Even Jonathan Frakes Regrets The Infamous Star Trek: Enterprise Finale

"Star Trek: Enterprise" struggled throughout its four-season run. A prequel set in the 22nd century, before the Federation's founding, the series often felt like "Star Trek" was stuck in the past in more ways than one. The first two seasons hardly broke from the typical "Trek" formula despite the unfamiliar setting and the show bled viewership. Shake-ups in seasons 3 and 4 weren't enough to save the series. "Enterprise" was the first "Star Trek" since the original to not reach seven seasons and it put the franchise on hiatus, cementing its black sheep reputation. It didn't help that the series finale, "These Are The Voyages..." was a clunker.

The episode is centered around "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "The Pegasus." In that episode, Will Riker's (Jonathan Frakes) former commanding officer Admiral Pressman (Terry O'Quinn) comes to the Enterprise to lead a recovery mission of his old ship, the source of the episode's title. It turns out there was a mutiny on the Pegasus — Pressman was using the ship to test an experimental cloaking device (outlawed by the Federation). Riker, fresh out of the academy, naively defended his captain. Now, as he weighs his past actions, he considers his loyalty to Pressman over his new commanding officer, Picard (Patrick Stewart).

It turns out that Riker also had time to play on the Holodeck — he watches a recreation of the "Enterprise" crew's last mission for guidance and sees how Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) met his end. Riker and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) steal the spotlight in what was supposed to be someone else's send-off.

Frakes is still involved with "Star Trek" — he recently had a last go as Riker in "Picard" season 3 and directed "These Old Scientists," a crossover between "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks." Speaking to Variety, he looked back on his history with the franchise as an actor and director. Frakes didn't direct "These Are The Voyages..." — that was Allan Kroeker, who also directed the "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" finales. Even so, Frakes gave his opinion on what went wrong with it.

"We didn't quite fit. It was sold as, 'Oh, come on and do the episode, it will be a Valentine to the fans' — it wasn't a Valentine to the fans. The fans didn't want to see us. Scott Bakula ['Enterprise' lead Captain Jonathan Archer] was such a mensch about it, but [...] nobody wanted to be on a 'Star Trek' show that didn't get to go to seven. And the inherent insult in having characters from another series that had done well come in to essentially close the books on his episode — it just felt so wrong to me."

Frakes doesn't have only bad memories of the episode, though: "I mean, it was a good episode. We had a blast doing it in many ways [...] It's just unfortunate that that was the last episode of that show."

With this, Frakes hits on something important about "These Are The Voyages..." — it's not a terrible idea for a crossover, but it's an abominable premise for a series finale. I believe writers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman wanted to show how the legacy of the "Enterprise" crew endured, but this just wasn't the way to do it.

Rewrite the episode a bit and bump it up to earlier in the fourth season — I'm sure fans wouldn't have minded this version. At worst, bringing in the "Next Generation" cast would be derided as a ratings stunt. Doing this would also let the two-parter "Demons" and "Terra Prime" be the finale of "Enterprise," which would give Archer and his crew an ending all of their own. "Terra Prime" climaxes with Archer delivering a speech to rally the proto-Federation: "A final frontier begins in this hall. Let's explore it together." Those words are a much more fitting coda to "Enterprise" than the final episode turned out to be.

"These Old Scientists" almost feels like "These Are The Voyages..." done right — "TNG" era characters interacting with characters from an earlier time period and reverently treating them like legends. However, it's also a comedy episode and ultimately an inconsequential one. It doesn't feel like "Lower Decks" stealing the spotlight from "Strange New Worlds" at an important moment. From the episode's execution and Frakes' words, it sounds like he learned a lesson from "These Are The Voyages..."