The end of a long Trek

We had a very busy weekend. Too busy for me to get around to blogging about the end of Star Trek.

I enjoyed watching the final two episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise" Friday night. I particularly enjoyed the second to last episode, "Terra Prime," which concluded a two-part story that began on last week's episode, "Demons."

As for the final episode, "These Are the Voyages," I have decidedly mixed feelings.

If you missed it, the story is actually set during the events of the seventh season "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "The Pegasus." Essentially, a dark secret from Riker's past comes back to haunt him and he has to decide whether or not to violate orders and share his secret with Capt. Picard.

In the "Enterprise" episode, Troi suggests Riker might find some insight by recreating the final mission of the NX-01 on the holodeck. So what we wind up with is the last episode of "Enterprise" as seen through Riker's eyes.

I understand, and even respect, what they were trying to accomplish with this episode. They were trying to show how Capt. Archer and his crew are revered in the future and cement their place in Trek history. But I don't think is was pulled off very well.

First of all, I remember "The Pegasus" -- in fact I just saw a rerun of it on TV not long ago -- and I don't think "These Are the Voyages" fits into that episode very well at all.

Second, Riker remains in the background most of the time when he's observing the action on the NX-01, but there are a number of scenes where he steps into the role of the ship's Chef (an off-camera character often mentioned in early episodes, but never seen) and interacts one-on-one with each of the crew. I think the episode would have been greatly improved if they had left these scenes out. I'd rather see the characters interact with each other, talking about their pasts and their futures, than with a character so far removed from their own show.

I was also disgruntled that the final mission takes place six years further into the future, and yet very little has changed for the characters. Travis and Hoshi are still lowly ensigns. And the relationship between Trip and T'Pol, which seemed to grow so much just in the previous episode alone, hasn't gone anywhere.

And after the emotional performance from Connor Trineer as Trip in "Terra Prime," could they have made the audience care less about his character's death in this episode?

All that said, it was surprising to see the lengths they went to in recreating so many "TNG" sets, and the closing montage where all three Enterprise captains -- Kirk, Picard and Archer -- recite the famous "Space, the final frontier..." speech was great.

I enjoyed that final two-parter of "Demons" and "Terra Prime" much more. I think they would have been better served running those as a two-hour episode and letting that serve as the finale.

"These Are the Voyages" wasn't awful. But it wasn't great either. Sort of fitting with the whole series -- occasional flashes of greatness, but on the whole never living up to its promise.

When the show was over I emerged from the basement and said to Kris, "That's it. Star Trek is over." After more than 40 years, 10 movies and 18 continuous years on TV, this is how the journey ends.