These Are the Voyages...
Series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who co-wrote the episode, conceived "These Are the Voyages..." as a valentine to Star Trek fans.
Riker, after consulting Counselor Deanna Troi, turns to the simulated events of the year 2161 for guidance, when the crew of Enterprise travels home to Earth for both decommissioning and the formation of the United Federation of Planets.
Critics and cast alike believed the Next Generation frame robbed the characters and their fans of closure, and that the death of Commander Trip Tucker felt forced and unnecessary.
The starship and its crew are also returning to Earth for the signing of the Federation Charter, and Captain Jonathan Archer frets over the speech he will give to the assembled delegates.
En route, Riker and Troi observe as Enterprise is contacted by Shran, a former Andorian Imperial Guard officer whom Archer believed to be dead.
He also watches as the kidnappers board Enterprise, and how, in order to save Archer's life, Commander Tucker overloads two conduits and dies after being mortally wounded.
[1] The final shot of the episode is a montage of the ships named Enterprise: (NCC-1701-D, NCC-1701, and NX-01) as Captains Jean-Luc Picard, James T. Kirk, and Archer recite the "Where no man has gone before" prologue.
She felt early Enterprise scripts ignored basic tenets of Star Trek chronology, and offered "revealing costumes instead of character development".
[3] Brannon Braga suggested the reason for cancellation was viewer fatigue, noting that "after 18 years and 624 hours of Star Trek, the audience began to have a little bit of overkill.
Enterprise writer Mike Sussman told TrekNation in May 2005 that Braga had considered the idea of an episode crossover featuring characters from other Star Trek series prior to the finale.
Sussman's original idea for the episode was to have The Doctor of Star Trek: Voyager treating an ill patient who may or may not have been Archer trapped in the future.
[14] In interviews, Berman said the episode had always been intended as the season finale regardless of cancellation, and gave conflicting answers as to whether Trip would still have been killed if the show had continued.
[17] "These Are the Voyages..." featured guest appearances by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as their Next Generation characters William Riker and Deanna Troi.
Brent Spiner, another Next Generation veteran who had guest-starred earlier in the fourth season of Enterprise, had an off-screen speaking role as the android Data.
Similar to "What You Leave Behind", many of the production staff cameoed for a large crowd scene at the end of the episode, as Archer prepares to give his speech.
Fifteen "VIPs", including writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, André Bormanis, and Manny Coto joined two dozen extras in forming part of the audience.
Among the notable guests were Star Trek: Nemesis screenwriter John Logan, who was not affiliated with Enterprise; and Peter Weller, who appeared as a villain in "Terra Prime".
[23] Connor Trinneer, who played Commander Trip Tucker, felt the finale should have had a memorable farewell that he described as a "M*A*S*H moment", but the producers did not want such an element.
[24] Anthony Montgomery (who played Ensign Travis Mayweather) was displeased with the finale and said: "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.
"[27] Braga later admitted that killing Tucker "wasn't a great idea",[28] and called making the finale TNG-centric his biggest regret of the series.
He said he considered the two-part story "Demons" and "Terra Prime" the quasi-finale of the season and called These Are the Voyages... "a kind of post-season episode" and actual farewell to Star Trek.
[33][34] IGN said the episode was "Berman and Braga's parting shot, making sure that everyone knew who was in charge," and that the sharp contrast between "These Are the Voyages..." and "Terra Prime" brought into relief the reason neither should be allowed to produce Star Trek ever again.
Andy Dehnart of MSNBC said that "while the writers and production designers deserve credit for offering worlds that were perhaps slightly more believable, they lost the fantastic, wondrous approach to space travel that The Next Generation borrowed from the original Star Trek and then perfected.
"[40] Den of Geek, while acknowledging critiques of the finale, said "These Are the Voyages...'" was the tenth best episode of the series, praising the inclusion of Riker and Troi and remarking the "undeniable joy in seeing the familiar and beloved characters back on screen.
