this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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Archer and Janeway have done some batshit stuff too.
Batshit? Sure. Going on a revenge mission that displaces thousands of people, changes the entire atmosphere of a planet, and forces your officers to commit warcrimes? Not really. Closest I can think of is:
Janeway hunting down the Equinox. This is pretty close in comparison but the difference is that Janeway had a strong reason for pursuing the Equinox. The lifeforms were attacking the ship and the Equinox had taken both EMH and Seven of Nine. More over, she didn't doom civilians to further strife. She punished the surviving officers and folded them into the crew of Voyager itself. On top of that, she had serious regret about her actions and showed remorse during the conversation with Chakotay.
I know less about Enterprise but I remember Archer stealing the Warp Core of a crew and leaving them stranded in deep space. However that was an extreme 'needs of the many' situation so I'm on Archers side there.
I feel like Janeway was justified if just due to the fact that the Equinox was a Starfleet crew that were breaking major Federation law. If any ship in the Delta Quadrant had the right to punish the crew of the Equinox, it was Voyager.
Oh it definitely factors into my overall opinion. I've always looked at Janeway at being the Captain who puts Starfleet above all else, typically, to a fault. That episode really shows the fault.
Archer withheld a cure for an entire species because Phlox convinced him it was the natural course of things. (Valakians) Janeway goes back in time to get her ship home with more crew alive, altering history in who knows what ways for the entire galaxy.
I hate that Enterprise episode because it is such an edge case for the Prime Directive, and humanity hasn't even adopted it yet.
Even if the species didn't develop warp drive, they have had contact with other species that did. This isn't a pure, uncontaminated species that needs to be protected. Hell, I think that this species even contacts the Enterprise.
And this seems to be a trivial enough cure that this species is going to find another species to cure them. If Phlox can develop a cure in weeks on a spaceship, this seems to be trivial work for space faring civilizations.
It was the natural course of things though. It's a tough choice with no clear answer one way or the other. I wouldn't call that one of Archers screw ups when there wasn't a correct answer.
I have less of an answer for this one. It was pretty fucking brazen and bold on Janeways part. However I don't classify 'altering a future event you have no awareness of' equal with 'gassing the planet so you and your entire collective group of refugees have to go flee to yet another planet'.
If we consider Sisko's personal vendetta a bad thing that makes us question his authority to lead, I don't understand how we excuse Janeway and the time travel stuff she pulled to get Voyager home--her actions had exponentially more butterfly effect consequences than Sisko could ever dream of.