Stofsk wrote:The episode tried to make the decision an important ethical one which had Janeway struggle between what was good for her crew as opposed to what was good for the Ocampa. The problem is, it doesn't involve her (and I think Tuvok was right, the PD did apply as far as TNG's standards were concerned). The other problem is, for all Tuvok's boasting, how exactly is the array a safe method of starship transport? Voyager went through once and a third of her crew wound up dead and there was massive damage to the entire ship (which, of course, was cleaned up in time for the closing credits).
From a certain point of view I would argue that Janeway was right about being already involved.
Consider: the Prime Directive forbids interference in the internal affairs of other civilizations, particularly pre-warp civs. In this case, destroying the Array would be interfering in the Ocampan's fate. Except that, had Voyager not interfered, the Array would have been destroyed anyway.
As it happens, I own Voyager Season 1 on DVD (yeah yeah, I know, but I was a big fan when I was younger). I watched the relevant bit just now, and as I recalled, the Caretaker had set the Array to self-destruct. Why does this matter?
Because the Caretaker would have blown up the Array, but when the damaged Kazon ship hit the Array after being rammed by Chakotay, that caused a malfunction. Hence, in the course of battling the Kazon, Voyager had unintentionally interfered in the affairs of the Ocampa (and the Caretaker). Accordingly, destroying the Array could be viewed as correcting an unintentional breach of the P.D. Given this, Janeway's decision might have been the legally correct one at that point, especially if they didn't have time to figure out the Array and then plant a timed explosive before more Kazon arrived.
In short, I question weather Janeway's actions were likely to be
illegal under Federation law and Starfleet regulations. I do agree with prior criticisms in this thread regarding Voyager's handling of the fight, if they resorted to ramming attacks before using the torps. That would seem to be a rather contrived way to get the Starfleet guys and the Marquis on the same ship, and a failing on the part of the writers. Of course, Voyager had a limited supply of torps, and it might have made sense to conserve them where possible, but in a serious fight where its likely a choice between that and dying, it seems questionable to say the least to hold back on using your heavy weapons.
I also disagree that Janeway's decision was ultimately noble. She destroyed the array ostensibly to prevent it falling into Kazon's hands, though the array was what was providing the Ocampan civilisation with power IIRC. She did this because the Ocampa were considered 'children' by the caretaker, and 'children need to grow up'. Both these characters are dicks - the Ocampa aren't children, they're a weak species who are gonna be enslaved by the Kazon inside of two minutes as soon as they emerge from their hidey hole. If Janeway was serious about helping the Ocampa, and thinking they were irrevocably involved so much that the PD no longer applied, then she should stay behind and foster the Ocampa's development rather than metephorically chucking the baby into the deep end of the pool and expect it to learn how to swim or sink. Leaving the array in place would have aided that priority as well, and what's more if travel back home could be perfected, then reinforcements could arrive and a full fledged Starfleet mission to act as patrons to the Ocampa could occur.
As for destroying the Array also screwing the Occampans, well, frankly they were pretty badly screwed whatever happened. The Caretaker was going to destroy the Array, its doubtful Janeway could have held it, and the alternative was the Kazon getting it. But under the Prime Directive, Janeway didn't have a duty to save the Ocampans. Rather, she
might have had a duty to correct an accidental breach of the P.D.,
regardless of weather it helped the Ocampans. Weather this is the morally correct approach is another matter, but given what we know of the Prime Directive and Starfleet's interpretation of it, it might well have been the legally correct course of action for Janeway under the circumstances. In the end it probably made little difference though; unless Janeway could hold the Array long enough to get it working, and somehow bring in Starfleet reinforcements as Solauren suggests (leaving aside weather Starfleet would opt to do that), the Ocampans had only two plausible futures here: Extinction or Slavery under the Kazon. The only question was how soon they would be forced into one or the other.
In this scenario, Janeway might have bought them a very short amount of time by destroying the Array over letting the Kazon get it, but their fate was likely little changed by the decision.
But no, Janeway decides to waste her heavy bomb ordinance on their one reliable ticket home instead of waste it on the big ass battlewagon that was shooting them up. What always threw me about that battle was the big Kazon ship was chewing up Voyager but Voyager had those tri-cobalt devices that turned the array into irradiated scrap. Why... couldn't they shoot the big Kazon ship with one of those doohickeys instead?
Well, said battlewagon had already gone down in flames by the time Janeway got back on board, thereby nessesitating her decision to blow up the Array.
I suppose she could have ordered Paris to use them over the communicator, though.
However, their is no real excuse I can see for Paris not using the Photon torpedos against the Kazon, as Chris OFarrell observed earlier in the thread.
The worst part, is that the story could have easily been salvaged - simply make the Kazon be the ones who destroy the array in a fit of 'poisoning the well' spite - if we can't have it you can't either - the integrity of Janeway's decision is kept but we don't have the absurd decision to bomb the array (keeping the array would actually be helpful to both them and the Ocampa, while bombing it... helps nobody) and you're left with the 'lone starship stranded on the other side of the galaxy' part to the premise.
This would have been both a possible P.D. violation on Janeway's part for reasons stated above, as well as perhaps tactically unrealistic. How could one Intrepid-class ship with damage and a shortage of experienced crew in key positions have held the Array against a determined Kazon fleet for the hours that, as I recall Tuvok saying, it would take them to use it? Even if the episode were rewritten so that Kazon reinforcements were not imminent, would Starfleet even be willing to send ships across the Galaxy using an unproven tech to fight the Kazon, who they'd never even heard of before this point?
No, it really doesn't fit all that well.
Solauren wrote:Janeway should be demoted, if not kicked out of Starfleet over her handling of the Caretaker Array/Occompa incident.
The only thing that saves her is the anti-Borg tech Voyager brings back, and the damage they inflicted to the Borg.
Janeway should indeed have been kicked out of Starfleet, but not, I think, for this incident. Rather, the Tuvix murder and her threat to execute prisoners in the
Equinox two-parter are probably better grounds to not only expel her from Starfleet, but to try her for crimes and jail her.
Agreed that her staying in Starfleet (never mind making Admiral) only makes sense either as a result of serious corruption in the Federation, or a willingness to look the other way in her case because she made it back from the far side of the Galaxy, with a bunch of fancy tech to boot.
The Caretaker's Array represented a major tactical advantage. The ability to scan anywhere in the galaxy (possibly beyond, but not stated so we'll ignore), and move ships between any points in the galaxy at speeds that make Transwarp look slow.
Imagine if the Voyager crew had managed to secure the array (the thing had to have defensive abilities, or the Kazon would have claimed it years prior), and the UFP used it in defense of the Federation.
Array Sensor Tech: "Sir, we've detected X enemy warships heading into Federation space."
Array Commanding Officer: "Use the array, and drop them off in the middle of the hottest start in the Galaxy. That will show them."
However, her incompetence cost the UFP/Starfleet a chance at the biggest tactical advantage they've ever had.
This is still up for debate, given that Kazon reinforcements were probably en route (the Kazon leader says as much), and that its up in the air weather Voyager could have gotten it working well enough to either safely use it or bring ships to them. If you can't use a valuable strategic asset yourself, it might be considered better to destroy it than to let an enemy gain control of it.
Sonnenburg wrote:Like I said, if you have Janeway strand them there by choice, it shows how devoted she is: she gave up that bad actor fiance of hers and stranded her crew because she is that committed to her beliefs, a truly noble person! If she's stranded there by circumstance, she's just a victim of the situation.
If this had been a true dilemma, that'd be one thing, then it would be a case of "we chose to do right and now we're stuck" instead of "we chose to do right so we, um, got ourselves stuck." The first is tragedy, the second gets you a button saying "Slap Me, I'm A Jackass!" Essentially, it's like that scene with Dr. Evil and Scott, where Dr. Evil is the writer telling him about his elaborate death scene and Scott is the viewer going "I've got a gun in my room, I'll go get it;" how is it a dilemma if there's numerous obvious ways out? That's why (no offense intended towards anyone in this thread) the apologists ultimately can't win this, and I've had plenty over the years offering their theories. Every idea falls flat, because it comes down to: if there was a legitimate reason they couldn't go, why would Janeway keep it to herself, and why would the writers keep it from the audience? Why imply to the crew she's going to be stuck with, "We could go home, but I have decided we won't" unless that's the truth?
I would argue (obviously) that their was a potentially legitimate argument for destroying the Array. It wasn't that such arguments didn't exist, but it may be that the writers (and by extension, Janeway) failed to articulate them as clearly as they might have.
So yeah, I guess one could say that Janeway behaved like an idiot, even if we disagree on the exact nature of her idiocy.
