What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[cooleddie74]

I've said it for a long while now: had "TATV..." been a Sweeps Week ratings stunt episode mid-year to boost ratings with guest appearances by two major TNG characters that would have been....mostly fine. The story would still have been lacking. But as a series finale and a way to send off the Classic Era of the franchise it just fell flat on its face and failed in almost every respect.

 

[cooleddie74]

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yep. Scrim and gel usage is a lost art.

 

[Paul755]

I've said it for a long while now: had "TATV..." been a Sweeps Week ratings stunt episode mid-year to boost ratings with guest appearances by two major TNG characters that would have been....mostly fine. The story would still have been lacking. But as a series finale and a way to send off the Classic Era of the franchise it just fell flat on its face and failed in almost every respect.

Yup, a “very special episode” in S2 or 3 like Flashback or Trials and Tribbleations would have been fine. As long as you drop Trips death, having that hang over the balance of the series would have been bad.

 

[Tallguy]

Oh! NOW I can be controversial.

I think the holodeck history HAS to be in the finale. It has to be the summation.

Drop Trip's death (which didn't work for anybody), drop Riker having his own problem to solve. Make Riker more passive and more simply interested and knowing that these people made his life possible.

But the end of the long road, getting from there to here HAS to be "getting here".

 

[cooleddie74]

It should have been a 2379-era holoprogram being run on the Titan. I get it, the series had just been canceled and UPN couldn't really throw any more money at the finale than it already had, but with some clever reuse of TNG/DS9/VOY-era corridors and bulkheads from props and storage they could have fabricated a passable interior for the Titan.

 

[BillJ]

It should have been a 2379-era holoprogram being run on the Titan. I get it, the series had just been canceled and UPN couldn't really throw any more money at the finale than it already had, but with some clever reuse of TNG/DS9/VOY-era corridors and bulkheads from props and storage they could have fabricated a passable interior for the Titan.

They spent the money to rebuild the TNG observation lounge. Seems like they could've just used that money and the TNG movie uniforms.

 

[cooleddie74]

They could have. But nope, B&B had their TNG story they wanted to tell.

 

[BillJ]

They could have. But nope, B&B had their TNG story they wanted to tell.

That sometimes is the unfortunate outcome. One becomes so in love with an idea that they can't see the problems it might create.

 

[cooleddie74]

Even in 2005 there were fans who wanted to salvage something positive from 2002's NEM and see Riker's new command. This was the perfect opportunity. But nope, they retro fanwanked so hard even the hardcore fans turned on them.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Scrim and Gel

Name of my new Punk band.

 

[Farscape One]

I've come to realize there is one new positive about "THESE ARE THE VOYAGES..." that I discovered after several current era shows have ended.

It sets the bar on what NOT to do for a series finale. It's still the worst series finale in the franchise, and will likely remain that way because it's such a cautionary tale on how to do a finale badly. Even DISCO's finale, which ended up very meh, is a bit better than ENT's finale.

 

[BillJ]

It sets the bar on what NOT to do for a series finale. It's still the worst series finale in the franchise...

Imagine if "Zero Hour" had been the finale.

 

[Avro Arrow]

All Good Things and Endgame played the trick of jumping forward in time.

Those ones both worked because we got to see the future of the characters we’d been following for the whole series. Making the characters from another show the primary focus of the episode was a terrible decision. Showing the beginning of the Federation was something they pretty much had to do, but I think it would have worked a lot better if the framing segment was the ENT characters coming together on the 25th anniversary of the Federation or something, then the bulk of the story could have been a “flashback” to their final mission leading up to the signing of the Articles of Federation.

This still gives the audience a look ahead into the characters’ lives, keeps the focus on the ENT characters (and doesn’t reduce them to just being holographic representations of the actual characters), and still shows the formation of the UFP, which everyone was expecting. There was no need to tie directly into TNG at all… we all know that’s coming in the “future” anyway.

You could still end the ep with the monologue and the flybys of various Enterprises if you wanted, just to drive the point home, though.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Imagine if "Zero Hour" had been the finale.

Poisoned fish in the replicator dinner, then? Followed by the inevitable Captain-drooling?

 

[cooleddie74]

Imagine if "Zero Hour" had been the finale.

"Wait....so the Star Trek TV franchise ends with an alien in a Nazi uniform?

Am....I high right now? Hello?"

 

[kkt]

I've come to realize there is one new positive about "THESE ARE THE VOYAGES..." that I discovered after several current era shows have ended.

It sets the bar on what NOT to do for a series finale. It's still the worst series finale in the franchise, and will likely remain that way because it's such a cautionary tale on how to do a finale badly. Even DISCO's finale, which ended up very meh, is a bit better than ENT's finale.

"Turnabout Intruder" still holds the record for worst finale.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I think that’s because it was never meant to be a finale. Did they even know that they got canceled (again) when they filmed it?

 

[at Quark's]

then the bulk of the story could have been a “flashback” to their final mission leading up to the signing of the Articles of Federation.

Only if done well. I wouldn't appreciate one of those 'you remember when we ....' <insert scene X>. -'Yeah, but things only really got tense when ' <insert scene Y> - formats.

 

[cooleddie74]

I think that’s because it was never meant to be a finale. Did they even know that they got canceled (again) when they filmed it?

Yep. The final day of shooting was on January 9, 1969 and, I believe, NBC's cancellation came down to the actors and crew on January 2. So while the script itself wasn't the product of knowing the series was going to be dead, the actors and producers knew good and well that this was their last.