I just watched the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Let me just come right out and say that I am so angry and disgusted that I don’t know where to begin. A while back Jolene Blalock (who plays T’Pol on the show) was quoted as saying that the final episode of Enterprise was “appalling”… Jolene, how right you were. What a sad, sad ending to a series that was just starting to find it’s voice. What a slap in the face to the cast and the fans of Enterprise. I can’t stop shaking my head in disbelief and the only conclusion I can come to is that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have truly come to hate Star Trek and it’s fans.
There, I’ve said it.
Up until the last couple of weeks I’ve given the benefit of the doubt to B&B, but no more. The awfulness of “These are the voyages…” (title of the series ender) was even more evident in that it was broadcast immediately after the “Terra Prime” episode, written by Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, authors of countless Star Trek novels and finally brought in this season as writers for the show. Sure, “Terra Prime” had some stuff in it that bugged the heck out of me, but overall it felt like Star Trek. It seemed like finally, with that episode characters that had been marginalized for 4 seasons came alive at last.
But then came the final episode…
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I had read bits here and there about the finale and the fact that it involved Riker, Troi, and a holodeck recreation of the Enterprise crew, but I didn’t want to spoil the episode for myself so I left it at that. I had read a lot of the reaction to the episode as well, but my thought was “Hey, go easy, you haven’t even seen it yet.” I had also read that the cast was (to put it mildly) unhappy with the episode and they didn’t feel it was about Enterprise.
I’m here to tell you those voices of outrage where on the money.
The difference between the Coto-helmed “Terra Prime” and Berman and Braga written “These are the voyages…” is absolutely jarring. In no uncertain terms it showed on the one hand why the show had finally become worthwhile and on the other why fans left it in droves and led to it’s cancellation.
And still Berman refuses to take responsibility in any way shape or form. He actually had the gall to refer to the episode as a “valentine for the fans”. What a load of crap. I don’t know about you, but I don’t recall anyone clamouring for the return of Will Riker, Deanna Troi or the Enterprise D.
I suppose I should get around to the specifics of the episode. It opens on the bridge of Enterprise 6 years after “Terra Prime”, and 10 years after the start of the show. The ship is going to be mothballed after 10 years of service, and is heading back to Earth for the signing of the declaration that is basically the founding of the Federation. Suddenly we see Will Riker on the ship and soon after that we realize that what we’ve been watching is a re-creation of events on a holodeck on the Enterprise D.
The episode ties in with something that happened during Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Riker had a crisis of conscience and was struggling with a decision. Apparently he felt the need to visit Archer’s Enterprise during a pivotal sequence of events in order to help him make the right decision. Immediately this marginalizes everything going on with Archer’s crew and makes the show about Riker. Seeing him pop up here and there on Enterprise is positively jarring and just feels COMPLETELY wrong.
As things progress we discover that Shran (the ever-excellent Jeffrey Combs) was thought dead for three years but has actually been in hiding with a wife and daughter. His daughter has been kidnapped and he demands Archer’s help in getting her back.
While we are watching this, they keep intercutting Riker and Troi on the Enterprise-D with what’s happening, and then when returning to Archer’s crew, skipping ahead to the parts that are relevant to Riker.
This leaves the story feeling rushed, choppy and disconnected. To add insult to injury, the cook aboard ship, who has been talked about over four seasons but never shown, and is all of a sudden is referred to as the crew’s confidant, is portrayed by… Riker.
I can just imagine the actors grinding their teeth during these scenes in the ship’s kitchen.
Here and there cute little comments are thrown out like Archer toasting and saying “Here’s to the next generation.” Ooooh, did that give you chills? Yeah, me neither.
But wait, there’s more… how about the death of Tripp just because, well, you know… killing someone will make the episode more interesting. You remember that is the same deep thought process that went into the death of Captain Kirk on some backwater planet.
By the end of this episode I was so thoroughly pissed that I could just spit. 
I can only hope to God that when the next iteration of Star Trek surfaces neither Berman nor Braga are let within 100 miles of the show. How Paramount continues to entrust this franchise to this pair defies logic to an extreme degree.
Oh well, I’ll always have classic Trek on DVD…
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36 Comments
Joanne, you’re quite sane. It was indeed awful.
Sad, ain’t it?
Vic
Just watched the last ep last night. I’ve spent three months watching the series, getting it from Netflix. I was a huge TNG fan as a kid. I had heard Enterprise was okay, but had some time-travel/continuity issues. I enjoyed the hell out of the series, with some small exceptions, until I hit the last one. Holy God, what a mess. It has compelled me to pick up The Good That Men Do, so I can pretend the whole “Trip was killed” thing didn’t happen. I hope that in the future, when someone else is in charge of this franchise, they do the right thing and announce publicly that Terra Prime is the last episode of Enterprise that is considered canon. I know I don’t consider this stinker canon.
Who but B & B could manage to weaken two series with one episode?
Oh flipping hell, i am Soooooo ANGRY!!!!!!!! I agree with everything thats been said on this site!!! Why kill Trip? Why turn him into such a WIMP!I could have chucked the tv out the window. The crew hardly seemed to notice Trip was dead!! After the last touching episode (Terra Prime), how could they have write that trash?? And why include Riker and Diana? Was it supposed to be a heartwarming episode tie?? - Far from it! it most certinaly did not work, completly intrusive, the worst bit of writing i ve even seen. It stank, and someday i hope somebody rewrites that final episode and does justice to the series. ABSOLUTE RUBBISH !!!!!!!
WOW is Riker FAT! They must have used five rolls of duct tape to get him in his uniform. And why was Troi needing to get back to Regg? Wasn’t she hot for Riker? Holodeck therapy? Lame.
Yes, the impressive speech Archer was to give would have required a ‘writer’ so it was chopped off. Lame.
Announcing Trip would never make it back to earth ahead of time and then actually have him die (not a plot twist like living on Vulcan or something). Lame.
Six years from previous episode and nothing has changed? Lame.
If they had left this episode out they could at least have made a movie if fans were vocal enough (like with Firefly/Serenity). Things had really started working well in Enterprise before this vomit inducing ‘valentine’.
I’m really hoping the new movie won’t be a disappointment. After all Sylar is Spock!
I have been too busy traveling internationally that I missed viewing any of the ST:E shows until the past year of reruns on SciFi and HDNET. I love it! . . . and I followed the original ST since the 60’s and then SNG as well. I actually liked ST:E the best! Why did it “fail?” In my opinion, it did not as so many are still watching in the reruns.
The only weak link was perhaps the Captain in about half the shows, but that was minor. I’ll continue to enjoy the show and hope to see a rebirth sans Berman and Braga. Trek on!
The serie started off so well. I watched the first two seasons with interest. Then came the Xindi saga… at first I found it interesting butit quickly started to drag on and to become very predictable, like the written were so out of ideas that they stretched that episode to its furthest limits. So much of ideas that they found nothing better than to “surprize” us with two episodes of an evil Enterprise (not even an original idea… see DS9 and evil Empress Kira). hat should have been a warning sign for what was to come with the final episode. Enough has been said about it here and I agree 100% (a suicidal Trip, later “reincarnated” and going God knows where), it was so disrespectful to all the characters, as if they were mere holographic material, even so they should have deserved more respect according to the Star Trek tradition (ask Robert Picardo what he’d have thought of that treatment). I didn’t find Terra Prime to original either, it was like a rerun of the Xindi thread, only the poignant Trip/T’pol relationship was worth watching. For once emotion ran high.
What a waste, that serie had so much potential. These writers should reimburse all the money they made and never be hired again…
I can’t believe I watched 97 episodes to get to that finale.
ugh.
Agreed, I wasn’t able to watch the original airing of Enterprise, and just finished them all in a couple of weeks. I was very disappointed with the finale.
I hope you’ll forgive me. I am not a die hard Enterprise fan. I come from the next generation generation and followed this through to DS9 and Voyager. I started watching Enterprise but gave up after a while, something about it just didn’t grab me.
However, despite this I did return for the finale after enjoying the last episodes of all previous encarnations OF Star Trek and my God! Even I was angry. As much I love Riker and Troi I was immediately surprised to se them on board to say the least. It went downhill from there. It seemed like it had been written in five minutes and completely disregarded almost anything that had happened on Enterprise before. What a massive disappointment it was as if the writers had heard that people didn’t care what happened and so thought “what the hell? We’ll just do what we like”
To all those angered fans - My heart goes out to you.
I just watched all 4 series and at first I thought, quantum leap, Sam beckett in star trek? it will never work, but i loved enterprise. when the 4th series was finished I went online and to my horror found that series 4 fianle was the last ep. come on!!! I skipped through most of it, it was that poor. and the TNG style ending give me a break we should be at least another 3/4 series before that. - rant over - RIP enteprise, i forget thee not.
Yes, this was the worst writing I have ever experienced in my life!!! We are actually suppposed to forget everything that happened over 4 years and believe this nonsense!!! It really is absolutely appalling. I am still in shock. I Netflixed these episodes after seeing TNG and was expecting a send off like that show received. I am definitely going to erase this ending in my memory and re-write my own. I feel for everyone involved. How can you take a dump in a box and then say’ “Merry Xmas, Trek fans!!!”
I avoided watching this show when it first came out because I didn’t like Scott Bakula as Capt. Archer. Then that fraking song in the intro had me shut off the tv immediately. Years later I was caught by the Xindi weapon being fired on Earth and watched the episode. I’ve been recording them ever since (so I can fast forward thru that intro). Thank God that Star Trek’s legacy lived on with awesome story telling. Tonight I saw what I thought may be the final epsidoe. I thought it was so poor by the end it couldn’t be the finale. My initial thoughts were bringing in Enterprise D was cool, but they could have made a better story line. Then; no speech at the end, kill off a main character and fumble thru a love story that took seasons to develop? - I don’t care what spin they put on it - this was disgraceful to the legacy and the industry. I ran to the computer to see if this was truly the final episode. I’ve never blogged before, but I just feel I have to do something - I am actually outraged by this. Why would you want piss off not only your colleauges, but the viewrs? Are these guys truly that inept or are they just lazy disrespectful jerks?! This must be one of the biggest disappointments in sci-fi history.
Well, I thought the last episode was wonderful, I am a huge fan of everything star trek and so should all be : ) I love when one show leads into the other and it brought a tear to my eye and made me proud to be a fan, sorry guys I guess i just feel differently .
Okay having completed this series much later (started watching when it was released, but never kept up with it until I borrowed the DVDs), I can say with confidence that “These Are The Voyages” is not Enterprise. I refuse to acknowledge an episode that is so inconsistent with the rest of the series (which was awesome!) and I totally agree with your analysis. ARGH… this makes me so angry too that it ended so poorly.
This was just bad writing of some flimsy ideas to attempt a dramatic ending. It felt like it was rushed and without a lot of thought towards a bigger story. Like it or not, this is part of Star Trek history now - I just wish this wasn’t also an example of poor story-telling.
I could never say I loved it just because it’s Star Trek, these guys have to be held accountable and critisized accordingly - otherwise it’ll just keep the same people circulating and producing more crap.
I’m glad to see the New Star Trek movie is picking up fans - all is not lost apparently.
B&B should have a restraining order placed on them, I was a late comer to the series, happened to catch it on HDNET, and loved it from episode 1. Not many TV series out there that I can say that about but, this was a rare gem. It captured my heart and mind both feeding me one dramatic episode after another. So when I read the information about the series finale episode, I to said nay…. how bad could it possibly be. Ughhh sadly it was pretty bad, it left a sinking feeling in my stomach the rest of the day. Viewers become emotianally invested with these characters, and when a series comes to halt the least the writers can do is send the series off with suitable “Bon Voyage”,noot a “Bon Voygood ridence”.
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