Season 4: the good, the bad, the fan-service!

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I'm slowly working my way through the final season, taking my time, because... it's the final season. 22 episodes and out. For discussion's sake, I'm going to trim this down to arcs and one offs. That means...

Storm Front (2-pater) / Home / Augment trilogy / Vulcan trilogy
Daedalus / Observer Effect / Romulan trilogy / Klingon 2-parter
Orions / Mirror Universe 2-parter / Xenophbia 2-parter / Series Finale

Watching these episodes for the first time since 2004-05: Loved "Storm Front" (both parts) despite some of the CGI being a little dodgy. "Home" was a fun Xindi aftermath episode. The Augment trilogy was great, and I'm sure Brent Spider was thrilled to do a Soong character out of makeup, he seemed to really enjoy doing these 3 episodes. Six episodes in, next up: the Vulcan trilogy. I seem to remember these 3 episodes were to show how the Vulcans were chilling out a bit.

Across the franchise, I love how across the franchise, the Vulcans can be so radically different and yet very Vulcan. Spock, Sarek, Savick, Valeris, Tuvok, T'Pol, Michael Burnham being raised on Vulcan, and I think there was a Vulcan regular on the 2nd season of Prodigy as well. The Vulcans were underutilized in S2. The Vulcan zombie episode in S3 was a thrill. Glad to see the Vulcans get a big trilogy in the final season.

Are there any episodes you didn't like this season? From what I remember, the only episodes I didn't care for first-run was the MU 2-parter, but I think I was just bitter about the show being cancelled and wanted to have the whole season in the prime-verse. I like how the show got to do crossovers with TOS and TNG despite being a prequel. We got Data in the Augment trilogy in the form of a Soong ancestor. We got a TOS crossover in "In a Mirror, Darkly," and then a TNG crossover in the series finale. Yeah, the finale was sucky, but they tried.

How new was the transporter for the inventor to still be alive?

 

[Jedi Marso]

S4 was a genuine chance to salvage this show, but at the time I think everyone was suffering a bit from Trek-burnout.

Episodes I didn't like were the alien space nazi season opener, and the finale.
There was a lot I liked with the other eps, with elements I didn't care for.

Orion slave women are actually in charge? GTFO with that BS. I get they were going for a 'swerve' but really?

I'm glad they returned the Vulcans to being Vulcan, and were able to sort of explain what the hell had been going on with those overly-emotional warmongers the past three seasons.

The Augment arc was pretty decent. Not (and have never been) a real fan of Brent Spiner, and he seems to play the same character over and over. And over.

I think the Romulan trilogy would have been better served without us ever seeing a Romulan on screen. Give that little nod to the canon. Other than that, decent stuff. Liked the Aenar.

Loved the MU two-parter, especially how it wasn't a crossover, but self-contained in its own milieu. The first time the Connie was seen in CGI, IIRC, and they hit it out of the park. Totally blew it with the Gorn, total home run with the Tholians.

The Xenophobia two-parter was the red meat this show could have turned into an entire season, if they'd thought it through and put some effort into it. Further incursions by the Romulans would have fed the flames of paranoia and isolationism, as well. Peter Weller was fantastic in this arc.

 

[tomalak301]

My favorite season of the show was Season 3, mainly because we got to see actual character development and progression from this group of explorers to hardened (almost) soldiers who had to make hard decisions and choices. My main issue with Season 4 was because we had these small arcs, there wasn't really much room for other character development. For example, Trip leaves and joins columbia. That only lasted for 2 episodes, and then he was back as if he never left. We should have gotten a lot more on Columbia and Hernandez should have basically become a regular in the back half of the season.

With that said, The Vulcan trilogy was such a great way to resolve the idea of these bad Vulcans from the show's beginning and it's one of my favorite trilogies in Star Trek. I actually say it's ENT's Circle Trilogy.

There was one character who was the star of this season and ended up becoming the star of the season and my second favorite character of the series, Soval.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

S4 was a genuine chance to salvage this show, but at the time I think everyone was suffering a bit from Trek-burnout.

Unfortunately, I don't think there was any chance to salvage the show. My understanding is that UPN was moving away from sci-fi in general and just didn't care about Star Trek anymore. The 4th season only happened due to a slashed budget plus having enough episodes for reruns, the magic 100 or so.

Episodes I didn't like were the alien space nazi season opener, and the finale.
There was a lot I liked with the other eps, with elements I didn't care for.

I loved the space nazi two-parter. Some of the CGI was dodgy, but otherwise great 2-parter! The finale, I don't blame you.

Orion slave women are actually in charge? GTFO with that BS. I get they were going for a 'swerve' but really?

I haven't seen the episode since 2005, but I do remember liking the plot twist that the women were in charge. I just found it amusing more than anything else.

I'm glad they returned the Vulcans to being Vulcan, and were able to sort of explain what the hell had been going on with those overly-emotional warmongers the past three seasons.

To me, the Vulcans were always Vulcan. I remember the original idea was that the pre-Federation Vulcans hadn't caught up to being TOS Vulcans. I just recently watched the 3-parter, and I absolutely loved the whole arc with the Vulcan high command, Surrak's Katra, the Kir'Shara, almost-war between the Vulcans and Andorians, and the surprise Romulan in the final scene of the third episode. Great 3-parter.

The Augment arc was pretty decent. Not (and have never been) a real fan of Brent Spiner, and he seems to play the same character over and over. And over.

I loved Brent Spiner in the Augment trilogy, I dunno who had more fun, me watching, or Spiner playing Arik Soong.

I think the Romulan trilogy would have been better served without us ever seeing a Romulan on screen. Give that little nod to the canon. Other than that, decent stuff. Liked the Aenar.

It doesn't make sense not to show the Romulans, this is the 5th series, the audience knows who they are now. I did like how they showed the audience the Romulans, but not the Enterprise crew.

Loved the MU two-parter, especially how it wasn't a crossover, but self-contained in its own milieu. The first time the Connie was seen in CGI, IIRC, and they hit it out of the park. Totally blew it with the Gorn, total home run with the Tholians.

I was disappointed that it wasn't a crossover, but only because it's just before the show ended. Interestingly, Stargate: Atlantis also did a parallel world episode just before ending, also cancelled at the last minute. I do get what they were doing though, they were trying to end the season with a bang.

The Xenophobia two-parter was the red meat this show could have turned into an entire season, if they'd thought it through and put some effort into it. Further incursions by the Romulans would have fed the flames of paranoia and isolationism, as well. Peter Weller was fantastic in this arc.

I feel like this was setting up a story arc for S5, xenophobia due to the Xindi, and then come war with the Romulans. It makes sense. Peter Weller was great. "RobCop's gone crazy and taken Mars!"

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

My favorite season of the show was Season 3, mainly because we got to see actual character development and progression from this group of explorers to hardened (almost) soldiers who had to make hard decisions and choices.

I like S1-2, but S3 was so much better, and agreed on all points.

My main issue with Season 4 was because we had these small arcs, there wasn't really much room for other character development. For example, Trip leaves and joins columbia. That only lasted for 2 episodes, and then he was back as if he never left. We should have gotten a lot more on Columbia and Hernandez should have basically become a regular in the back half of the season.

They could have gone for a more episodic approach with story arcs coming and going like Stargate SG-1, but they went with 2-parters and 3-parters instead. The biggest stories this season consequently were the three trilogies: the Augments, the Vulcans, and the Romulans.

With that said, The Vulcan trilogy was such a great way to resolve the idea of these bad Vulcans from the show's beginning and it's one of my favorite trilogies in Star Trek. I actually say it's ENT's Circle Trilogy.

I just watched the Vulcan trilogy, it was a lot of fun, and I loved seeing Trip in command for two episodes. He was so different than the Trip that was terrified of the big chair back in early S1.

There was one character who was the star of this season and ended up becoming the star of the season and my second favorite character of the series, Soval.

I checked Memory Alpha, and Soval's in a total of 12 episodes. Twice in S1, three in S2, once in S3, and six in S4. He was also in Voyager's "Cold Fire" (S2).

 

[somebuddyX]

"Daedalus" with no Daedalus? What the fuck man.
And fuck "Storm Front" and it's time travelling Nazi aliens. Was that the literally all they can think to wrap up the Temporal Cold War? Christ on a cracker!
The rest of it's ok to great. I still haven't seen a bunch. I'll get to them sometime in 2025.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

"Daedalus" with no Daedalus? What the fuck man.

What?

And fuck "Storm Front" and it's time travelling Nazi aliens. Was that the literally all they can think to wrap up the Temporal Cold War?

Manny Coto was forced to deal with Braga's WW2 & Nazi alien cliffhanger from S3 "and" he wanted to move on from the TCW, so "Storm Front" is what we got. Why was it so awful?

The rest of it's ok to great. I still haven't seen a bunch. I'll get to them sometime in 2025.

Why not watch the show now?