Janeway wants to forge an alliance with the various Kazon sects
Notes:First time for Crewman Jonas and Lieutnant Hogan
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By BrianB on Friday, July 09, 1999 - 7:22 am:

RUMINATIONS: This second season is becoming The Year of the Kazon. In this attack, three died. This brings the death toll to four. (Derst, the expendable from "Faces", not including the ones who died in the pilot).
Now the dummies try to form an alliance with Seska and the Kazon-Nistrum of all people. Then Janeway teams up with the Trabe who look just like Kazon w/o the Brillo-pad hairdos. They're just as treacherous, too.
One question: If the Kazon rule this region of the quadrant, how have other peaceful civilizations such as Earhart and the other humans on planet "Evansville" survived?

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By Alfonso Turnage on Sunday, July 11, 1999 - 8:47 pm:

I think this was an excellent episode. I list it on my "20 best hours of Star Trek: Voyager list." It should really destroy the notion that the Kazon were bad villians as opposed
to being badly-written most of the time.

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By Mark Swinton on Tuesday, October 26, 1999 - 12:54 pm:

Perhaps, but it did come to close after "Maneouvres" for me to like it that much. What about that scene when all the Kazon meet with Janeway, Neelix and Mabus the Trabe Traitor (there's a nice rhyme!). It opens almost exactly like the meeting of Kazons in "Manouvres":
"Serat of the Mostral. Vallak of the Oglamar. Culluh of the Nistrim. Ralan of the Hobei etc."

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By Chris Thomas on Friday, February 18, 2000 - 10:43 pm:

On the video I saw this on, this episode came straight after Prototype.

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By eb on Wednesday, April 12, 2000 - 6:18 am:

Doesn't innoculating the Trabe in Sick Bay fall under the heading of violating the Prime Directive?

Doesn't it fall under the heading of "sharing technology"?

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By Jwb52z on Wednesday, April 12, 2000 - 12:14 pm:

eb, no rendering aid to hurt and sick people is not "sharing technology. Sharing technology would be giving them the actual technology itself to use on their own, not using technology on them to help them.

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By eb on Thursday, April 13, 2000 - 6:49 am:

Okay, the point is yours re: sharing technology.

But I still don't understand why innoculating the Trabe isn't a violation of the P.D.

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By Jwb52z on Thursday, April 13, 2000 - 1:28 pm:

Rendering aide isn't a violation of the Prime Directive to species that are aware of other species in the universe other than their own and are aware of or have warp capability. An example of this is when Data was allowed to contact Sarjenka on TNG when Picard said that since her species was aware of other life in the universe that the impact on her society would be minimal.

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By eb on Thursday, April 13, 2000 - 2:17 pm:

You dazzle me with your Trek-ocity!

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By Landou Mollaro on Thursday, April 13, 2000 - 7:52 pm:

Rendering aid and comfort to the enemy is treason.

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By Aaron Dotter on Thursday, April 13, 2000 - 8:06 pm:

I didn't see any treason here- they were bringing the Kazon factions and the Trabe together to try to get them to be peaceful. If anybody committed treason it was the Trabe.

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By Jessica on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 3:07 pm:

I'm puzzled: Why is trading with the Kazon violating the Prime Directive and brokering a peace conference ok? Both change the balance of power.

For that matter, why is any dealing with the Kazon violating the Prime Directive--they _are_ aware of other cultures. I thought the PD was only violated if you 1) Interfered in a culture that didn't know of other cultures or 2) Messed about with the internal politics of a group who had told you to get lost (as in the Klingons & their succession).

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By Jwb52z on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 8:11 pm:

Jessica, making peace makes things better for everyone in general and not just one group.

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By Jwb52z on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 8:12 pm:

Aaron, the Trabe tried to committ a small form of genocide.

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By Rene on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 8:17 pm:

It still changes the balance of power in the sector.

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By Jwb52z on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 11:37 pm:

Rene, if it is mutually beneficial for all concerned and keeps the situation equal, it is not a violation. The Federation is well known for mediating peace talks between species.

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By NarkS on Saturday, April 21, 2001 - 10:53 pm:

"if it is mutually beneficial for all concerned and keeps the situation equal, it is not a violation. The Federation is well known for mediating peace talks between species."

Key word here is "between". The prime directive doesn't concern itself only with "bad" interventions, but interference of ANY kind. Of course there are courses taken at the Academy on this just to learn what qualifies as an "internal" matter and what doesn't. Not to mention that Starfleet captains tend to ignore it whenever they feel like.

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By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Wednesday, March 20, 2002 - 4:59 am:

If the Kazon were so close to destroying Voyager at the beginning, then why did they stop shooting?

About the Maquis Chuckles says, "because nobody was willing to help us." Except for all those Starfleet personnel like Eddington, or various Federation people who joined in, or the odd Bajoran. Yeah, the Maquis were totally on their own.

Chakotay says, "A lot of the Maquis feel the Federation let them down a long time ago." A long time ago? Weren't the Maquis only formed 2 or 3 years ago?

If Voyager was so close to being destroyed, how much of an advantage could Voyager offer the Kazon?

So why didn't the other Maj's bring along an underling like Cullah did? (Yeah, there was the Pomis announcer, but this was a Pomis outpost.)

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By KAM on Thursday, March 28, 2002 - 4:13 am:

NNANJAO: Okay, in Initiations the number of Kazon sects were said to be 18, although the number changed every day. It didn't appear that anywhere near 18 groups were represented at the peace conference.
Possible explanations.
Not all Kazon sects accepted the invite.
Some Kazon sects were destroyed or taken over.
Some sects were to far away to make it.
Not all sects were invited.

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By cableface on Sunday, September 01, 2002 - 5:24 pm:

After watching this ep again, the Trabe really are half-assed when it comes to an assassination attempt on the Kazon leaders. Think: They have a big ship, with big phasers, and presumably torpedoes as well. So what do they do? They only fire phasers in the window......... This ship could probably vaporise the entire building. Or, even if they did insist on being mannerly and firing through the window, couldn't they use a torpedo? It would prevent the silliness that is "Kazon leaders escape vicious massacre by hiding under table"

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By Zul on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 4:42 pm:

I guess the reason why the Kazon didn't destroy Voyager at the beginning was because they wanted the technology more or less intact.

What's unclear is why they didn't board the ship

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By John A. Lang on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 9:06 pm:

GREAT SCENE: The belly dancer.

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By John A. Lang on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 7:18 am:

GREAT LINE: "Get off my ship!" Janeway

(A VERY "Kirk-like" moment)

That is one well built building. A space-fairing vessil fired numerous times through the window and all that was destroyed was the food and drink on the table, and I suppose the peace talks were destroyed as well. I also find it hard to believe that not a single person was killed, they were just hiding under the table.

Voyager fired three photon torpedoes at the Trabe vessil and they didn't do much damage. Why waste three when you can get your point across with one?

Maybe they should make spaceship hulls out the material that table was made of? ;-)

Perhaps whatever the Trabe vessel fired was on the order of car bombs, so as to prevent harming the Trabe guy or the Voyager crewmen, and maybe that table was specifically built to withstand such things, and put there by the Kazon to use as a shield in case of betrayal? Who selected the location and the room, though? (The Trabe or the Kazon?)

"For that matter, why is any dealing with the Kazon violating the Prime Directive--they _are_ aware of other cultures. I thought the PD was only violated if you 1) Interfered in a culture that didn't know of other cultures or 2) Messed about with the internal politics of a group who had told you to get lost (as in the Klingons & their succession)." - Jessica
I could be wrong, as it's been a LONG time since I've seen the episode, and you could be referring to something else- but I thought that the technology-sharing with the Kazon is what violates the prime directive (giving advanced technology to less advanced species), not dealing with them in general.

"Rendering aid and comfort to the enemy is treason." -Landou Mollaro
However, they have not isued a declaration of war against the UFP, so they are not defined as 'the enemy.' Voyager is simply deciding to show compassion on a hostile species, not aiding and abetting a wartime enemy.

"About the Maquis Chuckles says, "because nobody was willing to help us." Except for all those Starfleet personnel like Eddington, or various Federation people who joined in, or the odd Bajoran. Yeah, the Maquis were totally on their own." -KAM
Well, you could debate semantics and assume that Maquis considered defectors like that a PART of the Maquis, and was simply noting that no outside group was willing to help the Maquis.

"Chakotay says, "A lot of the Maquis feel the Federation let them down a long time ago." A long time ago? Weren't the Maquis only formed 2 or 3 years ago?" -KAM
I assume he meant that the Federation let them down as individuals years ago by the negotiations and actions that the Maquis felt as the necessary impetus to form in the first place. So, the Maquis were 'let down' by the Federation's actions years before as individual citizens, before there WAS a Maquis.

Jessica: Why is trading with the Kazon violating the Prime Directive and brokering a peace conference ok? Both change the balance of power.
Luigi Novi: Maybe a peace conference, particularly one mediated by the Federation, would probably preserve or establish equanimity among the participants, or at least get them to stop killing each other, which would make who's more powerful less of an issue?

Jessica: For that matter, why is any dealing with the Kazon violating the Prime Directive--they _are_ aware of other cultures.
Luigi Novi: The Circle(DS9) established that the Prime Directive governs not only alien-aware, pre-warp worlds, but intervention in a world's society or natural development outside of the knowledge of its legitimate government.

Jwb52z: Rendering aide isn't a violation of the Prime Directive to species that are aware of other species... An example of this is when Data was allowed to contact Sarjenka on TNG when Picard said that since her species was aware of other life in the universe that the impact on her society would be minimal.
You left out the most important part of your example: Picard reluctantly allowed continued contact with Sarjenka after Data already contacted her without permission, breaking the PD. He would be well within his rights to reprimand Data and leave the system without any legal repercussions from the Feds. While any damage from continued contact may be minimal, it isn't zero.

While we're on the subject however, in just the previous episode, Prototype, Janeway tells BLT that building the robots (a race that is both warp capable and aware of other species) a new power source is a clear violation of the PD. This act could be considered 'rendering aide'; perhaps not in the same way as in this ep, but aide can most definitely violate the PD under many circumstances.

This episode was one of the more infamous uses of the Reset Button.