1. Parts I liked (short section!)
2. Parts that were just plain CRUEL, to us as well as certain characters (i.e. parts I hated.)
3. Thing I'd have liked to have seen, but which were appropriately forgotten…

Okay, here goes. Be forewarned, in the main it was good, but in a shipping sense, I was most definitely not impressed…

A)

1. The makeup was pretty cool. Finally someone's come up with a convincing aged look.
2. Wonderful casting of Miral Paris - she really did look like B'elanna, and from the right angle, Tom as well. It's amazing where they find these people.
3. Tuvok going loopy, hehehehe. It still makes me laugh even though this time it was kinda… not nice to watch. Almost made me feel sorry for him.
4. Chell's menu was… amusing :) to say the least.
5. Icheb beating Tuvok at Kal-Toh, and Kim's face when he did! Tuvok is SUCH a bad loser!
6. B'elanna's false labour and Tom panicking cracked me up! And those two lines which were definitely a triumph of dialogue and proved that the writers CAN sometimes remember who their characters are…

TORRES: If you tell me to relax one more time I'm going to rip your holographic head off!!!

THE DOCTOR: I hope you don't intend to kiss your baby with that mouth.

An instant classic!!

Okay, onwards…

B) Everything really comes under the general heading of "C/7", of course, but I will attempt to be objective (ha!) and logical (double ha!) about this…

1. First of all, the party at the beginning… how DARE they build up our hopes like that?! I'm referring to 'Doctor Joe' and his wife Lana. From the back, that could have been Seven, "Renaissance Man" could all have worked out, and the C/7 thing could have been set up to fail… but no, it's not Seven. That was just plain mean, seriously. I'm sure it was SUPPOSED to make us feel better, but it didn't. It was cruel, that's all it was. Okay, I accept that after 30 years, the Doctor would recover from Seven's death (not to mention her marriage to *shudder* Chakotay), but having him marry almost a CLONE of her? I don't think he'd do that unless he's incredibly shallow, which I refuse to believe. Okay… this could get long… next!
2. That scene of Admiral Janeway standing over Chakotay's grave when you just KNEW who it was she was talking to… that wasn't very fair, now was it? At least Kate Mulgrew made something of it, portraying (what I perceived as :P) however many years of hurt Janeway went through into that one scene. I think if she'd kissed the headstone I would have completely lost it. That scene was painful!
3. The last ever J/C scene. Well… it was… traditional. Yet ominous, don't you think? This is J/C as we know and love it, how it's always been - the banter, the flirting, the laughing… but then to have him turn her down, in the LAST EVER J/C SCENE?! That wasn't nice! It feels like they put the whole darn thing in as a matter of obligation. I'm just saying this - thank God they didn't have a dinner scene, because that would have been a whole lot meaner. Plus, I seem to recall they followed it immediately (almost) with the first C/7 scene, possibly in the hope of it being ironic… it's not ironic, it's paradoxical. And incredibly, incredibly nasty. Next!
4. The D/7 scene. At least she thanked him for his help. Still, she rejected him. The fact that she obviously doesn't even believe him after "RM" still bugs me when she can fall so apparently easily for Chakotay, especially knowing HIS track record! Poor Doctor, he's had to go through a hell of a lot this series. I mean, putting him in her body didn’t help, her nearly dying definitely didn't, not to mention nearly decompiling (don't get me started again on that one…) Building his hopes up when she agreed to the operation, and then having him thrown aside, was cruel. (Robert Picardo does the dejected look so very well.) You get the impression they're not even going to be remotely close after this, probably just mildly good friends… thus destroying everything Jeri Taylor hoped to build on after "Someone…" *sigh* This is rambling, I can tell. I'm trying to translate my brain into English, put some of these thoughts down on paper (or screen) and it's just not working… Onwards…
5. Admiral Janeway informing Captain Janeway of Seven's death… and, uh, that other thing (*seethes*), while evil, was incredibly well done. Kudos to Kate Mulgrew again… at least she tried. (Okay, reverting to AJ and CJ for this…) AJ knew exactly what to say to CJ to make her listen… the fates of her two favourite people - Seven and Chakotay. "Seven of Nine is going to die." Talk about blunt. Then onto the other bombshell: "In the arms of her husband." "Husband?" Dramatic pause. "Chakotay." And THANK YOU, KM, for that look on CJ's face. Utter shock, sadness, and horrible realisation all at once. I hate people who can act this well… Anyway, I digress, the point here is - that was CRUEL! In AJ's timeline, she didn't have the anticipation, it was, we assume, more of a shock to her. And pretty horrible as she'd be the one to marry them. (I hope Chakotay had some kind of apologetic look on his face, I really, really do.) Now, poor CJ has to WAIT for this to happen. She's just realised why Chakotay couldn't make it for lunch. Which means, it's already in the pipeline. Of course, this does mean she can try to stop it, but being Janeway, she won't admit that to herself… *sigh* There is no hope… Incidentally, I did notice she didn't seem to look either of them in the eye after this, not even at the end…

There's a lot to be said for that temporal prime directive, isn’t there…

6. The C/7 in general. Especially all that 'dating' rubbish. How many 'dates' have Janeway and Chakotay been on? And the Doctor and Seven? But those don't count, evidently. I am presently wondering which shipper pissed off B&B this time… As the 'five minute Voyager' site so aptly put via the words of Tom Paris to B'elanna: "Isn't it great to be the only 'ship the writers didn't mess up?" Yeah, P/T is nice and everything, but, as I've said before, leave it the frell alone! In one fell swoop, C/7 dashed TWO dreams to the rocks! Points on B&B's scoreboard… and ammunition for my arsenal…

The weird thing is - and don't kill me for this- if you consider J/D, in the sense that they are essentially the 'jilted lovers' (ack, Romeo and Juliet…) it doesn't seem half as bad as C/7. I don't know why… I guess with C/7, it seems like… well, I dunno, it's just WRONG. We knew that the Doc would take care of her, it's almost like Chakotay isn't worthy. Well, he's not! That's beside the point. Oh frell, I'm arguing with myself! I can't find anything to justify it. Nothing. As for J/C, that's always been there since "Caretaker", there's always been tension. And making "Resolutions", which must be the bane of B&B's life (HA!!! Like I care! Long live "Resolutions" and "Coda"!) just magnified it. And since Janeway and the Doctor already are fairly close… I dunno, it's just not as bad as Chakotay and Seven. I go back to my original point - he HATED her in Season 4!!! What the heck happened? (Uh, okay, easy answer - he's a man, go figure…) Sorry, incredibly pissed off… read on…

7. I hated the ending, seriously. See section C).
8. Neelix. Is Going. To Die. Painfully. It was all his frelling fault. Irritating little matchmaking kitchen rat… Q Jnr, please come back and finish him off…

Right. Deep breaths. Nearly done.

C) Lots of stuff they should have added…

1. First of all, where's their welcome home party? We want to see these kind of things. We want to see them get back to DS9, give the cast of that some cameos, you know, the usual continuity things. (*hears B&B in her head: "Continuity? What's that?"*) We want the fireworks, the cheering crowds, that lovely feel-good sensation that the crew gets on their return. We want to share this moment with them like we have all the others (yes, even the bad ones), not just say "Oh, we're back. La dee da. Home, James." I think I'm gonna cry…
2. Tuvok. Much as I have grown to not like the guy, he didn't really get much to do in this other than rant about stuff… a man I can relate to :) Anyway, um… T'Pel? Y'know, his wife. The one he was always talking about, and his children. Do we get to meet them? No. Apparently, we don’t. Apparently, the Voyager 'family' thread running through this is a lot more important than the crew's actual families. The families that not only they but we have been wanting to meet for seven years…
3. For example, Kim and Libby. We never got any information that she married/got engaged to someone else, so we can assume that Harry still wants to see her again (but wait, she hasn't been mentioned for a while, has she. Methinks someone forgot about her…) And there's his parents, his mother whose womb he remembers being in, and his father, what little we know of him. A reunion is called for. And talking of fiancé/es…
4. It brings me nicely on to… Mark. I think it might have been cool to bring him back into the picture, even if only briefly. Even though he did marry someone else, she'd still want to see him again - he's got her dog, remember?! There could be a wonderfully awkward scene… I can see it now… *fic brewing*

MARK: (Can’t you just see him standing there with his wife in the background, and Molly tearing at the leash trying to get back to Janeway…? Pleasantries all over with, let's get to the juicy stuff.) I'd like you to meet my wife, [insert wife's name here].

JANEWAY: (Shaking the woman's hand.) Pleasure. (Other woman disappears again.)

MARK: No hard feelings?

JANEWAY: No. (Attempting to lighten the mood.) I'm surprised you didn't meet someone sooner.

MARK: (Okay, no idea what he's like as a person, this is randomly off the top of my head.) Did you?

JANEWAY: (Smiles lightly to herself.) In a manner of speaking… (She's about to call Chakotay over under some pretence of meeting Molly, or something, but sees him socialising, Seven in tow. Her features sink.) Only a friend. (Sighs, snaps out of it.) Go and enjoy the party, Mark. I have socialising to do, anyway…

Oh God! I wonder, should I fix "Endgame" as well as "RM"? Maybe after "Memory"…

5. Admiral Paris should at least have gotten to meet his daughter-in-law and grandchild!!!
6. What about the Maquis? I'm sure they'd all be pardoned, but still, it might be nice to have some doubt about that… and Janeway standing up for them all. Or something.
7. It would really be nice just to see a glimpse of what happens to everyone in this new timeline. It seems a little naïve to accept that they'll all have the same future as the one AJ left, doesn't it?

Okay, rant over. You can come out now. If you don't agree with anything, feel free to tell me :) My plan of action is as follows: First, ignore "Endgame" completely and buy the novellisation, or failing that, fix it. Then we start our season properly. Somewhere in the middle of this is a trip to Paramount to take Jeri Ryan hostage (or whoever we happen to spot first. JR seems appropriate as she's the one who they all seem to obsess over…) and order B&B to ask Jeri Taylor to rewrite everything!

And that, my friends, is it. It's all over. And it sucked. But no matter how much ranting I do, it ain't gonna change it. It just makes me feel a little better…

So… yeah.

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