Star Trek: Voyagercopied one ofStar Trek: The Next Generation’s best storytelling choices, giving both shows a unique aspect during the franchise’s classic era.BothVoyagerandTNGare distinctive entries in the franchise, with their own hallmarks and things that set them apartfrom other series.TNGacted as the blueprint forStar Trek’s cadre of shows in the 1990s, butVoyager’s cast of charactersand setting pushed the franchise into new territory in terms of science fiction concepts and diversity.
Still, out of all the classicStar TrekTV shows,VoyagerandTNGarguably have the most in common.Voyagerwas an attempt byStar Trek’s creative team to return to moreTNG-style storytelling, combating the innovative but more serialized arcs thatStar Trek: Deep Space Ninecreated while it andVoyageraired at the same time. In terms of character dynamics and plot,Voyageralso hit closer toTNGthan eitherDS9orStar Trek: Enterprise.This included one storytelling choice that set bothTNGandVoyagerup for success each season.
Star Trek: Voyager And TNG Ended Most Seasons With Two-Parters
Only two seasons from each show didn’t end with two-part episodes
Except for two seasons each,Star Trek: VoyagerandThe Next Generationended every season with the first part of a two-parter. Two-parters often include some of the franchise’s best storylines, so on the whole, it isn’t surprising thatVoyagerandTNGchoose to use them liberally.The only four seasons where they weren’t employed wereTNGseasons 1 and 2 andVoyagerseasons 1 and 4. InTNG’s case, the show was just getting its feet under it in terms of storytelling, and forVoyager, its initial avoidance was due to scheduling issues at the end of season 1.
DS9didn’t end any of its seasons with two-parters, but this was likely because the show already employed serialized storytelling that flowed from one episode to the next more seamlessly.
However, every other season of both shows ended with a Part 1, while the next season opener picked up with the second part. Surprisingly,this made bothTNGandVoyagerunique in the1990s era ofStar Trek.DS9didn’t end any of its seasons with two-parters, but this was likely because the show already employed serialized storytelling that flowed from one episode to the next more seamlessly. Likewise,Enterpriseonly ended one of its seasons with a two-parter, instead choosing to use them in the middle of seasons as a way to incorporate more contained arcs.
Why Star Trek Two-Parters Make Great Season Finales And Openers
Two-parters were one of 1990’s Star Trek’s greatest strengths
While there was nothing wrong with the wayDS9andEnterpriseused two-parters,VoyagerandTNG’s model arguably found the greatest success with them.Star Trektwo-parters are often big productions, and while they can work well in the middle of a season, saving up the bandwidth for a season finale or season opener tends to inflate their importance and lead to much greater popularity for the episode. This was certainly the case withTNG, whose two-part episode “The Best of Both Worlds” is often considered one of thebestStar Trekepisodes of all time.
Every Star Trek: TNG 2-Part Episode Ranked, Worst To Best
Star Trek: The Next Generation had some truly amazing two-part episodes over the course of its seven seasons.
Two-parters also provide a built-in cliffhanger and hook to bring audiences back for more the following season. While this could be seen as an obvious ploy, there’s no denying that it works. Other series outside of theStar Trekfranchise often use this technique with their season finales as well, althoughStar Trekshows often denote it more explicitly.In the case ofVoyagerandTNG, both ramped up their use of this cliffhanger tactic in later seasons, withStar Trek: Voyagerespecially creating some truly memorable installments in later years like “Equinox” or “Unimatrix Zero.”
