Other ships taken by the Caretaker

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Voyager' started by WarpTenLizard, Oct 30, 2020.

  1. Farscape One

    Farscape One Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe the wjole 'stumbled onto a wormhole' explanation by Ransom was the truth. Only they found it very quickly after getting brought into the Delta Quadrant. Almost certainly was an unstable one, because Voyager would likely have found it, too.
     
  2. WarpTenLizard

    WarpTenLizard Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    There are SO many problems with how the writers handled the Equinox.... (Why is the ENTIRE crew of a Starfleet vessel comprised of American-seeming Humans?) In regards to their supposed journey before meeting Voyager, we only have Rudie Ransom's word on a lot of what he claims did and didn't happen. (The species that supposedly killed half his crew at the start of the journey is one Janeway never heard of in all her time in the DQ, hmm.....)

    It's probably all just more writing fumbles as usual. But Ransom's character makes it fairly easy to pass a lot of the plot holes off as more of his compulsive lying.
     
  3. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

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    If I recall correctly, Voyager took frequent diversions due to exploring and what-not...whereas the Equinox was likely on an absolute bee-line for Earth. And think of how relatively seldom you run into people you know just in the city you live in. A quadrant of the galaxy is a heck of a lot bigger than that. ;)
     
  4. at Quark's

    at Quark's Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, it's only small vessel. And given that Starfleet in general seems to consist of about 85 % (or more) 'American-seeming humans' I don't find it that surprising :)
     
  5. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't quite get this "odd they took different routes" thing. It's space they are traveling through. Unless they are taking a literal beeline (which would never touch upon a single planet), there's quite literally literally, for real, no two ways about it, about a million ways about it.

    They may visit some of the same planets, initially and finally, because Ocampa and Earth are on the itineraries of both ships. Between the two, they can opt for utterly different star systems, and for various ways of hopping along a specific chain of 'em. Space simply is big, and full of stuff if one aims for it, and empty of stuff if one doesn't specifically aim.

    A minor choice early on may make one ship miss vast empires later on. It may well be enough for it to miss more modest ones early on, too.

    The Borg are everywhere as far as we or the heroes know. Running into them or not depends on things other than your choice of course. Kirk never met one, say. Or Sisko, after that one time...

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  6. at Quark's

    at Quark's Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^to add to that, the insane, whopping hugeness of the galaxy that only increases the possible number of 'reasonable' travel routes.

    Voyager didn't "explore" the Delta Quadrant as such, they only saw an infinitesimal portion of it. If the Galaxy were a huge pudding, the part that Voyager saw and explored along its path would probably be comparable to a hair in that pudding, and I think even that comparison is severely overstating the part that Voyager actually explored. You could have many of those 'hairs' in the pudding that never even cross.
     
  7. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Equinox was lost after Voyager.

    The Bajoran Wormhole.

    Janeway was there in the Pilot too, so what?

    You don't target the much closer wormhole, because in 30 years, when you finally do get there, what if it's not there anymore?

    Ransom may have done it anyway.

    Resources.

    The smaller ship flies slower, and stays in open space for shorter periods of time before it needs stuff, even if that stuff is just frankly shore leave.

    From the first episode, they've know where all the star are, which is where you find stuff.

    They know if the planets around those stars are M class, which is where you find people to give you stuff.

    They know if the M class planets have warp capable people, which is where you get fancy stuff.

    Whatever passes for Telescopes in stellar cartography come astrometrics, pollution and subspace interference, or the lack of pollution and subspace interference, you can make educated guesses about cultures Janeway is not going to meet for 40 years, and the stuff they might have. Voyager can maybe stop at every 5th planet with stuff to get stuff, and slower, Equinox plodding along, that can't live so well with out stuff for not nearly as long, stops at every second planet with stuff.

    It takes them three times as long to get a third as far.

    If you're aiming at planets with stuff, it's unlikely you're traveling in a bee line.

    Ziggedly zagging across the Delta quadrant swerving this way and that for 70 years until you find Earth.

    Bah.

    In the episode Equinox, the two ships seemed very evenly matched, so what they hell am I talking about?
     
  8. darrenjl

    darrenjl Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    As others have stated, even if both ships headed towards 'the Alpha Quadrant', being just a few degrees difference off their respective courses would result in an increasingly vast distance between their routes over the years.

    Equinox encountered the Krowtonan Guard in the first week of their journey and Ransom continued through their territory despite losing nearly half the crew. Voyager's first week they encountered the quantum singularity from 'Parallax' which may have sent them on a different path. It is not stated how much earlier the Equinox arrived before Voyager, but maybe the quantum singularity was in Krowtonan Guard space, but they had their hands busy dealing with the Equinox not to be bothered by Voyager? Voyager might have exited their space without knowing their existence at all and continued on a sightly altered course, eventually intercepting the planet in 'Time And Again' and continuing its journey from there. Maybe even that planet was under the Guard's jurisdiction? Voyager then alters course to find the dilithium planet in 'Phage' and exits their space completely... altering their path once again further diverging themselves from Equinox's path through the Delta Quadrant.
     
  9. trekshark

    trekshark Captain Captain

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    only if it wasn't Caretaker that brought them to the Delta Quadrant
     
  10. NCC-73515

    NCC-73515 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    they said it was
     
  11. Angry Fanboy

    Angry Fanboy Captain Captain

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    I'd always been under the impression that the Caretaker was originally sending these ships back to the region of the galaxy he'd abducted them from. And given that he seemed to be, broadly speaking, a benevolent individual that it was only as he approached the final weeks of his life that he dispensed with the niceties and started stranding these ships far from their homes.
     
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  12. Farscape One

    Farscape One Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm betting it wasn't because of lack of niceness.

    He was either too weak to send them back, or was trying to conserve power to keep bringing ships in the hopes of finding a match.
     
  13. at Quark's

    at Quark's Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I agree, the Caretaker entity didn't come across as evil. Just as someone desperately trying to fulfil his promise and finding out he hadn't the energy or time left to live anymore, and yes, cutting some serious (moral) corners in the process.

    In comparison, Suspiria, his supposed co-Caretaker of long, does come off a whole lot less well-intentioned to non-Ocampa minor bipedal lifeforms.
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2020
  14. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    By the end, Caretaker was delusional.

    But if he was still raping random aliens back when he had his shit together, that's evil.

    Q did the same thing.

    But he asked nicely without violating anyone.

    Ransoms go to move is to hide.

    He could have been hiding so well, while running, that Caretaker couldn't find Equinox, to send it back to the Alpha Quadrant.
     
  15. at Quark's

    at Quark's Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    What I don't understand, is that he so desperately tried to find a potential 'mate' to procreate (well, perhaps no mate but at least a compatible lifeform) among those 'minor bipedal species'. It seems he clearly considered himself 'above' that (in terms of evolution or some such thing). Wouldn't the chance of finding a more compatible match have increased, had he started 'shopping' with species such as the Founders? Or was it simply that species like those could actually resist him?
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2020
  16. darrenjl

    darrenjl Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I'm wondering if the Caretaker as he got weaker and weaker tried to send ships back but only managed push them so far across the Galaxy. Maybe Equinox got a push but it just wasn't that much.
     
  17. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Search-patterns = Dividing space up into "many" sectors.

    Right?

    If he keeps pulling ships from exactly the same space, to shag, he's going to get same incompatible genitals over and over again.

    Equinox.

    Dreadnaught.

    Val Jean/Cardassian Ship

    Voyager.

    That's four times that we know of that he drew upon the same small patch of space, to jizz at, and drew down nothing acceptable.

    He forgot.

    Careless old foggy kept forgetting he already cast his net at that part of space and did it again seemlingly to him for the first time, because his brain is winding down.
     
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