Star Trek: Enterprise will forever go down as the one show that the franchise and television network it aired on (UPN) allowed to fail. It was brilliantly done, with many compelling stories and ideas, but was handcuffed by expectations that the franchise just couldn't succeed. It was set up to fail, with constant changes, limited advertising, and even less merchandise.
Yet, it found a second life thanks to Netflix, years after it was originally canceled. Now, Enterprise's reputation is far and away better than it was when it first aired and that's because there wasn't such much pressure on it to succeed. Fans have taken it as it was intended to and didn't put nearly two decades of anticipation from The Next Generation to Deep Space Nine and Voyager all on its shoulders.
Yet, despite its improved perception, it's still got one blemish that won't easily be washed off or forgotten, and that's the series finale. Speaking at the ST-SF convention (via TrekMovie) in San Francisco, California this past weekend, Connor Trinneer, who played Charles "Trip" Tucker, revealed he found the series ending disrespectful, saying;
“I just watched that episode on . 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.”
Trinneer isn't wrong either, it was a horrendous way to end Enterprise's story. It not only made the entire adventure seem meaningless by viewing the events as having happened hundreds of years prior but to shoehorn Tucker's death into a story that didn't need such an event, made it seem like the series showrunners were almost punishing the show for failing.
It was a weak finale and one that will forever go down as one of, if not the worst of the bunch.