| "Future's End" | |||
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| Star Trek: Voyager episodes | |||
| Episodenos. | Season 3 Episodes 8 & 9 | ||
| Directed by |
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| Written by | |||
| Featured music | Jay Chattaway | ||
| Cinematography by | Marvin V. Rush | ||
| Production codes | 150 & 151 | ||
| Original air dates |
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| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| Star Trek: Voyagerseason 3 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Future's End" is a two-part episode from thethird season of the Americanscience fiction television seriesStar Trek: Voyager, the eighth and ninth of the season and the 50th and 51st overall. "Future's End" made its debut on American television in November 1996 on theUPN network in two separate broadcasts, on November 6 and 13, 1996.
Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of theFederation starshipVoyager during its journey home to Earth, having been stranded tens of thousands oflight-years away. In this episode,Voyager is thrown back to Earth in 1996 and must find a way back to the 24th century while making sure they do not cause a disaster in the 29th century in the process.
Part one was directed by David Livingston and part two by Cliff Bole, with a story by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky. Guest stars includeSarah Silverman andEd Begley Jr.
A small ship with aFederation signature emerges from a temporal rift in front of the starshipVoyager. Its pilot identifies himself asCaptain Braxton (Allan Royal) from the 29th century in the timeshipAeon. He has come to destroyVoyager, believing it to be the cause of a temporal explosion that will wipe out most of the Solar System in his time.Voyager fights off Braxton's attack, resulting in Braxton being sent back through the rift.Voyager and its crew are also pulled into the rift and find themselves on Earth in 1996.
Braxton crashes in 1967, where Henry Starling (Ed Begley Jr.) findsAeon and copies its technology, allowing him to found a company, Chronowerx Industries, and start the micro-computer revolution. In 1996, a young astronomer named Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman) who works at theGriffith Observatory in Los Angeles detectsVoyager in high orbit and assumes it to beextraterrestrial life. Her work is funded by Starling, but against his instructions, she attempts to contactVoyager by transmitting a greeting to it, alarming the crew.[1] TheVoyager crew tracks her location to the Observatory and Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay,Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ), andLt. Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), decide to beam down to Los Angeles. Tuvok and Paris save Robinson from a hitman Starling dispatched to kill her.
Janeway and Chakotay investigate Starling and his business. They identify a homeless man as Captain Braxton, who explains the rise of Starling to them.[1] Ultimately, they learn that Starling's planned attempt to travel to the 29th century using Braxton's timeship will be the true cause for the temporal explosion, because Starling lacks the knowledge needed to properly calibrate the timeship.
Janeway and Chakotay secretly enter Starling's Chronowerx office where they find theAeon, just as Starling walks in on them. Starling ignores Janeway's warning not to use the timeship and tries to kill them, but the officers are beamed aboardVoyager.[1] WhenVoyager tries to beam up the timeship, Starling uses his own transporter beam to accessVoyager's computer and study its systems, including stealing the Doctor's program fromSickbay.[1] Worse still,Voyager has been sighted and filmed, since the ship had to descend low into Earth's atmosphere to beam Janeway and Chakotay aboard.
Following Starling's computer attack,Voyager is badly damaged, leaving Paris and Tuvok stranded on Earth with Robinson. Paris convinces her to help by claiming that he and Tuvok are government agents trying to recover highly advanced technology that was stolen by Starling. Robinson, prompted by Paris and Tuvok, arranges to meet Starling at a public park. To keep an eye on the Doctor, Starling equips the Doctor with a piece of 29th-century technology, a "Mobile Holo-Emitter", which allows him to move around without having to rely on fixed emitters.
During the meeting, Chakotay and Torres take a shuttle into Earth's lower atmosphere, planning to abduct Starling and beam him aboardVoyager. Unfortunately, damage taken during the transport forces Chakotay and Torres to crash in the Arizona desert, where they are captured by isolationists. Tuvok and the Doctor, splitting up from Paris and Robinson, are able to rescue them and begin repairs on the shuttle.
Held prisoner onVoyager, Starling admits to Janeway that he intends to travel into the future to steal more advanced technology because he has reached the limit of what he can create by studying theAeon.[2] Janeway informs him of Captain Braxton's warning about the disaster he will cause, but Starling is too egotistical to believe he can fail. Just when Janeway believes that she has ended Starling's plans, one of his henchmen transports him back to his office. Paris and Robinson arrive there to discover a large truck, which they believe contains the timeship. They pursue the vehicle out of the city, aided by the arrival of the repaired shuttle. Too late, the truck is found to be a decoy, and Starling launches theAeon, still at the Chronowerx building.[2]
After a last attempt to dissuade Starling, Janeway manually fires a photon torpedo into the Aeon, destroying it and saving the future. A few moments later, an alternative Captain Braxton arrives in another timeshipAeon, explaining that having detected the anomaly of their presence in the past, he has come to return them to their own time at the place they left it. Sadly, he is unwilling to bring them to their Earth, as that would violate theTemporal Prime Directive.Voyager returns to the exact moment they first encountered theAeon. The Doctor gains more freedom as he keeps the Mobile Holo-Emitter.
The episode usedSanta Monica Pier as a shooting location for the boardwalk scene.[3] Other production locations in the region include theGriffith Observatory, Jerry Moss Plaza outside The Music Center in downtown Los Angeles, andPalisades Cliffside Park.[4]
Guest stars includeSarah Silverman as Rain Robinson,Allan G. Royal as Braxton, andEd Begley Jr. as Starling.[5]
The Hollywood Reporter ranked "Future's End" (Part I & II) as the 60th greatestStar Trek overall franchise episodes.[6] They noted the episode(s) had "plenty of charm" and praised the comedy by the Paris and Tuvok characters.[6]io9 ranked "Future's End" as the 93rd best episode of theStar Trek franchise in their list of the top 100Star Trek episodes.[7]Fatherly ranked this episode as one of the top 10 episodes of the overallStar Trek franchise for kids to watch.[8]ScreenRant ranked "Future's End" as the 7th best time-travel themed episode of the overallStar Trek franchise, and praised the storyline and its consequences.[9]
SyFy ranked the "Future's End" pair as one of the top ten episodes ofStar Trek: Voyager.[10]The Dispatch, noted "Future's End" as the best episode yet, noting that it had "much excitement and crackling dialogue."[11] AStar Trek: Voyagerbinge-watching guide byWired suggested this episode could not be skipped.[12]Tor.com included this as one of six episodes ofStar Trek: Voyager that are worth re-watching,[13] noting it was a fun time travel romp with brilliant guest casting.[5]
Regarding actress-comedian Sarah Silverman,Den of Geek said that she was the tenth best guest star onStar Trek: Voyager for her role as Rain Robinson, a 20th century astronomer who encounters the crew ofVoyager.[14]Star Trek writer Bryan Fuller said Silverman was considered as a cast regular starting with Season 3 ofStar Trek: Voyager.[15] The filming locations in southern California have also been noted, includingSanta Monica Pier,Griffith Observatory, downtown Los Angeles, andPalisades Cliffside Park, etc.[4]The Digital Fix said the episode was a "loving homage" toStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and Silverman was a "great guest star" and overall felt it was fun romp in the 1990s.[16]Variety also noted Silverman for guest starring.[17]
TheComic Book Resources site listed the futuristic but tiny Aeon, as one of the most powerful ships in the entireStar Trek franchise.[18]
"Future's End" was released onLaserDisc in Japan on June 25, 1999, as part of the3rd season vol.1 set.[19]
"Future's End" was released onDVD on July 6, 2004, as part ofStar Trek Voyager: Complete Third Season, withDolby 5.1 surround audio.[20][21] The season 3 DVD was released in the UK on September 6, 2004.[22]
In 2017, the completeStar Trek: Voyager television series was released in a DVDbox set, which included "Future's End" as part of the season 3 discs.[23]
