Other mistake: In this episode Voyager sends the doctor to a federation ship in the alpha quadrant through a transmission using an alien communication network. Right before he is sent you see him in the astrometrics lab and he steps up on a platform wearing his mobile emitter. His program is then sent through the data stream and the mobile emitter is sent with him. Then when he arrives it is not there. Firstly, the mobile emitter can't be sent this way, only the doctor's program can. It can be beamed but that was not the case here. Secondly, in other episodes where the doctor is taken offline while wearing the emitter they show it drop to the ground. They don't do that here as it appears to dematerialize with him. (00:07:00 - 00:08:00)
Star Trek: Voyager (1995)
1 other mistake in Message in a Bottle - chronological order
Plot hole: In this episode Kes states that she has to decide now whether to have a child or not because Ocampa women can only get pregnant once and deliver one child. If that was the case they would have died out a long time ago, or never even evolved, as two people only getting one offspring would reduce the population to 50% of the original figure each generation.
More quotes from Star Trek: Voyager
Trivia: King Abdullah of Jordan appears in this episode (he was Crown Prince at the time), as a Voyager crewmember in a corridor scene. He is uncredited.
Question: How did Magnus and Erin Hansen know about the Borg?
Chosen answer: Before Q sent the Enterprise to the beta quadrant to officially contact the Borg, there were already indications that the Borg was beginning to reach Federation territory. There were remarks towards the end of the first season of the Next Generation that several of the furthest Federation outposts were being attacked by some unknown enemy. They suspected the Romulans, but when contact with the Romulans was re-established, they learned that it was not them. The Hansens had simply figured things out much earlier than anyone else in the Federation. They learned about the Borg nine years earlier, but Starfleet mainly took notice when their outposts started getting wiped out. It is logical to assume that there were indications of Borg scouting parties and research efforts well before that.
Answer: Add to that, the two transport ships at the start of Star Trek: Generations were carrying El-Aurian refugees to Earth. It wasn't stated in the film what they were refugees of, but Guinan would state in TNG that the Borg wiped out her planet and most of her people, so it's a safe bet that's what it was. And with 47 El-Aurians being rescued by the Enterprise-B, there were plenty of people to tell Starfleet about this cybernetic threat. At the time though, Starfleet did not have the ability or resources to investigate this further, and it was eventually forgotten when other things became important until the Enterprise-D encountered that cube at J-25.
Answer: Keep in mind in Star Trek: First Contact; it's known the Borg were present during the first flight. It's also brought up again on Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2 Episode 23, Regeneration. Archer talks about how Zefram Cochrane mentions cybernetic aliens from the future were trying to attack the settlement and how another group of human beings from the future destroyed them.
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Suggested correction: It's also possible that it's simply required of Ocampan women to give birth the first time they go through it, and can then experience it again.
Greg Dwyer
Nothing in the dialogue suggest Ocampa's can have additional children. While we can speculate about fictitious species, it's still a plot hole due to writing. Kes states she's going through the "elogium" which is a time of change where her body prepares for fertilization. She then explicit states the "elogium" only occurs once. While the doctor compares it to puberty, the elogium is both sexual maturity and "heat", that is, the time a female is ready for fertilization.
Bishop73
But it doesn't ever state the normalcy of birthing for Ocompans. Perhaps sextuplets is the norm?
Kes frequently used the word "child." If it was normal to give birth to more than one, she would know this and should say "children."
Bishop73
Do not forget that this is all done through the universal translator. For all you know the Ocompan word for child and children is the same so the translator cannot tell the difference.