The Maquis were specifically created for Star Trek: Voyager

The Maquis were intended for Star Trek: Voyager all along.

Viewers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine know the story of the Maquis and the problems that the group caused. Season two had a two-part episode entitled “The Maquis,” that introduced the rebels and a Starfleet officer, Lt. Commander Calvin Hudson, that had defected to join their cause. But while they had a big presence on Deep Space Nine, they were always intended to be a part of Star Trek: Voyager. In fact, according to Whatculture, the Maquis were written solely for Voyager.

Every Trekkie remembers Ro Laren and her defining moment aboard the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation when she chose the Maquis over Starfleet. That episode was written quickly to open a door for Laren to have a brief or recurring role on Voyager.

During pre-production of Star Trek: Voyager, the Maquis were always included.

In fact, during pre-production, producers considered having Laren be one of the rebels that was being chased by Voyager. One idea was for Laren to be killed after arriving in the Delta Quadrant or to escape from Captain Janeway and her crew so she could return in random episodes throughout the series. This would have actually added weight to the Maquis and given them a little more bite than what they were given aboard Voyager.

As it was, the Maquis didn’t really make that big of an impact once the pilot episode had premiered. There was some dissension between Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay in the first season’s third episode where Janeway was hesitant about putting B’Elanna Torres in charge of the Engineering Department. (See above video.)  After that, with the exception of “Learning Curve” where Tuvok attempts to train Maquis to be full-fledged members of Voyager’s crew, there isn’t much difference shown between the renegades and the Starfleet crew.

So though the Maquis were created for Voyager, there weren’t well-utilized aboard the ship or on the series. They had much more to do on Deep Space Nine. Had Voyager maintained some of the distrust into later seasons, the Maquis could have been more formidable, which would have added a healthy level of dissension which could only have been good for the series.