The END is NIGH

[RobertScorpio]

TNG-DS9-VOY and ENTERPRISE all had 'series finales'....And since TOS's TUC is considerd its final so called 'sequence' I am going to allow it for this thread...

How would you rank the five 'last' finales from top to bottom...

Here is how I rank them

DS9's "What You Leave Behind"
TOS's "The Undiscovered Country"
TNG's " All Good Things"

and considerably lower...
ENT's TATV
Voyagers "Homecoming?"

Why I put ENT's often attacked episodes over Voyager's coming home episode? Simple; Voyager had seven years and ended with such a mundane story and had, HAD, the opportunity to really wrap up that show with a final arc like DS9 and resolve many of these people's lives whom we watched over all those years...and they didn't. It just simply ended...BAD BAD BAD...

And since I didn't watch Enterprise all that much, the ending didn't really affect me in any way. But at least it tried to tie everything up...where as Voyager just punted the ball into the oblivion of forever...

Rob

 

[Astraea]

Voyager's finale was "Endgame." And I'd rank it second to last.

I don't know; I like DS9 better than any other Trek series, but "All Good Things..." might (emphasis on might) be a better finale. I'd want to re-watch both of them and think about it before I'd make any over-arching pronouncement regarding the two. But TNG and DS9 definitely had the best finale of modern Treks, and VOY and ENT were not so good. Voyager's finale manages to encapsulate what was wrong with Voyager:
-Borg, Borg, overuse of Borg;
-Future-Janeway's decision to meddle with an entire timeline in order to save a handful of her crew (and the odd story logic in her choosing to go back to that specific point in time; why not, say, a couple weeks sooner, before poor Joe Carey had to bite it?) This is as much a sloppy plotting/writing point as it is anything to do with characterization; "Children of Time" covers much of the same thematic ground (a future version of a character sacrificing a timeline to save someone they loved), and it did it, I think, much better;
-Random, spur-of-the-moment characterization (C/7, anyone?)

But I still think that TATV was worse. I tuned into Enterprise for S1/2 and then gave up, but came back for the finale. Apparently, I only tuned in for the "worst of ENT." This was awful. The fact that their finale became an ancillary to "The Pegasus," the death of a beloved major character for...what? Shock value?...the godawful writing that made that death as bad as any that's been committed to the screen, and continued what's been one of canon Trek's perpetual weaknesses (the ability to kill a character properly.) I wasn't even a fan of ENT and I was disgusted.

TNG and DS9 both had fitting finales for their respective series. The problem with WYLB is that I like a lot of the episodes immediately preceding it in the finale arc better than the actual finale itself.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Voyager's finale was "Endgame." And I'd rank it second to last.

I don't know; I like DS9 better than any other Trek series, but "All Good Things..." might (emphasis on might) be a better finale. I'd want to re-watch both of them and think about it before I'd make any over-arching pronouncement regarding the two. But TNG and DS9 definitely had the best finale of modern Treks, and VOY and ENT were not so good. Voyager's finale manages to encapsulate what was wrong with Voyager:
-Borg, Borg, overuse of Borg;
-Future-Janeway's decision to meddle with an entire timeline in order to save a handful of her crew (and the odd story logic in her choosing to go back to that specific point in time; why not, say, a couple weeks sooner, before poor Joe Carey had to bite it?) This is as much a sloppy plotting/writing point as it is anything to do with characterization; "Children of Time" covers much of the same thematic ground (a future version of a character sacrificing a timeline to save someone they loved), and it did it, I think, much better;
-Random, spur-of-the-moment characterization (C/7, anyone?)

But I still think that TATV was worse. I tuned into Enterprise for S1/2 and then gave up, but came back for the finale. Apparently, I only tuned in for the "worst of ENT." This was awful. The fact that their finale became an ancillary to "The Pegasus," the death of a beloved major character for...what? Shock value?...the godawful writing that made that death as bad as any that's been committed to the screen, and continued what's been one of canon Trek's perpetual weaknesses (the ability to kill a character properly.) I wasn't even a fan of ENT and I was disgusted.

TNG and DS9 both had fitting finales for their respective series. The problem with WYLB is that I like a lot of the episodes immediately preceding it in the finale arc better than the actual finale itself.

I agree with some of what you posted. But as for DS9? What wins it for me? Is the flashback sequence. And I liked the 'wrap' ups to the relationship. The Pah'wraiths and the final battle were all just filler for me...I wanted a finale that tried to bring closure to some of these characters that I had grown to love over the year..TNG didn't do that. VOYAGER could have but didn't...

That is why I rate WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND as number one...for me star trek has always been about the characters..

Rob

 

[captcalhoun]

AGT suffers from one main failing, technobabble. all that anti-time crap.
WYLB suffers from one failure: overuse of stock footage.
TUC suffers no failures.
Endgame fails to resolve the show by merely having them fly off toward Earth, not reach it.
TATV fails miserably. it turns ENT's finale into a TNG ep, assassinates Riker's character as well as Trip's and Shran's, kills Trip off stupidly and makes Shran - a key historic figure - seem like a nonentity. and they make it look like no one cared Trip died. Demons and Terra Prime was a much better finale.

 

[USS Excelsior]

I thought "Turnabout Intruder" was the TOS finale or actually last episode.

 

[The Wormhole]

TUC, AGT, and WYLB are all acceptable endings.

Endgame I was critical of at first, primarily because it doesn't really provide much actual closure. But in recent years, I have come to accept it, primarily because it was at least a proper Voyager episode. Proper as in it focused wholly on the Voyager cast. Unlike TATV which is better left not even discussing.

 

[Thor Damar]

It's definitely WYLB for me, no question. The heroic death of Legate Damar, the Dominion Genocide on Cardassia Prime and the bittersweet and yet hopeful ending.
I do agree with Captcalhoun there was too much stock footage reused and it did spoil the final battle for Cardassia but that cannot and should not take away the sheer brillance of it .
Only B5 and NuBSG have matched it IMO.

 

[john titor]

AGT, it goes beyond trek as it were, it take its greatest ideals and becomes a philosophical piece on the nature of existence and humanities role within it, with sterling shakespearean performances. TNG is the best, I worship TNG.

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Interesting suggestion of TUC for the TOS finale.

I would rank them in this order:

AGT
TUC
Endgame
WYLB
TATV

 

[Eddie Roth]

You should really include Nemesis in this if you're taking The Undiscovered Country as a TOS finale...

 

[miraclefan]

You should really include Nemesis in this if you're taking The Undiscovered Country as a TOS finale...

I agree the worst ending was ''TATV''(A Shame because ENT is my favorite) the best was in my book a tie between ''TUC'' & ''ENDGAME'' I don't remember the finale for (DS9) And sence I consider ''NEMESIS'' as the true series ''finale'' to TNG, well I don't have to explain myself do I?