Canon Facts Backstage Info  Speculation

After a journey of some 70,000 light years the Voth arrived in the Delta Quadrant and settled there approximately sixty five million years ago. Technologically the Voth are in advance of the Federation, with "city ships" many miles long capable of transwarp speeds. Voth transporters are powerful enough to rate as weapons by Federation standards, and are capable of beaming hundreds of thousands of tons at a time. The Voth also posess phase-cloak technology which has been miniaturized down to a size which makes it perfectly practical for personal use.

However, even this level of sophistication is at best a few centuries or millennia beyond the level of the Federation. Given thier millions of years of history, it appears that the Voth advance their technology only at a very low rate. Voyagers encounter indicated one possible reason; Voth culture is heavily influenced by their image of themselves as superior to all other life, and by their 'doctrine', a set of semi-religious scientific and cultural dictates which few Voth ever dare to question and which their ruling classes enforce ruthlessley. There is therefore relatively little oppurtunity for a Voth scientist to challange these fundamental assumptions, and so scientific innovation tends to be slow, if it exists at all.

One aspect of Voth doctrine is their firm belief that they originated in the Delta Quadrant; when this doctrine was contradicted by two of their scientists, with the DNA of the crew of Voyager as proof, the Voth authorities responded by threatening to banish the scientists and destroying all of the evidence. Only after those involved in the "Distant Origin" theory retracted their statements did the Voth agree to release Voyager, on the understanding that there would be no further contact between the two sides.