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By the time of Voyager, we were reasonably familiar with most of the players in the Alpha and Beta quadrants of the galaxy. We knew that the Borg were our main adversary from the Delta Quadrant and that the Dominion were in the Gamma Quadrant, but there was fairly little known about the Gamma and Delta Quadrants still. My question is out of universe, why did the Production team decide to set Star Trek: Voyager in the Delta Quadrant rather than the Gamma Quadrant, or another galaxy altogether?

Often Right
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According to the Memory Alpha article on the Delta Quadrant, the decision (to set the series in the Delta Quadrant) was made based on a suggestion by Michael Okuda to Rick Berman in 1993:

The Delta Quadrant was originally suggested as the setting for Star Trek: Voyager by Michael Okuda. On 27 September 1993, he sent a memo to Rick Berman that stated, "Since the Gamma Quadrant is the province of ships from DS9, suggest that this new show be set in the Delta Quadrant. One of the few things we know about the Delta Quadrant is that the Borg homeworld is located somewhere there. This might present opportunities for the Borg to be recurring bad guys." (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager, pp. 207-208)

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Valorum
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    I thought DS9 might have been a reason against the Gamma quadrant +1 – Often Right Aug 01 '15 at 09:44
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    @N_Soong - And the alpha and beta quadrants were out (for obvious reasons) and another galaxy would have been too far to travel back from – Valorum Aug 01 '15 at 10:57
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    Plus, it wouldn't really be much of a show if Voyager could simply travel a few light years to the Gamma Quadrant's wormhole and jump back to the Alpha quadrant. Unless Voyager was going to extend DS9's exploration of the Gamma quadrant. Again, not much of a show if they had done that. Delta, on the other hand, was completely new territory. – Remy Lebeau Aug 04 '15 at 22:57
  • @RemyLebeau makes you wonder why voyager didn't go for the wormhole instead of crossing the delta and beta quadrants. –  Apr 16 '20 at 19:09
  • @BenjaminErickson - Because it's an equal distance to the Bajoran wormhole, but the last few hundred light years are through unfriendly territory; https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/2016/why-didn-t-voyager-fly-to-the-end-of-the-bajoran-wormhole-in-the-gamma-quadrant – Valorum Apr 16 '20 at 19:12
  • @Valorum it is less distance as only one quadrant needed to be crossed and Janeway said in the End of Caretaker (VOY: S01E01-S01E02) "Even at maximum speeds, it would take seventy-five years to reach the Federation, but I'm not willing to settle for that. There's another entity like the Caretaker out there somewhere, who has the ability to get us there a lot faster. We'll be looking for her, and we'll be looking for wormholes, spatial rifts, or new technologies to help us. Somewhere, along this journey, we'll find a way back." –  Apr 16 '20 at 21:05