[ENT] Season 4, Episode 22: These are the Voyages…
Rating: 0
…What in the world were they thinking when they made this thing? It’s strange that only one episode is allotted to the series finale, first of all, and then crammed with too many half-thought out ideas. There’s never much of a focus, and the narrative through-line that does exist belongs to Riker and an episode that aired about ten year previous to this episode. The Enterprise part of it is set years after the previous episode, which could’ve been a great way to infuse “These Are The Voyages” with a sense of finality and memory. The crew could feel their history with the ship and each other, mirroring the viewer’s time spent watching the show and Trek in general. Also, we’d get a neat glimpse of connective tissue between Enterprise and the Trek universe of the original series. But there really isn’t time for any of that, instead Shran pops up for a diversion of a mission, and the writers throw in a character death in a weak attempt to add some gravity to the story. Plus, the way they choose to depict the future of the Federation that Star Trek Enterprise has been, in one way or another, building towards for its entire run, is just Archer preparing for a speech. Could there be anything more boring than watching someone trying to write something?
There’s no way to stop a hardcore Trek fan from watching this episode (I’ve watched it many times!) but if you’re able, let Terra Prime be the end of the series. If there’s a single episode in all of Trek that you should never watch, make it “These Are The Voyages…”
Read more at Memory Alpha
Notes:
It’s years in the future from the last episode, marked only by some minor ship modifications. Like this handy monitor designed for all the crew members that are a foot taller than Reed.
They have name tags too! Everything is so different in the future!
We learn that Riker is studying Enterprise to figure out what to do in “The Pegasus.” This is a really fun idea for an episode of Enterprise that isn’t the series finale, but here we are.
Troi’s in this episode too! She tells him to skip ahead to where Shran shows up. I guess this situation allows them to jump around in time, to get to what should be relevant to the dramatic final mission of Enterprise…
Archer is on the way to giving a final address, which will lead to the Federation being created, but first Shran needs another favor. In a final episode, it’s cool if there is a level of epic-ness (such as the creation of the Federation), and it seems kind of disappointing to insert such a menial mission as the core of the episode. We also find out Shran faked his death, got mixed up with some bad people, and got his daughter stolen. Now he desperately needs help. Shran was one of my favorite parts of Enterprise, and I was kind of hoping he ended up in a less pathetic position in the end :/
And of course a serious scene is made weird by Riker hiding in some corner watching them.
Riker plays the role of the chef, because apparently he was everyone’s best friend that we never got to see.
And we learn that T’Pol and Trip ended their relationship 6 years ago. I wasn’t a fan of that relationship, but it still seems like such a sad arc, especially since the episode before featured their baby dying. Later she brings up this conversation with Trip… so did Riker just recite one side of an actual conversation, or is her subplot with Trip just a fictional consequence of Riker’s pretend time?
And then Riker gives her a kiss while the holodeck is paused wtf ok
As Riker and Troi watch Trip in engineering, Troi mentions that Trip is going to die on the mission. Wow. Can this episode be anymore of a downer?
They go to get Shran’s daughter back from a metal band.
But then they ambush ’em! Riker takes part in the fight too, because ya know, it helps with his research. Hard to get into any of the action. We’re just kind of waiting for Trip to die at this point.
But they throw in a Data voice cameo to try and cheer us up a little.
Riker asks what everyone thinks about Trip. Hoshi says he didn’t graduate college?? He learned about starship engineering working on boat engines? Seriously?
The kidnappers catch up to Enterprise and they’re angry.
Trip sacrifices himself to blow them up. I know people die all the time on a starship, but it’s yet another disappointment that Trip goes down because of some rando pirate with a big zipper on his face.
Again, Riker hiding behind their shoulders makes every scene a lot less serious.
It’s time for the big speech. I guess only 3 members of the crew could make it? Or wanted to sit together?
Phlox does that stupid smile for old time’s sake.
Are they hinting at a possible future relationship between these two? If they are, I don’t care.
They show the 3 Enterprises, and have each of the 3 captains deliver a piece of the “Space, the final frontier…” bit. It’s kinda cool, but seems extra sad as we realize this debacle of an episode is not just the series finale, but the end of an eighteen year run of Star Trek.
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