Underrated Trek:Endgame (VOY)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek,where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not bethe most popular or even liked by most. I have talked a lot about series finale's this month, and before May ends I decided I had to discuss a Star Trek series finale in my "Underrated Trek" series. But which one?

Turnabout Intruder isn't really a series finale in the traditional sense, it just happened to be the last episode they made, though I will discuss that another time. All Good Things is one of my favorite episodes of anything, so that doesn't count. What You Leave Behind is a solid, if slightly convoluted, end for DS9. These are the Voyages is not underrated... it's just plain bad. So that leaves only one left, from Star Trek Voyager.

Plot Synopsis:


In the future we discover that Voyager made it home and while many of the crew are having nice lives, it didn't end as well for everyone. Tuvok has a degenerative disease, Seven of Nine is dead, and Chakotay was so torn up over her death that it ruined his life. Apparenlty Janeway can't deal with this and decides to go back in time to get Voyager home several years earlier.



In the present Voyager has decided to avoid an area their sensors had indicated could contain wormholes. That is until Admiral Janeway breaks through a warp in space. She explains that the signals was in fact a Borg subspace corridor. They can get home years earlier if they use it. They retrofit Voyager for the trip but then they realize that it is in fact a transwarp hub and if they destroy the hub they can crippled the Borg.



Captain and Admiral Janeway compare notes and decide that they might be able to accomplish both goals. Admiral sets herself up as a decoy to infect the Borg with a virus. The plan works, the hub is destoryed, and Voaygers finds itself on Earth's doorstep. They made it home.

Guest Stars:


None really, since Kate Mulgew obviously is doing the whole dual role thing. Oh, we do get Alice Krige back as the Borg queen.This is nice because not only does it make for nice continuity to Star Trek First Contact, but the replacement they had earlier in the series just wasn't as good. And Dwight Schultz returns as Barclay and as does as good a job as always.

Episode Pro's:




Neelix only gets a cameo at the beginning of the episode, via viewsceen. Then he is never so much as mentioned again. Yeah, nothing wrong with that.



It is nice to see Seven of Nine's evolution from where she began to here, wanting to experience emotions and have a relationship with Chakotay. She was my favorite character and I was ok with how her story ended. Their scenes here charming. Though they never resolve what happened with her operation which kind of annoyed me.




The first half in the future is ok though a bit long. It's nice to get an idea of what the crew will be like in the future. Of course the whole thing is wiped out when Janeway alters the past, so maybe it was really a waste of time. And the battle with the Klingons felt like padding. However, the actress who played B'elanna and Tom's daughter was really good.





Harry Kim gives a big speech in the briefing room toward the end when they are discussing their options. It's a nice speech and probably the best scene of the episode. They crew really did come together as a family and this scene really celebrates that.





The battle with the Borg was really well done. It was clear they put all their effort in because they knew this was it. In a real way, this show went out on a big high note. I love the end when the Borg sphere is destroyed. It is known that the movies had a habit of making it look like Starfleet had maybe two ships active at any given time. Here, when the Earth is threatened about twenty ships appear! And when they all attack the Borg is just a fantastic scene and won an Emmy Award. The scene concludes with Voyager emerging, home safe.





The ending.....but let's hold that discussion off for a second.

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Episode Con's:



Harry Kim in the future is captain of the U.S.S. Rhode Island. Um, what??? Was there no openings on the U.S.S.Massachusetts?



While I liked the romance between Chakotay and Seven, the fact it had no build up annoys me. It feels forced and I hate it when TV shows create something out of thin air for a little dramatic conflict. The same goes for Tuvok's illness which could have been established before this episode. It was if the creators knew this plot was crap so they had to create SOME reason for Admiral Janeway to do this. Speaking of that.....





When you get right down to it, the plot is stupid. Why on Earth did Admiral Janeway do this? When she is in the present the Captain Janeway points out that from her point of view, things turn out pretty good. And, I agree. So why change things? I can understand that Seven's death was a hard thing to do deal with, and Tuvok's condition, but to wipe out a whole time line? Seems kind of selfish to me. Maybe that's why they added the part about giving the Borg a crippling blow, to make the action seem more noble. I could live with a Borg story, but why a time travel story???? Something which called back to the pilot might have made more sense. And I am not even getting into the paradox the plot creates!




Ok, let's discuss it. The ending which pissed so many people off. And I will admit it, I was one of those people. At first. If you don't know, when Voayger emerges from the transwarp hub, the sphere destroyed, and finds they are back home....that's pretty  much it. Episode over with no idea of what happened after, or seeing the crew reunite with their loved ones. At first that did kind of piss me off. But when I thought about and watch the episode again, I am happy with how it ended. Is it perfect? No. But think about it, in the pilot we never saw the crew with their families. All we saw was Janeways's boyfriend on a monitor. So the more I think about it the more I think the series ended where it should have, underplayed with the characters showing just enough emotion that we get the idea. Besides leaving the fans wanting more is a sign they did something right not wrong. But, that being said, an epilogue would have been nice. And while not so bad I have to ask, why was the final scene so underplayed? Maybe that's what the stuff at the start of the episode was, to give us a glimpse. Of course there are books which carry on the story and I once had an idea for a story myself that I never wrote, but I think I will kept that to myself for now.

Fast Foward Moment:

They do some sitcom antics with B'lenna going into false labor. I could have done without that silliness. You would think in the 24th century that would not be such a common occurence. And did they really have to have her go into labor during the final battle? Would have been more fitting to have the entire cast together in that last shot.

Final Thoughts:

Yes folks, I liked this final episode. As I said the ending pissed me off the first time to, but in hindsight it works. Voyager was not perfect but when it was good it was...decent? Not the best finale but not the worst Trek would give us either.

That's it for now my friends. Till next time, be good to yourselves.