These Are the Voyages...

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Star Trek: Enterprise episode
"These Are the Voyages..."
Archer and T'Pol share a private moment before Archer addresses the Alliance delegates
Episode no.	98
Prod. code	422
Airdate	May 13, 2005
Writer(s)	Rick Berman Brannon Braga
Director	Allan Kroeker
Guest star(s)	Jonathan Frakes Marina Sirtis Jeffrey Combs
Year	2370/2161
Stardate	47457.1
Episode chronology
Previous	"Terra Prime"
Next	"none"

"These Are the Voyages..." is the title of the 98th and final episode of the UPN television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It aired on May 13, 2005 in the United States. Written by series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, the episode is the series finale of Enterprise. With no new Trek in the fall of 2005, the 2005-2006 season was the first year without a first-run Star Trek series since 1986-1987, which was the year prior to the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[edit] Plot details

Described by Berman and Braga as a "valentine" to Star Trek fans, the episode featured guest appearances by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as their Star Trek: The Next Generation characters William Riker and Deanna Troi. Brent Spiner, another TNG veteran who had guest starred earlier in the fourth season of Enterprise, had a "speaking, off-screen" role as Data. In addition, while it is archived footage that was reused for this episode, Captain Jean-Luc Picard can be seen at the very beginning of the first scene, talking to Data.

Also appearing was Jeffrey Combs as his recurring Enterprise character, Commander Shran.

"These Are the Voyages..." was set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era where Commander Riker and Deanna Troi are using the holodeck to view the events surrounding the birth of the Federation. The events they view are set six years after the events of season 4 of Enterprise. In this episode, Captain Archer and the Enterprise return to Earth to sign the charter that will eventually establish the United Federation of Planets; at the same time, the Enterprise is due to be decommissioned. Meanwhile, Charles "Trip" Tucker faces a tragic fate. Before heading back to San Francisco to sign the charter, Archer and the crew take a detour to Rigel 10 to help Shran retrieve his daughter. This episode takes place on board the Enterprise-D as well as a number of locations from the Enterprise era. The Riker/Troi events, therefore, predate the developments of Star Trek: Generations. In particular, the sequences featuring Riker and Troi take place within the timeframe of the TNG episode "The Pegasus".

A number of cosmetic changes to make up and costume designs have been made to depict the Enterprise crew six years after the events of the previous episode, "Terra Prime". Most notable is another alteration of T'Pol's uniform and hairstyle. The Starfleet uniforms worn by the rest of the Enterprise crew also underwent modifications, with the addition of a new Starfleet logo patch, and a name tag. In the final scene, Archer's dress uniform no longer has a tie and his sleeve stripes are similar to those which appear "later" in the original pilot episodes of The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before. The Enterprise bridge was also modified slightly, with the addition of instrumentation not seen in earlier episodes, as well as several modifications introduced on the Columbia (NX-02).

[edit] Controversy and fan reactions

Elements of this episode generated tremendous controversy among fans of the series. As details of this episode emerged, fans became divided in their views of what could be the final televised Star Trek episode for the foreseeable future. Advance criticisms (before the episode was actually released) ranged from displeasure over the fact the final episode would be written by the unpopular Berman and Braga to outrage over the decision to tie the series finale into Star Trek: The Next Generation.^{[citation needed]}

Those voicing criticism also included cast members of the series, with Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) stating in a Toronto Star interview and again at her first science fiction convention appearance in March 2005 that she considered the finale "appalling." [1] Blalock's reasons for thinking this were not widely publicized -- different reports apparently preferring to focus on her "it's appalling" sound bite without elaboration, leading to speculation as to why she was upset with the finale. Brannon Braga stated later that at least some of the cast unrest was based upon the decision to devote part of the final episode to characters from TNG.[2] This was later confirmed by Blalock in a Boston Herald interview which indicated that she was upset over the finale being essentially a TNG episode, although she stated that she understood the rationale behind the idea.[3] Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather) was also not pleased with the finale and has been quoted as saying "I feel there could have been a more effective way to wrap things up for our show as well as the franchise as a whole. It just seemed to take a little bit away from what the Enterprise cast and crew worked so diligently to achieve over the past four years." [4] (Montgomery also stated that he has made it a point never to watch this episode, as he knew it would only deeply upset him).^{[citation needed]}

In response to some of these criticisms, series producer Manny Coto stated that he personally considered "TATV" to be a coda rather than the true finale of the series. He considers the two-part story "Demons" and "Terra Prime" that preceded it was the actual finale of the Enterprise storyline according to Coto, and series producer Mike Sussman. [5] [6]

The Enterprise events of this episode take place in 2161, about 6 years after the previous episode. As such, the production team took some efforts to show changes that had occurred with the passage of time. Fans have noted two changes that might have been expected that did not occur, namely that the characters Travis Mayweather and Hoshi Sato, each having now served on Enterprise for ten years, are still wearing the insignia of ensigns, the lowest commissioned officer rank. By way of comparison, in the U.S. Navy, an ensign typically serves 2 years in grade before promotion to lieutenant (junior grade). However, there is precedent in Star Trek for a Starfleet officer to remain at the same rank for many years. Harry Kim remained as an ensign throughout all seven years of Star Trek: Voyager, for example, while Voyager also set a precedent by having Lt. Tom Paris demoted to Ensign. The static ranks of Sato and Mayweather may have been due to the same type of costuming error that gave Miles O'Brien an incorrect rank in the TNG finale "All Good Things..." or may have been the result of an as-yet unchronicled adventure. The editors of the Star Trek fiction line at Pocket Books have stated that this issue may be addressed in the upcoming Enterprise Relaunch series of novels. However, many fans complain that these main characters were never well developed, and depriving them of any future character development in the series finale was a final insult.

The death of Engineer Trip Tucker was another object of controversy. In the context of the episode's plot, Tucker's death was intended to illustrate the challenges of "breaking of orders" and serve as a lesson to Riker, who was likewise considering breaking orders. However, many fans claimed that Trip's death was unnecessary to the execution of the plot.^{[citation needed]} Connor Trinneer himself (who plays Trip) said during a convention appearance at Dragoncon's TrakTrek during fall 2005 that Trip has "gotten out of much worse scrapes than that", and that Trip's death seemed very forced. The writers, Trinneer contended, wanted to kill off a character to "get the fans talking", and Trip was killed off not for any plot reason but simply to manipulate fans by killing off a popular character. However, Trinneer said that since the series was ending anyway, he felt that they might as well have killed off his character.[7]

Still another aspect of the series finale that fans were greatly disappointed in was that one of the main plotlines in the episode is Archer working on his famous speech during the ceremonies of the founding of the Federation, yet the speech itself is never revealed.^{[citation needed]}

Some viewers complained that the episode overlooked any reference to the Earth-Romulan War, established in Star Trek: The Original Series as a bitter war fought from approximately 2156 to 2160.^{[citation needed]} The episode "Balance of Terror" established that a peace treaty establishing the Neutral Zone had been signed, circa 2161, after both sides had suffered heavy losses. The Earth-Romulan War was also established as occurring before the founding of the United Federation of Planets. It has been suggested that this was deliberate in order to leave the door open for a potential Enterprise movie taking place during the conflict. At one point it was rumored the proposed 11th Star Trek feature film (see Star Trek XI) would take place during this era.

Another problem rests with a line spoken by Troi near the end of the episode, in which she comments that "this alliance will give birth to the Federation," implying it was not actually the Federation charter that was being signed, and thus the six-year time jump wasn't necessary from a story point of view. Another criticism is that in the third season, it was clearly stated that the "United Federation of Planets" was founded in 2161. Some fans have responded to this by suggesting that the charter signed in the episode lead to the formation of the United Coalition of Planets, which soon simply evolved into (or was renamed) the United Federation of Planets (thus making Troi's statement essentially correct).

Some fans noted that the actors seemed to be playing exaggerated caricatures of themselves.^{[citation needed]} This may be due to the holodeck setting of the episode, or due to subpar script writing. However, not all fans agree with this opinion. Brannon Braga has suggested that the cast's displeasure with the episode was obvious throughout.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Enterprise-D remake errors

The episode includes several errors in its re-creation of Star Trek: The Next Generation sets.

Ten-Forward

• The camera-panned footage of Ten-Forward was taken from "Ménage à Troi" and edited so that Lwaxana Troi is substituted by William Riker, causing him to appear twice.
• Lights under the two steps from the bar area to the seating area are visible in "The Pegasus", but these lights are absent in "These Are the Voyages...".
• Two officers are wearing early TNG uniforms (which have a lower collar). These uniforms do not appear beyond the third season, yet "These Are the Voyages..." takes place during the show's seventh season.

Corridors

• While the ceiling lights are a match, there is an error where the ceiling meets the wall: there is a grey panel in "These Are the Voyages..." with light coming from behind it. In all TNG episodes, the panels themselves are a light source.
• The turbolift that Troi walks into after finishing with Riker does not look anything like an Enterprise-D turbolift. It is, in fact, from the Enterprise-E.

Observation lounge

• The doors in "The Pegasus" are grey, not orange, and do not have a label. This error stems from the use of Enterprise-E doors, which are orange and labeled.
• Next to the entrance at the end opposite from where Troi and Riker sit, there is a tree and some type of wall art. Neither of these appears in "The Pegasus".
• The chairs in the conference room are slightly different: the chairs in "The Pegasus" have three creases running below the headrest and three buttons under the headrest, and the chairs are upholstered with a different fabric.

Holodeck

• The door operates with the regular door sound in Enterprise finale, rather than with the "heavier" sound used in TNG.

Exterior

• An exterior shot of the Enterprise-D shows its saucer impulse engines running. Throughout TNG's entire run, the saucer engines are seen running only during saucer separation scenes; otherwise, they are inactive.
• Throughout the entire run of TNG there were no other exterior illuminations apart from the warp and impulse engines and windows. However, in Enterprise finale the ships name and registry are illuminated a la Enterprise, Voyager, Deep Space Nine etc.

[edit] Trivia

• It was reported that "These Are the Voyages..." was originally written for possible use as the finale of the third season in 2004 had Paramount cancelled the series at that point. However, series producer Mike Sussman has denied this in an interview with the Trek Today website, stating that, while the idea for such an episode dates back to the third year, it wasn't written until season 4. [8] Rick Berman later told TV Guide that the episode was always intended for the fourth season finale, even if the series had been renewed.[9] However, in a July 2005 interview, Berman revealed that had the series been renewed, Trip Tucker would not have been killed off.[10]
• The TNG elements of this episode take place during the seventh season of TNG. As a result, Marina Sirtis' accent as Deanna Troi is less pronounced and more British, which is in keeping with the way she played the character toward the end of the series and into the movies.
• This episode contains a large number of references to past Enterprise episodes, ranging from obvious to subtle. One of the more subtle references can be seen when T'Pol holds a small model of the Frankenstein monster when packing Trip's quarters - a reference to the second season episode "Horizon" in which Trip convinces her to watch a Frankenstein movie.
• The episode also contains several not-so-subtle references to The Next Generation: when Trip remarks upon his sadness at Enterprise's decommissioning, Malcolm replies "All Good Things...", the name of TNG's series finale, and, in another instance, Archer makes a toast "to the next generation." There were already criticisms that this episode was more of a Next Generation episode than an Enterprise series finale by having Riker and Troi prominently in the episode, and these lines of dialogue infuriated many fans.
• Rumours circulated that William Shatner would appear in the final episode, as the "real" chef.^{[citation needed]}
• This is the first time that we see "Chef" as a person rather than a reference, even if it is Commander Riker.
• When Riker is reviewing the crew manifest of the Pegasus, Dawn Velazquez, one of Enterprise's producers has a cameo as a member of the crew.
• The Enterprise-D corridors, a section of Ten Forward and Deanna Troi's quarters featured in this episode were rebuilt from scratch.
• In the last scene of the episode, after Archer steps into the Council Chamber, Riker walks up to Troi, standing in a walkway behind the audience. A number of behind-the-scenes Star Trek personnel have cameos in the following shots. Enterprise writer-producer Manny Coto is the grey-haired admiral sitting behind Malcolm Reed's left shoulder. To Coto's left is Rick Berman’s assistant on Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise editorial staff member, Michael O’Halloran. To O’Halloran’s left is Larry Nemecek, editor of the fan magazine Star Trek Communicator. Behind Coto are a man and a woman, who are Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Enterprise staff writers and the authors of numerous Star Trek novels. As Riker stops when he gets to Troi, the camera pans to the left, and closes in on the two of them. As it does so, a man to Judith Reeves-Stevens' right becomes visible: this is writer and series science consultant Andre Bormanis. To Bormanis’ right is a woman in purple: Manny Coto’s assistant, production associate Donna Rooney. To her right, the man who speaks to her at one point, is pre-production coordinator Juan Carlos Fernandez. In front of Fernandez is production associate/producer David Rossi. This use of cameos echoes the finale of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which also featured the creative staff in a scene set in the holosuite program of Vic's nightclub.
• Coto has suggested that, had Enterprise been given another season, Jeffrey Combs' character Shran would have been made a permanent addition to the cast.
• The episode ends with Riker saying "Computer, end program" to turn off the holodeck (just as Archer is about to give his "famous speech"), then walking out. This is followed by a montage-shot of three Enterprises: NX-01, NCC-1701, and NCC-1701-D, flying through space as Archer, Kirk, and Picard make the famous "These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise..." narration. Many fans felt this was the only "nice" thing about the entire episode. However, Mike Sussman revealed in interviews that this was his idea, not the idea of Rick Berman or Brannon Braga. Berman and Braga literally wanted to end the final episode with Riker cutting off Archer's speech by saying "computer, end program", walking out the holodeck doors, then fading to black and running the credits.

[edit] Pocket Books follow-up

Following the conclusion of Enterprise, Pocket Books announced that it would be starting a new series of novels based upon the series, as a relaunch similar to what successfully occurred with the continuation novels based upon Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Although not considered officially part of this relaunch, the 2006 novel Last Full Measure (written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin) included elements that were intended to preview what Pocket Books' writers had planned for the relaunch. The novel reveals that Trip actually survived the events of this episode. it is not revealed how Trip survived, who ordered that his death be faked (based on Riker and Troi's reactions to the holodeck program, Trip's survival appears to be a closely guarded secret), or why. These questions will be answered in the next Enterprise book by the duo, The Good That Men Do, which will be available in March 2007 and will be considered part of the relaunch.

Margaret Clark, editor of the Pocket Books Star Trek line, posted to the TrekBBS in early 2006 that she was not happy with "These Are the Voyages..." and in particular the way Trip's death was handled. An acknowledged fan of the character, she arranged for Trip to survive in 'real life' (in the framing story for Last Full Measure). Also, according to preliminary notes for The Good That Men Do, Section 31 is responsible for the coverup of Trip's survival. The novel involves Section 31 sending Trip to investigate rumors of a new Romulan warp drive which could threaten peace in the quadrant. In the process of faking Trip's death, the timeframe of the events seen in the finale episode was also altered:

• Trip's alleged "death" actually happened in 2155, not (as the episode suggests) in 2161. In the novel, this is justified by the fact that the publicity over the formation of the Federation, which really did occur in 2161, would overshadow any lingering inconsistencies about Trip's death - by "hiding" it in 2161, Trip's disappearance from public life would be more easily forgotten.
• The novel shows us how Archer, Phlox and Malcolm Reed faked Trip's death and hired the alien pirates who are seen boarding the ship. They are the only ones who know that Trip is alive. (A subtle visual clue in the episode reinforces this: as a gravely "wounded" Trip is being wheeled into a medical scanner, he turns to the camera and winks.)
• In the episode, Shran's daughter Talla was kidnapped, and the Enterprise crew mount a rescue. This was a coverup of the real kidnap victims, a group of Aenar who were being used by Romulans for their telepathic abilities.
• The episode tells us that Shran was cashiered out of the Andorian Guard for losing his ship, the Kumari. This is largely true - the Andorian military, as Shran once pointed out, takes a very unforgiving view of any officer who loses their command.
• In the episode, Shran is already married to an Aenar woman, Jhamel, and Talla is their daughter. In "reality", Shran is single, and Jhamel is already promised to another Andorian bonding group. However, in the course of the novel, one of the bondmates is killed and Shran joins the group, so Talla could still be born in the "real" timeline.
• The ending of the episode, supposedly showing us the signing of the Federation charter, was criticized for not mentioning the Earth-Romulan War in any capacity, and because no crewmember has been promoted in all that time. This is explained in the novel: the signing was not of the Federation charter, but that of the 'Coalition of Planets' (a precursor to the Federation), and the scene takes place in 2155 (not 2161) - so very little time has actually elapsed, and the Romulan War has not yet occurred.

Clark's decision was both supported and criticized by fans; it should be noted, however, that under rules set out by Paramount Pictures and Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, no Star Trek novel is considered canonical.

[edit] References

• StarTrek.com Episode Information

[edit] External links

• These Are the Voyages... article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.