Sci-Fi Endings: The Best and the Worst

[Admiral_Young]

Best TV: Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine (best of the Trek finales), Farscape, Quantum Leap, Angel, Space Above and Beyond (despite it being a cliffhanger there's WTF moment leaving you wondering what would have happened had the show continued)

Worst TV: Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Enterprise, Buffy The Vampire Slayer,

 

[sidious618]

The ending of "The Shield" sucked. Here's why:

In the episodes leading up to the finale there were multiple references to "The President" coming to the area. The cop on the run even used the police being diverted for traffic duty as a means to escape. Then Mackie had met foreign terrorists he had never met before and he didn't know what they wanted. And the FBI was involved in everything and the cops were going down for many crimes they had committed with no way out.

All the pieces were here for this ending: The foreign terrorists were there to kill the President. Vic Mackie and the FBI finds out. All the cops converge on the event, including the cop on the run. Mackie and the other cops either get killed as heroes, or save the President which results in the FBI HAVING to drop the charges to protect their public image. It could have been an adrenaline-rush thrill ride. Vic Mackie saving the President in a wild public shoot-out against organized foreign hitmen: Awesome!

Instead here's what actually happened: The President's arrival was nothing but a few throw-away lines that went ignored by the plot and forgotten. The foreign terrorists were forgettable and nothing happened. One cop killed himself after dragging his hiding on for three episodes. Then Mackie got a job in front of a computer and learned how bad Windows Vista was.

Is this a joke? It almost has to be.

 

[Anwar]

All Good Things, from TNG.

Sleeping in Light was good.

The endings to Planet of the Apes (original) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Worst:

Eh, I try not to dwell on these things but the most recent bad ending I can think of is the executive-meddled end to I am Legend.

 

[Harvey]

And hey, I've seen my fair share of awful movies, often intentionally. Nothing better than riffing a bad movie with a friend. Why, this Halloween I saw both Heavy Metal pictures. I guarantee you I endured more horror that night than anyone else on the board, unless they were marathoning Battlefield Earth and Manos or something. (On topic: They have awful endings. Awful beginnings and middle too, so that might not count.)

There are two Heavy Metal movies? Yuck.

 

[Brikar99]

Eh, I try not to dwell on these things but the most recent bad ending I can think of is the executive-meddled end to I am Legend.

Man, that movie was going SO well until the girl and the kid showed up.

 

[Tom]

Yeah, Quantum Leap's ending was a bit deep for some people but I loved it. The whole emotional context was great, brought a tear to my eye. The only other show that ever did that was watching the the final poker scene in TNG's "All good things..". Sure, I knew Generations was coming out but still my favorite show (of that time) was ending. DS9's, Voy, and Enterprise's ending never hit me as hard as TNG's did.

 

[captcalhoun]

one of the best movie endings is Terminator 3. say what you want about the rest of the film, but GODDAMN they actually went and showed J-Day coming to pass.

and i like the last 90 seconds or so of Robocop 2

Lewis says something about the Old Man getting away and Robo replies:

Patience Lewis, we're only human.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Not going to rehash all of the great choices already mentioned....but I never liked the ending of The Ninth Gate. It was purposely left as uncertain I guess?

SPOILERS BELOW!!! (I think)

It has been a awhile but for some reason Johnny Depp starts banging the chick, actually the chick is banging him! then she starts to turn into a demon and the gate opens up and he walks of into the mountain side toward the figure in the sky??? I might have that all messed up but I remember liking the movie alot, but getting disappointed about the ending.

No, actually he bangs the chick as the castle burns. Then Depp goes back to the Spanish book dealers (who have disappeared, maybe been murdered, as there's men moving stuff out of the shop) and discovers the missing page (the book dealing brothers counterfeited the one Frank Langella used). Then Depp apparently goes back to the castle...

What he gets out of meeting Satan? I can't remember, I've read theories on the ending. That Depp himself was the Devil and didn't know it. That the chick was the devil and wanted Depp specifically to be the one to open the gate. (I don't buy that one, she's a demon, but not the devil.)

 

[Luckyflux]

Not going to rehash all of the great choices already mentioned....but I never liked the ending of The Ninth Gate. It was purposely left as uncertain I guess?

SPOILERS BELOW!!! (I think)

It has been a awhile but for some reason Johnny Depp starts banging the chick, actually the chick is banging him! then she starts to turn into a demon and the gate opens up and he walks of into the mountain side toward the figure in the sky??? I might have that all messed up but I remember liking the movie alot, but getting disappointed about the ending.

No, actually he bangs the chick as the castle burns. Then Depp goes back to the Spanish book dealers (who have disappeared, maybe been murdered, as there's men moving stuff out of the shop) and discovers the missing page (the book dealing brothers counterfeited the one Frank Langella used). Then Depp apparently goes back to the castle...

What he gets out of meeting Satan? I can't remember, I've read theories on the ending. That Depp himself was the Devil and didn't know it. That the chick was the devil and wanted Depp specifically to be the one to open the gate. (I don't buy that one, she's a demon, but not the devil.)

Ahhh yes, I remember the banging scene, then Depp went back to the shop to see it being closed and it's contents packed up and moved away. He finds the missing page and sees the correct initials AT or something like that. The image is different. Then what? He goes back to the castle looking for the chick I guess? Then the scene pulls back to look like the image from the book with him walking toward the gate in the sky? Was it something like that?

I very much liked the movie but felt the ending was weird.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Yeah, he goes to the correct location of the gate, walks into the light...the end. It was odd. Part of the premise was that as the movie progressed Depp went through the events depicted in the book's illustrations...he followed the book's path and had the right pages.

Theories and speculations here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:The_Ninth_Gate

 

[T'Girl]

Best endings:

Robocop, "... what's your name son." . "Murphy."
nuBSG, if you count the scene of Adama sitting on the hill next to the presidents grave, looking off into the distance as the final scene. The best.
Star Trek, TOS never really had a last show or a proper ending. But the ship sailing off to the next mission worked for me.
The Matrix. Neo flying away, if only they had actual stop with that.
Angel, and the dragon.

Worst:

Babylon Five, the series in general just sort of faded, the ending should of been the second to the last episode of season four with the formation of the Interstellar Alliance. Stop. Cut. No more. Please.

There are two Heavy Metal movies? Yuck.

I general liked the first one, never saw the second. The first sequence Soft Landing came to mind in the theater during Star Trek Eleven when young Kirk drove the corvette in to the gully, in Soft Landing a space suited astronaut in a 1960 Corvette re-enters Earth's atmosphere, pops a parachute and lands in a desert canyon.

 

[Luckyflux]

Best endings:

There are two Heavy Metal movies? Yuck.

I general liked the first one, never saw the second. The first sequence Soft Landing came to mind in the theater during Star Trek Eleven when young Kirk drove the corvette in to the gully, in Soft Landing a space suited astronaut in a 1960 Corvette re-enters Earth's atmosphere, pops a parachute and lands in a desert canyon.

I've always liked Captain Sternn the best

 

[JediKnightButler]

Best Movie Ending: Empire Strikes Back- I loved the melancholy bittersweet note they ended this movie, with Luke, Leia, and the droids watching the MF flying off with the galaxy in the background with John William's music swelling to its climax- it was VERY well done (and touching) IMHO.

Worst Movie Ending: Terminator: Salvation- I was really disappointed in it because I thought that they were going to tie this one back to the first three movies (in terms of Skynet sending the Terminators back) but they left it open- which might have been deliberate to keep the series open for more movies. I AM glad that they didn't kill John off like I thought that they were going to.

Best TV Ending: Angel- "Power Play"/"Not Fade Away"- Even if I'm mad it for ending on a cliffhanger, the final two episodes of Angel are still really fun to watch. Buffy's "Chosen" was ok but S7 in general was somewhat of a trainwreck IMHO.

Worst TV Ending: Hmmmm......I can't think of any seriously "bad" TV endings that I've seen so far per se but I do hate that canceled series like "Tru Calling" and "Firefly" didn't get proper endings (although with "Serenity" we got somewhat of a continuation).

 

[Whettestone]

I'm not saying THE SHIELD needed a happy ending. But when they hype it as a killer ending, and fill the episodes leading up to the ending with a Presidential visit, foreign terrorists and the FBI, then ignore it and have the characters all kill themselves = BAD.

Someone please spend three sentences to explain the plot of CHARLIE JADE - then tell me how it ended. I couldn't get past the pilot.

STARCOPS = good. Throughout the 9 episodes Detective Nathan Spring went from earth Detective to space station Detective to moonbase Detective because he was good at his job. Then somewhere in the last episode he got promoted to Mars. After he solved the crime and needed a staff he turned to his crew that had been expanding since Episode 1 and said "Anyone for Mars?"

CAPTAIN POWER = INCREDIBLE. The last 4 episodes: Volcania got pummeled when an orbiting space weapon crashed into its side. Soaron was almost killed trying to stop it's descent. They killed Lacki. Lord Dread went off to become a mechanized Bio-Dread himself. Overmind got damaged. And Jennifer Chase takes out Blastarr and kills herself by EXPLOIDING THE POWER BASE!!!!

Only saw a handful of JEREMIAH's, no surprise someone said it was rushed. Go rewatch the BABYLON 5 third-season finale where Anna Sheridan takes Boxleitner to Za'Ha'Dum. It was missing key scenes and could have easily been two episodes at least. Sheridan loaded up nukes off screen. Several days to get to Za'Ha'Dum and we didn't see what he and Anna did on the Whitestar the whole time (making love with the ex?). He had a confrontation with the Shadows and got wounded - OFF SCREEN. For God's sake, he's scratched up and wounded by the time we see him run to the balcony. This implied to many viewers that he actually got into a physical fight with the Shadow Creatures - or at least duked it out with Morden - or physically scuffled with his wife - or simply tripped over a waste paper basket when he ran. I hadn't seen it in years but there were many more missing scenes that should have been easy to write and great to watch. It was clearly rushed.

Also Good were the last episodes of Space: A&B (Wang died!), I'll Fly Away (John-Morgan died!), and tell me you babies didn't cry in MASH when Hawkeye realized the woman didn't strangle a chicken.


And yeah, they're not science-fiction:

The old sitcom "BOB" (Newhart) where he was a comic book writer (Mad Dog). The last episode as I remember Bob was fired and confronted his boss at a tennis game. Boss said if he beats him, he can have his old job back and bounced the ball to him. They ended it there. I remember liking it.

Anybody remember the ending of that sitcom ("I married somebody" (Dora?)) where husband came back from the airport terminal and said "it's canceled". The wife asks "Your flight's been canceled?" and the husband says, "No, the show's been canceled, Goodbye everyone!" And the cast waves goodbye to the camera.

Did "Mork and Mindy" end in a cliffhanger?

 

[Whettestone]

All those cliffhanger's on "SOAP". They had the best dramatic endings ever. The baby was pocessed by the devil and all his toys in the room started moving - it scared the hell out of me as a kid. And Burt getting abducted by aliens. The Best.



Burt wakes up on the ship and meets the little green aliens. Burt sees one of the little green aliens dancing with a happy celebration dance.

Burt: What's his problem?

Alien Leader: He is dancing because he is happy. He is the one chosen to go down to Earth to take your place. He will pretend he is you.

The dancing alien stops dancing.

Burt: He's going to take my place?

Alien Leader: Yes.

Burt: I think Mary will notice.

Alien Leader: We have the ability to change his appearance to look exactly like you. He will sound like you. He will live in your house. He will eat your food. Your family will not know he is not you.

Burt: Wait a minute. Mary won't be able to tell he is not me?

Alien Leader: No.

Burt: Then he'll be sleeping with Mary?

Alien Leader: Why do you think he is dancing?

The happy alien starts dancing again.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Good Endings: All of the BTF's, Ironman,BSG,TNG, All of Star Wars(yes I liked the prequels despite it's flaws)

Bad endings: Quantum Leap( I wanted Sam to Leap Home), X-Files(not wrapped up very tightly), DS9 was good, but Sisko was left out there with the wormhole aliens. And the alltime winner of bad endings goes to, yoep you guessed it, ENT. TATVS is the worst ending to anything ever. I was so disapointed,there are nowords to describe.

 

[Harvey]

The problem with The X-Files is not that it didn't have a good ending, it's that it didn't have an ending at all. Season nine ends on a cliffhanger, and The X-Files: I Want To Believe is a standalone film that does as little to resolve this cliffhanger as possible. Hopefully the show gets one more film to wrap up the mythology and give *all* of its characters a proper exit.

 

[Nowhere Man]

The problem with The X-Files is not that it didn't have a good ending, it's that it didn't have an ending at all. Season nine ends on a cliffhanger, and The X-Files: I Want To Believe is a standalone film that does as little to resolve this cliffhanger as possible. Hopefully the show gets one more film to wrap up the mythology and give *all* of its characters a proper exit.

agreed

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Movie: has to be Planet of the Apes
TV: The Prisoner, Blakes 7, Sapphire and Steel will always be the ones that stick in my mind.

 

[Pauln6]

Sapphire and Steel - yeah what a great ending! Blakes 7 I was never overly happy with since I could never see Villa going gung ho and I felt Soolin should have got off a few more shots. The end of series 2 of Robin of Sherwood was good. The end of Season 2 of Millennium was awesome. Does Serenity count? Brilliant. Empire Strikes Back is up there. Galaxy Quest. I also cried when Worzel Gummidge rejected Dolly Clothespeg in favour of Aunt Sally but I guess you had to be there...

I hope they reboot Sapphire and Steel or get somebody to rescue them after a few hundred years. I'd like to see a modern take if they can retain that sense of opression.