Does anyone else think that the Hansen's, Magnus and Erin, were wrong in bringing Annika with them on their research project.? I mean for crying out loud though, knowing that as much danger that they themselves would be in and still bring their child was a little bit irresponsible to say the least wouldn't you think? Am I off base here or have I missed something in the big equation? I just feel that to subject your child to a dangerous situation is incomprehensible . The Hansen's should have been reported to the Federation's dept of human resources. But that's just me. Anyone else think the same?
In the past, I often questioned the fact that Enterprise had several children on board, due to the fact that the ship was often caught up in dangerous and difficult situations. I still have the same opinion about that. So you can understand my opinion about the Hansens in this case. "Irresponsible" is one word for it.
Its a case of bad parenting or no parenting. They were going to be hands on in their field forever until it killed them and they would have known this when they considered aborting their pregnancy or putting the sprog up for adoption the second it fell out of her. Nowhere is safe. You might ask if doomed Rene Picard lead an awesomely dangerous life because of his parents choices? Deepspace nine seemed like a great place to raise kids until all manner of evil started showing up weekly.
We must remember though that we are dealing with the Borg here in this situation. IMHO to be assimilated by the collective is a fate far worse than death. If they could have seen what was to become of their little girl they would probably had never dared think to bring her along knowing what the next 18 (?) years would have been like for her.
however, isn't it possible that her love and love life with Chakotay was worth all that suffering and never would have come about without her assimilation? besides she was freed twice and her first instinct was to be reassimilated immediately. She loved being Borg. Borg Pride. Then again the menace behind 1984 was that Big brother was constructing a language within which it was impossible to compose decent in any way. How much psychic surgery do they do to force unity? Even freed, she didn't know that being a slave was bad. I'd rather be assimilated than dead.
I think they had no idea what they were truly dealing with when they set off, and, as such, misjudged what they were bringing their daughter into. I think they truly thought they would be safe because they were not any threat to the Borg. Was that bad parenting? Depends... Some would say it was bad parenting to leave her behind while they went on a deep space mission.
They were hippies. Hippies do stupid things with their kids, like eat them while high. Joe, anti-hippy
Given that before they even find the Borg, they break a few Federation laws, while keeping their daughter on board, I'd call that some bad parenting. Am I misremembering or do they comment that they crossed into the Neutral Zone? That means that they could have come across a Romulan vessel, which certainly would have blown them out of the proverbial sky. So parental abandonment by leaving their daughter with relatives or endangering their daughter's life by flying a vessel with minimal defenses into hostile territory. Which is the lesser crime here?
Ooooo yes, limbs removed and skull drilled into, 18 years of being a Borg, lots and lots of angst when Janeway freed her and insisted she'd be better off as an individual but she didn't agree, four years on Voyager not fitting in a lot of the time...... but that's all ok and well worth it ....... it means she's in the right timeline to have a picnic with Chuckles
Quite frankly, they had bad judgement all the way around. They should have left the Borg alone instead of treating drones like you'd treat a Monkey you're tagging in the wild. There was no reason to go out, with little defense as you point out, to track anything that hostile, that dangerous, or in such a dangerous location. They were irresponsible people, not just bad parents.
I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell me whether you regard it as incomprehensibly reckless that Christopher Columbus brought his son with him on the fourth (and most arduous) voyage to the New World which he took.
Maybe. knowing the dangers that they faced in the new world. But than again the Hansen's situation was a lot different and the dangers they faced were more horrendous.
Christopher Columbus was of a different mind set than information age humans. He would have viewed his parenting responsibilities much differently than we do. He would have viewed his son the heir to his legacy and required him to face the same dangers as him in order to continue his "name brand." In other words a parenting view that considered his son an extension of himself rather than his own person. People continue to fail to make that distinction today despite all that has passed since then. Reward and risk are consequential of each other . I view the parenting of the Hansen's to be irresposnible and outright selfish. The reward did not merit the risk. Unless of course you think the sacrifice of your offspring is a fair trade for possibly a greater understanding of the Borg . . .
I believe that contraception, celibacy and abortion were rampant on Voyager. No one wanted to bring a child into that world. And then there was Tom. He had 5 kids that we know about.
Miral Paris was the 5th one. We saw an entire episode about B'Elanna fiddling with her identified and ratified DNA. Three lizard babies in the middle and then there was Glynnis Paris who vanished from time who was the fist sprog to come to term. I count 5. But I don't thnk leaving behind Raine in the dark ages to raise some Paris mewling is either at all fair or counts as bringing up a kid on Voyager.