Star Trek: Enterprise 4.22 FAQ

What’s it called?
“These are the Voyages … ”

Who’s responsible?
Teleplay is credited to series creators Rick Berman & Brannon Braga (“Zero Hour”).

So Herc’s only seen the second of Friday night’s two hours of “Trek”?
This is correct. And I have every suspicion the first hour, “Terra Prime,” may be the better installment, if only because my favorite “Enterprise” writers – Gar and Judy Reeves-Stevens – have wisely been charged with scripting it.

Ah HA! So you admit that “These Are The Voyages …” is, as Jolene Blalock described it, “appalling”!!
It is not appalling. It is certainly the weakest “Trek” series finale since 1969’s “The Turnabout Intruder,” but this represents faint condemnation. The episode boasts … virtues.

What does TV Guide say?
“After four years of seeking out new worlds, the crew reaches the end of a long road in an affecting finale that explores its legacy. Next Generation’s Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis play pivotal roles in the story, set 200 years after Archer’s era. To deal with a personal crisis, Cdr. Riker (Frakes) uses the holodeck to relive Enterprise’s final voyage – six years after the antialien revolt. During that trip, Archer detours from his route to the first Federation conference to save an old ally’s kidnapped daughter – a mission that ends in tragedy for the crew.”

Tragedy for the crew?? Does a regular die?
He does.

He! So it’s not T’Pol or Hoshi?
It is not.

What else is TV Guide not telling us?
TV Guide lies to you! The Enterprise is not headed for the first Federation anything! Witness Troi’s line near episode’s end: “I wish I could tell them all that this alliance will give birth to the Federation.”

What’s good?
The fact that the TNG regulars play decidedly supportive roles. The loving recreation of the Enterprise-D, with its strangely multihued new-age consoles and oddly-shaped arches. The Patrick Stewart body-double glimpsed so fleetingly in the opening seconds of act one. Jeffrey Combs generally, but especially the way he spits out “former associates.” The little Andorian girl. The “flashback.” No Ferengi! The always-compelling Blalock, betraying onscreen no hint of her contempt for the teleplay. “Did you find him attractive?” The Phlox moment that recalls too vividly the promise of the “Enterprise” pilot. T’Pol’s final scene.

What’s not so good?
Data’s eye-rolling dialogue. Stiffly stifferton Frakes, who demonstrates for the thousandth time why Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner so effortlessly and consistently overshadowed him. The too-familiar “big” rescue scene that ends act two. The regular’s death that carries curiously little resonance. “You sound like my ninth-grade teacher.”

How does it end, spoiler-boy?
Thanks to a suggestion from writer Mike Sussman (“Twilight”), Jonathan Archer, Jean-Luc Picard and Jim Kirk have words with us.

Herc’s rating for “Star Trek: Enterprise” 4.22?

***1/2

The Hercules T. Strong Rating System:
***** better than we deserve
**** better than most motion pictures
*** actually worth your valuable time
** as horrible as most stuff on TV
* makes you quietly pray for bulletins

8 p.m. Friday. UPN.

I am – Hercules!!

Seasony Star Trek Goodness:
Star Trek: Enterprise 1.x
Star Trek: Enterprise 2.x
Star Trek 1.x
Star Trek 2.x
Star Trek 3.x
Star Trek: The Next Generation 1.x
Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.x
Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.x
Star Trek: The Next Generation 4.x
Star Trek: The Next Generation 5.x
Star Trek: The Next Generation 6.x
Star Trek: The Next Generation 7.x
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1.x
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2.x
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 3.x
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 4.x
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 5.x
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 6.x
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 7.x
Star Trek: Voyager 1-7.x

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