Berman, Braga Say 'Voyages...' Pays Tribute To All Trek

See Also: 'These Are The Voyages' Episode Guide

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, executive producers of Star Trek: Enterprise, said that they felt it was important to feature characters from The Next Generation in the newer series' finale because it allowed Captain Archer to be seen as an immortal hero in the Star Trek universe.

TrekWeb reported on a conference call between the producers and several media outlets yesterday, saying that Berman and Braga stated that they hoped "These Are The Voyages..." would appeal not only to Enterprise viewers, but to the many people whose fandom has been appreciated over the past eighteen years of the franchise. "We...wanted to come up with a concept that was different and special and was able to straddle two generations of Star Trek," said Braga. "When it came to the very last episode we knew we wanted to get out of a totally plot-driven story and do something that was really character-oriented and centered on the internal dynamics of Enterprise and the people onboard. That's why we came up with this concept of Riker on the holodeck looking back at history of old heroes, in this case the Enterprise crew."

"The idea of Commander Riker having a big decision to make in his life and deciding to go onto the holodeck of the 24th century Enterprise-D and study certain events that happened at a very crucial time near the end of the mission of Jonathan Archer would be a good way to pay the homage to these characters that we wanted to," Berman agreed. "There were some grumblings about bringing in [Jonathan] Frakes and [Marina] Sirtis in from another series...the feeling that if this was going to be the finale of Enterprise then why bring in characters from another series, but I think when people see the episode and realize that to be able to truly pay the respect to our characters the way we have, we've couched it in unique fashion to be able to look back on them."

Braga, too, admitted that some of the Enterprise actors were less than thrilled with the presence of Next Generation stars in the finale but said that none of the actors had seen the episode yet, so they can't be unhappy with the results. Moreover, he said, the finale was not only for Enterprise viewers but was meant to encompass all of recent Star Trek history. "One of the reasons we did it is we wanted to say kind of a 'thank you' to people who watched not only Enterprise but some of the other shows," he said. "We have nothing but respect and admiration for these fans and obviously we need the fans - we wouldn't have a show if it weren't for the fans."

Berman said that the writing staff has been careful to maintain continuity with the original series throughout Enterprise's run, noting that occasionally Star Trek canon is not internally consistent from series to series. "I think that we would've had a lot of wonderful ammunition to develop the show further. I think it needs to be said that UPN has changed a great deal over the last few years, it has become a network that is skewed in a totally different direction than Star Trek, and I think that's caused as much of the problem with our erosion as anything else," he said. Braga noted that he was proud of the first two seasons of the show, which have been heavily criticised, and that he believes Star Trek began its slide during The Next Generation, long before Enterprise.

"These Are the Voyages..." will air on May 13th on UPN. For more, including the producers' belief that franchise fatigue hurt Nemesis as well as Enterprise, see TrekWeb.

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