Basically, the last episode of “Star Trek” consists of a guy in a Starfleet outfit sitting around watching a rerun of “Star Trek,” and even creating his own fanfic by writing himself into the story and making himself a wise, wonderfully intelligent individual who all the crewmembers unburden themselves to.
Not exactly the way *I* would have gone for a last episode, although it can certainly be considered a final commentary on Trek fandom. Then again, my ideal episode would have involved Sam Beckett leaping out of the body of Jonathan Archer and to his next adventure, so…
My assumption is that there were various Trek personnel sitting in the cheap seats at the end. Anyone have a tally of who was there?
PAD
• 
Well, I was underwhelmed by it all.
I say that television and movie TREK could use a nice long rest. Look at what the 15 years away did for DR. WHO. The new series is amazing!
The holodeck program comes pretty darn close to the truth. Though it is able to extrapolate from any changes made by the REAL person in it (like the conversation between T’Pol and Tucker about chef), it is still basing the actions on actual files for those crew.
Not necessarily.
First, there are no holographic records from Archer’s Enterprise; holodecks and the associated technology only begin to appear on starships late in Kirk’s era at best (depending on whether you treat the animated series as canonical).
Second, it’s perfectly possible to use holotech to create fully fictional “holonovels”, such as Picard’s Dixon Hill stories, Tom Paris’s tales of Captain Proton, and so forth.
As far as I can tell, “These Are the Voyages….” doesn’t specify whether the holodeck material is a holonovel or a reconstruction from Starfleet records, but internal evidence (such as that exchange between T’Pol and Trip) strongly suggests that it is in fact a holonovel, whose historical accuracy is no more to be relied on than, say, that of Shakespeare’s “history” plays.
I have read speculation elsewhere that the “Terra Prime” arc may have been meant to extend over three episodes rather than the two as aired. That theory makes some sense to me, as it accounts both for the thin treatment of a great many “Terra Prime” subplots and for the character of the speech we hear from Archer at its conclusion (as opposed to the one we don’t hear at the end of the final episode).
As an aside: am I the only viewer who was very, very weirded out by the revelation that the Earth political leader responsible for organizing the talks leading to the Federation’s founding was the former mayor of Sunnydale, California? (With all respect to Harry Groener, that’s a casting choice I can’t imagine making in that situation.)
To answer Peter’s query about the crowd in the cheap seats, I definitely recognized the Reeves-Stevenses, and a lot of the others looked familiar to me as well.
WOW!!! I was thinking the exact same thing!!! I thought it would be cool to see Sam leap to something else after signing the Charter…
BTW, was this episode supposed to cater towards TNG fans or Riker and Deanna fans? Oh wait… THERE ARE NO RIKER AND DEANNA FANS… that’s how they got Riker and Deanna to be on the show, the rest of the TNG cast are too busy being successful!!!
TVTome has a listing of various people in that auditorium scene as well as appearing elsewhere in the program:
http://www.tvtome.com/Enterprise/season4.html#ep98
For the previous two episodes they also have some inside jokes from Manny Coto regarding Peter Weller’s character.
I was also quite surprised to see the Mayor of Sunnydale, Harry Groener, and I bet they definitely were playing with our association there. They wanted us to think there was more to him and he was connected with Terra Prime. He ended up only having a loose past connection and was still a “good guy” for the most part.
Neil
^^^
OR from when he was previously on Trek pre-dating Buffy, as Tam Elbrum.
OR when he was on “Dear, John”.
OR when he was on…many more things that the majority of the population would recognize him from.
Ms. Kitka said: BTW, was this episode supposed to cater towards TNG fans or Riker and Deanna fans? Oh wait… THERE ARE NO RIKER AND DEANNA FANS… that’s how they got Riker and Deanna to be on the show, the rest of the TNG cast are too busy being successful!!!
Yeah, ’cause you see Gates McFadden everywhere these days…
Spiner, Stewart and Sirtis are the only ex-TNGers that are getting regular work in front of the cameras. Sirtis has been in four films in the last year, including Paul Haggis’ critically acclaimed CRASH, currently in theaters. And even Spiner found time to guest on ENTERPRISE and even do a vocal cameo in the finale.
Obviously Stewart is the most visible actor to come out of TNG, but outside of the X-MEN films, what’s the last thing you remember seeing him in? He works a lot, but mostly in smaller films and TV miniseries (and voicework — in fact, he turned up on AMERICAN DAD last night as Stan’s boss — and the character was drawn to look like him, too).
The truth is Frakes is more successful than most former TNG stars, though most of his success is behind the camera as a producer and director.
And the only reason I’m not including more than Gates on the “where are they now? list is that I have seen Denise Crosby recenty (guesting on EYES), LeVar Burton’s a successful TV director (though mostly of TREK — he did two ENTERPRISES this season, in fact), Michael Dorn does a lot of voice work (and the occasional job in front of the camera, including two of Sirtis’ last four films) and Wil Wheaton’s got a writing career and does a fair amount of voice work, too (and again, the occasional job in front of the camera).
On Archer’s “speech:” I assumed it was much like the Gettysburg address. Short. To the point. Memorized by every 4th-grader:
Space. The final frontier. These (waving his hand over the assembled audience) are the voyages of the star ship: Enterprise.
It’s [5-yr] mission: to explore…
You get the picture. If you apply strict logic to it, you’re going to have some problems with continuity, coherency, &c. But it’s very “Trek” (in that strict logic very often doesn’t apply). And, it explains the absence of the speech in the opening credits of the series. See? Archer wrote it at the END of the series. Get it? (nudge, nudge). Aren’t they clever…
I reiterate what a previous poster said to PAD: They give you a million dollars and a blank piece of paper. Save the franchise. What do you do? I’m quite curious.
The next Captain to appear on the large or small screen should be named Calhoun. …
Instead, bring in some of the great writers who worked on the first two seasons of B5
Hey, you didn’t mention Peter David!
I’m working my way through B5 now, and “Soul Mates” is, far and away, the best episode of the first season and a half of the show. 🙂
As for ENT, it was crap. Berman wore out his welcome long ago. The final episode of ENT was an insult to TNG and Trek fans.
“…many more things that the majority of the population would recognize him from.”
uhm…the majority of the population didn’t watch Enterprise…that’s why this was the last show.
The Buffy connection is I’m sure a much safer bet than the Dear, John one (was that that Judd Hirsch sitcom?)
Did we ever find out who Future Guy was? I made it through all of first and second season and the end of the third and forth…
First off, while this was Season FOUR, the Enterprise segments of the finale clearly stated that the ship was being decommissioned at the end of a TEN year tour of duty. Lot of room to play with for the paperback series if Pocket decides to continue the imprint.
Secondly, regardless of what you think of the episode and the series overall, the last minute with Picard, Kirk, and Archer sharing the voice over was cool.
Third, the next series (and come on, everyone knows there will be another one eventually) should be set back in the “present” (Picard/DS9 time).
And as an aside to John Burges and the rest, Quantum Leap only violated their “own lifetime rule” twice. Once for the aforementioned Civil War episode, and the fourth season opener when Sam and Al switched positions and Sam was the observer in Al’s own lifetime leap.
BTW: Does anyone know whatever happened to the proposed animated episode for the fifth season? Considering how animation works, I figure there might at least be a script, if not some storyboards as well, laying around somewhere unused and unpublished.
Elizabeth Donald wrote: “They give you a million dollars and a blank piece of paper. Save the franchise. What do you do?”
Well, first go out and buy a pen…
a prequel episode is “kind of neat”, a prequel trilogy is “a bit of a stretch”, but come on folks, A PREQUEL TV SERIES!!!, thats “A BIT MUCH.”
“You get the picture. If you apply strict logic to it, you’re going to have some problems with continuity, coherency, &c. But it’s very “Trek” (in that strict logic very often doesn’t apply). And, it explains the absence of the speech in the opening credits of the series. See? Archer wrote it at the END of the series. Get it? (nudge, nudge). Aren’t they clever…”
Well, then we should all be grateful we won’t have to listen to any more wretched rock ballads at the beginning of a Star Trek series.
Lynn
“Orson Scott Card doesn’t seem too far off right now.”
First Thoughts on Enterprise Finale
Disjointed thoughts and spoilers follow. To my annoyance, the VCR had stopped recording “These Are The Voyages” just as Riker and Troi had said “End…
Is there anything that would prevent a certain writer whose site this is from writing a Quantum Leap/ Enterprise novel? Michael Jan Friedman got away with publishing an X-Men crossover TNG novel
Craig, I did mention Peter as one of the writers from the first two seasons of B5. Unless you know another host of the website peterdavid.net of course. And when you work your way through B5, make sure you track down his Crusade episode, Ruling From the Tomb, one of the few non-JMS episodes and one of the highlights of the season (boy am I going to get hammered for that sentence!).
Michael Jan Friedman got away with publishing an X-Men crossover TNG novel
…because, for better or for worse, Marvel had the Trek comics license at the time, and also published an X-Men/Trek crossover comic.
Yes, and while we are speaking of crossovers, lets not forget She Wolf of London abd Beauty and the Beast
How about an anthology trek series that would kinda jump all over the place between eras. You could easily have guest spots for familiar charchters. Maybe made-for-movies that wouldn’t have to crank out a new episode every week. A story about Starfleet Academy, Klingon crews,
Sulu’s Excelsior etc. Just an idea…
Craig, I did mention Peter as one of the writers from the first two seasons of B5.
Hmm. Must’ve overlooked that some how. I’ll try and go back to reread your post. I tend to skim posts when I have about 60 of them to go through first thing in the morning. 🙂
How about an anthology trek series that would kinda jump all over the place between eras.
This sounds vaguely familiar… oh, yes: the upcoming Tales from the Captain’s Table anthology, with stories from captains and crews of all the various eras and novel-Trek series.
Or maybe they hired Harry Groener for the same reason he was hired for Buffy, he’s a good genre character actor who’s been in Trek once or twice before.
Also, lest we forget, the “To boldly go…” part of the speech originated with Zephram Cochrane at the dedication of the Warp 5 Complex. Or rather, when Cochrane said it, I think it was “to go boldly.” But the fact remains…
-Rex Hondo-
Some thoughts:
Since Al was in the present, and Sam saw Al through brainwaves, technically Sam was the hologram in the imaging chamber for that entire show.
Quantum Leap also had it’s theme song inexplicably get “peppier” in it’s second season (or so).
There are no “Rules” to Quantum Leap. They changed every season, or when needed. “Loose guidelines” might be more appropriate.
So Star Trek is in the future. TNG is the future of the future. The series, that is. The movies are the future of the future’s future. Enterprise is the past of the future, but still in OUR future. So the last episode was the past of the future’s future looking at the past of another future.
Right?
Oh, and about the Mayor of Sunnydale…
Who was his wife? He mentioned being a family man several times.
Curious.
“Who was his wife? He mentioned being a family man several times.”
Her name was Edna Mae. We never met her since she was long dead by the third season of “BtVS.” According to Wilkins, she died aged and wrinkled and cursing his name because–since he’d sold his soul for immortality–he was still young and vigorous while she was an old woman. He mentioned her when making the fairly accurate observation that Angel and Buffy’s relationship was doomed since Buffy would age and Angel wouldn’t.
PAD
Well, if Mr. Kirby never posts again, we know it’s because the starship Relativity showed up and dragged him away for verbally screwing with time.
If there’s one QL reference I regret them never making, it’s that Archer, upon realizing he was on another of his Daniels-induced time jaunts, should have mumbled, “Oh boy…”
-Rex Hondo-
The idea of doing an anthology series set in various eras and with assorted familiar and new characters seems to be a popular one in forums and discussions of this sort.
Especially one set in the Next Gen film era, after the events of the DS9 and Voyager finales, so we can continue to see “what happens next”.
Obviously an anthology series that would cost between two and twenty million dollars for sets, props and costumes per episode or story arc is not an economically viable concept.
But – I’m just tossing this out – is there any reason why something like that couldn’t be done as an Animated Series?
Yes, new character designs and background art for each episode or arc might still cost more than a series with six characters set in a living room.
But look at the size of the Simpsons cast of characters.
A Star Trek Universe Animated Series might not be cheap to make, but it sure would be more practical than building a different spaceship every few weeks.
(My one disappointment: 18 years of live action Trek with who knows how many alien races, and we never once saw a live-action felinoid Catian like Lt. Mress from Star Trek The Animated Series. I love cat-girls.)
Actually, I don’t think she was a Caitian, but there WAS a cat girl in Star Trek V.
-Rex Hondo-
A friend of mine and I have come up with an odd theory regarding the newer Trek series (Next Gen and on):
The quality of the series was directly related to the amount of facial hair.
Think about it. The first season of TNG was a bit weak. Season 2, Riker grew a beard and they started hitting their stride.
DS9 started a bit on the weaker side, then Sisko grew a beard and things got interesting. Worf added his whiskers into the mix and the series really got fascinating.
There you have it: the major problem with Voyager and Enterprise…everyone shaved too often.
Hmmm… Intriguing. According to this theory, the upswing in quality of Enterprise season 3 could be directly attributed to the Xindi Primates, hirsuite fellows that they were.
The question remains, however, how DO we account for the differences in quality in big screen Trek? Undiscovered Country had a bunch of Klingons, and First Contact had a beard behind the camera, but Wrath of Khan was essentially beardless and Final Frontier had a big bearded Vulcan. Abberations? Or do the movies simply work on different principles?
-Rex Hondo-
Posted by Some Friggin Guy:
There you have it: the major problem with Voyager and Enterprise…everyone shaved too often.
Hmmm…there may be something to this, given that perhaps the most popular episode of ENT was the second part of the Mirror universe story–which included a bearded Vulcan Soval.
Hmm, the era-hopping anthology series idea has been brought up on other sites, then? Interesting. That’s sort of what I was thinking of after watching the last “Enterprise,” although I was favoring a more 24th-century-centric approach simply because there has to be a fairly substantial supply of Next Gen/Voyager/DS9 uniforms and CGI ship files available to use. It doesn’t have to cost $2-$20 million per arc for sets if it’s done right. It could also have a wider variety of characters appearing in a smaller number of episodes each, and if a character or setting doesn’t work, well, we just don’t go there again. Or people get transferred or resign or, yes, get killed off.
It’s not an unworkable concept, really.
Paul
Writing a pitch in my head…
While I find the anthology idea a pretty good one, I doubt the studio executives would since consistant viewer base is helpful for selling advertizing. As has been pointed out, the following for each series is varied. I might tune in for the Excelsior/Sulu arcs, but not for Archer arcs. Courting a different audience every month or so would be a major hurdle to the executive mind.
“Michael Jan Friedman got away with publishing an X-Men crossover TNG novel”
By got away with, do you mean “was hired to write”?
It happened durring an “Anniversary Year” for Trek and X-Men, that Marvel was publishing Trek Comics and Pocket had the Marvel books license, so they did a series of cross-overs….2 X-Men/Trek (1 Tos, 1 TNG) comics and 1 novel.
There was no “getting away with it”–and Planet X really shouldn’t be concidered a model for any kind of cross-over story.
And I thought Endgame(VOY) was an awful series finale.
Luigi Novi,
“And I thought Endgame was an awful series finale.”
And you were right:)
A peppier theme song, along with schedule changes usually meant a deathknell for the TV series.
How I miss Quantum Leap!
Sad thing is, the Enterprise theme had actually started to grow on me when they added the dámņ country guitar and turned it to complete crap.
-Rex Hondo-
Actually, I think PENNY ARCADE really nailed something when they put out this:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-07-04
Gods, does this resonate truth!
The only problem I had with Enterprise as a series was it was a little too self-referencing (1st season line about a holographic doctor, for example). But the biggest problem with the series overall? The fct that they weren’t taking any submitted scripts the way the all the previous series did. Have the same writing staff for 18 years or so and they’re bound to revisit their own wells. Some of the best episodes came out of fan submissions. I had a few doozies in my head that could’ve been marvy episodes (in particular a little DS9 tale called Braingames but I wrote it during the seventh season, timing is everything).
Oh dear…the “facial hair” thing. Like hemlines and the stock market?…
Yet is suggests (in the appropriate Royal Navy parlance, surely a useful paradigm for Trek) the perfect title for the (successful) next series.
“Star Trek: Full Set”. 😉
Wars Over, Trek Ends
I’m finding it hard to believe that two science fiction franchises that were so vital during most of my life have their swan song less than a week apart. Enterprise’s series finale was last Friday and Star Wars: Episode III…
I knew someone else was going to think of the leap thing. A buddy of mine and I had been hoping that’s how it would end (but knowing it wouldn’t) from the moment it got canceled.
Personally I did enjoy Enterprise. Of course, now we have to go through Star Trek visual withdrawl.
Personally, I’ve always wanted to see Mknzy in action.