The Vaadwaur should’ve had a much bigger role in Voyager.
The Vaadwaur were introduced in Star Trek: Voyager‘s seventh episode of season six, called “Dragon’s Teeth”. The episode sees the Voyager crew unearthing and reawakening a species called the Vaadwaur, a species stranded in stasis for almost 900 years. Reawakening the species was a mistake, as it turns out they’re conquerors who sought to control the Delta Quadrant until they came up against the Turei.
Now the Turei do their best to monitor the space, making sure the Vaudwaar never poses that kind of threat again. A threat they tried to fulfill when Voyager woke them up. While the Borg and Talaxians have no history on the Vaudwaar, the Turei are proof that the Vaudwaar were as awful as advertised and could’ve been a perpetual threat to all those in their way.
The fact they only appear in one episode in Star Trek: Voyager is a crime. They not only deserved more screen time but they deserved to be the main antagonists for the season.
The Vaudwaar should have been Voyager’s biggest threat for the season
The season six finale may be one of the weaker ones in the show’s history, with a fake-out of several Voyager crew members having been assimilated as part of a plan to cripple the Borg. Instead of going with a retreaded idea of a Starfleet captain being assimilated, the series might have been better off building up the Vaudwaar throughout the season, only for them to come face to face with the Borg. The Borg were a species they had encountered before but the Borg were much smaller then and much more manageable.
The revelation that the Borg were no longer the same species would’ve been fascinating. Especially if the Vaadwuar had examples to show the audience how the Borg evolved since their first meetings.
The show could’ve had the Vaudwaar spend all season building back up their empire, be it on-screen or through dialogue, only to have a showdown with the Borg in the season finale. Just as long as we get to see plenty of the Vaudwaar prior to that moment. Having the Vaudwaar disrupting Voyager at nearly every port they visit would be intriguing.
You could layer the Vaudwaar too. Maybe they have the only weaponry that is always effective against the Borg, which could’ve set them up to be quite powerful, then when the Vaudwaar finally has a foothold back into their kingdom, the Borg could return and obliterate them once and for all, setting up season seven’s final confrontation between the Borg and Voyager.
While each idea leads back to the Borg, it’s important to note how integral they were to the show’s storyline. Having them come back into the series after getting stomped by Species 8472 and wrecking havoc is the way to go.