Enterprise: Trip's End

Jolene Blalock sounded a bit harsh or harshly bitter when she deemed the final episode of Enterprise to be appalling; it turned out that she was right.

It suffered greatly from being on directly after another Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Reeves-Stevens written episode: Terra Prime Pt.2. It was far superior and would have served as a more fitting series finale than what followed. It suffered even more horribly from the needless (and insulting) stuntcasting of Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes. Oh, and let's not forget Brent Spiner making a painfully lame vocal cameo. The regular cast must have felt so appreciated having their final episode reduced to a subplot in a lost Next Generation episode.

SPOILERS..
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To give the episode dramatic weight, the writers decided to sacrifice Charles "Trip" Tucker. Unfortunately, Trip's death is a forced contrivance that makes no sense whatsoever. Without getting to deep into the plot, the ship is boarded by aliens (the computer alerts the crew) and only Archer and Trip respond to the threat....WHAT!? Are there no security teams or any other crew members even remotely interested in confronting this threat? Any why aren't Trip and Archer armed? This unbelievable lack of security or sense by the crew is necessary to set up the need for Trip to disobey the captain and sacrifice himself to kill the invaders. Apparently, believing that Archer isn't competent enough to handle the situation, Trip leads invaders to a half-assed kamikaze trap that kills him and them. Trip's moronic plan is hastily decided and carried out before anyone else on board even bothers to arrive at the scene. He dies a dumbass.

Riker is supposed to learn something from Trip's actions. All I learned from it was that Trip disobeyed his superior and sacrificed himself before any other options could even be considered. What could Riker learn from that? Oh wait, he learned that Trip was a dumbass!

Who are the writers if this crap? None other than Rick Berman and Brannon Braga!

Those two should never be allowed anywhere near the franchise again. When the execs at Paramount finally get around to greenlighting another Trek series, they should get the Reeves-Stevens' and Manny Coto to helm the project from the start. This season of Enterprise was some of the best Trek in years and they should have been given another season to rebuild an audience. I think they could have succeeded and they deserve to be involved in saving the franchise on television or film.

By the way, there was one thing I liked about These Are The Voyages. The closing sequence with Picard, Kirk and Archer reciting those words all Trek fans love so much.