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Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 Episode 21

Before And After

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8.4

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AIRED: 4/9/97

Stardate: Unknown
Kes begins traveling backwards through time from the moment of her death. With each shift, she comes closer to a solution but she also grows months and years younger at a time.

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Fan Episode Reviews (8)

Before and After

9.0

By TrueTvWatcher, Sep 20, 2011

Before and After was a superb episode of Star Trek: Voyager and I enjoyed watching this episode because it had a great story about Kes reliving her life backwards from point in the future but she only experiences it for a short time before skipping further back. There were some interesting relationships explored in this episode which was cool. I found the way Ocampa's give birth is kind of disturbing. This was a fun episode and I look forward to watching the next episode of Star Trek: Voyager!!!!!!!moreless
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I can't help it but I feel like someone decided to "rape" the Kes character. Ever since she was taken over by Tieran, she seem out of character and a completely different person.moreless

8.5

By ElDoRado1239, Apr 30, 2011

Kes was my favourite female character aboard Voyager by far. I have fallin in love with her - the way she looked, her curious, adventurous and kind character. Well, that was all scraped in Warlord, when she was possessed by Tieran. She broke up with Neelix while being controled by him, but never returned to him after she was cured. That was the first clue. Then she started to be somehow too serious, almost formal. Simply not anything like her usual self.

This episode just gave this change an underline. It has shown us how would her life look if B'Elanna was killed and Tom married Kes. She would have a daughter, who would marry Harry. This was very odd, almost bizzare.

As she understood what is happening to her and traveled further into the past, she collected all the information needed to save herself from timeshifting before her very existence.

Now, this would have been a very enjoyable episode - but there are some big flaws. How come it was only her mind that was travelling back in time? Her body changed accordingly to the time period she have shifted into, but that doesn't give sense. Her memories wouldn't travel with her or she would travel in her current body and she would also disappear in the time period where she would shift from. Where did she get that new haircut? Why did she actually shift before her birth but then returned back to the present?

Time paradoxes are great and I love them, but this felt rather unfinished. And the new haircut is very disturbing and out of character. Goodbye Kes who I loved, welcome new Kes who tries to take your place.moreless
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I got one question in the last scene Kes was in the Bio Tempral Chamber but when Kes returned their how come her hair was not short in the scene like last time she was in that time period she had short hair that should have been short instead of long.moreless

8.9

By matrix103, Apr 30, 2011

And I thought their was a tempral prime directive witch ment that Kes should not be giving out information in the present about the Krenem and the super wepon. I liked this episode even though it was poorly made because I'm a Star Trek Fanatic. I noticed that when Kes was born she had Human ears and when Lennos was a baby she had Human ears too whats up with that?. My favorite part was when Kes was in The Year Of Hell and she went to see the tempral varense of the Krenem Torpedo that was my favorite part. So I give this episode 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.moreless
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A good episode worth watching more than once… In fact, multiple viewing helps appreciate how well this story was done.

9.5

By tv-striker, Feb 25, 2009

A good episode worth watching more than once…

In fact, multiple viewing helps appreciate how well this story was done. The story starts 6 years into Voyager's future. Kes is now an old woman, close to death. The Doctor puts her in a bio chamber. It won't be revealed until later that this will stimulate latent traces of radiation she once absorbed and sets her off on a trip through her past.

Kes starts rolling back in time. She doesn't remember any of her past memories, only the future ones she's bringing back with her. None of this is totally clear to her or the viewer until she's made several time jumps.

In Kes' past (which is actually a future to the current Voyager time), she'd married Tom. They have a daughter who is full grown and who has married Harry Kim. The daughter and Harry have a teenage son.

Some of what Kes learns is startling. Janeway and Torres were both killed at the beginning of the "Year of Hell." Kes eventually gets back to the "Year of Hell" where she encounters the torpedo that gave the radiation overdose which caused her time trip. She specifically needs to know the frequencies the torpedo used to get through Voyager's shields.

She continues to roll back in time, past her birth and all the way to her conception. She then begins rolling forward to "Voyager time." The Doctor puts her in a bio chamber and purges the radiation out of her system. Care is taken in dealing with Kes' knowledge of the future. She won't share this with anyone since she claims it's only a possible version of future events.

Good advice since Kes will leave the show at the beginning of the next season and won't be around for the "Year of Hell." That story line will be filmed but she won't be there for it. She'll also never marry Tom. Never have a daughter to marry Harry…moreless
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a time travel episode to explain Jennifer Lien's new haircut!

9.1

By cage2377, Sep 09, 2008

Total Brilliance! the 'what if' episode

Every star trek series does one of these episodes, Before and After might be one of the best!

We have never had someone watching their life in reverse before, travelling backwards through time and then forward again.

the only problem with this episode is that Kes goes into 'the year of hell' which will be an upcoming episode, when she returns to the present she warns the crew about a future race called the krenim and tuvok agrees to gather any information he can on them so Voyager will be ready to face them if the crew comes across them in the future ...however that scene seemed pointless because 12 episodes later when Voyager does meet the Krenim every seems to have forgotten what Kes said...hell...they don't even recognise the name

weird reallymoreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Robert Picardo	The Doctor
Kate Mulgrew	Captain Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran	Commander Chakotay
Roxann Dawson	Lt. B'Elanna Torres
Jennifer Lien	Kes
Ethan Phillips	Neelix

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Jessica Collins	Linnis Paris	Guest Star
Michael L. Maguire	Arnis	Guest Star
Janna Michaels	Young Kes	Guest Star

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (4)
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- Trivia: By season four's "The Gift", it becomes apparent that the events in this episode never took place, due to timeline changes which are (somewhat implicitly) explained in "Year Of Hell".
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- Trivia: One of very few episodes in which The Doctor has a name (Van Gogh, and also Mozart at one jump), and the only one in which he has hair.
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- Nitpick: In the future, Tom is a Lieutenant Commander, but The Doctor addresses him as simply "Lieutenant", even though Lieutenant Commanders are usually addressed as "Commander".
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- Goof: During the first scene where Kes is explaining her situation to the crew in the observation lounge, The Doctor is there, but he is not wearing his mobile emitter. However, in the second observation lounge scene, he is.
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QUOTES (4)
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- Neelix: (referring to Kes' birthday cake) You know, I haven't made one of these since... well, since I became a security officer.
  Tuvok: Perhaps you would care to relinquish your commission, and return to the scene of your former triumphs.
  Neelix: Keep working on that sense of humor, Commander Vulcan. You'll get it one of these days.
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- Neelix: So, I'm going to become a security officer. How about that!
  Tuvok: Fortunately Mr. Neelix, what Kes has been describing is merely one possible future. On each occasion that she jumped to a previous time, her subsequent actions most likely altered the future from that moment on.
  Neelix: Good point, Tuvok. Maybe I'll turn out to be Chief Security Officer.
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- Paris: Yeah, Kes, tell us what you know.
  Chakotay: Careful Tom, you may find out that you leave Voyager only to join a monastery.
  Kim: Hey, give him some credit. I'll bet he gets married and has a family.
  Paris: Thank you.
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- Kim: So how does it feel to be a grandfather?
  Paris: A lot better than it does to have you for a son-in-law.
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NOTES (1)
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- The temporal variance of the chronoton torpedo is 1.47mcs.
  
  Writer Joe Menosky (and those he inspired)began including references to the number 47 in almost every episode of Star Trek since season four of The Next Generation. It is an in-joke, referring to The 47 Society at Pomona College in California, which Menosky attended.
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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