“Future's End, Part II”

How the heck did Harry get Hobo Braxton's schematic when transporters were down?!

Oh yeah, and it sure was fun making fun of those silly militia guys who thought that the government was moving towards fascism, wasn't it? The '90s were a hoot! Boy, this episode really shows its age!!

LOL, after dissing Tom for saying "groovy" in part one, Rain calls Tuvok a "Freakasaurus". Also, wouldn't the militia guy's shotgun damage the Holodoc's mobile emitter? Oh, and hell the heck did Starling's minion turn that 18-wheeler around so quickly - and with a flat tire!! Also, I think that the person who made the call not to make Rain a permanent character deserves a medal of some sort. FINALLY, this episode made it clear that a "temporal integrity commission" exists in the 29th century that intervenes whenever something gets mucked up in the timeline. WHERE WERE THEY IN "ENDGAME"?? Now, thanks to Janeway violating the Temporal Prime Directive, the Federation has transphasic torpedoes, "deploy armor", and that phaser and cloaking technology that they never showed us! (Janeway should have been thrown in prison for violating the TPD, but she got a promotion!) Also, why didn't Captain Braxton make the holodoc give up his 29th century contraband? Did he also take the "20%" of Voyager's computer files off the Chronowerks mainframe and put it back into Voyager? Ok, I'm done, I promise.

I absolutely disliked the concept that it's already settled that there will be a "federation" in the 29th century and that they master time travel at will. Sorta takes out the tension of many things ... I have to admit that I still liked those 90 minutes on a pure "fun level", though.

I'm also glad the Doctor acknowledged his memory loss. I'll have you notice that "Future's End" was filmed right after "The Swarm" (regardless of the aired order) so it makes more sense to watch the episodes in production order for that reason.

Shouldn't voyager have automatically returned to the 24th century since the past/future was altered by them? If the initial meeting with Braxon never happened then why would they be in Earth orbit?

Fun episode but talk about put yourself in a corner with the invention of the 'Temporal Integrity Commission' who basically should have put a stop to all this Time Travel shenanigans a long time ago.

You are somewhat right, Paul. This episode presents a different interpretation of temporal causality than "Time & Again" did. In both cases, there is a temporal paradox "loop" (A leads to B leads to C leads to A). In "Time & Again" everything was erased once the loop was averted, but here the crew retains their memories, the Doc's emitter, and their position in the space-time continuum.

In "The 37's" the crew specifically made sure to have only human crew members (or Kes, who "can easily be made to look human") present when they wake up Amelia Earhart and the others. They should have taken the same care here, instead of sending a Klingon-foreheaded woman to Earth. Or the Doctor could have surgically altered Torres, the way Dr. Crusher put Silly Putty on Paul Sorvino's nose in "Homeward."

Obviously the writers didn't know at this point the specific manner in which the series would end, other than "Yeah, they'll get home." But knowing what we know now -- and given what Captain Braxton surely knew from his history -- it would have been cool if his insistence on returning Voyager to the Delta Quadrant had been based not on a vague "Sorry, Temporal Prime Directive" but on a more specific "You have important work to complete in the Delta Quadrant" (i.e., the "crippling blow" they dealt to the Borg on their way home).

@Bob

"Also, I think that the person who made the call not to make Rain a permanent character deserves a medal of some sort."

Was something like that actually under consideration? What, were they going to bring her back with them, a la Gillian Taylor? That would have been lame, and not only because Sarah Silverman is so annoying.

I just wonder why Janeway didn't initiate time warp by slingshotting around the sun. It worked for Kirk and co. several times. Janeway could've had the crew home that much sooner. Oh well.

You don't even need to slingshot around the sun. Just go at almost-light speeds (using non-warp drive, of course) and relativity takes care of the rest.

As for the temporal paradoxes, I assumed that they changed nothing - the piece of Voyager found in the 29th century was, of course, the torpedo. Braxton at the end could have simply been earlier in his life than when he encountered Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. I'm pretty sure I remember more episodes with Braxton, so perhaps some of this is dealt with then.

Starling was such a well conceived villain, it's a shame he couldn't have become a recurring one.

I know some people can't stand Sarah Silverman and I certainly understand why. But I like her. She's a good egg, she CAN be funny, and yes, she's got that adorable smile. Like her or not, though, the Raine character got short shrifted. Here comes Tom Paris who represents everything she's ever dreamed of - he's smart, attractive, mysterious, and shares not only her interest in science and astronomy, but her taste in pop culture as well. They have an intellectual bond and a shared attraction. And not only do they both love B-movies, but he's suddenly thrown her into the middle of one. Complete with lasers and time travel.

What I'm saying is she has 2 different motivations to do more than just shrug and say "your space ship's waiting" at the end. If the writer's really wanted to take a risk she could have stowed away on the shuttle somehow. An even bigger risk would have been Tom actually hiding her and dealing with Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok's fallout later.

OK, so it's far fetched and goofy, but anything's better than Neelix, right?

I'm sorry but I really don't much enjoy these time travel back to Earth stories in any Star Trek series. The only exception is City on the Edge of Forever from TOS. The reason that episode is good -- and that's an understatement -- is because it treated the past seriously. Every episode since has just been an excuse to play us for cheap grins and giggles. I found this no different.

I just watched this again. When Torres and Chuckles are flying around with Starling in their transporter buffer, Harry says, "We're close enough to use the short-range transporter," and so they do, beaming Starling to Voyager. Why not beam up Torres and Chuckles too, let the shuttle crash, and then return later to destroy or retrieve it? They could have at least said, "Oops, the short-range transporter crapped out after we beamed up Starling. Bummer."

>> I just wonder why Janeway didn't initiate time warp by slingshotting around the sun.

That would have ended the series. But, yeah. I kept thinking the same thing. You'd think the writers would have done something to address that option.

I have the same issue here as I had with "Realm of Fear" from TNGS6...that a person in mid-transport can carry out activities. There, they had Barclay being able to "See" , and later, "grab" something while being transported, and here Starling is able to combat his transport while he is dematerialized...it's all completely absurd.

As I mentioned in my comment on the first part of this two-parter:
I ... HATE ... time travel episodes!

You guys have amply reminded me WHY I hate them - there's just no end to the things that end up make no sense ...

The mother of all time travel problems in Trek presents itself for the first time (I think?) in this two-parter: if there's a Temporal Prime Directive in the 29th cetury, why the heck haven't we seen it being enforced during all the crazy stuff happening throughout the dozens and dozens of Trek time travel episodes (the series Enterprise not really withstanding, since the Time Travel "Cops" are an integral par of that series)?

Why, oh why, can't the writers think about ridiculously obvious stuff like this before sending a script to the printers? "Oh, it doesn't really matter if it all makes sense, as long as we're having fun watching it!"

Madness? This ... is ... STAR TREK!

What they should have done was to find a place that would remain undisturbed into the 24th century. Then they all go into suspended animation - they've had that technology since the time of Khan. When enough time has elapsed, they wake up and head back to Earth.

The first episode was excellent, so it's all the more painful to see how poorly written and directed the second parter was. It's just a collection of badly written, awkwardly connected sequences.

I can't understand how Jammer thinks that Starling being always one step ahead is upside of the episode. I found it to be really irritating. Ok, I know he had a lot of time to learn and play around with the 29th century technology and thus, he has a lot of tricks to play.

But I think the episode just overplays it. Downloading the Doc is one thing, having him projected in a second is another. Silly silly. How easy he scapes from Voyager is also annoying.

I agree that the plot B was pointless and also badly executed. In the end, this second parter was a mess. Quite bad. But with decent ending.

K/Elvis that is an amazingly clever idea!
It would be great if it was adressed, only to be rejected with a reason "what if they find us, scan us somehow? it would pollute the timeline".

Of course, they would know where to hide, because they would in retrospect know which planet was not thoroughly checked in thei earth neighborhood.

"I'm sorry but I really don't much enjoy these time travel back to Earth stories in any Star Trek series."

Totally agree with that. I love time travel episodes, just not these past-earth ones. And for some reason they kept making them two-parters.

The one thing I'll give to this one is, at least they didn't just happen to bump into historical figures like Time's Arrow.

The second part played out here more or less as expected without offering little more in the way of ingenuity. Any sense of whimsy and adventure from the first part gives way to more Voyager-by-the-numbers plotting. The cat and mouse aspect where Starling seemed to be always one step ahead was entertaining, though, and most characterizations from the first part continued to be successful.

Enjoyable enough, but, ultimately underwhelming on follow-through.

2.5 stars.

@HolographicAndrew

"The one thing I'll give to this one is, at least they didn't just happen to bump into historical figures like Time's Arrow."

As we all know, ST:TWOK, ST:TSFS, and ST:TVH became a trilogy without the producers' intending that. I thought it was cool that they almost came full circle, because Khan was alive when the crew was looking for whales in 1986. Kirk could have said, "Hey, let's bump off Khan while we're here and none of this shit will ever have happened."

@navamske - But if the Enterprise wasn't exiled on Vulcan when the probe reached Earth it would have been really, really bad. In some ways, Khan saved Earth!

@Robert

"But if the Enterprise [crew] wasn't exiled on Vulcan when the probe reached Earth it would have been really, really bad. In some ways, Khan saved Earth!"

Yes, that's an excellent point, and it applies to the Jar Jar Abramsverse too. I can't see that there was anything about Nero's incursion to the past, creating an alternate timeline, that would keep the whale probe from showing up on schedule. It was a unique set of circumstances -- including Spock's reeducation after having died -- that allowed the crew to give the probe what it wanted, circumstances that aren't likely to occur in the new timeline. Old Spock should be telling Fake Spock, "You guys had better haul ass back to the twentieth century and pick up a couple of whales if you know what's good for you."

When Starling finally gets into the timeship near the end of Part II, he controls it with voice commands and it replies to him. It would have been cool and maybe even a little hilarious if Starfleet/Federation ships in the twenty-ninth century were still using the Majel Barrett voice.

Okay, if they could scan time in the future why didn't Braxton know what he was doing before?
Later they bring him back and destroy continuity and let him remember!
Time travel episodes are really pushing the absurdity to new levels and should best be forgotton and left in the "past."
Of course, that will never happen as long as Trek continues...

I remember watching this late at night, UPN before bed time. Voyager did not age well. 12 year old me loved it, especially when Jeri Ryan showed up in her domme suit.

This episode is every bad Voyager plot device: shuttle crash, fun with time, paper thin villains that make Snidely Whiplash seem deep, awful modern day stereotypes (courtesy of plucky white science girl and the conveniently paranoid, racist redneck militia men, ridiculous level Treknobabble and a completely disposable plot line.

One good thing: the mobile emitter giving the Doc a means to leave his confining world, though its just waaay too convenient. I would have preferred they create dramatic tension from the Doc's limitations rather than simply remove the limitations. I liked the early vibes of the Doc teaching Kes medicine because of the very real need for on-site medical care during crises the doc couldn't perform. But no---magical 29th century armband, problem solved.

The second episode is a bit much to be sure. But, I like that the writers push the envelope. The mixture of silly action, sci-fi mumbo jumbo and witty dialogue is too irresistible for me. Sometimes a story can have too many plot points and ridiculous situations and somehow it all works. In my view, easons for the success of the spisode include: the unpretentious nature of the conceit, the enthusiastic performances of the actors and the good intentions of the characters. Good stuff.

Sorry, I meant to type "reasons" for the success of the episode near the beginning of the last sentence, not "easons."

:)

Like you, Eli, I liked this episode a lot more than Jammer did. Some specific points of disagreement:

--I thought it was really interesting to bring in '90s politics (which have come around again, with people like rancher Bundy), even if it wasn't fundamental to the overall plot.

--I loved the Tom/Raine romance (like Justin, I'm a Sarah Silverman fan and was really impressed by how well she did outside her usual comfort zone), so I was all in for the farewell kiss.

KoshNaranek, you complained about "awful modern day stereotypes (courtesy of plucky white science girl and the conveniently paranoid, racist redneck militia men". I'm a bit older than you, Kosh, and I remember the mid-'90s. There were a lot of those types around, especially out West (I lived in Colorado and remember one guy who refused to get a drivers license and spouted some constitutional claim about a "right to travel" if he got pulled over by the cops). For that matter, we've seen a resurgence in such nutters in recent years. That rancher Bundy and all the people who came to his aid, f'rinstance; oh, and the people who are convinced Obama's using military maneuvers in Texas as a cover for a takeover and martial law.

P.S. Kind of wild how they totally killed Starling's bodyguard/truck driver.

I won't blab too much here.

Once again, "part II" doesn't live up to "part I"

I too wondered why Voyager needed to be taken back to the 24th century.

Doc get's the mobile emitter, initially named "autonomous self-sustaining mobile holo-emitter" ... lol

Tons of great lines here. This one was particularly funny:

"PORTER: They've got lasers! A black man and some bald guy.
(The EMH enters. Porter and Butch's bullets go straight through him.)
PORTER: God in heaven help us.
EMH: Divine intervention is unlikely."

lol

Voice activated time ships. I guess voice recognition or some other type of identification isn't available in the 29th century.

All in good fun, but not as good as part 1.

3 stars for me.

@Yanks

"autonomous self-sustaining mobile holo-emitter"

Autonomous Self-Sustaining mobile HOLo-Emitter, or ASSHOLE

navamske....

LOL!!!!! nice!

Kosh, you wrote:

"(courtesy of plucky white science girl and the conveniently paranoid, racist redneck militia men,"

Can you tell me where in the episode the anti-government militia man is portrayed as in any way racist?

When I read the Memory Alpha site regarding this two-parter it was explained it was originally supposed to be four parts! That would explain why this part felt a bit scattered. Scenes felt incomplete and/or hackneyed and didn't flow as smoothly. I noticed that myself.

The producers I guess felt that wouldn't have been good for the ep. But I don't know. Part 1 painted a pretty good picture. I think having 3 more parts would have put it in a much nicer frame than what we did get.

Not to say the episode was bad. But from what I was reading it sounds like a lot of the stuff in this ep that seemed somewhat gratuitous actually had a fleshed out story. I wished they had gone that route.

What we did get certainly filled the time slot but it felt like there were too many things that were supposed to have happened that never did or never fully explained.

In any event the Doctor gets the holo-emitter. It never occurred to me to see the acronym for the whole thing in initials. Good catch! Had to laugh at that. Reminded me of the BFG 9000 for the Doom series.

I don't know how Sarah Silverman would have fit in on the show if they had pushed to make her a regular. As Raine she reminded me vaguely of Ensign Sonya Gomez. Lycia Naff wasn't a bad fit for Enterprise but she did seem a bit...willful. Plus after seeing her in Total Recall there was no chance she would ever be recalled back to the Enterprise. Even when Jean-Luc was Locutus.

I don't think Raine would have been as bad. She wouldn't be taken for a fool but I don't think she would be so willful, either. But I still don't see that happening with the whole Temporal Prime Directive and all.

Speaking of which I had to mention poor Capt Braxton. His story would come to a sad but entertaining end in S5's Relativity. Didn't help that Janeway took it upon herself to break the Temporal Prime Directive when it suddenly became inconvenient. If only Capt Ransom knew what Janeway had done when she was busy sitting on her moral high ground judging what he had done in S5/6's Equinox. (His actions were an abomination btw. But Janeway's in Relativity could have changed time and history. Twice if you remember Endgame.) Temporal Prime Directive = the hell with it! And she still gets promoted to 3 star Admiral.

Strange that she would get promoted over Picard. I can only assume he didn't want the promotion. I still shake my head in disbelief at that scene in Nemesis where she's giving him his marching orders.

Ed Begley Jr played a pretty good self centered atypical CEO using his veil of 'willingness to help humanity' as a means to achieve global and financial power. I don't think his character would have been perceived any differently even if this was a four parter.

Overall I can give this one a mild 3 stars. I wonder what grandiose treatment it would have gotten if it had been extended to it's original four parts tho.

I love watching Chakotay talking to the militiamen, "I used to think violence was the answer". Then the next thing this ex-Maquis terrorist does is needlessly destroy a truck with his shuttle, killing the driver and, had the timeship been inside as they thought, probably blown up California as well. And let's not forget that at that time, the truck only posed a danger to Rain's abandoned VW camper. But that's what you'd expect from a man of peace isn't it? I wouldn't mind so much about what he said if it wasn't so random and disconnected from how he acts.

Also, in hindsight from "Unity" anyway, was the brief appearance of Ensign Kaplan. Nice bit of rare continuity there and I liked that she had to show the Doctor where to go, who up to now had to reason to know where anything outside sickbay was.

Don't get why the Doctor got to keep the mobile emitter, unless Braxton just time dumped Voyager back to where it was and didn't bother scanning it for any anomalies? Afterall, his ship and its goodies were intact, the mobile emitter came from the version that blew up.

And about the comment that said the part of Voyager found in the explosion was the torpedo that destroyed the Aeon; nice idea, but Braxton stated that it was part of the secondary hull he found. I doubt much of anything of a torpedo casing would survive the matter/antimatter detonation anyway.

Continues in much the same vein as part one - fast moving, fun and exciting. Not every day a truck gets taken out by phaser fire. And the survivalist interlude, at least, gives us the Doctor being fired at to comic effect.

On the debit side it's still hard to credit Starling with the technological know how to be one step ahead all the time, and the time travel stories always make your brain ache if you try to work them out - so was all the 29th century tech and the Voyager database still on the computer in Starlings office or did that never happen in the new timeline.....? 3 stars.

Starling is quite a thief. He even resorted to ripping of Berlinghoff Rasmussen's plan from "A Matter of Time". Too bad "A Matter of Time" is light years better.

2 - Mostly for the interesting backdrop and Sarah Silverman being a cute breath of fresh air.

now tis us sci fi(****)

A number of people have commented about the 29th century federation being able to monitor and interact with time. I don't really see the problem with this. I imagine that the Temporal Prime Directive would be much more stringently upheld than the PD (at least I hope so).

The 29th century federation intervened because events initiated in the 24th (and 20th) century wiped out the whole solar system. This is obviously a mammoth event that they would have to try to prevent. There's no reason to assume that they are going to act as a time police force, correcting every time incursion. Indeed, from their vantage point in the future they can see that the events in other time-related episodes were rectified or caused little harm to the timeline.

Not a fan of this episode AT ALL. So much so I did an immediate google search to see if anyone else agreed with me.

Thank you for creating this review site.

Love Star Trek! Especially TNG and Voyager (hence going back and watching yet again)

My main problem is the ridiculous plot holes. The villain being able to have such a high level of understanding of future tech. The horrible dialog, especially the 'uh-oh' death line. I was cringing the whole time.

"Oh yeah, and it sure was fun making fun of those silly militia guys who thought that the government was moving towards fascism, wasn't it?"

And those self-same militias are probably the same ones who just voted a Fascist into power, who will work against their interests over the next four years.

Fun indeed!

"Divine Intervention is unlikely"

"Suffice to say, I'm making a housecall"

The Doctor steals the show every episode he's prominent in!

I have to side with the haters here--2.5 stars is far too kind for this episode. I'll just mention my nonredundant gripes:
* Ed Begley is weak as the villain. He did not convey the ruthlessness or menace that character needed to convey, nor the intelligence to master 29th c. technology.
* Allan Royal is pathetic as the muscle.
* that car chase sequence looked cheap
* usually in Star Trek when characters go up against some kind of prophecy caused by time travel, they come to realize that their efforts to avert the foretold disaster are the actual cause of it. I guess it's good this episode did not go back to that well, but resolving the situation by shooting a torpedo at Ed Begley actually seems worse.

See, Trump supporters have been around since the 90's!!!!!

Those guys kidnapping Chakotay and Torres were hilarious in light of what we saw at Trump rallies this past year.

Best out come of this was Doc's emitter. It completely revolutionized what they could do with him, and we got a lot of great acting from Picardo in the 2nd half of the series.

I forgot to mention last episode, but Neelix and Kes watching soap operas was the first time I actually found the two cute together. And they break up next episode.

"Look, I may be a guerilla fighter but I'm also an Indian, so I have to be all about peace and love man! Oh look, that's the truck with a ship that's supposed to blow up, shoot it!" God, Chakotay sucks.

It's fun, but way too many people acting stupid for the sake of plot. And while Starling was fun, I thought Rain was just kinda annoying. That "freakosaurus" insult was kinda funny, but still something you would expect an 11 year old girl say, not a grownass scientist.

Yanks said

"I too wondered why Voyager needed to be taken back to the 24th century."

Well they couldn't take themselves back there, they were out of place time wise.

Having averted the temporal explosion in the 29th Century, Voyager is now in the wrong time and place. Most of the time anomalies were cleared up by Voyager by stopping the ABCA time loop from repeating itself, but clearly they can't get back to where they started on their own. Hence the time police had to give them a nudge. Staying the the 1990's would distort the past too much (and hence the future), they had to be removed from that timeline.

It was destiny that voyager break the ABCA time loop. When they did, things start to return to normal.

Makes sense JP. I guess my point was why couldn't they just pluck Voyager back by Earth?

Hello Everyone!

Rain(e), Paris and Tuvok are standing together (and... They Have a Plan...)

Anyway, Rain calls Starling and tells him she really, really needs him to come rescue her. Then, as the plan unfolds, we find out that it all hinged on Starling going to her van. Her... van...

STARLING: Let's go.
RAIN: Oh, my van is this way.
STARLING: We're taking my car.

Now, they think multi-millionaire Henry Starling is going to show up to rescue/kidnap Raine MaybewithanE, then he'd just walk over to her van since she wanted him to, because that is where they have the coordinates for beaming him up set up? And they were shocked, surprised, that he decided they were going to go to his luxury car instead? What? THAT WAS THEIR PLAN?!?!

Apologies, I'd just forgotten how stupid that part of the show was, and I just had to shake my head at it, to get the stupid out.

Finding out this one was originally a three or four parter, I can see how some things ended up disjointed. It was like part one was the actual part one (which was why it was so good), and parts two, three and four ended up smooshed into part two.

As with many others, I wondered where the survivalists came from. Chakotay and Torres just happen to crash-land into an armed compound? Hey, all you folks from the rest of the world, some Americans can and will defend their property with firearms (raises hand), but armed compounds are not so prevalent that you'd randomly drop out of the sky and land in one.

I really liked part one, part two not so much. My biggest beef of part one was they couldn't use the main transporter, and had to drop down in the atmosphere to do so. Why cannot they visit the shuttle bay and just use one or two of those?

Have a Great Day Everyone... RT

Time Travel episodes are not inherently a bad thing: City on the Edge of Forever, Yesterday's Enterprise... And part one of Future's End. All quite good.

I actually get a kick out of Time's Arrow for campy reasons. I can't help it, I just love Guinan in that one.

Yanks said

Makes sense JP. I guess my point was why couldn't they just pluck Voyager back by Earth?


My take is that they considered Voyager's temporal incursion to be bad enough, giving them a boost by sending them back to the Alpha Quadrant was just simply out of the question. I get the idea that the Temporal Prime Directive is all about preserving history as they know it, so putting Voyager back home is a clear violation of that.

As to why the Temporal Prime Directive never came into play to fix all those other incursions into the past made on the other series, perhaps, just maybe, the Temporal Prime Directive only came to be because history was changed somehow. Another paradox, maybe? ;)

I am a fan of Janeway (Mulgrew's acting) but during the conversation with Starling in sickbay, she is so dramatically overboard & overacting that it r1eminded me of Avery Brooks and his thousand twitches of facial features and 3-second-long syllables..

And in retrospect, this is not one of Sarah Silverman's better acting performances either. I didn't think so when I watched the episode at the time on TV, but rewatching it now, I did for some reason.

Tom Paris just leaves Rayne in the middle of a deserted road in Arizona and takes off? Come on dude...

"Fate Tuvok? I won't accept that!" --> Coming from Chakotay? Great line !!

Random Thoughts points astutely to the most stupid mokent of the episode (Voyager crew expecting Starling to simply walk to Rayne's van? Come on..)

Overall I enjoyed the episode though. Great moments of fun. Doc and Tuvok especially (the look they give each other once they know they have to go to Arizona.. LOL !

Anyway, after a promising set-up this episode just sort of wanders around for a while and then ends. The basic idea of Starling plundering the future for short-term present gains doesn't actually get elaborated on, and nor do we really find out why he's so adamant that he'll risk what seems to be a near-certainty that he's going to die, too. The anti-government militia guys were a waste of time and poorly integrated into the rest of the episode. As pointed out above, Chakotay's "we now resolve things peacefully" right before blowing up that guy in that truck (who didn't even have the real ship) was ridiculous. I did mostly like the interaction between Tom and Rain as something of an analogue to the Kirk/Gillian thing in The Voyage Home, and I liked Sarah's performance; particular points for the way being among 20th century humans gives Tom a chance to be the smart, idealistic, heroic one, and how that might help give him a new sense of his self-worth. But mostly it doesn't go far enough and retreads old TOS territory (Kirk/Gillian, Kirk/Edith Keeler) without as much depth. I saw this a few days ago and I'm already struggling to remember it. There's still some zip and energy, but...2 stars.

Torres says she is replacing the 20% of the programs (which on Voyager would be quite a bit!) taken by Starling. How? Do they have backups on an external harddrive? Not that when he 'took' them, they would just disappear in the first place. But the only one she can't replace is the Doc, because I guess they have backups for the air conditioning system or whatever, but not practically the single most important program on board.

And Starling says that the Doc's program isn't 'that sophisticated'. Really? In 1996 a holographically projected artificially intelligent doctor isn't 'that sophisticated'? Ok.

Starling adds pain to the Doc's program in what must be about 1/2 hour. How would he have the slightest idea how to modify an artificially intelligent being's program, that he had never seen or even imagined existed before about an hour ago, to feel pain?

And also in that same 1/2 hour, he has invented and manufactured a mobile holo-emitter for the Doc. Of course he did.

Starling is willing, despite all of Janeway's warnings, to risk his own life, and the life of his bodyguard guy, not to mention billions of other people's lives, just to invent a few more things? I don't buy it for a second. In this show he is basically the equivalent of Bill Gates (who also stole everything he supposedly 'invented', but we won't get into that) and do you think Gates would risk that? Of course not. He has everything any human being on earth could ever want, so why risk losing it all? Doesn't make much sense.

When Chakotay and Torres are held prisoner by the militants (of all things), Tuvok and the Doc show up outside. The building is surrounded by police. Why? Who called them? The militants? Tuvok? Wut? Why are they there?

POLICE: We want the aircraft, and the occupant from the aircraft.
PORTER: Get off my land!
TORRES: What are they going to do when they find a half-Klingon in here.
POLICE: Who the hell are you two?
TUVOK: Please stand aside, Officer.
POLICE I'm warning both of you to...
PORTER: They've got lasers! A black man and some bald guy.

And then the Doc comes into the basement. So did Tuvok and the Doc shoot all the cops? I guess so. I don't know anymore what's going on in this episode.

Janeway decides to do a manual launch of the photon torpedoes. Fine. But are you telling me that there is that option, of doing a manual launch of them, but that the person has to stand next to the torpedo and push a button on it and then die, or almost die? Seriously? We are expected to believe that that's how they designed the manual launch of a photon torpedo? lol.

Also before that happened, Torres had gotten transporters back online and transported everyone from earth back to Voyager. So why didn't they just transport the timeship into a shuttle bay which was their plan all along?

Finally I want to summarize what Starling did/had in these two episodes.

He had a 29th century timeship, that he somehow recovered from out in the middle of nowhere without anyone knowing, all by himself.

He studied it for two years and made some microchip thingy.

After 30 years he had invented WIN95 for computers.

He also had a phaser, that could disintegrate pretty much anything it shot at.

He had a tricorder. That he sort of knew how to work.

He could create forcefields.

He had a satellite in orbit around the earth that had transporter technology, that allowed him to beam himself anywhere at will, through Voyager's shields as well.

He had the ability to create holograms, using holo-emitters and mobile emitters.

He was able to attack and disable Voyager, and steal their programs, including the Doc.

He can make a temporal transponder to fake tachyon signals.

So why isn't this guy the Emperor of Earth? He has no conscience at all, and is a clear sociopath, and can perform miracles, by 1996 standards. He would have taken over the planet by now.

Also another episode where nothing on Voyager works. Weapons, transporter, communications. Ridiculous.

This episode is terrible. I was going to give it 1 star, but after rereading my own post I have to give it...

1/2 star.

@Skuckle Starling didn't invent anything. The mobile holo emitter was obviously 29th century tech. When he said Doc wasn't that sophisticated he meant in comparison to 29th century tech.

I only said he invented win95, which was a joke. :) Earlier in the post I said he hadn't invented anything himself.

Oops. I did say he invented the holo-emitter. Which I assume he did. Because why would the time ship have one of those lying around? He only had it after the Doc appeared. But who knows?

I actually liked part 2 better than part 1, but that might just be because I was really turned off at the beginning by the central premise of "we're in the 90s woooooaaah!"

I'm not sure how I feel about the doctor being able to move around freely. He was a total badass in this episode and his "divine intervention" entrance was amazing, but he has a niche on the show and it felt not quite right having him play action hero.

I think my problem with both of these episodes is that they didn't feel grounded, and having doc wandering the streets of LA kind of exemplifies that.

Thought: this must have been the cheapest episode to film. Just go into your backyard (downtown LA) and start filming.

Part II did not live up to Part I's promise but that's nothing new for Trek 2-parters. Part II went overboard on the cliches and threw in that ridiculous part about Torres/Chakotay getting captured by anti-government anarchists -- just so they could get rescued by Doc and his portable holo-emitter -- what for? Was there a valid point to be made by the anarchists that is relevant to the episode? Nope.

The hostage scene with Raine telling Starling to come and get her fizzled out, for me. Actually, by this point the Raine character was getting on my nerves big time. But I did like the scene in the desert especially with the shuttle popping up right on time to phaser the semi. But did we really need Paris and Raine to make out after that? Come on. This is too much like the stupid movies and not enough like Trek.

I had a laugh when the timeship just burst through the building where it was being kept. Couldn't it find a smoother way of exiting? At this stage the plot holes were starting to get bigger -- was Starling really prepared for going to the future? What about the warnings he had no doubt heard? It's pretty clear he was nuts but still kept Voyager guessing.

We had to have a heroic Janeway scene (another cliche) where she manually does the torpedo launch and gets injured in the process. And all it takes was one photon torpedo to destroy the timeship (did it not have some 29th century awesome shields)?

And then just as the VOY crew wonder how to get to the 24th century, out pops Braxton and explains all this temporal PD stuff. Cool idea that they can scan time just as Voyager can scan space but, man, does that open up a can of worms in terms of questions about the logic of this episode.

2.5 stars for "Future's End, Part II" -- really lost the momentum from the first part. Was more disjointed and less intelligent than Part I. Really think the writers should have stayed more true to Trek instead of trying to cram every movie cliche they could into the episode but it was still a decent hour of Trek given the excellent baton handed off from Part I.

I really liked how Begley was obliterated with the torpedo. It was kind of funny how he played it "uh oh", but I was also relieved that the torpedo exploding the ship so close to the temporal vortex thing didn't create an explosion of technobabble.

Also, earlier, it was refreshing when the shuttle exploded Begley's lieutenant in the big rig. Something about the setup just seemed like there would be some overwrought naval gazing about killing the dude, but not this time.


Should Begley have been smart enough to raise the shields or whatever on the time machine? Maybe, but intelligence isn't experience (as Spock would say). And also, Begley had had a pretty long run of outwitting Voyager. Eventually he'd start to get cocky or goof or whatever.

Not a huge Sarah Silverman fan but she is pretty talented and she did well here. The relationship between Paris and her character was definitely reminiscent of Kirk and Gillian in TVH but not too much so and still nice.

I overall liked the second part more than the first, despite the militia plot being very thrown in (and Starling not having much motivation) it seemed more engaged in the story more than just trying to set up and explain a story.

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but here is my take on why the Temporal Authroity didn't just do some time travel stuff to prevent all this from happening. Initially I thought they could just have traveled back and fixed things up at any point or stopped it all from happening, but I have two reasons that wasn't an option.

First, the temporal explosion was a surprise in the future. They didn't see it coming as it was a result of time travel and they didn't have time to react. All their travel and scanning capability and tech was wiped out in the explosion, rendering them unable to react in time (also they were dead). The 29th century captain was the only survivor and he used his ship to briefly investigate and then traveled back to stop it as best as he could. Remember, he thought Voyager caused the problem and basically had no more information than that.

The other problem might be that looped time paradoxes don't work like the normal linear flow of time. Perhaps once started (however that happens) time flows in a circle. You can't enter (or even detect) the circle from outside and you can't escape without resolving the paradox, which must be done from within the time loop.

I like my first theory best, but really the two could be combined.

Part two has to resolve things and wrap them up, so it's not going top be able to be as smooth as part one. There's a certain amount of force fitting that has to happen. But overall, very good - still lots of fun, very 90s, lots of action, held my attention throughout, etc.

Raine and Paris were great, loved the freakasaurus comment at the end. Tim Russ is so perfect as a Vulcan.

And again, Janeway (and Rain) does this science girl's heart good.

I give this four stars because a four star average is well deserved.

One thing that really bothers me (here and in a good number of other Trek episodes): what kind of data storage do they have in the 24th century that when you download data from them the original data disappears? That’s not how disks work! Even 1990s RAID arrays would have protected the data if a copy on one physical disk was corrupted somehow just by being accessed.

I also wondered if it wasn't a violation of the temporal prime directive for the EMH to keep the mobile emitter. After all, Janeway now knew there was a temporal prime directive (if she didn't know before) as Braxton told her about it.

The main plot lives off the idea that a 20th century guy/hippie can reconstruct 29th century technology superior to 24th century technology within the confines of the 20th SL century. Just by examining the ship, he (alone or with an invisible army of scientists), Over the course of 1-2 decades, can build transporter tech, force fields, scanning jammers, hack into Voyager from an Earth computer, etc. Why even the best of Starfleet's engineers in the 24th century need years of study to build on 24th century knowledge, this guy learns it all from a crashed 29th century 1-person ship.

Sebastian, the ship certainly had a computer of its own, likely one capable of pretty well telling him how to do all those things. I didn't presume he reverse engineered all those things - he just asked the computer to do it for him.

Frankly, given the premise of a ship from the 29th century in the Trek universe, it's plainly unrealistic that he wasn't able to accomplish *more* with what he had.

Teaser : **.5, 5%

It seems that the Mystery Machine Gang actually spent the night in the minibus. Yikes. Paris is playing the with radio, which he's yanked out of the van and Rain is doing her whole girl next door thing. We get a little of her clichéd backstory which we do not care about and Tuvok mercifully shows up with hot dogs and slushies for breakfast.

RAIN: This is not a breakfast, this is an afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
TUVOK: And that is a non-sequitur.

Brannon, why would you want to remind us of “Non Sequitur”? Having failed to turn a 20-year old car radio into a transmitter that can be detected from space (hurray science!), the trio resolve to return to the observatory. Oh and Rain and Tom keep flirting just to get on my nerves.

Act 1 : **.5, 17%

The remaining crew assess the damage in the conference room where Torres laments that she can't retrieve or replace all of their stolen data, and that Braxton is right about the temporal paradox. Neelix cautions against returning to orbit to attempt a transport and brings up a graphic from the local news entitled “Invasion or Hoax?” Remember when TV satire wasn't depressingly predictive?

Anyway, Tuvok calls them up from the sat-phone at the observatory and Janeway devises a plan that will apparently involve Rain. This is the first example of a major story compression this episode underwent. “Future's End” was supposed to be 3 or even 4 parts, but the producers decided to keep it limited to 2. A number of comments on this thread note the odd pacing in part II, and I don't disagree, but I think it's worth at least bearing in mind that this is the result of executive meddling. Janeway makes a giant leap in the space of 60 seconds from “Oh, Tuvok is calling,” to “let's ignore the integrity of the timeline and use this stranger to capture the villain.” Where Janeway ends up is justifiable, but we miss out on seeing her thought process. This is unfortunately consistent with much of her characterisation this season.

We cut over to Chronowerx where Starling re-activates the EMH inside his office. Here's where we learn that Doc has indeed not recovered all of his memories since “The Swarm.” I admit I don't get the grief over this bit. Did we need to see Doc over the last few episodes mentioning to various crewmembers that he didn't remember something? Like that silly Michael Jonas throughline in S2? Nothing that has happened since “The Swarm” *contradicts* the fallout from that episode; the Doctor has only been seen doing medicine and never once referenced his past experiences.

EMH: I recently suffered a severe programme loss and I'm still in the process of retrieving my memory files, but apparently on a few occasions I have been projected into other locations. Undoubtedly you're using a similar procedure.

This is a great example if you read between the lines: when has the Doctor been projected somewhere other than Sickbay or the Holodeck? The answer is never. But there were “Heroes and Demons” and “Projections,” which, given the emotional trauma connected to those experiences, would probably register as an out-of-holodeck experience of some sort in the EMH's mind. If the Doctor had all of his memories, he would know that achieving remote holo-projection is actually extremely difficult (c.f. “Persistence of Vision”). I do not claim that his little scene is ground-breaking or anything, but I do tire a bit of the dismissiveness of Voyager's characterisations. As I just mentioned with Janeway, it is often problematic. But give this thread a chance to develop before writing it off as a waste, please.

Anyway, Starling accuses the EMH and his crew of bullshitting about the temporal explosion. He believes they're here to “steal” his timeship. Amusingly, he basically thinks they're pulling a Max Headroom and looking for out-of-time advantages for themselves (c.f. “A Matter of Time”).

STARLING: You figured I'd be any easy target. Some backwards twentieth century Neanderthal that doesn't know what he's got. But you found out otherwise, didn't you?
EMH: A paranoid response indicative of bipolar personality disorder. If my history is accurate, southern California in the late twentieth century had no shortage of psychotherapists, competent and otherwise. I suggest you find one.

Zing. Obviously data in service of snarky quips must be preserved in his holomatrix above all else. Either that or its simply endemic to the Picardo avatar. The mood quickly shifts as Starling simulates the pain of burning using a couple taps of his keyboard. I'm pretty sure Elon Musk has a similar function on his. It's called “Twitter.”

Before he can get on with the torture, Rain gives him a call, initiating Janeway's plan of luring Starling into the open. She notes that he remained suspicious despite agreeing to come pick her up to Tuvok and Paris and he informs The Doctor that he'll be accompanying himself and...the one lackey to Metro Plaza. And indeed, next thing we see, Doc is emerging from Starling's black car wearing some sort of pendant on his arm. Tuvok and Paris, hiding out of view, look appropriately stunned.

Act 2 : **, 17%

We get a short scene in a shuttlecraft being flown by Chakotay and Torres as they fly down to do the transporting the Voyager herself cannot right now. Why does this require a low orbit? Well, because it gives us an excuse for a humanising scene between the two old friends. The two revisit their backstories a little bit and wonder aloud about what they'll do with themselves if they end up stuck out of time. Given how much was cut out of this story, I'm actually grateful this survived even if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

At the Plaza, Starling holds the EMH hostage as Rain approaches, having determined the Voyager crew will be around prepared to pull a fast one. And boy, what a plan it was! See, Rain was going to get CEO Henry Starling to leave his luxury black car behind and drive the Mystery Machine back to Chronowerx. Tuvok is shocked to learn that Starling prefers to take his own car, and so must work fast to send new coordinates to Chakotay's shuttle. Jesus. Well anyway, the shuttle manages to get a transporter beam on Starling, giving Doc the opportunity to create a distraction (and a mildly amusing fist fight between himself and lackey) so that he and Rain can escape the black car. Starling is able to interfere with the transport long enough to fuck with shuttlecraft but not well enough to prevent the beam entirely, which is transferred to the Voyager. In the transporter room, Janeway and Kim deactivate his 29th century tricorder and materialise him before he collapses from being in the beam too long. Oh and the shuttle crash lands on Earth because of course it does. This whole sequence of events is compressed and weird, but it *is* easy to follow. While the story-compression leave no room for any kind of meaningful reflection on the events, I have no trouble following the very complicated plot points, so that's something at least.

Act 3 : ***, 17%

Torres awakens, filthy but seemingly uninjured, tied up in someone's basement. That someone and his MAGA buddy appear and do some racisms at Chakotay. Cletus and Bubba here accuse our heroes of being government spies and when Chakotay refuses to play along with this Ayn Rand sketch comedy, he gets a kick in the shin for his trouble before Bubba is sent for “reinforcements.” Okay.

Team Mystery Machine, now with the Doc in tow, amble along the freeway while Rain tries to wrap her head around the nature of his existence (“Mr Leisure Suit”). Sarcasm actually suits Silverman's style better than sincerity, so the exchange manages to be pretty amusing all things told. Janeway calls Tuvok on his sat-phone and orders them to find the downed shuttle which crashed in Arizona. SFDebris pointed out in his review the silliness of this conceit. The anti-government MAGA morons who've captured Chakotay and Torres were supposed to be in Montana, leaving room for a cross-country adventure for Mr Leisure Suit and the gang. But the story compression required them to land close enough to L.A. for a quick rescue. Now, they could have landed in California, which is rife with these idiots, make no mistake, but CA is a blue state, so AZ it is. Anyway, Tuvok decides to take himself and the Doc on the rescue mission while the annoying lovebirds return to Chronowerx.

In the Sickbay, Kes is allowed to do something besides watch soaps, which is nice. She shows competence with the medical jargon, able to revive Starling as well as the EMH could. Returned to consciousness, he and Janeway are allowed to verbally spar. We learn that Starling is planning to use the timeship to go to the 29th century to pilfer more technology to reverse-engineer into commercial products.

JANEWAY: If you even attempt to travel to the future, you risk creating a temporal explosion that could cost billions of lives, including your own.
STARLING: I'm willing to take that risk.
JANEWAY: In my time, Mister Starling, no human being would dream of endangering the future to gain advantage in the present.
STARLING: Captain, the future you're talking about, that's nine hundred years from now. I can't be concerned about that right now. I have a company to run and a whole world full of people waiting for me to make their lives a little bit better.

There are two distinct but related moral dilemmas that are being explored here. The first is whether it's acceptable to risk the future for the present, which is a fitting metaphor for issues like climate change. And the second is whether beneficial technology that is acquired through unethical exploitation should be celebrated or even utilised. There's also the implication that this kind of late-stage capitalism, while certainly undergirded by greed, reveals an under-discussed psychopathy amongst its worst actors. Starling doesn't need more money. He's already famous, celebrated, and extremely wealthy. So why this obsession to do more?

STARLING: The betterment of mankind. My products benefit the entire world. Without me there would be no laptops, no internet, no barcode readers. What's good for Chronowerx is good for everybody. I can't stop now.

Yeah. See, these assholes have to convince themselves that not only is their criminal activity not criminal activity, it's *good for humanity.* They're not parasites disaffecting the labour of millions of people, they're “job creators.” They're not reactionaries violently holding up a world order that benefits a subset they happen to belong to, they're “constitutional originalists,” they're protecting “family values.” While Staring's overall characterisation is pretty rushed and this confrontation insufficiently built-up, I do appreciate the way his villainy is portrayed for this particular subtlety.

The potential for how this idea could have tied together the various subplots is revealed when we cut back to Arizona. Cletus says:

“There are two forces at work in the world. The drive toward collectivity and the drive toward individuality. You are the former, and I am the latter.”

Cletus and Starling are obviously very different men with vastly different social status, wealth, style, etc. But they represent two of the essential prongs of reactionary politics. Both frame their arguments as social (“the betterment of mankind” and the perniciousness of “the beast”), but an examination of their arguments reveals that the core value in each is entirely about the self. Their euphemisms about big government and benefiting the whole world give one permission to be a selfish asshole. The Federation, of course, represents the opposite. A social contract that focuses upon genuine social goods, that punishes self-interest, leads to a markedly higher standard of living for the individuals within the society.

PORTER: You are no patriot?
CHAKOTAY: I was a freedom fighter, so I thought. That gun will get you nowhere.

I love this line for a couple of reasons. First, whether intended or not, it reads like an apology for the Maquis (from the franchise, not on the Maquis' behalf). In-universe, we can conclude that the experience of being physically removed from the conflict which inspired his involvement with the rebels has revealed the hollowness of those convictions. This dovetails perfectly with his and Janeway's revelatory conversation in “Resolutions,” where he confessed that her leadership changed him, subdued the *anger* (which is an emotion, a product of self-obsession, not a conviction) which had been guiding his steps away from Starfleet.

The problem here is, again, the story-compression. The conversations between Janeway and Starling and Chakotay and Cletus take up mere moments of screentime and are largely overshadowed by the hulking plot. Bubba and the gang burst in and say “the Feds are comin'!” So that's that. These NRA dolts arm themselves for the big fight with the Federal Government. A fight they've always dreamt of. Unless it involved protecting black people from the police.

Act 4 : *.5, 17%

Rain and Paris make their way back to Chronowerx where we're subjected to more of their “budding relationship.” This is largely stupid and annoying, but there is at least this much:

RAIN: All this running around you do, your mission. You're so dedicated, you know? Like you care about something more than just your own little life.
PARIS: Is that so unusual?
RAIN: Yeah.

Themes! Anyway, before the pair can make it to the timeship, the...one lackey has managed to use its technology to rescue his boss. He ties the ship's sensors into one of Starling's satellites and uses it to direct a transporter signal through the Voyager's shields. Wait a minute. So Starling ('s lackey) knows how to use the timeship's transporter? And he still feels the need to travel to the future to get more technology? You've managed to get holo-projection, phasers, and transportation working, dude. How about exploiting that before attempting TIME TRAVEL?

The Mystery Machine finally arrives. The plan is to drop Tom off, so Rain tries to arrange a date for later in the week. Before this gets too syrupy, the tachyon alarm in his tricorder goes off, signalling foul play afoot. They're coming from a semitruck exiting the CW parking lot. Tom concludes that Starling is having the timeship moved to a launch site, so we're stuck with Rain for bit longer.

Back in Arizona, it's “a black man and some bald guy” to the rescue (I did chuckle at this line). Picardo delivers his immunity to bullets, a few phaser stuns, and that classic Picardo snark before rescuing Chakotay and Torres. End of subplot.

Meanwhile, the Mystery Machine has followed the semi to a deserted road. Janeway communicates that Tom is going to have to stop Starling somehow since the Voyager STILL has no weapons, long-range transporters or...are they out of shuttles? Seriously? So, we get a gun-shooting car chase scene with phasers in a Star Trek episode. So much for non-violence. This concludes with an unintentionally hilarious climax: the Mystery Machine stalls, the semi menacingly steams over a hill, threatening to flatten Rain and Tom, who then cartoonishly roll themselves out of the van, just in time for Chakotay and the repaired shuttle to arrive and blow the truck up with its phasers. It's like an action cliché jawbreaker. So much for non-violence.

Well anyway, this was all pointless because the Æon wasn't in the truck. For no reason whatsoever, Starling ordered his lackey to draw Tom Paris away from Chronowerx using *false sensor readings* (you know to and know how to do this too, eh?). This gave Starling the opportunity (I guess) to launch the ship from the hanger back at HQ (through the roof) because drama.

Act 5 : **, 17%

Did I say stupid clichés? Well guess what. Janeway is going to launch a photon torpedo at the timeship *manually.* This is one of those things they do occasionally on Trek that I absolutely hate. Like when Picard had to take the helm in “Booby Trap,” the writers sometimes feel the need to turn the protagonists into action heroes. Gross.

Sigh, anyway, Tom and Rain say goodbye in a scene that is supposed to make us feel something (and fails) before he, the Mystery Machine gang, the beast, and Mr Leisure Suit return to the Voyager on the repaired shuttle. Are they at least going to fix the van so Rain doesn't die of thirst? Eh whatever.

The crew reassemble on the bridge, but Janeway has still strapped herself to the torpedo. Tuvok notes that everything seems to be playing out according to the paradox model Braxton laid out for them. Oh yeah. Remember that? Janeway fires the torpedo, injuring herself, and destroys the Æon. And our reward for this big fat action piece?

STARLING: Uh oh!

On the bridge, Janeway returns only to be greeted again by Braxton, who emerges from another rift, oblivious to his prior interactions with the Voyager crew and his decades of hobo life.

BRAXTON [on viewscreen]: The Temporal Integrity Commission detected your vessel over twentieth century Earth. I was sent to correct that anomaly. Prepare to follow me back into the rift. I'm returning you to your own time, to your previous coordinates in the Delta Quadrant.
JANEWAY: Captain, we've been trying to get home to Earth for the last two years. Can you return us to our century but keep us here, in the Alpha Quadrant?
BRAXTON [on viewscreen]: I'm sorry. Temporal Prime Directive. I'm afraid you're on your own.

In the coda, the crew (well, the main cast mostly) celebrate their little adventure as well as the Doctor's new-found mobile emitter. I guess Braxton's time sensors are limited to plot convenience, per this episode's idiom. Sitcom ending between Tom and Mr Freakasaurus and we're done.

Episode as Functionary : **.5, 10%

In addition to the story-compression issues, which I think are responsible for most of this episode's failures, there is a tone problem that pervades Part II in particular. It's as though the opportunity afforded the writers by this mid-season 2-parter return-to-contemporary-earth story caused them to throw everything they could think of into the story without self-editing. All of the elements are good, but not great in the abstract; I thought the philosophical content behind the conflicts was actually pretty sophisticated and I'll elaborate a little more in a moment. But the dialogue around this substance was extremely rushed. Likewise for the character elements which were tossed out for nearly all the main cast except Neelix and Torres. Janeway's motivations in particular remain chaotic. The humour wasn't awful, but Voyager has done much better in previous episodes. And the action elements look nice but I for one can't stand hollow action, especially when it's coupled with needless clichés like Janeway's “sacrifice.” See my complaints about the ending of “The Die Is Cast” for more.

Speaking of DS9, I do need to draw a comparison to “Past Tense” regarding the aforementioned philosophical content. PT was obviously a much more serious story, with a serious tone, and a serious message. But it failed to actually confront the implications of the sociopolitical problems it wanted to tackle. The best the episode could suggest as a solution to systemic socioeconomic inequality was for people to “care more.” For all its posturing, the story was unwilling or unable to have convictions around the evils it was condemning. “Future's End” on the other hand, draws attention to the narcissism which helps perpetuate these systems, and to the connection between rural, paranoid conservatism and maniacal, urban exploitation. It also maintains the Star Trek ethos that a “drive towards collectivity,” as Cletus put it, is healthier for society and for the individual.

Leaving the comparisons aside, this story's elusive substantive moments can't really make up for the compressed and often contrived plot elements. The Voyager itself felt almost useless against this ONE Elon Musk villain and his lackey, which was utterly silly. It's certainly a memorable episode and important to the continuity of the series, but it could have been much more.

Final Score : **

Thanks for the review, Elliott.

This may be one of the rare times I actually thought a VOY episode more fun than you did. I haven't actually seen it in quite a while, but I remember finding it enjoyable even when it first aired. Back then a little silly fun was still ok, in an era where Back to the Future didn't really have to make sense to be awesome. Your criticisms are probably well-placed, especially seeing as how I don't seem to bother re-watching it, but anyhow it's one of the more memorable ones somehow even though it's not great.

Some point about this:

"PT was obviously a much more serious story, with a serious tone, and a serious message. But it failed to actually confront the implications of the sociopolitical problems it wanted to tackle. The best the episode could suggest as a solution to systemic socioeconomic inequality was for people to “care more.”"

Actually one thing I like about PT is that even though its approach towards the topic is heavy handed "Look at the suffering!" type stuff, the takeaway is actually more subtle than it would seem. The episode does actually propose a 'solution', but it's not a systemic one: the actually plot involves Sisko and Bashir personally getting to know various people on different sides of the problem within the sanctuary, and Dax gets to know someone 'in the system' who sits on high. Trek does seem to say that these crises are in a sense historical inevitabilities, but in the playing out of the 2-parter the big takeaway is that until you know the individuals it's 'just a history lesson', and likewise for the people of the time if you don't know them then it's 'just a news report'. Of course it's easy to dismiss current events if you just think of them as informational news items. And at the moment this is possibly more relevant than even when that episode aired. It's also relevant in terms of dehumanizing people when interacting with them online; oh you're "just a Democrat/Republican" and you can neatly dismiss them into a 'group'. So PT seems to be telling us that we will certainly never get over these issues if we think of people as groups to be categorized rather than individuals with problems. That's a strong message and certainly deeper than "care more". It's not a question about caring more, it's about caring *correctly*. It's an equal but opposite problem to care a lot about some unspecified categorization of people but without knowing the individuals involved.

@Peter G

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I believe we had a bit of this discussion on the PT2 thread, and there's not much of a reason to rehash it here. I believe the episode demanded a systemic critique and failed to offer one.

"Of course it's easy to dismiss current events if you just think of them as informational news items."

I'm not sure that's true. I think the idea that people dismiss the news is a clichéd mistruth. People fit the news into the context of the worldview that's been shaped in their minds. People are disposed to view events through whatever lens suits them. This is a systemic problem (education, economics, politics, media monetisation), not an individual issue.

"So PT seems to be telling us that we will certainly never get over these issues if we think of people as groups to be categorized rather than individuals with problems."

That's my main issue with the episode; it's not about whether we "get over these issues," it's about what is causing them to begin with and what specifically has to change in order to avoid them. PT refuses to say because that amounts to a systemic critique instead of a personal one.

Anyway, as far as Future's End, I really do think if it had been a 3-parter it would have worked out really well. All the pieces were there, it was just too rushed to really come together for me.

@Elliott,

One thing I liked about the Paris/Rain stuff -- which I think I somewhat alluded to, but maybe didn't develop as much as I meant to -- is that they match up well because Rain is a particularly forward-thinking 20th century human and Tom is a particularly nostalgic 24th century human. Compared to Rain's experience, Tom is incredibly altruistic, level-headed, able to consider others' needs, etc. Compared to the Voyager crew, he's kind of impulsive and glory-seeking, an ex-con even, though he's getting better. In some ways the purpose of having Paris as a lead character (and my understanding was that in the initial conception he would be even more central) is that he's more relatable to 20th century human viewers than the typical Federation citizen, in that his flaws and even virtues are closer to what we expect in a hero these days. Arguably Paris' nostalgia specifically for 20th century *depictions* of humanity's future is him trying to find a way to fit himself into the Federation by reimagining the Federation's fundamental mission in heroic terms which might be achievable for him (since he never felt equal to his father's interpretation, as represented by Janeway). I think it's helpful for him and his arc to be able to see himself as actually belonging to the Starfleet ethos rather than being a talented pilot and moral failure. Rain's sitcommy Freakasaurus reaction to Tuvok, as well as being an update on Kirk/Spock/Gillian, underscores Paris' utility in bridging the gap between 20th century and 24th century values, for Rain-types who aspire to a better future but are still trapped in the present (well, 24 years ago now). I find the actual execution in part 2 pretty boring but I think it's a good idea, and fits in with your general thesis that the episode has a bunch of good-not-great ideas rushed through. (I also think I like Silverman more than you do.)

"Bubba and the gang burst in and say “the Feds are comin'!” So that's that." The Fed[eration crew member]s, indeed.

"Did I say stupid clichés? Well guess what. Janeway is going to launch a photon torpedo at the timeship *manually.* This is one of those things they do occasionally on Trek that I absolutely hate. Like when Picard had to take the helm in “Booby Trap,” the writers sometimes feel the need to turn the protagonists into action heroes. Gross."

I'm not wild about that in Booby Trap either, but it's somewhat more thematically appropriate for that episode. Geordi has to solve the problem unmediated by technology, and Picard solves his part of the problem not only without the computer but without the full infrastructure of the crew. It's sketchy but I think it fits into the "life experienced directly" material of the ep. I don't really see what the point of doing it in this episode is.

@ Elliott,

I guess what I'm saying about PT is that maybe it's not really interested in discussing systemic solutions, but rather the phenomenon of, as you say, filtering all these issue through our own lenses. Sisko sees it as a historically important event, someone else as a lesson in class; etc. Whereas the facts are that it wasn't "an event" at all but just different people in different situations, all living their lives. Or at least that's what I think the point of the episode was, hence its title "Past Tense", which I think is itself a way of categorizing something as "this happened" whereas the reality is infinitely more complex.

@ William B,

I would have loved for the "20th century hero concept" Paris to be prominent on VOY. I tend to agree he was supposed to be Han Solo or something based on character bible, but he comes off in person as more stolid than even Janeway is. So while a 'Paris bridges to the 20th CE' theme here would have been awesome, I never really saw that congeal on screen, like, "oh, I can see now why in a different era Paris could be seen as a great man." Almost like a more friendly Khan, a man out of time and place. Only trouble is, by this point in the series Tom has been domesticated and neutralized, so that spice wasn't really available anymore to go into this soup.

@Peter G

"I guess what I'm saying about PT is that maybe it's not really interested in discussing systemic solutions, but rather the phenomenon of, as you say, filtering all these issue through our own lenses."

I get the sense that the writers thought themselves very wise and above the fray for that intention, but it bothers the hell out of me. Don't raise a topic you aren't willing to discuss properly.

"Whereas the facts are that it wasn't 'an event' at all but just different people in different situations, all living their lives."

But that's the lie. It wasn't "just" anything, it was the manifestation of a system and myopic people living within it unable to see the totality beyond their lived perspectives.

"Or at least that's what I think the point of the episode was, hence its title 'Past Tense.'"

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a pun. Past Tense...Past Tents...Tent Cities? Walk past them? Tense Cities? Sects and the City?

@William B

Did you ever see Silverman's show on Comedy Central? It must have been circa 2008. She can be really engaging and funny when the material is insincere/farcical. She just doesn't sell real/vulnerable and flawed very well in my opinion. If the script had been a little more madcap, she probably would have fit in better.

It always seemed to me that Past Tense addressed to some degree the issues. Sisko says something like the massacre caused the United States to tackle the grave social problems that had plagued it for more than a hundred years.
Plus it is a giant massacre, with hundreds of innocent killed by the police and security forces. They treat it as a transformative event. So it's not about being nicer but about an historic moment who started a change because the problem became impossible to ignore. At least that's how I saw it.

@Peter, totally agree about Paris. I think that what they were originally going for is what I said but they dropped that relatively quickly, and even the effective uses of him later on (I like some of the stuff between him and Torres and Kim) largely didn't use this aspect of the character.

@Elliott, I did see much of her show. I agree that she is stronger with satire than sincerity, and indeed her satirical bits usually deploy mock-sincerity in a way that she's better at than the real thing, as an actress. Your reference to her as a B+ politico indicates that she's maybe stronger at sincerity when she's actually being herself than as an actress, which I agree with. I would maybe have to rewatch this two parter to confirm my memory that she was all right.

solid two parter with the Tom Paris and Sarah Silverman stuff being really strong.

Didn't really like the way they stopped the paradox or future form happening... I want a clever twist from these types of stories. They just... shot the rift with torpedoes?? Kind of a let down.

Would have been great to have Sarah Silverman stow away and join the cast, have to learn how to adjust to live on Voyager. Ah well. Might have ruined Silvermans comic career, who knows.

Keeping Sarah Silverman's character around would've been brilliant!

Jay said:

"I have the same issue here as I had with "Realm of Fear" from TNGS6...that a person in mid-transport can carry out activities."

That's an interesting notion...when the effect "envelope" begins, does that mean dematerialization has started? In a normal transport, the whole process is mereseconds, so I suspect a person has no time to do anything once the envelope forms around them, even if transport is inhibited by technobabble.

In "Darmok", Picard sensed the transporter field forming and screamed "NO!" He was then motionless (and visionless?) as the Enterprise attempted the process, but couldn't finish it.

This transporter-enveloped "paralysis" of Picard was somewhat easier to buy than the notion of Starling actually being able to futz with a tricorder for several seconds in a transporter envelope.

Two fun episodes and cool that they chose the 90s, which is when I grew up. It's good to have episodes like this once in a while.

I know it's science fiction, but I find it incomprehensible that even a very smart guy from the 20th century would be able to reverse engineer 29th century technology. Ed Begley being able to hack into Voyager? Come on.

And apparently even in the 29th century the security of starship consoles is just as strong as it was on Enterprise D, DS9, and every other Federation vessel in history. Begley is able to simply sit in the chair and talk, and he has complete access to the ship. If I leave my work computer for 10 minutes, the screen locks and my password must be entered.

I particularly enjoyed the part where Chakotay and Torres get abducted by Trump voters.

Regarding the supposed plan to make Sarah Silverman (ew) a permanent cast member, which would have involved bringing her character to the 24th century, Captain Braxton probably would have said, "Nuh-uh, you can’t do that — temporal prime directive." Nobody from the Temporal Integrity Commission seemed to care that Gillian Taylor was brought to the 23d century, though.

Captain Braxton: "In my century we can scan time, much as you scan space. The Temporal Integrity Commission detected your vessel over twentieth-century Earth. I was sent to correct that anomaly." Why didn’t this Temporal Integrity Commission detect the anomaly of Captain Braxton's living in 1967?

@BRiAN

"Didn't really like the way they stopped the paradox or future from happening... I want a clever twist from these types of stories. They just... shot the rift with torpedoes? Kind of a let down."

No, they shot the timeship and blew it up. Since the timeship was generating the rift, the ship's destruction terminated the rift. At least, that’s my theory.

@Nathan

"As for the temporal paradoxes, I assumed that they changed nothing - the piece of Voyager found in the 29th century was, of course, the torpedo."

That’s an interesting theory, but how did the torpedo get to the 29th century? Voyager's destruction of Starling's ship closed the rift before anything could get through it. Also — I’m not sure about this — if a torpedo destroys something, isn’t the torpedo also pretty much destroyed?

Regarding "they changed nothing": Do you mean that the temporal explosion that blew up the solar system still happened? Wouldn’t Braxton #2 have known about that?

I wonder just how Starling thought he was going to "get" technology in the 29th century. Did he think he could simply park the timeship, stroll into Best Buy, and purchase stuff with 900-year-old currency?

"Oh yeah, and it sure was fun making fun of those silly militia guys who thought that the government was moving towards fascism, wasn't it? The '90s were a hoot! Boy, this episode really shows its age!!"

This DOES show its age because the episode was set in 1996 and this (very short) subplot is about several 1990s events, particularly the Waco siege and Oklahoma City bombing.

I agree with Jammer, though, it feels like padding, unconnected from the real story.

It's too bad because it actually got a bit interesting when Chuckles started talking about being a freedom fighter. That made the subplot then disappearing rather annoying.

In part 2 the Chronowerx guy says to Janeway that he's cannibalized the time ship as much as he can and needs to go to the future for more technology. This doesn't make sense to me, his company had only released 1990s technology, he could of kept releasing more tech for the rest of his life and still had some left.

@EventualZen
Yeah...even the upholstery in that thing would have been worthwhile analyzing for profit.

Just watched the episode and noticed that the Doctor's combadge was left on Starling's desk in the Chronowerks building. Way to go Voyager. :)

the more i watch voyager the more annoyed i get at all the possible ways for them to return to earth that just aren't used.

The part where Tuvok and the Doctor rescued Commander Chakotay and B'Elanna was brilliant.

A pretty neat second parter. I actually liked the girl that helps the Voyager crew a lot. I hear the actress is immoral in the stuff she usually does, but here she played a decent character. Also, this 2-parter gives the doctor his mobile transmitter! I remember this one, but not all of the things that happen in it.

One of the best lines, IMO, is the rejoinder between Rain and Tuvok when Rain sees what Tuvok got for breakfast in the teaser--

Rain: "Chili burritos, footlong hot dogs and Goliath Gulps-- this is not a breakfast; this is an afternoon at Dodger Stadium."

Tuvok: "And that is a non sequitur. Would you please hand me a burrito."

I watched this again last night. Fun action episode, easily forgettable.

It's interesting to me how dated the 90s interiors look, whereas the Voyager sets still look fresh and futuristic (for the most part, chunky laptops excepted).