3. Janeway's decisions give cause for worry in regard to the Federation's educational system. Not only do the writers feel the need to put her on the wrong side of every debate between herself and any other damn person on the ship, but they were either unwilling or unable to give her compelling arguments.
Janeway's greatest blunder was in the steadfast decision to follow the primary (and noble) mission of the Federation--exploration. The return trip to the Alpha Quadrant was estimated at seventy-five years, and in Gene Roddenberry's futuristic world this means many of the younger crew members would still have half their lives to enjoy upon returning home. But no! Janeway wants to stop at every Delta Quadrant pit stop rather than picking up whatever information the scanners can gather as they blow through at warp speed. If I had been the captain, I would have stopped for no other reason than to replenish consumable supplies or conduct maintenance and repairs (of course the result is one boring show!) Her decision resulted in a great sacrifice forced upon the crew. Her duty to those serving under her was to return them home, safely and at warp nine. Janeway failed her crew every time she delayed the journey for anything other than the necessities.
Her decision making abilities also suffer when it comes to dealing with alien species or new life forms. In season seven, a number of holographic people become sentient, and steal a ship in the two part episode, Flesh and Blood. If we backtrack to The Next Generation, when Captain Picard was forced to defend Data's rights as a sentient life form, then we know the Federation's attitude toward life does not require it to arise naturally. They recognize artificial life forms. We can go even further back into the Star Trek universe to Nomad, the killer robot/computer of which Kirk and Spock recognized as a life form. We also have the cooler Voyager from Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture, you know, the Earth probe intent on gobbling up every thing from space ships to entire planets while navigating back to its birthplace. But now we have to deal with Janeway who defines life as something that bleeds and breeds. That was pretty much her basis for the decision not to help the sentient holograms in their time in need. Star Trek requires its captains to be right (most of the time), and in order for Janeway to be right in this instance the writers took the lazy way out by making the leader of the hologram ship a bit crazy mixed with a generous portion of asshole. See! She was right not to help them because that one hologram was a pile of salot poop! A bad decision is not transformed into a good decision based upon the unfolding of events in which the character is unable to predict. It simply makes Janeway lucky.
There are 172 episodes in Star Trek: Voyager. That translates to a minimum of 172 bad decisions made by Captain Janeway (she is unforgivably fortunate there was not a mutiny two weeks into the return trip to the Alpha Quadrant). For brevity's sake, we will leave it at the two examples above. Oh! At least she did not make giant lizard babies with Neelix. . .
Reason 1
Reason 2 (Part 1)
Reason 2 (Part 2)
Reason 4 (Part 1)
Reason 4 (Part 2)
Reason 5
Reason 6
Reason 7
Reason 8
Reason 9
Reason 10
Reason 11
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Her decision making abilities also suffer when it comes to dealing with alien species or new life forms. In season seven, a number of holographic people become sentient, and steal a ship in the two part episode, Flesh and Blood. If we backtrack to The Next Generation, when Captain Picard was forced to defend Data's rights as a sentient life form, then we know the Federation's attitude toward life does not require it to arise naturally. They recognize artificial life forms. We can go even further back into the Star Trek universe to Nomad, the killer robot/computer of which Kirk and Spock recognized as a life form. We also have the cooler Voyager from Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture, you know, the Earth probe intent on gobbling up every thing from space ships to entire planets while navigating back to its birthplace. But now we have to deal with Janeway who defines life as something that bleeds and breeds. That was pretty much her basis for the decision not to help the sentient holograms in their time in need. Star Trek requires its captains to be right (most of the time), and in order for Janeway to be right in this instance the writers took the lazy way out by making the leader of the hologram ship a bit crazy mixed with a generous portion of asshole. See! She was right not to help them because that one hologram was a pile of salot poop! A bad decision is not transformed into a good decision based upon the unfolding of events in which the character is unable to predict. It simply makes Janeway lucky.
There are 172 episodes in Star Trek: Voyager. That translates to a minimum of 172 bad decisions made by Captain Janeway (she is unforgivably fortunate there was not a mutiny two weeks into the return trip to the Alpha Quadrant). For brevity's sake, we will leave it at the two examples above. Oh! At least she did not make giant lizard babies with Neelix. . .
Reason 1
Reason 2 (Part 1)
Reason 2 (Part 2)
Reason 4 (Part 1)
Reason 5
Reason 6
Reason 7
Reason 8
Reason 9
Reason 10
Reason 11
Author Links:
Shadows Beyond the Flames
J. M. Tresaugue Books
Google+
Couldn't the eagles have just flown Frodo to Mordor?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, 75 years would be an awfully long time to be stuck in the confines of a Starship going Warp 9. What sort of life is that?
LOTR is a great book/movie if that one plot hole is ignored. I'm sure you will appreciate the link below if you have not yet seen it.
Delete75 years stuck on a ship. . . You have a valid point. Few people are like Barclay in that he was content to live out his life on a holodeck. I'll have to concede that point to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yqVD0swvWU
The eye of Sauron would have performed mind control on anything it made contact on and would have caused the eagles to crash and kill themselves. If Sauron had seen Frodo and got into his head before the ring which held the essence of Sauron within it had been destroyed the ring would have been used to bring back Sauron in his bodily form fully repowered. The book the Silmarrillion might clear some of this up.
DeleteShe had the babies with Tom Paris, not Neelix. I don't like the writers vision of our fully evolved state. Apparently we're going to end up being big slugs that can't even walk. That was a weird episode.
ReplyDeleteAh, I think I misunderstood your comment! Got it now, sorry.
DeleteStill the rest of my statement stands true :)
Frankly, you've used too many words in this particular post. Janeway's greatest blunder is, in fact, the writers' greatest blunder in the entire underpinnings of the show.
ReplyDeleteJaneway violates the Prime Directive in order to help the Ocampa with their Kazon/Caretaker Array problem, thus leaving them stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Yet, EVERY time they have a shot at getting home she always UPHOLDS the Prime Directive and just flies on past.
It doesn't matter if she spent 75 years at Warp 9.8 solid or tip-toed along scanning every inch, it's all moot if she did what she was supposed to do and just left the Ocampa to their natural progression and came home via the Array.
Flawed, flawed show premise which just makes all of your other reasons that much more intense.
I like Voyager and I can think of many reasons to say "It's not the best Star Trek" - or I could even argue that it's the worst Star Trek after Enterprise. However, "she should have just pointed the ship towards earth and gone at warp 9 the whole time" is a dumb reason to complain about the show. Obviously one could debate the merits of whether or not the ship's crew should just sit around on a ship for 70 years (I would rather spend my life visiting places if I'm going to die on the way home anyway) but obviously, as others noted, you're making the "why didn't the Eagles just take Frodo to Mordor?" argument.
ReplyDelete