Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorpion

[WoTe]

Not new here, but used to share a username with wifey, now got my own. I realize there is a lot of threads on Captain Janeway's more dubious decisions... and there's even a whole "Courtmartial of Captain Janeway" online that argues for and against at length.... and is kinda boring tbh.

My problem with most of the cases aren't very clear cut, and I think Star Fleet would have given her much of the benefit of the doubt as do I, as they do officers today, because they weren't there themselves and hindsight is 20/20.

One such example of muddiness is Tuvix. I realize all the pro-life arguments in his case, but I think Janeway was correct in that the crewmembers had to be reassured that if such a incident would befall them, they'd be retrieved. That they'd be rescued over what is basically a multi-week old construct whose entirety of talents and personality all essentially flows from his "parents'" minds and in a sense isn't a tabula rasa person in his own right like a baby a birth. You're not destroying the ingredients afterall, just putting them back where they belong. Even if Tuvix can be argued to be the technical choice in some sense, it wouldn't have been the right choice on a realistic ship and by her crew imo.

But anyway, the more I watch it, the more I shake my head at Scorpion, the vehicle to bring in 7 of 9 and ease out Kes soon after. I didn't catch it the first time because it's just too much action glossing over everything. But it bothers me more everytime I view it. It's not so much to make a weapon to protect themselves, but to ally with the Borg and actively create weapons of mass destruction (warheads really) to wipe out an entire race to get home faster. That's all it boils down to.

Okay, so let's recap what Janeway/Voyager did up to her decision in Scorpion:

1. They're trying to get through Borg Space. They know it's big and claim almost impassable. Through investigation, they find a path of "gravimetric distortions" they name the "northwest passage" to slip through. Going there, they get a flyby of ~15 Borg cubes who are in to much of a hurry to bother with them. Later, they happen upon the wreckage of a Borg Cube.
2. They investigate, find evidence of Species 8472 amid Borg milling about trying to unsuccessfully assimilate it and ignoring them. 8472 attacks Borg and them, Harry gets hurt.
3. Kes informs the Captain the Captain of the 8472 has the sentiment of "The weak must perish." Yet, once Voyager gets into Warp, both Tom Paris confirms 8472 isn't so bloodlusty as to follow them nor 12 hours later by Janeway herself. We get an exposition between EMH and Janeway on how super awesome defensive 8472's cells are and with DNA 100x denser, yada, yada, yada.
4. Then another Kess flashback scene of malevolence, a cold hatred, the 8472 Pilot of the Bioship thinks "The Weak wil Perish". OMG, Kes thinks they're intent on destroying everything! Whatever everything is.

So at this point Janeway visits Da Vinci, reiterates her wish for the umpteenth time this episode her wish to get her crew home, doesn't know what path to take, he suggests an appeal to god, and she gets inspired "To make a deal with the Devil." Yikes.

And she's not saying it as hyperbole, earlier that very same episode:

JANEWAY: I've been looking through the personal log entries of all the Starfleet Captains who encountered the Borg. I've gone over every engagement, from the moment Q flung the Enterprise into the path of that first Cube to the massacre at Wolf 359. Every battle, every skirmish. anything that might give me an insight into the mind of the Collective.
CHAKOTAY: And?
JANEWAY: In the words of Jean-Luc Picard. 'In their Collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy, driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason.' And then there's Captain Amasov of the Endeavour. 'It is my opinion that the Borg are as close to pure evil as any race we've ever encountered.'

She knows what she's up to with that bargain. So what do we have against 8472 at this point?

Harry got hurt. So what? That's the roll of the dice for being on a battlefield, I'm sorry. And so, I believe Kes in this episode to be truthful but lacking perspective (In the Flesh proves this, no?). But what she heard is the equivalent of some alien being in Iraq or Afghanistan a decade back, and hearing some US troops thinking "OMG, I WANT TO KILL ALL THESE XYZs" in the heat of battle and then the alien deciding to take sides and destroy evil America.

What is that tiny pile of evidence and bad circumstances to base a decision on to create a genocidal weapon of mass destruction just to get home faster? Because that's what it boils down to as Janeway made abundantly clear as she piled on the rationalizations. Forget the later episode with the mock-up star fleet base, the fact that 8472 ship didn't follow hers into warp is easily equal evidence they weren't as bloodthirsty as Kes claimed. And that isn't just a side note, it was remarked upon twice hours apart.

PARIS: Captain, the bioship is powering up, like it's charging some kind of weapon.
(Kes is given a view of the alien. She stumbles back into Janeway's arms.)
JANEWAY: Mister Paris, get us out of here. Maximum warp.
(They start to move away, then get hit by an energy weapons. The ship tumbles out of control before Paris manages to crawl back to the helm and initiate warp.)
PARIS: The alien ship is not pursuing.
JANEWAY: Kes?
KES: I could hear its thoughts. The pilot of the bioship was trying to communicate with me. They're a telepathic species. I've been aware of them for some time now. The premonitions. Captain, it's not the Borg that we should be worried about, it's them.
JANEWAY: What did it say to you?
KES: It said, the weak will perish.

Captain's log, stardate 50984.3. It's been twelve hours since our confrontation with the alien lifeform. There's no sign that we're being pursued and we've had no further encounters with the Borg. I've decided to hold our course. The Northwest Passage is only one day away, and I won't allow fear to undermine this crew's sense of purpose, even if that fear is justified.

At this point, your average Hirogen seems a lot more actively hostile than 8472 yet no one gunning for their entire population. After this single encounter, Janeway makes this monumental decision. Think about that. This must violate every directive in the book. If Chakotay had the balls to mutiny, I would have supported him.

Let's think of the circumstances in Starfleet's eyes:

Janeways plan fails. Voyager is destroyed. Borg are destroyed. One little ship managed to declare war on an entire species in its conceit to get home on a foolish plan and now the federation has to be the next to face Species 8472 as the episode "In the Flesh" showed (if it weren't for the all too convenient reset factor).

Janeway plan succeeds. Voyager wins. The Borg win. An entire species, 8472, is destroyed on circumstantial evidence of a few members of their species that they were aggressive and wanted to kill everyone (based on thoughts in battle!). The Borg assimilate this super strong species (that's what the weapon allows, borg nanites to go undetected in 8472 blood) and are now stronger than ever. Thanks, Captain!

Lose/Lose.

She knows this consequence of the Borg winning:

PARIS: An alliance with the Borg?
JANEWAY: More like an exchange. We offer them a way to defeat their new enemy and in return we get safe passage through their space. In developing a treatment for Harry, the Doctor has found a way to attack the aliens at a microscopic level.
EMH: It's still in the experimental stages, Captain. I've only made a few prototypes.
JANEWAY: Nevertheless, if we teach the Borg how to modify their own nanoprobes, they'd have a blueprint to create a weapon to fight the aliens.
EMH: In theory, yes.
JANEWAY: B'Elanna, it's clear from the Borg database that they know practically nothing about Species 8472.
TORRES: That's right. The Borg gain knowledge through assimilation. What they can't assimilate, they can't understand.
JANEWAY: But we don't assimilate. We investigate. And in this case, that's given us an edge. We've discovered something they need.

So either way, the plan has forseeable disastrous repercussions for the Federation. If Janeway simply headed back, it all would have been avoided. Perhaps to wait it out or back to the 37's planet to be among humans. Or find another way home. Space is 3-dimensional, you can go around if you're already on the outside to begin with. Let the Borg and 8472 fight it out and weaken each other. Even if the Borg fail, the Federation has several hundred of the exact same EMH's that voyager has to make the same weakness discovery and they particularly won't have a bullseye painted on their back out of all the space faring species in the galaxy.

Janeway even felt the need to have to lie in Hope and Fear:

ARTURIS: You negotiated an agreement with the Borg Collective. Safe passage through their space. And in return, you helped them defeat one of their enemies.
SEVEN: Species eight four seven two.
ARTURIS: In your colourful language, yes. Species eight four seven two. Did it ever occur to you that there were those of us in the Delta Quadrant who had a vested interest in that war? Victory would have meant the annihilation of the Borg, but you couldn't see beyond the bow of your own ship!
JANEWAY: In my estimation, Species eight four seven two posed a greater threat than the Borg.
ARTURIS: Who are you to make that decision? A stranger to this Quadrant.
JANEWAY: There wasn't exactly time to take a poll. I had to act quickly.
ARTURIS: My people managed to elude the Borg for centuries. Outwitting them, always one step ahead. But in recent years, the Borg began to weaken our defences. They were closing in and Species eight four seven two was our last hope to defeat them. You took that away from us! The outer colonies were the first to fall. Twenty three in a matter of hours. Our sentry vessels tossed aside, no defence against the storm. By the time they'd surrounded our star system, hundreds of Cubes, we had already surrendered to our own terror. A few of us managed to survive. Ten, twenty thousand. I was fortunate. I escaped with a vessel. Alone, but alive. I don't blame them. They were just drones, acting with their Collective instinct. You, you had a choice!
JANEWAY: I'm sorry for what happened to your people, but try to understand. I couldn't have known.

One, there was no pressing need for Janeway to "act" with the level of evidence at any time, Harry's treatment was independent of her choice.

Second, Janeway "coundn't have known"? LOLWUT? Maybe Arturis' exact specific situation, but she could have easily forseen situations just like his all over the galaxy. What exactly didn't she know about the Borg? That they assimiliate entire species and take over entire socities and solar systems and would continue doing so when they survived? That's their entire "Hello" greeting and brochure with the tractor field. This was just an outright lie.

At this point, I think Picard would spank her with "The First Duty Speech":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W0ff2Xns5g

That just leaves getting home. IMO, TNG and even something like the Caretaker showed that Starfleet officers would be willing to forgo getting home if there was a greater benefit. That self-sacrifice and greater good stuff is like the cornerstone of Humanity's awakening in Trek, isn't it?

And yet she criticized Captain Ransom for on the equinox.

JANEWAY: The alien compound. Ten isograms. If I understand your calculations, that's enough to increase your warp factor by what, point zero three percent for one month? Unfortunately, that boost wouldn't get you very far, so you'd need to replenish the supply and that means killing another lifeform. And then another. How many lives would it take to get you back to the Alpha quadrant? I think you know the reason we're under attack. These aliens are trying to protect themselves from you.
RANSOM: Sixty three. That's how many more it will take. Every time I sacrifice one of those lives, a part of me is lost as well.
JANEWAY: I might believe that if I hadn't examined your research. These experiments were meticulous and they were brutal. If you'd felt any remorse, you'd never have continued.
RANSOM: Starfleet regulation three, paragraph twelve. In the event of imminent destruction, a captain is authorised to preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means.
JANEWAY: I doubt that protocol covers mass murder.
RANSOM: In my judgement, it did.
JANEWAY: Unacceptable.
RANSOM: We had nothing. My ship was in pieces. Our dilithium was gone. We were running on thrusters, We hadn't eaten in sixteen days. We had just enough power to enter orbit of an M class planet. And lucky for us, the inhabitants were generous.

Not that Janeway can even claim imminent destruction.

RANSOM: We examined the remains and discovered it could be converted to enhance our propulsion systems. It was already dead. What would you have done? We travelled over ten thousand light years in less than two weeks. We'd found our salvation. How could we ignore it?
JANEWAY: By adhering to the oath you took as Starfleet officers to seek out life, not destroy it.
RANSOM: It's easy to cling to principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that's not starving.
JANEWAY: It's never easy. But if we turn our backs on our principles, we stop being human. I'm putting an end to your experiments and you are hereby relieved of your command. You and your crew will be confined to quarters.
RANSOM: Please, show them leniency. They were only following my orders.
JANEWAY: Their mistake.
RANSOM: It's a long way home, Captain.

Notice how that's almost the same exact amount of light years Kes sent Janeway the next episode after scorpion? (Making everything in Scorpion kinda irrelevant too... actually if Janeway never made that choice... they'd probably never have encountered the Borg again). My daily dose of irony.

If only Captain Ransom gave the tech to the Borg in exchange for passage... then he'd be an upstanding man!

CHAKOTAY: Want your First Officer's advice?
JANEWAY: Allow me. Our deflector's losing power, and when it fails, we'll be defenceless. It's Voyager we should be worrying about, not the Equinox.
CHAKOTAY: You'd make a great First Officer. It's advice worth taking.
JANEWAY: Maybe so, but we have a crew member trapped on that ship.
CHAKOTAY: Is this really about Seven, or is it about Ransom?
JANEWAY: I don't know what you're talking about.
CHAKOTAY: You've been known to hold a grudge. This man betrayed Starfleet, he broke the Prime Directive, dishonoured everything you believe in, and threw Voyager to the wolves.
JANEWAY: Borg, Hirogen, Malon. We've run into our share of bad guys. Ransom's no different.
CHAKOTAY: Yes, he is. You said it yourself. He's human. I don't blame you for being angry, but you can't compromise the safety of this ship to satisfy some personal vendetta.
JANEWAY: I appreciate your candour. Now let me be just as blunt. You're right, I am angry. I'm damned angry. He's a Starfleet Captain, and he's decided to abandon everything this uniform stands for. He's out there right now, torturing and murdering innocent lifeforms just to get home a little quicker. I'm not going to stand for it. I'm going to hunt him down no matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost. If you want to call that a vendetta, go right ahead.

Oh yes, because sacrificing 63 lifeforms to get back home is so much worse than deciding to annihilate an entire race that hurt one ensign and looked mean.

"Look Cadets, don't get your hands dirty. The Starfleet way is to get others to do it for you."

The thing is, none of this is that new of an insight and Chakotay basically points out everything I said in the episode itself:

JANEWAY: But only one Collective, and we've got them over a barrel. We don't need to give them a single bit of information, not until we're safe. We just need the courage to see this through to the end.
CHAKOTAY: There are other kinds of courage. Like the courage to accept that there are some situations beyond your control. Not every problem has an immediate solution.
JANEWAY: You're suggesting we turn around.
CHAKOTAY: Yes. We should get out of harm's way. Let them fight it out. In the meantime, there's still plenty of Delta Quadrant left to explore. We may find another way home.
JANEWAY: Or we may find something else. Six months, a year down the road, after Species 8472 gets through with the Borg, we could find ourselves back in the line of fire, and we'll have missed the window of opportunity that exists right here, right now.
CHAKOTAY: How much is our safety worth?
JANEWAY: What do you mean?
CHAKOTAY: We'd be giving an advantage to a race guilty of murdering billions. We'd be helping the Borg assimilate yet another species just to get ourselves back home. It's wrong!
JANEWAY: Tell that to Harry Kim. He's barely alive thanks to that species. Maybe helping to assimilate them isn't such a bad idea. We could be doing the Delta Quadrant a favour.
CHAKOTAY: I don't think you really believe that. I think you're struggling to justify your plan, because your desire to get this crew home is blinding you to other options. I know you, Kathryn. Sometimes you don't know when to step back.
JANEWAY: Do you trust me, Chakotay?
CHAKOTAY: That isn't the issue.
JANEWAY: Oh, but it is. Only yesterday you were saying that we'd face this together, that you'd be at my side.
CHAKOTAY: I still have to tell you what I believe. I'm no good to you if I don't do that.
JANEWAY: I appreciate your insights, but the time for debate is over. I've made my decision. Now, do I have your support?
CHAKOTAY: You're the Captain. I'm the First Officer. I'll follow your orders. That doesn't change my belief that we're making a fatal mistake.
JANEWAY: Then I guess I'm alone, after all. Dismissed.

I never really got the people calling Janeway bipolar until rewatching this for the umpteenth time.

Janeway would be lucky if she came home in 23 years, when this all was really old news. StarFleet would give her a medal and maybe a figurehead post with no real authority. And keep the story hush hush.

As it is, especially coming home as she did after breaking how many Temporal Prime Directives (they arrested Captain Braxton in the 29th and that version of the guy didn't even do it), I'm not sure if the realistic version would have them lead her away in cuffs and tour Paris' old prison.

OTOH, Kes also persauded Janeway on Tuvix. Given that and Fury, maybe she had mindbending powers that caused people to go out and kill against their better judgement. Maybe Kes will play the Leprechaun in some low budget horror movie one of these days.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Yes.

 

[hux]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Scorpion is where Janeway goes all kinds of wrong. There have been signs along the way that she's slightly out of her depth in the pressure episodes but this is where it's confirmed. It's also the moment that it's confirmed for Chakotay and after he gives his numerous ignored speeches, he clearly realises that she is an inexperienced captain with limited leadership ability. I think it's at this point that Chakotay realises there is very little point challenging her.

That all being said, i'm of the opinion that Janeway was deliberately written to be inexperienced and out of her depth. I have regularly banged this particular drum...

A Poor Captain But Deliberately So Thread
Janeway: Hero or Villain Thread
Janeway's Ethics Thread

There is a sense from the word go that she is inexperienced but we don't get confirmation until the season seven episode Shattered. The line... "It doesn't seem like my first command is shaping up the way I expected... is squeezed into that episode. Now the cynical among you may say that the writers crowbarred this line in after the fact. In other words, she was not meant to be inexperienced or out of her depth as a captain but they screwed her up on so many occasions that they retrospectively tried to suggest that this had always been the case. They were trying to cover their asses.

I'm more inclined to give the writers the benefit of the doubt. As I said, there is a palpable sense from the off that she is not an experienced captain (just certain things she says and certain ways she deals with things) and I genuinely do believe that it was always the writers intention to make her an inexperienced captain.

For me, that all worked. I like Janeway but I recognise that she is dealing with something that she isn't quite cut out for and she does the best under those circumstances. I don't think she's bipolar; I think she's simply unable to deal with the high pressure circumstances that come her way. When it comes to giving orders to fire on those silly Kazon or going back to a nebula so that they can try and communicate with a bit of sentient gas, she's fine. When it comes to the tough, high pressure scenarios however, she's found wanting.

There is a line is Good Shepherd where Chakotay points out that under normal circumstances, a lot of the Voyager crew simply wouldn't cut it and would have been reassigned to more suitable challenges. I've often believed there was a glint in his eye when he says this and that he included Janeway in that assessment.

 

[stardream]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Voyager was her first command. She was sent to find a Maquis ship in the badlands. Had that mission gone as planned the Maquis would have gone to jail and Tom Paris would have been 'cut loose'. She then would have sailed away with Tuvok and Kim to do whatever it was she was supposed to do in the Alpha Quadrant which I assume probably doing routine missions which would have given her valuable command experience. She would have Federation planets to visit and Starfleet within hailing distance. That was probably the plan which as we know was all shot to hell. The woman had a lot of obstacles to overcome in a hurry and there was no rule book. She had to write her own.

I think part of the problem goes back to not knowing how to write a believable female character. The writers were so focused on making her a 'strong woman' and honestly didn't know how to go about it. Writers today have gotten better with the concept but there are still struggles. Ok...today she is strong and no-nonsense. No..that's a bit too masculine. Soften her up. Today she's full of angst over something going on with the crew. No...that's too feminine. Toughen her up. All of the other Captains had their tough/ emotional moments but the writers seemed to know how far to go and when to pull back. They had a 'center' that they returned to. Did Janeway even have a 'center'?

 

[Terok Nor]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

All of the captains have flouted the Prime Directive when it suits them but Janeway made it into an art form. She'd wage war on certain races to protect Voyager's technology and the balance of the quadrant then hand technology, weapons and her military support to other races. She was a complete hypocrite. Look no further than her refusing to have the Romulan commander prevent Voyager's mission as it would alter the timeline and change events in the Delta Quadrant in which Voyager was part of. Cut to the final episode and she's travelling through time to bring Voyager home sooner so her friends Seven, Chakotay and Tuvok don't suffer terrible fates. Tough luck, Joe Carey.

All that being said and as much of a smug, arrogant, pig headed, sanctimonious hypocrite she was there was just something very endearing about her. I should hate her but I don't. How she ended up becoming an Admiral is a mystery for the ages, however.

 

[hux]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

How she ended up becoming an Admiral is a mystery for the ages, however.

As soon as Starfleet command read the reports of Voyager's seven year journey and Janeway's actions, they quickly promoted her away from ever having any further influence.

 

[suarezguy]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

It seems clear that Janeway and the writers cared much more about the main cast-characters than anyone else and the writers expected the audience to as well.
While that's a pretty bad attitude, I'm not sure the comparison with "Equinox" is so close as those aliens weren't also posing a threat to everyone else although that Species 8472 were as or more dangerous than the Borg could have been established much better.

 

[MacLeod]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

All of the captains have flouted the Prime Directive when it suits them but Janeway made it into an art form. She'd wage war on certain races to protect Voyager's technology and the balance of the quadrant then hand technology, weapons and her military support to other races. She was a complete hypocrite. Look no further than her refusing to have the Romulan commander prevent Voyager's mission as it would alter the timeline and change events in the Delta Quadrant in which Voyager was part of. Cut to the final episode and she's travelling through time to bring Voyager home sooner so her friends Seven, Chakotay and Tuvok don't suffer terrible fates. Tough luck, Joe Carey.

All that being said and as much of a smug, arrogant, pig headed, sanctimonious hypocrite she was there was just something very endearing about her. I should hate her but I don't. How she ended up becoming an Admiral is a mystery for the ages, however.

But we are as the viewer aren't supposed to remember something from an episode seven years ago. Sure people can change overtime but her actions in "Endgame" came over as selfish and self centered because she lost a few friends along the way and wanted them back.

How she ended up becoming an Admiral is a mystery for the ages, however.

As soon as Starfleet command read the reports of Voyager's seven year journey and Janeway's actions, they quickly promoted her away from ever having any further influence.

Yep, she was clearly a menace to the space lanes and had to promoted out of them.

 

[stardream]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

One interesting thing in the Voyager re-launch books is the Admiral Janeway who benefited from the seven year journey has to face the fall out from the actions of the original Admiral Janeway who changed the timeline. There are a LOT of consequences.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

One interesting thing in the Voyager re-launch books is the Admiral Janeway who benefited from the seven year journey has to face the fall out from the actions of the original Admiral Janeway who changed the timeline. There are a LOT of consequences.

This sounds very interesting.

 

[TedShatner10]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Sure, completely ignore until they hopefully go away the omnicidal aliens that have tiny planet busting ships that can pop up anywhere in space. And Kes was the one who convinced Janeway how implacably hostile the Undine/8472 were.

 

[Go-Captain]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

All that being said and as much of a smug, arrogant, pig headed, sanctimonious hypocrite she was there was just something very endearing about her. I should hate her but I don't. How she ended up becoming an Admiral is a mystery for the ages, however.

A favorite explanation I've read is she was promoted out of the way. She is too famous to fire, so they promoted her to a position where she couldn't do any harm, hopefully.

One interesting thing in the Voyager re-launch books is the Admiral Janeway who benefited from the seven year journey has to face the fall out from the actions of the original Admiral Janeway who changed the timeline. There are a LOT of consequences.

Do you mean the ones with the holographic uprising and Borg nanoprobe plague? I didn't care for those books. Timeline issues sound possibly more interesting.

 

[stardream]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Do you mean the ones with the holographic uprising and Borg nanoprobe plague? I didn't care for those books. Timeline issues sound possibly more interesting.

I am referring to the later books. There are characters within the book Universe who maintain that the events in the Destiny books were the result of the original Admiral Janeway's actions.

Of course it's not cut and dry. There are a lot of other factors involved but it's a reoccurring theme.

 

[Taelon]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Sure, completely ignore until they hopefully go away the omnicidal aliens that have tiny planet busting ships that can pop up anywhere in space. And Kes was the one who convinced Janeway how implacably hostile the Undine/8472 were.

How do you know they were "omnicidal" and not just "Borgicidal"?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

That's what Ted said.

Kes mistranslated the intentions of 8472.

A proper dialogue between 8472 and Janeway in Scorpion would have lead to an 8472/Federation Alliance, the extermination of the Borg, and probably a lift home finishing off the series years early.

 

[Deks]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

In Janeway's defence, I think that she managed as best she could under duress, considering the circumstances Voyager found itself at.

Most other SF captains had the rest of the fleet to fall back on... Voyager, not so much.

Most of the time, it does seem she managed to hold her ground in line with SF ideals, but other times she also managed to be a hypocrite.
Chakotay did point this out in Scorpion indeed, and as it was noted, her desire to bring the crew home was blinding her to other options.

 

[Jedman67]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Was Scorpion a further exploration of Janeway's character, a vehicle to show the strain command was taking on her and the increasingly desperate choices she was making, or just a poorly written episode?

 

[hux]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Scorpion was written to bring Seven into the show. Perhaps they were so busy focusing on that, that they forget to pay attention to the ridiculous decisions Janeway was making. That seems unlikely though since they had Chakotay constantly remind her that she was being a dick throughout the episode.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Kirk was disinterested in Spock's peace accord with the Klingons.

Sisko working with the Cardassians rocked the boat as much as Archer working with the Xindi.

Uniters not dividers.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Re: Didn't Understand about People Calling Janeway Bipolar Until Scorp

Most other SF captains had the rest of the fleet to fall back on... Voyager, not so much.

Not really usually they were in the only ship in the sector.