How would you do a proper TOS series finale?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

The topic is basically the thread title. If you could, how would you do a 'proper' series finale for TOS? The Undiscovered Country doesn't count, btw.

[Graham Kennedy]

I'm not sure you could. TOS didn't have any kind of framing story or overall arc to finish off like DS9 or Voyager. Best you could hope for would be a TNG style ending where you basically go for an "episode Plus", then end it on a "and they went on to new adventures" note.

If I was going to do that... I'd have Kirk bringing the Enterprise into dock for a maintenance, only to find that Starfleet's Commander in Chief is there to tell him he's being promoted to Rear Admiral and given a desk job on Earth. Kirk is bittersweet about it, as it's made clear that his choices are to move on up or retire from Starfleet. He wonders if he shouldn't take the job and turn the ship over to some hot up and coming officer... maybe even take some of his officers along with him to his new job, which would mean promotions for them.

Then there's a surprise attack on the station. The ship is damaged and forced to retreat, the station - and the C in C - is captured. With his warp drive out Kirk has to dodge the enemy which is hunting for him throughout the system, eventually recapturing the station and driving the enemy off in a truly brilliant series of maneuvers. The grateful C in C agrees to give Kirk with his choice of any job in the fleet, and the series ends with his officers wondering what he might do before Kirk enters the Enterprise bridge and says something cheesy like "there's no place like home" as he takes his seat and orders the ship back into the unknown.

[Captain Seafort]

I'm not sure you could. TOS didn't have any kind of framing story or overall arc to finish off like DS9 or Voyager. Best you could hope for would be a TNG style ending where you basically go for an "episode Plus", then end it on a "and they went on to new adventures" note.

I disagree with the suggestion that TNG didn't have a framing story. While it wasn't as obvious as Voyager's "get home" or DS9's "beat the Dominion", it was still there, and All Good Things... highlighted it excellently - Q, and the old trial from Farpoint.

[Graham Kennedy]

I don't think you could call that a framing story. The trial occupied the pilot, and was referred to in the next Q episode, but it was then pretty much forgotten until the finale. And outside the three or so episodes in which it was directly referenced it didn't play any part in the rest of the series at all.

[Deepcrush]

Shown in every episode or left to memory, its still a part of the series and and a rather important part IMO. TNG was the trial of Humanity from start to finish.

As to TOS, I don't think you can do any better then they did with ST-VI.

[Graham Kennedy]

No, just don't buy it. The trial of humanity by the Q was in no way an integral part of TNG. Yes if you want to argue that "can we succeed in space" is a trial then TNG was about that, but so was TOS, and in fact every other Trek series. And most sci fi series, come to that.

Hell, "Data's quest to be more Human" occupied a VASTLY larger slice of TNG than the trial ever did, spread across vastly more episodes. But it wasn't about that either.

If you want a truly defining theme of TNG, then it's the same one it was for TOS. "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations... to boldly go where no man has gone before." THAT was TNG far more than the Q trial ever was.

[Deepcrush]

You may not agree but its still a fact of the show. Q wanted to see humanity and its interactions with other races. To watch them explore those strange new worlds and seek out those new life forms. The number of times we saw Q, or how many times they openly talked about the trial is irrelevant.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

And TR-116ed in the third post...

[Deepcrush]

And TR-116ed in the third post...

Yeah, but I brought it back.

[Mark]

You know, they actually did it really well in a Trek novel, I think was called "The Lost Years". The big E returned to Earth after her five year mission, and the crews were starting to embark on their separate ways. That would have left for a perfect set up for the movies.

[Captain Seafort]

That would have left for a perfect set up for the movies.

What movies? TOS wasn't finishing on a high like TNG and DS9 did, it got cancelled because it got crap viewing figures. Why would you use the final episode as a set up for something that was never going to happen?

[Mikey]

Seafort's right - even during the run-up to TMP, the prevalent idea was for a new TV series called Phase II, featuring an all-new ship and crew. The decision to go with a feature film was a relatively late one.

[Mark]

Because of the time frame. In 1977 Star Wars changed the way things were done. That pretty much guaranteed there were going to more sci fi movies, including Star Trek. But, I am personally a believer in symmetry and I believe the show should have ended in a consistent manner. No matter when you ended the show, thanks to the screwy stardate system, you could have had a series finale similar to MASH. The mission ends, the ship returns to spacedock and the crew moves on. At that point you could have either completely left it alone, or gone in any number of directions.

[Mikey]

Which is fine... given the contemporary situation, showing the crew moving on with their own lives and careers would have been appropriate. Seafort's comment, and mine, referred specifically to the idea of setting up the movies.

[Mark]

Ah...I should have been clearer. That kind of set up would have provided an excellent starting point for the movies, true.....but I wasn't trying to suggest they end the series with the idea of making movies after. Hell, they could have used it to platform right into Phase two as well.