Why was Kes ignored in Year of Hell?
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Before and After", Kes shifts backwards through time. Part of this time is spent during the "Year of Hell", during which she learns vital information about the Krenim weapons. She gives this information to Janeway.
In Season 4, we see the actual Year of Hell. Kes has left Voyager by this point, but the information she gave Janeway is still valid. Yet Voyager suffers a great deal of damage and nothing seems to have changed.
The Year of Hell episodes were even advertised as sequels to Before and After, so they definitely hadn't forgotten the episode.
It's like everyone forgot what Kes said, or ignored it. Does anybody know why Kes' warning was ignored? Canon or behind-the-scenes references preferred.
Best Answer
The Year of Hell episode opens by showing us Annorax, the Krenim officer and temporal scientist, removing an entire civilisation called the 'Zahl' from the timeline. Annorax and his crew have been in a temporal field for over 200 of their years - jumping through time making various adjustments to the timeline.
But what has this got to do with Kes? Well,
Annorax's ongoing timeline adjustments have altered the 'present' in Year of Hell
The act of performing a temporal incursion is described as an 'inexact science'. When Annorax and Chakotay run a simulation together, they get a 'butterfly effect' lesson: by deleting a single, random asteroid, they completely stop a sector-spanning civilisation from ever existing. Annorax likens it to pulling threads from an old cloth: once you start it's not long until the whole thing unravels.
The entire Year of Hell timeline is completely out of sync with the 'prime' timeline - that is, we don't see Voyager prime until the 'smooth sailing' conclusion in Year of Hell: Part II following the destruction of the timeship.
Thus, it is likely that Annorax's temporal incursions have directly or indirectly erased Kes' contributions to 'Year of Hell' Voyager, and from Voyager prime's perspective, Kes could've just been considered wrong about the Krenim (or perhaps they think she saw an 'alternate' future in her time-jumping escapade).
Time travel gives me a headache.
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