"... Enterprise out."

"Space, the final frontier.. these are the voyages of the starship Enterprise..."

Or at least they were...

Okay folks, "Star Trek: Enterprise" gave its farewell show this past Friday, and I gave a fitting farewell this week in my column. By all means, PLEASE check it out... even if you're not a Trekker or Trekkie (and I do explain the difference for those of you who just don't get it).

But I do want to give my thoughts on the farewell show because they do need to be said.

I was somewhat disappointed by the story. If this was a "Next Generation" episode, then I'd think it was right on par with the series, but this was a farewell to Star Trek. The Federation was being formed and Enterprise was being decommissioned, and we don't get to see either! Trip dies, and we don't get to see either his actual death or the funeral service. Instead, we see Will Riker and Deanna Troi walk off the holodeck just before Captain Archer makes his history-making speech. Hey, just because THEY had to memorize it doesn't mean the viewers knew what he would say! Parts of the show focused on Archer agonizing over what he was going to say, and then we don't get to see the finished product.

It was almost as if the whole episode was just slapped together at the last minute. Yeah, let's go back to Rigel X, where the whole series started, and NOBODY WILL RECOGNIZE T'Pol or a bunch of humans wearing Starfleet uniforms and carrying phase rifles. Trip sacrifices his life to save Shran and his daughter, and we don't get to hear from Shran about what he thought of the sacrifice. What about Reed? Is he still part of super-secret Section 31? How about Mayweather? Did he get married? He was pretty tight with the reporter in the previous episode and talked about settling down. (Nice to see he finally got laid too.) Did he stay with the hot babe? Did Engineer Kelby, Trip's temporary replacement, finally hit puberty? Did he manage to let his hair grow out of that cheap "Backstreet Boys" look?

These are all little things, but they are all loose ends that needed to be tied up and they weren't. Instead, we have to settle with the so-called "Valentine"... a montage of starships and starship captains from Picard to Kirk to Archer. I'm sorry, but even for a die-hard Trekker like yours truly, that just comes up short.

Anyway, it was just something that had to be said. I'm not your typical Trek critic, and I don't spend my time trashing every episode of every series since the original three seasons ended like CERTAIN Trek critics did. There are some high points and some low ones with "Enterprise", but in terms of a farewell, this one just came up way too short.

Folks, if you want to see how a farewell should be done, watch "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", or the final episodes of "Babylon 5". THAT is how to honor your show and say thanks to the fans who stuck through every episode.

You guys want to sound off? By all means, do so!