“Reclaim Your Gods”: These Are The Voyages…
So let’s make a pronouncement right off the bat, shall we? “These Are The Voyages…” is not a series finale. Yes, it’s the final episode in the final filming block of the series, but if you’re looking to it to resolve the show’s final story arc you’re going to be incredibly disappointed. It’s far more satisfying and sensible both to grant that “Terra Prime” was that and that this is a bonus episode. In fact, a lot of the this last season is really better seen as a handful of assorted specials anyway; Think about “In A Mirror, Darkly”: That had nothing to do with anything that came before and anything that came after, and so does this episode. So let’s just dispense upfront with the notion that this is Enterprise‘s series finale, because it’s going to save us a lot of undue aggravation as we go along.
As absolutely everyone who has ever commented on this episode has pointed out, it plays out far more as a Star Trek: The Next Generation story than it does an Enterprise one. Which is fine because, the textual quality of this particular outing aside, in spite of everything Star Trek: The Next Generation was frankly a better show than this one. And you have to remember the context into which this was coming: In 2005, Star Trek was going away from television, possibly forever. “These Are The Voyages…” wasn’t just closing off Enterprise‘s final filming block, it was closing off a sustained and uninterrupted period of Star Trek constantly being on the air dating back to 1987. You can’t think of “These Are The Voyages…” as being of the same ilk as “All Good Things…” or “Endgame”-Really the only remotely comparable thing I can think of in media history is Doctor Who‘s “Survival”. This is the end of an institution that has to acknowledge not just the end of the current incarnation, but pay tribute to the entire twenty-plus year era of history it’s a part of. In that context, the framing device of this story is more than fitting.
If you’re going to criticize “These Are The Voyages…”, do so within its proper context. Most of the arguments I see leveled against this episode are quite frankly idiotic: It’s a poor series finale and more of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode than an Enterprise one? No shit-That’s what it was *supposed* to be: A lost episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that addressed the New Universe of Enterprise. This was going to be the last episode of the filming block whether UPN renewed Enterprise for a fifth season or not. It’s fanwanky? Well, yeah. An episode like this kind of has to be fanwanky by default. And hey, have you, hypothetical interlocutor, even been paying attention for the past year? This whole season has been fanwanky as shit. So “These Are The Voyages…” is too weighed down by continuity nods and references, but utter nonsense like “The Forge”/“Awakening”/“Kir’Shara”, “Babel One”/“United”/“The Aenar”, “Affliction”/“Divergence” and “In A Mirror, Darkly” get a pass?…