What was the Caretaker doing?

[borgboy]

So I've started rewatching Voyager as part of my massive rewatch. I do find it kind of strange that the Caretaker's attempts to find a compatible breeding partner (and he's checking both male and females for compatibility) and it seems like most if not all of the people are dying in the attempt.
We only see him doing a medical experiment on Kim with a drill thing, and Kim and B'Elanna seem ok. I think I missed some details on what was going on there. Why did Kim and B'Elanna survive when everyone else died? Were they dying from the tests he was running on them or was the Caretaker killing them by raping them? It's pretty squicky although I am fascinated by the Caretaker and his mate. I wish his mate had been used more.

 

[Lord Manitou]

Kim and B'Ellanna were dying when they were underground in the O'campa's world. Kim freaked out when he noticed he was getting sicker and tried desperately with B'Ellana to reach the surface through the mining tunnel. Voyager's doctor saved them.

 

[Guy Gardener]

6 months or so earlier, I wonder how many of Ransom's crew died from Caretaker rape?

 

[borgboy]

Kim and B'Ellanna were dying when they were underground in the O'campa's world. Kim freaked out when he noticed he was getting sicker and tried desperately with B'Ellana to reach the surface through the mining tunnel. Voyager's doctor saved them.

Thanks, that does help me a bit. I guess I understood more than I thought. I was thinking there was some deeper meaning to that aspect as far as why Kim and B'Elanna lived. That's a bit crap though. If the Doctor could save them then I don't quite get why the others were dying. As powerful and advanced as the Caretaker was, you'd think he could've saved his other victims if he wanted to.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Maybe in the beginning when he still had time he used to save people from his toxic jizz, but Banjoman was on death's fricking door by the time he barrelled down on Kim.

 

[Lynx]

I wrote this post on the Trek BBS about The Caretaker back in 2008. I took the liberty to quote it here because it's relevant to this debate and shows my opinion about The Caretaker and Suspiria.

The Nacene were explorers from another galaxy. They arrived to our galaxy and discovered the Ocampa homeworld. One could expect that those superior beings should just watch and study but in some way those clumsy Nacene ruined the atmosphere of the planet.

OK, accidents happen! And they were at least decent enough to wanting to do something to help the people whose world they had destroyed.

So they order two of their own, The Caretaker and Suspiria to stick around and care for the Ocampa. Fair enough. But how did they do it?

One could expect that those super beings could have used their advanced technology, which obviously could transport ships and people across the galaxy to find a new home for the Ocampa, just as captain Picard did with some undeveloped species in that TNG episode where the people were in the holodeck while Enterprise did send them to another place. Or maybe the Nacene could have repaired the damage they had done to the planet in some way.

But no, they drill a hole in the ground and transform the Ocampa to cave-dwellers with a ridiculous short life-span of nine years, a too short time to learn and develope. They could have prolonged the lifespan there and then since they obviously had the technology to do so.

Then Suspiria leaves and The Caretaker himself remains. Does he use his powers to help the Ocampa develope? No, they remain cave-dwellers and, in Kes's words "gained a talent for dependence, to simply taking what they were given."

Then the Kazon arrive and even The Caretaker must have realized that they might become a threat. He has the technology to blast them to kingdom come and once and for all scare them away from that part of space. Did he do that? Oh no! He let them remain on the planet's surface and become a threat to the Ocampa. So much for his protection of the Ocampa.

Then the old super-being discovers that he's going to die. Now what does he do now? Finally realizing that his time is up, did he start to teach the Ocampa how to develope, take care of themselves and survive? Or maybe discover some potential leader among the Ocampa which he could teach and who could take the knowledge of the Nacene back to the Ocampa and teach them to develope and prosper? No!

He starts to kidnap different beings from all over the galaxy in order to find someone who could give him an offspring who would just love to remain on the array and care for the Ocampa. How brilliant! Just imagine if Torres and Kim had been what he was looking for! Would they have lived together happily the rest of their lives on that array 70 000 lightyears from home and cared for the Ocampa, then have had children who would also live their lives on that array and cared for the Ocampa? Hmmmm.....I don't think so.

Then, when the old geezer finally realizes that time's up, what does he do then? He decides to give the Ocampa energy for five years and then he would commit suicide. OK, according to the book "Caretaker" by L.A. Graf which is based on the script for the episode, he did download all his knowledge to the Ocampa database in the last possible minutes of his life so maybe there was a chance for them to learn and survive. The problem is that he should have done that a long time ago and he did actually do it at the last possible moment after Janeway had told him the possibility of the Ocampa being able to learn and develope. Before that, he was just going to give them energy and food for five years. Very narrow-minded, as I see it.

The Caretaker may have had a superior technology. He did also have a compassion and empathy which was admirable. But most of all he acted like a narrow-minded, clumsy fool whose actions in the long run did more harm than help.

Suspiria, the other Nacene who left with some of the Ocampa and settled in another part of the Delta Quadrant was obviously a bit smarter. At least she let the Ocampa she protected develope. But on the other hand, she had a mean streak and the result of her actions weren't that astonishing either.

The Nacene might have had superior technology. But as I see it, they weren't the smartest beings in the universe.

 

[Guy Gardener]

In Red Dwarf, over the course of three million years, Two Great Cat Civilizations rose up, went to war over god and then left for different corners of the universe. Two cats were left behind. A cripple and an idiot.

Caretaker was the idiot and Susperia was the cripple.

 

[borgboy]

Thanks Lynx that's really interesting.

Is there any evidence that more Nacene besides the Caretaker and Susperia came to Ocampa, or even our Galaxy? I don't recall ever hearing of more than those two.

It does seem strange to me that the Caretaker was capable of so much yet couldn't repair the damage done to Ocampa in a thousand years. Transplanting the Ocampa somewhere else seems reasonable too. Perhaps the Ocampans were resistant to leaving Ocampa and the Caretaker respected their wishes.

Do you think that the Ocampan's short life span was caused by the Caretaker? I have thought that possibly the unlikely condition of an Ocampan only having one pregnancy could be something the Caretaker did to them to limit their population growth.

It doesn't make sense that the Caretaker ignored the threat of the Kazon.

I don't think the Caretaker ever planned for Kim or B'Elanna to stay on Ocampan - he just wanted his potential future offspring to take his place. If his breeding partners were dying at the attempt of breeding I doubt they'd survive the birthing. It does make me wonder that the Caretaker was trying to breed with both male and females. Obviously he's either hermaphroditic or in some way just breeds in a way so different I can't comprehend even the idea of how it works. The more I think about this the more shady the Caretaker is.

I think the Caretaker was so alien and advanced that he did see the Ocampans as being like very small children and thus incapable of taking care of themselves.

It strikes me as odd that the Ocampans' psychic powers that Kes develops would be somewhat similar to the Caretaker's in a vague sort of way. Is there a connection there, or perhaps the similarity is what drew the Caretaker to them?

 

[Finn]

Kim and B'Ellanna were dying when they were underground in the O'campa's world. Kim freaked out when he noticed he was getting sicker and tried desperately with B'Ellana to reach the surface through the mining tunnel. Voyager's doctor saved them.

Thanks, that does help me a bit. I guess I understood more than I thought. I was thinking there was some deeper meaning to that aspect as far as why Kim and B'Elanna lived. That's a bit crap though. If the Doctor could save them then I don't quite get why the others were dying. As powerful and advanced as the Caretaker was, you'd think he could've saved his other victims if he wanted to.

It was established later in conspiracy theory that Caretaker had been sending ships back home after studying briefly, until Voyager and Chakotay's ship was taken. It means the others were stranded on Ocampa with nobody with the medical skill and knowledge to save them.

 

[Lynx]

Thanks Lynx that's really interesting.

Is there any evidence that more Nacene besides the Caretaker and Susperia came to Ocampa, or even our Galaxy? I don't recall ever hearing of more than those two.

It does seem strange to me that the Caretaker was capable of so much yet couldn't repair the damage done to Ocampa in a thousand years. Transplanting the Ocampa somewhere else seems reasonable too. Perhaps the Ocampans were resistant to leaving Ocampa and the Caretaker respected their wishes.

Do you think that the Ocampan's short life span was caused by the Caretaker? I have thought that possibly the unlikely condition of an Ocampan only having one pregnancy could be something the Caretaker did to them to limit their population growth.

It doesn't make sense that the Caretaker ignored the threat of the Kazon.

I don't think the Caretaker ever planned for Kim or B'Elanna to stay on Ocampan - he just wanted his potential future offspring to take his place. If his breeding partners were dying at the attempt of breeding I doubt they'd survive the birthing. It does make me wonder that the Caretaker was trying to breed with both male and females. Obviously he's either hermaphroditic or in some way just breeds in a way so different I can't comprehend even the idea of how it works. The more I think about this the more shady the Caretaker is.

I think the Caretaker was so alien and advanced that he did see the Ocampans as being like very small children and thus incapable of taking care of themselves.

It strikes me as odd that the Ocampans' psychic powers that Kes develops would be somewhat similar to the Caretaker's in a vague sort of way. Is there a connection there, or perhaps the similarity is what drew the Caretaker to them?

In "Caretaker" it was stated that "two of us were chosen to stay behind and protect them". Obviously there were more Nacene who came to the Ocampa system as explorers.

I don't think that the Ocampa had any dialogue or so with The Caretaker in which they could express their wishes to leave the planet or stay. I get the impression that he came up with the solution of creating an underground city.

as for the only one child thing, I think that we can forget that (as a writer error) because if that had been the fact, the Ocampa would hade died out before Voyager arrived or at least they would have known that they were going to die out. Here we have another possibility. Didn't Benaren say something about Kes being his favorite daughter in "Before And After"? Maybe Benaren and Martis had triplets and Kes was one of them?

As for the breeding process, I don't know what to think. I agree that the Caretaker looks shady, not to mention irresponsible, ruthless and egocentric. The theory about the Nacene being so superior and advanced that they looked on the Ocampa and species like humans too as children or ants. But they also seem to be clumsy and irrational.

As for the Ocampa powers, I guess that they had them before the Nacene showed up but stopped using them when the Caretaker took care of all their needs. I don't think that the Caretaker gave them their abilities.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

6 months or so earlier, I wonder how many of Ransom's crew died from Caretaker rape?

They too had a doctor, remember? So maybe zero, as well.

 

[Guy Gardener]

That would Require Ransom going to Ocampa to get his crew back.

His go to move was to use the magnetic poles of a planet to hide from his enemies.

 

[Anwar]

This is why it's easier to see the Caretaker as a villain.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Rapists are hardly ever heroes.

 

[borgboy]

I have thought that although the Ocampans only have one pregnancy that multiple babies were common, and that the limit was artificially placed on them by the Caretaker.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Because he didn't want to have to dig more caves?