The lack of children has always puzzled me since I seem to notice that most people in the modern world don't want their children and never asked for them in the first place (No, no, you're the exception.), which has me believe that the contraceptive measures used on Voyager must have been so magnificent that every "unpregnancy" was completely planned... But what if there were accidents and enough intentional births that Voyagers resources began to "stretch"?
With as many as 70 breeding pairs, a genial preference for monogamy, coupled with a healthy sexdrive, and considerings toward family building as well as crew replacement, you'd have to assume that the breeding pairs would be churning out at least 3 dozen kids per annum for the first couple years before the terror of raising children completely sours the relative pleasure of an orgasm relents the baby output a little... But with those "conservative" figures, even if the breeding pairs remain static, by the 4th or 5th season the toddlers and preschoolers would be outnumbering the adults...
If it wasn't for a holodeck being retrofitted into a kindergarten, and the other into a primary school, which were both muled by a holographic support staff, you would have to wonder what a total lack of humanity in the raising of these "little humans" (and others) would mean for their emotional development (Hells, it was good enough for Seven of Nine?) that worried parents wouldn't insist that holograms run the ship instead and that they raise the childrenif we must place more realistic priorities on these things?
Janeway could lose half her crew or more and still have to supply resources to feed, clothe and nurture an extra few hundred "people" as the years rolled by that she might have had to eventually put "limits" on reproduction to safegurad those already in her care from going without?
How many mewling brats do you think it would have taken to reach Voyagers fulcrum demoting the lot of them into some third world like status and how many seasons/yarns/cycles would it have taken the crew to reach this type of population collapse?
With as many as 70 breeding pairs, a genial preference for monogamy, coupled with a healthy sexdrive, and considerings toward family building as well as crew replacement, you'd have to assume that the breeding pairs would be churning out at least 3 dozen kids per annum for the first couple years before the terror of raising children completely sours the relative pleasure of an orgasm relents the baby output a little... But with those "conservative" figures, even if the breeding pairs remain static, by the 4th or 5th season the toddlers and preschoolers would be outnumbering the adults...
If it wasn't for a holodeck being retrofitted into a kindergarten, and the other into a primary school, which were both muled by a holographic support staff, you would have to wonder what a total lack of humanity in the raising of these "little humans" (and others) would mean for their emotional development (Hells, it was good enough for Seven of Nine?) that worried parents wouldn't insist that holograms run the ship instead and that they raise the childrenif we must place more realistic priorities on these things?
Janeway could lose half her crew or more and still have to supply resources to feed, clothe and nurture an extra few hundred "people" as the years rolled by that she might have had to eventually put "limits" on reproduction to safegurad those already in her care from going without?
How many mewling brats do you think it would have taken to reach Voyagers fulcrum demoting the lot of them into some third world like status and how many seasons/yarns/cycles would it have taken the crew to reach this type of population collapse?
