Removing Flashback.
The whole logic of it didn't make sense, it's like they wrote the entire episode around getting George Takei to show up and couldn't figure out where to go from there.
I am so going to cry...
It's not the best of the season, but - contrived or otherwise - is a nice homage to Trek as an anniversary special. Unlike DS9's "Tribbleations", it inserts characters into and expands on lore via bringing back a cast, without the need of splicing in effects. Plus, it's cool to see the Excelsior crew. But one has to roll with a lot... There's a lot of dialogue that tries to wave off continuity fluffs, and Janeway's take on how The Big Three wouldn't be allowed to be so cowboyish is more deftly handled than my first reaction way back when. It does get all Nexus-like when Janeway in the mindmeld can flit back and forth and re-do things, as if it's a glorified "choose your own adventure" novel... but passable as Tuvok's brain is going haywire, just like self-aware dreaming, so why not...? Yeah, the episode could have been better - no question. Could have been a lot worse too.
I thought about going after Future's End - not a fan of that two-parter. However, I can't as long as Warlord is on the list. Bad show and poor vehicle for Kes.
Braga and Menosky tried hard to continue the Trek tradition of going back in time to contemporary times, but
Future's End, Part I - despite a lot of witty one-liners and great double-acts, still gets a bit iffy - and too contrived for the cliffhanger, both in terms of the obvious with how many people saw the ship but also with the evil guy figuring out how to break into Voyager so quickly - 500 years alone means nothing in of itself. Not to mention how the EMH can wander around by happy accident. (Nor would the download of VOY's database be so quick to his 1996 computer, unless he's using a remote session to the 29th century ship but the Unix API is really a lot more functional than anyone let on, I guess...)
That said, Tom+Tuvok=Win.
The guest cast is uniformly strong; Ed Begley Jr is great and Sarah Silverman should have stayed in more serious roles, IMHO - YMMV.
And the disintegrator shootout scene was well done too.
Still, IMHO I'd put Flashback over Future's End...