In the eighth episode of the third season of Voyager, LOOK AT THOSE OUTFITS. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
You know, I might be suffering from a bit of time travel fatigue. From Harry Potter to “Flashback” and “Trials and Tribble-ations,” I’ve seen or read a lot of time travel stories lately. Hell, this isn’t even the first story that utilizes it for Voyager, so I wonder if that’s one of the reasons I was entertained by this, but didn’t feel fulfilled. If you’re a genre fan, it’s easier to come across stories like this, and for the most part, “Future’s End” never truly strays from most of the tropes we’re used to seeing. LET’S DISCUSS.
Paradox
There’s a pretty complicated paradox at the heart of this episode, and I will be interested to see how debris from Voyager ends up in the 29th century. Why is Braxton so certain that this crew are responsible for the explosion that wipes out the solar system? Why did he come SPECIFICALLY to the 24th century? That seems an odd place in the timeline, you know? And that’s part of why this is a frustrating thing for Janeway and the crew. As she puts it, how can she trust a ten-second conversation with someone who claims to be from the future? That’s a lot to ask of someone! IT IS PERHAPS THE MOST TO ASK OF SOMEONE YOU JUST MET. Of course, Braxton could have caused the entire thing by confronting Voyager in the first place, and now my head is hurting.
1996
So I found myself way more interested in the writers setting events in their present time. This episode is DELICIOUSLY 90s, and that alone was entertaining enough for me. Look at Janeway’s Scully-esque power suit! Shoulder pads! Look how the show dressed Tuvok in a stereotype! (Seriously, his outfit is abysmal.) WHAT WAS CHAKOTAY WEARING? Why did Tom Paris look like he was always a beach bro from Southern California?
Aside from this, it was damn cool to see Santa Monica, Hollywood, and the Griffith Observatory from twenty years ago. The city of Los Angeles sometimes feel like a character in this episode, in so much as the placement of the story helps these characters feel out of place. The pier was the perfect setting for this, and I was reminded of how great The Voyage Home was for a similar reason. It’s a fish out of water story, but set in a place the audience finds familiar.
Yet what else does this episode offer us besides a gimmicky set-up and some funny scenarios? I completely dug Rain, and the idea of a SETI research lab at Griffith Observatory was brilliant. It’s nice that the show made a character like Rain the scientist in 1996, too, and I don’t want to discount that. She’s the first to discover Voyager’s presence, and she takes it upon herself to reach out to them. And once Tuvok and Tom get her embroiled in this conflict, she doesn’t suddenly ignore the significance of their appearance. Like, it’s only a matter of time before she calls them out. I already believe that she doubts their cover story, which is admittedly TERRIBLE. That’s the best you could think of, Tom??? Actually, let’s just point out how impulsive and reckless Tom is in this episode. Surely, he went through the same temporal training as Janeway did. WHY ARE YOU SO HELLBENT ON INTERACTING WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE, TOM?
Henry Starling
Ah, the irrational, self-centered time travel villain! Ed Begley, Jr. is always a lot of fun to watch as an antagonist, but I can’t claim to find his character all that interesting, especially since Braxton functions as a more complicated version of him. Braxton truly believed he was saving the future. Sterling, on the other hand, can’t be bothered to care. As long as he can benefit from the technology he found back in 1967, then he’ll pursue whatever he wants, however he wants it. I do admit that it was clever of the writers to split up Braxton and the Voyager crew, since it creates a more complex dilemma. The world that they experience in 1996 has already been altered! So how the hell do they plan on rectifying that??? All we see from Chakotay and Janeway is their attempt to rid Sterling of the technology he has, but what do they do about Braxton?
I must have missed that this was a two-parter, which meant that as Chakotay and Janeway were orchestrating their last-minute plans, I kind of thought that this episode was wrapping up rather quickly. Instead, however, we get one hell of a cliffhanger. Not only does Sterling steal the 29th century tech back, he nabs 20% of Voyager’s files, INCLUDING THE DOCTOR. But nothing is more dire than THE ENTIRE WORLD SEEING VOYAGER IN THE SKIES AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THEY UNDO THAT. Y’all know I love the trope where secret shit is exposed to the world at large, so I’m very excited for the second part of this. I have a feeling that I’ll like it more than the first half.
The video for “Future’s End, Part I†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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