Story: Year of Hell
Written By: Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Year: 1997
The first part of the long ago hinted at “Year of Hell” is okay, but I feel like it rushes through some of the events. From what I understand Brannon Braga initially wanted this story to last longer, like 4 episodes...but he was denied and given only two slots to tell his story. I can’t believe I’m saying this next sentence but: Braga was right. This is a big bold story to tell, and truncating it to two 45 minute episodes is the wrong call.
Basically we’ve got this group of aliens that once had power, but were eventually overthrown by a nice peaceful race. But the bad guys want their power back, so they change the timeline, eradicating the entire species that overthrew them from the timeline and restoring themselves to power. Voyager is caught in the crossfires and begins what becomes known as the Year of Hell, a time in which the crew of Voyager continuously gets their ass kicked: people get hurt, people die, the ship gets beat to all hell....but good ol’ Janeway is relentless in fighting this much superior race of people in order to get them home. Why wouldn’t they just try to find another way home? I really have no idea why they remain so relentless in trying to cut through this part of space instead of just finding another way around.
Because the writers probably know that none of this is going to last or matter or NOT get reversed...they can do what they want with the crew. They can kill people off, destroy the ship to all hell, blind Tuvok...and none of this is going to last past next week. Lame.
I did enjoy Kurtwood Smith as Annorax, but knowing that everything happening in this episode was bound to be cleaned up by the next episode left me with a cold feeling.
NEXT TIME: Never Happened
Written By: Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Year: 1997
The first part of the long ago hinted at “Year of Hell” is okay, but I feel like it rushes through some of the events. From what I understand Brannon Braga initially wanted this story to last longer, like 4 episodes...but he was denied and given only two slots to tell his story. I can’t believe I’m saying this next sentence but: Braga was right. This is a big bold story to tell, and truncating it to two 45 minute episodes is the wrong call.
Because the writers probably know that none of this is going to last or matter or NOT get reversed...they can do what they want with the crew. They can kill people off, destroy the ship to all hell, blind Tuvok...and none of this is going to last past next week. Lame.
I did enjoy Kurtwood Smith as Annorax, but knowing that everything happening in this episode was bound to be cleaned up by the next episode left me with a cold feeling.
NEXT TIME: Never Happened