20 years ago tonight the Enterprise finale aired. So....what's your opinion two decades on?

[Candleicious Ghost]

Oh man.. without spoiling..

Let's say nearly a decade of buildup didn't lead to anything substantial and insulted the fans in the process as well.

Ok that's bad so no real story payoff either from what I have read. Also some kind of interview that annoyed fans

 

[Dukhat]

TATV > "Turnabout Intruder".

I don’t think Turnabout Intruder was ever envisioned as TOS’s series finale.

 

[Aragorn]

I liked Enterprise but I know there were a lot of bad episodes, a lot of interesting premises they failed to deliver on, a lot of characters they short changed, and a lot of possibilities they never even bothered with. Yet after it ended, knowing there wasn't another Star Trek show coming next season, I just felt empty inside for a while.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

TATV > "Turnabout Intruder".

Not for me, heavens no. "Turnabout Intruder" had characters we recognized, which The Thing did not have. I loved how the senior officers rallied around Kirk (his consciousness in Janice) despite the risk, that was the crew I always loved. Contrast that with Hoshi whining about bad seats at the memorial, rather than the loss of her good friend. I mean, Trip who? Yuck. And Shatner did an amazing performance despite being really ill with the flu. The idea that women can't command starships aged pretty badly, sure, but Janice did seriously have a lot of self-hatred that was pathological, so she certainly could not have been a captain under any circumstances. When I watch TOS I forgive them for writing stories that reflected the view of the times; they made up for it with a lot of visionary concepts and really great drama. But The Thing, it was just a horrible lazy phone-it-in affront to anyone who ever had good feelings about ENT and its characters.

I suppose Gene could have engineered a better "final" show, since everyone saw the writing on the wall after the Friday timeslot and crappy ratings. But it could have been worse. I mean, what if "The Alternative Factor" had been the unintended series finale? Or "Spock's Brain"?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I don’t think Turnabout Intruder was ever envisioned as TOS’s series finale.

That's right. I've never read that it was conceived as such. It just literally was the last episode.

 

[Set Harth]

Seinfeld's finale is both very underwhelming and was a disappointment back in 1998 and the perfect way to end a series about four raging narcissists who can only focus on the things that will bring themselves joy and gain. It's not an objectively great series finale from the creativity and pushing-the-envelope standpoints, but it's still about the only way those characters could get their comeuppance after nine seasons of being such dysfunctional individuals.

My friend loved the jail ending and would go on about it at the bar.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Not for me, heavens no. "Turnabout Intruder" had characters we recognized, which The Thing did not have. I loved how the senior officers rallied around Kirk (his consciousness in Janice) despite the risk, that was the crew I always loved. Contrast that with Hoshi whining about bad seats at the memorial, rather than the loss of her good friend. I mean, Trip who? Yuck. And Shatner did an amazing performance despite being really ill with the flu. The idea that women can't command starships aged pretty badly, sure, but Janice did seriously have a lot of self-hatred that was pathological, so she certainly could not have been a captain under any circumstances. When I watch TOS I forgive them for writing stories that reflected the view of the times; they made up for it with a lot of visionary concepts and really great drama. But The Thing, it was just a horrible lazy phone-it-in affront to anyone who ever had good feelings about ENT and its characters.

I suppose Gene could have engineered a better "final" show, since everyone saw the writing on the wall after the Friday timeslot and crappy ratings. But it could have been worse. I mean, what if "The Alternative Factor" had been the unintended series finale? Or "Spock's Brain"?

I don't normally throw TOS episodes under the bus, but when I do... it's this one.

Hand on my heart, I think both "The Alternative Factor" and "Spock's Brain" are better episodes.

To really compete, we have to sink to the likes of "Plato's Stepchildren," "The Lights of Zetar," and "And the Children Shall Lead."

Yes, my opinion has changed over time. After seeing the similarities to Turnabout (1940), I find it really hard to excuse this phoned-in pile of tripe, especially with all of the other issues. At least with all of the other episodes under discussion, including TATV (a.k.a. The Thing ) some effort was being made to do something original (AFAIK), not just take a preexisting idea, file off the serial numbers, mix it up with low effort, and pass it off. WTF is security even doing in the episode? Their mission is to protect the starship, not follow the captain off a cliff.

Anyway, I digress. I was just trying to interject a sort of, "Well, it could be worse," form of consolation, given that other series' finales were already under discussion. But, yeah, mileage varies, and that's OK.