The solution is obviously to travel back in time in order to pitch this idea to the Star Trek creators.

While I love the ending to "Pale Blue Dot," I probably couldn't resist one additional scene. Janeway beams out and we see the camera slowly moving through the dark, empty corridors of Voyager. We see a slow pan around the deserted bridge, and then we hear a voice say "Computer, cancel self-destruct." The lights come up, and we see the Doctor standing on the bridge. "I should have known they'd forget I had a second program core on the ship." The Doctor sighs. "Computer, activate the Emergency Command Hologram. We have a long voyage home." Que the extended Voyager theme and scenes of Voyager sailing past several new planets. After the theme is over, we see a battered but still intact U.S.S. Voyager, slowly pass by the Voyager one probe, and the camera turns to show the Starship Voyager slowly approaching the pale blue dot in the distance.

Me: *scoff* who does he think he is. Rewriting the most rewatched Star Trek episode (according to Netflix) Me: *watches video* Someone find this man a space time anomaly so he can fix Voyager's ending with the Pale Blue Dot.

I love how it shows Barkley's development of truly conquering his fear of transporters by taking one of the riskiest transporter rides ever.

"One to beam home" Wow Really touching. Lot of love in that draft by a guy who says he doesn't like Voyager.

with the "Pale Blue Dot" idea, i feel like you could mention that the probe was called Voyager

The primary problem I feel Endgame had was giving us the payoff at the beginning instead of the end. We definitely needed the Voyager docking and crew disembarking scene (especially the reuniting Paris') rather than showing all the good stuff before the episode proper begins.

I would love to see both of these episodes, "Endgame 2.0" and "Pale Blue Dot" For the ending of "Pale Blue Dot", an addition, after Janeway beams home, rather than a fade to black imediately, perhaps some shots of the empty Voyager bridge, hallways, engineering, mess room, etc, and finally a visual of the countdown click over to Zero, then black, no explosion, no shots of destruction.

First of all: Consider my mind blown. I was hoping for an answer in the comments - maybe *MAYBE* being mentioned in the next commentary video - but this?! Thank you so much. I really liked your ideas and I enjoyed hearing them. As you said, the moment you described your episodes I had ideas as well. I would have included a bit of politics as drama in "Endgame 2.0". Maybe an old Cardassian Gul or Romulan Senator who disagrees with the plan and tries to stop it because it would destroy almost all of their resources. And I love the melancholy and sadness at the end of "Pale Blue Dot" (great title!). "Sad is happy for deep people."

One thing that's lovely about "Pale Blue Dot": it makes the show the story of Voyager, the ship, from its maiden voyage to its end. It is, indeed, Star Trek: Voyager. (Plus, I love that the probe that took the "pale blue dot" photo is... Voyager. It's a lovely touch.)

*laughing* That's silly! It hasn't been 18 years since... *looks at calendar* Oh god... oh god no.... *cries* But joking aside, that'a a DAMN GOOD episode pitch!!

"One to beam home" I'll admit it. That sent a little shiver down my spine. Very poignant.

Still mystified as to why Admiral Paris keeps a photo of Nick Locarno on his desk but not his own son.

You got me at “Pale Blue Dot”. Brilliant title on so many levels. Now for the rest of the video 😁

Worse ending: Janeway wakes up at Starfleet Command in a cold sweat, "Wow! What a crazy dream!"

I think your 'Pale Blue Dot' finale would have made for an incredible ending - I think I might have shed a tear at the end there. There's something about the crew leaving behind a ship that has been their home for 7 years that's quite poignant. Brings to mind also the end of Stargate Universe's final episode, where we see the ship powering down as it prepares to leave the galaxy. That really got me, especially as I knew there was zero chance of that series continuing beyond that point.

Man! How did you manage to say all that without crying?! Oh deer lard, when you said "Janeway to Pathfinder..." I burst into tears :)

Well they would have had enough shuttle craft to evacuate the whole crew.

Hey there Steve! I’ve been subbed to you and watching your "Trek, Actually" videos for quite some time. I’m also a filmmaker and I love your pitch for “Pale Blue Dot.” That said, I think based on your description there isn’t quite enough meat here to pad out 2 hours of TV time, and while ultimately a very technical and “Trekkie” ending for the show, there isn’t a whole lot (in my opinion) that really gives an emotional hook for the casual TV viewer, so with that in mind here are my ideas for “Pale Blue Dot 2.0” - I love the idea of using the transporter in conjunction with the MIDAS array as a means of getting home, however I think there needs to be more of a more solid reason why this hasn’t occurred to anyone before, so I propose that it needs to be related to something localized, like the amplification necessary is ONLY possible through the natural oscillations of a nearby nebula or a pulsar the crew encounters. There’s still a ticking clock, but there is also a need to be at a specific place too, just to add a little more tension. - Localizing this means we can place Voyager in a hostile, disputed region of space in order to get home - they find themselves negotiating with a race that’s ravaged by war just to get into the Nebula or near to the Pulsar. The aliens are dually impressed with the Federation’s technological prowess when invited on board for diplomatic reasons, and remark that if their fleet were equipped with such amenities their bloody war could be resolved in a matter of weeks. They beg Janeway for technology as part of their negotiations and she refuses. Tensions escalate and it becomes a game of ultimatums - if Voyager crosses their borders to transport home, it will be attacked and seized. Getting home now means, in addition to a ticking clock, they would have to defend themselves from a hostile force. This serves as a convenient way to remind the audience that they would HAVE to scuttle the ship lest it fall into the hands of aliens that would use her technology to alter their fates. - You might be thinking to yourself “wow this is super reminiscent of the moral conflict that got Voyager stuck in the Delta Quadrant in the first place” and you’d be correct! Captain Janeway finds herself in the same conundrum she did 7 years earlier - she knows that getting home means risking superior technology falling into the hands of people who would misuse it. The aliens make it clear that they wish to seize Voyager and will go to great lengths to steal its technology and Janeway is feeling haunted by decisions she made 7 years earlier. - They still decide to risk it for a test, and that’s when Barclay beams aboard, but before he has a chance to get back the ship is under attack by a fleet of raiders and they have to leave, meaning that Barclay is now stuck in the Delta quadrant with Voyager and has to help them figure out how to take advantage of their limited window for everyone to get back home. This would also allow for some meaningful exchanges because Barclay finally has the chance to serve with the crew he’s been a vicarious part of for so long. Maybe the “Pale Blue Dot” exchange is something Barclay now says to Janeway as a way to reinvigorate her as she grapples with her moral quandary. (There could be a fun self-deprecating line here about how he doesn't think he'd make much of a ship's counselor, but he's "been in enough counseling sessions" to occasionally know the right thing to say.) - They realize the obvious problem is that they have to drop their shields in order to transport but this leaves the ship vulnerable to an attack, and thus, working with Seven of Nine, B’lanna and Harry, Barclay figures out that they can punch a hole in Voyager’s shields just big enough for a transporter signal to get through (which calls back to how he created a micro-wormhole in the first place.) - Voyager can now “safely” reside in the space they need to and they can begin transporting their crew to the Alpha Quadrant with only 15-20 minutes to spare - they set the self-destruct to match, so now it's do or die. Naturally though, they have to do it while warding off an attack from a growing enemy fleet. In fact, the aliens aren’t satisfied with small raids anymore, they have a giant juggernaut of a ship that they just called back from the front lines of their conflict, and while technologically inferior, can still wreak pretty severe damage upon Voyager and poses a significant threat. - So the ship is under siege at the same time they’re transporting the crew away. B’lanna is in labor, and The Doctor might have a quip that it’s very unsafe to transport someone who’s physically in the process of giving birth, but it has to be done anyway. They send Tom Paris away as Chakotay takes the helm. - Slowly but surely the crew shrinks and shrinks until it’s just Janeway and Chakotay on the bridge piloting Voyager and fighting the aliens as the ship crumbles around them. Seven of Nine is with Barclay in Engineering. He eventually leaves, leaving Seven on her own, refusing to listen to repeated screams from Janeway to beam out - she's concerned about the shield's collapsing and wants to make sure everyone else gets out. A bulkhead blows and she’s severely injured - now that nobody can reach her, Chakotay springs into action and goes down to Engineering. He grabs Seven of Nine and the two of them beam out just as the shields finally collapse. - They materialize on the other side at Pathfinder. He’s screaming to be sent back but is quickly dismissed in the pandemonium of the moment as we cut to Voyager getting boarded by a hostile force. There's still a substantial amount of time left on the self-destruct clocks. Perhaps we have some interior shots of the aliens yelling amongst themselves to find the Captain, since she's the only person left who can abort the self-destruct. - Janeway has only seconds to react as the turbolift whisks open on the bridge. We see her hurriedly type a few commands at the helm before she beams herself away - a phaser blast moves right through where she just was. The aliens try to take control of the ship, but to their horror the helm is completely locked, and it’s on a collision course with their juggernaut. - They scramble and try to get out, but it’s too late - the ship impacts with the Juggernaut and they both go up in a spectacular explosion. - We cut to black… we hear Chakotay’s muffled voicing screaming “Katherine?? Katherine??” As she slowly drifts awake, Chakotay, Tuvok, Harry, and Barclay all crowded around her. She slowly comes to and takes stock of the room in a dizzy haze, an entire room filled with Voyager’s crew as well as the crew at Pathfinder looking on with awe. As Captain Janeway rises shakily to a stand the entire room erupts with uproarious cheers and applause. - We have a brief montage at the end -- slow motion footage of all of the crew hugging and crying and shaking hands with Pathfinder people (which includes a cutaway to Admiral Paris meeting B’lanna, The Doctor, and Tom at Starfleet Medical) as a voice-over from Janeway wraps up the series, ending by proposing a toast to the ship itself since it was the one “member of the crew” that didn’t make it. - Cut to a wide shot of The Earth itself as the credits begin (the Pale Blue Dot.) This was a lot longer than I wanted it to be, but I really felt like your premise (the natural phenomenon and transporter enhancement) was a great starting point, but I really want to see Voyager go out in a blaze of glory if the ship is going to get left behind, which jives nicely with the idea of punching in some added conflict to make the stakes a little higher. We’ve seen plenty of alien races along the way that wanted to seize or board Voyager for its technology, so if not a new race, we have a callback of some kind. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on my take on Pale Blue Dot - (assuming you’re still reading these comments 4 months later.)

'Goodbye old friend'. 'One to beam home'. Clutching a coffee mug.

Endgame 2.0 is probably the version they'd make. But Pale Blue Dot is the one I'd want to see. Just you explaining it got me a little choked up. Good job!!!

There's a precedent for beaming over long distances via wormhole - that romulan guy from the past they encountered that one time. Maybe throw in a plotline about the romulan government finally giving starfleet Voyager's message from their ancient archives, which they use the data from to help calibrate their new wormhole transporter.

I love your ideas. Especially bringing in Barkley and Admiral Paris. You should do something like this to fix/replace Star Trek Nemesis. Give the TNG crew a better send off

Captain Janeway: There are three things to remember about being a starship captain: Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew. She would never leave her ship behind. Voyager episode Hope and fear has a similar plot.

Wow, I'd watch the heck out of Endgame 2.0! Pale Blue Dot would be a darn good finale too! You realize, of course, that now we're going to want to hear your idea of a finale for Enterprise? :)

9:30 that cube should reveal that Seven was now the "new queen" and the reason why the federation couldn't hold out against the borg. As the Queen's whole plan for such things was to raise a queen that had the Federation's innovative instincts to guide the borg. Edit. this change would further allow present-janeway to have a Mother Hen moment, of "You will never have Seven in your collective again, she is mine!" It would also add a nice epilogue to Seven's character arc with the borg queen/her mother fighting against janeway's adoption of Seven.

I so agree about the reunion with Admiral Paris. That would have been so much better.

Holy damn dude, Pale Blue Dot would make such a good episode! I thought for a minute you were gonna have Janeway go down with her ship

I really like your second idea. It would probably need some type of action set piece to make it feel bigger but that's not all that important. The one point that I think you need to add, as minor is it is, is that when Barkley is getting ready to beam back he needs to comment on his phobia of transporters just to remind people of just how impressive his transporting himself to voyager actually was.

Modifications I would make to your plots. Endgame 2.0: Episode starts. Janeway, B'Elanna, Tom, and the Doctor escape the Borg assassination squad on the Delta Flyer. It's a single Tactical Sphere. No other crew survives, the Borg don't break off but follow the Flyer through the transwarp conduit and they meet with a fleet of Starfleet ships, it goes almost as badly as Wolf 359. B'Elanna loses the baby in childbirth because of the stress of the attack and the Doctor doesn't have everything he needs. Admiral Paris is actually on one of the ships in the battle and you see he is assimilated in the attack. The Borg ship is destroyed after heavy losses. Cut to ~20 years later, Borg have overrun the galaxy. The remnants of the Federation are actually allied with the Dominion as the Borg are a threat to everyone. Changelings can't be assimilated and die when the Borg capture and attempt it. Also Changelings can't impersonate Borg for whatever reasons you want to give. Have Species 8472 also be part of the alliance. Janeway and her resistance encounter but do not engage with a Tactical Sphere, the first they had seen in 20 years. The computer confirms it is identical to the one encountered long ago. The crew of the Flyer perform recon on the Sphere, Admiral Paris is on it, he is like Locutus and communicates with Janeway and her ragtag band of merry men monologuing about the Borg will assimilate them in the past. Cue battle, Tactical Sphere initiates time warp, Flyer follows, attack from Borg heavily damages Future Flyer in timestream, only Janeway and the Doctor survive but they arrive near Voyager and before the Borg. --- To be Concluded --- Both past/present and future Janeway are stunned seeing their counterpart. Skeptical of Future Janeway the Present Janeway doesn't trust her. The Future Doctor appears (As an Emergency Engineering Hologram, he's gotten upgrades and can now fill any role needed) and Present Janeway is more skeptical because he's in Gold instead of Blue, and he tells her something that only they would know from a physical exam Present Janeway would have just had. Something like she had a tumor growing but it was removed with no ill effects. Future Janeway glares at the Doctor for breaking Doctor Patient Confidentiality but he says something to the tune of that subroutine isn't active while he is serving as EEH or ECH. They board Voyager, they begin to devise a plan to stop the Tactical Sphere. Future Doctor begins giving extra attention towards B'Elanna due to her losing the baby in his timeline, both as an EMH and as the EEH (to assist with repairs and upgrades). The plan comes to a screeching halt when the Sphere arrives to the past and hails Voyager, Admiral Paris the Borg tells them they will die. Tom is broken, his father is the enemy. They meet in X hours for a showdown, Red Alert, all hands to battle stations. Future Doctor upgrades his present self with future knowledge and programming. Confrontation happens, Future Janeway has her moment with the Borg Queen and Borged Admiral Paris. Future Doctor uses a Phase Cloaked Future Flyer to fly into the main core of the Sphere, uncloak, and destroy them both, Voyager uses conduit to return home, the Paris family has a big hug, Miral Paris doesn't die during birth, 29th Century Timeship swoops in and tries to go "oh no you don't" and Janeway throws in their face that without their time meddling just now the Timeship wouldn't exist so back off, when they get the data and confirm it, maybe even confirming assimilation of a timeship is how the Tactical Sphere was able to time travel, they apologize and run away back to the future. Pale Blue Dot: Give Harry the insight to link the computers, but Reg still overcomes fears and beams himself to Voyager to prove it works. At the end have it be Chakotay, Janeway, and the Doctor. Self destruct sequence starts, Chakotay leaves with Doctor. Long tracking shot of Janeway still happens. Upon arriving at the transporter room the Doctor convinces the Captain that instead of destroying Voyager he brings it home, himself. Janeway relents because she trusts the Doctor. The ship is given completely to the Doctor's ECH and he brings it home over X years, maybe with a cloaking device. Also the Chakotay/Seven romance never started.

You're pitch for 'Pale Blue Dot' gave me the chills. Seriously, that is a truly epic idea and would have been a beautiful send off for an often 'meh' show.

"Pale Blue Dot" had me in tears...bravo.

Both pitches would have been great. Just visualizing the tracking shot of Janeway heading to the transporter made me tear up. I would still like to have the ship reach Earth though. I do actually like Endgame but my chief complaint is Tom doesn't even say anything to his father. A simple, "I'll see you soon, with your granddaughter." would have satisfied me. Closure for Tom and Admiral Paris and you can get a proud grandfather shot from the Admiral. Oh, and good work taking out the Chakotay/Seven relationship that came from no where.

Great episode that you came up with. One thing, before Janeway leaves the bridge, she should goes over to remove the ship's name plate. The one that cChekote and her put back up after the fight with the Equinox, I believe. Other then that, it's an ending I would like to see. Keep up the great work.

"Pale Blue Dot" listening to the pitch was incredibly powerful. It was so well told that i was able to imagine and believe the story as it unfolded. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, it was beautiful.

I actually feel the melancholy... bravo! All this Voyager talk is making me want to rewrite the series in novel form. I won't ever get around to it... but the itch is there!

For me, i think Pale Blue Dot would have been better if right at the end, after we think the ship as probably exploded, we realize the Doctor has actually stayed on the ship as the ECH to try and bring the ship itself home. We then jump forward in time a year to see how the original crew are doing on earth when Voyager suddenly arrives home commanded by the doctor and other various new crew he has amassed. Voyager is using a newly invented Phonic slipstream drive the doctor figured out with some help

Pale Blue Dot sounds to me to be the superior ending as for all of its faults Voyager was actually good at melancholy. My question is, in her conversation on the bridge about the origin of Pale Blue Dot, would Janeway say it came from a probe called Voyager and explain about the history of it and liken her ship to a descendant of that probe, or would she mention it and add a throwaway ironic comment like "I forget the name," leaving the audience to get the joke or miss the reference at their choosing?

*Steve Shives* travels back in time to slap the writers of the end game episode, on the head, use this or else! Drops the two script ideas on the desk.

"Pale Blue Dot" definitely gets my vote though I absolutely think the whole Borg arc should be ABSENT from the finale. Much too much airtime was given to the whole "turn Seven of Nine back into Annika Hansen" plot, even though Jeri Ryan did a fantastic job of the whole psycho-drama / PTSD issue. Your idea is so much better. A complete character arc for Tom Paris, coming full circle from Caretaker to reconciling with his father at the end of the 'self discovery' journey. Also the communications project was called "Pathfinder" so making that name apt is a lovely concept. Towards the end of season 7 we get to see a lot more of both Owen Paris and Reg Barclay so why not make them integral to the homecoming. Your final scene still allows Captain Kathryn Janeway to close the show and allows a happy ending without everything being that little bit too convenient. Leaving the ship behind makes the moment bittersweet for her character and also gives a "price to pay" for making it back ahead of time. Fantastic concept.

"Pale Blue Dot": No, I am not crying, just dust in my eyes. "Endgame 2.0": You just solved every gripe I had with the ending., you turned a selfish reason into a legitimate self-sacrifice. My fix for Enterprise series finally is leave the ending but remove all of the TNG and hologram crap out of it.

Pale Blue Dot is an amazing "sci-fi" conclusion, full of science drama and emotional/character closure. Unfortunately, TV network and Hollywood producer shills would dismiss the pitch for not having enough exploding spacecraft and big budget special effects. Shame that Star Trek has been losing its "sci-fi" identity for quite some time now. Great hypothetical pitches and analysis as always Steve!

Really good idea. I’ve always thought Voyager was like “Lost in space meets Star trek”, not my fav. BUT your ending was actually very good and very moving. I loved the pale blue dot idea. Very nice. If the whole series had the kind of conceptual writing you had for the last episode it wouldn’t have been the red headed step child of the star trek universe. Good job. You should pitch ideas to hollywood

I would take Jeanway take the mattel plate witch says USS Voyager on it with her by the 2nd alternativ ending.

Thanks for this, really needed something like this today.

I loved them both, though Pale Blue Dot was easily the better of the two. And yet, I'm not sure about scuttling Voyager. It would be a melancholy end, akin to Babylon 5's ending. But there's something special about seeing Voyager approach Earth, or even have it's own Pale Blue Dot moment, "Captain, we've entered the Solar System" "Onscreen" and there it is, that small pale blue dot. Were I to be so bold as to tweak it I'd keep everything but have Barclay's epiphany to be about how the quantum singularity could be widened using research from Dr Lenara Kahn, giving a nice little shout out to DS9, allowing for the whole ship to use it as a once off one way wormhole. They'd have to travel to the singularity which may be behind them even. This would allow for an action set piece as to fight their way to the singularity, perhaps Borg, could be the race from "Dragons Teeth" if they use the Quantum Slipstream to get there. So they fly through and set course for Earth seeing up the pale blue dot moment to end on. Downside: Doesn't have the nice pay off with Admiral Paris but a workaround perhaps Tom could volunteer to fly a test shuttle through to make sure it works, potentially separating him from his wife and child, but he's the best pilot they have, and then have Janeway pilot Voyager home.

I would actually ended "Pale Blue Dot" with the captain being received and with Voyager being blown up. No loose ends and fitting end. Love this concept. Great work!!

It’s amazing how a whole team of writers and producers couldn’t come up with something as close and touching as this?

"Pale Blue Dot" made me cry on a few levels. Thanks.

I really like your pitch for Pale Blye Dot. Even though the show was called Voyager, the thing Janeway always said in a crisis was 'get this crew home.' There was the emphasis on the Crew, not the Voyager and your pitch seems to focus on that. One of the best pitches for a Voyager ending rewrite that I've heard.

The one scene you forgot in that second scenario is Jane way talking to a consul thanking Voyager for getting them that far.

Janeway:"BTW we defeated the Borg by ourselves." Admiral Paris:"Arrest the Maquis, We will sort this out later."

I rewrote the first episode when I was younger. Have to admit it was awesome! In my story Voyager was actually a constitution class ship that they find after they are stranded. Janeway was a lieutenant commander and science officer. She has to take commander being the only surviving senior officer left. Torres was an Andorian, Kess was Nelix’s slave and Tom and Harry hate each other to begin with.

It always pleases me to hear/read people’s reworkings of Endgame. Of the two I think Endgame 2.0 is the more realistic ending, but that ending of Pale Blue Dot really got me. I would’ve LOVED to see that, maybe even with Janeway doing an emotional voiceover reflection of their journey or a voiceover of various lines from throughout the series. Both versions are HUGE step-ups from the actual version and I applaud you sir. As much as I love Voyager, the finale just wasn’t satisfying. I see why people are frustrated with the Admiral’s motivations, but my biggest gripes were that they never actually tied up the loose ends the series had going, like the fate of the Maquis, Seven, and the Doctor. They never showed any after scenes, only Voyager in orbit and that still upsets me. I wanted to see reunions and tears and all that sappy stuff. I’m glad there are people out there like me that care enough about Voyager to give it the proper ending it deserved. Thank you :)

That was actually very good.

OMG, I would have been a pile of tears at the end of that second pitch. Ships have personality, each ship is its own character in each Star Trek franchise, and it should certainly be a moving emotional moment when a crew has to leave their ship for the last time. I can even imagine Kate Mulgrew's face as she stands on the transporter pad, taking in that last look of her first command, "Janeway to Pathfinder......one to beam home.". Maybe I would also have her take the dedication plaque with her before she leaves the bridge. Before getting on the turbolift, she turns around, takes a last look at the bridge, looks down at the dedication plaque in her hands, emotional as she rubs her cuff over it as if to dust if off, looks back up at the bridge, says "Thank you.", comes to attention, then quickly turns and enters the lift.

Endgame 2.0 sort of sounds like umm, a certain obscure film from the 1980s starring a certain Austrian bodybuilder. But it does seem a lot more compelling.

Yeah love the pale blue dot plan too. Can I add as Janeway is having her final moments on the bridge, she takes the dedication plack off the bridge with her as a moment.

I got chills when you described the last moments with Janeway for "Pale Blue Dot."

Dunno about "Pale Blue Dot". The whole series is about getting Voyager home, even if the crew makes it, it doesn't deserve to be blown up in the end imho.

Credits roll over the Cosmos: a personal voyage theme

But Steve, that means we don't get those weapons and armor upgrades! What's the point? :p

It's good your humble, but don't sell yourself short, those were some damned good ideas; very touching. Makes me wonder what you'd think about the new Star Trek show staring Patrick Steward.

"Pale Blue Dot" as described doesn't have enough plot in it for a series finale, nor enough meaningful character moments -- no decision to be made, no sacrifice, only Barclay (not even one of the Voyager crew) overcoming some TECH difficulty with a TECH solution. One way to solve this would be if it initially seemed there'd enough energy/fluctuations/space juice/whatever to transport *half* the crew home. So much of the drama of the ep would be the officers debating whether they should reveal this to the rest of crew, and how to decide (and who gets to decide) who gets to go home. Then after the decision has been made (whether it's a lottery or asking for volunteers to stay behind or whatever other criteria) there's a TECH solution where they determine perhaps there's a way can affect the fluctuations EVERYONE can get home -- but there's an equally likely chance that their messing about will mean that they will lose the chance to teleport ANYONE back. So they then need to decide -- do we take the 100% chance of transporting back 50% of the crew, or do we take a 50% chance of transporting back the entire crew. Janeway & Chakotay decide that only the people who were the ones that had already been decided they would get to *go home* should be the ones to decide this dilemma. It's actually put to a vote among them -- and in a marvellous show of solidarity the vast majority of the crewmembers in question decide their fates should be the same as the rest of Voyager, to take the chance of remaining stranded if it also means taking a chance of getting everyone home safely. The solution ends up working, and everyone gets to go home, but it wouldn't have happened without those people being willing to potentially sacrifice their own personal return.

The fixing of Endgame pitch has a bit of terminator vibe to it, but definitely works out much better. There needed to be a compelling reason for Janeway to go back in time. The episode, as aired, didn’t remotely have that. It’s still not a great pitch... I mean, you’re trying to polish a turd, so it is what it is. I like your original pitch. It makes the pathfinder project pay off, and sets Barclay out to be the hero of Voyager... which, seems to be what the writers HAD been hinting at sense pathfinder was introduced. So, your pitch would have been a final episode much more fulfilling and consistent with where the series was heading in the first place. Part of why I hate Endgame as much as I do is because of how they seem to ignore their own set up for how pathfinder and Barclay would eventually get the crew back home.

I liked both of your pitches better than the actual last episode. While your second pitch does offer a great emotional closure I do think it lacks closure of the external conflicts like the borg. Maybe they could have resolved that in the prior episodes?

"Janeway to Pathfinder. One to beam home." {emergency klaxons sound. Computer voice declares system fault. Visual of self destruct count down timer rapidly reaches zero. Voyager explodes at beginning of transport sequence. Shift scene to pathfinder.) "Transporter bridge to Voyager failed. We lost the pattern." Fade too black. Janway finally meats her transporter accident.

Very elegant and simple resolution to endgame’s problems, and a very watchable alternative. I salute you.

After hearing your pitch for Pale Blue Dot, I looked up at the clear sunny sky and all I could say was "it's a terrible day for rain"

Your episode would have been a pretty solid finale and would ultimately be a callback to Eye of the Needle. What if Barclay gets this idea after studying that incident while reviewing the current conditions he was working with? Might be a nice little bonus.

VOY is my favorite, but you sir have provided my favorite ending (Pale Blue Dot). I know Mulgrew would have executed the role perfectly.

LOVE the alternative last episode with the Borg and time travel. As you say it gives Janeway a valid reason to go back and change history. Also love the Pale Blue Dot episode. Great title and brings in the theme of exploration.

Aww they lose the Delta Flyer too! I love your ending idea. 2 questions that come to mind: 1) Would you rewrite the Neelix exit in either ending? Would you have him return with them, or stay in the Delta Quadrant. Not that he was ever the best character, but I wasn't really a fan of his deciding to stay. 2) In the Endgame 2.0 would there be any futuristic Anti-Borg tech that goes back with Janeway or would that piece also be elmininated?

I always liked the image of Voyager approaching earth flanked by other federation ships. Her own welcome home aside from the other characters.

The main issue I have with your version of Endgame is that it ruins the reveal if Seven had the virus and wanted to be assimilated. A slight change I would suggest could fix this is that Seven's plan wasn't to be assimilated, but to inject the virus into the computers but gets caught, and Old Janeway beams over to save her, as if she's just sacrificing her life to save Seven. But then you have the reveal that Janeway infected herself, taking a chance that assimilation would work just as well at the injection.

Both ideas are great, with "Pale Blue Dot" being my favorite... but I'm still going to present a slight change. It's Janeway who thinks of the transporter bridge, due to seeing some famous bridge in that Victorian holonovel we saw her in so many times (which was ALSO never paid off). She runs out of the holodeck, contacts Barkley, he beams in, follow from your idea.

I would love to hear your thoughts on properly ending Enterprise too.

I teared up just visualising it. Well done!

just watched this video and tbh, both of your alternate series ending pitches game me chills. I can't decide which I liked better, but they were both amazing. just wow. thanks for taking the time to do a what-if thing like this for a Voyager wrap-up!! bravo, and brilliantly done, sir!!!

OMG! I loved both rewrites! Picturing part blue dot made me cry! I'm thinking that when Janeway had her few minutes alone on the bridge, she took the nameplate with her as a souvenir. I would've if I were her.

I love your outline of Pale Blue Dot, if for no other reason that it involves Reginald Barclay 😁👍 The fade to black at the very end would have been a classy way to end Voyager's story. As for End game 2.0, I would have followed a very similar storyline, but one that involves no deus ex machina time travel at all. Voyager discovers the Borg transwarp hub. After first turning away from it, some of the crew (most likely Seven, Harry and B'Elanna working together) use all the information they have gathered about the Borg along their journey to devise a way to overcome the hub's defenses. They pitch the strategy to Janeway, who decides it's now worth the risk and they make it through by the skin of their teeth. I very much like the notion of adding an actual reunion of Tom and his father, maybe even one of Doctor doctor Zimmerman and the Doctor, why not?

Regarding "Endgame 2.0", I love this fixit. The most important element being that which you pointed out before - it's irresponsible to use time travel to change stuff that's relatively trivial. But using it to prevent a quadrant-wide catastrophe that gets Voyager home early as a side effect would be serving the greater good, which is what they should arguably always be doing. If they're using an EMP to disable the first Borg cube mentioned, they could use something like Sisko's recreated Bajoran lightship as their getaway vehicle. No electronics. How about it being Icheb that was the Borg's target? Given that his story already had him being a really effective weapon against the Borg when he was assimilated. I mean yeah, the actor turned out to be a vile little shitstain so giving his character focus now feels grimy, but it would make use of something already established. Maybe he's planning to nobly sacrifice himself the way his family were going to involuntarily sacrifice him, and Janeway basically says nope, not your sacrifice to make, I'm taking those altered genes of yours and deploying them myself. "Pale Blue Dot" would be a nice callback to that time they managed to beam a Romulan officer aboard from the Alpha Quadrant through a pencil-thin wormhole, only without the tragic time displacement. Which would be a good concept to revisit, and slightly subvert the Star Trek convention that if a solution found to a problem in a prior episode would solve the problem fuelling the drama of a subsequent episode, everyone has convenient amnesia about it. Remember that time they accidentally discovered a cure for old age in Next Gen? In the episode from the middle of a writers' strike in which the child actors were surprisingly not annoying and one of them just was the child version of Whoopi Goldberg that year? Never heard about that again. To end "Voyager" by ending Voyager would be rather poetic. The most obvious benefit to Barclay's revelation about using transporters at both ends is that they'd each have to do half the work. Ooh, how's this for high risk - before they work out how to bridge them, their best solution is for Voyager to beam to a halfway point, which Starfleet then picks up from. But it's kinda touch and go, so there's no absolute guarantee that what Voyager sends to the midpoint won't get stuck there. I did kinda think you were going to say that Janeway would step up onto the transporter pad, tap her combadge to contact Pathfinder, and nothing would happen. Glad you didn't.

Wow, just even hearing your re ending scenario was a great bed time story. I was on the edge of my pillow waiting for each scene to go thru the inner portal of my mind. I'd love to see this in actuality. It brings the true depth of what "Voyager" deserved as its ending.. Bravo.. Your a great story teller and "Voyager" my favorite Sci-fi show.

I usually never comment but this deserved it, holy Christ that Pale Blue episode sounded absolutely incredible and beautiful. I can imagine the quiver of sadness and joy in Janeway’s voice as she would have said that. Fantastic work

Both pitches are good, though with pale blue dot better would be you seeing the destruction of Voyager, or as Ben Wilson says the EMH stays behind and brings Voyager home himself. Star Trek always love their dramatic explosions.

I like it. Both options. I think there needs to be more action personally for a finale. With ST:V you expect significant action sequences.

Beautiful ending, Steve. You painted the picture so vividly. Thank you.

Your idea for Pale Blue Dot is just perfect. And the bit with Barclay being glad he got to see Voyager is just icing on the cake.

I think if you are changing the ending of Voyager we need a resolution for Tuvok and see if he can be cured of his disease or not so we can see if that part of Admiral Janeway's future is inevitable or not

Interesting Steve, thanks for the vid.

Tears to my eyes! I loved both of your end episode variations. I was able to picture it all in my head 😁 thank you!

This was completely enjoyable and I’m so glad I found your channel. It’s great to meet someone who is balanced, even when we don’t see eye to eye (cuz Voyager is amazing).

Wonderful ideas! I think they could have done an episode focused on the life of the crew after the return on earth

The original version of Endgame would've been fine if they just paid off the characters / the journey at the end. Similar to what they did in DS9 (One of my favourite endings to a series ever)

Pale Blue Dot final lines: Janeway: "Chakotay, go ahead" Chakotay: *nod* "See you at home Kathryn" Janeway: *She sits down one last time in the captain's chair* "You've been our home for the last seven years old girl. My only regret is that I can't take you with me." *Janeway stands up and walks around the bridge.* "Every time we needed you, you pulled us through. It feels wrong we can't do the same for you, but I'm sure you understand." *Janeway has misty eyes as she heads to the turbolift* "We will all remember you for the rest of our lives. I just wish it weren't so damn sad." *Janeway enters the turbolift.* "Deck 4." *single tracking shot of Janeway going from the bridge to Deck 4 like Steve described. Janeway is holding back tears as she enters the transporter room. Chakotay is on the pad waiting for her. He holds out his hand, she takes it and steps onto the pad.* Chakotay: "Saying goodbye?" *with a smile on his face* Janeway: "To an old friend." *she presses her com badge* "Voyager to Pathfinder. Two the Beam Home." Cue the Enterprise theme song "Faith of the Heart" with an epilogue clip show Clearly, this is just my own take. I think even though the series didn't play into to idea of Federation vs Maquis, it still means something to have Chakotay and Janeway leave together in unity.

Pale Blue Dot would have been an absolutely beautiful way to end the show. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Yes!! I really like these kind of alternative story - it always cool and my imagination have a really big special effect budget!

Hi Steve; I'm a big fan of your videos, and I think both of your speculative alternate series-ending episode pitches were great, each in different ways. Since the many different iterations over the years of the Enterprise, I'm not even that upset about the destruction of Voyager in "Pale Blue Dot". I would like to send to you a PDF of the spec-script that I wrote and sent in to Paramount way back in the day (Pre-Obama and pre-Trump - it seems like a century ago) for consideration as my offering of the series finale of Voyager, when the studio was still accepting such spec-scripts. The two-part spec-script, titled “Destiny’s Purview”, deals with the issue of Voyager‘s still being stranded on the other side of the galaxy, it’s encounter with another member of the alien Caretaker species which had flung Voyager and the rebel Maqi starship to the Delta Quadrant, and the return of the crew of both ships now on Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant; in the process saving an alien starbase from destruction by the dreaded species 8472, and bringing to fruition the abandoned sub-plot of romantically uniting Seven with the Doctor instead of the ill-conceived, last-minute, out-of-the-blue throwing together of her and Chakotay. An excerpt of the script won *3rd place* in the fiction writing contest of the Community College I'm currently attending (I like to think that's due to it being a script that is almost 20 years old); and if nothing else, I would like to hear your constructive critique of it for my own help in my ongoing writing. If you care to see it, please Let me know how to send it to you. Go Orville!

Steve - an excellent video. I'm catching up with all these Trek Actuallys, having found you on KZfaq - and I wanted to say I loved the Pale Blue Dot idea. It needs a little work to draw out tension, but you admit that - but as a concept I think it's great. Would have been a lovely note to end the show on, particularly since it was Voyager I that took that picture. Keep this videos coming!

Absolutely beautiful, I actually teared up imaging that. Very good job.