Star Trek: 10 Disastrous USS Voyager First Contacts
5. Once More, With(out) Chronitons!
As Marcia Fry astutely argued for Annorax as 'Villain Who Killed The Most,' it is debatable whether this disastrous first contact happened at all. In theory, the second (third? Fourth?) time round with the Krenim was the first. Short but cordial, the (re)try also avoided the annus most horribilis.
If we do count the pre-timey-wimey-erasey encounter with the Krenim — we'll ignore the Kes one for the sake of my worsening headache — it is probably the most catastrophic on this list. Even the guy with the tiny torpedo tubes fired on Voyager without provocation. Then Annorax upped the ante by changing the timeline, and all hell broke loose.
In their imperial form, the Krenim were a hostile, xenophobic race who maintained an uncompromising hold over their vast territory through the use of powerful chroniton-based weapons that sliced through shields like a knife through replicated butter. Rather than let the stranded starship pass through — you know, the non-murdery thing to do — the Krenim attacked at every opportunity, leaving Voyager critically damaged and largely uninhabitable.
Captain Janeway soon called time on the megalomaniacal Annorax and his temporal weapon ship, and the do-over Krenim simply told Voyager to take the long way round.