Endgame

Taken on its own, this double episode wouldn't be so bad: battles with the Borg, time travel, Janeway in a dual role and the big homecoming. But if you look at this episode as the conclusion of a saga, then you can only be disappointed with this finale. This ending doesn't do the series justice. It seems rushed.

Somehow, while watching this episode, I thought of the disastrous ending of Game of Thrones. Same story. Or imagine Frodo in the Lord of the Rings being in Khazad-dûm one moment and suddenly in the next scene he's standing at Mount Doom and throwing the ring into the volcano. And Samwise is now engaged to Galadriel. You simply skipped half the journey.

It's pretty obvious what happened here: the showrunners were convinced there would be a few more seasons of Voyager. The stories for the episodes of the seventh season had been written, the return to Earth was not the focus. After all, Voyager was still 30,000 light-years from home. The season clearly wasn't focused on the big finale at the end. Then someone from the network called and pointed out that TNG and DS9 only had seven seasons each, which should be enough for Voyager also. So the last episode that had already been written was thrown into the bin and this double episode was filmed instead. Since the season didn't come to an ending, the entire resolution of seven seasons had to be squeezed into this one episode. And how do you usually do that in the Star Trek franchise? With time travel, of course! Make it so!

The writers even packed a lackluster romance between Seven and Chakotay into this episode. For four seasons, Chakotay has given no indication that he is romantically interested in Seven. Harry invested more energy than Chakotay. But in the last episode, Chakotay is suddenly head over heels in love with Seven? What far-fetched nonsense.

Extremely unsatisfactory. Into oblivion with warp 9.9.

Star Trek can be very hit and miss with finales. Voyager, however, is the cream of the crop. It just has so much that works in its favor. Time travel shenanigans, action, drama, humor, a baby being born amidst the chaos, the return of Alice Krige as the true Borg Queen (thank god the other actress was unavailable, she sucked and Krige killed it as ever). The conclusion itself was extremely satisfying.

It just has one glaring flaw: a forced romance subplot that neither makes sense or works on a basic chemistry level. It comes absolutely out of nowhere and drags the story to a halt every single time they cut to it.

Bad romance aside, however. If you're a fan of Voyager, it will satisfy you on every other level. Kate Mulgrew in particular absolutely shines in a dual role.

Mind you I still think "The Sentinel" and "Smackdown" and "Malcolm & Eddie" were better show but only because of Jeri Ryan ruining this show with her Allied Nordicist Yankee "Friends"-watching "Seinfeld"-hating presence. Anyways, this episode is also proof that "Voyager" knew how to chill when it came to the futuristic, at the expense of the old, beliefs. In this episode, the Borg try one final attempt to silence Voyager and capture Earth and the Federation. It's a brutal cat and mouse. Unfortunately (in something that doesn't detract from my rating), "Voyager" has already done irrepairable damage to the once threatening superpower. They have a leader and she resorts to threats and pettiness, and even compared to the renegades in "Descent," they come off as harmless. Nevertheless this is a hard-hitting episode that bought big ratings for UPN, and is testimony to my UPN/Warner Bros./WB flagship. :) And another reason why UPN consistently stomped non-Warner Bros.ish The WB left and right all 11 years in the ratings, and even in accolades. "The Sentinel" was critically acclaimed but given the TV Academy's bias towards CBS and (sorry I know Disney changed them but they still have the stigma from the pre-Disney days) ABC and The WB, as well as the Academy's bias towards Universal and Columbia Pictures, they got snubbed. Establishment "Friends"-watching fatcats

Still, this was a hard-hitting episode, and yes I prefer "Barney" over "Seasame Street" anyday, and "Barney" also aired in syndication on UPN (as opposed to Tribune favorite "Seasame Street.")

Well first of all, this comment concerns only the last episode which started great but ends so suddenly, like in 5 minutes, was a little telegraphic like a trailer of a movie or sort... and it left me in air for a while. I had the feeling like wasting time with the series. Probably the director woudn't like to end this nice saga with a cliché like many others with a nice homecoming party or something. But as i said, i shed no tears, i wish i would but i couldn't, like i did after seeing the last episode of TNG, i think it deserved a little fancy speech from the cpt. Janeway or other crewmen. Or in the other way, i wished i could be happy for them, but i couldn't. It was like the borg, no feelings induced.

Now, what about the "no harming other species" phrase ? Janeway infected the borg with some kinda virus and kills or incapacitates all of them. Or not all of them ? What happens with them? It is somehow contrairing with her previous actions regarding the borg and other species. Or could it be because she is a little older now and she becomes more eager to redeem herself because she didn't want the crew of Voyager to spend another 23 years in the Delta Quadrant bicoz of her fault (or not). Again, this leads to her action against borg. At first she didn't want the caretaker's device to come in other hands and to be used against other species, and now he kills the borg. What about the Federation rules which she respects throughout all these 7 years like a religion ?

In my opinion, Voyager series and TNG, i think it deserved a more elaborate ending which should be prepared with an episode or two ahead. I have no experience in making movies :) but after all of these years of hard work from their behalf, i guess it deserved more.

I love this show. It is my favourite in the Star Trek world except the original series. Too bad the writers went the "we don't want to fall into the sappy, captain gives a heroic speech, ticket tape parade trite ending" that most shows would naturally do. They went the Sopranos ending route and tried to change it up and not form to convention. yes, you can be bold and take that route but you also have to pay the piper if that route fails. I doubt David Chase can go anywhere even years later without a fan coming up and saying, "WTF guy! I felt stiffed!" When you have a 2 or 3 hour film you can play that card BUT when you have the finale show after a 7 year run that is ALSO part of a huge fan based universe for the past 40+ years, you have to pay off some debts buddy. Like it or not it is emotionally satisfying having those moments and when you cheat your audience by not showing them at all because you don't as filmmakers want to present the same old same old, then you can't complain when you are dragged out on the carpet for it. Your job is to present it in in a non-sappy way by use of writing, acting and directing skills to satisfy an audience, not to re-invent the wheel.