Why didn't VOY head to the Gamma Quadrant?

[Monroe]

They knew the location of the wormhole didn't they? Wouldn't it have been a shorter trip to fly to the wormhole then take that to DS9?

[Mikey]

I don't know if the stability of the wormhole was known at the time of VOY's initial mission.

[Aaron]

The VOY pilot aired in 95, around DS9's third/fourth season. They even stopped at DS9 IIRC so not only was the stability of the wormhole known but so was the Dominion's douchebaggery, a ready made excuse not to go that way.

[Lazar]

Probably because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to get past the Dominion, or because they feared that they might find the wormhole collapsed or mined due to warfare when they got there. Still, it would have been nice for them to at least mention it.

[Monroe]

But they weren't at war with the Dominion yet if I recall. They seemed surprise when they made contact with Earth and they told them about the Dominion. Surely if they had known about the Dominion they wouldn't have been surprised.

[SomosFuga]

But they weren't at war with the Dominion yet if I recall. They seemed surprise when they made contact with Earth and they told them about the Dominion. Surely if they had known about the Dominion they wouldn't have been surprised.

They were surprised by the war (i DK if they were really surprised or merelly desapointed, afraid, sad...) not by the very existence of the dominion. I don´t remember what was the political situation between the dominion and UFP at Voyager´s 1° episode.

[Lazar]

But they weren't at war with the Dominion yet if I recall. They seemed surprise when they made contact with Earth and they told them about the Dominion. Surely if they had known about the Dominion they wouldn't have been surprised.

No, the Feds had already learned about the Dominion - "The Jem'Hadar" and "The Search" both took place before Voyager.

[Monroe]

I remember Andy Dick explaining what the enemy was though to the Doctor. Saying they were called the Dominion and all that. I might be wrong and regardless the alternative to the GQ is crossing Borg space which IS at war.

[Tyyr]

Personally I'd take the Jem'Hadar over the Borg any day.

[Monroe]

Personally I'd take the Jem'Hadar over the Borg any day.

Especially since the Jem'Hadar is much shorter and at the time not at war.

[Nickswitz]

And heck, on any given day Voyager could just stomp the borg, so I'm sure the Jem'Hader would be a cakewalk for them.

[SomosFuga]

Does anyone have a good image/map of the galaxy? i have a couple but not very convincing.

[Lighthawk]

The DITL galatic map shows it pretty well. The wormhole isn't exactly next door, but it's a good deal closer then trying to fly across the whole damn galaxy.

[kostmayer]

Be a bit of a shame if they made it all the way to the wormhole, only to get blasted to pieces by the minefield at the other end.

[Lighthawk]

I'd call that more ironic than a shame.