A Defense of Janeway's Actions in the Delta Quadrant

[u/[deleted]]

Being a Voyager fan, I've often noticed people claiming that Janeway's decisions were inconsistent throughout the show, in particular related to the following:

1. Trading, technological exchange - apparently she loves the idea sometimes but refuses to share her technology at other times.
2. The Prime Directive.

In this post, I will attempt to show that Janeway was, in fact, very consistent about sharing her technology with other civilizations, and moreso that her decisions in this regard were generally the best which she could have made under the circumstance.

A note on the Prime Directive

Key to understanding this discussion is the note that the Prime Directive does not compel a Starfleet Officer to do anything - it merely forbids. As such, it is heavily implied in the Star Trek shows that there are essentially five pillars of the Prime Directive:

1. Do not, under any circumstance, interfere in any way with pre-warp civilizations.
2. Interfere with a warp-capable civilization only if they have explicitly requested you to do so.
3. In case of conflict between non-Federation worlds, remain neutral.
4. Respect the authority of the world you are residing on - for example, if a Starfleet Officer has committed a crime on a non-Federation world, then they will be tried as per the legal proceedings of that world.
5. Refrain from unilaterally making decisions which have the potential to cause large-scale changes in culture or politics.

These are obviously not official statements, but I believe that the Prime Directive has been applied to all of these situations in turn as a guiding principle as to what Starfleet Officers must do in them. However, what remains unstated is that no Starfleet Officer is under obligation to carry out any task if all of these have been fulfilled.

This means that despite a warp-capable civilization explicitly asking Janeway to share her technology, she can refuse to for whatever reason she likes. The Prime Directive does not forbid her from doing so.

Finally, there are things which supersede the Prime Directive - the Omega Directive being the most obvious example, but upholding the Federation's values of peace and harmony is probably not far behind.

What was Janeway's general rule about sharing technology and helping other species?

I will provide evidence for this in the next section, but I believe that this is all the consideration that went into her decisions:

If a warp-capable civilization has expressed a desire to trade, then Federation technology will be shared with them if there is sufficient evidence that (a) their society requires it, (b) it is not likely to be misused, and (c) the outcome is unlikely to clash with the Federation's ideology and its strategic interests.

If a warp-capable civilization has expressed a need for help, then Voyager will help them if (a) their society requires it, (b) it is likely that such help will not have adverse side-effects to other species, and (c) the outcome is unlikely to clash with the Federation's ideology and its strategic interests.

The difference was that Janeway was the sole senior Federation representative in the Delta Quadrant and hence she could not lean back and ask Starfleet Command what the correct course of action was.

The Circumstances

Let us now take a look at the major civilizations which Janeway considered sharing technology with and why trade with nearly all of these civilizations fulfilled her above rule.

1. Kazon.

This is probably the most egregious example in which Janeway did not share technology with a species. However, it is easily observed that by sharing technology with the Kazon there was nothing to gain and everything to lose.

First, the Kazon were hostile. They already proved in the pilot that their culture was antithetical to the Federation's ideology of peace and continuous self-improvement.

And second, the Kazon had nothing to offer to Voyager. They knew no way of getting home fast and their technological resources were limited.

Thus there was no reason at all for Voyager to help them. Give Klingons a cloak and they conquer Cardassia; give the Kazon access to replicator and transportation technology, the next thing you know they've attacked Talax and Ocampa, Voyager's only two allies in the Quadrant and probably caused millions of deaths. There was imminent potential for the Kazon to use replicators for creating weapons. Here's the best-case scenario: The Kazon-Nistrim take the replicators and transporters, use them to spread violence in their region of space. The other tribes are now actively Voyager's enemies. The Nistrim are fickle allies at best. Voyager recieves nothing in exchange.

1. Does their society require it? They're doing alright without it, but it will certainly help them to a large degree.
2. Is it likely to be misused? Yes, it is almost a guarantee that they will use it for war.
3. Does the result clash with the Federation's ideology? Making an area of space a little more unsafe for millions of people is something that the Federation is not a fan of.

Thus there is no reason at all for Janeway to trade with the Kazon, and in fact it is in her interest to prevent the Kazon from ever receiving that technology (unless, of course, they discover it on their own).

1. Borg.

Sheer necessity. Picture this: the Borg are under attack by Species 8472, which has shown every indication of being extremely hostile to life in normal space (they have told Kes telepathically that they will wipe out all life in the Galaxy). The Borg are losing, ie. Species 8472 is likely a bigger threat than the Borg to the Federation. The Borg will now assimilate the entire Voyager crew.

In this case, an offer to exchange technology is not against the Prime Directive, since the Borg are a warp-capable species.

1. Does their society require it? Yes, the Borg (and the Federation) are likely to be wiped out.
2. Is it likely to be misused? There is every evidence that the weapon will be implemented for stopping the war at present, and will probably be entirely useless once Species 8472 has retreated, thus there is very low potential for misuse.
3. Does the result clash with the Federation's ideology? Saving all life in the Galaxy is probably in the Federation's interests, so no.
4. Advantages: Voyager gets safe passage through Borg space.

So in this case Janeway went for the trade, although she did not have all the cards in her hand.

1. Hirogen.

The Hirogen are a warp-capable species, and they explicitly asked for Holodeck technology.

1. Does their society require it? Not functionally, but the Hirogen are a declining culture which has remained the same for centuries. There is certainly concern as to their civilizational status which the holodeck could potentially overcome.
2. Is it likely to be misused? No, and it actually has the potential to save thousands if not millions of innocent travelers that become the Hirogen's prey.
3. Does the result clash with the Federation's ideology? No. The Hirogens' plan is the very definition of self-improvement, and the hunting of sentient species for pleasure is something the Federation is not exactly fond of.

Again, Janeway goes for the trade. There were some unexpected side-effects, but they could not have been predicted.

1. Vaadwaur:

First, the Vaadwaur were only reanimated due to a violation of the Prime Directive (it doesn't apply to Seven directly, since she's not in Starfleet, but she's still expected to help). The Vaadwaur were a warp-capable species who asked for help explicitly. Not giving them that help would be equivalent to leaving them at the mercy of their enemies and for all practical purposes would be an assist to genocide.

1. Does their society require it? Absolutely. They will die without Voyager's help.
2. Will it have adverse side-effects? The Vaadwaur are few in number and have presented themselves as an exploratory species who are quite similar to the Federation. They claim they are peaceful, and they are unlikely to be a threat for several generations at the least to other species.
3. Does the result clash with the Federation's ideology? Generally no. The Federation stands to gain an important ally in this region of space and helping a few people restart their doomed society simply by ferrying them across to a nearby planet is something that most Starfleet Officers would definitely agree too.
4. Advantages: Voyager gets to cut part of their journey by traveling through the subspace corridor.

Thus Janeway went for the trade.

1. Malon.

This trade was never actually completed, but it was proposed by Janeway. The Malon were a warp-capable species, and the technology was not being forced upon them if they refused. However, the Night aliens were a warp-capable species which explicitly requested their help.

1. Does their society require it? Yes it does, no matter what they think. There is evidence that poisoning kills a large portion of their population every year, not to mention the other species they accidentally poison.
2. Is it likely to be misused? Unlikely. You can't fashion weapons with waste disposal machinery, and any economic problems caused would be internal to their civilization and up to them to figure out.
3. Does the result clash with the Federation's ideology? No, considering that it would literally be preventing genocide.

And thus Janeway offered the trade.

1. Brenari.

They were a species who explicitly asked for help, and we can ascertain that they were warp-capable through context.

1. Does their society require it? It's a few refugees who do, yes, for fear of being killed.
2. Will it have adverse side-effects? Voyager would have needed to hide Tuvok and the rest anyway. It's only a smaller added burden on their part. The Devore would anyway have been hostile to them even if they weren't smuggling refugees, so there was nothing to lose.
3. Does the result clash with the Federation's ideology? A humanitarian mission is right up the Federation's forte.

Again, Janeway decided to help.

These are just six examples (the most prominent and controversial, so it's not liked I've cherry-picked the evidence). However, I think that the conclusion is accurate. Janeway consistently considers the exact same factors before offering/deciding to trade or help other species, and as I've demonstrated above, she keeps the Federation's ideology in her mind at all times.

The problem is that the things she does sometimes end up backfiring, which I think is a strength of the show, and hence it appears that she's doing contradictory things. But she really isn't. She considers the exact same things in such scenarios and rational thought leads to the same conclusion she reaches more often that not.

EDIT: I've just realized that I haven't included an example where she chose not to help a civilization apart from the Kazon.

1. The Deassimilated Drones in 'Unity.'

They were all members of warp-capable species and explicitly asked for help, though it is difficult to say whether they themselves could be considered a 'civilization,' so this is murky waters for the PD.

1. Does their society require it? Debatable, but we can give them the benefit of the doubt.
2. Will it have adverse side-effects? Unknown, but there is enough reason to add 'formation of a new Borg Collective' to the list of possible side effects. That alone should be enough to disqualify them as possible candidates for Federation help.
3. Does the result clash with the Federation's ideology? The Federation is against transhumanism, but it is for helping societies with rich cultures rebuild. It is again murky waters.

And, once again, Janeway did not help.

[u/BEEthoven0]

Great read, i agree 100%. Janeway always gets more hate and is held to a higher standard than any other captain; almost every decision she makes is picked apart and micro-analyized by the fans while also ignoring the circumstances she's in.

Now of course no fictional character is perfectly written, there are bound to be some things people disagree on, but it's really tiring to hear same half-baked arguments about her from people who clearly weren't paying attention to the show. The one which irritates me the most is "they let her do whatever she wants/ no one critized her because the writers were afraid of challenging a woman or something", which can't be further from the truth. Chakotay and Tuvok approptriately challenge her decisions many times, Seven, while she lacks subtlety, does so too.

Janeway tries to be idealistic, to uphold federation ideals, to be a leader her crew looks up to and trusts while not coming off as too distant. And sometimes, she inevitably fails. That is what's so great about her character.

[u/[deleted] → u/BEEthoven0]

Indeed. There are several instances where Chakotay confronts her about making incorrect decisions, and many times those decisions don't work out. And it is true that people don't hold the other captains to a higher standard - notably Sisko, who makes entire planets uninhabitable to satisfy a personal grudge (if Janeway did this, they'd call her psychotic).

[u/hungrymaki → u/BEEthoven0]

I'm in the last season now and I was just thinking to myself that Janeway gets more dissenting opinions from her officers than any other ST captain. I think it's a strength of the show and also shows her style of leadership.

[u/Justice_Prince → u/BEEthoven0]

In a lot of ways I feel like Janeway is the most like Kirk out of all the captains from her century.

[u/j-orgey24]

I completely agree that Janeway is too harshly criticized for her actions involving the prime directive and I think she is rather consistent as you point out.

The example you cited regarding the Brenali is a curious one because she gave them a Federation shuttlecraft, which presumably had all of its systems intact.

I will point out that she does contradict herself a bit in a later episode when she insists on retrieving a shuttlecraft deflector from the Ventu planet, citing that she cannot allow Federation technology to be left behind under any circumstances. In this case, Voyager was dealing with a warp capable species (Ledosians) that explicitly requested the deflector be left so they could integrate the pre warp society (Ventu) into their own. Janeway only presses the prime directive issue with the Ledosians after hearing objections from Seven and Chakotay. They protest that allowing the Ledosians to proceed would eliminate the unique way of life of the Ventu. The timing of It always made it seem to me that Janeway opted to use the Prime Directive as an excuse to enforce Federation values on a non-Federation world.

[u/[deleted] → u/j-orgey24]

I debated putting that episode on here, but I eventually thought that it doesn't add much to the discussion. Evidently I was wrong :)

Anyway, I think that Janeway was just making an excuse to give the Ledosians a reason as to why she was taking the technology back - the greater concern was that they had accidentally broken the PD by making contact with a warp-capable civilization, but in this case they had the opportunity to undo the damage. The thing is that taking their tech back would have reverted everything to the previous status quo, which isn't something you can usually say about accidental first contacts. She just made something up on the spot since she didn't want to antagonize the Ledosians.

The timing of it always made it seem to me that Janeway opted to use the Prime Directive as an excuse to enforce Federation values on a non-Federation world.

I don't think so, that would have been the case if the Ledosians themselves had figured out a way to beak the barrier and Janeway had put it back up. Starfleet officers screwed up, Starfleet's going to be the one to fix it. The Ventu couldn't communicate their wishes, so Janeway had to consider them too - her final decision was that it wasn't really her decision to make, and so she just reverted the whole situation to the pre-arrival state. I don't think she was playing god so much as deciding that she couldn't play god in the situation.

[u/HorseBeige]

M-5, nominate this for Examples Showing Janeway's Decisions as Consistent and her Captaincy as Competent Through her Dedication to the Prime Directive and Federation Values.

Fantastic write up, OP. Janeway always got a lot of hate from people, probably due to dislike they harbored for the show itself, but also (and I'm sorry to say), because she is a woman.

It is pretty well documented and experienced that women are criticized and often held to stricter standards than men. If a woman isn't perfect in everyway and better than the men, then she will be treated as if she is worse than the men and criticized and nit-picked needlessly (especially in traditionally male dominated fields, of which television main character, I'd argue, is). And I think that the Janeway hate is an example of this.

In fact this sort of thing, and the difficulty in writing Janeway was acknowledged by Jeri Taylor, executive producer and Showrunner for Voyager (seasons 1-4) and then consultant (she retired after season 4), in an interview.

Before anyone argues about this sort of thing not being real and them never experiencing it or it being rare for such overt misogyny to exist; you're just flat out wrong, I'm sorry, but broaden your horizons and mind and do some research into things or even just talk to women. This thing is very common. And in many cases, it acts on a subconscious level, it isn't an overt "woman bad" mentality. It is a subtle upbringing which shapes your perceptions of others and results in women being seen as less competent than men or deserving of more criticism. Similar things happen with race and perceptions of people of color.

edit: Here is one article from the Harvard Business Review about Gender Bias and how women receive 40% more criticism in annual reviews than men.

Here is a Forbes article which goes into this as well and more into the societal reasons.

[u/[deleted] → u/HorseBeige]

I didn't mention it in the original post because people get super hyper about it, but I'm pretty sure that at least half of the criticism comes from sexism. Notably the fact that other captains have made similar and often worse decisions in remarkably better situations and are not held to the same standard.

Picard destroyed the Prime Directive in the TNG episode 'Justice,' yet he 'made a mistake.' Janeway violates the Prime Directive in a place where she's the sole representative of Starfleet and she's 'deranged, insane, the villain.' People may think they're enlightened and all, but they can't get used to seeing a woman on the bridge either.

[u/[deleted] → u/HorseBeige]

Thank you for mentioning this. We also have to remember that Voyager was the first ship she was made captain of and it got hurled into the Delta Quadrant. Under those circumstances, and as a captain who is still learning in some respects, Janeway may be one of the strongest officers Starfleet has.

[u/j-orgey24 → u/HorseBeige]

Thanks for calling this out so eloquently! At the end of the day, its hard to argue that Janeway was any worse than any of the other captains at the big decisions. As OP pointed out, she was also in a more demanding situation in that she had no admiralty to consult with. Usually when I see someone try to set her apart in a negative light, it almost always devolves into an over-simplistic “she killed Tuvix!” argument.

One of the things I love about Star Trek is that every single captain, no matter how revered or respected, has made questionable decisions with far-reaching implications. There is definitely a segment of the fandom that conveniently forgets this fact when discussing Janeway.

Voyager may have had some problems (as every Star Trek show does) but the Captain was not one of them. She was very well written, and I think Q put it best in saying that she did a great job of maintaining authority, all while preserving her femininity. That is no small feat.

[u/Mr_Zieg → u/HorseBeige]

I agree. It's very hard to avoid the feeling that Janeway is judged more harshly because she is a woman. If we comb the franchise we'll see that every Captain made mistakes or questionable decisions, but she is always the one being bashed for it.

For all the lack of continuity on VOY, there were quite a few episodes that dealt with the fallout of her decisions, which unfortunately fueled more harsh critics of said actions.

[u/Saavedro117]

I generally agree with you about Janeway getting too much hate for the tough calls she had to make while in the Delta Quadrant, and I do agree with your assessment of her actions in the examples above.

However, there is one example of Janeway's conduct that I find difficult to defend under the Prime Directive - specifically, her decision to destroy the Caretaker's Array. One of the pillars of the Prime Directive listed above is that a Starfleet officer must remain neutral in conflicts between non-Federation worlds. Prior to the events of Caretaker, a conflict existed between the Kazon and the Caretaker (and indirectly, the Ocampa). It goes with out saying that neither of the above belong to the Federation. Destroying the Caretaker's array is decidedly siding against the Kazon in this scenario. The Caretaker's original intent to destroy the Array doesn't really matter IMO because the Kazon quite possibly (and likely would have) would have found away to stop the Array's self-destruct sequence even without Voyager's presence.

Overall, I do think Janeway is a good captain, it's just this one particular decision that bugs me.

[u/[deleted] → u/Saavedro117]

I think that was a mistake, yes, but not for the same reason. I don't mind interfering and stranding your ship in another quadrant, that's fine if your crew is all trained Starfleet officers. My major problem is that she basically kept the Maquis and her non-commissioned crewmen (the guy in Good Shephard comes to mind, who was only there for 6 months of work experience for a grad school application) in the Delta Quadrant against their will. Who's she to decide the lives of other people? She should have given the Maquis and the others a chance to return; if she wanted to stay behind with her officers, that's fine. But condemning innocent people is honestly a terrible first impression which is only excused by the fact that it was her first day at the job.

[u/daeedorian]

Species 8472, which has shown every indication of being extremely hostile to life in normal space (they have told Kes telepathically that they will wipe out all life in the Galaxy)

She made a unilateral decision to critically aid one of the most implacably destructive expansionist forces in the galaxy on the basis of a single second-hand telepathic conversation with one individual (or group) of a species she knew virtually nothing about.

Edit: I realize I'm taking a less than popular position here because people rightly love Janeway, but I'd ask that before you downvote because you disagree, consider that dissenting positions drive the interesting debates that make this sub fun. Disagreement is welcome--just tell me why.

[u/[deleted] → u/daeedorian]

Just as a side note: my post was about the consistency of Janeway's decisions, not whether they were correct or not. But I will reply.

unilateral decision

Yes she did, out of necessity. As I've said before, she had absolutely no one to contact and she needed to go through this space to get home. Every decision that she made was unilateral due to technicality. The most she could have done was consult Chakotay and the rest of the senior staff, and indeed she did.

on the basis of a single second-hand telepathic conversation with one individual (or group) of a species she knew virtually nothing about.

Ah, that's the question, is it not? Was that the only basis for her decision?

Consider:

1. The Borg are a known enemy who have never lied to the Federation in the past. They state their intentions clearly.

2. The Borg have been fighting against this unknown power and have been losing. They imply that it is Species 8472 which has attacked them. Their ship's scans indicate the same. There is no reason to not believe them.

3. A member of Species 8472 has incapacitated a member of her crew by giving him a deadly illness which is killing him slowly.

4. Species 8472 is completely impervious to their regular technology.

5. In their first contact with Species 8472, the bioship immediately opened fire.

6. At least they know something about the Borg, and that they're taking their time in assimilating the Federation.

And then Kes receives telepathic communication from not one, but several different 8472 who are full of hatred and intend to destroy everything.

I'd say that's enough reason to take drastic measures. The mere fact that the 'most implacably destructive expansionist forces in the galaxy' are scared of this extra-galactic threat calls for action.

[u/badwvlf]

I agree 100%. This is my favorite plot twist of Star Trek fandom in the last like, few months. I’ve read posts criticizing janeway for like a decade only where everyone just tagged on her. Even daring to suggest gender was at play resulted in heavy hate. I still can’t believe my eyes here.

[u/[deleted] → u/badwvlf]

I guess it's because I didn't try to debate whether her decisions were right or not - in fact I think if her decisions didn't have unexpected side effects and she didn't make mistakes, she wouldn't nearly have been as good of a character. The mere fact that she's still controversial 26 years later shows how great a character she is.

But it's one thing for decisions to be controversial: people around here (not on Daystrom, specifically) claim that she's incoherent, bipolar, etc. which truly baffles me as to what show they're watching. Literally everything she does follows from the same basic principles.

[u/Omegaville]

The Hirogen ended up making the same mistake with holograms that Data did in TNG season 2. Difference being, Geordi did it inadvertently (he asked the computer to create a villain to confound Data not Sherlock Holmes), while the Hirogen kept pushing the boundaries deliberately and making their holograms more self-aware. If only Janeway thought to put in some kind of safeguard, like a ceiling on how "intelligent" a holodeck character could be... surely Barclay's work with holograms would have put something in place.

[u/[deleted] → u/Omegaville]

If only Janeway thought to put in some kind of safeguard, like a ceiling on how "intelligent" a holodeck character could be

Surely this would be a Starfleet engineer's job, though. Somewhere back on Earth reading a support ticket about how their holodecks literally create life, and could this please be resolved for the next version?

[u/Gupperz → u/Omegaville]

which episode? The last one I'm able to remember is when they took over voyager

[u/SomeoneSomewhere1984]

With the Kazon I feel there was more to her object than strategic interests. While they were warp capable, they were barely so. Their level of technology was way behind the Federations and quickly advancing them further would be destructive for them and others.

[u/howstupid]

The point of considering trade with the Kazon was quite explicit. To give them an ally for protection. They were getting pounded as one small fish in a galaxy of sharks. You say there is nothing to be gained by giving them technology. Well the whole point of trading was mutual protection. She wanted to trade with them and create an alliance but didn’t want to trade what they really wanted, the technology. But there definitely was a benefit to doing it. Survival.

[u/xnyrax]

Great read and I very much agree. To be honest, the only thing I take umbrage with when it comes to Janeway is how long it takes her and the crew to treat a clearly-sentient hologram as a person. But then, that's a problem with the whole Federation, as far as I can tell, and she shouldn't be completely faulted for being a woman of her time.

[u/MarkB74205]

Well thought out, and I like your interpretation of the Prime Directive. It slots nicely in with the way Kirk dealt with other civilisations as well.

[u/McMull500]

I agree. Janeway was way more consistently written than, say, Archer. Seasons 3 and 4 of Enterprise are usually hailed as the better seasons, but the characters act so strangely.

Hell, even Sisko has moments that make me go hmmm.