Change Your Image
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjQ4MTY5NzU2M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDc5NTgwMTI@._V1_SY100_SX100_.jpg)
wchmara
Reviews
Star Trek Continues: To Boldly Go: Part II (2017)
A Fitting End
I have to agree with the sentiments made by other people online that these two episodes were written beautifully and acted masterfully. It brings the Enterprise crew full circle back to the events of the second pilot episode and mixed in elements from the third season's "The Enterprise Incident." The music, special effects, pacing, EVERYTHING is just perfect, especially given that it was made by fans out of sheer love for the show and wanted to give it a grand finale.
Is it without sin, though? Well, not exactly.
Vic Mignogna and Robert Sawyer seem to have conflated what Gary Mitchell became after encountering the barrier at the edge of the Galaxy with the Talosians of the first unsold pilot. To put it simply, Mitchell became a god. He could create things out of thin air and also destroy them with the same mental effort. The Talosians were the ones who dealt with illusions. The espers of these two episodes should have had the power to get around without transporters, and even create their own starships. They would not have been playing around with illusions. But that would have made them a much more difficult enemy to defeat, if not impossible, and we can't have that.
The character of Smith in the original episode was famous for only two things. Kirk mistakenly called her Jones. And she was holding Gary Mitchell's hand when the ship crashed into the barrier. In this finale, however, she is a much more heroic figure, not allowing this newfound power to go to her head, and, in fact, using it to protect her shipmates even at the cost of her own life. McKennah's death, in comparison, was more tragic than heroic. She accomplished nothing and died in a transporter malfunction. I was never comfortable with the scene in Star Trek II where Kirk and Saavik were conversing while in the process of beaming, but this sort of thing has become standard in Star Trek ever since. That's one thing. The other is that this scene is too reminiscent of something that was done in Star Trek Phase II/New Voyages, specifically the episode entitled "World Enough and Time." Sulu's daughter is in a similar predicament. But watch the actor playing Spock in this scene. He first raises his hand in the live long and prosper gesture, then realizes how inappropriate that is and consciously closes the gap between his fingers. Yes, they had to get rid of McKennah because she is a nonentity in the Star Trek films. But making her the specific reason why Spock was purging his emotions on Vulcan still contradicts what Roddenberry wrote in the novelization of the first movie. Other contradictions include: McCoy parting with Kirk amicably in this episode when in the novel it was stated that McCoy strongly advised Kirk against taking this promotion, and when Kirk ignored this advice, McCoy washed his hands of him. And Kirk told his chosen successor, Will Decker, that he envied him and he hoped to find a way to command a starship again. But here, he is envying the whole crowd that he is speaking to.
Rather than simply focusing on just The Big Three, it would have been so nice if Vic and Robert had come up with something interesting for each of the rest of the regulars to look forward to after coming home from their five-year mission. This was a blown opportunity.
Kirk's final log entry foreshadows the one he will make at the end of The Undiscovered Country. Which is nice. I can even accept the nods to STTMP, even though had this been an actual closer episode made in the seventies, I doubt the producers would have had that kind of foresight to set up a future in motion pictures for the show. Vic had the benefit of hindsight and took advantage of it to make a smooth transition to the film era. But the models in Nogura's office were a tribute to other Treks that were notorious retconners of the franchise's established history. There was Cochrane's prototype warp ship from First Contact. The NX-01 from Enterprise. The Kelvin from the 2009 film. And even the Discovery from the worst offender of the lot. The scene, itself, is an homage to a similar one in Into Darkness. Was it really necessary to acknowledge these derivative works made by people who opened disdained the fans who insisted that Star Trek be held to a higher standard of quality than the rest of the junk out there purporting to be science-fiction? No. Vic decided to show more class than them by doing this.
In the end, is this how classic Star Trek would have ended if it was a five-year success? Who knows? But it does bring an excellent capper to the Mignonaverse, at least. Who can ask for more than that?
Star Trek Continues: To Boldly Go: Part I (2017)
For the Fans
Had Star Trek gone beyond its third season, it is doubtful that Roddenberry would have permitted another two-part episode ("The Menagerie" being the only exception), or a definite concluding episode. But five-year-missions DO come to an end. And I would prefer to believe that the conclusion of Kirk and company's tour was eventful, giving everyone one final test before going their separate ways. It is very TNG to bring the series full circle back to its pilot episode. A little strange that the ship would be sent to the Barrier at this time when it is supposed to be returning to Earth. Even with warp drive, this would cause the mission to go into serious overtime. Naturally, there was no ship's counselor on board in TOS. McCoy usually tended to that stuff when he wasn't performing surgery. There's really no way of knowing what characters might have left the show, and what new ones might have joined, if the show had a long run, though. If Spock were to share Vulcan meditation techniques with a female human shipmate, Chapel would be the logical choice, I think. Would the female Romulan commander have gotten another command, after losing cloaking technology to the Federation AND getting captured, especially when she had such an enormous tactical advantage? Debatable. Maybe she is that well connected with superiors. It is intriguing to revisit what we know about the Barrier. Why wouldn't ESPers want to go there to become gods? Or, as stated in this story, be sent there to become weaponized? I always liked to believe that is was erected by civilizations unknown to the Federation who knew that the Milky Way was on a collision course with Andromeda. They just didn't know what effect it might have on alien races encountering it. Visually (and audio-wise) the episode is on a par with the best episodes of TOS, and it is gripping all the way up to the final second. I very much want to know how it will end.