A better way to end the series then Endgame

[Guy Gardener]

Even Farscape bothered to return Crichton home to wrap up that plot before the show ended, just to make it clear that returning to Earth wasn't the point after all.

I thought the two instances where he thought he was home were just alien-induced hallucinations?

They start doing that, return home by S4 or so, then go back out there to continue the Delta Federation plotline to make it clear THAT'S the real plot.

Actually, it would have been better had they formed a Delta Quadrant Federation but never returned home, just staying there to help manage what they built. The final episode could have dealt with the future Federation and the Delta Federation making contact after all those years, instead of the future of Admiral Bitchy Janeway.



I don't quite agree with that. First of all, the Worf/Troi thing started when Worf found himself hopping through alternate universes in "Parallels," which was already halfway through the final season. It was a parallel universe where he was married to Troi; in the prime universe he and Troi showed zero interest in each other. If that had just been it, things would have been fine. But someone decided there needed to be some "romance" where none existed previously except in an out-of-context experience. There were only one or two eps that dealt with it, and not even as the primary focus; it was just relegated to some embarrassing side scenes with Worf, Troi and Riker. There was really no relationship development at all, except for the erased future of AGT.



Nobody thought there was going to be a season 8, because ENT was already on the drawing board well before VOY's season 7 ended.

Voyager should have been in another galaxy so it was physically impossible to get home without finding some super-technology, wormhole, or advanced race willing to help them. That way instead of moving in a straight line they would have needed to settle on some kind of home base and make local connections.

That would have been a completely different show.

Where Voyager was located made no difference whatsoever with the episodic nature of the show. It could be on the other side of the galaxy, the other side of the universe, or even in a parallel universe. The same stories would have been told, the only difference being the distance to Earth, which is no difference at all considering how they eventually got home.

The Borg Civil War resistance from Unimatrix Zero.

There was a Klingon in command of a sphere who had the complete skills to drive that sphere anywhere.

Janeway had access to the transwarp network in the first episode of season 7.

That Klingon could have taken a day out of his life, 4 hours each way really, to take Voyager home, but Janeway forgot to ask.

Idiot.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Even Farscape bothered to return Crichton home to wrap up that plot before the show ended, just to make it clear that returning to Earth wasn't the point after all.

I thought the two instances where he thought he was home were just alien-induced hallucinations?

Actually, it would have been better had they formed a Delta Quadrant Federation but never returned home, just staying there to help manage what they built. The final episode could have dealt with the future Federation and the Delta Federation making contact after all those years, instead of the future of Admiral Bitchy Janeway.



I don't quite agree with that. First of all, the Worf/Troi thing started when Worf found himself hopping through alternate universes in "Parallels," which was already halfway through the final season. It was a parallel universe where he was married to Troi; in the prime universe he and Troi showed zero interest in each other. If that had just been it, things would have been fine. But someone decided there needed to be some "romance" where none existed previously except in an out-of-context experience. There were only one or two eps that dealt with it, and not even as the primary focus; it was just relegated to some embarrassing side scenes with Worf, Troi and Riker. There was really no relationship development at all, except for the erased future of AGT.



Nobody thought there was going to be a season 8, because ENT was already on the drawing board well before VOY's season 7 ended.

That would have been a completely different show.

Where Voyager was located made no difference whatsoever with the episodic nature of the show. It could be on the other side of the galaxy, the other side of the universe, or even in a parallel universe. The same stories would have been told, the only difference being the distance to Earth, which is no difference at all considering how they eventually got home.

The Borg Civil War resistance from Unimatrix Zero.

There was a Klingon in command of a sphere who had the complete skills to drive that sphere anywhere.

Janeway had access to the transwarp network in the first episode of season 7.

That Klingon could have taken a day out of his life, 4 hours each way really, to take Voyager home, but Janeway forgot to ask.

Idiot.

You know you're right!!!

But then again, once they've secured Seven's loyalty, they could have asked her all the details about transwarp technology (she was supposed to have the knowledge of the hive) and use it. Voyager is like a Gruyere... full of holes.

 

[Anwar]

That's what happens when you have a Gilligan plot. It didn't help that the same thing happened to Kirk and Picard more than once and they always got back fast.

VOY's plot required them to forget about all the ways they could have gotten home much faster.

 

[Guy Gardener]

One theory I heard about Gilligans Island is that the boys kept frakking it up on purose, becaue the girls would stop making time with them if they all returned to the mainland.

I wonder if that's true about Voyager too?

Janeway (circa season 5) "We are going to stay lost until one of you assholes finally rocks my world!"

 

[STEPhon IT]

I thought the series finale of Voyager to be "All Good Things..." lite.

It monkeyed off of TNG gravy train since season 3, and it never backed off. Like DS9 in it's 4th through 7th seasons, it catered to bringing familiar faces or races from Trek lore back to get those fans who left Trek for other shows like the popular Fox tv series The X Files.

I was not a fan of Voyager because I thought it didn't become it's own sub-culture. I thought the crew would be entirely different from the other casts from TNG and DS9, but it wasn't to be.

As for the series finale of Voyager it was as boring and silly like What you leave behind. Uninspiring, and non-trek like.

If I had the task or the opportunity to write the series finale of Star Trek Voyager I would have ask the question that I thought would be a pinnacle part of the shows existence.

What if the Ocampa race was threatened either by a new foe or the boring Borg, and Janeway and Voyager discovered it and had to make the ultimate decision to either go home to the Alpha Quadrant or return 65,000 light years where it all started?
Knowing full well there's a female caretaker who hates Voyager, a dangerous Kes that could return, and will of course, and realizing the worse case scenario: they couldn't go through what they did again and the reality they could be stuck in the Delta Quadrant for the rest of their lives.

It's something I thought it should've been explored, and it could even create a hostile meeting in the conference room. This could devastate Janeway in a lot ways because she's asked her crew a lot, but this??? The crew's decision would be as noble and tearful as any of the heroes of Star Trek's past we love so much. My ending, if I've written it and I just might for everyone to read, if you guys like the pitch, would be one that would justify Voyager as a series.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I was not a fan of Voyager because I thought it didn't become it's own sub-culture.

This is Starfleet, everyone went through the same personality sanitizers.

 

[at Quark's]

Voyager should have been in another galaxy so it was physically impossible to get home without finding some super-technology, wormhole, or advanced race willing to help them. That way instead of moving in a straight line they would have needed to settle on some kind of home base and make local connections.

If you mean they basically 'give up' on going home, and decide to make a new home for themselves until they happen to stumble across such super-technology at some later point in time, I agree with you. But it would have been a completely different show. And supposing they only find such tech 100 years later, their descendants may well decide to stay where they are.

This is Starfleet, everyone went through the same personality sanitizers.

mmm... those must be sanitizers that allow for diversity within the crew, but no diversity across them.

Those must have standard slots/quota for 'the crewmember that is struggling to become human', and 'the crewmember that is of mixed alien/human descent' etc etc, so that every crew receives one or two of each of those and ends up with the same complement of 'diverse' types in different functions.

So what is it that we don't know about Starfleets admittance policy? Seems they are pushing a politically correct agenda...

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

So what is it that we don't know about Starfleets admittance policy? Seems they are pushing a politically correct agenda...

They are a massive personality cult pumping their recruits with their manifest destiny to make the galaxy a nicer, fairer (by Fed standards) and less skeevy place.

 

[Guy Gardener]

How Skeevy is Risa?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Did you see how clean and attractive everyone was?

This is how sanitized Starfleet is, they think Risa is full of daring naughtiness.

 

[Sarahjs]

Hi! My biggest issue with the ending of Voyager was not the time travel elements or the ending itself, but I feel it did not get enough of a build up.

The previous episode before Endgame - Renaissance Man - was a typical Delta Quadrant story and following on from there - Endgame sort of came out of no where and felt a bit rushed because of that. Perhaps that ending spread over a number of episodes may have worked.

Had it been spread over a number of episodes also, perhaps there would have been more time for some friends/relatives reacting to Voyager's homecoming. I personally felt a bit deprived of this aspect of the show - families greeting their loved ones and so on.

My main criticism of Endgame was that it did not show, at all, the actual homecoming of the characters and the impact their absence had on their loved ones at home. I would have really liked to see that personally.

 

[at Quark's]

Even with some minor tweaking it could have been a lot more interesting...

<Endgame opening scene>

Narrator on screen: "these should be familiar images to everyone who remembers the uss Voyager's triumphant return to earth after 23 years in the Delta Quadrant. After her commanding officer, Capt. Janeway, was courtmartialed, only to be cleared of all charges save one..."

<Janeway> Computer, end display.

It would have been sufficient for months of discussion here

 

[MacLeod]

Janeway was a menace to the space lanes hence why they promoted her out of them.

 

[Lance]

^ The equivalent of giving a regular DUI offender a job directing traffic instead of being out driving in it?

 

[borgboy]

I think a lot of time devoted to Voyager's crew's homecoming after their exciting return would've been a bit anti climactic. I think the scenes with Admiral Janeway on Earth was supposed to be an emotional impact of seeing the crew back on Earth. I think it worked well enough for me, but it doesn't seemed to have satisfied most people.
I would've enjoyed an episode that had Voyager's legal issues, with the Maquis on trial and Janeway answered for some of the rule breaking she did to get Voyager home.
I like time travel and I loved Admiral Janeway. It's mostly just the wretched 7/Chakotay romance that damages the finale for me. Thank God the novels sorted that out.

 

[MacLeod]

Then why not tell the story in flashback, have Janeway giving a lecture to a group of cadets on the event that got VOY home ten years earlier. There is no reason why that couldn't have invovled a jump of 20 000 light years and how Seven gave her life to get them home and Chakotay died whilst trying to rescue her.

 

[Lance]

People died after 20,000 light years of pure boredom.

Janeway needed to change history and get everybody home quicker because Ennui Kills™.

 

[bbjeg]

Honestly, I'd feel betrayed if we didn't see them arrive home.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I still like my tabula rasa Idea best. The episode Shattered happens and Janeway gets her initial wish, before Chakotay talked her into changing her mind. Everything starts again as it did before, because they don't remember any of what has happened...


The last image of the ep. is Voyager being sucked into the Delta Quadrant...

 

[Gaith]

I thought Endgame was a symptom of a burnt out writing team phoning it in.

Think about it, nearly every element was a rip off direct from all good things.

Time travel elements: check

Tacked on relationship that comes out of nowhere: check (Worf/deanna, Seven/chakotay )

Degenerative disease that comes out of nowhere (Picard, Tuvok)

Future Klingons a threat again: check.

And a myriad of other ways that prove they just took the tng script and copied and pasted it. With added borg.

I am sorry but I don't see random coincidences as a rip off.

Thou canst not be serious. Didn't they even re-use some of the "All Good Things" uniforms, with minor modifications?