Janeway's best decisions?

[AuntKate]

In order to balance the "Janeway's worst decisions" thread, how about mentioning a few that were good moral decisions?

The one that sticks out for me is her decision in "The Void" not to attack new ships that were pulled into the anomaly for their supplies, but to pool resources and supplies with other ships in order to get out. I thought this was the best example of Janeway's moral beliefs in the series and a good example of "Federation" thinking.

Others?

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Hmmmm. Too numerous to count?

Well, to go against the grain, I would say that her best decision was when she blew up the Caretaker's array in the pilot.

Despite Janeway's wonderful advice to the Caretaker to allow his "Ocampan children" to grow up and take care of themselves, what we often forget is the Caretaker's pitiful confession to Janeway about how his species' actions stripped Ocampa of its atmosphere, dooming them if he didn't intervene.

JANEWAY: Why were you bringing ships here, infecting people with a fatal illness?
CARETAKER: Oh, they didn't die of an illness. They died because they were incompatible.
JANEWAY: Incompatible?
CARETAKER: I've been searching the galaxy for a compatible biomolecular pattern. Now, in some individuals I found cellular structures that were similar, but I
JANEWAY: You've been trying to procreate?
CARETAKER: I needed someone to replace me. Someone who'd understand the enormous responsibility of caring for the Ocampa. Only my offspring could do that.

Its easy to simply follow the rules. Do not interfere. Its not our business. But when does "its not my job" clash with the moral imperative to "do unto others?" "If not me, then who?"

Unknowingly.... with his pitiful confession, the Caretaker did inspire someone to pick up his banner and go forth.

CARETAKER: The self-destruct program has been damaged. Now this installation will not be destroyed. But it must be. The Kazon must not be allowed to gain control of it. They will annihilate the Ocampa.
(The Caretaker shrinks into a hand-sized rock. Janeway picks it up.)

TUVOK: Shall I activate the program to get us back?
JANEWAY: And what happens to the Ocampa after we're gone?
TUVOK: Captain, any action we take to protect the Ocampa would affect the balance of power in this system. The Prime Directive would seem to apply.
JANEWAY: Would it? We never asked to be involved, Tuvok, but we are. We are.

How many thousands did Janeway save that day?

We know in season 2's "Dreadnought" she was ready to sacrifice her self and her ship to save millions from a missile that was launched by B'Elanna 2 years before. It wasn't her responsibility to stop that missile... "But if not me... then who?"

Thank heavens that Maquis Chief Engineer was also developing a Janeway sized sense of responsibility and was able to disable it before she nearly asphixiated.

 

[jgdst]

I suppose liberating Seven from the Collective. She gave Seven a chance to reclaim her humanity and live a relatively 'normal' life as a human and gave her a surrogate family. Same goes for the children she rescued.

(The whereabouts of that baby notwithstanding )

Oh, and if I may give two answers... Her decision to adhere to the Omega Directive, despite her innate curiosity as a scientist and Seven's own desire to see perfection.

 

[T.D. Possum]

Self destructing Voyager in Deadlock was a good one.

 

[FormerLurker]

Cutting her hair was a big one. Way to save on resources, Kate!

 

[DonIago]

I'll give her points for not choosing the easy way out and making any sort of alliance with the Kazon, who in the end proved far too untrustworthy.

That being said, a group of Kazon who actually were trustworthy would have been a nice touch.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm gonna go with adopting Seven. That was one hell of a responsibility that she bore though thick and thin.

Maybe going though a bizarre alien nunnery to save Kes.

Most of the other "good" stuff she did was Starfleet Captain standard operating procedure and should be expected of every mission commander in Starfleet.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Cutting her hair was a big one. Way to save on resources, Kate!

That hair came in handy, in Basics II!

 

[froot]

I dunno, the lengths she'd go to for her people were above and beyond operating procedure, IMO.

I think my favorite and most-liked decisions were the ones involving helping/saving her people at any cost. Sacred Ground, Good Shepherd, Imperfection, Dark Frontier, Macrocosm, Muse, Deadlock (one ship for the other), saving Seven in Scorpion II, the way she snaps after that one crewman bites the big one in Scientific Method. She takes her peoples seriously.

It's the little things, too, that I like - for all she's painted as aloof and alone, you always see her hanging around at the various birthday and holiday parties. She clearly makes it a point to be there for people. Well, either that, or she's just there for the free booze, I dunno.

I actually agree with her blowing up the array, too. The Caretaker was going to do it anyway. Again, the flaw was that they needed to spell out why a bomb or running and gunning were not options.

The decision in that episode was supposed to boil down to either helping the Ocampa or helping her own crew. Instead, we're left thinking that perhaps they could have had their cake and eaten it too, especially after Endgame. I think that kills the point of the episode, IMO.

 

[T.D. Possum]

I actually agree with her blowing up the array, too. The Caretaker was going to do it anyway. Again, the flaw was that they needed to spell out why a bomb or running and gunning were not options.

This is exactly what I meant when I cited this as an example of a "stupid" decision that really wasn't.

 

[vas2009]

I like this thread the other one annoyed me.
All of the above
PLUS...I'm gonna say it the dreaded word .... TUVIX. Ok I said it. Now don't tell me what a bad person I am we don't need to debate this but I think with her options it was a good decision and if she made the other choice things would have been very different and I remember Begging the screen "bring them back. Please!!"

 

[T.D. Possum]

^ I'm at least halfway on your side. It was obvious from the get go that Tuvix had to die somehow. I was appalled when I realized the script had it set up so that Janeway was going to murder him in cold blood. But that's part of her character. When she said a starship captain should "never abandon a member of [her] crew", she meant it. Sometimes that made her heroic and sometimes it made her reckless or cruel, but it's one of the defining principals of her character - perhaps THE defining principal.

IMHO, if you love sweet Janeway, you gotta love ruthless Janeway, too.

I was going to say this in the other thread, but I don't think anyone is actually reading it - just posting "ZOMG why didn't she use a timebomb on the Array" and moving on.

 

[froot]

Call me heartless, but I never even gave her decision to "kill" Tuvix a second thought until I saw the various threads about it online. I would have been horrified if she hadn't separated him.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I would have crawled into the TV and offed that guy myself if she hadn't. At the very least, she needed as many crew members as possible out there. Tuvok and Neelix were more efficient and useful to the team separately. She saw a chance to save them, and took it.

She took the Tuvix matter out of Doc's hands and put the blood on her own; she did the same years later when she gave the Doc the green light to save B'Elanna in Nothing Human. Both choices sucked. She made them anyway, without waffling.

 

[Udat]

Cutting her hair was a big one. Way to save on resources, Kate!

Best ever

 

[DonIago]

I still think it would have been poetic justice (not that I expected it to happen) if the procedure to separate Tuvix had failed and Janeway had ended up with a lovely flower and two puddles of organic goo.

Of course, depending on your feelings about Tuvok and Neelix...

 

[JanewayRulz!]

I still think it would have been poetic justice (not that I expected it to happen)

Actually, it happened in "false Profits", when she went after the Ferengi escaping the ship, and not only lost a chance to go through the wormhole to home, but destabilized the wormhole in the process.

Perhaps she should have allowed Tuvix to live, and then the depression she suffered at the start of season 5 would be more accepted... the Captain mourning the two members of the crew she never even tried to save.

 

[DonIago]

I meant I didn't expect that the writers would kill Tuvix _and_ Neelix and Tuvok. That would have been dark on a level I'm not sure Trek's ever hit.

I can give her credit for having the cojones to force Tuvix to undergo the procedure, but since I don't approve of her decision (respect != approval) there's no way I could consider it one of her best decisions. It would be nice to think that at some points she admitted to herself that as far as that went she really just got lucky.

 

[Lynx]

Her decision to destroy the Caretaker's Array, fulfillingt the dying Caretaker's wish and prevent it to fall in the hands of the Kazon.

Her decision to sacrifice herself in order to save Kes in "Sacred Ground".

He decision to create The Torpedo and Shuttle Building Team.

 

[Saquist]

In order to balance the "Janeway's worst decisions" thread, how about mentioning a few that were good moral decisions?

The one that sticks out for me is her decision in "The Void" not to attack new ships that were pulled into the anomaly for their supplies, but to pool resources and supplies with other ships in order to get out. I thought this was the best example of Janeway's moral beliefs in the series and a good example of "Federation" thinking.

Others?

No her best decision was when she KICKED out the group that killed another ship to get the technology...

Best decision by far!!!
They got what they deserved...