The Good: Decent acting, Some clever bits, Moments of character
The Bad: Utter corruption of the Star Trek timeline, Shaky plot device
The Basics: When the U.S.S. Voyager ends up orbiting 1996 Earth, they must confront a billionaire using stolen technology from the future.
For a show that is remarkably derivative of Star Trek: The Next Generation on the character and plot fronts, it's remarkable that Star Trek: Voyager held out until its third season to do its first real time travel episode. For sure, one of the earliest episodes, "Time And Again" (reviewed here!) had some elements of time travel but it was not a big episode and when it was done, the show seemed to stray away from time travel as a plot device. With "Future's End," the show delves back into time travel and perhaps the most bothersome aspect of it is that this will throw the floodgates open for time travel episodes on the series. But then, that's getting ahead of myself.
The U.S.S. Voyager is soaring toward home when it finds its path blocked by a temporal rift, from which a tiny ship called the Aeon emerges. The Aeon is commanded by Captain Braxton who declares that Voyager is a menace and prepares to destroy the ship because otherwise Voyager will destroy Earth at a point in the distant future. Janeway defends the ship, but Voyager and the Aeon are thrown back in time to 1996.
They are also thrown back to Earth where they soon find themselves running into various obstacles, mostly in the form of industrialist Henry Starling. Starling has recovered Braxton's timeship and is slowly deconstructing the technology to make billions of dollars. On Earth, Janeway, Paris and Tuvok work to recover the timeship and stop Starling without being discovered, but not all goes as planned . . .
"Future's End" is a somewhat unenthusiastic cliffhanger episode that the viewer finds themselves more baffled by than enjoying. The main reason at the beginning for the antipathy toward "Future's End" is the science. The temporal rift is a standard in science fiction, especially the Star Trek franchise. This episode has the first temporal rift on record that translates a starship through space as well as time. We can deal with the permutation of time through a temporal rift whereby an object or person is sucked back hundreds or thousands of years. But the device here is used to suck Voyager four hundred years into the past and 70,000 light years from its current location . . . without any explanation. That doesn't sit right with the viewer.
But once there the real problem starts for anyone who is a fan of the Star Trek franchise. According to Star Trek lore, specifically the episode "Space Seed" (reviewed here!) in the original Star Trek, the late 1990s were the Eugenics Wars, which led into World War III. The recent spin-offs of Star Trek all accept World War III, including Star Trek: First Contact (reviewed here!), so why Star Trek: Voyager chooses to neglect the Eugenics Wars and the rise of Khan is utterly ludicrous. "Future's End" is a serious failure of imagination on the part of the creative staff of the episode who seems to want to disengage from the Star Trek timeline in favor of reality. If fans of the series can accept that Star Trek is not real, why can't the producers? Why can they not accept that the audience is sophisticated enough to handle an alternate 1996 from the one they are living in when watching the show?
Regardless of their answer now, at the time, they refused to diverge and the result is a somewhat wishy-washy attempt for the Star Trek: Voyager crew to visit a time contemporaneous with the series airing.
Outside that, the real problem is that Captain Braxton is a buffoon. It's hard to take a time traveler seriously when they are: 1. So imprecise they cannot determine exactly how an event they are sent back to change happens, and 2. Bother to attempt to talk their way out of the problem instead of simply dealing with it. To wit, Braxton arrives on the scene and announces he is going to destroy Voyager because of Voyager's involvement with the destruction of Earth in the future. Okay, for a moment, we grant that these improbable scenarios seem likely for our intrepid crew, but it's a cheap and obvious plot device that Braxton arrives, hails the ship, warns them and then is easily thwarted by Voyager. Call me crazy, but when I want to save the world and I think people might fight for their life, I don't think I would be above the sneak attack. The safest way to kill someone is to shoot them in the back and Braxton's unwillingness to do that is just plain silly.
On the flip side, Henry Starling is a decent villain. At least as smart as the crew of Voyager, the billionaire industrialist has built a company on futuristic technology and is building a small empire based on that. Is it a lack of creative vision, then, that kept the writers and producers from having Starling bankrolling the Eugenics experiments that created Khan and his supermen? I suppose so. Strange, it's an idea that came right to my mind when I first saw the episode. As it is, Starling is one of the more formidable villains on Star Trek: Voyager, having outsmarted Captain Braxton and acquired his timeship, Starling has devoted decades to rewriting history by making himself a power within it. Hmm . . . there's another way the writers could have explained the divergent Star Trek and reality timelines if they had only been a little more creative.
Starling is wonderfully played by Ed Begley Jr. For those who are fans of the environmentalist and activist, there is a great deal of irony in his portrayal of a greedy industrialist that is sure to be appreciated. Begley has a somber quality that translates well to the ruthless pursuit of selfish gains for the Starling character and he uses that well. Moreover, he plays quite well off both Kate Mulgrew and Robert Picardo. Starling is a decent villain and it's a pleasure to see Ed Begley Jr. integrate so quickly into the Star Trek universe.
The rest of the cast does fine in "Future's End," though few are given much to do that is different. The notable exceptions are Ethan Phillips and Jennifer Lein, who as Neelix and Kes are assigned to watch Earth broadcasts to make sure Voyager is not spotted and in the process become addicted to a soap opera, who loosen up a bit and Robert Duncan McNeill.
Robert Duncan McNeill, as Tom Paris, comes alive with an enthusiastic side we have not frequently seen him bring to his character. In "The 37s" (reviewed here!) Tom Paris reveals an affinity for Earth history, especially the 20th Century. On 1996 Earth, Paris is in his element and McNeill brings an energy and vibrancy to his performance that he's never been allowed to bring before and it works beautifully.
It's just enough to make the episode worth recommending. It's a fun episode, but it is more likely to be enjoyed by those who are not fans of the Star Trek franchise and who are looking for simple entertainment as opposed to something that makes a whole lot of sense. Usually, I prefer things to fit together nicer than this episode does, but every now and then, a good villain and a couple of decent performances are enough for me.
[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Voyager - The Complete Third Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the entire season here!
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6/10
For other Star Trek reviews, please check out my Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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