"Enterprise" -- too little too late?

TV Guide | 11/03

[pabianice]

This week's TV Guide notes the recent changes in "Star Trek - Enterprise," and its verdict is "too little, too late; it may last four seasons."

Opinions?

[StriperSniper]

(PRESS)

[Publius6961]

started to go downhill very quickly.

Mean trick....

When you start at the bottom with that PC bu*****t!

[The Chief]

The problem I have with this show is that this is supposed to be the first Enterprise before Captains Pike and Kirk.

Well in the episodes of the orginal series pilot the technology isn't very advanced, some of the computers were still using paper! It only advanced a little bit further as the series advanced. It didn't really change till it went from the small screen to the movie screen.

The technology in this series that is supposed to take place in the past is just too fancy, to flashy and new. To me it shouldn't be as fancy and flashy as it is.

It is because of this that I have only watched a handfull of episodes each season, when there was nothing else on...

[Paul Atreides]

I have sworn E-prise off since the previous episode where half of Florida is destroyed and the characters are trying "understand" why they were attacked. And, we shouldn't just retaliate on a whim.

Did that really happen?

[Elliott Jackalope]

When any series starts relying on "prequels", you can safely assume said series has "jumped the shark". Star Drek has not only jumped the shark, it has done a triple flip w/pirouette over the shark, and landed on its face. Star Drek is completely dead to me, and I used to be a HUGE fan, but no longer. I'm rebelling against the endless flow of PC nonsense from that series. You couldn't PAY me to watch anything related to it at this point. If I want endless Bolshevik PC nonsense pushed down my throat I'll go hang out at the local college.

[Skywalk]

Well---uh, this space probe comes out of nowhere and cuts a swath through the Americas.

It's of unknown origin, so I don't think trying to "understand" why they are attacked is such a terrible thing. It'd be like getting sucker punched by some guy, you'd want to know why it was done.

Turns out the group of aliens that sent the probe believe Earthlings will be responsible for destroying them. This may be untrue and merely a lie advanced by someone in the "temporal cold war" mentioned in the pilot, I don't know.

As for the retaliate on a whim, they go right off to find these aliens. If necessary, they will wipe out the superweapon and such. I don't think they were talking about retaliating on a whim at all.

Sometimes fellow Freepers get a little over-sensitive to things on TV or radio.

[Paul C. Jesup]

You know, tonight I watched a first for Star Trek (since the original series), a actual gunfight, and a good one at that.

Season 3 has been much better than better than the two previous seasons, tonights episode was not that great, but the last 5 episodes were great and the season premeire was good.

[Paul Atreides]

Good grief! Can't the Star Trek writers think of any better threats than space probes? If it's not malfunctioning holodecks or time travel, it's runaway space probes. Give it a rest, already.

[SeaDragon]

YES SIR!

[Marie]

I love Enterprise.

Treker for life.

[DeFault User]

The only thing good about this current Trek is T'Pol.

Is it my imagination or has T'Pol had a silicone plasma leak this season? Her thrusters just don't seem to be the same anymore.

[CMAC51]

>> Not as good as some of the old stuff, like Heinlein... <<

Heinlein, a strong argument for cloning...alas it is to late. I miss Robert!

[Dajjal]

In last week's episode, it turned out that the entire plot was all a dream, from which Scott Bakula awoke in the last 60 seconds.

That should tell you all you need to know about the writing on that show, and it's life expectancy.

[new cruelty]

Sticky, broke and confused? :P

ROTFLOL... ahh, the memories.

[Mad Dawgg]

"and then I found Babylon 5......... no contest, Star Trek lost"

One of the great Mysteries of the Universe is that PC "Enterprise" keeps getting produced and shown each week while my beloved "Firefly" was canceled.

I hate Hollyweird. I mean this is the bunch responsible for stuff like "Dr. T and the Women" and "The Core."

[raybbr]

Yes, it did. Trip's sister was killed in the attack. When they reach the planet where the Xindi are producing the material needed for this weapon they find one of the scientists working on the project. They capture him and interogate him. He convinces Archer not to destroy him and the others working there just because another species of Xindi is being aggressive to the earth. It was "it isn't right to kill us innocent bomb material makers because we didn't know what was going on" kind of rationalizations. So, they didn't destroy the factory.

[Grizzly Bear]

Firefly! Now that was a kick ass show. Hated to see it get cancelled. From the first episode where the captain shoved the badguy into the jet thruster intake...I was hooked. Now there was man who didn't give a flying f*** about no stinkin' prime directives.

[mhking]

In last season's cliffhanger, an alien race, who claims that they found out that Earth would be responsible for destroying their planet in 400 years, tests out a superweapon. This weapon cuts a huge swath across the Earth's surface, from Florida to Venezuela, killing six million people.

Archer and the Enterprise are recalled, and over a three month period, refitted with upgraded weapons and sent back out along with a batch of Starfleet Marines, to go find the race that did this and to stop them from sending a bigger weapon to Earth to finish the job.

Tucker (who lost a sister in Florida) is the most gung-ho to go wipe'em all out. Archer is more trepedatious, but he finds the weight of saving the world on his shoulders enough to keep him going. T'Pol quits the Vulcan Command over this, and stays with Enterprise.

It's not the worst bit of writing they've done, and if they get some decent writers to run with it, it potentially could bring about some good television. But of course, we don't have good writers running this dog & pony show. We've got Berman & Braga.

Take a look at what the two of them have wrought, and compare it to what's come from the creators of the novels and their various multiple Star Trek series'. The novelists have come up with multiple story lines in multiple time-periods of the Star Trek lineage that have been far superior than the conceptual creations of everything that Berman and Braga are foisting off on the public:

• Star Trek: Stargazer - the journeys of Jean-Luc Picard's first command
• Star Trek: The Lost Era - Six novels that cover the 75-year period between "Generations" and the beginning of TNG (which will spawn at least one other series - ST: Excelsior, following Sulu's ship)
• Star Trek: IKS Gorkon - following a Klingon ship, the Gorkon ("To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to claim them for the honor and glory of the Empire!!!")
• Star Trek: SCE - Following the adventures of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers
• ST: Deep Space Nine ("The Relaunch") - The continuing stories of DS9 after the events of the television series
• Star Trek: New Frontier - Two new ships, the Excalibur and the Trident, patrolling a far-flung sector
• ST: The Eugenics Wars - a two-book series that focuses on Khan (from "Wrath of Khan"), and how he came to power in the late 20th Century

And that's in addition to the ongoing Next Generation and original series books that are coming out on an ongoing basis.

The creativity is out there, but the television producers haven't figured out how to utilize it.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Firefly! Now that was a kick ass show. Hated to see it get cancelled. From the first episode where the captain shoved the badguy into the jet thruster intake...I was hooked. Now there was man who didn't give a flying f*** about no stinkin' prime directives."

Yes, I remember that Friday night vividly. I had decided to give John Doe a try, turned the TV to FOX, and was making myself dinner when Firefly came on. I had seen the previews for the show and had wanted to watch it but I had forgot it was premiering the same night as Doe.

I watched the whole show and was pleasantly surprised and was looking forward to the next episode right up until we got to the part where Crow (the huge bad guy) was on his knees in front of the Captain and the Cap tells him the deal is off here is the money back and tell your boss blah blah blah.

Then Crow gets up and starts into the speech and my heart fell. You know the speech. The one where the bad guy says I will chase you to the end of the earth to get my revenge and the last thing you will see is my laughing eyes as I... blah blah blah.

It seems like every bad guy in every bad movie has said that same line, and I was groaning with disgust because what seemed like a very good show just jumped the shark on the first episode. However, something magical happened. Something I've never seen before in "the speech" situation.

What happened instead of The Captain saying some lame-ass reply and letting the Bad guy Crow go to fight another day, our Beloved Captain Mal said "too bad" and kicked the still bound Crow into the intake manifold of the starboard engine of the Firefly and shredded Crow into pieces grabbed the next bad guy in the posse and proceeded with the same offer.

I was hooked forever!

And, I am very happy to say that not only is my Firefly DVD slated to be delivered soon but also, "Firefly the Movie" goes into production in the first quarter of 2004!

[Grizzly Bear]

Firefly movie? Firefly DVD? I had no idea! Where can I get some more info on this? My wife and I loved that show.