Producers Defend Enterprise End

Star Trek: Enterprise producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman told SCI FI Wire that they understood the recent disparaging comments made by cast members about the final episode, but stood by their execution of the series finale. "You have to remember, under normal circumstances, most people probably would have thought this was a very cool episode, because it has a great concept driving it," Braga said in a conference call with reporters. "But when it's the final episode of a series, emotions are running very high."

The most vocal objection came from cast member Jolene Blalock, who plays T'Pol on the show. "I don't know where to begin with that one," she recently said of the finale. "The final episode is ... appalling."

The episode, titled "These Are the Voyages," features Star Trek: The Next Generation stars Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, who reprise their roles as Commander Riker and Deanna Troi. The pair will view the episode's historic events through a holodeck recreation. Berman said he thought that the opinions expressed by Blalock had to do with the episode's references to the previous Trek series. "The feeling was that if this was going to be the finale of Enterprise, then why bring characters in from another series?" he said. "But I think when people see the episode and realize that to be able to truly pay the respect to our characters that we have, we've couched it in a unique fashion of being able to look back on them, and I think it's going to be a very positive response towards the Enterprise crew."

Braga said that he was aware that the Enterprise cast had some minor issues with the storyline, but there were no serious objections during the production. "There were a couple of people who were slightly uncomfortable with the fact that we have Next Generation characters in the show, and it is a different kind of episode," he said. "But there were no serious complaints. And none of the actors have seen the episode, so they can't be dissatisfied with how it turned out." Star Trek: Enterprise ends its four-season run May 13 on UPN at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel