Enterprise Season Premiere Tonight

l0key432 writes "Enterprise, Star Trek's fifth series, begins its second season on UPN tonight at 8pm/7pm central with the episode Shockwave Part II, airing just before the series premier of the new 'The Twilight Zone' show at 9pm/8pm central. Shockwave II is the conclusion to last season's season-ending cliff-hanger, and additional info can be found at this page(possible spoilers!) on StarTrek.com." Of course with my luck, it'll be pre-empted by some sporting event.

Comments

First season was lame, but TNG's was lamer.

[Typingsux]

And I'm very happy how TNG came around. As a matter of fact, on TNN at 11PM EDT "Best of both worlds" is on. It seems like I'll have a TV night for once.

Vulcan luvin...

[override11]

Hopefully something tragic will happen and they will have to enter the decontamination room and spread goo on each other again!!!!

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[Psmylie]

What would be even better is if they had Seven of Nine do some kinda time warp thing and she can be in the decontamination room with the vulcan chick and they can be spreading goo on each other and and Troi could be there too and for some reason the blue chick from Farscape and ... urgh..

*GASP!*

*INHALE!*

*EXHALE!*

Whew, just had a little ubergeek hyperventilation there.

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[sql*kitten]

Hopefully something tragic will happen and they will have to enter the decontamination room and spread goo on each other again!!!!

That Vulcan is one skanky girl. The translator is cute, tho'.

Not that I've got anything against Vulcans, I liked Spock's apprentice in the one where Kirk and Bones get exiled to the prison planet. I am amazed that Kirk never made a move on her, maybe that bit ended up on the cutting room floor.

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[iamsure]

How in the name of geekdom could you leave Skully out of that?

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[Scutter]

I liked Spock's apprentice in the one where Kirk and Bones get exiled to the prison planet.

That's Kim Catrall, baby! She was a hottie until she started doing "Sex and the City". Now she's just annoying and old-looking. Ahh, how I miss the "Mannequin" and "Big Trouble in Little China" days... *sigh*

Oh, geez, I almost forgot Porky's! w00t!

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[Nightpaw]

We probably won't get to see them; I think she's just posing for Holding Your Own Boobs Magazine.

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[Psmylie]

How in the name of geekdom could you leave Skully out of that?
Ran outta breath, sorry ;)

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[Dr. Spork]

Troi? Oh no! You really ruined it for me! There is nothing at all sexy about Troi. In fact, she has great "limpening powers" if you know what I mean. I'll agree with you about Seven of Nine. I'm still not convinced by the Vulcan chick--she seems like a shallow Seven-of-Nine wannabe.... sofar. But she's no Troi. She doesn't yet cause me to scream when she opens her mouth.

Re:Vulcan luvin...

[Psmylie]

Funny that you have a problem with Troi, but not with "the blue chick from Farscape" ;)

Funny...

[Adnans]

Just finished watching 2x01! Satellite feeds rock! :-)

-adnans

Tonight?

[Jucius Maximus]

It was on last night (Sep 17, 2002) at 10pm EST (GMT-4) in Canada...

So if you haven't seen it, someone else here probably has. So you don't want to read on if you want to avoid spoilers.

So essentially ... SPOILER ALERT(!!) for this whole story.

thanks,

[Sarin]

Since the television stations in my country haven't even made effort to air the first season this year,
I'll keep an eye out for it on alt.binaries.multimedia.startrek and alt.binaries.startrek , thanks to the people there I've been able to follow the first season.

THE LONE GUNMEN ARE DEAD

[teamhasnoi]

I mean they are going to be in this episode. I'll be watching with a beer in hand and wishing I had a TIVO. I'm sure they are going to *stuff* the breaks w/ commercials.

I feel bad for those New Yorkers who won't be able to record it. :(

Captain Jonathan Archer is Dead

[techstar25]

It's already been broadcast in the east coast.
Sorry about the spoiler.
;-) just having a little fun.

Re:Enterprise is boring, sorry it has to be said.

[spagma]

It takes some time for them to work into a groove. I didn't think last season was bad at all, and I am looking forward to each episode this season. Its definitely worth a watch.

I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Thag]

Enterprise IS boring.

Plus, the "Dear Doctor" episode really really pissed me off. Leave an entire race to die, get laid! What a great moral...

Frankly, I only really watched Enterprise because Special Unit 2 was on afterwards, and after they took SU2 off the air, there was no reason to watch Enterprise any more.

I'm looking forward to Firefly on Friday. Joss Whedon writing, and Ben Edlund to keep the show going after Joss loses interest.

Jon Acheson

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[fmaxwell]

Plus, the "Dear Doctor" episode really really pissed me off. Leave an entire race to die, get laid! What a great moral...

I thought that was one of the most thought-provoking pieces of sci-fi to hit television in a long time.

For those unfamiliar with the plot (spoilers ahead):

Enterprise encounters a small pre-warp vessel manned by a crew carrying a fatal disease. Phlox agrees to help their people (the Valakians). When Enterprise arrives at the alien planet, the doctor discovers that the Valakians have a genetic flaw causing them to fall prey to the disease. He concludes that it will eventually lead to their extinction. The Menk, a less advanced humanoid species, are subjugated by the Valakians but show promising signs of intellectual development. Doctor Phlox resists interfering with the natural evolution taking place on the planet, asking Archer what would have happened had ancient extraterestrials given Neanderthals an advantage over Homo Sapiens on Earth. Although it's one of the hardest decisions he has ever faced, Archer agrees with the doctor's reasoning. Even though the doctor has developed a cure for the disease, Enterprise gives the Valakians medicine that will only slow the symptoms and ease their suffering.

I found it to be a fascinating insight into the moral responsibilities that they faced: Cure the sick, leaving them to continue their subjugation of a developing species, or allow nature to take its course while doing what they could to ease suffering.

P.S. No, I did not have the whole thing memorized. I did a bit of web surfing to get the names of the species and some plot specifics.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Drachemorder]

It was definitely thought-provoking, but my enjoyment of it was muted by the fact that I disagreed with the conclusion.

I hardly think it's morally correct to deny a race the cure to their genetic disease in favor of what might happen thousands or even millions of years in the future. To me it's the same moral question as "Does the end justify the means?" --- should one do something that seems wrong in the present in order to promote a future good?

Besides, on a more practical note, I think it would have made for more interesting character development later in the series if Archer had taken the opposite opinion and stuck to his moral guns, even if that meant a rift developed between him and Phlox. It would be fun to see the captain and the doctor at each other's throats!

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Enterprise IS boring."

Women find computers boring. Is it because they're uninteresting, or that they just don't get it?

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[cecirdr]

The conclusion to not interfere seems valid if you consider "humanity" to be outside of nature. If you consider "human-ness" to be part and parcel of how nature works, then our technological advances are no different than a thunderstorm, earthquake, or healing summer shower....metaphorically speaking.

In other words, perhaps "interfering" could also be part of nature's plan or "natural evolution". Humanity is a part of nature too...just as elephants are both destructive and constructive. We just use technology as our agent of change.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[nhavar]

I agree somewhat with the thought, but it can be twisted.

As an example look at the American Northwest. For several thousand years man existed within the natural ecosystem. When the different anglo cultures arrived the assumption was that they had dominion over everything in site and could shape it to fit their needs. Technology was used as an agent of change. This included almost complete obliteration of several animal species. We justified it by saying "We're the alpha preditor, no other alpha preditors need to exist". Likewise we used the "we're part of nature and our actions are within that scope".

To this day ranchers and the Idaho government say idiotic things like "We killed all the wolves 70 years ago, don't bring back things we got rid of." Similar attitudes prevail with some races of people (indians and other minorities), animals, plants, and insects.

In nature there is a balance. However messy it might be. In human society we work to continually tip this balance in our favor often to the detriment of nature itself. Additionally this tipping of the scales can have serious repercussions on our future.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[perlyking]

Well we all find something boring dont we :-)

I found Enterprise boring because it felt like Bonanza meets Quantum leap.
Anyone know why?

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[shepd]

>Cure the sick, leaving them to continue their subjugation of a developing species, or allow nature to take its course while doing what they could to ease suffering.

I think there was a huge plot hole left open in the episode -- the Valakians were never fully told (or shown) that the other species was approching a full intelligence. Had they done that and shown a poor reaction to it, it would have made much more sense.

However, considering how the Valakians never appeard to mistreat the Menk, I consider the Doctor a serious jerk in this case. It seems pretty obvious it would be better for the two species to live in harmony (which it seems they would) than let one be wiped out. Or at least that's what Greenpeace would like us to think. ;-)

And, last but not least, the Doctor's counter-argument is a poor one at best. He doesn't consider the possibility that the two species (human/neanderthal) could possibly live together happily. Imagine the difference in the world if that had happened.

Fortunately, it still doesn't sour me on the captain. I just consider his feeble mind to have been swindled against by another half-argument. :-)

(Okay, yeah, I take this too seriously. So what?)

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[fmaxwell]

I hardly think it's morally correct to deny a race the cure to their genetic disease in favor of what might happen thousands or even millions of years in the future. To me it's the same moral question as "Does the end justify the means?" --- should one do something that seems wrong in the present in order to promote a future good?

To some extent, it's like the nature shows one sees. While the cinematographers and crew could easily frighten off the wildebeasts, thus, saving them from the lions, they do not.

This is also not a matter of "doing." It is just the opposite: Dr. Phlox did not actively attempt to interfere with the natural evolution in action on the planet.

It would be fun to see the captain and the doctor at each other's throats!

I thought that it was more interesting to see Archer develop intellectually and emotionally as he started to understand Dr. Phlox's perspective. He realized that, through their technology, they had the ability to play god, saving species and dooming others throughout the galaxy.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[fmaxwell]

The conclusion to not interfere seems valid if you consider "humanity" to be outside of nature.
[snip]
Humanity is a part of nature too...just as elephants are both destructive and constructive. We just use technology as our agent of change.

To extraterrestrial ecosystems (exoecosystems?), humanity is outside of nature. By your logic, we would be perfectly justified in travelling to a planet and destroying it because we are part of "nature" and we have the ability to destroy the planet.

Along with our technology, knowledge, and intellect come responsibilities. While you cannot hold an elephant responsible for destruction they cause, we can, and should, hold ourselves responsible for our actions. While we might be able to play god someday, I hope we have the wisdom not to.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[fmaxwell]

I think there was a huge plot hole left open in the episode -- the Valakians were never fully told (or shown) that the other species was approching a full intelligence. Had they done that and shown a poor reaction to it, it would have made much more sense.

The fact that they had not recognized and encouraged this on their own speaks worlds about their view of the other race. In a matter of a few hours or days, it was obvious to Phlox that the Menks were a developing race with great promise yet they were still being treated much as humans treated slaves in centuries past.

He doesn't consider the possibility that the two species (human/ neanderthal) could possibly live together happily. Imagine the difference in the world if that had happened.

And imagine the difference in the world if Neanderthal's shared with Homo Sapiens the unfortunate tendencies towards genocide and prejudice.

That's the danger with playing god: You end up being ethically responsible for the outcome.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[shepd]

>it was obvious to Phlox that the Menks were a developing race with great promise yet they were still being treated much as humans treated slaves in centuries past.

I don't think they were treated like slaves. Slaves were usually beaten into submission, along with other horrible human rights violations. I didn't see that on this episode. They had reasonable jobs that fit their intelligence, lived happily in their own communities, and didn't complain, even though they clearly had enough intelligence to be able to do that if they weren't happy.

That doesn't sound at all like slavery on earth. I certainly didn't hear the Menk singing "Wade in the Water"... :)

Not to mention I didn't see anything _forcing_ the Menk to work. They didn't have to, AFAIK. They just wanted to because they're all good hearted people on that planet. If only people could have this sort of co-existence here...

I simply saw a race of people whose intelligence has gone unnoticed. This isn't all that unusual -- even we do this with other animals (are dolphins smart? What would it take to convince you they are?).

>And imagine the difference in the world if Neanderthal's shared with Homo Sapiens the unfortunate tendencies towards genocide and prejudice.

The two races on the show were peacefully co-existing. There appeard to be no spite or malice towards the Menk, and this goes to prove that these races have no human reactions to such things as a lack of intelligence (most humans instinctually scorn this, and treat "stupid" people poorly).

>That's the danger with playing god: You end up being ethically responsible for the outcome.

The moment Phlox made the cure he became ethically responsible either way. It's a catch-22 -- do nothing, one race dies, and people blame it on you. Do something, and an unpredictable outcome happens.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Thag]

It was definitely thought-provoking, but my enjoyment of it was muted by the fact that I disagreed with the conclusion.

This is a very nice way to put it. It doesn't quite capture my utter moral abhorrence of the episode's conclusion, though.

To me, the moral of the episode was "Because I disagree with these people's politics, they all deserve to die." And in particular, Phlox's dialogue about how the ruling race being genetically predisposed towards the disease that was killing them amounted to some kind of genetic destiny was utterly chilling. To me, it's the secular humanist equivalent of "God told me you have to die."

If I were Archer, I would have suspended Phlox's medical licence immediately, ordered him to give over the cure, and launched a court-martial inquiry back home to determine his ongoing fitness to practice medicine. (Practice it somewhere else, that is, because he would never practice medicine on my crew again.)

On the other hand, this is from the same franchise that put nurseries on warships, so expecting any kind of moral consciousness from them is probably an exercise in futility.

Jon Acheson

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Saeger]

But I can't shake the notion that there's a *much* more vast equation and we don't have a clue about that, just as the elephant doesn't have a clue about how his behaviour fits into a bigger picture.

We do have a tiny clue, but you're right that it's not enough to see the big picture from our current perspective. You can't teach an elephant to engineer a space shuttle any more than a human can be taught to understand "42".

--

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[NanoGator]

Heh. I had a feeling I'd flush out a femme with that comment.

So I gotta ask: Did you think I meant you in particular, or did you think I meant every single female living today on the entire planet?

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Anonvmous Coward]

Hey idiot, you forgot to hit the 'AC' button when you tried to pose as me. Ass. lol.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Thag]

it was a great moral, unless you have rather simplistic moral views.

You must certainly be an innovator in the field of morality then.

I begrudgingly agreed with Phlox's assessment of the situation. I wanted them to save the dying population, but at the same time I had to agree that nature was taking its course.

If your mantra is "Let nature take its course," why be a doctor?

The "subservient" race of people were experiencing rapid evolution. to help the dying race would be to cut off that branch and deny it the chance to grow. This would be, beyond good and evil, morally wrong on an intensly universal level.

Except that in the actual episode, the ruling race was shown to be fairly benevolent, and in no way was preventing the subservient race from developing, becaue there they were and the development was going on.

In a thousand years or more, humans will return to the planet and find a thriving civilization which will greatly outstrip the previous dying civilization.

...that they killed.

And, how does it necessarily follow that the subservient race will thrive in the absence of the ruling race? If the ruling race dies off rapidly and civilization collapses, most of the subservient race will die in the ensuing dark ages. Possibly all of them.

Here in this episode we have the beginnings of the foundation of the Prime Directive. You cannot interfere in the internal self-determination of one species over another. I am shocked that you could not understand that.

And here we see why Kirk frequently defied the Prime Directive. And I'm not at all surprised you couldn't understand that.

Jon Acheson

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Dr. Spork]

I think the Prime Directive stuff strikes the wrong chord in an age when our leaders are perfectly willing to bomb the shit out of less advanced cultures--for money. If you like that sort of stuff, you're not going to like the Prime Directive.

However, the way I interpret the situation is that the Prime Directive is exactly right, and our current leaders are perverted shithead bastards.

Although, having said that, I do think it's a bit hard to draw this analogy with regard to helping less technologically advanced cultures here on Earth. The Prime Directive presupposes that we are dealing with an insulated society that has not been tampered with by the technologically advanced powers. As a matter of fact, there is no such society on Earth right now. So the question of whether we should do something to undo some of the poverty and diseases in Africa can't be seen in a Prime Directive context, because we are responsible in large part for their social ills. (By "we" I mean, again, the technologically advanced powers.) We bully their economies and leave them to dig in diamond mines, if we leave any work for them at all... We sell them weapons and watch them blow holes in each other. So yes, the Prime Directive allows the Federation to undo the damage they cause to societies. That's why "charity" for Africa is a moral imperative, but interference with an undisturbed culture is a moral transgression. These values make perfect sense in my opinion.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[legoboy]

I found it to be a fascinating insight into the moral responsibilities that they faced: Cure the sick, leaving them to continue their subjugation of a developing species, or allow nature to take its course while doing what they could to ease suffering.

Pshaw. Letting nature take its course. You're defending genocide, here. "I have a cure for what will kill billions! But to give it to you would be tantamount to interfering with evolution! Therefore, no cure for you!"

Billions die deaths that he is directly responsible for (choosing to take no action is equivalent to choosing to take action) but at least the good doctor can sleep at night!

Hell, the justification was that the other race was developing and that the dying one was holding them back, a theory which had no support whatsoever. If all people were dying and we had been busily developing the intellect of dolphins (by attaching laser beams to their heads), would it be morally unjust for us to look for a cure? I think not, and when the pansy environmentalists realize that their own neck is on the line, 99+% of them would want the cure, too.

As others in the thread have mentioned, there's no such thing as externalities in the theory of evolution.

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[Drachemorder]

"This is a very nice way to put it. It doesn't quite capture my utter moral abhorrence of the episode's conclusion, though."

I always try to put things nicely on /. because my opinions are generally the sort that would get me flamed and/or modded down to oblivion if I stated them in anything other than a non-aggressive manner. :-)

I do tend to agree with you, though. And to me, the worst part of the doctor's opinion is that he treats evolution as a moral principle, not just a scientific explanation for the development of life and civilization. That bothers me for several reasons --- one of which being that evolution is an inherently ruthless process of the strong surviving at the expense of the weak. To put it mildly, I don't see that as something a civilized species should derive moral principles from. (Unless, of course, your civilization is Klingon.)

Re:I watched it as the lead-in to SU2.

[geekoid]

actually, it has the apearance of though prevoking, but really it's trying to force you to think there way.

Really thought pervoking would have had the same delema, but no other moral stand, like subugating another race.

"what would have happened had ancient extraterestrials given Neanderthals an advantage over Homo Sapiens "

again, pretty lame, sure there would ba an impact on homo sapiens, but by the same token, the neanderthals would be pretty happy.

picture a world where that did happen:
"what would have happened had ancient extraterestrials had not given Neanderthals an advantage over Homo Sapiens "

Re:A question..

[Adnans]

Sadly yes, they didn't change the theme song. But it's starting to grow on me.

-adnans

Re:And this is Stuff that matters ?

[Party Remover]

"Your" right! How typically arrogant and imperialist of us. As Americans, we must be especially conscious of our status as the lone superpower and make efforts to avoid imposing announcements about our TV schedule on other cultures.

Re:Enterprise is boring, sorry it has to be said.

[Junks Jerzey]

Aside from the "get a life" fanboy/girls at trekbbs.com, does anyone really care about this show? Or find it remotely interesting? I dunno, I watch the occasional episode, and it just doesn't go anywhere. It all feels too calculated. Maybe season 2 will be better.

And the obvious comment--and I know this will tag me as a troll--is "How can geeks possibly stand *any* of the Star Trek shows?" We're talking about people who go ballistic because AMD is not longer stamping MHz values on processors, and these people like B-quality shows with bad acting and ridiculous science at every turn?

Re:Bah

[ChazeFroy]

Taco, the Detroit Red Wings haven't even started pre-season yet, so you don't have to worry about the show being pre-empted on UPN 50 out of Detroit.

Porthos Becomes Sentient Lifeform

[loggia]

If you are wondering where the archetypal "searching for humanity" character is on this show, it is reportedly Captain Archer's dog Porthos.

After having his brain advanced 1,000,000 dog years, Porthos will become an ensign and have to grapple with an Earth that does not grant individual freedoms to dogs. Look for episode "Man's Best Friend" where Porthos is deemed the propery of Starfleet and Archer must argue that Porthos deserves to makes his own choices.

Re:Porthos Becomes Sentient Lifeform

[fataugie]

Uh huh...so after he takes a shit on the captains chair, his name is going to be changed from Porthos to "That fucking dog"...

At least that's the way it works in my house....

Re:Porthos Becomes Sentient Lifeform

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Porthos will become an ensign and have to grapple with an Earth that does not grant individual freedoms to dogs."

He'll also have to face discrimination, as Starfleet doesn't allow anything with more than 2 legs to board a starship.

Re:Porthos Becomes Sentient Lifeform

[jbarr]

Porthos is a kennel. ;-)

Build your own Warp Engine

[XScB]

Farnell the electronic component suppliers have taken it on themselves to bring the people of Earth into an age of interstellar travel early by having started to stock Dilithium Crystals. If you go to the Farnell site, select the UK site, then the Online Catalogue, Electronic components and finally Crystals, you can see them.

Unfortunately they seem to be out of stock right now if you were thinking of building your own Warp engine.

Re:Build your own Warp Engine

[ConceptJunkie]

Won't do you much good without anitmatter, if I understand my Star Trek "physics".

Re:Build your own Warp Engine

[Cyno01]

radioshack is out too, they're always outa flux capacitors too, they always say 2 weeks, but then i call back...

Enterprise's problem

[Aexia]

Great premise, likeable characters and good actors.

It got off to a great start. The Broken Bow was easily the best of the Trek pilots.

So what's the problem? It almost seems as if the producers want Enteprise to ASPIRE to be as mediocre as Voyager was.

It's stuck in that "nothing can change week to week" mentality that Paramount has long imposed on Trek. Worse, it's not even particularly bad like Voyager was early on... it's just... there. More often then not, it's not good or bad. Just something I could care less about.

The Temporal Cold War is at least a step in the right direction, even if I think they've removed too much of the mystery from it. Compare "Future Guy's" appearance in the pilot to what it was in the finale. Initially, you couldn't tell anything about him and there was that cool distortion effect. Now, he looks like a guy dressed in stage black.

Sullick and Daniels are a little too black & white. I wished they could've pretened for more than a fraction of an episode that the Suliban might actually be the good guys. Or that there were no good guys in this fight.

But the fact that they have an continuing, if infrequently returned to, storyline is a positive step. Having *consistant* internal continuity is generally a good thing for a show. It's an incentive to watch, when done properly.

As it is, I generally don't care about Enterprise.

Re:Enterprise's problem

[Skyshadow]

Or that there were no good guys in this fight.

Well, there's nothing to say that couldn't still be the case. The best villians, IMO, are the ones you think are your friends (or who actually are your friends -- personally, I think they should have kept Evil Willow as the Big Bad for this season of Buffy).

Anyhow, both sides are obviously manipulating their pieces (enterprise/suliban) to further their own ends.

Re:Enterprise's problem

[iabervon]

There actually have been a number of episodes which refer to previous episodes; mostly of the sort where they do something in one episode, and then encounter people who have heard about it and want them to do something else because of it.

I think they've done a good job of maintaining the Trek "everything is fixed at the end of the episode", while having people notice that this group has an impressive record of getting into situations and resolving them.

I'm not entirely convinced that Daniels's side is actually good; it seems like all of their information has come from Daniels, and he might just be feeding them propaganda. Sullick is clearly against them, but might have reasons for it. There's a lot of potential for a major plot twist at some point.

Enterprise is it's own nation?

[Torgo's Pizza]

Wow, I knew Star Trek was big, but not so big to have it's own Prime Minister. I wonder who the Premier could be...

Unless of course the editors meant premiere which is the first public performance of something. Nahhh.

Re:Enterprise is it's own nation?

[sielwolf]

From 'dict premier' (highlighting mine)

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

Premier \Pre"mi*er\, n.
The first minister of state; the prime minister.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:

premier
adj 1: first in rank or degree; "an architect of premier rank";
"the prime minister" [syn: {premier(a)}, {prime(a)}]
2: preceding all others in time; "the premiere showing" [syn: {premiere}]
n 1: the person who holds the position of head of state in
England [syn: {Prime Minister}, {PM}]
2: the person who is head of state (in several countries) [syn:
{chancellor}, {prime minister}]
3: the position of the cabinet minister who is in charge of
government affairs [syn: {Prime Minister}, {PM}]
v 1: be performed for the first time; of a play, ballet, or
composition [syn: {premiere}]
2: perform a work for the first time [syn: {premiere}]

What have we learned from this: there are different flavors of English (UK, US, Engrish). So some people take the lift from the first floor to the lorry. Some take the elevator from the second floor to the van. While others take the happy number one good star ok.

Re:Enterprise is it's own nation?

[Ctrl-Z]

The headline: Enterprise Season Premier Tonight.

Part of speech of "Premier" in the headline: noun.

Part of speech highlighted in Slashdot post: adjective.

Your definition does not give a noun form of "premier" with the required meaning. As far as I know, there isn't one.

Re:Enterprise is it's own nation?

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Um, you misused "it's" in your subject about misuse of words. I love a good irony."

Bye bye virgin alarm. Heh.

Re:Bah

[Bob C. Cock]

I don't think you need to worry about missing it due to a sporting event for 2 reasons.
1) UPN doesn't broadcast sporting events. (Yes I'm aware they broadcast Pro Wrestling but that doesn't count.)
2) The only compelling sporting event on tonight is the A's Vs. Angels game which is being broadcast on ESPN.

So if you're a baseball fan, get some dual screen action going and watch both. I myself am going to be at the game so gonna miss Enterprise.

Re:And this is Stuff that matters ?

[C_nemo]

im not from north-america(scandinavia actually), but i enjoy the bad acting of any star trek show( + TNG is pretty cool too). file swapping /capping/ripping/wathever will enable me to watch this episode in less than a week. so, yes, this is stuff that matters

Discrepancies

[magicsquid]

As further testament of Star Trek's near universal appeal, I read this on ESPN Page 2 yesterday...

Last spring, "Enterprise" wound up with part one of a time-travel cliffhanger. You may recall that in the original Captain Kirk episodes -- which come after "Enterprise" chronologically, since the new series is a prequel -- time travel was depicted as an astonishing discovery.

In "Enterprise," time travel has already happened several times and is practically viewed as common. So how could Kirk, who is supposed to be born years after the era depicted in "Enterprise," not have known that? And how come in "Enterprise," the Vulcans are the big spacefaring power in Earth's part of the Milky Way, their ships and diplomats everywhere -- but in the Captain Kirk episodes, which happen later, the Vulcans are depicted as an insular, technologically modest people, and Spock is described as the first Vulcan ever to explore space.

Re:Discrepancies

[For me to poop]

In Episode 2F09, when Itchy plays Scrathcy's skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib twice in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we, to believe that this is some sort of a, a magic xylophone or something?

...I'll field this one!

Re:Discrepancies

[Planesdragon]

In the episode Balance of Terror the Romulans only had vessels with impulse power and it was established that the war with the Romulans that took place was conducted before warp drive was discovered.

So they fought an interstellar war at 1/4 c? I really, really doubut that. Maybe they had poor engines, but they definitly had warp.

So in the original series human's met the Romulans before the Klingons, but in Enterprise we met the Klingon's apparently before the Romulans. And not to nit pick but as I watched last season there were at least half a dozen other major continuity issues.

"Temporal Cold War."

Enterprise is 4th dimensionally prior to all other version of 'trek... but becuase of the TCW, it's 5th dimensionally later. What I'm going to watch tonight is the "now" in the trekiverse.

I doubt that Paramonunt's going to try and explain this to anyone (too much pain for too little benefit), and they might not even realize it, but they will follow through on it. Aside from the actual facts of the episodes, anything and everything in the "continuity" is up for grabs if it will make a good story.

Or have you allready written a letter complaining about the odd look of the klingons?

Re:Discrepancies

[Skyshadow]

One of my gripes was that the Federation didn't encounter the Ferrengi until Picard's time!

One of my gripes is that the Federation encountered the Ferrengi.

Re:Discrepancies

[SuiteSisterMary]

Spockers was the first Vulcan to join starfleet, and the first Vulcan to volunteer for service on a Human ship, IIRC. Intrepid was full of Vulcan types, but it was a Vulcan-only crewed ship.

Three Words

[serutan]

Time Travel.
Wesley.

Re:Three Words

[Bazzargh]

the words being "die die die"?

Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[Thag]

One of the major problems with Enterprise is that TIME TRAVEL SUCKS. It's been completely overdone, BADLY, particularly on Trek, and I for one am not going to watch any more time travel eps.

Because they're ALL THE SAME EPISODE: crew encounters time wedgie. Crew solves time wedgie puzzle. Time returns to normal. Teenage son lies to a cute girl at school to impress her, but gets found out and learns an important lesson about honesty. Roll credits.

Jon Acheson

Re:Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[Ralph Wiggam]

I was always hoping that when Geordi or Data was sending the chronoton/tachyon burst that was going to set things straight after that week's temporal anomoly, that as soon as he hit the last button on the control panel some secondary character would just blink out of existence. The crew would look at each other, shrug, and go on with their business.

Re:Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[iabervon]

There's something different going on with the time travel on Enterprise. First, we have people "from the future", who could be just well-informed people from the present. Then, we have the captain going "to the past", but he doesn't seem to have changed anything in the present by doing that; he finds out a bunch of stuff about the present there. Finally, we have the captain going "to the future", but it's indistinguishable from any other destroyed city. When the captain went to the past and spent some time there, he returned to the present later than he left.

Most likely, there isn't time travel going on, just shape-changing aliens recording events and playing them back in a holodeck-like thing. They could just have a clever sort of teleporter, a holodeck, and be using time travel as their excuse for having a lot of information that they don't want to admit to collecting.

Re:Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[DahGhostfacedFiddlah]

I've found that Enterprise' time travel storyline has a different flavour from those of Star Treks past (future?...nevermind). The biggest problem is that the writers seemed to think that time travel itself is a plot. It's not.

Time travel can be a great plot *device*. And in the case of Enterprise, I've found it to be a very interesting one. It's not a matter of temporal fluxes and causal loops, it's more the story of a guy who gets drawn into a battle between two much larger, much more powerful groups. Like Frodo in Lord of the Rings. I agree - I'm sick to death of episodes that use time travel/anomalies as if they're a plot in and of themselves. But I think Enterprise is different - and I've enjoyed what I've seen so far.

Re:Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[Aexia]

Actually, Enterprise's plots, at least early on, seem to follow the formula:

1. Enterprise encounters new planet/race/ship/widget.
2. T'Pol advises caution.
3. Archer and Tripp mock T'Pol and Vulcans in general.
4. Away team is sent to investigate/explore.
5. Away team gets in trouble.
6. Something rescues them.
7. Archer et al learn no lessons from the experience.

Re:Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[EvlG]

I'd like to amend your episode plan:

1. Enterprise encounters new planet/race/ship/widget.
2. T'Pol advises caution.
3. Archer and Tripp mock T'Pol and Vulcans in general.
4. Away team is sent to investigate/explore.
5. T'Pol advises caution.
6. Archer and Tripp mock T'Pol and Vulcans in general.
7. Away team gets in trouble.
8. Something rescues them - usually T'Pol.
9. Archer et al learn no lessons from the experience, and instead just mock T'Pol and Vulcans in general.

Re:Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[Thag]

That is a pretty amusing thought, in a dark sort of way. Never happen on Trek, or course.

Jon Acheson

Re:Enterprise's problem is TIME TRAVEL SUCKS

[Thag]

I see a fourth possiblity: tell the story of the birth of the Federation on a relatively small galactic stage, using new races that are "close to Earth," and not even bringing the Romulans into it for a season or two.

We have no idea what happened then: it's completely virgin territory, except for some of the paperbacks, and they're not canon. So you would have complete freedom, except you couldn't destroy the Earth, [big deal] and things would have to be moving towards the birth of the Federation.

A fifth possibility, that would have worked just as well, would be to tell the fanboys "We're restarting the Trek universe for this one. Continuity from the other series need not necessarily apply." For one thing, it gets rid of all the history that was already supposed to have happened and didn't, like Khan and the Eugenics Wars. It would also give you a good excuse to fire the writing staff and hire actual talent.

Jon Acheson

Viewing Enterprise in St Louis

[bay43270]

For those of you in St. Louis who don't know, channel 46 (currently home shopping) will become a UPN station next April. The owners were nice enough to strike a deal with HSN to show two hours of UPN a week until their contract runs up in April. Enterprise will run this Friday at 7pm (last years last episode) and 8pm (this years first). Next week, Enterprise will show at 7 and Buffy at 8.

There's an article out on the post dispatch web site, but I don't feel like looking for it right now.

Re:Viewing Enterprise in St Louis

[vrmlguy]

Or, you can do what I did, which was scrap Charter, buy DishNetwork, and sign up for the superstation package, which consists of the UPN stations in NY and Boston and the WB stations in NY, Denver and LA. This provides two benefits: (1) I get to watch Enterprise and Buffy with the rest of the country, and (2) I never have to worry about KPLR preempting Angel and Smallville for Blues hockey. The only drawback is having two stations that advertise themselves as "WB 11".

Bizarre mods

[91degrees]

Offtopic? Twice? This is a person that wrote about watching Enterprise in an article about Enterprise.

Hardly the most insightful comment ever, but certainly on topic.

Do you think Gene Roddenberry would like this show

[loggia]

Have you noticed that since Gene Roddenberry's death the franchise has truly suffered?

Sure, the showrunners bristled at Gene's humanist view and various objections to darker themes - but sure enough, since his death the franchise has continually become less-and-less "beloved."

There are so many elements that ignore Roddenberry's view in Enterprise that I wonder if it is the first show that is hardly "Star Trek" at all?

Re:Bah

[ChazeFroy]

UPN 50 out of Detroit broadcasts approximately 30 Detroit Red Wings games annually.

Like a fungus...

[wiredog]

Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page)

Re:Do you think Gene Roddenberry would like this s

[serutan]

We tend to forget that people involved with a specific popular thing have a perspsective bigger than that one thing. I don't know if Roddenberry would personally like Enterprise, but I'm certain he would judge it first as a television show and second as Star Trek. After all, he was a veteran writer, director and producer who did plenty of television other than Star Trek. I bet Gene would think pretty well of Enterprise as television, and would certainly allow that this one is somebody else's baby.

Re:Damn plugins

[GlassUser]

They don't work on my system. Any way, I'm looking for information, not flashy "content". If you don't want to give me information, I don't want to see what you have any way.

Re:Do you think Gene Roddenberry would like this s

[evilpenguin]

Did you notice how much better TNG got after he died? Did you notice that Roddenberry was egomaniac who claimed he had every good idea? Read Harlan Ellison's "City on the Edge of Forever" for a strongly opinionated (from Harlan? No way!) and documented (Harlan kept track? No way!) counter-view of "The Great Bird of the Galaxy."

Hopefully It Won't Suck

[Etriaph]

I love Star Trek, I mean I really do. I've never been able to watch an episode of any of the five franchises and not at the very least enjoy myself. But this whole time travel thing gets out of hand. Berman and Braga have this habit of setting up what could be a really cool show and then they do a "Oh, all we had to do was press this button on the tricorder and we were fine! Dr. Crusher, come rub my bald head!"

See, they come up with great initial ideas, and then sort of shlop them right afterwards. This is getting tremedously annoying. I don't know what's worse, the pain of waiting for it or the disappointment of the delivery of something horrible. I'll watch, probably enjoy most of it, then go to a coffee shop later and wonder why I put so much faith in two guys who constantly make me feel like an idiot viewer (maybe I am, but I think more than the other guys).

Re:Do you think Gene Roddenberry would like this s

[gmhowell]

Since Roddenberry's death, there have been what, 400 episodes of the show, 5 movies, and untold numbers of books, comics, etc. Perhaps we've become so inundated with Trek that it's no longer 'beloved'.

The greatest thing that happened to Trek was when GR was moved to EP. Go look at some of the garbage that was made/produced during his reign. This is primarily season three of TOS and season one of TNG. Utter crap.

DS9 is easily the most underrated show of all Trekdom. The last few seasons were wonderful. Thanks in no small part to the fact that GR wasn't around to bitch and mess it up.

Re:Well aleast you get UPN

[Boone^]

The local fox station here carries some UPN programming, so basically I get to wait until Saturday at 5 to view the Premiere. :/

Re:Bah

[AndyL]

Doesn't broadcast sporting evnets? Are you kidding?

My Local UPN affiliate always, without fail, shows a hockey game in Star Trek's time-slot.

Now, I'm not a hockey fan, but I'm pretty sure the hockey season hasn't started yet. However, I do not belive this will stop UPN from withholding Star Trek from me. I have confidence that they will find a way to somehow broadcast hockey instead of Star Trek.

Beverly Crusher!

[doublem]

All that red hair, and the full bosom.

Spreading gel all over the Vulcan chick.

Beverly Crusher, Queen of the MILFs

Mmmmmmm

Re:Beverly Crusher!

[doublem]

Oh Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Wore out the damn rewind button AND the tape.

To bad Gates McFadden never did any nude scenes.

Perahps she could be temted now. Julie Andrews was older than McFadden is now when she did her first topless scene.

"Tonight on HBO, Dr. Crusher on Red Shoe Diaries, followed by Real Sex: Trek Edition, Gates McFadden talks about her sex life with live demonstrations"

Re:Beverly Crusher!

[jweatherley]

The term MILF was used (invented?) in American Pie and refered to Stifler's Mom.

Re:Beverly Crusher!

[PyroMosh]

Never saw real nudes of her, but here's the closest I've ever seen. Sorry for the quality of the scan, I lost the magazine years ago, and I found this one floating around gnutella.

http://female-ejaculation.com/crusher.html

I'm sure she's not nude under there, but I've always loved this shot...

They did have one of the best episodes ever......

[Brian_Ellenberger]

IMHO, the episode Shuttlepod One was one of the best Star Trek episodes I've ever seen.

Basically Reed and Trip are on a shuttlepod out in the middle of nowhere and it looks like the Enterprise has been destroyed. The pod is damaged and they have a very limited amount of air left. And they are light years away from anything.

It was Sci-Fi at it's best, a human drama between Trip's completely irrational hope (although deep down he knows the truth) and Reed's attempt to prepare for their pending deaths. They deal with things like whether or not to be comfortable and just accept death or be miserable and squeeze out a few more hours.

I'll take one of those episodes over 10 technobabble shows anyday.

Brian Ellenberger

Re:Huh?

[tweek]

Atlanta Thrashers hockey here. That's if there were a game tonight.

My girlfriend always got preempted on her WB affiliate back home by the Red Wings. not that she cared because she loves hockey but it interfered with her Angel watching.

Re:They did have one of the best episodes ever....

[Skyshadow]

"It ain't gettin' any of our bourbon!"

Ah, finally, a Star Trek character I can identify with -- a drunken engineer.

Re:And this is Stuff that matters ?

[jareth780]

"Of course with my luck, it'll be pre-empted by some sporting event."

[Nerd#1] Is that true?
[Nerd#2] Let's get 'em!
[Nerds] (nerdy growling)
[Football player] Let's get out of here!
[Nerds] (more nerdy growling, chase football team off field)

Re:Enterprise is boring, sorry it has to be said.

[NetFu]

I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but "Enterprise" is the first Star Trek series since the original '60s series that was really consistently interesting. TNG and it's many spinoffs were, for the most part, boring, politically-correct, pieces of crap. Not that all episodes were terrible, but I've avoided seeing WHOLE SEASONS of TNG because so many of the episodes became so boring, and I don't really care if I ever do see them. On the other hand, I've seen each of the original series' episodes at least 10 times.

Maybe the fact that "Enterprise" was intended to recapture the action and humor style of the original series and thats why it appeals to people like me (I generally see people who liked TNG dislike "Enterprise"). Or maybe the episodes are more like real science fiction and not just intended to expand the audience to people who'd rather watch "Friends"...

Likeable characters? Are you nuts?

[GuyMannDude]

Great premise, likeable characters and good actors.

Boy am I ever stunned to read this. You actually like the characters? I've always thought that the unlikeableness (is that a word? no? oh well...) of the characters it the main reason why I think the show is below average. I'm curious as to which characters you like. I've always liked The Original Series, even with it's hokey elements, because I respected the characters. I would have loved to serve on board the Enterprise under Kirk because I respected the abilities and personalities of the crew. But here's how I see the Enterprise crew under Archer:

• Archer: way too anxious to prove the Vulcans wrong. Doesn't stop to think before he does something.
• T'Pol: For someone who is supposedly devoid of emotions, she acts like a pouty little child an awful lot.
• 3rd in command (whatever his name is): Whines a hell of a lot.
• Hoshi: Probably competant in her work but you really can't trust her to keep her head when things get rough.
• Doctor: Need I say anything here?

Well, I could go on and on. I understand that this show is supposed to be about mankind's first tentative steps into space so please spare me the follow-up posts telling me that the characters ought to be poor at their jobs. It's just that it's not interesting to me to watch people who seem borderline-incompetant representing humanity in space. I would certainly not want to serve aboard Archer's Enterprise. I would fear for my safety and I sure wouldn't be able to take orders from the meatheads in charge.

Honestly, people really like the Enterprise crew? I'm still stunned about this. Is it just me who finds this new group as unpalatable as the Voyager group (and, yes, I realize I'm inviting jokes about 'palatable' and how that word relates to 7of9 or T'Pol)?

GMD

Re:Finally

[Tackhead]

> I mean come on. Fucking telepathic clams?

Dude, you need to get out more.

I mean, Earth Girls Are Easy, but everyone from the Fifth Invader Force knows that $cientologist chicks are, like, the worst lays on the planet.

*rimshot*

Re:Likeable characters? Are you nuts?

[Skyshadow]

* Archer: way too anxious to prove the Vulcans wrong. Doesn't stop to think before he does something.
* T'Pol: For someone who is supposedly devoid of emotions, she acts like a pouty little child an awful lot.
* 3rd in command (whatever his name is): Whines a hell of a lot.
* Hoshi: Probably competant in her work but you really can't trust her to keep her head when things get rough.
* Doctor: Need I say anything here?

What? You mean the characters have (gasp) FLAWS?!?!?

Re:A question..

[NanoGator]

"A question for those that have already seen it: Does it have the same horrific opening theme ?

Well I don't know about you guys, but I feel like going apeshit when a show has a song I don't like. Without a good song, that show sucks! I also don't buy books without illustrations on the cover. :P

Re:Old news ;)

[ceejayoz]

Maybe the sex drive of Star Trek captains decreases as the civilization advances... :-p

Re:A question..

[Schnapple]

I was in a restaurant the other day and whatever station they were playing in the background was playing the theme song

And now for the obligatory history of "Faith of the Heart".

Every time I walk into Albertson's I hear it, too - but it's not Russell Watson that's singing it. Probably wasn't him singing it when you heard it, either - it was probably Rod Stewart.

The story (as I follow it) is this - the song was written by Dianne Warren. She's famous for the big, boisterous, overdone theme song from movies. "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing", "My Heart Will Go On" - all hers. She was commissioned to write a song for the movie Patch Adams, so she writes "Faith of the Heart", and they get Rod Stewart to record it.

Thing is, the producers for whatever reason decide it's not good enough to be in the movie (doesn't really fit) and so they relegate it to the end credits (and I don't think it was the first song in the end credits, either.

So when the producers of Enterprise need a song, they want a "big" song for the opener, seeing as how they've decided to deviate from the "Whoosh!" formula of shows past. They figure out that there's a potential Dianne Warren gem that's been tossed to the side and they can pick it up for cheap. Of course, they don't want to afford Rod Stewart so they decide to have the song re-recorded using an unknown, Russel Watson, who just sounds a whole lot like Rod Stewart.

And so the flame wars rage on, what with the "Patch Adams Reject" song opening the show. Personally, I kinda like it. Sure, I'm not as diehard a Trekker as others, but I'm cool with the song.

Pilot rocked, show worse

[alexhmit01]

I LOVE the premise. My problem is that I don't feel like they are the first ones out in space.

Setup: First humans in deep space, only "friends" are the Vulcans that Archer hates.

Obvious Solution: Find new friends, make new allies.

Archer's Solution: Piss everyone off, choose moral high ground over allies, make no new friends, etc.

It's a strange new world, they should start becoming friendly with more powerful races. Instead, he is content to be a jerk.

The very anti-semetic pro-terrorist episode REALLY offended me. A though-provokative episode showing that the anti-terrorist rhetoric can be flawed would be a GREAT Trek episode, in the vein of some of the ST:TOS episodes. Instead we get a 1-sided episode where there Arab-looking terrorist is a great, friendly guy, and the leader of the anti-terrorist contigent looked very Jewish.

ST:TNG tackled the terrorism question, pointed out that if Washington lost, he'd have been a terrorist.

Enterprise is a LOT like Buffy. Most episodes are mediocre, some of them show tremendous promise that they'll be great episodes, but the good ones end with a cheap ending that disappoints. Each week, we tune in, ready for more disappointment... Maybe that should be UPN's slogan. :)

Alex

Re:Trek is in the hands of philistines

[operagost]

Voyager disappointed me because the ship (and the crew) ended seven years without spacedock, as shiny and new as when they left. I was hoping for battle scars, weird hacks, and assimilated alien technology - especially after they picked up a Borg! Where was the mental instability (other that the Captain)? Everyone was just fine with being stuck out there after the first season!

Re:Likeable characters? Are you nuts?

[EvlG]

I think he means to say, the flaws in the characters are not really matched with enough positive aspects to make them worth watching.

I really wish they would kill off Hoshi. Every time she speaks, I cringe, because I know she is just going to whine like she is PMSing.

Wasn't that a Voyager episode?

[coyote-san]

Wasn't that a Voyager episode, with Torres and Paris stuck in space suits (not even a shuttlecraft) with the ship nowhere in sight and the air running out?

And wasn't something similar done in DS-9, somewhere in the Delta quadrant before the war?

This episode might have been new, but the writers keep treading over the same ground.

Star Trek:Enlisted Guys Script

[Art_XIV]

Scene: A passage in the Enterprise. Several enlisted men are standing about waiting to go through a door marked "Restroom".

SM2 (SPACEMAN 2nd CLASS) PETERS: Yeah... 'n so I gotta spend the next 14 days cleaning the bridge.

SM1 CHUNG: Awww mannn! You got screwed BIG time!

SM2 PETERS: 'N that ain't the worst of it! So I'm standin' there waiting for PO Snuffy to turn on the freakin' generator, 'n I'm standing there holding the buffer, when alla the sudden Cap'n Archer walks in. He looks at PO Snuffy, points at me 'n goes [Mimics Captain Archer's voice] "Doesn't that spaceman have anything better to do, Snuffy?"

SM1 CHUNG: [Slapping head in disbelief] Awww no!

SM3 HERNANDEZ: Noooooooo!

SM2 PETERS: Yeah... So the PO hides the porncorder while Archer's lookin' at me, and he goes "Peters! Start buffing the deck!!!" and I go "YESSIR!" and I leave the hold, buffer and all.

CHUNG & HERNANDEZ: [Laughs]

SM2 PETERS: Yeah. It was pretty messed up. But anyway, the Vulcan-babe-F.O. was with the Captain!

SM3 HERNANDEZ: Oooooooooo!

SM1 CHUNG: Man-o-man! I'd like to show her what I had "augmented" on the last shore leave.

ALL: [Snickers]

SM2 PETERS: So anyway, it looked like the Captain and FO Hottie were getting ready to
go to the decontamination room again...

Suddenly Chief Petty Officer Nixon rounds a corner.

CPO NIXON: Goddamit you shitheads! Get back to work! NOOOOWWWW!

Re:A question..

[mikefoley]

You're gonna have a hell of a time when you start meeting girls.

Please don't ever say that again...

[orichter]

You're creating a self fulfilling prophecy. You know they get half thier story ideas from Slashdot trolls.

The Time Travel Crutch

[Mulletproof]

This has got to be the lamest long term plot device a Trek series could ever employ because it so cheapens the series on a whole-- The fact that the Pioneers really didn't do it on their own, but had there hand held every step of the way by some time traveling agent. It's sad, really; beyond the bungling they normally engage in they. They are freakin out manned, out gunned and have only one ship on the frontier and the best the script writers can come up with is the happy-go-lucky adventures of the Starship Enterprise?

Honestly, exploring the frontier should have been enough, with all the technological advancements to be made and races to be encountered. Throw in something wierd here, a hint of a possible temporal cold war there and they should have been set. The Trek history is more than rich enough to sustain a series like this one on it's own. Notice I said hint. Not bathing the viewer in time travel higgly-piggly like the writeres here do. A little forshadowing or chance encounters, but not the bat upside the head like they've been doing. It's sick. I'm not bashing ST:E simply because it's not my ideal, but more because it's just plain sloppy.

Preempted by sporting event

[Fastball]

Of course with my luck, it'll be pre-empted by some sporting event.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!!!!!

Re:Big Trouble In Little China

[The Dobber]

Ranks right up there with Buckaroo Banzai. In fact BTiLC was/is a retooled version of the never executed sequel to Buckaroo. "I've been ionized, but I'm okay now" (BB)

Re:A question..

[NanoGator]

"You're gonna have a hell of a time when you start meeting girls."

Tell me about it. The first time I bring one home, my girlfriend'll kill me.

Re:They did have one of the best episodes ever....

[Dr Caleb]

"She's got a nice Bum" was the funniest thing since "I can see my house from here!"

I still chuckle at both of those...

Except it had just one small problem

[Anonymous Coward]

.. believability.

Apparently the NX-01 "bumps into" an alien ship. This is the cause of the debris field that Trip and Reed find.

See, Trip and Reed are off testing the weapons on the shuttlepod, which needs to be done a long long long long long way away (out of communications, no doubt).

By the time the two finish their tests and reach the 'meeting point' the NX-01 isn't there anymore because it is so damn important for Archer to ferry the de-shipped aliens home that they strand a warp-incapable shuttlepod out in the middle of nowhere. Hell, Archer doesn't even do the simple courtesy of leaving the poor guys a message of any sort saying "don't go anyplace, we'll be back soon, try not to choke while you're waiting".

More damningly, we are not even presented with any compelling reasons why the aliens need to get where they're headed right now, nor why Archer can't simply warp to the shuttlepod, cut their weapon testing short, pick 'em up and take the aliens home. He just leaves the meeting point without so much as a "bbiam" message, nor collecting the spare hull plating (what do they patch the hole with? hmm??).

That, combined with blatant scientific errors like using fingers and mashed potato as hull sealant, body hair growth after death and the supposed "drop your impulse engine and you slow down even in space"... well..

I suppose it was a good character piece, if two people getting drunk and discussing the local Vulcan ass is 'characterization'.

I could have gotten into the episode so much more if it wasn't a completely contrived situation. But the fact of the matter is, all it takes is a little bump for brave Captain Archer to strand his two best buddies in the middle of nowhere for three days while he ferries strange aliens someplace unimportant.

But what the hell! It was a "character" ep! Right??

"Rule-book" ethics in Star Trek

[dachshund]

This is also not a matter of "doing." It is just the opposite: Dr. Phlox did not actively attempt to interfere with the natural evolution in action on the planet.

What's amusing is that the end result of all this moralizing is the Prime Directive. Under that philosophy, the Federation is allowed to help a race provided that their civilization has crossed the arbitrary line of developing warp technology. If the race hasn't quite made it there, then it's just too damn bad for them. Post-warp civilizations' destiny is apparently impervious to interference.

It reminds me of the strict ethical codes that medical researchers must obey with respect to research animals. When performing experiments on a mouse, for instance, there are strict guidelines one must follow to insure that the animal is treated humanely. If that same mouse jumps off the table and runs out of the room, it immediately becomes "vermin", and you could pluck its legs off one at a time with impunity.

That's the type of "rule-book" ethics that Star Trek loves. It always irritates me the way Trek episodes always justify their characters actions and make them seem heroic-- there's a token amount of reget, but not enough to get them down. It always struck me that a lot of these episodes should really end with the main characters lying around in a drunken stupor and contemplating suicide.

I want a return of...

[frank_adrian314159]

... the Space Hippies! With Hutch (of Starsky &... fame) playin' his groovy electric space banjo, jammin' with Spock. I bet they could share some heavy space herb, too. That's what I want to see! Yeah! Roddenberry rules!

Why Enterprise is the best Star Trek Series

[Anenga]

I don't know about the rest of you, who are probably a lot older than me (I'm barely 18), but Enterprise is the only Star Trek series I can bear to watch. And I actually enjoy it, and have planned to watch it tonight.

The reason a lot of you probably don't like it is because it's different from the geeky Star Trek you know and love. This one is more humble, down to earth - more "Human" and contemporary. The technology is actually feasable, and I'm being introduced to the new races and themes. When I would watch Deep Space Nine or Voyager, I would be confused. There was just too much going on, and too much plot which requires you to already know something about Star Trek.

But in Enterprise, it is much more enjoyable. I am actually being introduced into the Star Trek universe just as the cast "Crew" are. And that's why I enjoy it, and continue to watch it.

Re:Why Enterprise is the best Star Trek Series

[sql*kitten]

The reason a lot of you probably don't like it is because it's different from the geeky Star Trek you know and love. This one is more humble, down to earth - more "Human" and contemporary.

Next Gen was the "geeky" one, followed by Voyager and DS9 (which was a crap Babylon 5 knockoff). The problem with Enterprise is that the universe is badly planned. In the original series, Kirk could swagger around the galaxy meddling in other people's business because he was the captain of the Flagship of the mighty Star Fleet of the powerful Federation. Whereas Archer, in Earth's only starship which is primitive by the standards of other species freely meddles (see the episode where he frees a bunch of alien POWs) with established space powers... and nothing happens. They don't have shields yet but the writers were too lazy to think of an alternative to the "shields failing" plot device so they simply called it "hull polarization" and carried on as before.

Even the beginning, where Archer is complaining that the Vulcans were holding back Earth by withholding technology... hardly holding them back if they didn't have it! It would have been far better to say that Vulcan diplomats were restricting passage through their space, because now it's saying that humans didn't make it into space on their own. Every episode is "Enterprise outgunned, miracle happens, everyone escapes". Not to mention that the rest of the galaxy seems to be getting along fine... why does anyone need the Federation in the first place, and how did Earth, a backwater, come to be the capital?

I had high hopes, but sadly Enterprise is actually rubbish. The only Sci-fi worth following in TV at the moment is Stargate. It does the Enterprise premise (ordinary humans venturing into a galaxy that is far more complex and dangerous than they ever imagined) far better than Enterprise does.

Dr. Crusher, come rub my bald head!

[Nindalf]

Picard used to dip his bald head in oil, and rub it all over her body.

Enterprise in the UK

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Anyone know what happened to the Enterprise showings on Channel 4 in the UK this week? Something funny happened at the weekend -- Saturday was a repeat of last week's but there was a new episode in a Sunday slot as well, I think -- but the midweek showing (which I usually watched) seems to have gone. While everyone else is looking forward to/slagging off season two, I'd settle for the second half of season one for now... ;-)

Damn Cable

[ari_j]

My cable network's UPN provider (from 250 miles away, incidentally) became FOX recently, and now it's almost entirely your typical static-plus-warning-message about cable companies being prohibited from carrying duplicate programming (they do carry two TBS's, the bastards), so the only time that FOX is active is when the other one is showing something different. This in the wake of Futurama's cancellation - I'm left with absolutely jack squat for good TV. Well, the History Channel is great; but I mean good fictional TV.

Just watched it... Uuuhhhhgg....

[Mulletproof]

There are shows that can waste an hour of your life, then there are shows that can utterly waste an hour of your life and make you vomit afterwards. This is one of those series, this episode in particular was devoid of any redeeming value. I'll sum it up for you:

Part 1: Crew is interrogaated on Captains whereabouts.
Part 2: Captain and time agent construct a communicator out of bubblegum and duct tape in the desolate future.
Part 3: Captain contacts crew, concocts zany plan.
Part 4: Hoshi crawls around in ducts, emerges topless (can you say "fan service"?).
Part 5: Captain emerges from future to kick alien butt, Enterprise yet again narrowly escapes a better armed, more numerous foe.

It's like they purposely built up part one just to make part two so utterly anti-climatic and predictable as to make you want to jab your eyeballs out and never hear the phrase "we're making history with every lightyear" ever again. This was the season premier? All I can say about the writers is that they have a seriously long way to go. We're talking 40 years in the desert long...

Rut

[ZigMonty]

Enterprise is stuck in a rut. In Australia we're still somewhere in first season and it seems like every second episode involves the Captain being invited to a planet, being captured, beaten up a few times, and then rescued by the rest of the crew. He always has at least one other crew member captured with him. Who this other crew member is seems to alternate among all main characters.

Seriously, I like the show but every time that idiot accepts an invitation to a strange planet, without some sort of backup plan, I want to hit him.

Re:They did have one of the best episodes ever....

[bungo]

Not only is it the same story as the Voyager as someone else has already noted, but it appears to be even similar to the TOS episode Galileo 7.

It was Sci-Fi at it's best, a human drama between Trip's completely irrational hope (although deep down he knows the truth) and Reed's attempt to prepare for their pending deaths. They

An in the TOS episode, the same thing occured with Kirk and Spock. The had a twist in then end, when Spock performs an irrational action which had little chance of success and which shortened their time in orbit before they burned up, but by a stroke of luck, it worked (amazing, eh?).

In Shatner's autobio, he said that he started off not liking the next gen episodes, as they were ripoffs of earlier TOS episodes.

It appears that either all of the plots in existance have already been used in other trek episodes, or the writers just like to rehash old plots 'cause it's easy and it worked last time.

(Ok, I read the earlier slashdot article which discussed that there are only a few basic plots, like man vs man, man vs nature, nature vs nature, but as far as I know, they haven't done a trek plot of dog vs vampire* - so there's at leat one left).

.

* with thanks to the original poster of those plots who refered to Stephen King.

Re:When is it coming to Holland ?

[anonymous cupboard]

Enterprise I has been on German TV, but I don't know how long before they show Series 2.

It can come even faster on your favourite P2P (ads stripped as well!).

Re:Enterprise is boring, sorry it has to be said.

[geekoid]

perhaps its because AMD is producing real chips, and Star Trek is fiction?

by your logic, geek should not like Star Wars(the first one).