Star Trek 726: These Are the Voyages...

726. These Are the Voyages...

FORMULA: The Pegasus + Flashback + United

WHY WE LIKE IT: The final sequence. The postmodern spin.

WHY WE DON'T: Trying to pass off Riker and Troi as their TNG Season 7 selves. The postmodern spin (in other words, mileage may vary).

REVIEW: First things first. These Are the Voyages isn't Enterprise's series finale. If it were, it would be somewhat disappointing because it hands off too much of itself to TNG characters. No, it's a franchise finale, an epilogue, coda, love letter, or goodbye to modern Trek after some 18 years (and 25 seasons!) of continuous Trek on tv. When seen in that context, it becomes highly watchable. In fact, I'm entirely surprised at how effective it's able to be despite the postmodern remove at which we're forced to stand. The emotional moments are still strong even with Riker standing in the room like a ghost, observing. And the tension still builds despite the out of sequence/fast forward to the end/skip that part structure of the episode.

So it's 6 years later, leaving plenty of room for spin-off media to tell the intervening story... No wait, it's ±215 years later, during the TNG episode The Pegasus, and Riker is using a simulation of events on the eve of the alliance charter's signing to help him work through the issues from that story, on the advice of Troi. Though Frakes and Sirtis have gotten about 10 years older since The Pegasus, it's best not to dwell too much on that fact. It's only slightly distracting. The Pegasus is also far enough back that the discrepancies don't show. The immediate nostalgia is what's most striking about those sequences... Seeing those corridors and Ten-Forward again, and Data's fun cameo (in voice only). A great tribute to the series on whose success the rest of modern Trek has coasted.

As for Enterprise 10 Years Later, anything you don't like can be chalked up to inaccuracies in the simulation (a recent novel has done this; I haven't seen it, but it seems gauche to me). They're about to retire the NX series, which Archer is in no hurry to do (his annoyed look is priceless), and he has a great speech to give, when Shran shows up. Believed dead, he was in hiding with his family and needs Archer's help to get his daughter back from pirates holding her for ransom on Rigel X (same as in the pilot). Seems like he (fittingly) married Jhamel. It's a mission from which Trip is said never to return. From there, the character is doomed and rather than dispel the tension (you know what will happen), it builds it steadily. I think it's great that they gave us one last Shran story, but at what cost? Trip sacrifices his life to save the captain's, and it's shockingly quick and abrupt. You don't quite feel like it was his very last option, which is a problem, but the fast and nervous direction helps sell it. There's something doubly symbolic about killing off Trip at this point. In a sense, he's the last 21th century human in Trek. After this, as we head into TOS, humanity will always be represented as more "evolved" (by whatever the standards of the era are). He was also the audience identifier, and killing him off removes our own participation as Trek comes to an end.

It's important that Riker's research actually inform his real-time decision and that only becomes clear with difficulty. He must identify with Trip, a "first officer"-type who disobeys a superior officer to do the right thing, even if it means his life/career. Archer isn't represented by Picard, but by Pressman. And he's also inspired by Archer and Trip's deep friendship and trust, and that's what motivates Riker to do the right thing (even if, in The Pegasus, that's not quite true). Regardless, Riker's interaction with the crew are quite good. Amusingly, he takes on the role of the never-seen Chef (so if you want to imagine Enterprise as one huge simulation, go right ahead), which is perfect for Riker whose already a cook. This is actually where the historical recreation ends and the ghosts of the past begin. Characters are asked to improvise responses to his questions, allowing them to speak through the centuries, in a sense. Trip and T'Pol never did get together, we discover, along with a few nice character bits. They keep the best for last, however. Showing us Trip's interview AFTER he's died is a brilliant move, and a proper epitaph to both the character and his relationship to Archer.

All that's left then is Archer's big speech, which we never hear (that's ok, we got what we needed from Terra Prime). Riker and Troi walk out of the holodeck, and the last new words written for Enterprise are "End program". Clever and perfect, even shockingly brutal (good thing there's a short coda). The episode has fun with dialogue, in fact, including a couple of fun references (I don't consider them groaners either), like Reed's line about "all good things" and Archer toast to "the next generation". The actual ending makes my heart swell even just thinking about it. As the Enterprise-D leaves the asteroid field, Picard intones that famous speech "Space, the final frontier..." and we cut to Kirk's Enterprise as he continues the speech, and then further back in time to the NX-01 as Archer finishes it. It's a beautiful montage that I wish could have lasted longer (either showing intervening Enterprises or getting Avery Brooks and Kate Mulgrew to supply some lines as DS9/Defiant and Voyager also made an appearance), but the speech just isn't long enough!

LESSON: Enterprise died before its time, but the Trek franchise didn't. Make sense of that paradox.

REWATCHABILITY - High: They didn't do it any favors when they aired it back to back with Terra Prime like it was some kind of two-part finale. Taken in its proper context, it's a wonderful "love letter" that works despite the odd juxtaposition of storytelling styles.

Wow, well, my "(almost) two-year mission" is over, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I've been with this project a long time, and it's only now that I'm writing the final words for it that it's actually hitting me. Sure, the blog will continue to feature Trek as it appeared in other media - and of course, cover the movie when it comes out - but the days of a strict DVD schedule are over. I don't know whether to cry or celebrate. I'm a little stunned right now.

Well anyway... My thanks to everyone who came by to read or comment on these reviews over the past couple years, whether steadily or occasionally. And even greater thanks to any and all people who helped create these stories that can veritably be said to be one of the 20th century's greatest influences on modern life, not just in entertainment, but in other spheres of activity as well.

Tomorrow: Comics and novels take center stage, but from tv land, this is Siskoid signing off.