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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.

132 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. nit picking by Trinity-Infinity · · Score: 2, Informative

    Bah.

    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 :P

    1. Re:nit picking by AnalogBoy · · Score: 2

      Who went on to play the Klingon Commander in Star Trek: The motion picture.

      And, IIRC, he had a cameo in ST: FC before he died (Looking up at the landing ship)

  2. Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by StefanJ · · Score: 2
    C'mon, what kind of geek are you? :-)


    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. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by Trinity-Infinity · · Score: 2

      You're right of course... the 'face to face' bit is what makes the whole episode :)

      But what's an episode with pivotal enemies without even seeing them? Hmmm.

      Then again, I was impressed with the introduction of the Andorians (much better than "Journey to Babel" with the Andorian assasin).

    2. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by SectoidRandom · · Score: 2

      Nit picking about ST:TOS is useless, I certainly hope they dont keep complete continuity. For example do you want the Klingons to look like humans with bad hair-do's, ala TOS??? Ergh...

      To actually keep continuity with every single TOS episode, you would have to rewrite just about every single TNG / DS9 / VOY / ENT episode ever since!

    3. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by MaxVlast · · Score: 2

      I rather think that plot continuity is different from makeup continuity. Like why the current Enterprise is a lot more high-tech looking than the one in TOS (which I actually think is kind of an error.)

      --
      There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
      Max V.
      NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
    4. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by IHateEverybody · · Score: 2


      But what's an episode with pivotal enemies without even seeing them? Hmmm.

      Two words: "Das Boot." Do a submarine style episode where the two ships shadow each other in much the same way that the Enterprise and the Romulan ship from "Balance of Terror" did without ever making visual contact. Show a lot of mounting tension as Archer and his crew try to figure out how to deal with the enemy ship and its unseen crew.

      --
      Does this .sig make my butt look big?
    5. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by jweatherley · · Score: 2

      They're a bit stuck here - my car's dashboard looks more hi-tech than the original Enterprise! What could they do to prevent it embarassing the original - build the set out of string, duct tape and bare planks of wood?

      --

      --
      Reverse outsourcing: it's the future
    6. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by MaxVlast · · Score: 2

      I agree with the need to make it realistic, but on the new Enterprise, things seem to work too well. The Enterprise D had more failures (computer, holodeck, etc.) than this Enterprise has had. Additionally, the ship itself looks a little too sophisticated. They've done well in the past at making vessels look low-tech without looking cheap or lame. I just don't fully believe that this ship is the first thing of the sort that humanity has put into space. It's just too "complete" looking.

      --
      There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
      Max V.
      NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
    7. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by dschuetz · · Score: 2

      Like why the current Enterprise is a lot more high-tech looking than the one in TOS (which I actually think is kind of an error.)

      Actually, I've dealt with that inconsistency by pretending it's the sets-and-props equivelant of Klingons.

      That is, in the 60's, makeup sucked (and maybe imaginations weren't as good, either?), so the Klingons looked like, er, TOS Klingons. The same thing with set design, technologies (and budget!). So when I watch TOS, I think of it as a low-budget adaptation of a world that actually looks quite a bit cooler than it does on TV. Or something like that.

      Why did the ST:TMP enterprise look so much better than TOS enterprise, even though they were only like 5 years apart, max, in the timeline?

    8. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by MaxVlast · · Score: 2

      I think we agree, but our preferences lie in slightly different places.

      I totally dig the movie Enterprise. I think outside, it's the classiest looking ship I've seen in the ST universe. The inside look they chose for ST:VI is pretty nice, too. I think the designers for Enterprise should have started there and worked back, instead of starting with DS9 and Voyager and working back.

      --
      There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
      Max V.
      NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
    9. Re:Picking your nits! Re:nit picking by MaxVlast · · Score: 2

      Right, right. I've seen the show. That's why I said "ship of the sort."

      This thing's experimental, a prototype. It, to me, just looks too much like a finished product. That's all I'm trying to say. It has the same sleek lines of Starfleet vessels hundreds of years in the future. I'd expect that the first high-speed experimental ship would by ungainly or peculiar-looking in some fashion.

      --
      There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
      Max V.
      NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
  3. Typical Enterprise Episode by happyhippy · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Typical Enterprise Episode by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      Actually, you are missing a BIG point that went with the origional Trek series...

      4.5 Captian tries to get in bed with whatever good looking female's available.

      and dammit, bring back the ultra-mini skirts but replace the pantihose with fishnets!

      seriously, Enterprise is the ONLY trek that I have ever set my VCR to record on a regular basis... TNG was too sanitized,DS9 was too much like hawaii-five-oh, and voyager was just a bad attempt overall. I love the fact that most every alien out there can kick the enterprise's arse. And I do believe that they should be a bit more violent... like load a shuttle full of explosives and give it to an alien attacker... (Ala B5-sequel style) or how about mining an entire solar system?

      Humans by nature are violent pricks... let's let the show degrade into a slugfest!

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Typical Enterprise Episode by extrasolar · · Score: 2

      Reunification was probably the best Vulcan episode ever.

    3. Re:Typical Enterprise Episode by Professor+J+Frink · · Score: 4, Insightful

      From the first viewing of the pilot episode where the explicit and gratuitous 'Rubbing gel all over the bodies of a well-stacked bird and some buffed up fella' scene happened I have had little interest in Star Trek Enterprise.

      The theme song is cringeworthy. They're blatantly using T'Pol to keep the sex-starved geekboys interested (To boldy pout where no large-breasted tramp has pouted before). There's (as is usual these days) an extreme overabundance of Americans (I mean, yeah, it's a big country, but you get the feeling any other country on Earth is slipped in only for plot development these days).

      And the Vulcans! Logical, suppresed emotions? My arse, the actors like to think that Arrogant, Condescending, Irritable and Sarcastic are things that a highly intelligent being with supressed emotions and a fixation on Logic would be doing, it's all been downhill since Spock if you ask me! What's more, as well as being some much-need T&A to keep the boys awake T'Pol is also continuing the theme of inhuman outsider who really really wants to be Human (or if you prefer and are a little cynical like me, really really want to be American). cf Data, Odo, 7of9 (note the theme of Tits In Tight Clothing coupled with Struggling to understand Humanity/The American Way they learned there and are making good use of now).

      It's all stuff we've seen before. They're all plots we've seen in one way or another before. The Aliens are still Just Humans(with all their mannerisms and emotions) With Funny Faces, they still use the Teleporters to get them out of sticky situations and I just know the Holodeck will make an appearance at some point so they can get down to some serious Holo-cobblers a la TNG and Voyager. All in all this in no way, for me, feels like a prequel to TOS, it feels just like one of a million other Americanised SciFi shows and after the horror story of Voyager (I won't even start to list how that narked me off) I hold little hope for Star Trek, it's all one big Franchise now and will never be allowed to die like it should have after DS9 (or before, according to taste).

      Maybe I'm just jaded ;0).

      Frink
      --
      "Don't get mad, get a monkey!"
    4. Re:Typical Enterprise Episode by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 2

      Huh... For some reason all your respondents seem to think you aren't American.

      I agree wholeheartedly with all of your comments, and I'm an American ST TOS/TNG fan. Just because someone maligns propaganda (or jingoistic faux patriotism, separate discussion) doesn't mean they aren't American. It doesn't even mean they're not a red blooded American patriot. I just don't like watching people try to manipulate me.

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
  4. We can all nit pick when we like something. by T-Kir · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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!
    1. Re:We can all nit pick when we like something. by extrasolar · · Score: 2

      Agreed. We Trekkers
      Need a graphic, a Star Trek
      Communicator

  5. Yeah! Bring back the Ensign mortality Rate!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

  6. Phlox and Romulans by nedron · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Phlox and Romulans by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 2, Interesting

      >I'm still unsure why it was necessary to swap the virutes of the Romulans and Klingons

      Even in TOS the Romulans were divided between honorable soldiers and slimy politicians. Remember when the centurion hinted that the commander might face reprisals for demoting the twit who broke radio silence?

      The characterization of Klingons changed more than the characterization of Romulans did. In Errand of Mercy, Kor had a ready-made, prenumbered Special Occupation Order for rounding up hostages. In Heart of Glory, Worf said "Klingons do not take hostages". Now, Worf did have a naive civics-book notion of what it meant to be Klingon, but notice that the renegade actually did release the little girl instead of using her as a shield.

    2. Re:Phlox and Romulans by nedron · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I just finished reading Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword by Kevin Ryan. He made the unfortunate choice to use many ST:TNG period Klingon attributes that read like speed bumps in a Star Trek novel. You're cruising along and then, bang , "Sho vo kor", speed bump. OK, I'm getting into the book again and, bang , "Kahless", speed bump. Rolling again, gaining speed, bang , "Klingon honor", speed bump. None of these would be out of place at all in a TNG novel and wouldn't cause me problems, but having them in s Star Trek (or Star Trek, The Original Series as Paramount insists on calling it) is a real distraction since they don't belong.

      The same thing happened with the lamentable "Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars". Everything was fine with the first book until the pointless addition of many TNG/DS9 characters. Even worse, the author decided that we couldn't possibly differentiate between reality and science fiction and tried to hide the events of the Eugenics Wars in our modern milieu. Ugh.

      --


      * As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
    3. Re:Phlox and Romulans by nedron · · Score: 2

      That's correct, but as presented in "The Savage Curtain", this Kahless was most likely representative of the less-than-honorable Klingons of the original series (best illustrated by John Colicos in Star Trek, not John Colicos in TNG/DS9), not the super honorable Klingons of TNG and its ilk.

      --


      * As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
  7. Ensigns by Cyno01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."
    1. Re:Ensigns by Kredal · · Score: 2

      No no no... Ensign Fodder.

      As in cannon...

      la la la, 20 second rule sucks, I'm waiting now... the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs

      --
      Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
  8. Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... 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."
    1. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by Com2Kid · · Score: 2

      I like to read these comments, then sit back and imagine what Galaxy Quest 2 will be like.


      Likely the subline for the first Enterprise based movie. . . .

      Enterprise: Galaxy Quest Part Deuce!

    2. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "- 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?"

      Heh I found that one amusing. I know people like that. Here's what bugs me: Enterprise has a wonderful opportunity to explore some of the events that were alluded to in the other series. Not only that, but we get it from the perspective of people fresh into deep space. This is really exciting, but these stupid 'purists' think that the show is better if they adhere to it literally. Do that, and you lose your opportunity. Some flexibility should be allowed.

      It's a TV show! It's ENTERTAINMENT! Enjoy it, don't sit there and act like you could make it better because you remember details that were only intended to pad out the drama.

      If you want rationalization for the 'inconsistencies', consider this: The 1701-E Enterprise influenced with Cochrane's life. The biggest hint of that was the naming of the NX-01 to Enterprise. Imagine it that way, quit griping, and enjoy the show!

      Nobody wants to witness a Milhouse Vs. Screech debate.

    3. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why can't they dedicate their lives to memorizing the Star Trek timeline like I have?

      Because they're getting paid to make Star Trek a significant portion of their lives, personally I expect them to be able to match the knowledge of the majority of Star Trek fans. Or at the very least to do a google search on occasion if they're unsure of anything. Contradicting something in another series or episode is fine if they make an active choice betwean entertainment value and continuency, but it's unprofessional if the break is done simply from ignorance. My watching of the franchise has been disjointed enough that I doubt I'd catch a mistake if it was made, but if I had a job related to the continuation of it you better believe I'd do my homework catching up.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    4. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "...but if I had a job related to the continuation of it you better believe I'd do my homework."

      I got news for ya: You'd definitely make mistakes. Let's do a little math:

      4 series. TOS had 3 seasons (I think), TNG had 7, DS9 had 7, Voy had 7. There were 10 movies, 6 of which based on the TOS crew, the other 4 were based on the TNG crew (with one approaching rapidly.) I think the number of episodes per season was in the 22-27 range depending on the series, so let's pretend there's 23 eps per season just for giggles. 7 * 3 + 3 = 24. 24 * 23 = approximately 552 episodes to watch.

      Sorry, you're human mind isn't capable of doing that error free. This isn't a 'homework' scenario, it's a PHD.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    5. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by decefett · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Sorry, you're human mind isn't capable of doing that error free. This isn't a 'homework' scenario, it's a PHD.

      Respectfully disagree, 552 episodes is not that many, especially when you cut out all the ones that deal solely interpersonal issues between characters. There are books about major events in the timeline and it is the screwing with major events that pisses ordinary fans off. Glossing over some obscure event from an earlier series is fine if it will greatly enhance the current one.

      The Ferengi episode is a great example, it added nothing the story of Enterprise but took too much licence with the timeline (they recorded the Ferengi on security cameras for gods sake). The episode on it's own was quite good but but even my girlfreind (only a casual fan) found the blantant timeline flouting annoying.

      I have been enjoying Enterprise, far more than I thought I would but if they need to resort to screwing with the established universe in first season I have my doubts about it's staying power.

      --
      Australian? Join EFA
    6. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by NeuroManson · · Score: 3, Funny

      Or as the crusty fat lumpy one said in an ancient Saturday Night Live sketch:

      "Get a life!"

      --
      Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
    7. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by Robber+Baron · · Score: 2

      Sorry, you're human mind isn't capable of doing that error free. This isn't a 'homework' scenario, it's a PHD.

      You take a sheet of paper and draw a flowchart/timeline on it. It seems to work for Lucas...

      --

      You're using her as bait, Master!

    8. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by NanoGator · · Score: 2

      Lucas is not known for his consistency. As a matter of fact, he's only got 6 movies to keep track of and he can't even manage that. In light of that, Star Trek is infinitely better in terms of consistency.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    9. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by Snaller · · Score: 2


      >- 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?

      This is a legitimate claim, those people WORK there, they get payed. Its noat as if it would take that long to ensure some continuity.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    10. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by Snaller · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >Here's what bugs me: Enterprise has a wonderful
      >opportunity to explore some of the events that
      >were alluded to in the other series. Not only
      >that, but we get it from the perspective of
      >people fresh into deep space. This is really
      >exciting, but these stupid 'purists' think that
      >the show is better if they adhere to it
      >literally.

      Those stupid purists being Berman and company?

      >It's a TV show!

      That doesn't mean it has to be stupid.

      > It's ENTERTAINMENT!

      That doesn't mean it has to be stupid.

      >Enjoy it,

      Enjoyment is what you enjoy, and some people can't enjoy what they find stupid.

      >... don't sit there and act like you could make it better ...

      You don't know that they couldn't. Infact these days it seems it wouldn't be that hard.

      >...because you remember details that were only
      >intended to pad out the drama.

      You don't know what those details were for. And Michael Okuda sneaked in a lot of those details on TNG, that didn't hurt or harm anyone and arguably improved on the flavour.

      Just because you are content to settle for less, don't vilify those who want more.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    11. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 2

      "There are actually several images of ships named "Enterprise" pre-Star Trek in the opening scene to Star Trek:Enterprise."

      Yeah, we've seen them in the ready room on the Enterprise-D. Yet, there's no NX-01 but there is the shuttle and the Aircraft carrier.

      Hmmmm...

    12. Re:Boy I love when Star Trek is a topic... by NanoGator · · Score: 2

      The database is only useful if you know what you're looking for.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  9. Inconsistency by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I really do love Enterprise, but it just makes things difficult when Star Trek has to write over itself to try and pretend that it's really our future yet to come.

    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
    1. Re:Inconsistency by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
      > Whatever happened to the Eugenics War [startrek.com] 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 [startrek.com] from Star Trek:TNG, where Picard goes off for 2 minutes on how Fermat's Last Theorem goes unsolved.

      Hmph. Obviously, the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem derived by human/machine symbiotes in the late 20th century was... umm, one of humanity's treasures that was lost during the carnage of the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s!

      The fact that the historical record lists the Eugenics Wars as being in the "1990s" was just an error in the historical record, arising from the Great UNIX Date Catastrophe of 2038. (Notice how the Star Trek universe never mentions the Great UNIX Date Catastrophe of 2038? It's because it happened, and all the dates got screwed up, and as a result there's no historical reference to it!)

      Beam me up, Paramount, there are no scriptwriters here. ("Dammit, Jim, I'm a Slashdotter, not a scriptwriter!")

    2. Re:Inconsistency by jafac · · Score: 2

      For their sake, I hope black holes [slashdot.org] 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".

      sounds like a job for George Lucas.

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
    3. Re:Inconsistency by Pollux · · Score: 2

      This show has equipment far more elaborate than the original series. The consoles on the original show were dials and knobs.

      So, you're saying that because a ST series set in the 23rd century that was based on 20th century technology, 20th century technology should take presidence over 21st century technology to create the setting of a 22nd century ST series?

      (All jest aside, I do think that the creators of the ship could have included at least a little more technology into the Enterprise...for example, why do the crewmembers need to push buttons to open doors? I mean, automatic door openers are a product of the 20th century...)

    4. Re:Inconsistency by YeOldeGnurd · · Score: 2
      Beam me up, Paramount, there are no scriptwriters here. ("Dammit, Jim, I'm a Slashdotter, not a scriptwriter!")


      But I thought slashdot was just chock full of script kiddies.

      --
      ...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...
    5. Re:Inconsistency by Latent+IT · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but maybe you don't want them opening all the time... who knows what might happen? Maybe the TNG Enterprise had advanced AI to determine if the crewmember was actually trying to walk into the room blocked by the door, or just walking down the hall. On a starship, you don't want doors that open willy-nilly, like every time I walk past CVS on my way to the bank.

      God, what the hell am I saying?!? You know, I don't think geeks watch Star Trek. I think Star Trek makes geeks.

    6. Re:Inconsistency by kmellis · · Score: 5, Funny

      "God, what the hell am I saying?!? You know, I don't think geeks watch Star Trek. I think Star Trek makes geeks."


      Thank you so much for providing the payoff for reading this thread. I wish I had some mod points to mod you up.

    7. Re:Inconsistency by Robber+Baron · · Score: 2

      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.

      Yeah I hear ya... I was disappointed when 1997 came and went and they didn't turn New York into a maximum security prison...

      --

      You're using her as bait, Master!

    8. Re:Inconsistency by jandrese · · Score: 4, Informative

      Think of it this way. There is a temporal cold war going on. There is quite a bit of subterfuge on both sides and no doubt plenty of assassination attempts on key figures thoughout history. Minor timeline inconsistancies are merely the work of time terrorists.

      Plus, there is a good chance that the Computer on the Enterprise will be damaged in a future episode before they get a chance to get back to Earth. Star Fleet computers seem to be very susceptable to this sort of tampering, as every third alien speices they encounter seems to be able to figure out the root password (which is apparently "password"). If the records were lost then it would account for the scarce anecdotal evidence the NCC-1701D crew had on the Ferengi when they first met them. Lord knows that nobody in Star Fleet has ever kept a backup.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    9. Re:Inconsistency by orkysoft · · Score: 2
      Lord knows that nobody in Star Fleet has ever kept a backup.

      Yes, and they can also only move files, not copy them. The MPAA must've succeeded in placing DRM technology in everything!

      --

      I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
    10. Re:Inconsistency by billbaggins · · Score: 2
      You forget one of the favorite pastimes of trekkies: explaining away inconsistencies! I'll have a go at this one...
      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.
      Fermat's theorem has been "proved" many times. Thus far, all but one of the (serious) "proofs" have been disproved. Perhaps the current reigning champion will fall as well. And maybe Dax simply "proved" it again, in a manner that will still need to pass peer review & all that rot.

      Ok, ok, so ST is probably going to remain a self-inconsistent universe no matter how hard some of us try. IT'S A FREAKIN' TV SHOW!!!! Laugh along, and tune in next week...

      --
      "The best argument against democracy is a five minute chat with the average voter."
      --Winston Churchill
  10. Billingsley is the token annoying character by SIGFPE · · Score: 2

    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
    1. Re:Billingsley is the token annoying character by ChadN · · Score: 3, Funny

      and on TOS, it was Kirk.

      --
      "It's overkill, of course. But you can never have too much overkill." - Anonymous Slashdot Coward
    2. Re:Billingsley is the token annoying character by jafac · · Score: 2

      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.

      Oh, come now - just because Wil Wheaton is all cool and 1337 and stuff, doesn't mean that Wesley Crusher wasn't the annoying character on TNG.

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
    3. Re:Billingsley is the token annoying character by TellarHK · · Score: 2

      Agreed. Wesley was annoying as hell most of the time.

      But the one that for some unknown reason got on my nerves the most was Yar.

    4. Re:Billingsley is the token annoying character by SIGFPE · · Score: 2

      Yeah...but he didn't appear in that many episodes. Or maybe my memory is rose tinted...

      --
      -- SIGFPE
    5. Re:Billingsley is the token annoying character by SIGFPE · · Score: 2

      Agreed.

      --
      -- SIGFPE
    6. Re:Billingsley is the token annoying character by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 2
      Bullshit. Phlox is the only redeeming character on the whole show. Well, maybe that British guy's alright...

      BTW. T'Pal is without contest the annoying character of Enterprise. I was sooo much hoping she'd be recalled back to the Vulcan home world... but stupid bitch didn't leave.

    7. Re:Billingsley is the token annoying character by jafac · · Score: 2

      but at least two good things happened:
      1) Data got to test his "hardware" on her.
      2) She got killed

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
  11. Why I gave up on Enterprise ... by SimplyCosmic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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".

    1. Re:Why I gave up on Enterprise ... by Peyna · · Score: 2

      You also have to keep in mind there really isn't a prime directive yet. They haven't messed up enough planets to have a set of rules to tell them not to.

      --
      What?
    2. Re:Why I gave up on Enterprise ... by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      (* You also have to keep in mind there really isn't a prime directive yet. They haven't messed up enough planets to have a set of rules to tell them not to. *)

      Thats what Enterprise should be about: making all the stupid mistakes that the later ships have rules against.

      I am still waiting for, "Oh yeah, Baby, take that bra off and I'll give your people warp drive!"

  12. Re:I happen to be pretty excited about season 2 to by Com2Kid · · Score: 2

    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. :(

  13. Re:I happen to be pretty excited about season 2 to by EvlG · · Score: 2

    Has anything actually happened with the time traveling cold war plot?

  14. The interview crashes my Mozilla by wytcld · · Score: 2

    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
  15. prime directive by mad_cow · · Score: 2, Insightful


    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.

  16. The technical solutions of Star Trek by OzRoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:The technical solutions of Star Trek by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      (* That is what we call "poetic license". In any story, such devices are used to further the story. Would you prefer they use magical powers like in the Bible? *)

      What do you mean? It was Q who parted the Red Sea for Moses and did the burning bush thing.

    2. Re:The technical solutions of Star Trek by OzRoy · · Score: 2, Funny

      You don't seem to get it.

      This is the "scientific" equivelent of magical powers.

      The crew get themselves into a position where there seems to be no solution. But by using their superious scientific knowledge it's all fixed.

      For example. I think it was a next gen episode I was watching. It was the very first episode I watched after I had been informed of these two solutions. A couple of crew members were being blocked by a force field.

      Crew member 1: "I believe I can disrupt the field by [insert techno babble here] with my tri-corder."
      [wave tricoder] [buzzing sound effect?]
      Crew member 1: "Hmm. It's not quite working"
      Crew member 2: "Try reversing the polarity"
      [force field disapears]
      Crew memeber 1: "That got it!"

      Now tell me how this is plausible than magic powers.

      Now for an encore here is my telling the parting of the red sea.

      Hebrew Follower: "Oh no we are trapped! The egyptions are closing in on us"
      Moses: "Never fear! I shall part the red sea and we shall escape"
      [wave staff around][magical sound effect]
      Moses: "Dammit! It's not working"
      Follower: "Try passing the tachyon beam through the oak staff array"
      Moses: "Still nothing!"
      Follower: "Reverse the polarity!!"
      [sea parts]
      Moses: "It's working! Hurry everyone. Flea for your lives!"

    3. Re:The technical solutions of Star Trek by Rogerborg · · Score: 2
      • Solution number 2: "Reverse the polarity of the nuetron flow"

      For those that don't know, this is an actual technobabble ex machina from Dr Who. Yes, the show that was conceived as "educational". ;-)

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  17. Re:Bloody Continuity Errors by harborpirate · · Score: 2, Informative

    Commander Tuvoc (Voyager) bled green in several episodes. As far as I know blood color continuity has been consistent across all Star Treks.

    Enterprise has not dealt with alien blood colors to this point to my knowledge.

    Of course, this'll probaly cost me Karma as its pretty much offtopic.

    grrrrr.

    --
    // harborpirate
    // Slashbots off the starboard bow!
  18. BoreTrek, The previous generation by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, but the only thing that got me to watch Enterprise was uber babe Jolene Blalock.

    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 fire the proton torpedoes or not, that is the question Captain"

    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?

    1. Re:BoreTrek, The previous generation by Master+Bait · · Score: 2

      I'm so sick of those Rubber-nosed 'alien' characters. I think the ST mentality has been milked way past death.

      --
      "Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
      --Tom Schulman
    2. Re:BoreTrek, The previous generation by Cy+Guy · · Score: 2

      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

      If you remember the episode Assignment Earth in TOS where they go back to the go abck to what was then the present (the mid 1960's) and there is guy named Gary Seven with a black cat, as well as his secretary played by Teri Garr, and the guy has to avert an explosion during an Apollo launch. My understanding is that this episode was filmed as pilot for a potential spin-off right along the line of the show you would like to see.

      City on the Edge of Forever with Joan Collins set in the Depression has a similar plot only it was Spock that had to ensure that history wasn't interfered with. Same with the 2-part episode of Voyager where they travel back to 1990's San Francisco. And it's used again in the DS9 episode where they go back to the Trouble with Tribbles episode of TOS (included the great Worf line where he declines to explain why the Klingons have no bumps on the foreheads).

      Really it is a common theme and it would make a good series. Of course, there was no way to do it if Scott Bakula was the lead, because the series concept would be too similar to Quantum Leap.

  19. Killing People by istartedi · · Score: 2

    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"?
    1. Re:Killing People by AnalogBoy · · Score: 2

      One of my leading questions is.. i can deal with the technology differences.. but how are they going to segue into using those god-awful tunic's as the unforms?

      There must be a retro-look from hell... the 1960's will be in style again.. in 2250!

    2. Re:Killing People by istartedi · · Score: 2

      After I posted that, I thought about that too. The original series was definitely... dayglo. So, maybe they could have some kind of contest as a subplot, and the 60s uniforms could lose in favor of oh... colored collars, insignia, or armbands which would fit in better with the aesthetics of the rest of the show. Then, somebody could remark that the rejected suggestion was "ahead of it's time, and really should have won".

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    3. Re:Killing People by Kredal · · Score: 3, Informative

      check out the pinstriping on the Enterprise uniforms.. they have the colors that represent different sections.

      Red is engineering and security
      Gold is command
      Blue is science and medical

      --
      Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
  20. Oh, this is good! by Pollux · · Score: 3, Funny

    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!"

    1. Re:Oh, this is good! by AnalogBoy · · Score: 2

      Except, on enterprise, phlox's anatomy will be re-arranged entertainingly each week due to transporter malfunctions.

  21. My take on Enterprise... by Raleel · · Score: 3, Redundant

    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? --
    1. Re:My take on Enterprise... by AnalogBoy · · Score: 2

      First two seasons of TNG? Weren't they always the same intro? I mean, aside from the changing credits and the "Stream effect" on the logo itself..

      Then again i didn't become a TNG fan until i was 10 or so... in 1990. So i missed the first two seasons on initial run.

      BTW, search kazaa for the Enterprise Alternate opening. it rules.

    2. Re:My take on Enterprise... by JimPooley · · Score: 2

      But the video, the video -- head and shoulders the best opening Trek has ever done. The way the scenes of astronauts are alternated with blueprints and calculations is an acknowledgement of how all those triumphs really happened, and a reminder of the glories that can be achieved when jocks and nerds work together. It has a thematic unity we haven't scene since the intro to the first two seasons of TNG, which it surpasses in depth of human feeling.

      Oh yes. The opening sequence. Typical 'America Rules!!!' wank. So where in this opening sequence can we find first artificial satellite Sputnik, first man in space Yuri Gagarin, or the longest inhabited space-station Mir? That's a bit of a Stalinist attitude to history, don't you think?

      --

      "Information wants to be paid"
    3. Re:My take on Enterprise... by anomaly · · Score: 2

      The storyteller gets the privilege of including those details that he considers relevant.

      When the Russians are making the TV show they can highlight the accomplishments of their heroes and leave out the work camps and people who dissapeared during that era because they knew too much....

      --
      But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
  22. Wish they were interviewing T'Pol by GuyMannDude · · Score: 3, Funny

    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

  23. Re:Star Trak is seriously starting to suck in my b by C0LDFusion · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.
  24. sounds like a job for George Lucas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The black hole fired first! :)

  25. Re:Ensigns - wearing RED by Glorat · · Score: 2

    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....

  26. More Bikinis! by simetra · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
    1. Re:More Bikinis! by taxman_10m · · Score: 2

      They don't have a holodeck yet so there must be tennis courts and swimming pools somewhere on the ship.

    2. Re:More Bikinis! by sconeu · · Score: 2

      Haven't you seen the decontamination scenes yet?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    3. Re:More Bikinis! by Wolfrider · · Score: 2, Funny

      I would tend to agree, although I wouldn't mind seeing more KLINGON females with those distinctively Klingon revealing tops. ;-)
      .

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
  27. Re:Star Trak is seriously starting to suck in my b by mgblst · · Score: 2

    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!

  28. Re:Rehash by taxman_10m · · Score: 2

    Nah. Last I checked he had a love interest. Have her cheat on him with some ensign who later needs his flu shot, but instead of a flu shot Phlox gives him 21st century ebola. And then have it such that everyone on the ship knows what he did, but they can't prove it, so he remains their doctor.

  29. Mute + Re: My take on Enterprise by Forkenhoppen · · Score: 2

    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? : )

  30. Re:Troi? Annoying?? Her cleavage too big for you?! by AnalogBoy · · Score: 2

    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.

  31. Re:Bloody Continuity Errors by AnalogBoy · · Score: 2

    Klingon Blood in Star Trek 6 was pepto-bismol pink to maintain the PG-13 Rating, IIRC.

    Vulcan blood has always been green. They usually go to lengths to give a greenish-tint to the skin of vulcans too. And, on TOS, Mascera.

  32. $0.205 by AnalogBoy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.)

  33. Re:Troi? Annoying?? Her cleavage too big for you?! by SIGFPE · · Score: 2

    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
  34. Re:Star Trak is seriously starting to suck in my b by uncoveror · · Score: 2

    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.
  35. Re:Yeah whatever by Myco · · Score: 2

    If you READ THE ARTICLE, you'd see that "Neelix syndrome" refers to the oft-mentioned but never-revealed remainder of the character's species. We never saw any other Talaxians on Voyager. The question was whether the same would be true of the Denobulans.

  36. Re:I happen to be pretty excited about season 2 to by EvlG · · Score: 2

    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).

  37. Analogy by extrasolar · · Score: 2

    GalaxyQuest is to Star Trek, as Star Trek is to everyone else.

  38. Shameless Plug by sconeu · · Score: 2

    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.
  39. Re:Troi? Annoying?? Her cleavage too big for you?! by sconeu · · Score: 2

    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.
  40. Can't happen by smoketree · · Score: 5, Funny

    It should be obvious that transporters -- like all devices in the future -- will have DRM protections preventing duplication.

    --Reed

  41. Re:Phlox? by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Phlox is an interesting character, T'Pol is just a pair of tits with pointy ears:)

    In a Mad spoof, the Vulcan females had up-pointing tits also.

  42. Re:Yeah whatever by NeMon'ess · · Score: 2

    In one of the last few episodes of Voyager a population of talaxians inside an asteroid is helped by Voyager. Neelix leaves Voyager to live his life with his own people.

  43. Excited! by evilviper · · Score: 2
    I'm seriously excited for the next season of Enterprise.


    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
    1. Re:Excited! by anomaly · · Score: 2

      That was the biggest disappointment of the pilot! Why did they feel the need to add that to the show? Simply as an excuse to reduce Jolene from an actor to a collection of body parts?

      It added nothing to the storyline - it wasn't even plausible - what about the contaminants in their hair, nails, ears, etc?

      What a waste. I was hoping for better than that, but I guess that even in that century the exploitation of women for their physique is still a ratings booster.

      Great storytelling need not rely on profanity, graphic violence and scantily clad women. I guess the producers were opting for mediocre storytelling.....

      --
      But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
  44. ObTrekker Whining by Raptor+CK · · Score: 2

    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."
    1. Re:ObTrekker Whining by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 2

      All that Balance of Terror said was that all communications between Romulans and Terrans were handled over audio-only channels. They did fight a pretty big war, eventually resulting in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Think the DMZ between North and South Korea.

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    2. Re:ObTrekker Whining by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 2

      And having the Federation tangle with a strange looking ship, and communicating with them through audio only links shouldn't reveal anything about the genetic heritage of the Romulans.

      That having been said, this IS Brannon and Braga, or however the hell they're spelled.

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  45. Series needs 50cc of creativity, STAT. by Mulletproof · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "...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.

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  46. Theme Song by Mulletproof · · Score: 2

    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!!!

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  47. Star Trek: TOS by DCMonkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is it bad that I keep reading that as "Star Trek: Terms of Service"?

    --
    DCMonkey
  48. No can do... by Mulletproof · · Score: 2

    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.

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    1. Re:No can do... by Pxtl · · Score: 2

      This is why I watched DS9. Stuff happened with aftereffects. Odo went through hell and back many times and got pretty fscked up by it. Nog's seen some serious shit too.

    2. Re:No can do... by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 2

      Oooh! Oooh! Like the time where Picard went through the life-altering experience of experiencing an entire lifetime as a guy on a planet, and he discovered it was doomed, and he raised an entire family, and the only lingering aftereffects was a prediliction to play 'Frere Jaques' on a little flute like thing.

      Great episode, crap followup.

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  49. $0.205 by Mulletproof · · Score: 3, Funny

    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?"

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  50. Expendable Interns by Mulletproof · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...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...

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  51. Klingon Beach Party! by NeuroManson · · Score: 2

    Need I say more?

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  52. Re:I happen to be pretty excited about season 2 to by JimPooley · · Score: 2

    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"
  53. What they need to do with the intro by Treeluvinhippy · · Score: 2

    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.

    --
    >
  54. Re:Troi? Annoying?? Her cleavage too big for you?! by Kredal · · Score: 2

    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.

    --
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  55. Re:Babylon 5.. by Pxtl · · Score: 2

    They are right - it does get much better. In fact, the story just increases in quality gradually over time - until it hits the final season (that was tacked on - they'd planned to end it a season earlier) when it falls like a rock.

    Much like Star Trek, first season is mediocre, second is okay, third is awesome.

  56. Re:Star Trak is seriously starting to suck in my b by Pxtl · · Score: 2

    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.

  57. Re:Phlox? by Pxtl · · Score: 2

    Idunno, I thought Jake and Nog were good characters once DS9 progressed. At teh beginning they were just annoying kids, but they got better. I thought it was a great concept that Jake becomes a writer and Nog joins Star Fleet (since everyone expected Jake and Nog to follow in their parents footsteps). And they're not supergeniuses like Wesley - they're just regular guys.

  58. Re:Ensigns (and Space Mortality) by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 3, Funny
    You know, when we first went into space, we knew it was dangerous. Plenty of people died, and we were sad about it, but we didn't freak out. By 1987 we had apparently changed, to the point where we really did freak out when the Challenger blew up, and it took us years to get the space program back on track.

    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).

  59. Re:new series ideas by Pxtl · · Score: 2

    Idunno, they tried something like that with Space: Above and Beyond. It was good for a while, but they ran out of storylines.

    I think Starfleet Academy would've been better. Even if it was "dawson's creek in space" - it'd still have been better. Watch Smallville for a good idea of mixing sci-fi and teens well.

    Unfortunately Starfleet ground combat equipment is - Star fleet ship's crew uniforms with phasers.

    Come on, ST could deck out commandoes hardcore, but they never do. We're going to fight the Borg - lets bring phasers and trichorders and nothing else.

    My ideal Starfleet Marine would be decked out with
    1) rifle (compression phaser, old phaser, transporter sniper, whatever).
    2) little class 3 phaser (the tiny keychain sized one) as a backup.
    3) chemical-propelled projectile pistol with replicator and conventional ammo clips (for those environments where phasors dont work).
    4) visor instead of trichorder. Be good for light-amp and scanning - and I'm sure you could set it to see visible.
    5) some sort of little unarmed little anti-grav scouts - like flying versions of the spiders from minority report. Lets send the expendable robots to look around that corner instead of the yellowshirts. Give them a live feed to the visor.
    6) energy shields. If it only has a 10 second charge or only stops projectiles or something, its still useful.
    7) Spock's boots. Death by falling is not an option. These would probably not be used all the time - I'm sure youd just be a target flying around the battlefield.
    8) Variable charge grenades that could level a city block. You never know - besides, they've got shields. Star Trek has matter energy conversion - these are quite doable.
    9) A short sword. How many times have things become hand to hand combat when all that high-tech crap doesn't work.
    10) Armor. People get shot at with conventional bullets and hit with Battleths all the time. Why are they not prepared for this? Throw in Insurrection-style personal cloaking while they're at it. I'm sure its very primitive and can be seen with a simple visor, but you're not always fighting well-equipped people.

    One thing they never do - we're behind cover, so are they. We've got a ship in orbit. The enterprise's phasors have been used to bore holes into planets. Why not just request some fire support? Could have some very nice special effects for seeing the main phasor banks hitting a point a kilometer away.

  60. Enterprise's Hilarious by Jobby · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

  61. Re:Thats what makes Trek great! by Pxtl · · Score: 2

    Idunno, all I want them to do is blow up the Earth in a TNG movie. Really, Earth is always this sickeningly sweet planet in Star Trek, everybody's home - it gets attacked so friggin' many times. Just fscking blow it up, give us some real tragedy.

  62. Re:new series ideas by stinkydog · · Score: 2

    Other Items needed:
    Cool Title
    A cool 'special forces' ship (small,fast lots of guns)
    Tanks, Aerocycles, Tunneling machines etc.
    No enginieer (If it's broke, blow it up attitude)
    HoloCloaks (limited invisibility and/or feature changes)
    Breaching tools (penatrate a shield and board a ship)
    Limited Ammunition
    Holodeck training facility
    Holo-enabled briefing room
    Starfleet disavows knowlege of missions
    D&D casting (Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cleric)
    Blood & Gore
    Antimatter Mine (Magnetic bottle of antimatter that breaks on command)
    Quantim Black hole capsule (open over enemy bunker and enjoy)

    SD

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