To me Janeway's reaction to her older self isn't very credible. Couldn't she be just a little bit confused? Then she discusses breaking the rules with her older - disturbingly confident - self. Is that how we can imagine her decision making process throughout the series? She contemplates breaking the rules, knows it's wrong but does it anyway? That's at least in line with her previous somewhat erratic behavior. Plus, the way both the Queen and old Janeway regard Seven as their pet project is strange. It's really like they wanted to assign an importance to Seven, that I fail to understand. Yes, she's a valued member of the crew and Janeway always used to be her custodian, but she shouldn't be the raison d'être for both the finale and the show. One last praise to Ryan. Although Seven's romance is surprising (and ill-prepared) and makes no sense to me, Ryan can effortlessly adapt her character. For years, she played the reserved Borg drone but now (ill prepared over the course of the last few episodes) she's able to add a very romantic and flirty side to Seven. The interactions between Seven and Chakotay, her alternating between being the professional science officer we used to know and experiencing a teen romance, are great. Could this maybe the only romantic story of the show depicted decently? Too late too find out whether that story could actually work, though.
The actual exit is a hodgepodge of ideas: time travel, doppelgangers from the future (who basically guides them single-handedly blindfolded to the exit w/o much help of the crew), Borg, the Borg Queen, trans-warp tunnels (extending all the way to Earth), future technology (integrated within days), space battle, a mind communication interface, an anti-Borg virus and whatnot. Compressed into 20 minutes or so. Show runners desperately needed a positive outcome and since they never concocted a concise framework for the overarching story, they never prepared the viewer for how it all will end. It all feels isolated, random and desperate.
And the absence of any emotional gratification is stunning. Really? No reaction? The admiral asks for minutia (while Tom is right there and he became a grandpa this very moment!)? Janeway announces to file a report about the events? Not even a Q2-style party in engineering? Not a single emotional outburst? No outlook? What will happen to our heroes? Does nobody care? (Given how the show was designed, they will probably have forgotten these events by next week) No welcome-home scene? No emotional looking-back to their adventures (like DS9 did in a very kitschy way)? Over the course of seven seasons characters and audience have imagined how it is to come home, but ... nada. Kim is not even promoted to full officer; the Marquis members not pardoned?
I'm perhaps a bit too critical with this episode. Overall, it's an exciting action episode and how could you not be captivated by the end of such an epic odyssey? How could you not feel relieved they made it home? Thus, it's an 8/10 (it's of course not an ubiased judgement after all the time invested in watching but as long it's not a fiasco to the proportions of GoT's finale, I'm very generous about show finales - they are hard to master).
Review by Alexander von LimbergBlockedParent2022-07-22T06:28:45Z— updated 2023-06-02T15:09:03Z
To me Janeway's reaction to her older self isn't very credible. Couldn't she be just a little bit confused? Then she discusses breaking the rules with her older - disturbingly confident - self. Is that how we can imagine her decision making process throughout the series? She contemplates breaking the rules, knows it's wrong but does it anyway? That's at least in line with her previous somewhat erratic behavior. Plus, the way both the Queen and old Janeway regard Seven as their pet project is strange. It's really like they wanted to assign an importance to Seven, that I fail to understand. Yes, she's a valued member of the crew and Janeway always used to be her custodian, but she shouldn't be the raison d'être for both the finale and the show. One last praise to Ryan. Although Seven's romance is surprising (and ill-prepared) and makes no sense to me, Ryan can effortlessly adapt her character. For years, she played the reserved Borg drone but now (ill prepared over the course of the last few episodes) she's able to add a very romantic and flirty side to Seven. The interactions between Seven and Chakotay, her alternating between being the professional science officer we used to know and experiencing a teen romance, are great. Could this maybe the only romantic story of the show depicted decently? Too late too find out whether that story could actually work, though.
The actual exit is a hodgepodge of ideas: time travel, doppelgangers from the future (who basically guides them single-handedly blindfolded to the exit w/o much help of the crew), Borg, the Borg Queen, trans-warp tunnels (extending all the way to Earth), future technology (integrated within days), space battle, a mind communication interface, an anti-Borg virus and whatnot. Compressed into 20 minutes or so. Show runners desperately needed a positive outcome and since they never concocted a concise framework for the overarching story, they never prepared the viewer for how it all will end. It all feels isolated, random and desperate.
And the absence of any emotional gratification is stunning. Really? No reaction? The admiral asks for minutia (while Tom is right there and he became a grandpa this very moment!)? Janeway announces to file a report about the events? Not even a Q2-style party in engineering? Not a single emotional outburst? No outlook? What will happen to our heroes? Does nobody care? (Given how the show was designed, they will probably have forgotten these events by next week) No welcome-home scene? No emotional looking-back to their adventures (like DS9 did in a very kitschy way)? Over the course of seven seasons characters and audience have imagined how it is to come home, but ... nada. Kim is not even promoted to full officer; the Marquis members not pardoned?
I'm perhaps a bit too critical with this episode. Overall, it's an exciting action episode and how could you not be captivated by the end of such an epic odyssey? How could you not feel relieved they made it home? Thus, it's an 8/10 (it's of course not an ubiased judgement after all the time invested in watching but as long it's not a fiasco to the proportions of GoT's finale, I'm very generous about show finales - they are hard to master).