[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Kira

Actually... yeah, she's a pretty good gauge for me, as is most of TWoP.

I like many things about TWoP, but they made a dangerous mistake when they started thinking of themselves as serious reviewers, and we're dangerously mistaken to buy it. At first the point of TWoP was to recap with hatred (which is sort of what we do, but it's all in fun here). But look at them now -- some shows get recappers who hate their guts, but others, like VM (taking your word for it), get recappers who take them seriously. The result is that fans of a show like VM can now point to TWoP -- basically a joke site -- as evidence that their show is high art and everything else is crap. TWoP is great for writing fivers or catching up on an episode you missed, but it's not remotely reliable as critical commentary.

Besides, they pay people to recount what happens on reality shows. I don't think even making reality shows is worth money.

I wouldn't have been so disgusted with Trip's death if it hadn't felt like someone had gone "Okay, our finale needs punch. Who can we kill off?"

Everything's symbolic. Trip represents the Star Trek spirit at its core -- the sheer joy of exploration. The official trimmings like Archer's speech are remembered, but it's people like Trip that matter, and centuries later it's he that Riker learns from. What he represents will never die, which is why we get a scene with Trip alive so soon after his death scene. And now I'm really stealing material from my article.

Originally Posted by Derek

First off, I don't care that Trip died. I don't care if all the characters survive, or if one dies, or if the ship explodes just as it's about to do that final warp off into the sunset (though I would've laughed at that). Why don't I care? Because it's the finale, it's over.

I disagree here because the end of one story about a group of characters is not the end of all stories about those characters, even if Paramount never returns to them. Trip's and Wesley's deaths place a limit on anything that can be done with them in the future. When there's a greater purpose that outweighs that, I can get behind killing an interesting character, but not when it's gratuitous. Kira's comment on Trip's death is exactly how I felt, and still feel, about Wesley's. (Is there some reason he couldn't have survived until the "they all die" ending at least?)