when Riker said "Fire!" and then it said "To Be Continued..." I could have said "oh big deal, Picard can't die!" or whatever, but where's the fun in that? To me the characters that never die is just part of the deal, and besides the point in terms of storytelling/adventure!
The real fun was that Patrick Stewart was in a contract renegotiation! Had his agent decided otherwise, Riker and Shelby would have earned sudden promotions come the next season!
Huh! I did not know that! So okay, that's a bad example then if you realized this while watching. But there are tons of other moments that serve just as well -- knowing "in real life" that these characters will be back next week cannot truly matter in serialized storytelling otherwise none of us would be here now. Character deaths are to me a way to generate easy drama and figure a lack of imagination (ultimate example: Trip)! Clearly the Pocket Books authors don't need to rely on that kind of a gimmick to make stories work.
However, Janeway's not just death but TORTURE by becoming the very thing she fought so hard and thought she won against was pretty f'in cool and tragic in my opinion, so I'm down with that story happening. But let's get her out of Q-land sooner or later, so we can see what she makes of this post-borg-caeliar-typhon pact kind of a universe!