By Sparrow47 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 9:20 am:
Ah, Voyager. It seems like 90% of Nitpickers just love to kick you around, and the other 10% sit back and laugh. In that vein, I thought it might be fun to hypothesize about the sort of discussions that went on at the writer's meetings. To wit...
Writer 1: Hey, I've got a great idea! Voyager encounters a primitive species that has the only cure to a plague that has infected the ship.
Writer 2: Okay, what sort of Prime Directive conflict are you thinking about?
Writer 1: Prime who-what?
(previous to the debacle that was "Fair Haven" and "Spirit Folk"...)
Writer 1: Hey, does anyone remember that Next Generation episode, "Up the Long Ladder"? I always thought the Irish community there deserved to be explored more in-depth... wonder how we could do that on "Voyager"...
Writer 2: Well, everyone loves the holodeck...
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By Stone Cold Steven Of None on Saturday, September 28, 2002 - 9:42 am:
And continuing in that vein:
Writer 3: I've got a _better_ idea: How about a _war_ between holograms and organics? The show hasn't had a good recurring villain since the Kazon and Vidiians from Seasons 1 - 2; and the issue of holographic rights could be addressed.
Writer 1: Hmmm...
Writer 2: Naw. Kate likes _your_ idea. She wants Captain Janeway to have an affair with a hologram in order to p!$$ off the J/Cers royally; and what _she_ says _goes_.
(Prior to the show losing Kes for Barbie of Borg)
Writer 1: What _shall_ we do with Kes?
Writer 2: How about this: We have her explore her growing powers, and get tempted by Suspiria into using them for evil?
Writer 1: Tempted by the Dark Side? Been there, done that. I've kind of noticed, though, that Jennifer's breasts aren't very big; we _could_ lose the Male 18-to-Dead Demographic...
Writer 2: Hmmm...
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By Just Some Guy on Sunday, October 13, 2002 - 8:18 pm:
They're plenty big now. She just had a baby!
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By Jesse on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 1:41 pm:
Writer 1: "Hey, how 'bout Voyager finds some planet minding its own business and of course Janeway finds something horribly wrong with their lifestyle and forces them to change because she knows what is best for the whole Delta Quadrant?"
Writer 2: "I like it!"
Writer 3: "But haven't we used that plot--"
Writer 2: "What is this 'plot' that you speak of? I am not familiar with the concept."
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By Adam on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 8:24 pm:
Writer 1: "Ok the show starts with Voyager under attack. After 45 minutes of everyone telling us which system has just been damaged and how they're trying to reroute power 7of9 goes back in time to before the battle and warns not to pick a fight with the aliens that have bumps on the brige of thier nose."
Writer 2: "I love it!!!
Writer 3: "Me to!"
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By Snickerdoodle on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 1:19 pm:
Writer 4: Borg! Borg! Borg! Borg!
Writer 1: How about we open with some of the crew...
Writer 2: All the Maquis.
Writer 1: Right, right, all the Maquis...
Writer 4: Borg! Borg! Borg! Borg!
Writer 1: They discover a dead planet...and it turns out to be EARTH! And Voyager's crashed on it, and they have to build a temporal radio out of the warp core and tell their future selves to contact their past selves and avoid the disaster!
Writer 3: YES!
Writer 4: Borg! Borg! Borg! Borg!
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By Sophie on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 9:29 am:
Writer 1: What about the season finale?
Writer 2: We could have the Borg.
Writer 1: Is there anything else?
Writer 2: Well there's "Kazon and Borg", "Klingons and Borg", "Romulans and Borg", "Tallaxians and Borg"...
Writer 1: Have you got anything without the Borg?
Writer 2: Well there's "Spacial Anomaly, Temporal Paradox, Prime Directive Dilemma and Borg". That hasn't got much Borg in it.
...and so on
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By Vikings on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 9:45 am:
Borg, Borg, Borg, Borg. Borg, Borg, Borg, Borg.
Borg-ity Borg! Wonderful Borg!
Borg, Borg, Borg, Borg. Borg Borg, Borg, Borg.
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By Graham Chapman in female clothing on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 6:44 pm:
Have you got any episodes without Borg in it?
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By Sophie on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 5:02 am:
Writer 1: Well can I have "Alien-of-the-Week, Always-Been-an-Interest, 30-second-Technobabble-Plot-Denouement and Borg" without the Borg?
Writer 2: Yuk!
Enterprise Writer: Well if he doesn't want his Borg, can I have it?
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By Merat on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 7:41 am:
Writer 1: How about we give 7 of 9 the ability to bring back anyone to life. She can use it on Neelix.
Writer 2: But that kills of any suspense in later episodes!
Writer 1: Huh? Why?
Writer 2: Well, because she can bring someone back to life!
Writer 1: Yeah, but just that episode.
Writer 2: So, she'll lose the ability?
Writer 1: No, why?
Writer 2: So, she'll just never use this miraculous ability again?
Writer 1: Nope.
Writer 2: So, it'll be like it just never happened?
Writer 1: Yup.
Writer 2: What about continuity?
Writer 1: Huh?
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By John A. Lang on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 9:18 pm:
THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!
Writer 1: "We can't use this script!"
Writer 2: "Why not?"
Writer 1: "The story makes sense, there's a lot of action, suspense and drama...basically...a very good episode!"
Writer 2: "Ah well, back to the old drawing board."
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By BrianB on Wednesday, March 05, 2003 - 2:27 pm:
Writer 1: Harry and Seven are in a shuttlecraft exploring a nebula. Harry is carrying on a dull conversation about when he was a small boy, he and Danny Byrd would make communicators by using two tin cans and a string. The shuttle passes an undetectable matter that causes it to deteriorate. The onboard computer gives a dead-on accruate 45-second countdown to a warp-core breach. They discover a conveniently located desserted planet capable of supporting life. So they emergency transport down. They are stranded and they haven't any technology other than their communicators.
The planet is a Garden of Eden and the sun shines bright even though they are in the heart of a nebula. But the atmosphere has harmful effects on Harry, causing him to be slow, dumb and useless. Seven is, of course, immune due to those wonderful implants of hers. However, it is past her time for regeneration, so the atmosphere does start to break down her dermaplastic garment and she essentially "sheds her skin". Losing all of her garment except around the mommy parts. We can't upset the Broadcast Standards & Practices now, can we?
Harry becomes lustful, but he resists temptation by telling bad jokes and reminiscing about the Academy. And when he's reduced to a mental vegetable, he discovers he can send Voyager a distress carrier wave by combining a couple of Seven's wonderful implants and her discarded dermaplastic with their communicators to fashion a transmitter. He was remembering the dull conversation he had with Seven aboard the shuttlecraft. Their transmission easily cuts through the atmospheric and nebula radiation. Voyager easily recognizes the Starfleet signature in the transmission.
Harry wakes up in sickbay cured of his mental degradation and he sees Janeway, Paris, Seven and the Doctor. Harry asks what happened, the Doctor said the planet he was on nearly caused him to become brain damaged. To which, Paris makes the offhand crack, "How could you tell?" Janeway gives Tom a dirty look, gives Harry a maternal caress on the cheek and says, "The show," scratch that. I mean, "The ship wouldn't be the same without you." Janeway, Doc and Paris excuse themselves to leave Harry alone with Seven.
Harry apologizes to Seven for having such dirty thoughts about her while on the planet. Seven says that while he was under the influence of a mind-altering atmosphere, his primitive thoughts and emotions were only human. Harry is relieved. This matter is quickly forgotten. Roll credits.
Writer 2: Genius, Mr. Braga. It's got everthing! Skin, sexual friction, a shuttlecraft disaster, a nebula with a habitable planet but a hostile atmophere, a paradise setting, sexual friction, survival suspense, a thread dropped at the top of the show revisited to advance the plot (tin cans and string), a MacGyver-ish solution, lessons in the human condition. Did I mention sexual friction? I already know what video bites we'll use for the promo. The narration will be something like, "Harry Kim finally has Seven of Nine where he wants her. But do they "do it"? Find out on a very special Sweeps episode of Star Trek: Voyager."
How about for twist ending Seven says to Harry, "I would not have minded if you tried something." She exits and Harry says, "D'oh!"
Braga: Don't push your luck, Writer 2!
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By BrianB on Wednesday, March 05, 2003 - 2:31 pm:
I forgot to add in Writer #2's delcaration that this episode has got everything, the bad jokes.
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By Seskas Ghost on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 9:31 am:
It's "The Enemy"(TNG) combined with the "Let he who is without sin"(DS9)
and BrianB...
Your ability to write that segment is giving me the chills. It's a good thing Voyager was over before you wrote that, or we have seen it actually happen!!!!
_____________
Harry apologizes to Seven for having such dirty thoughts about her while on the planet. Seven says that while he was under the influence of a mind-altering atmosphere, his primitive thoughts and emotions were only human. Harry is relieved. This matter is quickly forgotten. Roll credits.
How about for twist ending Seven says to Harry, "I would not have minded if you tried something." She exits and Harry says, "D'oh!"
_____________
or...
The Doctor comes back in as Seven heads for the bridge, when he stops Seven and wishes her well and says: "Congratulations Seven"
Seven: "To what event are refering?"
Doctor: "Well the scan just came back and it turned blue." "You're going to be a mother, Seven."
Out of no-where Tom shows up and says: "I thought you said the borg don't reproduce in this fashion?" Tom looks at Harry and a tear runs down his cheek. 'He's finally learned something from me!'
At this point B'Lanna gives Tom a cold look.
Tuvok says: "Curious?"
Neelix(looking at Harry and Seven): I'd be happy to babysit for you two."
Chakotey: "You know, my father had this phrase..."
Seven: "I still don't require any quarters, my borg impalnts will even allow me to give birth whil standing up." And Seven walks out.
Roll Credits
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By Stone Cold Steven Of None on Saturday, July 05, 2003 - 9:33 am:
"Gives both BrianB and Seska's Ghost the Wayne's World 'We're Not Worthy" bow."
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By Torque, Son of Keplar on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 8:57 pm:
Here is a script from a scraped voyager episode. Hurry and view the script before its taken down.
Maybe even save as archive so it can be remembered forever on this wonderful site.
http://home.earthlink.net/~agentrichard07/Origin_Of_The_Species.html
If this is old news, I'm sorry, it was news to me.
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By Darth Sarcasm on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 10:48 am:
More likely this is one of a million fan-submitted scripts, and was never actually considered for production.
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By Eight of Nine on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 3:51 pm:
I must say though - it reads quite well. One or two turns of phrase that aren't typical of characters, maybe, but a superb story. If it was indeed a rejected script, more's the pity...
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By LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 3:11 am:
Origin of the Species was a really good read. When Kamchai refused to let the crew read his encrypted files, that began my suspicion of what was eventually revealed, but the explicit revelation later in sickbay still made it a good read. I liked seeing another race in what was for them the equivalent of our 20th Century space program, and Kamchai came off as a well-written guest character.
Now on to the nits…
ACT 1
With that, the Doctor steps forward - and THROUGH the hull of the capsule, disappearing inside.
Luigi Novi: There are no holoemitters inside the capsule, and if Doc was using his mobile emitter, it would not have passed through the capsule hull.
You read my mind, Captain, I was just about to contact you. We’re detecting trace amounts of some kind of Borg cell, infesting the capsule’s systems at a sub-atomic level. Frozen to death, thankfully. –Act 1
Luigi Novi: At the sub-atomic level, all matter is chemically identical.
int. sickbay
Removed from the cryo pod, its occupant now lies, unconscious, on a bio-bed, attended to by the Doctor. He looks PERFECTLY HUMAN…
Luigi Novi: And why is this? I’ve always assumed the laziness in depicting odd-looking aliens on the various Trek shows was due to the makeup artists. But here, it states this in the script? And without any reason for it in the plot? Why?
ACT 2
KAMCHAI
How long have I been asleep? What day is it?
Janeway and the Doctor exhange a look.
DOCTOR
It is stardate 52171.9.
KAMCHAI
I don’t know what that means.
JANEWAY
You may want to brace yourself for a shock. The data we have indicates that your vessel was adrift for approximately... four hundred years.
Kamchai reacts as this sinks in. Janeway moves quickly to reassure him, give him something positive.
Luigi Novi: Kamchai should have no idea what “four hundred years” means either. Janeway is speaking in Earth time spans, and while the universal translator may translate the stated time span into an alien world’s time span, the computer would have to know Iridis’ rotational/revolutionary period, and nothing suggests they have gained this info from his pod and fed it into the ship’s U.T. computer yet. (The conference room scene later establishes this.) By the same token, they shouldn’t yet be able to speak to Kamchai either.
(to Torres)
B’Elanna, I’d like you to attempt a recovery of the computer data from Commander Kamchai’s capsule. Any information on this early form of Borg might be useful to us.
Luigi Novi: Didn’t they do that already in order to find out where his home planet used to be? I would’ve imagined that they could’ve discerned where Iridis used to be because Seven told them, but Paris indicates in the beginning of this scene that it was Kamcahi who helped him.
ACT 3
TORRES
(already knows the answer)
Still want it set to stun?
JANEWAY
(no doubt in her mind)
Kill it.
Luigi Novi: Couldn’t they have stunned the N.D. without killing him, so that they could later de-assimilate him? I guess only Picard, Seven, and Hugh merit treatment like that, huh?
ACT 4
TORRES
We could do what Kamchai did. Cryogenically freeze the entire ship. We still have environmental control - the extreme cold killed the parasites before, and it would again.
CHAKOTAY
And us, too. Think, B’Elanna!
TORRES
Not if we leave first. We could evacuate in the shuttles and escape pods, freeze the ship remotely and return after they’ve been wiped out.
Luigi Novi: Or, not if they freeze only the affected systems. Torres said that only 28% of the ship is assimilated so far.
Janeway and Kamchai EMERGE from her Ready Room and stride purposefully across the Bridge towards the Turbolift.
JANEWAY
Commander Kamchai and I will be in Shuttle Bay Two.
Luigi Novi: Neelix’s dialogue in Act 2 of Parturition and Doc’s in Act 5 of Macrocosm established that there is only one shuttlebay on Voyager.
ACT 5
JANEWAY
There’s a fine line between vigilance in paranoia. Your people crossed over it... and look at the results. Not just your race, but millions, murdered by the abomination you created.
Luigi Novi: More like billions, or even trillions.
CHAKOTAY
I think the Iridians have more than earned their place in the annals of infamy.
Luigi Novi: You’d think Chakotay wouldn’t be so judgmental towards an entire race, when the Borg were only created by the Iridian military/government. Are all U.S. citizens responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Are all Afghanis and Saudis responsible for 9/11?
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By Eight of Nine on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 5:36 pm:
>> ACT 3
TORRES
(already knows the answer)
Still want it set to stun?
JANEWAY
(no doubt in her mind)
Kill it.
Luigi Novi: Couldn’t they have stunned the N.D. without killing him, so that they could later de-assimilate him? I guess only Picard, Seven, and Hugh merit treatment like that, huh? >>
Don't forget the end of "Best of Both Worlds" Part I - Riker ordering Worf to open fire on the Borg Ship even knowing that Picard (as Locutus) was on it. The away team had already seen the extent to which he'd been assimilated ---
Data: The Captain has been altered by the Borg.
Worf: He IS a Borg!
Presumably Janeway in this scene is thinking as Riker probably did back then: this person is too far gone to be retrievable and at the same time is a definite threat to everyone else on the ship. So it's conceivable there'd be no doubt in her mind about killing instantly Borgified N.D.
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By ScottN on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 6:09 pm:
Nit on "OotS"
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Quote:
ACT 1:
TUVOK
Transporting aboard would be inadvisable, Commander. The capsule is in a primitive form of cryogenic stasis - the interior cabin temperature is approximately minus six hundred degrees Celsius
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Absolute Zero is -273.16C. It is impossible for anything to have a lower temperature.
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By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 8:10 pm:
Eight of Nine: Don't forget the end of "Best of Both Worlds" Part I - Riker ordering Worf to open fire on the Borg Ship even knowing that Picard (as Locutus) was on it. The away team had already seen the extent to which he'd been assimilated ---
Data: The Captain has been altered by the Borg.
Worf: He IS a Borg!
Presumably Janeway in this scene is thinking as Riker probably did back then: this person is too far gone to be retrievable and at the same time is a definite threat to everyone else on the ship. So it's conceivable there'd be no doubt in her mind about killing instantly Borgified N.D.
Luigi Novi: They had to fire on the Borg Cube. By contrast, the N.D. isn’t on a Borg cube that Voyager is firing at. Moreover, the crew did not yet have any experience at the end of BoBW partI(TNG) with de-assmilating Borg victims. At this point, they have plenty.
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By MythicFox on Thursday, December 15, 2005 - 4:25 am:
Not to sound like a jerk, or anything... but some of the plots you're tearing into the writers over ripping off from earlier seasons? Some of them weren't even that clever the first time.
If Voyager had come before TNG, everybody would be ripping into Picard more over Prime Directive violations.
Sometimes it just feels like hating Voyager is the hip thing to do.
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By Matt Pesti on Saturday, March 25, 2006 - 4:24 pm:
Yes, that's true. But Voyager was supposed to be a new show with a new premise, it wasn't supposed to be a remake of Next Gen.
How about this...
Voyager gets attacked by the "alien of the week" again and Janeway, Tuvok and Torres accually remember how to fight and save the ship.!
(I know it would NEVER work because Tuvok would be too busy locked in his quarters bragging about how he could kill someone with just his big toe, Janeway would be too busy fighting giant macro viruses while doing her Sigorny Weaver inpersonation from Aliens, and Torres would be too busy yelling about how aweful it is to have a Klingon temper ...)