Two years ago I took the pilot episodes of Star Trek and ranked them, worst to best. But what about final episodes?
A series finale is very, very important. This is the creators last chance (in most cases anyway) to resolve any plot threads, give our characters resolution, and give the audience one last moment with characters they have grown love and adore. Some shows do it better than others, as I have gone over before. So where do the five Trek series rank in their final episodes? I’ve discussed them individually but how do they rank against each other? Let see, and as always this is just opinion.
#5.Turnabout Intruder (TOS)
Yeah not a hard choice, since this isn’t even a real final episode. It’s just the last episode made. And it’s not even very good! What a sad way to end, not enough they got cancelled abruptly but the episode is meh. I’ve discussed it at length elsewhere no need to go into much here.
#4.These are the Voyages (ENT)
Ugh. You know, sometimes I will really hard to try to like something which isn’t very good. I’ll try to see something in it which I will like. So what do I like in this episode? The last thrity seconds. No seriously, I love they very last shot with the montage of Enterprise’s. It’s great. To bad the rest of the 41 1/2 is just such a mess. What on Earth was Rick Berman thinking? We may never know. Remember the three criteria I listed above? This episode fails at all three, spectacularly! It feels more like a lost episode to TNG.
#3.Endgame (VOY)
I did a whole article trying to defend this episode, It isn’t all bad, but it is far from perfect. It did some really weird things which should have been avoidable. The biggest one was establishing plot points out of thin air. And why a time travel episode? Why?? I can understand wanting to involve the Borg, but the future Janeway stuff was a little to much. And of course we have the unsatisfying final scene, with absolutely no resolution for the characters aside from the fact they all made it home. Weak.
#2.All Good Things (TNG)
This is one of the best final episodes ever, of anything! It’s hard to explain how much I loved it, and have watched a million times. The plot of Picard going back and forth through time is just handled so well. The past segments remind us of the silly days of season 1, including an appearance by Tasha Yar, while the future scenes give us a look at what our characters could be doing years later as they gather for one last mission. Sweet! Yep this episode we get some nice character moments, good callbacks, and decent action. The final scene is also really strong with Picard sending the series off in a very fitting fashion. So, if this episode had it all, why is it #2? Well, it is missing one essential thing.
#1.What You Leave Behind (DS9)
Now let me be clear, this is almost a tie with “All Good Things”. For me it’s #1 for one reason. As fantastic as All Good Things is, you gotta admit that “Behind” just works as a better finale. Why? Because thanks to the stupid movies they were so excited to come out with, the creators TNG gave us a wonderful final episode that doesn’t wrap anything up. We are left with the distinct feeling that ship is going on at the end. No closure, we got “Nemesis” for that. Yay. On “Behind” we get the end of the war arc, last fight with Dukat which was built up forever, everyone gets a goodbye and we have final resolution to where our characters would be going. Put simply, the end of the series feels like an actual end to the series! Is it a better episode than “All Good Things”? Ehh. It depends how you look at it. “Behind” is a little bloated with all the loose ends they had to tie up. And how is it they had multiple episodes to develop the war arc and this episode STILL felt rushed? But despite my gripes the good stuff works, and that final montage at the end was perfect. So while slightly flawed for a series finale, this is the only one of any of the Trek series that did just right!
Agree? Disagree? Comment and let me know.
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