scotthm said:
Leaving aside questions about the PD in this case, Janeway's decision was still boneheaded. Why couldn't they have beamed some photon torpedoes aboard the array, timed to detonate seconds after they returned to the Alpha Quadrant?
One word: Kazon.
They had just encountered them. They knew that they didn't have replicator technology, but they didn't know what they did have. They might have had a way to remove or disarm the torpedoes if given those few extra seconds.
She also didn't know anything about how the Caretaker's array worked. She could have destroyed her own ship trying something like that if they got caught mid-transport.
Or, for that matter, the Kazon could have taken over the array while they were still trying to figure out how to use it.
If the Kazon hadn't been right there, and they had time to figure everything out, they could have done what you suggested.
The technology was already stolen before Janeway knew about it. Her decision to halt experimentation did not 'unsteal' the technology.
I was talking about stealing it in the first place. She chose not to, at least on the short-term.
As for it not "unstealing" it, that's the kind of rationalization that Torres had. The fact that it was already stolen did not make using it instead of returning it any less wrong.
Anyway, I'm not really sure how relevant that is to Janeway. Didn't they use it before she knew they had it? If so, only the decision not to steal it in the first place applies to her.
In any event, taking the tech didn't 'interfere' with the planet's culture in any measurable way. How was that any different than Kirk stealing Romulan cloaking technology in "The Enterprise Incident"?
It violated their law. That was the point, like TNG's "Justice," as much as I hate to use such a widely disliked episode as a precedent.
Also, you talk about Janeway's integrity, but you use
Kirk as an example? I know very little about Kirk, but from what I have seen, that's like a fan of the pot calling the kettle black. He was just as flawed and human as she was. I think they both had integrity, to the best of their interpretations, but I certainly wouldn't try to say that one didn't and then use the other as an example.
As captain of Voyager, Janeway has several jobs, primarily the fulfilling her current mission and taking care of her crew. Her current mission was to capture and return a group of Maquis to the Federation. Janeway spent more time in delaying the mission than in accomplishing the mission.
...all to fulfill Starfleet's primary purpose of exploration.
As for not taking Q's deal, as I assume that's what you're referring to here, that's already been discussed in this thread, so I won't beat a dead horse. Q could not be trusted.
Apparently Janeway was not willing to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of her crew. At least I don't remember any. She seemed to constantly be asking her crew to sacrifice getting home in order to preserve her principles. It must have been a great morale booster.
Is her life not considered a sacrifice? She was willing to risk that for one crewmember or the entire crew on several occasions (i.e. "Resistance," when she goes after Torres and Tuvok, "Sacred Ground," when she's willing to walk into that field to save Kes, in addition to the other sacrifices she's already made, "Year of Hell," more than once but primarily when she goes down to deflector control, I think "The Omega Directive" is the one where she wanted to take a shuttle so as not to risk the rest of the crew, assuming there was only one episode where that happened; in "Unimatrix Zero," though she doesn't take the risk alone, she will obviously be the prime target if something goes wrong, and then, of course, there's "End Game").
Then there's also "The 37ers," where she was willing to abandon everything she wanted if the crew wanted to stay.
Then she made the same personal sacrifices as Picard, with even more of a need to do so, being in the Delta Quadrant. I also doubt she wanted to go on the mission in "Good Shepherd."
I could keep going, but this post is going to be long enough as it is.
Perhaps if Janeway was so 'obsessed' she could have had Torres and Tuvok resurrect that alien transporter technology they stole in "Prime Factors".
Do you mean the one that relyed on that planet to make it work and was never going to be compatable with
Voyager not matter what they did?
Some of her interpretations were debatable. Janeway can be accused of many things; she's human. However, caring more about herself than her crew is definitely not one of them.
It's very debatable. That's probably why we don't agree on Janeway's motivations.
Agreed.
That's right, it was Picard's personal involvement they asked for, not Picard's involvement as a Starfleet captain.
