I'm going to defend Neelix on this one. While the Voyager crew will always be in his heart, he is also a survivor and for a time believed himself to be one of the last Talaxians. I don't blame him for wanting to be with members of his own kind instead of going to another sector.
I don't think Neelix leaving was a weird decision. He fell in love, and found a chance to settle down with his own people. If he continued with Voyager, he would've been the only Talaxian with no way of ever seeing another one.
My thoughts as well: sure, he had good friends on Voyager, but no one of his own species. How lonely he must have felt? Plus he could never have a mate and kids again unless they did some weird genetic stuff. He found his people and jumped at the chance to be with them. I don't remember the episode, but I hope Janeway gave him some tech to share with them, knowing the Borg were following them.
Sometimes I'm certain they don't so much rewatch as try to remember and guess when writing these. Or completely misunderstand what's going on. I though it made no sense for Neelix to STAY on Voyager personally.
Although I haven't earlier heard of your theory of, 'Borg farming species for their tech', I really like the idea. It does explain why the Borg don't just overrun certain species. I also think it strange that Seven of Nine never told Janeway about potential species that could help them deal with the Borg in the Delta Quadrant. Also, she could have revealed what defenses work that the Borg have yet to overcome. It would have been good to come across an alliance of worlds whose sole purpose of the alliance was defense against the Borg.
To do all that, Voyager would have to have been written with vision and foresight. What we got had neither of these qualities by design. The opportunities missed by that show comprise a long, long list.
@@allenrubinstein3696 And so Ronald D. Moore decided to create his reboot of Battlestar Galactica that actually tries to address the storytelling elements that Voyager overlooked. Granted, the final season still goes off the rails a bit.
She was likely striped of that information. The Queen has proven she is able to withhold or it may be more accurate to say "partition" certain data from drones often sent on tasks in small groups like 7 of 9. The mission on Voyager wasn't the only one she was sent on as seen in a few episodes over the show run
The idea of the Borg "farming" to absorb new technologies actually fits better with Q's original description of them - not interested in Picard and the crew, but only their technology. It certainly makes way more sense than assimilation of those species. Once they are part of the Borg, those species stop innovating.
Also: the first time the Borg met humanity, they had Q's assistance. Even if the Borg didn't know about Q himself, his display of power is impressive and something they would want. So either they're trying to work out what forces humanity to use this kind of power again, or they aren't (primarily) trying to assimilate humanity, they're trying to get hold of Q.
Oh this is weird. I've been stating this theory with these specific points like almost two decades ago. Presented in almost the same way. That the Borg send a out single Cube because it is most efficient for assimilating an interesting target. If it succeeds, great that's what you wanted. If it fails, then you send that target into a tizzy where they frantically invent things like pulse phasers, quantum torpedoes, ablative armor, and bioneural gel packs which can all be assimilated by a later Cube. Because we've seen what the Borg do to real threats like Species 8472. Send hordes of Cubes. And we saw what happened to Arturis' homeworld where the Borg sent dozens or hundreds of Cubes. What doomed Arturis' people was developing quantum slipstream as this tech neutralizes one of the key strategic advantages of the Collective, their transwarp, which controls when and how they interact with their targets and keeps the Borg's own logistics safe from harm. Developing anything that challenges the Borg mobility advantage is a quick recipe for overwhelming force being delivered. And we know the Borg have a transwarp hub that opens just a lightyear from Earth so if they wanted to simply defeat the Federation they could have at any point since they completed that.
I just realised, because of the events in Rascals, Picard could have offered the Sona this alternative deaging process, saving at least a few lives in the process
I've heard it before, but I still love the "Borg farming the Federation" theory. I think it's a bit too elaborate for it to actually be what the writers intended, but it's a great explanation all the same.
@@JAGtheTrekkieGEMINI1701 Oh, but that's exactly the point of that theory. They sent those cubes to spur the Federation to advance technologically so they *can* conquer humanity but with better tech. Basically, they're making it worth it to conquer them.
@@akl2k7 I disagree, as if that was their plan, why go back in time and assimilate the planet? My theory is that the first cube was expected to do the job (they are efficient, after all), and the second attack was just a ruse to get the sphere close enough to go back and do the job in the past (although why not time-travel outside of the solar system and then move in, avoiding a battle entirely?)
Yeah I've always had a problem with the way the Borg were portrayed as wanting to absorb technological distinctiveness then end up assimilating entire cultures rather than simply sampling them, every civilization they end this way can no longer develop new technologies leading to an inevitable stagnation for the Borg
Hahaha... my thoughts exactly. I'm genuinely shocked that anyone would question why someone would choose to completely alter their life and/or lifestyle for love. The only reason I would question writing the storyline as it played out is they've essentially written her out of the franchise. Ignoring her looks for a second, I think the character could have been a new variation of the Seven and Data story arcs; a fish-out-of-water, learning to adjust and adapt to a strange new lifestyle. It would also act as break from the usual peril of space exploration, meeting new species and space combat for whatever show she'd have landed in. I also really liked Rios too, with his rebellious, erratic and unpredictable behaviour. He seemed like Star Trek's answer to Han Solo. I guess I thought more about these character's future than the writers cared to. Missed opportunity as far as I'm concerned. Plus Teresa was absolutely stunning!
I think Neelix leaving was justified, although he found purpose onboard Voyager, he was still alone, being the only Talaxian on the ship (barring a few visitors here and there), so when they found that colony full of the furry oddballs, he found he could have both purpose and unity with his own kind, and potentially have his own offspring too without having to be latched onto Kes for days, plus I think the crew were tired of Leola root in everything and were close to throwing him out of an airlock... :P
Not for the first time, either. In "Unnatural Selection", Pulaski gets aged up by a virus but they manage to restore her back to her initial age by transporting her up and splicing in some of her original DNA. So all you need to do is keep youthful tissue samples and you can have eternal youth!
@@johnpotts8308 there's also the episode where we discover that a transporter accident 8 years before created an exact duplicate of Riker. The consequences of that discovery were never brought up again.
@@brodriguez11000 Even being able to do that once would still potentially double the human lifespan, assuming you don't subscribe to the theory that transporters kill people and create clones on the other side.
Annika's parents taking her along makes sense when you realize they viewed it very much the way old Europeans viewed going into Africa to view apes or indigenous peoples. They would take their family, believing the risk wasn't as great as it was, or just hubris that nothing would happen to them. Magnus, especially, clearly considered the Borg to be docile, as long as you didn't provoke them. So there shouldn't be any risk to him and his family. Many people found out the hard way that the animals they were studying were more dangerous than they thought...and the Hansens were no different.
it would probably depend on how long Starfleet had known about the Borg at that time (not counting the events of First Contact and Enterprise) and how dangerous they were. It's been a long time since I've seen Voyager, so I can't remember if it's mentioned. Would surprise me if it isn't, though.
People do stuff like this today. Taking their kids to the forest where they could be eaten by wildlife or lost. While it's not a trip, kids work on family farms where they could be injured by farm equipment or killed my animals by accident. People take crazy risk with their kids all the time.
The Trouble With Tribbles: Best bar fight scene in film history. Doesn't get better than Scotty and Chekov in fisticuffs with Klingons. Scotty has to defend his ship's honor, after all.
That's really the craziest part. The whole movie goes on about how much he misses having a family. Then he gets the chance of saving his brother and nephew from a pointless death and... Just doesn't take it.
I think that's just not how the Nexus works. It's not a teleporting time-travelling device. Picard came out where he got in, and only minutes before he entered. They probably could have taken Kirk's exit as well, but not used it to get to any place and time.
@@countluke2334 I believe it says it can take you to any time the Nexus has been. So you might not be able to go to any place, but you can go to any time. So if he leaves the Nexus when it first gets close to Federation space and onto any nearby friendly ship, he could give himself and Kirk weeks or months to do something.
As Picard said to Riker in "Hide and Q" when Riker refused to save the little girl: "You were right not to try." Riker should have said that exact thing back to Picard.
I don't know, going back in time in a Klingon Bird-Of-Prey to the 1980s to transport two humpback whales back to the future to talk to a giant probe in space seemed like a pretty weird decision. A good decision, but a weird decision, nonetheless.
Not really. It was the only decision. The damn thing was about to destory Earth because there where no whales to talk to. If anything the probe itself was the one making the weird decision to kill everything over not having a friend to gossip with.
It was Kirk's only option. All the Starfleet vessels were disabled and that alien probe was wrecking the weather on earth, with Spock realizing the transmission was in Humpback whale, traveling back in time to when whales still exist is all they can do.
You left out a real crazy one: "The Offspring." In this episode, the Admiral and his intentions made zero sense. While Lal dying was a real tear jerker and despite the fact it's one of my favourite episodes, the prejudiced actions of Admiral Halftel are just insane and go against my accepted beliefs of what The Federation stood for. It hurts my brain.
@@johnporteous2828 not really considering when we first see him he's ordering Data (or as he put it 'your android' if I remember correctly) to be handed over to a guy for dismantling to see how he was put together and the guy had no confidence he wouldn't destroy/kill Data in the process.
The things shown in Star Trek are sometimes so crazy that it actually makes the rest of the show not make sense. They literally have the technology to basically be immortal with teleportation anywhere. They even have the abilities to upgrade their bodies and abilities to insane levels. And there are countless sources of unimaginable power to be harnessed. They have the ability to build ships that can go anywhere instantly, with weapons that can destroy entire solar systems. Yet for some reason their tech seems to just stay the same with tiny upgrades every now and then to keep it looking like or better than our own current tech.
I understand your point, but I see it as the technological advances we see in the earliest Trek are actually the limit of technology capable within the laws of physics as set by the franchise. The transporter, for example, can really only improve by increasing the distance at which you can send and pick someone up, and it feels 'realistic' that it has a range limit and that has never changed. The replicators and medical technology have some limitations which are generally created to build storylines or situations around, but I'm happy to accept that when we first see these put to use in the Trek franchise this is essentially a technology at its ultimate limit. I'm a fan of Discovery and think they're doing a pretty good job of trying to advance Trek science, and accept the difficulties the writers and producers have trying to think up new technology. If you look at science fiction as a whole genre, across several decades, and hundreds or thousands of writers and it rarely comes up with creative ideas that are beyond the imagination of what the genre was producing fifty or sixty years ago. Taking your example of having the firepower to destroy entire solar systems, do you think the franchise would be improved or better served if that technology were expanded to having firepower that could destroy entire galaxies? I think sometimes movie franchises kill of their initial appeal as new sequels arrive as the new film has to out do the past. I think Trek, or any decent science fiction isn't improved by new technology ideas so much as creating watchable characters in interesting situations.
The idea of the other crew resuming their age made sense to some degree, but Picard, giving up roughly 5 decades of life made me scratch my head. There was also the question, they just found the fountain of youth, might want to study that. Maybe those four want to go back, but I bet a lot of other folks might want a whole new life. If someone offered to de-age me to ten years old, I would jump at it.
Picard was not willing to give up the aura of respect that his age commanmded. He simply would not have been able to command the Enterprise as a teenager. That and Patrick Stewart wanted his job back.
@@fmlazar Yes, Picard would have had to give up his job, but he would be getting 5 new decades of life. This is a classic frustrating moment of ST's lack of real drama because we know all the pieces have to be back in the box where they belong by the end of each episode.
@@hemaccabe4292 yeah I thought it was crazy he'd go back to being a bald old man (of course I understand why they did it in the show, they couldn't replace Patrick Stewart with some teenage boy after all). I'd happily stay as a teenager as you'd get 50+ more years of life! Plus why couldn't he command the Enterprise still? yes it would take a while for people to get used to his new appearance but an android has already commanded a ship, and Picard is still Picard after all if he got disfigured somehow he'd still be able to be captain surely? And even if Starfleet said Picard had to wait for 20 years for his appearance to become more "captainly" again I'd happily become a civvie for that time. IMO they should have ended the episode with the de-aging wearing off "naturally" e.g. it was only a cosmestic thing that lasted a week then it wore off and they became old again. That would make more sense as to why they don't use it to de-age everyone once they become old. But then the Federation has always had this wierd thing against transhumanism e.g. one scientist develops mind uploading into an android body and the Federation officers find this distasteful (yes ok in the episode it was distasteful because he overwrote Data but they seemed to find the general idea distasteful)
Everything in Picard was assbackwards to what happened prior. That entire show is twenty steps backwards. Also, the Borg never lost at Wolf 359, the first cube was destroyed over Earth, just like the second cube. By the time Ent D caught up with the first cube, it was already in orbit of Earth, well past Wolf 359.
The Borg make a mathematical calculation on what is needed. Their tech is so superior only one ship is needed. Rarely is the calculus made that more than one is needed. We see in Voyager only on Borg ship attaching planets all the time.
I think Neelix's decision was the right one. otherwise he was likely to never see another member of his species again, a mental anguish he had already laboured under once before. I just felt sorry for the missus and her kid, I mean, who could cope with living with Neelix 24/7 ?
Neelix, it seems, overcompensated when dealing with the Voyager crew. He needed to feel useful, that he could make a difference, which he could not on that one day... He was one of the walking wounded and it showed from time to time during the series. Add in his own personal experiences, and you have his coping mechanism coming painfully close to becoming his default personality. His leaving was the best thing to happen to him topping meeting Kes, and later only possible after joining Voyager.
Nelix wasn't an odd choice. Those were his people after all. Second, for Picard and the Nexus makes since. Recall, Picard would have wanted to leave as little alterations to the timeline as possible which means returning to a point close to when he left. He didn't know about the Enterprise's destruction till latter. I think the Hanson's just got stuck in the Delta Quadrant but I think they were doomed by the same arrogance we see in the DS9 episode The Maquis. As for the model in Into Darkness, apparent that was a set dressing mistake.
The Vengeance crashes into San Fransisco and nobody in the city seems to notice it -or is it that they simply don't care because they by now are so used to having gigantic spaceships come crashing from the sky so it's just another day in San Fransisco.
Fun Fact: In the first 10 episodes or so of Voyager, Tuvok clearly wore the rank of Lieutenant Commander, despite being referred to as Lieutenant both on-screen and in the credits.
Our daughter is in the USN and had her first rank of Lieutenant jg (junior grade) , was called Lieutenant. When she made Lieutenant Commander, she was called Commander (not Lieutenant)- - so Tuvok being called Lieutenant was not correct, if he actually was a Lt. Commander. Both Lt. Commander and Commander are addressed as Commander. Military personnel know to look at the rank insignia to determine actual full rank of officers (and enlisted).
@@slcRN1971 Star Trek actually holds true to this as well (ie: Commander Data and Commander LaForge both holding the rank of Lieutenant Commander for most of TNG's run). Tuvok's rank of Lieutenant Commander at the beginning of Voyager was merely an error by the costume department.
The de-aging thing is probably what I've thought about the most. Assuming there are actually no long term effects like they said and it it repeatable with no long term effects, they've essentially discovered immortality. If I suddenly found myself with some sort of accident that returned me to being 12 years old with no negative side effects, I would absolutely just continue aging like normal from that 12 year old body.
Dr Pulaski in Unnatural Selection was a pretty weird decision. Forgetting about augmented humans and their agressive immune system - to expose yourself before subjecting live samples to their presence was a bad call. Not to mention (when they discovered the reason for the aging) letting those children live at the end of the episode.
True. Any other time they use animal test subjects yet she just has to use herself as one this go around? To be fair though the 'children' were living, breathing people and would have been immoral to kill something beyond their control and the result of their absolutely moronic creators giving them a feature a child should have seen was a bad idea (because EVERYTHING outside your body is a foreign thing, so their immune systems should have been trying to kill everyone else the moment they showed up including each other).
I think the only artificial life-form that they officially recognise as sentient is the Exo-Comps, as indicated with Peanut Hamper serving in Starfleet in Lower Decks (Excluding Data)
For the holograms, the Enterprise crew recognized Moriarty as well. I think the setup is that most of them aren't actually a full artificial life form, they can get there, but not all of them do. Otherwise you might need to view the holodeck as a straight genocide machine... You also get other self aware and true life form ones encountered and made over the course of things. Voyager has Zimmerman's secretary who is pretty definitely in that category, you also have the ones the Hirogen made to hunt, the nutjob one that wanted to kill Torres, and a few others. The only other EMH MK-1 that seems to have passed that point is the one from the Equinox (If you don't count the backup one). STO continues that where there are several photonics that are involved and are treated just like anyone else (Holo-Stamets being something else entirely when he becomes fully aware), and there are some that are just holograms. You also have that lunatic on Drozana Station...Boooonnnniiiieee Kiiiins...goddamn it Gein...
A more important question is what's wrong with creating artificial life with the sole purpose of working for non-artificial life? We raise dogs to do the same thing, work for nothing but kibble and the look of satisfaction on their owners face and they love it. Why wouldn't artificial life be programed to be as sentient as a dog?
@@ILikeMyPrivacytbt I think the issue is potential. A dog, while some are capable of incredible intelligence, don't have the capability of full intelligence. The holograms and other tech lifeforms can, although there is a simple fix which most conveniently leave out for story sake. Have a daily reset to a baseline programming on those that are never intended to do more than simple labor (like the holo miners (and get rid of the human form, just make them appear like a T-1000 with a number on it's chest!)
@@ScottKnowlesKnight Loyalty has nothing to do with a lack of intelligence, dogs love to work for humans because of their pack mentality and breeding. For example working dog breeds love work and are miserable when they don't have anything to do, while other animals with less intelligence would fight back when treated like a slave.
Rascals is my 5 year old son's favorite Trek episode. I've often thought that they essentially found the key to immortality in this episode and they were stupid to agree to re-age. Picard gave up 30 easily 30 more years.
A theory I heard about the Borg in First Contact was that they knew that going back in time would ultimately lead to the creation of the Federation, enabling them to defeat Species 8472. After all, they knew of the causality loop, as stated by Seven in "Relativity".
*Weird decision by Section 31*- After Worf's glorious winning of poker in, "The Measure of a Man," Section 31 made it their top priority to never let Worf win poker again. In fact, he loses so incredibly in every subsequent poker game, it's almost cartoonish. Why did Section 31 consider this their top priority????
@@pfoster1666 Sloan just never advanced his poker skills to Worf's level. He was, however, quite inspirational in his speech, even if extremely cynical. You did see one of the other books on the shelf, which he clearly read, though for evil purposes. - "Motivational Speaking" - Written and illustrated by Morn.
@@PauperJ Quite so. One critic stated: "Morn's book, 'Motivational Speaking', is inspirational and effective if somewhat wordy. However, this critic fails to understand why every illustration is simply a stick figure."
Paris reduction to ensign was only temporary. Likely having to take on the additional scut work of an ensign for a while was Janeway's bigger punishment. Once Paris appeared to have learned his lesson, he's second pip gets reinstated and he no longer has to do ensign-level tasks. Since Voyager isn't in the position to replace crew there's really no room for advancement onboard. Tuvok was promoted in season 4, when conflict with the Borg was far more likely. Promoting Tuvok to Lt.Commander was probably a move made in case Janeway or Chakotay become incapacitated and a command-capable replacement might be needed. Additionally, being closer to the Borg meant Tuvok's tactical speciality may need to be called upon more often in an executive-level setting (sort of like Worf in DS9 had an executive posting of strategic operations, something certainly befitting of tactical specialist making command decisions); I imagine some of Tuvok's lesser responsibilities may be been delegated to one or more deputies, while he focuses on strategic decisions with Janeway and Chakotay
I like to think that the Tom Paris demotion/promotion is actually the clone Voyager. It takes place between Demon & Course: Oblivian so who knows for sure. And Harry Kim doesn't get promoted because Janeway knows the real Harry Kim is actually dead. Harry & Naomi Wildman are from the alternate Voyager when it split into two.
@@B1GGR4Y poor old Harry Kim’s corpse floating through the Delta Quadrant. He was most likely picked up by the Kobali and reanimated while living his best life after bumping into Lyndsay Ballard.
Picard's decision to leave the Nexus and return at the point in time to stop Soran from destroying the star was a spur of the moment kind of decision. Hindsight is always 20/20 and Picard no doubt realized that he should have gone back further in time after he realized that the Enterprise-D was destroyed but he had no way of knowing what was going on while he was dealing with Soran and the first and foremost thought he had was trying to save a planet with millions of lives on it. Not only that but Picard realized he was in the Nexus and was fighting against the lure of staying inside what was literally paradise for all time and no one can easily turn away from that feeling unless they focus their mind entirely onto one thing so as to block out all other thoughts, including staying in paradise or traveling further back in time after he leaves the Nexus.
There's also the fact that if he'd have gone back much further in time he would have risked violating the Temporal Prime Directive and creating a new time line that he couldn't have possibly know the outcome of. Jumping only a short time back was actually the safest bet given the options
I thought the only could get out where they came in. The whole point of Soran's plan was making sure the Nexus passed through the planet because it was impossible to make it in a ship. Picard and Kirk would have looked quit stupid stepping out if the Nexus early and dying in space.
@@1Dataluke also, how does he detain Soran when he hasn't committed a crime yet? Soran was not a Federation citizen and the planet that was inhabited was not a Federation world.
In particular, regarding the Generations movie, one easy reason for the events would be that if Picard and Kirk went back "too soon" they might have created a time loop/paradox.
I am adding the choice (or rather 3 choices made by Captain Picard) in the episode Q-Who. - 1. He rejects Q's offer to 'guide' them to the unknown and what Q describes as 'terrors that freeze your soul'. Since Q is not there to destroy the Enterprise and be a 'guide' and The Federation is all about exploring, the choice of Captain Picard not accepting this big opportunity to learn something is just foolish. - 2. After rejecting Q's offer, Q throws the Enterprise to system J-25. Guinan informs Captain Picard not directly about the Borg but gives him the URGENT advise to turn he ship around and get out of there. Captain Picard normally relies very often, if not always, on Guinan's advise, but in this case - in which he has no information what so all, he ignores it, and goes on 'exploring'. Why did he not listen to Guinan? - 3. So in an already weird space battle between the Enterprise and the Borg Cube the Borg decide to nap. The Enterprises fires several times their phasers at the cube which takes enormous damage from it's impact. It's already stupid that the Borg decide to regenerate at this point and you could even argue, based on some Voyager episode, that only a part of the drones operating a Cube are regenerating and the others keep on working on the ship. Nevertheless, when the Borg become practically a sitting duck, Captain Picard does NOT order to fire all weapons and destroy the cube, and get out of there. Against all odds he sends a boarding team to 'investigate'. A completely insane move if you think about all the people onboard the Enterprise at risk, because he has no idea how long the Borg would remain this way. The had fought them already, the knew already the capabilities, they had the option of destroying the cube, but Captain Picard decided not too. A very dumb decision.
The weirdest part with 7's parents was that it was never addressed how they got out so far from the alpha quadrant, particularly in a ship that likely didn't possess anywhere close to the speed of a federation starship.
@@DiggyWizzy The Raven's own computer database indicated in the episode, "The Raven", that they were indeed in the delta quadrant. It's entirely possible that they may have used suspended animation or knew of an unstable wormhole. There was an episode that showed this. Also remember that a Ferengi shuttle went through a wormhole and was found by the Voyager's crew years later.
I always thought Matt Decker's decision to beam the crew of the Constellation down to the third planet was insane. Many areas of the ship still had life support.
Well he had just seen his entire ship and crew put through hell by the Doomsday Machine, him cracking and making a wrong decision at the time is understandable. We even see Kirk make bad decisions that luckily he gets to recover from because he's a protagonist, Decker wasn't so lucky.
9/10 - only one that doesn't track is Neelix - he thought he'd lost his people in an attack, discovered an outlying colony and fell in love, every reason to stay and get his life back
Number 10 only seems weird if you ignore the extremely probable hypothesis that Janeway hates Harry Kim (for proof, watch the episode "The Disease"). As to number 5, I think the idea that the Federation is "enslaving" artificial life-forms is questionable. The Doctor was a unique circumstance, in that he was intentionally left running longer than he was meant to, and thus achieved sentience slowly over time. Presumably, the other EMH's or similar holograms are not usually left in such a state, so it is unlikely they ever develop sentience. And as evidenced by the Exo-Comps, once the possibility of sentience has presented itself, the Federation unilaterally stops the exploitation while they evaluate the situation...
@@brodriguez11000 I think the technology just wasn't there yet. I think the basic gimmick was, essentially, that the computer technology available to the Federation has only just "now" (i.e., mid to late 24th century) reached a point where artificial sapience is possible, which is why the issue is only "now" arising. Also, presumably, Federation computers are probably not (generally) designed to become sapient, so as to avoid the issue of an intelligent life-form being inadvertently owned as property.
Thing is it's heavily implied in the episode with the Doctor's profitable holo-program that all the doctors are clearly sentient and being worked like slaves doing things like mining. We're presented for example with the idea that they're unique and can't be copied, just like individual people and display emotions even from first activation. The Federation just apparently hates treating them as lifeforms because of the issues of exploiting them they'd run into.
Also a thing with that episode that I never liked was the question of where all the mass went. If an 80kg person goes into the transporter and a 40kg deaged version steps out where did the other 40kg go? Where was it before they were reaged?
@@TheExpatpom maybe it didn't go anywhere, and that deaged version was very dense compared to a normal human. Therefore you'd have double the mass per cm3 than any other 12 year old :)
"Since Picard had an adult sized human artificial heart the de-aging should probably kill him" Actually no because part of the de-aging process would remove the artificial heart. In fact, when he was re-aged, he should now have a healthy human heart. :) (I don't remember if the episode where Q shows him what would have happened had he not gotten into the knife fight that gave him the artificial heart was before or after the transporter episode....)
There was an instance where the Borg farmed a species, forgot what Voyager episode it was but they send there kids to a rendezvous point where a Borg ship would assimilate the children.
The only Voyager episode I can think of where someone intentionally sent their child to be assimilated was the season 6 episode "Child's Play." But it wasn't about letting the Borg farm their species. In the episode, Icheb was returned to his parents, only to then be drugged and sent into space as bait for the Borg. His parents had genetically engineered him to produce a Borg-killing pathogen from birth. He was their unwitting weapon against the Borg.
My problem with so many of the Borg bits is something High said back and "I, Borg": "the Borg assimilate civilizations, not individuals." The writers of First Contact and Voyager seem to have forgotten this.
Staying in the past makes perfectly sense for Rios if he wants to stay with Teresa and Ricardo, because she is important to her community (as opposed to the Whale scientist in Star Trek IV, who was needed in the 23rd century but in the 20th and 21st century would soon have nothing to do with her whales about to die out). Removing Teresa from the 21st century would have a (probably negative) impact on the past, while Rios staying could avoid changing history (like Picard ordered his crew in First Contact).
It’s not strange for Rios wanting to stay, it’s strange for Picard (starfleet) and the others to let him stay, with his 24th century knowledge etc. But that show doesn’t make any kind of sense anyway so who gives a fudge.
Seems Picard trusts his officers more than Ed Mercer. Okay, we have seen lots and lots of reasons not to trust Starfleet training too much, like that Officer who formed his own Nazi-Planet and so on... But anyway, Picard will probably just receive a complaint by Dulmer and Lucsly of the Department of Temporal Investigations.
Janeway couldn' promote Harry Kim, he was from the other Voyager. 😊 So he was not really a part of the crew, just some guy she let hang around on the ship and the bridge - just like Neelix if you think about it ... Can a Starfleet captain just sign in any stranger into Starfleet ? 🤔
The Nexus thing may have been a result of assumed physical and temporal proximity. Picard knew one specific place and time that he could stop things. Any other place and time would either risk not actually being able to "be" in the right place, or, maybe having to hunt down the enemies location (since arriving in the exact right time and place to find him would be less certain).
To be fair to the Hansens, they didn't deliberately follow the Borg after learning how dangerous they were. The very first Borg ship they encountered accidentally dragged them to the Delta Quadrant. They didn't have much choice.
She left out the fact that the Enterprise-D had families. With kids. On board a ship that was constantly going into dangerous situations. We just know that there must have been encounters between episodes where the hull was breached and some little kids got spaced. Just because someone thought it was a good idea to have a heavily armed space Winnebago be the Federation's flagship.
True, despite it being described as an exploration vessel it's also called their flagship and flagships go into deadly situations all the time it's one of their roles, leading the way into things. Having families along is horribly uncaring about said families to take them along like that.
#1 about the Borg can be explained easily. The Borg seek perfection and since they do not experiment or investigate, their options are limited. To that end, they want smaller cultures to advance the bord by creating a ongoing motivation to get better. By sending small gergical strikes into the Federaton, they force the Federation to get better. Of course, at some point, the Borg will have to take out the federation to access this improvements. IMHO.
The whole premise is a logical fallacy. If the Borg consider themselves supreme and "perfect" (which they do) they shouldn't conceive of keeping any species apart from the Borg Collective so the Borg Collective can improve by assimilating innovations from said species. Re taking over the Federation: No take over, just assimilate ships for the technology, they will - generally - have the most advanced and useful technology.
@@Michael-jx9bh The premise is that they are striving for perfection; however, they do not have any intrinsic source for improvement; thus, they rely on others through simulation for this.
Except they do. In The Omega Directive we see Seven Of Nine relating how the Borg were using their data to experiment in creating an Omega Particle, so the Borg do actually engage in experimentation.
I mean, if I might quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail for a moment: "It's only a model." The Admiral keeping a model of a ship on his desk that nobody knows about is perhaps cheeky or an odd choice, but it's only a model. You wouldn't think anything of it. Frankly, the actual plot to Star Trek 6 makes less sense when you think about it. We love Star Trek 6, but the goal they were aiming for would likely never occur, and it was unnecessary. As for the transporter thing, you know in your heart that this is not something you really want to mess around with too much. Something would go wrong, longterm or shorterm, with your molecular make-up. It's true that transporter accidents have made age alterations, clones of various natures, put people in effectiive stasis, and so on. It's all experimental and a lucky break that that it did not do any lasting harm. If you tried to normalize it, bad things would occur, guaranteed, either because it makes for a good plot or because it literally couldn't be done forever, for the same reason Ra's Al-Ghul is not immortal. And Scotty? Well, it's not like they could *prove* it was him, and these are the same Klingons reeling from "Oh crap, our SPY was just found out.". I don't think an act of war over Tribbles would be justified with that hanging detail. Mr. Scott may not have been necessarily wise about the eventual fate of the Tribbles, but war? Nah. Now, do you know how much the time police in that universe would be all over Picard for seriously breaking history? They've already got a big file on Kirk, as is, and Picard's romps have not been pleasant to begin with. The people of the 29th Century don't need that kind of paperwork for those two captains derailing TOO MUCH history. It was a choice to mimize the impact so as not to screw up their lives too much. True, they could've given themselves like an extra hour, but too much would be too much. And Kirk? I dunno if he'd wanna be in the 24th Century that much. Old age ate at him, as is.
I think #6 might also be a good entry on the list of most mind-blowing discoveries that were completely forgotten the next episode. I mean, how do you discover *clinical immortality* and just... Drop the subject completely?
Not even the first time TNG did that. There was also the episode where Riker is accidentally cloned via transporter mishap. The implications of it were never mentioned again. And also the episode where the transporter is used to de-age Pulaski. Similar issues. Also never mentioned again. Wacky transporter hijinks are *weird* .
@@vic5015 Oh, Riker's clone wasn't forgotten. He makes an important return in DS9 as a Maquis, blowing open the existence of the Cardassian+Romulan mixed fleet that would later attack the Dominion. Then he's shipped off to Cardasian prison, and he can assume his fate wasn't kind there, as even though he wasn't executed, per se, Cardassian doesn't see the issue of "sentient rights" anywhere near as well as The Federation does.
Number 5: What about Peanut Hamper? She was an Excocomp that went through Starfleet academy! I mean sure, she noped off the Ceritos pretty quick, but still...
The absolute worst decision I've seen on Star Trek was when they passed up th chance to destroy the Borg collective by inserting a program virus in a borg child they found. A decision like that was way over a captain's pay grade.
THIS! That episode was on H&I last night. I told my wife it's the episode that sealed Picard's rank below Kirk's in the Trek Captains Ratings.🤔 After the episode, she blamed Crusher and LaForge more, which I can't disagree with. However, as Captain, the final decision was Picard's. However, it did keep the storyline open for more episodes/movies.🙄
They only thought it'd work, they couldn't be certain it would. Borg adaptability most likely would have resulted in isolating infected cubes and abandoning them to prevent the spread.
@@geraldford6409 😄It seemed like a mandate there for a while that every new ST series needed to have at least one Benson veteran. Robert Guillaume would have made a great Captain, or could have played the Father?
Id say most decisions of discovery season 1 would be on this list but my favorit is " while studing the Tardigrade the secuirty officer says " phasers don't work on it, when contaiment breaks she picks up the phaser and tries useing it on the creature. It was dumb but that was most of discovery s eason 1. I remmember shouting at my screen
We walk a sign into the sand so the ship can find us. And we do it in a sandstorm. "We must capture the Klingon leader alive to stop the war." KIills said Klingon leader to avenge her captain and the war goes on.
The "weirdest" decision in this video is actually somehow misspelling "weirdness"... But that last "Decision" actually helps me realize that we're dealing with a Borg-like element today...an element that cannot create something fresh on its own but instead must leech upon and distort established items....scary!
The Hansens bringing 7 of 9 is no weirder than the hundreds of families on every Starfleet vessel, ships that regularly get into battles and encounter hostile new races
How about Captain Janeway’s decision that got Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Here were her options: 1) The prime directive applies they shouldn’t interfere, thus they should have used the array to go home & leave the array as is. 2) Beam explosives over to the Caretaker’s array and set a timer on the explosives to go off after you’ve used the array to go home. 3) In the event that a timer can’t be set on the explosives beam over the explosives & a trusted crew member(Tuvok) to activate the array, sending Voyager home & then blow up the array. We saw in the TNG episode “ Thine Own Self” that part of getting promoted to Commander or Captain is the ability to friendships aside and ordering a friend to do something that will result in their death to save the rest of the crew. 4) If Captain Janeway isn’t prepared to order one of her crew members to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of Voyager & the rest of the crew then Janeway could have promoted Tovok to Commander, placed him in command of Voyager and then Janeway could have beamed over with the explosives to the Caretaker’s array thus she would sacrifice herself to get Voyager home & blow up the array. Simply put Voyager should have made it back home by the end of the pilot episode.
How could Picard go back to before he was taken by the Nexus? Could he just show up on the Enterprise D weeks before and have a chat with himself about the future? IF he had shown up before he was taken, there would be two Picards in the same timeline. Granted, Starfleet would be thrilled to have a second Picard commanding another starship, but still. The Trek universe isn't the Doctor Who universe, two of the same person can't be in the same time period. Time would implode or something. Not to mention the Temporal Police or whatever they are called would have to fix that mess.
Another weird decision is giving starfleet a cloaking device and when your officer, whose sole purpose is to look after the cloak, ensuring the tech doesn't get analyzed and making sure the treaty is being obeyed, dies. Saying "oh well we tried" and let sisko go on his merry way with YOUR secret tech.
@@scockery youre right that makes it even dumber :D out of universe reasons don't count (although I really think the out of universe reason is weird too, she would have brought so many opportunites for cool storylines)
@@a.l.e.x8118 No, it doesn't make much sense. I think the cloak was allowed on missions to the gamma quadrant as long as all intell was shared with the Romulans. There's some line later on about using the cloak on a non-Dominion related mission in "Way of the Warrior" I think. Anyway, the cloak blew up with the Defiant at the Second or whatever Battle of Chintokka.
Yeah, I would agree the Hansens taking their daughter with them was a poor decision. But so was the Star Fleet personnel decision to bring their families with them on the Enterprise and DS9 a poor decision. I understand how lonely it will get being far from your family for a long time, but it would be better to just leave them in a safe spot, especially the children. I would also agree that Harry Kim not getting promoted was a strange decision. In fact, Janeway made many strange decisions, such as trying to keep Star Fleet rules and regulations going even when they were far from home. How Picard and Kirk returned from the Nexus to the real world in the past made no sense. I'm surprised you didn't mention Dr. Phlox keeping all those animals, especially the one that eat a Tribble in the episode "The Breech." But the holograms and androids being used for hard labor is not a poor choice. They may have intelligence, but they don't get hungry or tired, and can't get hurt like real people can. Neelix leaving Voyager was not a poor choice. Everyone would rather be with their own people, even if they make friends with different kinds of people. It's understandable why Picard and the others didn't want to remain kids, Keiko O'brien had a family that needed her, Picard would have had to live with his brother who wasn't too fond of Star Fleet, and Ensign Ro and Guinan had no family to go to.
The Enterprise D was launched at a time of prolonged peace for the Federation (they later retconned recent conflicts). Klingons were allies. The Romulans were in a period of isolation. Yes, exploration is risky, but probably just taking any space transport would be to some degree. Civilians on DS9 were evacutated a few times, so yes there's potential danger, but no...since they can be evacuated to Bajor if necessary. What's stranger is the lack of a stronger Starfleet presence after the first encounter with the Dominion. The Defiant is fine, but really...a small fleet would be based there even before the war, with ships coming and going from the station all the time.
I have a Trek RPG character who refuses to date or get married because when he does have a family, he wants to keep them all together, and he's not ready to make the career sacrifices he'd need to make to do so (like giving up a plum assignment to a ship that doesn't accommodate families.)
The concept of USS Vengeance was weird, but since it already made it`s way in this new alternate Universe, It would be wise for them to make more of this. Hate to say it, but Discovery S31 ships seem more logical for they`re at least small. Also agree with other points, Deaging would be so much useful And Borg invasion..I think the cube was just distraction, they really planned gong to the past, they probably didn`t expect Picard to expose their weak spot though
@@Dreamfox-df6bg well guess that could be a valid option for Borg. Also temporal agents were quiet about it. When Sphere builders manipulated Xindi, they were there. When Borg could completely destroy the federation, they're like: Nah, they'll be ok. Some continuity mistakes. Also in the nearest future I can see Krenim become a serious enemy.
Oh, and the Borg thing, of course. That's like the old Star Trek game on timesharing systems in the 70s, the "Klingons" would surround a starbase and you had to keep them from destroying it, etc. But they only did that in one "sector" or "quadrant" at a time. Why didn't they do the same with more than one starbase at a time? Because, as the instructions explained, "then you wouldn't have a chance!" The other prime example of that is the movie First Contact, where, all the Borg had to do was go back in time FIRST, and THEN go to Earth. But again, that would mean they WIN. Can't have that!
Kirk notices a model of the Vengeance. "Hey what ship is that?" "Oh, it's just a concept." "Oh, OK." Just because I have a model of a Klingon Bird of Prey, doesn't mean I actually have one. Or do I?
I never really got the idea that inginuity was something apparently uniquely human and required free will to accomplish. The collective absolutely had members with more autonomy than others and could very easily have built their own think tanks irrespective of species, distance, or language. I would imagine that problem solving would be something much easier for a hive mind to accomplish anyway. Imagine millions of minds, each the foremost in their field within their own species, all concentrating on a problem with no motivation other than solving it.
It is a bit of a lazy excuse. If borg can assimilate live species, what's stopping them from just penning up alien researchers their cubes and farming them for knowledge? It doesn't even make sense to have this excuse in the first place. Even if they could make their own tech, assimilating other species still would be a very fast way of not only gaining tech, but boosting their own research too.
That's why the Borg were so eager to assimilate Earth and why they only jumped back to the 21st century instead of the 14th or whatever. They needed to assimilate humanity's distributed/parallel computing technology so they could incorporate it into their own processes. ;)
The trouble with Edward is a little contradictory to established cannon. In the trouble with Edward tribbles are genetically altered because they breed to slow to be a reliable food source. About 100 years earlier though flox mentiones they are banned on some world's because of thier prolific breeding.
Could it be that as quick as a living food source could breed, speeding up that process makes it simply more efficient. Although I'd question why, in an age where replicators exist, why anyone is even thinking about such a thing. I also can't see why the technology of transporters can't be used to continually call up a duplicate of an animal kept in the system's buffer. It's sci fi, they can do anything. We're already sold on the idea that you can make someone disappear and reappear across large distances, and that people can be held in that 'disappeared' state. Writers and fans who believe that the transporter is designed to only ever allow one version of a subject can easily be sold the idea of a transporter/replicator hybrid that can pump out an unlimited supply of farm animals, fish, whatever.
The Hansen's decision was bizarre, but also totally on par for the "life is perfect, nothing can touch us" attitude of the Federation as we encounter them in TNG's first season.
harry Kim shouldn't be on this list. There was huge drama between Garrett Wang and the writers over the way his caricature was being treated including not being promoted. The writers started deliberately screwing his character over the more Wang complained about it the worse they treated his caricature. Legally he couldn't leave the show so he phoned it in for the remainder of the series
I take a little issue with the AI thing because it always felt like that was the whole point of those episodes. As someone who is seen as less than human by a good portion of the population, it always feels like a neverending battle to get people to see you as an equal. I can rant and rave and score as many victories for getting my rights, but then the next day it can feel like it's all wiped away and you're back to square one as second class. Basically I don't think it's odd at all for the Federation to do that. It's all too familiar.
The only one I disagree with is Neelix's character development. He moved from being quite needy, emotionally needing the crew while he struggled with his personal trauma of loosing his family, to being ready and able to provide that need to the Talaxians he finds, especially the child and mother.
Bad luck "On stardate 32623.5, after tracking stray readings and sensor echoes for eight months, the Hansens were able to locate a Borg cube. On stardate 32629.4, the ship was pulled into a transwarp conduit while trailing the cube and emerged in the Delta Quadrant." - Memory Alpha "VOY episode Dark Frontier"
I think the main reason Janeway didn't promote Harry Kim was she knew that if they make it back to the Alpha Quadrant, he would be fast tracked up the chain of command. She wanted to keep him who he was. But she set Harry up for success when they returned, he's seen things that not many people have experience, he's fought the borg, has command experience and is able to think on his feet. He is someone that Captains would fight to have on their crew. Who wouldn't want an experienced Bridge Officer like him. But ultimately, she wanted to keep him humble because she promised to look after him.
The last one on the list gets me thinking: Note to all time travelling conquerers - when long distances are involved, do the time travelling bit BEFORE you arrive.
I've complained endlessly about the de-aging ability of the transporter. They literally turned it into a miracle machine and were too stupid to recognize it. From healing mortal injuries to removing diseases to de-aging, they opened a huge can of worms that they almost certainly regret.
Would the Picard/Kirk/Nexus issue fall under the Temporal Prime Directive? Returning weeks before - much less returning Kirk to the past - would’ve radically altered the future; whereas Picard could justify returning to stop Soran because it was returning to the same moment in time?
Plus I think that's just not how the Nexus works. I think you can only get out where you came in. So they could either have taken Kirk's or Picard's exit.
In STTNG, the Enterprise carried children, and that was Federation policy, not just two parents. In "Yesterday's Enterprise", it was implied that this was because it was relatively safe (since the alternate Enterprise didn't carry children), but anyone who's watched the whole series would beg to differ.
An entire top 100 list could be made about terrible decisions made by captains regarding the Prime Directive; either by blatantly disregarding it for their own goals (as Janeway and Kirk often did) or blindly following it to the letter far beyond its practicality (as Picard sometimes did.)
Kim never being promoted never made sense. He was a main bridge officer, field promotions had already been given left right and center (and would be, Emergency Command Hologram anyone?) and he took the night watch regularly (which if memory serves, there was a TNG episode about Troi having to get a promotion in order to do).
It makes sense that Neelix went to live with other Talaxians. While Voyager became his family for 7 years, they are still his kind. What really should have made the list was the Xindi first deciding to destroy Earth and then deciding to alert Earth to their plans to destroy them with a pre-emptive attack - allowing Earth to respond - and then proceed to cut a swath on the smallest landmasses possible instead of a larger landmass or somewhere important like Starfleet Command.
Love the show of course but I have to totally absolutely disagree with Neelix staying on Voyager. They were at the end of their journey they were about to go home and the fact that Neelix was able to find his people again which all through the time that he was on Voyager He wanted to be home he wanted to be back with his people but he figured he couldn't be because they had all died and then when he found a group of Talaxians it was just perfect! It was the most amazing send-off of a character and I was so happy that he was able to not only find love and a family but to also be back with his own people so that was perfect and I wasn't disheartened I felt so happy that he was back with his own people.
Except it doesn't. As literally every intelligent species evolves over time, so why assume one group are worth farming, yet others aren't!? It doesn't make any sense; it's just a silly idea created by fans that think they've hit on a 'clever' concept... unless the future Trek writers decide that's the case then its canon and 'fact' within the franchise! The decisions of the Borg are simply ideas the writers had to suit the story they cared to tell. As time travel is a thing in Trek, why wouldn't the Borg travel to the end of every species existence throughout the lifespan of the universe and assimilate them at their most technologically advanced state!? That way you get the very best technology from every species. You don't even need to assimilate the whole species either initially. Take parts, from lone sources, until you've enough to ensure taking on larger and more advanced elements of the tech from that species, before taking over the remainder. It's always the problem with time-travel in science fiction, that it essentially breaks everything unless the writers are extremely careful to contrive rules and laws. Ironically Marvel recently ridiculed time-travel in popular culture, yet created the dumbest version I've seen in fiction! They set up a system that allows them to go back and forward, taking anyone in either direction and having multiple versions of anyone together at the same time! In other words, no one is ever dead, you just travel back to when they're alive and see them. You can always know what's going to happen by travelling to the future and checking the news and history to see what's coming and when. And if all action can't be avoided, if one version of Captain Whoever isn't enough, just keep going back and grabbing a version every minute until you have a thousand or ten thousand Captain Whoevers to defeat Mr New Evil Character! They literally created the most stupid and flawed version of time-travel, because the writers lacked the ability or creativity to tell an epic story without falling on this creatively-stupid concept! But yeah, no, the Borg farming idea makes no sense. But whoever thought of it should probably apply to Marvel for a writing position!
In regards to Harry not being promoted - his actual position on the ship - Chief of Operations - is the same position Data held on Enterprise. And Data was a Lt Cmdr. Harry very well should have been a Lt at least.
9:18 as weird as that decision was, it was the right decision for him to be with his own kind. He finally found them! Some were not around when the Metreon Cascade took place! 😭😭😭🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 It was so heartfelt at the end, that I am starting to cry just thinking of it.
I don’t get really aggravated about much in fiction, but the Hanson’s risking their daughter’s safety AND basically going on a one way trip never to return home still ticks me off.
A good theoretical explanation for #3, is simply that the Nexus could not allow it. It’s not unreasonable to say, that the Nexus can probably only allow individuals to leave it and return to normal space-time, when doing so won’t dramatically disrupt the timeline. To take this theory a few steps further - the Nexus may well have had to effectively “imprison” Jim Kirk, in a fantasy of his own making, until Picard arrived, because otherwise Kirk’s own singular will would have been too strong for the Nexus to stop him from leaving to anywhere else in the timeline - except that doing so would have potentially led to major ruptures in the timeline. And if we assume that the Nexus is somewhat self-aware, then it knows why that cannot happen. Yes, my theory here is effectively saying, “Only a vaguely omniscient dimension that imitates Heaven was powerful enough to stop William Shatner’s ego!” - I rather like that idea. In fact, it’d be nice if someone could put that to Mr Shatner, while he’s still with us, because I’d really appreciate him facing a question that could make him squirm 😏
I'm siding with those about saying Neelix's decision made sense. As to the USS Vengeance model, without any prior knowledge of a Dreadnought class starship, if anyone saw this ship model, the first thing most would say is, "Cute toy." Though those of us who saw the trailers would see this little bit of foreshadowing, none of the characters -- especially Kirk and Spock -- saw the trailers with the Vengeance. Marcus looks at his models, then Kirk says, "Hey, I recognize that model from the trailers," as if he were in Spaceballs looking at instant DVDs in this case. They're on the market before the movie is finished.
Harry not being promoted makes absolutely no sense in universe. As mentioned, he was the ship’s chief operations officer. For perspective, that’s the same role that Data, a lieutenant commander, holds on the Enterprise. So It’s not like promoting him would mean that he had to take on new responsibilities, just as Tuvok served as chief of security even when his rank changed. The real life reason is simply that the producers said that they wanted there to be an ensign in the cast.
I was reading that after Generations was completed, the film makers regretted just killing off Kirk like that, because heroes don't just get killed off. But, it was too late.
In regards to Harry Kim not getting promoted, I think there are a couple (in universe) reason that it might make sense-- 1) (as stated) On a stranded ship, there isn't much room for promotion, and since he was already a department head, the promotion wouldn't have benefited him at all because... 2) Operations is likely mostly non-commissioned officers who an Ensign would already outrank, see the DS9 episode where Nog graduates from Starfleet Academy and Chief O'Brien says he will have trouble getting used to calling him "sir". So promoting him would likely unnecessarily screw with the ship hierarchy. Tuvok needed the promotion to maintain hierarchy and balance between Starfleet and Maquis and also to stay right below Chakotay in command. Janeway doesn't actually have full promotion authority, only field promotions--so Paris was simply being put back to where he technically and legally was pending further disciplinary action by Starfleet. During his time as an Ensign, he doesn't seem to lose any of his Lieutenant privlidges, so once again, it was largely a perfunctory and symbolic thing, where Kim's (and Tuvok's) would be functional. 3) In a post-capitalist world with no currency, there aren't many tangible benefits to promotion. The main one would likely be better quarters or replicator privileges, but since the ship was not rotating crew off like a non-isolated ship, quarters likely didn't free up, and everyone was likely on replicator rations (or at least they were in the early seasons before they dropped that plot thread). Endgame showed Harry as a Captain of the Rhode Island. Endgame takes place 10 years after the return of Voyager, meaning that through Kim didn't get promoted in the 7 years in the Delta Quadrant, he went the whole way from Ensign to Captain in the course of 10 years (almost as long as he was an Ensign). He obviously must have gotten a several rank promotion upon return, or was otherwise promoted up the ranks rapidly.
Some of those you could posit as being based on things we don't know about. Some on people having complex motivations. And some on having to be short-sighted for the sake of the plot.
There was the Voyager episode where they came to the unstable wormhole that could have brought them back home. But Janeway decided that the stranded Ferengis on the planet nearby were more important.
I'm going to defend Neelix on this one. While the Voyager crew will always be in his heart, he is also a survivor and for a time believed himself to be one of the last Talaxians. I don't blame him for wanting to be with members of his own kind instead of going to another sector.
One of the lastTalaxians? They lit. visit Talax....
well put.
Well said.
Yeah occupied Talex. There's a good chance that the colony is the last free Talaxian world left after their homeworld was conquered.
Totally agree!
I don't think Neelix leaving was a weird decision. He fell in love, and found a chance to settle down with his own people. If he continued with Voyager, he would've been the only Talaxian with no way of ever seeing another one.
Also, it makes sense with his story.
My thoughts as well: sure, he had good friends on Voyager, but no one of his own species. How lonely he must have felt? Plus he could never have a mate and kids again unless they did some weird genetic stuff. He found his people and jumped at the chance to be with them. I don't remember the episode, but I hope Janeway gave him some tech to share with them, knowing the Borg were following them.
Plus Janeway made him Federation Embassador.
I was going to say exactly this.
Sometimes I'm certain they don't so much rewatch as try to remember and guess when writing these. Or completely misunderstand what's going on. I though it made no sense for Neelix to STAY on Voyager personally.
Although I haven't earlier heard of your theory of, 'Borg farming species for their tech', I really like the idea. It does explain why the Borg don't just overrun certain species. I also think it strange that Seven of Nine never told Janeway about potential species that could help them deal with the Borg in the Delta Quadrant. Also, she could have revealed what defenses work that the Borg have yet to overcome. It would have been good to come across an alliance of worlds whose sole purpose of the alliance was defense against the Borg.
This isn’t Ellie’s theory. It’s stated in Q Who that the Borg aren’t interested in biological life only technology.
To do all that, Voyager would have to have been written with vision and foresight. What we got had neither of these qualities by design. The opportunities missed by that show comprise a long, long list.
Like Windows, her Borg operating system never voluntarily gives you what you need unless your search phrase is specifically structured.
@@allenrubinstein3696 And so Ronald D. Moore decided to create his reboot of Battlestar Galactica that actually tries to address the storytelling elements that Voyager overlooked. Granted, the final season still goes off the rails a bit.
She was likely striped of that information. The Queen has proven she is able to withhold or it may be more accurate to say "partition" certain data from drones often sent on tasks in small groups like 7 of 9. The mission on Voyager wasn't the only one she was sent on as seen in a few episodes over the show run
The idea of the Borg "farming" to absorb new technologies actually fits better with Q's original description of them - not interested in Picard and the crew, but only their technology. It certainly makes way more sense than assimilation of those species. Once they are part of the Borg, those species stop innovating.
Also: the first time the Borg met humanity, they had Q's assistance. Even if the Borg didn't know about Q himself, his display of power is impressive and something they would want.
So either they're trying to work out what forces humanity to use this kind of power again, or they aren't (primarily) trying to assimilate humanity, they're trying to get hold of Q.
Oh this is weird. I've been stating this theory with these specific points like almost two decades ago. Presented in almost the same way. That the Borg send a out single Cube because it is most efficient for assimilating an interesting target. If it succeeds, great that's what you wanted. If it fails, then you send that target into a tizzy where they frantically invent things like pulse phasers, quantum torpedoes, ablative armor, and bioneural gel packs which can all be assimilated by a later Cube. Because we've seen what the Borg do to real threats like Species 8472. Send hordes of Cubes. And we saw what happened to Arturis' homeworld where the Borg sent dozens or hundreds of Cubes. What doomed Arturis' people was developing quantum slipstream as this tech neutralizes one of the key strategic advantages of the Collective, their transwarp, which controls when and how they interact with their targets and keeps the Borg's own logistics safe from harm. Developing anything that challenges the Borg mobility advantage is a quick recipe for overwhelming force being delivered. And we know the Borg have a transwarp hub that opens just a lightyear from Earth so if they wanted to simply defeat the Federation they could have at any point since they completed that.
Alternatively they're trying to figure out where the Enterprise's plot armor comes from and assimilated that, and suspect it might be the people
I just realised, because of the events in Rascals, Picard could have offered the Sona this alternative deaging process, saving at least a few lives in the process
Going on a family trip to Borg space would be like me signing up for a Klingon kickboxing tournament
I've heard it before, but I still love the "Borg farming the Federation" theory. I think it's a bit too elaborate for it to actually be what the writers intended, but it's a great explanation all the same.
But the Borg wanted to Conquer humanity in the End... So that does Not really make Sense
@@JAGtheTrekkieGEMINI1701 Oh, but that's exactly the point of that theory. They sent those cubes to spur the Federation to advance technologically so they *can* conquer humanity but with better tech. Basically, they're making it worth it to conquer them.
@@akl2k7 I mean it is kinda interesting but imo also really a Bit far fetched
@@akl2k7 I disagree, as if that was their plan, why go back in time and assimilate the planet? My theory is that the first cube was expected to do the job (they are efficient, after all), and the second attack was just a ruse to get the sphere close enough to go back and do the job in the past (although why not time-travel outside of the solar system and then move in, avoiding a battle entirely?)
@@vitani_uk the movie was dumb and should be ignored. The borg made ZERO sense in first contact
I am convinced that farming some especially innovative civilizations is exactly what the Borg do, otherwise their behavior makes no sense at all.
Yeah I've always had a problem with the way the Borg were portrayed as wanting to absorb technological distinctiveness then end up assimilating entire cultures rather than simply sampling them, every civilization they end this way can no longer develop new technologies leading to an inevitable stagnation for the Borg
"Rios' decision to stay in the 21st century didn't make any sense"
Um, did you get a good look at Teresa?
that is why he should have taken them. so this would also have an effect. since Causality is not to be treated lightly.
Hahaha... my thoughts exactly. I'm genuinely shocked that anyone would question why someone would choose to completely alter their life and/or lifestyle for love.
The only reason I would question writing the storyline as it played out is they've essentially written her out of the franchise. Ignoring her looks for a second, I think the character could have been a new variation of the Seven and Data story arcs; a fish-out-of-water, learning to adjust and adapt to a strange new lifestyle. It would also act as break from the usual peril of space exploration, meeting new species and space combat for whatever show she'd have landed in. I also really liked Rios too, with his rebellious, erratic and unpredictable behaviour. He seemed like Star Trek's answer to Han Solo. I guess I thought more about these character's future than the writers cared to. Missed opportunity as far as I'm concerned. Plus Teresa was absolutely stunning!
Well played, she was HOT
I think Neelix leaving was justified, although he found purpose onboard Voyager, he was still alone, being the only Talaxian on the ship (barring a few visitors here and there), so when they found that colony full of the furry oddballs, he found he could have both purpose and unity with his own kind, and potentially have his own offspring too without having to be latched onto Kes for days, plus I think the crew were tired of Leola root in everything and were close to throwing him out of an airlock... :P
She should have promoted Harry Kim to lieutenant when Paris was demoted.
Or promote and demote him every episode
Agreed. Actually he shave been a lt commander by the end . Ensign is usually a year.
Picard went from ensign to captain in 7 years
@@shanenolan8252 Kirk went from Cadet to Captain in 4 days!
@@TIG5574
That was so dumb too....
Rascals especially annoys me as they've basically discovered the key to immortality, and are utterly blase about it because hey! Ferengi. :-(
Not for the first time, either. In "Unnatural Selection", Pulaski gets aged up by a virus but they manage to restore her back to her initial age by transporting her up and splicing in some of her original DNA. So all you need to do is keep youthful tissue samples and you can have eternal youth!
@@johnpotts8308 Transporters could be an imperfect process with accumulated errors over time.
@@johnpotts8308 there's also the episode where we discover that a transporter accident 8 years before created an exact duplicate of Riker. The consequences of that discovery were never brought up again.
@@brodriguez11000 Even being able to do that once would still potentially double the human lifespan, assuming you don't subscribe to the theory that transporters kill people and create clones on the other side.
@@brodriguez11000
Not worse than the garden-variety dying of old age, though.
Annika's parents taking her along makes sense when you realize they viewed it very much the way old Europeans viewed going into Africa to view apes or indigenous peoples. They would take their family, believing the risk wasn't as great as it was, or just hubris that nothing would happen to them.
Magnus, especially, clearly considered the Borg to be docile, as long as you didn't provoke them. So there shouldn't be any risk to him and his family.
Many people found out the hard way that the animals they were studying were more dangerous than they thought...and the Hansens were no different.
it would probably depend on how long Starfleet had known about the Borg at that time (not counting the events of First Contact and Enterprise) and how dangerous they were. It's been a long time since I've seen Voyager, so I can't remember if it's mentioned. Would surprise me if it isn't, though.
Best to stay home and stay sheltered
People do stuff like this today. Taking their kids to the forest where they could be eaten by wildlife or lost.
While it's not a trip, kids work on family farms where they could be injured by farm equipment or killed my animals by accident.
People take crazy risk with their kids all the time.
@@blackrazer22 Best to buy everything from supermarkets and online and keep your kids fat and safe on video games and 'smart' phones
@@RideAcrossTheRiver So current everyday life. 😁
You forgot the worst one:
Kirk ignoring regulations and not raising the shields as the USS Reliant approached in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
He had no way of knowing that the ship was hijacked as far as he was concerned it was just another Federation ship
@@sokagofferenginar8669 the fact that they were refusing all attempts at communication should have made him rather suspicious, imo.
i Agree he knew enough to go to Yellow alert and had training officers, should be more then enough to raise shields to be on the safe side.
@@vztanir Of course, if he had, there'd have been no movie...
"We are one big happy fleet!"
The Trouble With Tribbles: Best bar fight scene in film history.
Doesn't get better than Scotty and Chekov in fisticuffs with Klingons.
Scotty has to defend his ship's honor, after all.
Along with one of the best lines in Star Trek: “The Enterprise should be hauled away AS garbage”.
Not so much his Captain, though.😁
Hilarious bar fights should have been a Trek tradition in every spinoff.
@@Chuck_Hooks There was one in TNG. Can't remember any others.
@@Chuck_Hooks agreed
Also, Picard could save his brother and nephew, by returning weeks earlier.
That's really the craziest part. The whole movie goes on about how much he misses having a family. Then he gets the chance of saving his brother and nephew from a pointless death and... Just doesn't take it.
I think that's just not how the Nexus works. It's not a teleporting time-travelling device. Picard came out where he got in, and only minutes before he entered. They probably could have taken Kirk's exit as well, but not used it to get to any place and time.
@@countluke2334 I believe it says it can take you to any time the Nexus has been. So you might not be able to go to any place, but you can go to any time. So if he leaves the Nexus when it first gets close to Federation space and onto any nearby friendly ship, he could give himself and Kirk weeks or months to do something.
As Picard said to Riker in "Hide and Q" when Riker refused to save the little girl: "You were right not to try."
Riker should have said that exact thing back to Picard.
He couldn't stop Soran AND save his family.
I don't know, going back in time in a Klingon Bird-Of-Prey to the 1980s to transport two humpback whales back to the future to talk to a giant probe in space seemed like a pretty weird decision. A good decision, but a weird decision, nonetheless.
Not really. It was the only decision. The damn thing was about to destory Earth because there where no whales to talk to. If anything the probe itself was the one making the weird decision to kill everything over not having a friend to gossip with.
It was Kirk's only option. All the Starfleet vessels were disabled and that alien probe was wrecking the weather on earth, with Spock realizing the transmission was in Humpback whale, traveling back in time to when whales still exist is all they can do.
What was really dumb was believing whales would be extinct. That was only a nod to Green knobs.
You left out a real crazy one: "The Offspring." In this episode, the Admiral and his intentions made zero sense. While Lal dying was a real tear jerker and despite the fact it's one of my favourite episodes, the prejudiced actions of Admiral Halftel are just insane and go against my accepted beliefs of what The Federation stood for. It hurts my brain.
I think that the Admiral was trying to save the last two members of a new intelligent species- a very Star Fleet thing to do.
@@johnporteous2828 not really considering when we first see him he's ordering Data (or as he put it 'your android' if I remember correctly) to be handed over to a guy for dismantling to see how he was put together and the guy had no confidence he wouldn't destroy/kill Data in the process.
The things shown in Star Trek are sometimes so crazy that it actually makes the rest of the show not make sense. They literally have the technology to basically be immortal with teleportation anywhere. They even have the abilities to upgrade their bodies and abilities to insane levels. And there are countless sources of unimaginable power to be harnessed. They have the ability to build ships that can go anywhere instantly, with weapons that can destroy entire solar systems. Yet for some reason their tech seems to just stay the same with tiny upgrades every now and then to keep it looking like or better than our own current tech.
I understand your point, but I see it as the technological advances we see in the earliest Trek are actually the limit of technology capable within the laws of physics as set by the franchise.
The transporter, for example, can really only improve by increasing the distance at which you can send and pick someone up, and it feels 'realistic' that it has a range limit and that has never changed. The replicators and medical technology have some limitations which are generally created to build storylines or situations around, but I'm happy to accept that when we first see these put to use in the Trek franchise this is essentially a technology at its ultimate limit.
I'm a fan of Discovery and think they're doing a pretty good job of trying to advance Trek science, and accept the difficulties the writers and producers have trying to think up new technology. If you look at science fiction as a whole genre, across several decades, and hundreds or thousands of writers and it rarely comes up with creative ideas that are beyond the imagination of what the genre was producing fifty or sixty years ago.
Taking your example of having the firepower to destroy entire solar systems, do you think the franchise would be improved or better served if that technology were expanded to having firepower that could destroy entire galaxies? I think sometimes movie franchises kill of their initial appeal as new sequels arrive as the new film has to out do the past. I think Trek, or any decent science fiction isn't improved by new technology ideas so much as creating watchable characters in interesting situations.
The idea of the other crew resuming their age made sense to some degree, but Picard, giving up roughly 5 decades of life made me scratch my head. There was also the question, they just found the fountain of youth, might want to study that. Maybe those four want to go back, but I bet a lot of other folks might want a whole new life. If someone offered to de-age me to ten years old, I would jump at it.
I still wonder how Picard's artificial heart was still suitable for that younger and smaller body...
Picard was not willing to give up the aura of respect that his age commanmded. He simply would not have been able to command the Enterprise as a teenager. That and Patrick Stewart wanted his job back.
shit, I'd ask if they can make me 5!
@@fmlazar Yes, Picard would have had to give up his job, but he would be getting 5 new decades of life. This is a classic frustrating moment of ST's lack of real drama because we know all the pieces have to be back in the box where they belong by the end of each episode.
@@hemaccabe4292 yeah I thought it was crazy he'd go back to being a bald old man (of course I understand why they did it in the show, they couldn't replace Patrick Stewart with some teenage boy after all). I'd happily stay as a teenager as you'd get 50+ more years of life! Plus why couldn't he command the Enterprise still? yes it would take a while for people to get used to his new appearance but an android has already commanded a ship, and Picard is still Picard after all if he got disfigured somehow he'd still be able to be captain surely? And even if Starfleet said Picard had to wait for 20 years for his appearance to become more "captainly" again I'd happily become a civvie for that time.
IMO they should have ended the episode with the de-aging wearing off "naturally" e.g. it was only a cosmestic thing that lasted a week then it wore off and they became old again. That would make more sense as to why they don't use it to de-age everyone once they become old. But then the Federation has always had this wierd thing against transhumanism e.g. one scientist develops mind uploading into an android body and the Federation officers find this distasteful (yes ok in the episode it was distasteful because he overwrote Data but they seemed to find the general idea distasteful)
Everything in Picard was assbackwards to what happened prior. That entire show is twenty steps backwards.
Also, the Borg never lost at Wolf 359, the first cube was destroyed over Earth, just like the second cube. By the time Ent D caught up with the first cube, it was already in orbit of Earth, well past Wolf 359.
The Borg make a mathematical calculation on what is needed. Their tech is so superior only one ship is needed. Rarely is the calculus made that more than one is needed. We see in Voyager only on Borg ship attaching planets all the time.
I think Neelix's decision was the right one. otherwise he was likely to never see another member of his species again, a mental anguish he had already laboured under once before. I just felt sorry for the missus and her kid, I mean, who could cope with living with Neelix 24/7 ?
Neelix, it seems, overcompensated when dealing with the Voyager crew. He needed to feel useful, that he could make a difference, which he could not on that one day... He was one of the walking wounded and it showed from time to time during the series. Add in his own personal experiences, and you have his coping mechanism coming painfully close to becoming his default personality. His leaving was the best thing to happen to him topping meeting Kes, and later only possible after joining Voyager.
Yeah, I don't buy the "he formed bonds with the crew", he was definitely a fish out of water on Voyager.
Totally agree!
Only another Talaxian.
Best thing to happen to Neelix was Tuvix
Nelix wasn't an odd choice. Those were his people after all. Second, for Picard and the Nexus makes since. Recall, Picard would have wanted to leave as little alterations to the timeline as possible which means returning to a point close to when he left. He didn't know about the Enterprise's destruction till latter. I think the Hanson's just got stuck in the Delta Quadrant but I think they were doomed by the same arrogance we see in the DS9 episode The Maquis. As for the model in Into Darkness, apparent that was a set dressing mistake.
The Vengeance crashes into San Fransisco and nobody in the city seems to notice it -or is it that they simply don't care because they by now are so used to having gigantic spaceships come crashing from the sky so it's just another day in San Fransisco.
It's one of those movies directed by Darth Jar Jar Abrams, isn't it? So I've suspended my disbelief.
They should have got Christopher Nolan to do it, that way it wouldn't be a CGI ship he got to crash but a real one.
Get bored watching whales, watch ships crash instead.
Fun Fact: In the first 10 episodes or so of Voyager, Tuvok clearly wore the rank of Lieutenant Commander, despite being referred to as Lieutenant both on-screen and in the credits.
Our daughter is in the USN and had her first rank of Lieutenant jg (junior grade) , was called Lieutenant. When she made Lieutenant Commander, she was called Commander (not Lieutenant)- - so Tuvok being called Lieutenant was not correct, if he actually was a Lt. Commander. Both Lt. Commander and Commander are addressed as Commander. Military personnel know to look at the rank insignia to determine actual full rank of officers (and enlisted).
@@slcRN1971 Star Trek actually holds true to this as well (ie: Commander Data and Commander LaForge both holding the rank of Lieutenant Commander for most of TNG's run). Tuvok's rank of Lieutenant Commander at the beginning of Voyager was merely an error by the costume department.
The de-aging thing is probably what I've thought about the most. Assuming there are actually no long term effects like they said and it it repeatable with no long term effects, they've essentially discovered immortality. If I suddenly found myself with some sort of accident that returned me to being 12 years old with no negative side effects, I would absolutely just continue aging like normal from that 12 year old body.
Dr Pulaski in Unnatural Selection was a pretty weird decision. Forgetting about augmented humans and their agressive immune system - to expose yourself before subjecting live samples to their presence was a bad call. Not to mention (when they discovered the reason for the aging) letting those children live at the end of the episode.
True. Any other time they use animal test subjects yet she just has to use herself as one this go around? To be fair though the 'children' were living, breathing people and would have been immoral to kill something beyond their control and the result of their absolutely moronic creators giving them a feature a child should have seen was a bad idea (because EVERYTHING outside your body is a foreign thing, so their immune systems should have been trying to kill everyone else the moment they showed up including each other).
I think the only artificial life-form that they officially recognise as sentient is the Exo-Comps, as indicated with Peanut Hamper serving in Starfleet in Lower Decks (Excluding Data)
For the holograms, the Enterprise crew recognized Moriarty as well.
I think the setup is that most of them aren't actually a full artificial life form, they can get there, but not all of them do. Otherwise you might need to view the holodeck as a straight genocide machine...
You also get other self aware and true life form ones encountered and made over the course of things. Voyager has Zimmerman's secretary who is pretty definitely in that category, you also have the ones the Hirogen made to hunt, the nutjob one that wanted to kill Torres, and a few others. The only other EMH MK-1 that seems to have passed that point is the one from the Equinox (If you don't count the backup one).
STO continues that where there are several photonics that are involved and are treated just like anyone else (Holo-Stamets being something else entirely when he becomes fully aware), and there are some that are just holograms. You also have that lunatic on Drozana Station...Boooonnnniiiieee Kiiiins...goddamn it Gein...
A more important question is what's wrong with creating artificial life with the sole purpose of working for non-artificial life? We raise dogs to do the same thing, work for nothing but kibble and the look of satisfaction on their owners face and they love it. Why wouldn't artificial life be programed to be as sentient as a dog?
@@ILikeMyPrivacytbt I think the issue is potential. A dog, while some are capable of incredible intelligence, don't have the capability of full intelligence. The holograms and other tech lifeforms can, although there is a simple fix which most conveniently leave out for story sake. Have a daily reset to a baseline programming on those that are never intended to do more than simple labor (like the holo miners (and get rid of the human form, just make them appear like a T-1000 with a number on it's chest!)
@@ScottKnowlesKnight Loyalty has nothing to do with a lack of intelligence, dogs love to work for humans because of their pack mentality and breeding. For example working dog breeds love work and are miserable when they don't have anything to do, while other animals with less intelligence would fight back when treated like a slave.
Rascals is my 5 year old son's favorite Trek episode. I've often thought that they essentially found the key to immortality in this episode and they were stupid to agree to re-age. Picard gave up 30 easily 30 more years.
A theory I heard about the Borg in First Contact was that they knew that going back in time would ultimately lead to the creation of the Federation, enabling them to defeat Species 8472. After all, they knew of the causality loop, as stated by Seven in "Relativity".
now thats interesting...
*Weird decision by Section 31*-
After Worf's glorious winning of poker in, "The Measure of a Man," Section 31 made it their top priority to never let Worf win poker again. In fact, he loses so incredibly in every subsequent poker game, it's almost cartoonish.
Why did Section 31 consider this their top priority????
It wasn't Section 31 as a whole, just Sloan. Worf beat Sloan in the first game he ever played, and Sloan never forgave him.
@@pfoster1666 That explains why we never saw Sloan speaking with Worf. His bitterness consumed him fully.
@@PauperJ Also, one of the PADDS that Bashir and O'Brien saw in Sloan's mind in "Extreme Measures" was a book on how to play poker
@@pfoster1666 Sloan just never advanced his poker skills to Worf's level.
He was, however, quite inspirational in his speech, even if extremely cynical. You did see one of the other books on the shelf, which he clearly read, though for evil purposes. - "Motivational Speaking" - Written and illustrated by Morn.
@@PauperJ Quite so. One critic stated: "Morn's book, 'Motivational Speaking', is inspirational and effective if somewhat wordy. However, this critic fails to understand why every illustration is simply a stick figure."
Paris reduction to ensign was only temporary. Likely having to take on the additional scut work of an ensign for a while was Janeway's bigger punishment. Once Paris appeared to have learned his lesson, he's second pip gets reinstated and he no longer has to do ensign-level tasks. Since Voyager isn't in the position to replace crew there's really no room for advancement onboard.
Tuvok was promoted in season 4, when conflict with the Borg was far more likely. Promoting Tuvok to Lt.Commander was probably a move made in case Janeway or Chakotay become incapacitated and a command-capable replacement might be needed. Additionally, being closer to the Borg meant Tuvok's tactical speciality may need to be called upon more often in an executive-level setting (sort of like Worf in DS9 had an executive posting of strategic operations, something certainly befitting of tactical specialist making command decisions); I imagine some of Tuvok's lesser responsibilities may be been delegated to one or more deputies, while he focuses on strategic decisions with Janeway and Chakotay
I like to think that the Tom Paris demotion/promotion is actually the clone Voyager. It takes place between Demon & Course: Oblivian so who knows for sure. And Harry Kim doesn't get promoted because Janeway knows the real Harry Kim is actually dead. Harry & Naomi Wildman are from the alternate Voyager when it split into two.
@@B1GGR4Y poor old Harry Kim’s corpse floating through the Delta Quadrant. He was most likely picked up by the Kobali and reanimated while living his best life after bumping into Lyndsay Ballard.
If Paris was made a Lieutenant 1st grade, and Kim made a Lieutenant 2nd grade, the command structure would've not changed at all.
Amazing Tuvok was only a Lt given his age and length of service time back to the Excelsior and Capt Sulu
Captains have great discretion on promotion in rank, also taking the command exam gives you a bump in rank as it did to Troy in TNG
Picard's decision to leave the Nexus and return at the point in time to stop Soran from destroying the star was a spur of the moment kind of decision. Hindsight is always 20/20 and Picard no doubt realized that he should have gone back further in time after he realized that the Enterprise-D was destroyed but he had no way of knowing what was going on while he was dealing with Soran and the first and foremost thought he had was trying to save a planet with millions of lives on it. Not only that but Picard realized he was in the Nexus and was fighting against the lure of staying inside what was literally paradise for all time and no one can easily turn away from that feeling unless they focus their mind entirely onto one thing so as to block out all other thoughts, including staying in paradise or traveling further back in time after he leaves the Nexus.
There's also the fact that if he'd have gone back much further in time he would have risked violating the Temporal Prime Directive and creating a new time line that he couldn't have possibly know the outcome of. Jumping only a short time back was actually the safest bet given the options
I thought the only could get out where they came in. The whole point of Soran's plan was making sure the Nexus passed through the planet because it was impossible to make it in a ship. Picard and Kirk would have looked quit stupid stepping out if the Nexus early and dying in space.
@@countluke2334 explain Kirk, using your argument.
It is not like Picard was under any time constraint. He had all the time in the universe to come up with a plan.
@@1Dataluke also, how does he detain Soran when he hasn't committed a crime yet? Soran was not a Federation citizen and the planet that was inhabited was not a Federation world.
In particular, regarding the Generations movie, one easy reason for the events would be that if Picard and Kirk went back "too soon" they might have created a time loop/paradox.
I am adding the choice (or rather 3 choices made by Captain Picard) in the episode Q-Who.
- 1. He rejects Q's offer to 'guide' them to the unknown and what Q describes as 'terrors that freeze your soul'. Since Q is not there to destroy the Enterprise and be a 'guide' and The Federation is all about exploring, the choice of Captain Picard not accepting this big opportunity to learn something is just foolish.
- 2. After rejecting Q's offer, Q throws the Enterprise to system J-25. Guinan informs Captain Picard not directly about the Borg but gives him the URGENT advise to turn he ship around and get out of there. Captain Picard normally relies very often, if not always, on Guinan's advise, but in this case - in which he has no information what so all, he ignores it, and goes on 'exploring'. Why did he not listen to Guinan?
- 3. So in an already weird space battle between the Enterprise and the Borg Cube the Borg decide to nap. The Enterprises fires several times their phasers at the cube which takes enormous damage from it's impact. It's already stupid that the Borg decide to regenerate at this point and you could even argue, based on some Voyager episode, that only a part of the drones operating a Cube are regenerating and the others keep on working on the ship. Nevertheless, when the Borg become practically a sitting duck, Captain Picard does NOT order to fire all weapons and destroy the cube, and get out of there. Against all odds he sends a boarding team to 'investigate'. A completely insane move if you think about all the people onboard the Enterprise at risk, because he has no idea how long the Borg would remain this way. The had fought them already, the knew already the capabilities, they had the option of destroying the cube, but Captain Picard decided not too. A very dumb decision.
The weirdest part with 7's parents was that it was never addressed how they got out so far from the alpha quadrant, particularly in a ship that likely didn't possess anywhere close to the speed of a federation starship.
Could be Beta Quadrant
@@DiggyWizzy The Raven's own computer database indicated in the episode, "The Raven", that they were indeed in the delta quadrant.
It's entirely possible that they may have used suspended animation or knew of an unstable wormhole. There was an episode that showed this.
Also remember that a Ferengi shuttle went through a wormhole and was found by the Voyager's crew years later.
I always thought Matt Decker's decision to beam the crew of the Constellation down to the third planet was insane. Many areas of the ship still had life support.
Well he had just seen his entire ship and crew put through hell by the Doomsday Machine, him cracking and making a wrong decision at the time is understandable. We even see Kirk make bad decisions that luckily he gets to recover from because he's a protagonist, Decker wasn't so lucky.
9/10 - only one that doesn't track is Neelix - he thought he'd lost his people in an attack, discovered an outlying colony and fell in love, every reason to stay and get his life back
Number 10 only seems weird if you ignore the extremely probable hypothesis that Janeway hates Harry Kim (for proof, watch the episode "The Disease"). As to number 5, I think the idea that the Federation is "enslaving" artificial life-forms is questionable. The Doctor was a unique circumstance, in that he was intentionally left running longer than he was meant to, and thus achieved sentience slowly over time. Presumably, the other EMH's or similar holograms are not usually left in such a state, so it is unlikely they ever develop sentience. And as evidenced by the Exo-Comps, once the possibility of sentience has presented itself, the Federation unilaterally stops the exploitation while they evaluate the situation...
How come federation computers aren't sentient?
@@brodriguez11000 I think the technology just wasn't there yet. I think the basic gimmick was, essentially, that the computer technology available to the Federation has only just "now" (i.e., mid to late 24th century) reached a point where artificial sapience is possible, which is why the issue is only "now" arising. Also, presumably, Federation computers are probably not (generally) designed to become sapient, so as to avoid the issue of an intelligent life-form being inadvertently owned as property.
Thing is it's heavily implied in the episode with the Doctor's profitable holo-program that all the doctors are clearly sentient and being worked like slaves doing things like mining. We're presented for example with the idea that they're unique and can't be copied, just like individual people and display emotions even from first activation. The Federation just apparently hates treating them as lifeforms because of the issues of exploiting them they'd run into.
Since Picard had an adult sized human artificial heart the de-aging should probably kill him but what Ellie said is also valid.
Didn't think of that.
Also a thing with that episode that I never liked was the question of where all the mass went. If an 80kg person goes into the transporter and a 40kg deaged version steps out where did the other 40kg go? Where was it before they were reaged?
@@TheExpatpom in the transporters U-bend.
@@TheExpatpom maybe it didn't go anywhere, and that deaged version was very dense compared to a normal human. Therefore you'd have double the mass per cm3 than any other 12 year old :)
"Since Picard had an adult sized human artificial heart the de-aging should probably kill him"
Actually no because part of the de-aging process would remove the artificial heart.
In fact, when he was re-aged, he should now have a healthy human heart. :)
(I don't remember if the episode where Q shows him what would have happened had he not gotten into the knife fight that gave him the artificial heart was before or after the transporter episode....)
There was an instance where the Borg farmed a species, forgot what Voyager episode it was but they send there kids to a rendezvous point where a Borg ship would assimilate the children.
The only Voyager episode I can think of where someone intentionally sent their child to be assimilated was the season 6 episode "Child's Play." But it wasn't about letting the Borg farm their species. In the episode, Icheb was returned to his parents, only to then be drugged and sent into space as bait for the Borg. His parents had genetically engineered him to produce a Borg-killing pathogen from birth. He was their unwitting weapon against the Borg.
@@JohnAlcaraz you’re right, that was the episode I was thinking of. My bad.
My problem with so many of the Borg bits is something High said back and "I, Borg": "the Borg assimilate civilizations, not individuals." The writers of First Contact and Voyager seem to have forgotten this.
Staying in the past makes perfectly sense for Rios if he wants to stay with Teresa and Ricardo, because she is important to her community (as opposed to the Whale scientist in Star Trek IV, who was needed in the 23rd century but in the 20th and 21st century would soon have nothing to do with her whales about to die out). Removing Teresa from the 21st century would have a (probably negative) impact on the past, while Rios staying could avoid changing history (like Picard ordered his crew in First Contact).
It’s not strange for Rios wanting to stay, it’s strange for Picard (starfleet) and the others to let him stay, with his 24th century knowledge etc.
But that show doesn’t make any kind of sense anyway so who gives a fudge.
Seems Picard trusts his officers more than Ed Mercer. Okay, we have seen lots and lots of reasons not to trust Starfleet training too much, like that Officer who formed his own Nazi-Planet and so on... But anyway, Picard will probably just receive a complaint by Dulmer and Lucsly of the Department of Temporal Investigations.
Janeway couldn' promote Harry Kim, he was from the other Voyager. 😊
So he was not really a part of the crew, just some guy she let hang around on the ship and the bridge - just like Neelix if you think about it ...
Can a Starfleet captain just sign in any stranger into Starfleet ? 🤔
yes, the Captain has absolute authority in that situation. They are the most senior officer in the Navy because they have no hope of contact. :)
Another mistake of the Hansens: finding an extremely hostile species and they didn't think to warn the Federation.
The road to hell is always paved with good intentions
The Nexus thing may have been a result of assumed physical and temporal proximity. Picard knew one specific place and time that he could stop things. Any other place and time would either risk not actually being able to "be" in the right place, or, maybe having to hunt down the enemies location (since arriving in the exact right time and place to find him would be less certain).
To be fair to the Hansens, they didn't deliberately follow the Borg after learning how dangerous they were. The very first Borg ship they encountered accidentally dragged them to the Delta Quadrant. They didn't have much choice.
She left out the fact that the Enterprise-D had families. With kids. On board a ship that was constantly going into dangerous situations. We just know that there must have been encounters between episodes where the hull was breached and some little kids got spaced. Just because someone thought it was a good idea to have a heavily armed space Winnebago be the Federation's flagship.
True, despite it being described as an exploration vessel it's also called their flagship and flagships go into deadly situations all the time it's one of their roles, leading the way into things. Having families along is horribly uncaring about said families to take them along like that.
#1 about the Borg can be explained easily. The Borg seek perfection and since they do not experiment or investigate, their options are limited. To that end, they want smaller cultures to advance the bord by creating a ongoing motivation to get better. By sending small gergical strikes into the Federaton, they force the Federation to get better. Of course, at some point, the Borg will have to take out the federation to access this improvements. IMHO.
The whole premise is a logical fallacy. If the Borg consider themselves supreme and "perfect" (which they do) they shouldn't conceive of keeping any species apart from the Borg Collective so the Borg Collective can improve by assimilating innovations from said species.
Re taking over the Federation: No take over, just assimilate ships for the technology, they will - generally - have the most advanced and useful technology.
@@Michael-jx9bh The premise is that they are striving for perfection; however, they do not have any intrinsic source for improvement; thus, they rely on others through simulation for this.
Except they do. In The Omega Directive we see Seven Of Nine relating how the Borg were using their data to experiment in creating an Omega Particle, so the Borg do actually engage in experimentation.
I mean, if I might quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail for a moment: "It's only a model." The Admiral keeping a model of a ship on his desk that nobody knows about is perhaps cheeky or an odd choice, but it's only a model. You wouldn't think anything of it. Frankly, the actual plot to Star Trek 6 makes less sense when you think about it. We love Star Trek 6, but the goal they were aiming for would likely never occur, and it was unnecessary.
As for the transporter thing, you know in your heart that this is not something you really want to mess around with too much. Something would go wrong, longterm or shorterm, with your molecular make-up. It's true that transporter accidents have made age alterations, clones of various natures, put people in effectiive stasis, and so on. It's all experimental and a lucky break that that it did not do any lasting harm. If you tried to normalize it, bad things would occur, guaranteed, either because it makes for a good plot or because it literally couldn't be done forever, for the same reason Ra's Al-Ghul is not immortal.
And Scotty? Well, it's not like they could *prove* it was him, and these are the same Klingons reeling from "Oh crap, our SPY was just found out.". I don't think an act of war over Tribbles would be justified with that hanging detail. Mr. Scott may not have been necessarily wise about the eventual fate of the Tribbles, but war? Nah.
Now, do you know how much the time police in that universe would be all over Picard for seriously breaking history? They've already got a big file on Kirk, as is, and Picard's romps have not been pleasant to begin with. The people of the 29th Century don't need that kind of paperwork for those two captains derailing TOO MUCH history. It was a choice to mimize the impact so as not to screw up their lives too much. True, they could've given themselves like an extra hour, but too much would be too much. And Kirk? I dunno if he'd wanna be in the 24th Century that much. Old age ate at him, as is.
I think #6 might also be a good entry on the list of most mind-blowing discoveries that were completely forgotten the next episode.
I mean, how do you discover *clinical immortality* and just... Drop the subject completely?
Lower Decks kinda implies the transporter accident was recreated as there was that half a rascal in “Much Ado About Boimler”.
Not even the first time TNG did that. There was also the episode where Riker is accidentally cloned via transporter mishap. The implications of it were never mentioned again.
And also the episode where the transporter is used to de-age Pulaski. Similar issues. Also never mentioned again.
Wacky transporter hijinks are *weird* .
@@vic5015 Oh, Riker's clone wasn't forgotten. He makes an important return in DS9 as a Maquis, blowing open the existence of the Cardassian+Romulan mixed fleet that would later attack the Dominion. Then he's shipped off to Cardasian prison, and he can assume his fate wasn't kind there, as even though he wasn't executed, per se, Cardassian doesn't see the issue of "sentient rights" anywhere near as well as The Federation does.
@@jorgecarreras4214 the.clone wasn't forgotten but the implications of his existence never really came up again.
Number 5: What about Peanut Hamper? She was an Excocomp that went through Starfleet academy! I mean sure, she noped off the Ceritos pretty quick, but still...
The absolute worst decision I've seen on Star Trek was when they passed up th chance to destroy the Borg collective by inserting a program virus in a borg child they found. A decision like that was way over a captain's pay grade.
THIS! That episode was on H&I last night. I told my wife it's the episode that sealed Picard's rank below Kirk's in the Trek Captains Ratings.🤔 After the episode, she blamed Crusher and LaForge more, which I can't disagree with. However, as Captain, the final decision was Picard's. However, it did keep the storyline open for more episodes/movies.🙄
They only thought it'd work, they couldn't be certain it would. Borg adaptability most likely would have resulted in isolating infected cubes and abandoning them to prevent the spread.
@@shadizersilverhand2113 you're probably right, given the history it would have been worth a go.
The decision to ask for Khans assistance designing the Vengeance is pretty funny. It’s like me asking Napoleons opinion on Space Shuttle technology.
Modern Engineer: "What do you think we should add to this shuttle design?"
Napoleon: "It must have... A waterslide...."
Neelix's decision made a lot of sense to me. Though I will point out that DS9 got the better Benson alum in the form of Auberjoinois.
What was Pete's job again?
DS9 shoulda gone all out with Benson and made Robert Guillaume captain
@@geraldford6409 😄It seemed like a mandate there for a while that every new ST series needed to have at least one Benson veteran. Robert Guillaume would have made a great Captain, or could have played the Father?
@@geraldford6409 Now THAT, my friend, would've been super cool. And kind of funny.
@@cosmicquestion9184 He was press secretary as I remember.
Id say most decisions of discovery season 1 would be on this list but my favorit is " while studing the Tardigrade the secuirty officer says " phasers don't work on it, when contaiment breaks she picks up the phaser and tries useing it on the creature. It was dumb but that was most of discovery s eason 1. I remmember shouting at my screen
Yes... Like saying "Hitting my face with a hammer hurts a lot. I have to stop doing it."
Then picks up the hammer and...
We walk a sign into the sand so the ship can find us. And we do it in a sandstorm.
"We must capture the Klingon leader alive to stop the war."
KIills said Klingon leader to avenge her captain and the war goes on.
The "weirdest" decision in this video is actually somehow misspelling "weirdness"...
But that last "Decision" actually helps me realize that we're dealing with a Borg-like element today...an element that cannot create something fresh on its own but instead must leech upon and distort established items....scary!
The Hansens bringing 7 of 9 is no weirder than the hundreds of families on every Starfleet vessel, ships that regularly get into battles and encounter hostile new races
How about Captain Janeway’s decision that got Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Here were her options:
1) The prime directive applies they shouldn’t interfere, thus they should have used the array to go home & leave the array as is.
2) Beam explosives over to the Caretaker’s array and set a timer on the explosives to go off after you’ve used the array to go home.
3) In the event that a timer can’t be set on the explosives beam over the explosives & a trusted crew member(Tuvok) to activate the array, sending Voyager home & then blow up the array. We saw in the TNG episode “ Thine Own Self” that part of getting promoted to Commander or Captain is the ability to friendships aside and ordering a friend to do something that will result in their death to save the rest of the crew.
4) If Captain Janeway isn’t prepared to order one of her crew members to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of Voyager & the rest of the crew then Janeway could have promoted Tovok to Commander, placed him in command of Voyager and then Janeway could have beamed over with the explosives to the Caretaker’s array thus she would sacrifice herself to get Voyager home & blow up the array.
Simply put Voyager should have made it back home by the end of the pilot episode.
Truer words were never spoken 😉
How could Picard go back to before he was taken by the Nexus? Could he just show up on the Enterprise D weeks before and have a chat with himself about the future?
IF he had shown up before he was taken, there would be two Picards in the same timeline. Granted, Starfleet would be thrilled to have a second Picard commanding another starship, but still.
The Trek universe isn't the Doctor Who universe, two of the same person can't be in the same time period. Time would implode or something. Not to mention the Temporal Police or whatever they are called would have to fix that mess.
Yeah, that duplication stuff is really risky. We know how one of them can end up bad.
Another weird decision is giving starfleet a cloaking device and when your officer, whose sole purpose is to look after the cloak, ensuring the tech doesn't get analyzed and making sure the treaty is being obeyed, dies. Saying "oh well we tried" and let sisko go on his merry way with YOUR secret tech.
She never died except in a Dominion simulation. She was planned to be a recurring character but that idea was dropped.
That’s true and a good point, but that should be on the list of Ten Weird Romulan Decisions.
@@scockery youre right
that makes it even dumber :D
out of universe reasons don't count
(although I really think the out of universe reason is weird too, she would have brought so many opportunites for cool storylines)
@@a.l.e.x8118 No, it doesn't make much sense. I think the cloak was allowed on missions to the gamma quadrant as long as all intell was shared with the Romulans. There's some line later on about using the cloak on a non-Dominion related mission in "Way of the Warrior" I think. Anyway, the cloak blew up with the Defiant at the Second or whatever Battle of Chintokka.
Harry Kim- "Why won't Janeway promote me?" Tuvix- "Must be rough."
Regarding #6 - I think the issue wasn't that they were deaged, but were deaged by too much. Nobody would take a 12yo captain seriously.
Yeah, I would agree the Hansens taking their daughter with them was a poor decision. But so was the Star Fleet personnel decision to bring their families with them on the Enterprise and DS9 a poor decision. I understand how lonely it will get being far from your family for a long time, but it would be better to just leave them in a safe spot, especially the children.
I would also agree that Harry Kim not getting promoted was a strange decision. In fact, Janeway made many strange decisions, such as trying to keep Star Fleet rules and regulations going even when they were far from home.
How Picard and Kirk returned from the Nexus to the real world in the past made no sense.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Dr. Phlox keeping all those animals, especially the one that eat a Tribble in the episode "The Breech."
But the holograms and androids being used for hard labor is not a poor choice. They may have intelligence, but they don't get hungry or tired, and can't get hurt like real people can.
Neelix leaving Voyager was not a poor choice. Everyone would rather be with their own people, even if they make friends with different kinds of people.
It's understandable why Picard and the others didn't want to remain kids, Keiko O'brien had a family that needed her, Picard would have had to live with his brother who wasn't too fond of Star Fleet, and Ensign Ro and Guinan had no family to go to.
The Enterprise D was launched at a time of prolonged peace for the Federation (they later retconned recent conflicts). Klingons were allies. The Romulans were in a period of isolation. Yes, exploration is risky, but probably just taking any space transport would be to some degree.
Civilians on DS9 were evacutated a few times, so yes there's potential danger, but no...since they can be evacuated to Bajor if necessary. What's stranger is the lack of a stronger Starfleet presence after the first encounter with the Dominion. The Defiant is fine, but really...a small fleet would be based there even before the war, with ships coming and going from the station all the time.
With attacks on Earth, could any planet be called, "safe"?
I have a Trek RPG character who refuses to date or get married because when he does have a family, he wants to keep them all together, and he's not ready to make the career sacrifices he'd need to make to do so (like giving up a plum assignment to a ship that doesn't accommodate families.)
The concept of USS Vengeance was weird, but since it already made it`s way in this new alternate Universe, It would be wise for them to make more of this. Hate to say it, but Discovery S31 ships seem more logical for they`re at least small.
Also agree with other points, Deaging would be so much useful
And Borg invasion..I think the cube was just distraction, they really planned gong to the past, they probably didn`t expect Picard to expose their weak spot though
Some of these weird decisions are just the result of bad writing.
The Borg could have gone into the past at home and made their way to Earth in the past.
@@Dreamfox-df6bg but it's not clear, whether they had Transwarp in the past
@@spaceexpireaudio666 So fly at regular warp. Stock up on planets on the way if needed.
Go back far enough and fly at sublight speeds if necessary.
@@Dreamfox-df6bg well guess that could be a valid option for Borg. Also temporal agents were quiet about it. When Sphere builders manipulated Xindi, they were there. When Borg could completely destroy the federation, they're like: Nah, they'll be ok. Some continuity mistakes.
Also in the nearest future I can see Krenim become a serious enemy.
Oh, and the Borg thing, of course. That's like the old Star Trek game on timesharing systems in the 70s, the "Klingons" would surround a starbase and you had to keep them from destroying it, etc. But they only did that in one "sector" or "quadrant" at a time. Why didn't they do the same with more than one starbase at a time? Because, as the instructions explained, "then you wouldn't have a chance!"
The other prime example of that is the movie First Contact, where, all the Borg had to do was go back in time FIRST, and THEN go to Earth. But again, that would mean they WIN. Can't have that!
Kirk notices a model of the Vengeance. "Hey what ship is that?" "Oh, it's just a concept." "Oh, OK." Just because I have a model of a Klingon Bird of Prey, doesn't mean I actually have one. Or do I?
I never really got the idea that inginuity was something apparently uniquely human and required free will to accomplish. The collective absolutely had members with more autonomy than others and could very easily have built their own think tanks irrespective of species, distance, or language. I would imagine that problem solving would be something much easier for a hive mind to accomplish anyway. Imagine millions of minds, each the foremost in their field within their own species, all concentrating on a problem with no motivation other than solving it.
It is a bit of a lazy excuse. If borg can assimilate live species, what's stopping them from just penning up alien researchers their cubes and farming them for knowledge?
It doesn't even make sense to have this excuse in the first place. Even if they could make their own tech, assimilating other species still would be a very fast way of not only gaining tech, but boosting their own research too.
That's why the Borg were so eager to assimilate Earth and why they only jumped back to the 21st century instead of the 14th or whatever. They needed to assimilate humanity's distributed/parallel computing technology so they could incorporate it into their own processes. ;)
The trouble with Edward is a little contradictory to established cannon. In the trouble with Edward tribbles are genetically altered because they breed to slow to be a reliable food source. About 100 years earlier though flox mentiones they are banned on some world's because of thier prolific breeding.
Could it be that as quick as a living food source could breed, speeding up that process makes it simply more efficient. Although I'd question why, in an age where replicators exist, why anyone is even thinking about such a thing. I also can't see why the technology of transporters can't be used to continually call up a duplicate of an animal kept in the system's buffer. It's sci fi, they can do anything. We're already sold on the idea that you can make someone disappear and reappear across large distances, and that people can be held in that 'disappeared' state. Writers and fans who believe that the transporter is designed to only ever allow one version of a subject can easily be sold the idea of a transporter/replicator hybrid that can pump out an unlimited supply of farm animals, fish, whatever.
The Hansen's decision was bizarre, but also totally on par for the "life is perfect, nothing can touch us" attitude of the Federation as we encounter them in TNG's first season.
harry Kim shouldn't be on this list. There was huge drama between Garrett Wang and the writers over the way his caricature was being treated including not being promoted. The writers started deliberately screwing his character over the more Wang complained about it the worse they treated his caricature. Legally he couldn't leave the show so he phoned it in for the remainder of the series
I take a little issue with the AI thing because it always felt like that was the whole point of those episodes. As someone who is seen as less than human by a good portion of the population, it always feels like a neverending battle to get people to see you as an equal. I can rant and rave and score as many victories for getting my rights, but then the next day it can feel like it's all wiped away and you're back to square one as second class.
Basically I don't think it's odd at all for the Federation to do that. It's all too familiar.
Nothing weird about Keiko and Miles? Yeah... Of course she reversed it.
Her trying to have intimate relations with him was just weird.
@@40KBunker Indeed.
The only one I disagree with is Neelix's character development. He moved from being quite needy, emotionally needing the crew while he struggled with his personal trauma of loosing his family, to being ready and able to provide that need to the Talaxians he finds, especially the child and mother.
How did the Hansens reach Borg space since it was in the Gamma Quadrant?
Bad luck
"On stardate 32623.5, after tracking stray readings and sensor echoes for eight months, the Hansens were able to locate a Borg cube. On stardate 32629.4, the ship was pulled into a transwarp conduit while trailing the cube and emerged in the Delta Quadrant." - Memory Alpha "VOY episode Dark Frontier"
Not throwing Neelix out of an airlock at the first chance they got.
Baffling.
I think the main reason Janeway didn't promote Harry Kim was she knew that if they make it back to the Alpha Quadrant, he would be fast tracked up the chain of command. She wanted to keep him who he was. But she set Harry up for success when they returned, he's seen things that not many people have experience, he's fought the borg, has command experience and is able to think on his feet. He is someone that Captains would fight to have on their crew. Who wouldn't want an experienced Bridge Officer like him. But ultimately, she wanted to keep him humble because she promised to look after him.
He was also shown taking a few shifts as Command Duty Officer, which I would guess is unusual for an Ensign, even on a ship as small as Voyager.
The last one on the list gets me thinking: Note to all time travelling conquerers - when long distances are involved, do the time travelling bit BEFORE you arrive.
I've complained endlessly about the de-aging ability of the transporter. They literally turned it into a miracle machine and were too stupid to recognize it. From healing mortal injuries to removing diseases to de-aging, they opened a huge can of worms that they almost certainly regret.
Would the Picard/Kirk/Nexus issue fall under the Temporal Prime Directive? Returning weeks before - much less returning Kirk to the past - would’ve radically altered the future; whereas Picard could justify returning to stop Soran because it was returning to the same moment in time?
Plus I think that's just not how the Nexus works. I think you can only get out where you came in. So they could either have taken Kirk's or Picard's exit.
In STTNG, the Enterprise carried children, and that was Federation policy, not just two parents. In "Yesterday's Enterprise", it was implied that this was because it was relatively safe (since the alternate Enterprise didn't carry children), but anyone who's watched the whole series would beg to differ.
That Borg farm theory is the best.
An entire top 100 list could be made about terrible decisions made by captains regarding the Prime Directive; either by blatantly disregarding it for their own goals (as Janeway and Kirk often did) or blindly following it to the letter far beyond its practicality (as Picard sometimes did.)
I think that Picard and Kirk confronted Soren on Viridian III so if they failed to stop him, they could get sucked back into the Nexus and try again.
Kim never being promoted never made sense. He was a main bridge officer, field promotions had already been given left right and center (and would be, Emergency Command Hologram anyone?) and he took the night watch regularly (which if memory serves, there was a TNG episode about Troi having to get a promotion in order to do).
It makes sense that Neelix went to live with other Talaxians. While Voyager became his family for 7 years, they are still his kind.
What really should have made the list was the Xindi first deciding to destroy Earth and then deciding to alert Earth to their plans to destroy them with a pre-emptive attack - allowing Earth to respond - and then proceed to cut a swath on the smallest landmasses possible instead of a larger landmass or somewhere important like Starfleet Command.
Love the show of course but I have to totally absolutely disagree with Neelix staying on Voyager. They were at the end of their journey they were about to go home and the fact that Neelix was able to find his people again which all through the time that he was on Voyager He wanted to be home he wanted to be back with his people but he figured he couldn't be because they had all died and then when he found a group of Talaxians it was just perfect! It was the most amazing send-off of a character and I was so happy that he was able to not only find love and a family but to also be back with his own people so that was perfect and I wasn't disheartened I felt so happy that he was back with his own people.
I can't believe this never occurred to me before, but the Borg actually "farming" the Federation for tech actually makes way more sense.
Except it doesn't. As literally every intelligent species evolves over time, so why assume one group are worth farming, yet others aren't!? It doesn't make any sense; it's just a silly idea created by fans that think they've hit on a 'clever' concept... unless the future Trek writers decide that's the case then its canon and 'fact' within the franchise! The decisions of the Borg are simply ideas the writers had to suit the story they cared to tell. As time travel is a thing in Trek, why wouldn't the Borg travel to the end of every species existence throughout the lifespan of the universe and assimilate them at their most technologically advanced state!? That way you get the very best technology from every species. You don't even need to assimilate the whole species either initially. Take parts, from lone sources, until you've enough to ensure taking on larger and more advanced elements of the tech from that species, before taking over the remainder. It's always the problem with time-travel in science fiction, that it essentially breaks everything unless the writers are extremely careful to contrive rules and laws.
Ironically Marvel recently ridiculed time-travel in popular culture, yet created the dumbest version I've seen in fiction! They set up a system that allows them to go back and forward, taking anyone in either direction and having multiple versions of anyone together at the same time! In other words, no one is ever dead, you just travel back to when they're alive and see them. You can always know what's going to happen by travelling to the future and checking the news and history to see what's coming and when. And if all action can't be avoided, if one version of Captain Whoever isn't enough, just keep going back and grabbing a version every minute until you have a thousand or ten thousand Captain Whoevers to defeat Mr New Evil Character! They literally created the most stupid and flawed version of time-travel, because the writers lacked the ability or creativity to tell an epic story without falling on this creatively-stupid concept!
But yeah, no, the Borg farming idea makes no sense. But whoever thought of it should probably apply to Marvel for a writing position!
In regards to Harry not being promoted - his actual position on the ship - Chief of Operations - is the same position Data held on Enterprise.
And Data was a Lt Cmdr.
Harry very well should have been a Lt at least.
I think some of these situations could be resolved with a pitch meeting quotes. "So the movie can happen." "That's what we are going with!"
9:18 as weird as that decision was, it was the right decision for him to be with his own kind. He finally found them! Some were not around when the Metreon Cascade took place! 😭😭😭🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 It was so heartfelt at the end, that I am starting to cry just thinking of it.
I don’t get really aggravated about much in fiction, but the Hanson’s risking their daughter’s safety AND basically going on a one way trip never to return home still ticks me off.
The idea of the Borg farming humanity as a way to get new tech, instead of just assimilating them all, does fix a whole bunch of plot holes.
A good theoretical explanation for #3, is simply that the Nexus could not allow it. It’s not unreasonable to say, that the Nexus can probably only allow individuals to leave it and return to normal space-time, when doing so won’t dramatically disrupt the timeline. To take this theory a few steps further - the Nexus may well have had to effectively “imprison” Jim Kirk, in a fantasy of his own making, until Picard arrived, because otherwise Kirk’s own singular will would have been too strong for the Nexus to stop him from leaving to anywhere else in the timeline - except that doing so would have potentially led to major ruptures in the timeline. And if we assume that the Nexus is somewhat self-aware, then it knows why that cannot happen.
Yes, my theory here is effectively saying, “Only a vaguely omniscient dimension that imitates Heaven was powerful enough to stop William Shatner’s ego!” - I rather like that idea. In fact, it’d be nice if someone could put that to Mr Shatner, while he’s still with us, because I’d really appreciate him facing a question that could make him squirm 😏
I'm siding with those about saying Neelix's decision made sense.
As to the USS Vengeance model, without any prior knowledge of a Dreadnought class starship, if anyone saw this ship model, the first thing most would say is, "Cute toy."
Though those of us who saw the trailers would see this little bit of foreshadowing, none of the characters -- especially Kirk and Spock -- saw the trailers with the Vengeance.
Marcus looks at his models, then Kirk says, "Hey, I recognize that model from the trailers," as if he were in Spaceballs looking at instant DVDs in this case. They're on the market before the movie is finished.
Harry not being promoted makes absolutely no sense in universe. As mentioned, he was the ship’s chief operations officer. For perspective, that’s the same role that Data, a lieutenant commander, holds on the Enterprise. So It’s not like promoting him would mean that he had to take on new responsibilities, just as Tuvok served as chief of security even when his rank changed.
The real life reason is simply that the producers said that they wanted there to be an ensign in the cast.
I was reading that after Generations was completed, the film makers regretted just killing off Kirk like that, because heroes don't just get killed off. But, it was too late.
In regards to Harry Kim not getting promoted, I think there are a couple (in universe) reason that it might make sense--
1) (as stated) On a stranded ship, there isn't much room for promotion, and since he was already a department head, the promotion wouldn't have benefited him at all because...
2) Operations is likely mostly non-commissioned officers who an Ensign would already outrank, see the DS9 episode where Nog graduates from Starfleet Academy and Chief O'Brien says he will have trouble getting used to calling him "sir". So promoting him would likely unnecessarily screw with the ship hierarchy. Tuvok needed the promotion to maintain hierarchy and balance between Starfleet and Maquis and also to stay right below Chakotay in command. Janeway doesn't actually have full promotion authority, only field promotions--so Paris was simply being put back to where he technically and legally was pending further disciplinary action by Starfleet. During his time as an Ensign, he doesn't seem to lose any of his Lieutenant privlidges, so once again, it was largely a perfunctory and symbolic thing, where Kim's (and Tuvok's) would be functional.
3) In a post-capitalist world with no currency, there aren't many tangible benefits to promotion. The main one would likely be better quarters or replicator privileges, but since the ship was not rotating crew off like a non-isolated ship, quarters likely didn't free up, and everyone was likely on replicator rations (or at least they were in the early seasons before they dropped that plot thread).
Endgame showed Harry as a Captain of the Rhode Island. Endgame takes place 10 years after the return of Voyager, meaning that through Kim didn't get promoted in the 7 years in the Delta Quadrant, he went the whole way from Ensign to Captain in the course of 10 years (almost as long as he was an Ensign). He obviously must have gotten a several rank promotion upon return, or was otherwise promoted up the ranks rapidly.
Some of those you could posit as being based on things we don't know about. Some on people having complex motivations. And some on having to be short-sighted for the sake of the plot.
There was the Voyager episode where they came to the unstable wormhole that could have brought them back home. But Janeway decided that the stranded Ferengis on the planet nearby were more important.