Voyager Doesn't Return to Earth in the Finale (hear me out)

[Orphalesion]

Just because something is stupid, it doesn't deserve to be dismissed completely out of hand.

But there is no point to any of this, so...

It's nothing against you as a person (I don't know you, so I'm incapable of having anything against you), it's just...this is like one of those threads on the forum of Ice and Fire that goes "so what if ignore all the extremely obvious hints on Jon's parentage and instead pretend this extremely inconsequential character is his father, even though it would destroy all internal logic and narrative gravitas?"

Because well, this would destroy the narrative gravitas of the final episode, and the most problematic part of this, well let's call it an idea, is that there is nothing to clue in the audience that the planet is anything else except our Earth. To me that's the only nail in the coffin an idea like this needs.
Plus the lack of payoff, since it was the last episode.

 

[F. King Daniel]

With all the duplicate Earths spammed all over in TOS, this could have been an amazing fakeout. They find Earth but it's in the Delta Quadrant. They're home... but it's not quite. Who would stay?

Damn, someone write a fanfic.

 

[1001001]

Damn, someone write a fanfic.

Or don’t…

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The entire point of the series is Voyager returning to Earth. If they don't do that, then the show was all for nothing.

Kind of like if Sam Beckett spent the rest of his life leaping and never returned home. Oh, wait....

As for the duplicate Earths, I rather like how @Christopher puts it in his Department of Temporal Investigations novels:

Spoiler

Miri's world, for example. It isn't a duplicate Earth (not like, say, Magna Roma, which he suggests was set up by the Preservers, using transplanted Earth humans), it actually IS Earth, from another timeline.

 

[Orphalesion]

With all the duplicate Earths spammed all over in TOS, this could have been an amazing fakeout. They find Earth but it's in the Delta Quadrant. They're home... but it's not quite. Who would stay?

Maybe if it was a comedy show, but for a series that at least attempted to take itself serious, it would have been a bit ill-suited I'd say. That's like cliffhanger material for in-between seasons, not for a series finale.

And regardless of the what if scenario "if they had ended the series that way"(which I still think is close to nil) nothing to the effect was communicated to the audience so saying now "what if it wasn't Earth" is pretty useless.

As for the duplicate Earths, I rather like how @Christopher puts it in his Department of Temporal Investigations novels:

Spoiler

Miri's world, for example. It isn't a duplicate Earth (not like, say, Magna Roma, which he suggests was set up by the Preservers, using transplanted Earth humans), it actually IS Earth, from another timeline.

Gotta say, this is the first time I hear that, but I don't really like that idea, I mean seriously? Making all those planets

Spoiler

Earths that, somehow, slithered in from alternate timelines...like why so many Earths? Where's the time displaced Q'onoses? Vulcans? Tellars? Betazeds? Bajors? etc etc etc

. Yeah the duplicate Earth in Miri was kinda goofy and for that it might be an acceptable solution, but for stuff like Magna Roma, I'd rather go with an Ancient Roman population from Earth displaced to another planet or something like that or alternatively forgotten colonies that were created by early colonists specifically to copy that part of history, like

Spoiler

Andy Billups' homeworld on LD

. And a Piece of the Action and Patterns of Force had other explanations.

 

[Phoenix219]

With all the duplicate Earths spammed all over in TOS, this could have been an amazing fakeout. They find Earth but it's in the Delta Quadrant. They're home... but it's not quite. Who would stay?

Damn, someone write a fanfic.

That would have been a great episode as a fakeout, part way through Voyagers run. Imagine the cold open for that one??

I am two episodes behind on Lower Decks at the moment. Did I miss something concerning Andy Billups?

 

[1001001]

The entire point of the series is Voyager returning to Earth. If they don't do that, then the show was all for nothing.

Agreed.

Kind of like if Sam Beckett spent the rest of his life leaping and never returned home. Oh, wait....

Disagreed.

The ending of Quantum Leap was perfect.

 

[Deks]

Nope. The Borg are all about assimilating Earth and the Federation. Every time we've seen them in the Alpha Quadrant (with the exception of Lore's rogue Borg), that's what they've tried to do.

Except fot the fact that the attempts were half rear ended at best.
The Borg would usually only send 1 ship to assimilate Earth and UFP, and even though this happened already (and failed), you'd think the Collective would have send at least several hundred to thousands of cubes the next time around.
For Arturis star system alone, the Collective sent hundreds of cubes.

The Borg assimilation attempts at Earth and UFP at large seem more like: send one ship at a time... and if it works, it works... if not, we repeat again a few years later - but honestly, the Collective doesn't seem overtly bothered by assimilating Earth and UFP.
Seems rather stupid if you ask me especially with having a TW conduit less than 1 Ly waway from Earth (which is now destroyed).

The Borg's methods are more consistent with farming methodology.... by testing the UFP capabilities and technological evolution over time every time they send a ship... which still gathers data even if its destroyed.

 

[Dukhat]

The entire point of the series is Voyager returning to Earth. If they don't do that, then the show was all for nothing.

And in my opinion, that's where the show went wrong. When your premise is 'the ship is trying to return to Earth,' then it's fairly obvious that the ship isn't going to return to Earth until the last episode of the series, thereby making all other attempts throughout the seasons of returning to Earth pointless, because you know they're going to fail.

At some point, they should have just thrown out the 'return to Earth' premise and randomly flying through space, and just settle somewhere and try to make the best of it. Because the 'randomly flying through space' thing just gets your ship destroyed every episode only to have it be miraculously fixed at the start of the next episode. The whole show just becomes unbelievable episodic drivel.

The ending of Quantum Leap was perfect.

And it was perfect precisely because Beckett never returned home. The premise went from "Sam Beckett is hoping that his next leap will be the leap home" to "Sam Beckett's whole reason for leaping is to make things better, so he'll keep leaping for the rest of his life."

Now apply that to VOY. Instead of the premise "The Voyager crew is trying to get back to Earth," imagine instead that it was "The Voyager crew were sent to the Delta Quadrant for a reason, and that is to make things better so that Janeway can form a new Federation." Now that would have been a great show.

Except fot the fact that the attempts were half rear ended at best.
The Borg would usually only send 1 ship to assimilate Earth and UFP, and even though this happened already (and failed), you'd think the Collective would have send at least several hundred to thousands of cubes the next time around.
For Arturis star system alone, the Collective sent hundreds of cubes.

The Borg assimilation attempts at Earth and UFP at large seem more like: send one ship at a time... and if it works, it works... if not, we repeat again a few years later - but honestly, the Collective doesn't seem overtly bothered by assimilating Earth and UFP.
Seems rather stupid if you ask me especially with having a TW conduit less than 1 Ly waway from Earth (which is now destroyed).

The Borg's methods are more consistent with farming methodology.... by testing the UFP capabilities and technological evolution over time every time they send a ship... which still gathers data even if its destroyed.

Farming or not, their ultimate goal is to assimilate Earth and the Federation. Which, as you say, makes it very odd that they had a TW conduit less than 1 Ly away from Earth and they didn't send a thousand cubes into it. But that's not because of any Borg 'farming' tactic, it's because of horribly sloppy writing.

 

[Orphalesion]

Now apply that to VOY. Instead of the premise "The Voyager crew is trying to get back to Earth," imagine instead that it was "The Voyager crew were sent to the Delta Quadrant for a reason, and that is to make things better so that Janeway can form a new Federation." Now that would have been a great show.
.

Oh just imagine that would have been the plot of the last couple of seasons. I would have watched the hell out of that. Maybe the last episode could have been Voyager rallying the new, Delta Quadrant Federation to deal a decisive blow against the Borg.
...and then they could have still have them discover some Borg technology that would allow Voyager to go home...leaving the former wild Delta Quadrant in the capable hands of the alliance/federation they have helped forge.

 

[Deks]

Farming or not, their ultimate goal is to assimilate Earth and the Federation. Which, as you say, makes it very odd that they had a TW conduit less than 1 Ly away from Earth and they didn't send a thousand cubes into it. But that's not because of any Borg 'farming' tactic, it's because of horribly sloppy writing.

We know the real life reason is sloppy writing... but if we're talking in-universe reason (that could be credible), then the fact the UFP is halfway across the galaxy and comprised of over 150 alien species working together probably gave the Collective ideas that because technology and science evolve exponentially, the UFP could create ridiculously powerful technologies in short time spans (much shorter compared to just 1 civilization) that they could then assimilate by checking how far UFP has progressed after a few years.

So, even if UFP is 'behind' on the technical curve in some areas, they would be able to catch up incredibly quickly and then surpass it by lightyears (or at least, that's how UFP's progression SHOULD have been).

What's also interesting is the fact that UFP now has access to Borg TW technology too because VOY got its hands on both non functional and fully functional TW coil.
Even if they only had non functional one, the whole hw as such would give UFP the ability to reverse engineer it quickly.

I would have thought the Borg would have been more 'diligent' about self destroying technology that's been left behind because even non functional Borg hw would provide massive insight into how their tech works.

 

[1001001]

And it was perfect precisely because Beckett never returned home. The premise went from "Sam Beckett is hoping that his next leap will be the leap home" to "Sam Beckett's whole reason for leaping is to make things better, so he'll keep leaping for the rest of his life."

The key to the ending of Quantum Leap was that Sam chose to continue.

Now apply that to VOY. Instead of the premise "The Voyager crew is trying to get back to Earth," imagine instead that it was "The Voyager crew were sent to the Delta Quadrant for a reason, and that is to make things better so that Janeway can form a new Federation." Now that would have been a great show.

If they could have found a satisfying reason why the entire crew chose to stay (something similar to the crew of Discovery staying with Michael) I could have gotten on board.

 

[Dukhat]

The key to the ending of Quantum Leap was that Sam chose to continue.

My memory might be faulty, but I don't remember Sam being given a choice. I thought Captain Braxton told Sam that leaping was pretty much what he was destined to do. I could be wrong about that though. Irregardless...

If they could have found a satisfying reason why the entire crew chose to stay (something similar to the crew of Discovery staying with Michael) I could have gotten on board.

That's the thing, though: if there was no choice involved, and the crew were stuck there because the prevailing attitude was that they were actually there for a reason that was greater than themselves or their desire to get back to Earth, then that would have been more compelling than giving each individual crew member any choice in the matter. Sometimes people become heroes not because they choose to be, but because circumstances out of their control dictate it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

One cube to assimilate dozens of trillions of beings?

 

[Richard Baker]

I like the idea of using a single cube to provoke technological advancement and farming the results. My only problem with it involves the film 'First Contact' which operates totally opposite to that. The Borg work to assimulate Earth but in the past where there is almost zero useful technology, they just turn the planet into a drone generator.

 

[Lord Garth]

The main premise of Voyager was getting the ship home. It was true in the first season, it was true in the seventh. Getting home was never not their goal. It's also not the type of series that would've dealt with the aftermath of what would've happened after they got home. So, for better or worse, Voyager got home at the end of the series, roll credits. Throw in some time travel, along with some blowing up the Borg one last time, and you have an ending that fit the series almost perfectly. Why almost?

Seven/Chakotay. What the Hell was that? Janeway/Chakotay would've made more sense.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The main premise of Voyager was getting the ship home. It was true in the first season, it was true in the seventh. Getting home was never not their goal. It's also not the type of series that would've dealt with the aftermath of what would've happened after they got home. So, for better or worse, Voyager got home at the end of the series, roll credits. Throw in some time travel, along with some blowing up the Borg one last time, and you have an ending that fit the series almost perfectly. Why almost?

Seven/Chakotay. What the Hell was that? Janeway/Chakotay would've made more sense.

But Chakotay/Janeway/Seven would have made people back-order the entire video catalogue ASAP.

 

[Finn]

I would have erased Miri from canon

 

[The Wormhole]

^^No need to be such a joyless Grup.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I would have erased Miri from canon

Phill Morris was in Miri as one of the lost boys.

He was also a Cadet in Star Trek III.

Fu*k.

Was he playing the same character?

...

What About a Mirror Mirror episode called Miri Miri?