Future's End, Parts I & II
Stardate: Unknown / 50312.5
Original Airdates: Nov 6 and 13, 1996
By Chakoteya
The Story
In 1967, a hippie with a tattoo on his left forearm is listening
to the radio at his campfire when he witnesses something come
crashing to Earth in a ball of flame.
In the Delta Quadrant four hundred years hence, Captain Janeway
has decided to take up tennis again after 19 years. Her competitive
streak can’t bear the fact that she was beaten in straight
sets in the holodeck novice tournament. Tuvok presents his monthly
security evaluation report when Chakotay calls red alert and they
go to the bridge. An artificial spatial rift has opened in front
of Voyager, and a small ship emerges. It is giving off a Federation
subspace signature so Janeway decides to hail it, but the only
response is a weapons blast that wipes out their shields. Helm
is down so they return fire with no effect. Voyager is about to
come apart when Chakotay orders a high energy polaron pulse to
be sent out through the deflector. The little ship’s weapon
is disabled and they are hailed. Captain Braxton of the Timeship
Aeon tells Janeway that he has to destroy Voyager because debris
from their hull was discovered after a disaster in the twenty-ninth
century annihilated Earth’s solar system. However, Chakotay’s
countermeasures cause his timeship serious problems, destabilising
the rift. The Aeon is dragged back into in, and Voyager cannot
help but follow.
After a bumpy ride, the crew pick themselves up to see Earth
on the viewscreen. There are no Starfleet communications, however,
but a cacophony of EM transmissions. Kim’s astrometric readings
say they’ve gone back to 1996. They take steps to avoid
surveillance satellites and radar then hunt for the timeship.
Tuvok tracks it to Los Angeles so Janeway assembles her away team
and hands Voyager over to the care of Ensign Kim.
Suitable attired, Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris and Janeway gaze in
awe at the bizarre sights of the people on what I am reliably
informed is Venice Beach, Santa Monica. They are within 100 metres
of the timeship according to the tricorder. They split into two
parties to search more carefully. Although Chakotay has some idea
of where his ancestors are in this time, Kathryn has no idea.
However she does know that all this area fell into the sea after
the Hermosa Earthquake of 2047. Down on the beach the tricorder
readings are weaker, so Tuvok and Paris head back for the boardwalk.
Meanwhile, Kathryn discovers that the signal they are following
is actually coming from an old tramp.
Whilst the Captain and First Office track the down-and-out to
his lair, up at Griffith Observatory, a SETI monitoring station
picks up what it has been programmed to look for. The astronomer
monitoring the equipment quickly picks up the phone to the lab’s
sponsor. The CEO of a major computer company is chewing out his
chip supplier for coming up with an Edsel for their new range
when the call is put through. Rain Robinson introduces herself
then breaks the big news of the gamma emission in the frequency
profile he supplied to the lab. It has been in orbit right above
them for about 90 minutes. He forbids her to tell anyone else
or send a message up, just to keep monitoring. When he takes off
his jacket to pour himself a glass of water, we see the tattoo
on his left forearm. Henry Starling, CEO of Chronowerx, is the
hippy from the Sierra mountains.
Rain cannot resist the opportunity of a lifetime and despite
orders to the contrary, send up the standard SETI ‘Greetings
from Earth’ to the visitors parked over North America. Torres
is at the Ops station checking out Voyager’s systems. They
have no weapons, and now only short range – ten kilometres
maximum – transporters. Over at Tuvok’s tactical station,
young Ensign Kaplan picks up Rain’s transmission and puts
in on the viewscreen. Should she respond, she asks? Absolutely
not! says Acting Captain Kim.
The now stranded away team are tracking the tramp to his lair
when Kim reports in about the ship’s status and the message.
Janeway orders Kim to give Paris and Tuvok the co-ordinates of
the message’s point of origin and sends them on their way
by whatever means they can manage. She and Chakotay trail the
tramp back to his lair, a graffiti strewn alley with a wrecked
car in it. After an initial waving of arms and protestations,
the bearded old man suddenly stops and says Voyager! This is Captain
Braxton, thirty years older and blaming Janeway for his current
predicament. Their deflector pulse upset his navigation system
as well as his weapon, and it was sheer chance that they arrived
at different times. Over the years he has had plenty of time to
work out the original sequence of events. From the original explosion
in the twenty-ninth century, to his encounter with Voyager that
sent him and his ship back to 1967, where it was stolen by Henry
Starling, to eventually be launched with incorrect settings that
will cause an explosion in the twenty-ninth century. He has recorded
the chronometric data from his sensors on a piece of brown paper
which he hands over to them. Braxton’s view of the disaster
is that it is a done deal, an inevitable outcome of events already
in motion. Chakotay disagrees. He feels that knowing what is to
come means it can be changed. Their conversation is curtailed
by the police stopping by to tell the ‘Captain’ off
for putting up end of the world notices again. Janeway refuses
to back up his story about being from the future, and Braxton
runs off, chased by the officer.
Over at Chronowerx, Starling is fending off enquiries from CalTech
about Rain’s discovery, claiming they are not at the Little
Green Men stage yet. He decides that she is a security risk, and
sends Dunbar off to get the data and dispose of the astronomer,
telling him to take the Weapon with him just in case Someone is
already here.
Tuvok and Paris arrive at Griffith Observatory in a vehicle they
are ‘taking for a test drive’. Rain is out of her
laboratory for the moment as they conduct a very untidy search,
with Paris handling her Godzilla paperweight and scattering papers.
Tuvok tells him off for sloppy procedure then Rain returns with
a pizza. The two pretend to be lost, so she gives them clear concise
directions back to the lobby. Paris refuses to budge, calling
the lab ‘groovy’ then commenting on her curves –
the curves of her Fourier analysis to be precise. Then he begins
waxing lyrical over the old B-movie horror posters on the wall.
During the distraction, Tuvok has been working with his tricorder.
Just as she was getting to like Tom, he leaves, so Rain returns
to her computer to discover that her machine has been corrupted.
She chases them outside to demand to know what is going on, when
Dunbar turns up and takes pot-shots at them with his version of
a phaser. Tom and Tuvok’s transportation is vaporised in
front of her eyes so, after Tuvok has shot Dunbar’s weapon
out of his hand, they take her VW Camper van and make their escape.
‘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.’
In the mess hall, a large monitor unit is showing clips from
6 shows at a time, according to a search parameter. Whilst doing
this, Neelix and Kes have become hooked on a soap opera. Kim leaves
them to get on with it.
That night, Chakotay and Janeway break into Starling’s
office, and discover a forcefield with no obvious control panel.
Kathryn begins tapping at his computer to see if she can find
a way in. The tricorder gets her past the password lock and into
an impressive database. Isograted computer technology began to
appear in 1969 because of the presence of the timeship. She contacts
Kim and gets him to lock into her tricorder. From there they can
upload the entire contents for further study. Then they stumble
on the timeship data, and unlock the forcefield to view the Aeon
in it’s hanger right there next to the office. Meanwhile,
Tuvok has discovered that the future phaser has wrecked their
comm. badges, and they have no way of contacting their ‘friends’.
Rain wants to go home, but Tom persuades her that it is too dangerous.
He also tries to convince her that they are secret agents, but
his references to the KGB and other out of date language fail
to convince her of that story.
Kim works on making the link to begin grabbing data just as Starling
comes in with Dunbar and catches Janeway and Chakotay. He knows
that they are there to take the timeship, but doesn’t believe
their story about the impending disaster. Then Janeway’s
comm. badge chirps, she gives the order to begin uploading, and
Starling realises what is happening. He grabs her badge and tells
Kim to stop or he will kill her. The ensign complies, then decides
that in order to rescue his Captain he will have to break one
of her orders. They break orbit, swooping low over Los Angeles
as Starling checks his computer to see what data has been taken.
Then the two captives are beamed away. On the bridge Janeway orders
them to try to get the timeship too. However, Starling uses the
transporter to grab Voyager’s database instead. They have
to give up when the engines begin to be affected. Starling hails
them and begins gloating over the twenty percent of the information
he has managed to get, including the fact that they are only from
the twenty-fourth century, and something else that attracts his
attention. Janeway cuts him off in mid flow. Damage reports are
no too serious, until Kes calls from sickbay to inform the Captain
that the EMH programme is gone. Then Neelix tells of a news broadcast
currently on the air. Kim transfers it to the main screen where
the crew watch in horror as Voyager is clearly seen in amateur
footage as it flew over the city.
To Be Continued
Next morning, Rain’s camper is parked up by the fountains
in Metro Plaza while Tom tries to turn her car radio into a starfleet
specification transceiver. He fails with a phut and a wisp of
smoke while she puts two and two together and comes up with the
right answers. Tuvok returns with chilli burrito, hotdogs, and
other stuff suitable for an afternoon at Dodger Station. They
realise that the radio telescope at the Observatory would make
a good communications device, and head back there after breakfast.
The remains of the senior staff are discussing their status.
Torres can replace most of the missing programmes, but not the
EMH. Kim has been examining Braxton’s brown paper and agrees
with his hypothesis about the disaster. Neelix has continued monitoring
broadcasts and has determined that despite denials, the US military
is indeed taking the UFO sighting very seriously. Tuvok calls
from the Observatory to report on their situation and tell his
Captain about Rain. As she and Tom appear to be bonding on a cross-cultural
level, he believes that she would be willing to help them in their
mission.
Henry Starling has holo-emitters in his office. He uses them
for virtual testing of new designs, usually, but now he is using
them to talk to the EMH and try to find out Voyager’s plans
for getting the timeship, and Captain Janeway’s psychological
profile. ‘I’m a Doctor, not a database’, responds
the EMH, claiming that he cannot be coerced. Then he falls to
the floor, experiencing pain for the first time. A simple reconfiguring
of the tactile response sensors was all it took to get the holograms
undivided attention. Starling is interrupted in this interrogation
by a telephone call from Rain. She claims that she wants him,
personally, to come and protect her from the people who are looking
for her. He agrees, although she notes that he sounded a little
suspicious. Then he tells the EMH that he is going on a journey
with him. The Doctor disagrees, pointing out that he can only
go where there is a holographic emitter. Later, the EMH steps
out of Starling’s limousine at Metro Plaza, sporting a new
gadget on his left sleeve.
Part two of Janeway’s plan is also underway. Torres and
Chakotay are flying a shuttle which has had it’s shields
reconfigured to look like a small plane. He uses the journey to
reminisce about his Academy days, learning to fly in various environments,
and what he might do if they had to stay here for the rest of
their lives. He considers becoming an archaeologist, making a
big discovery in Central America and winning a Nobel prize. Then
they begin their final descent. Tom calls them to inform them
that Starling has arrived with the EMH. Tuvok send the co-ordinates
of Rain’s van. They will be able to beam their target onto
the shuttle once he is inside it. Rain goes to meet Starling and
he informs her that they will take his car instead. There is a
hurried recalculation of co-ordinates as they all get in, and
Torres begins the transport in front of Rain’s horrified
eyes. She runs, while the EMH punches Dunbar and makes his own
getaway, meeting up with Paris and Tuvok by the camper van. Starling,
however, has activated some sort of device and is wreaking havoc
with the shuttle’s systems. Janeway orders Starling to be
taken directly from the pattern buffers onto Voyager, and deactivates
his blocking signal. Henry collapses after such a long time in
mid-transport.
The shuttle crashes somewhere in Arizona, and it’s occupants
are found by ‘survivalists’ who tie them up and put
them in a cellar. The uniforms and the USS on their prototype
ship convince them that Chakotay and Torres must be from the Federal
Government, and one sits guard while the other rounds up the rest
of the gang. Janeway calls Tuvok to tell them to go and find their
missing crew. He and the EMH will undertake that mission while
Rain and Tom drive back to Chronowerx to get the timeship.
Janeway talks to Starling in sickbay, and learns a few harsh
truths about twentieth century attitudes towards business. He
doesn’t care about the future, all he cares about is getting
more future technology to keep his business moving forward. Starling
is the father of the computer revolution and he intends to keep
that position. If she tries to teleport the ship again, it will
explode, taking the city with it. Naturally, Janeway cannot agree
with his point of view.
As Chakotay tries to persuade his captors that violence is not
the answer, the Feds are sighted approaching the building. They
take up their positions for a fight. Meanwhile, Dunbar is using
the timeship computer to activate SATCOM47 and search for his
employer. It finds him and returns him to his office, just as
Tuvok informs the Captain that he has arrived in Arizona. He stuns
the Feds and the survivalists then the EMH enters the cellar.
Shotgun blasts pass through him before he stuns the remaining
man and frees Chakotay and Torres.
Rain and Tom get to Chronowerx as a truck comes out, leaving
a trail of tachyon emissions. They follow it out of the city onto
a desert road, heading towards a small airfield. Rain points out
to Janeway that it is going to be very obvious to the truck driver
that he is being followed. Sure enough, they are shot at, so Tom
tells her to drive up close then shoots out a rear tyre. The truck
goes careering out of sight, and the van slides to a halt and
the engine stalls. Then the truck reappears over the brow of the
hill. Tom and Rain leap for their lives just as the shuttle swoops
down and blasts it into a ball of flame. Then Torres makes the
discovery that it was just a ruse. Chakotay calls Voyager to warn
them that Starling is going to launch from a different site.
Starling is starting his launch sequence inside the Chronowerx
building and blasts out in a shower of glass and steel. Voyager
tracks him into the upper atmosphere while Janeway tries to work
out how to stop the ship. She decides that it will have to be
a manual torpedo launch, and leaves the bridge in the competent
hands of Ensign Kim yet again. Paris and Rain make a tender farewell
before he is beamed onto the shuttle, and the away teams rendezvous
with Voyager. Once safely back, Kim hands command over to Chakotay
and they chase Aeon at warp while Kaplan escorts the EMH to torpedo
tube one, where his services may shortly be needed by the Captain.
A temporal rift starts to open, so Chakotay hails Starling to
try and reason with him once again. He does not believe in fate,
or that events are inevitable, unlike Tuvok. Starling however
believes that Voyager does not have any weapons. Chakotay gives
the order to fire, and a photon heads towards the Aeon, destroying
it.
Singed but otherwise well, Janeway returns to the bridge to see
the rift reopen and a young Captain Braxton hailing them. The
timeline has been changed with the destruction of Starling’s
ship, he has no knowledge of an explosion in the twenty-ninth
century, and he has come to take them back to where they were.
Faced with the choice of being stranded in their past or in their
present, Janeway chooses the twenty-fourth century, and follows
him ‘home’.
Captain's log, stardate 50312.5. We are again in the Delta Quadrant,
at the exact time and place we first encountered the timeship.
I've resumed a course for Earth and I've ordered the crew to the
Mess Hall for a toast.
The toast is ‘to the future’, then the group breaks
up for smaller conversations. The EMH plans to spend more time
out of sickbay, and Kes is confident that she can cope with the
extra responsibility. Janeway isn’t too sure about his request
for quarters of his own, and Torres points out that she doesn’t
completely understand the technology of the autonomous emitter.
However, moving his programme back and forth between it and Voyager’s
main computer doesn’t seem to be a problem. Tom regales
Chakotay and Neelix with the tale of Tuvok trying to use logic
to dissuade a parking attendant from giving Rain’s van a
ticket. Of course it failed. Tuvok reposts with a comment about
Tom’s alleged knowledge of the twentieth century, and the
party continues with laughter.
Review
When Trek decides to play in the twentieth century, you can be
pretty sure you are in for a fun ride. Future’s End is no
exception. There are visual and audio gags for the well informed
as well as a well put together script with enough twists and turns
to stop it dragging. Rain’s toys in her lab, Tuvok’s
bandana, Janeway’s comments about stone knives and bearskins
are all there for the aficionado to raise a smile in memory of
Original missions, particularly City on the Edge of Forever. Of
course, this ‘history’ is not our real one. Once the
Aeon exploded, it had never been on Earth to start the computer
revolution early, with different technology (I wonder what isograted
circuits are, and if they are much better than integrated ones),
so Chronowerx never existed. Purists might wonder whatever happened
to the Eugenics Wars which should also have been about this time,
with 1996 being the launch date of the Botany Bay with Khan Noonien
Singh on board. Who cares? What was a great premise for Space
Seed (and Wrath of Khan) back in the 60’s was always going
to be bizarre by the time the actual year arrived. Does anyone
complain about the world of 1984 not matching the book? No. We’re
just very grateful that the prophecy of doom didn’t happen,
and accept it as the work of great fiction that it really is.
Despite the ‘reset button’ nature of the tale, this
is not a story without consequences. The EMH is now in possession
of twenty-ninth century technology which gives him scope for more
away missions and opportunities to be sarcastic to people in locations
without holo-emitters. Of course, we could also get more ‘malfunction’
stories too. I wonder what the Temporal Integrity Commission will
make of this violation of the Temporal Prime Directive? Will they
try to get the emitter back? Somehow I doubt it. So sit back and
enjoy Tom Paris making silly mistakes about his famed knowledge
of the twentieth century, Tuvok behaving like a real ‘freakasaurus’,
the EMH being acerbic in the fresh air for a change, Torres trying
to bite a man’s finger off, and Chakotay giving the order
to fire that could have resulted in him being Captain of Voyager
and Janeway burnt toast on the torpedo bay floor.
Grade: 9/10
Cast:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Roxanne Biggs-Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
Jennifer Lien as Kes
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips as Neelix
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Tim Russ as Tuvok
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim
Guest Cast:
Sarah Silverman as Rain Robinson
Allan Royal as Captain Braxton
Ed Begley Jr. as Henry Starling
Clayton Murray as Porter
Brent Hinkley as Butch
Creative Staff:
Part One:
Director: David Livingston
Written By: Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Part two:
Director: Cliff Bole
Written By: Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
