The One With Two Cans and a Piece of String.... [SPOILERS]

[Triskelion]

So the Voyager encounters a technobabble version of a can and a piece of string leading to.....

Spoiler: Eye of the Needle

the Alpha Quadrant, where they communicate with a Romulan ship. Badda bing badda boom, they hand over an isolinear chip containing messages from the crew to their families, which the Romulan scientist promises to deliver in 20 years - after Voyager's stranding in Gilligan's Quadrant.

The Romulan asks them to look him up if they ever make it home. Janeway promises that they will indeed be getting home and looking him up.

Just after the Romulan beams back through the micro-wormhole, and 20 years into the past, Tuvok comes forward and declares that the whole thing was for nothing because records show that the Romulan died before the appointed time. In the end, there was no way for the crew of Voyager to know whatever happened to their messages.

Here's my questions:

Why did Tuvok wait until the Romulan had left to say it was a waste of time? Why didn't he put his Vulcan brain to work to come up with something workable? Douche.

When communications ensued with Project Voyager, did anyone ever mention if the messages were delivered? Did the EMH find out in Lifeline? Was it all moot by that point?

And while we're on the subject, did Tom's letter from 30 Days get transmitted to his father, as he had encoded it to?

If you were the Romulan Captain, would you have made a provision to see the messages got delivered in the event of your untimely demise?

Could it be possible that the ship's computer would contain information about the Romulan's message without knowing the content of that message? The moment after they sent him back in time is when Tuvok should have checked the computer - not before they sent him. I mean, right?

These little loose ends always bugged me.

And finally, why did so many Voy episodes have to be so...futile? Maybe it's just me but I don't watch Trek to waste an hour on a completely failed project that ends in a Vulcan pronouncement of death, or to get depressed listening to Tuvix wailing for his life, or the Doctor's fictional family's Worst Case Scenario. Sheesh. Voy tried to tackle some hard stuff in some effort to be more dramatically serious, and less optimistic; but in some cases it just came across as, well, depressing.

And in Eye of the Needle, I wish Janeway replicated a Skipper hat to hit Tuvok over the head with.

Thoughts?

 

[Finn]

Here's my questions:

Why did Tuvok wait until the Romulan had left to say it was a waste of time? Why didn't he put his Vulcan brain to work to come up with something workable? Douche.

Because it would contaminate the timeline.

When communications ensued with Project Voyager, did anyone ever mention if the messages were delivered? Did the EMH find out in Lifeline? Was it all moot by that point?

No.

And while we're on the subject, did Tom's letter from 30 Days get transmitted to his father, as he had encoded it to?

Absolutely, when Janeway told Tuvok to transmit all of their logs....

If you were the Romulan Captain, would you have made a provision to see the messages got delivered in the event of your untimely demise?

Maybe. It wouldn't have been his top priority, plus once the Tal Shair heard about it, they would have kept the information, especially if they were aware of Caretaker already (there might be a locale near or within Romulan space where Caretaker was taking ships like the Badlands.

Could it be possible that the ship's computer would contain information about the Romulan's message without knowing the content of that message? The moment after they sent him back in time is when Tuvok should have checked the computer - not before they sent him. I mean, right?

No.




And why are there spoilers? This episode came out twenty years ago

 

[hux]

Spoiler: Star Trek

It's about space and stuff

or the Doctor's fictional family's Worst Case Scenario. Sheesh.

The doctor needed to know what it felt like to have a real family. Obviously, the only sensible way to do that was to have his young daughter die horribly the way that most people's young daughters do.

duh! Obviously.

I'm only surprised B'Elanna didn't also program Kenneth's wife to violently stab herself in the face with a shard of glass (you know, like wives often do). How will he learn about wives otherwise?

 

[Triskelion]

^ LOL

Here's my questions:

Why did Tuvok wait until the Romulan had left to say it was a waste of time? Why didn't he put his Vulcan brain to work to come up with something workable? Douche.

Because it would contaminate the timeline.

Um, yeah, as would sending back a Romulan Captain with knowledge of the next couple generations of ship technology, knowledge of the Federation expanding into Bajor Sector (where the Cardassian Occupation would have been going on full force at that time), and knowledge of advancements in Cottage Loaf Hair Bun technology....

When communications ensued with Project Voyager, did anyone ever mention if the messages were delivered? Did the EMH find out in Lifeline? Was it all moot by that point?

No.

Absolutely, when Janeway told Tuvok to transmit all of their logs....

The logs were not the same data as the messages home they gave to the Romulan, if it matters....

If you were the Romulan Captain, would you have made a provision to see the messages got delivered in the event of your untimely demise?

Maybe. It wouldn't have been his top priority, plus once the Tal Shair heard about it, they would have kept the information, especially if they were aware of Caretaker already (there might be a locale near or within Romulan space where Caretaker was taking ships like the Badlands.

Not sure I understand how the Romulans would know about the Caretaker even if it had been taking ships from Romulan space.... And I don't think Janeway would have been too explicit with the details of the Caretaker, since in this episode Chakotay established that Voyager had already had a huge impact on the quadrant, and so sending a preemptive message to Starfleet to nix the Voyager mission was not a viable option.

Could it be possible that the ship's computer would contain information about the Romulan's message without knowing the content of that message? The moment after they sent him back in time is when Tuvok should have checked the computer - not before they sent him. I mean, right?

No.

Yes.

And why are there spoilers? This episode came out twenty years ago

Because Star Trek.

 

[Lance]

1) The Rommies are secretive by nature, and they run their affairs in a manner not unlike a police state. So, there's almost no way Romulan Captain Guy managed to keep his interactions with Voyager secret, and I doubt the Romulans, once they knew about it, immediately rushed to pass the information on to the Federation.

2) Given Starfleet only discovers that Voyager is in the Delta Quadrant later, and acts like they didn't already know they were there, chances are Romulan Buddy Boy never got the information through.

3) Romulus has been nuked now, so even if the two powers became friends for .25 of a second between the end of Nemesis and the start of the 2009 movie, unless there was an immediate and free exchange of information, whatever they *did* have about Voyager was destroyed. And by then it was all a moot point anyway, because Janeway was home and ordering Picard around. QED.

 

[Finn]

^ LOL

The logs were not the same data as the messages home they gave to the Romulan, if it matters....




Not sure I understand how the Romulans would know about the Caretaker even if it had been taking ships from Romulan space.... And I don't think Janeway would have been too explicit with the details of the Caretaker, since in this episode Chakotay established that Voyager had already had a huge impact on the quadrant, and so sending a preemptive message to Starfleet to nix the Voyager mission was not a viable option.

The Caretaker had been sending back most ships it took from all over the galaxy. A Romulan warbird may have been among them.