The Caretaker

[Terok Nor]

Does anyone know why this storyline was dropped? A very big deal was made out of this character in the pilot episode along with finding his mate, which they did, and then it was simply dropped and never returned to. Considering the Caretaker was the reason Voyager ended up stranded in the Delta Quadrant I'd have expected some sort of call back to his species - particularly in the last season.

 

[stardream]

I faintly remember hearing and I might well have misheard or have gotten bad reports but the idea of the Caretaker's 'mate' sending them home was put in reserve to be used as a series finale if the show was to be suddenly cancelled. However the original producers left, new people came in and the new people had different ideas etc etc.

Once again...I might be wrong. I'm sure there are people here who know more about it than I do.

 

[MacLeod]

But as you highlight they did an episode with Suspiria the Caretaker's mate, so they wrapped up the story thread.

Could they have followed up with her again, perhaps.

 

[Terok Nor]

I'm sort of glad it was dropped but I'd have liked just one more episode about that species. I think they should have played some part in Voyager's return home considering it was the Caretaker who caused Voyager's predicament in the first place.

Stardream, I think I remember hearing that too. Had Voyager ended in early cancellation I guess it could have worked and brought the series full circle.

 

[MacLeod]

Well the memory alpha page does mention they could have used this to bring Voyager hom earlier if they had wanted to, maybe not as an end for the show but for it to continue in the AQ/BQ.

 

[Anwar]

The female Caretaker was there in case they ever felt like ending the show. The fact they used her so early was basically a sign that the guys in charge by then didn't really have faith in the "Lost Ship" concept anymore.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

My problem is that Cold Fire ends with Janeway promising to find Suspiria again. And then... Nothing. That's the end of it. They never mention the Caretaker's mate again. Particularly as Voyager clearly became about the crew finding their way home, I would have thought it'd be something they'd talk about on occasion, even if the crew had decided they'd traveled too far from the area around Ocampa to reasonably believe they'd be able to find her again.

Honestly, I think it would have made a better finale if, instead of the Transwarp Hub, they'd discovered the Borg had captured Suspiria, then building the finale around that. Not only would it have resolved this lingering plot thread that existed from literally day one, it would have been a better bookend for the series.

Plus, on a more superficial note, it'd better justify naming the finale 'Endgame,' since it'd at least give an impression that they were attempting to build to this result...

 

[WoTe]

I think the caretaker's mate would have been more interesting if she refused to send Voyager home with Kes onboard rather than become just another dangerous/nefarious alien of the week.

We could have seen Kes have struggled with the guilt and Janeway and crew rally around her, that they find another way home. Then her powers grow out from this after several episodes of this emotional turmoil and you could queue the Gift episode and made it an appropriate rather than rushed Kes departure.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You're describing the pilot.

Kes, and by extension her species, is the reason Voyager stayed.

Not only did no one blame the tiny elf, but according to Neelix half the crew was desperately in love with Kes and trying to break up their totally legal relationship.

 

[WoTe]

I thought Voyager stayed for the good of the entire race of Ocampa... but I might be wrong seeing how the ship immediately ran off after destroying the array. I would've thought they'd give the basement elves some instruction, maybe even a few weapons against the Kazon... but nah. Leave em high and dry on the desert planet.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Not even that.

Janeway did what she did, break the Prime Directive, to protect the Ocampa's water.

Caretaker said that the Kazon had to be stopped from stealing their water.

"Sigh"

Remember the last time you talked to a really drunk person, who was fixated on something inconsequential and irrelevant? I imagine, with no offence intended, that talking to unmediacated senile people is similar.

Janeway was following the instructions of an old man that had just raped two of her crewmen to death.

(Until the Doctor found a cure and saved B'Elanna and Harry.)

Still, Janeway should have shot Caretaker and then done the right thing according to her own ethos, rather than falling for some sob story from a mental gimp and upending her moral compass.

Whoever wrote this story was on crack, or a bad person.

 

[stardream]

I have often wondered how the story would have gone if Janeway had been the First officer originally and it was the Captain who made all these decisions. Janeway could have had deep doubts about it and might even have considered stopping him but instead went along with it because she was a good Starfleet Officer. The Captain dies and she is left in charge but she still could have suffered from guilt for not trying to stop him. That could even explain why she was lenient with her punishments. Well except for Paris but perhaps that could have reminded herself too much of what she 'should' have done. Even though he was wrong to disobey orders he stood by his decisions.

 

[Anwar]

It would've made more sense if it was the Caretaker's own power (boosted by the Array) that brought them out there and he was just too weak to send them back before he died.

IE, there was no way home and they just had to deal with the situation without a way out.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No it wouldn't.

(We've done this before.)

A heroic sacrifice, the hero makes to save the weak is what heroes do.

"We could go home, but billions of Ocampa will die. We should go home but billions of Ocampa will die. Legally we have to go home even though billions of Ocampa will die. Oh fuck it, we're not going home because we have to save the Ocampa even though it definitely means that we will be stuck here. Fuck."

Getting stuck because the tech bunged up, or the alien pretending to be a god passed on, is about being a goon.

"Oh, since we're here, and we can't go home, and there's nothing we can do about not going home, we might as well save the Ocampa becuase there's no downside or negative consequences in saving the Ocampa. Meh?"

Do you want Janeway to be a hero or a goon?

 

[Terok Nor]

The Caretaker was a perverted jerk. Janeway should have blown his brains out. That's what Seska would have done.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Seska would have agreed to be the new Caretaker to the Ocampa, gotten the command codes for the Array, ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND then she would have kicked Caretaker down an turboliftshaft if he hadn't died of natural causes yet.

 

[hux]

I never understood the necessity for the array and the caretaker to be separate powers. For years I thought it seemed odd to present them as such a powerful species but then make their most powerful abilities entirely technological.

They're so powerful that they can drag you from anywhere in the galaxy yet so weak that actually, no they can't... they need technology for that. Even Suspira could be caged by basic Starfleet force-fields.

I'm beginning to think the array was built by someone else.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I think the Caretaker was the Janitor on the Starship that ####ed over Ocampa.

Whoever was in charge of the mission to the Milkyway a thousand years ago, decided to leave their version of "Gilligan" behind to make sure that the engine they put in place to rebuild Ocampan society ran smoothly.

Why leave behind someone important or useful, considering they still had places to go and people to see.

 

[Terok Nor]

Seska would have agreed to be the new Caretaker to the Ocampa, gotten the command codes for the Array, ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND then she would have kicked Caretaker down an turboliftshaft if he hadn't died of natural causes yet.

What a woman

 

[Anwar]

Do you want Janeway to be a hero or a goon?

That's like saying Crichton was a goon for having no power over the wormhole that brought him to the Uncharted Territories.