Equinox (Spoilers)

[konitzlee]

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CAREFUL, SPOILERS AHEAD
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I have just watched again "Equinox", there are, in my humble opinion, a few weak points I'd like to point out.

First of all, after the USS Equinox was found, wouldn't it have made more sense for the Equinox crew to leave all that's in the past behind, scuttle the ship (as Janeway proposed) and continue aboard Voyager?

Also, when it came to combat, how was it possible that a Nova class ship that was already in awful condition could stand against a ship twice her size?

Also, after what has happened before with Seska, why isn't Tuvok monitoring communications coming out of Voyager? Shouldn't there be a program notifying head of security that a communication is in place?

What do you think?

P.S. Of course I know the Equinox's crew was supposed to be bad, and hand't they decided to behave badly we wouldn't have had an episode. But still...

 

[hux]

Spoilers? Aww Bless

It would have made more sense to simply join voyager but I think Ransom was ultimately a decent bloke and knew that what he'd done was unacceptable and unforgivable. Joining Voyager would mean having to carry that guilt and he'd clearly rather find a way to justify it by getting his crew home quickly and successfully or end it by getting caught and finding redemption in accepting his crime. By the end, he chooses to accept that he is guilty of an unforgivable crime

Tuvok is good at security when the story requires it. Tuvok is bad at security when the story requires it.

Escaping characters can be caught in a tractor beam when the story requires it. Escaping characters can get away while a crew member says "I couldn't get a lock" when the story requires it

 

[AlanAlias]

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CAREFUL, SPOILERS AHEAD
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I can't stop laughing.

But seriously,

There can be only ONE ship! Voyager.

The Delta Quadrant is not big enough.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Point #1: Even if they wanted to do so, they would have had to cover up their entire logs, they would have had to explain away all the revenge attacks, and then they'd have to give up the prospect of getting home faster. At that point they had already been corrupted.

Point #2: I don't remember when this happened, IIRC wasn't there sabotage involved?

Point #3: There's more implicit trust with Starfleet officers. In TNG they had trouble even accepting that a single Starfleet officer would betray principle.

 

[Guy Gardener]

They faked a radiation leak that briefly hid their space dolphin powered alternative reactor.

When they left, the broke Voyager's shields, which left it open to space dolphin assault.

Have you ever been assaulted by a regular dolphin while swimming?

Not nice is it.

Now imagine an astronaut being violated by a space dolphin.

It's got nothing to do with love.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

and then they'd have to give up the prospect of getting home faster

It was a typical Ahab deal that Trek likes so much.

They couldn't give that up, they were obsessed with the pursuit of it. They would do anything to protect their group goal. Even though taking heaps longer to get home and being on comfy VOY with good food should have been salvation it couldn't be.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I couldn't stand the numbers.

They started with 20 crew when they met Voyager.

Even by the time they were down to Burke and some gold shirt ####, the XO was still willing to kill everyone on Voyager to get home.

For the episode to have made sense, Equinox should have had more crew than Voyager so that sacrificing Voyager was numerically justifiable.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

They were true believers. The needs of true believers always outweigh the needs of the riff raff. And yes the riff raff is always greater in number, that's because they are not special.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No one on Equinox thought that they were true believers anymore.

Sure Burke was an empty on the inside ####, and didn't count.

But everyone else shat on their oath and didn't deserve their uniform anymore.

Thier new engine was equal parts space dolphin soul, and shame.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I meant they were true believers in their hunt for their whale, ie faster travel home. It sets them apart from the riff raff who are still blathering about starfleet while lost in the DQ.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I call that Ahabbing.

But I think you're using the phrase incorrectly.

Do they truthfully believe in what they are doing or do they believe there is truth in what they are doing?

Burke didn't believe in anything, and the rest of the crew were lying to themselves that serial murdering was a price they could stomach paying.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I explained it in post no. 6.

They believed in their obsession, and their mandate to pursue it.

Of course a lot of it end up being that you invest so much and burn so many bridges you can't go back. So you break your little ships, or in this case their big ship, their career, their lives.

 

[konitzlee]

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CAREFUL, SPOILERS AHEAD
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I can't stop laughing.

But seriously,

There can be only ONE ship! Voyager.

The Delta Quadrant is not big enough.

I know right!! But hey, I'm watching Voyager for the first time!!!

 

[Immolatus]

Did Equinox know from the beginning that the aliens were sentient?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Yup.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

There would be two captains aboard one ship. Ransom would have had to accepted a demotion because Janeway had higher authority than he did.

I think.

 

[Guy Gardener]

There were 5 or 6 captains aboard the Enterprise in the later TOS movies.

Janeway had fleet command because her ship was tactically superior.

JANEWAY: Starfleet Regulation one hundred ninety one, Article fourteen. In a combat situation involving more than one ship, command falls to the vessel with tactical superiority. I looked it up this morning.

(I think this next is new idea from me?)

If Ransom had told the truth: "My ship is 200 times faster than your ship" then Equinox would have been evidentially tactically superior to Voyager and Ransom would have been fairly awarded fleet command by the rulebook, and the first time Janeway tried to buck his legal command of their convoy, young Kathy is a mutineer deserving a good hanging.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

I can't imagine Janeway and Ransom working together on an equal footing and on a long lasting. They are too similar (clever, proud, stubborn until become unreasonable) for it to work. At a moment or the other one, one of the two would have wanted to get the upper hand... .
Well, as Starborn Dragon said, there can be only one capitain and !ike Voyager was supposed to be tactically superior (but this detail is irrelevent because USS Equinox was in poor condition at the arrival of Voyager), it would have been
Janeway.
And, in this case, what to make do Ransom? To demote him and to give him the place of First Officer (as ex captain, he couldn't occupy a post below a certain rank, right?) instead of Chakotay.
And in this hypothesis, what about Chakotay?

More seriously, I would have adored seeing John Savage occupying the role of First Officer instead of Robert Baltran (of course, the character would not have any more been Amerindian but well; we would have survived this change!). I trully think that the producers/scriptwriters would have given more complexity to the character, particularly when the performer is brilliant as Savage (look what they made for Janeway/Mulgrew, The Doctor/Picardo and Seven/Ryan).

 

[Guy Gardener]

Ransom was given a tiny ship, with a tiny crew, and only allowed to go on pure science missions.

Janeway was given a tiny ship and a tiny crew and on her FIRST mission, she's given a weapon of mass destruction to exterminate a Maquis cell.

Ransom is a squint, and Janeway is an assassin.

Neither one of them is well adjusted to work well with normal people.

Janeway steamrolls through opposing ideology, meanwhile Ransom ignores and weaves around anyone elses authority.

They're both assholes.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Ransom was given a tiny ship, with a tiny crew, and only allowed to go on pure science missions.

Janeway was given a tiny ship and a tiny crew and on her FIRST mission, she's given a weapon of mass destruction to exterminate a Maquis cell.

Ransom is a squint, and Janeway is an assassin.

Neither one of them is well adjusted to work well with normal people.

Janeway steamrolls through opposing ideology, meanwhile Ransom ignores and weaves around anyone elses authority.

They're both assholes.

Well, maybe, Janeway and Ransom are both a little crazy but their respective crews must be too because they are devoted bodies and souls!

It seems too me that Starflleet does not love normal people!

I am curious to know your opinion on the other captains (Kirk, Sisko,Picard)