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So, this is it. Tonight I will watch the last two episodes of Star Trek in the foreseeable future. And less than a week later, I will see what is likely to be the last Star Wars movie in a very long time (though knowing George Lucas, there will be a revised version of it sooner than anyone wants one). I feel like my childhood is ending, again.

Okay, not really, but I felt like I needed a big dramatic line.

The truth is that I'm one of those in the camp that believes Star Trek needs a break. (Lucas too, at least until he understands why Jar Jar Binks and having Greedo shoot first are bad ideas.) I really enjoyed "Demons" last week, but it just pointed out to me all the reasons I didn't love this season of Enterprise the way people kept telling me that I was supposed to. "It's an homage to the original series!" has been the popular line. And yes, some of the aliens and storylines and themes have been borrowed from the original series, and in the Mirror episodes entire sets and costumes and plots were borrowed as well. But I've felt more like I was watching the worst episodes of the third season of the original series than the first.

And yes, I know there were some stinkers early on in the original series, and some absolute brilliance in the third. I don't want anyone to get the impression that I'm lionizing Roddenberry at the expense of Berman, Braga, Coto, etc. You will not get any Berman-bashing out of me; he practically invented modern Star Trek, he oversaw far more episodes than Roddenberry did, and although I do get the impression that he's somewhat out of ideas -- he's said himself that he's felt like they were going to the well too many times as far back as Deep Space Nine -- it's far too facile to pretend that Berman and Braga are the villains who dropped the ball on Star Trek, or that Coto could singlehandedly have been its savior. Throwing Orion Slave Girls and the Defiant onscreen does not an original series episode make. The episode has to be about something of substance, something about how people reached the stars and learned to live with one another there. If you do that four out of five weeks, then you're entitled to do the equivalent of "Spock's Brain" and be forgiven.

Maybe. Christian made me an interesting proposition not long ago: he asked me whether, after Enterprise finished its run, I would be interested in reviewing the original series. This is something neither I nor TrekToday has ever done, and since he was offering a DVD set as incentive, I jumped at the opportunity. Next week, since there will be no Enterprise episode to review, I will be writing up "The Man Trap" instead. I've decided that I should watch the original episodes in the order in which they aired, something I have never done. I can hardly watch as though I've never seen them before, but I haven't seen some of the episodes in several years, and I scarcely remember some of the ones I considered terrible and didn't rewatch ("The Lights of Zetar").

We all know that Star Trek will be back, in some form, probably sooner rather than later...at least, not so long as between 1969 and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Trek thrived during the break last time, and I have no doubt that it will do so again.

Trek BBS Today

Below are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Thank Manny Coto for season four!

-Who's more talented, Braga or Moore?

-Why is Voyager's reputation so bad?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Trek Two Years Ago

These were some of the major news items from May 2003:

• New Arc To Shake Up 'Enterprise', Says Braga
  "Jolene Blalock's T'Pol will show more skin — and make out with Scott Bakula's Capt. Archer," TV Guide reported as UPN continued to hype plans for a renovated Enterprise. Executive producer Brannon Braga did not deny the speculation but said,

  We thought, 'We've done two years on the show, let's really shake things up, really take some risks...it turned out to be very inspirational for Rick [Berman] and I. [The cliffhanger] is going to be resolved in multiple episodes, if not the entire season.

• 'Enterprise' To Remain On Wednesdays This Fall
  UPN announced its fall 2003 schedule, keeping Enterprise in the Wednesday 8 p.m. timeslot despite the fact that the WB had moved its successful Superman prequel Smallville to the same hour. The network also announced a new lead-out series, Jake 2.0.

• 'Nemesis' DVD Reveals Cut Footage
  Images from the Star Trek: Nemesis DVD revealed the never-before-shown Enterprise-E first officer, Commander Martin Madden, played by Steven Culp, whose role was cut from the film. Culp went on to play Major Hayes on Enterprise.

More news can be found in the archives.

Poll Results

Below are the results of the most recent TrekToday poll:

How would you rate 'Demons'? 9-10 53.9% - (800 Votes) 7-8 22.1% - (329 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 7.9% - (118 Votes) 5-6 7.8% - (117 Votes) Didn't want to see it 3.3% - (49 Votes) 3-4 3.3% - (49 Votes) 1-2 1.4% - (21 Votes) Total Votes: 1483

Please vote in our new poll and rate the finale of Star Trek: Enterprise!

Today's Television Listings

Tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, UPN will show a new Star Trek: Enterprise episode, "Terra Prime". Here is a synopsis of the episode:

Archer, Reed and Travis combine resources to stop Paxton, a well-armed, radical human isolationist leader from Mars, from destroying Starfleet Command unless all aliens leave Earth immediately. Meanwhile, Paxton's hostages T'Pol and Trip are confronted with a baby girl created from their combined DNA, leaving them to contemplate the possibilities.

Then at 9 p.m., UPN will air the series finale, "These Are the Voyages...". Here is a synopsis of the episode:

Six years in the future, an emotional Archer and the crew return to Earth to face the decommission of Enterprise and signing of the Federation charter, ratifying the newly-formed alliance of planets they helped forge, but first the officers must mount a daring, dangerous rescue to save Andorian Commander Sharan's kidnapped daughter. Meanwhile, far in the future, Troi suggests that Riker use a Holodeck recreation of this moment in 'Star Trek' history to search for some command insights.

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