Star Trek Voyager Ruminations: S6E09 The Voyager Conspiracy

[@Dlytell]

After Seven dramatically confronts Naomi Wildman saying "Tell them you are too late... GO!" Causing Naomi to amble away, nothing comes it. I think Naomi, who cares about Seven, should have gone to Neelix who also caring about Seven would have said, "We better talk to the Captain." Cut to Neelix entering the Bridge and approaching Janeway... "Excuse me, Captain, have you noticed anything strange about Seven?" But before Janeway can answer, Kim announces the unauthorized launch of the Delta Flyer. "It's Seven of Nine!"

[@williamozier918]

This episode depicted a text book example of a disorder called Apophenia, "the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. The term was coined by German neurologist and psychiatrist Klaus Conrad (1905-1961). Conrad focused on the finding of abnormal meaning or significance in random experiences by psychotic people"

[@dirtywashedupsparkle]

Listening to your ruminations on this one I realise it's an even better episode than I thought it was. I thought it was pretty decent as a concept the way Seven tries to be more efficient but ends up spouting off conspiracy theories in rapid fire. She's basically suffering what is similar to a mental illness or overload, and her fear at the end reminds us that although Seven is highly efficient, logical and gifted, she is still child-like in her development. I love the way Janeway appeals to Seven with factual statements that convey a care for and trust between them. I found that touching. I did wonder whether Jeri Ryan wasn't suffering from some overload as an actor in this episode, the long streams of data and factual statements must have been a challenge for her. Well done for her getting through those. It was really smart to go back to Caretaker and examine it too. I enjoyed the trip back down memory lane to that event, to raise all these questions and make us consider the different wild theories Seven gave us, even if they were never answered. It was funny seeing Janeway and Chakotay both trying to scope each other out and satisfying to see they didn't end up shooting each other but working it out between them.

[@EnvisionerWill]

Do you think Caretaker would make sense if Janeway had tried to use a timed detonation to blow up the array only after it had sent them home, but the effort had failed? The plan requires Belanna to set up a remote uplink on the Caretaker's array that will send them home, but the remote uplink fails at the last second, so the array blows up on schedule after all? Same end result, and we can assume that this extra plot detail was left out simply due to limited runtime. I also like that this episode slightly improved on the stupidity of Caretaker's plot by explicitly saying that the Kazon ship was "armed to the teeth". It makes some sense to say that the Kazon have really mean weapons, even if their technology is crap otherwise, because they're a gang of thugs, and that's where they would focus what little technological genius they are capable of. Still doesn't quite make sense of Voyager losing that battle, but it's a nudge in the right direction, which can be combined with other nudges (I would for instance have Voyager much more heavily damaged by the nadion wave, so that it's half-destroyed when the Kazon immediately start dogpiling it, the moment it arrives - in my version the Maquis ship actually comes to their rescue, since it's been stuck here for a week and has had time to make repairs).

[@Brando64]

I would *never* say "Oh, Thank God, It's a short episode" about one of these ruminations. I thought the episode was rather convenient and I wanted Seven to get paranoid and get TUVOK likewise worked up. "Pathfinder" is Reg Barclay and Owen Paris trying to communicate with Voyager. Holographic shenanigans abound!

[@Eelco_de_Boer]

What bothered me was Janeway's line about trusting Chakotay the most. What about Tuvok?

[@EnvisionerWill]

I figure that this is a species thing; Janeway trusts Tuvok to be logical in all cases, but she trusts Chakotay to be more *human*, and more understanding of her own human foibles than Tuvok is capable of being.

[@1skrmsp1]

Sherlock uses magic power because Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle cheated. Compare to the "Queen of Crime" Agatha Christie who presents all the facts and evidence available to the readers that are also available to the detective in the book, Sherlock always have extra information that is key to solving the puzzle. This made interesting read for people since it adds flair, but again.. Sherlock cheats.

[@vincentadultman8527]

He does often pull out some dues ex machina information doesn't he?

[@1skrmsp1]

I mean, I am not to criticize that too much since I am Sherlock fan (the novels) myself, and get those make the cases more tense since you as reader cant really guess correctly. But, yeah. he cheats. lol

[@Netherfly]

Have you read much of Agatha Christie's nonfiction stuff? IE commentaries, letters, etc.,? A big incentive for her Poirot stories was reactionary--she greatly disliked Doyle's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, and felt that a decent mystery writer would let the readers see the same clues as the detective, so that they could participate in the solution. Conversely, Maurice LeBlanc looked at Sherlock and went in the exact opposite direction, writing stories where almost everything was withheld from the reader until the very end (and even then, not all questions were sometimes answered). As a reader of mystery fiction, I think both reactions resulted in better stories than Doyle's.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Overall, an interesting episode showcasing the dangers of thinking in a vacuum. When there's no one to bounce ideas around with or to double check your hypotheses, you can end up believing almost anything. I do think Janeway and Chakotay suspecting each other after 5 years of challenges together was dumb, though. Either or both of them should've seen Seven's "evidence" as a sign she was malfunctioning.

[@Edax_Royeaux]

I've heard Caretaker criticized repeatedly for Janeway stranding them all in the Delta Quadrant because she didn't think to used a bomb with a timed fused, but now that I rewatched the episode I can see that the Array clearly has technology far beyond the Federation's comprehension since it can link different galaxies together and accidently doom planets, the Array is also soon to be surrounded by the Kazon and the method used to get across the galaxy killed a great deal of the Voyager crew. The decision to destroy the Array before they are overrun is not the show's original sin I was told it was.

[@OggerFN]

I love the scene where b'elanna doesn't believe chakotay until Kim enters the scene telling them that Janeway demanded to watch over b'elanna working on it which is something completely normal but makes it seem like Janeway is plotting against them. It's really funny to me.

[@collie8]

you've got a point. I use to talk about this episode with my friends who come with too much extraordinary conspiracy theories, which is common last years. Let me advance your thoughts a bit further. Elon Musk put interesting idea - we are already half cyborgs - thanks to smartphones and internet we have like infinite computer power (cloud) and information (cloud) available in our hands 24/7. So we are in Seven's situation already. Janeway's speech to Seven in the final scene is showing us how to cope with it. Trust to others is rather irrational choice most of the time. It's a question of survival.

[@mr51406]

Seven is having her “John Nash” moment. Interesting concept, relatively captivating, rather successful. 🚩In an almost self-satirical “meta” way, Seven is exploring all the plot holes in the whole of Voyager especially the pilot. It could have been funny except that her convoluted conclusions could have had tragic consequences. 🔸Add this episode to the list of “Trek predictions.” With all we’ve been through since 2016, and especially during covid, we have seen the tragic consequences of making and believing in spurious interconnections. Of course the difference now is that the people pushing the conspiracies don’t necessarily believe them, they’re pushing them to make money and get power. 🔹Don’t want to get all Karl Popper but any hypothesis has to allow falsification. I don’t think the Borg have that because they only absorb, never invent. So if Seven has “learned a lesson,” it’s 1) the difference between good and bad skepticism; 2) coincidences do happen; 3) we all sometimes make really stupid decisions, just because “duh-uh” and often “d’oh!”

[@Northfan42]

It seems to me that the internal bind Seven encounters over the coincidence of Tash is very similar to the mental breaking Tuvok encounters when Sudor kills for no other reason than an odd glance. Logic is a powerful tool, but sometimes non sequitur things happen, and unless our minds and methodologies can accommodate a bit of the "just because" factor, that tool can very easily become our undoing.

[@vincentadultman8527]

Quality point of comparison.

[@NOTHEOTHERGUY]

So my theory is that "smart phones" (with all the information that's available to us) are making us all dumber really is true. This is one of my go-to episodes when I re-watch Voyager. What happened to the catapult, though? Didn't it present the same opportunity that the array did--giving a species in the Delta quadrant the opportunity for an upper-hand? Why not leave a time-sensitive photon torpedo to destroy it...?

[@EnvisionerWill]

While I don't find this episode very entertaining, I do consider it a very prescient piece which gains a lot of relevance in the modern age, because the "info overload" that Seven gets in this episode is exactly what makes her start delusionally manufacturing insane conspiracy theories. It's pretty much what happened in real life when the Internet started to get big, and I think it's quite a good call for a late-90s show to come up with this idea.

[@wangbot47]

What is it with bugs and orange spice, anyway? *Dune theme by Toto plays loudly*

[@jasonhagar1758]

Yes. Caretaker was a bad episode for what they did Janeway. There easily a number of options that any first year cadet would have seen to get them home and destroy the array/ save the Ocampa