BOB SAYS...

"A very merry Christmas and a happy new year to everybody and may next year bring joy and happiness to you"

Bob de Bilde (aka Bill de Dashe)

Key moments in Star Trek Voyager (3)

Star Trek Voyager (Episode no. 171 & 172)... The final episode sees Voyager destroy the Borg AND return home...

"Endgame" is the title of the series finale of the Star Trek spinoff series, Star Trek: Voyager. Originally shown as a double-length episode and presented as such in DVD collections, it is shown in repeat broadcasts as two linked episodes.

In the year 2404, Earth is celebrating Voyager's 10th anniversary of its 23 year journey home. However, an elderly Admiral Kathryn Janeway steals a chrono deflector from a Klingon named Korath and uses it on her shuttle to travel back to 2378 in the Delta Quadrant. She pulls rank on Voyager to emit an anti-tachyon pulse, collapsing the temporal distortion to prevent the Klingons from following her through. However, everyone is unaware that the Borg are monitoring the events.

On board her old starship, the Admiral tells her younger self to return to a nebula filled with Borg that they passed by a few days ago. She provides advanced technologies that would give Voyager the opportunity to get past the massive Borg defenses and enter a transwarp corridor. The Borg are unable to penetrate Voyager's new ablative hull armour nor capture it with tractor beams while Voyager destroys two Borg Cubes with transphasic torpedoes. They then come upon a Borg transwarp hub at the center, which could save the ship sixteen more years of being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

However, the admiral’s efforts are hindered by the desire of her younger self to use the future technology to destroy the transwarp network instead of using it to return home. Trying to blast it from the inside is impossible, as the network adapts to any attack due to the control of the Borg Queen (Alice Krige, reprising the role for the first time since Star Trek: First Contact). It can only be destroyed from their end for the Alpha Quadrant contains only exit apertures. The two Janeways argue over the issue until the elder Janeway tells her younger self that Seven of Nine will die if they do not take the road home, along with 22 other crewmembers. Though Captain Janeway is moved by this confession, she decides that the foreknowledge of Seven's death means it is no longer certain. The Admiral mentions that, while that might be the case, Tuvok has no chance, already suffering from a degenerative neurological condition that will slowly destroy his logic and will eventually make him senile. After discussing the issue with the rest of her crew, Captain Janeway decides to go ahead with her plan to destroy the Borg’s transwarp hub, one of their centres for transporting around the galaxy, as without it, the Borg's ability to travel across the galaxy will be severely hampered. On seeing the crew’s selfless reaction to the plan, the older Janeway rediscovers a piece of her old fighting spirit and with Captain Janeway, comes up with a plan to both destroy the hub and possibly get Voyager home.

Admiral Janeway takes her shuttlecraft and enters the transwarp hubs, taking her to the Unicomplex—the center of all Borg activity, where the Borg Queen herself resides. She first appears to the Queen in her mind, claiming she wants Voyager towed back to the Alpha Quadrant (apparently in defiance of the younger Janeway's plans) in exchange for information on how to adapt to the armour and torpedo technologies. However, the Queen is quickly able to detect her shuttle and beams the Admiral to her chambers and “assimilates” her into the Borg collective. A few minutes later, Admiral Janeway unleashes a neurolytic pathogen from within her bloodstream that devastates the Borg, physically making the queen fall apart. With the deactivation of the Queen, the Unicomplex suffers a cascade failure and blows up, killing the partially assimilated Admiral.

Meanwhile Captain Janeway and her crew have entered a transwarp corridor and fire torpedoes at the unprotected manifolds while traveling back to the Alpha quadrant, pursued by a Borg sphere ship that has managed to withstand the pathogen’s effects and assimilate Admiral Janeway's ablative armor upgrade, ordered by the Borg Queen to destroy Voyager so that the Admiral (and her sabotage) will never exist. Unable to fight back against the ship’s exterior defenses, Janeway takes her ship inside the sphere, where, upon its arrival in Earth's solar system, she detonates a torpedo that destroys the sphere from the inside out.

In the show’s final few minutes, the crew stand dumbfounded that they have finally returned home after seven years lost in the Delta Quadrant and are greeted by a fleet of Starfleet vessels that arrived to fight the sphere. Settling down in her chair, Captain Janeway issues her final words; the same words that she used at the start of her journey: "Set a course...for home."

The final episode also includes the birth of Miral, daughter of Tom Paris and B’Elanna Torres. Miral is born as Voyager reenters Earth’s solar system. The sounds of the baby’s gurgling are heard over the communications system, to the joy of all the crew. In the alternate future, she is an ensign on a classified mission to obtain a chrono deflector for Admiral Janeway. She threatens two Klingons who accused the admiral of disrespect, with the breaking of their arms. Janeway suggested she spend some time with her parents at the reunion on Earth.

Commander Chakotay and Seven of Nine are revealed to have started dating. Though Seven is at first wary of the relationship, and more so after Janeway tells her of her own death, Chakotay persuades her that he wants to be with her, even if it's uncertain how long they will be together; however, Janeway's older self suggests that Seven and Chakotay will eventually be married. In the alternate future, Seven died on the trip home and it is implied that Chakotay couldn't handle the trauma and died on Earth the year Voyager got back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Tuvok is suffering from a degenerative brain disease that will slowly destroy his logic, yet does not tell the Captain as the only cure is a mind-meld with a family member—logically, he does not want to distract the Captain. In Admiral Janeway’s future, the disease has progressed too far to be cured and he is in a mental institution.

The Doctor’s “name” saga is finally concluded in the first few minutes of the show, where a future Doctor is seen confessing that he has finally decided to call himself Joe, taking thirty-three years to come up with that name, after his new wife’s grandfather. He even plans to have kids. This revelation takes place in an alternate future, one in which the Voyager crew does not ultimately end up.

Neelix makes a brief appearance on the communications screen talking to Seven of Nine. Two episodes earlier he had left to join a Talaxian colony. He has plans to marry Dexa, a Talaxian woman he first met at the colony and quickly fell in love with. His first appearance in the show was also on a viewscreen.

Harry Kim is the captain of the U.S.S. Rhode Island. He goes to stop Admiral Janeway from going back in time, but he ultimately decides to help his old friend in her cause. In the present timeline, young Harry Kim is anxious to pursue what is inside the nebula. An amused Janeway tells him "you may be the captain some day, but not today." In another timeline, it was Harry in the Voyager episode "Timeless" who was determined to rewrite the past and prevent a disaster.

In the last few scenes of this episode, seven classes of Starfleet ships are seen: Defiant, Galaxy, Excelsior, Nebula, Prometheus, Akira and Intrepid (Voyager itself).

The shooting adventure game Elite Force II uses an 'unseen' part of the series finale as a plot device. In the first level of the game, Voyager's Hazard Team is assigned to beam aboard the Borg Sphere which has trapped Voyager inside during the trans-warp pursuit, in order to disable the dampening field which, it is claimed at the start of the level, is keeping Voyager captive. The level overall represents the length of 'real time' that Voyager is trapped within the sphere before it ultimately blasts its way out. The level's end is ultimately followed by a cutscene imitating the very end of the 'Endgame' episode, using the game engine's CGI, before it cuts as a segue into the office of a Starfleet administrator on Earth, where the game then continues. The game's plot also states that Tuvok is temporarily assigned as Tactical Officer and Second Officer of the Enterprise E, following Voyager's return to Earth and William Riker's re-assignment to the starship Titan

Key moments in Star Trek Voyager (2)

Pathfinder; (Star Trek Voyager Episode no. 128) is the episode where Star Fleet makes contact with Voyager (for the second time following the Doctor's visit to the Promethius nearly two years earlier)... More tear jerking stuff from UPN...




"Pathfinder" is the 10th episode of the 6th season of Star Trek: Voyager. It has an average fan rating of 4.1/5 on the official Star Trek website as of September, 2009 and features the characters Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

On Earth, Reginald Barclay is involved in the Pathfinder project, an effort to communicate with the USS Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Barclay soon becomes obsessed. He loses himself in the reality of the holographic Voyager created for the project, enjoying the false friendships within.

He seeks help from old friend and shipmate Counselor Deanna Troi who advises him to forge real relationships and stop straying into the holo-program he has created of the Voyager ship and crew. When Admiral Paris visits the project to inspect progress, Barclay ignores orders from Commander Harkins, the project leader, not to bother the Admiral with his unfeasible suggestions. Barclay puts forward his theory that using an advanced sensor array, and computing Voyagers progress from their last contact, they would be able to create a micro wormhole in the Delta Quadrant near Voyager and use it to create a two way communication link. Admiral Paris is intrigued by this and promises to give it further study which Barclay is highly excited by, but at a later meeting with Admiral Paris, Barclay oversteps the line and is removed from the project for insubordination.

Later that night, he breaks back in to the pathfinder project to prove his theory is correct. He hacks into the system and sends commands to the array which, as he predicted, creates the wormhole in the Delta Quadrant. As he attempts to contact Voyager using the array, Starfleet detects and sends security personnel to stop him. Barclay locks out the system and takes refuge in the holodeck simulation of Voyager where he continues to direct the wormhole to locate Voyager. The security officers led by Commander Harkins follow Barclay into the simulation where the faux Voyager crew rebels, even firing on the security officers. Of course, this does nothing as the security protocols are on. The holo-Torres is destroyed by a pursuing Commander Harkins, who shuts down the primary cooling systems on the holographic Voyager which will cause the warp core to overheat and breach, effectively destroying the entire program unless Barclay complies and releases command back to him.

As a dejected Barclay is led out, Admiral Paris enters the lab and announces them that Barclay's idea has real promise and should be explored further. As he is informed that the attempt has already been made and was unsuccessful, Admiral Paris expresses regret at Barclays choice to disregard protocol.

Meanwhile, the real Voyager far in the Delta Quadrant detects the micro-wormhole and a communication signal which Seven of Nine disbelievingly identifies as Federation in origin on a Starfleet Emergency Channel . The crew attempts to clear up the signal while back on Earth, the jubilant officers and Barclay assist. For a few seconds the team on Earth clear up the return signal, two-way communication is established for 86 seconds before the micro-wormhole collapses. A few words are exchanged and data from Voyager's logs, crew reports, and navigational records are transmitted to Earth. Barclay sends "data on some new hyper-subspace technology" in hopes Voyager's crew will eventually use it to stay in regular contact as well as recommended modifications to the com system. In the final seconds, the crew hear some moving words from Admiral Paris ending with, "I want you all to know we're doing everything we can to bring you home."

To celebrate the knowledge that home is looking for them and regular communication will be possible in due time, the crew of Voyager hold a party in honor of Barclay. They discuss what little they know of him through his personnel record and declare he is an honorary Voyager crewmember.

Key moments in Star Trek Voyager (1)

Message in a Bottle (Star Trek: Voyager Episode no. 82). The clip is of the final sequence when The Doctor returns to the Delta quadrant via The Hirogen sensor network array.

Tear jerking stuff from UPN...

"Message in a Bottle" is a popular episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the fourteenth episode of the fourth season. The episode has an average rating of 4.6/5 on the official Star Trek website (as of May 11, 2007)

After successfully extending the range of Voyager`s sensors, Seven of Nine locates a network of alien sensor stations. Patching into this, she is able to locate a Federation vessel on the far reaches of the Alpha Quadrant, the USS Prometheus. Voyager's crew attempts to send a message along the relay, but it is reflected back to them after degrading en route. Theorizing that a holographic signal would be stronger, and not degrade so quickly, they send The Doctor as a datastream.

Upon arrival, The Doctor discovers that the Prometheus is an experimental warship developed in secret by the Federation, however the Romulans have learned of its existence and captured the vessel. Being pursued by the USS Bonchune, the Romulans initiate the first test of the new multi-vector assault mode, in which Prometheus splits into three separate pieces to engage hostile ships.

Seeking assistance, The Doctor activates the ship's own EMH, a Mark II of the program. The second EMH cites protocol for an EMH to deactivate when its vessel was taken over, but Voyager's doctor notes that as both ships were at stake, they do not have that luxury.

Using the pretense of an infection on board, the Doctor goes to the bridge in an effort to open the atmospheric filters to flood the ship with anesthetizing gas and knock the Romulans unconscious. The ruse fails, but when he is captured and interrogated, The Doctor keeps the Romulans stalled long enough for the EMH Mark II to fool the ship's computer into opening the filters, permitting the distribution of the gas.

Unfortunately, by the time they take control, Prometheus has reached the designated rendezvous point, and three D'deridex-class warbirds are ready to take delivery. Unfamiliar with the helm and weapons systems, the two EMH programs unsuccessfully attempt to fool the Romulans into leaving, before three more Starfleet vessels arrive to retake their ship. In the ensuing battle, all six other vessels target Prometheus. EMH Mark II stumbles upon the command to put the ship into multi-vector assault mode. The strength of the Prometheus is quickly demonstrated when it easily overpowers and destroys one of the Romulan warbirds. With that loss, the Romulans retreat, and a Starfleet security detail transports over to the Prometheus.

Meanwhile, the Hirogen, owners of the sensor array, have contacted Voyager, and demand they log off the relay. Seven of Nine zaps the threatening Hirogen officer with a feedback loop, and the Voyager crew await a response from the Alpha Quadrant. After the battle with the Romulans, the Doctor gets through and materializes in sickbay. He has good news: he has updated Starfleet on Voyager's situation. This is the first time Starfleet has heard from the vessel since it disappeared four years ago. Voyager was removed from the Starfleet list of destroyed ships (having been listed for fourteen months), and a message sent back: "You're no longer alone". Starfleet will be trying their best to return Voyager home, as well as tell their families that the crew is alive.

• The Dominion War is briefly mentioned when the EMH Mark II mentions to the Doctor that "the Romulans haven't gotten involved in their fight with the Dominion." Three months later, in "[[In the Pale Moonlight]], the Romulans would become involved and oppose the Dominion.
• The Crew of Voyager makes contact with home for the first time since they were lost in the Delta Quadrant in the first episode of the series.
• This episode also marks the halfway point in the series.