Star Trek: Enterprise -[Final Mission]- Stardate:503150. Final Log

[wingsandsword]

I didn't mention it at first, but I'll also agree that not hearing the speech (at least the beginning of it) was a big let down too. They built up right before that to it being important with Troi mentioning she had to memorize the speech in grade school, making it seem like the Federation's version of the Gettysburg Address. I was excited to hear what might be said, some opening phrase that might be the Star Trek equivalent of "Four Score and Seven Years ago. . .". Maybe him just saying "Space, the final frontier. . ." establishing why that was such an important phrase for the Federation, just like "where no man has gone before" was a quote from Zephram Cochrane which they established in the pilot. Fading out on him making that speech, or some delegates signing the Charter, or some other historic moment would have been cool. I felt a little betrayed when the episode began to fade out on Picard's voice-over. Sure it segued through Kirk and Archer, but the mood of an Enterprise finale was ruined with all that.

"These are the Voyages" wasn't an episode of Enterprise, it was an episode of Next Generation made 10 years later with an entire second cast as guest stars. All the dramatic tension of the episode by it being a holodeck scene. You know exactly how the frame story with Riker goes, and there's no real dramatic tension with the Enterprise crew. The real dramatic tension of the effective finale of 18 years of televised Trek was a story about a kidnapped Andorian little girl?

I also realized that the last episode had to include the decommissioning of Enterprise NX-01, the only way B&B crammed it into continuity without breaking too much was that it wasn't a Federation ship, since Enterprise-D was many times said to be the fifth Federation Starship to bear the name. I also wonder how long until a fan produces a "Phantom Edit" style version of The Pegasus with the two episodes edited together in chronological order.

I guess it could have been worse for a TNG crossover ending. The series could have ended with a voice-over from Riker going "Computer, end program", the entire ship fading to a holodeck, Riker muttering something about amusing alternate-history holodeck programs and walking out.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I agree with others who feel that the first hour's episode would have made a much better ending to the series than the second hour. Hadn't made the connection with the "Pegasus" episode of TNG until it was mentioned here (though it did clear up the confusion over why Riker wasn't in command of his own ship, and Data was still alive)- it would have been a much better idea, IMO, to have Captain Riker struggling with some command decision, and needing to reflect on a similar decision of Captain Archer than this one did. In either case, it was never quite clear to me exactly what it was that Riker was hoping to learn from this "lesson" (that sometimes doing things for friends can cost the lives of other friends? That Archer should have stuck with his orders so that Trip would live? I dunno). Didn't like the "let's kill Trip off for no apparent reason, except maybe so we won't have to explain why he and T'Pol didn't eventually have another kid". So many problems with that (how'd the intruders get aboard Enterprise so suddenly? How'd they manage to not encounter anyone on the ship prior to meeting Trip and Archer? Why'd Trip decide that the only solution to the problem was to blow himself and the enemy up?)

The worst part was the throwaway line by Troi- "It's too bad he didn't realize he wouldn't be coming back from Rigel." Gee- way to telegraph the entire rest of the episode.

Not to mention that, in 5 years, nothing else had changed with the crew. I swear, T'Pol seemed like she was back in Season 1 in this ep, and we get more of the "I love you, no I don't, yes I do, no I don't" garbage with her and Trip.

Terra Prime was definitely a better finale. Anyway, the last couple of seconds, with the three generations of Enterprise commanders speaking those famous lines was cool.

 

[Wycen]

I agree with the majority, weak finale. I however did enjoy the TNG connection, possibly because when I flipped back to the channel after the second ep of Terra Prime, the cable guide said, "Riker faces a dark secret" and I surprised myself figuring out the secret as soon as I saw the asteroid field.

I had been hoping to see a warp 7 vessel, but oh well.

 

[Greylock]

I stopped loving Star Trek today.

Taped it and just finished watching it. That's about the biggest F.U. to a show's fans I've ever seen.

Terra Prime was quite dandy and a fine close to the series. These are The Voyages was an homage to ST:TNG, a show I hated with a passion from day one. Enterprise was the only reason I came back.

It's over. That's it as far as I'm concerned.

From the kid making paper communicaters in 3rd grade PE in 1973.

 

[John Crichton]

The Terra Prime second half was enjoyable. Not great, but not bad either. Sato's command was the highlight for me. I always love seeing lower ranking officers put in positions like that and having their mettle tested.

The finale: WTF

Many others have already made good points that I agree with above. The ep was basically well done and looked great with some cool TNG moments but the writing was terrible. The plotting was half-baked and the whole ep felt like the writers sat behind the keyboard snickering while thinking...

"Teehee! We'll tease the fans with all this cool proto-Federation stuff, toss in some nostalgia from the late 80s and then fade to black just before all the good parts! And to top it all off, we're going to throw all pretense of drama out the window and just ram the holo-story and fate of the crew down the fans throats. What fun!"

Seeing the starships cross with the voiceovers and such at the end was neat, and the TNG stuff was fun. It most certainly did not feel like and wasn't an ENT episode and the worst part was that it was designed that way. If that was supposed to be a love letter than someone was drunk while writing it. I think I even smelled some barf in there...

*sigh*

Not only did the holodeck suck completely as a plot device and storytelling method it is terribly hard to believe that any of those intimate moments would have been archived like that in holodeck form. Sure, there would have been crew logs and such but as a viewer it takes you completely out of the moment because you don't know if that is what really happened or not. All the stuff on Enterprise would have to have been reconstructed. The only thing that would have been accurate would have been Archers speach which we didn't even get to see. Normally, I can look past stuff like this but it all just felt terribly fake and contrived.

The one thing this season has proved: If you give this franchise to people who really care and have some concept of what Trek is than it can really be entertaining. Yes, the finale was a train wreck but the season as a whole was a smashing success and should be remembered as such. It gives me faith for the future. I don't see this as the death of Trek at all. It's simply the end of a flawed series.

I'll leave further speculation on the franchise's future for another thread.

 

[Seonaid]

I haven't watched Enterprise since season one, and like many others I tuned in last night to watch.

Boy am I glad that I'm not the only one who is horribly disappointed. I don't have anything to add to what was said except a lot of "me too" (especially with Trip's death and Hoshi's command, plus the NG focus), but I do have one question:

In "Terra Prime," what was up with the weapon missing and hitting the bay? If they had been monitoring Trip's changes, wouldn't they presumably then fix any sabotage he committed? And even if I can buy the fact that he's soooo slick that he could fool all of them, I don't at all buy the fact that hitting the bay rendered it completely harmless. A weapon that powerful and with that much potential drilling into the bay would not just fry some fish and evaporate a little water.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Very Disappointing.

Why combine an unremarkable TNG episode with an out-og-place ENT episode? Where are all the other future characters. What does the Pegasus have to do with this episode? How in the world did violent aliens get aboard so easily? What happened to the signing of the charter? If they're closing out all of Trek, why not an homage to DS9 or even VOY? Even a line "What you leave behind..." would have been nice.

Most importantly, why did B&B write this?

 

[Villano]

I've said on these boards that I don't get UPN, but that I really wanted to see the series. After reading this thread, I don't want to anymore.

BTW, wasn't Enterprise supposed to answer the Klingon forehead question? Did they?

 

[Torm]

If they're closing out all of Trek, why not an homage to DS9 or even VOY?

Someone DID say "endgame", which was the name of Voyager's final episode.

 

[Ahnehnois]

But not even a nod to DS9. Hmm. That was both the best series, but also the one that the writers of this episode were least involved with (excluding obviously the original) Coincidence?