How would you fix the series finale?
- Thread starter Admiral Jean-Luc Picard
- Start date
Braga was on the Star Trek cruise. I enjoyed listening to him talk. The impression I get is that he is very much aware that TATV was a huge mistake, that he owns up to making very poor choices (Threshold was on that list), but that he is over it and has moved on. Because, you know, that was 20+ years ago. He is not remotely the horrible person that lots of fans demonize him as because of his past work on VOY and ENT.
Berman and Braga just don’t get it.
You want to make a Valentine to the fans and honor the production staff? Sure. Just make a propper 2 hr series finale for Enterprise first. Write episodes 96 and 97 AS the finale. . Not just "Terra Prime" as it stands now but something that is officially billed (internally and externally) as the finale and feels more like a series ender. . Perhaps remove one of their earlier S4 scripts like “Bound” and augmented / restructured Terra Prime into a 2 hr finale. Then at the very end of the episode, do a promo telling us to tune in next week or better yet - "coming next" for a “very special bonus episode “. ( These are Voyages).
Everyone wins.
You get your “official” Enterprise centric finale and the valentine “bonus episode” / love letter right after.
That's what I would of done if I were in their shoes.
You want to make a Valentine to the fans and honor the production staff? Sure. Just make a propper 2 hr series finale for Enterprise first. Write episodes 96 and 97 AS the finale. . Not just "Terra Prime" as it stands now but something that is officially billed (internally and externally) as the finale and feels more like a series ender. . Perhaps remove one of their earlier S4 scripts like “Bound” and augmented / restructured Terra Prime into a 2 hr finale. Then at the very end of the episode, do a promo telling us to tune in next week or better yet - "coming next" for a “very special bonus episode “. ( These are Voyages).
Everyone wins.
You get your “official” Enterprise centric finale and the valentine “bonus episode” / love letter right after.
That's what I would of done if I were in their shoes.
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Love this: If you end with your restructured two-hour conclusion and just leave out the "bonus episode" entirely.
You mean they didn't get it 20 years ago.
You weren't in their shoes. They had little time and little creative control over what they could do. At best, I think they should have let Manny Coto direct the finale, because I doubt he would have come up with the lame-brained TNG fanwank idea they did. But it still would have only been one hour, because that's all UPN gave them, and it still would have been rushed, because UPN gave them zero time to come up with an adequate ending.
Now with that said, could B&B have come up with something else? Sure. But that wasn't their agenda at the time. They wanted an episode of TNG because they seriously felt that the audience wanted that too. And they were wrong. And they know that now, and have even admitted their mistake. But again, that was 20 years ago.
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As fans, I get being upset over the finale, but we don't know what was going on at the time and B&B could very well have legitimately felt they were doing something cool - and I'm sure that's exactly how it felt at the time. Under the gun, no time to plan, how do we close off the series and this era of Star Trek? And, if the story were better, or if Braga was partnered with a better writer, it might have worked out really well. Hell, if they would have set it on the Titan after Nemesis, I think the Riker parts would have at least not stood out as badly. But it was rushed and it showed. And it was probably the best or only idea they had. Should they have had Manny Coto and his new regulars take a whack at it? Maybe, but they didn't because Berman was there from TNG day one and Braga since season 3, so they had the longest tenure. They probably felt "we have to be the ones to do it" since they were 100% closing off their era of Star Trek.
Yet, the entire 4th season could be called fanwank. TOS fanwank. But it was done pretty much so well, we didn't care because the series finally had some drive and was fulfilling the premise they told us the series was about 3 years earlier.
And this is from a person who grew to enjoy the first two seasons and really liked the 3rd - but they did little to feel like a prequel to TOS.
Every "hey I have a better idea" comes from 20 years of hindsight and not being on a creative team for a decade and a half, with responsibilities to a network. I've mentally rewritten a lot of the last 1/3 of the 3rd season of TOS. But I have that luxury...
Yet, the entire 4th season could be called fanwank. TOS fanwank. But it was done pretty much so well, we didn't care because the series finally had some drive and was fulfilling the premise they told us the series was about 3 years earlier.
And this is from a person who grew to enjoy the first two seasons and really liked the 3rd - but they did little to feel like a prequel to TOS.
Every "hey I have a better idea" comes from 20 years of hindsight and not being on a creative team for a decade and a half, with responsibilities to a network. I've mentally rewritten a lot of the last 1/3 of the 3rd season of TOS. But I have that luxury...
I would call season 4 TOS fanwank mixed with the start of the Brent Spiner Needs To Play Every Soong Known To Man syndrome.
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