Why doesn't Janeway recognize the Krenim?

[Destructor]

Is there an in-universe* reason why, at the start of 'Year of Hell', Janeway doesn't recognize the Krenim when they first encounter them, given that she had been given a report by Kes that mentioned they would encounter them in the next year and that it would be a devastating encounter?

(*I say 'in-universe' to shut down everyone who wants to come in here and say: "Cause the writers suck!" or any similar comments. I can get that in every other thread and I don't need it here- thanks!)

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Because Kes gave that report to a Janeway that belonged to a different timeline.

We have to remember the Krenim have been changing the timeline repeatedly for the last 200 years and at least twice that change impacted Voyager directly.

That's how I reasoned it.

 

[Pondwater]

Reset button.

 

[Melakon]

Kes gives the warning in "Before and After", which has her doing time jumping all over the place.

Memory Alpha speculates that at least one of Annorax's incursions removed Kes' warning from history.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

In another reality none of us have even seen Year of Hell so this is not a problem.

 

[Catarina]

There seems to be a theory following the episode, btw Janeway hadn't seen the lab yet and guy was polite so any suspicion or provocation didn't ensue, that Before and After never happened because annorax is back on his colony. As to the timeline we saw, my theory is what everyone else said erased by regular incursions. I still don't buy that. It seemed to me when anything changed a wave of light hit them so I'm not sure there is an in universe to explain YOH part 1.

I think I just confused myself, lol.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Because Kes gave that report to a Janeway that belonged to a different timeline.

We have to remember the Krenim have been changing the timeline repeatedly for the last 200 years and at least twice that change impacted Voyager directly.

That's how I reasoned it.

This. Maybe.

IMO the "delete gun" Krenim weapon is one of the coolest things Trek ever did, but it doesn't really make any sense and it makes keeping a consistent timeline of the show impossible.

 

[Melakon]

It seemed to me when anything changed a wave of light hit them so I'm not sure there is an in universe to explain YOH part 1.

It's sort of the 'tree falls in the forest' situation. If the Krenim timeship fires its weapon, and no one is outside the event to witness it, is there a wave of light when it hits? Perhaps it happens during a commercial break.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Many things do.

 

[Grathon Tolar]

IMO the "delete gun" Krenim weapon is one of the coolest things Trek ever did, but it doesn't really make any sense and it makes keeping a consistent timeline of the show impossible.

That's what makes a great plot device. It's a device that generates continuity errors; not only in the viewer's reading of the text, but within the text itself. It's Trek at its most post-modern.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

It's Trek at its most post-modern.

This tops even my rampant apologia.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Any plot inconsistencies that involve the Krenim can be explained away by the simple method that it's the timeship's meddling that did it. We have no idea if any VOY episode prior to "Year of Hell" even happened the same way, in the new timeship-less version of history. If there are any plot holes that result from this, that's simply Annorax's fault.

In the new, unaltered version of history - where the timeship will never be built - we don't know if Janeway ever received that report about the Krenim to begin with.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

As VOY had no sense of serialisation then all that happened in previous episodes, especially B.S. (Before Seven), is nothing but the fevered dream of a madman.

 

[HIjol]

Sorry, but if you need a laugh like I do today, let me just tell you that when I read this thread title in the list of threads, I read it as

"Why doesn't Janeway recognize the Kremlin"

New glasses, I think!

 

[Catarina]

Sorry, but if you need a laugh like I do today, let me just tell you that when I read this thread title in the list of threads, I read it as

"Why doesn't Janeway recognize the Kremlin"

New glasses, I think!

I kept reading Platonic cannon with another thread and I don't need glasses :-) it happens :-)

 

[HIjol]

Sorry, but if you need a laugh like I do today, let me just tell you that when I read this thread title in the list of threads, I read it as

"Why doesn't Janeway recognize the Kremlin"

New glasses, I think!

I kept reading Platonic cannon with another thread and I don't need glasses :-) it happens :-)

Thanks for that! Made me feel a little less foolish!

 

[Lord Manitou]

Capt. Janeway doesn't regard seriously anything that comes through time's portal or time's dimension because the data is non-substantial. Their are lapses since the beginning of the series that implies someone suddenly appears and announces a different zone in time. Things that couldn't be covered by the timeship 'Relativity'. Anything that Kes said was regarded as non-substantial.

 

[Borough 31]

Because reset button. Always reset button.

 

[Lance]

I like the theory that Before & After and Year Of Hell take place in different timelines. It kind of ties in beautifully, what with Kes no longer being around in the latter, that maybe her absence makes a bigger impact on events than is thought (it also means there was possibly a timeline where Kes never left the ship at all, and that's a great mind-screw for the audience, who would have to accept that the last four seasons might not even be the same timeline as the first three! )

So yeah. In Year Of Hell, Kes' report never happened.

 

[Ryver]

**Spoiler alert** I would like to point out that Kes actually warns Jane way of the Krenim right at the end of the Before and After episode after going all the way back to the womb and back to present day. when they leave the holodeck together at the close of the episode. (Rewatch if you don't believe me) There should be absolutely no reason for Janeway to not have the information about the missile frequency and knowledge of the Krenim in general, therefore, I'm sorry to say this, buuut... I can only conclude there is no in universe explanation and it is indeed down to the writers not reading their own past scripts and the continuity team not doing their jobs properly...