Voyager 7x25/7x26 "Endgame"

rating: ****

the story: The crew faces one last great shortcut home...but it goes through the Borg and...Admiral Janeway?

what it's all about: Like the rest of the series, Voyager's final episode proved controversial, difficult to like among fans.  Some of them merely singled out parallel elements from Next Generation's finale (a new relationship: Chakotay and Seven/Worf and Troi; a degenerative illness: Tuvok/Picard; a time travel element, different time periods), and thought it merely derivative.  Some were actually upset they didn't get to see just a little more, the crew reuniting with family.  Some were, as they'd been since the third season, upset that the series was still pretending it had something to say about the Borg.  And some still just didn't like Janeway, much less two of them.

To which I say: humbug.  It's surprising, really, how many of Star Trek fan complaints amount to so much humbug, a stubborn insistence to be grumpy, a trend that has grown more and more prevalent among fan cultures of any extraction in recent years, and so Voyager ought to celebrate being at the vanguard of such a movement, no matter how dubious the honor.

I say humbug, too, because this is a perfect ending to the series.  It is a parallel, to the first episode of Voyager.  Janeway has to make a difficult decision that will determine when they get home.  In "Caretaker," she makes a principled stand, a correctly Starfleet one, that strands her ship seventy thousand lightyears from home, so that if it took the full length of time none of the crew would be alive to actually reach it, that it would end up being a generational journey.  By the end of the series, two children had been born into the crew, Naomi Wildman and Miral Paris, whose birth actually occurs in "Endgame."  Throughout the series, Janeway had also struggled with that original decision, notably in "The 37s" and "Night." 

"Endgame" is a chance to revisit it, and once and for all determine whether she made the right call.  But she has help this time.  Namely, herself.  Future Janeway, or as she's known Admiral Janeway, has actually once and for decided she made the wrong one.  Ultimately, one of them has to pay the price.  It might seem cheap for it to be Admiral Janeway, since her timeline ends up being erased anyway, but this is a franchise that has long celebrated such sacrifices, most memorably in Deep Space Nine's "The Visitor," and even in Voyager's own "Timeless," which "Endgame" also parallels and serves as a spiritual sequel.  In that one, it's an older Harry Kim who goes back to fix things, and it's the best Harry appearance of the series.  While Janeway can't quite claim that honor with "Endgame," it's still among her strongest episodes, precisely because it does force her to decide, once and for all, if she was right in "Caretaker."  It's a bold call to say she thinks, at least, that she wasn't.  But she also has an opportunity she didn't then, the classic "have your cake and eat it, too," which results in a dramatically memorable trip home in a metaphorical belly of the whale, a Borg cube that the ship quickly emerges from...in home territory at last.

For a series that long chased truly cinematic moments, knowing like Deep Space Nine before it that there were likely no movies in its future, it's a truly achieved objective.  Getting Alice Krige to reprise the Borg Queen one last time, regardless of whether or not it's a final defeat of the Borg, at least gives the series another long-held objective of giving Janeway a defining win over the Collective, building on everything that had come before it. 

All that and more is why I love "Endgame," and the series around it.  It's a strong final episode, arguably the most appropriate one of the whole franchise, accomplishing in grand fashion what might have been inevitable, but never guaranteed to be so memorable. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A series finale that completes the story exactly as expected but still manages to surprise.  In that sense, totally unique in Star Trek lore.
• series - Parallels the very first episode in a deliberate fashion.
• character - Allows Janeway to finish an argument she's had with herself since the beginning.
• essential - To see how the crew gets home, especially that spectacular final sequence, really has to be seen to be believed.

notable guest-stars:
Kate Mulgrew (Admiral Janeway)
Ethan Phillips (Neelix)
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)
Richard Herd (Admiral Paris)
Dwight Schultz (Barclay)
Alice Krige (Borg Queen)
Vaughn Armstrong

Voyager 7x19 "Q2"

rating: ***

the story: Q's son proves every bit as out-of-control as his old man.

what it's all about: "Death Wish" was a Q episode every fan seemed to agree on as worthy of continuing the legacy.  "The Q and the Grey" less so.  "Q2" ended up being known, if at all, as yet another example of Voyager being somewhat pointless to the overall franchise legacy.  And yet, popular opinion isn't always right.  "Q and the Grey" was an episode that Next Generation never quite got around to, despite ample evidence that Q had represented the Continuum as less than a well-functioning machine, many times over.  It presented these being as collectively identifiable, continuing the work of "Death Wish" in more ways than one.  A lot of fans were just angry that Q cared at all about Janeway and her crew, that if he had anything to resolve, it really ought to have been done with Picard, his most famous rival.  And yet, any cursory examination of Q and Picard's encounters will admit their intellectual nature, whereas Janeway, as she had with her crew as a whole, presented a familial quality.  Long story short: Janeway stuck her neck out for Seven, the most obvious single example.  Q figured, he could trust his problems with someone like that.  And yeah, it made for a totally different storytelling dynamic, if he could have sexual tension with his sparring partner.  (Sisko took sparring quite literally, you'll recall.)

Anyway, "Q2" is a revisit of the basic Q template, removing all the heavy implications of the two previous Voyager episodes and seeing what it looked like...from his son's point of view.  This son was conceived in "Q and the Grey," remember, four seasons earlier.  In typically sped-up Star Trek childhood fashion (and also, because he's a Q), he's a teenager now.  So this is actually an Icheb episode, the last real opportunity, and really, the first time Icheb just gets to be a teenager, as Q's son bonds with him (odd couple syndrome), and they become entangled in Q's efforts to get his kid to...be less like him. 

And that's really the strength of the episode.  Q certainly could never admit that kind of vulnerability to Picard.  Yet, all three Voyager appearances have him on the defensive, which arguably was Q at his best (see Next Generation's "Deja Q," the template for this one).  But getting him to admit vulnerability?  That was kind of the whole point of his Voyager arc, and why this culmination was actually necessary, as it gives him that chance, and being able to save face, too.  Because it's, y'know, his son who has to admit it.  Technically.

It can seem a little disappointing, that the last Q episode actually features someone other than John de Lancie as the featured Q.  At least it's de Lancie's son, too.  That counts for something!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - It's the last Q episode!
• series - The final of three Voyager Q episodes completes the arc nicely.
• character - It's actually an Icheb spotlight, and a welcome one at that.
• essential - Of course, it's hard not to admit that in the best of all possible worlds, John de Lancie's final appearance in the role might have been a spotlight for, y'know, John de Lancie.

notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie (Q)
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)
Keegan de Lancie (Q2)

Voyager 7x18 "Human Error"

rating: ****

the story: Seven simulates a romance with Chakotay.

what it's all about: The idea of the holodeck was a staple throughout Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.  It was such a staple of this era that fans actually grew to hate it.  If "Ferengi episodes" was a distinctly Deep Space Nine epitaph, then "holograph episode" surely was one across all three series.  But I think most of them justify their existence thematically, even when concepts overlap.  One of the early distinctive holodeck adventures was Reg Barclay's introduction in Next Generation's "Hollow Pursuits," in which he tries to compensate poor social skills with a lively holodeck life.  Voyager later saw The Doctor create a whole holodeck family in "Real Life."  Both were about creating a fake existence outside of the real world that only damaged ability to judge experiences with objective clarity.  "Human Error" is that same kind of experience.

However, it's not particularly an episode that has stood out for fans.  One of the reasons is that the idea of Seven and Chakotay in a relationship seems to be dropped at the end of the episode, only to be picked up again, randomly, in "Endgame," the series finale.  This was likely viewed as one of Voyager's many creative sins.  Fans thought the series did this all the time.  Very few of them seemed willing to give Voyager the benefit of the doubt in how it reached decisions like this.  It looked like Worf and Troi, finally, in a romantic relationship in Next Generation's series finale, "All Good Things...," and because there had been an episode where Seven considered the possibility but rejected it, this one, it just felt all the more random, barely justified.

And, no doubt, fans still clung to "Someone to Watch Over Me."  This is a fifth season episode that's been routinely cited as one of Voyager's best.  On the surface it's a similar story to "Human Error."  Seven experiments with social interaction and romance with The Doctor.  It's actually more of a Doctor episode than a Seven episode, as it ends with him realizing that he's probably not winning her heart despite all his efforts to be there for her.  She remains completely oblivious to his feelings.  The effect is heartbreaking.  For me, it's not even one of my favorite Doctor episodes, although it's certainly a worthy character study and a notable bonding experience for someone who often yearned for such things. 

"Human Error" is different, as it is Seven actively exploring social life and romance.  She's reached a point in the series where her personal growth is an inward journey rather than something she's struggling against, which is where it began in the fourth season.  Where The Doctor from the day he was first activated was complaining about his limitations, Seven complained about her newfound possibilities, so that where The Doctor always found room for growth and welcomed it, sometimes with too much enthusiasm, Seven always struggled.  Hers was an internal experience.  Seven was always an introvert, The Doctor an extrovert.  Perception of Seven usually begins and ends with her physical attributes, and yet she was never treated as a mere object of sexual desire.  She was the perfect embodiment of Gene Roddenberry's two greatest interests, humanity and sexuality.  Fans might have soured on sexuality as a defining feature in Star Trek, but humanity remained, and remains, its truest, deepest focus, and Seven was an ideal instrument to explore it.

Putting all that together, Seven's experiments in the holodeck are more akin to Data yearning to be more human, and yet his mechanics constantly getting in the way.  Often when he'd attempt a breakthrough it'd backfire with unexpected consequences.  While Seven's daydreaming in "Human Error" isn't nearly as literal as Data's in "Phantasms," it also feels more organic, and all the more troubling that a creature of habit has allowed her usual extreme professionalism to be compromised.

All of which is to say, "Human Error" is about as important a Seven episode as there ever was, and it speaks to a lot of franchise lore and experience.  It's a classic.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A deceptively key holodeck experience.
• series - The episodic/serialized nature of Voyager can be unlocked by an experience like this.
• character - Seven's journey of discovery reaches a climax.
• essential - It's the point where she finally rediscovers her humanity.

notable guest-stars:
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)

Voyager 7x12 "Lineage"

rating: ****

the story: When B'Elanna learns she's pregnant, it causes her to once again anguish over her mixed heritage.

what it's all about: "Lineage" is among the most harrowing character studies in franchise history.  Of course it's a classic.  It's the culmination of B'Elanna Torres's whole arc in the series, beginning with "Faces" in the first season, in which we literally see her Klingon and human sides struggle with each other.  Here, she replays the struggle on behalf of her unborn daughter. 

Star Trek has often tackled big moral problems, and slightly less often put a main character in the position of being wrong.  Clearly B'Elanna is wrong in her desperate attempts to modify her child's DNA, to wipe out the Klingon side entirely.  And she goes to extraordinary measures to try and achieve it, even messing with the Doctor's programming...

We also get rare flashback material in a Star Trek episode, in which the young B'Elanna goes on a camping trip with her human father, and we see firsthand her early struggles.  We'd seen Chakotay's flashback childhood troubles in "Tattoo," so it's a nice callback, too, and even Tuvok's ("Gravity").  Seems if you're Maquis (Tuvok pretended to be, anyway), that's what you get. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A gripping example of Star Trek's moral compass.
• series - Concludes a main character's arc.
• character - B'Elanna's.
• essential - Said character is arguably the true MVP of the series.  So, pretty important.

notable guest-stars:
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)

Voyager 7x11 "Shattered"

rating: ****

the story: Chakotay finds the ship shattered into different time periods.

what it's all about: Sure, "Shattered" is a bit like Next Generation's final episode, "All Good Things...," where Q has Picard hopping between the past, present and future, but it stands uniquely on its own as a clever and fun episode, revisiting various signposts from throughout Voyager's seven seasons.  We do see a future, where Icheb and Naomi have grown up and have become the second generation to run the ship, and we see Seven when she was still a Borg drone, and we see Janeway from just before "Caretaker" (first episode, dude). 

But my favorite part?  One last reprise of Seska.  Seska was the signature arc of the first two seasons, the Cardassian who posed as a Bajoran in order to infiltrate the Maquis, and thus betraying in her defection to the Kazon not only the crew as a whole, but Chakotay, with whom she'd been close.  She technically met her end in the third season premiere, "Basics, Part 2," but returned via a holodeck program she'd booby-trapped in "Worst Case Scenario" at the end that season.

For a second time, she gets another chance to finish the job, and really, it's just confirmation that Seska remains a signature villain of the series, in case anyone had forgotten or simply roped her in with her Kazon allies, whom many fans didn't really care for.

That it's a Chakotay episode is awesome, since he had nothing much to do with "Worst Case," nor "Basics, Part 2," despite being so important to the arc and character previously.  This was a point when he'd receded far into the background, and hadn't been particularly relevant except in his spotlight episodes since...basically the second season.  But Chakotay was king of spotlight episodes.  He could sell any concept, and seemed to get a good share of the truly interesting ones, like this one.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Shades of a classic final episode here.
• series - Reflects back on the journey without being a clip show, which is itself clever.
• character - Chakotay, and Seska, are well-served.
• essential - Seeing Seska again is a great reminder of how important she was to the show.

notable guest-stars:
Martha Hackett (Seska)
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)
Scarlett Pomers (Naomi)
Martin Rayner (Chaotica)

Voyager 7x8 "Nightingale"

rating: **

the story: Harry is given command of an alien ship.

what it's all about: This is the definitive character study of Harry Kim.  Of all the characters in the series,  he was difficult to comprehend by incredulous fans who never understood why a perfectly dependable officer never got promoted during the course of seven seasons.  Here's why.

Simply put, it's because he never understood the human element, and had never been in a position where this was exposed.  Janeway's crew functioned perfectly for having been cobbled together, but there was a reason why personnel settled where they did, and worked together as they did.  Just as Chakotay's role as first officer became redundant in a crew accustomed to sharing the burden of command under a visionary captain, everyone tended to slide into the roles that were needed.  If someone like Neelix proved ambitious, they were granted additional responsibilities.  You'll see that Harry never left his post as operations officer.  Tom Paris and Tuvok, meanwhile, did handle multiple responsibilities, and were promoted accordingly.

But more than that, it's really about Harry's self-confidence, which is exposed as being disproportionate in some areas, so that it becomes overconfidence.  That's why he's an ensign, because he's still got a lot to learn.  In a way, he really was the crew member who lost the most being lost in space.  He gained plenty of experience, but never realized what he lost in the bargain.

So that's what "Nightingale" is about, helping him realize that.  Interestingly, there's a subplot about Icheb naively believing B'Elanna has a crush on him.  Again, it's innocent inexperience that's the problem, and a rare instance in which the main and subplots of a Voyager episode reflect each other.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Won't particularly appeal to casual fans.
• series - Apparently there was a plan to keep Harry on that alien ship, much as Neelix later split off from the crew before the end.  But obviously that didn't happen.
• character - Harry explained.
• essential - A darn clever way to do it, too.

notable guest-stars:
Ron Glass
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)

Voyager 7x2 "Imperfection"

rating: ***

the story: A crucial Borg implant malfunctions for Seven.

what it's all about: Icheb had already won a unique place in the annals of youth characters in Star Trek thanks to "Child's Play," his second major appearance where we learn once and for all that he's not just another teenager in the franchise, but one with a burden meant for someone far older.  As one of the "Borg children," he'd already provided Seven's arc an added dimension, additional ex-drones struggling to reclaim their lives post-Collective aboard Voyager.  Here he pushes her even further, accepting vulnerability in a way she'd never quite managed previously.

From the moment she appeared in the series, Seven was a hard case, who wore her damage more proudly than anyone in a crew full of damaged souls (that's what makes Voyager so fascinating for me; Deep Space Nine was always known as the "dark Trek," and yet it was Voyager that set out to find the Roddenberry ideal in the midst of personal tragedy).  Her story was obvious to anyone who saw her, and more obvious still to anyone who heard her.  Even worse than B'Elanna Torres, Seven just couldn't let go of what had hurt her; in fact, she seemed reluctant to let go, even as she professed an interest in making peace with her transformed world.  It took a lot of work to rediscover her humanity.  Arguably, it happens in "Imperfection."

The Borg children never quite became official drones, so that always gave Icheb a leg up in that department.  He may have retained the distinctive Borg vocal passivity (between Vulcans, Bajorans, and the Borg, Star Trek really seems to like that stuff!), but he struggled far less with integrating. 

The biggest problem Seven faces in the episode is acknowledging that.  It's how she discovers her vulnerability.  Like the Doctor before her ("Someone to Watch Over Me") Seven attempts a dubious mentorship.  Unlike her own behavior in this situation, much less the Doctor's, Seven accepts the fact that she is proven wrong, at the end of the episode.  To my mind, that makes "Imperfection" at least a rival to an episode that usually gets more fan love.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Though all about Borg mechanics, this stuff probably won't appeal to the casual fan; its points are too subtle.
• series - They make more sense resonating with prior Voyager material.
• character - It's a giant leap for Seven, and Icheb.
• essential - Icheb once again proves how quickly he became indispensable to the later seasons of the series.

notable guest-stars:
Manu Intiraymi (Icheb)

Voyager 6x19 "Child's Play"

****

"Child's Play" is the Borg episode Voyager had been working toward since the third season, something it could almost do with Seven but not quite, the fullest exploitation of being in the Collective's home territory of the Delta Quadrant.

"Hope and Fear" had been pretty close to the mark earlier, but it's in "Child's Play" where the psychology of having the Borg in your backyard really hits home.  Here we learn just how Icheb became assimilated in the first place, and it's pretty despicable, but at the same time almost understandable.

Here's a spoiler alert:

It's his parents  who set him up for it, in the hope of crippling the Borg with a virus.  Hey, Janeway does the same thing, several times, until it finally works.

It's a fascinating insight into the real effects of the Borg.  If "Best of Both Worlds" had remained the definitive statement, that would have been fine, but short of finally discovering just how the Collective was formed in the first place, there's no more essential story to be told than more than just the trauma of assimilation, but how those who hear it on the news, so to say, actually react to it.  It's like a War on Terror story told more than a year early.  Like all those Deep Space Nine stories about the Bajoran Resistance, it's a continually relevant tale that the later Star Treks never really got credit for.

If "Child's Play" doesn't convince you that the sixth season of Voyager wasn't as worthless as you heard, then there's nothing else I can say.

But I'll keep trying!

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Manu Intiraymi

Memory Alpha summary.

Voyager 6x16 "Collective"

**

If Icheb hadn't actually returned and become a fairly major character in the series, "Collective" might go down as a fairly repetitive Borg episode for Voyager.  Once again drones are reclaimed from the infernal hive mind, reclaiming their own identities, however reluctantly.

As it is, Icheb, among the several pint-sized Borg to be rescued, actually does become significant, not just because he receives a spotlight episode of his own a little later, but because he's the latest passenger the crew accepts and embraces as one of its own.  Sometimes mistaken for a monotone Wesley Crusher, Icheb has his own legacy to contribute, as the observer who actively contributes to the growth of those around him, the missing link, for instance, that allows Seven to move on from her remaining limitations.  He even makes a man out of Q's son!

But "Collective" on its own might be skippable, except that for the series and Icheb, you need to see it to know where he came from.  If you care enough to know how mundane it really is.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Manu Intiraymi

Memory Alpha summary.