These are the voyages...

Today has been a pretty miserable day, I've been feeling very down. I ended up talking Chu (because that's normally guarateed to cheer me up), but that was cut short - first because we had once again mysterious problem with Skype, and then permanently because my internet connection terminated itself, once again. (Then it started raining and I ran out of toilet paper - but that's another story.) I spent rest of the afternoon trying to find a solution to the Skype problem - that might, or might not be something to do with my new router, and rest of the evening watching the last five episodes of Enterprise I've been putting off watching.

For four years I've had a love hate relationship with this series. I wanted to love it because - well, most obviously, because it's Star Trek - but also because the time period it took place in, and the huge potential it carried. Although the series slowly got better during the four years, it wasn't until very final episodes it got brilliant, and that my friends, is a crying shame.

But let's talk about the fourth season. This entry contains spoilers and whining, and some shippyness and fangirlishness. If you can't take it, look away now.

The season opened with awful alternative universe Nazi storyline that really should have been better left unfilmed. Now as you might know, I'm a huge fan of time travel - and most of Enterprise's use of time travel was ok in my books - but this was just one of those silly things. I mean surely there would be some better way of changing the future of Federation than letting Nazies invade US - the real motivations behind the episode seemed to be more about driving some xenofobic fear into the good folks of US of A by scaring them off by evil aliens taking control of the White House.

Then there was the "we're losing ratings, oh my God, let's bring in someone from TNG" episode arc with Dr. Arik Soong played by Brent Spiner - who was of course playing Data's future 'ancestor' and laying ground ripping off Space Seed. Despite the dishonest roots for this three episode story arc, it actually worked really well. We got to see Orion's Pirates - very cool, especially the one played by Big Show - and Brent Spiner was pretty damn fantastic. At least they weren't directly ripping off storylines and contradicting written history in these episodes, and story of the augments was actually quite touching.

But instead of doing something on their own next, they wanted to continue living on the edge and continue pillaging existing Star Trek history - this time taking the story to Vulcan. And this of course meant touching one of TOS' most memorable and loved character, T'Pau. There are billions of Vulcans, and possibilities are endless, so why did they have to go and ruin the character by making her a rebel - when she so obviously wasn't that in Amok Time - "oh yeah wouldn't it be funny if she had been a rebel when she was young". Well, no. It wouldn't. And to top that, they wanted to go further than no one had ever thought necessery by taking a concept of katra - that no one would hear of for the next 150 years - and take the father of Vulcan, Surak, and then put his katra into Archer's head. Just a huge gimmick with an intention to wet old-school Trekkies' pants but achieving quite the opposite.

This was the point we stopped watching back when the series was on. I continued saving the episodes with the intention of getting back to them once I could stomach it again.

But after the bad start, things got better. Followed a clever episode Observer Effect where Enterprise, observed by two alien,s is put through a cruel social experiment. Followed by another three episode story arc - this time about relationships between Andorians and Tellarites, with some Romulans put into the mix. Best thing about the Babel-story arc was without a doubt the wonderful Jeffrey Combs playing Shren, whose chemistry with born-to-play-Starfleet-captain Scott Bakula's Archer was just a joy to watch. Despite intial fears about the title, Babel was left alone, Andorians and Tellarites were left enemies and Romulan plot was not revealed, all in quite a smart and believable way.

I started getting my hopes back, and was immediately rewarded with another storyline that - again despite the fears - managed to touch quite a sensitive issue in Star Trek history, the appearance of Klingons, in a fairly clever way at that. Although I always loved Worf's "We don't talk about it"-explanation, I always suspected that in reality they wouldn't be able to come up with a reasonble excuse even if they tried. But in the next two episode Klingon-story arc they did just that - not everyone will agree, but I think the explanation, and the reason why they don't talk about it was as close to a good explanation you come up with.

Even the last filler episode Bound with more Orion Pirates was good solid, entertaining and superbly acted episode, that also continued developing the beautiful relationship between Trip and T'Pol.

And then. The most brilliant Enterprise episodes made, ones that made it all worth waiting for: In a Mirror, Darkly two-parter.

Now the original Mirror, Mirror episode must be one of the most important sci-fi TV episodes ever made. This is the mother of all alternative universe stories, and any TOS fan you ask will list this as one of their favourites. Who can forget the Mirror Spock and his beard, or Kirk with Captain's woman Marlena Moreau. The savage Mirror Enterprise where assasination was the only way to go up the ranks and where torture was part of normal routine - and how Kirk in the end manages to convince Mirror Spock that the Empire is illogical.

So imagine my apprehension when I heard that Enterprise was going to sink it's vampire teeth into the Mirror-universe.

But for once, worrying wasn't necessery as they did it just as it should be done. Not ripping off the concept, but paying homage to it. The intro for the first episode is pure gold: it's the end of First Contact where the first Vulcan ship is landing on Earth and is greeted by Zefram Cochrane - and then getting shot by him. Roll on the theme tune - only it's not the jolly country and western song we've all come to hate, but a sinister march accompanied by just as sinister images about the alternative universe and it's development towards warp drive.

Oh yes, this is a Mirror episode - a pure Mirror episode - without a single of our regular heroes: instead we follow the violent life on board the Mirror Enterprise. Captain Forrester is just inspecting Mengele-like Dr. Phlox's newest invention: the torture booth, with a a very power hungry commander Archer in tow. This time Hoshi is the captain's woman - Linda Park gives her best ever performance - and mirrors (pardon the pun) beautifully Marlena's speech to Kirk. Archer has a plan to get rid of Forrester and even better, a plan to become the Emperor himself - this is all going to be done with a help of a ship that Tholians have pulled not only from a paraller universe, but from hundred years to the future in that universe.

We are of course, talking about U.S.S. Defiant (Enterprise's sister ship) that will get lost in Tholian space in Tholian Web. We get it all - brilliant execution of Tholians' web deployment that actually makes sense and looks good, we get to be back on the Constitution-class starship with all it's wacky and wonderful gadgets, and we even get some glimpses of the old uniforms. And most of all - the episodes are not significant - they are not crucial part of some future piece of history or an forced explanation on why something would be the way it is now, or leave us groaning because we can't see how this piece of information would not be affecting the future as we know it. It's part of a parallel history and nothing to do with us, and I love it.

Nothing can possible top that, but the last two episodes before the finale gave a run for Mirror's money. In a very Babylon 5-style storyline our brave crew fights to rescue an unexpected baby from the clutches of an evil xenophobe who threatens to drive all the aliens from earth and destroy Starfleet HQ in the process.

What comes to endings... I have very mixed feelings about These Are the Voyages... - I love a happy ending, but this most certainly didn't give me that. I was most certain that after the penultimate episode climax Trip and T'Pol would end up together - and was deeply disappointed that it didn't happen, and even more disappointed that they killed off Trip in such a senseless way. On the other hand I started immediately blubbing when I saw Riker on Enterprise's bridge and absolutely loved the retrospective look on the final episode events.

The backdrop to the final episode is actually TNG's episode The Pegasus where Riker is pondering on the nature of Federation and responsibilities to captains past and present. Councellor Troi suggests that he have a look at the holonovel of first Enterprise's final mission and forming of the alliance that would later go on to become the Federation.

Enteprise NX-01 is on it's way back to Earth, after 10 years on the mission. Archer is to take part in the forming of a new alliance and is preparing a speech for it - other crew members think about their futures and new assignments after Enterprise is taken off the active duty. After a request from Shren to save his daughter that former associated who have kidnapped her, our heroes decide to embark on a last quest for old times sake.

It's funny - in the beginning of the series, Trip was my least favourite character - and my opinions very much reflect his crewmates talking about him to the chef. Connor Trinneer made him alive in a way that's very rare to see in TV - but it's his relationship with T'Pol that got the best of me. I know in the beginning they tried to put some sexual tension between Archer and T'Pol but that just never worked - Archer was far too correct and decent to get into it. But Trip in a very human way touched T'Pol, in a way even she didn't think was possible, and after much backing and forthing they should have ended up together. They so should have.

And it's not that Trip died that made me hurt - but the fact that T'Pol didn't hurt, and she didn't hurt because the intimacy was long gone, for a reason we don't know. Was it that they couldn't get over the Elizabeth's death, or that Trip couldn't stand T'Pol's distance anymore, or that T'Pol didn't know how to break it? I always needed to believe they would make it work.

So, mixed feelings in the end. Any other franchise than Star Trek, and the series would have never made it past the first season. On the other hand, it did continue to improve - and I hated to lose it at a point it was finally starting to achieve it's potential. Somehow it left me hungry for more - not necessarily hungry for more Enterprise, but more Star Trek.

And those who made it this far, thank's for reading. I had to get it off my chest.

Posted by kolibri at 5 July 21:48, 2005