The Moment Star Trek: Voyager Delivered One Of The Greatest Series Finales Ever
'Endgame' wasn't just solid, it was also very consequential.
Debating which Star Trek series is best is one of those geeky arguments that will never get old. Considering there are essentially only three major creative eras of TV Star Trek, figuring out which sort of mood each series will deliver upon rewatch is somewhat easier. When selecting your TV Star Trek era, before getting into the minutiae of creative changes season-to-season, you’ve basically got the 1960s and 1970s (The Original Series and The Animated Series), the 1987-2005 (the massive Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise era) and the contemporary streaming shows which began with Discovery in 2017 and will seemingly end in 2027 with Starfleet Acadmey and Strange New Worlds. But, in terms of ongoing impact on TV sci-fi today, an incredible amount of episodes, and impressive longevity, the “90s” era of Star Trek — the 18 years of four different TV shows produced nearly continuously — contains, arguably, the majority of Trek that fans today still care about most deeply. And among all of that, the franchise has, overall, its two best series finales. The gold standard is, of course, “All Good Things...” the 1994 finale of The Next Generation. But, coming in a very close second is Voyager’s “Engame.”
25 years after it aired on May 23, 2001, “Endgame” still feels like a surprisingly solid series finale, even if some of it is riffing on ideas from “All Good Things...” Here’s why it remains utterly rewatchable, and why its canon implications still matter in the complex timeline of Trek today. Mild spoilers ahead.
First off, for fans who say that Deep Space Nine is a better Star Trek series than Voyager, and therefore, its series finale, “What You Leave Behind,” is better than Voyager’s, I’ll just say I almost agree with you. Overall, I prefer DS9; mostly because the characters are slightly more memorable than Voyager’s people, but the fate of Sisko (Avery Brooks) becoming a space god and leaving his family never really landed for me personally. It’s a brilliant series finale, but “Endgame” wins because the emotional stakes and time travel story allow for Voyager to have its cake and eat it too.
The story of “Endgame” starts in the future, 23 years after Voyager has finally returned to Earth after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant in Season 1. Basically, in the first minutes of the finale, the premise and central conflict of the entire series are seemingly solved. The only wrinkle is that in this future, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) — now Admiral Janeway — is unhappy with how long it took, and the fact that Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Chakotay (Robert Beltran) are deceased in 2404. Quickly, as we move back to the familiar present-tense of 2378, future-Janeway’s aim becomes clear. She intends to travel back in time and change history in order to bring Voyager home to the Alpha Quadrant much quicker.
Kate Mulgrew as future and present Janeway.
Written by Rick Berman, Kenneth Biller, and Brannon Braga, this is the second Star Trek series finale, which involves a future-tense time period that is presented as less than ideal. In “All Good Things...” we learn that Troi (Marina Sirtis) passed away, and Picard (Patrick Stewart) is seemingly losing his mind. In “Endgame,” Seven and Chakotay went to early graves, and Tuvok (Tim Russ) is cracking up. Braga co-wrote “All Good Things...” (with Ronald D. Moore), so it’s reasonable to view aspects of “Endgame” as a bit of a remix of the TNG finale. Give the fans the novelty of seeing a future world for Voyager, but also, get rid of that timeline to keep canon a bit looser going forward.
What makes “Endgame’s” future timeline at the beginning of the story a bit more novel than Picard’s journey to the future in “All Good Things...” is that in Voyager, we’d never really gotten to see the crew in the normal status quo of living in the Federation. We get to see Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) promoted to Captain, the Doctor (Robert Picardo) choosing a name (“Joe”), and even Barclay (Dwight Schultz) from The Next Generation, teaching at Starfleet Academy. This entire future will be undone by the end of the finale, which includes, possibly, Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) daughter — or at least this version of their daughter — being erased from history. This isn’t to say future Janeway is aborting Miral Paris (Lisa LoCicero), but it is telling that Janeway is willing to rewrite 23 years of experiences, not just for herself, but for everyone else. This isn’t a mistake in the episode at all, but rather demonstrates the darker tone of the episode. The future version of Janeway is utterly over the time period she lives in, and is seemingly even okay with destabilizing relationships with the Klingons, breaking the law, and alienating the living versions of her crew.
The nice thing about all of this is that “Endgame,” at least in its first half, gives a lot of weight to future Janeway’s decision, and when you rewatch it, you can’t help but feel like she’s a little bit wrong. Obviously, in order for Voyager to get a true happy ending, future Janeway needs to go a bit nuts and essentially erase the memories and lives of countless people. Voyager’s famous episode “Year of Hell” taught us that one grieving person, armed with time travel, can ruin millions of lives. In “Endgame,” that power is given to the show’s greatest hero, but our feelings about her decision are still mixed.
Kate Mulgrew as Janeway and Alice Krige as the Borg Queen.
On top of Janeway’s ethical dilemma of altering the fates of so many people, the episode also puts Voyager head-to-head with the Borg, which sees the return of Alice Krige as the Borg Queen, a role she originated in the mega-popular 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact. This guest star gives “Endgame” some gravitas that links the show to the larger Star Trek canon, and unknowingly created very specific continuity that continues to this day. Without spoiling what happens with the Borg exactly, or how future Janway’s scheme unfolds, let’s just say every subsequent Trek show set after Voyager — specifically Prodigy, and especially Picard — is impacted by the explosive events and consequential actions of both Janeways.
In some senses, “Endgame” is exactly like the 2018 Avengers movie of the same name. (Reminder: Kevin Feige is a huge Trek fan.) But instead of a whole team going back in time to undo their defeat, it’s one woman out for revenge. Star Trek does great with vague Herman Melville tributes, and “Endgame” is a unique example of all of it, more or less, working out. Future Janeway’s white whale is both the Borg and the crappy way in which she got her crew home. And, in a unique Star Trek twist, her mad quest to get what she wants, through sheer strength of human will, is proven to be the correct path. Star Trek might have a reputation for being more rummnative than action-oriented, but in “Endgame,” Voyager put the “bold” back in all of this boldly going business.
