Star Trek: Voyager – Season 7: “Endgame” – O. Deus and the Devil’s Advocate

– Three and a Half Badges out of Four – “Voyager’s slam-bang series ender serves long-standing character arcs in a way that is erased by the end of the episode and replaced by the action-packed conclusion of their conflict with the Borg, which appropriately echoes the overall plotline of the show. The lack of a real denouement, however, stings too much to be forgiven entirely.”

2021 UPDATE – Twenty years ago the Trekweb.com forums used to have semi-official Star Trek reviews posted by a user who went by ‘O. Deus’  and had all his reviews posted by the site owner Steve Krutzler. I often had contrasting views to the official reviewer’s, especially since I felt he had a strong bias against Star Trek: Voyager and the character of Kathryn Janeway in particular. In a way, this forum and these reviews set the tone for the overall internet “consensus” for both the show and the character, for the first couple of decades of fan response on the internet.

Now that chatty internet Star Trek fans have a new generation of Star Trek to pick apart and freak out about, a new generation of people are looking back on Deep Space Nine and Voyager with new eyes, and googling the discussions of the episode only to find their new eyes provide less judgment and derision for those old Star Trek shows and characters. I’m here to continue to provide the “Devil’s Advocate” viewpoint in argument with Deus, sharing the fact that the negative opinion of Star Trek: Voyager and Kathryn Janeway was never unanimous… even among early internet-enabled Star Trek nerds!

They say history is written by the victor. Well, the Trekweb site went down pretty definitively around 2014, and the forums  themselves had degraded and lost significant segments of posts and data long before that. They say the internet never forgets, but I’m old enough to remember times when it actually has. But since I still happened to have saved and retained text versions of certain O.Deus reviews along with my responses, I guess history is written by me! I am the victor!


Star Trek: Voyager Endgame Title Card
Star Trek: Voyager Endgame Title Card

‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Ends Six Year Journey With Action-Packed Time Travel Borg Bonanza ENDGAME!

Posted: 07:07:50 on May 24
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Reviews – Voyager
Reviews Ex Deus

“Endgame”
Written for TrekWeb by O. Deus

Summary: Voyager goes off the air with a finale that isn’t quite a bang but is a fitting farewell in keeping with its themes and tone.

Despite heading for a fifth series, Star Trek has only done two series finales before Endgame. That means there really isn’t a template enstablished for the series finale just yet. On the one hand, we have TNG’s All Good Things…, which was a poignant look ahead at the future combined with a brillant celebration of Star Trek’s ideals and a complex intellectual puzzle. On the other hand, we had DS9’s What You Leave Behind choose to do a conventional episode, wrapping the messy arcs and plot threads it had accumulated. Voyager’s finale Endgame on the other hand falls somewhere in between.

Unlike TNG, Voyager’s writers know this is their show’s last hurrah and that there will never be any further extension of the story. But unlike DS9, Voyager wasn’t overloaded with arcs that had to be wrapped up or apocalyptic struggles to be fought. So Endgame is a combination of the two styles. On the one hand there is a time warping premise to Endgame and a poignant look ahead at what time and history will do to its charachters as on TNG. On the other hand the actual episode is less about time travel, than it is about using it as a vehicle to examine the characters and resolve the series and various character issues like DS9. The result is a finale that doesn’t aim high like TNG’s but also one that doesn’t overshoot and crash and burn like DS9’s. It’s an average finale that encompasses all the good and bad that was Voyager and by doing so serves as a valid representation of what the show was all about.

Endgame’s opening takes less of a page from TNG or DS9 than it does from the TOS films. Specifically Wrath of Khan. A scene of Voyager’s joyous celebration cuts to a falsely cheerful retrospective on a TV monitor and a bitter-aged Captain Janeway pacing the room. These are scenes that call up the TOS Genesis trilogy both visually and emotionally. Janeway and the Doctor chat in her apartment in a scene strongly reminscent of Kirk and McCoy sans glasses. The Genesis comparisons only deepen as Janeway searches for a way to break Starfleet regulations to save former friends and crew members. Janeway herself no longer pilots a starship but has been bumped up to Admiral and looks forwards to teaching cadets. The crew has their reunions like an old group of Korean War vets who don’t seem to have that much in common anymore and Voyager is a museum from whose ready room you can see Alcatraz. Tuvok is in a mental asylum raving to himself and Chakotay and Seven are dead. And it took Voyager nearly two decades to get home.

Fans and viewers might have expected a long journey home ending with Voyager’s return, but the episode instead chooses to throw a splendid reunion at them and then turn it into ashes. It’s a scene that takes a certain amount of guts. Voyager might have easily gone the conventional route, or at least closed with the return scene as a payoff. Instead the payoff shot shows Voyager returning to Earth in the company of the fleet. We’ve already seen the return home and we know it won’t solve all the problems or too many problems for that matter. Janeway’s real problem remains unspoken and it isn’t Tuvok’s disease or Seven’s death. Her real problem is only stated openly by Paris, that she was only satisfied when she was on Voyager. Voyager was home. Time stood still on Voyager.

Janeway has always been obssessed with doing the best job possible of getting her crew home. And so she decides to go back in time and risk the past, not for any particularly compelling reasons, but because she wants to do a better job if it than she did last time. She wants to see if she can get the floor cleaner and the cabinets shininer and the crew home in seven years instead of twenty-something years. Janeway has always been a perfectionist and obsessed with her performance. She’s lost plenty of crewmembers before, so why not prevent Voyager from entering the Delta Quadrant period? The device on her shuttle allows her to choose any point in space or time. Presumabely because it would eliminate important parts of history, which Voyager changed. Captain Braxton and Q have said as much. Janeway herself states that these sixteen years featured major confrontations with the Borg Queen which helped them develop weapons and tactics that in the future allows the Federation to hold the Borg at bay. Is she throwing all this way just to rescue some friends? So are we to really believe that Voyager’s first seven years in the Delta Quadrant were important to galactic history but the succeeding sixteen years weren’t?

And here is at once the greatest strength of Endgame and its greatest weakness. Its strength lies in its depiction of Voyager’s future, but a future that is merely used to engineer a bit of time travel that occurs at this point in time for no particular reason, except that Voyager’s seven years are up. Worse yet, Admiral Janeway seems to have no idea how to bring Voyager home except by taking them through the worst the Borg have to offer. Couldn’t she have found an easier way to bring Voyager home? If Voyager could get home by breaking the rules, who not ask Q to do it? The entire Borg plot becomes tacked on as a means of resolving the Borg, even though they have little relation to the basic plot. Which means we’re asked to swallow two gigantic whoppers. The first being Admiral Janeway’s choice and the second being the involvement of the Borg.

Despite the All Good Things… “flashbacks” like Janeway’s shuttle being pursued by Klingon warships, Janeway convincing aged crew members to let her go on one final mission, and Tuvok suffering from a degenerative mental disease, future Voyager worked. So does present day Voyager. Given plenty of time, Endgame showcases a “5 minutes from now” future of Voyager that has Tuvok realizing his disease is getting worse when he loses a game, Torres expecting her baby and Paris finally settling down and abandoning his last desire for adventure. Both the past and the future are rife with neat continuity referrences from Barclay missing a golf game with the EMH, Kim’s desire to be Captain and Torres’s daughter turning out to be a bigger Klingon than her mother and involved in Klingon politics to boot. The future isn’t detailed but Janeway shopping around for technology with a renegade Klingon noble in exchange for a seat on the high council is plausible and rings true. So do the lecture halls and reunions, a Voyager version of Veterans of Foreign Wars. Or Veterans of Delta Quadrant Attritions.

The failure happens when Endgame does what All Good Things… and Voyager’s own Timeless knew not to do, combine the past and the future. On board Voyager, Admiral Janeway is just a pest and her motivations are bizarre. Her claims that “family comes before strangers” is completely bizarre and un-Starfleet even if it’s nice to see Janeway finally come out and admit the philosophy that’s been behind criminal actions such as Tuvix and Scorpion. Her technology gifts make things too easy. Sure the Borg have become a bit too soft but the cheesy armor-all effect and super torpedoes that blow up entire cubes are just ridiculous. Meanwhile Present Janeway demonstrates that she can’t even stand or work with herself, let alone anyone else. Her desire to blow up the Borg transwarp conduit is noble, but wouldn’t it make more sense to escape first and get the technology back to Starfleet which can outfit a hundred ships with it and do the job better?

People may make noises about the Temporal Prime Directive, but I note the TPD hasn’t kept the EMH from wearing a piece of 27th century technology and trying to donate it to the Daystrom Institute. Why is this any different? Janeway is ready to throw away the TPD when it’s a question of Tuvok’s well-being and when it’s a question of the welfare of her crew, and this is a question of the survival of thousands of entire species. Essentially, then, both Janeways have irrational agendas that have more to do with their own personal psychological problems, than with Starfleet regulations and the greater good. Kirk in ST3 and Picard in All Good Things… broke the rules but Kirk didn’t care about Genesis. He was simply trying to rescue Spock and that meant violating the No Trespassing sign. Picard had evidence that if he didn’t act the universe would be destroyed. Janeway wanted to save 22 people and possibly doom billions and wipe out portions of galactic history doing it. It just doesn’t add up.

And that is Voyager’s legacy, pettiness. Even when taking on the Borg and challenging all space and time, Janeway seems petty. And she manages to make the Borg seem petty too. It’s family versus family. Janeway’s family on Voyager which has come to a fractured old age in the future and the Borg Queen’s collapsing collective family. Both believe Seven of Nine is part of their family. And more than anything this episode seems to come down to Seven of Nine again. She dies. Her death devastates Chakotay. Her death is the unique thing that causes Janeway to go back. The other 22 crew members are nameless and Janeway has already lost quite a few people before this. But by choosing to develop the actual Chakotay/Seven romance only at this late date, the entire notion that Chakotay was so devastated by her loss that he pined away for longing is simply implausible. And fans who follow the inside news will note Beltran’s attacks against the producers and that actors the producers don’t like often meet unfortunate ends.

But then if the producers had decided to kill off the character they might have gotten some mileage from it by killing him off during the attempt to return to Earth. As it is there is little carnage and little real trial and risk. Future Janeway may die but that is to be expected. But to the crew, it is an episode that seems to carry less danger and risk than episodes like Dark Frontier or Year of Hell. You would think that the process of returning to Earth would be epic, but instead it seems very ordinary. It doesn’t even compare to Borg Voyager episodes like Scorpion or Unimatrix Zero. Eliminate the time travel and return-to-Earth element and you simply have a fairly conventional Voyager two-parter. The Borg Queen even falls for a variation of the same trick Janeway used on her in Unimatrix Zero. The collective must have a really poor memory to keep making the same mistake over and over again.

So what we have in Endgame is the fusion of a strong future episode, a strong view of Voyager 5 minutes from now and their clumsy combination in a weak and hackeneyd plot that results in them getting home. But this is only fitting for a show that has suffered from poor plots and rushed resolutions throughout its run. Endgame has many of the same successes and failures as Voyager in general has had. With Endgame it attempts to produce a linear resolution and a character arc wrap-up and while it does a better job of this than the muddled DS9 series finale, it suffers from many of the same flaws. Confrontation for confrontation’s sake, implausible actions and behaviors and a finale that feels rushed to complete an artificial schedule that wasn’t properly planned for. But it also has gems that DS9’s finale lacks and those gems, those character moments, are what link Voyager’s past and present.

Next week: Nothing. Now the wait for Star Trek Enterprise begins.


TREKWEB TALKBACK

I liked “Endgame”, but…
By Sideshow Bob () at 16:42:47 on May 24

…one thing I’ve learned from watching the various incarnations of ST is that “anything can happen” & “things are never what they’ll appear to be”. Spock dies & is brought back to life…the Borg Queen dies for a 3rd time…things like that make a good story, but just prove, to me, that anything can be changed at a moment’s notice.

Also, one problem with a storyline involving time-travel is all the “alternate future”-type possibilities. Why did Admiral Janeway reveal everything to Captain Janeway as “THE ONLY future”? Anyone remember TNG’s “All Good Things”?


“slam-bang action”
By Brikar () at 15:41:28 on May 24

I wasn’t very impressed with the quote-unquote “slam-bang action” or “rip-roaring adventure” of “Endgame”. Most of the effects sequences seemed really flat and uninteresting, especially the one where Voyager first enters the nebula and is supposed to nearly collide with a Borg cube. The cube looked really far away, and when Voyager dips to evade it, it didn’t even look like they came very close at all. The action wasn’t very inspired, or tense. The tensest scene was inside the transwarp conduit, and even then, it didn’t seem like much was going on. And what the hell was that with Voyager suddenly being inside the Borg sphere?

I’m sorry, “Endgame” wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been. But, it was still better than “What You Leave Behind”.


Caretaker Janeway
By Imbarkus at
14:14:35 on May 24

I enjoyed ‘Endgame.’ It was definitely in keeping with Voyager’s characteristic short shrift of the denouement, and that was indeed sad to me. If the arrival of Voyager’s crew home years later was a hollow victory, one so irritating that elder Janeway had to do what she did to fix it, we could have used a glimpse of the better alternative. But how much to show? What plots to touch on? Maybe it was better to leave all those individual homecomings to our imagination, where we can dwell on them to our heart’s content. But it was way too abrupt, even so. We needed a measly half minute of slow reaction shots or something, and the scene of Voyager behind or inside the sphere was not suspensefgul and yet unclear–definitely a stumble.

Yet despite being imperfect, it was great episode that was both epic and personal. I definitely appreciated the romance between Seven and Chakotay. But Seven’s struggle was not the focus and it was right not to be so–I was surprised at how much resonance her and Chakotay’s connection seemed to have in the character of Janeway. Well, this episode was through and through a Janeway story, and she deserved it. The loss of Seven and it effect on Chakotay is mentioned but not seen, but the effect of that news on Janeway is. Somehow I ended up finding it touching that Janeway became so invested in that–can you dig it like deep inside she found it comforting that even though she chose not to be with Chakotay, the woman she had rescued from the Borg and nurtured back to humanity would. In a strange way, I think Janeway would come to take vicarious pleasure in Seven and Chakotay getting together, and thus herself be heartbroken that Chakotay was crushed by how it turned out. Certainly her trip back to the past was motivated by this subtext, and Mulgrew played it clear–the graveside scene is all you need to understand who Janeway is going back in time to help.

I liked elder Janeway quite a bit, and her revised attitudes about loyalty. At first I though the episode would have been better if the nebula the ship passed had been full of Borg cubes who were preparing to jet across the galaxy to invade Earth–that when Voyager did return home in the alternate timeline, they found it assimilated, and thus Janeway’s mission to go back would be motivated by the ‘save the Earth’ mindset. But that would have parroted a lot fo what happened in “All Good Things” and “First Contact.” And it would have been about saving Earth. There’s something appealing about that, in a cozy Star Trek way. But there’s something real gutsy about going ahead and playing the big story based on the personal connections, and the role Kathryn Janeway had taken on over the years that made her different from other Starfleet captains because of her experience.

Themeatically, the circle is closed by that more than by an adventure motivated by a big borg invasion. Janeway has become the new Caretaker. Not for the Ocampa, like the original Caretaker that stranded them in the Delta Quadrant, but for her crew. Like the original Caretaker, she brough about their plight–their dependency on her for their survival. And like the original, she became blind to their ability to take care of themselves–to the point that obsessed on how it could have turned out BETTER for all AFTER it was all said and done. To the point that she felt she needed to take ethically questionable action to set right a past wrong, like the Caretaker did when it began abducting vessels for a genetic match. She became obseesed, like Harry did in ‘Timeless’ (but has no memory of, making elder Janeway’s and elder Kim’s debate a nice ironic scene). And she was out of line. She even, in a very anti-Janeway moment, blabbed Seven’s fate to motivate her to use her solution, and in doing so nearly ruined the formation of the relationship. In that regard, depsite Beltran’s criticisms of the episode, I enjoyed seeing Chakotay win the argument he had lost years earlier with Janeway, the “there’s no good reason not to risk it” argument.

But elder Janeway has a lot in common with the dying Caretaker who transported the crew to the Delta Quadrant in the first place. And it is that–an unhappy, worn out Janeway defeated by the journey like Ulysses–that is the consequence of this alternate future. It is the sad fate of the Janeway– who remains in orbit forever around the Voyager crew like the Caretaker did Ocampa–that gives the audience any stake in wanting to see things turn out different. So your reaction to this episode, as Deus points out, will be typical of your reaction to the series as a whole–if you don’t like the character of Janeway then there’s not much at stake for you in what’s going on.

She was the primary focus of the series ender, much as Picard was in “All Good Things” and much as I WISH Sisko was in “What You Leave Behind.” I thought the ending of the series was way too quick, but a really happy ending anyway. I liked the older Janeway erred towards compassion, Janeway in “Caretaker” erred toward coviction, and it was the Janeway in the middle that had just the right balance to get them home AND blow up the Borg real good. And so at last Janeway gets to find a solution in the middle, informed by both the past and the future, that let’s her have her ethical cake and get her crew home as well, and thus redeem herself in her own eyes as their Caretaker.


Not bad
By captbruce (captbruce@msn.com) at 14:06:15 on May 24

Endgame was actually a notch above typical Voyager episodes and did a good job of wrapping up the series.

I agree with the reveiwer that it seemed little too ordinary and I expected more…I don’t know, something grander than what did happen. Maybe the fleet going in and saving Voyager at the last minute from the cube about to destroy it. Something. It was just missing something. But I disagree with the reviewer about comparing it to being between All Good Things and What You Leave Behind (which by the way wasn’t messy. It was outstanding and left the door open and I’m tired of DS9 not gettin’ any respect around here!). I think Endgame stood well on its own to put an end to what Voyager was about.

Again, this show showcased its great actors. I hate that the Klingons and the Borg seemed thrown in there just because. They could have been Random plot villain one and Random plot villain two. And I think due to Voyager alone, the Borg have lost their punch and are no longer the great villains they once were. I’m tired of seeing them! Tired of them getting picked apart so easily! But it’s SO great they got Alice Krieg to reprise her role as Borg Queen. Susanna Thompson was good filling in, but Krieg just gives off the creepy yet seductive feel that she did so well in First Contact. But unless it’s a really good use of them, I don’t want to see the Borg for awhile.

I also agree with the reveiwer that had they started the real Chakotay/Seven romance earlier, we might have invested in it more and believed they’d get married in three years and he’d go batty at Seven’s death. As it was, the show was asking us to suspend a lot of disbelief.

Overall, it was a good sendoff for the show and despite its seven years of not living to its potential, I would like to see these characters again onscreen somewhere. I mean, we have to know if the Doc does use the name Joe afterall! 🙂


Wow
By DarExc () at 13:32:59 on May 24

I say wow in 2 ways one being wow Im still recovering from the shock of the outstanding acting and shots of Voyager flying over earth and wow that realy made no sense. I did not need to know the life story of old Janeway that wont exsist anymore or any other people that will be alterd. They should have ended it at a reunion in the real time line and showd the lives of the real people but what can I say the writers are indeed idiots!


Thank GOD it’s over!
By Defiantlad (brianjrizer@hotmail.com) at 13:28:00 on May 24

I am so glad that this series is over. I’ve been loyally watching this show and I think I should have stopped a while ago.

I have a couple of major disagreements with the reviewer. While I liked “All Good Things…”, I liked the DS9 finale arc so much more. And I REALLY liked it so much more than VOY’s Endgame. Here are some reasons:

While I am willing to acknowledge that there was a bit to be desired with the finale arc (i.e. “Extreme Measures,” the final Sisko/Dukat/Prophet/Pah Wraith scene, Ezri/Bashir/Worf triangle), DS9 managed to wrap up the majority of the loose ends very well. We saw the end of The Dominion War. We saw Cardassia come full circle, from occupating force, to a weaker power, to a power that was in chaos, to an occupated force, to being in ruins (kind of like Bajor). We saw Colonel Kira step up to fill the shoes of the now-missing Captain of the station.

I loved the first hour of the finale “What You Leave Behind.” This is one place where Voyager and DS9 were similar in the finale. They both contained action and adventure. However, DS9 decided to take the second hour of the finale to wrap up the characters, especially since it was obvious that they would most likely not return to the screen. We got to see where the characters’ lives were going. Worf, O’Brien, Odo and Garak were going on to other things. Quark, Kira, Bashir, Jake, Cassidy and Ezri were going to stay station-bound indefinately. Sisko was “dead.” There was closure to this chapter of Trek lore. Though there were some ends that needed to be tied up, it was still great.

How did Voyager end? It was a slam-bang finish that had way too much Voyager-mobile CGI graphics. I knew that things weren’t going well when at 9:20pm, Capt. Janeway was telling the crew that they weren’t going through. GO THROUGH, DAMN IT! Then, we have 20 minutes of Janeway fighting with herself. Then we have 10 minutes of Janeway/Borg Queen interplay AGAIN! Then, we have five minutes of flying through the transwarp thingy. Then, we have a 5 second resolution with Voyager slicing through the belly of the Borg Sphere. Finally, a 15 second shot of the facial expressions of the cast, a 20 second Paris comunique from Sickbay, and a 10 second “Welcome home.”

So, TPTB thought this was going to be a good idea: Let’s make the next series a prequel. We’ll go back before everything, where we will have the ability to screw up continuity more than ever before. Now, since the next series won’t deal with the future from Voyager, we will leave everything in the 24th century with no wrap up. What about the Maquis? They ARE criminals. What about Paris? He WAS a prisoner. What about 7 of D? What about the Starfleet officers? What is the next step for all of them? How were they received? Debriefed? Etc.? What about the EMH?

So, we have no closure for these characters we are supposed to care about. Some may say that we know the future because of what was at the beginning of the episode. HELLO? All that has changed (and let’s not EVEN discuss the temporal problems that are here!). We have no closure, aside from the crew getting home. Will this ever be addressed? I hope so, but only if they make a movie!

I remember saying to the screen numerous times during the finale, “Will you get on with it?” And the answer kept coming back, “no.”

And where did the 7/Chak love story come from? Couldn’t we have made this a little more apparent earlier in the season? It was rushed and contrived!

All in all, I think that this was a consistent ending for Voyager. Screw the characters! Screw the fans! Screw the “Star Trek Universe!” The writers will do it their way. Lots of flash! No substance.

Oh, and one last rant! On the Enterprise promo, did anyone notice that all of the series were mentioned EXCEPT DS9? No wonder no one gave it a chance. There was no commercialization of it! How many TV shows do you know of could do as well as DS9 without commercials and merchandise.

And that’s how I see it.


End of Borg/Admiral Janeway arguments
By Steve Krutzler (s_krutzler@trekweb.com) at
13:12:50 on May 24

Here’s something that I thought last night and just remembered now: why didn’t Admiral Janeway just try to convince Captain Janeway that “hey, even if you destroy this transwarp network, there’s no way that you can destroy all Borg… everywhere. Thus, they’ll have this hub back up in less than a year. One ship cannot destroy the Borg; but your idea could do a hell of a lot more good back in the Alpha Quadrant.”

That way, they could’ve more explicitly used the “virus” thread as a solution to Admiral Janeway’s comment… Captain Janeway would come up with “well, wait, with this virus, we CAN destroy all Borg everywhere…” and then in the end have Admiral Janeway convince Captain Janeway against it because she’s not a killer… but then trick her and do just like she did, deliver the virus herself, thus taking the genocide of the Borg off Captain Janeway’s hands….

But anyway, if the fact that the Borg would just rebuild it had been mentioned, then perhaps it would’ve been made more clear that either the entire collective was destroyed (since it would have to be in order for going thru with Capt Jane’s plan to be worthwhile in the first place) or it wasn’t (in which case, the plan shouldn’t have been attempted in the first place and the fact that they can’t destroy all Borg everywhere should’ve been used by Adm. Jane to disuade her younger self).

Oh no, I think I’ve gone cross-eyed… 😉


disappointing
By sky () at 11:49:00 on May 24

I’ve stuck up for Voyager on this board because I consider it to be decent television, and I care little for “continuity” and other dogmas of the Trek religion. But this ep was a disappointing way to resolve this series.

For one thing, I wonder if Rick Berman has ever noticed that many TV shows and movies end with an EPILOGUE? That’s where, at the end of a story, after the main action, the characters exchange a little banter in a “post game wrap up” that brings the story home on a personal note with the characters.

Most of the TOS episodes and movies ended with an epilogue, but this literary device has been conspicuously absent from “New Trek” i.e. TNG, DS9 and VOY, and this ommission in this instance was very frustrating.

This ep was not bad overall, if one could overlook the many lapses in logic already noted on these boards. But the ep had too much down time in the middle and the ending was resolved too quickly, with little resolution of the characters.

I suppose we could assume that, in this new timeline, Harry still becomes a Captain, Tom still becomes a Holonovelist and Baby Paris still grows up to be the Queen Bitch of the Klingon Empire. But that’s “just supposin'” and not conclusive enough for my taste.

I think it really sucks to watch this series for seven years and have the finale end with a just shot of the ship approaching Earth. Why could we not see the ship land on Earth? Why couldnt we see even a few minutes of celebration? Or characters reunited with friends and family? For example, how bout seeing Paris exchange a hug with his formerly estranged father?

And what about the subsequent inquiry in the “Voyager Affair”? Are Chakotay and B’Elanna pardoned for their association with the Maquis? Is Janeway charged for her numerous flagrant violations of the Prime Directive?

And BTW, how do 7 and the Doctor and Icheb and Naomi adapt to their new lives on Earth? I am unsatisfied that the viewers are not entitled to even an inkling of destinies of these characters, at least in this timeline.

I’m sure that artsy final shot of the ship approaching Earth was predetermined by B&B long before the story was written. But I think this sort of ending really denies the fans the last satisfaction of seeing the basic premise resolved.

“GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it’s just a TV show! … You’ve turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME!”


Endgame
By Dukat () at 11:33:10 on May 24

Another rip-roaring, slam-bang, kick-in-the-pants adventure from Kate and the gang. Not at all a bad episode, but there was more that could be done. We got the aftermath of Voyager returning to Earth, and it was all erased at the end. So we don’t know how the Admiral and Tom and Belanna get along. We don’t get to see Janeway answer for all her mistakes. Future Janeway doesn’t count. We don’t get to see how the Maquis get along with Star Fleet.
But we did get the Bat-ager or is that Voy-mobile. We got Alice Krige as the Queen. We get to see another crazy Vulcan- and while that has been done before, I am liking Russ’s take better than any of the previous ones (including Sarek, probably not because Russ did it better, but it hurt more to see Sarek losing it).

But the Bat-technology bothered me too, and so did the trans-whatever torpedoes, which, why the second cube took one shot to blow to hell, but they wasted two on the first cube? And Janeway’s slightly larger shuttle brought these torpedos, and enough plating to make the armor? Or she brought an advanced replicator, or the replicator plans? I am just not buying the McGuyver like abilities of Belanna and her staff to create the armor from nothing and install it all in a matter of hours? But I suppose if you can replicate shuttles like rabbits, creating some advanced armor and torpedos is no problem.
All in all not a bad episode, but the final moments didn’t do much for me, if they had turned the corner and stayed in the delta quadrant, it would not have been much of a loss.

And by the way, a Voyager day? In seven years, Voyager has not saved Earth even once! If there is a Voyager day on earth, it should have been when Kirk stopped Voyager-6 from destroying Earth!


Mixed Feelings about “Endgame”
By Annica () at 10:49:49 on May 24

I personally enjoyed the episode! I liked the Borg Queen getting a final kick in the ass before Voyager left the Delta Quadrant.

I liked Chakotay finally getting some romance. (C’mon loyal J/Cers! After SEVEN YEARS of getting no love from Janeway, don’t you think that he wouldn’t find someone else?)

But I didn’t like the pat ending. Since Admiral Janeway effectively erased her timeline, how are things different?

Plus we never get to know what name the Paris’ give their daughter!


Recipe for Voyager Finale
By BThomas () at 10:18:51 on May 24

“Endgame” Recipe:

Take generous portions of TNG’s “All Good Things.” Shake vigorously into meaninglessness.

Sprinkle Batmobile technology (circa 1989) liberally.

Artificially age cast with makeup technology (circa 1967).

Revise futures of TNG cast for Voyager counterparts (time travelling captain; two cast members fall in love for no apparent reason; give castmember a degenerative brain disease; marry off a castmember; kill one — or more — offscreen and mention their funeral; make one a holonovelist; make another a professor; give token Klingon a token political position within the Klingon Empire).

Remove any threat from the Borg whatsoever, while consistently referring to them as fearsome.

Stretch paper-thin plot into two hours.

Introduce plot points that go nowhere (the removal of Seven’s “emotionlessness” chip; Tuvok’s accusations of Janeway being an imposter — including the mention of the EXACT STARDATE when it happened).

Greet the crew’s arrival home with little or no emotion.

Bore audience to tears.

We waited seven years for THAT?


Well, that ending went out with a pop….
By Strategerie (dhill@symetrex.com) at 10:06:41 on May 24

I’m disappointed with the ending. I found the whole of the episode to be interesting, though I could predict with ease what was going to happen.

I would like to have more of a celebration or excitement about being home after defeating the Borg sphere, instead of just standing there and then silently heading off toward earth.

Otherwise, Mulgrew did perform quite well. I think the first hour was stronger than the second hour. The characters finally got a chance to act.


Mulgrew was GREAT!
By Daniel () at 09:56:17 on May 24

Voyager’s weakness is definitely in the writing. Mulgrew demonstrated what a wonderful actress she is. The Admiral/Captain scenes were totally convincing – and not just from a technical standpoint.

I loved Admiral Janeway. I wish the new series were set 25 years in the future featuring her.


Acting Stood Out
By Steve Krutzler (s_krutzler@trekweb.com) at 09:35:17 on May 24

The entire cast did a great job with Mulgrew and Wang really standing out with superb performances… and the dialogue in the future scenes and also b/w the two Janeways was very well written and excellently performed.

-Steve Krutzler


Time Travel Destination
By rtrek () at 07:41:52 on May 24

I think the reason that the future Janeway picked the spot she did to come back was that it was the only time Voyager was near the Borg Hub. It was the easiest way to get home. I do agree with the review otherwise. Good and bad in the ep.

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