Picture Navigator Tom Paris in Star Trek - The Next Generation. It wouldn't have worked. TNG Captain Picard's entrenched crew wouldn't have accepted the scoundrel. TNG must have considered that option, given McNeill plays Nick Locarno in a TNG episode. Voyager's premise shines in solving several of Star Trek's recently emerged problems, with one strike. A Starfleet crew stranded in another quadrant assures, they won't build personal networks. We can have free spirits in that new Voyager band. Like Tom Paris, who gets picked up from a Starfleet prison. Secondly, at the same time, no Picard or Riker are going to micromanage a free spirit. That is to say, pressure and observe you from behind your back. Navigators aboard the USS Enterprise didn't have an easy life. Everyone could replace a navigator. Good luck finding a navigator that is ok with being mere dust, regardless of talent. Voyager's stranding in the unknown solved that problem. Navigator Tom Paris couldn't be replaced easily. He could become an individual who is not remote controlled. Thirdly, Voyager's Captain Janeway is often described as erratic and even foolish. That, for me, is Voyager's greatest selling proposition. There are no Admirals in the new Delta Quadrant. If you lack Admirals, crews will start to revolve around captains. There is no oversight. The exact same situation as in public schools. You need a crazy head master/head mistress. Given there is no supervision. Else, you'll divide that crew into people you get along with that captain and those who don't. And you've already got Maquis terrorists as part of the new makeshift Voyager crew. Only a crazy head mistress unites that crew. Try to revolve around a head of school. You can't. The inability to befriend the captain unites a crew. And Voyager not just solves, but also brilliantly explains the situation. And I haven't even mentioned the great plots this Star Trek instalment is going to show us in its episodes. Of its crew that only ever shines, after being stranded.
Review of Caretaker
