I have a soft spot for time travel stories, I should probably just start with that. This managed to be a time communication rather than actual travel story, but it dealt with the issues of changing the timeline that are so common in time travel so I guess it counts. I feel like Kim sending himself a message from a now nonexistent future might draw some prosecution from the bureau of temporal affairs or something like that, but whatever, the plan seems to have worked. It seems like Janeway's plan to just pack away the quantum drive might be a bit quick to judge, but I guess there wouldn't be much show if they did just make it back quickly. It just seems like maybe keep the equipment installed and keep working on it. I know they talked about having some sort of unstable crystals needed or something, but can't you just keep an eye out for more?
We open with two hooded and jacketed figures finding Voyager buried under a glacier on an ice planet. After the credits we see that it is Kim and Chakotay and they have a comlink with a woman whose voice isn't familiar. They power up a panel on the ship but everything seems to be broken. Chakotay heads to the bridge and beams Seven's body to somewhere. Kim heads to sickbay and gets the Doctor going and transferred to the mobile emitter. They tell the Doctor they are there to change history. Cut to 15 years earlier and Voyager is preparing for the inaugural test of the quantum slipstream drive. Everyone is celebrating except for Tom who is worried he has found a flaw in the design. He heads to the holodeck with Kim and they confirm the flaw will doom the flight the next day. They go to the captain but she comes up with a plan to send the Flyer ahead of Voyager and send data back so they can keep things going. After much consideration and a dinner with Chakotay Janeway decides it is worth the risk and they will attempt the flight in the morning.
Back in the future we learn first that this isn't a Starfleet operation and the three of them are fugitives. They also have a borg temporal transceiver that Kim is going to use to send corrected data to Seven in the past to keep Voyager from crashing and killing everybody, something Kim blames himself for. They get to work but sensors tell them the Starfleet has found them and a ship is on the way. In the past we see them complete final preparations and launch the slipstream. In the future Geordi shows up and tries to stop them but Kim manages to send the data. But in the past the data comes through and it doesn't work, Voyager crashes just like the first time. Kim realizes something is wrong but by now the Flyer is under fire. Kim freaks out and Chakotay tries to keep the ship together. Eventually the Doctor suggests altering the data to break up the slipstream instead. It works and Voyager and the Flyer both return to normal space. After some digging they find that Kim was the one who sent the signal, from the future.
Review: Overall a rather enjoyable episode. Raises some questions about the ethics of time alteration, but overall seems to be in the camp that it is a good idea. Kim is pretty weak the entire time, but at least Neelix isn't in the episode at all.
6 out of 10
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