SFDebris: worst case scenario

[Nickswitz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibbFbFFc ... tube_gdata
Pretty good episode, just a bit too predictable for my taste.

[USSEnterprise]

I wasn't too fond of the episode. It was hard for me to just get by the fact that it was yet another holodeck ep.

[Deepcrush]

Agreed.

[Tyyr]

The problem is that this came seasons too late to really matter. If they'd built up the tension between the two groups and had this be a late first season/early second season episode it would have been gold.

[Deepcrush]

True, by the time this came around it didn't matter anymore. What's the point of worrying about a two or three year old issue that even the crew couldn't care about anymore.

[Tyyr]

Exactly. It never sucked you in. Instead of instantly wondering if some Maquis plot has finally erupted you just go, "Huh?" You know the Maquis are a nonissue so there's no real tension you're just left wondering what temporal subspace wedgie is causing this. I think this episode would have been an 8 if the right build up existed around it. As is I give it a 6 or 7.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'm inclined to agree. The first time I saw it I knew something weird was up, due purely to the fact that the Maquis were planning a mutiny. If this had been an early episode then it could have been quite good.

[Mikey]

I get the sneaking suspicion that someone, this late in the game, had the sudden realization that "Hey - the blending of the Maquis and SF crew happened way too easily and smoothly, even for an outlandish sci-fi show. Maybe now's a good time to retcon it?"

[Tyyr]

Then they turned it into a holodeck episode. I suppose that it does bring back some idea that at least one person wasn't that on about it but it was Tuvok who's so uptight you could make diamonds in his anus.

[Sionnach Glic]

I get the sneaking suspicion that someone, this late in the game, had the sudden realization that "Hey - the blending of the Maquis and SF crew happened way too easily and smoothly, even for an outlandish sci-fi show. Maybe now's a good time to retcon it?"

Having the problems with the Maquis occuring in a later series wouldn't actualy be too odd. It could be rationalised as the Maquis agreeing to just shut up and follow Janeway's orders and act like Starfleet officers in the hope of getting home. Later on they get pissed off at what they see as Janeway wasting time checking out local anomalies and generaly screwing around, leading some of them to attempt a mutiny.

This could also bring up some interesting issues for certain characters. Maquis like Chakotay, Torres and Paris have by now pretty much become loyal Starfleet officers. How would they deal with their old comrades attempting to overthrow their new comrades? If nothing else then you could at least have made a damn good two-parter out of the concept. Hell, you could even stretch it out as a series-long event, allowing the writers to introduce new Maquis personel and show their growing discontent with Janeway and Chakotay, culminating in an armed uprising through the ship at the end of the series.

[kostmayer]

What would be even more interesting is if some of the Starfleet personel joined the mutineers.

In TNG:The Pegasus, Picard commented on how a mutiny aboard a Federation Starship was unthinkable. Have there been other examples of a fullscale mutiny in the past on a Starship - can't think of any myself. In the case of the Pegasus, the Captain was betraying Starfleet principles rather then risking the crew to uphold them, which seemed to be the main cause of the mutiny.

For me, around the time Voyager manages to restore contact with the AQ would have been the right time for a mutiny storyline. Learning that their comrades back home had been all but wiped out whilst the Federation played peacemaker would have been just the thing to spark a rebelleion off.

[Sionnach Glic]

What would be even more interesting is if some of the Starfleet personel joined the mutineers.

Indeed, that's another interesting piece of a later-series mutiny - it would be less a Maquis rebellion and more an "everyone who hates Janeway" rebellion.

[Tyyr]

Agreed. Finding out that Starfleet let their buddies be wiped out to keep the peace should have sent them into an uproar.

[Nutso]

The problem is that this came seasons too late to really matter. If they'd built up the tension between the two groups and had this be a late first season/early second season episode it would have been gold.

What was that great line of yours? "Voyager, where potential went to die."

[Tyyr]

Voyager is where potential went to die.