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Lore Breakdown : Omega Directive and the Doomed Civilization
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2018
- Whats Up Lore Masters,
Let's take a look at the Omega Directive and it's impact with Janeway. This was supposed to be released on friday but is here today for your Star Trek Lore needs. Let me know your thoughts on the Omega Directive and The Lore behind it.
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Tuvok wasn't listening during the briefing because he was thinking of ways to kill Neelix with the omega particle.
Nooooo....not Mr. Vulcan.
Lol I have just thought of all those murdeirest look he gives mr neelix
A lot of the action is theater for the benefit of the audience.
*laugh*
He wasn't listening as he often lets her prattle on for a bit saying things like yes Captain at suitable intervals
Since the prime directive was suspended in favor of the Omega directive it could be argued that they would have been justified in sharing Federation renewable energy and minor technology with this civilization. It could even be justified as a preventative measure against further experimentation with the omega molecule.
Agreed
Mike Vasquez that's exactly what I was thinking
Dangerous_stranger I think that would actually make a pretty cool Side Story.😎
That's the first thing I thought too, not to mention the species is already a space faring if not warp capable. The main concern was not advancing a primitive species to the warp age too fast. Trade of technology with a space faring species is not necessarily disallowed as long as it could be justified which in this case they easily could do.
And that right there is why Voyager was terrible. The writers never missed an opportunity to have a shooting war even when there were other options available.
In short the Federation treats the Omega molecule the same way Stargate treats the Replicators, destruction at all costs regardless of who gets in the way.
Indeed
Would the US not attempt ANYTHING to deflect a meteor hitting anywhere on the globe? Same reasoning. A large Omega release essentially ends any form of intersteller civilization. Closest star at impluse (less than .5 cee) is YEARS, never mind all the way over to Bajor or Risa... It's too big a risk to too many people to screw around. BTW, Lore, OUTSTANDING analysis of the Directive, for the most part. Well thought out, indeed. :::tips hat:::
More like Starfleet treats the Omega molecule the way Stargate: Atlantis treated same-space ZPM Project Arcturus. Hard to justify the scientific research when you have the potential to blow up a star system when it goes wrong.
And thats why i think THEY themselves deserve to be completely destroyed at all cost...
This video ignores that episode's biggest problem. It's clearly a particle, not a molecule.
My biggest fail to date
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh...
Is this serious, or just trolling? Because it has some merit... why should a regular molecule have so much energy? It would only make sense* if it where an unknown elementary particle. Then again, it could also be a molecule consisting of atoms of these particles.
* sense... talk about sense... this whole idea is probably scientifically stupid in the first place
Serious, in that it is an issue with the episode. I was kidding about it being the biggest problem with it though.
Multiple omega particles chain together so they are a molecule in a way.
The bigger the molecule the more absurd the power scale becomes. One particle can power a ship, a molecule that consists of a dozen particles is equal to the total energy output of an Starfleet level civilization and 200 million would be enough to recreate the Big Bang.
It's Star Trek; most of the stuff doesn't make sense but it's cool.
Crashium plus unobtanium, held in an Nth metal matrix, protected by a mithril shield, becomes Omega....
The Omega Directive is one of the better episodes Voyager produced. There are really stupid moments, like the omega alert shutting down the whole ship and that they don't calmly explain to the aliens, "You're about to destroy galactic civilization. Please stop." But overall, it's an effective story with actual stakes. Yes, yes. This is Voyager. Home of the reset button being slammed so hard and so frequently it got stuck eventually. But it's an enjoyable bit of TV. Even the Borg's almost religious reverence for omega doesn't bug me as much as it probably should. Voyager has done far worse to the concept of the Borg.
The directive itself makes sense. Warp is the standardized travel of almost every stellar civilization ever encountered in the series. It would be like (in a really strained analogy) every fossil fuel on the planet vanishing all at once without warning. We'd recover and come up with new alternatives eventually, but in the mean time, our interconnected world would instantly break down and modern society would fall apart.
It would be like living in the pacific and suddenly ships aren't possible anymoe and evryone had to swim on their own.
You might enjoy S M Stirling's "Emberverse" series, wherein all plausibly high-energy processes stop (explosives down to gunpowder, electricity, ability to generate high-pressure vapours/gases). Yes, this is contrived. Yes, it is perceived as being contrived in-universe.
The first book is called "Dies the Fire". You might find it worth reading "Island in the Sea of Time" and its sequels (same author) first.
And yes, I know that many neurological processes are basically electrical. See 'contrived' above.
countertony
You might enjoy the show Revolution, where an experimental nanotechnology gets loose and prevents all electrical machines from functioning. It becomes interconnected and sentient across the entire globe
It’s not just that, the Borg’s Transwarp systems might be less susceptible to the sub-space effects. Since it creates its own stable tube, instead of just a bubble around the ship.
So an Omega particle explosion, might, give them an advantage over everyone else, and allow them easy pickings over an entire sector/galaxy.
There is a couple thing that people in general forget. If you travel thru a region of collapsed sub space. 1. Long-range communication is impossible. 2. Computers fall back to much much slower speeds. The computers use subspace to move data.faster than light.
If they even have a fallback to other methods of communication.
To me, it's highly believable Starfleet would adopt a "destroy at all costs" mentality with the Omega particle given that it's the Star Trek equivalent of a civilization ending weapon/catastrophe.
7:26 "oh uh, yeah we're an Alien race you've never met but we're here to destroy your last hope for energy in your crisis because of some protocol you've never heard about. Now step aside or we will destroy you. Ok see you later bye! :P lolz" - Voyager crew.
Ya know, they should probably give them warp technology or you can bet a doomed society is just going to start working on omega again
@@firekram Nah, fuck em! MURICA!
In fairness to Voyager’s crew, the Omega particles they were messing around with were guaranteed to blow up in that race’s face eventually. That alone would have destroyed that race, with possibly the entire galaxy suffering as collateral damage.
@@firekram Given that they had weaponry that could threaten Voyager and the technology to create Omega particles, they most certainly already had warp technology.
just watched the voyager episode and when they meet the particle the omega protocol doesn't lock the ship they drop out of warp because of the particle shock wave, then janeway tells tom to "shut down engines and hold position", just something i noticed
your part right the ship is hit by the shockwave but that causes the lockout and only after she unlocks the controls does she give those orders
It could be an automatic safety measure, if they are in the area of effect of the explosion, then activating any of the normal subspace communication or warp drive actions might be disastrous. Since only the commanding officer was briefed, only they can unlock the ship and continue.
Imagine the devastation a cluster of omega particles when unleashed, the galaxy would be fractured, whole civilizations would be wiped out, immeasurable beings perishing in an instant, whole sectors riddled with subspace rifts no ship could ever traverse, the galaxy descending into chaos. I think i played this game before.
Dam right the stakes are too high to let it stay.
The Daleks did that with a particle in the same scale as omega. As in, blew up subspace. All species in Doctor Who use time travel in some form.
Tuvok: "This violates the prime directive"
Janeway: "so?"
Picard was assimilated therefore the Borg already know that Starfleet vessels can be effectively disabled if Starfleet vessels' sensor detect the molecule.
Excellent point.
Imagine an alien ship coming to earth, blowing up everything nuke related and telling us to not use it ever again and then just leaving. Within a few decades we'd have a nuclear attack fleet ready to hunt them down and reactors in every building
My thoughts exactly
I think the ideal was to make it look like the tech was too dangerous to research. Normally you wouldn't let them know you did it, to avoid just that. Janeway and crew improvised, and rather badly. I would have tried to get the scientist to understand and cooperate with destroying the remaining material, and offered him knowledge or an alternate power source, at least the foundation of it, to solve their problem as a sweetener to the deal. He could have then mentioned Voyager came by responding to the distress call, and offered them the tech freely to help them out. It's not like that race was ever going to have warp now, they were not likely to cross out of the subspace damage zone and develop a warp research facility. Odds are they wouldn't be able to ask anyone and find out Federation ships offering free technological candy to pre warp civilizations is a huge red flag that something's not right. :)
Then again, maybe there is a cold logic... maybe Voyager didn't want the species to survive. If they did, and someone did eventually find them by crossing the bubble. I suppose it wasn't that big yet if they could make the trip themselves after all. They got a whole planet to ask about how this no warp bubble got there. The Federation may prefer they die off so no one can answer those questions.
Bad analogy. Nuclear weapons only threaten the ones on the planet experimenting with it, not said aliens. A better analogy would be to map "universe" "earth" and therefore "aliens" "other country on earth". It would be like one country experiments with nuclear weapons and/or power and another country comes and destroys the research with conventional weapons.
Still not a good analogy, because the first country would need to not be "space faring", so in this analogy not have things like planes and basically be limited technologically to pre-industrial levels. Which doesn't really fit well with nuclear weapon experimenting...
Maybe, I would argue that would probably depend on how much they'd be able to scare us (ie. "don't do this again or we'll be back and we won't be as nice next time"). You could also argue that by destroying the physical infrastructure needed to carry out the work, it would be a certain amount of time before everything could be up and running again.
Pretty much x3
The Omega Directive didn't shut down the engines. The particle wave from the Omega Molecule explosion did.
the spice must flow.Without the spice, the navigators will become blind, the Bene Gesserit will lose all power, and all commerce between the Great Houses will cease. Civilization will end! If the omega directive is not obeyed… the spice will not flow!
Loved the parallel !!
No doubt if Voyager detected it the borg may have as well. Either-way they are probably doomed.
that was actually one of my favorite episodes of the series!
It's a good job the ship wasn't in combat when the sensors picked up Omega. Or, say, the Captain was elsewhere in a shuttle expecting Voyager to come pick her up.
I've always thought the fact that the Omega Directive practically shuts down the whole ship until the captain of the ship inputs some code into the computer. This doesn't account for anything that might prevent that or that the ship might be in a situation where shutting down is not the best idea.
It is not remotely an issue. Let us assume, I programmed the coding, now I would say shut up it worked exactly as designed. I chose to initiate shut down because the detection was oblique to our trajectory and faint, along with blah blah blah blaaaaaaaa.... hope you get the point ... the argument is stupid
Sensors have vastly longer range than shuttles or ones that combat takes place on ? ;)
It’s actually a relatively cheap command. Let’s say the ship is fighting the Breen and t comes in, possibly losing 1 ship because of a threat to the entire federation is a worthwhile expense at that stage.
We don’t know if it sends a automated signal to starfleet headquarters, which would be a prudent measure, in any case.
It could also save lives&subspace overall. Say they are fighting the Borg this time, and they are doing damage to the Octagon(Lol). Then just as they are about to destroy the octagon, a section loses its dampening field/shield around it, and they find out they are fooling around with Omega particles. That shutdown procedure just saved the local area from an explosion that would have happened, if not for instant automated response from the computer.
One could also add a line to the program like "Hmmm... I (as the ships computer) am FULLY AWARE that my ship is engaged in combat, instead of cruising along fat, dumb, and happy. Omega alert can wait till Janeway has a chance to get some coffee after the fight. I'll just ping Starfleet Command, just in case. Oh wait, no Command transponders, you say? I'll leave her a message."
I'd imagine something like the alert wouldn't lock up the ship if they were at red alert, and possibly a few other safeguards in place that would make the ship not lock up given certain variables. possibly if necessary the crew could've unlocked the ship by whoever was in command at the time declaring a red alert, but in the episode it didn't come to that. had the captain actually been out in a shuttle somewhere probably after a while chakotay or whoever had the con might've called for a red alert, worrying this omega thing was an alien attack, and it would've shut it off. all we saw in the episode is that it locks up a starship during low alert status traveling, everything else is just ppl speculating that it'd do the same thing when the ship was in battle, but it only takes a tiny bit of imagination to realize it wouldn't HAVE to be set up that way for the events in the episode to happen as they did. there could easily be plenty of exceptions in the computer to ensure it didn't just lock out a ship in the middle of combat, sensitive rescue missions, or dangerous stellar phenomena.
This was Voyager doing a morally grey episode well. But yeah, they Should have at least tried to explain to the people why they had to destroy the molecule
imagine this, borge use the attack to learn how to recreate the molecule, they create enough of it, to assimilate the galaxy useing a new method of travel powered by the omega particles effects, maybe transwarp corriders are even immune, leaving borges the only ones able to traverse space quickly
I wonder why Starfleet, did not dump an omega bomb, at the far side of the dominion wormhole, also.
rurrjh
Starfleet does not know how to make an Omega. Not even the Borg know how to make an Omega.
Yes, it would be weaponised very quickly. I can imagine some species would do much better without warp. There are also groups that would love to burn it all down.
Therein lays the problem. If Starfleet allows knowledge that such a thing as Omega exists to get out. There WILL be galactic powers and independent operators who try to create the stuff. They seem to be taking a 'rewrite history and claim the tech is a dead end that literally blows up so no one can or should try to study it and move on to other things' approach. Even the Dominion wasn't a risk big enough to justify that. Starfleet may loose the war, but is wining it worth potentially destroying all galactic civilization as it was known to exist, throwing everyone back into a potentially inescapable sublight existence? Remember the Dominion actually aren't that harsh unless crossed, so most conquered worlds would go on in arguably less harsh conditions than say those of Cardassian occupied Bajor. And even that for all the tragedy and crimes against 'humanity' left most of Bajor alive to rebuild eventually.
Earth of course, we would have been screwed as we got singled out as a rallying point to be made an example of. I'd suggest a wave of last minute immigration to other worlds before the kicked in. But galactic civilization and most of the galactic population would have adjusted to their new occupation governments and then got on with daily life.
Wouldnt exactly be fair to doom the countless species that are ruled by the Dominion would it just to stop the Jem Hadar. You would be dooming innocent species. Besides weapons of mass destruction like subspace based weapons, star/planet killers are banned. I think its apart of the Khitomer accords. FOP would never allow Starfleet to use them. Fed Council/ President would step in.
If one person discovers something, someone else will eventually. You can't stop progress, and by keeping it a secret all you're doing is making it so that if someone does use it as a weapon against you, you have no idea what it is or how to defend against it, because all research has been stopped.
In Star Trek Legacy in the 23rd century kirk put it on his log saiding the Omega incident has spread within 3 light year in federation space, this incident what the Federation created the omega directive.
"Practical and Logical."
2 extremely important words, both in Sci-Fi & real life 👍👍👍
The knee-jerk inquisition style reaction reminds me of Warhammer 40k and the Emperor's handling of the warp. His actions (banning its use, and all but the most rudimentary knowledge thereof, without explaining the reason, eventually leads to his betrayal by half the armed forces and his death at the hands of his favored son)
Only 60% dead, is our Emperor.
I know it's an old video, but if the omega particle prevented warp within all of federation space. . . that would basically be what happened in 40k during the age of strife.
The Omega Directive is a logical reason why Section 31 exists. And clearly, Janeway knew about it. The Prime Directive doesn't restrict Section 31. This was a Section 31 operation clearly.
it would also be an interesting endgame device by the Federation which keeps the Feds on top
I like the episode because it could explain why we don't have warp-technolgy in the real world: somewhere "close" to us an advanced alien race had an accident.
Janeway did say the PD was suspended til mission’s end in the staff briefing
Redundancy for the win
It was probably there for the audience to remind them of the PD.
It was within like 10 minutes of each other but possibly
10 minutes on DVD but televised a bit longer.
I bet Section 31 has Omega as a weapon.
In the novels, Derek, you are correct. The incident that alerts Starfleet to the true danger of Omega happens during TOS (and is mentioned in Janeway's briefing to the crew) and is a covert 31 action to harness the molecule as a power source beyond warp engines technology. As the Enterprise realizes the danger and goes to emergency warp (slower than TNG era), mention is made of giving several inhabited worlds roughly 5 min warning via subspace comms that, essentially, "You're fucked, see ya."
Would make it pretty good bomb to cripple the Dominion.
I think it's entirely practical that they would treat the Omega situation with such draconian measures given that it would be a civilization ending scenario for them. When societies are faced with a threat of that magnitude, other concerns tend to go out the window real fast.
The crew wasn't dooming the civilization. Those people could not stabilize the particle so it was useless.
PiLambdaOd actually omega did stabilise. They used omegas own resonance frequency to determine the containment field frequency. An approach unknown to the Borg. I think that’s what helped stabilise them. That or, when they were destroying them they inadvertently had the exact amount of molecules for a stable particle.
I just have visions of What Culture ST sat in a room combing over your content for their fucking endless lists.
Love your content man.
1:15 Every Borg Cube gets a Tupperware box full of Omega particle jello. Federation defeated.
I think my biggest problem is the ship lockout. It should just advise to stay put and the computer calls Janeway to her office /ready room and gives her the information. We know the particle is unstable so it might be in part of the mission to not get into negotiations (which takes time) until the threat is neutralized.
What happens if the Captain dies in combat, and the First Officer takes over? How do they know about the Omega particle?
It's been suggested that the command codes transfer... which means a maquis member learns of the omega molecule
Rezzy wouldn’t a renegade Maquis sf Captain tell others about Omega?
Wasn't Chakotay previously a captain? He should already have known about it.
gatedude07 if I remember right he was a lt. commander when he left starfleet
He would be able to access the restricted info
relies on trade through warp technology, has no currency to act as an exchange medium.
id hate to be the guy having to transport 20000 sheep to trade for half a ton of dilithium.
id also hate to be the dilithium mining crew trying to keep all those sheep for future trade.
I will buy your stuff, do you accept good feelings of improving humanity as payment?
I always assumed that they were essentially trading energy credits. Literally the energy worth of the item; kind of like using calories as currency.
you mean advanced genetic engineering and eugenics?
if thats true, then, they have currency.
and actually, that would be hilarious, because it would mean the federation essentially just renamed the petro-dollar.
episodes has meny referenses to credits
It’s justified to supersede the prime directive bc the directive expires when a civilization reaches warp tech, and if subspace is destroyed then that directive doesn’t work
I think Tuvok may have brought up the prime directive when he did just to get confirmation from Janeway that it no longer applied, just to make sure.
Voyager should have given the aliens safer tech, than Omega. This wouldn't violate any laws, since they were all suspended. This would even be the best way to fulfill the directive, since has mentioned there is nothing to stop them from trying again once Voyager is out of range.
Great video. Thanks for the upload.
Tovak was doing his duty in reminding her of the prime directive even though the omega ductile over rides it as the ships computer records every thing with in comunctors range on away missions
BTW I love your voice, makes everything so official!
Remember, seven of nine was the first person to do whatever it was that she did with Omega particle. The Borg did not think outside of the box. They followed their own Doctrine. So therefore they would not use a fake Omega particle to trick Starfleet ships. On top of that because they thought themselves to be so much higher than Starfleet and their technology was 10 times better why would they have to use a dirty underhanded mean for their end goal?
while it is true that the borg do not innovate (they assimilate, they adapt and they overwhelm but they do not innovate) as creative thinking is extinguished by the hive mind, it has long been a theory of mine, that this weakness is why the borg queens exist, when the borg is faced with a threat that can not be overcome by sheer force (such as species 8472), a queen is created, unlike the collective, the queen is capable of creative thinking, the queen can use diplomacy and deception, so she would surely also be able to spark innovation should she deem it necessary.
what i think is much more so the case is that the borg hive mind absorbs knowledge from anyone they assimilate but the collective also absorbs their interpretations of that knowledge, so since anyone they have assimilated was scared to shit of the consequences of just the knowledge of an omega particle existing, the borg share this interpretation and won't touch an omega particle with a ten foot pole either.
Right why would the Borg bother with it until they were nerfed they were unstoppable
Holy crap. Was I drunk when I wrote that?
Great Video!! Also about your last question, should they have told the other race why they are taking the molecule. NO, the Omega Order dump's the Prim Directive and orders any Captain to tell NO ONE what she is doing. So her response is totally acceptable.
Well, yes and no. Normally, a captain would contact Starfleet and a special team would be sent out to deal with the molecule, and presumably whomever made it. Obviously, this support system is not an option for Janeway.
The Directive basically boils down to "stop Omega Molecules at all costs." Certainly secrecy is a GREAT way to do this (you can't synthesize something you don't even know exists), but when you have an entire civilization that has decided to manufacture the molecule as their solution to their resource depletion, letting them know what a bad idea it is and then OFFERING ALTERNATIVES would be a much better way of doing things. "Stop! You'll destroy interstellar civilization throughout the galaxy! You want cheap clean energy? Here's the blueprints for our antimatter reactors that can even run on waste."
After all, they were prepared to share their energy generation technology with the Malon for a lesser reason (saving a single species as opposed to the entire galaxy), so doing it to fulfill the Directive would make a ton of sense.
The episode clearly establishes that in a normal situation Janeway wouldn't have been responsible for dealing with it at all. She would have reported it to command and they would have sent in a team of specialists. Janeway's original plan to handle it herself without telling anyone was her interpretation of what to do given that she couldn't follow the actual protocol.
gatedude07 nah, if she told the civilization, unscrupulous people would try to turn it into a weapon to hold over other civilizations
Minor point but... shouldn’t the Borg have learned of the Omge Directive when Picard was assimilated? And that’s assuming he was the first person with knowledge of this to ever be assimilated. 🤷🏻♂️
Couple things
1.) Seven mentions the Borg never found enough Boronite ore to make more Omega so that makes me think it will be a long delay.
2.) I do agree that they should have shared some technology with them for clean, sustainable energy; however, you could make an argument based on Friendship One the danger of that.
3.) I think the Omega Directive is bigger than the Federation. So many other species use warp drive. A large scale Omega explosion could destroy not just Federation commerce, but impact multiple other races. It's a difficult thing to deal with, but this seems like a solid "The Needs of the Many" situation. Destroying the ability to travel faster than light impacts everyone.
What Janeway did is kind of pointless, once Voyager left it is likely that the locals restarted their Omega Molecule program since they STILL are in dire need of a source of power. Janeway could have fixed that BEFORE destroying the molecules since after that the Omega Directive would no longer be in effect and as such a technology transfer would violate the now once more in effect Prime Directive.
I believe that in the episode they were told by the lead scientist that they didn't have enough of the ore to make any more. Assuming that the ore is incredibly rare, this would make sense. Even the borg could not locate more of the ore, and this molecule is their holy grail, so to speak.
Imagine the Manhattan Project beeing blown to smithereens before the first test firing, because one of the bombs was constructed on site and detonated early. In one instance you lost 2/3 of you best people, almost all classified data and all fissionable material you could produce and no one knows why it detonated. Now imagine you beeing on the losing side of the war with time running out. Would you start annother Manhattan Project? They were dead as a species, anyway.
Tuvok bringing up the Prime Directive could be a bit of passive resistance on his part. Vulcans are known to be rather stubborn from time to time, especially where there core values are concerned. Remember, the Prime Directive was originally introduced to humanity by the Vulcans. It would make sense for the Vulcan member of the crew to remind everyone "This rule is *supposed* to be number one, but then follow orders anyway.
A Vulcan is pretty unlikely to outright challenge your authority or refuse orders, but they absolutely will make you turn a request they disagree with into an order.
Re Tuvok, I see it as Prime directive as religion, Janeway, openly recinding the PD makes Tuvok, ansty. For a vulcan the PD, would be life.
Telling the race about the omega molecule risks encouraging the race to continue exploring that avenue as a future weapon/threat.
2:44 those four black dots made me think there where smuges on my screen.
5* or is that a smudge on my screen?
actually just watched this episode again recently you missed the fact that the species that made the omega particles was a "pre-warp" society so if you take into consideration that the omega directive allows the federation to take and destroy any particles found it the prime directive probably still stands when speaking with a pre warp society so while they stole the particle the prime directive stops them from explaining why they are doing what they are doing or helping them in any way create another source of power to save their race as the federation does not play God on deciding who lives or dies. Its complicated but I feel both directives allows a captain do exactly what we see in the episode.
Shitty way to make first contact though.
Tuvok: "Captain, I must remind you that we are in the Delta Quadrant, many lightyears from Federation space."
#nailedit
One thing I always thought with this episode especially with the prime directive being rescinded why could they not only explain exactly why the omega power source they were researching was dangerous but also offer them an alternative? Something that can produce abundant relatively safe energy using the most abundant element in the universe as a fuel source like I don't know a fusion reactor? I would argue that any risks posed by experimenting with fusion would be far preferable than experimenting with omega especially if you started with plans for a working prototype model to research initially. The idea that they would stop researching omega without an alternative option even if they were fully informed of the risks is pretty retarded to me, the threat of extinction will make beings take crazy risks after all if the alternative is death anyway you can't get any more dead than dead and at that point the damage to subspace would be kinda irrelevant anyway at least for the ones that caused it by virtue of the whole being dead thing.
It would seem to me that it's only logical that short of being in a position to leave an ongoing military presence in place to prevent any further research into omega by force there is no way to accomplish the goal of terminating their hazardous research permanently other than providing them with a better option.
That could be why only captains and above know anything about Omega. These protocols were put into place only to deal with the IMMEDIATE threat of Omega. Some sort of trade negotiations and a technology transfer would come later.
Re: Chakotay not explaining the danger of the molecule to the attackers... Seems pretty clear to me that you could, quite easily, turn an effect like the Omega molecule exploding into a potentially region-destabilising weapon. disabling Warp travel and communications in enemy lines would be a gigantic tactical advantage in war. I would say this is why he CANNOT explain the danger. It'd be like in modern day, stealing a lump of refined uranium from a civilisation that has no Nukes, but as your stealing it saying "oh, we're taking this off you because you could have turned this into a gigantic bomb and used it to threaten your neighbors". They would have immediately started attempting to turn any more they had *into* a gigantic bomb because they now know it to be possible.
So they could find another way to make it and thus have the same effect..
Could it be that Tuvoc was just overwhelmed and reverted to his dogma until Janeway reminded him of the briefing they had by overriding the Prime Directive?
The reason why Tuvoc brought up the Prine Directed was that he was playing Candy Crush when Jabeway was explaining that it had been suspended
it's not just that it makes warp travel impossible. there is also the fact that an omega particle explosion is so god damn huge that it can wipe out huge regions of space, the purpose of dealing with it is also not about preventing THAT particle from blowing up, it is to prevent ANYONE from finding out that they exist because of the danger of that knowledge getting into the wrong hands.
as for tuvok following janeways orders to violate the prime directive is technically not wrong, when confronted with such an order any soldier or officer would normally be expected to execute this order and then report the incident to higher ups afterwards.
This was your best episode
There are times of great need when your morals are tested and an order form superiors violates everything you have been drilled to understand, to believe, to have faith in. In that time you must judge yourself to follow your heart your mind or your orders One must pray they make the right choice. War is hell.
explaining to the civilisation what the omega particle could do is risking explaining a terrorist how to make a suitcase nuke for under $10
Janeway please faverents with her crew and spoils them like children. She believes she knows better and snubs her nose at anyone who disagrees with her. Tom Paris is a perfect example of her hypocrisy. He violates the Prime Directive, disobeys direct orders, steals a shuttle, and all he gets is a demotion and 30 days in the brig. But near the end of the season, he gets promoted back up and everyone acts like nothing bad every happened.
Need to be realistic, you can't just keep them locked in their quarters for the next 40 years while you fly home. And Tom was a needed member of the crew. A good penal system is supposed to rehabilitate, not function as some kind of zoo to lock away and forget people for their transgressions. Some people do have to be put away, if their a danger. For everyone else, there is disciplinary action then getting on with it to pull their weight in society. :P
what about the telepathic guy. they did to him! He should have been transferred to out of command staff and into a support position. Tom Paris is just one of many examples of Janeway's bad leadership.
Let's also look at the fact that they didn't mention it's affect on Transwarp. We don't know if Omega would have a negative impact on that. If it didn't, it would spell certain doom for every other race in the quadrant, as the Borg would be completely unstoppable with that advantage.
@Lore Reloaded just a small suggestion, I think your Breakdowns could be improved by adding references to the episodes you used, or did you and I did not see it?
(Watching this made me wanna rewatch that episode and now I have to google it, which you probably have already done, that is all :D)
I always assumed when they say "We made arrangements to return the injured crew to their homeworld" that was the point were they explained why they did what they did, and the dangers of Omega. It's also mentioned it's very hard to find the boronite ore needed to make Omega.
I do agree though, this was a scene that the episode needed.
The absolute worst part of this episode was that the species who create Omega was pre-warp. It was absolutely stupid, especially since a member of this alien species showed no shock or surprise that suddenly a bunch of aliens just appeared, started to speak his language, then took him away TO THEIR SPACESHIP and healed him with super technology that his species has never seen before. Then their ships were somehow so advanced and powerful that they could ever be even the vaguest threat to Voyager, one of the most advanced ships in the UFP at the time of her launch, which is a huge alliance of hundreds of species and has existed for centuries.
It all just reeks of desperately trying to make the premise work, because if they were warp capable, then this entire damned issue, that they need Omega due to a resource shortage, would have been moot. And it's especially jarring since the Borg have failed many times to make Omega, save for once for a very short period of time, yet a PRE-WARP SPECIES COULD MAKE SHITLOADS OF THEM AND THEY REMAINED STABLE FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME.
@Lore Reloaded Now we see why the Federation was so hell bent on getting rid of the omega particle. As seen in discovery with the burn, Losing warp drive had a massive effect on all people with millions if not billions dying.
Also this is with some ships still being able to use warp, imagine if there were no ships capable of warp?
I do have 1 question tho, Why did they not use the romulan warp core? it does not use dilithium but a singularity as a power source.
The civilization would have been left surrounded by subspace ruptures after Janeway destroyed the molecules, so basically no one from outside their solar system would ever be able to go there. If they were pre-warp, they'd likely never notice that effect. But yes, I would expect them to try to make the molecules again, but maybe surrounded by ruptured subspace it wouldn't matter.
I'm glad you took such a good look at this. This is the first time I've ever heard someone talk about Omega without bashing Janeway needlessly.
People believe that I have a need to attack Janeway and get pissed off.. It's actually untrue.. I try to look at the actions in context and objectively.. She's not always in the wrong.
Lore Reloaded From what I've seen you usually do. I'm so used to her being bashed endlessly and with little regard although I do agree she was poorly written.
Historically speaking, each empire kept expanding until they reached as far as the limits of technology in travel and communications would take them and then started to decline. The Roman Empire reached the limits of horse, carriage and rudimantary sailing. The Ottoman Empire reached the limits of horse, carriage, relatively advanced sailing and rudimentary railways. The British Empire reached the limits of Superior sailing, advanced railways and rudimentary communication netrworks. We don't use the word Empire in such contexts anymore but what keeps the USA, China and Russia on top is that they can each circumvent the globe with enough power to exert their will and the ability to instantaneously communicate with those who were entrusted to wield that power.
As far as space travel is concerned, most civilisations in Star Trek, including the Federation, are somehwere in between the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire. Their powers are very much regional and the galaxy is nowhere near as easily circumventable as the globe is today. In his book 'Excesssion' Iain M Banks wrote of an object that even for an uber-able civilisation called The Culture, who were technologically beyond anything in Star Trek except the Q Continuum, created what he called an Outside Context Problem. This is an event that is beyond the comprehension or the abilities of a civilisation and if it persists it is the fullstop to that civilisation. Arrival of the pilgrims to the Americas carrying various diseases their immune systems and physicians didn't know how to cope with was such a problme for all the centralised Native American civilisations.
Omega particles create such a problem for Star Trek universe. It takes the ability to warp or communicate through subspace away so any civilisation subjected to the side effects of these particles would start shrinking and reverting back to subluminal speeds and communicating with considerable lag and decline like the empires of the old. Destroying Omega particles is the only choice. Whether or not another civilisation needs it to survive, the civilisiation which was just rudely awoken to the side effects of these particles no less, is irrelevant. They intend to continue experimenting with it. There is no choice but to take it away from them. Their feelings and thoughts don't matter. Omega is a secret Janeway had to share with his officers due to circumstances unforseen by the directive. She's not going to start spilling out about the particle to an alien civilisation, even if it could perchance lead to them giving up working on the particles. The kid does not need to know why mommy took away his toy sometimes.
Sorry about the long and multi-edited reply but I find this episode and its larger implications fascinating.
Presumably the Omega override doesn't happen when at red alert or when the ship is in a compromised position. The ST computer has pretty good AI
This episode was really good by Voyager standards, but it again failed to fulfill it's own potential.
First of all, no diplomatic solution was even attempted IIRC. Sure, it may not have worked, but this is Starfleet - they will rely on diplomacy no matter what, and will even accept bad treaties when they are in a position to enforce their own terms (see Cardassian-wars).
Then, as you stated, this race is sentenced to death and not one person on Voyager appears to care.
But what really bugs me is when Voyager later runs into Equinox and Ransom asks Janeway if she has ever broken the Prime Directive, Janeway has the gall to claim she never has done so. It doesn't matter if it was legal under the circumstances, she still broke it. And she could've said that she had to enforce the Omega Directive since Ransom is also a Starfleet captain and thus knows about it.
I think Ransom would've handled this differently. Since the Prime Directive was not in effect, nothing would've stopped him from negotiating and end to the Omega experiments, and he could've offered that race technology or at least knowledge that would give them an alternative. It's even possible that they were aware of the dangers of Omega, but proceeded anyway out of sheer desperation.
Y'know, it actually makes sense to me, the whole "sub-prime directive", underneath the Omega directive. The prime directive is intended to protect civilizations. But the Omega directive is intended to protect subspace itself, Ten million years from now, countless civilizations may have come and gone. But none of them can have reached FTL if they don't have subspace to piggyback into warp. The destruction of a civilization is less important than preventing a billion years of other civilizations from ever achieving their full potential.
All I can say is, good thing Janeway was still alive or not off on vacation somewhere.
It bugs me so much that I have to take a break and play my intro in the middle of the video to get it above ten minutes cx
...what are you talking about? I dont have an intro for the channel
I always thought that after the fight the patients on Voyager would have sent back briefed on the threat.
Tuvok probably wasn't fully briefed on the Omega Particle. And he backed down because the order Janeway gave was NOT illegal - as we've seen in other episodes, it's the Captain's job to interpret the Prime Directive, or at least the senior Starfleet officer present.
He was at the reveal all meeting
@@LoreReloaded Ok - it's been awhile since I saw the episode. Did Janeway actually say the PD was suspended?
If the main reason for receding the prime directive is the consequences of not having warp or communication for a large society like the federation, surely that reasoning wouldn't apply in this area of the delta quadrant...It's worth Tuvoc at least bringing it up.
Janeway doesn't break the order when she tells senior officers about it because the order states she must take any and all action necessary to destroy it. Having determined she needs all Voyagers resources telling the officers comes under any and all actions necessary to destroy it.
Really, the worst thing she does is not kill all the senior officers afterward to ensure the secret stays safe.
Trek doesn't like to get really dark, but the conversation should have been "If I tell you, I have to kill you. I really need your help and I'm asking you to follow me blind, I'm willing to explain if you're willing to die. In or out?"
The Omega directive drops the prime directive: That race is lucky Janeway did not destroy there home world. " I would wipe them out to stop them from making it again" Omega drops all rules to star fleet = you can do anything to stop it and prevent it from happening again.
the issue is that species had ships whose impulse engines were just about as powerful as Voyager’s. Plus I’ve always wondered how they managed to waste all their in-system resources instead of sending out scouts to find more resources or were they like many species in Borg Space: so terrified of the Borg coming after them that they had refrained from traveling outside their system and now its too late for them to do anything. Plus nothing was stopping them from contacting other civilizations for assistance if the situation was that dire.
Solving the species energy issue.
My solution would be for voyager to give them detailed info on federation energy production tech.
While it could be seen as a violation of the prime directive the fact it would mean they no longer needed to create omega means the prime directive is negated via the omega directive, there is also the fact that any negative effect of giving fed tech is minimal as they are already a advanced species at a similar level to the federation.
It is a unusual but ultimately humane way of interpreting and using the omega directives priority over the prime directive.
I would argue that Tuvok's noting of the violation the Prime Directive is mostly a Philosophical reminder...its consistent with his behavior, not his not knowing. He most likely had already been briefed by Janeway, but wasn't just commenting we are breaking the rules, but giving her philosophical reminder. After all the Prime Directive is as much philosophical guideline as it is set of rules. So if you must break the rules remember the philosophy. Conversely the Omega Directive is meant to be a UBER practical resolution, no judgment calls except in execution, that includes calling a end to the philosophical aspects one would normally respect...why? The higher ethics of not permanent dooming billions or: "The final frontier has some boundaries that shouldn't be crossed - and we're looking at one." which is a statement so sever is strongly challenges star fleets, the Prime Directives, and Janeway's personal philosophy, but not their ethics or long term stability. In effect that little exchange was why he brought it up, not a legal discussion. Also I would presume the ships compute might have locked the crew out but tried to get them away from other imminent danger, the idea being to prevent them from running into a Omega detonation, not left them stranded next to Borg, furthermore just as command codes revert automatically with crew incapacitate so would Omega Override... at some level most likely. A very cool episode for examining the boundary conditions of Star fleet and moral characters...I conquer a better explanation to the Omega Particle making aliens was in order and hopefully delivered along with the scientists they rescued...Even the Borgs resources only let them try once so... presumably its not that easy to try again for most species that helps buy time at least.
6:00 Is Tuvok derelict in his duties by allowing Janeway to give an "apparent" illegal order to violate the Prime Directive? Yes. However, this isn't the first time Tuvok has done this. Recall that in the pilot episode "Caretaker" Tuvok gives Janeway the exact same speech right when she's about to destroy the array. He points out that by doing so they would be violating the Prime Directive, she basically rescinds the Prime Directive, and in the process strands the entire crew in the Delta Quadrant. This is arguably a much more egregious offense since she had no real justification for violating the directive other than her personal feelings about the Ocampa. Tuvok should have relieved her of command right then and there (clearly she's not fit if she's willing to do that), but he doesn't. He goes along with her plan because he trusts her. His actions in The Omega Directive are consistent with his character. And remember, according to The Dictates of Poetics by T'Hain of Vulcan, A character's actions must flow inexorably from his or her established traits! Tuvok objecting to Janeway's illegal order would be an entirely implausible plot development. 😉
If I'm not mistaken the subject of assimilating Starfleet captains did come up in this episode
It did
As much as I give voyager shit for being bad this idea makes sense. Without FLT interstellar travels ends civilizations, not self-sufficient would just die. Since it breads subspace FTL communication between worlds would end effectively. That many particles is the death of a galaxy of empires in a box.
I agree
i know it a differnt universe and all but i'm supirsed the star trek universe never invented anything like stargates or jump gates from Mass effect. I mean they have warp cores, energy is not an issue
That would be the iconian gateway my friend :)
Exactly. Warhammer 40K explores the consequences of no FTL : it causes the federation to crumble, with whole words dying, others regressing...
Not something you would want.
They’re too dependent on warp drive. Kelvin timeline totally eliminates need for warp drive with transwarp beaming.
It's a failure of training, which Janeway can't be blamed for. Starfleet captains are told of this one instance where, due to the extreme danger of an artificial molecule, the Prime Directive is rescinded. They don't want knowledge of this to become well known, it would have potentially harmful public relations problems trying to explain to their own citizens, allies, and especially enemies why they need to ignore their most basic rule. Imagine if the Romulan Star Empire discovered a situation where the 'noble' Federation would rescind their precious 'Prime Directive'. God, the consequences.
So I find it understandable that only the most trusted Starfleet personnel, the captains, ever learn of this directive and a highly specialized team then goes out to fix the problem. Janeway has a crew that isn't experienced in going to a planet and ignoring the Prime Directive. They're dumped with a minimal breakdown of this problem in a meeting, Janeway probably gives them only the bare minimum information to her senior officers in an effort to fulfill her duty, the officers are working from only some knowledge, they don't know the best way to deal with the culture, they don't know the best way to dispose of these dangerous particles, they're conflicted by the training they've been given to keep their hands off another culture's stuff, and they have minimal time to prepare for this mission.
All in all I think the episode did it pretty well. About what I would expect from the circumstances at hand.
Was a good episode and the show should have dealt more with the omega molecule. Only a type 2 civilization or higher can build OP but they had civilization who wasn't even type 1 creating it. Love to see Voyager running Into a type 3 or higher fully developed OP and see how they handle it.
After Janeway and Seven were in the process of reducing the amount of molecules, the molecules were stabilizing... they could've at the time found a way to keep it... VOYAGER would be a self sustaining starship with no end in resources
"Implement the Omega Directive immediately - all other priorities have been rescinded."
Another consequence of these molecules exploding is that lesser advanced species would never be able to become warp capable. That could have disastrous consequences.
I wonder what Starfleet would do if they encountered a space fairing civilization that was already powering their entire society on Omega Molecules...
go to war ;P
So, the only justification I can think of for Tuvok mentioning the prime directive on the ground there is... well... habit. For years and years, it was hammered into him that the prime directive is above all, and now he is having too specifically ignore it. I don't really feel that he would doubt her though, and I don't feel that his 'vulcan mind' would need it for it's own peace, at least not enough he would have mentioned it. But, well, like I said. That is the only justification I can think of.
the lore master of mankind!
This is why they need to develop hyperdrive technology that way they dont have to worry about the Omega molecule. Or maybe Warp travel. It may be slow but it's safe as long as pykers dont show up.
What the episode never states tho is that in reality that containment chamber was a gelato machine.
Voyager had only one left and Starfleet wanted to obscure the fact that they made omega ice cream, even from the Borg.
Janeway was told to dispose of that in a secret message some time I am sure.
I just had a new ideas James, what if an enemy found out about Omega and was able to fool ships sensors it would seem like a perfect way to confuse and throw off a federation vessel.
This episode doesn't make sense looking back. The original accident that spawned The Omega Directive was a SINGLE molecule that killed warp travel and subspace communication for a distance of SEVEN LIGHT-YEARS!!!. This episode, it's HUNDREDS (or more) of Omega molecules yet they're able to warp right up to the planet and establish orbit.
what would happen if the federation ran into a civilization that has been using Omega Particles for say a few 100 years. Would the federation go to war with that civilization just to destroy the Omega Particles?