To boldly go where noone has gone before

[astri13]

Since I'm a collector - read hamster with OCD - at heart, I have been gradually completing my collection of the various Star Trek shows.

And, as an odd experiment, I tried to watch the Star Trek Enterprise Finale again, you know, that one, to see if maybe years after the burning rage and open mouthed staring subsided, I could find redeeming things in it. However, I found that burning rage and open-mouthed staring never really dies.

I have seen lots and lots of shows in my life. Some were bad, some mediocre, some good, some flip-flopped between those. There have been shows with endings that made you sad a show ended - Sarah Connor Chronicles Finale completely turned my mind around after the lackluster second half of second Season, or glad it was put out of its misery - Stargate Atlantis imploded in the second half of Season 5, or made you feel like you didn't want to end it there even though it was kind of fitting - Angel, or made you shake your head for the quick fix - Voyager, or make you shrug lackluster-like - lots of them. Basically, the whole variety.

But no show, bad or good, none has ever been treated as respectless as that one. No show has ever had their own final episode taken away from that show and given to another. Never in the entire history of television do I remember or know of such a case. *still speechless*

Seeing who the one fan-favourite is and cruelly killing them for absolutely nothing but shock value? Okay, that has been done. Not dying for any heroics? Also done. Having noone care about it or really acknowledge it and not even a little eulology? Less so but it has happened. But this? They truly boldly went...

Fuck each and everyone of them.

Man, I think I'm gonna watch Darmok or something uplifting now.

Comments

[legoline.livejournal.com]

OT: Did you see mareen's post? She linked to this article.

Seriously, you should've complained about what's taking them to put that show on DVD AGES ago! :D

[astri13.livejournal.com]

Hehe, yes I saw. Totally my power of complaining.

Man, I wish I won the lottery already. I don't know what's taking so long. *looks up to heaven, waiting*

[mareen.livejournal.com]

You are not the only one. I still get into a rage whenever I think of Enterprise and that final episode. No series finale has ever made me as angry as that one.

[astri13.livejournal.com]

With good reason because bad, I get, but such a slap to that whole show while it's still going? From its own showrunners/producers?

Hating on their own project afterwards, when they found a new toy? Terribly unclassy IMO but it happens. See Stargate producers right now.

But what on God's green Earth made them hate their own show so much that they decided the Series Finale had to be a holodeck episode of TNG? Bermaga couldn't have made it more obvious if they had lined up the whole cast and crew and walked by, spitting on each and everyone of them - twice on Connor Trineer, of course - and filmed THAT as a Series Finale. I just. *flails*

[katikat.livejournal.com]

It made me angry, the ending. I was so pissed that they killed Trip and in such a way! So lame. I was glad that there's a book that fixes the mess. On the other hand, the fact that it was done as a holo-projection makes it possible to ignore it, it didn't have to be real, after all :P

[astri13.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, the fact that it was done as a holo-projection makes it possible to ignore it, it didn't have to be real, after all :P

That's a good thought to hold onto. It wasn't real, just a sucky holodeck novel. Yay. \o/

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Actually, it really wasn't real. There's an official tie-in book that follows the show where it's explained what really happened with Trip. I bought it but first I want to re-watch the show, before I read it.

[scolaro]

Heh. I forced myself through almost three seasons of this crappy show, then stopped. I just couldn't take it anymore. The bad writing, the obvious, OBVIOUS ad targets (female Vulkan with a rubberboat underneath her shirt ring any bells? Only there to satisfy the masturbation needs of male teenagers) and these awkward softcore porn scenes in between...

I love Scott Bakula, but not even he could save the show for me.

And now I hear the finale is just as crappy as the show itself?

Colour me surprised. ;-)

[astri13.livejournal.com]

I never much became invested in it story-wise but I did like Trip and Trip/T'Pol, though Season 4 was better with the writing, too. But I actually think this Finale was the crappiest any show has ever gotten. It even surpassed "Bobby comes out of the shower" in Dallas in terms of disrespecting the viewers. Which I did not think possible until then.

[scolaro]

LOL. I never watched Dallas, so I don't really know what you're talking about, but yeah, the characters on Enterprise were likeable enough - which was the only reason I could bring myself to watch so much of it (my favs were - of course - the captain, his dog, Trip and Phlox). And once I'd silenced the part of my mind that always screamed "SINCE WHEN DO THEY HAVE COSMETIC SURGERY ON VULKAN?!?!" whenever T'Pol was in the scene I warmed up to her too. ;-)

I also heard before that the writers changed in season 4, but it was simply too late for me by then. Didn't want any of it anymore.

IDK - they had such a promising beginning, a pretty good crew, the best pilot of the franchise...it should have been awesome...but they HAD to continue treating the audience like pubescent idiots...

[astri13.livejournal.com]

They had a main character killed on Dallas and showed a whole Season dealing with the fall-out. However, they misjudged how unhappy the audience would be and didn't have the guts to stick with their plot so they undid it all by having the killed character come out of the shower and his wife telling him she just had the strangest dream - aka last Season. Of course, they also terribly misjudged the audience reaction to that. :D

IDK - they had such a promising beginning, a pretty good crew, the best pilot of the franchise

I have to admit I found the Pilot pretty boring, at least what I remember of it. But maybe I need to rewatch because first time in, my brain trickled out of my skull watching the new Battlestar Galactica mini series out of sheer boredom, and now I love it.

[scolaro]

...having the killed character come out of the shower and his wife telling him she just had the strangest dream - aka last Season.

Ah, like on Roseanne, where they apparently had the main character imagine a whole couple of seasons after her husband had died from a heart attack or something. (I never watched much of this show, but felt that this revelation must have been hard on the fans as well.)

Of course, they also terribly misjudged the audience reaction to that. :D

You're not saying! XD

I have to admit I found the Pilot pretty boring, at least what I remember of it.

Well, it certainly wasn't Shakespeare, but compared to the other pilots the Star Trek franchise has coughed up so far this was the best one, IMO. But then I also liked the new intro with the song which most people seem to hate a lot.

[shardsofblu.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember my ST:TNG watching days as a kid, but now I have to look up what they did with the ending.

[astri13.livejournal.com]

The TNG Finale was pretty well done, the Deep Space Nine 9 ,too, the Voyager one much less so but each of those was about the show and characters of that particular show. The Enterprise Finale was basically about characters from another show which I just found incredibly respectless to the cast of Enterprise. No matter how good or bad a show is, IMO its final episode should be about that show.

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Now I'm really curious. I never watched ST:E, and don't expect I ever will, so: Spoil me?

Seeing who the one fan-favourite is and cruelly killing them for absolutely nothing but shock value? Okay, that has been done.

When (else) has this been done? O_O

[astri13.livejournal.com]

I never watched ST:E, and don't expect I ever will, so: Spoil me?

You watched any of the other Trek shows? Basically, in the ENT Finale they flash-forwarded 6 years in the futre and nothing had happened - no promotions, the one "couple" was still separated even though the episode before that pointed to them getting back together and basically everything was all static. Then they killed the ship's engineer for pretty much nothing and noone on the ship really cared much.

All things that would have made a shitty but not all too unusual Finale but the kicker was everything was just a holodeck projection of Riker from TNG helping him figure out a crisis already resolved in the episode of TNG it harkened back to.

The final episode of the show Enterprise was like a deleted - unnecessary - scene of an episode from Season 7 TNG. I just wow.

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Eeeek. That does seem... totally idiotic. Wonder what they thought when they came up with that...

And yes, I watched all of the other Trek shows, though I gave up on Voyager fairly quickly and stopped watching ST:DS9 at some point, too. I'm not even sure why ENT never interested me - it may just have been timing, really.

[astri13.livejournal.com]

Ooops, forgot the second part.

Seeing who the one fan-favourite is and cruelly killing them for absolutely nothing but shock value? Okay, that has been done.

When (else) has this been done? O_O

Maybe not the "one" fan favourite but Joss Whedon did that with Wash in the Firefly movie and Sarah Connor Chronicles did it with Derek. And I'm sure there is more that I have repressed. :)

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, Wash - though I hadn't thought of him as a fan favorite, and I don't think of his death as unnecessary in dramatic terms.

Hm, now I'm trying to think of instances where a fan reaction the showrunners didn't like made them develop a character in absolutely absurd directions... I know I should be able to come up with things here, but my brain is blocked.

Actually going so far as to kill off a fan favorite for no reason other than that he is a fan favorite seems like shooting yourself in the foot. Not that I don't think many people are fully capable of that. :-)

[scolaro]

Actually I found Derek's death quite appropriate. I mean there were so many "big" death scenes, people sacrificing themselves and stuff, that it felt good to see that yes, a single bullet fucking kills you too. And if being hit at a certain spot there is no prolonged chat scene in which you tell people you love them etc. You just topple over and die.

Wouldn't have had the impact if it hadn't been Derek.