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Star Trek: Enterprise Reactions?
So, what did you think of it? The theme song has to go. Commander Tucker ("Kumanduh Tuckah") needs to get a personality other than "he'll be just like McCoy, only clumsy and stupid". Is it really necessary to rehash "cold emotionless Vulcans vs. thoughtless, reckless humans"? That plot device was old thirty years ago and it's physically painful to watch now. How can armor plating go "offline"? Electromagnetic shields maybe, but one of the virtues of a hunk of steel is that it doesn't go "offline". And what's with the soft porn? I was waiting for the bow-chicka-bow-wow music to kick in. CT: I didn't get to see it! I don't get UPN! Curses!
Does anyone remember the "Encounter at Space JellyfishLand (er, Farpoint)" that was the pilot of TNG?
Personally, I thought it was EXCELLENT for a pilot. The show will get its legs--let it happen and enjoy what you can while it does. Or just watch Andromeda.
Always looking to pick. Lighten up, dude.
Mr. Eastern Standard Time
Damn him!
First he rigs the election, and now this!
Wow, Michael. Could you post a few more spoilers on the top of the front page? I don't think there are enough.
Seriously. Not everyone watched or even *could* watch Enterprise tonight. You could have at least had the courtesy to hide the spoilers "under the fold", so to speak.
Now, for my opinion (some spoiler content).
It looks good as far as a stand-alone show is concerned. But it seems to break from the "known" Star Trek history, as described by the other shows and movies (not books and fanfic). For instance, we're looking at the later appearance of the Klingons, when Worf told us that something happened to change their appearance that "we don't like to talk about". And Picard told us that the war with the Klingons was sparked by a botched first contact with them. But that contact didn't seem to be botched.
I'm a little disappointed with how contrived the disinfectant scene was. And the way the camera paused during it was just silly. And Archer's whole thing with staying on the station after he set the maglock charge was pointless. First, it should have been longer than 5 seconds. Second, there was noone shooting at him, so there wasn't really a reason to set it and stand there, rather than setting it and running.
I think I'll wait for a couple more episodes to reevaluate that and see if I really care about this series. As it is, I can take it or leave it.
-Todd
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
C'mon people.
Star Trek: The Original: First season
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done.
Star Trek: TNG: First Season
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done (just watch some of them fer chrissakes!).
DS9: First Season:
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done.
Voyager: First season (and second, and third...)
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done.
Give the series a little time to put down some roots.
Sheesh.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Looks like Paramount is still trying to grab viewwers by their gonads. I know that I was certainly paying close attention to the 'disinfection' scene where the guy got to rub gelatin all over the scantily-clad vulcan girl.
Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of prejudice, intolerance and violence. This show definitely played a lot like an old TOS show. It was quite a refreshing change of pace from Voyager and TNG's 'moral issue of the week' approach.
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It was a good beginning for the series. I think there is a lot of potential for the characters, The Dr in particular.
While I'm not sure where the 29th centure guy is going to go, or wht they'll do with him, it is a plot hook, and presumabily will develop into a story arch. Which is what everyone says they like.
The Jello scene did perhaps go a bit over the line, it serverd a usefull purpose in allowing the chracters to intereact.
Without it, you'd be asking "Why the hell didn't she take the ship and run. I thought Vulcans were logical."
I think you may be slamming it because your expectations were too high. It was good television, and good startrek.
There are some reviews of it at http://www.revolutionsf.com/article/441.html
Colin Davis
I kinda liked the show, keeping in mind that its a pilot. It had a bunch of good qualities:
No universal translators-Hooray, a realistic look at meeting strangers...they're strange!
No ridiculous premise-phew...they haven't been warped to a far off dimension, a la the worst trek of all. They're just explorers, trying to prove themselves.
They aren't invincible-There doesn't need to be mind control or some wacky technology to disable the Enterprise ( like in STTNG) it gets pounded, because, frankly, it's not that good.
There is potential for some ongoing plot lines, like the best of DS9. If the show is done right, there will be diplomatic issues w/ the Klingons. (the whole encoded information in genes, conspiracy thing)
On the other hand, there are a few annoying bits:
I didn't like the vulcan. She wasn't even hot enough to fill the 7/9 spot. The just bugged me, like a really dumb spock. At least the original pointy ears respected the humans.
There wasn't a lot of character development, but hopefully that will come with time.
Anyway, I'd tune in to the next few episodes to see if the problems go away.
My Karma is so good, I'm the Dalai Lama...or something.
Jolene Blalock.
Zounds.
Damn this compression filter!
It appears that Vulcan nipples are as pointy as their ears...
Ok, just got done with the viewing party I threw here at the house. Here's the general impressions of the group:
1) Yes, theme music was LAME, but the intro video was pretty cool.
2) Is it cold in that bio-decom room or something?
3) There were some good laughs.
4) The doctor is going to be a great character.
5) The whole Enterprise going to Kronos is a bit of a stretch. Majorly F's with the whole timeline of the other series'.
6) We all liked how they made it seem like this is the first time they've really gone away from Earth. Thing is, you'd think they had already been doing that with ships that could do less than Warp-5 and as a result would have at least met a FEW more species and learned stuff from them. It seems like the Vulcans hold a monopoly on information in this series.
7) The Speech by Cochran was LAME!
Now, in regards to what others have been posting...
We HAVE to re-hash the whole Human vs Vulcan thing because at the time of this series, it HASN'T HAPPENED YET!
The armor plating is polarized by an electromagnetic field to help repel particle weapons. As a result, yes, it CAN go down (ie, power failure). Then it's just plain old hunks of steel. So, this is basically the pre-cursor to shields.
I personally would have prefered it if they would have kept things fairly primitive and then over time phased in the technologies that we all know and love (like transporters, phasers, etc.) They more or less introduce all of them in the first episode (though, as we saw, they're all pretty new and not very reliable.)
Anyhow, just my $0.02
Let's see...
Getting kissed by alien hotties...
Running, two-gun Western-style shoot-outs...
Caution-be-damned attitude...
Oh, yes -- Jim Kirk is back!
(Now they just need to build a decent show around him...but I think they're on their way.)
- - - -
The real Tetsujin 28 is a giant robot.
We have a time traveling bad guy providing tech (some reports say 29th century alternate universe), and you expect time line consistency?
Oh, come now.
If I recall correctly, this was in an episode that was an intentionally campy retrospective; Worf's comment was a joke on the part of the writers. Don't think of this as a continuity error; rather, think of it as the new series taking advantage of better makeup techniques in order to better represent the Klingons.
Star Trek, despite its geeky appeal, does not have to have absolute internal consistency.
Get over it. It's a TV show, not a coding textbook. Yes there will be inconsistencies and errors and who knows what else. Sometimes they're done for dramatic effect ("whoosh" sounds in space), sometimes they're done for convenience (ships always being shown upright 'cause it's too hard to explain to Uncle Vern why it's not *really* upside-down) and sometimes they just screw up. Or an author screwed up years ago. Or they're screwing with continuity on purpose and this will all make sense later.
Whatever the case for a premier episode it wasn't half bad. As many others have pointed out it's no worse then most other TV shows premier episodes and certianly not worse then any other ST's premier episode.
They've established the characters, given us a couple of directions for dramatic tension, showed off the fancy new (old) hardware and apparently started their first big plotline. Not bad for one show.
Sure we can all wonder if this is going to rise up to the best of the past or suck out loud like Voyager. As many others have pointed out that all of the series and movies and books and whatnot have had good stuff sprinkled amongst a lot of clunkers. Now the question is how will this new team and cast and direction play out and it's really unfair to judge from just one episode, particularly the first.
So enough nice-talk, my own opinions:
Anyway, I'll hold my judgement for a few more episodes. At least the premier wasn't awful even though it wasn't great either. Heres to hope...
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Fer chrissakes. "Hi there, we're the /. crowd, and we have the patience of a mayfly..."
/.'s are from over-pumped expectations.
"There wasn't any character development" : hey guys, this was a PILOT. Few pilots develop much characterwise, they have too much expositional ground to cover. Two hours is what, 80 pages of script? How much "development" can you cram into that without forcing it, AND still have time to show all the neato-whiz-bang special effects for which the series is famed? (And remember, they ARE trying to build a ~new~ audience, not just attract the old. The old will keep coming to con's and buying rubber vulcan ears forever.)
"How does armor plate go offline?" SOMEbody wasn't listening when they said that the armor POLARIZATION had gone off line. 1) At least in the NCC1701 a great deal of the hull stability was imparted by gravitic and other (insert pseudo-physics handwaving) fields. Assuming something has to assist normal matter holding together at 4.5 times the speed of light, yeah, I guess that would make sense. 2) Alternately, (insert more pseudo-physics handwaving) one could postulate that the "armor" was an ultradense iron/coherent molecules/whatever the heck - something that required a charge and computer support to dynamically resist damage. Whatever, it's nit picking.
I thought the pilot was decent. Bakula was (if I may mix genres) a physical Sean Connery-esque to Picard's Roger Moore-ish distance. I thought, yes, some of the supporting roles were pretty forced. But then again, I *remember* Encounter at Farpoint - a truly crappy pilot. Ship's Counsellor? What, a ship's prostitute in the future? And remember, Riker and Troi could communicate telpathically? That was dumped pretty quickly. And who can forget the Naked Now (episode 2) where writers (apparently already grasping at plot straws) reverted to the old saw of "everyone acting opposite" which would have been a lot better if we had more than caricature opinions of what their personalities WERE in the first place!
ST:NG took FIVE SEASONS to come up with ep's like "The Inner Light" - DS:9 royally sucked the first 2 years (fortunate, since I preferred watching B5 anyway...which ALSO took at least a few episodes to find it's feet).
The only two gripes I've seen that are valid IMO are the gratuitous slathering scene (not unappreciated, but pretty obvious. My god, no wonder we like the Vulcans!) and the points about putting spoiler comments on the front page before it aired. Rather provincial mistake, really.
The rest of you, cripes, give it a season or two. Let some of the characters' personalities gell a little, and let some chemistry develop. They may even change the theme music. I think it was a fine pilot, given the circumstances, no matter how "disappointed" some
-Styopa
Here's what I liked:
Vulcan vs. Human interactions: The pilot had a nice twist by pitting the two races together on a governmental level where representatives of each could display their predjudice, mistrust, and fear of each other. This was perfectly believable. As insufferable as the rather pretentious and overprotective vulcans are and as impulsive and basically untrustworthy as humans are, I'm surprised the two never ended up in a war on opposite sides. Obviously the vulcan / human thing has been overdone in the past but it was always on a mano y mano level , never at the level of governments maneuvering for control of a situation.
The tribute to green (and other coloured) Orion slave girls: Remembering Christopher Pike's Talos induced vision of a visit to Rigel's slave markets was a nice touch.
I didn't think the disinfectant scene was too pr0nish... To me, it actually seemed as if the director had vague arty pretensions and thought the sensuality of the scene, mixed with the harsh dialogue, would create a lovely bit of dissonance. I think he almost succeeded in this effect.
I really liked the joy these ship-board geeks found in their technology, such as "warp 4.5!" or the sweet spot. TOS had a similar love of technology but the later series seemed to lose their joy in what could be done and what the possibilities are.
I like that the characters finally have a measure of humanity. They're occasionally noble, often shortsighted, easily amused and excited, sometimes brave, usually susceptible to blind predjudice, quarrelsome, hypocritical, and driven by baser instincts they usually dont try to understand. This is a return to the happier days of TOS when (wo)men were (wo)men and even when Kirk would give a sanctimonious speech about his / Federation ideals at the end of an episode, you could hardly forget that he spent the bulk of the episode violating almost every single one of the Federation's sacred beliefs and rules. That sort of willful inconsistency and hypocrisy is typical of almost every human who has held any sort of real power. That is how people would really act, not as the insufferable, always correct robot that was Picard / Janeway. Most leaders will always have more Shatner than Stewart in them. For example Bush's line: "We value our freedom and we value America. That's why we're going to ban any real encryption because freedom is a wonderful thing." could have just as easily been spoken by Kirk in some vague defense of the Prime Directive after he topples a planet's leader and sleeps with all the green and lavender women with iron brassieres he could grab.
Ranting aside, its nice to see the Ugly American in space again.
I think this was the best ST pilot since The Cage and the dark few first minutes of DS9. It wasn't great sci-fi but I think it'll have half a chance if the writers can resist the urge for preachiness.
It was a better premiere episode than I expected. I mean, there's only *so much* you can do when you assemble a bunch of actors in an ensemble show like the ST series' and make them act before they fit with each other and their characters. No ST series has ever had a real all-encompassing central character--you have the captain as the "hub" but all the other characters are just as important to the feel of the series. That's something that always set ST apart from most other TV shows--that it's a true ensemble production.
;-)
The same is true of the writers. The writers have to know the characters and know how the actors fit into their characters' shoes (or bodysuits, in the case of 7 and the Vulcan chick...hehe...). This means by definition that both the writing and the acting in the first season of a ST series are not going to be up to par. It takes time for the actors, the characters, and the writers to all "mesh" well.
That's why I was pleasantly surprised by the passable story and acting. It's better than the first few episodes of any other ST series. It's promising.
I especially like hearkening back to the old TOS rough-and-tumble attitudes. That's something a lot of people forget--that Roddenberry set out to write a "Wagon Train to the Stars," a sort of Western set in deep space. In that respect shows like Babylon 5 and even Andromeda (yuck--sorry, but--yuck) and of course Farscape have been far closer to the concept of TOS than any of the newer ST series have been. So despite the bitching thus far, I think Roddenberry would have been very happy with this episode and with the potential of this series.
Not that there's anything wrong with the world of TNG and DS9 and even Voyager (80% of the episodes were "good enough" in the last 2 seasons, so wuite yer bitching)--as a geek I love the technobabble and the idea of having such an advanced technological framework. I love the wormholes and tachyon beams and especialy the episodes involving quantum mechanics. But there's also nothing wrong with returning to ST's shoot-from-the-hip roots. Especially since it got to a point where many average folks couldn't watch ST--my grandmother for instance was a smart woman, but she never understood half of the technical stuff they were saying and so after loyally watching TOS and then TNG for 30 years she gave up. This is a chance to recapture those people.
That said, I agree with what so many have said--the opening music has to go. What the FUCK were they thinking? I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. What they should have done and what they can still do is have Scott Bakula read off the a variation of the old standard, "Space, the final frontier..." They could reasonably inster a few anachronisms, like calling it the "spaceship Enterprise" instead of the "starship Enterprise" and such. Because, that opening music alone is enough to alienate most or the current ST fanbase, who'll view it as a sign that the show is catering to a certain uneducated demographic alone.
And finally, as for the tits--why complain? As long as the stories are good, the tits are just a bonus. How can any man woman or child with a pulse complain? I mean, did you SEE those things in the rubdown scene? Those nipples were like two stiff warp nacelles, boldly jutting out where every man would love to go...
Now excuse me while I go jerk off to the thought of a borgalicious lesbian encounter between 7 of 9 and that Vulcan chick. Mmmm, now *where* did she just put that tricorder???
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Yeah, after he rescued the Klingon, and was wondering around the base I kept expecting this scene:
"Al, why haven't I leaped yet? Ziggy said I was here to save that Klingon guy, right?"
"Hmm... Ziggy says there's now a 73% chance that you need to set up a nemesis for future episodes first.... Or maybe you're supposed to do that Vulcan chick. It's a little hazy. (Do you see the set on her? Yowza!)"
If you're feeling aargh
Or you're kind of mwhahahahahaha
Could be you've met up with BAKULA.
If your crew goes moan, moan
And your guns go pssewp pssewp
Maybe you've bumped into BAKULA.
He flies through the night
In a costume that's too tight
But there's always a moral insight
BAKULA
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Bakula, doesn't have, the proper spacing between words, or emphasis to be JTK!
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Redundancy
*Sigh* Now I'll probably get modded down as "redundant"
Enigma
Interesting idea.
... emulating the appearance of those who had bested them by a minority through plastic surgery or genetic manipulation. The majority of klingons would consider this a perversion of the highest order, but if that minority had been in a position of political power or influence that would explain their frequent contact with the federation during Kirk's tenure, only to be eradicated once more traditional klingons seized back control of the council at some later date.
Perhaps it was a social/religious reaction to losing a war with humans
This would be similar to a religious group of Kzin (Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, Throne of Ringworld, et al, by Larry Niven) who believed that humans were favored by the Gods, and so cloaked themselves in the skin of dead humans in an effort to decieve the Gods long enough to win a war and conquer earth. Said religion was of course ruthlessly suppressed by the establishment, but that didn't prevent some highly placed Kzin from practicing it and/or believing it at some deep level (e.g. Speaker-to-Animals, later Chmee).
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I find it personally and professionally offensive that you would mention Star Trek and Windows in the same sentence.
This sentence pretty much defines the term "geek."