8. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Universe Got The Conclusion It Deserved
Across 21 seasons and four films, the world of the Next Generation universe has given us some amazing stories.With Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager the franchise exploded. In my recent article
why the 1990s was the golden age for cult TV I stated that Star Trek dominated television and rightly so. It was the decade where the Star Trek was at its heights. But now, with the recent JJ Abrams reboots, it feels like it has been discarded. And that is a shame, because I never felt it truly got the closure it deserved. Individually, there were endings. With the final Next Generation film Star Trek Nemesis, Riker and Troi got married and moved on to their own ship Titan, and Data perished, but that was kind of it. There was a much greater sense of satisfaction with Deep Space Nine with the conclusion of the Dominion War and Sisko's role as the Emissary of the Prophets and Voyager finally made it home. Janeway even had a cameo as a newly promoted admiral in Nemesis. But what I don't think this universe had was anything along the lines of the closure that Kirk's crew had in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Personally I don't get all the hate for Nemesis (B4 aside). It didn't do well and ended the Next Generation era film with a bit of a bad taste. What should have happened was one final film that concluded the adventures of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E. Something suitably epic. The Dominion perhaps? Q? The final war against the Borg? Imagine something that used the Enterprise, the crew of Deep Space Nine, Admiral Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager? Either of three antagonists would work. A post war renegade Dominion attack, threatening to destabilise the Alpha Quadrant? The Q Continuum finally deciding that humanity has failed. A devestating Borg invasion that unites the Federation and its allies in one last great war? I always felt it a little unfair that the cast of Deep Space Nine and Voyager (a Janeway cameo aside) never got the chance to shine on the big screen. Something that gave audiences the chance to say goodbye to three series (two that were amazing and Voyager) that end this element of the franchise on an all time high. While I enjoy the reboot and am fine with the decision made to go down this route, I feel fans needed a little something more from this massive part of the Star Trek franchise.