By Chris Snellgrove
| Revealed
Star Trek has usually had good season finales. In reality, outdoors of The Subsequent Technology’s “Shades of Gray” (which was a crummy clip present episode), followers have been fairly pleased with how seasons wrapped up. That’s why we have been so stunned to find that one of many franchise’s greatest end-of-season episodes was one which the followers appreciated however the creators hated. That episode is “Studying Curve,” the Season 1 Voyager finale the place Tuvok should prepare some unruly Starfleet sorts and Neelix unintentionally infects the ship with cheese.
Why This Star Trek Finale Is Hated
Admittedly, the cheese subplot of this Star Trek finale is one which some followers hated (although it was later mocked in hilarious vogue by Decrease Decks), however the episode as a complete was usually well-received. It was additionally watched by excessive numbers of followers. “Studying Curve” was the most-watched first-run episode of the whole present. Sadly, assorted producers and writers have been finally sad with how this episode wrapped up Voyager’s first season.
One of many causes the episode left a foul style within the creators’ mouths is that they by no means meant this episode to be the top of Season 1. Initially, 4 extra episodes have been filmed for the season, however they have been held again for Season 2. The writers and producers have been hoping to finish on an episode with some emotional heft (one thing extra akin to “The Better of Each Worlds” or “Descent”) and as a substitute wrapped up Season 1 with a bottle episode that had a very insane cheese-related subplot.
Star Trek: Voyager story editor and future government producer Ken Biller defined in additional element why this episode was hated among the many artistic workers. “We ended on a run-of-the-mill episode the place Tuvok was the drill teacher,” he mentioned. Biller went on to notice how the episode “wasn’t a cliffhanger” and “wasn’t a season-ender.” The episode “had no bang” and made it seem to be this scorching new Star Trek present “simply kind of disappeared.”
In the meantime, Star Trek: Voyager producer Brannon Braga echoed Biller’s ideas about why this finale was hated among the many workers. “I’m considerably bothered that it was our ultimate episode as a result of it’s a delicate episode,” he mentioned. “It didn’t have large motion set items or the grandiose themes that we like our finales to have.”
This is a crucial level to emphasise: “Studying Curve” isn’t a foul episode…in reality, it’s a really strong hour of leisure. But it surely’s a bottle present (TV converse for an episode made on a budget) that lacks the flashiness followers had come to anticipate from earlier finales. For instance, TNG’s “The Drumhead” and DS9’s “The Duet” are each killer bottle episodes, however they arguably would have made for bizarre season finales.
That’s principally the place Star Trek: Voyager showrunner Michael Piller landed on “Studying Curve”. As an alternative of claiming that is an episode he hated, Piller merely famous “It won’t be a season finale, nevertheless it’s , strong present.” Braga agreed, noting it was a “it’s a good suggestion for an episode” regardless that its small-scale, bottle episode nature made for a foul finale.
This Star Trek: Voyager finale was hated extra as a season-ender than as an episode, nevertheless it’s honest to say that the writers and producers discovered their lesson from its errors. Voyager’s second season ended with the whole ship getting stolen, the third season ended with an uneasy alliance with the Borg, and so forth. In different phrases, future finales have been usually extra action-packed and epic in scope, giving followers extra of what they need from their favourite sci-fi franchise and fewer of… Neelix’s cheese.
