History WhatCouldHaveBeen / StarTrekVoyager

** In addition to Geneviève Bujold (see below), many other well-known actresses were considered for the role of Captain Janeway, including: Creator/NicolaBryant, Creator/LyndaCarter, Creator/PattyDuke, Creator/KateJackson, Creator/LindaHamilton and Creator/CatherineSchell. Note that, unlike Bujold, all of these actresses were TV veterans and would have been accustomed to the aggressive shooting schedule on ''Voyager'' from the get-go.

* Robert Picardo had wanted to play Neelix but was passed over for the role. He only reluctantly read for the Doctor after, admitting he didn't see the point of the character, but won the role by ad-libbing a few joke lines during the audition, which went into shaping the character further by the third episode.

** In addition to Geneviève Bujold (see below), many other well-known actresses were considered for the role of Captain Janeway, including: Creator/NicolaBryant, Creator/LyndaCarter, Creator/PattyDuke, Creator/LindaHamilton and Creator/CatherineSchell. Note that, unlike Bujold, all of these actresses were TV veterans and would have been accustomed to the aggressive shooting schedule on ''Voyager'' from the get-go.

* Just as had been the case for [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Lt. Sulu]] thirty years prior, every Asian male actor in Hollywood read for Harry Kim, by Garrett Wang's own admission. One actor he vividly remembered seeing at his audition was Jonathan Ke Quan, aka [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom Short Round]] and [[Film/TheGoonies Data]] (no, not ''that'' Data). Wang and Kuan connected at the convention circuit decades later and Kuan still remembered losing out on the part.
* Other actresses who auditioned for Seven were Hudson Leick (''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'') and Creator/ClaudiaChristian

* Just as had been the case for [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Lt. Sulu]] thirty years prior, every Asian male actor in Hollywood read for Harry Kim, by Garrett Wang's own admission. One actor he vividly remembered seeing at his audition was Jonathan Qe Kuan, aka [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom Short Round]] and [[Film/TheGoonies Data]] (no, not ''that'' Data). Wang and Kuan connected at the convention circuit decades later and Kuan still remembered losing out on the part.

** In addition to Geneviève Bujold (see below), many other well-known actresses were considered for the role of Captain Janeway, including: Creator/NicolaBryant, Creator/LyndaCarter, Creator/PattyDuke and Creator/LindaHamilton. Note that, unlike Bujold, all of these actresses were TV veterans and would have been accustomed to the aggressive shooting schedule on ''Voyager'' from the get-go.

* Other actresses who auditioned for Seven were Hudson Leick (''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'') and Creator/ClaudiaChristian (''Series/BabylonFive'').

** Janeway was the first regular ''Trek'' role to actually be recast before the series aired. Initially Oscar-nominated actress Geneviève Bujold was cast as Captain Nicole Janeway. After she departed due to exhaustion, the character's name became Elizabeth Janeway and only became Kathryn when Creator/KateMulgrew was finally cast and the name seemed to suit her better.

* 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).

** This greatly changed the outcome of the Season Two closer "Basics". Piller's script originally had Maj 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.

** 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 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.

* 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.

** Janeway was the first regular ''Trek'' role to actually be recast before the series aired. Initially Oscar-nominated actress Geneviève Bujold was cast as Captain Nicole Janeway. After she departed due to exhaustion, the character's name became Elizabeth Janeway and only became Kathryn when Kate Mulgrew was finally cast and the name seemed to suit her better.

* Brannon Braga toyed with the idea of having Creator/SarahSilverman join the show full-time on the strength of her guest role in "Future's End", and perhaps have her character enter into a romantic arc with Tom Paris.

** It was, indeed, foreshadowed in the season three episode "Before and After", where Kes' time-jumps were caused by a Krenim temporal weapon lodged in ''Voyager'''s hull. Kes would leave shortly into the fourth season, however, which prevented her from participating in "Year of Hell", thus nullifying the events of "Before and After". In said episode, it showed a future in which where Janeway and Torres were supposedly killed off, leaving Chakotay in command of the ship. It also had Neelix as a security officer, and probably would have had some other interesting plots later on.

** It was, indeed, foreshadowed in the season three episode "Before and After", where Kes' time-jumps were caused by a Krenim temporal weapon lodged in ''Voyager'''s hull. Kes would leave shortly into the fourth season, however, which prevented her from participating in "Year of Hell", thus nullifying the events of "Before and After". In said episode, it showed a future in which where Janeway and Torres were supposedly killed off, leaving Chakotay in command of the ship. It also had Neelix as a security officer, and probably would have had some ither interesting plots later on.

* Originally "Dragon's Teeth" was going to be a two-hour telemovie, but it was thought it would make a much punchier standalone episode. It’s a decision the writers would soon regret. The Vaadwuar were clearly set up to be recurring baddies but they wouldn't see re-use until ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''.

* 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, kicked out of Starfleet for lying about an accident (rather than directly causing 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.

* Braga did say that if ''Voyager'' was up to him, the show would have frequently been like the fan favorite episode "Year of Hell": enemies on all sides, dwindling resources, and crewmen pushed to the ends of their rope. Additionally, the Year of Hell was not originally just a two-parter but instead the plan for the entire fourth season--until the executives put a stop to that, reducing a grim and gritty season to a ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' cop-out.
** It was, indeed, foreshadowed in the season three episode "Before and After", where Kes' time-jumps were caused by a Krenim temporal weapon lodged in ''Voyager'''s hull. Kes would leave shortly into the fourth season, however, which prevented her from participating in "Year of Hell", thus nullifying the events of "Before and After". In said episode, it showed a future in which where Janeway and Torres were killed off, leaving Chakotay in command of the ship. It also had Neelix as a security officer, and probably would have had some interesting plots later on.

* After he left ''Voyager''[='s=] writing room, Ron Moore went on to create his own version of a show about a bunch of people stranded in hostile space, without access to any sort of friendly infrastructure, trying to survive and make their way home. It was called ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' and it received significantly better press coverage and critical reception. One wonders what ''VOY'' would have looked like had he stayed.

* The original intention behind the show was to have the ship start off pristine and a full Starfleet crew, then acquire a number of Maquis rebels, criminals and vagrant locals as they continue their journey home. Over time the ship would get banged up and, without a starbase to make repairs or Federation relief, would gradually descend into a more dramatic survival story as every bit of damage carries over to the next few episodes. The show was heading towards that kind of serialized storytelling in the first two seasons, but the underwhelming response to the Kazon and their own early {{Story Arc}}s lead to wiping the slate mostly clean for the third season, and from there settled into StatusQuoIsGod. We still saw bits and pieces of this original idea, a natural part of the premise, but the ship never seemed to be in too bad of shape and the crew mostly just got along. This is one reason why the "Year of Hell" two-parter was so beloved by both cast and crew, as it took it to the logical conclusion (we see pieces of the hull coming off when they go into warp, and at one point an entire deck implodes). [[note]]Rather notably, this premise was translated to the third season of Enterprise. While it had its own detractors, most everyone agreed it gave the show a much needed shot of adrenaline.[[/note]]
** CommonKnowledge aside, there was nothing stopping the writers from returning the ship to the Alpha Quadrant. In fact there was a desire on the part of the producers to do this from very early on; the show would have continued with the Voyager in the Alpha Quadrant as just another Starfleet ship. Apparently the only reason they never did it (even though practically everyone on the writing staff was onboard with the idea) was fear of the fallout from such a massive {{Main/Retool}}.
** Speaking of the Year of Hell, the original intention was for it to last an entire season, actually showing the ship getting steadily more beaten up, the crew more wounded and tired, and dealing with the ramifications of the events shown in the two-parter over the course of many episodes. The idea was eventually discarded, for a lot of reasons: continually messing with the ship model (they were still doing physical effects at the time) and keeping continuity on its damage would have been a pain, the risk of DarknessInducedAudienceApathy was considered much too high, and certainly had they used the ResetButton ending in the actual plot and wiped out an entire season it would have caused an extremely furious response in a fanbase that was currently very loudly antagonistic on the internet.

* Michael Piller favored an increasing sense of desperation. Additionally, he pushed for a growing cast of [[TokenEvilTeammate less-than-sterling crewmen]] like Seska, Jonas, and Suder. 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.

* When the character of Janeway was being developed, the producers weren't sure if they were really going ahead with the first female ''Trek'' lead. They spoke to British actor Nigel Havers about the role, as well as ''Film/AlienNation'' actor Gary Graham (who also claims to have read for Sisko before ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine lauched). Graham would later guest star as Kes' EvilCounterpart (in "Cold Fire"), and on ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' as Soval, a skeptic-turned-ally of the Federation.

* When the character of Janeway was being developed, the producers weren't sure if they were really going ahead with the first female ''Trek'' lead. They spoke to British actor Nigel Havers about the role, as well as ''Film/AlienNation'' actor Gary Graham (who also claims to have read for Sisko before ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNone lauched). Graham would later guest star as Kes' EvilCounterpart (in "Cold Fire"), and on ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' as Soval, a skeptic-turned-ally of the Federation.

* When the character of Janeway was being developed, the producers weren't sure if they were really going ahead with the first female ''Trek'' lead. They spoke to British actor Nigel Havers about the role, as well as ''Film/AlienNation'' actor Gary Graham (who also claims to have read for the role of Sisko). Graham would later guest star as Kes' EvilCounterpart (in "Cold Fire"), and on ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' as Soval, a skeptic-turned-ally of the Federation.

* Before the Locarno/Paris switcharoo (see below), the producers wanted the convict character to be Ro Laren, which would have made sense since she defected to the Maquis (Chakotay's outfit) in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. The plot of TNG's [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E23PreemptiveStrike}} "Preemptive Strike"]] was meant to allow a way for her to join the crew of ''Voyager''. However, just as with [=DS9=], Creator/MichelleForbes didn't want to commit to a series. The writers started thinking about what other "fallen" characters could be used, and came up with Locarno, who eventually became Paris.

* Janeway was initially going to be a lesbian before the producers chickened out. Kate Mulgrew herself was very supportive of the idea, and this is still a major stick in the craw of many fans, given that the franchise would not feature an explicitly homosexual character[[note]]Jadzia Dax appears to be bi, though the fluidity of joined Trill gender identity makes this a weird case.[[/note]] until ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' in the late 2010s.
* 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 the TNG episode [[{{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, kicked out of Starfleet for lying about an accident (rather than directly causing 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.

* When the character of Janeway was being developed, the producers weren't sure if they were really going ahead with the first female ''Trek'' lead, and spoke to British actor Nigel Havers about the role, as well as ''Film/AlienNation'' actor Gary Graham (who also claims to have read for the role of Sisko). Graham would later guest star as Kes' EvilCounterpart (in "Cold Fire"), and on ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' as Soval, a skeptic-turned-ally of the Federation.

* Before the Locarno/Paris switcharoo (see below), the producers wanted the convict character to be Ro Laren, which would have made sense since she defected to the Maquis (Chakotay's oufit) in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. The plot of TNG's [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E23PreemptiveStrike}} "Preemptive Strike"]] was meant to allow a way for her to join the crew of ''Voyager''. However, just as with [=DS9=], Creator/MichelleForbes didn't want to commit to a series. The writers started thinking about what other "fallen" characters could be used, and came up with Locarno, who eventually became Paris.