Today, we're looking at the final episode of Star Trek Continues. "To Boldly Go. Part 2."

So how does this episode hold up against other series finales such as "All Good Things" and "What You Leave Behind". And how well does this episode tie together Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

There's a lot to talk about, including some cool stories shared with me by director James Kerwin.

Audio Player control at bottom of page.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 107 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the final episode of Star Trek Continues. “To Boldly Go, Part 2.” bringing our coverage of this show to a close.

The description on IMDB reads

The iconic mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise comes to an end, as Kirk and his crew battle the ultimate adversary.

This teleplay was written by Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

With story by Vic Mignogna, Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on the 13th of November 2017.

We pick up in a very tense situation from last episode’s great cliffhanger.

Kirk is unwilling to relinquish his bridge. He, Spock, and Uhura all try to fight back. To no avail. Even the security officer’s phasers are useless against Lana’s powers.

And then the big surprise twist happens. Smith’s eyes go silver. She is uplifted as well.

This was nicely foreshadowed in the last episode where they mentioned that she was holding Garry’s hand when they passed through the barrier. I felt then, that she was holding something back.

She uses the same lightning force powers that Lana was using. We saw Gary Mitchel and Elizabeth Denher use them in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. She forces Lana and Sentek to retreat to the Kongo.

So … it seems Smith wasn’t quite so unaffected as she claimed. I think this is a very cool development. But it raises a lot of questions. Where does Smith sit in the esper scale? Has she always been affected, but has been hiding it, or have her powers only just now manifested. And if so, why?

Kirk asks security to escort her to sickbay. At first, she’s taken aback. After all, she’s one of the good guys right. She helped them against Lana. But after a moment of thought, she relents. It’s probably a good idea. She understands the potential threat she represents. She sees things from Kirk’s point of view. Maybe she’d even do the same thing in his place.

She voluntarily goes with security.

The big question is, why are they just sitting there. Why have they not destroyed the Enterprise and her crew?

McCoy has the answer. It takes time for uplifted espers to grow in their powers. Perhaps they’re biding their time until they all reach full strength.

Bones has a medical defence that might help with the illusions. Scotty recommends keeping their distance as the espers don’t have unlimited range with their powers.

The Kongo’s engines are offline. The crew must have shut it off before they were overpowered. Maybe the espers don’t know how to get them going again.

Kirk hasn’t slept for two days. McCoy doesn’t argue. Usually Kirk would be wrong, but not this time. He needs to keep going.

I’m not sure McCoy is right, actually. As Riker says in Best of Both Worlds, you can’t fight the enemy at the same time you’re fighting your own fatigue. Lack of sleep impairs human decision making. I know my mind is absolutely useless after putting in a day of work, and Kirk has been going much longer than that.

Yes, the situation is critical, but for the moment, it’s quiet, This might be the perfect time for Kirk to catch 30 minutes of sleep while the enemy regroups.

Of course, there’s a lot to accomplish while they have this time. Coming up with defences, a plan of some sort.

There are no good or easy answers, which is probably why McCoy is not arguing with him.

In five years, 73 people have died under Kirk’s command. He remembers the exact number. Of course he would.

McCoy says “we’ll stop them” but that’s not the point.

“At what cost, Doctor?” Kirk asks. That’s what’s really on his mind.

It’s fitting for Kirk to reflect back on the cost of his five year mission as it’s nearing its end. Especially at a moment like this, when it looks like that cost is about to skyrocket.

But there’s more to it, as we’ll soon discover.

McKenna goes to see Smith. Everyone is afraid of her. Understandably.

Contact with Gary, at the time of his uplifting left some residual energy in her. She didn’t uplift at the time, probably because she doesn’t have the psi rating necessary. But her proximity to the barrier now has reactivated that residual energy enough to uplift her.

Smith has developed telepathy. She can read McKenna’s mind. She can feel the power flowing through her, but she claims to not be dangerous. She would never hurt anybody.

But McKenna can’t know that for sure.

Gary shows early signs of megalomania quite quickly. Denher much less so. She still retained her humanity despite temptation to the contrary.

Why?

Was it that Denher was intrinsically a better person? What is because Denher had a lower psi rating than Gary? If that’s the case, it looks good for Smith as she seems to have a lower rating still.

So far, it’s looking like Smith has a good chance of keeping her humanity long term.

But there are no guarantees here. We just just don’t know.

Charvanek comes to see Spock. It seems she is still trying to pursue a relationship with him. A relationship he was tempted to enter into in the past, but resisted.

She asks Spock to come with her when her ship departs. The mission of the Enterprise is almost over. His job is complete.

It’s a logical time to make a change in his life.

She tempts him with the promise of unification between Romulans and Vulcans. A promise that will consume him a century from now.

But why would a Romulan commander want reunification? She is as he would want her to be, not as she truly is.

This is not Charvanek.

When Spock resists the illusion, it disappears.

Other illusions are being used against the crew. An order to Checkov to lower shields and head into the barrier. Even Kirk’s preoccupation with the deaths of crew under his command.

I’m glad these moments were included. The greatest weapon Lana’s espers have is their mental abilities. Their ability to confuse and manipulate the crew of the Enterprise.

They should be using it every change they get. Probably a lot more than we see on screen.

With that many espers, and so many on board the Enterprise susceptible to them, it’s actually a miracle they don’t blow up their own ship.

This is one weakness I see in Deep Space Nine, actually. Now DS9 is my favourite of all the Star Trek shows, and I love everything to do with the Dominion War and the changelings. But their greatest strength was not the military might of their ships, or the fighting acumen of the Jem Hadar. Their greatest weapon was the ability to infiltrate the Federation. We saw a little hint of the potential they possessed in Homefront and Paradise Lost. And that was only 4 changelings. They should have used these infiltration tactics a lot more during the war. We know the blood screenings were not entirely effective. The Federation wouldn’t have stood a chance.

The reason I bring all this up is just to praise this episode for including these scenes.

The battle begins.

The Kongo fires on the Enterprise. The starboard nacelle is damaged. The Romulans join the fight but then move off.

The espers might need a minute to recharge their powers.

The nacelle needs 30 minutes to repair. Kirk orders a risky cold restart.

The esper’s powers cannot deflect multiple simultaneous strikes.

But two vectors will not be enough. Three would do the job, but they don’t have a third ship….or do they?

Kirk orders the crew to prepare for a risky procedure. One they have never before attempted.

Scotty will re-start the engines. They will separate the saucer from the Stardrive. Spock will command the saucer. Kirk, the secondary hull.

Obviously, this is something that TNG did, but TOS never did.

I was already aware that Gene Roddenberry had intended that the TOS Enterprise be able to separate. They didn’t really have the budget to make it a reality until Encounter at Farpoint.

What I didn’t realise, until it was pointed out by James Kerwin, is that Kirk referred to the process, which they called “Jettisoning”, not “Separating” in two different TOS episodes. “The Apple” and “Savage Curtain”.

Spock points out that it will be very difficult to re-integrate the ship after this. But not impossible

I like this approach. It shows that while yes, the original Enterprise COULD separate the two sections, it wasn’t a routine operation like on the Enterprise D. It’s a last resort. Not necessarily indeed to be undone.

Kirk describes it as “jettisoning the stardrive section.”

So it’s not the same as in TNG.

I like this a lot.

This gives the final episode of Star Trek Continues quite an epic feel.

Now they can conduct a three-pronged attack on the Kingo.

And it’s working. The Kongo’s power is decreasing.

Kirk is commanding the stardrive...