These Are the Voyages...

I fully understand why this finale let down fans, especially those who watched the series in real time rather than binging it years later online. Yet I am okay with viewing this as the creators suggested, as a "coda" with the previous 2-parter as the true finale.

I am hugely sentimental, and this is why I appreciated the Next Generation callback. Typically I don't actually like guest appearances from a previous cast because they are cheap, and thus I despised the Troi/Reg episodes of Voyager.

But here, I can imagine the first Enterprise crew as having existed all along within the TNG episode "Pegasus," and existing forever to be called up and viewed when a crewmember of a future starship wants to watch the founding of Earth's space travel program in their holodeck. Otherwise, it's just too sad to me to think that all these characters are dead by the time TNG and the other spinoffs come around!