510. Future's End, Part IFORMULA: The Voyage Home + First Contact (not the movie)
WHY WE LIKE IT: Sarah Silverman before she was doing Matt Damon.
WHY WE DON'T: 90s clichés.
REVIEW: We haven't done a time travel story in a while, right? Well, if you missed them, don't worry. Future's End heralds a future when all of Trek will be about time travel (the 29th century). Oh Voyager, do you even see the irony? The first part of this two-parter sets up a basic paradox and for once, explains the rules of the game pretty well. With a diagram even. Of course, it contradicts how time travel works in other episodes (especially the really good ones, The City on the Edge of Forever and Past Tense), but that's par for the course. By going to 1996, you'll also notice Voyager is first to contradict the Star Trek timeline with regards to the Eugenics Wars.
Starling's discovery of the timeship and subsequent use of its technology to cause the computer revolution might account for it. History as told in TOS has been changed, and Starling's patents have turned Star Trek's timeline into one more akin to our own. Heck, maybe that's why Enterprise looks more advanced than TOS! Of course, the fact that Voyager's present isn't changed makes this proposition less than defensible, but the plot's not exactly air-tight, you know what I mean?
In any case, this is the 90s as you've seen them on tv. Tuvok dressed as a rapper. Chakotay starring in Miami Vice. Punks on roller-skates. Evil CEOs (you can tell because he's friends with Nixon). "No way. Way." All the clichés are there. Though some of the characters work well as fish out of water here, scenes like Neelix watching soap operas are pretty tepid as was a social satire goes. And if you're going to show the present day, you might as well get it right. There are few things as annoying as actors typing away as windows pop up on screens. It's fine when it's on a starship and you don't know the technology, but totally ridiculous in Starling's office.
If Ed Begley Jr. fails to get a reaction from me (Starling is just the businessman jerk cliché, after all), Sarah Silverman (before she was a star?) does a little better as Rain Robinson. So-called "cool" lines aside, she's got good chemistry with Tom Paris. Harry Kim in command of the ship does ok (still won't get you promoted, Harry), though his underlings are pretty dumb. Upon getting the SETI message, one crew woman asks if she should respond(!). Speaking of script screw-ups, Voyager has been on a rampage when it comes to sliding in references to TOS or TNG (and yet, no Eugenics Wars), and in this case, Janeway comes up with the same phrase as Spock in City, "stones knives and bear skins". Is that reasonable or has she been reading his memoirs?
And for the record, might I just add that Voyager's cliffhangers before going to commercial, and in this case, at the very as well, leave a lot to be desired? The music pretty much swells for nothing throughout. I mention it because it's really wearing me down overall.
LESSON: Bill Gates will destroy the universe.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Lots of running around, locations, toys, effects and jokes, enough to make this watchable, but the plot is ridiculous and illogical. This could have been more than goofy.
Comments
There are a number of explanations as to why the Eugenics Wars weren't mentioned (Greg Cox puts forth some decent ideas in his novels on the subject) but somebody in the production staff remembered as you can see a DY-100 model during Rain's telephone call to Starling.
The thing about the "reset" is that the Time Patrol (or whatever they want to call themselves) fixes it so no ship explodes in the 29th century, and spots Voyager as a historical anomaly, but AT NO POINT do they see a problem with 29th-century technology being introduced in the 20th, or a high profile company using THEIR logo!
How this was missed, I'll never know. And if you've never seen Ed Begley, Jr.'s Ed Begley, Jr. impression -- he kills it, man!