Timeline for Why did Captain Janeway feel that using the Doctor as an expendable messenger boy was more important than keeping him around to heal the crew?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
16 events
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| Apr 16, 2022 at 9:40 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | @Jontia do they have Nurse Paris by that point? | |
| Apr 16, 2022 at 9:39 | history | edited | Paul D. Waite | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 15, 2022 at 19:55 | comment | added | Jontia | @Lorendiac the real question is why after 4 seasons/years the Doctor is still the only medic. Someone or several someones should have been running through medical training in the holodecks for the whole of those 4 years. | |
| Nov 3, 2018 at 14:47 | history | edited | Paul D. Waite | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 22, 2017 at 7:59 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | ...don’t make gambles as risky as this. If the main priority was to keep as many people alive as possible, they’ve have settled on the first reasonable planet they found. Trying to get home at all is a bit of a hail-mary in the first place. | |
| Mar 22, 2017 at 7:57 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | @Lorendiac: sure. I just think the Doctor isn’t quite the farm — dying of treatable-by-the-Doctor diseases is definitely a risk, given that we see him save the crew using his skills several times, but there are plenty of other risks (unknown races/phenomena/space monsters/ship deterioration/the ever-present threat of holodeck malfunction) that also might immediately kill the entire crew as they try to get home. They do still have all of the ship’s medical technology and databases, and smart, adaptable crew members who can learn. I agree it’s a gamble, but I don’t agree that good commanders... | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 23:28 | comment | added | Lorendiac | @n00dles -- in my mind, "do everything possible to get them home" strongly implies "do everything possible to keep them alive long enough to enjoy getting home." Losing the only expert physician they had was virtually certain to mean some of the crew would die, year by year, from things which Tom Paris didn't figure out how to treat properly before it was too late. As my comment just before this suggested, this could be a Pyrrhic victory for Janeway: "We few survivors are returning home in triumph -- much earlier than we all would've if I hadn't sacrificed the Doctor as a messenger!" | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 23:20 | comment | added | Lorendiac | @Paul D. Waite -- "Lost cause?" I'd say "highly unlikely to pay off, so a good commander won't bet the farm on it.".I can easily imagine a conversation, 20 years after this episode (if the Doctor never returned). Janeway: "Seven of Nine! Another Starfleet vessel has found us and is ready to take us home! Decades ahead of schedule! I knew it was worth risking the Doctor! Hooray!" Seven: "Yes, Captain, but it is a pity that you and I are the only surviving members of the crew after those viruses and other sad events." Janeway: "Don't nitpick, Seven! It's the principle of the thing!" | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 12:45 | comment | added | n00dles | @Lorendiac I agree w Paul, but not only that, it's being lost and cut off from everything you know, the stress of getting this loyal crew home etc. They are relying on you to do everything possible to get them home. As captain, she puts on a brave front, but in "The Void"(if I remember correctly) you see how this stranding of the crew has affected Cpt.Janeway deeply. She must keep morale up and try to contact home at every opportunity. She can then share this heavy responsibility and work with a more hopeful crew. This can be the difference between surviving and not. (Ask Bear Grylls!) | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 9:29 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | The Federation did, of course, discover the Bajoran wormhole two years before Voyager was lost. They could discover another one. As far as finding Janeway to give her the good news, the Doctor would, of course, be able to tell them Voyager’s planned course back to the Alpha Quadrant, so they wouldn’t have zero information. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 9:22 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | @Lorendiac: so you thinking that getting back to the Alpha Quadrant with Starfleet’s help is basically a lost cause? And Janeway should thus be focusing purely on surviving in the Delta Quadrant? | |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 23:31 | comment | added | Lorendiac | I haven't seen every Star Trek episode ever produced. (TNG, DS9, etc.) Was there ever any reason to believe Federation scientists were on the brink of finding a way to create an "instant wormhole" that would reach across thousands of light-years to a designated target zone? (This is a serious question.) And even if they did, it might be, say, 10 years down the road, when Voyager would be thousands of light-years away from the coordinates the Doctor presumably gave to Starfleet . . . which might mean Starfleet still wouldn't know how to find Janeway and give her the good news! | |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 23:26 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | @Lorendiac: you think the odds are heavily against however many people are in Starfleet (tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?) figuring out how to get Voyager home substantially before the 150-or-so people on board the ship manage it, given that they’re struggling to survive in entirely unknown space? If so, then sure, your position totally makes sense. | |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 23:13 | comment | added | Lorendiac | @Paul D. Waite -- "Potentially the best minds in Starfleet" could find a way to speed up their voyage home? To me, that's like saying: "I'm going to 'invest' my life savings in buying lottery tickets, because there's a tiny chance that this will pay off big, and then I will never again need to worry about how I'm going to pay the bills!" It might work, but the odds are heavily against it, and it ain't worth throwing away a very good doctor just on the off chance that a miracle might take place as a result. | |
| Mar 18, 2017 at 15:12 | comment | added | n00dles | I'd agree with that, this mission from the doctor is the actual event that informs starfleet of Voyagers situation. It was a difficult command decision and while I would love an opportunity to slate Cpt.Janeway, it was a good decision. However, there is a backup module of the doctor. | |
| Mar 18, 2017 at 12:00 | history | answered | Paul D. Waite | CC BY-SA 3.0 |