I once said I would never discuss this one because there was absolutely nothing positive about. But, is that true? Is there anything in this episode redeemable?
Plot Synopsis:
During the events of “The Pegasus” Riker is gaining inspiration watching a holodeck simulation of the final mission of the nx Enterprise.
In the simulation the ship is detoured from its final trip home to rescue the daughter of Shan. She has been kidnapped and he is begging Archer to help. Which he agrees.
After rescuing her the aliens catch up with Enterprise. Tripp disobeys orders to save Archer, at the expense of his own life. This gives Riker the inspiration to disobey orders and talk to Picard.
Guest Stars:
Always nice to see Jeffrey Combs and his Andorian character one more time. And do i even need to mention Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis guest star?
Episode pros
So let’s discuss some of the good stuff first, because there are a few things here. Everything else aside it’s nice to see Riker and Troi one more time. Of course they work well together. And there TNG scenes together were really good to bad this was Enterprise and not TNG. Data has a cameo also even though it sounds like season 2 Data taking to season 7 Troi. The story would have worked so much better if it were in “present day”, especially since trying to pretend the two don’t look years older is laughable.
I liked the whole hostage rescue scene. It wasn’t a huge scene but it was well done and one of the few moments it felt like Enterprise! Even if they did have to stick Riker in there.
And to be fair we do get some nice character moments. Tripp and Malcom get some real nice lines together ahout how the ride is over, and Archer and Tripp get some too. They try to close the Tripp/T’pol relationship which is nice/ These moments almost make it feel like a proper final episode. But it’s not! And the scene after Tripp is killed (I’m getting to that) between T’Pol and Archer is well executed I have to admit. Nice acting there even if it, again, has no weight.
And I’m sorry but that last thirty seconds is a nice touch. Seeing the ships dissolve into each other over that famous speech..I liked it! It doesn’t save the episode of course.
Episode Cons
After finding out the show was cancelled Berman wrote this more to wrap up the last 18 years of Trek than Enterprise itself. And if shows. Never write angry my friends! Making this a pseudo-TNG episode takes the focus off the show it’s supposed to be! They did a decent job recreating the TNG sets at least. But having Riker and Tri lurking around in the background was just distracting. And why was this smashed into “The Pegasus”???
The backdrop for the episode is Archer giving a speech as a charter is signed that would lead to the Federation. This should be the dramatic core of the episode, what the whole series has been building to, and instead it’s just glanced over. We never even hear the damn speech! Some characters get nice endings but Hoshi and Travis get almost nothing which is weird.
As if the premise wasn’t bad enough, we get an unnecessary and stupid death. Made worst by having Troi spoil it (though even in this early internet era it had already been spoiled). Trips death scene is so forced and has no weight to it at all.
It’s just dumb. Where was security on the ship? Why was Tripp stupid enough to do what he did? Why couldn’t Phlox help him? Ughh. This was so dumb it’s was undone in expanded media.
As I mentioned this is also a “soft” retcon to The Pegasus. I say that because nothing in this episode hurts that one, but at the same time I can’t watch Pegasus without being reminded of this mess and that really sucks! By the way try to figure how these events fit into that episode!
Fast Forward Moment:
The scenes where Riker acts as the chef and interacts with the crew are just awful. When I first saw this I was amazed at how phoned in Jolene Blalok was not that I blamed her. The last one with Tripp was decent but again, no weight whatsoever.
Final Thoughts:
Berman and Braga have admitted this was a mistake and fair enough. They wanted this to be a Valentine to the fans but all it did was cheat Enterprise fans out of a proper finale while other fans groaned at how lame it was. And while I hated the series, people who did like it deserved to have their proper ending. This episode is a curiosity.
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