These Are The Voyages

The finale of Star Trek: Enterprise aired tonight. The last new Trek show in production. Next season will be the first time in 18 years Star Trek has not aired at least one new season. Often there has been two series airing simultaneously. The episode was odd to say the least. For one thing, it is the first finale since the original series, which didn't really have a finale, to only be an hour long. Second, it was a Next Generation episode. Let me explain. The finale was basically set during a Next Generation episode from the 7th and final season of that show called "The Pegasus". The episode aired in 1994. They recreated many of the sets - the holodeck, the hallways, Troi's quarters, even Ten Forward. These were sets they destroyed in a 1994 motion picture when this ship blew up. It was wonderful except Riker and Troi definitely look ten years older, try as they might to make them not. They tied it in with voice overs from Brent Spiner (Data) and Patrick Stewart (Picard) relating to events in that episode. Anyway, the first officer, William Riker, was faced with a difficult decision in that episode. Troi, the counselor, encourages him to access the holodeck program of the Enterprise NX-01's final voyage. This means Riker is watching the events that happened about 200 years before his time. The Enterprise events are set six years after the previous Enterprise episode so we get to see those characters older and what has become of them. They are about to mothball the ship, and at the same time the UFP is being formed. They take a nice little excursion on their way home with recurring character Shran (Jeffrey Combs, who also played Bunt and Weyoun on Deep Space 9 as well as appearing as Shran in numerous episodes of Enterprise). We find out they think Shran died three years ago. This would be interesting to explore if Sci-Fi picks the series back up, as it is considering. Anyway, Riker has alone time with each member of the crew by replacing their Chef, who basically served as their counselor. They throw in references when one of the Enterprise characters says "all good things..." (the title of The Next Generation's finale) and Archer talks about a "next generation." In the end, the chief engineer Trip Tucker has to decide to disobey his captain and sacrifice himself to save the ship. Trip is the most interesting and popular character on Enterprise and watching his death was painful. It helps Riker make the decision he made 11 years ago when "The Pegasus" first aired. After Trip's death, they show a scene that happened earlier when Riker had his chef session with him, something omitted during the episode until the end. Riker gets some last advice, then end the program before the UFP signing. I as initally mad as The Next Generation music swelled and the Enterprise NCC-1701-D took off into space until Patrick Stewart's droning "Space, the final frontier, these are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It's continuing mission..." The suddenly the view shifted to the Enterprise NCC-1701, the ship featured in the original show and William Shatner's voice clip from the sixties continued the monologue. "...to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations..." Finally the NX-01 appeared with Scott Bakula (Captain Archer's voice) finishing "...to bodly go where no man has gone before." The monologue used throughout Star Trek history. I got chils. It was the perfect ending as the credits rolled. I am torn between wanting to see the intervening six years on the sci-fi channel and letting Star Trek rest...at least for a year or two until it premieres the sixth television show and the 11th motion picture. Or next year if Sci-fi picks up Enterprise. Live long and prosper, Star Trek!

Qops! (Enterprise quotes from the main and major recurring characters)
"Malcolm's got this rule; you have to be taller than a gun to use it." ~ Trip about Reed

"If I'm not mistaken, they are preparing to mate. Do you think they might let me watch?" ~Dr. Phlox

"And one thing I can tell you is that at warp one point eight, you've got a lot of time on your hands between ports. That's how my parents wound up with me."
"Do you have any helpful information on this vessel beyond its recreational activities?" ~ Travis and T'Pol

"He's a Klingot.
"A Klingon."
"Where'd he come from?"
"Oklahoma." ~ Admiral Leonard, Tos, Captain Archer, Commander Williams

"Someone hasn't been taking very good care of my engines."
"Speak with the Klingons." ~ Trip and T'Pol

"I'm a translator. I didn't come out here to see corpses hanging on hooks."
"It goes without saying that you're going to encounter the unexpected."
"Not corpses on hooks. " ~ Hoshi and Dr. Phlox

"Captain Archer, your presence on this mission has not been... unduly burdensome."
"I think he likes you, pink-skin." ~ Soval and Shran

"Where did you put those phase pistols?"
"You're going to shoot a bug?"
"I'm just going to stun it." ~ Trip and Reed

"You son of a bitch!"
"Actually, mother was a chemist." ~Dr. Lucas and Dr. Soong

"Captain, this may surprise you, but I agree." ~ T'Pol

"You know that you and cheddar don't get along." ~ Archer to his cheese-loving beagle, Porthos