Reboot VOY

[CX]

Right, so a bunch of us were talking about all the ways VOY could've been better in the other thread. So, if you could reboot VOY and start it over, how would you do it?

[Elessar]

Well, like I said I skipped the first 3 seasons this time around so I don't remember for sure, but for one I think the asshole-CMO should have survived. They could have used the EMH as a nurse for awhilr or something. The friction between Tom and the CMO deserved more attention.

Delete the Kazon and they'd be doing a LOT better in my opinion. The fact that Seska was a Cardassian was a cool twist, but it was ruined by how horrible of an actress Martha Hacket is and how horrible she looked as a Cardassian. Idk who did the makeup but jesus.

Other than that? I don't know... I think it would have been cool if they'd picked up a Q as a permanent character, but relieved of his powers.

The Lon Suder storyline was fantastic, imo. He was one of the best written characters, very complex. The guy who played him was great too. Very creepy.

[CoffeeCat]

Agh. Don't even get me started. I'm trying to write a frelling story, dammit!

[Elessar]

Agh. Don't even get me started. I'm trying to write a frelling story, dammit!

lol. You know what we should do? We should have focused-crossover fic challenges. Like, so that it didn't get way off topic or unguided, we could do "Trip and T'Pol on Voyager" or "Trip and T'Pol on DS9". It might be a little ridiculous, but it'd be fun. Then again, maybe I just want to see Trip dragged out of Astrometrics by his ear by T'Pol while he's oggling 7 of 9

Or... would Trip be more drawn to B'Elanna? He does seem to go for alien engineers (OTHER than T'Pol, people. Don't pounce on me for speaking blasphemies!)

[CX]

A friend of mine from another board had this really great idea he posted up a couple years back on the old SCN board, but unfortunately he lost it. One of the cool things about it was that it actually kept Voyager in the Alpha quadrant for the first season and didn't take them to the Delta quadrant until the S1 finalie. The next 5 seasons were like the Year of Hell and then he brought them back for the last season.

[Elessar]

That woulda been cool. We would have cared a lot more that they were stranded... it woulda meant a lot more.

[CoffeeCat]

Alright. I can't smegging resist. Real quick.

For starters - there would be no stinking Caretaker, Ocampan Homeworld, or Kazon. The first episode would be Voyager getting sucked into a Borg transwarp conduit and after a 2 hour pilot episode fight, they'd end up deborging Neelix, Kes, and Seven of Nine (just so you Seven junkies can have your cake and eat it too). I suppose I ought to mention that we needed to keep the maquis/starfleet conflict because it was very essential to the whole premise. So it would be set up just like "The Caretaker" only the Caretaker would be replaced by a Borg cube hiding in the badlands.

The rest of the series would be written like "Year of Hell" without the reset button. They'd get home @ the end of season six so they can deal with all the extra baggage in season seven.

PS. I'm a P/T 'shipper so that stays.

[CX]

How would they get away from the Borg ship though?

[CoffeeCat]

How would they get away from the Borg ship though?

They could bring Wesley with them. He could make up some shit.

Just Kidding. I wouldn't put my viewers through that. I don't know how'd they get out of it. hell, I'd have half the ship assimilated before I gave them an easey way out. Frell it. the Borg can have Voyager (It's a stinking crysler product anyway) - they can fly Chakotay's rust bucket home for all I care.

[CX]

I have a few things I'd change. First off, Janeway would be a Commander, not a Captain (they's still call her "captain" though since she's in command of the ship). Kim would not be fresh out of the academy. The ship would be at least a few years old and their mission would have been going on for some time when the series starts, and their mission would be to hunt down Maquis operating in the Bajor sector, and the ship would operate out of Deep Space Nine (though they wouldn't be there often). The story would go that they're having such a hard time of it, Tom is brought in. Tom doesn't really want to be there though, there was no real deal made on his part other than that if he doesn't cooperate, his sentance will get harsher. Pretty much he's Starfleet's last effort before sending in more ships to deal with the Maquis problem in that area.

I'd also follow Chakotay and his merry band around. Tuvok would still be hiding in their midst, but instead of being a generic security officer, he's with Starfleet Intel. and he's SPECOP. Anyway, we'd follow their end of it, including all the stuff they do to foil Janeway and VOY.

I'm not sure how I'd get them into the DQ though. Assuming I didn't do something like Caretaker I might steal CoffeeCat's Borg idea, only it'd be one of those small scout ships and Chakotay and crew would have stumbled upon them by chance. The exchange of fire is what draws Voyager, and the Borg scout would try to make a break for it. Just as it engages its transwarp, one of those funky twisters would take it out and create a conduit leading to the DQ, which fortunately for them wouldn't be near any other Borg ships or anything.

[CoffeeCat]

^ I want to add one more detail that might irritate some.

It wouldn't be Tom Paris. It would be Nick Locarno.

[CX]

Thing is, Locarno never served in Starfleet and Paris would've so he could become sympathetic to the Maquis. I'm really not bothered by the fact that the actor played two characters because that's happened more than one in Trek, even human characters. The actress that played Brahms also played Captain Benteen too.

[CoffeeCat]

hmmm. True. I don't think the same actor thing bothered me either.

I think it's the fact that they're basically the same damn character.

The more I think about it, you're right tho. I might be smarter to keep him as Tom Paris only because that's how most people know him.

[JadziaKathryn]

1. Seven of Nine would wear something resembling normal clothing. It needn't be a Starfleet uniform, since she's not in Starfleet, but it would be something that actually made a little sense and wasn't a blatant attempt at sex appeal.

2. There would be a rule that characters other than Seven must get meaningful, character-developing storylines. I actually liked the idea of Seven of Nine, and Jeri Ryan did an excellent job, but I'm not a fan of the way she was handled. I didn't like the outfits or the fact that it kinda became the Seven of Nine show. There would be more than one token Harry episode a season *gasp* and the same for Tuvok *gasp*.

3. The ship wouldn't miraculously recover and look fresh out of spacedock every week. There would be battle scars.

4. Neither would the shuttles. And they would go to great lengths to retrieve the shuttles, which would take several episodes to repair, with plenty of complaints from Torres.

5. Neelix and Kes wouldn't be romantically involved, because frankly that was always creepy.

6. The Maquis integration would've taken much longer than portrayed.

7. Whoever wrote "Threshold" and "Fury" would be fired, and the episodes never would be made.

8. No contrived Chakotay/Seven romance.

9. We would see the crew struggling with fallout from some of what happened. Say, the whole thing where Harry and newborn Naomi died and were actually from the other ship? That would come up in the next couple of episodes. People would miss Kes. Etc., etc.

[CX]

I'm not sure if I'd have Seven or not, but I'm right there with you on the clothing. It actually creeps me out a little that the Doc came up with that for her considering it turned out he had the hots for her. I'd either give her something like one of those generic jumpsuits from TNG that were usually the same yellow color of the engineering coloring on the uniforms, only I'd make hers blue or gray, or some combination of those. I also might giver her something like a 24th Century business suit so she could be dressed professionally on occasion. If I had her. And I really wouldn't have Janeway be her adopted mother either, more like a mentor and keep it strictly that.

Speaking of Janeway's maternalism for her crew... uh, yeah.... no. I've been under the command of women before, and they didn't try to be my mom. She also wouldn't go nuts at random intervals.

Chakotay would not be a yes man. He's an AWOL Starfleet officer, a traitor, and the leader of a group of Maquis, whom Starfleet has deemed to be terrorists. They'd probably spend a good chunk of time in a secured cargo bay, Tuvok included since in my version of this Janeway wouldn't know him or that he's actually an undercover SI agent. There'd be some tense interaction between them, but need would make Janeway be forced to make use of some of them since members of her crew are dead (such as her chief engineer). Naturally the few that get to help out, Torres among them, would be under guard the whole time that they worked, and they'd be tossed back into confinement at the end of the work day. Ever so slowly they'd learn to tolerate and work together . Would make for some interesting conflict I should think.

They have 3 shuttles at the start of this, along with the ship's gig, and that's it. They have limited resources and limited fuel. Holodecks would not be used for recreation and their use would have to be approved by Janeway. Replicators are limited to produce parts an other items that they need, so they'd be stuck eating rations until they came across Neelix and Kes.

My version of Neelix and Kes would be more like Sakakawea and her husband serving as actual guides in this region of space in order to guide Voyager to friendly ports of call for supplies and repairs, planets were they could pick up food or hide from trouble, etc. Kes would not be a child and she would not have such a limited life span. In fact I'd probably have her know more in way of being the actual guide than Neelix along with her healer skills, and Neelix would be an experianced trader as well as a decent cook and a fix-it man. Their ship would probably be on its last legs when Voyager comes across them, and they may have a small crew akin to Serenity.

The crew would be faced with problems that would test how much they can stick to their rules and beliefs when they are faced with going against them or dying.

All of the characters are fair game to getting killed or maimed. Just starting to like someone? Maybe I'll kill 'em and make you cry along with the rest of the crew.