These Are The Voyages...
The series finale of the most recent (and, for now, final) Star Trek series aired on Friday night. Entitled "These Are The Voyages...", the episode was actually set during the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Pegasus". Through the use of stock footage, some CGI, and the return of Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner to the sets, new material was created to squeeze this Enterprise episode into TNG's history.
Here's the premise: Commander Riker has a tough decision to make. As seen in "The Pegasus", his former captain Admiral Pressman has come aboard the Enterprise to find his and Riker's old ship, the Pegasus, before it is discovered by the Romulans. Why the frantic search? The Pegasus has an experimental, top secret cloaking device onboard, a piece of technology that the Federation is prohibited from possessing as a part of the Treaty of Algeron. In this Enterprise episode we see Riker spend time in the Holodeck recreating one of the original Enterprise's mission for some advice on whether or not he should tell Picard of just what happened about the Pegasus. So basically this last episode of Enterprise is really a "lost" episode of TNG.
Overall I think the writers and producers pulled things off nicely. If you read the online fan forums you'll find bitter hatred for this episode, of course. And yes Riker is puffier now than he was eleven years ago and Troi has forgotten how to do her Betazoid accent, but overall it works (there is an amusing gaffe when, thanks to stock footage, there are momentarily two Rikers on the screen - one in the foreground that we're supposed to be watching and one in the background that nobody at Paramount noticed). This episode once and for all ties Enterprise into the rest of the Star Trek legacy.
Now with Star Trek gone there are a lot of people preaching that it should have died long ago and that shows like Battlestar Galactica are so much better that they there's no need for a Star Trek anymore. I'm sorry to see it go, and you know why? Because after watching eighteen consecutive years of Star Trek , I feel that I know how everything works in the future. While the writing may have faltered at times, there is such a consistency to the Trek universe that characters can mention past events or push buttons on certain consoles and I just know what they're talking about or doing. There's a whole universe there, from people to events to technology, that because I've watched it for so long I know how it all works. That's what I'm sorry to see go: the familiarity of a fictional universe.
Television shows come and go so quickly these days that there is barely any time to get involved and familiar with a show. Why bother paying attention to the little details if there will never be a payoff because the show was canceled before things could be explained? Trek had a combined 21 seasons worth of material. That's a lot of time to become familiar with things. Hopefully someday all of that Trek knowledge will be useful again.
Here's the premise: Commander Riker has a tough decision to make. As seen in "The Pegasus", his former captain Admiral Pressman has come aboard the Enterprise to find his and Riker's old ship, the Pegasus, before it is discovered by the Romulans. Why the frantic search? The Pegasus has an experimental, top secret cloaking device onboard, a piece of technology that the Federation is prohibited from possessing as a part of the Treaty of Algeron. In this Enterprise episode we see Riker spend time in the Holodeck recreating one of the original Enterprise's mission for some advice on whether or not he should tell Picard of just what happened about the Pegasus. So basically this last episode of Enterprise is really a "lost" episode of TNG.
Overall I think the writers and producers pulled things off nicely. If you read the online fan forums you'll find bitter hatred for this episode, of course. And yes Riker is puffier now than he was eleven years ago and Troi has forgotten how to do her Betazoid accent, but overall it works (there is an amusing gaffe when, thanks to stock footage, there are momentarily two Rikers on the screen - one in the foreground that we're supposed to be watching and one in the background that nobody at Paramount noticed). This episode once and for all ties Enterprise into the rest of the Star Trek legacy.
Now with Star Trek gone there are a lot of people preaching that it should have died long ago and that shows like Battlestar Galactica are so much better that they there's no need for a Star Trek anymore. I'm sorry to see it go, and you know why? Because after watching eighteen consecutive years of Star Trek , I feel that I know how everything works in the future. While the writing may have faltered at times, there is such a consistency to the Trek universe that characters can mention past events or push buttons on certain consoles and I just know what they're talking about or doing. There's a whole universe there, from people to events to technology, that because I've watched it for so long I know how it all works. That's what I'm sorry to see go: the familiarity of a fictional universe.
Television shows come and go so quickly these days that there is barely any time to get involved and familiar with a show. Why bother paying attention to the little details if there will never be a payoff because the show was canceled before things could be explained? Trek had a combined 21 seasons worth of material. That's a lot of time to become familiar with things. Hopefully someday all of that Trek knowledge will be useful again.