Slashdot Mirror
Doctor Phlox on Season 2 of Enterprise
Steve Krutzler writes "TrekWeb has posted a brand new interview with actor John Billingsley (Doctor Phlox on Enterprise). He talks all about the second season of the Star Trek prequel including the upcoming episodes "A Night In Sickbay," "Minefield" (featuring the first encounter with the Romulans!) and "Dead Stop." He also talks about the character of Doctor Phlox possibly falling into the 'Neelix Trap' and says he wishes the series would kill more people off like the original Star Trek!" Billingsly
was great on a recent episode of SG1 too. I'm seriously excited for the
next season of Enterprise. I don't think I've ever said that about any of the
other Trek series.
There hasn't been a good season since TNG. And that was how many years removed from TOS? It's just gone downhill.
Who in their right minds would interview Phlox when there's T'Pol?
"The majority is always sane, Louis." -- Nessus
http://slashdot.jp
Bah.
:P
We all know the first encounter with the Romulans was in TOS episode "Balance of Terror", featuring none other than Mark Lenard (who went on to play Spock's father Sarek) as the Romulan commander.
Pppht. I'm a girl too ya know
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm seriously excited for the next season of Enterprise. I don't think I've ever said that about any of the other Trek series.
And you have the audacity to call yourself a nerd? Who wasn't anticipating part 2 of "Best of Both Worlds" all summer long?
For shame!
as soon as they kill off the time traveler character and settle into episodes that have nothing to do with this 'cold war' thing they flaunt every few episodes. Seriously; even with some of the things that are irksome like the ship always being at the mercy of every other blasted species out there (were *we* the only ones the Vulcans kept technology from???) and a desire to 'invent' everything that showed up on the other series; I'm enjoying it very much. And I even like the 80's style 'rock ballad' theme song unlike many other Trek fans out there. Let's see if they outdo themselves in the tradition of ST:II.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
I agree with the "Neelix" syndrome comment. This is just another perpetually good-humored alien cutie-pie. We need some acid-blood sharp-fanged shit à la Sigourny Weaver!
The Romulans had a war with Earth many decades earlier than the Original Series episode. There were no face-to-face encounters. Just bloody space battles.
The question is, will Enterprise honor this bit of continuity?
1. Goto new planet or space phenomenon.
2. Imply Vulcans are either stupid and/or evil.
3. Marvel at planet or phenomenon.
4. Go down to planet/phenomenon.
5. Get into trouble.
6. Shoot at bad aiming aliens and escape planet.
7. Wrap up episode implying how Vulcans are agian evil/stupid.
There are plenty of us out there to nit pick the entire Star Trek canon :-)
Balance of Terror was a damn fine episode, but they are really going to have to be careful with continuity. Just look at the Ferengi, they got by with saying that 'we can include them because their race name was never mentioned'. A nice way of showing the Romulans is to have a plot line revolve around one of their ships (relating to the catalyst for the war)... but that is my 2 cents.
I'm pleased with Phlox's development, in that he is a very strong character, I especially liked John Billingsley in the Stargate ep a couple of weeks ago, especially his lines about 'the shrine to Gene Roddenbery'.
Note to /. editors, when is Star Trek goign to get it's own section (instead of just 'Television'), Star Wars has it's own!
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
There is nothing quick like being able to watch an episode of star trek and being able to guess who is going to die based on whether you know his name or not.
Well, at least make sure you spell it right when you put it "in your book".
I tend to agree. I did watch (and yes, enjoy) DS9 and Voyager, but both went downhill towards the end, and did have pretty sucky endings. Voyager really overdid the Borg stuff. Like majorly. Neither of the two have ever been as good as TNG.
IMO Enterprise's biggest failing is Captain Archer. He lacks any kind of credibility, and is the biggest reason why I can't be bothered to watch the show. I've watched some, but they've mostly just been recycled plot lines that have just sucked more.
Don't get me wrong, some of the concepts and ideas in Enterprise are actually pretty interesting, I just think that the series (from what I've seen) could be a whole lot better. Particularly without Archer.
OK, I'll admit that I don't think Enterprise is very good. I also don't think TNG, DS(, or Voyager were very good either.
That being said, I really like John Billingsley and fell he is the only redeeming feature of Enterprise.
As for the Romulans, I can only assume it will be the Romulans of TNG/DS9/Voyager and not the Romulans of Star Trek. I'm still unsure why it was necessary to swap the virutes of the Romulans and Klingons, but that's just one of the major changes Berman/Pillar have made to the Trek universe.
Ah well.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
Let me see now...
...and then the TOS movies... ...which begat TNG, and died gracefully in a few years... ...which begat DS9 while it was running, and a few movies they're still working on. It died quietly and under unknown circumstances... ...which begat Voyager on it's dying breaths. It too died quietly, and under unknown circumstances.
First, there was TOS...
Then out of the blue, we have Enterprize. From what I've seen, it's on life support.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
what happened to the expendible extras in star trek? kirk: the away team will consist mof myself, spock, bones and ensign billy, now this mission could be dangerous, one of us may not make it back..."
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
... I can never get enough of these comments:
- The writers can't keep track of 10 movies and 24 seasons of episodes! Why can't they dedicate their lives to memorizing the Star Trek timeline like I have?
- STTNG was the only good series, the rest were crap. I can't believe they'd keep this show going even though the ratings were so good!
- Enterprise sucks! It offends me so deeply I want to tear my eyes out! I just can't get over there being a scifi show I don't like.
- I don't like this show, so nobody should.
I like to read these comments, then sit back and imagine what Galaxy Quest 2 will be like.
"Derp de derp."
The Enterprise on the show was never featured in Star Trek 1 as "One of the ships that had the name Enterprise"
There's an episode with the Ferengi in Enterprise. They hardly knew anything about the Ferengi on the first season of "The Next Generation". One of the ferengi (I believe played by Armin Shimmerman at the time) comments on how ugly the humans really are. Yet one of the Ferengi seem to obsess over a Vulcan.
This show has equipment far more elaborate than the original series. The consoles on the original show were dials and knobs.
Whatever happened to the Eugenics War of the 1990's? The one where Khan ruled 1/4 of the Earth, and ends up being ejected into space.
And my personal favorite, The Royale from Star Trek:TNG, where Picard goes off for 2 minutes on how Fermat's Last Theorem goes unsolved. Yes, Star Trek could be in a universe where Fermat's Last Theorem is unsolved, but then in Star Trek DS9, Dax was commenting on how she created another proof for it.
When I think of Star Trek, I always think of it as being in an alternate future, kind of like Command And Conquer: Red Alert where World War 2 never happened. Just I wish they'd keep things straight, and everything in the same universe. :)
Then again, maybe Star Trek TNG, Star Trek Original and Star Trek: Enterprise belong in different Quantum Realities :)
For their sake, I hope black holes do exist. It would suck if they had to go over all of the TNG/DS9 episodes and dub the word "Black Hole" with "Gravastar".
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Each series of Star Trek has one. On NG it was Troi. On DS9 it was Kira. On Voyager it was Neelix. And on Enterprise it's Phlox. He should take some of his own medicine and get himself killed in an upcoming episode.
-- SIGFPE
Although I was skeptical, Enterprise didn't start out as badly as I would have expected.
It was different enough of a show that I continued to watch, at least up until the episode entitled "Dear Doctor", in which the ship's doctor got morally fixated on the wrong problem and convinced the Captain to ignore the tens of thousands that were dying every day, along with the strong possibility that the entire race would soon follow.
My reaction was along the lines of: "Wait, so this race can't fly through space faster than warp one, and therefore you're going to knowingly kill them off? Fsck you, Federation!"
Since that episode I gave up on the series for falling into the sad attempts at ignoring a good plot in an attempt to "present a moral lesson".
as soon as they kill off the time traveler character and settle into episodes that have nothing to do with this 'cold war' thing they flaunt every few episodes.
:(
I think that having ACTUAL plotlines each episode would be nice, while I can see how they are going for "small plotlines with the occasional tantilizing glimpse of a larger adventure" thing, well; quite frankly they suck at it. Could be something to do with how they have had all of about three or four ORIGINAL episodic plotlines going around so far and they just kinda change the make-up on the alien's faces.
Oh, and the intro STILL sucks. Hopefuly they will remake it for season two. . . . but for some reason I doubt it.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
I have a question for someone who knows more about star trek than me, its been bugging the hell out of me, i dont watch enterprise very often, and i havn't seen much TNG, but i know that at least in DS9 and Voyager nobodys blood is different. When did klingon blood stop being purple (remember the end of The Undiscovered Country?), and was Vulcan(and romulan) blood ever actually green?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I think TOS was great, TNG was descent, Voyager sucked and DS9 was worthless.
But I kinda like Enterprise. Fresh, a return to adventure, less stiffness. And I disagree with you: I think Archer, is the biggest asset of Enterprise (an anxious newbie captain trying so hard to make the best of what he's got); After all, the scenario is supposed to be the first exploration of humans into space.
also, I think I'm in love with Hoshi.
Has anything actually happened with the time traveling cold war plot?
You say on NG it was Troi, but we all know it was Wesley Crusher. Annoying as hell until we read his site and realized he's a geek just like all of us.
I'm in a Star Trek punk rock band, and I'm the token annoying character in that. No Kill I
One of us! One of us! One of us!
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
Can someone please copy it into a message? Stupid tech-hostile site. About as usable as a spacecraft that's always "right side up" in space.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
If I remember the episode, part of the problem was also that the race that was going extinct was inhibiting the planet's second race from growing. My recollection is probably off a bit, but I think that the choice was more along the lines of giving the dying race what it needed to survive versus letting evolution elevate the less-advanced race to dominant species. It's kind of like (though off by a ways) if you were given a choice to save the dinosaurs who were going to be eradicated by some meteor-induced ice-age, would you do it, given that it might destroy the natural progression of life on the planet? Kind of a crappy analogy, but it's the best I can think of at the moment.
In any event, I actually really enjoyed that episode. In my mind, at least, the Doctor's dilemma was a lot more profound than you make it sound. Without the prime directive as a guiding principle, there's a lot more room for this series to be interesting.
They should have given the franchise a break for 10 or 15 years, let the episodes to rerun on syndication... and have fresh blood when that time arrived to do new stuff (i.e. not rehashed from any other Sci-fi show is doing) as well as renewed interest (if there was any). Just let the TNG crew do the movies.
I am watching Enterprise, but I just enjoy the eps that are good and ignore the others. But the king of Sci-Fi at the mo is Farscape (plus Stargate is equally as good), they at least have the leeway to take the piss out of themselves and get away with it.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
I must admit I haven't watched Enterprise. But the thing that always struck me about almost all star trek episodes (except the original series) is the way they always get out of trouble. Solution number 1: "Pass the tachyon beam through the deflector array" Solution number 2: "Reverse the polarity of the nuetron flow" And it is guaranteed to work.
"It's been a looooong time ... Getting from there to here." ;-)
hey, make sure you use this high resonlution image in your book.
smooches,
handybundler
Quote from the interview: "We build to a climax and then the last ten minutes we need to really 'go, go, go, go go!'.
I have always hated that, 35 minutes of the universe going under until someone invents a transplaxmo-sub-dehumidifier that they attach to the microtubularinjectors of some other thingy, and bingo, we have saved the world.
Always seems that they are going on with the story until someone realizes that there's too much content for one show and then, presto, they find a solution by thinking up some new gadets, that will end the show in 4 minutes.
Not that I don't like to watch the shows.:)
my sig
Sorry, but the only thing that got me to watch Enterprise was uber babe Jolene Blalock.
...To fire the proton torpedoes or not, that is the question Captain"
StarTrek has degrading from swashbuckling action to moral pontification in space, no more "Let's get our shirts ripped, blow away the bad guys and get the greenskinned girl back to our quarters."
Now it's, "who are we to act like gods in space?
To be fair, the series premiere and finale were good, I really enjoyed. But, all the episodes in between were old hat and just plain boring.
What I'd like to see? Mission Impossible StarTrek style, ditch the ship and whip out all the cool gadgets to spy on bad guys and make big explosions with! Seriously though, a StarTrek focused on a few StarFleet secret agents with the latest in badass sci-fi tech going out on commando missions would definitely be worth watching and add some new blood into the aging ratings vehicle.
UPN dudes -- You reading this?
wishes the series would kill more people off like the original Star Trek
Maybe they should introduce the colored uniforms so we could have redshirt ensigns.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
He also talks about the character of Doctor Phlox possibly falling into the 'Neelix Trap' and says he wishes the series would kill more people off like the original Star Trek!
I can see it now...Star Trek: Enterprise, Season Two:
Star Trek meets South Park!
Captain Archer: "Oh my God! They killed Dr. Phlox!" "You Bastards!"
Ensign Mayweather: "But he's the most popular person on the Enterprise! How will we ever replace him?"
Commander Tucker: "No need to worry captain! We have a copy of his atomic signature in the cache of the data resequencer in the transporter! We'll be able to generate an exact copy of him, as if he never left!"
--- BZZZ BZZZ ZIP! ---
Dr. Phlox: "Hello, captain! I'm back from helping out the Balaxians on Balax 7! I hope nothing happened while I was gone!"
When I heard who was gonna be in it, I said two things
1) Scott Bakula will make a crappy captain. He's way too soft
2) I like the keep my porn and my star trek separate, thank you.
Sure enough, I was right. Scott Bakula is not a very good captain, in my opinion. He's getting better, but really, he's pretty soft. Too happy.
As for T'pol, yes, she's hot, but she's been doing an ok job of not making a big sex symbol out of herself. Save for the obligatory near sex scene in the decontamination chamber.
What's really getting me the most the the _grotesque_ opening theme. Good lord. That may be the worst crap I've ever heard.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
Bringing STAR TREK's newest alien face to life isn't always easy for actress Jolene Blalock, who's spent the last month jiggling her time in space with her time in...
Now that's an interview I might actually read!
GMD
watch this
The question is "Who is watching this show?"
The only people I know who watch this show are the UberGeeks. The kind of guys who wear the little Playmates Tricorder toys (purchased on eBay) with their work uniforms. The kinds of people who wear Starfleet uniforms not just to Star Trek conventions, but on dates. The kinds of guys who used to be superstars during the dot-com time.
All the people I know who loved all the other series, but were the big detail guys are iffy on the series.
And the guys who liked ST:TNG, ST:DS9, and some of ST:VOY but not TOS generally hate the show.
I myself am in the last group. I have a few TOS eps I like, but not many. I like the movies, I like TNG, I loved DS9, and VOY was okay. But I saw 3 episodes of Enterprise, and I hate it. I can't watch it.
Now, time to go back to my other nerd occupations.
Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
The black hole fired first! :)
Oooo! Another alien with funny hair, or an interesting nose job, or leopard spots! Please.
Oi!
...well not really, but it lame talking about Enterprise when I'm in the sticks with my crappy DSS content and my even crappier Hughes satellite "high speed" (cough hack gag) internet connection.
I should buy tapes of the shows, but I'm sure they wont be sold for another decade, maybe half that, but still... lame lame lame.
And the infamous anecdote is that any such ensign wearing RED is the one that inevitably gets killed! Don't believe me? Check those old TOS episodes again....
Who cares about all that crap. I just want to see the large-breasted vulcan chick in a bikini. How hard would that be to work into the storyline?
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
the good (and snarky) folk over at www.televisionwithoutpity.com would respectfully disagree about being excited about season 2 of enterprise. okay, they'd laugh in your face but you get the idea.
Geez...
Doctor Phlox is just a rehash of Neelix from Voyager. Slightly rounder secondary character who is kind of either the 'cowardly lion' or the simpleton with small issues.
This character needs to
a. Die off, or
b. Go through hell, Aliens style.
I put b forth because the Dr is not a hero type, not an evil type, the only thing left is victim. Put him on an abandoned freighter with some dead bodies and mucous aliens, show him freaking out and stuff. Thats about all you can do with that character.
I love and hate voyager, it has great ideas, and i really enjoy watching it, but there are some elements of silliness that really stand out. Like whenever they are being attacked, all the console and overhead lights start to oscillate on and off.
But i liked the Borg stuff, Seven discovering her individuality, very bold stuff, perhaps not for pure sci-fi people, but as a big fan of PKDick, i loved this human story line!
So, how many ideas for a *new* Star Trek series can the /. folk come up with?? Hopefully Berman & Co. are reading this - we know Will Wheaton does.
My contribution: A show based on the 24th century adventures of Starfleet Marines. We've had the diplomacy, we've had the melodrama, we miss watching stuff blow up and aliens get their butts kicked.
The problem with Troi was that in the early seasons she was simply a plot device to explain the emotions that the actors were supposed to be, though not successfully, portraying. They had this whole stick-up-the-butt acting style in the first season - they never really got totally over it during the entire run. The whole "I feel anger/love/contentment coming from that alien/monster/ship/planet" was almost as annoying as Wesley Crusher.
You didn't see the season finale, did you? Aside from Enterprise killing 3800 people, being destroyed and Archer being stranded in the 31st centry, not much has happened as a result of the war.
o des_ent_detail_124540.asp
Here's a summary:
http://www.startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/epis
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
I like the intro. Mind you, I don't watch the show every week, preferring to catch it in reruns, so I don't get a continued and repeated dosage of it. Plus I happen to like country, and I grew up on easy listening, so my tastes are probably vastly different from everyone else's.
This intro's still a million times better than Voyager's, though. That intro theme could put a person to sleep. Actually, come to think of it, it has..
As for the blueprints thing, I wouldn't give them much credit. I'll bet you anything the only reason they're there is (a) because it looks cool, and (b) because Archer's father supposedly designed the ship, and they want to milk that for all it's worth. But mostly I think it's because of (a).
And now for something completely different.
I would like to propose the following; Video Mute. Instead of muting the audio, it would turn the video image contrast down, averaging out the video as much as possible without completely eliminating the video. This would be extremely helpful for whenever I'm watching television and an especially stupid commercial comes on that strobes. every. second. binding. you. (And hey, it might even make music videos watchable.)
Mute + Video Mute would be perfect for those of us who (a) can't afford a Tivo, and (b) want to avoid being distracted by the stupid flashing while we're trying to talk with fellow viewers, or read a book during commercials.
I hereby promise not to patent this idea, and I hereby give everyone in the universe free and unrestricted right to implement and use it, blah blah blah.. or has someone already thought this up and patented it? : )
Mirina Sirtis, in real life, seems very short when it comes to star trek. I remember going to a convention where she was.. Her overall impression of it was "I've been typecast. I'll milk it for everything its worth but i dont have to like it".
Then again, she could have been feeling the emotions of her aunt flo that day.
Please don't use words unless you know what they mean. It's a simple principle.
Star Trek in the Roddenberry era was all about humanity. The ship was just a vehicle. Nowadays, its gotten pretty formulaic. Most of the Q Episodes after the first two were always good for a bit of lite philisophical entertainment, but damn near everything else was.. egh.
Roddenberry is doing a friction-free 200000RPM around in his..err, space-urn.
(Unless it's de-orbited already.)
Well, unlike many women, I think she improved with age. In the movies I think she's actually pretty attractive. But early on she was just horrible. You may have forgotten - check out Episode 1 again.
-- SIGFPE
also, I think I'm in love with Hoshi.
She really looked good when she let her hair down in the "Vacation" episode, didn't she.
All the star dreck that has come out since Gene Roddenberry died has sucked. Anybody but UPN wouldn't have wasted airtime on Voyager or Enterprise, and DS9 was a ripoff of Babylon 5.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
To say voyager went downhill at the end is crazy. Every single episode of the last season, I thought, was great. And even if you didn't particularly like even the last season, the later seasons were all much better than the earlier season. Am I the only one who feels that way?
I quit watching it when they kept re-inventing future tech to make up for bad writing and kept giving time to the annoying translator character (who should be obselete by the Universal Translator).
GalaxyQuest is to Star Trek, as Star Trek is to everyone else.
[insert witty comment here]
I haven't watched it since the tenth episode or so... does it still have that god awful theme song?
There are plenty of us out there to nit pick the entire Star Trek canon :-)
May I recommend Nitpicker's Central for nitpicking Star Trek?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
The first one and the one where the captain and the vulcan are bound and have to do everything but oral sex to wiggle out of their bindings. Laughed out loud several times. I mean, why have a show if that's all you've got? Just run baywatch again.
Actually, Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) was much more attractive than Troi.
Mmmmmm.... red hair!
Now if they could only have done something about the 24th century giving people big noses (Stewart, McFadden, Spiner)!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It's ANAL COCKS not Alan Cox.
It should be obvious that transporters -- like all devices in the future -- will have DRM protections preventing duplication.
--Reed
I was so excited when I heard that the subject of the next series would be humans getting into space. I thought it would be cool to see them strapping together old Titans and shit and rocketing around the near parts of the galaxy and occasionally blowing up spontaneously just because it was warp drive version 1.0b.
But what do I see? I see TNG sets and Voyager plot lines and TOS dialog. Jesus, what an opportunity they had - and they blewit!
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Am I the only one who feels that way?
Not the only, but probably the minority. I never managed to actually make it through a full episode. I almost did with a few in first season. Tried 5 different times in the last season and didn't make it even to first commercial with most of them. The finale episode almost made me vomit and I was only in the room for 20 minutes of the 2 hours.
jello.
aka aron.
was much better Sci-Fi than any of the post-TNG Star Trek stuff. The characters had great depth and interaction. The individual episodes had better plots. And the over arching storyline gave the whole thing a great background for the strong characters to act against. Now most of the B5 movies were pretty bad. But nothings perfect.
I like it. Rather a lot. It's definitely stronger at this point in it's life than TNG was at the end of first season. For the record I enjoy most of TOS: even though most of it is bad, I enjoy it anyway. Like TNG: when it was bad it sucked (most of season 1) but when it was good (inner light) it was amazing. Loved DS9: it was great seeing the ST universe used with actual plots and characters instead of morality tales and redressed fables. Never made it through a whole episode of Voyager in one sitting. Ever. Tried many times.
jello.
aka aron.
Man, I'm really surprised, because I thought the first season and the early shows were really cheesy and I couldn't stand it. Even though all the shows were cheesy, even the later episodes, it was still very enjoyable. I remember the last season had so many good episodes. One episode (two part episode) I remember in particular was "workforce". I really liked that one. I'm surprised most people don't agree with me about the later, and especially the seventh, season(s).
Yeah, me too... Who wants to bet that they'll figure out a way to sneak the decontamination chainber in again?
Seriously though, I'm surprised the censors didn't (well...) censor that. It's not cable, they do have serious limitations on what they are allowed to show.
Enterprise? Just a sad attempt to take a SciFi show and turn it into '90210'.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Romulans? Who were never seen before "Balance of Terror," which took place in Kirk's era? Who aren't due to show up in Enterprise for another few years, if they wanted to stick to the old Earth-Romulan wars?
I can see a bunch of Trekkers getting up in protest, breathing heavily, and promptly sitting back down.
[CBG] There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling![/CBG]
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
The show still has that hideous theme song.
World's greatest mom. -- the Beave
"...and says he wishes the series would kill more people off like the original Star Trek"
HEAR, HEAR!! I've become a hardened cynic when it comes to Trek lately. It's been way too sanitised and this new series is no exception. If there was one series that could have benifited from a darker, more brooding plot, this is the one. I had originally envisioned Enterprise taking it's cues from America's blue water Navy during the American Revolution-- The Federation just stepping out onto the Frontier; Outgunned and woefully behind the technology curve, struggling to maintain soveignty amoung the stars. But what do we get? The bumbling crew of the first Enterpise that miraculously stumbles from one encounter to the next against vastly superior opponents and still manages to emerge in one piece. And to top that, they're already leaning on Trek's infamous temporal crutch, that way overused script idea. John is right-- This series needs to loose a few people as well as some major plot CPR. Sure, the Rombulans are coming (is it just me or is the Okuda time line just a bit out of sorts here?), but the way things are going now, it's going to be yet another ho-hum experience...
Finally, it's not entirely a haters club here. While I doubt the the person responsible will ever see this, major props to whomever designed the opening credits. I've heard complaints all day long here, but the opening is wonderfully poetic. Stylish. The sole spark of creativity in an otherwise bland series.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Um, I like it. It's not a popular opinion here, but whatever. At least they finally got away from yet another wannabe orcastra piece. It has it's place, but not again....Dear Lord, NOT AGAIN!!!
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Is it bad that I keep reading that as "Star Trek: Terms of Service"?
DCMonkey
You're asking the writers to do something they never do in a Trek series... Character devlopement. Does a character go through a tramatic experience in Ep 21.1? Don't worry! He'll be back to his chipper self in 21.2! Events have no lasting effects on the characters. Their personalities are static. They don't grow, they don't develope. The only thing I ever saw come close was Picard with his Borg incident bothering him, but that was normally only when the story directly delt with the Borg in some way. They couldn't just have him wig out one ep with flashbacks as a minor part of the story, or be be hardened and emotionless in certain situations. Ok, I'm ranting, but the characters need to more dynamic, less 2D.
As far as Phlox goes, his roll is the same (token alien side-kick), but the personalities are different. Whether he should go through hell or not-- Sure, why not. Somebody in the series needs to. Besides, Slimey, acid producing alien encounters builds character. Like spinach.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
- STTNG was the only good series, the rest were crap. I can't believe they'd keep this show going even though the ratings were so good!
- Enterprise sucks! It offends me so deeply I want to tear my eyes out! I just can't get over there being a scifi show I don't like.
1. The writers are paid to write Star Trek. One would think that detailed knowledge of the ST universe would be a job requirement.
2. In my own opinion the first episodes of TNG sucked too. It really started getting better after Tasha Yar died. The thing that killed her was one of the worst looking aliens too I'd say.
3. I cant stand Scott Bakula. The opening sequence made me turn the channel the first time I saw it. I want Enterprise to be good. I need something other than TNG and DS9 reruns. (I also cant stand Babylon 5, Farscape, or Stargate the series. such horrible writing..)
Overall, the quote that best defined TNG in my opinion was "Star Trek is like sex.. even when it's bad it's pretty good."
After a few episodes of voyager it was no longer true. 7 of 9? Hugh must be rolling around in his grave!
Yep.
"Gee, Bob... What do we have in the script bin?"
"Um... Don't know. Why don't you go look."
"I chose the script last time."
"No, I chose the script last time because the veiwers were complaining about your stupid temporal stories."
"Hey, it was a good story!"
"Hey, it was the twelth one this season"
"Fine. But I beat you in foozball before lunch. You owe me."
"Fine. Then we can start counting all the sodas you owe ME."
"Hmmm... Well, I'm still not getting the script."
"Neither am I."
"A Q episode?"
"Sure, why not?"
You need a FREE iPod Nano
...Or have some poor intern chained to a filing cabinet whose sole job is to keep track of the Trek timeline. I've heard of worse jobs for em...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
DS9 was pretty good towards the end, had a great ending in my opinion too. But Voyager and Enterprise have apparently adapted to fit the level of the rest of the crap on their new network.
Star trek hasn't been scifi since TNG. It is a soap ophera located in space. Please do not post anymore star trek threads in Slashdot!
"It's tricky on this show because we really only have 39 minutes to tell a story"
39? That's 21 minutes for commercials! Mind you I don't watch the show (don't get UPN here), but still, that seems like an awful amount of time devoted to advertisement for an hour long show. As I recall, the first star trek series ran closer to 50 minutes of actual show. Perhaps this goes to show the prevelance advertising has in our culture today.
Quote from the interview: "We build to a climax and then the last ten minutes we need to really 'go, go, go, go go!'.
What? 'Going' ten minutes after climax? They're teaching tantra at starfleet?
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
Need I say more?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
A Vulcan with fake lips? C'mon guys!
Drop the character or give it to a better and more credible actress.
If you get a chance, check out the Labyrinth DVD and watch the making of labyrinth special feature. you will see a pre TNG mcfadden.
Who run Barter Town?
Dude, Gene Roddenberry kept back star trek's potential. Star Trek felt like 1 hour long B Movies in space with the same cast until he kicked the fucking bucket... i swear..
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
It's not like we are anywhere near being through the run of the show but it doesn't make any sense that they would put children on the Enterprise.
Though it is possible that Braga & Co. could screw things up...they seem to be pusing the edge of continuity and it's quite obvious that in the past the writing teams liked to resort to using children when they *REALLY* have nothing else to write about.
I got used to the song...I'll be pissed if they bring children on board because I've hated the children in the past and it's quite clear from TNG that children on board were a *NEW* thing...and if Q comes back, I'll put my foot through the television and send Braga the bill!
Agreed that Troi was a HOTTIE in First Contact (aka Da Borg Movie.) ST:FC was the best movie since ST2:TWOK. My favorite scene was where she was acting drunk. :) Very much of a breakout role for her character.
And let's face it, Doc Crusher was ALWAYS a hottie.
.
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
And I even like the 80's style 'rock ballad' theme song...
Did you know this was sung during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games?
Strange but true!
"Information wants to be paid"
Replace the theme with "Do you want to be a Spaceman?" by Oasis. Give it a try, the song fits alot better than the current song or the voyager theme used in the alternate intro.
If I had some editing software I would have done it myself and let it loose on kazaa.
>
Star Trek has that cerebral quality--that's why we watch it. At least many of us.
:)
When in Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan, Spock showed us what the philosophy of logic really meant when he said "The good of the many outweigh the good of the few."
Star Trek III tried to say the opposite however, quite unsuccessfully, because of Paramount's worry that the fans would boycott the film if they didn't bring back Spock.
When in Star Trek VI, General Chang whispered to himself "To be or not to be" as the Enterprise torpedo swerved towards him, viewers recieved a special Trek insight into the nature of prejudice. When the old ways turn into the new, it really seems like suicide to many people, hence their reluctance.
When in Star Trek VIII, that one lady tells Picard "Blow up the damned ship!" we finally see Picard's weakness as a leader. His hatred can make him blind.
These are the things that make Star Trek Great. The reason so much of Star Trek sucks is because they aren't always able to provide that cerebral quality, but when they do it...it keeps us watching. Its not just the kind of thing we watch on TV, but its the kind of thing we inquire about, the kind of thing we talk about with others, the kind of thing we analogize with the real world.
Take the Microsoft icon on Slashdot. It has Bill Gates as a Borg. We relate Microsoft as the Borg for a reason: they are overconfident (or used to be). They believed resistance was futile. But the Federation eventually beat the Borg. And when GNU/Linux sprung up, the hackers believed they can beat the Borg as well. Dressing Gates up in Borg gear was rallying cry from the hackers saying "We can beat them!"
And guess what. The hackers have won.
I think its about time for a new icon
The Vulcans already have Warp Drive.
i like just fine and you're entitled to NOT watch it if you don't like it.
I went to a con and saw Marina about 6 months before "ST:Generations" came out. She refused to give away details (nevermind the fact that I had just bought a script to the movie about a half hour prior), but she said "And when you see the movie.. that planet came out of NOWHERE."
And then she ranted for a while about Michael Dorn's little dog that was more like a rat. but anyways.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
1) Crew must visit strange planet/have strange encounter every episode. 2) At least 1 member of the crew must be emotionally retarded (eg vulcan, android, hologram) but must slowly discover emotion through the series arc. 3) At least 1 main member of the crew must be an alien which requires daft latex prosthetics. 4) At least one member of the crew must be "the maverick" who acts like an irresponsible teenager but is usually proved right apart from the "maverick gets it wrong" episode which must appear once each series. 5) Intelligent plot round up not required, simply solve every difficuly situation with some technological wizardy and a dash of technobabble added as flavouring. 6) All personal problems with the crew can be solved with a 2 minute chat with the captain in their ready room. 7) Tachyons are your friend. 8) No matter what era you set the series in the same old technology must appear , simply change the set a bit to make it look old or cutting edge to suit. 9) Never , I repear NEVER show any signs of originality in your script. If you can rehash an idea thats been done 2 dozens times before then use it.
It may be profoundly disturbing to some that they keep mining the old "plot well" over and over with Trekie series'...but when you have created a classic that has lasted through the years like Star Trek has, is there a better well to tap? Bay Watch, anyone?
Originally it was done to cut budget costs as I understood it - but in the original James T Kirk version that was acceptable - but now when we got the technology to knock up some realistic aliens - what do we get - human with bumpty foreheads - or electronic bits sticking out of their skulls. On top of this Star Trek is a super clean universe - where most ships are like the Macdonalds - just after the cleaning staff have popped round for the 100th time - and bad acting to boot - just what is the point?
Surely the only aliens we should be meeting are ones we already know about (maybe one or two species, but each episode pretty much introduces a new one!).
Kinda takes the edge off for me!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
How could DS9 be a ripoff of B5, since DS9 came first?
End of Line.
The series has recently started in the UK. I think that it has gotten off to a better start than any other, but there is one thing that really annoys me. I hate the introduction, it's not the music but the sickening exclusion of anything that isn't American. First object launched into space - Russian. First object on the moon - Russian. First guy in space - Russian. First space station - Russian. Yet this is completely ignored in the introduction. "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." - Marcus Aurelius -- Andrew
Yep, I guess it does.
The B5 pilot came out much before DS9 was shot. B5 was originally pitched to Rodenberry as Star Trek, but he said no way. So they made an independant show called B5. The pilot didn't take for a long time, and DS9 was made as soon as Rodenberry died.
IMHO, the stuff got much better after he stopped holding them back. First, they got rid of his pet Wesley as a regular character, and then they made DS9 - which I call Star Trek with a plot. DS9 actually had a continuing cast other then the heroes - how wierd eh? There were actually non-military characters! Wow.
Anyone see that episode? Frying pan upside the head... what a way to go.
And just for being boring....
Farscape. You'll never go back to Drek, er, Trek again.
Enterprise is going to follow in the footsteps of Voyager, I'm afraid.
Its going to have lots and lots of stories that we've all watched before in previous ST Series (STTNG, DS9), its going to have the same old plot complications, and sadly......its going to have the same cookie-cutter mix of characters.
Enterprise, to me, is lowbrowing the series...but its the first season, and ALL first seasons suck.
Watch the first two seasons of DS9 or TNG and try not to vomit in your lap.
Roddenberry's passing was a great blessing for Trek, his uber-pacifist approach to the series was getting very tired. The final seasons of TNG were very good, the final 3 or 4 seasons of DS9 were however, Great. Voyager blew from start to finish, the characters were among the worst batch I've seen in a show...not a one of them did I care anything at all about, and now Enterprise is sadly following in that same vein.
TNG had a great mix of characters....DS9 had a more diverse group. But Voyager was a ship full of people you just don't care about, at least I didn't, and I just saw very shallow 2 dimensional characters. Enterprise is sort of more of the same.
The Vulcan-in-skin-tight-lycra thing was like strike-2 right away..that was clearly a lame assed attempt to draw "anyone we can get" to watch the show. But what will kill enterprise is the same old writing....they need to invent a new formula besides "go to planet, solve problem, leave planet". I guess I really disliked the character selection in Voyager, and this show seems to mimic that cast.....and as such, I'm really not getting into Enterprise...at *all*.
Analogously, when red-shirted ensigns bit it on some dangerous, unexplored planet, Kirk was mad, but that didn't stop him from going erect when some cute alien chick walked by a few minutes later. Hey, going where no man has gone before is supposed to be dangerous. You have some funerals and you get over it!
This attitude was much less visible by the time Piccard took over command. Ensign mortality went waay down, and the few that bit it were mourned much more deeply. It's just like the Challenger thing: by TNG, people got into the mindset that interstellar space is not so dangerous after all, so they found the occasional ensign mortality appalling. They were also much better prepared to manage the risks of space. (Would Kirk have sent in a councelor to console the survivors? No way! At best, he would have sent in Scotty with some scotch!)
Of course, by extrapolation, life on the earliest starships would have been far cheaper still. One would expect "ensign resupply busses" to be dispatched regularly to catch up with the Enterprise and replenish its staff. I mean, from technical problems alone, I would imagine a few people might die each month. The first Enterprise was not designed to take hits from most of the weapons fired on it, so naturally it would not have been as mature in terms of safety as the later models... which means, more people would have died in comparatively minor situations. The survivors would surely have the attitude: Hey, that's just what space is like.
So I'm asking you: Why are ensign deaths so damn rare on the first Enterprise? Is this a big coverup? Are we really seeing "Enterprise propaganda?" Surely, a reasonable person cannot believe that all these interstellar freshmen really live through all those encounters with hostile and technologically superior races, riding on a ship that was designed by engineers who were merely guessing at what starships should be like, having no experience to base their designs on. I mean, come on, anybody gets on that thing is basically does so with the understanding that they will die there, probably sooner rather than later.
So goddamn it, die already! Then build a new ship, and get a better crew (except keep Phlox, he's cool).
The new series has already created some inconsisency with the star trek world. The perfect example is phrange, who appears according to TNG is piccard encounter as captain star gazer. I wonder how they will reconcil that with the new series...?
Phlox and T'Pal seem to be decent characters. Phlox is by far my favorite crew member.
I'm a long time Trek fan, all the way back to the orginal series. However, I'm finding even I'm not excited about the next season Enterprise. Scott Bakula's acting on this series is almost as bad as William Shatner's was in TOS. Furthermore, they've got him portrayed as a bleeding-heart, sissy, save the universe type, whereas Kirk was constantly getting in fist-fights with aliens and always hooking up with the hot looking alien chicks. And Kirk's time is supposed to be 100 years *after* Enterprise. Honestly, Janeway from Voyager was more interesting. Captain Archer is a yawn.
Maybe Bakula's character is supposed to be one of the compelling reasons for the Prime Directive, but it's not evident yet. I really hope they do some better character development this season.
Real software engineers regret the existence of COBOL, FORTRAN and BASIC.
I think Enterprise is fantastic for all the reasons most of you people hate it for. Because Star Trek has, after ten movies and twenty-four seasons, discovered a sense of humour. Seriously, the theme tune is hilarious and I laugh out loud every single time I hear it. The 'sex scene' was brilliantly done, especially with the geek-boy fantasy of rubbing a voluptuous Vulcan's pointy ears. In one of the episodes the away team is going through a deserted town, and a freaking tumbleweed blows past them. And let's not forget the guest spot with Al from Quantum Leap. I mean, who's cracked a real smile at most of the recent Treks? Hmm? Neelix, funny? Data? Anybody? I suppose you could make a possible exception for Quark, but even that's pushing it.
Compare this with Babylon 5 (all hail JMS), which can be darkly emotional and amusingly flippant with ease. For instance, when the first officer says to the captain "Good luck Captain, I think you're about to go where every man has gone before." just before he gets laid. Sci-fi should take itself less seriously once in a while. TOS had it just right - making you think while still being entertaining.
By the way, why isn't there a Captain Debate? I'll start you off: Kirk's the best because he's not afraid to use force and he gets laid nearly every single episode. Also, he could beat any other captain in single combat with ease. And blatantly William Shatner could out-sing them too.
He's dead, Jim. You grab his wallet, I'll take his tricorder.
Like Neelix the actor who plays Phlox is good. But their characters are annoying and should be shoved out the nearest airlock. I thought V'ger was bad (except for 7 of 9). When I stopped thinking of it as Star Trek I could watch it. But Enterprise blows. I forced myself to watch several episodes and I kept hoping it would get better. The only one that was tolerable was the one with the Andorians and that wasn't very good.
The only thing good on it was T'Pol and the detox gel scene. Though her name should be T'Schwing!. I think what would spice it up is have a time travel episode where T'Schwing! must hot oil wrestle Six of Nine while Captain Kirk is forced to watch while strapped to a table sans shirt.
The turning point of the whole Trek saga had to be the amazingly asinine episode of ST:TNG when they found out their warp drive was wearing out the fabric of spacetime.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Well, keep in mind that "Star Trek" was voyaging a lot, lot farther than "Enterprise". This current ship is basically wandering around the backyard of Earth.
Naturally there are a lot fewer dangers in the backyard than the forest.
It doesn't seem like it. I mean, before their first shore leave they've already met the Ferenghi, the Klingons and all those fancy Suliban, and it sounds like they're about to run into the Romulans. Apart from the Borg, they're now dealing with all the major powers in the quadrant. It doesn't sound to me like they're just playing in the backyard, or if they are, they have a lot of shady company.
Back when TNG was winding down, I read a lot of the same stuff. Sniping and nitpicking about how bad the series had gotten, how the endings seemed rushed, etc. To a point, some of it was true. Remember that episode where almost everyone devolved? Unfortunately, I do. Now I read posts holding TNG up as the standard for the others in the franchise. I have to disagree.
TNG was just like any other Trek spin-off. It started out crappy, found its legs then ran its course and ended just shy of wearing out its welcome. The first season reeked. Remember the male crew members in skirts in the background? How about the rehashes of old original series plots? TNG didn't get truly good until the third season. Same goes for DS9 and to a lesser extent Voyager.
As for the continuity, anyone read the "Nitpickers Guide To
Maybe it's time for the franchise to call it quits. Who knows? Personally, I'd just fire Berman and Braga and hire the folks who write the novels to do the show. Regardless, I'm going to continue to watch, let my opionions be known over at StarTrek.com and not worry about it much.
The growing sexual tension between T'Pal [sic] and the Archer is kind of interesting, though often overdone.
I think you must mean Trip (Commander Charles Tucker III) the Chief Engineer. I can't recall more than one or two scenes all season where there was any sexual tension between Captain Archer and T'pol. The infamous decontamination scene was between T'pol and Trip, for example.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
Well,lets see here. The orginal is too campy and corny for my tastes, but the movies were semi-decent entertainment. TNG was good from about the second season on. DS9 was the same as TNG. Voyager-- well, that crew could stay lost in space for all I care; of all the series this one was the worst. Enterprise -- well, what little I've seen leads me to believe this one could run another season or two, but they need to brush up on ST history before they clash with any more of the "history". But in reality, it all boils down to the fact that there are no new plots and everything is a re-hash. You have to judge shows on how good or bad and how believable the actors are.
Everyone is entirely too nice, virtuous, and righteous. Even in the original series, Kirk was a daredevil, an out of bounds guy. TNG and TOS made numerous references to the sordid past of the human race, even going into the space age.
Whatever happened to the Klingon vs. UFP war that started when a bad first contact was made? Will the UFP and Romulans engage in a war? Will the Romulans have warp drive? (They shouldn't if this is their first sighting with the UFP and the writers know even a LITTLE bit about the Star Trek timeline)
The problem is not that the writers are stretching the time line in order to make the show more exciting. The problem is that they are completely fracturing the time line in order to make as many cameo appearances of alien aliens races that have already been seen in other series (mostly TNG..not even TOS). Their cameo appearances are too boring, if you ask me, to warrant a full and complete breaking of the time line. It warrants a _total_ suspension of knowledge about most of what we have already seen of Star Trek...and if you need to do that, you've already lost half of what is cool about Star Trek.
And, yes, TNG was the best series, but not because it had the most action or special effects or sexy characters. Its plots had the most depth, the most meaningful themes, and the most _conflict_. Conflict can come in non-action mediums, but I don't believe the writers of Enterprise know this.
Salis
Favorite
It would have been a much better scene if the director wasn't in the shot throughout. That thoroughly ruined that scene for me.
1. The point is that the Universal Translator has to use whatever data they have; and they don't have a hell of a lot of data yet. 2. Even though the way they handle translation is unrealistic, she's still hot (much better looking than Blah-lock).
Why are you surprised? After all, they they had a huge opportunity with Voyager and look what happened to that. Think about it--lost far from home, with no way of contacting the Federation and no one to turn to for help, unknowns on all sides. .