In the Voayger writing room: CEO: We need a new engaging and recurring villain race for our new ST show. Random writer A: What about the Borg? CEO: I said new. Random writer B: What about a fallen society ravaged by a plague and they have to steal organs to survive? CEO: Great. Actual ST writer: You do know that Federation technology can simply create organs in replicators and Voyager can therefore solve the problem immediately? CEO: Out of the window with you.

The thing is genotronic replicators were still in prototyping stage and probably not deployed on a frontline exploration vessel- Voyager was never meant to be anywhere close to as well equipped as the Federation's flagship class.

fight fire with fire Janeway should order her crew to eat Vidians no one is gonna mess with Voyager the cannibal ship

Janeway could have stopped a lot of threats by being a little more pragmatic.

Doylist: - oversight of the writers - not relevant to the story the writers wanted to tell Watsonian: -Considering that the medical technology of the Vidiians is supposed to be superior to Federation tech, they might have tried it before and it failed, so they didn't bother -IIRC Replicators were not widely known in the Delta Quadrant, so the Vidiians might not have known the technology. And it was never mentioned during the time the Vidiians were aboard that they could replicate organs. The Doctor mentioned replicated organs only in the context of being unable to replicate Talaxian lungs and that was before they caught the Vidiians responsible. -the Vidiians never asked for help. They only begged for mercy and told their sob-story. At that point the best Janeway could have done is demand the healing of Neelix and a copy of their data about the phage for the doctor (to study in his off-hours, if he has any, to gain an insight and possibly how to help. Even if just to get a bargaining chip for future encounters) Considering that the resources of the ship were limited, and a whole fleet might come after them (see Deadlock for the outcome of 1 Vidiian ship finding Voyager, they only survived, relatively speaking, because of a negative space wedgie) Also in the Season 5 episode "Think Tank" the Phage was cured by the think tank.

The Vidians ruled! They were truly terrifying! Wonderful body horror!

When the Vidian arc was first aired back in the 90s, I was absolutely certain it was going to end with a twist - it would turn out that the 'phage' that the Vidians were so concerned about was not a disease at all, but simply their natural aging process, no different to that of any other species. They weren't fighting a pathogen, they were just obsessed with mortality. I still think this might be what the writers originally had in mind, despite what they might now say, not least because of the similarity between the words 'phage' and 'age'.

Rewatch season ones episode “phage”. The vidiians are more technologically advanced in the medical field. Voyager couldn’t replicate neelix’s lungs. They also couldn’t transplant one from from a donor because their wasn’t any other talaxians on the ship. The vidiians were able to use just their handheld scanner/weapon to transplant one of kes’s lungs to neelix.

But does voyager really have the tech for to do this. I mean if the ship was equipped with this kind of replicator, then why did they need to go after the Vidian's when they took Neelix's lungs. They could have create synthetic lungs for him if they had that kind of replicator tech.

If the Vidians were in the Alpha quadrant, Starfleet would certainly render aide, but I think they would offer replicated organs, but not necessarily the actual technology.

Excellent video! Keep up all your hard work we appreciate it!

Janeway murdered Tuvix!

Brilliant video Lore. Well done Sir!

Janeway probably just didn't want to catch Zombie space Plague ⁉😢✴😎

This brings up an obvious TNG question. If the Federation can literally clone Worf a new spine, why does Geordi still have a visor and later mechanical eyes? If they can make a spine from scratch a pair of eyes should be nothing.

The Vidians were clearly more advanced than the Federation. Their medical technology was centuries beyond Voyager's. When Nelix needed new lungs, the Doctor created virtual organs, a genius invention needed because no one on Voyager was a compatible donor. The Vidians were not impressed with the Doctor's work and called it "primitive. " The Vidians were then actually able to use anyone's organs for Nelix, somehow making them compatible. This proves their medical superiority, so perhaps they had already explored cloned or replicated organs and something stopped them. The biggest mistake of this Voyager episode isn't that Janeway didn't give the Vidians the technology, it was the writer's failure to add one or two lines of dialogue which should have fixed the oversite and cleared things up for the viewers. CAPTAIN : Have you tried cloned or replicated organs? We could provide you with... VIDIAN PRISONER INTERRUPTS VIDIAN : (ANGRY) Of course we've tried! (CALMING DOWN) The evolution of the Phage forces our physiology to no longer accept non living, cloned, or replicated organs. This is why our attempts to harvest from the dead or dying is no longer viable. The TV show simply forgot to "mansplaine" to us why the Vidians couldn't use the Federation's technology. Besides, by the time the other episode Think Tank rolls around, the Vidians were cured anyway.

The Think Tank figured it out off-camera, but we were never told how.

A counter-argument: the Kazon did ask for replicator technology, and Janeway denied them *because of* the Prime Directive.

Dr Bashir: "I must do everything in my power to cure the Teplan Blight" Captain Janeway: "Let them die"

That was an awesome parable

The doctor mentions the technology in one of the episodes to a vidian doctor and was given a reason it did not work. The replicated organs were not as hardy as the real thing and they used the technology as a stop gap, but the phage would adapt. The vidian medical sciences was far beyond voyager's being able to do interspecies transplant.

Honesty the whole vadain situation was kind of complicated and a missed opportunity but that sums up Voyager in a bit of a nutshell it makes things that should simple and makes them complicated while ironcly having so many missed opportunities

Never really thought of it that way but that is a very strong argument. The writers were too fixated on having them as a recurring enemy that they didn't think about that. It's not like they couldn't say something like "We could help them but it's going to take X amount of time and access to their DNA" and maybe do a thing where they don't trust Yovager so the crew collects the sample, on their own and while they're trying to make the adjustments the Vidians could continue to be enemies, maybe even inadvertently slowing down their work, until one day the Doctor finally makes the breakthrough. Then, they could have done a final story where they manage to use the tech on a captured Vidian and, when it works, they can bargain to give them what they need to cure themselves. If they still wanted to have them as a recurring villain, maybe there are ones who refuse the cure because they don't trust it, or maybe their condition makes them paranoid or mentally unstable so there are still random pockets who operate as organ thieves.

When they first appeared, I was like "you could help them by just giving them that organ-printing technology you mentioned earlier in this episode" then, in a successive episode, she said something about not being able to interfere with internal affairs

I am 100% sure that it's established in the show that the vidians are hundreds of years ahead of Starfleet in medical technology and that they had exhausted conventional methods which I would think would include organ replication given the other things we'd seen them do. I also love that the think tank resolved the issue rather than voyager just fixing something because of plot convenience. I also appreciate how casual it seemed to them.

The "don't share technology with primitives" part of the prime directive doesn't apply in this case. The Vidians were warp capable. Additionally their harvesting of organs was something that affected many species, not just the Vidians, so the "no messing with internal affairs" part goes out the window as well. Which means the only restriction left is, well, waiting for the Vidians to ask for help.

The Voyager crew do try to help the Vidiians though. Initially the crew are attacked by the Vidiians, resulting in Neelix having his lungs removed ('Phage'), B'Elanna tortured and crewman Durst being killed ('Faces'). When not under direct attack, the crew are willing to help when they receive a distress call ('Lifesigns'). They're unable to find a cure but they do try. And Janeway couldn't consider giving them a parts replicator because the writers needed the Vidiians to remain the bad guys.

One in-canon explanation might be that the Enterprise-D had better medical technology due to it's mission and status of the flagship and that even though Voyager was a newer ship, certain compromises still had to be made due to its size. The Enterprise-D would have been expected to play a primary support role in large-scale medical emergencies and Voyager would not be, at least not to the level of transporting and treating large numbers of patients. Janeway knew about the technology that could help the Vidians but it wasn't available to her.

5:44: Great story. I mean it. I do.

The bigger question is, why doesn't a society with such advanced medical technology doesn't already have artificial organs?

Speaking of the Prime Directive, Lore, I wanted to suggest a possible video about The Omega Glory and the bizarre and unique circumstances surrounding that.

*0:50** no way would a virus cause a whole species to shut down thr society on a dime, become barbarians & ravage blindly other peoples': based on a misunderstanding of what just helping each other would do.* we're monsters. -JC

I agree with this argument. Giving the Vidians replicator tech wouldn't have made them any worse off. Given their situation, if I was Captain of Voyager I'd be sharing that technology with EVERYONE. I don't care if they go to war with it, we need every ally and resource we can get.

To be fair, I mean like really fair because it was so true, most Vidians simply did not want to be saved at that point. They had grown accustomed to their way of life and found it quite palatable. Not to mention quite lucrative for many of them.

One online version of the Prime Directive states clearly that it takes precedence over all other considerations, and even Starfleet vessels and their crew are expendable in its service. This seems to be an example of inconsistencies between episodes/shows.

Later on in Voyager the vidiians we're cured by the think-tank

Was a solution found in the episode? What was the reasoning for not helping them? It's been a long time since I watched the episode.

You got me at "the right thing to do". Edit: not related to Vidians, re-watched Displaced yesterday (season 3 episode 25), when Tom and B'elanna incapacitate the Nyrian in the freezing environment, that they did not take his weapon bothered me a bit since the improvised Phaser was slowly dying at that point, need to check if you covered that episode in the past.

Maybe Janeway didn’t have enough coffee that week

@lorereloaded The doctor was working on research to cure the phage however once the had gone far beyond vidian space he did stop. But he cured zimermen with that same research when he was sent to the alpha quadrant a second time.

The prime directive is meant to apply to pre-warp civilizations. If anything the Vidians are more technological advanced than the federation on everything except replicators, and the federation often trades tech with non members.

I totally agree with you

They could have done a technological exchange. As others have pointed out Vidian medical technology is overall more advanced, so why not? It's also something that could come in handy to save some main character later on. But that would require good writing, something Voyager seldom demonstrated.

Not sure if this was ever covered, but can standard issue replicators replicate organs? Can Voyager replace theirs if not, assuming they even had one of the fancy ones? Still agree some help should have been offered, if only as a “please stop bothering us” peace token.

I seem to recall an episode where the Think Tank, almost as a throw away, said they cured the phage.

Janeway should have at least given them Starfleet's gelato technology.

I agree with everything!!

My thought is that the writers simply didn't think of that. However it is hinted at that Voyager keeps all the information they got of the phage and the Vidians to give to Starfleet in the hope of finding a cure and when possible, give it to the Vidians.

The Prime directive was you can't give technology to a less advanced culture, but the definition of advanced was warp capable. Any race that had warp technology was seen as fair game as far as the prime directive went. In fact if they were in the Alpha quadrant, the Vidians would have been already contacted and most likely would have been at least trading with the Federation.

Even though it is a plot hole this was kind of explained. If the Vidians had anatomy similar to that of Neelix they couldn’t have replicated artificial organs. Neelix’s lungs for example were so complex and closely connected to his neural network that it was not possible for them to replicate a useable pair. Additionally, the Fage is so heavy hitting that it may just immediately eat the new tissue/organ away.

I had not thought of this. This is a fair argument, and well written. Not that it matters. I do not recall the episode or season, but Voyager encounters a Think Tank of super geniuses. Who claimed to have traded the cure to the Phage with the Vidiians. So... I'm not too worried about it.

I wonder if they would consider the Vidians a risk to give replicator tech. Afterall, the full implications of replicator technology are pretty far reaching. What if the Vidians are just culturally rapacious? Curing their medical issues may just make them more of a threat. Possibly a risk worth taking when you have the full might of starfleet behind you, but potentially highly irresponsible from a single Captain on their own. Not that this is anything new for Janeway either way.

Wasn’t the phage cured by that collection of intelligent individuals that wanted Seven?

I'd just like to point out in that ST:TNG episode the replication of Warf's spinal column was actually a failure. It was highly experimental technology at the time and if it wasn't for the redundancy in Klingon physiology Warf would have died. The replication required specialized technology and it was overall an unproven procedure.

Captain Archer let an entire race die due to a planet wide plague in the episode dear doctor even though Doctor Phlox had developed a cure, so Janeway wasn’t the only one to sentence an entire sentient race to oblivion. The race was prewarp so they were finished without the cure Archer and Phlox withheld

Something interesting about the Prime Directive. In the TNG episode Symbiosis, Picard explains that in History when a more Advance Culture intervenes in a Less Advance Culture more often than not it ends in Complete Disaster. The viewers presumed Picard was talking about Colonialism or Military Interventions in our real world history, however what if he is actually refering to somethings more recent in Trek History, what if shortly after Human started traveling in Space they constantly try to help less advance cultures out of humanitarian motives but the majority of cases ended with the complete destruction of those cultures. Thinking back to the Ent Episode Dear Doctor, if the purpose of that Episode is to make a case for the Prime Directive, then a better ending would be that Archer gave the Cure but somehow it ended up with worst results. You seen lots of characters in the Federation that have a very Dogmatic view on the Prime Directive, maybe there is a specific reason for that

Cool video. But what if Janeway tried that option but the Vidians said no and/or if doesn't work that the Phage still destroy's the replicated organs? Just a thought. I don't know. What is your thoughts on my theory?

I am willing to bet they already had this technology. The main vidians we see are most likely organe procures. They and many others have a vested interest in keeping technology like that off the market. We saw something similar with the maelon, refusing the technology because of profit. We have similar incidents in our own society. With an entire plantes total industry dedicated to 1 thing, I'd image the damage done by curing it was quiet high.

Being Devil's advocate there's semi-good reason she might not have wanted to give them replicators from a realpolitik standpoint. It wasn't until late season 2 (shortly before they stopped mentioning either race) that they entirely ruled out the possibility of some kind of relations with the Kazon. If they gave replicators to a race that the rest of the region viewed as pariah's while not giving them to the Kazon that would seriously damage their image.

The procedure used on Worf was experimental with specialized equipment..Voyager wasn’t lugging all that and that crazy lady doctor around when it got sucked into the Delta Quad. Janeway just wanted through Vidian space and away from them. It wasn’t like they were remotely reasonable. Every time they saw Voyager it was like open buffet time. The Prime Directive also wasn’t just pre-warp, it was for non-member worlds...non-interference. The Vidians never seemed like the kind to want to join the UFP, kno what I mean? They were just gonna do what they do. Janeway was lenient with them considering their aggressiveness-she should have left a tri-cobalt warhead in their space and left. The Vidians obsession w organ harvesting was nearly as crazed as Borg assimilation of everything.

The “Think Tank” cured the Vidians.

The think tank cured the Vidian disease

Oh frak with Doctor noted some similarities between Zimmerman's condition and the Vidiian Phage, which he had been partially able to treat in the past and which gave him hope that he could do the same to Zimmerman with if Barclay had failed to contacting voyager Zimmerman's condition May have contagious like phage to all of humanity?

It's a moot point since we know that the Think Tank cured the Vidian Phage.

Had the head or a representative for the Vidian goverment asked Voyager for help in the form of its repicators Voyager (form what i've gathered from other snippets of trek) could not hide behind the prime directive. Taking into account the TOS and TNG examples already mentioned in the video lets also look to DS9 and the discussion of the industrial replicators that stafleet/the federation gives to the Bajorans (after the cardassian occupation) and attempts to give to the Cardassians (after the Klingon invasion, although eddington stole them). These were 2 non-federation worlds, and they were given federation replicator technology to help them recover. Both of these civilisations suffered at the hands of external forces (millitary invasion by an alien power), and the same could be said of the Vidians as the phase was not an aillment native to their home world, it was a disese which they encountered whilst exploring the delta quadrent - an alien invasion on the microscopic scale which is massacering their people, and which easily could have been caught by other warp capable species. Now the argument against giving the Vidian's the technology is that they were agressive against voyager... maybe in some of their appearances but we've also seen them in other lights such as in "Lifesigns" and even their first appearance (after they take Nelix lungs they do help out with his treatment afterwards) which shows them to be a deeper, more complex species than just bodysnatchers. The Vidians are not the Kayzon and Voyager could have communicated with them, treated with them and help make their journey home in the first season easier (i mean it would have shown that the federation idea of communication and the exchange of ideas could work in places as far removed from the federation as the delta quadrent, but it also wouldn't have removed the Vidians off the table as possible antagonists, as you could always have fringe groups who refuse the treatment seeing it as an affront to thier society and in doing so we could get stories which strips away their 'feel sorry for me' backstory as Janway says point blank to these renegades that they're not doing this for the sake of survival they're just doing it because they can, and you could get allogories for plastic surgery addiction, drug addiction, and even gang warfare (when the initial reason for the fighting has been resolved but people still do it because they can, and it gives them an identity). Also, am i the only one who thought that the Phage would have been a cool concept for the origins of the Borg as we see them in the series? just hear me out - From TNG we know that they existed for millennia, but in "Dragons Teeth" we know that the Borg of 900 year prior (to VOY) were a small power in the delta quadrent (and that their database got fragged duringthat time). Wouldn't it have been a fun idea that borg of pre-900 years ago were more like the former borg of "unity" - not mostly cybernatics, but a moslty organic conglomarate of species who chose to become part of a hive mind (which allowed them to exist as both collective and individual entities), but who then ~900 years prior to voyager they encounter the Phage and as it affects one member of the hive it affects them all - so they end up going down the cyberman-esq route or fighting the phage with technology: cybernetic implants to replace faling organs, nanobots or combat the phage on a microscopic level, and the assimilation of all minds into a collective hive of one thought with no individuality as it would help them all come to terms with the pain and loss. As a result of this the borg of the post-900 years (so the ones of the TNG and VOY era) are a different breed from the ones of the millennia before, and their database is fragmented because of the chaos which engulfed their society reducing them to cybernetic automatons who need to assimilate other species because thats the only way to save them. - that went a bit fan-ficie, but i thought it'd be a cool idea.

The Vidians ended up getting a cure either way. In the episode 'Think Tank' Kurros told Janeway "Just recently, we found a cure for the Vidiian phage."...

There are morally grey areas. Expecially with Voyager. One problem is that even if Janeway wanted to help. It would be hard. Vidians might attack anyway to take said technology and knowledge. They did kidnap B'lanna and experiment without her consent so yes they were peaceful and were driven to this. But a wounded animal in the world now will always try and fight off and defend itself even if help was being provided. In the end it is moot because in the episode with the think tank we find out that the disease is gone. Or so it was claimed :)

The Vidiians already had the ability to save themselves, or at least not have to keep killing for organs; in Faces, Sulan was able to split Torres into two living people. This was done with no assistance from Voyager. So if the Vidiians can split one person into two, then they should have an endless supply of organs shouldn’t they?

Giving a little knowledge is quite different to giving away something like replicator technology though. Normally we see the prime directive being set aside when the help doesnt provide a massive sudden leg up in technology. Yes Janeway shared the replicator tech but only when the alternative was losing her ship and crew, that was more a show of Janeway being willing to put aside even the most central of starfleets tenants to get her crew home and that ahab like determination was a key character point for her. The federation might be willing to create organs for the vidians if they were in the alpha quadrant, to solve their phage issue but I doubt they would give them the technology to do it themselves, there would be no need if the federation could create the organs for them.

After what the Vidians did and Voyager's position of them being alone in the Delta Quadrant there's no reason to take on this extra responsibility and their resources are limited. Every society is either conquered, destroyed by nature or goes belly up from the inside out at some point.

Literally they could have turned the Vidians into a POWERFUL ally

the Vidians were already doomed long before the crew of Voyager came along and the Vidians contact with the Think Tank was the nail in the coffin "Starship Excelsior-No One Gets Out Alive"

That replicator technology had so much potential, but it was unfortunately one more of those storylines that were shelved. The crew of Voyager including the Doctor may not have known about that technology.

Of the earliest race encounters in the Delta Quadrant, the Vidiians were way way more interesting than the Kazon and I am disappointed they were never fleshed out more and were essentially dealt with off-screen by someone else than Voyager.

In the Voyager pilot episode Caretaker, the Kazon wanted replicator tech to make water but Janeway told them that the tech was built into their ship and they couldn't give it to them. Later on in season 1 episode 11 State of Flux Bajoran (actually a Cardassian spy) named Seska, gives a replicator to the Kazon and improper installation of the device kills everyone on that ship It seems to me that Janeway couldn't give tech to the Kazon because they were, more or less, a terrorist group and when they gave Holodeck tech to the Hirogen, THAT came back to butt them on the ass as well Maybe it is better NOT to give the Vidians anything and let them die rather than give them tech that they might possibly abuse like the Kazon and the Hirogen Also, in the episode Think Tank season 5 episode 20, a group of alien scientist claimed to have cured them. At too high a price for their good

The Quickening. Federation saves a race afflicted with a horrible plague.

If they can replicate organs like that, can't they replace picard's artificial heart ?

There is an episode I think I'm season 2(a seska heavy episode) where the Kazon get their hands on one of the replicators thanks to Seska and due to the tech being incompatible (so we dont know if the Viidians would have had the right set up for it either) the crew members die horribly... 1 survives the initial blast but everyone else ended up melded to.the walls... it's one of the reasons I think they wouldnt have given the Vidiians the replicator... and even the doctor said he didnt feel like the star fleet medical teams were as advanced in genetics as the vidiians were during the episode where the stole Neelix's lungs and he had to borrow one of Kes'.

Flesh and blood long break down plz

The Vidians did not issue a mayday thus it was not required and a Prime Directive issue, had they asked rather than attacked it would have been much more likely. Remember replicators on Voyager can create everything, in fact a large enough one is essentially a storage, computer storage of known materials, based transporter. The Vidians were essentially at war with everyone outside themselves, and likely stole organs from even within their own race, so giving them replicators would have the potential to instead of curing, or really staving off the phage, could make them much more dangerous adversaries to everyone. Besides not too long after the Think Tank cured the phage rather than just replicating organs.

The code? well the're not rules, they're more like a sett of guidelines really. The wisdom of that dumb joke is quite exquisite. I would hope anyone who has seen Star Trek understands the message of it is, be dammed the rules do whats right! Excellent work melad, enjoyed the video I did!

The basic idea of the Prime Directive is captains shouldn’t play god. Janeway could have handed over replicator tech but she had no idea what repercussions it would have. The potential abuses are staggering for a society that doesn’t develop the technology themselves. That being said Janeway was very strict and principled in the first few years... she got a lot of that kicked out of her on the way. By the time she met the Hirogen she had become far more pragmatic. And that back fired on her spectacularly.

I don’t believe they should have given them the tech outright but a tech trade they had some great tech a trade would have helped both parties.

I still say the best episodes of Voyager were the ones where Ronald D Moore was in charge of its production. In a way BSG was his way of showing Paramount that a ship stranded in space with dwindling resources was a viable show.

Hm. Good points brought up all around. Of course, as we all know, the Voyager writers did things according to their whims most of the time, and many explains of bad writing were abound. Of course, I hated the Vidians with a passion back then, due to how they preyed upon people just minding their own business, so back then I didn't think much of it. In fact, I was in the "kill them all and let 'em rot" camp. Well, that is until this video. Of course, one wonders why the Vidians lacked the ability to clone the organs that they needed from the "samples" they had "procured" in their travels, but again, Voyagers shoddy writing at work. 😜

I was typing furiously when you went into the ethical dilemmas of providing replicator tech.

I feel as if Voyager didn’t do anything simply because they had absolutely no reason do, and it would take a long time for the Viddians to adapt to such advanced technology, years perhaps, and giving them replicator technology, yes, could solve their problem potentially, but it could also set huge issues in motion. 1. The viddians are far below the Federation technologically, they don’t have replicator technology, that being a tech the Federation has had for decades, if not longer, giving them replicator tech could also Inadvertently give them Holodeck tech, and that tech gives them more, it’s a chain reaction essentially, one that could change the balance of power of the entire quadrant. 2. Replicators require high amounts of energy, so much so that Voyager ( The most advanced ship in the Federation next to the Prometheus and Prometheus ) had to heavily restrict its crew’s use of it, coming off from by previous statement, the Viddians may simply not have the power output and/infrastructure to replicate organs for billions, if not trillions of their people. 3. Even IF the Viddians could hypothetically replicate organs ( and that is a huge IF ) they could replicate other things, weapons, bombs, biological weapons, you name it. 4. The Viddians are broken up into smaller nation states, for lack of a better term, some are worse off with Voyager than others by the looks of it, giving the tech to just one group, even unknowingly could make Voyager a target by the other groups in the best case scenario, worst case, it would cause a massive conflict between the Viddians states and this would have a Death Toll rivaling if not surpassing the Phage. 5. Even assuming everything goes all sunshine and roses, and the Viddians CAN fix the Phage and not kill themselves in the process, or Voyager, then what about all the other civilizations they ravaged? “ Oh sorry we killed billions of your race, but we’re better now, promise! “, other races would still want to purge the Viddians, and the Viddians now having Replicator tech would have a large upper hand, and could, in turn, purge any other race they wish to. Think the Tollans from Stargate, they don’t give other races their tech because the time they did led to a civilization destroying themselves. The Federation would not willingly shift the balance of power in a quadrant, have a race they helped destroy themselves or others, give them tech they can’t even use, much less give them the tech in the first place. The Feds love helping people, and you are right in saying if you can you should help, but the Starfish memoir ( I think it’s a memoir? Please correct me if I’m wrong ) is not comparable to this, granted nothing really is, but still, but there is a line, and it has to be kept to keep the Federation, The Viddians, and the entire Delta Quadrant in check, yes it sucks, leaving a civilization to certain death ( I know there’s a episode where some brainiacs say they cured the phage, but I don’t think anyone should trust them ) is at best, morally wrong, but the alternatives are objectively worse.

In addition, it should be noted that the Vidians are not the Kazon. The latter was aggressive and wanted the technology, which would have changed the political structure of the area. The Vidians, on the other hand, haven't shown any aggressive tendency beside harvesting organs for survival.

There's a problem with Janeway giving this tech to the Vidians. That is does Voyager have it. Even though it saved Word, he did almost die. Also, the scanner that is supposed to scan organs didn't work & Dr. Crusher had to improvise with a tricorder, which took a lot longer &put Worf's life at risk also. Also, Dr Russell it's inventor is very controversial & is known for taking research shortcuts. She also takes advantage of pantients in vulnerable mental states by promising miracle cures. Also, she killed at least one patient & probably much more by using experimental treatments before a conventional. In fact the only reason Picard allowed the operation on Word was because of a suicide threat. Thus the Federation likely may have been still testing it when Voyager disappeared.

The Vidians were more advanced than the federation. The Vidians themselves said that the holographic projection was primitive. Furthermore Neelix could not move, not even an inch.

Here's an idea. Your a single ship stranded 70k+ lightyears from home, in unknown and some very hostile space. Automatically you enact Regulation 3 Paragraph 12. You save your ship and crew using any justifiable means. This doesn't mean you trash all your Starfleet Ideals. You don't become space pirates. For survival, you have to integrate several qualities from several known species. You have to adjust your policies and operate logically as a Vulcan, fierce as a Jem Ha'dar, and cunning as a Ferengi. Being able to read people like a full Betazoid wouldn't hurt either. Technically speaking; they did seek out new forms of propulsion which was the right thing to do. They should have also said screw the Khitomer Accords and developed cloaking technology. Between the knowledge Starfleet already had, plus what 7 of 9 brought to the table this could have been easily done. For even a higher chance at survival, Janeway should have expanded on the alliances she made with other races, such as the Telaxians. Create a Delta Quadrant extension of the Federation. Trade technologies. That doesn't mean you give away the farm, but do it with common sense. For example, the Ocampa. I'm sure food replicator tech would go a long way in eliminating food and water shortages in their society. Telaxians? Industrial Replicators and Environmental Scrubbers to repair and restore Rynax. Food replicators. Easily enough modified as not to produce weapons. As far as the Vidians…. they were hostile and seen the Voyager crew not as equals but as spare parts. They were inferior. You had exceptions to this, but very few. Vidian medical tech was far superior to Starfleet. Could they have done more? Definitely. At what cost? Like a drug addict, you cant help someone if they don't want it. Now, the Think Tank did cure the phage. But how did they accomplish this? They communicated via isomorphic projections from a layer of sub space. They didn't knock on their front door. They were never in danger. Unlike the Borg Alliance, Voyager had nothing to hold over the Vidians but a possibility of a cure and help. What would stop the Vidians from killing everyone and seizing Voyager with all of its databases and tech? Hell, they could reprogram the Doctor to work for them. Delete a few ethical sub routines and your all set. So on the Vidian issue I give Janeway a pass. Of coarse she and the crew of Voyager could have done things MUCH differently and I believe should have. But chalk that up to poor writing and direction of the series.

Doesn't the prime directive apply only to pre-warp societies?

I was always under the impression the prime directive was for pre-warp societies. Anyone who has warp technology was fair game for trading ideas and tech.

The replicator can make weapons too. Since Voyager could not regulate the use, it would be wrong to give such technology, believing it will solely replicate skin and organs. Holographic technology is not a replicator. If they were in the Alpha Quadrant - Starfleet would be able to regulate the use of the replicators.

I feel like the Prime Directive should only account for pre-warp and aggressive/sacrificial (think Klingons and ancient Aztec humans respectively, here) species. Easy fix. Anyone so violent, incapable of valuing life and its potential, or unable to breach their solar bonds would be left to life or die. The rest are relative equals and capable of being interacted with.

I think the prime directive doesn't apply because it's meant to protect primitive cultures (those without warp technology) and the Vidials are obviously warp capable

Most likely this is due to Trek writers not doing their research but if it gets Lore to make a video on morals of the Federation, then it's worth it.

The only issue I find with this is the replicators could be used to create weapons or just about anything. Kazon were warp-capable, why not give them replicators? It could solve tons of issues inside that particular race.

Would agree, but just an interessting thought: Is the PD violated if there is no central/legitimate Government of a warpcapable species, which can officially ask for help (and so bypass the PD). And yes, I know, that the tribal Hirogen example show this, but except the lonley-Voyager-specialcase.

the federation had cloning tech good enough to make organs could have done that and given them a bank of samples- also i think the group of scientists called the think tank cured the fadge