What would have made Star Trek: Voyager work?

[Gagh]

Maybe a lack of characters that looked as if they'd been drawn up by a Keep the Minorities Happy forum? Chakotay dressed like Liberacé?

I'll start us off

1. The division between Marquis / Starfleet should have been much more marked than it was. By the end of season one, these people who had gone againt Starfleet were happy to don the uniform and observe Starfleet rules all over again. The writers should have had Janeway relax the rules more. It would have made for much more edgy storylines. Stuff like the Equinox or Year of Hell two-headers could have happened more often. Those two-parters were some of the best that ST:VOY had to offer.

 

[Mentalist]

I let loose with quite a good ol' Voyager rant recently.

http://www.trollkingdom.net/forum/showthread.php?t=122023

 

[CaptainWacky]

I was going to just lazily post the excellent Ron Moore interivew where he basically covers every reason why Voyager was shit, but I can't find a link to the right one since he's done so many interviews since BSG.

Killing off Chakotay early on as a "shock" twist would have been a good start (and would have gotten rid of the worst regular actor Star Trek's ever seen.)

 

[whisky]

Brave producers who would kill off the characters that weren't working.

Imagine if you could have watched voyager week in week out, and had a genuine feeling that any cast member could die at any moment.

They played it too safe in all aspects of the show, and it wasn't a show that needed to be safe.

 

[Gagh]

Too much Neelix, and the relationship between him and Kes was just creepy. There seemed to be a unanimous decision that Neelix was going to be the breakout character early on, and hence we had him shoehorned into all sorts of situations, where he was peripheral & plain annoying.

I understand that the series wanted to show that Voyager's predicament meant they were taking in strays, and that Neelix's character gave the makeup department to play with some new headpieces, but his character just never worked. Ethan Phillips is a better actor than the lame character he was saddled with, but he has to take part of the blame for making the character annoying as well.

At least when they introduced Seven, Neelix was made so peripheral, it was tolerable.

 

[Cassie]

Yeah, Neelix and Kes were my main problems with Voyager.

Voyager would have been much better if it had been just a little edgier. Nothing ever had any lasting consequences.

 

[Donovan]

I think they should have focused on a plot twist from the pilot that was all but ignored later on; when they went thru the wormhole, half the crew were rebels and in a pitched chase/battle with the federation. Then suddenly one ship is blown up, they're stuck away from home, and everybody is all friendlY and playing by the federation rules? There should have been a hell of a lot more tension about people playing by their own rules as opposed to by the book, and a hell of a lot less, "Eh, youre the boss Janeway, whatever you want."

 

[SAUSAGEMAN]

 

[Donovan]

was that from the pilot? I forgot what it looked like.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

That's from Year of Hell, which was basically showing what the entire series should have been like, but condensed into two episodes and ending with a big ol' reset so none of it fucking happened.

 

[SAUSAGEMAN]

And then they made Year of Hell and called it Battlestar Galactica.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Tom Paris should have been seedier.

 

[Donovan]

who was the chick who turned out to be evil early on, then left the ship? They should have made more like her only left them there, like "I don't fuckin want to be here but I'm stuck" kind of thing. And janeway needs them because her ship is half empty and that Chakotay is a limpdick.

 

[Loktar]

who was the chick who turned out to be evil early on, then left the ship? They should have made more like her only left them there, like "I don't fuckin want to be here but I'm stuck" kind of thing. And janeway needs them because her ship is half empty and that Chakotay is a limpdick.

Seska? The Cardassian masquerading as a Bajoran that betrayed them to the Kazons?

 

[Homo Erectus]

Full frontal would of helped.

 

[Donovan]

Seska? The Cardassian masquerading as a Bajoran that betrayed them to the Kazons?

I think so. I only remember vague bits but I remember she had a proper attitude for a few shows prior to the big reveal, then they pulled some lame disguise-surgery-plotline and made her go away. They should have made half the ship share her attitude, and make the show about how two rival factions learn to get along for survival sake...not about how bouffant Jane saves the day again and again with her lesbian robot lover...

 

[Dr Dave]

They made her a Cardassian agent disguised as a bajorian.

 

[Donovan]

Yeah, cheap exit strategy. They should have just made her a pissed off rebel stuck on the ship, trying to sabotage shiot for a whole season. Better than the quick reveal and exit that happened.

 

[Donovan]

Or they could have used seven of nine much better and have her keep trying to assimilate stuff when nobody was looking, like a hostage to Janeway.

 

[Dr Dave]

Yeah, cheap exit strategy. They should have just made her a pissed off rebel stuck on the ship, trying to sabotage shiot for a whole season. Better than the quick reveal and exit that happened.

That could have worked out. Perhaps not for a whole season, but still.