In answer to the query "What would YOU do with Star Trek: Voyager?"
JMS replied:

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5
Subject: Attn JMS: What would YOU do wi
Date: 18 Jun 1995 05:19:03 -0400
Lines: 39
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <199506180916.AA091777010@relay1.geis.com>
Reply-To: straczynski@genie.geis.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: solaris.cc.vt.edu
Originator: babylon5@solaris.cc.vt.edu

     Jesus, I don't even know where to begin.  I guess in some ways I'd go
back to the original dream behind the show, which has been watered down in
all subsequent versions.  A Starfleet vessel, the Enterprise, on deep
patrol on the very edge of Federation space, where you didn't have a
constant supply of nearby bases which would make the ship into little
more than a transport ship.  Exploration and first-contact, and REALLY get
into what First Contact means...the difficulty of establishing common
language (toss the Universal Translator right out), pioneers on the
fringe, hoping one wrong word won't get them into a firefight.
 
     I'd use the stability of the franchise to pursue the kinds of harder
stories less-stable and fiscally guaranteed shows aren't able to pursue.
Use it to mirror and examine current issues through a differently-angled
prism.  To balance those, I'd get Harlan or someone else who knows the SF
genre intimately to pull out the most challenging and innovative short
stories to license/option and adapt into our format.  I'd re-introduce
conflict between Federation characters.  We'd see more of their personal
lives, not just playing cards and using the holodeck, but *real* stuff,
having affairs, getting married, getting fired, dealing with the feelings
that come when you're 45 light-years from home.  I'd pack the place with
extras, recurring characters and guest stars to give a sense that this is
a BIG starship, with lots of people, a chain of command rather than five
guys on top and nothing but flunkies beneath, give it the real feel of a
crowded vessel on long, deep patrol.
 
     I'd toss out the technobabble and have the characters ready to fight
their way out of some situations, and think their way out of others not
by reworking devices but reworking *themselves*, outwitting somebody or
something, surviving because they're one step ahead of the other guy.
Definitely more action.  I'd treat the discovery of new worlds with more
mystery and wonder, rather than like going to the nearest 7-11 for
coffee.  Dead worlds, ancient mysteries, beings beyond easy
comprehension.  From time to time, our guys would lose, but they would
come away with a better understanding of themselves and the complex
universe around them.
 
     That'd be a start, albeit a rough one.
 
                                                                 jms