These Are The Voyages...

Enterprise evokes such profound romantic notions that should leave us spellbound. The premise of Enterprise was a telling of the beginnings of Star Trek lore. As “legend” would have it, the coalition of planets known as the Federation was founded in the ashes of war, just as a United Earth was founded on such debris.

For four years we have watched Enterprise, seen the high caliber of its actors and watched the detailed marvel of its veteran production crew. Yet when it should have talked about Romulans, they talked about the Xindi. When they talked about Vulcans, they should have told stories more about Vulcan history and why Enterprise's Vulcans were different, T'Pol being sexy and all. Perhaps it the Andorians that got the best spotlight of all, Klingons being Klingons. In the end, what saw Enterprise's demise was the stories they chose not to tell.

I cheered when they talked about Vulcan history and how flawed the Vulcan race of Archer's era was. The Andorian story was likewise of such profound interest, that it was fun to watch. They were some of the finest Star Trek stories around, too bad they were told too late in the series.

The series finale, perhaps it was a way--- a “clever” way to abruptly wrap the entire series together. Though the old Enterprise-D, Riker, and Troi were nice to see again, such a series finale did not do Enterprise the justice it deserved, it fit more as a long lost episode of a series that ended a decade ago. It could have just started as Troi telling a story, something such simple, with Riker listening. Though “These Are the Voyages...” had such great acting from the Enterprise crew and elicited such profound sadness to see them go... it was cumbersome to see they were just mere holo-recordings. I for one would have wanted to hear, what Archer said to bind the Federation together, instead I get Data on comms talking to Troi, and as much fun as that was and though fit the overall story, didn't seem appropriate.

It was sad to see Enterprise go. Its failure was because of such terrible planning by the writers--- the series bible should have ended four years, with additional stories extending it three or four more years thereafter, if warranted. Perhaps they thought the mere fact it was Star Trek, people would watch. We watch Star Trek for the high caliber stories, , because it brings such high caliber actors and because of the cool Starships. We watch Star Trek, because they tell tales of hope, of heroism, of adventure, challenging the horizon, of boldly going where no one, no man has gone before.