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But the 'Voyager should have gone to the Gamma Quadrant theory'?
Bullshit.

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Heading for such an unstable place would have been such a silly idea.

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And heading straight for Borg space isn't? So far as Janeway & co. knew, the only ship that managed to defeat a Borg ship was the E-D, and even she didn't out-muscle it. Realistically speaking, to expect a single, less powerful ship to sail clean through the heart of Borg territory unscratched is hogwash.

I don't know about the Voyager not being able to make it through Borg space without Species 1-800-something. I think that the dedication, ingeniuity, passion, faith, lack of character and unlimited supply of plot devices of the crew of USS Voyager would have defeated anything that gets in their way.

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Originally posted by TSN:
Argh! Will everyone stop it w/ the Romulan impulse drive thing?! That's not what Scotty said! "Power", not "drive"! How often must this foolishness be disputed?! AAAAAHHHH!!!

*runs from the room screaming*

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All Scotty says about their power is "simple impulse". Now, in physics the definition of impulse (Oxford Consise Science Dictionary) s "The product of a force F and the time t for which it acts...The impulse of a force acting for a given time interval is equal to the change in momentum produced over that interval." That's motion, not power.

Theoretically, I suppose that if impulse engines were fusion powered, impulse could become a synonym for fusion...but I suspect that's not what the author's intended.

My take on it was always that the ship could only move at impulse power while cloaked. But this leads to other problems (like how far back do you hgave to cloak in order to sneak up on a sensor laden outpost?)

runs away screaming, tripping over a dead horse branded Romulan Warp Drive Debate on the way

Janeway's decision not to go for the Gamma wormhole has been supported by three main lines of argument so far:

1) The trip would not be markedly shorter.
2) The wormhole might not be there when they arrive.
3) There are known dangers en route.

Now, the first semi-official map about Voyager's distress was in the DS9 Tech Manual, and it indeed supported the idea that the trip would not have been shortened much. And definitely it would have been lengthened considerably if the wormhole had been unavailable. The canonical chart seen in the final VOY episodes (this one) further reinforces the view - Ocampa City, Earth and the wormhole form an almost equilateral triangle.

The second point has already been addressed - Janeway knew that the wormhole was prissy as a princess. Nothing further on that.

The third point bears closer examination. At that point, Janeway knew where the Dominion was - swarming around the wormhole mouth (although later events would prove that they weren't that big a presence in the region, Janeway would not know THAT). Did she know where the Borg were? The only episode to suggest that they could be in Delta was "Descent", and even there it was a minor reference in one of the graphics, not a verbal mention or a plot point. And the wormhole is small, but Delta is big - the chances of missing the Borg would be pretty good, while the chances of missing the wormhole and thus the Dominion would be zero if the goal was to *reach* the said wormhole.

Perhaps it would have been a good idea to mention the impossibility of the Gamma Gambit in a side remark in some early Voyager episode. That would have made the audience realize that the writers recognized the existence of the other Trek show at least. But the soundness of Janeway's decision doesn't depend on us hearing her spell it out for us.