ent s4e23 these are the voyages

well, i finally finished the goddamn show. first, demons and terra prime were both very good episodes. going from them to this was... disappointing.

honestly, it wasn't as bad as i was expecting. in terms of pacing and such, i think it was actually better than endgame. but it was cheap. making the entire thing take place in a holoprogam made it not mean anything. we have no reason to believe that what we saw actually happened. it's not helped by the fanservice-y and unsubtle dialogue. it was so self-referential and immersion breaking, especially in the kitchen scenes. there were some interesting character moments, like when trip was described as the #1 member of the archer fanclub or t'pol telling archer he looked like a hero, but again, it's suspicious. there's no way someone was actually there to record those conversations, so what we see couldn't be true.

then there's the matter of trip's death. it didn't seem to mean anything. i didn't really care. granted, i knew it was going to happen. but even in the episode, they straight up say it beforehand. it's contrived. he wouldn't panic like that when threatened, even if it was archer in danger. it's happened before and he just stayed quiet, followed archer's lead instead of throwing himself in front of him. we've seen these characters pull of superhuman stunts before and they've always been carried by tv logic. why would he die to some quick, mundane explosion now?

i understand why people were insulted by the insertion of tng. i don't get the point. you've got the connection from the first enterprise to the last, but at the cost of the rest of the meaning it could've had. i think it would've worked if the characters' actions and dialogue made more sense and if it somehow cut to the real events in between what took place in the holodeck. at the very least, i'm glad the crew and ship had another six years even though the show itself was cut short. 

i'll probably watch the last season of discovery next. then i've got about half of tos to get through. i think i should watch something that isn't star trek in between, just to keep my brain from getting too homogeneous. i'll always love enterprise, though.