The Voyager crew are home after 16 years of effort. However, an older and wiser Admiral Janeway believes she can return her crew home earlier and sets out to travel back in time and assist them. However, their route home lies in the heart of Borg territory.

It's time for the last episode of Voyager, and for me it couldn't come soon enough. That said, I was prepared for a really dreadful and obvious time travel story with a rather half-hearted Borg encounter to liven it up. Now, the story has its problems, sure, not least of which is the fact that once again there's an almighty time paradox at the heart of it. The rest of its problems, however, seem to be concentrated in the first half of the story. The Borg Queen is superfluous, merely standing about and watching Voyager as it travels happily throughout the galaxy. When it gets too near her territory, Janeway decides to avoid a possible route home to make sure her ship isn't taken apart by the Borg. Good plan, and although it's odd coming from Janeway, who's been more than keen to take a crack at the Borg over the years, it's the sensible option.

The problem with the first half is that not a lot happens because of this. Janeway carries on, everyone's safe. So far, so dull. The future elements are pointless on two levels: firstly we want the action to kick in and secondly we all know it'll be a future that never happens, so trying to make us care about the characters is a waste of time. The old age make-up is pretty poor as well, not to mention the fact that only one person is acting 'old' and that's Dwight Schultz as Barclay. Everyone else in the cast is playing their character as if they're the same age but wearing make-up. I mean, yes they are, but they're not meant to be showing it. While the Doctor tells Janeway she's in perfect condition, it's hard to believe that a woman of her years can still run and jump with the best of them.

It's difficult to get past the feeling of familiarity as well, with some aspects coming dangerously close to All Good Things... in the way two crew members act on previously unrevealed feelings for each other, one of them is dead in the future, and one of the crew is believed to be mad. There are also echoes of Voyager's own Timeless in the way a captain seeks to stop someone going back in time.

With all this, it's something of a relief when old Janeway turns up and we can get on with things. It does give the episode a much-needed shove in the right direction, even if it leaves you wondering why this couldn't have been a two-part story.

Alice Krige is wonderfully malevolent once again as the Borg Queen, and she turns in some great scenes opposite Seven and Janeway, returning to her seductive self. Her confrontation with older Janeway brings a fine performance from them both and demonstrates that the captain has a few tricks still up her sleeve when it comes to dealing with the Borg.

The crux of the episode, however, is that to get home the Voyager crew must negotiate a Borg hub, packed with transwarp corridors that they use to infiltrate all corners of the universe. Naturally Janeway won't go home unless she can destroy the Borg's stranglehold on the universe once and for all, and although some of us are crying out for her to just go through, you know she won't.

The plan is a simple but effective one, and provides the special effects people with the chance to do some impressive work realizing the Borg hub and Voyager's armoured version that enables it to get past the assimilators. There's plenty of action, some neatly crafted elements that play to the audience's expectations of getting the crew home (when they prepare to turn back the disappointment is profound), a truly appalling speech delivered by Garrett Wang (the poor lad) and a great finish, ending the Borg arc and delivering the crew to the Alpha Quadrant in suitably dramatic fashion. While some may feel the ending is rather sudden, I think just seeing them back home is enough and to coda it with unnecessary returns to Starfleet and loads of nonsense about what the crew did afterwards is missing the point. They're back and everything's alright again.

Goodbye Voyager; it's been a bumpy ride, but you've finished in style (just!).

****

Would you like to go to the Voyager Season Seven guide, head back to the main TV reviews page, read older reviews in the Reviews Archive or return to the front page?