10 Greatest Star Trek Season Finales

The Expanse is a bit of an outlier on this list. While it absolutely deserves to be here, the episode has aged with a bit of controversy as the years have gone on. Airing in May 2003, less than two years after the September 11th attacks, this story very obviously was Star Trek's take on these events.

It set the stage for season three's Xindi arc, and while Enterprise's arrival in the Expanse could probably be called a cliffhanger, it is the reactions of the crew. and particularly Trip and Archer, which truly sell the episode. Trip's sister Elizabeth is killed in the attack, but this isn't confirmed for a few scenes. Therefore, Trip becomes the stand-in character for those who were desperately searching for news of their loved ones in the hours and days following the collapse of the twin towers.

While there is much to be said about how the show handled the Xindi arc overall, The Expanse manages to capture that feeling of shock, panic, and devastation effectively. This, coupled with the rise of real-world xenophobia, jingoism, and anti-Muslim sentiment, was a stark departure from Gene Roddenberry's hope for the future - and it was a departure that was handled very, very well.