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 7x20 "Author, Author"

rating: ****

the story: The Doctor writes a holonovel, but trying to get it published ends up putting his legal rights on trial.

what it's all about: For most fans, Next Generation's "The Measure of a Man" was the definitive look at the rights of artificial lifeforms.  It movingly explores Data's fight against a Starfleet engineer who wants to dismantle and study him, culminating in a trial in which Riker is forced to argue against and Picard has an unexpected uphill battle arguing for him.  A lot of its impact comes from the fact that it's perceived as an outlier of the show's first two seasons, the first time fans saw dramatic worth in the series.  Whatever else can be said about it, "Measure" cast a long shadow, and created an entirely different challenge for the third series of this era, Voyager, when it included in its cast an artificial lifeform, too, the holographic Doctor.

Where Data's primary motivation throughout Next Generation was to better evoke the trappings of humanity, throughout Voyager the Doctor had to struggle for basic recognition and freedom, things Data in his series had always taken for granted, outside of experiences like "Measure" and "The Offspring."  Data's challenges always came from outside the crew around him, whereas the Doctor, whose crew was necessarily cut off from the rest of Starfleet for the majority of the series, most frequently struggled against his own crew.  "Author, Author" is actually an exception, the first and only time he experienced something directly comparable to Data's struggles, which is why "Measure of a Man" is so relevant to it.  If "Measure" had already scored a landmark victory for artificial lifeforms...what was the point of another such story?

Well, aside from the matter of self-determination, which was at the heart of "Measure," the nature of Data's victory and how it contrasts with the Doctor's trial are worth examining.  Data was for all intents and purposes the only one of his kind.  His trial was exclusively about him, and what it created for other artificial lifeforms was a precedent.  By the time we meet the Doctor in Voyager, we already know there are other medical holograms serving in Starfleet, all of them subjected to direct activation upon request, which the Doctor uniquely circumvents due to circumstances.  As the series progresses, and even as we see in Deep Space Nine, Starfleet continues advancing the medical hologram initiative with new models.  Apparently models from the Doctor's initial generation of medical holograms aren't merely deleted and replaced, but repurposed.  That they aren't outright deleted is a small victory.  They're still considered, as a class, completely subservient, as Picard feared in "Measure" in effect slaves within the system.  They have not been granted self-determination. 

And why?  Well, that's what the episode is all about.  It's also about the Doctor's rights aboard the ship, too, his ability to voice himself creatively, and what that means to the rest of the crew, and how he's capable of acknowledging that.  These are all considerable developments for him, too.  After "Latent Image," "Author" is the most significant episode to feature his progress as a member of the crew and an individual.

It's also an episode that fans ought to keep in mind in relation to the final episode.  Like "Human Error" before it, "Author" is classic Voyager in that it's episodic and serialized storytelling at the same time, meaning you can watch it and see a complete story, but it also works within the greater framework of the series, so that it builds and comments on developments from other episodes.  The crew had gained the ability to have limited interaction with home all the way back in the fourth season, but "Author" lets us see them enjoy actual conversations with family.  Fans critical of the final episode, where the crew reaches home but fans don't get to see home, should appreciate what "Author" does, letting us overhear some of the very conversations the full reunions later would entail.

It's a landmark episode all around, the last great episode of the series before the finale.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Starfleet's view on artificial lifeforms as it exists after "The Measure of a Man."
• series - The crew enjoys conversations with family back home.
• character - This is exactly where the Doctor stands both with the crew and Starfleet.
• essential - It's highly enlightening.

notable guest-stars:
Richard Herd (Admiral Paris)
Dwight Schultz (Barclay)

Voyager 7x6 "Inside Man"

rating: ****

the story: Ferengi intercept a holographic Barclay.

what it's all about: Reg Barclay in Voyager is one of the most remarkable developments of the whole franchise.  In Next Generation, Barclay was the poster boy of neurotic behavior, whose skills as an engineer always took a backseat to his latest psychological problem.  Then he starts making appearances in Voyager, and then in "Pathfinder" becomes an official member of the family as he spearheads regular communication between Voyager and Starfleet, itself a milestone development in the series. 

Ironically, as a counterpoint to his first appearance ("Hollow Pursuits"), Barclay here gains a holographic version of himself! 

"Inside Man" continues that arc while also bringing back the idea of the Ferengi as antagonists.  The Ferengi were Next Generation's first attempt at new villainous aliens.  They were quickly exposed as difficult to take seriously, and so they became progressively comedic, until in Deep Space Nine virtually every spotlight episode for Quark was played for laughs, regardless of how nuanced Ferengi society was depicted in that series. 

They'd appeared in Voyager previously ("False Profits"), but "Inside" makes a more concerted effort to return the Ferengi to their roots, when DaiMon Bok was envisioned as Picard's mortal enemy.  Here they're refashioned as essentially faceless, which is perhaps key to making the idea work.  Devious but incapable of following up on their schemes, the Ferengi in the episode are exactly what they always were, but in a situation that at last sells the concept on every level it always needed to work.  They're revealed as cowards, which is why their best bet is gambling against each other, where the façade can truly function.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - An honest-to-god attempt to redeem the original vision of the Ferengi.
• series - Progress in communications with Starfleet!
• character - Barclay once again proves he belongs in this family.
• essential - For those who claim the episodic format can't handle serialized material, this is yet another example to the contrary.

notable guest-stars:
Dwight Schultz (Barclay)
Marina Sirtis (Troi)
Richard Herd (Admiral Paris)

The Next Generation 6x17 "Birthright, Part 2"

rating: ****

the story: Worf discovers a colony where Klingons and Romulans live side-by-side.

similar to: "The Enemy" (Next Generation), "Chimera" (Deep Space Nine)

my thoughts: I have long struggled over this episode, and yet now I am recommending it as a Star Trek classic.  So let me explain...

What used to make me so uncomfortable is how fallible Worf comes off, and how unwinnable a situation he comes across in the strange village housing both his people, the Klingons, and their frenemies the Romulans.  "The Enemy" had already demonstrated the depth of his enmity toward Romulans (refusing to help save the life of one), and later in Deep Space Nine's "Change of Heart," his refusal to see the greater picture (which would have sacrificed Dax in the process), all of this amounts to a unique franchise character, one who doesn't conform to the perfect standards Gene Roddenberry envisioned for the future.  It's not that he's Klingon and therefore absolved from the human vision, but that, as perhaps best depicted in "Birthright, Part 2," he has a hard time overcoming the prejudices and attitudes he has formed over a lifetime, and yes, inherited, too.

Which makes him unique, a continuing character study of everything Star Trek sought to demonstrate as having been overcome in the future.  This doesn't mean Worf, ultimately, is a villain.  Far from it.  His struggles make him, if anything, more heroic.  "Birthright, Part 2," again, is where it all comes together.

Lured on the promise of reuniting with his dead father, Worf instead comes face-to-face with something his people won't overcome, despite Klingons finally having made peace with one implacable foe, the Federation, with Worf himself being the living embodiment of that progress.  That doesn't make confronting his shortcomings any less ugly or uncomfortable to watch.  To him, his actions are all about Klingon pride, but the underpinning is his basic intolerance of Romulans, and his unwillingness to reconsider his views.  He may, with every justification, question Romulan motives (Deep Space Nine did a similar story, "Cardassians," about a war orphan forced to choose where to pledge his loyalties, which itself was similar to Next Generation's own "Suddenly Human"), but that doesn't excuse his disgust as he finds out his lovely Klingon beauty also has Romulan blood in her. 

Again, there's a Deep Space Nine episode ("Chimera") where Odo is forced once and all to decide where he stands on the matter of prejudice against his kind (changelings), and this matter can't be discussed without bringing up Data ("The Measure of a Man") or The Doctor (Voyager's "Latent Image"), but just as with the bigotry even Spock faced ("Balance of Terror," for instance) and Enterprise's xenophobes ("Demons"/"Terra Prime"), this is a matter very much relevant to the real world, and Star Trek's exploration of it, in all its forms (Deep Space Nine's "Far Beyond the Stars"), ultimately tends to let the good guys off.  Not this time.  And this is very, very important, because it acknowledges how unsettling this problem really is.  Because it's not just something that happens to the other guy. 

"Birthright, Part 1" featured Data daydreaming, which was a metaphoric acknowledgement that the android needed to continue growing.  I think "Birthright, Part 2" is about Worf struggling to understand that, too.  Something to think about, anyway.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Alan Scarfe
Jennifer Gatti
Richard Herd
Cristine Rose
James Cromwell

The Next Generation 6x16 "Birthright, Part 1"

rating: ***

the story: Data triggers a dream subroutine as Dr. Bashir examines him, while Worf discovers that his father may still be alive.

similar to: "Projections," "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" (Voyager)

my thoughts: For the longest time, I found it hard to appreciate Deep Space Nine's appearance in "Birthright."  That may be because for the longest time, I didn't appreciate Deep Space Nine's first season, having become a fan during its second and only discovering the first later.  Bashir started out as a brash young upstart, whose enthusiasm usually got him into trouble.  (He matured relatively quickly, rest assured!)  It's equally strange, too, because when I did begin exploring that first season, I had no problem with the frequent Next Generation tie-in, the appearances from the Duras Sisters, Q, and even Lwaxana Troi (who would go on to become a Deep Space Nine staple, and arguably make her best appearances in that series).  No, my problem was Bashir, because he was entirely out of place in Next Generation.  His kind, young Wesley Crusher, had long been absent when he appeared.

But you know what, in hindsight this is an almost magical moment.  There were so many crossover appearances in Star Trek over the years, most of them, originally, characters from the original series, until it became possible to do something else.  Picard made an appearance in Deep Space Nine's first episode.  This was an age, remember, before multiple series running concurrently in a franchise was a thing, before it was even possible, really.  Star Trek got the ball started.  (Never you mind Detective Munch!)  "Birthright, Part 1" is actually historic, when you think about it, without really calling any attention to it, I mean the fans, in the more than twenty years since it first aired.

And Worf visits Deep Space Nine for the first time!  Later, he'd become a regular in Deep Space Nine, and "Birthright, Part 1" marks the first time he ever goes there, before anyone could guess what his future would hold.

Okay, enough geeking out.  In that nonchalant franchise guest-starring act, "Birthright" has that in common with Voyager's "Projections," which was the first time Barclay shows up in that series, with no one particularly pointing out how awesome and serendipitous that is, when he later becomes a recurring character in the series. 

Ah!  I said enough with the geeking!  The actual story features Data dreaming, a subtle build on his character (later revisited in "Phantasms," featuring the famous Troi cake), and one of the niftier appearances of his creator Dr. Soong.  (Daydreaming got Voyager's Doctor in a whole lot more trouble in "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy," alas!)  And it features Worf getting the oddly unsettling news that his father Mogh may actually still be alive.  The whole of these parts is less than it should be.  Given that the second part of this story focuses exclusively on Worf, one wonders why Data's was even in the first, but perhaps it's some subtle metaphor I hadn't really considered previously, given how traumatic the second part turns out to be (more in that review), for all involved.

The embarrassment of riches in guest-stars is incredible to look at, and is enough for me to want to watch the episode all over again, not just for Bashir, but to see James Cromwell (buried in alien makeup this time), Cristine Rose (long before she becomes Mama Petrelli in Heroes), Richard Herd (before he becomes Tom Paris's father in Voyager), and even Jennifer Gatti (who later appears in more attractive form as Harry Kim's girlfriend, also in Voyager).

The story continues...

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Alexander Siddig (Bashir)
James Cromwell
Cristine Rose
Richard Herd
Jennifer Gatti

Voyager 6x10 "Pathfinder"

****

In the many sweeping generalizations of the last half-decade of the franchise before the J.J. Abrams reboot, it's always been unfair to suggest the sixth season of Voyager as both a colossal failure and waste of time, and you can look no further for contradiction than "Pathfinder," the episode that began the crew's last leg of the journey home.

There's a lot of things to like about this one, actually, or if you're still being obstinate, then at least consider it noteworthy.  Dwight Schultz, for instance, returns to the series (after making a more random appearance in the second season episode "Projections") and the franchise as the ship's unlikely savior.  Then again, maybe he wasn't so unlikely.  Originally a beloved if neurotic recurring character in The Next Generation, Reginald Barclay was a brilliant engineer who kept getting in his own way, finally tapping into his potential with a little prodding from the combined efforts of Captain Picard's crew.  He made an appearance in First Contact, but seemed destined to remain known as the guy who was once nicknamed "Broccoli" (and not affectionately).

Some fans considered "Pathfinder" to be a character regression for the guy who first made a name for himself retreating to the fantasies of the Holodeck, Barclay once again preferring to hang out with holograms rather than real people.  Yet they really missed the point.  In a roundabout way, what he was really doing was integrating what had once been his biggest failing with his greatest strength, and in the process solved the riddle of how Starfleet could locate and establish regular contact with the wayward crew in the Delta Quadrant.  It was a fete of brilliance that he could never have achieved serving aboard a starship.  No offense to Scotty or La Forge, but this is an accomplishment of far greater important than making an engine sing even in the midst of a crisis.

Anyway, Barclay is joined by Marina Sirtis (making the first of three appearances in the series), once again portraying Deanna Troi, saddled with the task of figuring out the most peculiar officer in the fleet one more time.  The episode also features the debut of Richard Herd in the role of Admiral Owen Paris, former colleague of Captain Janeway and Tom Paris, making the implicit case that father no longer so harshly judges son in his efforts to oversee the success of this project.

Subconsciously, "Pathfinder" was a huge development in the series, making what the show would never be able to do without limiting the dramatic impact of finally getting home in the finale possible by finally opening contact with home.

It's essential viewing in every sense of the word, a clear highlight of the series, something a skeptical fan can use if they want to approach with an open mind, a break from the regular format, a giant step forward for an established character...you name it.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Dwight Schultz
Marina Sirtis
Richard Herd

Memory Alpha summary.