Damn you ADMIRAL

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Unfortunately, there are many candidates for crazy admirals and ambassadors in ST. The two most memorable were Leyton and Satie. They had wrong-headed motivations, but their characters were well-delineated enough that if we're all honest with ourselves, under the right conditions, we might act just as they did.

Red Ranger

And indeed do so.

 

[erastus25]

Janeway was far from 'nutty' and whatnot.
Granted, she violated the temporal prime directive, however, keep in mind that in the first time-line she bonded with the crew on a deeper level than Picard did with his for example.
They were in the DQ for 23 years together.
On most ships, crews get transfered on a regular basis after several years of service together ... but Voyager didn't have that luxury, and it affected Janeway profoundly on a psychological level.

I'm sorry, but the level of bonding Janeway had with her crew absolutely cannot be used as a justification for violating the temporal prime directive. There is now way of knowing how many lives Voyager saved that weren't saved in the new timeline she created, or how many lives were lost because Voyager was in the AQ earlier than they should have been. Hell, the orders she gave as after being promoted to admiral probably killed at least a few thousands. Also, if she really really wanted to save her entire crew why didn't she go back to the first season and send them back immediately after the caretaker grabbed them and before several others had died? Janeway is a total whackjob in my book.

You do realize that going back to the beginning itself would have profoundly affected the timeline?
Such as giving 8472 a chance to destroy every living thing in the Milky way and probably beyond?
She probably picked the last large turning point in Voyagers journey.
Also ... to go back and save Joe Carey would not have been doable ... not unless she was willing to leave the planet and it's inhabitants to continue to suffer because of radiation poisoning ... and effectively speaking it WAS the Federations probe that caused damage.
Also ... it would have been impossible for her to get the ship home earlier even if she did save Carey.
She would have to remain on-board for a while until they arrived at the TW hub anyway, because she was powerless to get the ship home on her own and needed the hub.
In-universe explanation for Janeway picking end of 7th year was probably most of the things Voyager did in the first time-line after they passed the TW hub were not galaxy-shaking events or something that would have fundamentally altered things.

Also, accusing Janeway that she caused the deaths of thousands after being earlier promoted to admiral is baloney and presumptuous because we have 0 clue from canon on what she was doing as an admiral after promotion (books not-withstanding).
The Fen-do-Mar for example.
Admiral Janeway mentioned that her favorite coffee cup took a beating after running into them, which suggests that they were hostile towards Voyager overall ... perhaps a new FC with SF sending ships in force exploring towards that region of space would go more smoothly, or sending people better suited for the job?
Who knows.

Saving Voyager at any point had a profound effect on the timeline. The problem is that there is no way of knowing whether or not she improved the timeline by doing it. That's why there's a temporal prime directive to begin with - because it's totally impossible to predict the consequences of screwing with the timeline. There is no way around it - violating the temporal prime directive is just plain irresponsible.

As for Janeway causing thousands of deaths, my point was we don't know how her presence in the AQ affected the universe at all. It is certainly very possible that by altering the timeline she saved lives, or she cost lives. There is no way to know and, again, that's why there is a temporal prime directive.

 

[Vanyel]

I'm sorry, but the level of bonding Janeway had with her crew absolutely cannot be used as a justification for violating the temporal prime directive. There is now way of knowing how many lives Voyager saved that weren't saved in the new timeline she created, or how many lives were lost because Voyager was in the AQ earlier than they should have been. Hell, the orders she gave as after being promoted to admiral probably killed at least a few thousands. Also, if she really really wanted to save her entire crew why didn't she go back to the first season and send them back immediately after the caretaker grabbed them and before several others had died? Janeway is a total whackjob in my book.

You do realize that going back to the beginning itself would have profoundly affected the timeline?
Such as giving 8472 a chance to destroy every living thing in the Milky way and probably beyond?
She probably picked the last large turning point in Voyagers journey.
Also ... to go back and save Joe Carey would not have been doable ... not unless she was willing to leave the planet and it's inhabitants to continue to suffer because of radiation poisoning ... and effectively speaking it WAS the Federations probe that caused damage.
Also ... it would have been impossible for her to get the ship home earlier even if she did save Carey.
She would have to remain on-board for a while until they arrived at the TW hub anyway, because she was powerless to get the ship home on her own and needed the hub.
In-universe explanation for Janeway picking end of 7th year was probably most of the things Voyager did in the first time-line after they passed the TW hub were not galaxy-shaking events or something that would have fundamentally altered things.

Also, accusing Janeway that she caused the deaths of thousands after being earlier promoted to admiral is baloney and presumptuous because we have 0 clue from canon on what she was doing as an admiral after promotion (books not-withstanding).
The Fen-do-Mar for example.
Admiral Janeway mentioned that her favorite coffee cup took a beating after running into them, which suggests that they were hostile towards Voyager overall ... perhaps a new FC with SF sending ships in force exploring towards that region of space would go more smoothly, or sending people better suited for the job?
Who knows.

Saving Voyager at any point had a profound effect on the timeline. The problem is that there is no way of knowing whether or not she improved the timeline by doing it. That's why there's a temporal prime directive to begin with - because it's totally impossible to predict the consequences of screwing with the timeline. There is no way around it - violating the temporal prime directive is just plain irresponsible.

As for Janeway causing thousands of deaths, my point was we don't know how her presence in the AQ affected the universe at all. It is certainly very possible that by altering the timeline she saved lives, or she cost lives. There is no way to know and, again, that's why there is a temporal prime directive.

Then again her existence could be similar to Picard's. Consider what Q told Picard in Tapestry:

Please! Spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important.

Remember changing the past may not be that big a deal. Had Columbus died before his voyages someone else would have come across the Atlantic and taken Columbus' place in the line of people who "discovered" the New World.

Or, perhaps Star Treks inconsistency with time may have come into play. Sometimes they treat time as a single straight line (City On The Edge Of Forever, Year of Hell) and other times there are mutiple time lines (Mirror Mirror, Yesterday's Enterprise, Parallels, Past Tense) so it would seem that Star Trek has not said which is true.

If that is the case, then Admiral Janeway's actions could have only created a new time line, one where Voyager returns home in 7 years, while in hers it took Voyager longer. Both time lines still exist, each equal in standing and importance.

Anyway, a new alternate time line only means things are different, not better or worse.

Also considering the 29th Century Temporal Police never came to stop Janeway, maybe that was how things were meant to happen.