10 Most Frustrating Star Trek Moments Ever

For the most part, Caretaker is a strong pilot episode for Star Trek: Voyager. And to be very clear – we know that Janeway had to destroy the Array – otherwise, the show doesn’t have a catalyst to keep it stranded. So we’re not suggesting that it shouldn’t have happened.

Or are we?

With the Kazon closing in around them, and their sights set firmly on the Caretaker’s technology, Janeway orders Tuvok to fire two Tricobalt devices directly at the Array. This serves to keep the technology out of the hands of the Kazon, but strands the Starfleet ship in the Delta Quadrant.

First, as is later mentioned by Seven of Nine in The Voyager Conspiracy, Tricobalt devices are not standard issue on Federation vessels. Why would Janeway fire the only two in their arsenal at the Array?

Next, despite the fact that they were outnumbered, Voyager could have turned the tide against the Kazon – by firing Tricobalt devices at them!

Now, the real frustration here is the pitfalls of Caretaker itself. The Array had to go, but did it have to go in such a way? Did the Val Jean have to be destroyed? Did the Maquis have to suddenly put all of their uniforms into the replicators and then adopt Starfleet field commissions? As has been stated about Voyager before, the second the Maquis members put those uniforms on, the most interesting part of Voyager’s premise – two crew learning to work together – died.

There is a version of Star Trek: Voyager that would see the ship face struggles, take a beating, learn to overcome, and have genuine peril. It’s called Year of Hell. The toothless way in which Voyager is stranded, while also looking like it’s been to a spacedock every week, is one of the most frustrating things in all of Star Trek’s history.