Endgame, Part I

I'll be honest: I caught the tail end of Voyager. We didn't get UPN until its final season. However, in my time I've watched episodes and carefully analyzed what others (professional reviewers like sfdebris and several of my friends) have said about it. I can say one thing: Voyager endlessly flipfloped.

One week, Janeway would uphold the Prime Directive even if it meant the deaths of millions and later would break it to save a handful. It had its moments, like "Author Author" and "Year of Hell", but those were times where they actually made good use of what they had. On paper, Voyager should have been great: a ship stranded lightyears from home with a Starfleet crew and its numbers filled by the clashing ideals of the Maquis. In theory, that should have been a brilliant premise for a show. However, the clashing of ideals would come up a handful of times over the course of the show. Once Voyager gets on Netflix, I intend to sit down and watch it all so I can make my own opinions of it. But for now, I just have the facts of what others have said to me and from exhaustive research on the show.

I will say one thing I have noticed in watching a handful of episodes: the crew doesn't seem to give a damn about preserving history. In "Timeless", the ship is destroyed and only Chakotay and Harry survive. After years of moping, they decide to send a message to save the ship. Guys, if changing history was this simple, I'd go back and improve some courses I took, maintain relationships I let slip away, save a friend who never got a chance to do the things I've done. Why don't I do this? Well, for one, I don't have a TARDIS and two, I cannot let myself be consumed by my mistakes. Our mistakes define us and guide us to the future. However, the crew of Voyager doesn't care about letting the past stay the past. We didn't see Sisko try to avert some battles of the Dominion War, but then that was war and changing history would make it more of a headache.

Anyway, in 2001, Voyager was wrapping up. After killing off a guy who hadn't been on the show in years, everyone knew what "Endgame" would bring: the crew returning home. The only question was: how much padding would there be, and what ethics would the crew break to do it? However, to be fair, a finale should sum up how a show was, symbolizing it at its best.

If the finale is anything to go by, then Voyager was a horrible show.

By the way, I wanted to ask why you never promoted me...
Not now, Harry.

Part 1 opens with a party, where we see most of the senior staff celebrating the tenth anniversary of Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant. Dialogue indicates that the crew was in the Delta Quadrant for a total of 23 years. Light jazz is playing as we see what's become of the officers. Captain KATHRYN Janeway is now an Admiral. Harry Kim is now a captain (took them long enough). Tom and B'elanna are still married, with him being a novelist and her being a Klingon liaison. The Doctor has...gotten married. Okay, this show is off to a bad start if I can complain about a marriage. Why would an immortal machine want to get married? Unless he has a death program, he'll have to spend decades watching his wife wither away before dying. THE Doctor has the decency to switch up his companions every couple of years!

So, it becomes clear that Janeway is the only one not happy. The other officers seem to have gotten on with their lives, but she has not. She has to remind everyone during a toast by Commander Reginald Barclay that there are those who did not make it. Hmm. Well, at least she feels a little guilty about causing the deaths of nearly a quarter of her crew which were completely avoidable by taking the Caretaker array back. Anyway, she's teaching at Starfleet Academy about the Borg, having "written the book on the Borg". After hesitating on a question about Seven of Boobs Nine, Janeway is called away. The Paris' daughter, Miral, tells her "it" works. Uh-oh! What craaaaaaazy scheme will the Admiral try this week? She says good-bye to Tuvok, who is suffering from Vulcan Alzheimer's, and then visits Chakotay's grave. Okay...Tuvok may be bye-bye and Chakotay is dead...Seven of Nine did nothing...so, what's all that wrong with this future?

Wow. It only took you two days to clean all
my flaked-off skin cells?

Back in the present, B'elanna goes into false labor. The crew has become so routine that they are willing to take bets on when she finally pops. Chakotay gives Janeway the menu of their new cook, now that Neelix is gone and as far from Voyager as possible. He declines an offer of lunch to meet with...Seven of Nine on the holodeck for a picnic. When did they start dating? I mean, I know she showed interest in one episode, but where does this come from? After this, we see that Tuvok is suffering from a mental disorder. Again, where is this coming from? Rick and Brannon, why are you introducing these plot points in the final episode? With DS9, they had built up to the finale! What the hell?!

On your orders, I have also smuggled weapons to
Dominion rebels and assassinated five Romulan generals.
Your time machine is almost ready.

We get a scene with Seven and...Neelix...playing some game. Of course, it's the finale so the character must be in it! Seven starts picking up a signal in a nebula which means...a wormhole cluster! Neelix then opts to finish their game tomorrow, so we neeeeeeeeeever see Neelix again! She reports this to Janeway and they decide to investigate. Back to the future (dodges angry mob), the Doctor comes to realize that the Admiral is up to something. He confronts Reg about this, causing him to stammer and thus expose what Janeway is doing. Meanwhile, Janeway is visiting a Klingon scientist. You know, there are some professions I never expected a Klingon to take, unless of course he was Oppenheimer, and from the way he boasts about modifying a Cardassian disruptor, he might be. Janeway goes into exposition mode as he once again exposes her lack of ethics by mentioning how she got the scientist onto the High Council. Wow. Sisko may have inadvertently killed a Romulan senator, but he was doing that to help save billions of lives! Plus, in the end, he wrestled with the guilt. Janeway manipulated a galactic government to further her own selfish plans! Doesn't that go against every guideline in the Prime Directive!?!

Voyager heads into the nebula to investigate the potential wormholes. However, a Borg cube appears and they are forced to turn back. After we see the return of Alice Krige as the Borg Queen, Janeway drops the discussion of a potential way home, just as she has over the course of the series. She later says the nebula was "crawling with Borg". Uh...how did she know that? They picked up one signature and saw one confirmed cube. For all they know, those were the only two cubes in there on a routine patrol! But, while that's best reserved for Part 2, I want to get that tidbit out of the way now. She tells Harry to stop thinking about using this as a way to get home.

Afterwards, Harry tries to convince Tom to modify the Delta Flyer (the super-shuttle that Voyager built with spare parts away from any shipbuilding facility) to investigate the wormhole. Tom shades away from this, talking about the baby on its way. Look, I'm not a father, so I've yet to experience the emotional connection with my offspring. However, isn't part of the thing of parenthood trying to ensure the best possible future for your kid? Even if Tom died for a small chance they could get back to the Alpha Quadrant, I think that's better than raising a kid in the middle of a chaotic and anarchic quadrant. Again, not a father, just my opinion.

Wait...I'm still not sure about this...
Jeri, it's just one episode more.

In the future, Janeway steals the time machine the scientist was building and gets away. However, she is found by CAPTAIN Harry Kim. For the first time ever, Janeway begins to admit she was wrong about everything. She should have listened to her officers instead of thinking she was always right, like a good dictator. Harry agrees to help her, even though if it's discovered, he'll be bumped back to ensign, and I don't think he will survive another thirty years for a promotion. Janeway activates the time machine, evading Klingons who were pursuing her and arrives in the present. She tells her younger self that she's come to bring Voyager home, with the Borg Queen listening in.

Coming up in Part 2, who will Janeway kill to achieve her goals? How will she wipe her floor with the Borg this time? Where did Tuvok's Vulcan Alzheimer's come from? What does Seven see in Chakotay? Why must the crew of Voyager rape the space-time continuum again? And most importantly, will I be able to convey anger in written form?

All this and more coming up next week!