560. TimelessFORMULA: Hope and Fear + Cause and Effect + The Visitor
WHY WE LIKE IT: The gorgeous effects.
WHY WE DON'T: Not seeing enough of the future.
REVIEW: Voyager's 100th episode is marked with on screen celebrations for a quantum slipstream drive adapted from Arturis' technology, but we already know it's meant to fail, or else we wouldn't have had that beautiful opening shot of Voyager trapped under the ice. Only Harry and Chakotay survived the flight and now they're out to change history. Transitions between the two eras are deftly handled by director Levar Burton, keeping that sense of doom lurking.
Future Harry is a rather dour character, driven by survivor guilt. Chakotay is in a relationship with a girl called Tessa and here things get a little weird. It's a good woman indeed who'll help you change history and undo meeting the love of her life. The salvaged Doctor seems to be the only one with any perspective, even as he manhandles Seven's grisly remains (a frozen body is one thing, a piece of skull with an eye staring out is another). In any case, we don't see enough about this potential future to know what's at stake. Ok, Geordi La Forge is the sensible captain of the USS Challenger (cute cameo), but otherwise? It means nothing to us.
Of course, it still fails. In fact, though it's left a little ambiguous, Harry may have caused the accident in the first place. Then again, the temporal stuff in Voyager rarely makes absolute sense, and we're at a point where each time it comes up, Janeway makes a speech about not even trying to (pointed squarely at the audience, I'm sure). At least it gives us the chance to see the actual crash, and once again, it's a beautiful shot. The Doctor offers the obvious solution: Just contact them before and not so close to the wire. Must've heard me screaming at the television for the past 10 minutes.
Voyager still cuts 10 years off its journey with this little stunt, which again begs the question (as in Hope and Fear) as to why you can't quantum fly until you reach the phase variance, stop, repeat? I also wonder how much better than Arturis' drive this is. 10 YEARS in only a few minutes? It's just too much for the crew not to try again.
LESSON: The Borg can't hold their liquor. Even synthehol which isn't real alcohol. Even if they try to adapt.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: I was expecting a High, but aside from some great effects, there's not much too it. Cartoon motivations and rampant illogic plague this otherwise stylish time travel story.
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