Voyager - Endgame thoughts

The first half of Endgame is really good, it seems like it's going to do something interesting by externalizing the inner battle Janeway has periodically been having with herself for 7 seasons -- arguing with her future self about her guilt over the Caretaker's Array and other sacrifices she's demanded of the crew and the desire to "correct" her past mistakes. It could've been a debate over how many times she's planning to redo all this until she gets it right, and what right she has to use this opportunity for Voyager's crew in the future, most of whom value the experience despite the long and rough ride. They could've contrasted future Janeway with the Caretaker, Annorax, even Harry Kim from Timeless in exploring who gets to reroll the dice and whose lives they get to erase and what's worth such a drastic interference (again: Voyager *got home*). But then present Janeway goes "it would be good if we just did whatever we wanted and it all worked out" and future Janeway says "yes I agree" and that's that.

I think it would've been more interesting to not be able to do a Death Star run on the Borg and make it instantly home, but be able to use some of the future knowledge to get home in like 5 years, shown over an extended sequence where most of the crew makes it back. It would resonate with the many times they've seemed to find a miracle and it doesn't work out like they hope, but they're able to learn from it and make meaningful jumps in progress - this would just be the last and biggest one of those.

And then maybe show them actually on Earth for a while! DS9's finale was smart to end the war in the first half and deal with the many series-long repercussions (even if the Sisko/Dukat confrontation is peak "oh shit I forgot to finish my essay that's due tomorrow"). They give Harry Kim a speech almost to-camera about how it's the journey, not the destination, but the whole second half of the episode is them skipping both, denying the characters any emotional catharsis beyond everyone looking at a viewscreen.

Some version of this could've worked, if it had been layered in by episodes throughout the season (which was muddled and mostly could've been any other season of Voyager), or really explored some of the lingering themes of the show. Even the Chakotay/Seven stuff could've worked if they'd had more than a few scenes together before the finale. I didn't completely hate it, but it's a huge missed opportunity. I felt like the writing during Season 4-5 had the best overall grasp on the characters and they would've known how to stick the landing.

The Tom and B'Elanna stuff was good though - one thing Season 7 got right is finally figuring out how to write good episodes about their relationship. Drive, Lineage, Workforce, even the scenes with them in the otherwise awful Prophecy were fun.