What if Voyager Was a larger ship
- Thread starter Rayleo02
- Start date
I don't think it would have made a huge difference. They would have had more torpedoes, more cargo space for food storage,maybe an extra holodeck
They'd have more redshirts and shuttles to lose, as well as a believable means of fabricating more of the latter. Plus they'd have a far larger medical staff so they'd have at least one flesh-and-blood physician to take charge of the crews health and welfare, so no need to rely on the EMH.
No difference whatsoever, since the writers at no point treated Voyager like it was any smaller than the Next Gen Enterprise.
-Infinite torpedoes
-Infinite shuttle storage space (including Neelix's ship!)
-Any new rooms cropping up as the plot needs them (Astrometrics lab)
And I'm pretty sure there's one episode where Janeway refers to a crazy-high deck number on the 15-deck USS Voyager.
-Infinite torpedoes
-Infinite shuttle storage space (including Neelix's ship!)
-Any new rooms cropping up as the plot needs them (Astrometrics lab)
And I'm pretty sure there's one episode where Janeway refers to a crazy-high deck number on the 15-deck USS Voyager.
They did seem to suggest that her resources were near infinite.
Plot wise it wouldn't have mattered as mentioned above. I'd have preferred if Voyager was an older Ambassador class. Something along the lines of Galactica in their reboot series. But even if that was the case I doubt the writer's would have treated the ship any differently than they had. Plot armor etc would have remained the same.
I much prefer the size it is. The scale of the Enterprise D and E feel incomprehensible. They must have miles of identical corridors, with thousands of identical doors. Voyager is much easier to process. There are just 15 decks. The messhall is always on deck 2, Janeway's quarters on deck 3, sickbay is always on 5. There are only 2 holodecks, and they are on deck 6. Engineering and the shuttlebay behind it are on deck 10.
The scale translates well. There are a number of zoom in shots from exterior to interior(and vice versa) that help with the scale, like Janeway's ready room, Tuvok's quarters, and Mortimer's office on deck 15.
On the Enterprise, I never had any sense of scale, other than knowing that 10-forward was on the front of the saucer, and the bridge was somewhere in the bubble on top.
Likewise DS9, where not much care was taken to translate scale to the audience. The station itself, the Defiant, and Birds of Prey, etc, were always changing size, and docked where there were no visible docking ports.
And then in Ent(much like Voyager), I appreciate the smaller scale, and the more consistent treatment of interior layouts, decks, etc. It's easier to become familiar with the layout, so that when they mention "E Deck"(or "deck 5" on VOY) I have an idea of what they're talking about.
Another benefit of the smaller ship is the smaller crew size. Voyager had about 150 and ENT about 80. They're more a family, and there are not as many redshirt deaths. Voyager and Ent routinely mention characters who've died in previous episodes. There are shots on Voyager where you can see the whole crew standing together.
The scale translates well. There are a number of zoom in shots from exterior to interior(and vice versa) that help with the scale, like Janeway's ready room, Tuvok's quarters, and Mortimer's office on deck 15.
On the Enterprise, I never had any sense of scale, other than knowing that 10-forward was on the front of the saucer, and the bridge was somewhere in the bubble on top.
Likewise DS9, where not much care was taken to translate scale to the audience. The station itself, the Defiant, and Birds of Prey, etc, were always changing size, and docked where there were no visible docking ports.
And then in Ent(much like Voyager), I appreciate the smaller scale, and the more consistent treatment of interior layouts, decks, etc. It's easier to become familiar with the layout, so that when they mention "E Deck"(or "deck 5" on VOY) I have an idea of what they're talking about.
Another benefit of the smaller ship is the smaller crew size. Voyager had about 150 and ENT about 80. They're more a family, and there are not as many redshirt deaths. Voyager and Ent routinely mention characters who've died in previous episodes. There are shots on Voyager where you can see the whole crew standing together.
The opening to the flight deck would be larger, so it would be possible for Tom Paris to get the delta flyer in and out (without having to pretend that the flyer would fit through the opening).
I don't know the crew size of a Sovereign, but it's probably much larger than a Intrepid class. The pilot episode would have had to of really massacred the Sovereign's crew to make adding Chakotay's two dozen odd remaining people a necessary.
I don't know the crew size of a Sovereign, but it's probably much larger than a Intrepid class. The pilot episode would have had to of really massacred the Sovereign's crew to make adding Chakotay's two dozen odd remaining people a necessary.
Accidentally funny scene. In one of Voyager's later seasons, Janeway was in corridor and wanted one of the people there to hand her a phaser rifle (she was unarmed), she held out her hand and said "crewman" and was handed the weapon. After six or seven years Janeway still didn't know this guy's name."
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Of course she knew their name. "Crewman" is a rank. If said crewman was walking down the corridor one day, passed Paris, and said "Good morning, Lieutenant" it doesn't mean that they don't his name is Tom Paris. If it was Tuvok instead of Paris, he would have nodded and said "Crewman" as in "Ditto."
I agree. You would need a lot of casualties to justify adding the Maquis instead of abandoning them.
That leads to another problem. If you have a severe staff shortage, how do you keep the ship running. People on starships are not passengers, they have duties they must perform to keep the ship running efficiently. Bigger ship, more jobs need to be done. Hard to restaff in the Delta Quadrant so it becomes impossible to keep the ship in tip top shape for 7 years, let alone 75.
Yes indeed, Voyager would be fighting even larger and more grandiose enemy ships. Probably wouldn't have to make deals with the Borg but rather threaten them and blow them away. The Captain could eat apples during a ship battle and laugh as they defeat them every week. Quantum Torpedoes were some mighty arsenal to have and would make fighting a lot easier... but it all depends on the writing.
Do we even know what the maximum crew capacity of an Intrepid class ship was? I recall in an early episode Janeway mentioning that she hadn't requested a counsellor (so it sounds like the medical staff was at minimum levels when Voyager left DS9) for the mission to the Badlands as a counsellor wasn't required. So could Voyager have left space dock with a less than full crew (kind of like the joke from Star Trek Generations, "we'll be back by Tuesday to get the rest of our crew").
Voyager was only going on a quick 2 week mission. That's probably why they didn't request a counselor and had minimal madical staff...ans no Aeroshuttle
With Voyager being such a small ship I always wish that in the writers room they'd had a full crew roster written up, so rather than a ballpark of 150-ish they knew exactly how many were onboard and what they did, so that when people were lost they could keep track and maintain some consistency (which could also be applied to torpedoes and shuttlecraft), which would also add to the feeling of a more familial crew, extras named before could be identified and addressed whenever Janeway passed them in the corridor (such as "Mr Ashmore" instead of simply "Ensign", it would give more of an impression of her closeness to the crew in general rather than just the chosen few).
I remember an interview with a producer who said that he regretted ever giving a specific number for the torpedoes. He knew fans would keep count. But i totally agree with you about this. To some extent we did see this. There are a handful of background people mentioned by name that are seen several times.
^ We fans keep track of everything!
On the ex astris site(beware) it says that throughout the series, 142 different crewmen(including the main cast) were seen, with 134 clearly seen. And 134 were named.
The crew compliment was stated on screen 16 times throughout the series. Some of the times it was rounded off, others it was exact. a couple of the times it was possibly inaccurate, but for the most part, spot on.
They created an estimate of Voyager's Crew + the Maquis and factored all of the losses and gains of people throughout the series and ended up with the same number as was stated in one of the last episodes, Author, Author, of 145 aboard.
Then Carey died, Neelix left, and Tom and B'elanna's daughter was born, returning to earth with 144 souls.
The crew compliment was stated on screen 16 times throughout the series. Some of the times it was rounded off, others it was exact. a couple of the times it was possibly inaccurate, but for the most part, spot on.
They created an estimate of Voyager's Crew + the Maquis and factored all of the losses and gains of people throughout the series and ended up with the same number as was stated in one of the last episodes, Author, Author, of 145 aboard.
Then Carey died, Neelix left, and Tom and B'elanna's daughter was born, returning to earth with 144 souls.
Yeah, I agree it would be like people calling Janeway 'Captain' and not her given name.
