Star Trek Enterprise has come to an end.
For the first time since I’ve been able to walk, there is no new Star Trek coming. And as a geekfan, that is a weird feeling.
Hit “Read More” to find out more.. I will be spoiling the final episode.
Still here? Good.
Tonight I watched “These are the Voyages”, the final episode of thhe fourth season of the fifth series called “Star Trek”. I watched the premiere episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise the day they came out.. and if I’m honest, I was a true fan long before I ever played a Romulan.
This final episode neatly ties in Enterprise by taking place on the holodeck of the Enterprise D during Next Gen’s seventh season. Riker and Troi are viewing the last days of Archer’s Enterprise and the founding (sort of) of the Federation.
This episode features things not seen before.. including an almost Whedonesque killing of a main character – and the Ent-D (my fave) has never looked better. In all.. I really enjoyed it.. but was not choked up in any way.
Then.. the Ent-D flies by and we hear the Star Trek theme.. and Picard starts saying “Space, The FInal Fornteir.. these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its coninuing mission..”
A comet flies by and its the original series Enterprise and we hear young Kirk.. “To Explore Strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations”..
And its finally Archer and his ships saying “To boldly go where no man has gone before”.. and the ship files into space.. and the screen goes dark.
And I, to my surprise.. found myself a little lump-throaty and turned off the TV and took a deep breath. There was gravity to this for me. I worked in the Star Trek universe for three years. Sam got me into it a lot, I’ve gotten my brother into it, I watched it with friends.. coworkers, my wife.. my friend Steve and I watched the Borg episodes in Williamsburg, all growing up at 5 after school when I was 10… and now its over.
There is hope it may come back in some form.. and there are 28 seasons to enjoy on DVD as well as 10 movies, plus books, games, websites.. and I hold out hope that I will one day be able to enter that universe that holds not only the show itself, but the continuity of my childhood into adulthood. the memories of of friends and family who enjoyed it with me, and the fun secret shame of admitting to someone under my breath.. (‘yeah, I’m kind of a trekkie’)
Live long.. you know the rest.
Live long…
Hey! Alternative endings for that tired old phrase…
Live long…
…and grasp her? …and prod birds? …and eat sushi? …and exercise? …big knockers? (Hey! The types ON THE DOOR, buddy!) …tall lockers? …big talker?
Ahh, the joy of Trek. My daughter’s birth picture shows her holding up her hand in the “Live Long and Prosper” sign. She’s doomed from birth to a lifetime of trekkiness.
I was talking to Christy about this the other day. All told, I’ve seen, what… maybe 10 hours of Star Wars? I mean, there’s the deleted scenes, and those kinds of goodies, but about 10 hours of actual releases.
Yet we’ve watched all nine seasons of Friends. Heck, Firefly’s one aborted season had more hours of entertainment than the movie franchise.
Mmm, no, wait, I’m forgetting. I watched the Star Wars special in the late 1970’s on television. Mommy let us stay up late because we were good. The only downside to the night was that I remember having horrible diarrhea, and she had to give me a massive horse pill to get it to stop.
I didn’t swallow it. The OTHER way.
Back to Star Trek. I remember reading the book, describing all the vagaries of the first series. Lots of juicy tidbits in there, but unfortunately the only one I remember clearly was “you’re not allowed to show the bare underside of a breast”. And something about open-mouthed kisses.
Boy, am I ever glad they got rid of THOSE restrictions. What would life be without open-mouthed kisses on TV?
Mmm, on that thought, I often think it was intentional that they put a fairly “racy” (for TV) scene in the very first episode of Enterprise. I think they were gunning to try to pump up to massive ratings. Apparently, it got them.
Where did this series go wrong that it ended so short? Maybe the bar was simply set very high from Next Gen and DS9. Maybe in that regard, Enterprise has much more in common with the original franchise than we’d like to think. Rodenberry’s original vision only came to three measly seasons. It was the constant syndication, and his tenacity in pushing for a movie, which kept it alive IMHO.
Bored now. Done rambling. Whedon has taken Rodenberry’s throne, and I don’t begrudge him the honor.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
For starters, hello all. I’m
For starters, hello all. I’m a friend of Justin’s — who told me I HAD to check out this blog. And so here I am.
I feel your pain, Justin. We’ve had a long run of Star Trek. And I seriously doubt it’s over. There will be another series. But the story needs time to rest, I think. Let culture change a bit more, and then we can have a new Star Trek that reflects it again.
For me, that’s always the point of Sci-Fi, using it as a mirror to see our own culture. I remember a friend once telling me that Star Trek captains were a culture’s version of role-models for the ideal man. 60s Kirk was brash, hotheaded, stubborn, and a total womanizer (yet with SUCH style). Picard was your 90s Rennaisance Man: refined, strong yet caring, cultured…. the theory falls apart when you hit Janeway, of course…
As much as I LOVE Joss Whedon, I’m not so sure if I’d say he’s taken Rodenberry’s throne. Whedon’s strength is in characters, intelligent dialogue, and surprising plot twists. All of which make his work more fun to watch than anything I’ve ever seen on TV. But Rodenberry created a universe, with fully functional multiple societies. He did for space what Tolkien did for fantasy. While Whedon tells some BRILLIANT stories, Rodenberry created a world in which OTHERS could tell brilliant stories as well. Sort of like a playground of the imagination.
Arthur Rowan
“There is nothing more frightening than a man who is absolutely sure in the righteousness of his cause. Except spiders. Spiders freak the hell out of me.”