Star Trek: Voyager Fires All Its Photon Torpedoes, And Then Some
This article is more than 2 years old
The USS Voyager was in dire straights. After pursuing a Maquis vessel into a dangerous area of space, Captain Janeway, the crew of the Voyager, and the surviving Maquis find themselves stranded in the Delta quadrant and united in common purpose: trying to figure out how the hell to get home. They’ve got a 75-year journey ahead of them, through a hostile and unknown part of the galaxy. They even have to be careful about getting into fights, because their weaponry is limited — they’ve only got 38 photon torpedoes. Only 38! Er…give or take 85.
Working from the early claim that Voyager is only carrying 38 photon torpedoes, YouTuber TazG2000 went through the entire damn series and counted up every last torpedo fired. As you might have guessed, the math doesn’t quite add up. It’s an amusing bit of nit-pickery that becomes really funny when their choice of music is laid over the whole thing (I won’t spoil the surprise if you haven’t watched it yet). There’s also a nice little unexpected audio cameo in there as well…
It’s an object lesson that every show should remember: don’t throw out specific numbers unless you’re going to stick to them. Especially in a franchise the fans love to dissect and analyze in minute detail. The Internet is watching, people! And they will catch you. I’m sure we could come up with an explanation, even if they didn’t provide one onscreen. Maybe they bought black-market torpedoes from a passing merchant vessel. Maybe they staged a panty torpedo raid on a Borg vessel. Maybe they signed up for the Torpedo of the Month Club.
It wouldn’t be nearly as funny if they’d gone over their original total by just a few, but eighty-freakin’-five? That’s a commitment to not paying attention that I can respect. Then again, maybe they were just operating from Scotty’s playbook: always oversell or undercut your estimates so that you look better later.
Either way, I can’t help but be reminded of one of my favorite movies of all time. Full spread!
