"These Are the Voyages" as a 'true' series finale

[Prax]

It's technically more an epilogue to both Enterprise and the 4 Berman Trek series. The conflict in it is an extremely shallow vehicle, or even just a backdrop to show the founding of the Federation and for the producers to say goodbye after a 20 year run.

For all intents and purposes, the two episodes before it conclude the narrative of season 1-4. So I don't really look at it as some kind of Injustice. It could have aired 5 years later exactly the same and nothing would change.

 

[Takeru]

It's technically more an epilogue to both Enterprise and the 4 Berman Trek series. The conflict in it is an extremely shallow vehicle, or even just a backdrop to show the founding of the Federation and for the producers to say goodbye after a 20 year run.

For all intents and purposes, the two episodes before it conclude the narrative of season 1-4. So I don't really look at it as some kind of Injustice. It could have aired 5 years later exactly the same and nothing would change.

It was an injustice to the Enterprise cast, I'm not even a huge fan of the show but being demoted to supporting characters in what's a Riker story in your own series finale is insulting, those people worked their asses off for four years and in the end they are holograms who get turned off right before the big speech because Riker's problem has been solved ... awesome.

 

[Prax]

It was an injustice to the Enterprise cast, I'm not even a huge fan of the show but being demoted to supporting characters in what's a Riker story in your own series finale is insulting, those people worked their asses off for four years and in the end they are holograms who get turned off right before the big speech because Riker's problem has been solved ... awesome.

But they had two finales, so I don't think it's that big of a deal. And they both aired on the same day.

 

[Damian]

It was an injustice to the Enterprise cast, I'm not even a huge fan of the show but being demoted to supporting characters in what's a Riker story in your own series finale is insulting, those people worked their asses off for four years and in the end they are holograms who get turned off right before the big speech because Riker's problem has been solved ... awesome.

Yeah, definitely the worse kind of finale you could come up with. Like many others I sort of view the Terra Prime episodes as the 'true' finale. They even ended with a big speech by Archer that seemed to me at least tie things up nicely. It was a pretty good way to close things out.

TATV I treat more as a 'coda'. Frankly it's probably not even necessary to watch unless you're a completest. And since I follow the post show novels (which gave an alternate explanation behind TATV) I don't even treat it as a 'true' history.

 

[Roundabout]

It's technically more an epilogue to both Enterprise and the 4 Berman Trek series. The conflict in it is an extremely shallow vehicle, or even just a backdrop to show the founding of the Federation and for the producers to say goodbye after a 20 year run.

For all intents and purposes, the two episodes before it conclude the narrative of season 1-4. So I don't really look at it as some kind of Injustice. It could have aired 5 years later exactly the same and nothing would change.

I suppose Berman et al. couldn't help themselves. Instead of letting ENT conclude on its own terms, they awkwardly morphed the finale into a quasi tribute to the Berman era of Star Trek.

Maybe the showrunners could have produced a one-off made for tv movie that tied in the Berman era Trek together in some way, as a farewell, instead of doing what they did.

Also, the death of Trip in the finale was anticlimatic and seemed to be almost an afterthought. Usually, the killing off of a major Trek character would be a big deal. Instead, for me, it wasn't as memorable as it could have been nor did it have the emotional impact that it should have had. Trip, or the clone of Trip, had a more fitting memorial and send off in "Similitude".

The presence of Riker and Troi and the setup, that it was merely a holographic program of Riker's, cheapened the finale of the series.

 

[Prax]

Maybe a TV movie would have been better. I'm not really a fan of the 4th season in general. Demons/Terra Prime was originally going to be 3 parts, with the last 2 hours airing as the finale. So maybe that arc would have been a lot better of a closing story with more time. I think it's okay as it is. I don't think TATV is good or anything, I just don't find it offensive, or see it as an injustice.

 

[lurok]

No. It isn't. We can re-edit a fan ending (that was one of my first ever editing projects!). But it never worked. TP is the ending for me.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I know I've said it before, but my ideal ending for Enterprise would have been that they pick up a distress signal from the ECS Kobayashi Maru. It's the audio from Wrath of Khan, begging for assistance. Archer orders an intercept course, we see Enterprise jump to warp and... roll credits.

Fans would be speculating forever as to whether they escaped the impossible scenario.

 

[Delta Vega]

Maybe the writers, producers and TV people could have had some faith in Enterprise and mothballed it for a couple of years, before coming back with better ideas and new budget parameters for Season 5.
I love the show, I don't have the hate for Seasons 1 and 2 that some have, sure there are some slow episodes, but show me a Trek franchise that doesn't. Then surely the positives from Seasons 3 and 4 could have been built on.
What they did with that ending was shit on the cast from a great height.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

So finishing my rewatch and I'm finally up to this piece of shit. Both of them.

 

[Damian]

I know I've said it before, but my ideal ending for Enterprise would have been that they pick up a distress signal from the ECS Kobayashi Maru. It's the audio from Wrath of Khan, begging for assistance. Archer orders an intercept course, we see Enterprise jump to warp and... roll credits.

Fans would be speculating forever as to whether they escaped the impossible scenario.

Funny you should bring that up as their was an Enterprise novel about the Kobayashi Maru (by that title) and we see the inspiration for the test.

I always thought they should have ended Enterprise with the start of the Romulan War. Sort of a thumb in the eye of UPN for cancelling Enterprise just when it had found it's space legs. The novels could have still taken it from there then.

I'm still amazed at TATV that absolutely no mention or hint was made that a major war had just concluded. We are told it was the major event that led to the final formation of the Federation, of which TATV is supposedly focused on. And yet, zero mention of the Romulan War.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Wasn't that because they planned to "do" the Romulan war in a future series and didn't want to cross the canon streams or.. something?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Wasn't that because they planned to "do" the Romulan war in a future series and didn't want to cross the canon streams or.. something?

There was a movie trilogy planned about the Romulan War. Only one draft of the first part was written (Star Trek: The Beginning) before Paramount decided to give Trek to JJ Abrams for a the reboot. It was... interesting.

If CBS-AA Trekspam doesn't fizzle out in the next five years, I'm sure they'll do some version of the Romulan conflict (albeit one that totally contradicts everything that came before)

 

[Damian]

Wasn't that because they planned to "do" the Romulan war in a future series and didn't want to cross the canon streams or.. something?

There was a movie trilogy planned about the Romulan War. Only one draft of the first part was written (Star Trek: The Beginning) before Paramount decided to give Trek to JJ Abrams for a the reboot. It was... interesting.

Yeah, it was interesting to see what they had planned. I didn't really like the idea presented that the Enterprise was trapped on Risa vacationing when war broke out. I mean, they might have been on Risa for shore leave but I have to imagine being Starfleet's most powerful ship at the time they would move quickly to the front lines. But in fairness, it was just a first draft so it probably would have gone through multiple revisions before anything ever went before the camera.

But if I recall correctly Star Trek: The Beginning was proposed after Enterprise had already been cancelled. I believe had Enterprise continued the Romulan War was planned to be featured at some point (I think they said over a few episodes maybe, though like DS9 and the Dominion War I'm sure it would have morphed into something similar--after all the Romulan War we are told occurred over 3-4 years).

I'm glad the novels finally addressed that part of Star Trek's backstory--but it's a shame it had to be done in the novels. The Romulan War is a pivotal moment in Star Trek history, leading to the creation of the Federation. It deserved to be shown in some fashion on screen. I honestly doubt we'll see it on screen. Other than the new Picard series (I really wish they came up with a more creative name for the series, but I digress) most of the new shows seem centered around the original series era. I don't think there's much interest in going back to the Enterprise era at this point.

 

[Reanok]

I wish that Pocket books would let Christopher Bennett finish his Enterprise Rise of the Federation books it's been 2 years since the novel with Trip and Section 31 came out.

 

[sekundant]

I wish that Pocket books would let Christopher Bennett finish his Enterprise Rise of the Federation books it's been 2 years since the novel with Trip and Section 31 came out.

And I wish TPTB let them in peace, FOREVER! Trip, Archer, T'Pol, Malcolm, Hoshi, Shran, Romulan War.. all destroyed already. Not even glimpse of their characters, talents, intelligent, humor.. remained. Everything what made them more dimensional, charismatic, lovable, respectable are brutally erased for the favor of their own created worthless antagonists. Even they handled with them in the same way what TATV made it before, we know how the story ends.

 

[Reanok]

Just ignore Tatv it sucks I rewatched it recently it's still a bad show. For me the finale is Demons and Terra Prime.

 

[suarezguy]

It was an injustice to the Enterprise cast

Yeah, definitely the worse kind of finale you could come up with.

I suppose Berman et al. couldn't help themselves. Instead of letting ENT conclude on its own terms, they awkwardly morphed the finale into a quasi tribute to the Berman era of Star Trek.

There actually was at least one other notable instance of that, a season finale of Justice League Unlimited, intended to be the series finale and literally called "Epilogue", was really an episode of and finale to Batman Beyond and the Timmverse Batman. Most people didn't mind that as BB itself hadn't had its own series finale (though JLU got another season and finale anyway).

 

[comics1996]

If you take the TNG elements out of the story, you're still left with a pretty mediocre tale. If you want to make TATV into something good, you'd have to rejig it to the point where it really isn't TATV any more.

Just proves that STD is not the trash trek. Yet it was the start of the end of trek.

 

[WebLurker]

Out of mere curiosity and nothing more or less... was there anyone who actually liked this episode?

I thought it was okay. Not the episode to end the series on and some wonky bits, but not worth the hate and it was fun to see a crossover of sorts. Course, I'm weird; I thought the novel's retcon made things worse (while I do headcanon that the holodeck scenario was simplified version of the real events, which could gloss over some of the plot holes, retconning it all to be a lie was pretty bad and created more plot holes then it solved).

Still find up funny that it ended up on one of those Fan Collective DVDs awhile back despite it's bad reputation.