VOY: “Year of Hell: Part 1 & Part 2”

Date: November 17, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 8 and 9

Musical Accompaniment: “Peace in Tamreil” from the Elder Scrolls

Interstellar News: It was very cold today, but it was an excellent day for a drive. The colors were beautiful and the company was fantastic.

TL;DR: The Krenim use a time weapon to destroy a Zahl colony, but it doesn’t change the timeline much. Seven and Kim have finished the Astrometric lab, but a different Krenim ship fires on Voyager. The Zahl are friendly and explain the Krenim used to be powerful but not for some time, when the time weapon is deployed again and the Zahl are completely wiped out. This causes the Krenim Imperium to be back in their full power and Voyager to come under attack from some real weapons. 32 days later, Deck 5 explodes and two crewmen are killed. Day 47 shows Torres hurt, Seven trying to find the frequency of a chronoton torpedo, and Tuvok being blinded once it explodes. Day 65 has the crew on emergency rations, Neelix helping out in Security, and Janeway being cynical about her birthday. The Krenim time ship adjust the timeline again but Voyager causes them to fail, so they transport over Chakotay and Paris and try to erase Voyager. Janeway gets them out and on Day 73 orders an evacuation of everyone except for the senior staff.

Voyager is left with Janeway, Kim, Torres, the EMH, Seven of Nine, Tuvok, and Neelix. Chakotay and Paris, after two months of isolation, are brought to Annorax who as a proposal for them. Day 161 has Annorax tell Chakotay about the first time he used the weapon and sees Janeway suffer from severe burns as they exit a nebula. Paris talks with Obrist and comes up with a plan, which Chakotay finally gives his blessing on once he realizes Annorax won’t rest until he restores his wife. Voyager makes friends and a run on the weapon ship. She orders everyone off the ship to work with their new allies and then they all attack the weapon ship. Janeway sacrifices herself hoping to restore the timeline, which works. We are now back to the top of Part 1 where Janeway interacts with the Krenim and decides to avoid their space. Annorax is shown to be back with his wife.

Favorite Quotes:

Seven of Nine: There is an undetonated chronoton torpedo lodged in the starboard Jefferies tube on deck eleven, section two. The warhead is still active.

Tuvok: Do not attempt to disarm it. Hold your position and wait for my arrival. Is that clear?

Seven of Nine: Arrive quickly.

Seven does not mince her words.

Tuvok: It is inappropriate to contradict the captain in front of the crew.

Seven of Nine: That was not my intention. I simply pointed out that her decision was wrong.

Again, Seven with the best lines.

“We’re going through their space whether they like it or not.”: Part 1 is heartbreaking and a great set up for Part 2 and there’s really only one giant problem. EVERYONE FORGOT ABOUT WHAT KES TOLD THEM IN “Before and After” regarding the Krenim!!!! I mean no one even registers “oh yeah, it’s the big bad guys that Kes warned us about” or anything. There are a lot of good bits in the time jumps, though. Torres and Kim playing a trivia game while they wait to be rescued, the Doctor being upset about having to close the hatch and killing two crewmen who wouldn’t have made it anyway, and Chakotay trying to be kind and thoughtful to Janeway but her being too occupied to appreciate the gesture and sentiment. I love how Seven becomes Tuvok’s aide and he lets her help him, they’ve gone through something that now has put an unbreakable bond between them… well at least until Part 2 happens. Seeing the two crewman not make it to safety, watching Voyager get worse and worse as the days go by, and listening to Janeway’s last speech is all so heartbreaking. We end the episode on both a cliffhanger and a downer, but it’s a situation that was always a possibility when you’re stranded in space and so far from home.

“I have never understood the human compulsion to emotionally bond with inanimate objects.”: Part 2 is the culmination of Part 1 and is both satisfying and not. Chakotay drinks the Krenim time travel Kool Aid but it’s totally the thing he would do, trying to cause the minimum number of casualties. Paris, naturally, wants to return to Voyager and does what he does best… come up with a plan by just winging it in some ways. Annorax is just Barry Allen trying to fix the timeline, not realizing that the only way to undo his first mistake was to simply get rid of his ship as if it never existed. I understand they existed outside of time, but does that mean they didn’t ever age? What about when Janeway destroys the thing keeping them outside of time? Everything in Part 2 made sense, but it also means we spent two episodes watching the crew go through horrible things only for them to have never happened. Janeway is totally in character of making decisions under stress, as we just saw in the last episode, and even the “bad guy” gets his happy ending. Unfortunately, none of them retain any information about this so no one really learned the lesson of appreciating people as you have them in your life. I am also widely disappointed that the watch didn’t play an actual role in saving Janeway’s life, but that’s just a me thing. Overall, a very satisfying group of episodes even though everything’s made up and the points (and rating) don’t matter.

TA Out!