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The Void and Janeway's alliance

LiChiu

Commander
Red Shirt
In the episode The Void Voyager is trapped and Janeway proposes an alliance. In doing so was she right to impose her principles as a condition to be part of the alliance?
I say yes but it brings up interesting questions.
 
Well it's a question of saftey in a community isn't it? Sure if you have thieves and murderers for leaders and policemen you might feel safe while you're under the radar or obey their ethos blindly... But eventually they are going to make an example of you for not living up to the lower aspects of their ethos if you can't follow through with the next depravity...

Absolute power corrupts which is why leaders need to be servants and impotent or it's fudal bickering like in the dark ages or the most of the wars in the middle ages.

Janeway was on the money, but she chose her ally badly because those acts were in "its" nature and totally predictable, and very hamfisted story telling. And almost as polarizing as Chakotay and Tuvok telling her that piracy and murder was a valid option, or that she spent "hours" like through the starfleet charter for a loop hole to sanction piracy and looting... Archer closed that loop after ENT Damage I suppose?
 
I think she was justified. Wasn't it said that she had one of the most powerful ships in the void at one point in the episode? Plus it was her plan.
 
Man, that episode perfectly captures everything I hated about Voyager.


But I'd say she was justified in setting whatever rules she wanted for the alliance, since participating wasn't mandatory or anything.
 
I never thought about it that way, but it kind of is like Elite Force. Which is one of my favorite Trek games.
 
Actually "The Void" was more like a remake of the TAS episode "The Time Trap," which in turn was an uncredited adaptation of a Gold Key ST comic book. If the Elite Force thing used the same idea, it was hardly the originator of that idea.

I love "The Void," because it captures in microcosm what the whole show should've really been about. Instead of just running away from the Delta Quadrant, Janeway and the crew should've worked to build alliances and partner with the local civilizations for mutual benefit. Most Trek casts are heroic because they're putting themselves on the line to help others, whether to bring them knowledge or protect them. VGR's crew were just trying to protect themselves and get back to where they wanted to be, and that just wasn't as noble a goal.
 
Yes she was right to. However, I would have liked to see the consequences of sticking to her principles that she verbalized actually come to bear. A main character on the show should have died (Belanna, Kim, or Paris) as a result of sticking to her principles. Or better yet, they should have saved The Void for the series finale, and had the whole crew die as a result of sticking to her principles. Instead, there was the major cop-out of zero consequences for sticking to her principles, which lessened the impact of the idea.

That said, I don't like most VOY episodes, but I love The Void.

Not sure why many VOY fans apparently don't like The Void. I found it to be VOY's very best episode. It's the only episode with tension, suspense, a sense of danger and a battle vs. other sentient beings for limited resources needed for survival. Ie: Everything the whole series itself should have encompassed from the first episode to the last, but didn't.
 
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