Captain Chakotay’s (Robert Beltran) return inStar Trek: Prodigycan fix 7 problems that the USS Voyager left in the Delta Quadrant inStar Trek: Voyager. As the USS Voyager crew blazed a trail through the Delta Quadrant on their 70,000 lightyear journey back to Earth, Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) sometimes had to play pretty fast and loose withStar Trek’s Prime Directive, leaving problems in Voyager’s wake. With a lifetime of travel ahead, and no guarantee that wormholes or anomalies would speed up the trip,Janeway couldn’t stay long, and follow-up missions were just about impossible.
Star Trek: Prodigy’s USS Protostar was originally commanded byCaptain Chakotay on a mission to return to the Delta Quadrant and fix the problems caused by Voyager’s homeward trip. A temporal anomaly diverted the Protostar, leaving Captain Chakotay stranded on the planet Solum in an alternate 25th century future timeline. InStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2, Chakotay returns not only to his proper timeline, but also the captain’s chair of the USS Voyager-A, after Admiral Janeway’s retirement. If Chakotay takes Voyager-A on the Protostar’s original mission, there are still problems in the Delta Quadrant that could benefit from a follow-up.
7Voyager-A Can Check In On The Time Dilated Society
Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 12 “Blink of an Eye”
It’s unlikely that the same civilization on the unnamed planet fromStar Trek: Voyagerseason 6, episode 12 “Blink of an Eye” is still there, since the planet existed in its own unique flow of time, but it’s not entirely impossible.Voyager’s presence as"the skyship"contaminated the civilization’s entire existence, and inspired its people to explore the stars in hopes of reaching the USS Voyager someday.First contact was achieved, but the alien world would have to overcome the time differential to participate in the wider galactic society.
There’s no denying that the Prime Directive was completely tossed out with this culture.
At the rate that the society from “Blink of an Eye” develops,the technology to mitigate temporal differences might actually be developed by the time Chakotay gets back to the Delta Quadrant. Voyager’s presence may have been a net positive instead of an actual problem, but there’s no denying that the Prime Directive was completely tossed out with this culture, so it’s worth a follow-up.
6Paris And Janeway’s Salamander Babies Can Come Home
Star Trek: Voyager Season 2, Episode 14 “Threshold”
It’s been brought up before as a joke, but the truth is thatthe offspring of Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Captain Janeway are still out there in the Delta Quadrant, abandoned by parents who turned back into 24th-century humans and went on their merry way. Ostensibly, the salamander babies are the product of an evolutionary leap for humanity, so they’re probably sentient, which rasies questions. How do they feel about this? What have they done in the meantime? Could they, like Paris and Janeway, be transformed into bipedal humans?
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With Captain Chakotay’s return to the Delta Quadrant,there’s a real chance to recontextualize and improve the nonsensical third act of “Threshold”, and make one ofStar Trek: Voyager’s weirdest episodesactually matter in the long run. Maybe one of the salamander babies, in a grown-up human form, joins the Voyager-A crew, hoping to explore the galaxy and find out where they truly belong.
5Resolution For Two Duplicate Voyager Crews
Star Trek: Voyager Season 4, Episode 24 “Demon” & Season 6, Episode 21 “Live Fast And Prosper”
InStar Trek: Voyagerseason 4, episode 24, “Demon”,the USS Voyager crew let biomemetic Silver Blood aliens from a Demon-class planet copy them in order to experience life as organic beings.Star Trek: Voyagercaught up with the Silver Blood from “Demon” in a rareStar Treksequel episode, season 5’s “Course: Oblivion”, so we as the audience know about the tragic fate that befell the Voyager crew’s copies, but the crew themselves never learned that their doubles died.
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Another set of Voyager duplicates appears inStar Trek: Voyagerseason 6, episode 21, “Live Fast and Prosper”, whencon artists take on the identities of Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay, and Lieutenant Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ). The episode ends with the impostors returning what they’ve stolen, but the con artists are still out there, capable of committing the same crimes in the name of the Federation once the real USS Voyager has moved on.
After returning to the Delta Quadrant,Captain Chakotay and the Voyager-A crew could stumble across a mystery seeming to involve the old Voyager crew.Chakotay’s curiosity would launch an investigation that reveals the demise of the Silver Blood doubles, the further crimes of their impostors – or even both. Because the Silver Blood really believed theywerethe Voyager crew, they wouldn’t have done anything that the real Voyager crew wouldn’t have done. The Voyager crew impersonators, however, might have caused additional problems Chakotay’s Voyager-A crew needs to fix.
4Chakotay Can Revisit The Voth’s Changed Society
Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 23, “Distant Origin”
The USS Voyager’s presence in the Delta Quadrant contributed to completely upending Voth society, which was based on the purity of the Voth species asnatives ofStar Trek’s Delta Quadrant. Genetic similarities between the Voth and Voyager’s crew proved that the Voth had originated in the Alpha Quadrant.Chakotay had to sit back and watch Scientist Forra Gegen (Henry Woronicz) renounce his findings, like a hadrosaur Galileo,to maintain the status quo dictated by Voth religious doctrine. Gegen’s life was ruined, and it was Voyager’s fault.
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Despite believing they were the only Alpha Quadrant representatives in the Delta Quadrant, the USS Voyager crew often found they weren’t alone.
A return trip to the Voth homeworld would determine whether scientific fact has triumphed over Voth religious dogma, or if Chakotay and other Alpha Quadrant representatives are still considered agents of heresy. BecauseChakotay’s influence pressured Gegen to stand up for the truth, Chakotay is also one of the best people to fix the social problems that were caused by Voyager’s initial visit to the Voth.
3The Hirogen & Iden’s Hologram Rebellion
Star Trek: Voyager Season 7, Episodes 9 & 10, “Flesh and Blood”
Withoutany type of local currency, the USS Voyager crew often traded with Delta Quadrant aliens to get much-needed supplies.Plenty of Alpha Quadrant technology was left behind in the Delta Quadrant as a result of these trades,which impacted alien societies differently, depending on what their rate of development currently was. Although initially reluctant to trade Federation technology, desperate times called for desperate solutions, such as when Captain Janeway traded hologram technology to the Hirogen in exchange for the Voyager crew’s lives.
InStar Trek: Picardseason 3, episode 4, “No Win Scenario”, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) recounts an encounter with a Hirogen hunter, so the Hirogen must have made their way to the Alpha Quadrant before 2385.
As a result of Janeway’s gift of Federation hologram technology, the Hirogen develop self-aware holograms who eventually fight for their own freedom, in the hologram-Hirogen conflict dubbed Iden’s Rebellion. Voyager leaves the holograms behind on a peaceful colony,but there’s no guarantee the predatory Hirogen will let them live.Do the holograms keep their freedom? Do the Hirogen create more holograms? Captain Chakotay’s return would answer these questions.
2Resolving The Kazon Infighting
Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 - Season 2
A single Federation replicator can completely change the course of a society limited by scarcity, andStar Trek: Voyager’s Cardassian spy Seska (Martha Hackett)gave replicator technology to the Kazon, in a bid for her own power. Even after learning that Federation technology was used for nefarious means,the warring Kazon sects were not a problem for the USS Voyager to solve,due to Janeway’s determination to keep moving forward and early adherence to the Prime Directive.
Where Janeway insists on staying the course, however, Captain Chakotay values harmony, soChakotay is much more likely to spend time in Kazon space to try brokering a peace between the Kazon tribes. Chakotay would also recognize that the Kazon’s stolen replicator technology shifted the balance of power in Kazon space, and use the Voyager-A mission to redistribute technology equitably.
1Revisiting The Ocampa’s Development
Star Trek: Voyager Season 1, Episode 1, “Caretaker”
Captain Janeway destroyed the Caretaker’s array that brought the USS Voyager to the Delta Quadrant in the first place, ostensibly to protect the Ocampa from the territorial Kazon. Unfortunately,Voyager didn’t return to the Ocampa homeworld to see how the Ocampa were doing on their own,since that would mean backtracking on a journey that was already projected to take several decades. Without the guidance of the Caretaker to help the Ocampa survive, Chakotay’s Voyager-A crew could render aid if the Ocampa need it.
A few Ocampa colonies were scattered here and there, such as the one inStar Trek: Voyagerseason 2, episode 10, “Cold Fire”, where some Ocampa lived beyond their projected nine-year lifespan, but they were still short-lived.
With a lifespan of only nine years,several generations of Ocampa would have come and gonesince their first contact with the USS Voyager. Captain Chakotay’s return to the Ocampa homeworld would reveal if anything has changed in the intervening decades, like a species-wide development of theOcampa telekinetic powersthat Kes (Jennifer Lien) exhibited before leaving Voyager.
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Robert Beltran’s Chakotay finally earns a long-deserved reward with an important Star Trek: Voyager legacy attached to it.
The USS Voyager left behind a lot more problems on its path through the Delta Quadrant. Captain Janeway made first contact with more species than any otherStar Trekcaptainsince Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), and not all of those meetings resulted in alliances. Janeway’s enemies in the Delta Quadrant would almost surely have a score to settle with any returning Federation ship.Captain Chakotay’s patient leadership style is very different from Janeway’s, however, so Chakotay might even be able to smooth things over to make new friends out ofStar Trek: Voyagerfoes.
