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Frequently Asked Questions

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, like a TV show.

What is the series about?
If you are familiar with fanfiction that are based on "what if's" then you'll hopefully get this series. If you aren't then all I can tell you without spoiling the storylines, is that it's an alternate universe series.

What is Fifth Voyager Revived? <--- new
Basically it is the project I created to help me cure my writers block which has gone on for a good year or so. The project is the older original episodes being rewritten with new scenes, a more up to date style of writing (not so much, compare Aggressions to either Alternate Scorpion or the new movie and you'll see what I mean). See this page for more information. Go the Episode Archive to view the new version of Caretaker.

What on earth were you on when you came up with this?
Well it was seven years ago 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, and believe it or not but I've had about three/four failed series' before this one, excluding ones that were not Voyager based.

The first one was The Novel 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 series but focusing on different actors.

Anyway the first series gave me the idea to add extra characters to my next creation, the second series got me wanting to re-write lots of original Voyager episodes, and the third one inspired me to be a little silly as well. About twenty episodes were chosen to be re-written, some new ones replaced some of them, about four characters were created to star or just guest star, one of my friends offered to co-write the series, and a dodgy 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.

I'm a diehard shipper, what shippings are in this series?
Fifth Voyager isn't really packed full of romance as I'm not exactly a good romance writer, but there are plenty of shippy stuff in the series to keep the die hard fans going. There are the obvious pairings like Janeway/Chakotay and B'Elanna/Tom but be aware that other original pairings are brief scenes every now and then, AND there is what I call anti-shipping. I hate anti-shipping believe me, most anti-shipping like C/7 and others are written as part of a dare usually. Those kind of scenes are written to be silly/funny, so none of it should be taken seriously.

Please note that a good percentage of the episodes are rated PG or 12 (for you Americans PG-13 lol), so there are no rude/dirty scenes. I don't ever plan to write that sort of thing so if you like reading romance stuff that's rated 18/NC-17 then you'll have to go elsewhere for it, you wont find any here. The most you get is people talking about it mildly, an odd few rude jokes, and there's only one scene I can think of where you 'see' a couple about to do something rated 18/NC-17 lol. Oh and I find that a lot of people hate storylines about rape, you know I don't like them either but the story was important to that season. If you don't want to read that stuff avoid four episodes mid/late Season Three (Around the Nebula, Put The Knife In, The Deception, and The Moving Shadow.. the last one has that scene I mentioned too, hence the reason why that one is one of the few rated 15).

I don't really read that much shippy fanfiction, will I like this series?
Well I'm not sure, more people have liked it than hated it so the answer is probably yes. Even though J/C fiction got me into writing about Voyager, I don't write an entire episode devoted to one pairing. Since I do want to write for a living one day I have tried to write the following: humour, romance, action, horror, drama, tragedy, angst and I even had a go at a musical ^_^ . Fifth Voyager was known in it's early days as a rather insane and silly series as it's first season was not taken seriously at all, it was more of a comedy than anything else. You'll find in Seasons Two to Four, and in the prequels there is variety in each episode.

How do I get to the actual fanfiction?
There are several ways to get to the actual fiction. First there's the Episode Archive, to get there click on the link "Episode Archive" on the menu. From there you can select a season and then episode. Other ways are the old Episode Log (which is ordered by release of episodes not chronologically, newest at the top, oldest at the bottom. It's quite embarrasing for me to look at now), The FV Awards, and brand new episodes are linked to on the home page. Obviously the Archive route is the best one, the log is mainly for people who haven't visited in a while and want to know what's been added since their last visit. The other spots like Awards are there to make voting/nominating easier, and other similar conveniences. The home page links are there for the regulars who usually are up to date with the series, and when a new episode appears they'd probably rather go straight into it. New episodes aren't as regular as they used to be ^_^

Where should I start?
Season One is the proper starting place, but there are three prequel seasons which were written after the main first season. I'd recommend the prequel seasons: B4FV Season One, with the episode Caretaker. There are about 67 episodes to go through. After that you can straight onto Season One with the episode Aggressions. There are a lot more episodes to read in those seasons, but eventually you'll get to Season Five, which will get new episodes every now and then.

Why is this series so hard to understand? <--- new
I added this question as I've asked this many a times to other people and myself. I can come up with many reasons, however some people may not like some of my answers. One answer on FanFiction.Net confused the hell out of me, everything else he/she said made sense and he/she seemed intelligent, so what prompted this strange answer (you can read the conversation here). If you're wondering what that is, it was this: "Are your characters watching Voyager on t.v. or are they actually characters watching themselves, or what?" My only thought for this was that they were referring to the writers cameos, but forgetting them how could he/she make the same mistake with the other characters? Other people responding to FV haven't had this kind of confusion, and I'm worried that the people who have remained quiet have this issue. Do they or is it just one person who picked Return of Third Voyager or World Domination to read first? Or heck even Director's Cut.

Now my answers are probably completely wrong, but this is just my view on it. I have never said that FV was simple, the Lena/Kiara storyline alone is a headache for people who aren't me. You may be wondering why this question is even in the Newbie Section, I think it would be better to "warn" readers of any confusion they may have, and solve it before it happens. And of course I know there's people like me who like to read stuff like this, despite not being newbies, and yes it might be interesting to some. Anyway I wish there was enough people in one place (forums for example) to debate this, but sadly one or two different answers and my guesses are all we have.

One: The writers cameos and the constant fourth wall (whatever it's called, it should be called fifth wall ^_^) jokes are the first thing that comes to mind. I don't think any episode is complete without a character making a comment about the series. It's usually making fun of itself. The writers appearing was funny in my eyes during the early years, and it just stopped happening.. Season Four's "Happy Ever After" being an exception. Storylines in Season One were effected by the writers stuff, and it went into Season Two as well: Damien attacking Voyager from the "source" (writers), episodes being finished in a hurry by making the writers appear to quickly solve it, Year of Hell, World Domination was a big mess that should never be somebody's first episode. Then came the war in Season Two which probably confused a lot. Later episodes don't have this, a few references in B4FV's third season but that's it. I look at them, and they seem easier to get in that aspect.

Two: The main storyline in FV revolves around Kiara's mysterious birth in the first season, and her "sister" Morgan/Lena. Timeline was one of the few episodes of the first season that was thought out, it had been brought from my old series I had made up to publish, that I can never use. It's meant to be confusing though, but I doubt this is what the problem is which is pretty ironic really. It's more than likely the other reasons. For those that do get confused with this story arc, all I can suggest is to remember time-loops (Braxton's A leads to C, then C leads to A speech comes to mind) and the alternate reality idea where every decision forms several realities where each decision plays out. Then of course reading certain episodes (order doesn't matter too much, time stuff pretty much messes with it): Do's and Don'ts, Loved Up/Worse Case Scenario 1, Aggressions, Timeline, The Love Spell, Precise Timings, True Q, New Earth, Lullaby, True Colours.

Three: Despite being written simply or basically, this could easily cause confusion for some. Some people find they can follow a story if it's written like a novel which describes everything. FV's mainly dialogue, the characters tell the story in a way and well, that could be quite hard to follow. I believe in a happy medium between the two for real books anyway, somewhere close for fanfiction anyhow. This is supposed to be more of an episodic series, it's closer to a script than anything else. This is the theory that I'm not sure about, it's something I've always been paranoid is true. It could well be, but I guess it's more to do with opinion. Some people like to read a book, some just want a basic story where they're free to really imagine it for themselves. Or basically a quick read, typically though sometimes with FV you don't even get that. God help us if Closing of the Eyes was a novel 0_0

Four: The amount of main castmembers. I tried more recently to focus on a certain amount, and keep the others appearing to a bare minimum. Some characters were already in that position. Too many people can confuse new readers as it's too overwhelming to learn about all these people at once. It's best to go to the Cast Guide, memorise the names in the main extra's, and a few of the next ones.. and just basically concentrate on them in the episodes. Forget some of the others for the moment, you wont see them every episode.

Five: Last but not least, I think anyway. This was brought up by the same person that I talked with. This one really just solves the mystery as to why so many people stick around generally. It's something I cannot solve, and it's not something I should or anybody for that matter should. There's so many episodes and seasons. It's probably confusing as to where to begin. Fanfiction.net and possibly TWGuild it's very easy to just pick any episode showing, read it and get confused cos it's mid season or something. It's just like you tuning into something like Lost in the middle of it's third season, which I've done and turned it off right away with a headache. Not that I wanted to watch it, god help me if I did. It also doesn't help that the stuff above will make the confusion rise. I'm still conflicted about keeping the series going on both sites for this and the other reasons.

And there are my answers. There's a low chance of a new user like yourself (or not if you're just bored and wanted to read) reading an episode at random and thinking "hey this episode is good, I'll check out some of the others" and then "I'll have to read from the beginning, this series is good". Not because of the quality, I've got plenty of people who can safely say that it's a good series, but because of the reasons above. It's not confusing stuff like the Lena/Kiara story arc, the Chosen/Natural Slayer stuff, the time episodes in general, or the latest Season Five story arc that's causing the confusion. No, it's the amount of characters, the script like format, the amount of episodes, the writers cameos and the fourth wall jokes. People do tend to get what's going on once they've become a regular reader, it's just getting them to be is the challenge.

So er.. after all that, why should I even bother?
You don't have to, I can't force you. All I can suggest to you is that if you really want to try reading a series like this, and I can promise that a lot of thought, time and care were put into most of it, then try following the guide below. It may ease you into the series, and then you can decide properly if you want to go on.

Pick your first episode
Forget what I said in an earlier question, the first episodes may not work for you. Caretaker only is recommended if you're new to Voyager itself. Yes it introduces some characters, but believe me it's not well and barely worth it.

My suggestion is choose an episode that you like the look of, but don't read it just yet. First, read and follow this.

How big is this episode you've chosen? Does it have parts? Does the scroll bar's tiny size worry you? If the episode is huge and you don't like to read something so big when you're not sure if you're interested just yet, it may not be a good first. Maybe a second or third, so remember it. I'm not going to choose which one you should, but the best kind are the medium sized one parters, whose synopsis describes a "one off" episode.

Now go the Cast Guide. Memorise the Main Extra Cast names. That way when you encounter them in the episodes, you know that you'll see them often. Other characters, try not to worry about them too much just yet. If you encounter names such as Marill, Raichu, Vulpix.. just ignore them completely.

Now you're ready.

Pick a second and third
Do the same again, if you really enjoyed the first you could be ready for longer episodes. That's up to you though. Try to read from different seasons so you get an idea what's different about them, you may find you don't like the way the prequels were done or the first main season. It's best to find out early.

Still here after three episodes?
If you're still not interested at all, it's probably a good idea to change your episode choosing tactics. Try one more time, this time look for an episode that's different to the others. If you still are not interested, it sadly means you might not like FV. If you are interested a little or a lot, now it may be time to start reading in order. There's two starting points to choose from now, you remember the older questions? Here they are again:

B4 Fifth Voyager aka the prequel series, the episode Caretaker. The prequel series is the best option if you'd rather read everything in the timeline's order. Once you finally get to the main seasons, think of the first one Aggressions as a flashback episode, a recap of "deleted scenes" from the previous seasons. Except for the last few scenes with Seven of Nine's appearance and Kiara's birth. Another reason to do it this way is if you're a fast reader, and you start with Aggressions, you'll eventually get to Season Five which is still being written. If you start from Caretaker, you'll have seven seasons with between 21 and 29 episodes each to get through before then. Hopefully by then there will be more Season Five episodes, and less to wait for. Also the main cast is all introduced first episode, there's no more main ones (minus Damien) for three whole seasons.

Fifth Voyager Season One, the episode Aggressions. The prequels were created to explore some of the characters background before the main series, in a way you don't need it to understand the main four/five seasons. This way is better if you want to start with simple, short episodes and don't want to read over 180 odd episodes. It also doesn't introduce the seasons cast all at once like B4FV, if you know Voyager then all that's new at first is Craig, then Kiara in the first episode. After a few more there's James and Jessie, who don't even get a decent intro episode anyway (episode 4: Hunters, it's best to see episode 5: Unforgettable as their intro). Episode 14 introduces Morgan/Lena. Then episode 24 introduces Lilly and Emma, again not very well. They're more explained in Season Two anyway. The main seasons continue in that way, every now and then introducing somebody new.

Phew, still here? If you can read all that, you can manage FV no problem ^_^ I just hope that information was useful to at least one person. I hope you do enjoy FV as much as I've enjoyed writing it, or at least enjoy it a little bit.

Xtra Cast FAQ
More information: Cast Guide

There are new characters? Do I have to research them before reading? <--- new answer
Short answer is, no not really. You learn about them as you go. If you're doing the above method then well, yes you will. One of the major problems with Fifth Voyager is the many extra characters seems to put off people. It's also pretty hard to write. Because of this a lot of characters fail to appear in episodes, and if they do they don't do much. A lot have ended up neglected, a few were given the shaft sometime or another. The ones who got the most attention are the ones you obviously need to get to know. You'll do so in the episodes, so no worries.

If you are interested in learning about the new cast, jump past FAQ and check out the Cast Guide.

There are only a few extra characters that you need to worry about. The rest are minor ones in comparison. These are: Lena, James, Jessie, Kiara, Craig and Damien. They contribute more to the series storylines as well.

Throughout the entire series (with the exception of Season One's first three episodes) you'll see James and Jessie in almost every episode. Seasons One to Five you'll see Craig a lot, the prequel three not so much unfortunately. Damien will keep reoccuring thoughout the entire series. Kiara and Lena don't really make an appearance till the main seasons, Lena is named Morgan in earlier ones. The Cast Guide will tell you the basics, that's all you need to know if you plan on reading in order. However Lena and Kiara's could easily spoil you, not much but it's better to be safe than sorry.

As for the others it's best to just let the episodes introduce them. You wont see as much of them anyway, besides their cast guides can easily give you spoilers about the series.

Why are there so many characters? <--- new
That's a very good question. Fifth Voyager just started out with Lena and Kiara, with the possibility of Phoebe and Nikki joining a lot later. Craig was created during some of Fifth Voyager's pre-writing planning, Emma and Lilly did too. Tani only appeared when I was writing Timeline's first draft, before the series officially started. I had planned a future child to be born to B'Elanna and Tom, but funnily enough his first name was given to other parents (for people who know who I mean, this is a nice little piece of background info about the Why oh Why storyline in Season Two). Another child was picked, and for a while there wasn't anymore. It all started to get worse when I came up with the prequel series before Season Two started. This part I'm not so sure about, I don't know why I wanted new ones just for this series. But I did want to start developing them in Season Two, so six more appeared.

I'm not 100% sure why there are so many, as you can see. I guess as FV was my only writing project, and I kept coming up with different characters I wanted to put them somewhere. By the time they were added, a lot of them became difficult to develop and write.

I can tell you why Season Three is the worse offender for this, despite Season Two getting the biggest cast change. I wanted to do something with the neglected ones. Tani (who started out well) had an extra part in episode 3, Claire was the star of episode 4. Faye episode 5, Lisa and newbie Nikki in 8, 14, 20, & 23. Bryan in episode 11, episode 16 had a few of the neglected girls star in it, Faye again in 21, with a few others. It didn't help that four new characters were introduced in that season as well: Kevin, Sandi, Jodie and Nikki. In the end the ones I tried to develop either left completely, just left the main cast list for Season Four and became guest stars, or I succeeded with.

The funny thing is the youngest additions to the cast that stayed consistant throughout the series were James & Jessie, and that was in early Season One. I had already a consistent main cast during writing, at the time I didn't fully know it. I was always going to use them by default. I do regret putting so many characters into FV, but I don't regret creating most of them. Contrary to what some people may think, I don't not like any of them.

I don't care about these new characters, should I continue reading? <--- new
That depends. Did you just look at the cast guide and think "oh dear god" or something like that? Did you read one episode in Season Three (Mars and Venus anyone?) and felt overwhelmed? Or have you been reading a lot of episodes and you don't like any of them, nothing beats the original cast right?

If it's the first one, I'll say yes and if that's all you've done, then continue isnt the word. Remember there's only a few ones you need to worry about. Season Three is probably the season that was most guilty of snubbing the original cast, unless they were named Chakotay, Janeway and Tom. Harry maybe, but he's out of character for a reason (ah hem, no spoilers here). Give it a chance, you might like some of the extra's and their interaction with the ones you do know.

If it's the second one, please I beg you.. don't judge FV on episodes like Mars & Venus, Director's Cut (omg, everyone should avoid that one). In fact I suggest avoiding Season Three all together if you're not used to the extra characters, the storyarc throughout will just confuse you. The prequel series is the best place to start if it's overwhelming.

If it's the third one then.. hmm, you're very stubborn lol. Surely there's one or two you do like. If you don't like any of them and/or care for ones like Lena/Morgan, Kiara, James, Jessie.. then no you shouldn't continue. You just wont get into the series, sorry to disappoint you.

Who are Marill, Raichu, Firera, Togepi, Vulpix and Char.. something? <--- new
Oh boy.. one of my biggest regrets of Season One. 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 just people who contributed ideas and wrote one/two episodes if I "couldn't be bothered to" or if school got in the way, episodes had to be released weekly regardless. I haven't done that in ages and I left school before Season Two even began, plus if I "can't be bothered" then the episode simply has to wait.

They're not important to the story usually, unless you check out World Domination, so just ignore them. Unless you do find it funny, heh.

Only one of the above still help, she's writing her own Voyager AU series so check it out when it starts.

Did you intend for these newbies to take over the originals? <--- new
Short answer, no. Well ok, that's not entirely true. Lena was supposed to replace Seven as I can't stand the big busted drone. Seven stuck around as it was amusing for me to torture her. As for the others, no no and no. I did make a very dumb unfunny joke in late One that may suggest otherwise, but it wasn't true. Jessie wasn't B'Elanna for example, far from it.

I do like most of the main cast, I just hated Seven. I hope we're clear on that.. contrary to what "Firera" says, I don't hate Tom. Only she did. Heh. What's the point in writing a series with Voyager in the title if my plan was to replace them all?

During Two and Three I did get absorbed in developing these extra characters, I'll admit. When I started FV I wanted to rewrite episodes with the originals still in it, with a few extra people.. I didn't plan on having so many extra cast. Season Four onwards I started to calm down, that was also around the same time I stopped accepting so many contributions from the names in the last question (finale excluded).

What happened to Naomi? <--- new
Yeah.. I never liked Naomi. She was the hardest to keep in character as well, I just made her the opposite of Kiara. Before Season Two I decided to have them "grow up" to make room for the Paris child and the other couple's one. One of the other "writers" ideas was to have her change completely upon getting a teens body, inspired by the last original Voyager episode she'd seen her in, in Season Seven. My idea was to have her get a crush on Harry, it developed into her being boy crazy but never mind.

Doctor Ryan Jones? Doctor Freddie Garvin? <--- new
In Season Two the good old Doctor chooses a name, but has trouble with a surname. One of the characters chooses a surname for him that he likes. There's nothing more to it I'm afraid. Garvin is the second EMH they aquire in Season Three.

Who is apart of the main cast then? <--- new
The main cast of Fifth Voyager is the following (in actor alphabetical, excluding Captain like in all Star Trek credits):
Janeway, Chakotay, B'Elanna, Damien, Kes, Tom, The Doctor, Lena, Craig, Jessie, Seven of Nine, Kiara, Harry and James.
However five of the above are missing from a season or two, for example Seven from the prequels, Kes the other way around, Kiara in the prequels and technically one as she wasn't properly casted until she grew up.

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