Star Trek Voyager revisited
POSTED BY: Cybersnark
UPDATED: Friday, September 8, 2006 17:31
VIEWED: 4555
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I was just clearing up some old files and came across this. I'm posting it here 'cause I recall that there are a few here who may recall Voyager and, well, care. 
First, some background: I always thought Voyager had a particularly cool premise. A Federation starship finds itself stranded on the far side of the galaxy, surrounded by the strange new worlds and new civilizations that Starfleet hasn't been seeking for close to a century. Of course, being me, I immediately thought "far side of the galaxy, Delta Quadrant --that's Borg Space!" Young and naive as I was, I was excited.
Voyager turned out to be a disapointment. Don't get me wrong, there were more good episodes in there than most people acknowledge ("Critical Care" is still in my top 10 hours of all Trek), but the Borg. . . not so much.
See, the Borg are possibly the single most unremittingly alien consciousness ever encountered in the history of Trek. Even Q seems fairly tame by comparison. The Collective requires a writer willing to stretch themselves and try something completely new.
When we (and by "we" I mean writers in general) first get into science fiction, we're told by the Authorities On The Subject that it is Impossible to write "real" aliens. No matter how hard we try, we will never, ever, ever be able to write anything that's not filtered through our own, inherently human, experiences.
Some writers accept this, and go on to write brilliant human-driven character drama and allegory. More power to them. Others (like myself) take it as a direct challenge. 
We try to outdo each other with the most out-there, inhuman, and downright odd beings we can come up with. We're always looking for things that have never been done before.
The Borg, by their very nature, required the latter. Unfortunately, Star Trek, as its own little sub-genre, tends to attract the former. I think Voyager's main problem is that they just couldn't wrap their heads around the massive, immortal, and trans-temporal nature of the Collective.
To that end, I started doodling up this quasi-fanficcy rewrite of Star Trek Voyager. It's basically what I would've done as a writer involved with the franchise. It's not a "real" fanfic, so much as an outline, but it's as done as I'll ever make it, so enjoy.
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Okay, so, Voyager ends up in the Delta Quadrant, S1 & 2 proceed as usual. The only difference is that, in Janeway's quarters, there is an antique duelling pistol (a family heirloom).
Late in S2, we encounter a primitive race who only recently discovered warp drive, as a gift from their "gods." We learn that the gods are technologically advanced. We also learn that some cataclysm wiped out an older high-tech civilization on their world, resulting in a centuries-long dark age before they rediscovered spaceflight. Legends refer to the event as the "Harvest."
Later (early S3), we encounter another race of worshippers (fairly high-tech ones) who've been seeded here from an Alpha Quadrant planet (we recognize the race; they're Klingons, or Andorians, or something). Chakotay starts speculating about the gods being the Preservers (from TOS). We also learn that the gods enter this area from beyond the Necrid Expanse (a huge pinkish nebula that bars Voyager's path through the Delta Quadrant).
After passing through the Expanse, we find a world with its surface cratered and stripped away, and ragged groups of survivors scavenging for whatever they can find. The Borg have been here.
Chakotay's encounter with Riley's ex-Borg colony ("Unity") appears as-filmed, and introduces the Borg Cooperative. We see the Borg Interlink being used for good, while the members each retain their individuality, and can "log out" whenever they wish.
Finally, Voyager crosses paths with a Borg cube (caught in the act of assimilating a passing starship), and barely escapes assimilation.
We encounter one more planet of worshippers, rich with high technology. They are celebrating a milestone, the daw
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Very cool. Wow, you reminded so much of what happened with the season, and I could actually invision some of the things you stated. Pretty cool.
MAL
"Nice shot."
JAYNE
(slurred)
"I was aiming for his head"
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I like whenever I see a VOYAGER thread appear here. Of all the spin-offs, VOYAGER was the one that I liked the most, since I feel it was closest in spirit to the original STAR TREK. Plus, I always rate the quality of a TREK series by it's doctor. And The Doctor is, IMHO, the best doc since Bones. Dr. Crusher I always thought was a bit cold.
Admittedly, I only payed attention to the show from 4-7, since I thought the show took a turn for the better with the addition of 7 of 9. I don't see it as the severely flawed show that everyone else makes it out to be. Mainly because I've only seen maybe about a quarter of all the eps. Definitly the best 1/4. One of my fave episodes was "The Gift". I thought seeing this Borg cut off from The Collective was like watching a junkie go through withdrawl. And I loved the delivery of that one line. "Where are the others, I can't hear them." It's the first real sign of emotion she's shown, and it's chilling.
But to balance it out, the show has a great sense of humor to it, on par with FIREFLY itself. "Message in a Bottle" was a great fish-out-of-water ego clash between two EMH's during a sneak Romulan attack, and any of the "Captain Proton" holographic sims of Tom Paris's are funny as hell.
"Look around you, Doc. This is history. This is how the 20th century saw the future."
"Maybe you should teach a course at Starfleet. Satan's Robots and Historical Overview."
About your ideas. Interesting, but a bit too dark I feel for the Star Trek verse.
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"YES!!!I'm a man posessed by many demons....Polite demons that would open the door for a lady carrying too many parcels...BUT DEMONS NONETHELESS!!!! Yes. I have walked along the path of evil many times, it's a twisting, curving path that..actually leads to a charming plot garden, BUT BEYOND THAT EVIL!!!"
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Oh, I liked Voyager plenty too. And I actually think Seven was a great character.
"Fun will now commence."
It's just that I'm a great fan of the Borg, and dislike how Voyager reduced them from a monolithic Collective hive-mind (beyond such concepts as "good" and "evil") to an army of slaves controlled by an Evil leader. That and the series finale, which seemed to have been taken over by pod-people (Janeway questioning her own abilities? Chakotay as the horny teenager? Seven as the emotional schoolgirl?).
Voyager had a lot going for it (great characters, great fun, great concept, good ongoing continuity, and one of my favourite captains), I just don't really feel it lived up to all it could.
Have you been following the post-finale novels, with Captain Chakotay (after Christie Golden spends the first book mostly undoing the finale's guillotine effect)?
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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I never tried to breach any of the TREK books. I think there has to be a full library of these books. And I never know what's canon, what's elaborate fanfic, and which fit's into which alternate verse.
Although, the idea of reading about what happens after VOYAGER has returned home always intrigued me. I'm always interested in what happens after the fact. The transition period between the end of a journey and the establishment of a new life.
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"YES!!!I'm a man posessed by many demons....Polite demons that would open the door for a lady carrying too many parcels...BUT DEMONS NONETHELESS!!!! Yes. I have walked along the path of evil many times, it's a twisting, curving path that..actually leads to a charming plot garden, BUT BEYOND THAT EVIL!!!"
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I really didn't like the series that much but I agree that a greater exploration of the Borg would have made it a good addition.
The purpose of Star Trek though was to use aliens as a way to show that even with substantially different exteriors, that we shouldn't judge people by their exteriors. Many people who were involved with the show thought this was the sci-fi version of integrating television.
That is why aliens often go with a thud on other sci-fi shows because you have to keep pushing that envelope of how different can you make that alien race to make it seem alien. At some point (like the Borg) you have to say hey that's not human and I'm not terribly interested.
That's why I like Firefly. Unlike Star Trek it doesn't worry about the ramifications about the No. 2 being a black female. We just accept that she was Mal's war buddy and she trusts him. Firefly doesn't seem to have an agenda other than virtues and vices haven't substantially changed in five hundred years. We still have bad governments that get into power and do horrible things. We have good people who even with the bad governments around try to do the right thing. No alien race is going to save us and give us some technology that will wipe out poverty and unite us.
Its really about a guy with a boat who is trying to keep one step ahead of bad government.
As much as we villainous opinion about Blue Sun, Blue Sun is run by humans. And as humans they have choices. Or maybe that is what is truly evil, that we have created an living entities (corporations) made by humans but who have no soul. How many times do we here that there is a layoff but with a sort of apology saying that they had to do it in the best interest of their stockholders. It's OK to do an immoral act, just as long as I do it the name of somebody that I don't really don't know or respect but does sign my paycheck.
If there is one thing I like about the movie "Serenity" is that we find out the Alliance has a parliament and it is not just token, it has real power.
For people in the US, I think that is something that we have ask ourselves today is whether our Republic is eventually turning down a dark path. Most of our representatives can not loose their office. Our Chief Executive says that torture is acceptable in certain circumstances. But in reality every administration for quite sometime has been introducing subtle things which either eliminates free discussion about certain topics which really doesn't seem to change when the different party comes into power. We now label people with the terms fascist, liberal, socialist, conservative or fundamentalist and we can correspondingly dismiss their arguments when one of their it falls into that label "ooh, she's a liberal" or "he's a fascist". You identify people by what kind of news they watch (Network, PBS, CNN, Fox) as much as anything else.
Sorry for the rant...
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That was really good! The 7 of 9 holo at the end was perfect. I gave up on Voyager precisely for it's ridiculous Borg nonsense, but I wouldn't have if it were even a little more like what you wrote.
So, you're not a writer in Hollywood because...
Chrisisall
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My sister liked voyager. In fact, she liked any star trek. I'm pretty sure she's seen just about every episode of Deep Space Nine, Voyager and The Next Generation.
As for me, i watched the first few seasons of Enterprise, but no other star treks appealed to me that much. On the other hand, they probably would have if i had actually sat down and watched them 
-------Huge Fan of:---------
Firefly
Serenity
Farscape
Andromeda (Early Seasons)
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Just curious, BT, when do you think Andromeda actually hurled itself over Jaws?
That's Chrisisall for 'jumping the shark'
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Quote:Pocket Books, as of a few years ago (shortly after DS9's finale, and inspired by the critical success of the Dominion War arc) started reorganizing their Star Trek line; it's no longer a bunch of self-contained "novel-sized fanfics." They're pulling a "Star Wars," with actual between-books continuity and a timeline. The best part of the whole "post-TV series" thing is there's no reset button; folks evolve, change, and die. Also, there's a bunch of "non-series" books out now, unrelated to any particular TV series (Peter David's New Frontiers line, our own KRAD's I.K.S. Gorkon series, the S.C.E. E-books/novels, Articles of the Federation --Star Trek's answer to The West Wing, again by KRAD. . .)
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
I never tried to breach any of the TREK books. I think there has to be a full library of these books. And I never know what's canon, what's elaborate fanfic, and which fit's into which alternate verse.
Although, the idea of reading about what happens after VOYAGER has returned home always intrigued me. I'm always interested in what happens after the fact. The transition period between the end of a journey and the establishment of a new life.
There're currently only four post-Endgame Voyager books: Homecoming, The Farther Shore, Spirit Walk 1: Old Wounds, and Spirit Walk 2: Enemy of my Enemy, all by Christie Golden (which kinda explains why there's just four, but also accounts for the continuing storyline). The first two are the official wrap-up (Voyager's homecoming & retrofit, the amnesty hearings for the Maquis crew, Janeway's promotion to the admiralty, Paris & Torres' retirement to raise their daughter, Paris' reconciliation with his father, the fallout from "Endgame," Janeway's recommissioning Voyager, etc), but the new crew doesn't fully hit its stride until the end of the Spirit Walk arc (Chakotay's new first officer doesn't really work out, so they have to get a new one).
Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
So, you're not a writer in Hollywood because...
Well, I'm stuck in small-town Canada for one. I do have hopes of making my way to Toronto (home of about 45% of Canada's entertainment industry) to try to make my mark in TV. (More than a bit inspired by Joss; I'm more interested in the long-haul character development than in the bigger-yet-more-compressed scale of movies, much as I loved Serenity.)
*off to work on my ongoing first script*
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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