What if: Janeway Dies in ''Caretaker''

[Mark]

I also can't really see Spock deciding to use "Can I stop myself choking Neelix to death?" as a test of his own self-control.

Aside from Janeway, the ONLY other one I can see getting them home is Chakotay. But I can't see Tuvok surrendering the center seat, or even the XOs seat to him except under some extrodinary quantum circumstance.

Not a chance. If Chakotay took control there'd be a full-scale mutiny from the Starfleet crew. They would never accept a Maquis as CO of the ship.

It would depend on HOW Chakotay became the CO. As was said, Voyager suffered from a critical lack of experienced officers. I DO think that under the right circumstances, they Starfleet crew would have seen the logic of giving Chakotay the center seat. After all, if Janeway died in ep 3 instead, unless the crew mutinied then, they WOULD have had a Maquis Captain trying to get them home.

[Sionnach Glic]

If Chakotay becomes CO after a few years of showing how loyal and competant he is to the crew, sure, the handover of power will go fairly smoothly.
If it's on day 3, when most of the crew still think of him as a Maquis terrorist, expect bloodshed.