Personal thoughts on Season 8 and the conflict with the Voths

mli777

Now, as a rather lightweight Star Trek Fan, I haven't watched every single episode. However, here is my two cents on the conflict in the Dyson Sphere.

First, my guess is that the usual diplomacy first policy of the Federation goes out of the airlock when the Omega Directive is in place. As they stated in Voyager, even the Prime Directive is overruled by the Omega Directive. While sure Janeway was likely a bipolar Captain, we never saw how Picard and Sisko would have reacted if they had to enact the Omega Directive.

Now asides from that, the reason the Federation is willing to shoot first and ask later when it comes to the Voth is that they didn't exactly treat Voyager well when they encountered in in the Delta Quadrant. And seeing how stubborn the Government was, even with the scientific evidence of their origins on Earth, Starfleet likely sees them as unlikely to proceed with negotiations.

Let's not forget that the Federation has likely reached its tolerance of aggression by other powers in the Galaxy. After dealing with the Borg, the Dominion, the Reman uprising by Shinzon, the attacks by Nero, the breaking off of relations with Qo'nos, the True Way Rebellion, the Breen aggression in Deferi space, plus the threats from the Tal Shiar, the Eleachi, and Iconians have likely made them more willing to shoot first to neutralize the adversary and thus have a better position to negotiate.

Also, since we are also dealing with a possible threat by the Iconians, the Federation is planning things based on the worst case scenario of the Voth being a servitor race for the Iconians. If the Voth are with the Iconians, it might be better quickly neutralize their ability to obtain the Omega Particle than slowly use diplomacy.

Even so, note that they are still willing to allow less obstinate Voth to join them, as evidenced by the Voth Duty Officers and DOFF missions. I guess that despite the Voth Elders' efforts, the Distant Origin theory has spread and there are some who now agree with the idea.

Anyways, I do like the touches here and there when it comes to the Dyson shell. But can we get something other than just shield refrequencers?

kortaag

Was all that rationalization over the wanton desire for better consoles or were you truly looking into the voth paradigm? I'd advise probably not to look too deep. The voth episode clearly shows a race that had largely developed in the delta quadrant and genuinely unaware of its true origins discovered by voyager.

It also means that the voth are more likely to have been taken from earth rather than Geko's take on them pulling up roots and cataloging specimens to take with them which makes no logical premise whatsoever. It also shows that unlike human history when a doctrine is involved that the voth were highly reasonable to the effect that they even let voyager, its crew and it's #1 asset, the ship itself free. Quite a humanity displayed there which means that more so they are unlikely to be overtly aggressive at all unless threatened which was clearly drawn into understanding via the voyager episode.

So if we're speaking candidly on the issue, does any of the voth interaction make sense? Of course not. Is it likely a thin whim of imagination issued through Geko? Absolutely.

Of course there are plenty of clueless players and inadvertent apologists who just go with the flow as usual. You might even find a couple apologists who are going to allow the voth addition to supersede any logical discourse and then still you'll have people who find no point in recognizing this aspect because it's 'already been done and in the game.'

Good luck though.

fraghul2000

For me it was rather strange how the Voth were introduced as an enemy.

We had this great FE and the story about New Romulus, establishing how we found the Dyson Sphere, how the gateway to the Alpha Quadrant was established....

...and then a few days later it was: "Welcome to the Dyson Sphere. We've been here for a while now, established a base, got behind most of the sphere's tech, picked a war with dinosaurs from the Delta Quadrant which we >>think<< we have run into before, the Omega particles are a big thing now despite only a brief mention in a side sentence by Shon's crew..."

now go shoot us some Voth.

it feels like there is story missing between the FE and what we're being thrown into.

mli777

Yeah...I think maybe a mission would be great.

Since Task Force Omega was supposed to be used to deal with many threats, not just the Borg, perhaps D'Vak on the USS Houston joins you ship to explore the Sphere, and encounters the Voth. Negotiations basically fall flat with the Voth stating that they warned the humans to leave, and open fire. Once again, Houston becomes victim to the Worf Syndrome, and you essentially have to face the Voth until the rest of Task Force Omega, the Enterprise, the Bortasqu, and Romulan reinforcements arrive. Then, we can get all three flag ships, plus yourself facing down one of the Dreadnoughts or the city ship.

jjprize

This is kind of the problem with only having 1 FE lead into the season. They didnt really have enough gameplay storytelling time to explain things logically, which is why people are questioning the Fed actions. Oh well.