Future's End (episode)

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"Future's End"
VOY, Episode 3x08
Production number: 40840-150
First aired: 6 November 1996
←  49th of 168 produced in VOY  →
←  49th of 168 released in VOY  →
←  436th of 911 released in all  →

After encountering a Federation timeship from the future, Voyager is flung back to 20th century Earth.

Summary

Teaser

File:HenryStarling1967.jpg

Henry Starling

Earth, High Sierras, 1967. A young hippie with a tattoo is camping in the mountains. In the sky, he spots a strange phenomenon: a starship seems to be crashing to earth.

Act One

USS Voyager encounters an artificially generated graviton disruption, from which the 29th century timeship Aeon emerges, firing on Voyager. The pilot of the timeship, Captain Braxton, claims that Voyager will be responsible for a temporal explosion in the 29th century that will destroy the entire solar system. Captain Kathryn Janeway responds with force to calm Braxton and eventually Voyager overpowers the timeship, causing Braxton to lose control of it. The graviton field begins to collapse and both ships are pulled in. Voyager finds itself in orbit around Earth, but in the 20th century, 1996.

Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay, Lieutenant Tuvok, and Lt. Tom Paris transport to the surface, where they have detected some unusual readings near Los Angeles, leaving Ensign Harry Kim in command. The subspace readings they are picking up are quite unusual since Subspace technology should not exist for close to 100 years; they may come from Captain Braxton, the only person who could send Voyager back to his time.

Act Two

An astronomer named Rain Robinson has been hired by a business man, Henry Starling, to watch for a certain kind of radiation (gamma radiation from Voyager's nacelles). She reports her findings to Starling, who turns out to be the man with the tattoo who saw the starship crash in 1967, but is told not to reveal her discovery to anyone else until they have more data. However, she ignores his instructions and Voyager receives a standard SETI greeting from Rain's Observatory. Kim gives an order not to respond. Meanwhile, Janeway sends Tuvok and Tom Paris to find whatever information has been gathered about Voyager and destroy it.

Following the subspace readings, Janeway and Chakotay find a homeless man, who turns out to be Braxton. He explains that he was trapped on Earth 30 years ago, when his timeship crashed in the mountains. He was unable to reach the ship in time and instead it was found by Henry Starling, who began exploiting its 29th-century technology, beginning the microcomputer revolution of the 20th century on Earth. Braxton believes it's too late and that "the future's end" is inevitable. He explains the paradox he believes will occur.

Braxton explains that he now knows Voyager did not cause the explosion in the 29th century, but Henry Starling will use Braxton's stolen ship to fly into the future without recalibrating the temporal matrix then that could cause the kind of explosion he witnessed in the 29th century. Braxton has been tracking Starling, but can't get close to him. He appears somewhat deranged, but makes his point.

Chakotay and Janeway offer to help him but he says they are part of the problem; Voyager will also be destroyed by the explosion, hence why he found part of the ship's hull.

The police arrive to arrest Braxton for posting "End is Near" posters. He continues to say he came from the future, and tells the police office Chakotay and Janeway followed him in a starship. Janeway shrugs as the officer takes Braxton away, and he calls her a traitor. Janeway and Chakotay decide to try to reach Starling themselves.

Act Three

Starling is in his office, complaining to his assistant because Rain has contacted other astronomers and now several people know about the orbiting gamma source. He says she is a security risk, and they may have to use "the weapon."

Meanwhile, Tuvok and Tom Paris steal a car and head to the lab that detected them. They began examining her data. Tuvok complains because Paris is not replacing things exactly as he found them. Rain catches them in her office, and at first Tuvok and Paris claim to be lost museum visitors. Tom then begins discussing astrophysics (and B movies) with Rain, until Tuvok calks him away. After they leave, Rain discovers her data has been corrupted (because Tuvok wiped the hard drive). She runs outside and begins arguing with them. All three are then forced to flee in Rain's VW bus when Starling's assistant, H. Dunbar, attempts to vaporize them because Rain told one of her friends about her discovery.

On board Voyager, Kes and Neelix are monitoring human communications for mention of Voyager, and get swept up in a televised soap opera. Harry says it just seems flat compared to being in the story in a holo novel, but Neelix and Kes continue to watch. Several ship's systems are not working well, including communications and the transporter.

Janeway and Chakotay break into Starling's office, and Janeway notices he seems to have a "massive ego." They begin downloading his database, hoping to find where the timeship is being kept.

Paris tells Rain he and Tuvok are secret agents, but she doesn't believe him. Tuvok says her life may be in danger. Paris claims the orbiting signal is from a KGB satellite, but Rain reminds him the Soviet Union broke up 5 years earlier. He says, "That's what they want you to think." Tuvok says they can't tell her anything else, it's classified. She says she still doesn't believe him, and asks about his ears, which he claims are a "family trait." Tuvok keeps trying to reach Voyager without success.

Chakotay and Janeway continue to study Starling's computer, and realize that much of their own history is based on the technology he released in the late 20th century. They try searching for information on the timeship's location. They discover a file called "Timeship Security Portal." There is a flash from the window next to them, and they walk over to look down into a large room where the Timeship is stored.

Just then Starling and his assistant walk in. The assistant aims a gun at them. Starling says he knows they are from the future and that they are there to take the Timeship. Janeway and Chakotay tell him that if he launches the Timeship he will cause an explosion that will destroy the solar system.

Janeway's communicator beeps. Harry Kim says they have an uplink established and Janeway tells him to start. Starling grabs the communicator and orders Kim to abort the download or he will kill the Captain. Kim knows the captain is in trouble. After discussion with Torres about how the transporters were damaged by the rift, he orders the ship into low orbit for emergency transport. The danger of this is that someone may see them, but he feels they have to risk it to rescue the Away Team.

Back in the office, Starling says Janeway won't be able to stop him. Janeway says she has a starship in orbit that can vaporize the entire building. Starling says they'll die, too, and Janeway replies, "If necessary" just as she and Chakotay start to dematerialize. Starling orders his assistant to shoot, but it's too late.

Back on the bridge, Janeway gives orders to try to remove the force field around the Timeship and transport it onboard as well. She tells Kim he has done well while in command. Starling sees the forcefield is down, then blocks their attempts and uses his stolen 29th century technology to use their transporter to download over 20% of Voyager's database, including The Doctor, who appears in Starling's office. Voyager suffers minor damage in the attempt.

Starling contacts Janeway, reading off some basics about Voyager, and realizing he has more advanced technology than they do.

Unfortunately, the worst damage is soon realized as Neelix alerts the bridge to a news broadcast coming from the surface. Watching on the main viewscreen, Janeway is deeply troubled to learn that someone in Los Angeles has videotaped Voyager flying through the sky, potentially altering history.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Log Entries

• Operations Officer's log, supplemental. We've been on full sensor alert, looking for signs that anyone else has detected Voyager. As a precaution, I've also asked Neelix and Kes to monitor all media broadcasts.

Memorable Quotes

"Far out."

- Henry Starling, after the Aeon crashes in the High Sierras

"We could've worn our Starfleet uniforms. I doubt if anyone would've noticed."

- Tuvok on the fashions worn by the late 20th-century inhabitants of Los Angeles.

"My mission is your destruction. You must not resist!"

- Braxton, to the crew of Voyager

"For all l know, she could be my great, great, great... great grandmother."
"She does have your legs."

- Janeway and Chakotay

"No, no, no! No more questions! No, no more surveys! Damn social workers coming around all the time!"

- Braxton, homeless in 1996

"Shall I respond, sir?"
"Absolutely not."

- Marie Kaplan and Harry Kim after Rain Robinson sends an extraterrestrial greeting to Voyager

"Come on, take off your shirt."
"And risk dermal dysplasia? No, thank you."
"Aww, Vulcans. Deep down you're all a bunch of hypochondriacs."

- Paris and Tuvok, discussing the California sunshine

"It's crap. The component density is too low, the voltage variance is out of spec, and I don't even like the color!"

- Henry Starling, appraising a new chip designed by his company

"At first I thought it was a warp core implosion...But, then, someone here stole my time ship...then it started to dawn on me. If someone were to fly my timeship into the future, without re-calibrating the temporal matrix, that could cause the kind of explosion that I witnessed in the 29th century!"

- Captain Braxton, explaining the temporal explosion to Captain Janeway and Chakotay

"You stay right where you are...you quasi-Cardassian totalitarian!"

- Captain Braxton, insulting a police officer

"Your curves don't look so great."

- Tom Paris, on Rain Robinson's Fourier analysis

"I can't wait to see if Blaine's twin brother is the father of Jessica's baby."

- Neelix, on a soap opera he's watching

"Who are you, and what's that thing in your pants?"
"I beg your pardon?"

- Rain Robinson and Tuvok, referring to a tricorder Rain saw Tuvok hide in his pants.

"Nobody will know the difference!"
"I'll know, Sharon! He's my brother! How can I face him, knowing that our son...is his son?"
"All you need to know, Jack, is that I love you."

- Excerpt from Neelix and Kes' soap operas.

"What does it mean, "groovy"?"

- Tuvok, to Tom Paris

"Time travel. Ever since my first day in the job as a Starfleet Captain I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these god-forsaken paradoxes. The future is the past, the past is the future. It all gives me a headache."

- Janeway to Chakotay at Starling's computer.

"I've got a starship in orbit that can vaporize this building in the blink of an eye."
[Chortles] "And you along with it!"
"If necessary."
"Captain . . . you've got some cojones."

- Janeway and Starling

"Ensign Kim, you have an impeccable sense of timing. Not bad for your first day in the Big Chair."

- Janeway to Kim after he rescues Janeway and Chakotay from where they are being held hostage

"USS Voyager, Intrepid Class, much bigger than I expected and much less advanced. Says here your ship was launched in the year...2371? You're from the 24th century? And here all this time I thought you were from the 29th. Looks like I have the home field advantage."

- Henry Starling to Captain Janeway

Background Information

Story and Script

• This episode begins the second two-parter in Star Trek: Voyager's run, after "Basics, Part I" and "Basics, Part II", the two-parter that bridges the series' second and third seasons.
• This two-parter was originally slated for the cliffhanger, but it was saved for the third season. ^{(citation needed • edit)}
• Despite being credited solely to Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky, this episode's two-parter, according to Braga, also involved the input of other writers from Voyager's writing staff. "It was really a group effort," Braga explained. "It was me and Rick [Berman] and Joe Menosky and the group of writers we had there, at that time. We all had a lot of things we wanted to do." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• Brannon Braga was intent on using this episode's two-parter to set a trend. He recalled, "One of the things I knew I wanted to do was... I got this crazy idea in my head that we would do, we would make it a tradition to do great, epic two-part episodes." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Braga also stated, "Voyager started its turnaround for us, personally and creatively, when we did the very first two-parter because we said to ourselves let's start having fun. What's fun to write is fun to watch and we've been toiling with the Maquis storyline and we've been having these angst-ridden characters deal with being lost and it's not much fun to write anymore and we felt that it couldn't possibly be all that fun to watch. Let's let it all hang out and do something insane... What seemed more insane back then – but if you hear about it now it sounds ridiculously antiquated – Voyager in 1996! And we conceived of big action sequences and big concepts with an epic villain [....] Things that we never would have thought of even attempting on The Next Generation or in the early days of Voyager. It's crazy, but we did it and we pulled it off." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) Braga also remarked, "It was a romp. It was intended to be [....] The fun of the episode is seeing the Voyager people in a society we all recognize as 1996. We wanted to see our folks walking along Venice Beach. We wanted to see our folks getting into trouble with contemporary people." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, pp. 109 & 110)
• Executive producer Jeri Taylor noted the complexity of the episode's two-parter: "It was very high-concept." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 84)
• The final draft of this episode's script was submitted on 5 August 1996. [1]

Cast and Characters

• Brannon Braga was ultimately very proud of the creation of the Henry Starling character. "Henry Starling was our first great Voyager villain," Braga declared. "It sounds like a pat on the back, but I think we created great single individual villains and that was the first one, played by Ed Begley Jr.." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion)
• In fact, Ed Begley, Jr. was one of Hollywood's most notable environmental activists. Executive producer Rick Berman remarked, "Who better to play a man willing to destroy the environment of the solar system than the most committed conservationist in Hollywood?" (Star Trek Monthly issue 22) Begley was also a Star Trek fan. Regarding the "Future's End" duology, he himself enthused, "They were really perfect episodes for me to do." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11) He also noted, "It was about time that I finally did one of the Star Trek shows." (Star Trek Monthly issue 26, p. 60)
• Ed Begley held the episode's plot in high esteem, being particularly fond of Starling's role in the installment's two-parter. "I thought the script was a lot of fun and very inventive," he enthused. "I loved that it suggested that Starling caused the whole late 20th Century computer boom by cannibalizing the equipment from a starship. I loved that it's Starling who created this whole time warp thing that could cost billions of people their lives. I loved the idea that the USS Voyager crew had to come to the 20th Century to try and stop [him]." (Star Trek Monthly issue 26, p. 60) In addition, Begley said of the episode's duology, "They were examples of the kinds of stories that Star Trek has done so well over the years, in films and on the TV series, in which they present the moral dilemma of how an action committed today can have profound implications on the future." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11)
• Ed Begley reveled in his malevolent role, particularly the fact that the character of Starling was totally unlike his own personality. "Most people probably figured I'd play a good guy if I ever did a Star Trek episode," he reckoned. "I liked the idea that I was playing someone completely unlike me, who does things I could never live with were I to do them myself. I was obviously quite pleased that the Star Trek producers were willing to cast me as Starling, because he is, I guess, completely opposite to me." (Star Trek Monthly issue 26, p. 60) Of his role, Begley also commented, "What was interesting to me was that I got to play the villain. I loved that. I loved that it was my character's actions which force the Voyager people to deal with the impact on the future, that it was my character's actions which force the audience watching the show to think about how what happens now can have tremendous cause-and-effect implications on the future; our own, very real future. I loved that in the beginning I was this hippy and later, I'm this slick guy." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11)
• Years previous to appearing here, Begley had twice acted alongside Chakotay actor Robert Beltran – namely, in the movies Eating Raoul and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills.
• On the other hand, Ed Begley was initially unfamiliar with Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew. "I didn't know Kate Mulgrew before doing the shows," he noted. (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11)
• Joe Menosky once described the character of Rain Robinson as "this late 20th century alterna-chick." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 109)
• The opportunity to perform material that was unusual for her drew comedienne Sarah Silverman to accept the role of Rain Robinson. "I'm a stand-up comic too," she remarked, "so I am always sent situation comedies. I saw so much more potential for real humor in this Star Trek, [and the opportunity] to act a little bit more in the realm of reality than in a sitcom [...] I'm unhappy with almost one hundred percent of all sitcoms that are on. I'm just not interested in them [...] but to be able to do a show which is an hour long that takes itself seriously enough that I can look at this character realistically, was just exciting. This was a person that you could go in a few different directions with, instead of like on a sitcom where the roles are so familiar already." (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 61)
• After she was cast as Rain Robinson, Sarah Silverman found that she could relate to the character's unfamiliarity with the Voyager personnel. "I was on the outside looking in as Sarah Silverman on the show, so it was kind of pure and neat to be a character in the show that was also on the outside looking in," Silverman reminisced. "There was a reality to it for me because I played somebody who didn't know these people and didn't know their lifestyle, and I was that in real life too." (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 61)
• The precision expected of her dialogue, in this episode's two-parter, took Sarah Silverman aback, somewhat. "I remember I wanted to change one word in the line," she recalled, "and they got the cell phone out. They called the producers. They called the writers. It was wild." (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, pp. 61-62)
• Although she shared no scenes with Kate Mulgrew, Sarah Silverman was admittedly a fan of hers. "We would work 16-hour days, and they'd say, 'Okay, you can leave,' and I would stay to watch her," Silverman commented. "They'd say, 'How can you not go home?' but I feel like you have to take opportunities to see people when their work is really good. She's really an excellent, professional actor." (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 62)
• Tuvok actor Tim Russ thoroughly enjoyed this episode for its plot. "It was a great story," he raved. (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) He also commented, "Those two shows are one of my favorites because the concept, again, the story's great. Time travel's always fun." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)

Robert Duncan McNeill and Tim Russ with director David Livingston

• Paris actor Robert Duncan McNeill enjoyed appearing alongside Tim Russ in this episode's two-parter (as well as the later third season outing "Worst Case Scenario"). "He and I sort of have this odd-couple relationship that [...] surfaced in the two-parter last year," McNeill stated, during Voyager's fourth season. "We have a comic side that comes out of both of us when we share the screen, so those episodes were a lot of fun." (Star Trek Monthly issue 37, p. 44)
• Despite only featuring in a single scene of this episode, Robert Picardo later stated, "I had a great deal to do in the Venice Beach shows." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #10)

Production

• Filming for this two-part episode included five days of location shoots around Los Angeles, the Griffith Observatory exteriors being filmed on 14 August 1996. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143) Another location used was the Santa Monica Pier, near Venice Beach. (Star Trek: Voyager Companion)
• Partly due to this episode's location work, the episode was a favorite among the cast and crew, especially with Tim Russ. He related, "What's even more fun [than the two-parter's storyline] is to be able to go to the beach and work. I enjoy doing that. I mean, I kind of miss it because the shows I worked on prior to that, we were always on location. So, we were always at different places all the time, which gives you, you know, you don't get tired of it. There's something that's always a new challenge, a new space to work in. We had a dozen locations, and we could play in those environments in a different period in time. It was fun, it was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed that tremendously." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Russ also reminisced, "I'd have to say that 'Future's End' was the most fun episode to shoot. Those were two great weeks. We were outside the studio. We were in the city. We were running around all over the place, different locations and that's just a blast because shooting inside gets to be kind of boring sometimes [....] It was just a lot of fun to shoot that episode." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) In addition, Russ related that the fun he took from this episode was "because we were on location in the city of Los Angeles with beautiful weather." (Delta Quadrant, p. 148)
• Other elements of the production that Tim Russ enjoyed were the departure from his usual clothes and make-up that the two-parter's plot allowed him. "I was able to wear casual clothes," he recalled. "And, because I wore a cap, I didn't have to put the ears on. Which took less time in the make-up chair in the morning." (Delta Quadrant, p. 148)
• According to the unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 150), the set of Starling's office – in this episode and the next – included light fittings that were reused after having appeared in Lidell Ren's Banean home in the first season Voyager installment "Ex Post Facto". While identical-shaped light fittings appear in both productions, they seem to be additionally covered by a metallic-looking framework in this episode's two-parter.
• The black-and-white photo of Nixon and Starling shaking hands is actually a retouched one of Elvis Presley and Nixon from 21 December 1970. (The original version of the image can be found here.)

Effects

• Those who went on location around Los Angeles included members of Voyager's visual effects team, who were tasked with capturing shots of such sights as the exterior of Chronowerx headquarters and the timeship bay that is, according to the story, inside that building. Visual effects supervisor Ronald B. Moore recalled, "We went out and shot [background] plates. I enjoyed doing this [...] because I was able to bring out my old 4" × 5" camera from school and shoot a lot of stills on big 4" × 5" negative. Then we could go in and manipulate the buildings. We did the Transit Building, downtown L.A. It became the [Chronowerx] building [...] We looked all over. [The story includes] a place where we were up in Starling's office and he looks down, and you can see the timeship inside. We tried to get into TRW, which we thought was cool because they shot some of the original series there. I thought it would be fun to go back down, but we couldn't find a place that we liked that they would let us shoot in. So, we finally found a [laboratory] down in Long Beach [or Seal Beach] where we went in, and it was just this real high-tech.... Outdated for that, I guess, but we had lots of wires and pipes and big tanks and stuff. And Dan [Curry] and I went out with still cameras and shot all of this, and then we took it back and then added CG ships, and what-have-you, to that." (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features; Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 98) Moore elaborated, "[With] CGI we added the timeship, and the stands that it's sitting on, and the hoses it's connected to." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 98)
• According to the unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 148), the timeship Aeon was constructed around a shuttlecraft studio model and a life-size prop.
• CGI Effects Director Ron Thornton extremely enjoyed the creation of shots involving Voyager's interactions with a contemporary Earth in this episode's two-parter, such as the newsreel footage at the end of this installment. "We were able to do Voyager flying over Los Angeles, and that was great fun," Thornton enthused, "doing some nice hand-held shots that were supposedly shot with a video camera of this UFO, which was really Voyager flying over LA." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #16)
• Ed Begley, Jr. was impressed by the effects of this episode's two-parter. "I got a kick out of the special effects," he raved. "For a TV show, they really pour it on. They certainly have the best computer graphics on TV. It's film-quality stuff." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #11)

Continuity and Trivia

• This episode marks the first mention of a future Starfleet that monitors and repairs the timeline. In this case, it is the 29th century Starfleet using a timeship. As is established in TNG: "A Matter of Time", timeships exist as part of Starfleet beginning in the 26th century if not sooner. However, all mentions prior to this episode pertain only to Federation historians using the ships to study the past. The earlier-produced DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" establishes that, as of at least 2373, a unit known as the Department of Temporal Investigations exists as part of the United Federation of Planets, for purposes of investigating and reporting on all incidents of time travel involving Federation citizens. This department may very well have been the precursor, in Star Trek's chronology, to the 29th century Starfleet depicted in this episode.
• The cockpit of the Aeon was later reused as the cockpit of an Entharan starship in "Retrospect" and as Kes's starship in "Fury".
• This episode is one of three Star Trek productions that involve a crew traveling back in time to a strictly contemporary setting, with the other two such productions being TOS: "Assignment: Earth" and the Star Trek film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The episodes TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and ENT: "Carpenter Street" both feature an almost-contemporary setting, with the former involving scenes set in 1969 (although it was first aired in 1967) and the latter being mostly set in 2004 (despite the episode originally airing in 2003). Regarding this episode, Jeri Taylor stated (shortly prior to the installment's original airing), "That will be the first time we've done a contemporary location." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #10) It would not, however, be the last; other than the second half of this episode's two-parter, a subsequent Voyager episode to involve a near-contemporary setting is "11:59" (which is partly set in 2000 but first aired in 1999).
• In this episode, Voyager's crew discovers that they are in the past because they cannot pick up Starfleet signals, but are receiving radio transmissions. The same occurrence helps Captain Kirk and his crew determine that they are in the past in the episode TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday".
• Although this two-part story is mostly set in 1996, there is no allusion made to the Eugenics Wars which, according to both TOS: "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, took place at this time. Prior to this episode's first airing, Jeri Taylor told a convention audience, "I think that those of us who entered into the Nineties realize the Eugenics Wars simply aren't happening and we [the writers] chose not to falsify our present, which is a very weird thing to do to be true to it." (Star Trek Monthly issue 22) Furthermore, in an audio commentary for Star Trek: First Contact, Brannon Braga states that it was decided not to have the Eugenics Wars in this episode because "it would just be kind of strange." This decision was also made, however, because Voyager's writing staff didn't want to bog the "Future's End" two-parter down by having to explain the Eugenics Wars to the majority of the audience (who, according to the series' research, were irregular viewers of Voyager and not hard-core fans of the series). The DS9 episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" (produced soon after this one) mentions the wars as having taken place in the 22nd century and not the 20th century, which may account for the wars' exclusion from this episode's two-parter (although writer Ronald D. Moore himself admitted that the DS9 episode's dating of the wars was merely an error on his part–recalling the already iffy "two centuries" quote from "Space Seed" and then forgetting that the DS9 episode took place 106 years later, despite Joe Menosky suspecting differently). (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 110) The novel series Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars later sought to retcon them as a secret history in which various Augments, largely fighting amongst one another, were responsible for numerous real-life calamities from the early 1990s, making seemingly isolated events all part of one wider conflict; ironically, Los Angeles, the city whose untouched-by-war appearance brought their existence into question, is actually portrayed as an EW "battlefront", its 1992 race riots being one such incident.
• Despite no explicit allusion to the Eugenics Wars here, Rain Robinson has a toy model of the SS Botany Bay near her window and a photograph – stuck to a filing cabinet in her office – that depicts the same sleeper ship's launch; the Botany Bay is established, in "Space Seed" and Star Trek II, as having been launched very soon after the Eugenics Wars. Robinson also has, on her desk, a Talosian action figure, which was released as part of the Star Trek 30th anniversary line-up from Playmates Toys.
• There's a very subtle gag in this episode involving the communicators. Right after Starling receives the "Greeting from Earth" message from Rain Robinson, he proceeds to contact the away team on the surface. As the captain's communicator beeps, all of the native Angelenos walking past the away team immediately reach for their cellphones to answer them.
• Although this episode contains no direct references to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (which is set only ten years prior to it), Tuvok's question to Tom Paris as they exit the observatory, "What does it mean, 'groovy'?", is very similar to a question that Spock asks James T. Kirk after they are ejected from a bus in that film: "What does it mean, 'exact change'?"
• Janeway refers to late 1990s computer technology as "stone knives and bearskins". In TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever", Spock makes the same analogy when referring to the technology of the 1930s.
• Chronowerx Industries' name is misspelled as "Chronowerks" on a wall in the laboratory where the timeship Aeon is kept.
• Captain Janeway's original hair bun hairdo makes its last regular appearance in this episode. However, it was seen again in four subsequent episodes with scenes set either in a holodeck simulation or in 2371 as a result of time travel: "Worst Case Scenario", "Relativity", "Fury", and "Shattered".
• Janeway's new regular hairdo, a hair-clipped ponytail, makes its first appearance here. This hairdo remains for a year, until the Season 4 episode "Scientific Method". For the remainder of the third season, Janeway wears a different style, shape, and color of hair-clip. In the fourth season, she alternates between previously-seen hair-clips, until the appearance of her short loose hairstyle in the "Year of Hell" two-parter until the Season 7 episode, "Endgame".

Reception

• Shortly before this episode's first airing, Jeri Taylor said of the episode's duology, "We're all very excited about it, it's gotten a lot of good 'buzz', and we think it will be a great two-parter." (Star Trek Monthly issue 20) She particularly liked the present-day setting that the members of Voyager's crew find themselves in, noting, "I like the idea of our people landing in Venice Beach and seeing what is truly an alien culture." Taylor also cited this particular episode as one of several that she collectively referred to as "some very fun adventures in our November sweeps period" (another such installment being "The Q and the Grey"), noting that they were airing due to her conviction that Voyager's crew members, in the third season of Voyager, should have more fun than they had had in the previous two seasons. (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #10)
• This episode's duology was the first of several two-parters that were produced to air during the all-important sweeps period, soon to become an annual event on Star Trek: Voyager, and eventually led to two-hour movie nights in future seasons of the series. (Star Trek: Voyager Companion, p. 121)
• This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 5.6 million homes, and a 9% share. [2]
• After but in the same week as the episode's initial broadcast, Jeri Taylor commented that the installment "did spectacularly well." She also related that the success of the character dynamic between Tuvok and Paris here did not go unnoticed and that their relationship would continue to progress along those lines in subsequent episodes. (Star Trek Monthly issue 23)
• This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series.
• Cinefantastique rated this episode 3 and a half out of 4 stars. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 95)
• Star Trek Monthly scored this episode 5 out of 5 stars, defined as "Gold-pressed latinum!". (Star Trek Monthly issue 25, p. 60) It was the first time that the magazine awarded an episode of Star Trek: Voyager such a high rating.
• The unauthorized reference book ^Quadrant (p. 150) gives this installment a rating of 8 out of 10.

Video and DVD Releases

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.4, 10 March 1997
• In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS release Star Trek: Voyager - Movies: Volume 1 (with "Basics"), 14 August 2000
• As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection

Links and references

Main cast

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway
• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Guest stars

• Sarah Silverman as Rain Robinson
• Allan G. Royal as Braxton

Special guest star

• Ed Begley, Jr. as Henry Starling

Co-stars

• Susan Patterson as Ensign Kaplan
• Barry Wiggins as Policeman
• Christian R. Conrad as Dunbar

Uncredited co-stars

• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Jennifer Somers as a science division officer
• Unknown performers as
  • Dave (voice)
  • Jim
  • Uncle Sam
  • Surfers
  • Female Police Officer in car

Stunt doubles

• Unknown stunt performers as
  • Stunt double for Sarah Silverman
  • Stunt double for Tim Russ

References

action figure; Aeon (Aeon-type); Arizona; astrophysics; "B" movie; B-Movie Poster Art; barbarian; Barstow; Benetton; Blaine; boardwalk; Bride of the Corpse; California; Caltech; car; Cardassian; cellular phone; CEO; champagne; Chateau Coeur; chronometric data; Chronowerx Industries; coffeemaker; computer; deflector pulse; Drake equation; DY-100 class; Earth; Edsel; e-mail; E.T.; Federation; Fourier spectral analysis; force field; gamma emission; gigabyte; globe; goose; graviton matrix; Griffith Observatory; groovy; Halley's Comet; hard drive; headache; Hermosa Earthquake; high school; High Sierras; Hollywood; holodeck; Hot Dog on a Stick; Howdy Doody; HyperPro PC; hypochondria; inertial damper; isograted circuit; JPL; Jack; Jessica; KGB; Lada; laser; lava lamp; Los Angeles; Mars; McCoy; meteorite; moon; Mexican; Milky Way Galaxy; money; motorcycle; Nuptse; Orgy of the Walking Dead; paradox; parking; patriotism; pencil; philanthropist; pinball; pizza; planetarium; polaron; protest; punk; RADAR; radio; red alert; rose; Sangre del Mumiaazteca; Santa Cruz; satellite; Saturn; science fiction; secret agent; SETI; SETI greeting; Sharon; soap opera; soda; Soviet Union; space-time continuum; Spy satellite; Starfleet Academy; stone knives and bearskins; subatomic disruptor; taco; Talosian; tattoo; taxicab; teddy bear; telephone; telescope; temporal matrix; temporal rift; tennis; thermal radiation; theta band filter; transporter; transtator; tricorder; truck; Tuesday; Turn-of-the-Millennium Technology; Twinlab; 247-Baker; UFO; ultraviolet radiation; Uncle Sam's Psychic Readings; United States of America; USSR; Vampire Vixens; volt; Vulcans; weather balloon

Previous episode: "Sacred Ground"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 3

Next episode: "Future's End, Part II"