Endgame
Here we are, the final episode of Voyager. I have to confess I've always had a strong hate for this episode, at least before tonight. I didn't like Admiral Janeway changing the timeline because Seven was going to Die. I hated the Chakotay/Seven relationship, and when I first saw this episode I was so mad that the final scene of the series that I had followed for 7 seasons was the ship just going to earth. We got no aftermath, no what happened to the Maquis, no what happened to Seven of Nine. It felt like everything in the series that came before this finale ended up being irrelevant because this finale ended up rewriting Voyager and slapping the fans in the face.
With that being said, I always come into this episode with a bit of consternation. However, having the chance to rewatch this entire series this year, I have to admit there are things about Endgame I really do like. For one, Tom and B'elanna finally having their Baby was a very lovely scene. I also liked seeing Meral Paris in Starfleet, and the toast To the Journey with Kim saying "Maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the Journey" is great. I've started to realize that if there was something Voyager was great at, it was it's heart. I think when all is said and done, Voyager's heart was in the right place and if you were a fan of this series and this journey with this family, than you might feel proud of the final result. They got home, Tom and B'Elanna had their baby, and we end with Voyager being escorted back to earth by the ships led by the pathfinder project.
As for the main plot with Admiral Janeway, I still don't like that aspect. We know Janeway violates the temporal prime directive a lot, but this time I do think she's gone too far. Not only does she change the past, but she introduces new technologies that the federation is not ready for. I really hope they destroyed all that new armor and tech, but somehow I doubt it. However, that wasn't the worst thing about this episode for me. The worst (And I think it was everyone's worst) was Chakotay and Seven. I don't know what this was, but it felt like we weren't actually watching the Chakotay or Seven character on screen. Chakotay was playing all lovey dovy with some lame ass dialouge and catch phrases, and Seven didn't feel like Seven. I could buy this if the writers actually gave me a reason to buy it, but it was a relationship that squandered the two characters and I really do feel bad for Beltran and Ryan that that happened.
Well that does it for the Voyager rewatch. This is a series I really do like, despite it's flaws, because I like the characters, I like how these people came together as a family, and I do think there was change. I hear a lot of people talk about how only Janeway, Seven, and The Doctor changed, but I think Tom and B'Elanna have to be in that list too. Tom went from a convict drunk to a married man who had a daughter and had reconciled with his Father. B'Elanna went from an angry maquis to Chief engineer and someone who learned to control her angry feelings and become the great mother she will be. Do I think Voyager is the best series? No. I probably rank it as my least favorite of the 5 live actions, but I still really liked it. I did a rewatch of Enterprise last year, and The Original this year and gained a much better appreciation for Enterprise and then the original is something I've always had respect for.
In terms of Voyager though, thanks everyone for reading along and following this thread with me. I really enjoyed watching Voyager again and talking about it with you all. It's been fun.
Now time to do a rewatch of DS9.
Hey, hey ... I agree with everything you said about ENDGAME (would you believe it?).
I guess everyone knows by now what an avid fan of this show I am and how I love everything Janeway says or does but ENDGAME was even too much for me.
It would have been bad enough if Janeway hadn't given a damn about the timeline because she wanted the save the whole crew. This in itself would have been very un-Janeway. But to do it just to save her grilfriend Seven of Nine (and partly Tuvok, although I've always felt he was the token crew member to be saved) was much too much for me. This is NOT the Janeway I've got to know and not the Janeway I love. Of course, people might explain it how this was Admiral Janeway and not Captain Janeway but the fact of the matter is that it was Janeway and she made a horrible decision. I was always able to relate to all her decisions, including TUVIX, SCORPION and all the major ones that she gets criticized for - but this ENDGAME was an un-Janeway episode for me.
The whole thing was made worse by all that talk about family. Yes, it's true that family has always been Voyager's forte. It's also true that the whole series has been revolving around this topic - after all this is what makes us viewers want to watch the next episode. It was just fitting that the last episode should be about family.
But, and this is a big BUT: wasn't it hypocritical to talk about family so much and then change the timeline to bring them home when their family was deficient, to say the least? If she wanted to bring her family home, couldn't she have gone back a few episodes earlier to save Carey, for example? Couldn't she have gone back a few years earlier to save Kes? Couldn't she have gone back to the point when they lost their very first member (probably CARETAKER) and save everyone?
Don't get me wrong, going back to CARETAKER and "undo" seven years of everything a la horrible Enterprise would have been a dumb decision on the part of the producers. But from Janeway's point of view? Wouldn't it have made a lot more sense after all that talk about family? Also, in that scene which everybody likes in the Briefing Room, am I the only one who is missing Neelix? If there ever was a character whose most important (=only) function on that show was to keep the family together, it was Neelix. And where were the others, Naomi and Samantha Wildman, Icheb, Chel and everyone else?
Disappointing at the least.
I didn't mind C/7 so much although the idea really came out of nowhere. But .. and again, for me this is a big but...
For Seven years we have a family show, largely driven by the friendship between Janeway and Chakotay. Although they never become boyfriend-girlfriend in the strictest sense of the word, the chance always hangs in the air. We see them in so many situations when this is the case and even if they are technically not a couple, you can always feel that they are there for each other, that Janeway can count on her First Officer despite their occasional conflicts, etc.
Now, in this situation, wouldn't the two main characters have deserved more than a few forgettable lines about a rejected invitation to lunch? Couldn't they have given them some lines with more substance, like Janeway saying to Chakotay that "we've been through a lot and we had our differences but if you're together with me on this, this is our chance to really get everyone home" - or something similar. Didn't they deserve a better treatment?
Other than that ... I've reconciled myself to ENDGAME over the years. This, after all, is my favourite show of all time so I'm not going to let my fun be ruined by an ending that is lacking to say the least. For me, ENDGAME would have been the best if they hadn't made it back at all (something to do with the female Caretaker for example). Then we wouldn't have got all that crap in the relaunch books, most notably that the Delta Quadrant can be reached within two and a half hours with slipstream technology. My God, the very idea!
BTW,
@tomalak301 fyi, in the relaunch books Starfleet will oblige Voyager to get rid of all the modifications so the ship will be transformed back into a regular Intrepid-class ship. Which, again, is I think a dumb decision since anything pre-ENDGAME could have come in handy later - but there you go.
Dear
tomalak, thank you for this thread. I really liked coming here (practically on a daily basis). Like I said earlier, I think you make a great group leader so again I would like to encourage you to start another group on Voyager - if not now, then at a later time. You surely have one follower already ...
As for DS9, I'm not that keen on that show. However, since it is the second best of all the Trek shows in my book, I might pop in occasionally.
If you decide to do a rewatch of StarGate SG-1 one day (this is my second favourite show after Voyager), please let me know.
Cheers!
- but if I found any of them slightly annoying, it was exactly HOMESTEAD.
