Weird Star Trek Episodes - "These Are the Voyages..." aka "Wait, These Flippin' Idiots Did What? Part 2"

Okay, I'll admit that this scene was good. That's all this episode gets though.

So, I’ve finally finished Star Trek: Enterprise… or at least the final season. There were some season 2 episodes I skipped, so I guess I have to go back and see those to get a better picture. Yay, I guess. I thought I may take this time to talk about the much-criticized series finale. No, I’m not talking about “Terra Prime” which I consider to be the true last episode. I’m talking about “These Are The Voyages…” which I felt I had to watch again. So, “hold on to your butts” because this might take a while.

The whole episode basically revolves around Commander William Riker making a decision on following orders. Yes, this is Star Trek: Enterprise, but someone had the “bright” idea to get Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis to reprise their roles from TNG. The episode actually takes place during “The Pegasus”, a pretty good Season 7 episode. Riker uses the holedeck to pull up the NX-01’s final mission and get advice from the main crew. He plays as the unseen cook to get some advice from everyone. Even Counselor Troi takes a tour of the ship.

Jeffrey Combs... not even you can't save this episode.

For the crew, it’s been six years since “Terra Prime” and Capt. Archer is going to give a speech at the signing of the Federation Charter. They’re contacted by Shran, an Andorian and former ally. His daughter was kidnapped and he needs help to get her. The crew decides to help him out and save his daughter. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. The Enterprise gets boarded by the kidnappers and Comm. Tucker risks his life in order to save Archer. Even though Trip dies, Archer goes on to do his speech (WHICH WE DON’T EVEN SEE) and the episode ends with Riker ending the program. 

So… is there anything good about this episode? Nope. Peace, God Bless, and don’t forget to neuter your dogs or something.
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Ugh, I guess I have to say more than that.

This episode wasn’t good at all. A long time ago, I made a short list of bad last episodes. While some of those episodes probably shouldn’t be on there, this one definitely deserved the top spot it got. The episode was intended to be a “Valentine to the fans.” I can say that it was that. It was like opening a box of chocolates and it turned out that someone had eaten off the ones you like. The ones not eaten were ones you don't like. I guess that’s the best analogy for this episode.

I was somewhat annoyed with Trip’s death. It felt like they needed someone to die, so they chose one of the better characters on the show. While the death scene is actually okay, the thing that ticks me off is that Troi off-handly blurts out that Trip dies way before we get to that mission. It felt like bad writing and took away any suspense from his death. We also never saw Archer’s speech and that was pretty annoying. While I wasn’t a fan of his, we follow this guy through four seasons and we never get to see what would have been an awesome moment for him.

While I don't find Kevin Hart to be that funny, this clip fits this scene best.

Its biggest fault is the inclusion of the TNG characters. It was nice to see them, but they (specifically Riker) were in this episode too much. I came to this show to see the crew of the NX-01. They may not be my favorite crew, but I did like them especially in this season. Seeing them get pushed aside for this obvious ratings grab was sad. I was actually more interested in the crew’s story than I with Riker’s especially since I know what happens to him afterwards. I guess the final thing that brings this episode down is the timeline. We don’t learn much about what happened to the crew during those six years. While having it take place at the birth of the Federation was nice, everyone just felt wasted and unimportant in the scheme of things.

Is there really anything good about the episode? I did think the acting was fine. Everyone did what they were supposed to do. It was also nice to see these characters for one final time. I also like the last few seconds and it wasn’t just because the episode was over. We got the speech from TOS’s and TNG’s intro mixed with Archer giving his line of “where no man has gone before.” Other than that, this final episode was horrible.

Riker! Lay off, why won't ya? We've seen what happens with you and female holograms!

Overall, this episode was bad. You could see it as a coda to the series, but it’s still bad even at that. It’s sad because Season 4 was its best season. If you want to end the show well, watch “Demons” and “Terra Prime.” Just skip this one. Those two episodes do what the finale should have done. They show the crew at their best dealing with a pretty serious situation. Everyone gets a moment to shine. Even Mayweather gets to do something. Well, I’m done talking about this thing. I guess my next episode needs to be something better than this. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.