I'm watching "Endgame", bringing to an end my epic months-long Voyager rewatch (which has been very enjoyable, btw). It got me thinking - how did you all react to the end of Voyager originally? This isn't about the quality of "Endgame" (I actually like it...C/7 ick aside) but the prospect of no more Voyager episodes. Ever. How was it for you? All I really remember is being suprised by the Enterprise teaser at the very end (dunno if you got it in the US and elsewhere, but we got "Before Janeway... Before Sisko... Before Picard... Before Kirk... There was Enterprise" shoehorned in before the credits). I had a lot going on in 2000... Trek wasn't my priority, I'm afraid. Oh, and my prediction came true. After "Caretaker", 11-year-old me said to my Mother, "They'll get home in the last episode". They did.
It was like coming to the end of a really good novel. Sad it was the last page, glad that it "had" an end. Psychologically, I had "processed my feelings" the previous week at my "home" discussion board with a season by season review. I think my fellow posters called it my version of the 5 stages of grief. Was I despondent? No. Probably because the show ended on Wednesday, and on Thursday a friend and I flew to Cleveland Ohio to visit family and attend the weekend "Women of Star Trek Voyager" convention. WHO can be depressed when they are anticipating being in the same room as Kate and Roxann???? Not by me, but I approve of her enthusiasm! http://members.tripod.com/~marcia_2/clevtam/clevtam.html Transcript for those who missed it! http://members.tripod.com/~marcia_2/clevcon3/clevetrn.html Was I totally satisified with "Endgame"? C/7 aside, I could have used another couple of scenes, but in truth I doubt another 12 would have been "enough". Look at the end of BSG. They devoted another hour to wrap up, and it STILL wasn't enough... because the possibilites of "what happens next" are always endless. I just thank TPTB that I got 7 years of (IMO) very enjoyable TV and a few characters who will forever be in my memory.
I watched it with my parents (watching any new Star Trek episode was always a family affair.) I remember I was so excited by the previews (although the "Endgame" script was actually leaked and I peeked at it a bit and kinda had an idea of the plot) that I was drawing Borg cubes on the margins of all my notebooks during classes. When the ep ended, my mother and I both shouted "That's it?!" LOL. I know, I know, this isn't a commentary on "Endgame," but that was our first reaction. I also got kinda sad - I'd been watching VOY with my family since I was but a small 9-year-old. I sort of grew up with the show. To this day, it's really the only show I've sincerely followed during its first run on TV. I watched TNG and DS9, too, but never with the same emotional investment. Then I chatted with some folks about it on the interwebs. We played the theme song and got a bit misty. Lot of fun memories of playing Star Trek out in the backyard and building Lego ships and stuff. I'll like the damn thing even when I'm old and gray, I think. EDIT: Monday and Wednesday evenings will always hold a special little spot in my heart. EDIT AGAIN!: Yeah. I remember an ENT preview, too. I think I was too sad to get excited for a new Trek at that very moment.
I was disappointed both that the series was over and that it had such an awful finale. Between the icky C/7, the overuse of time travel and the borg plus the questionable morality of Janeway going back in time as well as the disappointment the crew didn't get home by their own devices it was quite a let down, imo.
After all these years, I still marvel at why people would watch a show they didn't like. I don't watch things if I don't like them.
I enjoyed the finale and was quite satisfied with it. Sure it could have been better but in the history of tv show finales it was streets ahead of many. It was a big event in my house as we all gathered to watch it--on video. Never saw it on tv, but watched it shortly after it came out on video so couldn't have been too far behind. We had watched the whole series and didn't have any waiting period, I remember Endgame was still on the overnight shelf. I returned Endgame to the store and borrowed the first ep of DS9's second season the next day (we already had the first season on video).
I was like "is that it?" for the last scene, that we didn't get to see the crew back on Earth (just one view of the Sr. staff looking at the Golden Gate Bridge, that's all I needed). For all we knew, Voyager blew up or something on the final little journey back (well, guess it didn't because they made it back in Trek lit, tho it took over two years to finally find that out). Now I can barely look at Endgame (mostly due to C/7), and didn't re-watch Voyager again until a couple years ago, and found that I mostly enjoyed it, which was pretty nice; I think it's held up pretty well. PS JWyRulz, lol, I went to that Cleveland convention, too, the only time I've ever seen La Mulgrew, it was a nice time, tho had to chuckle when Roxann said to those who wanted more at the end of finale, "Well, use your imagination." (in a nice way, she was quite pleasant) Since then have heard from other fans who also went to that con, interesting!
I was a little disappointed and also relieved. Disappointed because I figured getting there should be an awfully full grand slam and relieved because they were finally safely back to some good soil- planet earth. Endgame plot seems to be full of holes but I'm glad Janeway finds a new lease on life vacationing before she enters the admiralcy, Seven has a chance to see Earth up-close without getting her head chopped open trying to remove its nano-probe machine, and B'Ellana has a baby with Tom- a baby that half a galaxy will try to acquire.
My friends and I all dressed in "House of Janeway" Tshirts that day, so we felt part of the "festivities" without being too "geeky". I met a fellow poster from my home board at that con because of the Tshirts, and even ended up on the Cleveland news that night because of them. Hey, it could have been worse, I could have ended up on the TV because my Seven of Nine costume split open at the seams when I bent over. (THAT'S A JOKE!!!!! I do NOT have a 7 of 9 costume! )
I missed it actually, but I kind of figured it might end the way it did. Start the show with random contrivance, makes sense to end it the same way.
I dimly remember being glad it was over already, so the upcoming new series could start with a clean slate, and, with luck, not be as ho-hum.
My biggest surprise in "Endgame" was the appearance of the credits at the end. We were ALL hoping for some closure, and all we really got was Harry's "It's not he destination, it's the journey" speech, which was a poor attempt at convincing the audience that the show was never about getting home, even if they said it almost every week. I mostly disliked the re-use of future-helps-present time travel theme that they already used, much better, in the TNG finale, and not two years earlier in "Timeless" on the same show, also with better execution. Would have much preferred a more conventional and straightworward ending, building on previous episodes even if Viacom had an aversion to serial storytelling in the show at the time. Mark
For me, Voyager more and less ended when Kes was dumped. I stopped watching the show for two years but couldn't totally abandon my old favorites so I did start watching it again and also borrowed tapes with the episodes I'd missed, just to catch up with the current episodes. However, it was never the same again And "Fury" was the end of it all. I stopped watching the series there and then, only watching "Endgame" after that. Therefore I was never faced with the total shock of watching a series for 7 years and suddenly it's all over, although I did experience something similar with TNG. As mentioned before, I did watch "Endgame" but my problem with that episode is that it was such a lousy episode storywise. Instead of an exciting episode with a decent homecoming for the crew it was just "OK, they are home, so what?" Not to mention that I didn't like C/7 because I saw no purpose in that relationship. It came out of nowhere, there were no chemistry between them and it only looked like a finger from the producers to the J/C-ers, the most ardent fan base of Voyager. My immediate reaction after "Endgame" was: How can a series which started so good end so badly?
So how did you find the next series? I gave it a shot but quit after I realized that not only was Porthos my favorite character but they weren't going to give him any major story lines. Heck, there were episodes where you never saw him at all.
I was given tiny nasty tv rips of thelast half of season 7 about a year before it finished on TV down here, but the last episode froze just before the end with janeways smiling bobble head with out any of the grand conclusion that i had been expecting... Imagine my surprise when I saw the bastard on TV and I discovered all that was left out were just another ten seconds of Janeway smiling followed by the credits. It was the Easter Bunny all over again.