No proper ending --- good thing, bad thing?

[JonnyQuest037]

Anyways, personally, I like to think of TMP as a sort of series finale. It's closer tonally and chronologically (in that it's set only a couple of years after the 5YM, but it's another ten years till TWOK).

I disagree. TMP is much closer in tone to 2001: A Space Odyssey than TOS, IMO. Except for a couple of lines from Dr. McCoy, humor is nonexistent in TMP. It's missing that essential quality of FUN that always made Star Trek so special to me.

Plus, even though TMP only takes place 2 1/2 years after TOS, all the actors were 10 years older. And, except for George Takei & Nichelle Nichols, they all looked it. It makes it really tough for me to suspend my disbelief, timeline-wise. Fortunately, by the time TWOK rolled around, everyone had the sense to let the fictional timeline catch up with real one, and everyone was playing something close to their actual ages.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I would have hated an "ending" for TOS. They were not in any kind of dilemma nor did they have any overarching problem(s) to resolve as part of the premise of the series.

Of course, I don't give a fuck about "story arcs" either. If you don't have the discipline to tell a gripping story with a beginning, a middle and an end in the hour I'm giving you today then don't bother asking me to come back week after week.

And I dislike how people with short attention spans make it so I can't watch shows with stories that unfold over time...

My attention span is just fine - I'm impatient with the dilatory, prolix writing that seems to impress a lot of fans of shows like B5, though.

If you "can't watch" certain shows because they get cancelled in midstream, it's more likely that they're not nearly as entertaining hour-by-hour as they need to be for people with lots of other choices to stay with them.

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

A TOS finale like TNG's "All Good Things..." would have been great. It closed out a significant chapter in the TNG crews' lives, but it didn't definitively say that the story was over.

So since TNG's "All Good Things..." was a continuation of the Q judging humanity that started in the pilot episode "Encounter at Far Point" are you saying you would have liked to have seen a TOS Finale of the Enterprise going to Delta Vega to deal with the resurrected Gary Mitchel, to try to cure him or kill him once and for all? Say for example, Trelane, resurrected Gary. The Enterprise stops by Talos 4, Ambassador Sarek and Spock request their help on behalf of the UFP. The Talosians agree and the Enterprise beams up some Talosians. Once they get to Delta Vega the Talosians create illusions to confuse Gary long enough for McCoy to drug Gary with sedatives. They take Gary back to Talos 4 and when he awakes he is living a Talosian illusion but is not aware of it. While at Talos 4 Spock could visit Captain Pike and Vina. This finale would revisit and tie to together both TOS pilot episodes.

I am asking all fans, not just Milo Bloom, for their opinion about this finale. Is this the type of TOS Finale you would have wanted?


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[Nerys Myk]

Nah, because TOS wasn't that type of show.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I am asking all fans, not just Milo Bloom, for their opinion about this finale. Is this the type of TOS Finale you would have wanted?

As I said earlier, Kirk and McCoy meeting their predecessors - Robert and Sarah April - and hearing a few snippets of how things used to be done. And the Aprils and a youthful Spock saving the day. The last episode of TAS makes a great finale. (Yet another "passing the baton" theme, which ST did so well for many of its premieres and finales.)

 

[T'Bonz]

I rather enjoyed the card-playing finale of All Good Things. The feeling at the end of that series was they continued on to new and fun adventures. It freed imagination.

Ditto for the end of STVI. To me, that was the fitting finale to the original Star Trek. They were off, to go on new missions. We wouldn't be along to see them, but our imaginations could write endless stories.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I didn't and don't want any kind of TOS finale.

 

[plynch]

I rather enjoyed the card-playing finale of All Good Things. The feeling at the end of that series was they continued on to new and fun adventures. It freed imagination.

Ditto for the end of STVI. To me, that was the fitting finale to the original Star Trek. They were off, to go on new missions. We wouldn't be along to see them, but our imaginations could write endless stories.

Would that Generations could have left well enough alone, and just give us a TNG flick.

 

[plynch]

I think also the chances of selling a series into syndication were thought to be improved by not having a finale, so that the syndicating stations could run the show every weekday in an endless loop.

IIRC, the final episode of "The Time Tunnel" had the beginning of the Titanic episode (#1) tacked onto the end for syndication, creating an endless loop, as befitting a TV series about time travel.

smart -- except I don't remember seeing time tunnel in syndication. Cool move nevertheless.

 

[Anji]

They shouldn't have made an ending. I know it sounds hokey but an ending would only prevent them from living on in our imaginations.

 

[Warped9]

An ending would have felt like, "The story is done." I liked how it felt like they were still finding adventures out there.