Why did Star Fleet not send Voyager a Defiant Class Starship?

[ykickamoocow]

In "Inside Man" a way is established where the Federation have direct contact with Voyager. Now it is established that nothing living can go through this hole in space or whatever it was but why is it that the Federation did not take the opportunity to send stuff to Voyager. Perhaps they could send a couple hundred quantum torpedoes or other upgrades that Voyager could use or even a brand new Starship. Voyager admittedly was quite a new star ship in itself but if Star fleet for instance sent them a Defiant class starship as well then it would make Voyager a lot safer as they would have almost twice the firepower. It was mentioned that Voyager could be run with 100 crew and we know a Defiant class ship can run with around 40 or 50 so it could have been done. Or perhaps Star Fleet could have sent them a Prometheus class star ship as that looked like it did not need a big crew to properly operate.

Is there a plot point I am forgetting which would make this impossible and if it was possible how would the show have changed if there were suddenly 2 Federation starships?

 

[borgboy]

That would've been pretty neat if there had been a Defiant class ship sent to the Delta Quadrant. It would've shook things up on the show a lot, such as shifting crew members around between the two ships. The fact that it would've changed the show so much and required more regular ships is the real life reason it didn't happen, but I don't know what the in universe reason was.
Now I'm imagining how the crew would've been split up. Probably Chakotay as the new Defiant class ship captain, Vorik as chief engineer, an EMH copy as their doctor, and Tuvok being promoted to new first officer of Voyager.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Maybe, it would have complicated the story without adding much to it. Contrary to some, I like the way things were dealt with in seasons 6 and 7. And some stories, like Workforce would have been much harder to implement, if they had two ships instead of one.

 

[Melakon]

I thought the only thing they could send were communications signals of various types, including the Barclay hologram, not physical objects. The Ferengi co-opted the hologram to begin with, so we can't believe anything it says.

 

[timelord1010]

Actually Starfleet didn't have to send them a ship. The Equinox was there and if they wanted to the writers didn't have to destroy the ship, maybe the Captain and the worst of the crew took over a shuttle and were destroyed by the aliens leaving the Equinox to be used.

Then, like in the new Battlestar Galactica we could have had a few episodes or a season with two ships until either the ship is destroyed for some reason or they make it home.

 

[ykickamoocow]

I thought the only thing they could send were communications signals of various types, including the Barclay hologram, not physical objects. The Ferengi co-opted the hologram to begin with, so we can't believe anything it says.

Voyagers escape pod makes it through perfectly fine. That was the entire plan to start with as the Ferengi wanted both 7 of 9's nanoprobes as well as a fully working Intrepid class starship.

 

[Melakon]

I think the problem was the size of the portal, so only the pod would fit. A ship would be too big to go through in either direction.

ETA: I have the episode, but haven't watched it in about 2 weeks, and the head is full of other Trekstuff.

 

[ykickamoocow]

I think the problem was the size of the portal, so only the pod would fit. A ship would be too big to go through in either direction.

ETA: I have the episode, but haven't watched it in about 2 weeks, and the head is full of other Trekstuff.

I just checked

NUNK: Our own starship, with multiphasic shielding and a gold-pressed latinum hull.
YEGGIE: We'll have enough left over to buy a fleet of casino ships.
GEGIS: I have a better idea. Lobe enlargements, heh, heh, heh.

http://www.chakoteya.net/voyager/705.htm

 

[C.E. Evans]

If they could send a ship to assist the Voyager, then they wouldn't need to (they could've just brought the Voyager home instead).

 

[NightJim]

Except the episode states no living matter could pass through.

The theory being presented here is that Starfleet could have sent something through to them, without any crew.

A Defiant class would be asking a bit too much. Considering Voyager was meant to operate with 150 crew and had just about that (if not a little under) after all the deaths, having them look after a second ship might be asking a bit too much. B'elanna would have probably gone insane.
Something like a shuttle packed to the brim with supplies/spare parts or upgrades would have been cool though.

 

[ykickamoocow]

Except the episode states no living matter could pass through.

The theory being presented here is that Starfleet could have sent something through to them, without any crew.

A Defiant class would be asking a bit too much. Considering Voyager was meant to operate with 150 crew and had just about that (if not a little under) after all the deaths, having them look after a second ship might be asking a bit too much. B'elanna would have probably gone insane.
Something like a shuttle packed to the brim with supplies/spare parts or upgrades would have been cool though.

I just remember in The 37's it was mentioned that Voyager would need at least 100 crew to operate properly. With that in mind Voyager could have spared around 35 to 40 officers to fully man a Defiant class starship as well. Both ships would be a little low on what their proper complements are supposed to be but it would still be enough for them to operate. Plus with a Defiant class ship by the side of Voyager then Voyager would be a lot safer from hostile aliens.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Except the episode states no living matter could pass through.

The theory being presented here is that Starfleet could have sent something through to them, without any crew.

A Defiant class would be asking a bit too much. Considering Voyager was meant to operate with 150 crew and had just about that (if not a little under) after all the deaths, having them look after a second ship might be asking a bit too much. B'elanna would have probably gone insane.
Something like a shuttle packed to the brim with supplies/spare parts or upgrades would have been cool though.

I just remember in The 37's it was mentioned that Voyager would need at least 100 crew to operate properly. With that in mind Voyager could have spared around 35 to 40 officers to fully man a Defiant class starship as well. Both ships would be a little low on what their proper complements are supposed to be but it would still be enough for them to operate. Plus with a Defiant class ship by the side of Voyager then Voyager would be a lot safer from hostile aliens.

It's funny, because in Workforce the ship is damaged and they manage to make it functional again and then use it for some time with a crew of FIVE!

 

[Melakon]

That was an emergency situation that couldn't have been sustained for more than a couple of days. Offloading 40 crew to man the Defiant is going to affect whether anyone gets time off to sleep.

And if they were going to send a CARE package, it probably would have been sent as the payload in a photon torpedo casing. Due to the organic problem, that means no spare bio-neural gelpacks.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

That was an emergency situation that couldn't have been sustained for more than a couple of days. Offloading 40 crew to man the Defiant is going to affect whether anyone gets time off to sleep.

And if they were going to send a CARE package, it probably would have been sent as the payload in a photon torpedo casing. Due to the organic problem, that means no spare bio-neural gelpacks.

Emergency, yes, but the ship was damaged, badly damaged and yet they managed to repair it, with Kim being sick to his stomach and the doctor knowing next to nothing about engineering and then they used it to move around for a few days, fend of an attack... etc..

That seems like a lot for a ship that absolutely needs a crew of a hundred to function.

During the Year of hell, there was a handful of them left, with a ship half destroyed and yet they managed to hide in the nebula, make some repairs and go against the time ship in a last battle; AGAIN, that seems like an awful lot for a ship that allegedly needs a hundred people when it's working perfectly. One would think that a damaged ship, if anything, would need even more people to maintain it than a ship in working order, don't you think?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They couldn't send Voyager a Defiant class ship because that would mean the writers were thinking through the implications of the precedents they established.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

They couldn't send Voyager a Defiant class ship because that would mean the writers were thinking through the implications of the precedents they established.

Kirk forgot that he had a brother...

 

[USS Triumphant]

You're thinking they'd send a Defiant Class, and honestly, I'm more surprised that they didn't send them an evacuate and self-destruct order. If I were Starfleet, I would consider a relatively low powered but brand new starship with cutting edge technology like Voyager being stuck out among a bunch of unknown civilizations that might get their hands on her and study what the Federation has, with no way to send supporting firepower and no way to bring it home or even try to recover her wreck should she get heavily damaged, to be a MASSIVE security risk.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You had me up to security risk.

"Cultural Contamination" described abstractly by the hints towards what the Prime Directive might actually be, covers the dissemination of privileged technology to foreigners too.

Besides Janeway freely admitted that how they paid for stuff during their Voyage home was handing over Replicator patents to cultures without replicators.

JANEWAY: How many times have we shared replicators to help people feed and clothe themselves?
CHAKOTAY: Trading technology is part of our life in the Delta Quadrant.
TUVOK:: It has been necessary for our survival.
JANEWAY: Maybe we should have been a little more careful about what we traded and who we traded with. Replicators make weapons just as easily as they do food.
CHAKOTAY: We can't undo what's been done.

Janeway and her command staff should have been marooned.

Give the Ship to Carey.

 

[Ithekro]

If you are going to send them something, send them some tech updates and work on some of the high end warp, transwarp, or slipstream engine and navigation designs in an effort to get that ship home before they cause even more of a mess for future generations of Federation diplomatic encounters.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You know that Janeway could have built her own defiant class ship if she really really wanted one.

Set up a base, piece together an industrial replicator, mine the shit out of an asteroid belt.

Hell if The Resistance in the Mirror Universe could make one while being hunted by the Alliance, at the very least, Janeway should have had a small fleet of Delta Fliers, at least 15 under her command, even if that would have made the show look too much like BSG.