Leaving aside the stale mediocrity of the episode, I'll get right to the stupid.
The episode involves a planet in which there is a primitive tribal culture literally locked under a forcefield shield that was established by another alien species hundreds of years ago that has disappeared. These people are directly related to the highly advanced species that is currently interacting with Voyager.
Naturally, Tattoo-boy and Seven of Nine get stuck in this when their shuttle crashes into it, all because Idiot-face wanted to look at the planet from the shuttle. They accidentally get involved with these tribal people, which Chakotay at first tried to avoid, due to the Prime Directives.
However, his Prime Directive dribble goes right the hell out the door once they do find him, and he has the GALL to chastise Seven of Nine for NOT attempting to connect and communicate with the people, and FURTHER interfere with their lives.
So towards the end, they manage to break open the forcefield using technobabble, and the civilization immediately comes down to explore and research the tribal peoples, a unique opportunity comparable to modern-day people not just of our own technology, but our ideals and policies of non-interference with a tribal culture.
BUT JAAAAAANEWAAAAAAAAY HAS TO GET HER TYRANNIC SELF INVOLVED!!!~! Because this is the show that brought you "Tattoo", an episode so filled with spiritual love and respect for Native Americans, they established in canon-Trek that they were primitive, culture-less savages until they were touched by White Men from space, and who brought you Chakotay, a walking stereotype of Native American cliché's that often interfere with its own continuity (A man who fights the Cardassians in defense of his home also espouts that "home is wherever you happen to be"), NATURALLY THIS IS A BAD AND TERRIBLE THING! Let's get this clear; these civilized people are not the "Manifest Destiny"-era Americans, or Colonial Europeans. They do not plan to subjugate or exterminate these people, or study them while moving them to controlled environments and uprooting their culture. These are people who have been given a unique opportunity to witness FIRST-HAND the genesis of their own civilization, LITERALLY untouched by anyone.
BUT JAAAAAAAAAAAANEWAAAAAAAY SAYS NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Because this goes against the New Age pseudo-hippie spiritualism, Janeway absolutely REFUSES this scientific opportunity, DESPITE BEING A FORMER SCIENCE OFFICER HERSELF, and decides to MANIPULATE THE PRIME DIRECTIVES TO SERVE HER OWN PURPOSES, by claiming that the technology used to open the forcefield is HERS, so she's gonna take it back because of Starfleet policy of non-interference with their planet...
DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY ALREADY INTERFERED BY OPENING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE, MUCH LESS CHAKOTAY AND SEVEN OF NINE MAKING CONTACT AND COMMUNICATING.
So what she allows by an accident born of pure stupidity in order to save the lives of one dimwit and one former Borg, she disallows in the name of cultural and scientific enlightenment of an ENTIRE CIVILIZATION! Naturally, since they go against JANEWAY'S point of view, these civilized people take all of 2.2 minutes to START FIRING ON VOYAGER! So Janeway escapes, denying an entire civilization the chance to study and better understand and appreciate their own past, for pretty much no coherent or logical reason other than fear.
Yes, fear. Fear that these civilized people might destroy the culture of these tribal peoples. This fear would be well-founded if these civilized people showed anything BUT reverence, awe, and respect for these people already. Even then, it doesn't say much about the benevolence of Earth that they utterly shut down a huge opportunity for learning out of fear.
The episode involves a planet in which there is a primitive tribal culture literally locked under a forcefield shield that was established by another alien species hundreds of years ago that has disappeared. These people are directly related to the highly advanced species that is currently interacting with Voyager.
Naturally, Tattoo-boy and Seven of Nine get stuck in this when their shuttle crashes into it, all because Idiot-face wanted to look at the planet from the shuttle. They accidentally get involved with these tribal people, which Chakotay at first tried to avoid, due to the Prime Directives.
However, his Prime Directive dribble goes right the hell out the door once they do find him, and he has the GALL to chastise Seven of Nine for NOT attempting to connect and communicate with the people, and FURTHER interfere with their lives.
So towards the end, they manage to break open the forcefield using technobabble, and the civilization immediately comes down to explore and research the tribal peoples, a unique opportunity comparable to modern-day people not just of our own technology, but our ideals and policies of non-interference with a tribal culture.
BUT JAAAAAANEWAAAAAAAAY HAS TO GET HER TYRANNIC SELF INVOLVED!!!~! Because this is the show that brought you "Tattoo", an episode so filled with spiritual love and respect for Native Americans, they established in canon-Trek that they were primitive, culture-less savages until they were touched by White Men from space, and who brought you Chakotay, a walking stereotype of Native American cliché's that often interfere with its own continuity (A man who fights the Cardassians in defense of his home also espouts that "home is wherever you happen to be"), NATURALLY THIS IS A BAD AND TERRIBLE THING! Let's get this clear; these civilized people are not the "Manifest Destiny"-era Americans, or Colonial Europeans. They do not plan to subjugate or exterminate these people, or study them while moving them to controlled environments and uprooting their culture. These are people who have been given a unique opportunity to witness FIRST-HAND the genesis of their own civilization, LITERALLY untouched by anyone.
BUT JAAAAAAAAAAAANEWAAAAAAAY SAYS NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Because this goes against the New Age pseudo-hippie spiritualism, Janeway absolutely REFUSES this scientific opportunity, DESPITE BEING A FORMER SCIENCE OFFICER HERSELF, and decides to MANIPULATE THE PRIME DIRECTIVES TO SERVE HER OWN PURPOSES, by claiming that the technology used to open the forcefield is HERS, so she's gonna take it back because of Starfleet policy of non-interference with their planet...
DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY ALREADY INTERFERED BY OPENING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE, MUCH LESS CHAKOTAY AND SEVEN OF NINE MAKING CONTACT AND COMMUNICATING.
So what she allows by an accident born of pure stupidity in order to save the lives of one dimwit and one former Borg, she disallows in the name of cultural and scientific enlightenment of an ENTIRE CIVILIZATION! Naturally, since they go against JANEWAY'S point of view, these civilized people take all of 2.2 minutes to START FIRING ON VOYAGER! So Janeway escapes, denying an entire civilization the chance to study and better understand and appreciate their own past, for pretty much no coherent or logical reason other than fear.
Yes, fear. Fear that these civilized people might destroy the culture of these tribal peoples. This fear would be well-founded if these civilized people showed anything BUT reverence, awe, and respect for these people already. Even then, it doesn't say much about the benevolence of Earth that they utterly shut down a huge opportunity for learning out of fear.