How would you fix the series finale?

[aquova]

I think the episode could be salvaged, but I would change wide swaths of it, and not make it the finale at all

If you want to do a TNG-crossover, move it earlier in the season. Make it just a regular episode where Riker and Troi are looking at an historical hologram of the NX Enterprise. I'm not sure you really need to set it during The Pegasus, Riker and Troi were slightly too old to be believable, and the framing device isn't really that important. You can still have Shran appear and request Archer's help with a secret rescue mission, but Trip's death shouldn't happen at all. Honestly, this episode might even be better in the third season rather than the fourth, which was already a bit too heavy handed on the callbacks. It would also fit the theme of "moral dilemma" better if set during the Xindi conflict.

I say either let Terra Prime be the finale (bit of a downer though..) or create a new episode that leaves the series on a high note. Trip and T'Pol bond over the death of their daughter and Archer still gives his big speech. You can have Phlox or Hoshi or someone leave the ship if you want a big goodbye moment. The issue I have with the finale, aside from them killing Trip off for shock value, is that they wanted it to be a goodbye to that era of the franchise, but went way too heavy-handed with it. You don't need Riker and Troi and the Enterprise-D literally on camera waving goodbye, this was a show set during a turbulent era made during turbulent times. Add some nuggets of hope for what we know to be a bright future ahead of them and the rest of the franchise.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

It might have been nice to have a proper TNG crossover at a point earlier on in season 2, when continuity was seeming a little shaky and people were questioning if the show was even going to lead into the TNG timeline. I mean time travel was built into the premise of the series, so they may as well have used it for something fun.

 

[FredH]

I would just use it as the jumping-off point for a fifth series that ended the series better.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Well, the only thing I'd change about the ENT-Finale, would be either not killing Trip or actually not doing a finale, but a season 4 cliffhanger, leading to a season 5, which would contain everything, we could read in the great Star Trek: Enterprise-Books, that dealt with season 5 and 6.

I think Trip died, because they realized they needed something "emotional" for the finale, and Riker checking out the holodeck adventure of NX-01's final mission, not so emotional.

A cliffhanger would be shitty, most of the audience aren't going to read novels to continue the show. They're just gonna be pissed off at no ending and nerd-rage on the internet. I'm so glad the show didn't TSCC us.

 

[CaptainCalvinCat]

Oh, Admiral, I think you misunderstood me - might've been a case of good old miscommunication, or I'm not as fluent in English, as I thought I'd be.^^

What I meant was: In the fixed version, Season 4 wasn't the last season. The last season would've been season 5 - which would have told the stories, that we later got as novels.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Oh, Admiral, I think you misunderstood me - might've been a case of good old miscommunication, or I'm not as fluent in English, as I thought I'd be.^^

What I meant was: In the fixed version, Season 4 wasn't the last season. The last season would've been season 5 - which would have told the stories, that we later got as novels.

Your English is fine, I just missed that you were intending for one more season.

Honestly, I would have loved one more season. Romulans, ship upgrades, Shran as a regular, more Mirror Universe, more Temporal Cold War, or at least the Sulliban, Future Guy, and Daniels anyway. The only S5 idea I didn't like was an origin for the Borg Queen, because it's just far too recent and just doesn't match the Borg as portrayed on TNG/VOY.

UPN wanted to cancel the show after S3. S4 only happened, because the studio slashed the budget and pushed hard for one more season, so they'd have about 100 episodes for reruns. It was always the final season before production started. UPN never had plan for S5. They were moving away from science-fiction and merged with The WB just one year later to create The CW.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well... The last episode of Discovery done it right in a way.

Junk Riker and the Holodeck, have the ship in 2161, everyone is promoted accordingly, some like maybe Reed and Mayweather come back from there own ship to be on the final cruise of the NX-01 to the signing of the Federation Compact on Vulcan, have a bit of exposition of the last 5 years abit, then show Archer give a big speach, T'Pol and Trip together with a son, Reed commanding his own ship, Hoshi a teacher a the Academy, stuff like that, no big thrills, just a soft "Our Characters are moving on" epsiode..

OR!

Time Jump to the Battle of Cheron, the last battle of the Romulan War, and show the Enterprise and the Fleet battle, big pop, and show the armistice, and federation founding in a long 2 hr episode, go out with a bang.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Well... The last episode of Discovery done it right in a way.

Junk Riker and the Holodeck, have the ship in 2161, everyone is promoted accordingly, some like maybe Reed and Mayweather come back from there own ship to be on the final cruise of the NX-01 to the signing of the Federation Compact on Vulcan, have a bit of exposition of the last 5 years abit, then show Archer give a big speach, T'Pol and Trip together with a son, Reed commanding his own ship, Hoshi a teacher a the Academy, stuff like that, no big thrills, just a soft "Our Characters are moving on" epsiode..

OR!

Time Jump to the Battle of Cheron, the last battle of the Romulan War, and show the Enterprise and the Fleet battle, big pop, and show the armistice, and federation founding in a long 2 hr episode, go out with a bang.

Casual viewers don't know about the Romulan war, so I don't think the 2nd idea would work.
I do love your first idea. Took me a minute to realize Junk Riker wasn't a slight against Frakes having put on some weight between 1994 and 2005. What would probably have been best would be drop the TNG holodeck thing and just focus on the flash forward: six years later, the NX-01's final mission.

 

[valkyrie013]

Casual viewers don't know about the Romulan war, so I don't think the 2nd idea would work.
I do love your first idea. Took me a minute to realize Junk Riker wasn't a slight against Frakes having put on some weight between 1994 and 2005. What would probably have been best would be drop the TNG holodeck thing and just focus on the flash forward: six years later, the NX-01's final mission.

Well if they put some money into the final episode, they could have made a 2 hour episode, and treat it like a movie, some exposition like, 2156 Romulans attacked Delta Vega, Starting the Romulan war, Vulcan attacked, 10 minute flashback of Earth being attacked by Romulans and Enterprise there fending them off, Time skip more exposition, final battle of Cheron, Enterprise nearly destroyed, frame bent like the Galactica last jump, then time jump last ride on the 01 to Vulcan, big speech etc. etc. Fill in some bits here and there. Could have worked. Romulans were teased through the series, bigly in Babel episode. Could have worked.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Well if they put some money into the final episode, they could have made a 2 hour episode, and treat it like a movie, some exposition like, 2156 Romulans attacked Delta Vega, Starting the Romulan war, Vulcan attacked, 10 minute flashback of Earth being attacked by Romulans and Enterprise there fending them off, Time skip more exposition, final battle of Cheron, Enterprise nearly destroyed, frame bent like the Galactica last jump, then time jump last ride on the 01 to Vulcan, big speech etc. etc. Fill in some bits here and there. Could have worked. Romulans were teased through the series, bigly in Babel episode. Could have worked.

The show was cancelled during the filming of "In a Mirror, Darkly" two-parter, and episode slots 20 and 21 (of 22) were already taken up by "Demons" and "Terra Prime" two-parter. Scott Bakula fought for a 22-episode season, and no way UPN was going to spend money on one more episode when S4 was just to get Paramount Pictures to back off. That said, let's just run with the idea that somehow, everyone said one more hour for a proper 2-hour send-off.

I think your idea would work really well, but drop the time skips and just frame the entire episode as six years later and have the plot be end of the war and founding the UFP. Maybe open with a flashback showing the start of the war, the rest of the 2-hour finale being the end of said war. Honestly, that could have worked really well.

 

[StarTrek1701]

Make it a finale to remember fondly rather than how we remember it today.
But to rework it you need to go back to the end of season 2, make the Xindi arc a half-season Romulan arc.

S2 ends as it does but the pilot from the crashed ship is a Reman, the audience knows it but our in-universe characters don't.
The pilot's visage is kept secret and as a nod to fans, a guest character wearing dark clothing is introduced, Archer is forced to keep quiet under threat of court martial that a body was even retrieved.
The attack also causes mass hysteria about aliens being hostile and UESPA/Starfleet is nearly shut down, xenophobia becomes a major issue and the Vulcans start to reevaluate their involvement with humans.
The Warp-5 program stalls, Vulcans and Denobulans are planning on leaving but Archer and crew sneak away with help of T'Pol and surprising Archer, Admiral Soval himself breaks the law and joins them on the ship.

S03 starts with the Enterprise going in the direction of Romulus cuz Soval got access to some top secret files that the attackers are the same ones the Vulcans actually had a war with for a hundred years about a century prior.
TL;DR: the Xindi arc is the Romulan arc but nobody finds out what the Romulans look like but Romulans actually go into hiding, licking their paws after a major blow.

S04 starts with Daniels coming to Archer, giving him a warning "the war you thought was over is far from over" but Enterprise returns to Earth as a hero ship and human xenophobia isn't as bad as it got, aliens return to Earth
Here's when things get interesting: the same attackers are now attacking Vulcans, Andorians, Denobulans and certain other species.
These are brazen attacks, almost suicidal, everyone supposes it's because Earth has earned a new name in the sector and other new species wants to align with a species (humans) that pushed back against a supposed major 'star empire'.

Finale: Earth wins, Romulans lost and the Romulans pull their hair out cuz their actions caused the allies to get friendlier and there are talks of starting something called 'United Federation of Planets'.
Archer is nominated to be the first President and is engaged to Captain Hernandez, Trip and T'pol are a couple, Hoshi transfers to Tarsus IV with her new lover, Dr Phlox starts the Phlox Institute on Earth, Mayweather returns to his family business as Captain of a brand new cargo ship.
As another nod to fans, Malcolm Reed is approached by a femme fatale in dark clothing who offers him a new job with Section 31, handing him a card that has the Romulan emblem on it.
Reed: "The war is over. Why do you need my services?"
Femme Fatale: "Oh my dear Malcolm, it's far from over.." and we see its Denise Crosby's Sela, smirking at the camera.

The End.

 

[Noname Given]

Let Manny Coto do the 3 episode version he originally planned (that became the 2 episode version because of This Ain't The Valentine...er...These Are The Voyages) of what he called the Solar System Arc.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I honestly wonder if B&B shied away from using the Romulans had to do with the canon violation fans? They tried doing Romulans in S2, and everyone collectively lost their shits. Come S3, we got the Xindi so the Enterprise crew had villains they could interact with, but then everyone got mad it wasn't the Romulans. I don't blame them for handing the show over to Coto after that. I loved the Romulan trilogy in S4 and thought that was a nice way to handle them. If the show had support from UPN and better ratings, maybe we could have seen the Romulan War. Alas, this was no Smallville, and 4 seasons was all we got.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Let Manny Coto do the 3 episode version he originally planned (that became the 2 episode version because of This Ain't The Valentine...er...These Are The Voyages) of what he called the Solar System Arc.

Honestly, this sounds like a really good bet. Was it actually planned to be a 3-parter? I thought the TNG crossover finale was planned to be the season finale, reworked into a series finale. Did I read that wrong back in the day?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Casual viewers don't know about the Romulan war, so I don't think the 2nd idea would work.

But the Romulans have been a reoccurring antagonist through out the series and especially in the final season. So it would work.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

But the Romulans have been a reoccurring antagonist through out the series and especially in the final season. So it would work.

Throughout the franchise, yes. Not everyone watching Enterprise has been a die hard "every episode" viewer. The Enterprise viewers would just know the Romulans from the S2 episode (if they saw it) and the S4 trilogy, and really, mostly just that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Throughout the franchise, yes. Not everyone watching Enterprise has been a die hard "every episode" viewer. The Enterprise viewers would just know the Romulans from the S2 episode (if they saw it) and the S4 trilogy, and really, mostly just that.

Seems like enough.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I honestly wonder if B&B shied away from using the Romulans had to do with the canon violation fans? They tried doing Romulans in S2, and everyone collectively lost their shits. Come S3, we got the Xindi so the Enterprise crew had villains they could interact with, but then everyone got mad it wasn't the Romulans. I don't blame them for handing the show over to Coto after that. I loved the Romulan trilogy in S4 and thought that was a nice way to handle them. If the show had support from UPN and better ratings, maybe we could have seen the Romulan War. Alas, this was no Smallville, and 4 seasons was all we got.

Fans "collectively lost their shits" when Klingons had ridges, the Ferengi showed up, Borg were introduced and they used "that damned song." TBH, I don't think they cared about extreme fan reactions. They had story ideas and make sure they danced around established points about these races.

In the finished episodes, they did take pains to make sure the Klingons, Ferengi and Borg appearances didn't violate the much vaunted canon, but they did keep "that damned song." I groaned at some of these episodes but found others to be very effective. "Regeneration" was great and Brian Tyler's score was killer.

As for the Romulan War, I really wish I cared about it as much as fans here seem to. It was a thing mentioned as a backstory to a classic episode of TOS where it worked great. A villain humans didn't see before mostly to give us a B story about prejudice. We know what we need to: there was a war which ended in a treaty that kept both sides from encountering each other for a really long time. Until they got tired of being quiet and decided to go out and stir shit up. That turned out to be their M.O.

I like that we still have some mystery in the Trek universe. Explaining things usually leads to a measure of disappointment for me. The explanations provided in the episodes are always enough for me and I never needed to know how "Kirk and Spock met" and that stuff. Kirk got command, he met Spock, let's move on...

and we see its Denise Crosby's Sela, smirking at the camera.

The End.

200 years before she was born? Gotta explain that or the fans you hope to thrill will just be pissed.

Sela sucked anyway. Any random Romulan would have been just as effective.

I don't think we needed a fan fiction finale, the one they did probably would have worked with a few tweaks. Put Riker and Troi on the Titan, give Riker an Enterprise-centric reason for doing this research and have the series characters not be idiots. Give Hoshi and Travis promotions, don't kill Trip unless it really serves the story (it wouldn't and it sucks), and make the event Riker is researching IMPORTANT and something that gives closure to the characters in a meaningful way. The problem is, the story he was watching in the version we got was pointless.

In the end, I would have Riker wonder "how some of it ultimately turned out for those guys" which gives the Enterprise cast the final moments of their own series in a meaningful and emotional montage. As much as the starship sequence was lovely, we didn't need a Valentine to the Franchise. However, this could have been a lovely Valentine to the Series. showing how Archer's crew impacted later generations while still paying respect to the four years we had.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Fans "collectively lost their shits" when Klingons had ridges, the Ferengi showed up, Borg were introduced and they used "that damned song." TBH, I don't think they cared about extreme fan reactions. They had story ideas and make sure they danced around established points about these races.

In the finished episodes, they did take pains to make sure the Klingons, Ferengi and Borg appearances didn't violate the much vaunted canon, but they did keep "that damned song." I groaned at some of these episodes but found others to be very effective. "Regeneration" was great and Brian Tyler's score was killer.

I loved the "history of future space flight" intro, and I loved the theme song. Why does it get so much hate? I loved the Klingons on Enterprise. The Klingon forehead thing in the S4 two-parter was stupid, but the episodes themselves were good. Just erase play-doh shape shifting Klingon bones and just make it about genetic engineering and deadly viruses and what not.

The Ferengi episode was hilarious, showing the NX-01 had a lone encounter with them 200 years before anyone knew who they were. Great comedy episode. You know the Borg episode HAD to happen, because First Contact.

As for the Romulan War, I really wish I cared about it as much as fans here seem to. It was a thing mentioned as a backstory to a classic episode of TOS where it worked great. A villain humans didn't see before mostly to give us a B story about prejudice. We know what we need to: there was a war which ended in a treaty that kept both sides from encountering each other for a really long time. Until they got tired of being quiet and decided to go out and stir shit up. That turned out to be their M.O.

I kind of agree. I love the Romulans and wish they got as much screen time as the Klingons. I'm fine knowing a war between Humans (plus allies) and Romulans lead to the Federation as Star Trek backstory. It didn't need to necessarily be part of Enterprise.

Now that we're in the era of streaming serials, maybe someone will tackle this as a series or miniseries. Given it would take place between Enterprise's last two episodes and the cast is 20 years older, focus on another ship and crew, say the Enterprise kept out of the war, focusing on missions to build up the Coalition between Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellerites. It sounds like a very NX-01 style mission and allows the "war stuff" to be handled by another ship and crew.

I like that we still have some mystery in the Trek universe. Explaining things usually leads to a measure of disappointment for me. The explanations provided in the episodes are always enough for me and I never needed to know how "Kirk and Spock met" and that stuff. Kirk got command, he met Spock, let's move on...

I mostly agree. I do think there's room for a "Romulan War" series, I just don't think "Enterprise" (series) was the place for that.

Sela sucked anyway. Any random Romulan would have been just as effective.

I loved Sela, wish the character stuck around, but I'm content she got to pop up for what, 4 episodes? Not bad, considering she could have just as easily have been a one-episode character.

I don't think we needed a fan fiction finale, the one they did probably would have worked with a few tweaks. Put Riker and Troi on the Titan, give Riker an Enterprise-centric reason for doing this research and have the series characters not be idiots. Give Hoshi and Travis promotions, don't kill Trip unless it really serves the story (it wouldn't and it sucks), and make the event Riker is researching IMPORTANT and something that gives closure to the characters in a meaningful way. The problem is, the story he was watching in the version we got was pointless.

Bingo. I think they wanted to set the finale inside a TNG episode (via holodeck) was to bring TV Trek (1987-2005) full circle. They wanted Riker and Troi in a TNG episode, not post-Nemesis. Heck, they could have also just as easily set the episode on the Enterprise-E before Nemesis if they wanted that "Enterprise" connection. The TNG-plot could have been about Riker deciding to accept command of the Titan. "Going to talk to Picard" could have been reworked into telling him he's finally ready to leave the Enterprise and be Captain of his own ship. Maybe the ENT-part could have been Trip doing the same, only dying before he got the chance, pushing Riker to take seize the moment and live for now and not for later. Wha'cha think?

In the end, I would have Riker wonder "how some of it ultimately turned out for those guys" which gives the Enterprise cast the final moments of their own series in a meaningful and emotional montage. As much as the starship sequence was lovely, we didn't need a Valentine to the Franchise. However, this could have been a lovely Valentine to the Series. showing how Archer's crew impacted later generations while still paying respect to the four years we had.

When Riker and Troi leave the holodeck, it should have been followed by a montage of the Enterprise cast. I liked the little Enterprise montage shot at the end, but I felt Kirk's Enterprise was out of place. This was an ENT-TNG crossover, not a three-way between ENT-TOS-TNG.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'd have done a half Titan half Enterprise episode, with the NX-01 crew making 1st contact with some planet and Riker and Troi following up 200 years later. The stories could intermingle, alternating eras. The aliens are long lived, so Riker's group could find someone who was there when Archer's crew arrived.

In other words, a totally different episode.