Welcome to the home of the Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction series Fifth Voyager. It is based on the premise that every time a decision has to be made or time travel alters the past, a new alternate dimension is created for the changes to play out in. The change that separates Fifth Voyager and Star Trek: Voyager lie in the new characters.


I realise that in order to have a FAQ section, people have to actually ask the same question more than once. FV isn't popular enough to have most of these asked once, but it still sounds better than Probably Asked Questions, and how many FAQs are made up of actual questions anyway? I'm willing to bet not many. Anyway without further ado:

Shortcut Menu
What is Fifth Voyager?
What is the series about?
What genre does FV fall into?
Why is the website design so ancient?
What's the Reboot?
Why are there two Season One's?
Where should I start?
Any episode recommendations?
How did this series come to life?
Why "Fifth"?
Will my shipping needs be fulfilled in this series?
It isn't all shipping mush is it?
How many new characters are there?
I don't really like fanfic with new characters in, will I still like this?
What's up with these self-insert characters?
Was mostly Season Five inspired by the post-Endgame novels?
Why is a writer's block mentioned so often?
What's up with "Hunters" being a running gag?

 

What is Fifth Voyager?
Fifth Voyager is a fanfiction series, plain and simple. Even though it is written out like ordinary fanfiction, every story is called an episode and the series is divided into seasons.

 

What is the series about?
I started this series based on a what if? What if some small little event changed the whole course of Voyager's journey? All I can tell you besides that, without spoiling the storylines, is that the series is set in an alternate universe to the original Voyager.

 

What genre does Fifth Voyager fall into?
That's a complicated question. I originally planned for the series to be a Sci-Fi/Fantasy series mixed in with some "quirky humour", focusing more on character development. I wrote drafts of the (at the time) important episodes of the first season; Timeline and World Domination, like this. When I eventually started at the beginning with Aggressions that changed. For some reason or another I wrote Part 2 as this strange and mad parody that made no sense, and completely ignored the point of the episode. At one point it looked like I remembered why the episode was called Aggressions, but was more interested in being "funny", so the point was brought up and quickly dismissed within a few scenes.

Long story shorter, the series unfortunately took the parody route after that. I was an immature 15 year old. That's the only reason I can safely give you as I honestly don't remember what I was thinking.

Seasons Four and Five, as well as the third prequel season, were what I had in mind for FV's tone. I think the safest answer is the genre differs a lot.

 

Why does your website look so old? Frames, seriously? The website looks like it belongs in the late 90's/early 00's.
Firstly, I really hate modern website design. It's far more flashy and less functionable in my opinion.

Secondly, it has been over a decade since I bothered to learn any html, php etc... coding. One of the reasons why was because of the first one. I didn't want to learn how to make "scroll to load more of the page", moving menu's and flashy images.

Thirdly, I'm not as interested in web design as I used to be. This site is the only one I'm currently managing, only because it's the only way I can or want to share my work right now. I'm here for the writing.

Don't get me wrong, I like having a nice site. I know it can't be ugly as some people may leave the site before they read anything. However I prefer keeping it simple for the user and for me to update it. I've been using the same program to manage this website since I first launched it. It does everything I want. It keeps track of all my pages, shows the site's structure and most importantly allows me to write directly into the episode's file without having to type [ i ] formatting and line breaks. It takes long enough. It's more annoying than you think to type in Word and copy it into the web program. It's messy and creates more work, and I can waste time on my own, thanks.

For now I'm happy that the site looks different to others out there, and looks like a (badly made) lcars system. The frames make that easier. My only issue with frames is the strange glitch I get in Firefox that randomly forgets what the last page was, and gets locked on a page. Or instead it forgets everything and resets the frame completely. I've researched the glitch, it seems to be a Firefox incompatibility that they've known about for a while.

Let's just be grateful I've mostly phased out Comic Sans.

 

What is this Reboot?
It is the project I created to help cure my writers block which had gone on from 2007 to 2011. The project basically is to rewrite Season One so it fits in more with the later seasons, and gives me a second chance to actually make it how I imagined it back in 2000. Some of the other seasons will get similar treatment, but not as extreme. The prequel (B4FV) Season Two is a good example of what will likely happen to them.

See this page for more information.

 

You have two Season One's, why?
I decided to start Fifth Voyager where Voyager really began for me. I watched several episodes on and off until Scorpion was shown, then I was hooked. It seemed fitting to do this. Also there's another big reason, but that would be writing spoilers. Let's just say Scorpion works better as a pilot for FV than Caretaker does.

Once I was safely through Season One I decided to write what happens with the new characters before Scorpion/Aggressions. I couldn't just rename Season One to Four, and I certainly couldn't stall the series until those three seasons were done, so I decided to do them as a spin off prequel series named B4 Fifth Voyager.

So...
B4FV Season One: Starts with Caretaker
Season One: Starts with Scorpion

 

So where do I start?
There are technically two "first episodes" to try out, both of which have been rebooted so I recommend either of them. Both should give you an idea what the series is like. It all depends on how you want to go about reading the series if you like them.

If you'd prefer to go in chronological order, start with Caretaker in B4FV Season One.

If you'd prefer to read the main seasons first/only OR read the seasons in the order they were originally released, start with Aggression in Season One.

Here's the simplest "release order" I can think of which avoids the most spoilers and ruining;

Season One
Season Two
Season Three
B4FV Season One
B4FV Season Two
Season Four
B4FV Season Three
Season Five

There are pros and cons in both paths, that's why I can't really pick a favourite myself. So please take a look before you decide.

Chronological Cons
+ Main Season Two and Three have a few reveals that will be spoilt if you read the prequels first, as B4FV One and Two were originally written to be read after the episodes in question. I know it's stupid, I was a daft kid at the time.

+ Caretaker was rebooted very recently, but the rest of B4FV Season One is still being edited. It was written in 2002/3 and I think the quality will drop dramatically once you reach episode 2. You'd have this problem in the other path I know, but at least by then you'll know if you like the series or not. Parallax as a second episode might put people off.

+ While B4FV1 is shoddy and old at best, B4FV2 & 3 will show improvement, as will Season One and Two. But then once you get used to that, you'll end up back in originals territory with B4FV1 quality episodes, waiting for it to improve again. This could be considered a pro as well, but IMO this is a con since it'll be off putting.

Chronological Pros
+ Simple to follow

+ Reading the three prequel seasons before the main ones gives me more time to reboot Season Two. There will be less originals to get through this way. How many that is depends on how fast you read. Reboots are usually a monthly release.

Main Series Cons
+ When to read the prequels is a bit tricky as I don't recommend reading them after Season Five, and because of spoilers I don't recommend them until Season Three's underway (episode 6 Chain Reaction at least).

+ You'll reach the originals quicker since there are less episodes to read until you get to them, and I have less time to release more. It's subjective really, and depends on where in Season Two I'm up to when you catch up. The season's hit and miss.

+ Since I tried to reboot with "some people may be reading chronologically" in mind, there will be minor spoilers for the prequels (mainly B4FV3) in Season One. I have still been careful with them because not everyone will read in order, still worth warning about.

Main Series Pros
+ For a good 30+ episodes you'll be reading modern era episodes, so you'll get a better idea what to expect of the series and you'll know whether or not you'll like it long before you reach the original/old episodes.

+ You don't have to worry about the prequels really spoiling any big reveals in the main seasons. If you use my order you may get a tiny ickle one in a B4FV Three episode, but that's about it.

+ With my suggested order, once you get to the originals in Season Two you'll see the series develop into what it is now, instead of having to endure the oldies pretty much twice in the chronological order (B4FV1, then later with main 2/3). You'll start with modern era episodes, read the old ones, then see them develop into the modern era. While I do think which Season Two episode is your original entry point will vary people's experience, this is for the best and a lot less off putting.

 

Aggression/Caretaker is fine/bad, but I'm still not sure. Do you recommend any other episodes to get me interested?
I do. Just remember that a lot of these will spoil a number of things if/when you start reading in order.

B4FV 1.22: Outside of Time
If I were to pick an episode out of the first prequel season that isn't rebooted it would be this. My second pick would be Ex Post Facto. However it's likely only I find that original episode parody funny. Outside of Time was inspired by the not well liked film Ghost Ship, and so there are one or two references/jokes to it. They're easily missed and can be brushed over if you do see them. Considering how old it is, the episode does a half decent job of mixing humour and horror together into a great story. Something that the first prequel season severely lacked until then.

It doesn't spoil too much, if it does at all. It's just a nice episode showing FV's potential. The only issue off the top of my head are the brief cameo's from the season's villains. You likely won't know what's happening there, but it doesn't effect the story at all.

Broken Wreck and Death Wish (B4FV Season Two Episodes 6 & 9)
If you decide on any of these two, I recommend the other as well. They're not that long, so no worries.

Broken Wreck: Is an important episode disguised as mostly filler. I won't get into explaining that, a later recommendation will do a better job of that. The episode is an intentional slow burner mystery, with an attempt at horror on the side. It also starts a main character's story arc for the rest of the series.

Death Wish: Skip over what follows Broken Wreck, unless you fancy a couple of silly episodes, and read one of my favourite original Voyager episode "parodies". Why the quotation marks? I don't know what to call them. Some of my older ones are parodies, sure, but ones like Death Wish are basically my take on them, the FV version of it. They're not meant to be making fun of anything. The point is to set a few storylines up, most of which go on for quite a long time. Personally I like what I did with the Q part of the story, Quinn in particular I enjoyed, while the new storyline on the planet is interesting and hides its true intention quite well.

Why these two together? They're linked, and are definite unrebooted highlights of the second prequel season.

The Facing Fears Saga (B4FV Season Three Episodes 15 - 18, and Special)
These five episodes were very risky at the time. The storyline got a little brutal in places. Also since they were still in the prequel seasons, I ran the risk of creating plot errors. You know, typical prequel errors. However it turned out pretty well. I had the choice of parodying/doing my own take on the weaker half of Voyager's third season, or doing something completely new. I chose the latter. I won't ruin it by talking about it. I'll just say it has the perfect mix of character development, drama and action. Keep going until you're done with Mind Games, which will seem pretty damn confusing when you start it. That's intentional.

Reboot 1.03: Year of Hell
This is my own take on the Voyager classic, only I changed why they are damaged in the first place. It follows on from episode 2's cliffhanger, but the episode does a fine job of making sure you don't need to read that. The cliffhanger itself is at the beginning in a different perspective so you don't miss that, and the characters explain enough to make it work. It's a good episode worthy of a read.

Reboot 1.09: Worse Case Scenario 2
It's 100% pure silliness and I hope that everyone who reads it laughs at least one of the jokes. It's a parody sequel to Worst Case Scenario (and the B4FV version of it of course. Though I do recommend reading that too, at least just the holodeck parts of it) and to be honest, it's just harmless fun. Since most of my recommendations have been mostly serious, story arc based episodes, I thought a nice humour episode would be a good idea.

Reboot 2.04 Disconnected and 2.05 Resistance
These IMO were highlights of the second season and their reboots have only improved on them.

Episode 2.28: Man Out Of You
I was still writing bad parodies and stealing storylines from various different things, so Man Out Of You was definitely out of place. That's why it's here. It could be better. I imagine a modern day version of it to be perfect, especially with my experience in developing its storyline in Season Five. However it does what it set out to do well. People who have reviewed it, one without having read FV before or watched Voyager for that matter, said it did a realistic job of portraying a character who suffered from physical and mental abuse at a very young age. Its only flaw other than not being written today is that the ending was rushed. Other than that, I highly recommend it.

Episode 3.09: Akoonah Matata
Here's another rec for the silly FV humour list. Akoonah uses one of my favourite storytelling methods, as it is ripe for parody and makes it a change from chronological order. What is it? Basically something happens "off screen". The characters then gather around to figure out why, so they tell their version of events, which is shown via narrated flashbacks. Since it's a character telling the story, it's realistic to assume the events aren't accurate due to imperfect memory and some people may intentionally tell it differently so they look better. I've done this in a few episodes but Akoonah Matata still has my favourite use of this. I won't ruin it, see for yourself.

Episode 4.04: Dissidia
Ohno it's an amnesia episode, run for the hills. Normally I don't like them myself. They're up there with possession and one off love interest episodes of anything. It's not the full point of it. Some of the characters volunteer to take part in a dangerous fighting game, which if they lose will mean the ship is trapped, forced to play further games until they do win. The rules aren't clear and worst of all, anybody who isn't naturally meant to take part in these games loses their memories. I like this one because the memory loss aspect works. Jessie's story in the episode is a good hint of things to come in her arc, while developing her nicely. The scene where she faces off against her old foe, I love everything about it.

Closing of the Eyes and Burnt Out And Falling (Season Four Episode's 24 & 25)
They're sad, they're brutal, but they still have time for some of my bad humour. These are pivotal episodes which greatly affect Season Five.

I did warn you that spoilers would be around here. I really only recommend these two if you're okay with knowing which characters will die later, when you start reading in order. That's all I can say and even that's too much.

Episode 5.09: Death of the Soul (with Queuing Forever as a prologue)
I could not write this episode back in 2008 as I didn't think I could pull it off. It stopped me from writing for years. When I came back, I was more than ready. This episode IMO is perfect. The multiple storylines, which still connect together nicely, are interesting and each have their own charm about them. Mostly all of the characters get a chance to shine, whereas in the old days I struggled with that. It has action, humour, sci-fi and fantasy elements meshed together, and it just all goes together perfectly. Definitely recommended if you're okay with the fact that what it expects you to know to read it, will spoil a lot of the series for you.

Episode 5.12: Three's A Paradox
Yes there are a few Season Five episodes here, and I've struggled to keep the number down as well. I am very proud of Season Five and it's because it has episodes like this. The title tells you basically what it's about. Three paradoxes need to be fixed. Three characters are chosen to deal with them, and you go with them when they do. Their particular parts are in their perspective, not really first person. I'm not sure what it's called to be honest. You see and hear what they do. Each character has a lot to say and their storylines at that point in the season are enough to hook you in. Craig's is particularly heart breaking at times. The episode does expect you to know a few things, quite a bit in fact. Remember the Closing of the Eyes and Burnt Out And Falling recommendation? Them basically.

Episode 5.17: Five
This is the 200th episode and I decided that the perfect way to celebrate that, was to explain or rather show how this alternate universe the series is based in was created. You could see it as a pilot episode if...

The only issue with this suggestion is that it spoils pretty much everything. It's near the end of the final season after all.

I wanted to chuck in a few more that I think are must reads, however they do require you to know more about the series and/or spoils it greatly. Five excluded of course, that one is the worst offender for both. I also didn't want to recommend all the great episodes or you'd be left with what I think are the duds to read next, and I don't recommend that.

 

What on earth were you on when you came up with this series?
Well I was fifteen so it's hard to remember if I was on anything, it probably was Cherry Coke ^_^

 

Seriously, how did this series come to life?
I've always wanted to write my very own series. I've had about three/four failed series ideas for Voyager fanfiction before this one, as well as ideas for my own novels.

The first one was the series which I thought I'd be able to publish, god I was stupid. This series was mostly based far in Voyager's future with one or two extra characters.

The second one was a proper What If series, I don't think I named it though. The only episode I came up with was a re-write of Scorpion, the what if was what if Janeway got assimilated while aboard the Borg Cube.

The third one was called something like Front and Behind The Camera Series, which was obviously a behind the scenes of Voyager series but focusing on different actors.

Anyway to cut a long dull story short(er), each one of these, as well as much older work I gave up on, gave me the inspiration for another series. About twenty episodes were chosen to be re-written, some new ones replaced some of them, characters were created and/or adapted from my earlier novels that never were, and a title was made up. Fifth Voyager, or what it was called in the early days: The Fifth Dimension Voyager Series, or TFDVS for short, was born.

 

What's up with the title? How many Voyagers are there?
As you can see above it was shortened from a ridiculous title already, both of which probably make no sense to you. My first idea for a book series was VERY basically about an alternate dimension where another intelligent species evolved on Earth, more advanced than and hidden from Humans. As I was probably about 12 or something when I thought of it, I just referred to it as the fifth dimension. The title was originally a nod to that, nothing more.

I started developing the series before I changed the name, and a lot of the ideas I came up with made me re-think it to what it is now. There's a few different meanings to it, but unfortunately I'm trying to make this guide spoiler free.

Again I've blabbed on enough, so...

To sum up:
There are not five Voyagers.
This isn't a series about the Voyager D or E, aka Voyager the Fifth ^_^
TFDVS was a stupid name.
When/if you read original Season One's explanation for it, it's ok to laugh at how stupid it is, it's meant to be.
This is however a series built around Voyager's journey through an alternate dimension/timeline.

That ^ is probably the biggest spoiler you'll get in this page.

 

I'm a diehard shipper, what shippings are in this series?
I'm not very good at writing romance (or anything for that matter, haha) but as J/C fanfiction was my inspiration for writing Voyager, there is some attempted stuff in there. Basically it's just Janeway/Chakotay and Tom/B'Elanna. I did have some Chakotay/Seven in there but I treat that like the joke it is.

I don't write sex scenes, so if you're here looking for some 18/NC-17 or whatever fanfic, you're in the wrong place. The most you'll get is morning afters, or befores in some cases. I did say that romance isn't my strong suit anyway so I really doubt anyone is disappointed. If you want badly written porn, I'm sure Fifty Shades of Twilight will suit you fine.

 

I'm not into shipping, will I still like this?
I don't know if you'll like it, sometimes I don't. I do know though that the shippy stuff isn't a primary focus, so yeah it shouldn't be what puts you off FV. There are an odd few that you may not like because of this, but as I said, they are few. The series boasts over 200 episodes, and right now I can only think of two where 80% of it is shippy; Grove of H'Taria and Bad Coffee Week, and the latter is only about 40% shippy and 60% crappy situation involving same couple.

 

There are new characters? Do I have to research them before reading?
No. There is a Cast Guide but it doesn't say much, I don't want it to. I want readers to learn about the characters as they go. There are only six major new characters to "worry" about, the rest are minor.

Anyway the main ones are: Morgan/Lena, Kiara, James, Jessie, Craig and Damien.

Unfortunately James and Jessie shouldn't be judged during the original Season One mainly because I hadn't developed them then, so I recommend that you don't dislike/like them until Season Two. Sad but this is why I'm rebooting.

 

I don't care about these new characters, should I continue reading?
I can't really answer that honestly. It really depends on how much you don't care. If you don't like the characters or you really want to read fanfiction just about the originals, then probably not. I hope you give it a chance though.

 

What's with all these blurry banners? It seems like a couple characters have been censored.
Yes they are. I'm not sure if this is a permanent change, I kinda hope not. Basically put, the "actors" I chose for two characters have pretty much lost my respect and so I don't want to see their faces plastered all over my own site. It's a shame since my stubborn bitterness has ruined a lot of good (IMO obviously) banners. One of them is all over the series, so that's a massive chunk of banners too, which is why I hope I'll get over it someday. I've got the originals backed up so it's do-able.

If you are curious as to why this happened, well, it's tough to talk about. It helped contribute to my anxiety disorder which has ruined most of my year, and talking about it can trigger my symptoms. Hopefully if my treatment works I'll be able to at least explain without ending up a nervous wreck, or even better, get over it. We'll see. For now all I'll say is the short version of the story isn't very good, you're not missing much, and the long version which explains why it affected me that badly might put you to sleep. You'll likely think I'm overreacting as well, and you'd probably be right. Until I'm better I won't know if I am or not.

 

I like the banners. Is there anyway to get the original uncensored ones just in case you don't bring them back?
The best way to do that is to request them in the guest Help & Support topic. Reply with which one(s) you liked, I'll upload and share it, or PM it if you're a registered user. Once you tell me you have it saved, I'll delete them again.

 

Who are Marill, Raichu, Firera, Togepi, Vulpix and Char... something?
Oh boy... one of my biggest regrets involving FV. All of those names are the "writers" who appear just for the hell of it. I got the idea off previous fanfics I had read, and I always found it funny. Some do find FV's version funny, but I don't, not anymore. Never mind, it's done.

I'm Marill btw, the others were old friends who contributed ideas. In the old days the "Written By" in the episodes credited them for ideas, even just ickle ones such as a spoken line. There were times where I'd write with someone around and they'd be credited too, mainly cos I write differently with an audience and/or they'd suggest something. You get the idea. I think it's time to admit that it was me writing every episode all along, nobody else typed anything. Having the "writer appears in story" trope with just me wouldn't have really worked, (not that I think it did in the first place heh) so other "writers" appeared too. I'd take my name off an episode every now and then to hide what was really happening (yikes, controversy haha).

It's something I'm not proud of but we all do daft things when we are kids, and as I'm still a daft "adult" it's obvious that I wouldn't be the exception. If you're an old regular who believed it and are a little miffed at this revelation then I apologise, and I hope it would make you feel better to know that even if I wanted to, I couldn't pull off "Written by Marill and such and such, but not really, they just said hey this little thing should happen" nowadays. I'm mostly friendless now, shocking! ^_^ Seriously, I'm only in contact with one of them now. No it had nothing to do with this site. Not that something like that hasn't happened before.

ANYWAY the "writers" characters are not important to the story, unless you check out World Domination, so just ignore them. Unless you do find it funny, heh. They don't exist in the Rebooted version anyway, so your exposure to them will likely be Season Two, a bit of Three and the first prequel season.

 

I've read the post Endgame novels. Have you been "inspired" by them? There's a few similarities.
I'm hoping that this question never comes up, but still just in case I'll answer. No. Not at all. The similarities I've noticed are a bit worrying and don't paint me in the best light. I can assure you though and there is plenty of proof that I developed these plots much earlier than the novels.

The examples that I'm going to go through are from late Season Four up to the finale, so beware of massive spoilers. However if you're actually reading this because you thought of this question, then it's likely you already know them. Still, a warning's always nice.

Janeway and Chakotay's relationship
In 2004 I finally married them off. Five years later in 2009 the book Full Circle comes out and J/C are shown getting together in a flashback. Both of these incidents take part in 2380, and are REALLY soon followed by...

Tragedy
Janeway dies in both FV and the novels. FV she dies in May 2380, while the novels I believe was June 2380 (it was definitely close at least). The FV episode was released 2004, while the book doing this was released in 2007. I didn't know until reading the 2009 Voyager comeback novel, but hey.

Feedback
Now FV gets no feedback, but I did get worried that I'd annoy some people killing off Janeway. Before Dishonour (2007) caused outrage amongst Janeway fans, they created a campaign to bring her back. I'm still a member of that, the irony, if only they knew *snigger*

Resistance is Futile
In FV there's another faction/kind of Borg that assimilates the dead for their drones. You can see where I'm going here. In the novels, Janeway is assimilated by a mutated cube, if I understand correctly the pure original form of the Borg. The cube causes carnage and is eventually destroyed, she isn't saved.

FV started this storyline with a vague cliffhanger in 2004. Season Five started to explore it in 2005 and it was finally revealed in 2006. The novel again was released in 2007.

Evil First Officer
Chakotay handles this whole situation TERRIBLY. He loses his sense of self, becomes basically the angry warrior without her. He completely loses the plot. In the novels his behaviour makes him lose Voyager, he gets counselling. Of course none of what he does compares to his FV counterpart. It's just nice that the author and I both thought that Chakotay wouldn't handle her death well.

Endgame Sucks
Now this is where my proof starts to dwindle a bit, and also the Janeway dies topic segregates for the time being. I couldn't abide Endgame for multiple reasons. The second biggest one was the time travel nonsense. Future Janeway takes future technology back in time to Present Voyager, so they can use the technology to defend against the Borg in order to get them home earlier. As usual you got the biggest error in time travel stories right there. Janeway's future is changed, so she doesn't really NEED to go back in time to do it. The technology she brought doesn't get invented, they already have it. Ignore that and the reason for inventing it is gone cos you just killed off the Borg. I could go on all day but I won't.

Basically in my imagination Endgame became a huge Timeless like paradox. These time travel errors were my inspiration into believing that altering the past is mostly impossible. All you do is set another dimension in motion. Future Janeway's timeline is still the same. But anyway, I thought I could play around with this while making fun of an episode I hate. My original choice was to use the reboot of Season One's cliffhanger, Thrown Key, which originally covered Unimatrix Zero. This was in 2011 or 2012, I'm not sure. Unless I mentioned it on an update page, I have no proof.

Eventually it was decided to use the paradox in 200th episode Five. I needed an original Voyager paradox to destroy space time itself, Endgame seemed more than suitable. The episode was released in 2014.

In the novels future Janeway's trip back made it so Voyager avoided a fateful encounter with something called the Omega Continuum. Now the universe is in jeopardy. The book was released in 2012. Truth be told, I didn't notice how similar it was at first, but I did find it funny that someone else thought Endgame was paradox inducing.

Seriously, good going Endgame
In order to fix the damage, Q enlists Janeway to help him. He has to freeze time around Voyager in order to do this. Then he sends her back in time. Of course as I've stated above, it merely just creates a new dimension. This is the same episode, released in 2014.

In the same book, Q's son gets his mother to help resurrect Janeway. He has other help (and I'll get to that later). He hopes that she can help figure out why Endgame caused so much trouble, in multiple dimensions.

Multiple Dimensions
Fifth Voyager's entire premise revolves around the fact that the Voyager in the series isn't the same Voyager, it's a one split from it because of multiple changes to the timeline and decisions being made differently. The episode Five (2014) explores the premise that's been hinted at and explained throughout the series since 2000, because it's a 200th episode. Endgame effectively was the season finale of First Voyager, and its paradox sparks everything from Second to Fifth in motion.

From what I remember, the actions in Endgame is cemented in multi universes and Janeway is aware of them all because when she died, Q or his partner secured her soul somewhere. I have no proof that a 2014 episode wasn't inspired by a 2012 book. The episode's premise though had more than enough proof throughout the series' 15 years, I hope that's enough.

Kes is Awesome
In 2001, Kes returned for a few cameo's in Season Two to vaguely hint she knows about the dimensions, Lena and Kiara mess. Episode Precise Timings had a modified glimpse of timeline 3 (aka Third Voyager), but kept that fact hidden. In 2003 the Season Four episode Lullaby, Kes returned again to explain that someone threatened to screw up the paradox, effectively erasing Lena and James from the timeline, so she had to explain Why.

Keeping it basic, she explains in timeline 3 James' death eventually leads to Voyager's destruction. Her timeline 3 self travelled back to save him, creating timeline 4. I won't go on as it's not relevant to what I'm saying here. It's just a mild one anyway that made me smile; Kes has a hand in saving the universe by resurrecting one person. Not bad.

In the novels the person she brings back is Janeway. Again this is a 2012 book, but at least the initial episode revealing mine was in 2003 not in Five's 2014 release. Yay.

Megalomaniac Villains
One of my main villains is the focus of the final season. The plot began in 2003 with the "movie" End of the Line, had multiple episodes in Season Four. All of this to prepare for the fifth season's main arc. Episode 9 Death of the Soul kicked this example off in 2013. The villains basically drain the life out of planets for fuel, and probably for laughs too. Most of the planets so far have been left in crumbled pieces thanks to this.

In the novel released in 2014, Voyager finds out about a species that drained the life out of many planets to fuel themselves. This happened a long time ago. At the end they meet them and they seem super nice (and suspicious). The long time ago and nice part's different, of course, it's the drained planet part that made me think. I only just recently thought of this one and that's why this part of the FAQs is here now. It's the latest example.

Too many everything
FV had/has far too many new characters, and a few extra ships alongside Voyager. They temporarily lost the Enterprise but got it back, lost the Leda, a few characters have died permanently.

The novels still has far too many new characters to keep track of, which makes me very apologetic about FV haha. Also a few extra ships making a fleet. They've lost a few ships so far, characters have gone down with them or died/disappeared.

I know it's a silly point/example, I just found it amusing and brought things into perspective for me. Do I cut the characters and ships down because it made the books a little harder to read, or do I think "well if an author got away with it, so can I". Haha.

Spoilers, so many spoilers
I'll start with the novels this time so anybody who isn't fully up to date on FV won't get the big storyline ruined for them. They'll have time to skip ahead. Yep. Okay.

As stated above, Janeway is brought back from the dead so she can help.

In the latest (at time of writing) episode of FV, Out of Mind's Eye, Janeway returns completely separated from her undead collective. She's still technically dead, so whether this is a good example or not is up to you.

She's back and in 2015, three years after the novels did it, and that's why I've mentioned it. I didn't see that campaign and/or read that novel and think, gee I should do that too. I was always going to bring her back. I didn't just stick her in an undead Borg collective for sick laughs and/or solely to create drama between Chakotay and everyone. I planned for this ten years previously when developing her original comeback episode, Closure. No later than 2005, possibly 2004.

Yeah I know, no tangible proof. However there are hints to it, all throughout. The Borg/Tolg thing alone is one as it basically screams "this is an opportunity for the character to come back", doesn't it? It was just unfortunate that I couldn't write properly from 2007 to 2011, and cos of that Season Five couldn't continue until 2012.

The hints are there from 2004, the plan was always this from no later than very early 2005. The hint that the episode Closure was planned at that time is present in a number of episodes from as early as Season Two. I could delve deeper into it if anyone asked. You have my word only, unless you're good at seeing the hints and knew this was coming all this time. Sigh.

Paranoid Foresight
I'm still two books behind on the novel series (*I first wrote this before Pocket Full of etc came out, and since then I've read Acts of Contrition), because I'm concentrating on writing at the moment. However there was a side plot in it, as well as the ending, and the synopsis for the next two books... makes me extremely concerned that another part of Season Five will make people think I've stolen that as well. I can't say too much as there's 1 episode to go, it's still possible that what happens in them may have been figured out by someone. I'm getting similar vibes on where I think the novel story is going. I could be wrong and hoping I am.

*As of June 16, I've read through Acts of Contrition so I'm happy to be wrong with all of my concerns. What were they?

(Back To Normal spoilers) The main one was the experiments being done on Axum, and I thought there would be yet another corrupted person in Starfleet's higher ranks. At the very least we've got a twisted doctor doing horrific experiments on people (ugh the face melting). I know, that plotline's not original in the slightest as previous novels had done it already. I did tell myself that it was unlikely to be at all similar to what the Softmicron does. The only smidgen of similarity is what seems to be an as of yet unknown alien changing their form (abusing a hologram, not a shapeshifter) to manipulate people. Reaching pretty damn high, so not worried people will see FV and think I'm still a huge copycat. Also, that was the cliffhanger to the book, I'm still after a brief skim of Atonement asking "who" to the identity of this woman I feel like I'm supposed to know and react with OMG. Myeh.

The other I already knew I was reaching with. The Confederacy or whatever they're called are nothing like the Softmicron in the slightest. The only thing they have in common is their history of sucking planets dry and not caring one bit about it. So far ^_^ I've got nothing to worry about here. No chance anyone will think I've ripped any of my Season Four and Five plot arc off from these books. Other than maybe the Janeway stuff.

Though a brief skim of "Pocket Full of Lies" first chapter had me laughing in spite of myself, with Miral saying something similar to Duncan in "Dark Page of the Book" when great grandparents were brought up. It's an easy joke to come up with, I'm not going to cry "wahhh my joke" or anything. Honest :P

Pocket Full of Oh Sh...

I have been partially spoiled on the latest book, which is why I was intent on catching up. Something about it caught my eye and I felt I needed to check it out, because let's face it, I panicked so much when I read it. Spoilers for the novels and less so for FV:

Janeway has a daughter. Only it's an AU Janeway not the "First" Janeway.

I've read enough spoilers to get a basic grasp on this, but not the book. I will. I wish I hadn't bought it after it gave me a near panic attack. Basically it all goes back to the Endgame malarky and Janeway's death. My memory of Eternal Tide's a tad fuzzy, but either Janeway's death was cemented into multiple dimensions or her resurrection was. As in no matter what, one of these things happened exactly the same way and same time. Cough. Pocket seems to go into the paradox of Year of Hell (this convinced me enough to buy the damn thing) as well, but I'm still not sure how yet having not read it. All I got was this was the reason another Janeway was around with a (I think) teen/adult daughter, if I'm mistaken please correct me. Neither of which belong in this dimension if you think about it.

Now, it's no big deal. Someone having a daughter isn't a huge god damn plot twist. I just know to start panicking again if this daughter appears with super strength and telepathy, then Q shows up taking credit for it. Which in a way, a Q sorta was... 0_0 If Kes does as well, I'm gonna get a damn lawyer lol.

 

Hang on, you're not suggesting that a published best selling author has ripped YOU off?
That's extremely unlikely and quite hilarious to think about. FV is not well known amongst Voyager and/or fanfiction fans. Maybe when it was younger a few people may have seen it on sites like fanfiction.net, Trek Writer's Guild (it's still there), on far too many link pages in fansites, but it doesn't mean that many people actually read it, let alone read to the likes of Season Four and got inspired by it.

That doesn't mean there aren't similarities and unfortunately that kind of thing happens a lot in the world of fiction. Since I'm a lowly unknown fanfiction writer and the novels writer is as you say a best seller, then I'm naturally worried people will see my work, see things like the above and think I've stolen it. It's not like I've helped my case much, my work from when I was a kid is full of unoriginal things.

It would really hurt if I was accused of stealing. I've tried to put my copycat self behind me, I was a daft kid after all. I've worked hard on Season Five. It, and my ex-novels Millennium which it was based on, were my favourite original creations along with Lena & Kiara's story. Millennium is over fifteen years old, Season Five itself is ten years old. Episodes released post writers block in 2012 onwards weren't made up on the spot, inspired by the Voyager novels I had read. They had been planned long ago when the season didn't have any episodes. There's stuff which were planned long ago, but will always have 2015 and even 2016 on their credits, making them seem newer than the material I think is similar to them.

If I'm going to be accused of stealing anything, look no further than Seasons 1 to 3, or B4FV1. There's a reason I want to fix those seasons. The only thing that could be considered copied material in Season 5 are primarily used for jokes; Annika's stalking and vampirism is the biggest example. You can have One Hundred & One Lies' Audition plot, Meets the Eye's Ring obsession, and that related bit in Death Corridor. You want to count Five because it makes fun of Endgame, fine, just don't assume I picked that to spark a universe destroying paradox cos Eternal Tide did it "first".

I know, there's no proof. At least in my post writers block work anyway. I only hope that the other stuff I mentioned in that list that are proof convinces you I'm genuine. I sound mad and like I'm pointing fingers, I'm not, just very paranoid about what people will think of me.

 

There's a few mentions of a writer's block and hiatus. What's that about?
Sometime during B4FV Season Three and early Season Five I found it harder and harder to write. Lots of things happened around that time and I believe that they contributed to the problem. Most of the issues arose when hosting FV on fanfiction.net, but they were already there in my head. I thought that I couldn't write well at all (I still do). I seemed to go out of my way to get FV attention to either tell me otherwise, like I'd listen, or get confirmation. In the end I got confirmation and blindly ignored the otherwise I got from my loyal readers. The events on fanfiction.net destroyed what little confidence I had. Every sentence was unfinished and I was judging every single word. Everything I wrote I'd delete it and berate myself for daring to write such rubbish.

Somehow I managed to get B4FV's last few episodes completed, but Season Five was where I was starting to show signs of the struggle I was going through. Meets the Eye for example took many months. The only reason it was finished was because the writers block only started to really crush me right near the end, and I had to finish it. After that FV was doomed. Season Five's next episode was the big one, and as you know from the season now there was no way to really delay it for another episode.

I ended up trying anyway, hoping it would mark a big comeback in 2008. Once I got to the part of the episode where I had planned the ep extensively (which is now the beginning of the current Death of the Soul), it died a quick death. My head was telling me I couldn't even write a normal episode, let alone a big one like Death. The big comeback instead was the big disaster. FV only ever updated to change its design once every two years until it came back in December 2012.

There were other problems going on, the main one being my accident in 2009 where I hurt my back. It still troubles me to this day, but during the block it just gave me another excuse. My back hurts, so why hurt it even more by sitting in front of a computer and writing crap? My job from 2008 onwards is a desk job, so the last thing I wanted to do was come home to do the same thing. I have figured that my job itself, even before the back injury, contributed to the block cos of that last point. I still to this day think so as I bring a laptop (RIP my old friend) to work with me now. That was in 2012, the year of the comeback, so it's probably fair to blame it ^_^

The only real reason I'm still here now is that I stopped caring about getting reviews, site hits, messages on my forum, votes in polls etc... I write just for myself again like I did in the beginning. If someone likes or dislikes something, I'll probably never know and I'm okay with it. The only reasons I keep the forum is just in case my old readers/fans return for a chat or for anyone to contact me with a site problem. Yes I know that this attitude doesn't suit a writer. I should care about feedback, good or bad, but the writers block just proved that I'm not yet mature enough to handle it. At least that's what I think anyway. When or if I ever decide to fulfill my dream of writing a book, I'll just have to hope that my experience with FV's near death has prepared me for it.

 

What happened on Fanfiction.net that was so bad anyway?
Ironically in the haven of terrible writing, extra characters that don't belong there and parodies galore, I didn't seem to thrive. Every "new" episode of FV was mostly ignored next to the other new Voyager fics. Every time I looked it was basically a list of fics with a "reviews" link plastered next to them, with little FV in the middle being the only one without. A lot of the time I was honestly relieved to see that, I don't know why, but in the end I started to ask myself why? If something was really wrong with the series, that I knew about but figured I was paranoid or I didn't know about it, as a writer I figured I should know about it so I can fix it. I went into a forum somewhere on that site to ask this, and I expected to be ignored completely. I hoped someone would answer, I knew it would be a bad answer cos that's what I asked for. Unfortunately I did get a one.

The answers that I remember from the top of my head were...

+ Episodes weren't divided up evenly or enough. This is why for a time FV episodes were split into two parts within the same file. Some seasons probably still have this setup, but you might have noticed that rebooted and new ones do not do this anymore. I adjusted for this accordingly, every episode that I had not uploaded yet were edited as such.

+ The extra characters. I know I've hinted to this somewhere else on the site, but the example given was Mars & Venus in Season Three. The plot was focused on the all new cast, not Voyager ones, being tricked into a beauty pageant. FV wise it wasn't really that big of a deal, but any old Voyager fan browsing ff.net would have seen the synopsis and figured B'Elanna, Janeway or *shudder* Seven was taking part.
The point really was there were too many of the extra cast and they were hogging the spotlight. S3 was the worst for this, I knew that already, that was why a lot of them had their roles reduced in Season Four (or were killed off in S3/4).

In the end this feedback whittled the main extra cast down to the six there is now. This wasn't a really big problem as the recent official Voyager novels have more new characters than there are old ones. I started to think the books should have been named Star Trek The Other Guys, but reading it did help me see it from my readers point of view. Too many characters can be really off putting. Unfortunately though without any extra characters, FV loses its whole point.

+ The original cast's tiny cameos were out of character. Again something I already knew and mostly did on purpose.

+ Most of the time nothing was going on (a very, very good point to be fair) and characters generally were sitting around the Mess Hall, never working.

+ The very basic style of writing I picked for FV (which I believe suited a fanfiction series, it was going to be a script before I decided on it) made reading FV very difficult. I believe that was the word used for it. At this point I was wondering how I was supposed to write this novel type series but still keep it chopped up into readable sized parts for the regular fanfiction reader.

In a nutshell the answers I got either wouldn't help or I tried to fix, but things got worse before they got better. I read fanfic all the time and I saw problems like the above. One of my favourites had about 12 chapters that were extensively long. I saw "novel" sized chapters, very basic and/or script style fics, characters acting much crazier than Season One. Heck FV started back in the day where new characters, some of which writers, star in Voyager were all the range. I've lost count on how many had Janeway have a secret kid or have one with Chakotay. I've seen fanfics just about two characters chatting about something. Well you get the picture. For some reason FV did these things and it was wrong, yet with all of these it was right.

So the fanfiction.net part of the story didn't really end there. There was another fanfiction series on there that I really liked. It was well written, if I remember right had a Janeway has a kid plot in it, was divided up into many but large ish chapters, and was quite popular. One review though mentioned me. To sum up it was basically this series is much better than that ridiculous FV. Another nail in the coffin.

I had no idea what I was doing wrong or differently, nobody would really tell me. If it were those things that were mentioned, why was Season Four doing worse than the others? I split those eps into tiny parts, the characters were already reduced down, the main cast had more to do, all of the characters weren't just sitting around off duty waiting for things to happen, the writing style (albeit was generally the same) had improved. What more could I do?

That still isn't it. With all of this and the other answers I got stuck in my head, I uploaded the first part of Closing of the Eyes. The episode was a few years old already, but I figured as it was my overall favourite at the time and the largest as well, I'd upload it a part at a time, not all at once. I had already decided that if this episode failed to gather some interest, I may as well stop uploading to the site. Unfortunately I did a lot more than that. With only a couple of views after many weeks, no views for the following parts, COTE's upload was never finished there and it was the end of FV for many, many years.

Just before the 2013 anniversary on the 4th December I cut all ties to ff.net. I stupidly left everything as it was when I initally bailed, the only thing I did was leave a message on my profile. I did have one or two eps favourited, ironically they were the first season only, so I figured I'd be nice and leave it. The main reason was I couldn't close the damn account or mass delete everything. In the end that site cost me five or so years, it only fuelled my self hatred and lack of confidence so what was the point? It only took me two hours to delete everything one by one, it was worth every damn second.

 

Hunters is referenced a lot and not in a good way. You act like it's the end of the world. What's up with that?
I must admit, the episode "Hunters" is not the worst episode of Fifth Voyager. However for many years I thought it was, or at least it was one of the top five worst. It's not a good episode by any means, but it's not the bowl of mushy peas I labelled it as. It's not the Human Error...oh sorry Threshold/Fair Haven (whatevers your poison) of the series, not even close. Ironically during my read through of Season One for the "ReReads" section, I rated it surprisingly high. Season One has far worse entries than Hunters, World Domination and Muse more than top it. Heck, Season Two and B4FV One have worse episodes than Hunters, and I've known this for a while.

 

So why was it labelled the worst episode ever then?
I think it was a number of reasons. The biggest possible reason was it poorly introduced two of the main leads. The second was the lack of "Hunters" as it focused more on wasting time with the new castmembers, which made it an episode where nothing happens. Out of the other "worst" examples it certainly was more memorable as the nothing happens other than James & Jessie throw bobbles episode.

As mentioned earlier, when I read it again recently I didn't find it as offensive as I remembered. I knew before tackling it that its reputation was unearned, my ReRead confirmed that. Yes James/Jessie's first official appearance is a bit off but it wasn't that bad. Yes it still went off the rails to focus on Craig hanging out with them, but the plot was still there and the Hirogen did have an albeit brief appearance (misspelt but hey!). I didn't hate it, and compared to what I read before it (Aggressions, Year of Hell, Test of Time) it was a masterpiece. Later entries annoyed me far more than Hunters, which can only be described as just being there. Its biggest offence is really the parts where no one knows how to tell the time.

 

So why is it still a running gag?
Well to be fair, it isn't now. It still was during the early days of the reboot when I sorta knew. My answer is simply, Hunters was already known as the bad one. So in a way it IS the Threshold of the series. Not the worst episode but everyone likes to say it is. I wouldn't go as far to say it shouldn't be canon because of it though, which I think the Voyager writers did (then again, it is now thanks to its reboot). That honour will always go to World Fricking Domination.

 

Okay, so what are the worst episodes?
Well, I think you've noticed at least one episode keeps getting brought up. World Domination is Fifth Voyager at its truly worst. It's fourth wall dribble that makes no sense whatsoever, which wouldn't be sooo bad if it wasn't trying to take itself seriously doing so. I could barely skim it, it was painful. Thankfully its been replaced by its rewrite, which I ironically consider a highlight of Reboot Season One. Other choice examples are:

Muse: Hey lets replace B'Elanna with J/C's daughter and her friend, that should mix things up a bit... NAH better idea, lets have the writers show up to take the playwright Kelis' place AND the actors. What could go wrong? Everything that's what. Added bonus, James and Jessie aren't in it so lets force them into it. Woohoo

Timeless: Wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for Jessie's makeup tantrum, 16 year old Kiara digging a 14 year old because he acts like a 5 year old and the comment that he was only created so she could dig him, the incest implications thanks to future reveals, Harry suiciding "off screen" so Kiara and her boytoy cousin can take his place and steal his lines. Am I kidding/exaggerating? I wish!

Year of Hell: Should be called Year of Snooze or Year of Pokémon. No wonder the series was called the Pokémon/Voyager crossover for so many years with a third episode like this.

Aggressions Part 2: Part 1 was a little dull but did its damn job. Part 2 is a completely different beast. Insane, random, writers taking over, B'Elanna stabbing a love rival, "I miss Kes", why is this called Aggressions, Janeway drugging herself or trying to but Tom's done it first. What a load of crap.

Actually, lets look at how I ranked Season One in the ReReads when I was finished. The numbers speak for themselves. Note anyone calling foul, this is with the new scoring system I implemented because of too many ties and Worse Case Scenario 2 being rated either 10/10 or 225% with the old system.

1st: Worse Case Scenario 2
2nd: The Voyager Conspiracy
3rd: Dark Frontier
4th: Once Upon A Time, Collective Instinct, Fugitives
5th: Fear
6th: Mental Illness
7th: Timeline
8th: Holo Q, Spirits and Prepare For Trouble
9th: Test of Time and VTV Live
10th: The Fight and Upendi
11th: Aggressions Part 1 and Hunters
12th: Demon²
13th: Unforgettable and Fair Haven 2
14th: Too Q and Thrown Key Part 1
15th: Mirror Universes and Voyager's Drinking Game
16th: Timeless
17th: Muse
18th: Year of Hell
19th: Aggressions Part 2
20th: World Domination

So 10 and 2 halves are worse than Hunters (while the Part 1 of one of the halves is considered equally as bad/good). So much for that "worst ever episode" title, ey. Not even close.

And that's just Season One. Other seasons have such classics like The Love Spell, The Atamit, Put The Knife In, Rules & Regulations, Phage. I'd rate them much lower than Hunters. In fact The Love Spell has been scored already, and it not only scored so much lower than Hunters, it "beat" quite a lot of Season One's duds. Lets just say if I were to choose a new "worse episode ever" gag, it's a firm contender. World Domination still tops everything, and it's pretty damn hard to beat 0%. The only way it'd be beaten is if I found roughly 50+ things wrong with another episode with no good things about it.

 

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