VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thoughts?

[NervousEnergy]

Shattered is one of my favourite episodes from Season 7, and it occurred to me that it would have made an excellent two-parter final episode of the series.

For those of you who forget, in Shattered Chakotay deals with Voyager being split into different timestreams; he has to team up with a Borgified 7of9, a Caretaker Janeway, future Naomi Wildman..

When watching the episode I really thought that it was a shame we didn't get to see more timestreams. The episode harked back to some great episodes like Macrocosm and Scorpian; but I think a Series Finale could have expanded this to include all sorts of great episodes from all over the series.

Janeways dilemma, where she believes it's best for the crew to sync everything with her timeline (thus avoiding the deaths from the later seasons) was great; but I thought it was ended a little too easily. I'd love to have seen this, very logical, dilemma expanded as a theme across a two-parter. In a way it's very similar to the dilemma eventually faces in Endgame.. but it makes a heck of a lot more sense, as here she is wanting to save her entire crew the seven year voyage; instead of the Endgame Janeway just wanting to save Chakotay and 7of9.

I'd also like to have seen some more future timestreams. It would have been very cool to see how the show COULD have progressed, if it took them another 60 years to get home.

The episode really reminded me of TNG All Good Things... with the three timelines. But I think the best thing about Shattered is that it brought the entire series together: we got to see old villains (Seska), got to revisit great moments, and see how the characters have changed over the seven years (and beyond..)

A longer two-parter could have seen us revisit all sorts of different timestreams, more indepth, from some of the best of Voyager's episodes. I'd have loved to see how the different crew would react to events they've not encountered yet. It would also be a great send off to Voyager, IMO: referencing up all the best of the episodes.

I'm not sure how you could have ended the show with them returning to Earth > haven't really thought that far.

What do you guys think?

 

[Melakon]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

I like "Shattered" well enough, but it's sort of like a clip show without being a clip show.

On the other hand, Robert Beltran said "I hated that episode."

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

"Shattered" as our final act would have saved us from the HORROR known as C/7.

If you wanted to use Shattered as a finale, I would not have brought them home. I would have pulled a "Quantum Leap" and left them out there in the DQ, mid journey.

Of course... I HATED IT when QL's PTB did that to Sam Beckett, but hey I'm a lot older now than I was when QL graced our TV screens.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

The little future snippet, where Voyager actually became a generational ship and the computers had funky alien glyphs on them, really fascinated me.

And the bit where Chak kidnaps Janeway, drags her backward out of her ready room and emerges in a long corridor just kinda made me go, huh?


It was an enjoyable episode, but I'm not sure it would make a good finale, unless there was more future stuff and they learn a lesson about it being the journey and not the destination. Or something.

 

[NervousEnergy]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

The little future snippet, where Voyager actually became a generational ship and the computers had funky alien glyphs on them, really fascinated me.

And the bit where Chak kidnaps Janeway, drags her backward out of her ready room and emerges in a long corridor just kinda made me go, huh?


It was an enjoyable episode, but I'm not sure it would make a good finale, unless there was more future stuff and they learn a lesson about it being the journey and not the destination. Or something.

Interestingly most deckplans I've seen of the bridge do indeed show a corridor behind her Ready Room! http://i.imgur.com/NxodyAw.jpg

 

[Tiberius]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

A series finale where they look at the ships as it is/was/will be in different time frames? Sounds cool. Perhaps they could explain the jumps through time by having them be caused by an eruption of ANTI-time, and they have to get all the ships together to stop it, and maybe Q is involved somehow...

 

[Dream]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

Timeless would have been the perfect series finale for me. None of that Endgame nonsense please.

 

[Destructor]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

I'd have loved to see how the different crew would react to events they've not encountered yet. It would also be a great send off to Voyager, IMO: referencing up all the best of the episodes.

What do you guys think?

I thought this when I first saw it and I completely agree with you- would have been an awesome finale. This dialogue, I think, sums up Voyager better than anything in the actual finale:

"The Delta Quadrant is a death trap."
"What about the Temporal Prime Directive?"
"To hell with it."
"With all due respect, it's a little presumptuous to think you have the right to change everyone's future."
"From what l've seen, they'll thank me."
"All you've seen are bits and pieces. You're not getting the whole picture."
"Really? Just what am l missing?"
"lt's not what, it's who. People like Seven of Nine, a Borg drone
who'll become a member of this crew after you help her recover her humanity. Or Tom Paris, a former convict who'll be our pilot, chief medic and a husband to B'Elanna Torres."
"That angry woman l just met?"
"She's going to be your Chief Engineer. Two crews, Maquis and Starfleet, are going to become one, and they'll make as big a mark on the Delta Quadrant as it'll make on them, by protecting people like the Ocampans, curing diseases, encouraging peace. Children like Naomi and lcheb are going to grow up on this ship and call it home. And we'll all be following a Captain who sets a course for Earth and never stops believing that we'll get there."
"Are you going to be lecturing me like this for the next seven years?"
"Don't worry, you'll always get the last word."

Timeless would have been the perfect series finale for me. None of that Endgame nonsense please.

Endgame basically WAS Timeless, but with Janeway taking Harry's place.

 

[Yanks]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

Not sure. It doesn't include any Chuckles/Seven interaction/relationship.

I don't think you could have a Voyager closer without that.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

Shattered was more a fanservice episode. It wasn't a dramatic episode like Timeless that dealt with the core premise of the series, it was more a 'Spot the fan-friendly reference' game. Like, Icheb and Naomi as adults, hey that's cool.

I would have preferred a finale that was just something separate on it's own rather than leaning on the Borg and time travel elements of the series though.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

The little future snippet, where Voyager actually became a generational ship and the computers had funky alien glyphs on them, really fascinated me.

And the bit where Chak kidnaps Janeway, drags her backward out of her ready room and emerges in a long corridor just kinda made me go, huh?


It was an enjoyable episode, but I'm not sure it would make a good finale, unless there was more future stuff and they learn a lesson about it being the journey and not the destination. Or something.

Interestingly most deckplans I've seen of the bridge do indeed show a corridor behind her Ready Room! http://i.imgur.com/NxodyAw.jpg

Huh. I always thought the bridge deck was just the bridge, ready room, conference room. Learn something every day...

 

[jaz'a]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

Shattered would have been terrible as a series finale. It was an okay episode but nothing fantastic about it. I don't see how they could have wrapped it up all nicely with it - and whilst endgame isn't perfect, I do like the ending.

The little future snippet, where Voyager actually became a generational ship and the computers had funky alien glyphs on them, really fascinated me.

And the bit where Chak kidnaps Janeway, drags her backward out of her ready room and emerges in a long corridor just kinda made me go, huh?


It was an enjoyable episode, but I'm not sure it would make a good finale, unless there was more future stuff and they learn a lesson about it being the journey and not the destination. Or something.

Interestingly most deckplans I've seen of the bridge do indeed show a corridor behind her Ready Room! http://i.imgur.com/NxodyAw.jpg

Huh. I always thought the bridge deck was just the bridge, ready room, conference room. Learn something every day...

That exit to the corridor is used in a few other episodes as well.

The one with the bajoran mind control comes to mind as one.

 

[Lance]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

The episode really reminded me of TNG All Good Things... with the three timelines. But I think the best thing about Shattered is that it brought the entire series together: we got to see old villains (Seska), got to revisit great moments, and see how the characters have changed over the seven years (and beyond..)

Just to run with this for a mo...

The trouble with "Shattered" really is that Voyager didn't change nearly enough in seven years for it to make such an immediate visual impact as did TNG.

When Picard started time hopping in "All Good Things", we got splashed in the face by Onesies, Skants, different set designs, and actress Denise Crosby pretending she isn't seven years older and desperate for any kind of paycheck.

When Chuckles crossed the boundries in "Shattered", we got Captain Kate with her hair in a bun. And Seska camping it up in engineering. And, um...

It's just surprising they didn't roll out Lieutenant Carey again for this one. And had Chuckles say "Hey, Carey" before doing a double-take.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

Call me crazy, but I would've preferred a series finale that ended with Voyager not getting home, but instead warping off into the distance to continue their endless voyage, closing with a shot very much like the one that ended TNG.

 

[Destructor]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

Shattered was more a fanservice episode. It wasn't a dramatic episode like Timeless that dealt with the core premise of the series, it was more a 'Spot the fan-friendly reference' game. Like, Icheb and Naomi as adults, hey that's cool.

But a 90-minute version could have fleshed that out some. I think Chakotay's point that, hey, this journey actually means something, has value to people, that was far superior to the theme of the actual finale, which seemed to be that, all things being equal, they journey was not worth it and most of it should have been erased from history.

Call me crazy, but I would've preferred a series finale that ended with Voyager not getting home, but instead warping off into the distance to continue their endless voyage, closing with a shot very much like the one that ended TNG.

That would have driven the fans soooo crazy. The 'story' of Voyager was how they got lost, and how they got home. You had to end the story.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

I don't agree with that. The essence of Voyager was exploration, and the "getting lost" was simply the means to that end, a way of providing the show with the means to explore a part of space previously unexplored in the Star Trek universe. To end the series on such a note would've been vastly better than the overblown fanboy-porn type ending they received.

 

[Destructor]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

Don't get me wrong- I'm not a fan of the finale and I do think that having them just 'keeping on adventuring' would have been a bold and controversial choice. But Voyager wasn't bold and controversial, which is why they would never have done it.

 

[Paris]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

I always wanted them to get home, and i'm glad they did get home, i just wish the episode didn't end JUST as they got home. Thank god for the post-finale novels

 

[Richard Baker]

Re: VOY 'Shattered' could have made an excellent Series Final. Thought

I think it would have been great that instead of having Naomi and lcheb depicting the future of Voyager they had encountered a tour group from the Star Fleet Museum wandering around the ship taking pictures.