Idea: a Voyager "Season 32" revival streaming miniseries

[Gaith]

(Note: I've only seen the first few eps of Prodigy.)

I've watched some Voyager in the past few weeks, and I've been thinking how it could be fascinating to do a revival miniseries on Paramount+. The premise would be "some kind of" Season 32 of Voyager from a different timeline, where they still hadn't made it home, and were still working on it. In this timeline, Voyager crew members would actually have been having kids from the start, so there'd be twenty-something adults whose only knowledge of "home" would be stories and the media. Maybe the role of captain would be cycled among the senior officers, because if Janeway was the indefinite ruler of adults who'd never chosen to join Starfleet or the ship, wouldn't that make her a dictator? (Hat tip to Ron Moore for that question.) Maybe there'd be a town halls, in which the captain of the moment consults with every member of the crew on certain important matters, and perhaps has to execute the results of a vote they argued against. Such a story point could be fascinating, because it would be in line with Trek's core values, but a stark departure from Starfleet protocol.

From a budget perspective, the great thing about this revival would be they could rehire whoever they liked, and have a built-in reason not to feature others (they died at some point along the way, or even settled down with someone they met, like Neelix). Picardo could return as the Doctor, having gradually "matured" his appearance to not freak out his peers by not aging at all, or maybe his appearance data got corrupted, and he adopted a new "skin." (You just know they could get Garrett Wang back, at the very least, especially if he were first officer or even captain, without breaking the bank. )

The miniseries could finally depict Voyager the way it should have been - increasingly kept afloat from spare/adapted parts from countless civilizations. Instead of a free, unlimited resource, maybe the holodeck is a rare luxury, which doesn't work all that well anymore, so they'd have built a homey tavern and garden spaces in cargo bays. Like on Enterprise, "movie nights" - as in, 2D non-participatory projected screenings - would be a thing. And, of course, they'd start out the season with particular number of torpedoes and shuttles, and keep a consistent count of them.

With six or eight eps, they could do a few classic "Voyager meets a random planet of the week" stories before doing a multi-part finale that doesn't involve time travel or the Borg. (Jeri Ryan too expensive? This series' recuperated drone could be Twelve of Five, a Denobulan babe! Want to get really meta? Have Jolene Blalock play her, and give her non-exploitative clothes!) And, once they got home, they could take a whole episode to explore the notion that the original crew is glad to be home, and just wants to be with their families, while the younger, post-"Caretaker" crew are now being separated from the only family they've ever known.

In short, it could be a budget-friendly way to give Voyager the quality sendoff it never got. I'm no Paramount+ bean counter, but I can't imagine that that wouldn't be both financially feasible and welcomed by fans. Make it so, executives!


... Thoughts?

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Sounds like a good idea for a "Star Trek: What if...?" show.

I'm a Red Dwarf fan, so I know you can drag the 'bunch of people on a ship in space trying to get home' premise out for decades... if you have enough ideas. But it's a bit weird making a sequel that tells the story of what didn't happen, and people are getting very tired of the multiverse.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It need not even be a different timeline. The duplicate Voyager from Deadlock may have been destroyed, but what if unbeknownst to them, a third copy was made, or the second one was re-assembled? Or what if a holo-simulation of their journey played out, a la Moriarty's travels in that box?

 

[Gaith]

people are getting very tired of the multiverse.

I don't know about that - see Everything Everywhere All at Once and Deadpool and Wolverine - but also, what exactly constitutes a multiverse movie/show? Are the Daniel Craig Bond movies and Godzilla Minus One multiverse stories, in that they take place in different realities than their source material? And surely Strange New Worlds is pretty darn close to taking place in a different reality than the classic timeline at this point?

It need not even be a different timeline. The duplicate Voyager from Deadlock may have been destroyed, but what if unbeknownst to them, a third copy was made, or the second one was re-assembled? Or what if a holo-simulation of their journey played out, a la Moriarty's travels in that box?

Er, maybe, but why not make it about a different timeline? The Mirror Universe and "Parallels" make quite clear, IMO, that there is no "real" and no "not-real" timelines, just different ones. If a Voyager revival miniseries took place in another timeline than the one at the end of "Endgame," but never references other realities and focuses entirely on its own present, would that make it less interesting? I wouldn't think so.

 

[BillJ]

Just no. When did we become allergic to moving forward in life?

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Deadpool and Wolverine

This had one of the characters stop to talk about how everyone's sick of multiverse stories, in a big crowd-pleasing moment of self awareness.

I'd say that alternate takes on a story are only potentially multiverse stories if there's any possibility of a big multiverse crossover at some point. So for James Bond and Sherlock Holmes that would be no. For comic book movies and Star Trek, the answer's yes. A 'road not travelled' Voyager sequel featuring the same actors would feel extremely multiverse, even if it started with a disclaimer saying "Every fictional story is imaginary, but this is even more imaginary than that."

 

[Oddish]

Taking Voyager generational would be a fascinating idea, one that I have periodically played around with myself.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I already wasted seven years on the show, why waste more on a one-off What If...? thing, too?

 

[Dukhat]

While I don’t think something like that would ever be produced now, I think it would have been far better than the VOY we actually got.

However, I think it would have been more realistic for the crew to have just found a planet for themselves and ditch the whole ‘we need to get back to Earth’ schlock. Being on a ship for 30 years, visiting tons of perfectly habitable planets, and not actually colonizing one of them seems completely illogical. Why would the kids of the original crew even care about a planet they know nothing about? My parents are from Long Island, but I grew up in Maryland. I have no interest whatsoever in moving to New York.

 

[Oddish]

Tom said at the beginning that people were going to start pairing off. Maybe that was the original intent. Before the series devoted itself to Reset Button hammering, which of course turned 148 of the 150 crew into either becoming eunuchs or holodeck masturbation.

 

[Gaith]

Just no. When did we become allergic to moving forward in life?

What an old and tired complaint that is.

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
- Ecclesiastes, c. 4th century BCE.

However, I think it would have been more realistic for the crew to have just found a planet for themselves and ditch the whole ‘we need to get back to Earth’ schlock. Being on a ship for 30 years, visiting tons of perfectly habitable planets, and not actually colonizing one of them seems completely illogical.

Depends how much progress they made along the way. Maybe by Year 32, thanks to a well-placed wormhole or two, they had an estimated, say, five years to go. The closer they got, the more motivated they'd be to finish the journey. Not to mention, depending on communication, Starfleet should be able to muster up a ship to escort them the last few years of the way home.

Why would the kids of the original crew even care about a planet they know nothing about?

Parental indoctrination is a helluva thing. Consider how many Amish kids decide to remain with their communities, and how many children of military members and other professions follow in their parents' footsteps. Then consider the alternative to staying on Voyager is to disembark one or several at a time, depending on who's willing to leave and throw their lot in with who when.

And they know far more about the Alpha Quadrant than they do the DQ. For all they know, if they settle down somewhere, some random pirate force will swoop in and steal their ship, leaving them with virtually no tech left to survive beyond their camping skills and general wits. If they reach the Federation, they can be reasonably sure of peace and security as long as they live - unless some idiot gynoid summons a race of universe-destroying mecha-spiders from an unknown dimension, that is.

While I don’t think something like that would ever be produced now, I think it would have been far better than the VOY we actually got.

I'm not saying something like this would likely be made, but, given all the TV revivals on streaming services these days, I'd hardly call it impossible. Indeed, I'd say that it's likelier now than it ever has been before. All Paramount+ would really need would be a few sets, and some of the old crew. Old-school Trek fans wouldn't just settle for a modest production than the lavish, movie-quality ones they're been cranking out, many would surely prefer such a humbler approach. With a full mini-season written ahead of time, they could economize actors' shooting schedules, and allow those who'd only want to have brief parts do brief parts. Not to mention, such a revival season could provide a long-term boost to old Voyager streaming, which is easy money.


Just think of the possibilities... Maybe Lon Suder is alive in this timeline. Perhaps Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman) got stranded on the ship, and is still around, not to mention those two Ferengi. What if Golwat and Seven finally found love? Tune in to see if the Doctor has chosen a name, and it's better than "Joe!"

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's make a decent Short Trek or Long Trek (like Section 31), or a universe crossover thing but not as it's own series.

 

[somebuddyX]

Yes, a one off episode. No, to a series. It would be fun if it just turned up on Paramount+ one day and everyone had to figure out what the hell it was. Just get Brannon or Mike Sussman to write another episode of Voyager but have it set now but on their journey home. And I wouldn't have it be like a course correction of the series, like what should have been, but just like if the regular series didn't stop. They never got the ride back to AQ in "Endgame." But have subtle developments have happened in the interim. Like the future parts of "Shattered," only better.

 

[Oddish]

Just think of the possibilities... Maybe Lon Suder is alive in this timeline. Perhaps Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman) got stranded on the ship, and is still around, not to mention those two Ferengi. What if Golwat and Seven finally found love? Tune in to see if the Doctor has chosen a name, and it's better than "Joe!"

Maybe Tuvix is still Tuvix.

 

[Gaith]

Maybe Tuvix is still Tuvix.

I like the thinking, but I'd hate to lose Tim Russ. Maybe Tuvok has a gregarious side and likes to cook a stew in the mess hall now and then as a long-term effect. Heck, maybe Tuvok and Neelix permanently swapped personalities, while retaining their own names and identities - that could be fun.

Yes, a one off episode. No, to a series. It would be fun if it just turned up on Paramount+ one day and everyone had to figure out what the hell it was.

I doubt I'd subscribe to P+ for a single episode, and I'm not sure many casual/lapsed Trek fans would, either. And assuming we're talking live action, unless you CG all the interiors, I doubt it'd make sense to build the minimal sets (bridge, briefing room, sickbay, mess hall) for just one episode when one could nearly as easily make a 6-8 ep miniseries. I agree it shouldn't be an open-ended series; there should be at least one episode dealing with them being back home after finally getting there.

A one-off/single episode would probably only make sense as something animated, and I doubt I'd be interested in that.

 

[Oddish]

A one-off/single episode would probably only make sense as something animated, and I doubt I'd be interested in that.

A little idea for PRO S3, if it happened. And it probably won't. But having them meet an alternative generational Voyager would be trippy.

 

[AntonyF]

What an old and tired complaint that is

Oh dear people are voting in non compliant ways