Voyager mysteries

As we all know, there were some irritating things in Voyager, things that didn't really fit into the concept and could never be explained in a rational way, such as the many shuttles, the events in "Threshold", Tom Paris-Nick Locarno and so on. So I've decide to come up with some splendid solutions to those problems. So here we go:

I guess that we can all agree that Kes was very ill-treated by those in charge of the show and that we all want her to be restored to what she was in the first three seasons. I would really love to wipe out the events in "The Gift", this crappy, thin, stupid episode with it’s ridiculous plot, (even worse than “Threshold”) with this energy-being mumbo-jumbo. Unfortunately, it would affect every aspect of the show in the later seasons and all episodes would have to be re-written. Since my suggestions are planned to be minor ones which would be easier to accept by both those in charge of the show and the average fan, then unfortunately I must leave “The Gift” as it is (now this is a terrible defeat for me) and head straight on to…………….

Now, this episode was made only to insult the Kes fans who were brave enough to challenge TIIC by wanting her back. A badly written, unrealistic story which was made only to make a beloved character as disgusting as possible. Can’t be tolerated!

The Ocampa must without doubt be the species the writers did screw up the most in the entire history of Star Trek. They didn't seem to have any real interest in the species as such, they were only trying to come up with something new which they never have had in Star Trek before. And when the errors became so obvious that it was only ridiculous, then they just ignored them and and didn't do anything to correct them just as if they suspected that the Trek fans were too stupid to notice them. So let us take a look at the Ocampa and see what we can come up with:

The Ocampa nine-year life-span is often used as an excuse for getting rid of Kes by the "writers" and some fans who tries to defend the unfair treatment of Our Favorite. Despite being a rather silly thing itself (how could a people with such short lifespan actually develope into something more than cave-dwellers) the lifespan itself is a bit limiting to Our Favorite and to the Ocampa species as such. But it can be solved. The Ocampa on Suspirias array could live until they became 20 years or more so the technology and methods they used could be used to prolong Kes's lifespan too. Otherwise the Voyager Doctor, Q or Suspiria herself could do something about it. In this story, the problem is solved by Q.

According to the book "Caretaker", The Caretaker did transfer all his files with all his knowledge to the Ocampa shortly beofre his death so we can assume that there was something in it which could give the Ocampa some knowledge about prolonging their life-span. We can also assume that Suspiria herself might be intersted in helping the Ocampa on the planet after her confrontation with Voyager in "Cold Fire".

A simple solution could also be that it takes the Ocampa planet 10 years to rotate around its sun so 1 Ocampa year is the same as 10 Earth years!

We could also assume that the Ocampa, living underground and not able to see the sun simply have a different way of counting years so that one Ocampa year is equivalent to 10 Earth years.

Anyone smart enough can easily figure out that such a race would not survive. With only one child being born, the Ocampa population would decrease and finally cease to exist. Apparently the "writers" didn't realize that and when they did (if they did) they just kept on going, like nothing had happened.

There are other peculiar things here too. In "Deadlock" Kes talks about her uncle Elrem. How can she have an uncle if the Ocampa can have only one child? And in "Before And After" Kes's father Benaren says that Kes is his favorite daughter which could mean that Kes has a sister! Or maybe two? Or maybe a brother too? So much for Ocampa having only one child. There's only one way to solve the problem, just forget about that rubbish and consider the Ocampa as a rather normal species which can have more than one child during their lifetime! Or maybe we can assume that they have multiple births.

According to what we saw in "Caretaker" the Kazon-Ogla who were living on the Ocampa planet had problems with finding water. Neelix too did seem to have that problem. Now, that looks and sounds a bit strange because there would always be a chance to find ice in space, at least on some planet nearby. They did have spaceships of rather good quality after all.

But there's a possible explanation for that problem. If we look at the Ocampa system, Ocampa is the fifth of six planets. According to the book "Star Trek Roleplaying Games, Aliens" which is the only source of information about the Ocampa system, except for the official Star Trek sources, the Ocampa system is the sun Caeleron plus six planet, five smaller ones plus a gas giant. The four inner planets are to small, hot and rocky to have any water. The fifth planet which is Ocampa has no water on the surface and the sixth planet is a gas giant, apparently without moons, maybe some small rocky asteroids orbiting it but in that case they are too small to contain any water or ice.

We can also assume that the wars and conflicts between the Kazon sects has made it very difficult for the Kazon-Ogla who are living on the Ocampa surface to travel outside the system. Maybe they are under siege from the Kazon-Nistrim or some other Kazon sect which makes it difficult for them to travel outside the system and difficult for other Kazon-Ogla ships to deliver water to them. As they don't want to leave Ocampa with its valuable Cormaline which they use to trade with, they have to live with the water problem, at least until they can make peace with other Kazon sects nearby or find water in some other way.

Ocampa and the other planets in the Caeleron system. No water to be found here.

Voyager always did seem to have an endless supply of shuttles and photon torpedoes. No matter how many shuttles they destroyed or how many torpedoes they did blow up, despite their talk of limited resources, they always had new ones to blow up and destroy. Now that's because of:

This would be the perfect explanation to why Voyager always had shuttles available despite losing them in episode after episode. It would also explain where characters like Dalby, Henley, Chell, Gerron, Vorik, Carey, Rollins and Samantha Wildman were during most of the time in the Delta Quadrant. They were building new shuttles and torpedoes both day and night!

Now, this has caused a lot of confusion. Nick Locarno, a Tom Paris lookalike is involved in an accident similar tothe one Tom was involved in later. That "coincident" has created a lot of rumors and speculation. There are:

Solution 1: Nick Locarno was the result of a a love affair between Admiral Paris and another woman than his wife. The old Admiral helped Nick Locarno to be accepted at Starfleet Academy where he screwed it up. The similar accidents Nick and Tom had were coincidents. Tom's hatred to his father was because he found out about Nick Locarno's existence during his time at Starfleet Academy. A possible meeting between Tom and Nick would be something for coming books or movies, wouldn't it.

Solution 2: Tom Paris and Nick Locarno are the same persons and there was only one accident. Admiral Paris tried to cover it up by persuading all involved to use the name "Nick Locarno" during the trial so that the good name of Paris wouldn't be disgraced. However, Starfleet later gave the Admiral a reprimand for that sceme and the convicted pilot was revealed as Tom Paris. Tom's dislike of his father was further increased by that "Nick Locarno" scenario and the fact that Admiral Paris more and less pretended that the accused wasn't his son.

Solution 3. Tom Paris and Nick Locarno are twins separated at birth. The similarity between the accidents are coincidents, however Admiral Paris did his best to cover up the relationship between Nick Locarno and the Paris family. Tom did find out about it later which is one of the reasons he despises his father.

Threshold

It never happened! It was just a nightmare Paris had after eating too much Leola Root stew or drinking too much of Neelix’s coffee. The best evidence for this episode being nothing but a nightmare is the fact that no one ever mentioned the events in the episode in later episodes. I mean, Paris almost dies, turns into a lizard, abducts Janeway who is also turned into a lizard and they have lizard “children” and no one talks about it or jokes about it later!

Tuvok in TNG and DS9 Episodes

The Tuvok lookalike in "Starship Mine" is actually Tuvok's evil brother Devor, the black sheep of the family who have left his home, denied his relatives and became a criminal. For some reason, Tuvok has never mentioned anything about Devor (or Devok if you want it more Vulcan), maybe for the same reason as Spock never mentioned his brother Sybok to Kirk or McCoy.

As for the Tuvok lookalike in "Generations", let us just assume that it's Our Favorite Vulcan himself, on a brief stint with the Enterprise. Why not?

The Tuvok in the DS9 episode "Through The Looking Glass" was a mirror Tuvok.

The Doctor amd Mr. Woolsley

Those who watch Stargate has probably seen the similarity in looks between The Doctor and mr. Woolsley. I tyhink we can assume that mr. Woolsley is an ancestor to Dr. Zimmerman who created the EMH and made it look like himself.

The universal translator

According to official sources, an universal translator is installed in the computers of all Federation ships. The combadges also have miniature universal translators incorporated. But in that case, how could the different species among the Voyager crew communicate when they were stranded on the Hanon planet in "Basics" and their combadges were taken from them?

The B&B device!

The solution is the B&B device, named after two important persons in the 20th century who did foresee the development of the future. THe B&B device is a very small microchip which is attached to the inner ear and which immediately starts when the ship's computer universal translator is unavailable and the combadges are removed or destroyed. In that way, different species can continue to communicate.

Lucy Janeway

Ensign Lucy Janeway, who we saw in the TNG episode "Man Of The People" is actually Our Captain's cousin. Her father is the brother of Kathryn's father Edward Janeway.

From an early age, Lucy Janeway's parents always told her stories about how remarcable cousin Kathryn was. Such as: "Kathryn is doing so well in school, Kathryn won the tennis tournament, Kathryn has been accepted at the Academy", all those stories told with a hidden sentence of "Why can't you be as good, clever and smart as Kathryn?"

So poor Lucy struggled with her duties, eventually ending up at the Academy herself, only to be told that "Kathryn is an Engineer at the starship Icarus, Kathryn has become First Officer now and finally, when Lucy got a posting at the Enterprise, something she thought would really please their parents, she was told that "Kathryn is the Captain of a ship now".

Lucy continued to struggle with her career on the Enterprise but then came her problems with Lieutenant Pinder and her bad luck when she brought up the subject to Counselor Troi, not knowing that Troi was under Ves Alkar's influence and because of that behaved rude and arrogant to poor Lucy.

The argument with Troi made Lucy Janeway ask for a new posting so she was transferred to USS Excelsior. Of course, her parents saw that as a setback in her career. "If Kathryn had had a posting on the Enterprise, she wouldn't have been transferred....."

The final straw came when Voyager disappeared in the Badlands. From that moment on, Lucy Janeway had to stand a constant complaining about "poor Kathryn and her lost ship" and she realized that whatever she might achieve in her career, she would never come up with something that spectacular.

So she finally flipped, told her parents what she had wanted to say a long time, quit Starfleet and joined the Maquis instead. After some time with the Maquis, she went to Angel One in order to avoid being captured by the Federation or the Cardassians. When the wars were over and she was paroled together with most of the Maquis, she settled on Cestus II where she works with gardening.

Nicole Janeway

Nicole Janeway, who can be found on some Youtube clips instead of Kathryn Janeway is actually Kathryn Janeway's aunt. A sister to Kathryn's father Edward Janeway.

Contrary to most members of the Janeway family, Nicole Janeway weren't interested at all in Starfleet and space exploring. She always considered her brother Edward a crazy fool who should have chosen another career instead of Starfleet.

"Man doesn't belong into space", she often said. "It's utter foolishness to travel around in those metal boxes in such dangerous environment".

When Edwards daughter Kathryn decided to join Starfleet, Nicole was furious. "You are a hopeless, reckless fool", she told Edward Janeway. "But worse is that you have raised your daughter to become one hopeless, reckless fool too", she said. And added, "This will end up in a disaster, believe me!"

Nicole Janeway often expressed her compassion for Kathryn's mother Gretchen. "I really feel sorry for her, marrying my stupid brother" but expressed sympathy for Kathryn's sister Phoebe who had chosen to become an artist instead.

When tragedy actually struck and Edward Janeway was killed during an exploring mission, together with Kathryn's fiancée Justin Tighe while Kathryn survived the accident, Nicole Janeway pestered everybody who wanted to listen with comments about "well, what did I say". Finally Phoebe Janeway got tired of hearing her aunt's complaints, lost her temper and told Nicole Janeway where to go.

When Voyager dissapeared in the Badlands, Nicole Janeway continued to tell everyone (except Gretchen and Phoebe Janeway who had broken all contacts with her) that Kathryn only had herself to blame for being as foolish as her father. Due to her not too diplomatic comments about certain family members, Nicole Janeway became rather isolated from the rest of the family. She continued to live on her ostrich farm in Colorado while keeping her negative opinion about space exploring.

The scene with Nicole Janeway as captain on Voyager was actually a nighmare Kathryn Janeway had two nights after Voyager left Ocampa, heading for the distant home. Only in a nightmare could Kathryn Janeway imagine her aunt as the captain on her ship.

Two Admiral Paris's in the show

As we could see, the Owen Paris who did show up in the later seasons didn't look the same as the Owen Paris we saw in the season 2 episode "Persistance Of Vision".

The reason for that is that the guy which was seen in the later episodes wasn't Owen Paris but a relative.

That was a result of the "Nick Locarno" affair.

Nick Locarno was the result of an affair between Owen Paris an a woman named Esmeralda Locarno who was not his wife.

Owen Paris tried to keep the whole thing a secret. He helped Nick to join the Academy. It was when Tom found out about this, he really started to hate his father.

When Nick screwed up and was kicked out of the Academy, Owen Paris continued to cover up his involvement in the affair.

In later years, Owen could not stand it any longer and got a nervous breakdown. During his absence and due to the fact that Starfleet Headquarters wanted to cover up everything that had been going on for a long time, Owen's brother Ichabod Paris served as his "stand in" at Starfleet Headquarters until Owen was well enough to return to his job.

So the guy who showed up as Admiral Paris in the later episodes was Ichabod Paris.

Owen Paris Ichabod Paris

More solutions to Voyager mysteries and quesions will be added as they occur in debates on the net and such.

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