10 'What Ifs' That Could Have Changed The Course Of Star Trek
3. ...Braga Got His Year Of Hell
A landmark event in Voyager's history, the two part Year of Hell is a unique moment that allowed fans to see what could have happened if the ship had really been put to the test.
Instead of keeping Voyager vacuumed and tidy, the show placed the mighty ship through the mangle, Producer Brannon Braga originally planned to have her ripped apart across a whole season which was something that happened to a lesser extent with Enterprise during the Xindi Arc. This would have been a full scale season of destruction, running the crew ragged and providing what might have been hailed as Star Trek's darkest season. No doubt there would have been casualties along the way proving no-one was inexpendable.
This would have changed the way in which the crew developed and could have led to the first instances of Star Trek tackling PTSD and how they would be dealing with this on a week to week basis. It would have been an incredible, hard, dark season to deal with. The big choice would be if the end of the season would have seen the reset or allowed season five to rebuild Voyager and continue its homeward journey.