Episode 80

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Okay, so we all know that TOS ended with an episode that didn't really feel like a final episode. (Don't spoil it for me, I haven't seen it, but I know it was abrupt.) And TAS, though it is basically accepted as the end of the 5YM, also ends on an episode that doesn't really have much closure; it could have taken place any time in the series and there would be no difference.

So how would you have done the unmade episode 80 of Star Trek? Would you have had crew consider transfers/next steps? Would you have a groundbreaking two hour episode where lives change and stakes are raised? Or would you have one of those warm, "we're all just one big happy family" moments? (Except Ensign Gromweiler. Nobody loves Ensign Gromweiler - until the blood-sucking unicorns get him. Then it's boo hoo for five minutes until Kirk cracks a joke and gets everybody laughing again).

Or are "final episodes" overrated? Would you rather just end it on an ambiguous note, i.e. there's the possibility for unlimited adventures out there - engage warp drive!"

 

[UnknownSample]

I would want a science fiction idea I would not be capable of thinking up myself, so I can't answer the question...

 

[Galileo7]

Since the entire 22 episodes of TAS completed the five year mission began on TOS, I would want it set in 2270. The five year mission done and the 1701 returning to drydock for it's planned eighteen month refit. Kirk and crew celebrate the success of their mission and decide their next move. 2270 or slightly after, Kirk would be promoted to Admiral...Spock deciding to leave Starfleet returns to Vulcan...McCoy leaves Starfleet...Chapel becomes doctor...

 

[retroenzo]

Something similar to TNG's finale would be how I would do it. I don't mean the time travel stuff, but the last scene is very poignant when Picard joins them for the poker game. There was nothing final about it because as far as they were concerned, they were continuing their mission. And they were, but of course their next big adventure involved the destruction of the Enterprise.

DS9 and Voyager both had specific storylines which were both wrapped up in their last episodes (Voyager got home and the Dominion War ended resulting in the crew going their separate ways).

They could very well have had an extra scene at the end of Turnabout Intruder similar to the end of All Good Things where Kirk and co had a scene together celebrating future missions together.

 

[Galileo7]

Something similar to TNG's finale would be how I would do it. I don't mean the time travel stuff, but the last scene is very poignant when Picard joins them for the poker game. There was nothing final about it because as far as they were concerned, they were continuing their mission.....

They could very well have had an extra scene at the end of Turnabout Intruder similar to the end of All Good Things where Kirk and co had a scene together celebrating future missions together.

Agree.

 

[ItIsGreen]

Since the opening V/O specifically stated a 5-year mission, I would have liked to have seen TOS see those 5 years out to the end. 5 seasons of the show, taking us up to 1971, production-wise. Series ends with the Enterprise returning to Earth for the first time in the entire series. Big emotional moment for all the human crew... they've made it home. Spock looks on in bemusement. A sombre moment as they remember those who didn't make it back. The final scene after the Enterprise docks for a refit based on all they've learned during the 5 years, is a reception for the crew at Starfleet HQ where someone asks what's next, and Kirk comments there's plenty more 'out there'.

This can lead into Phase II, taking place a year or 2 later, with a refitted Enterprise (based on Jeffries' initial refit concept drawings), maybe with a little shake-up of the crew - some have been promoted, some have moved on to other assignments and we have new characters in their place. Kirk is still a captain. We have the benefit of improved effects and budget, so the show looks a little sleeker. New uniforms etc - a refinement of the TOS costumes, rather than a complete replacement. And a new 5 year mission...

TAS can still happen, but rather than being taken as the final 2 years of the mission, can represent 'unseen' adventures that happened between the original TOS episodes.

 

[johnnybear]

The only reason it didn't feel like a final episode was that it wasn't meant to be! It was still hoped they'd be back next year with another series! And if you're not happy with it being the last show change the order in which you watch them, it works for me every time!
JB

 

[Galileo7]

The only reason it didn't feel like a final episode was that it wasn't meant to be! It was still hoped they'd be back next year with another series! And if you're not happy with it being the last show change the order in which you watch them, it works for me every time!
JB

True. Star Trek did continue without that fourth season. We got much more TAS, TMP and all the other films & series.

Other science-fiction series were not so fortunate because they did get renewed, so no final episode was filmed because of that. Unfortunately, the renewal was terminated:
Lost In Space(1965-68) was renewed for a fourth season '68-'69, then canceled before production began.
Space:1999(1975-77) was renewed for a third season '77-'78, then canceled before production began.
These two franchises have not had the longevity of Star Trek's many films & tv series either.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

A big series finale is not always a good thing. I remember being crazy about XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS until the finale, which ruined the show for me. It destroyed the feel-good aspect of XENA and made the whole series pointless, and I never stayed around for the re-runs or bought the DVDs. Someday I'll want to go back to that show, but I'll never like how it ended.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER was another amazingly good series that was poorly served by an over-ambitious and premise-wrecking finale.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Since the entire 22 episodes of TAS completed the five year mission began on TOS, I would want it set in 2270. The five year mission done and the 1701 returning to drydock for it's planned eighteen month refit. Kirk and crew celebrate the success of their mission and decide their next move. 2270 or slightly after, Kirk would be promoted to Admiral...Spock deciding to leave Starfleet returns to Vulcan...McCoy leaves Starfleet...Chapel becomes doctor...

If you haven't read this, you probably should:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Final_Voyage

Basically has all the ingredients you ask for.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Or are "final episodes" overrated? Would you rather just end it on an ambiguous note, i.e. there's the possibility for unlimited adventures out there - engage warp drive!"

Final episodes are best when they're not "final". All Good Things was good. Angel did a good job. So did Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. This is in stark contrast to the *final* episodes of DS9, Voyager, Enterprise and Buffy or Xena (not that all those were bad, just not my preference). One type (that I prefer) has a big spectacular, but doesn't end the story or status quo. The other ends it permanently, usually in dramatic fashion.

The Original Series did not have a final episode. It had Turnabout Intruder as the final produced and aired episode of Star Trek. And it aired in the summer on a different night, almost three months after any other episode of Star Trek, due to President Eisenhower's death. So most people didn't even expect to see another Star Trek episode ever, especially at a weird time and place. If you go by stardate, All Our Yesterdays (produced and aired before Turnabout Intruder) is the last episode of TOS.

The Animated Series didn't have a final episode either. Four of the movies (II, III, IV, VI) all showed a sense of finality while offering up unseen "continuing voyages" for the Enterprise crew to come. So they can each serve as series finales to the classic series, in movie form (if you ignore later works).

 

[Kor]

A mission that has ambiguous results, with some kind of success, but not the kind that Starfleet wanted, resulting in extensive damage to the ship that necessitates a refit, as well as bumping Kirk up to the admiralty where he can be a desk jockey and not do any more damage.

Kor

 

[Stevil2001]

Kirk orders Sulu to lay in a new course, and then turns to Spock and says, "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Spock, we've got work to do!"

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Is that a literature reference?

 

[DeepSpaceYorks]

Is that a literature reference?

It's the final speech Sylvester McCoy gave as the Doctor in the final Doctor Who story, Survival. Just replace Spock with Ace. It's a beautiful speech written by Andrew Cartmel and delivered as a voice over by McCoy as they learned they were cancelled/put on indefinite hiatus after the original closing speech had been recorded.

 

[johnnybear]

If you haven't read this, you probably should:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Final_Voyage

Basically has all the ingredients you ask for.

Funny that as DC did a comic with Spock going back to Talos IV to find Klingons have attacked the planet and Vina and Pike have a real life child! Set in the TMP era as well!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Kirk orders Sulu to lay in a new course, and then turns to Spock and says, "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Spock, we've got work to do!"

Then maybe it was The Doctor who said that is illogical more than fifty times and please state your name for the record amongst other things, Stev?
JB

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If you haven't read this, you probably should:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Final_Voyage

Basically has all the ingredients you ask for.

So, a clip show + Klingon framing sequences a la "The Menagerie"?

A mission that has ambiguous results, with some kind of success, but not the kind that Starfleet wanted, resulting in extensive damage to the ship that necessitates a refit, as well as bumping Kirk up to the admiralty where he can be a desk jockey and not do any more damage.

With him and the senior staff sharing drinks and all the others assuring Kirk he'll get a ship again someday....

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The only reason it didn't feel like a final episode was that it wasn't meant to be! It was still hoped they'd be back next year with another series! And if you're not happy with it being the last show change the order in which you watch them, it works for me every time!
JB

I was going more for what you'd want an intentional ending to be. But given Trek's nature, (how many other '60s TV shows are they still writing tie-in novels for these days?), it never really ends, does it?

 

[Tim Thomason]

Kirk orders Sulu to lay in a new course, and then turns to Spock and says, "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Spock, we've got work to do!"

Seems a good enough reason for Spock to send a report to Starfleet and get the Captain reassigned. Classic space psychosis.