The Final Three
17 May 2005
And just like that, it's over……..
I didn't have time to review “Demons” last week, and just like that, one week later, I've got three episodes on my plate.
I'll dispense with the plot synopses. I figure most people reading this will have seen the episodes.
I must admit that my expectations for the series finale were low. I've trusted Jolene Blalock's take on B&B and her opinions on the mismanagement of Enterprise from the first moment she started publicly criticizing Messrs. Berman and Braga. She's a fan.
I read in one of the articles written this past Friday… I can't remember which one… that Star Trek, vis-à-vis Enterprise , was ending, not with a bang, and not with a whimper . It was just… ending. After viewing the final three, I can't argue with that summation.
The “Mirror” episodes were outstanding (despite my considerable misgivings about the ending). “Demons” and “Terra Prime,” however, were kind of just “there.” Perhaps part of it was knowing that the end was near, and desperately wanting something more epic, more enduring. I can't really find a great deal of fault in either episode, and to be sure, both had their moments. I can't deny that my eyes watered a bit as Trip sat beside T'Pol in the wake of Elizabeth's death, and I can't deny being touched as they joined hands. Being the romantic that I am, though, I desperately wanted Trip to take T'Pol into his arms. I wanted both of them to stop doing the ridiculous dance they had been doing for far too many episodes, and make that baby. Since I knew that “These Are The Voyages” was going to be set six years into the future, I wanted to see Trip and T'Pol together, and I wanted to meet their child. I'm one of the loudest complainers whenever canon is violated, and to tell you the truth I can't remember whether Spock was supposed to be the first half-human/half-Vulcan , but in that moment, I didn't care. The chemistry was palpable. That T'Pol and Trip could have truly had a relationship never seemed more believable than it did in that moment. Kudos to both performers.
I find it interesting that, as I think back on those two episodes, that's the only scene that stands out in my mind. There were other strong points, of course. Peter Weller turned in a finely nuanced and restrained performance as John Paxton . Having the mining station turn out to be a warp-capable ship was both unexpected and welcome, and the special effects were most impressive… almost enough to make you forget how much Enterprise's budget had been cut this season. I enjoyed Trip's wrestling with the thought that T'Pol might have hidden an entire pregnancy from him so compelling, that I found myself wishing more time could have been devoted to that inner struggle. There was so much potential for compelling character examinations and relationship development here that was, for me, a metaphor for what Enterprise has been from the beginning: a lost opportunity. I guess that's kind of a theme for this entire essay (which, forgive, is very stream-of-consciousness): Enterprise: Opportunity Lost. And it makes me sad.
Of course, I appreciated the allegory that permeated “Demons” and “Terra Prime.” Humanities own historical struggles with racial intolerance and the horrors of ethnic cleansing… and I know the production team really wanted to work Colonel Green into the mix somehow, but like so much else this season, everything just felt too rushed and lacked the epic nature I craved so desperately. Enterprise has been so mishandled from the beginning; I was desperate for it to go out with the same sort of bang with which it came in. And I was sorely disappointed. The ground the producers attempted to explore was fertile. Fertile enough, perhaps, to have served as the backdrop of the entire season, in much the same way the Xindi dominated the third season.
But B&B never “got” that these are the stories we, the fans, craved from a prequel series. The kinds of stories that should have been on the menu starting with season one. Stories about the founding of the Federation, increasing hostilities between Earth and the Klingon Empire, the Romulan war. Manny Coto (despite Rick Berman's pathetic efforts to take credit for the successes of season four) had too much to do in one season: bring the Vulcans back into line with Trek Canon after B&B had led them so far astray, lay the foundation for the, well, foundation of the Federation, and try to breath some life and color into the most bland crew ever to occupy the bridge of a Starship named Enterprise.
He accomplished a lot, but it was all just too rushed to ever have been completely satisfying. I think all of this played into my reaction to “Demons” and “Terra Prime” just being “there,” and fueled my regrets for the threads left dangling by the cancellation of this series, such as what the hell that Romulan was doing on Vulcan at the end of “The Forge” story arc. Perhaps when Star Trek is once again in capable hands, we will finally find out.
As empty as “Demons” and “Terra Prime” left me feeling, “These Are The Voyages” was even worse. It wasn't even enough to leave me with the feeling that it was even “there.” Blalock was right. It was appalling. But I knew it would be. From the first moment plot details were leaked, I was dreading this episode.
While I can understand an sympathize with the regular cast's dismay with so much focus on Riker and Troi during what was supposed to be the finale for their show, that wasn't even the worse part for me. The worst part for me was what a damn yawner the episode was. I have yet to see the series finale for Deep Space Nine . Thanks to Netflix , however, that will be remedied soon. I have, of course, seen “All Good Things” many, many times, as well as the series finale of Voyager . And while I had some issues with the end of Voyager (as I had issues with the entire series), the one thing both those finales had in common is that they felt like endings. Both stories were imaginative, respectful to the continuity of their respective series', and truly allowed us to say “goodbye” to the casts whose adventures we had been observing and enjoying for seven year stretches. “These Are The Voyages” did none of these things. Rather, it gave us too many plots for a series finale, none of which had any kind of epic feel, none of which really tied into Enterprise as a whole, and none of which allowed any of the cast members to truly shine. Again, I can definitely see why they were upset. Opportunity lost.
I can also understand, and even kind of respect, B&B's desire to tie the Trek incarnations together, since “These Are The Voyages” wasn't just the end of Enterprise , but also of televised Trek as we know it for God knows how long.
But this wasn't the way to do it.
If B&B were hell-bent on this concept, they should have written a moving involved story, and made it a two-parter. Frakes and Sirtis could have framed the story, but otherwise their involvement should have been more minimal. And, for heaven's sake, it's been twenty frickin' years. Rather than tying into a little-remembered Next Generation episode in a most non-revelatory way, the 24 th Century setting should have been the USS Titan under the command of Captain William T. Riker. While the makeup artists did a decent job of masking Frake's age, it couldn't be denied. And while Marina Sirtis remains an exceptionally beautiful woman, it was painfully obvious how many years had passed since that Next Gen episode was shot. The entire concept would have, I firmly believe, been stronger if, in addition to an epic story chronicling the final mission of the NX-01 , we had gotten a glimpse, no matter how brief, into the lives of the post- Nemesis Riker and Troi, allowing Frakes and Sirtis to “act their age.” Opportunity lost.
Add to that the fact that nothing that Riker observed ever truly seemed relevant to Riker's supposed quandary over whether to tell Picard about the cloaking device. Sure, there was a line of dialogue here and there over the importance of obeying orders… but none of it ever came to a head, and since we all knew the outcome, there was zero sense of suspense. This, too, could have been exciting had we been dealing with a new scenario with Captain Riker of the Titan . Truth be told, I didn't give a rat's ass about Riker's decision making process.
“These Are The Voyages” had no heart. I would have given anything for even one scene that began to approach the emotional impact of the final scene of “Terra Prime.” Any one scene that communicated the end of the bond that had supposedly bound these characters together for a decade. Instead, the entire episode felt like just another day aboard the Starship Enterprise , and a pretty uneventful day at that.
I don't have the words to adequately convey the utter uselessness of Trip's death. It is as if they decided, okay Tucker needs to die… but make it quick. And, while he died a hero, his death was nowhere near heroic enough. The stakes just didn't seem high enough to warrant his death. Preventing a warp core breach, saving T'Pol from certain death, taking out a Terra Prime terrorist at the conference, all of these would have been a more satisfying vehicle through which Tucker shuffled off his mortal coil, but what B&B gave us was just inane. For many, many years the death of Tasha Yar held the title for the most unimaginative, useless, and unsatisfying death of a Star Trek regular. Clear off the mantle. There's a new trophy.
As for the final montage, all I can say is that if it had come on the tail of a truly compelling, epic finale… it might have had its intended impact. But coming on the tail of a rather uninspired yawnfest, propagated by one disappointment after another, it had no impact on me whatsoever. I mean, I knew what they were trying to do, I know how it should have made me feel, but all it really did as make me all the more angry at B&B for taking Trek down the tubes, all the while blaming anyone and everyone besides themselves to anyone who would listen. I wasn't moved. I was pissed. Opportunity lost.
So what went wrong with Enterprise? How did B&B manage to so quickly drive away 20 million Star Trek fans?
A lot of it had to do, I think, with pure ego and arrogance. For much the same reason Ronald D. Moore trashed Battlestar Galactica , I think B&B were trying to get out from under the shadow of the Great Bird of the Galaxy , and leave their own indelible stamp on the Star Trek universe . There are ways to do this. I think Deep Space Nine succeeded quite well in moving away from Gene Roddenberry's utopian vision, without making the Trek Universe and its values unrecognizable. B&B said any number of things over the four years that Enterprise flailed about, but it's what they said early on that plays a large part in the failure of what could have (and should have) been a more worthy series. They said that they wanted to create a show that could be enjoyed by Trek fans and non-Trek fans alike. That they wanted people who have never watched a Star Trek series to be able to tune in, follow, and enjoy the show. In actuality, that's a worthy goal. I understand the economic realities of the entertainment industry, and the need to expand your viewer base, but damn. This was a prequel.
You didn't 'need' to know the future history of the Romulans in order to create compelling stories of the Romulan war. You didn't need to know the future history of the Klingon Empire in order to appreciate stories chronicling the growing tension between the two races. So what are we supposed to think? B&B and their team were either too untalented to write these stories in such a way as to appeal to fans and non-fans alike, or too egotistical and hell-bent on leaving their own boot print on Star Trek to expand upon the rich veins of story potential Gene Roddenberry created for them four decades ago.
So they went too far in the wrong direction, creating canon-violating stories that couldn't appeal to existing fans, while delivering watered-down stories and Voyager re-hashes that weren't compelling enough to attract new ones.
And when B&B finally started to get the message that we wanted a little Trek in our Trek , they by-passed the original series storylines for which fans had been clamoring, in favor of trying to create continuity with their own creations: the Ferengi , the ‘ Borg . Never mind that the Ferengi never worked the first time until they became comic relief, B&B tried to make them threatening again. Ego and arrogance. And after completely declawing the ‘ Borg in Voyager , they tried to make them threatening again and, in my mind, once again disrupted continuity in a big way. Ego and arrogance.
As much as Berman wants to take credit for season four, it wasn't until Manny Coto was handed the reins that original series plotlines began to take hold. Manny Coto is a Star Trek fan, while B&B are there own fans. I'm sure they are very pleased. God, what an opportunity lost.
The final nail in the coffin was the characters and their (lack of) relationships. I said before that this was the blandest crew ever to occupy the bridge of a Starship Enterprise , and it's true. Much ado has been made over the course of the last several weeks about the producers finally giving Mayweather something to do. Unfortunately, all that's done for me is to thrust into the spotlight what an uninteresting character Mayweather is, and what limited range Anthony Montgomery has as an actor. Hoshi has also been given more to do, but again, her increased presence has just underscored how bland her character is, despite Linda Park's solid acting ability. B&B never allowed T'Pol to be a Vulcan (laboring under the delusion that repeatedly showcasing Jolene Blalock's ample bosom would distract us from the fact that T'Pol was demonstrating more emotion than most of the human characters) , and her relationship with Trip seemed painfully forced (with the notable exception of the final scene of “Terra Prime”).
Bill Gordon is a Co – Owner of the Cylon Alliance as well as President and one of the Co – Founders of the Colonial Fan Force . Sci Fi Pulse would like to thank Bill for all the hours and time that he has put in as our official reviewer for the final season of Enterprise.
If you would like to discuss this or any other story that you see posted at Sci Fi Pulse why not log in and register an account with the good folk at www.gaspode.net .
