Star Trek: Enterprise finale needed Captain Archer’s speech to the Federation

The series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise focused a lot on Captain Archer’s speech

In “These are the Voyages,” the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, one which we mostly try not to think about, Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) is getting ready to deliver a speech about the birth of the Federation. Of course, all of this is happening in the holodeck as Commander Will Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi watch because the action has supposedly already taken place.  But the speech is an important part of history, but not important enough, apparently, since we don’t get to hear it.

Enterprise wraps its last episode by keeping fans in the dark. With all the build-up to Captain Archer’s historic speech (even Counselor Troi said she had to memorize it in grammar school), it stands to reason that it would have been the focal point of this episode, a way for it to go out on at least somewhat of a bang. But that didn’t happen.

Captain Archer’s missing speech took something away from the episode

Though may fans will say there isn’t much that could have made “These are the Voyages” better, still others say they feel cheated that they didn’t get to hear the speech. Instead, we got to see Troi and Riker heading out of the holodeck with absolutely no clue as to what Archer might have said.

There were a lot of ways this episode went wrong. Even Brannon Braga admitted, as reported by TrekMovie, at the 2014 VegasCon that the finale was “an idiotic move on my part.” That said, an upbeat, heartfelt speech from the captain, something that would have been written for unification, would have gone a long way toward providing a bright spot in the episode. As it stands, there is little that fans can praise about it, but just one speech, had it been allowed, could have given us something more to focus on, have left a better legacy, than the finale.

As the captain of the Enterprise, Scott Bakula had given some great speeches, and maybe writers/producers felt since he’d just delivered the speech from the fourth season episode, Terra Prime, there wasn’t really a need to write another one. But they couldn’t have been more wrong. Ending Star Trek: Enterprise with a strong, encouraging speech that spoke of working together and getting along would have been something to remember.