Nitpicking Star Trek: Voyager “Elogium”

This is MY personal favorite nitpick of all time. It is the one that got me personally inducted into the Guild by Phil Farrand and started our correspondence which culminated in his turning the Guild over to me for continuation.

A stable population needs 2 children produced / couple. Population growth needs and average of 2.1 children/couple. And of course this assumes monogamous relationships and equal numbers of males and females. Changing either of those variables would alter the timeline.

Basically the math looks like this.

10,000,000 Ocampans will produce 5,000,000 offspring
5,000,000 Ocampans will produce 2,500,000 offspring
2,500,000 —> 1,250,000
1,250,000 —> 625,000
625,000 —> 312,500
312,500 —> 156,250
156,250 —> 78,125 (Odd number. Someone isn’t going to get a mate this generation)
78,124 —> 39,062
39,062 —> 19,531 (Odd number. Someone isn’t going to get a mate this generation)
19,530 —> 9,675 (Odd number. Someone isn’t going to get a mate this generation)
9,674 —> 4,882
4,882 —> 2,441 (Odd number. Someone isn’t going to get a mate this generation)
2,440 —> 1,220
1,220 —> 610
610 —> 305 (Odd number. Someone isn’t going to get a mate this generation)
304 —> 152
152 —> 76
76 —> 38
38 —> 19 (Odd number. Someone isn’t going to get a mate this generation)
18 —> 9 (Odd number. Someone isn’t going to get a mate this generation)
8 —> 4
4 —> 2
2 —> 1 (No one left to mate with.)

Here’s the kicker. An Ocampan generation is 3 standard years. 3×24=72 If Voyager had taken the full 70 years to get home, the Ocampans would’ve been nearly gone by then.

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