In the ninth episode of the third season of Voyager, Janeway and crew race to stop Sterling. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of racism.
I really wanted to like this more than I did. It’s entertaining on one level, but I ultimately found this to be an unsatisfying story. The pieces are here for something great, but they’re haphazardly thrown together, and “Future’s End, Part II†ends up feeling disjointed. So many stories are attempted here, and they don’t ever gel together. Let’s talk!
Sterling
This is a good example of why one-note villains are hard to pull off. For someone as brilliant and savvy as Sterling is, he comes off as entirely absurd at the end of the episode. The man recognizes the power of time travel, enough to see an immediate gain for himself, and yet, the show portrays him as stubborn when it comes to the ramifications of what he’s done. There’s a particularly frustrating exchange where Janeway insists that Sterling will destroy the 29th century if he travels there, which includes him destroying himself. He asserts that this is a risk worth taking because the 29th century is 900 years away. But you’re going there, sir! It won’t be 900 years away! That’s the whole point!
This kind of dense logic permeates his characterization, and we never get an in-depth explanation of why he’s like this. Well, we get close when he insists that he’s a savior of humanity through technology, but I don’t get how someone this bright can be so ridiculous at the same time. The writers try to get us to understand that he’s operating with a limited knowledge of time travel, which is a sensible thing, yet his idea to travel so far ahead in time, makes no real sense to me. Maybe if Janeway had tried to explain how the timeship crashed in the first place, Sterling would have been receptive to the idea of not time traveling, but again, not much is developed here.
Pacing
One of the other major problems I saw here is that the show jumps from one absurd conflict to another without spending much time addressing why these plots are so important. Once Sterling is beamed to Voyager, he’s snatched away as soon as it appears that the writers don’t know what to do with him in captivity. Then there’s the clumsy attempt to kidnap Sterling, which just came off as awkward. Then there’s the absolutely bizarre set of scenes in Arizona, which I’ll talk about in a bit, as well as the unnecessary Rain/Tom romance. We jump around so much in forty-five minutes that there’s very little focus, and I felt spread out while watching this.
Arizona
WHAT THE FUCK, VOYAGER. Look, there’s a part of me that appreciates the bizarre attempt at realism here because there are tons of gun-toting, paranoid, government-hating racists who live in Arizona. SOME OF THEM ARE ON MY MOM’S SIDE OF THE FAMILY. But what were the writers thinking here? Let’s stick two of the characters portrayed by Latinx actors in a situation where angry white men with guns threaten them while also being obviously racist? Like… that’s not exactly entertaining, but even if I ignore that (I can’t), the story exists just to pass time. There is no point to it. B’Elanna and Chakotay crash, are captured and tied up, threatened, and then the Doctor rescues them. The end.
Rain
I suspected that the show was going to push her and Tom together, which is disappointing because it’s just such a common story in the Star Trek universe. I do believe that she’s an awesome character, one that I would have loved to see more of, but I’m guessing this is her only appearance. But look how great she is in this scenario! Much like I theorized, her keen observation skills helped her to completely refuse the “story†that Tom and Tuvok told her. That dynamic was great because I felt it was a direct commentary on how often people assume that in a fictional scenario like this, you’d be able to trick people.
Not Rain, though. And gods, it’s such a cool thing to watch that I would kill to see her onboard Voyager. For a second there, I thought Janeway was going to invite her! All she wanted to do was play amongst the stars, and that’s what this crew did. Every day.
Wrapped Up
Yet I understand the constraints here. I tend not to like episodes that erase all the growth and development with an easy fix, so I was sad when Braxton came back through the rift to announce that he was repairing the past. Gone were the sightings of Voyager or the shuttle craft, and gone were all of Rain’s experiences with this group of people. It’s a little too clean for my tastes, but I don’t think it’s entirely a negative ending. The Doctor got to keep that amazing piece of technology that allows him to be anywhere outside of Sick Bay. YES. YES. GREAT DEVELOPMENT, A+. And as hard as it was to watch it, I thought it was bold of the writers to deny Voyager the chance to cut off some of their return journey. It’s such a sad scene, and you can see the defeat in their faces, but that had to happen.
This is not at all the worst episode of this show, and I certainly wasn’t bored by it. It just could have been better.
The video for “Future’s End, Part II†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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