which would become the overall thrust of the story and culminate at the Liberation of Betazed and the promotion of our Anti-Picard character to General.

Marines and an anti-Picard! I already like it.

I don't know if I'll go any further with it, I've already got a series I'm working on, I've got the material for that too.

I almost wrote a new series, too.

The premise is a little like Voyager because they end up lost, but not so far out - just beyond Klingon and Romulan Space. Takes place a little bit after Captain Kirk was "lost" in the Nexus, and they don't have a huge starship to help them home: they have a freaking Shuttle Craft and that's it. One of the main character's is a Romulan/Vulcan like Saavik (child of Hellguard) and is a Federation spy towards the Romulans. I forgot who I had in command, but I also had a female pilot, an obnoxious Irishman, an Andorian male, and someone from the TOS gangster planet. I had a few other characters but like the commander, they didn't seem interesting enough for me to remember. I should dig out the character list just for laughs - I'm thinking it's somewhere in my google docs.

I really ought to be working on Foundations website, or scoping out a few new fics for GoF, or working on my write-up for the next episode of Foundations, but I can't help but write my ideas down here, since it relates to my own thread about what series I might do next, after I'm done with Foundations (which could be years).

Star Trek: Phoenix Rising (tentative name)

Premise:

This will remain basically the same as my first take on this series. It's set in 2380 (5 years after the end of DS9), and essentially takes place instead of Insurrection and Nemesis. Naturally, Foundations happens instead of Enterprise.

Put briefly, Phoenix Rising is set post-Dominion War, to show the fall-out of that conflict, and how everyone is picking up the pieces (or not as the case may be). The Cardassian Union and Cardassia Prime itself has been divided and occupied by the big three Alpha Quadrant allies: The Romulans, the Klingons, and the Federation. Cardassia is being ruled by an interim government and its military reduced do a small self defense force. Relations are strong between the Federation and the Klingons, but oddly enough, the Romulans are opening up more to the Federation, even if they and the Klingons don't much care for each other. Our main ship and crew are among those orbiting Cardassia Prime, helping with the occupation.

This is when everything goes wrong.

Originally, I had Sela plan and carry out a coup of the Romulan government with the support of the Romulan Praetorian Guard. She's disgusted with recent developments, including but not limited to the peaceful relationship with the Federation. I may still go that route or something very similar. Either way, the Romulan Star Empire suddenly becomes very unfriendly and is now looking outwards as a way to regain its former glory.

But that's mainly the setup for the pilot. Once it simmers down, this renewed cold war with the Romulan Empire will basically be the background. The Federation still has control of a portion of the former Cardassian Union, and there are plenty of other stories to tell, most of which will come together to form a seemingly never-ending story-arc, because there's always something going on, developing, and coming to a head before something else comes up. What I intend to focus on is character drama, and to re-examine the "evolved" humanity of TNG.

Oh, and the show basically starts in media res. The ship and the crew have been out in space for something like three years, so they're mostly used to each other by the time the show starts. I plan to break the mold of every series since TNG, starting out with a new ship and a new crew. Granted, it's a sorta new ship, but the series is going to explore the past of why exactly that is, and why the ship bears the name of her captain's last command.

Characters

Captain Mikhail Amasov: CO. Human of Russian decent. He was born on Luna to a family with a long history of military service who have made a name for themselves in Starfleet. He has a background in engineering, just like most of the men in his family. He has a good relationship with his father, and he had one with his son, but his marriage fell apart when his son was killed after being assigned to a posting Mikhail pulled strings for his son to get.

He is close to his first officer (as a friend) and to Dela Sertana (as a father figure), who are also the only surviving command crew members from his last command. During his time occupying the Cardassian Union, he has also developed a close friendship with the commander of a Romulan warbird. Unfortunately that all changes with the pilot episode of the series.

As far as his personality, he tends to be somewhat laid back and has a relaxed command style that has endured him to his subordinates. But that doesn't mean he can't be all business when he has to be. He is very no nonsense, and will probably remind you more of Captain Jellico than Captain Picard. As long as you do your job and do it well, he'll never have a problem with you. If he ever does have a problem with you, he won't have much use for you on his ship anymore.

Commander [Unnamed]: XO. Originally I'd planned this to be Shelby, but I've since decided to change that, so I don't have much of a profile here to give, other than that she's still a woman, has a background in intelligence, and is a very good friend of Amasov's. She also served on his previous command during the Dominion War. You could call them war buddies.

She'll also probably be an alien, but then again I might just leave her as a human.

She also has a scar on her right cheek, left over from what most people assume to be the first war with Cardassia. No one but her really knows for sure, as she refuses to talk about it. And though a dermal regenerator in skilled hands can easily heal the scar, she refuses treatment, her only explanation being that she "needs the reminder".

Lieutenant Commander Dela Sertana: TAC, 3IC. An Orion "animal woman", Dela was rescued by a Starfleet officer as a teenager and adopted as his daughter, which is why she adopted his family name. Amasov was serving on the same ship as her adoptive father, and in fact the two men were good friends. After the man died, Amasov became a kind of surrogate father for her, as the only other really familiar person she knew.

She's also a veteran of the Dominion War, where she really came into her own.

She's also in a relationship with Rina Raynar, and the two of them will be the main 'ship. Yep, that's right, a lesbian couple, which I'm hoping to not make into a stereotype, and I'm not going to pander to the lowest common denominator. An experiment if you will, one I failed horribly at the first time around. In any case, they'll already be established so I don't have to deal with some kind of weird lesbian version of TnT antics.

Lieutenant Thomas Mato (pronounced MA-toe, with a very light t): OPS, 4IC. Human of Native American decent. He was born on a Lakota colony formerly located in the Demilitarized Zone between the Cardassian Union and the Federation. Thomas joined the Maquis while he was still a teenager, against the will of his family and the tribe, who wanted a peaceful solution. He was caught during his second battle in a raid on a Federation colony, and sent to a juvenile detention faculty on Earth until he was 18. At the time of his release, Thomas was recruited into Starfleet Academy by a professor who taught there, who convinced him that Starfleet would one day prevail over the injustices done to his people and that he should be part of it. He was as he fought on several ships during the Dominion War. While he thinks of himself as a Lakota Warrior in the spirit of his ancestors, his honor and pride were wounded from his capture and seeming inability to be the tactical officer he wanted to be. He was also deeply wounded by the fact none of his piers respected him, and some even hated him because of his Maquis past.

His mentor convinced him that he had been chosen for another path, and thus he joined operations.

He also has one hell of a crush on Rina Raynar, but to put it lightly, she resists.

Lieutenant Commander Rina Raynar: ChEng, 6IC. An Angosian woman and a veteran of the Tarsian War her people fought, she is an expert in the field of engineering. Her expertise has brought her from an Ensign in 2370, shortly after Angosia III was accepted into the Federation, to her current rank and position in 2380, despite her temperamental attitude. She still occasionally suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, but retains her superhuman strength. Medical technology has gotten her to the point that she and all of the other former Angosian soldiers can rejoin society, but not all of the damage has been undone. She refuses to talk of her past as a soldier because it is a sensitive issue for her (she is opposed to using lethal force but killed people during the Tarsian War because of her programming), and she often stops short of physically assaulting Lt. Thomas Mato because he keeps asking her about it. (Later on in the series, the two will become friends)

Doctor (Lieutenant) Selar: CMO. I may change this to another Vulcan, but since she kind of got the shaft in TNG by being established and then never seen again, I decided to keep her.

Lieutenant Taurik: Assistant ChEng. Another left-over from TNG, I couldn't help but use him, because his character was begging to be used.

He is an excellent engineer, but because of his lack of tact and antisocial behavior (particularly with his superiors and with others on his team), he has been advancing very slowly through the ranks. After the destruction of the Enterprise-D, Taurik was transferred to the same ship (as yet unnamed) as Lt. Comm. Rina Raynar. He worked on her engineering staff and she came to respect his expertise in engineering to the point she trusted him to take over for her while she was away. His arrogant mannerisms have no effect on her as she is used to having to deal with similar attitudes from other people.

His twin brother is Vorik from Voyager, BTW.

Ensign Jessica Amundson: Alpha Shift helm officer. Human female in her early 20’s as of 2380. She is fresh out of Starfleet Academy and on her first assignment. She is still nervous around senior officers and is usually quiet around people, though if you asked one of her few friends they would swear she never shuts up. She is very hardcore as far as discipline and being a good officer goes, but she can be very friendly. When she is on duty, she is all business, but when she’s off duty she gets very relaxed and can even get a little wild. She gets very excited at the thought of going into combat, and she sees herself as a pilot, not a helmsman, and she’d much rather be flying a fighter and not driving a starship.

She also has something of a crush on Mato, which could turn into more if he ever notices her right there under his nose.

Unnamed Science Officer: SCI, 5IC. Originally, this guy was a Romulan who'd been surgically altered to look human, both inside and out, with tech being used as a stop-gap to ensure sensors and the like always took him for human. Of course, he didn't know this, as his memory was wiped afterwards, all orchestrated by Section 31 for reasons unknown, beyond his initial rescue from the Tal Shiar as a child by S31. I'd kind of thought he might come in handy as a way inside the Star Empire, but the series never got that far.

There will still be a science officer, and I'm kicking around the idea of it being a Romulan exchange officer to begin with or something, but he may end up being just a regular crew member.

Chief Petty Officer Christina Elsapeath: Transporter chief. Not a whole bunch about her yet aside from being a human woman, and friend to both Raynar and Sertana. And no, not a friend with benefits, just a friend.

The Ship

USS Endeavour, NCC-75815: Upgraded Galaxy-class starship. She's basically the kind of ship Starfleet has been putting out in the years since the end of the Dominion War, which is to say tried and true in design, but with up-to-date hardware and software inside.

What can I say? I'm a Galaxy-class fan, and I feel like setting this series on another one. Of course, that could change, because whereas I was stupid and just named the series after the ship the first time around, you'll note that I did no such thing this time.

Originally I did the fan thing and redesigned the look of the Galaxy-class, making her slimmer and meaner looking than her older sisters.


(art by Galen)

This time, though, I think I'll keep her pretty much stock-looking, though I'm still going to add a torpedo launcher on the underside of the saucer section. I'm definitely keeping the bridge design I came up with though.




*sigh* Time for bed. I'll do my VOY redux idea some other time.

Wow, I'm impressed by the art, CX.

When I was younger, I had my own TNG-era series, on board the USS Forrestal (NCC-1747). Lost the character sketches and art, though...I remember it was a multicultural, multi-species staff, with a Vulcan, an Andorian and I even put a Horta in. I was also impressed with K'tlk, the Hmalki engineer in "The Wounded Sky" (TOS-era) and put a member of her species in there too. (Think huge glass spider).

Currently, I have the AU Switcheroo series, which isn't really original, just switching the ENT crew around in positions and relocating some "minor" characters in the ENT universe.

CX, Are you developing a mailing list of those readers interested in your series? If so, put me on it!

ldaly@wi.rr.com

I have no series in mind to write myself. That is way to ambitious and right now, have little time for writing anything at all -but have lots of small writing projects and rewrites hanging in limbo. Still, this thread has made me start thinking...

Keep in mind that this would be after I'm done with Foundations.

To start, I'll just say that I really haven't given this concept a whole lot of thought, so compared to my other write-up, this one will be pretty vague.

Star Trek Voyager Redux (tentative title)

Premise

Exactly the same as we were first told Voyager's premise would be when they first announced the series, and before UPN execs castrated it.

Okay, so you all know that the ship is going to get pulled into the Delta Quadrant, but since I like to play with things, the timing and the reasons are not the same.

All, most, or possibly more than season 1 will be spent in the Alpha Quadrant, hunting down and combating the Maquis on the Federation side of the border. Naturally, there's going to be some exploration on the subject of the Maquis, which is to say that the Maquis are actually right and the Federation was wrong to make this latest treaty with Cardassia.

There will be a Federation spy who infiltrates Chakotay's cell, but it won't be Tuvok, it'll be someone from Starfleet Intelligence. Oh yeah, and Seska won't be a Cardie spy.

I'm not entirely sure what reason I'd come up with for Voyager to end up in the Delta Quadrant, but it won’t be because of the Okampa. There might not even be a "caretaker" per say. All I know for sure is that a lot of characters are going to die in the journey there, and that they won't necessarily be the original characters I come up with to fill certain positions.

Once there, it won't be the standard alien of the week stories, and the episodes would form overlapping arcs. Trapped together, the Maquis and Starfleet crews will form an uneasy alliance, but they won't become friends so quickly. There will be conflict, there will be drama, and there won't be Maquis wearing Starfleet uniforms unless they actually earn the right to wear it.

The mores of the Federation will be severely tested, and the crew isn't going to be able to uphold all the rules and ideals they've become used to, at least not the Starfleet crew. This will provide some of the tension between Starfleet and Maquis, because there will be definite disagreement over how to handle things.

And just to complicate things, I may even bring in a Cardassian ship that the Federation task force was working jointly with.

Characters

Commander Kathryn Janeway: CO. Voyager is her first command, but she's an experienced officer, having previously served as the XO of another ship. She's younger than as portrayed on screen though, so I'd have to cast someone else to play her. Basically this is the break the mold of having an actual captain as the ship's "captain", because especially with smaller ships, that rank isn't necessary to command a ship. Personality-wise, she's a commanding officer, so there will be none of that maternal crap, or the sporadic insanity either for that matter.

Lieutenant Commander Unnamed: XO. I don't have a name yet, but she's and Andorian woman who stood out on the short list of possible candidates when Janeway was selecting her command crew. The two of them get along well, and Janeway comes to trust her judgment. And in case you were wondering, I made her a woman on purpose, because while the other series saw two men or a man and a woman in the CO/XO roles, there never was a case of two women in these positions, not even on the other guest ships that showed up occasionally.

Lieutenant Tuvok: TAC, 3IC. Not nearly as old as VOY made him out to be, but has served on all but one of Janeway's previous assignments. They have a strong friendship similar to the one Kirk and Spock had, though being a security officer has made him less friendly than Spock ever was to most people. In fact, aside from Janeway, no one else really cares for the guy.

Lieutenant Unnamed: OPS, 4IC. I'm thinking a human male. I have no ideas as to a bio for this guy, other than that he's the original senior Operations officer. I won’t even hide the fact that this guy buys it when they get take to the Delta Quadrant.

Lieutenant Joseph Carey: ChEng, 5IC. He is the ship's chief engineer when the show starts. He's a hard worker, good at what he does, and generally well liked, though he can be a dick when the pressure is on. B'Elanna is going to replace him in that position eventually, but I won't say when or why, mostly because I don't know myself yet. But he won't just disappear, either.

Doctor (Lieutenant Commander) Laurence Patterson: CMO. Again, not much of a bio in mind for this guy, other than that he should be a fairly likable guy in order to contrast the EMH's arrogant personality. He is going to buy it, but not in the initial journey to the Delta Quadrant. Regardless of how I off him, the crew will miss him, especially in light of the fact they're now stuck with the EMH and what's left of the medical staff.

Emergency Medical Hologram: Designed as a holographic aide to the ship's medical staff, he was never meant to operate for more than a few hours at a time, and he won't at first. Unfortunately for the crew, the engineer who designed the EMH based his creation's personality on his own and somehow managed to get Starfleet Medical to accept the program anyway, at least as an experiment. This particular model has been placed on Voyager as part of the experiment's second phase – field testing. After the ship's human CMO is killed, he'll be tested beyond his designed limits, and finds that he has the potential to be more than what he was programmed to be. Naturally this will bring up some artificial intelligence issues.

Ensign Harry Kim: He's a freshly minted ensign when the show starts, and is assigned to the ship as a junior operations officer. He gets a lot more than he bargained for when the ship's original senior ops officer is killed, and will be promoted appropriately. He'll also be one of Tom Paris's few friends.

Ensign Vorik: He's the ship's assistant chief engineer, and the twin brother to Taurik. This is rare among Vulcans, and it has lead to friction between his 30 seconds older brother and himself. He'll be pretty much the same as what we saw on the show, though he'll get more screen time that won't simply be limited to getting pon farr and trying to get it on with B'Elanna.

Ensign Ione Stadi: The alpha shift conn. officer of Voyager, who may or may not survive getting pulled into the Delta Quadrant. She's a full-blood Betazoid, so that might have some interesting potential. And while she and Paris might start to have a thing for each other, each being highly competitive pilots, rest assured that she'll die tragically in some fashion, so Paris/Torres fans can rest easy.

Chakotay (tentative name): I'm only using this name so you know who the hell I'm talking about. If I ever do this show, I will research a real First Nation tribe and come up with a real name that actually means something. Since Mato (which means "Bear" btw) on my other series is Lakota, Chakotay (or rather whatever name I come up with) will be from another tribe, perhaps Hopi. Or he might be a Pacific Islander which means his tattoo would make more sense. Anyway, as to the actual bio, he's a Starfleet officer who resigned in protest over the treaty with Cardassia in 2370, and joined the Maquis. Rather like Cal Hudson if you know who that is. He was a Lieutenant Commander at the time. In any case, most Starfleeters consider people like him to be traitors, mostly because of a lack of understanding as to what the Maquis are all about. Of course it doesn't help that in the past he's carried out attacks against Starfleet targets using the knowledge he gained as a Starfleet officer. I should also probably mention that he was a tactical officer, which is what makes him such a skilled fighter.

B'Elanna Torres: A half-human/half-Klingon. She's a skilled engineer, and like Chakotay, she was a Starfleet officer who went over to the Maquis cause. The difference is, she actually went AWOL and made off with a runabout that the Maquis end up using in some of their raids. She was a full-grade Lieutenant at the time. She wasn't ever really satisfied with Starfleet anyway, and fighting for a cause she felt was just gave her something to focus her anger on, though that anger owes more to a screwed up childhood and family life than anything else. On Chakotay's ship, she basically did double-duty as the chief engineer and the first officer. Once on Voyager, she'll end up being put on the Carey's engineering team, and the two will have a lot of friction to put it mildly. Eventually she'll take his place as the ship's chief engineering, owing to her skill and probably some other circumstances.

Hernando Ayala: He was once a police officer on a Federation colony, but when said colony ended up on the wrong side of the Cardassian border, things changed. Before joining, he had actually been assigned to investigate a local cell of the Maquis that was getting its start on his colony, and ended joining up. On Chakotay's ship, he was basically the equivalent of the tactical officer. On Voyager, he'll become a member of the security team.

Seska Nula: A Bajoran, she grew up on a Bajoran colony similar to the one Ro Laren grew up on. As such, she grew up in poverty, and often found herself under the boot of Cardassian rule. She eventually ended up joining the Maquis. Though not formally trained in combat or engineering, she is nonetheless an excellent fighter (owing somewhat to training from Chakotay) and is very mechanically inclined. Not an engineer, but very intelligent and able to figure things out, and she's very good with her hands. And yes, this has a double meaning, because she and Chakotay have a mutual itch they like to scratch with each other. I'm sure this will disappoint some 'shippers out there, but as I have no plans for Seska to betray Voyager, that means his heart (or at least his pecker) is already spoken for, unless I go and kill her of course, which means he'll need someone's shoulder to cry one.

Chell: A Bolian and a former Starfleet cadet, he won't be the wuss that he was basically made out to be on the show. He grew up on a Federation colony, and went off to the Academy when he was old enough so he could get the hell away from it. Ironically, when his former home ends up in Cardassian hands thanks to the treaty, he's so disenfranchised and so pissed that he quits the Academy only a few months from graduation. He was training to be a science officer with a specialty in computers, so he comes in handy on Chakotay's ship for his hacking and electronic warfare skills. He's no pro, but he does a pretty good job. These skills will also come in handy in the Delta Quadrant.

Tom Paris/Nicholas Locarno: In my take on this show, they are one and the same person. Dishonorably discharged from Starfleet as a senior cadet, he was disowned by his father, a Starfleet admiral. He changed his name to put that past and the dishonor associated with it behind him, caught a transport to the outer colonies, and never looked back. He drifted for a few years, doing odd jobs that mostly revolved around running cargo and passengers between the colonies and to nearby stations. When most of the opportunity to join the Maquis arrived, he took it as fate and eagerly joined, offering his skills as an ace pilot. He ends up working for Chakotay, and will later become a helmsman for Voyager. As for why he and B'Elanna don't hook up while on Chakotay's ship, I'm thinking that they could've started out actually really not liking each other, even if he kind of had a crush on her. Or he found her too intimidating to approach. Or something. Anyway, eventually the crew will learn of his true identity, so that should be interesting.

Lon Suder: He'll stay the creepy psycho killer in my version, no redemption from Tuvok or anyone else. His past is a total mystery when he joins the Maquis, but they don't much care because he's really good at killing Cardassians, and at getting information out of them before-hand, owing to his Betazoid heritage. Though he is a telepath, for the most part he remains in a kind of autistic mode, because he doesn't like mental contact with others. When he does initiate contact though, his warped mind tends to frak people up. I may even have him be the one who kills Stadi. He'll be around for a while though, and while he ends up doing some dirty work for Voyager on occasion, he is never redeemed the way he was on the original show.

Neelix: Not. Comedy. Relief. A Talaxian and native to the Delta Quadrant, he's more like an Indian guide than the putz he was on the show. He used to serve in the Talaxian military, but his homeworld was overrun by the Haakonian Order and what few Talaxians still exist are scattered throughout the Delta Quadrant. Since his world was conquered and most of his people killed, he has become a mercenary and turned his small ship into a cargo hauler since he prefers that kind of work to combat (think of Firefly). A few weeks before fate brings him to Voyager, his ship has been impounded and most of his crew is in jail. He actually has a warrant out for his arrest himself, but is hiding out at a station Voyager stops at to resupply. He offers his services to Janeway as a guide as well as his other skills and is taken up on his offer.

Kes: A young, attractive and shy woman, Kes is Neelix's wife. He traded a rather unsavory group of aliens for her, essentially rescuing her from a life of prostitution. As such, he's very protective of her. Because she's so quiet, it isn't learned for a while that she also has extensive knowledge of the Delta Quadrant, beyond that of even Neelix's. She also has a strange ability to heal minor injuries using simply a touch of her hand. Very little is known of her species beyond its name, which she gives as Ocampa (tentatively). The origin of this species is unknown, and few have ever been encountered. They definitely aren't the young and rapidly aging species we saw on VOY, which to be honest was kind of frakked up if you really think about Tom and Neelix both pining over a 7 year old, and in one universe Harry being Tom's son-in-law because he married Tom's daughter with Kes. Anyway, she's basically this mysterious Sacagawea figure.

The Ship

I honestly kicked around the idea of having this actually be an older ship, like a New Orleans or Springfield-class, but I think I'll just make it clear that the Intrepid-class is well out of the prototype phase, even if Voyager is the second ship of the class. The design would remain more or less the same, though I'd change the command chair set-up to a more conventional one. I'm sorry, but I always hated it, and to be frank it reminds me of the early TNG Romulan set-up which had two Romulan commanders sitting side-by-side like that. I'd probably make the helm smaller as well, or have another station there (like say Ops) as part of the console.

Hey, I liked that "maternal crap."

But the idea of having more Starfleet/Maquis tension is good. And more moral quagmires, like "Equinox."

The maternal crap really didn't fit in with being a commanding officer - she's the captain, not the ship's mother. And to be frank it undermined her authority and was kind of sexist.