History WhatCouldHaveBeen / StarTrekVoyager

* Janeway was initially going to be a lesbian before the producers chickened out. Mulgrew herself was supportive of the idea, so this is still a stick in the craw for many fans given that ''Star Trek'' did not feature an explicitly gay character[[note]]Jadzia Dax appears to be bi, though the fluidity of "joined" Trill gender identity makes this ambiguous.[[/note]] until ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' in the late 2010s.

** This greatly changed the outcome of the Season Two closer "Basics". Piller's script originally had Maje Cullah and Seska's baby dying, and Seska escaping [[UnholyMatrimony with Lon Suder in tow]]; As it turns out, the exact opposite happens. The showrunners wanted to close the book on the Kazon due to them being poorly received as "knock-off budget Klingons" and low ratings.

** Supposedly, at the end of season three, either Harry Kim or Kes was slated to be killed off to make room for new character Seven Of Nine. Neither were killed off in the season finale, but Harry Kim was seriously injured so that he could die in the fourth season premiere. As the story went, between seasons, Garret Wang ended up listed on ''People'''s list of 50 Most Beautiful People, and the Paramount executives mandated that he had to stay -- so they wrote out Kes instead. In actuality, the entire story was concocted to provide Kes's Actress, Jennifer Lien, a way to quietly exit the show without too much fuss as she was at the time dealing with an increasingly debilitating mental illness.

** This greatly changed the outcome of the Season Two closer "Basics". Piller's script originally had Maje Cullah and Seska's baby dying, and Seska escaping [[UnholyMatrimony with Lon Suder in tow]]; As it turns out, the exact opposite happens. The showrunners wanted to close the book on the Kazon due to plummeting ratings.

* Similarly, Tuvok was initially envisioned as a grey-haired, elderly Vulcan to be more of a mentor figure for Janeway. This was kept even when they cast younger actor Tim Russ, but apparently a number of older actors auditioned for the part and none of them worked out. Names of these actors were never released, though it was heavily rumored that James Sloyan (Admiral Jarok in TNG's "The Defector" and Odo's scientist mentor Dr. Pol on [=DS9=]) and W. Morgan Sheppard, a veteran actor who has appeared in many roles throughout ''Trek'''s history, were among them.

* Tom Paris was originally meant to be one-off TNG villain Nicholas Locarno, an expelled Starfleet cadet [[YouLookFamiliar also played by]] Robert Duncan [=McNeill=] in [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} "The First Duty"]]. Under [=WGA=] rules, the writers of the episode, Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar, would get royalties for every episode Locarno appeared in. Reasons for changing it included the royalties and the more plausible idea that, unlike Paris, Locarno was "irredeemable". And so the writers instead created Tom Paris, with a very similar backstory but with a few differences: an Admiral for a father, he actually graduated the Academy and received a commission before being kicked out rather than being kicked out of the Academy, his initial accident is implied to be a legitimate mistake rather than recklessness (though the crux of the matter, and what gets him kicked out, is still that he lied about it), and briefly joining the Maquis before getting captured and imprisoned. For his part, [=McNeill=] believes they are vastly different characters, viewing Paris as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and Locarno as [[BitchInSheepsClothing the opposite]].[[labelnote:*]]Case in point, Paris confessed the truth even though he was in the clear, simply because his conscience finally overwhelmed his desire to remain out of trouble, while Locarno only confessed after Wesley had already revealed the truth.[[/labelnote]] It's impossible to say how Locarno's character might have evolved if the original blueprint had gone forward. ''Side note'': Incidentally, Tom Paris follows the same naming convention as Nicholas Locarno. Both have a common first name and a European city for a last name (Paris, France and Locarno, Switzerland). [[spoiler:''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' would bring Lorcano back as the HiddenVillain for Season 4.]]

* Tom Paris was originally meant to be one-off TNG villain Nicholas Locarno, an expelled Starfleet cadet [[YouLookFamiliar also played by]] Robert Duncan [=McNeill=] in [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} "The First Duty"]]. Under [=WGA=] rules, the writers of the episode, Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar, would get royalties for every episode Locarno appeared in. Reasons for changing it included the royalties and the more plausible idea that, unlike Paris, Locarno was "irredeemable". And so the writers instead created Tom Paris, with a very similar backstory but with a few differences: an Admiral for a father, he actually graduated the Academy and received a commission before being kicked out rather than being kicked out of the Academy, his initial accident is implied to be a legitimate mistake rather than recklessness (though the crux of the matter, and what gets him kicked out, is still that he lied about it), and briefly joining the Maquis before getting captured and imprisoned. For his part, [=McNeill=] believes they are vastly different characters, viewing Paris as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and Locarno as [[BitchInSheepsClothing the opposite]].[[labelnote:*]]Case in point, Paris confessed the truth even though he was in the clear, simply because his conscience finally overwhelmed his desire to remain out of trouble, while Locarno only confessed after Wesley had already revealed the truth.[[/labelnote]] It's impossible to say how Locarno's character might have evolved if the original blueprint had gone forward. ''Side note'': Incidentally, Tom Paris follows the same naming convention as Nicholas Locarno. Both have a common first name and a European city for a last name (Paris, France and Locarno, Switzerland). [[spoiler:''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks would bring Lorcano back as the HiddenVillain for Season 4.]]

* Tom Paris was originally meant to be one-off TNG villain Nicholas Locarno, an expelled Starfleet cadet [[YouLookFamiliar also played by]] Robert Duncan [=McNeill=] in [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} "The First Duty"]]. Under [=WGA=] rules, the writers of the episode, Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar, would get royalties for every episode Locarno appeared in. Reasons for changing it included the royalties and the more plausible idea that, unlike Paris, Locarno was "irredeemable". And so the writers instead created Tom Paris, with a very similar backstory but with a few differences: an Admiral for a father, he actually graduated the Academy and received a commission before being kicked out rather than being kicked out of the Academy, his initial accident is implied to be a legitimate mistake rather than recklessness (though the crux of the matter, and what gets him kicked out, is still that he lied about it), and briefly joining the Maquis before getting captured and imprisoned. For his part, [=McNeill=] believes they are vastly different characters, viewing Paris as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and Locarno as [[BitchInSheepsClothing the opposite]].[[labelnote:*]]Case in point, Paris confessed the truth even though he was in the clear, simply because his conscience finally overwhelmed his desire to remain out of trouble, while Locarno only confessed after Wesley had already revealed the truth.[[/labelnote]] It's impossible to say how Locarno's character might have evolved if the original blueprint had gone forward. ''Side note'': Incidentally, Tom Paris follows the same naming convention as Nicholas Locarno. Both have a common first name and a European city for a last name (Paris, France and Locarno, Switzerland).

** Susan Gibney, who'd played Dr. Leah Brahms in the TNG episodes "Booby Trap" and "Galaxy's Child", was considered as Janeway, getting a second audition after Bujold's dismissal, before getting rejected for being too young for the role. She also auditioned to play Seven of Nine.

* Bryan Fuller pitched an alternate universe storyline for the sixth season titled "Who's Killing the Great Voyagers of the Delta Quadrant?" which would have had the episode hop around one alternate universe after another, including one where the Klingons had conquered the Federation, one where the ship is manned by holograms, and other what if scenarios. The plot would have featured an alternate universe Chakotay destroying all the Voyagers throughout the multiverse in some mad plot to erase Voyager from existence. Certainly an ambitious pitch, and would have been Voyager's equivalent to TNG's Parallels.

* The Caretaker and his mate, Susperia, were written with the ability to return Janeway's crew to Earth instantly if ratings plunged.

** Supposedly, at the end of season three, either Harry Kim or Kes was slated to be killed off to make room for new character Seven Of Nine. Neither were killed off in the season finale, but the more likely candidate, Harry Kim, was seriously injured so that he could die in the fourth season premiere. As the story went, between seasons, Garret Wang ended up listed on ''People'''s list of 50 Most Beautiful People, and the Paramount executives mandated that he had to stay -- so they wrote out Kes instead. This is especially ironic given Rick Berman's mandate that the alien characters be more interesting than the human ones. In actuality, the entire story was concocted to provide Kes's Actress, Jennifer Lien, a way to quietly exit the show without too much fuss as she was at the time dealing with an increasingly debilitating mental illness.

** At the end of season three, either Harry Kim or Kes was slated to be killed off to make room for new character Seven Of Nine. Neither were killed off in the season finale, but the more likely candidate, Harry Kim, was seriously injured so that he could die in the fourth season premiere. Between seasons, Garret Wang ended up listed on ''People'''s list of 50 Most Beautiful People, and the Paramount executives mandated that he had to stay -- so they wrote out Kes instead. This is especially ironic given Rick Berman's mandate that the alien characters be more interesting than the human ones.

* Michael Piller favored an increasing sense of desperation. Additionally, he pushed for a growing cast of [[TokenEvilTeammate less-than-sterling crewmen]] like Seska (Martha Hackett), Michael Jonas (Rafael Sbarge), and Lon Suder (Creator/BradDourif). Jeri Taylor disliked each of these characters and [[RocksFallEveryoneDies killed them all off]] in time for Season Three. Brannon Braga also categorically stated that he doesn’t like threading other writers' arcs or characters into his own episodes, so the serialized approach was thrown out.