These Are the Voyages...

This episode was just plain bad,

It jumps ahead 6 years, yet the ship and crew look the same, indicating literally nothing of interest happened. Most of the cast are little more then extra's in this episode with next to no dialogue

The story of Trip and T'pol, which had been building up for 2 seasons is suddenly cast aside for no apparent reason, which also undermines the ending of the previous episode in which the death of Elizabeth drew them together. 2 seasons of buildup (including a now mind-link) which is just tossed aside with a casual line here.

Shran is inserted out of nowhere, faked his death, has a child and quite a lot of other throwaway lines instead of actual plot on how this came to be.

Trip's death was just plain insulting and completely unrealistic and so tacked on that made it seems like it never happened and Troi just added it in there for Riker's "lesson". The Pirates were stated to be in a slower ship, yet somehow caught up with no explanation. They somehow not only reached the ship virtually undetected and unopposed, but also got to the heart of the ship without any effort and held Archer at gunpoint again with no opposition. Where were the MAKO's, security or any other defense against a ship stated vastly inferior to Enterprise.

Riker apparently did this simulation purely for the moment Trip defied orders and killed himself. The rest of the episode had nothing to do with this moment and the situation was in no way comparable to his own. Not to mention there are quite a few "order defying" moments in earlier episodes that served that purpose far better.

Then we get Trip supposedly dying while under Phlox's care, which not only lacked any kind of emotion to it (Trip winking didn't help) but an actual death is NOT shown and T'pol is missing.

Finally we have Troi ruining the episode multiple times. She says Trip will die 20 minutes before he does (why on earth was that line added) and she hypes up Archer's speech yet we never hear it.

In the end this episode just came of as a non-canon Holodeck novel and not the actual events, mainly due to aspects happening that literally couldn't happen. The crew couldn't be identical 6 years later and Trip couldn't have died because those pirates couldn't reach the ship due to a huge difference in warp capabilities and they certainly couldn't enter the ship completely unopposed.

In what would have been a fine premise for a standard episode, Riker's uncertainties in the Holodeck simply blemished the Enterprise farewell. The death of Tripp left me feeling as violated as a drive-by shooting witness. Senseless and gratuitous, it still baffles me that this seemed like a good idea to anybody. The episode, arguably the worst of the four year run, probably contributes to the trepidation of Paramount in allowing a new TV series to this day. All of that being said, I don't HATE it. It is Star Trek, and it features people that I've enjoyed for years. Hopefully, any new adaptation in the Star Trek universe will put this episode into perspective as a teachable moment and the producers will remember rule number one. The fans are the only reason that Star Trek exists. Abusing their loyalty will have repercussions.

People are really mad about this episode in the reviews, but I found it a fitting way for this series to go out. Yes the plot is very thin and probably too many wink-nod references eg "Here's to the next generation" but we get to see these characters 10 years in as Enterprise is about to be mothballed and they are moving on to other things. It provides a fitting setting for closure on the series and seeing some of the character arcs come to an end.

I also don't understand the hate for bringing some TNG cast into it. What's not fun about seeing Riker and Troy on screen with the Enterprise crew? It was a nice linkage to the next series (in stardate chronology). We even got to see Shran one last time.

Thanks for the memories, Enterprise. A good show with it's flaws but overall I enjoyed the ride.

Chef is Commander Riker, it's all a holodeck program, yadda yadda yadda. Everyone knows that this is the worst part of the episode. This should have been a 3- or 4-parter that followed directly, chronologically speaking, from the last non-Mirror Universe arcs that the show explored. The whole season was structured to lead up to the formation of the Federation. The letdown is the way it's addressed here. Instead of giving the NX-01 a proper sendoff, the writers chose to lean on the goodwill of TNG fans. What we got was, honestly, more contrived than season 2 of Picard. It would be one thing if the Riker segments showed us things we didn't already know. Daniels accomplished that in the third season, though, when he told Archer why the mission to destroy the Xindi superweapon was important and showed him the future. So who cares!?!? I seriously don't understand the rationale behind this. Maybe Frakes just wanted to run around in his uniform again and Marina Sirtis probably just wanted a paycheck (nothing against her, actors are workers and this was probably an easy gig; she gave everything the performance required). All in all this is pointless and embarrassing.

Hey Rick Berman, you just sent off Enterprise into a smouldering pile of dung. The second last episode "Terra Prime" is how my heart will remember Enterprise ending, dignified and heartwarming.

Why would you crush the hearts of loyal fans with such drivel? The entire dialogue, premise and plot were incredibly amateurish as if it was written at lunch break by the company accountant.

After "Terra Prime"'s sad yet beautiful ending it really tied a lot of loose bits for fans. Nothing more was needed.

Please never touch anything Trek related again before you completely destroy the franchise.

Pathetic.