The ending was kinda cool, but also strangely unsatisfying. I definitely don’t regret missing most of the show’s run.
I forgot / missed 30 seconds. What was Riker conflicted about? I vaguely remeber The Pegasus, but thats it.
Brian
Did that suck, or what?
Kill Archer, Promote Trip.
I thought the Riker and Troy angle was totally unnecessary. Until the end when Riker got to say, “End program.” Brilliant and funny.
I had forgotten how ridiculous the whole Holodeck thing was. I know it enabled the writers to come up with some pretty good stories on Next Generation but it’s capabilities are more akin to magic than technology. Of course, “Any sufficiently advanced technology…indistinguishable from magic” or however Arthur Clarke put it. But as Kirk says in The Menagerie, “No starship keeps such detailed records.” Or however Kirk put it. Hey maybe the Talosians helped engineer the Holodeck?
Still, two fine episodes. Had there been more of this caliber, maybe there would have been another season or two.
Out with a wimper.
Having the baby die in the first episode, then hinting at something happening in the future with T’Pol and Trip and then finding out that six(?) years have gone by and nothing else happened? Big Letdown. Then for good measure they killed off Trip for no damn good reason.
:mad:
I agree completely. What was the point of building up some romance with Trip and T’Pol in the first place? Were those previous episodes written when there was some hope that the show would be renewed? If not, there was no (absolutely no) point in all of that. It just leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. And killing off Trip—I knew it was coming, but it still stunk.
The Riker/Troi thing was better than I had anticipated (dreaded), in that it moved the story along quickly and wrapped everything up. Eh. It had okay parts. But I saw absolutely no need to do that to Trip, and the whole pointlessness of the T’Pol/Trip thing . . . argh.
Both episodes were stunningly bad, but the badness of “These Are the Voyages …” really gets under my skin because it was the finale.
The Riker stuff was just a distraction from wrapping up “Enterprise.”
Why were they decommissioning the ship after only 10 years? Sorry, we don’t have time to explain, we have to cut to Eyebags and Facelift Girl in Ten Forward.
What will the Archer and the other crewmembers be doing now? Oops, no time; we need to cram in some exposition that didn’t merit any screentime when Next Generation was on the air.
How did Trip’s friends react to instant conclusion that the Alien Plot Devices (sorry, “Alien Invaders”) could only be defeated with kamikaze tactics? Who cares! Riker has some hushpuppies to fry!
And I won’t even go into the bizarre decision to squeeze in the Shran-faked-his-own-death-then-got-involved-with-crooks-and-apparently-lost-all-his-friends-because-he-must-turn-to-Starfleet-just-to-find-the-manpower-for-a-garden-variety-ambush plot.
Utter dreck.
I gotta say that this finale was lacking. But then, I really wasn’t expecting much.
The whole thing with Riker was a total waste of time and distracted from the actual story. The time used for that could have been used to make the central story better.
Killing off Trip was dumb. Having him and T’Pol go nowhere in their relationship for six years was dumb. the whole Shran subplot was dumb.
You’d think that after ten years of service Hoshi and Mayweather would have been promoted past ensign. Maybe at review time Archer was reading though past scripts and said to them, “You know, it seems like you two hardly do anything around here.”
As for the night’s first episode, was Hoshi, an ensign communications officer, really the best person to place in charge in a battle situation?
Didn’t any of you folks read the TATV spoilers on these eps.? 
I did, so I knew what was coming, but it still reeked. I’m really surprised that the Reeves-Stevenses and Manny wrote this together. They’ve done better than this.
One great scene: Trip mourning his daughter’s death. Trinneer does an excellent job here.
One funny line: T’Pol saying “hello” to the (poor, unfortunate, inevitably doomed) kid.
List o’ Lame-itude:
It's really lame that Riker needed a holodeck program to help him make a big decision. Lame as all get out that anyone from TNG is in the finale at all.
It's lame that Trip really IS a member of the JA fan club. I think he developed Stockholm Syndrome. JA was such a fucking asshole to him so many times, yet he kept coming back for more.
It's lame beyond belief that the writers have Troi freaking RUIN Trip's demise by blabbing about it ahead of time.
It's lame as hell that we never got to see what Chef really looked like. Oh, that's right, I forgot: he looks like Riker during his Infamous Fat Period. Sheesh.
It's slightly lame that we never learn the name of Shran's daughter.
It's lame-o that T'Pol acts incredibly un-Vulcan the whole time. Well, maybe that was Riker's idea. He programmed the stupid thing in the first place.
It's lamer still that Archer says "Signing documents _are_ easy." That's incredibly bad grammar. Signing IS easy, not "are"! "Signing" is singular!
(Sorry, can’t help it. I teach English for a living.)
•Well, it was good to see the Enterprise-D, and TNGera sets, again. (Corridors looked a might small, though. And I think they got the door colors wrong.)
•Of course, the cameos from Kirk’s voiceover/NCC-1701 and the mega-cameo by the TNG elements just brings to mind an old adage: “Never show a GOOD movie in the middle of your CRAPPY movie.”
•The NX-01 crew—that’s an example of composure, for ya. Their ship’s being decomissioned, they’re all being split up, AND one of their closest friends just died horribly, and the Vulcan woman was the one who seemed the most emotional about it! How 'bout that? :rolleyes:
•The NX-01 apparently spent a whole lot of time at relativistic speeds without the benefit of warp drive, seeing as the crew didn’t look EVEN A DAY OLDER. Not a gray hair or nothin.
•Apparently, no matter how far into the Star Trek future you go, medical science will never figure out an easy way to oxygenate blood without using lungs.
•I think this is the fewest explosions in a Star Trek finale since TOS’.
In the end…it’s an ending. That’s enough. Enterprise is dead, now let’s put a stake through it’s heart, wrap it in knotted string, and bury it in a shallow, unmarked grave in the middle of the woods. 
I’m not bitching because it would have fellated goats anyway, but why the big build-up to a speech and no speech!
I guess the writers knew that they sucked too bad to write one worthy of the situation.
The bye-bye with the three Enterprises was well done, but served to point out that the people (you know who) who super-imposed their names over it had just murdered one of my loved ones.
Somebody start a thread for ideas for new Trek serieseses–I’m going to be too busy wishing I hadn’t promised my wife I’d stop drinking.
The end speech fake-out was funny to me. Yeah, it probably would’ve sucked, and I think the writers knew that.
“Come on, guys, we have two more days to finish this script, and we don’t even have a decent draft of Archer’s speech at the end.”
“I know! We make the entire episode a holodeck program being run by… let’s say, Riker. Then we can just have him end the program right before the speech!”
“…That might just work.”
The very end sequence with the different Enterprises weirded me out because the NX-01 didn’t jump to warp. A shot the Enterprise jumping to warp is distilled iconic Star Strek; what better shot to end a series with? Nah, let’s just show the Enterprise lazily flying around near a nebula; roll credits. Yeesh.
Troi had developed quite a little FUPA herself.
I guess Shran’s wife is yellow?
When Those Names came up at the end, all I thought was “That’s it??”
Turek: What is FUPA? And is your username a Vulcan name?
When the Bergama said they were going to give a Valentine to the fans with this finale, someone should have told them not to wipe themselves with it first.
Fat Upper Pelvic Area.
Also, Fat Upper Pussy Area.
I feel dirty knowing those without even having to look it up.
What crap. That was the most important story they could tell about the crew’s role in the founding of the Federation? . Trip decided to off himself in that lame-ass situation, and it was all basically Archer’s fault for cleaning up Shran’s mess? They’ve been in much worse scrapes than that, and nobody had to commit suicide to get them out of it. It was lazy writing and fucking insulting both to the actor and the audience.
The only possible consolation: At least it wasn’t as bad as the X-Files finale.
Bleh. Just bleh.
Two things: 1. I find it humorous that they had to do a Data voiceover instead of having him in person. He probably wouldn’t have fit in his uniform unless they had pulled one of Shatner’s old trusses out of storage.
- I also find it humorous that the only two people in the entire run of the series who seem to actually be 3D characters were stolen from another series. And they only had personalities because of the writing from that other series.
HATE HATE KILL HATE BURN :mad: :mad:
Not aimed at you, vibrotronica. I just have that reaction when someone brings up “The Truth” parts I and II. :mad: :mad: :mad: Another wasted series.
I’ve not seen it yet and, honestly, don’t really care to. I’ll watch it when I get my final tape from viva but more out of a feeling of obligation to her than any to the franchise. I’m not sure what the causes of my current apathy for the franchise is but as of this moment, I don’t care a bit.
It’s been a fun two and a half years and if it weren’t for the ENT Dopers, I wouldn’t be a Doper myself and, by extension, would still be living at home in Tennessee and probably working at McDonald’s instead of having a job I love and my own apartment in Oregon.
I’m not sure how much longer I’ll stick around, but I just wanted to voice my appreciation for all of you in case my disinterest in the SDMB continues to grow.
Thank you.