Future's End, Part II

DVD, Voyager S3 (Future's End, Part II)

Second part fever strikes again! In keeping with tradition this is the weaker part of the story, but not due to treading water or trying to drag the story out as is usually the case. This time it was condensed too much and felt smaller where the first part felt epic. I wish they'd gone with the original idea of a three- or four-part story, but that was too radical for this series (though 'DS9' had already done the unprecedented three-parter a few years previous). Too often the action takes place in enclosed spaces without the scope of part one, even if some of the locations are the same - they visit the Observatory again, but we never see outside; Starling's office is back, but whether it was the camera angles or not, it felt smaller in some way; and the biggest cut to the episode came with the paranoid Americans who capture Chakotay and B'Elanna: their story isn't the only thing to be cut back. We never even see outside the dingy basement where they hold their prisoners. That may have been a directorial choice (as all may have been), and admittedly, there was tension added to the sequence when we can't see the Feds outside or Tuvok and the Doctor dealing with them, plus it turns into a great moment for the Doc when he nonchalantly enters and saves the day, but to keep up with part one they really should have showed the cars and helicopter sweeping in and surrounding the remote shack.

Lack of vision wasn't always the case, as we do get a scene set in a busy area of town, with the meet at the fountains, the capture and subsequent escape of Rain, and the Doc at his heroic best: I loved the moment he gets repeatedly punched in the face and shows no discomfort (a bit like the Admiral in 'Conspiracy' from 'TNG'), then leaps out of the limo and hares it away like we've never seen him run before (I bet Robert Picardo couldn't do that now!). It's one of many great moments for his character who shines in his first true Away Mission from the ship and becomes the main attraction of the episode. He visibly enjoys every new sensation and being part of the team he usually only hears about or contributes to from a monitor. Maybe not every new sensation - this time he feels pain for the first time thanks to Starling and understands how horrible it is. Maybe that will give him more empathy for his patients in future? When he was falling to the floor as if on fire it reminded me of a similar experience the Talosian's made Pike go through on 'TOS' (no sign of the Talosian action figure in this episode, sadly). Even though he begins kidnapped, he's still thrilling to his new horizons. Perhaps he's feeling this will be only a short experience when the mobile emitter is eventually taken away, but he'll make the most of it while he's got it. Keeping the emitter raises another series of questions, but I'll get back to that.

An example of the episode cutting free and opening up a bit is the chase of the decoy truck by Rain and Paris, who are a bit more relaxed with each other now that Tuvok's not with them. A desert road and a fairly exciting explosion are the hallmarks of the scene, although I could point out how unlikely it was that Dunbar could have his tyre shot out, drive over the hill, turn the vehicle around and come chugging down to almost crash into the camper van before they have a chance to get out. I wondered if he was actually driving when it rolls towards them as I couldn't see anyone in front, so it's possible he set it off then jumped out (although I don't know how he expected to get back to civilisation if he had, so it's not likely). If he was driving the truck that begs the question of whether he was important to the future at all? He gets blown up, so let's hope not, except that it all kind of gets (non-) explained away at the end…

I like that 24th Century people are shown to be different. Rain questions Paris on why he's doing all this, helping others at his own expense and Paris asks 'why not?' It's a good moment that Roddenberry would have appreciated because it illustrates that things are better in the future thanks to Starfleet people. The same selfless choices came up in part one when Janeway admits to Starling she's happy to destroy the building with her inside if it will stop him. It's also shown in Chakotay's grace at the Americans who treat him badly - he remains good-humoured and amiable, not taking personally what they say. I also found the conversation he has with B'Elanna before they crash, interesting, as he sounds like he never expected to get home - he never thought he'd see the part of Earth they're flying over, again. But he's always been someone that finds it easier to accept things than others so perhaps he's simply accepted his life was going to be lived out in the Delta Quadrant.

Another aspect of the episode that stops it from soaring as much as part one are the visual effects. We get some good stuff with Starling crashing the Timeship out of the Chronowerx building, or the shuttle crashing to Earth, but they aren't fulfilling enough. Even the explosion of the truck going up isn't quite 'there' - because of that you can tell that they didn't really go to the trouble of blasting a real truck up and that loses some of the episode's epic scope. If you've seen 'Star Trek Nemesis' you'll have seen a much more exciting example of a small craft smashing out of a location, and in 'Star Trek: Insurrection' we have a far superior shuttle crash (as well as the chase sequence). I know that they were in films on a much bigger budget and created at a later time, with improvements to technology and it's unfair to make the comparison, but it means these effects stand out even more as being cut back, and that isn't always the case - sometimes things do hold up.

I'm going to have to place a lot of the blame on the director (whom was different to part one), as I imagine the budget would have been about the same for each part, but this one fails to live up to expectations. It's not his fault alone however, as the story was so condensed and things aren't as well knitted together. The cliffhanger ending of part one, with Voyager shown on the news, is brushed away as something no one believed. But even then, we're told the US military was going to investigate and nothing comes of it. Had the story been spread over three or four episodes it could have dealt with that side of it and had a good episode with the paranoid American survivalists, perhaps while Starling was held captive for the space of one episode instead of a few minutes? Maybe Starling could have been exposed to 24th Century ideals and pretends to accept them and change his plans, agreeing to help Janeway get her people back, but then double-crossing them in a cliffhanger ending. Then the last episode could have been a desperate attempt to find him in the 29th Century (a bit like 'Trials and Tribble-ations' in reverse, temporally speaking) - it needn't have been a mistake he makes immediately upon arrival in that time period that destroys the Solar System.

All these ideas that would have expanded the story, and I, for one, would have loved to see the 29th Century, but it would also have meant more with tramp Braxton - I was disappointed he wasn't used at all in part two. The ending failed to tie up the story in a way that explained or capped the story in a great way. Instead, it's all rather convenient that another version of Braxton arrives to take Voyager home. There should have been more anguish over the decision that he won't take them back to Earth, but must lead them back to their previous position in the Delta Quadrant. If a deal had been struck with tramp Braxton to take them to Earth in the 24th Century and is killed helping them, it would have had more resonance?

It also raises the question of why the Temporal Integrity Commission hasn't shown up on so many other occasions when Starfleet crews have gone backwards or forwards in time. Maybe it suggests these events were supposed to happen or that this was a more complex paradox that needed straightening out (although Braxton just pops up and says he didn't experience the timeline they averted and basically just noticed they were in the wrong time). At least it shows that Voyager's time in the Delta Quadrant is important to history after all, as the previous episode could have suggested that Voyager didn't need to be around and that was why Braxton first appeared at that time. I wish there could have been a bit more quizzing of tramp Braxton about things like 'do we make it home?', or 'do we make contact with home?' Yes, Braxton could have been evasive, but it was another element that should have been addressed.

Janeway still has prejudices to holographic lifeforms - when the Doctor is all excited about his new 'footloose and fancy-free' status he wonders if he might get some quarters and Janeway rolls her eyes. If a new flesh and blood crewmember had joined she wouldn't think twice about it. Holoist! Realistically, space on the ship is at a premium, but her reaction was a little prejudicial. Then again it wasn't supposed to be that 'deep,' they were going for a laugh-out, the way 'TOS' episodes generally finished. Something that is a little more controversial (if you care about timelines, etc), are the ethics of the Doc keeping his mobile emitter. This is 29th Century technology! You can't use it, surely? Maybe Janeway doesn't care about the Temporal Prime Directive, and it may have been too small a thing for the Temporal agents to notice, but then again, the difference it made to the timeline must be pretty big, considering how often the Doc used it and what he could achieve that he wouldn't have been able to otherwise. Maybe it was another case of 'it was supposed to happen'?

For all we know it was something Starling created himself out of 29th Century tech, rather than being literally on board the Timeship when it crashed. Looking at the emitter from an out of universe position, it was the perfect way of advancing the Doctor. A bit like Data's emotion chip, only they were too scared to really go for that until the films, this was an uncharacteristically brave move for the series, altering a much-loved character irrevocably, but I'm so glad they did and it shows that if they made big choices they could pay off - if he wasn't already one of a kind, he's now the only hologram in existence with the means to exist outside of locations equipped with holo-projectors. He'd learn to be a lot more concerned for the safety of his emitter in later episodes: in this one he walks right into the shack, gets fired at (the bullets going through him since he can make himself 'empty' of matter if he chooses, though he must have only done that to part of himself otherwise he'd have dropped the phaser), and he doesn't even think about the potential damage to the emitter. At this point, it can be argued, he didn't know it was going to be a longterm thing so he had no need to be worried about losing it.

It was fun to see the Doctor visit the bridge for the first time, although I believe he'd already been there in a recreation thanks to Season 2's 'Projections.' I like that the realities of his situation come to the forefront right away such as when he doesn't know the way to get to Janeway who's down in the torpedo tube doing her best Kirk impression from 'Generations' (though I'm sure there would be somebody better qualified than her to manually launch a torpedo!). I imagined he would get down there and do it for her in a place she couldn't get to (like the probe Geordi uses in 'Interface'), but he arrived once she'd already done it. One thing's for sure - she can never get away from him or switch off his screen, again!

In the end we're not exactly told what's going on with the timeline. Braxton from the future says he never experienced the explosion they were trying to avert, but it's never stated categorically that the timeline of the past was changed - did tramp Braxton live out the rest of his life on Earth, never knowing the future was safe (what a sad existence), or did Earth revert to the 'true' timeline once Voyager was taken home? Is Chronowerx still responsible for the computer revolution of the late-20th Century in the Trek universe or not? Are we still part of the Trek timeline or not? These, and other questions were not addressed satisfactorily.

In the same vein, Starling's plan was a bit vague. Okay, we know he wanted to go to the future to grab some gadgets which he could turn into money-making advances in the past (just like Berlinghoff Rasmussen in 'A Matter of Time' on 'TNG'), but that's remarkably near-sighted for such a visionary. If he could go and live in the far future where life is so much better and lifespans are longer and there's no poverty, wouldn't he rather leave the 20th Century behind? Not that he'd necessarily know how good life is in that time (and technically, neither do we - just because the 23rd and 24th Centuries are all happy, with world problems worked out, doesn't mean things haven't gotten worse 500 years later). In the end, Starling showed himself to be less forward-thinking than he'd like, and that's another reason this concluding part doesn't work so well. Yet again it fell into the trap of being in the mindset of closing down the story instead of opening it up, and unlike the classic first part it is merely a good episode when it could have been great.

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