Just watched Endgame, misc. thoughts

[RyuRoots]

So I wrapped up VOY recently with Endgame, and where to start?

Okay, let's start with the Chakotay/Seven romance (such as it is). This...has to be the single worst romance in Trek I've ever seen. Even worse than the multitude of garbage throwaway 'romance of the week' stories. Nevermind that the finale as a whole wallowed in the same mediocrity and lack of closure that has so plagued VOY in general, this shoddy romance story is without a doubt the worst part of it to me.

Maybe I missed an ep somewhere that hinted at this, but what the frigging hell? There is no one on the ship that Seven has LESS chemistry with. It feels so forced that I'm amazed the characters in the show don't roll their eyes during scenes. This stupid romance subplot which has all the buildup and carefully-crafted story of a drag race just leaves me with my mouth left open, gawking at the screen wondering how anyone could be expected to buy it.

Janeway. Her arguing with her future self is hilarious to me, because I don't see it I think the way the writers intended. I see it as an in-show example of how ridiculously inconsistent her character is, an unintentional lampshade-hanging. In particular, I remember in Night, Janeway recalled her actions at the end of Caretaker a mistake. She no longer thinks so in Endgame because the plot requires her not to.

I thought Tim Russ did a great job with Senile!Tuvok

The visual effect for Voyager preparing for battle with Future!Janeway's modifications is really freaking cool, and seeing it obliterate the cubes so easily was maybe a bit ridiculous, but very fun to watch.

Predictability. You know how the ep is going to end before the end of part I. Future!Janeway is going to be stuck in the past forever, there are Borg cubes in a potential way to get home. Once those things are revealed, it is painfully obvious that Future!Janeway will do a HeroicSacrificetm and blow up the Borg and Voyager will be able to go home while still solving the Voyager Moral Dilemmatm. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

All Good Things... and What You Leave Behind both had some good surprises in them, and didn't so much end with a bang as with a supernova. But VOY...goes out with not a whimper or a bang. It just goes out. What will Tom's face-to-face reunion with Admiral Paris would be like? What about Tuvok's with his family? What will life for Seven be like now that she knows she still has family on Earth? What will happen to the Equinox survivors? Will Janeway finally get that court martial?(I've been reading too much SFDebris reviews, don't mind me) All of these questions and many more are not even given a moment's thought. No closure, no surprises, no fascinating story. It's just....okay. Not too bad, not too good, just okay.

Which is fitting, in a way, since that's kind of VOY's thing; not being bad or good, but just kinda being...there. Don't get me wrong, I like VOY more than I dislike it, and there are a handful of episodes that rival the best of TNG and DS9. But there's too much bad and too much 'eh' for me to call it anything other than an "okay" show.

So, I'm sure I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said here before. Just felt like saying my piece now that I've finished it.

As something of an aside, I was pumped about reading the Destiny trilogy before, but after all the Borg VOY shoved down my throat, maybe I'll put it off for a year. Or fifty.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Yeah, Voyager had a lot of inconsistencies with the characters throughout the series. This is how I rationalized out the evolution for the Janeway and Seven characters:

Janeway went by the Starfleet book in the beginning and got the ship stranded in "Caretaker." She still tried to run the ship in the Delta Quadrant in a Starfleet way by giving the Maquis crewmembers the appropriate Starfleet training ("Learning Curve"). She is driven to get her crew home and still be a good representative of the Federation along the way. Her guilt about stranding the crew catches up with her and she starts bending/breaking the rules later on. This struggle between her Starfleet responsibility and her all-too-human conscience is evident as she isn't consistent in her seesawing actions and attitude as their journey continues. Her conscience wins out in "Endgame" as Admiral Janeway blatantly breaks the Temporal Prime Directive and helps her younger self reach the Alpha Quadrant sooner than she should. Captain Janeway didn't protest the idea as much as she would have at the beginning of their trek home. Like Kirk in "Amok Time" or "The Search for Spock," she valued a crewperson's life more than the consequences of disobeying orders. This is a nice contrast from how she was portrayed in "Flashback" when commenting about the actions of Capts. Kirk and Sulu. Someone's growing as a captain!




Seven of Nine is more than just a sex object. She has a friendship with Janeway similar to what Spock had with Kirk. Janeway has befriended Seven and is helping her discover the value of her humanity for what it is. In the beginning, Seven sees herself superior to others because of her Borg nature. She has little patience with developing social skills because they're inefficient although she's hiding a terrible loneliness after being cut off from the Borg ("One"). She's learning to develop character traits that individuals have: emotional attachments ("Drone"); interest in music, dating ("Someone to Watch Over You"); and developing trust ("Voyager Conspiracy"). She comes almost full circle when Icheb and the other Borg children come aboard and Seven finds herself in the role that Janeway provided for her. At the end of Voyager's journey, she has entered a romantic relationship with Chakotay (before "Endgame," I can't recall the name of the episode where her Borg implants are deathly curtailing her ability to express emotions. I think she originally was recreating Chakotay on the Holodeck before opening up a relationship with the real Chakotay) and striving to embrace the full extent of her humanity in spite of the restrictions her Borg implants place on experiencing those emotions.


Hope that helps a little !!