Thread by @ouranosaurus

I have written/deleted like waaaaaay too many cynical tweets today, so let's talk about something that's really important: How Star Trek: Voyager could have been really, really good. 1/

Cards on the table: I am a DS9 guy. DS9ers and Voyergerites are natural enemies. Sometimes for old times sake we pick up our rhetorical broken pool cues and smack each other around in the piss-stained back alley that is the internet. 2/

But I was SO EXCITED when Voyager premiered. It had so much potential! The premise promised a combination of the complex politics of DS9 and the star-spanning journeys of Next Gen!

I! Was! Hyped! 3/

And then… well at the end of the pilot, when the Maquis put on Starfleet uniforms, and we'd met Neelix… I was kinda worried. And I stopped watching before the end of season 1. It wasn't for me.

How could it have been good, nay, great? I'm glad you asked! 4/

There are two paths Voyager could have taken.

Path A is more obvious – it's the one DS9 was accused of taking, the path followed by Battlestar Galactica and Firefly and several other shows of the era. Not quite grimdark, but we're getting there. 5/

This is Voyager where getting home is the goal, but survival is the day-to-day struggle. The Maquis and Federation crews work together because they have to to stay alive. Things break down. The ship gets battered, broken, repaired, breaks again. Essential items run low. 6/

(Yes, I know the show played with this trope occasionally. In between, y'know, wacky holodeck adventures and planet-of-the-week escapades. Flirting with this theme just made it more apparent how little the show was committed to it.) 7/

This version of the series sees a slow but steady loss of crew, losses that are deeply felt. The Voyager's crew has to make hard choices, not because of the prime directive, but because they simply can't do everything a Starfleet ship should be able to do. 8/

There is another version of the series. This one is brighter, lighter, although not free of darkness. It's in tune with the original impulses towards utopianism that drove the original series and Next Gen as well.

In this version, the ship stays true to Federation ideals. 9/

…and you're saying "Yeah, they totally did that, didn't they?"

And they did, but for the most part, they did it without much difficulty.

It should have been HARD.

It should have been a sacrifice. /10

In this version, after it becomes clear that they aren't going to get back to the Alpha Quadrant easily, the battered crew takes stock, and Janeway says their mission has changed, and it hasn't changed.

They're an exploration vessel. /11

Aim for the Alpha Quadrant, sure. But she won't even promise that everyone gets home. No false hope. Instead, they explore. They chart. They seek out new life and new civilizations, they… I think you know this bit.

The mood is one of doomed nobility. /12

The important thing is how you end this version.

The second to last episode, they survive something by the skin of their teeth. Just barely.

You end it with the ship coming home.

/13

Voyager arrives in Federation space, and it's beat to hell. Obviously a different ship than we saw in the previous episode. A vastly more advanced Federation ship greets them. /14

The Voyager is crewed by a very strange group. Children and grandchildren of Starfleet and Maquis crewmembers. Strange beings they picked up along the way. Heck, maybe the Doctor is now the captain?

All of them are wearing Starfleet insignia, however. /15

You end with them asking permission to transmit data to the first ship they meet.

They have nearly a century's worth of discoveries to share. They'll want shore leave.

And then they'll need to know about their next assignment.

And that's how you end Voyager. /16