Things just get worse and worse for Voyager's senior officers until Janeway, once again, reaches something of a breaking point.
The best two-parters in Star Trek raise the stakes and give us even more juicy drama than Part 1 did. Voyager was particularly good at putting together great two-parters which build towards a climax as a complete story, and as I mentioned in the previous review, I think this is the best of them all.
Having evacuated most of the crew, Janeway is left with barely a handful of senior officers to man the ship, while Chakotay and Paris are kept prisoner on Annorax's time ship, giving us some nice, tight character work to focus on.
Chakotay bonding with Annorax and almost working with him is really well done. Annorax is such a fascinating, complex villain, very sympathetically portrayed by Kurtwood Smith, and Chakotay and Paris' relationships with Annorax and Obrist respectively give us a good sense of the two sides of the question, despite how monstrous Annorax's actions are. Meanwhile, Paris' conversation with Obrist really brings home the tragedy of their situation, while also providing a solid foundation for the plotting of the episode's conclusion, as Annorax is brought down partly by his own crew.
With things getting worse and worse on Voyager, the direction in this episode is great. When Janeway runs into a fire to fix an essential part of the ship, we see flames reaching up in front of Kate Mulgrew and we see her grab a bit of shielding, then we hear Harry's account of what she's doing and see her injured body. It's all very simple and budget-friendly, but very effectively done. Those are real flames shooting up on the set and the scene is shot and edited in a way that it feels dramatic and tense without needing much more.
I have, over the years, seen this episode criticised for using the 'reset button' – re-setting time so the events of the episode never happened – in its conclusion. These criticisms tend to come hand in hand with a suggestion that Voyager did this more often than other series, and are exacerbated by the fact no one remembers any of the events of the episode (unlike, for example, 'Before and After,' in which Kes remembers everything and so the events of the episode do have an impact on her character moving forward).
I did have a quick look to see if anyone has actually counted how many Voyager episodes use the reset button as compared to other branches of Star Trek, but couldn't find one. I'm not entirely convinced Voyager used it more often than any of the others; off the top of my head I can think of 'City on the Edge of Forever,' 'Cause and Effect,' and 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' from TOS, TNG, and SNW, and those are some of their best episodes. I wonder if viewers got this impression because Voyager did a time travel story that reset at the end in its third episode, 'Time and Again,' and maybe because Voyager did stories literally no one remembered more often.
Either way, whatever you think of the reset button in general, I think its use is completely appropriate in this episode, because the story is entirely about wiping people out of existence. There is a natural conclusion to this story (Red Dwarf did something similar on a much smaller scale!) and that is, that the thing wiping people from history is, itself, destroyed. And obviously, that means the events of the episode never happened. This is the natural conclusion to this arc and it is used perfectly here. It also gives us Janeway's glorious run as she flies Voyager, alone, into Annorax's ship at ramming speed, taking out both of them at the same time (though of course, re-setting events so she doesn't die is the aim here!).
Although I will absolutely defend the conclusion, because it's been clearly telegraphed from the beginning and it's actually really satisfying, I do think it's lucky this wasn't the whole season, as originally planned. We eventually see something similar to Braga's original plan for this story play out across season three of Enterprise, but there it works because the plot mechanics don't involve wiping people from history, so the conclusion is different. It's one thing for a single two-parter to be re-set, but as Dallas fans know, re-setting an entire season so it never happened is not very satisfying for the viewer.
I've noticed opinions also differ on what the final scene means for Annorax. Voyager has escaped the Year of Hell all together, but some viewers think Annorax is trapped in a time loop, because the blueprints for the time ship are sitting on his desk and we see him working on them. But I read it differently – I think when his wife asked him to come and enjoy a beautiful day with her, he put down his work and went with her, and never finished the time ship design. That's a much better ending as far as I'm concerned!
Bits and pieces
— The Doctor trying to relieve Janeway of duty and completely failing because there's no security team to enforce it is dramatic and hilarious at the same time.
— When Chakotay says they either maintain their command structure or settle their differences the old-fashioned way, Paris is interrupted before he can reply, and I reckon he was up for a fistfight.
— To be fair to Annorax, after 200 years of trying to restore one specific colony and never quite managing it, I can see why he thinks Time itself has a vendetta against him.
— I love Janeway and Tuvok's conversation about Voyager itself. Janeway and Tuvok are one of my favourite character pairings anyway and this is such a classic Vulcan/human conversation about some of humanity's quirks, like personifying inanimate ships.
— Tuvok's blindness continues to be portrayed in a way that works really well for the story, as Janeway touches him to say goodbye because he can't see her. Tuvok hugging Janeway will never not make me cry, It's worse than that one episode of Bluey ('Sleepytime,' for those with small children!).
— Robbie McNeil looks good in that brown suit thing with the big open neck. It suits him!
— The shipping news: Janeway wearing the watch Chakotay replicated for her birthday will always be adorable to me.
— Regular cast death count: I'm not sure if this counts, since time is re-set at the same instant, but I'm going to say Janeway ramming Voyager into Annorax's ship and blowing them both up counts as a death for Janeway, so that brings our Regular Cast Death Count to 12, plus one Total Cast Massacre.
Quotes
Annorax (on Paris): No doubt he's making himself difficult.
Seven (on Neelix's latest brew): It is offensive.
Janeway: Why do I get the feeling you're testing me, Voyager?
Chakotay: One species is significant, a single life is significant!
Chakotay: Give Kathryn my best.
Janeway: I feel as close to Voyager as I do to any of my crew.
Janeway: This is one year I'd like to forget!
Annorax's wife: There are always a few more calculations. It's a beautiful day. Spend it with me.
There is only one episode in the entire Star Trek franchise I would put above this one. Five out of four reset buttons!
Juliette Harrisson is a writer and content creator. Check out her books here, or her Patreon here.
Let me guess. Is your favorite TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise"?
ReplyDelete