In-universe reason: Couldn’t risk the Kazon destroying the tricobalt devices before they destroyed the array.
no matter what, there are always very easy, simple ways around any “what if” theoretical scenarios people often present when arguing about this episode’s major flaw. timing the tricobalt devices to X femtoseconds after the Voyager is sent back. Arming hundreds or thousands of devices so the Kazon couldn’t possibly disarm them all in time. Both. There is not possibility that the Voyager crew couldn’t have - very easily - both ensured the destruction of the Caretaker’s array while simultaneously gotten themselves home. Janeway simply overreacted and/or acted before thinking things though and fucked her whole crew rather than benefitting from, perhaps, 5-15 seconds of planning— which she definitely had. I know, *because I figured it out, in real time, while watching the episode while it aired. As a 16-year old in the feeble 20th century, outthinking a 24th-century Starfleet captain, I was pretty disappointed in this new show, I must admit…
no matter what, there are always very easy, simple ways around any “what if” theoretical scenarios people often present when arguing about this episode’s major flaw. timing the tricobalt devices to X femtoseconds after the Voyager is sent back. Arming hundreds or thousands of devices so the Kazon couldn’t possibly disarm them all in time. Both. There is not possibility that the Voyager crew couldn’t have - very easily - both ensured the destruction of the Caretaker’s array while simultaneously gotten themselves home. Janeway simply overreacted and/or acted before thinking things though and fucked her whole crew rather than benefitting from, perhaps, 5-15 seconds of planning— which she definitely had. I know, *because I figured it out, in real time, while watching the episode while it aired. As a 16-year old in the feeble 20th century, outthinking a 24th-century Starfleet captain, I was pretty disappointed in this new show, I must admit…