It was overall a decent episode if it wasn't the series finale. It felt more like an episode of ST:TNG rather than the final episode of Enterprise.
The story attempts to make a connection with ST:TNG S7 E12 "The Pegasus" where Riker is ordered by his former captain who is now an admiral to keep the true objective of the mission from Picard. In the process of making his decision on whether or not to tell Picard the truth, Riker recreates the final mission of the Enterprise on the holodeck to find out about obeying/disobeying orders from a superior officer.
A misleading spoiler was given by Troi when she and Riker were observing in Engineering. As the NX-01 crew was preparing for an away mission to rescue Shren's daughter, Troi mentioned that unfortunately Tucker will not be returning from the mission. Although it's true that Tucker will die, however it was not from the away mission. He died later on board Enterprise when he sacrificed himself in an explosion in order to kill the kidnappers who wanted Shren. As other reviewers have said, the crew has been in more dire situations than this so Tucker's sacrifice was not necessary.
As a suggestion from Troi, in order to chat with the crew, Riker became the often mentioned but never seen Chef on board the NX-01 Enterprise. He converses with all of the main characters except for Captain Archer. The interesting thing about the conversations Riker has with the crew, his chat with Tucker did not happen until after he was killed. I don't know if that was a mistake in editing or what the purpose was for Riker to have a chat with the dead.
After watching the finale, I went back and watched the above mentioned ST:TNG "The Pegasus", hoping for some mention of how Riker came to the the decision to reveal the truth to Picard by observing the final mission of the NX-01 crew. Alas, no such satisfaction.
I wish there would have been a more fitting send off for Enterprise with a self-contained episode just like this one but finish the story with Archer's speech. I didn't see the need to bring in Riker and Troi, then attempt to tie the story with an episode of ST:TNG.
Such a letdown for a great series that ended too soon...
The story attempts to make a connection with ST:TNG S7 E12 "The Pegasus" where Riker is ordered by his former captain who is now an admiral to keep the true objective of the mission from Picard. In the process of making his decision on whether or not to tell Picard the truth, Riker recreates the final mission of the Enterprise on the holodeck to find out about obeying/disobeying orders from a superior officer.
A misleading spoiler was given by Troi when she and Riker were observing in Engineering. As the NX-01 crew was preparing for an away mission to rescue Shren's daughter, Troi mentioned that unfortunately Tucker will not be returning from the mission. Although it's true that Tucker will die, however it was not from the away mission. He died later on board Enterprise when he sacrificed himself in an explosion in order to kill the kidnappers who wanted Shren. As other reviewers have said, the crew has been in more dire situations than this so Tucker's sacrifice was not necessary.
As a suggestion from Troi, in order to chat with the crew, Riker became the often mentioned but never seen Chef on board the NX-01 Enterprise. He converses with all of the main characters except for Captain Archer. The interesting thing about the conversations Riker has with the crew, his chat with Tucker did not happen until after he was killed. I don't know if that was a mistake in editing or what the purpose was for Riker to have a chat with the dead.
After watching the finale, I went back and watched the above mentioned ST:TNG "The Pegasus", hoping for some mention of how Riker came to the the decision to reveal the truth to Picard by observing the final mission of the NX-01 crew. Alas, no such satisfaction.
I wish there would have been a more fitting send off for Enterprise with a self-contained episode just like this one but finish the story with Archer's speech. I didn't see the need to bring in Riker and Troi, then attempt to tie the story with an episode of ST:TNG.
Such a letdown for a great series that ended too soon...