Warning: Spoilers follow for the last few
seasons and ending of Star Trek: Voyager.
Ultimately, I
liked my trip through the seven seasons and 172 episodes (!) of Star Trek: Voyager, although things do
start to get awfffulllyyy creaky toward the end because of a strong emphasis on time travel as a quick fix. I couldn’t tell if the show
simply got cancelled abruptly, and they needed to wrap things up with a
two-part episode, or if the writing simply faltered a bit in the final season.
On TV
Tropes, there is a concept called A Wizard Did It,
which originates from The Simpsons as
all great concepts do. On Voyager,
this could be modified into A Time Machine Did It, as this is the main plot
rescue device for too many episodes in the last couple of seasons, including
the two-part series finale.
Because the
plot device is used so much, it unfortunately hurts the show – it makes Voyager
being stranded in the Delta Quadrant feel more like an artificial plot
contrivance. The show finally ends with Janeway from 26 years in the future using
a time machine to travel back, to help the crew through a Borg transwarp hub wormhole
thing.
It’s
frustrating because it’s a plot they could have done without relying on time
travel yet again. Just have the crew stumble across that big ole Borg ship, and
realize they can use it to travel back to Earth. Future Janeway makes a heroic
sacrifice to allow the crew to achieve the trip, but they could have figured
out a way around it, or have one of Voyager’s actual crewmembers do it. Because
we know it’s Future Janeway, who will be “killed” anyway with a timeline
change, her sacrifice means less.
The time
traveling is so extensive in the final two seasons that we’re exposed to actual
things like the Temporal Prime Directive, and a squad of time traveling
Starfleet officers who don’t allow deviation from the timeline. The latter is
especially confusing, as is the Future Janeway’s ability to somewhat easily
steal a time travel device. It’s implied that time traveling is somewhat
regular in the future of the show, and as a viewer, it just seemed odd to me
that something REALLY catastrophic hadn’t happened as a result.
Outside of
the emphasis on time travel, the biggest flaw with the final six episodes or so
is a hasty romance plot between Seven of Nine and Chakotay. There isn’t a ton
of setup for it, and Future Janeway reveals that the two get married. Since the
previous seasons mostly teased at Chakotay-Janeway and Doctor-Seven of Nine
flings, it feels weird that they pivot strongly away from both.
Anyway, some
other random odds and ends:
- My Voyager Character Power Rankings: The
Doctor, Seven, Naomi Wildman, gap, Janeway, Tuvok, Torres, Paris, Harry Kim, gap,
Chakotay, gap, Neelix, huge gap, Troi and Reginald Barclay. While Seven has
more “high” moments than The Doctor, I have to give him a smidge more credit
for being the most compelling character of the course of the entire series.
- Naomi
Wildman just kills it pretty much every scene she’s in. She adds good levity to
the show, and helps humanize Seven of Nine in a great way, whereas much of the
other “humor” of Voyager falls flat.
I usually find the Cute Kid characters insufferable, but she’s a rare exception
to the rule. She’s so great that her mother, Samantha Wildman, basically gets demoted to
extra.
- Neelix
gets offloaded a couple episodes before the finale, which I was fine with. I
never really warmed up to his character, although thankfully, his more comedic
aspects are downplayed once Kes gets jettisoned off the ship. He was more
interesting once he was portrayed as a competent ambassador for the ship.
- Reginald
Barclay guest “stars” in a couple episodes, as a Starfleet officer obsessively
trying to make contact with Voyager. He was in Next Generation and basically serves as a stand-in for sci-fi crazed
fans, and he’s highly annoying.
The
pandering feels worse because he’s accompanied briefly in most episodes by
Deanna Troi. You can really see the seams on these episodes. “Well, we can only
get Marina Sirtis to agree to a couple scenes, but the guy who plays Barclay,
he just wants to know when he’ll get his check.”
- I’m now
done with Voyager, and I’m currently
making my way through Next Generation.
I had thought I had seen all of the episodes, but Netflix tells me that I
actually, bizarrely watched the first two seasons and the last season, leaving a
ton of the middle episodes untouched. Whoops.
From there,
my buddy and Trek superfan Bob recommended
that I go in the order of Deep Space
Nine, the old Star Trek movies, Enterprise, then the new Star Trek movies. I’m also still
catching up on Gilmore Girls with
Karen, and I need to watch Luke Cage at
some point too, but there is something oddly easy about watching Trek vs. “new” content. They had a sort
of relaxed cadence that makes them perfect for background watching, as I’m
writing or doing other things.
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