Endgames: Repairing the Voyager Timeline...

[Holodoc]

Endgames: Repairing the Voyager Timeline to Heal a Finale
Abridged version published in Activate! Vol 5, #5

Pt I

Do you know any fan who was truly satisfied with how Star Trek: Voyager ultimately turned out? Many share my point of view that much of the seventh season was tossed at its fans by a creative staff that didn't want to be bothered any more; continuity was disregarded countless times and longtime character arcs were either interrupted, dramatically altered, or went unresolved. The finale itself left viewers with more questions than answers. It was as though they forgot that the true point of the series was not just getting the crew back to Federation space, but finding out what would actually become of them. You had the Maquis, two former Borg, the remaining Equinox crewmen, a reformed Tom Paris married to a member of the Maquis, with a fully sentient hologram for a godfather to his child. What would become of any of them once they arrived? That's what we really wanted to find out; arriving was only a means to an end, not the end.

After careful consideration, I believe I've come up with a fair solution. This alternative serves to appease all sides without any great compromise to continnity; while at the same time leaves sufficient time to answer the question we've all been asking ourselves since that final fadeout: "What happens to everybody?" However, before I can present this series "bugfix," it might be a good idea to point out where things went a bit awry during the final year and a half of Star Trek: Voyager...

The deviation from continuity actually began in the middle of season six. No doubt fans of the Doctor noticed. He'd already reached such a level of sentience and acceptance with the crew that even Janeway took heed as he imparted romantic advice in Fair Haven. His fully evolved sensibilities were reaffirmed in Blink of an Eye, in which the Doctor managed to forge a relationship with a woman and help raise her son during an extended - and unexpected - away mission. For the latter episode, he carried on this domestic existence undetected. That's some accomplishment for an artificial intelligence.

Then, things changed. The Doctor appeared to suffer an evolutionary setback in Virtuoso. Suddenly, arrogance and short-sightedness, which appeared to serve as defense mechanisms in the earlier seasons, returned as unabashed egotism. It was in this episode where he sought to justify his desire to leave the medical field over a few quick words of praise (and allow the ship to carry on without a skilled physician) with this excuse:

"If Harry Kim met an alien woman on an away mission, fell in love and decided to spend the rest of his life with her, raise a family instead of continuing on this journey, you wouldn't stand in his way"

It's just so hard to believe that no one stood up during a story conference and said: "But Harry Kim fell in love with an alien just last year, and the captain did intervene." It was just so sloppy. In a Starlog interview (January 2001), Robert Picardo mentioned his personal opinion of the episode and how unlikely it was for the character to pursue this. Despite this, Picardo put his all into the role and turned out one of his finest performances as Doc (the prologue for Virtuoso being among my favorite scenes). The man is an absolute trouper.

[Holodoc]

Pt II

Another poor excuse written for the Doctor turned up one year later in Flesh and Blood. In a scene where he represented renegade holograms who had been reprogrammed by the Hirogen, he objected to Janeway's recommendation to alter the holograms so that they no longer exhibited violent tendencies. Why would any physician object to the equivalent of treating a behavioral disorder?

Perhaps one of the worst aberrations occurred by series end. Despite having learned for the umpteenth time that the crew were his true family and he was no longer judged by what he was made of, the writers suddenly added a new word to the Doctor's vocabulary: O*rganics. It wasn't enough that his egotism screamed that he thought himself better than everybody else. Now, he was using a word long established on the series as a slur and making statements which were all-encompassing generalizations about thousands upon thousands of carbon-based species (I guess these late writers didn't watch Bride of Chaotica! and the subspace photonic ignoramuses therein, either). A backward sensibility and lack of respect for diversity from a superior intelligence, ingrained with Starfleet sensibilities? As the very least, it was blasphemous to hardcore fans. Even among the general Voyager fanbase, there were cringes and squirms as expressed on message boards throughout cyberspace at the time.

Virtuoso also had the curious distinction of containing the only scenes in which Seven of Nine revealed that she may have possessed stronger feelings for the Doctor than anyone could have anticipated. Unfortunately, from then on, their rapport grew erratic. Sometimes, they got along (incidental shot of them sitting together in a movie theatre at the end of Repression and observing Fantome together in Void). However, at a time when the crew became more accepting of the Doctor, Seven of Nine was found to be distancing herself from him, even to the point of attributing an emotional experience as a technological enhancement and deactivating him to escape sickbay in Imperfection. She even flippantly offered to disable his vocal processor in Body and Soul. Suddenly someone who had always regarded the Doctor as a colleague and advocated his right to be treated like anyone else was perceiving him as the lowest common denominator. I was actually very surprised to see her testify on his behalf in Author, Author. One might theorize that these changes in Seven's perception of the Doctor were the result of her step towards humanity with Axum in Unimatrix Zero. More likely, it was the writers' lack of attention to the characters' history and their camaraderie rather than the evolution of Seven of Nine's social preferences.

That she took an interest in Chakotay was ludicrous. Their relationship was barely cordial at the best of times, and it had already been established two years earlier in Someone to Watch Over Me that there were no suitors on the ship to Seven of Nine's liking. The pairing in Human Error - even as a holodeck fantasy - not only disrupted character continuity, it also served to alienate the majority of fans, who not only waited for the Doctor-Seven relationship to culminate after two years, but for Chakotay and Janeway to do so after about six. It was an entirely artificial arrangement. Being that the nature of Star Trek is unique in that it owes much of its direct success to its fan base, this was a very poor decision. True motivation is speculative, and best left for another time.

I share Worf2DS9's disappointment (ACTIVATE! vol.5, #2, page 6) over a moment which was so long in coming and so callously presented. It was observed that "the moment was made light in an inane comic scene that ruined any dramatic potential the confession might have had." Whomever scripted the deathbed confession sequence in Renaissance Man neither knew the Doctor nor made any attempt to research the studio archives. If they ever saw Lifesigns, there certainly was no evidence of it.

Endgame itself held its own enigma: the Seven and Chakotay relationship actually seeing fruition. Seven was far out of established character, behaving at times like some blushing schoolgirl. As already mentioned, the finale as a whole barely resolved the series' longstanding storylines. It left us hanging, without any indication of anything to follow to do the characters or fans justice.

[Holodoc]

pt III

It's my guess that somewhere during the sixth season, a decision was made not to bring Seven and the Doctor together romantically In a way, I can understand. Unrequited love has always been romanticized as the truest form. If a potential mate were to be found, it would have had to have been someone off the crew manifest. I believe this was Axum's original purpose, and not just as a catalyst to awaken Seven's humanity. Here was a pre-existing love interest for Seven, aimed to restore what afready existed, presumably a love that was meant to be.

Why do I believe there were long range plans for Axum? Axum vowed he'd look for her. One doesn't write a character saying that with no intention of following through. It's just not done in professional storytelling. Second, Seven's reason for pursuing social trysts on the holodeck in Human Error was to recapture what she had with Axum in Unimatrix Zero. Why wasn't a hologram of Axum utilized? One of Chakotay made no sense.

Based on proper character continuity and what I call the Axum Factor, I believe I've come up with a more suitable means to get the crew back home and a resolution to the Doctor-Seven arc. I'm not going to presume what plans Paramount has - if any - for the characters following their return, so I'm not going to venture beyond where the series itself left them.

First of all, get rid of Virtuoso. Falling for fandom would have worked in season two or three maybe, but the Doctor had more sense than this; developing a friendlier disposition should not be synonymous with increased gullibility (that goes double for Flesh and Blood). Also, keep us wondering about Seven.

Repression held such promise, until they allowed Tuvok in the brig with his combadge and the zonked Maquis held a 5-minute coup. Make this a two-parter, and generate the uprising more believably; have Chakotay visit Tuvok and receive the post-hypnotic suggestion in person.

Either remove Body and Soul or Human Error. Seven's past emotional moments (such as in Drone or Infinite Regress) would have disproved the cortical node issue in the latter; the Doctor would have blown the thing apart during his cavorting about in the former. Also, Body and Soul should have been a key moment in which Seven would have been aware of the Doctor's feelings for her. I'd say that if you keep that episode, she knows. It's whether she reveals her hand or not that's debatable. However, if we keep Body and Soul, then they win the argument that the Doctor is a person in Author, Author on the grounds that his residing in Seven of Nine proves that he is a conscious entity However, it is apparent that Paramount didn't want Seven to know that the Doctor loved her, nor did they want mention of a trial in Voyager's database regarding Data's sentience from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The precedent set in The Measure of a Man along with that account from Body and Soul would have won the Doctor's case too easily So let's toss out Body and Soul, make Axum the holocharacter in Human Error, and eliminate the cortical node as a plot complication. Something more convincing would have to deter Seven of Nine from her social pursuits, perhaps holodiction. In this version of Human Error, the Doctor would teach her how to pace her recreational pursuits, concealing his dismay over her passing him up as always.
Next, the confession sequence in Renaissance Man. Why not direct the final confession to B'Elanna for the punchline? We can delve into season five for something we can connect with. Perhaps he's discreetly spammed the crew a photo of her with her foot stuck in a plasma injector (one of Paris' ideas in Nothing Human. Tom would have been implicated and caught the brunt of her wrath). With B'Elanna's hands at the controls during that sequence, it certainly becomes a life or death matter in more ways than one.

At last, we come to Endgame itself. Here's the way I would have handled part I. There would be no derivative of Timeless here; it would all occur in Voyager's present:

[Holodoc]

pt IV

The episode opens with what appears to be a holodeck session with Seven of Nine in her more human appearance. But Axum morphs into the Borg version we saw of him in Unimatrix Zero. Seven abruptly awakens in her alcove, regeneration incomplete. Cut to the existing sequence of Tom and B'Elanna waking up for her false labor. Leave out Tuvok's illness; it was only fuel to motivate Admiral Janeway We still have the anomaly and the passing Borg, but a couple of the cubes peel off and give chase. At a station on the bridge, Seven impulsively suggests they fly behind a planetoid, at which time she will generate a singularity They duck into Fluidic Space undetected due to the nebula interfering with Borg sensors. The ship comes face to face with a Borg sphere. Janeway's first impulse is offense/defense, but Seven assures her it is all right. They are hailed by Borg Axum, who is in command of the sphere. Was the dream a subconscious message with coordinates for the rendezvous?

Axum and Seven reunite again as promised, and it is decided that she will leave Voyager to join him. The Doctor confronts Axum alone over that decision. He realizes that Seven's loved Axum all along, before she came to Voyager. Also, he finds Axum a fine choice and worth losing her to. There is a touching moment where Seven says goodbye to Doc; perhaps with a show of affection (as in the end of Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy) for someone who guided her in the ways of humanity.

The plan is similar to the existing Endgame: call on fellow renegade vessels to engage and distract the Borg, while the sphere accompanies Voyager through the transwarp conduit back to the Alpha Quadrant. Instead of the Batmobile armor to protect Voyager during the battle and ride, the sphere will either contain them, or extend its multiphasic shielding to protect both ships. Both vessels will arrive at the other end, the conduit being destroyed from within and no longer accessible by the Borg. The same meet and greet with Admiral Paris. (Don't know why Barclay was by his side. Are they close personal friends now? Did Reg end up with Pete's job at Pathfinder after Pete doubted him twice over two critical issues? Or was this another careless element thrown in?)

This leaves part II for character wrap-ups. Where does the Doctor end up? Does he head a medical team to de-Borg the crew of the sphere? Do the sphere and Axum serve to help the Federation better understand Borg technology and prepare them for future encounters? Are the former Maquis implicated, and does Janeway help Chakotay and his group escape in another mellow farewell? Or is working on a starship counted as time served and the vigilantes assigned community service? And what of the Doctor, whose life begins anew as an honorary member of Admiral Paris' family? How far does he go in advocating Holographic Rights? We really should have known all this by the end of those two hours, particularly if announcements as to a reunion miniseries or future film were not immediately forthcoming.

There you have my resolution to end the series. No doubt, most Voyager fans have their own personal versions of Endgame they wished had happened. Writing groups have even gotten together - for better or worse - to rewrite the final year episode by episode, some venturing beyond the established and making up their own next chapter. The rest of us are left with speculation until the alleged post-"Endgame" novels come out in 2003. Traditionally, Trek novels have never been taken in as part of series continuity. But maybe these will, and therefore help to turn a new page in the lives of these characters, and show us what will happen next.

END

[Pinky]

You're absolutely right. What I found most annoying was that all the character development of the Doctor and Seven was thrown to the dustbin. Seven's crush for Chakotay seemed a little bit like "He's got more hair on his head" to me, which probably only women under 14 can understand. That made Seven look like a dumb blonde...
Which seemed to be exactly the kind of woman the Doc prefered in End Game. His wife was exactly that kind of dumb blonde which I'm sure a "person" of his character development would not even take a look at.

Or for short:
RI! DI! CU! LOUS!

[Holodoc]

Thanks

In all fairness, we don't know who or what sort of woman Lana was from that obliterated timeline. She seemed a pretty strong personality to me. I would see him going for her before the dreaded Tincoo from Virtuoso (what was that about?). Some people suggest she was chosen because it would throw viewers off for a few seconds, like they would assume it was Seven. Except that never occurred to me while I was watching it.

What had occurred to me during the final year was that whomever was in charge had major commitment issues to muck up a series and fan base.

It was so easy to make the final moments of Voyager shine. I mean, these people allegedly had more credentials than I do, and they couldn't come up with anything better? This is the reason I suspect that it was an "inside job." Someone in charge wanted to shunt off the series and its place on the Trek timeline and to hell with the fans. The question is: why?