Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site

U.S.S. Voyager : Replicators : Page 5

screenshots by Janet

 

Replicator malfunctions

In late 2376, depicted in [#145 The Haunting Of Deck Twelve], when Voyager spends time in a nebula collecting deuterium, an electromagnetic discharge suddenly penetrates the hull, which throws auxiliary subprocessors offline and causing secondary systems to malfunction, including replicators. It turns out that the EM discharge is in fact a lifeform which lived in the nebula, forced to come aboard as Voyager somehow destabilises the nebula. The lifeform gains controls of ship's systems and communicates with Janeway, ordering her to return to the nebula but, on finding that the nebula no longer exists, the lifeform, out of anger, demands that the Voyager crew abandon ship and at the same time it cuts off life support. Only Janeway remains because the entity refuses to let her leave after she tells it that the ship needs to be maintained by a crew otherwise the entity itself will eventually die. Janeway refuses its order to man the ship unless the lifeform relinquishes control of the ship to her. The creature agrees. Accordingly the crew return and seals the lifeform within a nebula-like environment on Deck 12, Section 42, which is off limits to everyone but senior officers with a level-6 security clearance. In that isolated area, an artificial environment is created for the alien until Voyager is able to identify a suitable nebula, whereupon the lifeform leaves Voyager for its new home.

Below: The replicator produces a foul-tasting mug of coffee for Janeway, and then fails to materialise even a mug of coffee. It then fails to do so twice more.

[#145 The Haunting Of Deck Twelve]
the view is from the back of the replicator (through a "wild wall", so known in showbusiness because it can be removed for filming 'through' the wall)


Janeway faces rebellion from a replicator
[#165 Q2]
In late 2377, as depicted in [#165 Q2], Q leaves his son Q2 with Aunt Kathy (Kathryn Janeway) on board Voyager. The young Q2's age and level of maturity is equivalent to that of human adolescence, and he is at first rebellious and troublesome. He reprograms the replicators so that they seem to have a mind of their own. Strictly speaking, this is not a malfunction. When Janeway orders a beverage from the port-side replicator in the messhall, it refuses to do so.