Star Trek has built a commendable legacy with its series finales, often delivering memorable and impactful conclusions to its various narratives. Notable examples include the highly acclaimed finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, titled \u201cAll Good Things\u2026,\u201d as well as the strong conclusions of both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Even the finale of Star Trek: Picard received praise for effectively bringing closure to the story of The Next Generation characters.<\/p>\n
However, amidst the positive reception of Star Trek finales, there stands an exception that neither fans nor actor Jonathan Frakes view favorably\u2014the finale of Star Trek: Enterprise, titled \u201cThese Are the Voyages\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
This particular finale sparked controversy for several reasons, primarily due to its decision to retroactively depict the events of Enterprise as a holodeck recreation by William Riker, diverting attention away from the Enterprise characters and focusing on characters from The Next Generation who had already concluded their story arcs. The Enterprise cast, including Jolene Blalock (T\u2019Pol), expressed dissatisfaction with this narrative choice, with Blalock labeling it \u201cappalling.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a candid discussion on the Shuttlepod podcast, hosted by Enterprise cast members Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, Jonathan Frakes, who played William Riker, shared his honest thoughts about the controversial finale. He expressed that the decision was \u201cinappropriate,\u201d particularly for lead actor Scott Bakula, and that bringing in characters from The Next Generation for what was supposed to be a \u201cvalentine to the fans\u201d felt wrong.<\/p>\n
Frakes reflected on the situation, stating, \u201cIt couldn\u2019t have been more inappropriate, for Scott [Bakula] certainly, but for all of you: to bring in characters from the original Next Gen of that world of Star Trek. It was Riker and Troi, Marina and I were invited in for what was allegedly a \u2018valentine to the fans.\u2019 And I could feel in my heart and my gut and my brain that it was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued by emphasizing that Enterprise deserved its own ending, given that other Star Trek series had run for seven seasons, and the decision to incorporate characters from The Next Generation into Enterprise\u2019s finale felt disconnected and awkward. Frakes acknowledged the misstep, calling it one of the few \u201creal bumps in the road\u201d and stating, \u201cIt had nothing to do with the show. It was insane\u2026 it was so disconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frakes\u2019 candid comments align with sentiments shared by fans over the years, emphasizing that the finale of Enterprise was a regrettable conclusion to Star Trek\u2019s golden era. Nonetheless, the experience serves as a lesson to be learned, a reminder that even in the vast universe of Star Trek, missteps can occur, but they offer opportunities for growth and improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Star Trek has built a commendable legacy with its series finales, often delivering memorable and impactful conclusions to its various\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":28817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[9324],"class_list":["post-28816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-news","tag-jonathan-frakes"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}