Enterprise: the fifth Star Trek TV series

Sep 6 21:59 UTC 2001

Here's an item to yammer about the new Star Trek TV series, ENTERPRISE.
 
Um, I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

response 2 of 78:

Sep 8 22:26 UTC 2001

        I am looking forward to it.
        Amoung other things, no Prime Directive.  Maybe will see the
events that gave need to a Prime Directive.
        However, as to the look of the tech, well, maybe, Gorgie
LaForge did leave something behind when the Enterprise-E helped
with the First Contact.  So the equipment may look more Next Generation
than The Original Series.
        I would like to see stories that show that some of the tech
was plundered or acquired technology instead of all Earth or 
Federation Based.
        Will the Enterprise look like the Enterprise of that supposed
era that we seen in Star Trek, The Motion Picture?

response 4 of 78:

Sep 9 21:24 UTC 2001

From what I understand, "Star Fleet" is an earth thing, and always has been.
The United Federation of Planets is something different than Star Fleet, but
does encumpass it.  It's like we have NASA and the Russians have something
else.  We have Star Fleet, the Vulcans have something else, the Romulins
something else, and the Klingons something else ...etc etc etc.

response 6 of 78:

Sep 10 02:31 UTC 2001

Somebody mentioned to me recently that they're going to push the sleaze factor
a bit.  Apparently it worked pretty well for Voyager, and for the original
series too.

response 8 of 78:

Sep 11 00:48 UTC 2001

Hey, I'm not complaining...     ;)

response 10 of 78:

Sep 17 22:47 UTC 2001

  I expect they'll just ignore the issue, though I too am interested
  in how they handle it..  (which is probably the only thing about the
  prospect of a new Star Trek series which interests me..  but then
  who knows?  I thought Deep Space Nine was a really stupid-sounding
  idea for a series, too, and it turned out to be the only one I really
  liked.)

response 12 of 78:

Sep 19 19:31 UTC 2001

Does anyone know when the first episode will be broadcast?  I don't ordinarily
watch TV, but most of my friends will be talking about this show, and I'd like
to have seen enough of it to have some clue what they are talking about.

response 14 of 78:

Sep 20 00:40 UTC 2001

Yep, 9/26, assuming UPN doesn't move its premieres back as some of the
other networks have done.

response 16 of 78:

Sep 20 14:01 UTC 2001

  Presumably they're still using leftover 'r's that they stockpiled
  when making Starrrr Search..

response 18 of 78:

Sep 27 02:23 UTC 2001

        This is not your father's Next Generation!
        They used full power phasers on the first episode.  Remember 
how it took many Next Gen episodes before they even shot at something
full power.

        Much better pace to this premier episode.  They where quickly 
brought together.  The reasons for cross crew conflicts made, and 
a mission as underway.  Best of all, they knew they had to do something,
but did not know all about everything.  They flew by the seat of their
pants.
        Interesting to have a vocal as the theme to Enterprise.
I'll come across the credit when I review the recording.

        All told, I find this to be the best of the follow on 
Trek premiers.

        Did anyone catch what that Klingon was saying?

response 20 of 78:

Sep 27 20:35 UTC 2001

The pilot didn't really grab me, but it was OK.  Interesting
terminology/technology, like the remarkably crude-sounding version of ship
shields.

Well, OK, the vulcan babe wet T-shirt scene *did* get my attention.  :)

response 22 of 78:

Sep 27 22:56 UTC 2001

The show seems aimed at the young male audience.  Being an older female, 
I didn't find much to relate to.  However, I have been a loyal Star Trek 
fan my whole life and no matter how bad the spin-offs/movies,  I find myself
watching.  I did like the dog.

response 24 of 78:

Sep 28 05:47 UTC 2001

The "sexiness" seemed totally pasted on.  Instead of arising out of some kind
of an emotional relationship between characters, it's completely gratuitous
and meaningless from a plot or character development point of view.  The
dancers with the tongues are one instance, the smearing gell over naked bodies
for no particular reason while discussing something unrelated was another.
Pure titillation for titillations sake.

I liked the conflict between the Vulcans and the humans.  We're used to
thinking of Vulcans as mostly tame aliens, but they really would disapprove
heartily of humans on first contact, and would be remarkably reluctant to help
humans out into space.

So the conflict between Archer and the Vulcan woman started out good.  Except
the writers had to have it all go Archer's way.  Pure animal magnetism and
one rescue is all it takes to cause her to drop out of Vulcan character
repeatedly and submit to the human way.  Mostly this happens off camera - we
see her standing defiantly for her own views, and in the next scene she has
dropped them.  By the end she has lost the dominance game so badly that
Archer is not required to ask her to stay, instead he pressures her into
begging to stay.  If they keep her character development moving along the same
trajectory, she will be Archer's sex slave by the end of the second episode.
It doesn't look like the intercrew conflict is going to last longer than it
did in Voyager.

I suppose we are supposed to be rooting for Archer against the Vulcan because
he represents humanity.  So the series will show humanity gaining respect in
the universe by continuously having people score off the Vulcan lady, who
represents the hostile alien attitudes.  Not much chance for a strong female
role here if that is the pattern they stick to.

The other female character is the whiny female architype instead of the bitch
architype, and also needs to be wheedled into every action by some male
(mostly Archer).  I've haven't been looking at much TV in the last few years,
but I thought that we had moved a bit beyond such puerile sexism.  Heck, TNG
had stonger female roles.

I liked the production design, costumes and sets.  The dog was was a neat
element, until Archer started telling his problems to the dog.  As a light
touch, reminding us that this is not your father's star trek, he was neat.
As an excuse for clumsy exposition, not so neat.

I liked the Doctor.  He's fun, though not very innovative.  Combine the
Voyager Doctor with the lighter side of the DS9 tailor and you've pretty much
got him.

I couldn't keep the white male crew members straight, aside from Archer.
I think there were two, but it may have been three.  Maybe a first mate
and an engineer?  They didn't get much character development in this first
episode.  I guess the writers were too busy defusing their only strong female
to spend much time on them.

Using shuttles instead of transporters introduces a few new plot possibilities:
Where did we park?  Running to the shuttle.  Leaving someone behind.  I guess
we used them all up in this episode.  Transporters were introduced as a story
device, a quick way to move from space ship to planet.  I expect the novelty
of shuttles will wear off real fast.

Lots of loose ends.  This is plainly meant to be a "story arc" kind of series.
The people from the future meddling in current events is bound to eventually
turn into an excuse for cameos for characters from the earlier series.

You'd think that someone in TOS or TNG would have mentioned the fact that
the first human warp-capable star ship was named "Enterprise".

The language thing was nice.  But they are already getting lazy about it.
Why did the chameleon lady happen to speak English?  Or did the translator
just happen to work perfectly on her?

I like the basic idea for the series.  But the writing is weak.  If this is
going to be any better than Voyager, they've got a lot of overhauling to do.

Comparing it to the TNG series opener is interesting.  Both were weak.  The
TNG opener was slow and lacking in drama.  The Enterprise opener was a lot
faster - though I thought the shootout-as-we-run-for-the-shuttle was
excessively drawn out.  Watching people miss each other gets dull after a
while.  But I think TNG tried much harder to be a thoughtful, intelligent
series, probably too hard in the opener.  Enterprise seems to be trying (too
hard) to be a sexy action series.