Voyager’s first episode set the mission to get the lost ship back to Earth. In the serie’s final episode, it would be somewhat of a let down if they just left the crew in the middle of nowhere. Even then the ending seemed like an obvious one and with it all being telegraphed 170 episodes before, the fun wasn’t about if they got home, but how…
Kicking off with a celebration, we skip to the end with a reunion celebrating the tenth anniversary of Voyagers return to Earth. Sixteen years after the previous episode, Voyager found it’s way home. And now twenty six years into the future from our viewer perspective, we get a bit of a catch up with the former crew. Harry finally got promoted and is now a Captain. Paris and Torres have a daughter, Miral, who’s following their footsteps by joining Starfleet. The Doctor’s even managed to get over his struggles being recognised as a ‘real’ person, having gotten married and leading a relatively normal life.
But not everything turned out well. Being away from Vulcan medicine for so long, Tuvok wasn’t able to be treated for an otherwise preventable illness and is now institutionalised under permanent care. Chakotay died on the return trip, with Janeway visiting his grave and mentioned his wife, Seven of Nine, died years before. It’s space, things happen. But it’s not good enough for Admiral Janeway who’s spent all her spare time figuring out how she can go back and bring everyone home…
Swapping between the distant future and the present, Admiral Janeway rallies the troops with Torres and her daughter Miral helping to get some secret Klingon time travelling tech, while Captain Kim joins the fun. Meanwhile in the present, Captain Janeway’s very much all alive crew are looking into another hopeful route home; a nebula with just the right kind of wonderful properties that can zoom them all way back to Earth. One that we know won’t work as it’s sixteen years too soon. But as soon as the Admiral engages the Time Travel Shenanigans button, taking a shuttle to her past with a plan to get Voyager home early, things get a little more optimistic.
Well, ish. There’s Borg around. Because of course there is. But Admiral Janeway orders her younger self to pay attention and listen. In her time the Nebula was a dead end as it was too risky. Now armed with future knowledge and technology, the Admiral wants to change this precise moment in time and make sure Voyager gets home now – not after things get rough. Unfortunately, after a quick peek inside the Nebula, it just happens to be a massive transwarp hub for the Borg.
To get the bad stuff out of the way, the whole plot has an unaddressed morally grey area. Admiral-J comes in to save the day at the seven year mark nullifying everything that happened in the past twenty six years. The Doctor – or Joe as he prefers – getting married. Harry’s ascent. Any number of things that happened in that twenty six years is being wiped out to essentially save a few people and some hardship. And why that point? We know there were earlier points and there are other ways Voyager could get home. Doesn’t the Admiral not want to save Joe Carey? Was Ahni Jutal not worth saving?
And then there’s the classic plot hole. Janeway gets hold of a chronotron deflector that lets her travel through time and simultaneously travel to the Delta Quadrant. Yes, Captain Harry does throw limitations out there for the audience, but why not just throw that new tech into the mix and let them figure out a way home with that instead of a suicidal mission against what’s essentially an entire star system filled with Borg?
It leaves a lot of questions on a rewatch, but tat the time everyone was just excited to see an action packed finale. And it does deliver…
There’s some cool stuff in the mix here. The transwarp hub being the big one. It’s a visually impressive feat that shows they threw a lot at the spectacle. Bringing back Alice Krige as the Queen for the finale was also a nice touch. And of course there’s moral dilemma as Janeway fights against herself with her Admiral self wanting to do whatever it takes to get home, while the Captain is more focused on crippling the Borg and saving lives beyond her crew. The two Janeway’s in the mix help play on Voyagers core theme of Janeway’s promise to get everyone home, and Starfleet morality having them give up the chance.
Of course, this episode ends with the “Why not both?” option that could have been right at the beginning with the Caretaker Array; Cause chaos for the Borg by using the transwarp hub while blowing it all to pieces. Just like the rest of Voyager’s action focused plots, it all leads to conflict with a big mash of cool stuff happening towards the end. It’s not quite the perfection the Borg seek. Some elements are still a bit wacky, like the Queen’s more human side showing through and deciding she and Janeway were the new Batman and Joker, but the pacing and action through the end fight works well. It’s visually stunning, broken up with the usual interpersonal drama such as B’Ellanna giving birth to Miral in the middle of it all, and we even get to see Harry give a rousing speech that was so inspiring it would get anyone who wasn’t him promoted.
The last act has everything from hiding Voyager inside a Qube, to Admiral Janeway blowing up along with the Queen. But it all comes down to that last hurrah where Voyager escapes into the trans warp network and just drops into the Sol System with Earth in sight.
Fireworks. Fade to black.
There’s two ways to see Endgame; either its a weird story with a lot of contrived moving parts to get to the end, or it’s an exciting action packed way to close the show. And lets be honest, there’s no other way to close Voyager with any sense of satisfaction other than getting everyone home. The finale leaves a lot of open questions for what happens next as it ends with Voyager just gliding towards Earth, what will change after the future we’d seen was altered and what happened to the Borg themselves. Some of those questions were answered, eventually, through other shows in recent years. But it also closes with classic Voyager – questionable decisions and high stakes and it was nice to see their journey finally come to a happy ending.
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