Season 4
Episode 98 These Are the Voyages…
So much done wrong in this episode. The writers even apologized for it years later. The concept behind it was respectable. The writers tried to write an episode that was saying goodbye to 18 years straight of a Star Trek shows being on the air. Because when Enterprise ended, the franchise was taking a break to revamp and redirect.
Failure of the show was blamed on fan fatigue. When looking at all the episodes in Enterprise, it was evident a lot of the stories were recycled gimmicks from prior series. Fan fatigue seemed to be a copout when the real issue was lazy writing in the first season and choices for filler episodes in the third season. Those writing decisions set a tone which turned fans away early on and made it harder to recapture them in later season when the stories improved. The characters weren’t as robust, the time travel war annoyed people, prequels in general seem to annoy people.
So the writers pull in two characters from their biggest Star Trek hit, The Next Generation. Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker) and Marina Sirtis (Consoler Troi). The plot revolves around a Next Generation episode. Riker is playing a holodeck program with the Enterprise crew on their last mission while trying to get insight on a decision he needs to make.
The Enterprise story takes place 6 years after the prior episode. It’s on the eve of the creation of the United Federation of Planets. The show kills off one of their best characters; Commander Tucker in the lamest way possible. There is no time to respectfully grieve his death. They also take their best recurring character, the Andorian Shran and turn him into an inept loser.
Ultimately the format in which the last episode was told could be fixed in a future Star Trek production. All the wrong decisions made in the show could be easily salvaged as an inaccurate and poorly written holodeck program about Earth before the Federation. Therefore Commander Tucker could have lived a long healthy life and gone on to Captain his own Starship, Shran could have risen to be president of the Federation. It’s all easily fixed with just a few references.
Will the Star Trek creators ever try to retcon or fix their error instead of just apologizing? Probably not. Will we ever get an Enterprise film? Probably not.
How was the content of the show overall? Pretty good. The first season had its challenges. Twenty-six episode seasons was way too ambitious. The fact, the show aired on network television instead of direct syndication was a limitation for the series. Star Trek: The Next Generation found its audience in direct syndication. The stakes and competition were much lower.
The Temporal Cold War wasn’t written well and took too long to gain any decent momentum. The stand alones in season two were much better. Any episode that focused on filling gaps between Enterprise and Star Trek the original series were amazing. Season three’s attempt at an entire story arc was a great attempt at something different. It had its setbacks but kudos for trying to shake things up in Star Trek. Fans however found season three to be overall frustrating and made it hard for the casual viewer to catch up after missing episodes. DVR and online streaming wasn’t the monster it is today
Season four was phenomenal. It really found its footing with the 2 – 3 episodes story arcs. The characters were growing, the stories were crisp, the stakes were high, the action was amazing. If allowed to continue for another three years by following the standards set in Season 4 the show would have been regarded as one of the best Star Trek shows ever made. But like Star Trek the original series, Enterprise was canceled before its time.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com
