Summary
- Keating found the Enterprise finale disrespectful to the cast, feeling Riker and Troi took away from their last episode.
- The controversial inclusion of two Next Generation characters ticked off Keating, who believes a standalone episode was needed.
- Despite initially moving on from the show, Keating now believes the finale was a misstep that disrespected the Enterprise cast.
Lt. Malcolm Reed actor Dominic Keating has revealed that the hated Star Trek: Enterprise finale “really bothered” him. “These Are the Voyages” was the final episode of the canceled Enterprise, but it also served as a finale for the entire Star Trek franchise. To that end, it featured Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) observing the final mission for the Enterprise NX-01 on the holodeck during the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Pegasus”.
The inclusion of Riker and Troi in the Star Trek: Enterprise finale was incredibly controversial as it took the focus away from Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the crew. Dominic Keating reflected on the controversial Enterprise finale during the 2024 edition of the Star Trek San Francisco convention. Read Keating’s comments (via TrekMovie.com) below:
“I just watched that episode on [Star Trek: The Cruise VII]. I had seen it in times past and it has not bothered me. This time, I have to say it really bothered me… Particularly—and I love Jonathan and Marina—but to see them jauntily wafting around our last episode like nothing’s going on, and it ticked me off. It didn’t in the instance. I guess as an actor, I was like ‘We’re done’ so I was moving on to get another job. But when I look back now twenty years on, yeah it was disrespectful—I think to Scott and to our cast. I understand that Rick and Brannon were wrapping up a very long sojourn of an unparalleled TV accomplishment of 17 years on a variation of a theme. It is incredible. But I think it was a misstep. We should have had a standalone episode to end our series.”
Star Trek: Enterprise introduced new faces to the prequel series set a century before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series.
Why Dominic Keating Is Right About TNG’s Riker And Troi In Enterprise’s Finale
Dominic Keating’s recent criticisms of the Star Trek: Enterprise finale are justified. Given that Enterprise had been canceled due to flagging ratings, it does feel insulting to drop two beloved characters from the more popular Star Trek: The Next Generation into the finale. What’s worse is that everything that happens in the Enterprise finale is a holodeck simulation, which means that – technically – these aren’t even the real characters that viewers have spent four years with. They’re holographic replicas that are informed by the official record of the events leading up to the founding of the United Federation of Planets.
Dominic Keating is absolutely correct in his assertion that Star Trek: Enterprise‘s finale should have been a standalone episode to end the series, not the franchise. Structurally, the story of the Enterprise NX-01 embarking on one final mission before the historic formation of the Federation could have been a fitting farewell. By including Riker and Troi as observers of the action, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga vastly reduced the importance of Archer and his crew, ending Star Trek: Enterprise not with a bang, but a whimper.
