Voyager Flashback: Year of Hell

Over its seven-year run, Star Trek: Voyager did a number of mid-season two-part episodes that were generally well-received by fans. One of the most loved was season four's "Year of Hell."

An alien captain's meddling with time creates an alternate reality in which Voyager is battered to the brink of destruction by the Krenim. As both the ship and morale deteriorate, it's increasingly unlikely that Voyager and her crew will ever return home to the Alpha Quadrant.

The story goes that the writers of Voyager conceived of "Year of Hell" as a literal year-long arc for the series, where occasional stand-alone episodes would be sprinkled in among the larger continuing story of Voyager's near-destruction. With Deep Space Nine increasingly embracing serialized storytelling (and, in the eyes of many studio executives, losing viewers as a result), this concept for Voyager was vetoed at the highest level. The story was then salvaged for this two-part episode.

It's doubtful that the Voyager writers got very far into plotting much of a 20-plus episode story arc. Yet it's clear from watching "Year of Hell" that there are far more ideas here than can fit comfortably in just two episodes. While it's Part II that really shows the strain (and I'll get to that, of course), I still feel that Part I is overstuffed. We have to see time rewritten a few times to be sure the audience really understands the "butterfly effect" nature of this alien time weapon -- but, of course, each "rewrite" essentially renders every story beat that has come before largely irrelevant. The Doctor has a powerful moment (straight out of a submarine movie) where he has to essentially kill crew members to save the ship, but we only get one brief moment of him dealing with the emotional fallout of his choice. A great friendship begins between Tuvok and Seven of Nine, but there's not enough time to really explore how Tuvok's life changes after he loses his eyesight.

Meanwhile, there isn't enough time at all for other important story. We don't see the moment when Neelix is officially promoted to security. (How desperate must they be?!) We don't learn why Annorax is fixed on a Sisyphean quest for "100% restoration" of his desired timeline until Part II -- which I suppose adds a little suspense, but very much at the expense of making him a sympathetic character. (If they didn't have Kurtwood Smith in the role, I think it would have been impossible for Part II to crawl out of the villainous hole they dig for Annorax here in Part I.

Still, you can see why many fans would really embrace this episode. The visuals are great throughout, from a teaser that immediately grabs your attention with the destruction of an entire society, to the increasing damage to the Voyager sets, to the final moment showing the dramatic launch of all escape pods. There are fun nods to "canon," including a callback to the "time torpedo" stuck in the hull from a season three Kes episode, and a trivia game scene in which the events of Star Trek: First Contact are referenced. There are also a lot of great character interactions; besides the Tuvok/Seven friendship I mentioned, there's yet another great scene between B'Elanna and Kim (I still say they should have become the couple), and effective "shipping" of Janeway and Chakotay.

Other observations:

• We see the new Astrometrics Lab set at last, after several episodes talking it up. It reportedly will take 5 years off the journey home... though I'm unclear about how that works exactly. What's there to recalculate about their route, exactly? It's space. Shouldn't they just... head that way?
  

• Early on, Janeway talks about them having a "Week of Hell." Remember March 2020, when we were all going to shut things down for "a couple of weeks" before "returning to normal?" It's that energy.
  

• Did Kes tell the crew nothing about the Krenim after her own time-traveling adventure? The extra warning could have helped a lot. (And the torpedo's frequency is even exactly the same in this episode as it was in the earlier one!)
  

• Janeway claims that she's made it her goal to avoid time travel. She hasn't done a very good job of meeting that goal.
  

There is a lot to like about this episode. At the same time, I think "Year of Hell" hits better the first time around, when you're wondering how they're going to get out of it. Watching Part I when you know the unsatisfying "it's all a dream"-like answer to that question? It robs a lot of the tension. I give the episode a B.