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VaBeachGuy

Why didn't Voyager go to the Gamma Quadrant?

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I was surfing around and found a site that posed this question and had this map of the Galaxy included.

 

Since Voyager was stuck in the Delta Quadrant why did they travel on a direct course for the Alpha Quadrant rather then go to the seemingly closer Gamma Quadrant to get to the Wormhole which would lead to the Alpha Quadrant?

 

The site I found had several possible answers but I forgot to bookmark it. I will go look for it later but I thought everyone might find the map and the question interesting.

galactic.gif

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Wow..What am interesting question..Seems like that possibility should have at least been discussed by the senior officers..As for me, I can't seem to come up with a reason for them not to take advantage of the wormhole in the Gamma Quadrant..Were they that afraid of the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar ? Interesting..

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I often wondered this, and my conclusion was they were afraid of the Dominion, but then again, the Borg are a little more scary.

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Finally, I'm not alone; I've been wondering that for years. Let us know if you come across that site again, VBG. I'd love to hear their explanations. :blink:

 

EDIT: I didn't think we knew a bunch about the Dominion when Voyager was lost. Am I wrong? :clap:

Edited by Ace

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If you look at the maps from where voyager started from they were about the same distance from earth as to the wormhole. When Voyager got to the Delta Quaderant the wormhole had not been there that long. Wheat if they had spent 50+ years getting to the wormhole just to find it was gone. After all the fastest way between 2 pts. is a straight line.

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What is really amazing is how the NX-01 went from Earth to Kronos in just a few days. That was at Warp 5 max, and they even made stops along the way. According to the map the distance Voyager had to cover to get home was at most 4 times the size of the 24th century Federation (assuming a direct flight). It should have taken no more than a month or so at high warp.

Edited by lt_van_roy

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If you look at the maps from where voyager started from they were about the same distance from earth as to the wormhole.

True, and then you have to consider that our end of the wormhole is not home. They still have to travel the rest of the way to Earth.

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I'm not sure of Voyager's position in the Delta Quadrant but I picked a spot around the middle of the quadrant to plot the course to both the Alpha Quadrant and the Gamma Quadrant. Since Voyager could have been closer then where I put them this is just a guess but it gives a little pit of an idea of a possible distance.

 

If my guess is close it would seem that Voyager is closer to the Gamma Quadrant and by taking a direct course to the Alpha Quadrant they would only make it to the Beta Quadrant in the same amount of time that it would take to get to the Wormhole in the Gamma Quadrant.

 

As for being afraid of the Dominion, when they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant we had had very little contact with the Dominion. About the only thing we knew about them was that the Founders were Changelings, the Vorta were telepath's (though that was only shown in episode 26 of season 2) and the Jem'Hadar were very Klingon like. I would very much think that the Borg would be of greater concern at that point.

 

As for being concerned that the Wormhole might not be there when they arrive, that's a possible concern but at that point we knew that the Wormhole was artificially created by the Prophets and that it had been there for at least 10,000 years. The chances of it suddenly collapsing would be remote.

 

My guess as to why they would pick a direct rout would be that the closer they get to the Beta Quadrant the sooner they will be in communication distance and the better the possibility of working out a plan to get home even sooner. By going to the Gamma Quadrant they would be out of contact until they get to the Wormhole.

 

There was another reason given on that site that made sense too but I don't have time to post it now, so I will come back and post it shortly.

galactic2.gif

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I just noticed that VOyager's location is noted on that map so I re-ploted with that position. The Gamma Quadrant is clearly much closer and would seem to take them through less Borg space, so my reason for going directly to the Alpha Quadrant is shot. It would take more then twice as long going on a straight line then going to the Wormhole.

galactic3.gif

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I thought of going to the wormhole after the first episode. I do see the point that they would not be able to contact starfleet until they made it to the wormhole but they really did not talk to starfleet until "ship in a bottle" and that was in season 4.

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I thought they didn't head to the wormhole for two reasons:

 

1. The producers wanted the show to stand apart from DS9.

 

2. Captain Janeway had reports of the Dominion taking out the Defiant, Starfleet's first warship, quite easilly. Considerring this very dangerous threat and the fact that Voyager wasn't equiped to fight a fleet of Dominion ships, she probably felt it was best to take the long wroute, looking for shortcuts. The only thing that bugged me was that they didn't have a season one episode dealing with this topic and explaning why they couldn't pursue the wormhole as a way home.

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Is there anything Canon to show that she had these reports and these fears? I don't think that fear of the Dominion is a logical reason though, surely fear of the Borg would be greater then fear of the Dominion especially since the Dominion have only been known of for a few months at that point.

 

As for the Producers, in the "real" situation (if it was real) Janeway wouldn't have producers on the ship with her and it would be a real dereliction of duty for her to ignore the possibility of getting the crew home in a matter of a few years as opposed to a few decades.

 

I think it would have been better to have gone to the Gamma Quadrant because it would have given that linkage between the series. They already linked themselves to DS9 in the first episode. They still would have been able to use the Borg (which was a link to TNG). Any other encounters that Voyager had could easily have been done in the show going to the Gamma Quadrant because they were basically just random events. In the end they could have had Voyager return through the wormhole.

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It is stated that they did not know about the dominion and the wormhole in one of the episodes...

 

They thought the direct route was better....

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It is stated that they did not know about the dominion and the wormhole in one of the episodes...

 

They thought the direct route was better....

How can they state they don't know about it if they don't know about it? Besides, they HAVE to know about the Wormhole. They launched their mission at DS9 and I can't conceive of any way they would be a Starfleet ship, visit DS9 and NOT know there's a wormhole that leads 70,000 light years away to the Gamma Quadrant. It's possible that they might not know about the Dominion but not likely since their mission began in the middle of DS9's third season and the Dominion was introduced as a possible villain in the last episode of their second season.

 

Which episode did they say they don't know about the Wormhole and Dominion?

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Message in a bottle;

 

EMH2: They haven't gotten involved with our war with the Dominion.

EMH1: The who?

 

However it is possible that the doctor was unaware of them as he never encountered them, and there was no reason to brief him on them.

Edited by ARMS

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It is stated that they did not know about the dominion and the wormhole in one of the episodes...

 

They thought the direct route was better....

How can they state they don't know about it if they don't know about it? Besides, they HAVE to know about the Wormhole. They launched their mission at DS9 and I can't conceive of any way they would be a Starfleet ship, visit DS9 and NOT know there's a wormhole that leads 70,000 light years away to the Gamma Quadrant. It's possible that they might not know about the Dominion but not likely since their mission began in the middle of DS9's third season and the Dominion was introduced as a possible villain in the last episode of their second season.

 

Which episode did they say they don't know about the Wormhole and Dominion?

No, I remember in the Episode "Hunters" It is stated by Chakotay that a letter said that the Maquis were destroyed because the Cardassians had help from an enemy known as the Dominion.....

He said it so is sounded like they didn't know who the Dominion are....

 

Believe me I remember.....

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COULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THE DOMINION TO ME? THANK YOU, IN DETAIL. :blink:

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It is stated that they did not know about the dominion and the wormhole in one of the episodes...

 

They thought the direct route was better....

How can they state they don't know about it if they don't know about it? Besides, they HAVE to know about the Wormhole. They launched their mission at DS9 and I can't conceive of any way they would be a Starfleet ship, visit DS9 and NOT know there's a wormhole that leads 70,000 light years away to the Gamma Quadrant. It's possible that they might not know about the Dominion but not likely since their mission began in the middle of DS9's third season and the Dominion was introduced as a possible villain in the last episode of their second season.

 

Which episode did they say they don't know about the Wormhole and Dominion?

No, I remember in the Episode "Hunters" It is stated by Chakotay that a letter said that the Maquis were destroyed because the Cardassians had help from an enemy known as the Dominion.....

He said it so is sounded like they didn't know who the Dominion are....

 

Believe me I remember.....

Well, I think it was more that they were shocked to learn that the Maquis were wiped out. They knew of the Dominion, they just didn't know that Starfleet was at war with the Dominion. In any case, I think Janeway had special intelligence that showed that the Dominion was a very dangerous threat. It's also possible that they didn't have the Bajoran wormhole's Gamma Quadrant location in their star maps, but that would be unlikely. I'm sure there was a reason why they didn't pursue the wormhome, so I just assume it was something discussed offscreen.

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I hope they add the explanation in the special features....

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Did they know that it was Borg space? They knew of the Borg yes but did they know that was Borg space?

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Did they know that it was Borg space? They knew of the Borg yes but did they know that was Borg space?

I'm not as "up" on Voyager, but I have a memory of Janeway addressing the crew about the journey home and the dangers of Borg Space. That may not be a correct memory, and my Voyager episodes got deleted by accident so I can't double check that right now but I believe they knew it was Borg Space.

 

From TNG they would have known that the Delta Quadrant was Borg space because Q zapped the Enterprise into the Delta Quadrant in the first Borg episode. So the general knowledge had to have been there.

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they did know about Borg Space...

You know by the dialogue in Scorpion I and II...

 

"You know this moment would come. We are entering Borg space"

-Janeway

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I doubt it will be explained, I know the answer from a production point of view. If they went to the Gamma Quadrant the journey might have taken a few years but possibly could have been done before season 7 was completed. By going the long route though they made it more dramatic, more isolated.

 

I just think that if their plan all along was to get Voyager home in the final episode or sooner then maybe going to the Gamma quadrant would have been a good way to go. That way tie the shows together. In fact, doing it that way could have paved the way for a Voyager DS9 movie. Voyager finally gets to the Wormhole and back to DS9 but there is something they have to assist DS9 with before they can return to Earth. Then at the end of the movie we have Voyager returning triumphantly to Earth with the grand escort.

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I have to agree I never liked the end of voyager. It was a good show but I always thought that it was a lame way to get them home by using time travel.

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Wow. I really never thought about it before but it's true the Gamma quadrant worm hole would have been closer.

 

Thinking about it I agree with Korthedaharmaster. Worm holes are notoriously unstable so the Voyager crew may have spent years getting there only to find it had destabilised. Voyager would have gone on a wild goose chase and home would be no closer than when they started out.

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Wow. I really never thought about it before but it's true the Gamma quadrant worm hole would have been closer.

 

Thinking about it I agree with Korthedaharmaster. Worm holes are notoriously unstable so the Voyager crew may have spent years getting there only to find it had destabilised. Voyager would have gone on a wild goose chase and home would be no closer than when they started out.

But you have to remember, the Gamma Quadrant wormhole isn't a normal wormhole. This one is artificial and has been there at least 10,000 years and was created by a race of beings that see themselves as some kind of "guardian" over Bajor. Seeing other risky chances that Janeway took over the course of the show I think it's likely that she would have opted to go for the 5 to 7 year route over the 40 year route or however long the direct route would have taken.

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Wow. I really never thought about it before but it's true the Gamma quadrant worm hole would have been closer.

 

Thinking about it I agree with Korthedaharmaster. Worm holes are notoriously unstable so the Voyager crew may have spent years getting there only to find it had destabilised. Voyager would have gone on a wild goose chase and home would be no closer than when they started out.

But you have to remember, the Gamma Quadrant wormhole isn't a normal wormhole. This one is artificial and has been there at least 10,000 years and was created by a race of beings that see themselves as some kind of "guardian" over Bajor. Seeing other risky chances that Janeway took over the course of the show I think it's likely that she would have opted to go for the 5 to 7 year route over the 40 year route or however long the direct route would have taken.

Good point VBG. :laugh:

 

I have not seen DS9 for ages and had forgotten that the wormhole is 10,000 years old. In that case it really does not make much sense, I think I need to think about it some more. :)

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Maybe because she didn't think...

 

Maybe because the producers wanted the experience of the Delta quadrant and the emergence and so called destruction of the Borg...

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One questions I have sorta portaining to this is where the heck they went into slipstream and exactly how much space they covered....They might have passed something up then...right?

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Maybe because she didn't think...

 

Maybe because the producers wanted the experience of the Delta quadrant and the emergence and so called destruction of the Borg...

Answer from the prospective that it's real life though. There are no "Producers", only the crew of the Voyager.

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