A 20th century Voyager was struck down

Star Trek: Voyager was looking to increase viewers

Star Trek: Voyager premiered in 1995 to over twenty million viewers. Unfortunately, that level of viewership didn’t stay with the show, and though it got renewed after its first season, by the time the end of the second season rolled around, the combined ratings for both Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were a little under six and a half million viewers, according to TrekToday. So it’s not a surprise that when story lines were underway for Voyager’s third season, all of the writers got together to discuss how to attract new viewers.

In Star Trek Voyager A Celebration by Ben Robinson and Mark Wright, Ken Biller, who wrote the teleplay for the powerful “Faces” episode, said that he suggested they “completely reinvent the premise of the show” from that point forward.  Biller’s idea was to have the ship transported back in time to the 20th century. From that point forward, the entire series would be about the crew having to hide their existence while still trying to find a way back to their own time and their own quadrant. So there wouldn’t be anymore adventures in the Alpha Quadrant. But his idea was deemed a little too radical.

Future’s End became the 20th century episode for Voyager

Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky, who co-wrote “Year of Hell” with Braga, thought Biller’s idea could still be used for an arc in season three. They originally suggested four episodes for the time travel story. But “Future’s End” was a two-parter that sent the Voyager crew back to the 20th century.

And that was long enough to prove that sticking the ship back in time for the remainder of the series would have not only been radical move but a bad one. Back in that century, space travel as the crew knew it didn’t exist. There would have been no first contacts, which, of course, would also mean no aliens. Space battles would have been out as would the ship itself as there would have been no way to keep it powered. There wouldn’t have been much to raise the stakes. There simply wasn’t enough in the idea to write about for the next five seasons which is why the writing team was smart to veto this idea.