Year of Hell - Why was Tuvok Blind?

[JB2005]

It's not a terrible logic at all, eliminate Betazoids, maybe there was a Betazoid on the crew of the Equinox, who found something that made Ransom take a different route that didn't encounter the Kazon...

Eliminate Betazoids and you eliminate Troi (good riddance you might say) but that would have a knock on effect on Riker early in his career...maybe he met someone else? Or decided to captain the Aries? Or captain Voyager? He might have been killed on the Melbourne at Wolf 359, Picard might have died a drone...all the Federation might have been assimilated, which might have led to the Borg expanding in the DQ and the Kazon being assimilated...

And we're talking about eliminating Voyager here (which is what the Krenim are trying to do) You eliminate Janeway and maybe Admiral Paris dies in a Cardassian Prison Camp? Eliminate Chakotay and maybe Ro Laren doesn't defect to the Maquis in 2370. Eliminate Neelix and Kes is kept enslaved by the Kazon. Eliminate the Doctor and Lewis Zimmerman will die in 2377, Species 8472 overrun the Delta Quadrant in 2375 and the Prometheus will be highjacked by the Romulans in 2376...

Eliminate Voyager and the Kazon will take over the Caretakers' Array, we know that they had dealings with Neelix prior to 2371 so what change could that have?

Eliminate just Paris, and Voyager might have taken a different route through the Badlands and avoided being pulled into the DQ...

 

[Finn]

^nah. Riker was a career man.

Besides, he owes his success to Data.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

He was blind because Kes was rude enough not to warn Voyager to avoid the Krenim.

Actually, the timeline in which that occurred was erased by the many machinations of the Krenim.

I don't buy that logic at all. From what we saw on the show, the first time Voyager was hit by one of those temporal waves was at the beginning of "Year of Hell Pt 1". The idea that Voyager's history was constantly being changed right from the pilot is ridiculous to me, and there's no evidence for it.

Voyager didn't have to be hit directly by a timewave for its history to change. Anything or anyone they ever interacted with would suffice. If the crew doesn't meet a certain alien species, or stop to survey a comet, or whatever, then everything could change. Hell, before we ever heard of the Krenim, the history of the entire quadrant could have been changed a hundred times and no one would ever have noticed.

Looks like we just found a way to explain continuity errors on the show (even pre-YoH): The Krenim did it!

 

[Anwar]

Exactly, this was discussed in YoH: Annorax explains that even removing something as (apparently) insignificant as a comet can end up wiping out all life in a sector of space.

The ripple effect, one change is like throwing a pebble onto still waters, geometrically altering everything because of this one act/disruption in the timeline.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It is possible that Annorax's alterations of history could have even affected life back in the Federation itself. The ripple effect can have consequences we can't even imagine.

In the entire run of Trek - even episodes made and set before "Year of Hell" - we might have already witnessed what we thought were continuity errors, but actually are time changes wrought by Annorax.

 

[Anwar]

Yeah, its' Treks answer to Doctor Who's "Timey Wimey Ball" quote...

...Except Trek did YoH before that episode!

 

[The_Baroness]

It is possible that Annorax's alterations of history could have even affected life back in the Federation itself. The ripple effect can have consequences we can't even imagine.

.

Indeed. How do we know that annorax didn't erase a species that 'originally' wiped out the Borg. Annorax' meddling meant that the Borg were never defeated and lo and behold wolf 359 happened.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Seven of Nine assimilated Annorax.

He's inside her head.

At least that was the suggestion if we were so inclined to buy their fanwank.

If Seven felt the compulsion, she could build a temporal weapon herself.

but then if she won't supply transwarp drive to Voyager, you have to wonder if she thinks that she is obeying the Prime Directive to not give a young and stupid culture dangerous technology they do not understand and cannot handle safely.

We later find out that she could build a cloak.

(But then so could Harry.)

 

[TenLubak]

I havent seen this episode in a long time. I might rewatch it since its one of the 4 vGR eps i own am dying to watch my use my new dvd unit player.

 

[Vanyel]

Seven of Nine assimilated Annorax.

He's inside her head.

At least that was the suggestion if we were so inclined to buy their fanwank.

If Seven felt the compulsion, she could build a temporal weapon herself.

but then if she won't supply transwarp drive to Voyager, you have to wonder if she thinks that she is obeying the Prime Directive to not give a young and stupid culture dangerous technology they do not understand and cannot handle safely.

We later find out that she could build a cloak.

(But then so could Harry.)

How did Seven assimilate Annorax, if she was on Voyager?

 

[7thsealord]

How dare you ask a sensible question here.

 

[USS Excelsior]

Why didn't Tuvok have a VISOR, and why did he have to shave with a blade when Geordi was shaving in the first season with this no contact shaving thing...

 

[Guy Gardener]

She did plenty of stuff before she started playing house on Voyager.

Besides there's a server overlap between what is Krenim space and what is Borg Space that I suspect that they are mutually exclusive, which is probably why there was no 8472 war in Before and After.

 

[7thsealord]

Why didn't Tuvok have a VISOR, and why did he have to shave with a blade when Geordi was shaving in the first season with this no contact shaving thing...

My impression is that being fitted with a VISOR is a Very Big Deal - major surgery, implants in the brain, lots of training required to use it adequately, etc.. Seems more than likely that, under the circumstances, they didn't have the capability and/or resources to do all that.

Shaving, similar story. Replicator usage was especially limited, so the "low tech" shave was probably all that was available. Unless, of course, Tuvok chose to grow a beard instead. But, given how particular he always was about 'personal presentation' and 'setting an example', I don't see that happening unless ALL other options had gone.

 

[DeepSpaceWine]

It's quite simple. Tuvok went blind because he saw Neelix naked. It was meant to be a darker timeline and what could be more malevolent that to see the most hated main cast character in Star Trek, one who has been likened to a cheetah with a mullet or roadkill with a mullet nude?


Or, using the same 'logic' Spock used in "All Our Yesterdays" to eat meat and feel emotions, the chroniton particles went back in time before the evolution of the Vulcanian inner eyelid and blinded Tuvok that way.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Neelix is nuffin' but muff.

That's pubic hair everywhere.

I doubt naked, Janeway's pet rat is more provocative than a nude Tribble.