I've read a lot of complaints about this episode, but I don't agree. The episode and the ending was nothing short of genius. Has this sort of plot ever been used before?
The ending of "Year of Hell"
- Thread starter jmidnight_99
- Start date
People usually complain about the end. That it never really happened. I can't understand why that bothers them but this is their usual complaint. Which is strange because usually the very same people think that this is one of the best episodes of VOY.
Personally, it's just one of the many good episodes on VOY for me. There is one I hate and about five that I'm bored with or don't like that much and I think that more than 160 out of 172 are perfect. Not simply outstanding but perfect. And to ruffle feathers a bit further, yes, this includes THRESHOLD for me. I love that episode.
Personally, it's just one of the many good episodes on VOY for me. There is one I hate and about five that I'm bored with or don't like that much and I think that more than 160 out of 172 are perfect. Not simply outstanding but perfect. And to ruffle feathers a bit further, yes, this includes THRESHOLD for me. I love that episode.
An "it was all a dream" ending feels like a cheat when nothing prepares you for it. An episode that's all about the difference between dreams and realities can be provocative.
Similarly, this episode was all about altered realities, so altering reality at the end felt like a fitting part of the episode's plotting and thematic exploration.
Similarly, this episode was all about altered realities, so altering reality at the end felt like a fitting part of the episode's plotting and thematic exploration.
The whole premise was that the antagonist could wipe out who sections of the timeline-so what's wrong exactly with the it never happened ending. In fact that kind of seems to me at least to be the only appropriate ending.
Once you saw how badly damaged Voyager was you knew there had to be a reset. That never bothered me. A great episode. And the only true use of the reset in the show
I totally agree. I like year of hell, I kind of wish Harry died, but then again, i was secretly glad he didn't.
Well... of course we knew time would reset. I don't think Voyager would have been much fun if that timeline wasn't cleaned up by the end of the episode.
Annorax builds a weapon that erases it's targets from history... as if the targets had never existed. The weapon is used against his people's enemy, but erasing them from history has an unintended consequence; It eliminates the colony where Annorax's wife (and presumably family) lives.
So Annorax spends centuries trying to alter the timeline, performing endless calculations, removing everything from spacial objects to whole species, trying to restore that colony. What Annorax doesn't get... is that if he simply used his weapon against itself, it would be erased from history, and everything it ever erased would be restored. He'd get his colony back.
That's what happened at the end. The weapon erased itself from history. Oh the irony.
I was with you all the way up til 'Well... of course'.
Thank you for your reply.
You thought the timeline should have persisted? Or you don't understand the ending or the irony of the ending?
You've completely lost me.
He doesn't understand you at all.
Oh.
The antagonist builds a weapon that removes it's target from the timeline.
He uses the weapon to remove his people's enemy from the timeline.
After being hit by the weapon, that enemy's entire race has never existed, past, present or future.
The action of removing them from the timeline has an unintended consequence:
The antagonist's people never develop a crucial resistance to a disease, and they contract a plague.
The colony where the antagonist's family (wife only perhaps) live was wiped out by the plague.
The antagonist gets bummed out, and decides to "repair" the timeline by removing other "objects".
He spends centuries making all these calculations, and eliminating objects (and whole species) from the timeline.
Nothing he does restores the timeline *enough* to get his wife back.
So he makes more calculations, and turns the weapon on other species and objects.
*** The irony: the antagonist doesn't realize through all of this that he only needs to turn the weapon on itself, to remove IT from the timeline, so that it never existed in the past, present or future. This act would undo everything the weapon has ever done, none of it ever happened since the weapon never existed.
While the antagonist is off making calculations and removing objects from the timeline, Voyager gets the hell beat out of it.
Then something happens to Voyager that makes it exist outside normal time-space.
They become aware of the changes to the timeline.
Voyager destroys the antagonist's ship. just as he's about to turn the weapon on Voyager.
This causes the weapon to remove itself from the timeline.
The story was told from Voyager's perspective, but that was really a secondary perspective. If Annorax's tired and disgruntled second in command decided to use the weapon to destroy the ship carrying it, the end result would have been the same. Voyager flying through space all restored.. not restored 'cause the damage never happened.
You gave an excellent summary of the episode, I'm not sure now how he could not understand you
I call that cliché and weak. Why would "erasing the timeline" erase Annorax initial need of making time travel calculations. It's almost as if he had benefited from his "previous" experience of something that never happened... As often with Voyager, the less you think about the plot the better of you'll be.
Ahh, I was focusing on the hair of his wife. That to get his wife back that lock of hair had to go. But you make a more compelling point. that to undo it all and not just restore the wife was destroy the weapon ship.
Similar threads
