Star Trek: Voyager – “Endgame” Series Finale

If you don’t click on “Read More” that’s fine with me. I’ll just send your future self back in time and MAKE you do it. So there.

Endgame

Cast and Crew

Directed by: Allan Kroeker
Brannon Braga
Story By: Rick Berman & Kenneth Biller & Brannon Braga
Teleplay By: Kenneth Biller & Robert Doherty

Starring:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Roxann Dawson as B’Elanna Torres
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips as Neelix
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Tim Russ as Tuvok
Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim

Guest Cast:
Dwight Schultz as Barclay
Richard Herd as Admiral Paris
Alice Krige as Borg Queen
Vaughn Armstrong as Korath
Manu Intiraymi as Icheb
Lisa Locicero as Miral Paris
Miguel Perez as Physician
Grant Garrison as Cadet
Ashley Sierra Hughes as Sabrina
Matthew James Williamson as Klingon
Richard Sarstedt as Starfleet Admiral
Joey Sakata as Engineering Officer
Iris Bahr as Female Cadet

Original Airdate

May 23, 2001

What Happened

We begin the final episode of Voyager 33 years into the future (from Voyager’s perspective that is). It’s the 10th anniversary of Voyager’s homecoming and the old crew is together to celebrate, that is most of the crew is there. Janeway is now an admiral, Kim is a captain. Tom and B’lenna are still together, he’s a holonovelist. Their daughter, Miral, is now an Ensign on special assignment with Adm. Janeway. The Doctor (Who has finally named himself Joe) is married and still looks the same (obviously). Chakotay and Seven are noticeably missing. The conversation is light, with Kim apologizing for missing “The Funeral.” There is a closeness about them, tighter than we’ve ever seen them. They truly are family.

We next see Janeway as a guest lecturer for Cmdr. Reginald Barkley’s course on the Borg. Janeway answers a few questions, but deflects one regarding Seven of Nine. She is called away to answer a comm from Ensign Miral Paris. She informs Janeway that Korath (a new member on the Klingon High Counsel thanks to Janeway’s influence) has agreed to “the exchange.” Just what that is, is not mentioned.

Janeway enlists the Doctor’s help to get an experimental medication for tachyon resistance. He doesn’t know what for. Barkley, who is in on Janeway’s plan, gives her a modified shuttle for her secret mission. Before leaving she visits an institutionalized Tuvok, his mind wasted away. She also makes a visit to a grave, saying that she’s going to fix everything. She uncovers the stone to reveal Chakotay’s name.

We now jump backward to Voyager still in the Delta quadrant. Seven and Chakotay are on their third date. Tuvok, after losing to Icheb at that “Logic Stick Game” (sorry gang, the name eludes me at the moment) goes to sickbay. The Doctor has been treating Tuvok for some time now, but the mental illness will continue to degenerate if he does not get back to the Alpha Quadrant soon (a special mind-meld is needed). Neelix and Seven discuss relationships (Neelix is planning on asking his girlfriend to marry him). Before he can pry any juicy info out of Seven, her sensors go nuts, finding hundreds of worm holes in a single nebula. A way home? Well maybe, if it wasn’t swarming with Borg cubes. The Borg don’t attack, but the Queen continues to track Janeway and company.

Back to the future, Janeway meets with Ensign Paris and Korath to finish their transaction, he reneges, but she tricks him into getting his time-travel device. Korath is upset and chases Janeway, but she escapes using the ultra-cool looking ablative armor. Capt. Harry Kim catches up to her after The Doctor gets a confession out of Barkley. She explains that she wants to go back and help Voyager to get through the wormholes and safely back to the Alpha Quadrant, saving them 23 more years of crawling home. He agrees to help and she goes back to meet up with Voyager, just after they’ve left the Borg-infested nebula.

After taking some time to convince her past-self that she is who she says she is, Adm. Janeway explains that she wants to take Voyager back to the nebula and get them home. She gives them new weapons and armor to defend against the Borg and they make all haste to implement the new modifications. Seven of Nine is also paid a visit in her dreams by the Borg Queen. She knows that Voyager is coming and she will destroy them. Voyager re-enters the nebula and proceeds to demolish, not one, but at least three Borg cubes. Meanwhile the new armor is barely scratched in the initial attack. Once they reach the center of the nebula, they find the source of the wormholes, a Borg conduit hub. Surprised and offended that her future-self omitted this critical piece of information, she pulls out. Capt. Janeway would love to use the conduit home, but her first duty is to take it out and save countless civilizations from Borg visits. Admiral and Captain Janeway argue, and in the process reveals that Seven and Chakotay are in love and will, eventually, be married. However, she will be killed in three years, rendering Chakotay a shell of his former self. In addition, she’s informed of Tuvok’s condition and his need to return home.

The Janeways hatch a plan and split up, the Admiral taking her modified shuttle into the conduit, after getting a mysterious hypo shot. She contacts the Queen and asks for her assistance. Adm. Janeway will give the Queen information on the new armor and weapons, in exchange for towing the U.S.S. Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant. During the course of their conversation, Janeway’s location is isolated and she’s beamed into the Queen’s chamber. She is promptly assimilated, but there’s a catch, Janeway’s infected with a Borg-killing pathogen. Meanwhile Voyager is heading full-speed into the conduits. The pathogen begins wreaking havoc throughout the collective as Voyager drops several modified torpedos into the conduits, starting a chain-reaction that will close them all down and destroying Unimatrix Zero-One. The Queen manages to summon one last sphere to hunt down Voyager, her logic being that if the younger Janeway is killed, the older one won’t ever exist. Upon detecting the conduit opening, Starfleet scrambles a small assault force to meet the Borg threat. The sphere bears down on Voyager, its tractor bay opening. As it emerges from conduit, Voyager is nowhere to be seen. The Starfleet ships all open fire, doing damage to the sphere. We cut to Janeway and company, she asks for a report on their location. They are “just where the want to be.” The next cut is of the Borg sphere blowing itself apart and an armor-clad Voyager streaking out of the remains. Admiral Paris is dumbfounded at the sight and asks for an explanation. Janeway assures him it will all be in her report. Sickbay calls up to the bridge asking Tom to come down and meet his new daughter. Janeway relaxes into her seat, asking Chakotay (who is manning the helm) to set a course for home. Our last shot is of Voyager, escorted by around 15 ships, back to Earth.

Review

That, as they say folks, is that. For a farewell episode it was so-so. But fitting for what we’ve seen from Voyager over the years. This one is best if you try not to look at the plot holes too closely. Sadly we get character resolution, as all of the future views of the crew have been wiped out by the altered timeline. We will just have to wait a few years for the books to come out (like the new ‘Avatar’ series for DS9).

There was some great effects and nice action sequences for this episode. On a superficial level it was gorgeous. New ships, environments, and retractable armor! How cool was that? Borg ships exploding left and right. Juicy stuff.

Hats off to the return of Alice Krige as the Borg Queen. Truly evil. At first I was upset that Suzanne Thompson (who had the role for all of Voyager) was being replaced, but I later found out it was due to a scheduling conflict. That I’ll buy. Besides Krige is/was simply too damn evil to pass up. Splendid performance.

Seven of Nine and Chakotay? Blah! Can we say “Tacked On?” This had point really and was so obviously contrived that it just interrupted my enjoyment of the overall episode. Ezri and Bashir’s relationship had more substance and meaning.

Overall, it was a better-than-average Voyager episode, but lacking the depth and emotion from other finales. There was joyous “They’re home!” feeling to this one. Not a whimper, but certainly, bang either.

High Point

The action sequences were all top-notch, but I really did enjoy the episode opening, with the crew together, just being a family. It was one of those rare moments that you can feel the fact that they are all family.

Now we are left to ponder Star Trek’s future. Will Enterprise redeem the franchise or is Trek burned out? Or maybe the people at the helm are long past due to be replaced? Can Star Trek regain its once-vaunted position as a Sci-Fi leader? Can Brian stop writing in questions? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Low Point

Seven and Chakotay. Just too damn contrived.

The Scores

Originality: Another time travel episode? 3 out of 6

Effects: Killer stuff! Max score! 6 out of 6

Story: There are some good dialogue bits here and there, especially Janeway arguing with herself. There are some serious plot holes here and there, some better care could have been taken. 4 out 6

Acting: Everyone is in excellent form. Mulgrew and Krige really give it their all. 5 out of 6

Emotional Response: There was a pang of regret to see Voyager go, but it’s been long overdue. 3 out of 6

Production: Well constructed models, effects and editing. 4 out of 6

Overall: An ending suitable for Voyager. Take that anyway you like. 4 out 6

Total: 29 out of 42 (69%)

Stills & Videos

I imagine Paramount will keep it up for a while, but if you have a chance, StarTrek.com has loads of info on Voyager’s seven-year run with a multimedia retrospective. UPN will also be rerunning the two-hour finale this Sunday. Just in case you missed it the first time around.

13 replies on “Star Trek: Voyager – “Endgame” Series Finale”

  1. Voyager
    Voyagaer was on air for seven years? Wow. Is there any

    doubt, however, that Voyager is the worst Trek ever? It

    was just so boring.

  2. Worst series, granted, but…
    …all the series have been pretty good as a whole. Even the worst thing out of a pretty good batch of things is still a pretty good thing. (Sorry, I don’t have the energy for good analogies right now.)

    AND it’s the worst series _YET_. I don’t have much hope for Enterprise.

    PS. The “logic stick game” is called Kal-to.

    • Re: Worst series, granted, but…
      That’s it! Kal-to. Thanks! Anyone know when Paramount will be selling knock-offs? ;-)

    • Re: i have the answer!
      I totally think your to much in love with ds9!
      For a start voyager was never meant to be like the other series, tng was for the hardcore fans so you woundnt expect the action, just good detailed plots etc.
      Then the mistake came…..
      ds9 was a disaster from the beginning, when they realised is was to late and they coudnt back out and make themselves look like fools. So they did the best they could with what they had and ran through the 7 series.

      They knew trek was doomed if they didnt come up with something quickly so they thought up voyager. Great story, new ship that was going places. Who could resist!

      So as i said voyager was always about action and sadly these says thats what all the veiwers want.
      All that matters these days are how many people are watching our show compared to wwf!
      Lets hope the new series will revitalise the industry known throughout the world as ‘Star trek’ – live long and prosper!

      • Re: i have the answer!

        All that matters these days are how many people are watching our show
        compared to wwf!

        Why can’t you watch both Star Trek and the WWF?

        – dave (webmaster, Bureau 42 and
        ecwinvasion.com)

  3. I’m very partial, so…
    So my comment might not mean that much. Personally, Janeway is second only to Kirk, and very Kirk-like herself. I loved the entire series, and yes there was the occasional bad episode (I’d rather Human Error and Renaissance Man not taken place at all, but some good editing, and placement in LAST season would have helped), but all in all, Endgame was good.

    But. One thing really pissed me off. Now, maybe it was my local UPN affiliate, but the end was very rushed. I would have deleted the lines:

    Janeway: “Where are we?”

    Paris: “Right where we expected to be.”

    Janeway: “We’ll celebrate later.”

    And given an extra 5 seconds to the crew looking at the viewscreen at Earth, and an extra 10 seconds to that final shot of Voyager and fleet heading to Earth. I think after 7 years, we deserved a good long tear-jerker shot like that. When I saw it, I saw the final shot for all of 1, MAYBE 2 seconds. I hope it was my local channel and that it’ll be longer sunday.

    One way or another though, I’m gonna record it on my PC and MAKE it longer. Paramount can mail the “Cease and Desist” right to my rectum.

    • Re: I’m very partial, so…
      Be sure to include Tom and B’lenna showing their newborn Earth: “See that Miral?, that’s home.”

  4. That’s All, Folks!
    I agree with above, the ending seemed rushed and there were significant plot holes. The most significant of these in my view was Adm. Janeway herself. Get on with life, girl! From her point of view Seven had died over two decades before and the last of the other Voyager casualties a decade before. Surely ten more years of Starfleet duty would have given her a grounding in her present. But noooooo, she’s gotta go back and change everything, including giving Voyager technology from the future that is killer to the Borg. Why not just go all the way back and stop the original trip to the Badlands? Trek always falls back on time travel to generate conflict – this would have been better if Capt Janeway had just realized the newly discovered hub was their ticket home and spent the rest of the ep being sneaky to accomplish that goal. We could have highlighted Seven instaed of white hair and had some time for fireworks at the end, where they belonged.

  5. then, now, whatever…
    Presumably, over the entire 23-year course of their mission, this was the “best” (in Janeway’s mind) opportunity to get everyone home in one piece – specifically Seven of Nine. Preventing the crew from ever going on their ill-fated voyage to the Badlands in the first place means the crew, as she has come to know it, would never have existed — the Maquis ship would be somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, and Seven would never have been liberated from the Collective.


    Besides, then it would’ve been even more obvious that they were mostly copying ST:TNG’s finale, “All Good Things…” :-)

  6. The ending…
    While I’d love to shwo Tom and B’Ellana showing the baby Earth, I don’t have acces to Rob McNeil, Roxanne Dawson, good makeup facilities, a stage and set, nor photography equipment. And if I had access to Roxanne Dawson, I’d haev other things in mind that shooting a new ending, like seducing her for a week of carnal pleasures.

    I wanted to tape the show on it’s rebroadcast sunday night, as on wednesday’s the broadcast quality usually sucks with static. Sunday night, it was crystal clear as usual, but guess what, NO FINALE! The showed “The Omega Directive” again, and then Home Alone. Pissed me off to no end. If anyone has a good VHS recording, I’d be much obliged to borrow it…

  7. Endgame
    I think that the final Voyager episode was a bit flat, i think that should been possibly a three episaode story arc with aleast what they did when they finally got to Earth, like the Tryimg up the Threads story from VV8.jetc.org site through Voyagers Delight.

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