Patrick Degan wrote:A few observations:
Lord Poe wrote:I loved Voyager. It was the closest Trek series ever to TOS. It had a VERY strong captain in Janeway. Sure, she made a few stupid decisions, starting with the destruction of the Caretaker Array, but she showed more balls than hand-wringing Picard EVER did. She was more diplomatic and in control than Captain "Al Sharpton" Sisko.
Having "balls" isn't the problem. It's balls combined with intelligence which is the real trick. Katheryn Janeway, in every situation where a decision had to be made, invariably managed to make exactly the wrong choice, even when her choices were clearly defined. "Sure, she made a few stupid decisions" is a terrible understatement of the consummate idiocy of a captain who doesn't even conceive of wiring in a timed device to destroy the Caretaker Array to allow her ship and crew to escape while an active portal back to the Alpha Quadrant was available.
That thought didn't occur to her, no. She decided that she wanted to make sure the Ocampa were safe, so she chose from her sense of morality rather than thinking of her crew. Maybe she didn't want to risk the Kazon disabling the timed explosives? But would Picard do the same as Janeway did? Would Sisko? The answer is YES. Why? Because that was how the story was written. You can't possibly tell me that if Picard was the Captain of Voyager that he wouldn't have made the EXACT same choice. Because THAT was the McGuffin(sp?) that allowed Voyager to be stranded so far from home. Just because you or I would use the Caretaker to go home and say FUCK the Ocampa, doesn't really count.
Or a captain who walks her ship and crew into a very obvious trap simply to satisfy the emotional whims of one officer.
Need I remind you of "The Corbomite Maneuver" where Kirk ignores an explicit warning buoy NOT to proceed further and simply blows it up and keeps going? How about "Catspaw"?
Or one who offers to allow as many of the crew to settle on an Earthlike planet as choose to do so (and thus potentially depriving her ship of a minimum critical number of key operating personnel if they choose to leave).
So she should be a dictator and force those that don't WANT to be serving onboard a ship another 75 years to stay onboard?
Examine for a second the one incident which really should have sparked a mutiny; when she allows two fool Ferengi to actually talk her into releasing them from her custody after capturing them, then fools with trying to recapture their shuttlecraft and wasting valuable time better spent in actually sending her ship through the Barzan Wormhole, which then connected the Delta and Alpha Quadrants once again. That is not the mark of a captain with either balls or brains. Because how believable is it that any captain would have been dumb enough to waste so much time and ultimately an opportunity for quick passage home trying to recapture two fugitives she never should have been dumb enough to be talked into releasing in the first place?
Ok, let's see. How about "Generations", where Picard had access to the Nexus, and could go back to any time he chose? Why didn't he go back to the first meeting with Soran and arrest his ass? No, instead, he grabs a 60 year old man to help him defeat Soran five minutes before he destroys the sun?
Or how about "The Battle?" Shouldn't Picard have destroyed the Stargazer instead of letting it fall into enemy hands? What about that idiot Riker? The entire "Quick! Find a counter to the Picard Maneuver!" idiocy could have been avoided if he (or Data) would have remembered they could take the Stargazer's shields down and beam Picard out of there?
The characters, like it or not, are only as smart or clever as they are ALLOWED to be.
That rationale simply does not obtain. If the series had actually stuck to its premise, a ship with limited resources and a divided crew, facing a seventy-year journey back to home space, could devote no more time or energy to conducting any sort of survey beyond what could be managed in passing. You have a totally isolated ship seperated from all hope of repair and resupply at friendly bases in unknown, possibly hostile territory. Survival imperatives dictate that said ship and crew make as quick a passage as possible while making as minimal a presence of themselves to the natives as possible. Stopping to explore or intervene in any civilisation's problems violates these imperatives in toto, and wastes resources the ship doesn't have to spare. Under those conditions, the only valid mission is to return to homespace. Only exploration and investigation which advances that aim has any validity.
Your opinion, but I think you are absolutely wrong. I guarantee if Janeway simply hauled ass home with ZERO exploration, there would have been an even BIGGER outcry from the public. She probablyy realized early on that a 75 year trip home is unrealistic anyway, so they might as well make their legacy mean something by collecting data for future Starefleet use.
Besides, how would she explore avenues of
getting home quicker by keeping themselves isolated from the tech, culture, and phenomena of the Delta Quadrant?
As for Kirk "offering his ship to defend alien civilisations from the Klingons or whomever", I'm afraid that never happened. Kirk never intervened willy-nilly in any war or invasion but in every case was driven by pragmatism.
Call it what you want; it still adds up to the exact same thing.
At Organia, for example, Kirk did not "offer up ship and crew" to defend Organia from a Klingon invasion force; he instead ordered Sulu to take the Enterprise out of the system and bring back reinforcements.
While he ansd Spock were willing to sacrifice themselves for the Organians who wouldn't lift a finger to help.
That sort of rational judgement, by contrast, always seemed utterly alien to the thought processes of Katneryn Janeway.
Where the fuck is she going to get reinforcements from??
