Embracing all aspects of science fiction has been Star Trek’s thing since it’s inception and time travel was no exception. Ever since the first time travel adventure with Kirk’s Enterprise ending up in the 1960’s, we’ve seen the various crews out of time and desperately trying not to change their own history. In one adventure, history would constantly change around the USS Voyager.
One of the most memorable and loved two parters, Year of Hell remains a symbol of how desperate the situation could have been for the Voyager crew. As Janeway negotiations with an alien species for free travel through their region, a small annoyance of a ship interrupts them. Then suddenly, the timeline changed. The aliens, the Zahl, were gone. Erased from history. And the unsophisticated Krenim ship that was no match for Voyager one second was now a powerful warship ready for the kill shot.
In the blink of an eye an average days travel becomes the beginning of a long and difficult battle that Voyager can’t win. And it’s wonderfully grim.
For years the episode has been heralded for being an indication of what Voyager could have been. The story revolves around Annorax, a Krenim scientist who has been making adjustments to history in order to correct a mistake. Young and arrogant in his experiments, an early demonstration of how removing parts of history would strengthen his people did the opposite. One miscalculation meant that the events of the past didn’t occur in the right way to find a cure for a devastating disease, wiping out a significant percentage of the Krenim including his wife and family.
Since then Annorax has been a rogue time altering maniac determined to restore his people, not stopping until everyone he list has been restored. In the present, Voyager has some clever people on board who can build a defence against the timeline changes, but each change puts Voyager in a weaker state forcing them to fight for their lives the whole way through.
Voyager started with the feeling that they were at risk from untamed fighting territories but that never really landed. This was the first time we got to see Voyager face a real threat. Month by month the ship takes a little more damage until most of it is barely habitable. Paris and Chakotay are kidnapped for information on how to get rid of Voyager. Morale is a low when people are dying around you, and even the calm and cool Tuvok take a a beating that leave shim blind with Neelix putting on a uniform to help out the tactical officer.
It’s a slow descent into dark desperation and Kate Mulgrew shines as Janeway under pressure, recklessly working through every failed system, every attack, throwing herself into danger to the point she knows she’s cracking under the pressure but she has no choice but to keep going. Following the ship through the worst of it as they struggle to survive and make allies makes for one of the most challenging and compelling episodes of the series, showing just what could have been if the producers had let the ship take a bloody nose every now and then.
Annorax as a villain is also wonderful. He’s obviously a little bit off his rocker, even facing down his crew when they look to have achieved their goal only to keep going because that one person – his wife – wasn’t saved. Kurtwood Smith, one of several Star Trek regulars, plays it perfectly. There’s no real over the top bad guy stuff going on. There’s also no pretence that his quest is reasonable or pulling of the heartstrings about why he’s doing it.
There’s a strange balance to him thats played out with Paris and Chakotay; the latter empathising and delving into the science of possibilities while the former rebels against the plan. While Annorax kind of plays it straight, letting the morality of what he’s doing play out with the regulars conflict. Though Robert Beltran gets the good material here for a change, showing the complexities of Chakotay looking for the hopeful solution.
On both Annorax’s time twisting mission and Voyager’s fight to stay alive long enough to put things right there’s a lot of compelling ideas and drama here that takes the episode beyond it’s reputation of being dark and miserable. But the darkness does give way to a lot of missed opportunities for the show, of how much more compelling the journey would have been if the struggle of survival took over from the clean comfort of starfleet every now and then.
The ending is also a wonderful thing. After an hour of Janeway finding the badass within, we sadly get our reset button with a suicide mission to ram Annorax’s ship which would, in turn, restore the timeline back to how it all began even before Voyager arrived. I hate the reset button. It’s one of Voyager’s biggest sins. But I’ll allow it for once here and it also gave us one of the best moments of the season with Tuvok letting his subdued emotion and loyalty take over. The Captain goes down with the ship, as always, but not without his objection.
Moments like that really make the episode. Neelix fretting over Tuvok cutting himself shaving, ridden with guilt over the tactical officers injury. Chakotay talking with wonder about what could happen removing just one comets existence and how that small things could change reality. Janeway sending her crew away to keep them safe from the constant bombardment…
And then it ends with another wonderful moment. After an all too quick battle, Voyager smashes into the time ship. Everything goes boom and once time is restored, we’re taken back to the starting point; where Annorax’s real chance of saving his wife began. Putting down his plans for the ship to spend time with her. Poetically, with no explanation on whether it was just a happy memory, or if that decision would lead to his ship being removed from history and save the future.
Year of Hell will always be the ‘What If’ of Voyager, being a constant tease to what the show would be like if they took bigger risks or the Ron Moore approach that led to Battlestar Galactrica. But above that, it’s just one of Voyager’s best hour (and a half)’s that show the series at it’s best.
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