What is Captain Janeway's biggest mistake?

[The Romulan Republic]

Simple question?

For me, its probably Tuvix. That or screwing with the timeline, but no one really seems to care about that in Trek, even though you're playing dice with all of history.

But Tuvix... that was the deliberate, pre-meditated murder of a crewman while he begged for his life. I don't care what the reasons were, that was evil, plain and simple.

I can justify Caretaker via Prime Directive arguments and protecting the Ocampa. I can justify Scorpion (mostly) via the need to counter the threat of Species 8472.

I cannot justify Tuvix.

[J!!]

I actually come down on Janeway's side in the Tuvix thing. Yes, she executed an innocent man. And in doing so, she saved the lives of two innocent men.

2>1

Thing is though, that that's an issue which is wide open to personal opinion, with a case to be made for either option. So whether I agree with her ultimate decision or not, I'd not really consider either choice a mistake.

[The Romulan Republic]

I actually come down on Janeway's side in the Tuvix thing. Yes, she executed an innocent man. And in doing so, she saved the lives of two innocent men.

2>1

So if a doctor murdered a healthy man in order to get organs for two dying men, you'd be cool with that?

Simplistic interpretations of utilitarianism only go so far.

And actually, this is worse in a way, because Tuvok and Neelix were, effectively, already dead.

Edit: Its like a sci-fi version of a human sacrifice to raise two people by necromancy. In a fantasy work, that would normally put someone in Dark Lord territory.

[J!!]

While you were typing that, I was editing my post to better clarify my position on the matter, which is that the is no objectively correct answer to such trolleyological questions.

[TrueMetis]

Thomas Riker shows why the Tuvix thing what such a terrible mistake. Still wasn't her worst mistake, that would either be stranding her crew in the Delta quadrant or making the choice to pursue a command position instead of sticking to science.

[The Romulan Republic]

Thomas Riker shows why the Tuvix thing what such a terrible mistake. Still wasn't her worst mistake, that would either be stranding her crew in the Delta quadrant or making the choice to pursue a command position instead of sticking to science.

Not sure I feel up to rehashing the Caretaker argument again, but I think you can make a pretty good Prime Directive defence for Janeway's actions there, and it did probably help the Ocampa at least a little. Far from her worst action, even if the rational she gave in the show was not very effective.

As to command... I think that Janeway was meant to be a good commander in the show- the writing was just uneven. But if we take her as portrayed in canon... yeah, maybe.

[Durandal_1707]

It's definitely the decision to make a deal with the Borg.

1) It was the wrong call, since Species 8472 was just defending themselves against the Borg invading their space,

2) The death toll was easily the highest of any catastrophe caused by a Starfleet crew we've seen, with countless entire planets (including the one that guy from "Hope and Fear" was from) being assimilated as a result, a loss of untold billions of lives, and:

3) It didn't even get Voyager anything. The Borg screwed them over and didn't let them through their space, which had been the whole point of the exercise. The only good that came from it was rescuing Seven, but compared against all those planets full of men, women, and children, that's not even close to being an acceptable outcome. And of course:

4) Just, who makes a deal with the freaking Borg?!

[The Romulan Republic]

It's definitely the decision to make a deal with the Borg.

1) It was the wrong call, since Species 8472 was just defending themselves against the Borg invading their space,

Except that 8472 was planning to wage a broader genocidal war, as I recall.

2) The death toll was easily the highest of any catastrophe caused by a Starfleet crew we've seen, with countless entire planets (including the one that guy from "Hope and Fear" was from) being assimilated as a result, a loss of untold billions of lives, and:

As opposed to how many a victorious 8472 would have destroyed?

3) It didn't even get Voyager anything. The Borg screwed them over, and didn't let them through their space, which had been the whole point of the exercise. The only good that came from it was rescuing Seven, but compared against all those planets full of men, women, and children, that's not even close to being an acceptable outcome.

It did get them part way, didn't it?

Still, I don't think that a plan not working necessarily means it was a bad plan. No plan has a 100% guarantee of success. The question is weather there is a reasonable case that it was the best option at the time, based on the information they had.

[J!!]

Thomas Riker shows why the Tuvix thing what such a terrible mistake

how so?

[Durandal_1707]

It's definitely the decision to make a deal with the Borg.

1) It was the wrong call, since Species 8472 was just defending themselves against the Borg invading their space,

Except that 8472 was planning to wage a broader genocidal war, as I recall.

They assumed that 8472 was going to do that, based on hardly any information. They later turned out to be wrong. The end of "Scorpion" revealed that the Borg had been the ones that invaded 8472's space to assimilate them, not the other way around (and who would have ever guessed the Borg would do that?). In that later episode where the 8472 were disguised as humans, it's revealed that the only reason 8472 want to invade our galaxy now is because they think the Federation is an ally of the Borg, and thus a threat to them. Nice job!

2) The death toll was easily the highest of any catastrophe caused by a Starfleet crew we've seen, with countless entire planets (including the one that guy from "Hope and Fear" was from) being assimilated as a result, a loss of untold billions of lives, and:

As opposed to how many a victorious 8472 would have destroyed?

See above.

3) It didn't even get Voyager anything. The Borg screwed them over, and didn't let them through their space, which had been the whole point of the exercise. The only good that came from it was rescuing Seven, but compared against all those planets full of men, women, and children, that's not even close to being an acceptable outcome.

It did get them part way, didn't it?

Nope. It was Kes's "gift", which was a completely independent event.

Still, I don't think that a plan not working necessarily means it was a bad plan. No plan has a 100% guarantee of success. The question is weather there is a reasonable case that it was the best option at the time, based on the information they had.

The plan amounted to, essentially, genocide. It's really damn hard to make a case for that, even if it had worked.