Voyager mess-up in "Message in a Bottle?"

Ive been watching voyager for the first time. Ive made it to the episode "Message in a Bottle." The crew act like they've never heard of the Dominion. Now, wasnt Voyager lost some months after contact with the Dominion? Is this a mess-up by the writers?

 

Well, Voyager did probably leave after the events of "The Search", but that was pretty new news at the time, and five years ago. So people didn't remember who a briefly mentioned Gamma Quadrant adversary was off-hand - they had Jem'Hadar fighters on the holodeck, shown in a simulation where Paris teaches Kes how to fly.

 

The crew?

The EMH Mark 2 only mentioned the Dominion while talkin' to the Doctor. Of course, the Doctor wouldn't know about the Dominion. He wasn't even told about Neelix & Kes joinin' the crew in 'Parallax'.

The Dominion wouldn't be mentioned again 'til later, and then, it'll be between Chakotay & Torres, so it's understandable if they didn't have all the information about the Dominion prior to gettin' swept into the Delta Quadrant.

 

Someone would know about the annihilation of the New Bajor Colony by the Jem Hadar in one of the last episodes of season 2 DS9. ...But more than likely, not the Doctor.

I think the goof (Too strong a word?) is on the other foot that after the murder of the Prometheus crew, that Ben Sisko would feel at al Guilty in In the pale Moonlight.

 

^

The flight trainin' program seen when Tom was teachin' Kes how to pilot a shuttle shows that members of the crew had access to information about the Dominion, however limited that knowledge was when the ship was "lost" from the Alpha Quadrant.

 

ok, cool. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

For a series that started so rooted in the canon of DS9, it sure seemed to do its best to not attach itself later on when there was ample oppertunity. In that episode, the Dominion only gets a passing reference even though they are at war with them, and they re-invent the Romulans as the AQ baddies which is out of place. The whole maquis angle all but dissolved by the end of season 1, again only getting passing references. Its a shame, there could have been some high potential crossover material at the end of the series, as well as carrying the maquis themes throughout.

 

wait a minute, I don't think can be a goof. Perhaps if one of the living crew members on Voyager asked "WHO?" when they heard the species "The Dominion", but the Doctor does not surprise me.
Look at it this way. The Doctor is in actuality a computer program. A fairly new computer program, which at the time, I doubt would have been programmed with recent Alpha Quadrant political news considering it was designed and is a short term supplemental program. The Emergency Medical Hologram, if not even informed of current ship affairs half the time would almost certainly have no frakking clue who the Dominion is.....
My $.02.

 

The Maquis angle vanished after the third episode.

B'Elanna punched Carey. That's it... Well a smal amouont of potential dribbing intot he following 7 years of story telling. Tuvok called a few of them ignorant in season 2. Some hololiterature cam to light in season three where Tuvok considered they were thugs who had to be locked up and shot. They all got upset in season 5 when they found out the Dominion had slaughtered all their friends. And then in season 7 they started killing each other... Wait, wasn't Tuvok the one killing everyone?

Between this and Vorik raping B'Elanna. I think it was the Vulcan's who were the trouble makers who needed to be dealt to.

 

well, i watched the special features of the Voyager season 2 dvd. Jeri Taylor explained why the writers dropped the maquis storyline. She felt that the two crews, being alone in an unknown quadrant, would drop all conflict, and work together in getting home. So the writers decided to turn the show into a united crew exploring the galaxy on their way home.

 

Makes sense the doctor wouldn't know about the dominion. As for Voyager's crew... Would have been nice to have more AQ interaction in the later years

 

By my thinking, just about everybody should have been aware of the Dominion, including the EMH.

Chakotay and the other Maquis should have, since they were operating in that neck of the woods. Any Maquis unit worth its salt would've had intelligence on a consortium that could potentially change the balance of power in that region. Even if they didn't have first-hand knowlegde, they had Eddington (and other spies) to fill them in. Directly or not, the Dominion threat had the potential to greatly affect their cause: Ignoring it would've been foolish.

Janeway and the (original) Voyager crew should have also known. Do you really think Starfleet would send them into that region without making sure they were up-to-date on all information that could even possibly be relevent? Keep in mind that at the time they went looking for Chakotay's ship, they had no idea what happened.

The situation with the EMH is a little more iffy, but it wouldn't take long to udate the program with the info. I don't see why they wouldn't have downloaded info on the Dominion when the ship had its layover at DS9.

 

Didn't Chakotay say something to B'Elanna something along the lines of "we're at war with a new species from the Gamma Quadrant"?

 

Don't forget the stuff with Seska and Jonas...

but yeah, all in all they played down the rebellious nature of the Maquis.

 

I think it is completely plausible Starfleet would keep information on the Dominion or indeed its very existence on a need-to-know basis. The wormhole itself is already something of a restricted-access asset to the Federation, an operation only slightly less secretive than Stargate. Knowledge of what lies beyond is a valuable card in the political game, and is not carelessly given away.

Chakotay was out of the Starfleet loop pretty early on, and wouldn't have direct knowledge as such. And he would have tunnel vision anyway: the galaxy is teeming with powerful potential enemies and allies, but very little of it touches the lives of the Maquis or indeed those of UFP citizens. Sure, the loss of the Odyssey would have made news back in its day (a couple of months before "Caretaker") - but there would have been more news the following week, possibly more spectacular, almost certainly equally irrelevant to the Maquis cause.

Remember, after all, that the Maquis mainly operated in the Demilitarized Zone. And that Zone was not in the immediate vicinity of DS9 or Bajor. Indeed, Bajor itself was removed from the Cardassian sphere of influence at that time, and the threats and opportunities that concerned Bajor did not necessarily have an impact on Cardassia or the DMZ, hence not on the Maquis, either.

Sure, Chakotay and Eddington and Hudson et al. would have been somewhat interested in the latest news on exotic threats like the Dominion or the Borg. But they'd have plenty to think already, and no way of knowing that the political entity that destroyed the Odyssey would in the future display an interest in Cardassia or the lowly Maquis.

Remember also that Chakotay wasn't one to see the Federation or Starfleet as his enemy. His angle was hitting at the Cardassians while following the Starfleet Way. He would take no delight in losses suffered by Starfleet.

Frankly, the Dominion just wasn't that big a deal at the time of "Caretaker" yet. Not even as far as Starfleet knew, let alone as far as the public was let to know.

As for whether Janeway would have been aware of the Dominion... Sure. There's nothing to indicate that she wasn't. But she wouldn't have any incentive to share that knowledge with Chakotay until it somehow became relevant for their Delta Quadrant predicament. It's not as if she felt an obligation to discuss any other aspect of recent Starfleet operations with Chakotay, either - not even the anti-Maquis campaign!

Certainly there would have been extremely little reason to assume the Dominion was in any way related to strange happenings in the Badlands. Janeway might just as well have been preparing against an encounter with the Borg in there! (Actually, her best bet at the time would probably have been Klingons, who had an old battleaxe to grind with Cardassia, or perhaps Romulans intent on framing the Klingons.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

Wasn't the Dominion first mentioned in season 1 of DS9?

So like the Borg, Starfleet were already aware of them even before actual first contact with either of them.

Plus I'm thinking, being the EMH isn't used for any tactical reasons. Providing him any info on the Dominion wouldn't be of any use, at that point in time.

 

No, the Dominion was first mentioned in DS9 'Rules of Acquisition', a second season episode.

 

When was "Hollow Pursuit"?

 

TNG's third season.

 

So either way, my point being is that Voy. and it's Starfleet crew knew some info of the Dominion before leaving space dock at DS9.