Future's End (episode)

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"Future's End"
VOY, Episode 3x08 Production number: 150 First aired: 6 November 1996
←	49th of 168 produced in VOY	→
←	49th of 168 released in VOY	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered
←	436th of 726 released in all	→

Written By Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed By David Livingston
50132.5 (2373/1996)
	Arc: Future's End (1 of 2)	→
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After encountering a Federation timeship from the future, Voyager is flung back to Earth... and into the 20th century.

1 Summary
2 Memorable Quotes
3 Background Information
- 3.1 Awards
- 3.2 Video and DVD releases
4 Links and References

[edit] Summary

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 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. Captain Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Tom Paris transport to the surface, where they have detected some unusual readings near Los Angeles, leaving Harry Kim in charge.

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.

A young woman named Rain Robinson has been hired by Starling to watch for a certain kind of radiation (gamma radiation from Voyager's nacelles, though she didn't know it). She reports her findings to Starling, but is not to reveal her discovery to anyone else. When she found the radiation, Voyager received a standard greeting from Rain's Observatory. In response, Tuvok and Tom Paris were sent to find whatever information she had gathered and destroy it. Rain caught them, but all three were then forced to flee the observatory when Starling's assistant, Dunbar, attempted to vaporize them, because Rain did end up telling one of her friends about her discovery.

Janeway and Chakotay continue to follow the homeless man, who turns out to be Captain Braxton, who 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.

Janeway and Chakotay break into Starling's office and begin downloading his database, hoping to find where the timeship is being kept, just as Starling walks in. He threatens them and orders Ensign Harry Kim to abort the download. Kim knows the Captain is in trouble, but as transporters were damaged by the rift, he orders the ship into low orbit for emergency transport, rescuing Janeway and Chakotay. As Voyager flies by, they attempt to transport the timeship out as well, but Starling blocks their attempts, and uses their transporter to download over 20% of Voyager's Database, including The Doctor, who appears in Starling's office.

Unfortunately, Voyager is spotted by someone videotaping a backyard barbecue, and the footage is seen by television viewers across the U.S.

TO BE CONTINUED…

[edit] Memorable Quotes

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

- Tuvok

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

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

"Your curves don't look so great."

- Tom Paris, on Rain Robinson's Fourier analysis

"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'll 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!"

- Sharon and Jack, on the soap opera

"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.

"Stop, or I'll kill your captain." "Who is this?" "You've got five seconds!"

- Henry Starling, threatening Harry Kim

"They are trying to teleport the ship!"

- Henry Starling

[edit] Background Information

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. Timeships exist as part of Starfleet beginning in the 26th century if not sooner, (TNG: "A Matter of Time"), but all previous mentions only concerned Federation historians using the ships to study the past. In addition, as of at least 2373, a unit known as the Department of Temporal Investigations existed as part of the United Federation of Planets for purposes of investigating and reporting on all incidents of time travel involving Federation citizens, (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations") and may very well have been the precursor to the 29th century-Starfleet depicted in this episode.
There's a very subtle gag in this episode involving the Communicators. Right after Harry 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. This was probably a nod to the similarity of modern cellphone design and technology to the "futuristic" flip-top Communicators from the Original Series.
Janeway states in this episode that she "doesn't know what [her] relatives were doing this far back in history [1996]" but in the episode "11:59" she appeared to have extensive knowledge of a relative of hers living in the year 2000. Since "11:59" takes place over two years later, it is possible that Janeway's experiences in this episode encouraged her to find out more about her ancestors. Then again, the statement is technically correct; it is possible that Shannon O'Donnell, Janeway's ancestor in "11:59", was the only one of her relatives at the time to make any sort of lasting contribution to history, which would make researching anyone else but O'Donnell during that time very difficult.
Rain Robinson has a Talosian action figure on her desk which was released as part of the Star Trek 30th anniversary line-up from Playmates.
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.
Although this two-part story is set in 1996, there is no allusion made to the Eugenics Wars which had already been established as taking place at this time (TOS: "Space Seed"; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). Whether this is a deliberate retcon or an error on the part of the production staff is unclear. However the DS9 episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" produced soon after this one, mentions the wars as taking place in the 22nd century and not the 20th century which might account for this (although writer Ronald D. Moore himself admitted this was an error on his part). Other non-canon suggestions for this discrepancy are that the wars had already finished before 1996 or did not affect Los Angeles, where this episode is set, being mainly confined to the Eastern hemisphere. It has also been suggested that the Eugenics Wars were conducted in secret so the general public did not know of them until later. Yet another explanation could be that the arrival of Braxton and his ship may have altered the timeline such that the Eugenics wars either never happened, were delayed, or were far less catastrophic than in the original timeline. However, during Rain Robinson's initial phone conversation with Henry Starling, a large model of a DY-100 type sleeper ship, similar to the SS Botany Bay which carried Khan Noonien Singh and his followers after defeat in the Eugenics Wars, can be seen. This suggests an awareness of the established timeline.
When Rain Robinson calls Henry Starling to tell him about the object she finds in orbit, Starling tells her not to be premature, but have a bottle of champagne ready. He is probably referring to a tendency for SETI scientists to always have a champagne bottle in the refrigerator - waiting for the day when alien signals are detected.
When Voyager first arrives in the 20th century and picks up Earth's narrow band EM signals, a variety of audio clips can be heard - including one at the end that sounds distinctly like Captain Picard giving an order to Commander Riker.
This episode has the only mention of the word teleport anywhere in the Star Trek franchise, when Starling exclaims, "They are trying to teleport the ship!"
In this episode, Voyager discovers that they are in the past because they cannot pick up Starfleet signals, but can pick up radio transmissions. The same occurance helped Kirk and co. determine that they were in the past in the episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday".
The cockpit of the Aeon would later be reused as the cockpit of Kovin's starship in "Retrospect" and as Kes's starship in "Fury".

[edit] Awards

This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series.

[edit] 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.