The Final Mission...

[BillJ]

As we all know, there was no finale to TOS in live action, no end of the five year mission. Though there are numerous ends created by novels, comics, video games and fan films.

Which are some of everyone's favorites? I know of a few, I'm hoping to learn about more.

My personal favorite is DC Comics Annual #2 (first run), "The Final Mission". Complete with Klingons, a return to Talos IV and having Will Decker along for the ride. By Mike Barr and Dan Jurgens.

 

[Commander Troi]

I always cry at the end of VI when the casts' signatures come on.

 

[Bynar0110]

Not sure if they considered final mission or not but I like the can in my head Cannon the games Star Trek 25th anniversary and Star Trek judgment rites.

 

[Poltargyst]

I always cry at the end of VI when the casts' signatures come on.

I hate the final episode of anything.

 

[Firebird]

I hate to say it in the wake of the Migogna of it all, but I still like Star Trek Continues' treatment of the 5YM's ending.

 

[publiusr]

Errand of Mercy would have been a good “last episode.”

New voice-over narration could have all the different Earth-like planets be in one TRAPPIST type system pointing towards it being manipulated—all the Klingon episodes near the end—then “Errand.”

For the 32 Century, transporters replace starships eventually…

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Errand of Mercy would have been a good “last episode.”

New voice-over narration could have all the different Earth-like planets be in one TRAPPIST type system pointing towards it being manipulated—all the Klingon episodes near the end—then “Errand.”

For the 32 Century, transporters replace starships eventually…

Yes, in some ways Errand would have been better as the final TOS klingon story.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

My personal favorite is DC Comics Annual #2 (first run), "The Final Mission". Complete with Klingons, a return to Talos IV and having Will Decker along for the ride. By Mike Barr and Dan Jurgens.

Same here. "The Final Mission" is the first "End of the 5YM" story I read, and it's still my favorite. Harkening back to Captain Pike and the Talosians was the perfect mission to go out on, and it was cool to finally see what the Talosians were worried about when they said that humans could learn their power of illusion when we see what the Klingons do with it.

I also like how the story sets up why Decker got the Enterprise after Kirk, Kirk and Decker becoming friendly, why Kirk decided to take a desk job at Starfleet Operations, why Spock decided to pursue the Kolinahr, and why McCoy decided to retire from Starfleet. And I really love that last grace note of taking the bridge diagram of the Enterprise as a souvenir.

There are bits from the other versions that I like too, though. There was a nice moment in J.M. Dillard's The Lost Years novel where the bridge crew applauds Kirk after the ship pulls back into Spacedock on Earth. Kirk holds up his hand and says, "Not for me. For those who didn't make it make with us." And then the crew applauds again, and this time Kirk joins in. That bit has always stuck with me.

I hate to say it in the wake of the Migogna of it all, but I still like Star Trek Continues' treatment of the 5YM's ending.

Yeah, I only watched a little bit of Star Trek Continues before I found out what scummy guy VM is, and I can't really watch it any more without having all that stuff in my head. Too bad, because I bet I would've found stuff to enjoy.

 

[BillJ]

Same here. "The Final Mission" is the first "End of the 5YM" story I read, and it's still my favorite. Harkening back to Captain Pike and the Talosians was the perfect mission to go out on, and it was cool to finally see what the Talosians were worried about when they said that humans could learn their power of illusion when we see what the Klingons do with it.

Personally, my favorite bit is when the Klingons make Kirk relive the loss of Edith Keeler. Uh, bad move.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Personally, my favorite bit is when the Klingons make Kirk relive the loss of Edith Keeler. Uh, bad move.

Oh yeah, that's EPIC!

Mike W. Barr has a knack for filling in continuity gaps like that. I also love his version of the first mission under Kirk's command in Star Trek Annual #1.

Barr also did a cool version of Doc Savage's first meeting with the Fabulous Five in DC's Doc Savage Annual #1 that I prefer to Philip José Farmer's version in his novel Escape From Loki. (Even though the concept of Doc meeting his friends at an escape-proof German prison during WWI was something that PJF came up with in the first place. Farmer was not happy that Barr beat him to the punch on that.)

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Didn't we have a thread somewhere on the BBS where we tried to list all the different versions of the end of Kirk's 5YM in various media? In TrekLit, maybe? I just tried searching for it but I'm not having any luck so far.

 

[Frontis]

For me The Undiscovered Country was the perfect end for TOS.

 

[I am not Herbert]

Didn't we have a thread somewhere on the BBS where we tried to list all the different versions of the end of Kirk's 5YM in various media? In TrekLit, maybe? I just tried searching for it but I'm not having any luck so far.

Yes, I have a vague recollection that it came up in the somewhat fraught discussions about "canon consistency" within TrekLit, and I believe someone listed all the various ways in which the end of the original 5YM has been dramatized. I don't think anyone's mentioned that @Christopher included his own version as part of Ex Machina, although at least so far (I am presently halfway in) it is only recounted in retrospect. (I heartily recommend the book btw)

My lukewarm take: part of why TOS exerts a unique hold over some folks' imaginations (like mine) all these years later is that no ending was ever shown in the series itself, allowing some small part of our brain to feel like they're still out there, boldly goin'

That said, I did a more or less complete watch-through of the series over the past few years with my kids and a legitimate sense of melancholy did hit me at the end of Turnabout Intruder. And not just because I knew I was staring down the barrel of a 45 minute+ conversation about outdated gender norms

 

[F. King Daniel]

Tbh, I haven't found any of them to be worthy final missions, except maybe the amazing "Crossroad" but even that is NEAR the end, not the actual end.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I don't think anyone's mentioned that @Christopher included his own version as part of Ex Machina, although at least so far (I am presently halfway in) it is only recounted in retrospect.

Yeah, as I recall, Christopher based his version of the end of Kirk's 5YM on the references in the VOY episode where Icheb was doing a report on "early Starfleet history."

My lukewarm take: part of why TOS exerts a unique hold over some folks' imaginations (like mine) all these years later is that no ending was ever shown in the series itself, allowing some small part of our brain to feel like they're still out there, boldly goin'

Yeah, I agree. There are still lots of unknown things about the TOS characters even after all these years that have never been established in canon (although SNW is chipping away at those). By the end of TNG, we knew so much about those characters I was pretty bored with a lot of them.

Tbh, I haven't found any of them to be worthy final missions, except maybe the amazing "Crossroad" but even that is NEAR the end, not the actual end.

What is "Crossroad"? A novel? A comic? A fan film? I'm not familiar.

 

[BillJ]

What is "Crossroad"? A novel? A comic? A fan film? I'm not familiar.

Same.

 

[BillJ]

This was the only thing I came up with searching for 'Star Trek Crossroad'...

Amazon.com: Crossroad (Star Trek: The Original Series Book 71) eBook : Hambly, Barbara: Kindle Store

 

[F. King Daniel]

Thats the one, a novel by Barbera Hambly about a ship from a very messed up future coming back to the present. It was the first time to my knowledge "the Federation turns dark as coal" was ever done in official media. And part of the story is the TOS crew deciding what to do when the 5-year mission is over.

 

[somebuddyX]

I wonder what a final episode of Star Trek would really have looked like. I keep thinking it would have just been another episode but maybe some nod right at the end that it was a finale. I thought about what other genre shows did as final episodes and looked up Batman, Lost in Space and Mission: Impossible and if I got it right only the first ended and the other two got cancelled, and the Batman finale looks like it has no real finality to it.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Tbh, I haven't found any of them to be worthy final missions, except maybe the amazing "Crossroad" but even that is NEAR the end, not the actual end.

I am also not a fan of finales. A big, change-everything story with no reset in Act IV can mess up my headspace for the reruns. Knowing "It's Over" does nothing to keep me living in the premise.

It may surprise some to hear that ENT "These are the Voyages" was not the worst finale of all time. That honor goes to Xena: Warrior Princess. I loved the series, but the finale was wretched and all but destroyed enthusiasm for the show.

If a series is rerun worthy and people will watch it for years afterward, it doesn't need an ending.