How would you have liked Voyager to end? (Spoilers)

[Antonovus]

(Spoilers will be here obviously)
I recently was engaged in discussion with another individual on this forum who argued that the ending to VOY felt rushed and almost came off as a deus ex machina scenario. I would like to know other members' perspective on the close of Voyager. How would have liked the series to end? Or did you simply like how the show ended? Give me your thoughts.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Janeway wakes up in a bedroom on Earth. Molly runs up to greet her. She hears water coming from the bathroom, so she moves closer to investigate. She looks in, Mark steps out of the shower, sees her expression, and says, "What?"

Roll credits.

Nerd rage ensues.

 

[Thomas Eugene]

I would have been OK with the ending except that Janeway gave a beep about the timeline. And for what? To save Seven of Nine at the expense of millions of lives.
I found that this was irresponsible behaviour on her side. It would have been irresponsible to do so even if she had wanted to save an entire planet. Like she did in CARETAKER. But there, at least she didn't have to wipe away the potential existence of millions/billlions/trillions of people in order to do so. In ENDGAME I thought that this was not typical of Janeway because she had usually taken sides in conflicts during the journey earlier and had constantly kept trying to protect the innocent.
Here on her last adventure, as if old age had taken its toll on her she became obsessed with getting her crew home to the extent that she didn't even care about other people any more. She was not like that during the rest of the show.
So no matter how different the ending would have been from what it is now, it should have beeen done with regard to the existence of (billions of) innocent people.
Otherwise I found the ending OK. In contrast to most people I wasn't bothered by the fact that they didn't reach Earth and were not greeted by Starfleet at a welcoming ceremony. This, at least gave us Christie Golden's HOMECOMING - God bless her for that book.
BTW, if I had been director of that show, I would have brought Kes and the Caretaker (male or female or both) back somehow and included them in the last episode. If Janeway was that adamant that her crew should not come back to Earth without Seven, then perhaps she could have been at least as much adamant that Kes and Neelix - not to mention minor characters like Carey and Hogan, etc. - should also be brought back home.
As a director I would have tied the story more to what was going on at Starfleet HQ and would have included Deanna Troi as well. She worked so well with Barclay and Paris (admiral) - I'd love to have seen her in the last episode.
However, one good thing did come out of ENDGAME: Kirsten Beyer's lovely book, THE ETERNAL TIDE. I thought it was a fascinating read, mainly because Janeway is confronted in it with the consequences of her actions in ENDGAME.

No matter how flawed one thinks ENDGAME is, it seems that the relaunch writers are doing their best to correct the errors in that story. Kudos to them!

 

[Takeru]

I wouldn't have used the vorg or time travel at all for the finale. At that point they were regularly in contact with Starflee and pathfinder was actively working on finding a way to get them home.
I would have let Voyager find something that could help them, like a subspace ... tunnel thing. It could be used as a one time boost to somewhere and with pathfinder's help they could set up a special beacon or something that would ensure that the tunnel spits them out in federation space.

It would resmeble one of those "This could be a way home ... aww, crap!" plots except this time it actually works, I'd have various crewmembers talk about how they're hopeful but they'd also be doubtful and don't want to get to excited and then after the first hour of the finale *boom* they're home.
The second hour of the finale would take place a year later, I didn't just want to see them get home, I wanted to see them be home but the immediate homecoming is not interesting.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Chakotay's new Girlfriend turns out to be Susperia.

 

[Triskelion]

^ HA HA HA.

In a transporter accident when beaming Tuvok and Neelix to a Vorg cube (oh yes, the Borg assimilated Vulcan), Tactical Ambassador Tuvix emerges from the matter stream and subsequently subdues the Borg with his patented Leola Root Body Spray for Humanoid Men. Then Tuvix and the Vorg open up a quantum singularity to Earth. Voyager pulls a Millennium Falcon hitchhike number on back of the cube. Tuvix, having seen Star Wars a combined total of 327 times, employs a maverick tactical technique called "looking out a window," and sees Voyager lurking in the nasty Vorg flotsam. Having found her out, he orders the cube to open its big spiral exit hatch around Voyager. Janeway, completely outmaneuvered by her old nemesis, is impressed. On the main viewer, Tuvix mentions he is looking forward to assimilating a piece of her pecan pie. She says OK but only with a couple scoops of his kooky vanilla-chocolate swirl. They share a prolonged moment.

Harry activates the self-destruct.

Roll credits.

 

[JoeZhang]

I would have had a scene at star fleet command where Janeway gives an impassioned speech about the crew and how they managed to get home in only seven years.

I would then have had the voice of Picard saying 'big deal, I went across the universe and back in 45 minutes' and then fade to black.

 

[stardream]

I would have had them ignore Admiral Janeway and go around the nebula. We know they eventually get home because we saw that at the beginning of the episode. People would have died and Miral Paris would have grown up on Voyager hopefully with siblings and other 'space' children.

But then that would mess up the motivation for the whole Destiny Trilogy...which I really liked.

 

[Dukhat]

I recently was engaged in discussion with another individual on this forum who argued that the ending to VOY felt rushed and almost came off as a deus ex machina scenario.

That individual is correct.

As for my take: Not only should Voyager never have returned to Earth, but the whole "we need to get home" angle should have been dropped from the show years before. They should have picked a spot to stay, and then tried to form their own little Federation in the Delta Quadrant with some of the indigenous races there. The finale would have been set 100 years in the future, where a Starfleet vessel travels to the Delta Quadrant only to be met by this new Federation that the Voyager crew founded, and even though they are long dead, the ship still exists, and is brought back to Earth as a monument to the crew's efforts.

Of course, they way the show went, this could never have happened.

 

[Antonovus]

In the height of the final action, the scene fades to a shot of Neelix drawing comics of the series. The whole thing was just in Neelix's mind because he was lonely on his salvage ship. The camera pans to a shot of his face as he sighs, puts away his last drawing, and then cuts to black.

 

[Terok Nor]

Not the way it did end that's for sure. Endgame was too derivative of All Good Things and Timeless. Not to mention the Borg were about as threatening as a stubbed toe by this point.

If it had to end the way it did the one thing I'd change is adding in scenes that show what really happened to the crew once they got home. Since the last shot was Janeway on the bridge and Voyager in orbit it left me with the lingering impression they never got home even though they did.

 

[hux]

Everyone's celebrating and laughing then a ship appears from the temporal integrity commission to take Voyager back cos it's utterly plastered in admiral Janeway's future technology. "What? You thought we'd just let you fucking take super advanced 2404 technology back to 2378? Back to the Delta quadrant with you."

Personally, I would have liked Voyager to have ended with them still in the Delta quadrant. Still trying to get home.

 

[Terok Nor]

I actually like the ending to Course : Oblivion as a real ending.

 

[MacLeod]

Janeway uses the device to travel back to "Caretaker", so they can use the array to sent the ship back home. That way she can save most of her crew. Or she travels back to a time just before caretaker and destroys the array before it can pull Voygaer to the DQ. She saves her entire crew.

 

[tomalak301]

I would have liked to see Voyager get home about 5 episodes earlier and see how they readjusted to life back home. I wanted to know what happened to the doctor, or if 7 was cured of her defect so she could fully live the human normal life or what happened to the Maquis crew. I was really more curious about 7 than any other character and I wish we would have gotten something.

 

[Avro Arrow]

The second hour of the finale would take place a year later, I didn't just want to see them get home, I wanted to see them be home but the immediate homecoming is not interesting.

I would have liked to see Voyager get home about 5 episodes earlier and see how they readjusted to life back home. I wanted to know what happened to the doctor, or if 7 was cured of her defect so she could fully live the human normal life or what happened to the Maquis crew. I was really more curious about 7 than any other character and I wish we would have gotten something.

In all seriousness, I would have much preferred something like this. As it is now, the ending is like "Oh, look, we're h..."<ROLL CREDITS!!!>, and has barely any emotional impact at all.

I would have liked to see them get home with four to six episodes left to go. (The "how" is not that important, but hopefully without the time-travel shenanigans that they actually used.) Then the last arc deals with the repercussions... having to integrate back into the larger Starfleet, picking of the pieces with family members and loved ones you haven't seen in seven years, what to do with the Maquis crew, asking Janeway to account for some of her more questionable decisions, etc. I know it would probably come off as more of a six-episode version of "Family" rather than your typical Trek episodes, but I think this show needed it.

Personally, I would have liked Voyager to have ended with them still in the Delta quadrant. Still trying to get home.

Which of course would have left the studio with the option to continue the series with the occasional telemovie, since fans would be clamouring to find out what ultimately happened to the crew. Which would then give us such gems as Rescue from the Delta Quadrant, The Voyager Crew in the Delta Quadrant, and the fairly-inexplicable The Harlem Globetrotters in the Delta Quadrant. Although they would be generally well-received, fans would inevitably complain due to the continual recasting of Seven of Nine, in addition to the inanity of basketball-playing robots.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Oh wow, what a brilliant question. Antonovus!

I shall have taken back certain sequences of the beginning of the episode to place them simply at the end and by modifying them a little :
- the flying of Voyager above the Golden Gate where people (among which siblings of the crew (for example, Janeway's mother & sister, Tom's father & sisters and of course, Harry's parents) would celebrate the return
- I would have popped over 5 or 10 years later for a big reunion "chaired" by Admiral Janeway making a small speech in front of her former crew among which, we would find Tom/B' Elena/Miral , the Doctor, Tuvok & his wife, a fresh Lieutenant Junior Naomie Wildman with her parents reunited, Neelix and his family specially invited for this occasion, Ensign or Lieutenant Jr (like Naomie) Icheb and of course, Chakotay accompanied with his new partner AND a Seven much more comfortable in the middle of the crowd.
And to close the final in beauty, the very last scene could be a greatly touched Janeway going to front of her former "old" fellow companions during a walkabout to greet them, in embracing them (including Tuvok or the Doctor) and share this moment together. All smiles and cheers in around them.
It would have been wonderful.

 

[Finn]

No. Voyager should ended with with Janeway in a vision. Surrounded by Chakotay and Tuvok saying "The Janeway is of Delta Quadrant".

This would after Voyager was thrown back in time by Admiral Janeway deep inside Dominon Space. Thanks to its armor, Janeway is able to destroy scores of Dominion worlds, bases and factories. The Federation won thanks to Voyager.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Wasn't there a thread which touched on this subject already?

Sigh. Anyway, I would've liked a conclusion which wrapped up the crews' journey through the Delta Quadrant. What did Janeway learned from her stupid decision to destroy the array? Would Chakotay and the Maquis decide to make a break for it as they got close to the Alpha Quadrant? And Tuvok discovered those possible actions. Would Star Fleet command press charges on the terrorist acts the Maquis crew had done and how will Janeway resolve this?

Harry Kim finally getting a promotion; his services on board the ship should've been enough for him to get one.
How would the Riker wannabe Tom Paris handle his wife could possibly be behind bars for being a terrorist, and what about their baby?

I would've liked some character conflicts which could effect them than another poorly written, leftover Next Generation adventure.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Wasn't there a thread which touched on this subject already?

If so, hopefully Future-Antonovus will come back in time and post this one first.