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Enterprise Getting New Aliens, Hairdos, Weapons
Steve Krutzler writes "The news about Enterprise's radical "new direction" for its third season is going mainstream on May 10th in TV Guide. Rick Berman reveals that the season finale will bring about major changes in the struggling Star Trek series for next year including new aliens, new weapons, new hairdos and a mission he calls a Star Trek "first."" I've felt like the show has been slipping all season, so here's hoping.
Shouldn't Trek get it's own topic icon?
On a side note, I'm willing to give the "new" show a try. The last couple episodes have been pretty good, and it looks like they are making some sort of an effort to address falling ratings and concerns. Of course, if the "new direction" turns out to be a trip straight South, I would bet that Enterprise won't see a 4th season.
I just wish that in terms of production values: 1) They ditch the catsuit for T'Pol. No real Vulcan would dress like that...it's degrading. 2) They would spend a bit more time designing makeup. Bumpy foreheads don't cut it anymore and make the show look quite cheap. 3) The music needs to be a lot more thematic and bombastic. It's been slightly better lately but like the makeup, "sonic wallpaper" doesn't cut it. Give us dramatic, emotional music!
-James
"Just somehow bring the Borg into an episode. That'll sell it. Oh wait, they're already doing that.... "
Even if this ep bombs, there's still some potential here. (Note: I'll never forgive Voyager for pussifying the Borg.)
What this episode proves (assuming a rumor I read is true...) is that Enterprise takes place after the Enterprise-E visited Earth in First Contact. There are a few ramifications here. This closes up most of the continuity holes that people keep bitching about, which means that Enterprise isn't locked any particular chain of events. Earth could go into a bloody war with the Vulcans.
The potential here is that the future of the Federation could be rewritten. Anybody remember "Yesterday's Enterprise" where the Enterprise-C jumped into the future and altered the timeline?
Even more interesting, what if we're watching the chain of events that caused the Federation to behave more like an Empire in the paralell universe that Kirk found himself in due to a transporter accident?
In any case, it's up to to the B&B team to actually make good use of this. I'm not ready to bet money yet. I can say, though, that last night's episode had a rather startling ending. If that's a sign of things to come, then we might start to see DS9's style of drama percolating up to Enterprise. That'd be a welcome evolution for this series. It is a little on the sterile side.
"Derp de derp."
I do think the Borg have been done to death. They were at their best in Next Generation, and I still give props to whoever thought them up in the first place. Definitely one of the most original sci-fi enemies ever.
I couldn't stand their portrayal in First Contact (the idea of self-aware Borg queens will never sit with me) but at least they retained the menace they kept from Next Generation. Voyager was where they were finally ruined for me; they appeared in a disproportionate number of episodes, becoming less and less menacing, almost comical. This isn't something that has to happen as one grows more familiar with an enemy.
Now in Enterprise, the Borg are showing up yet again, and the audience is already way ahead of the game. I'd like to think that the writers are cleverly establishing the Borg as a hidden, secret determinant of much of humankind's history, with connections and impacts deeper than most realize. I'd like to think that, because it's either that or they've simply run out of ideas.
The coolest voice ever.
God, yeah....Berman's idea of a different culture is one with an opressed third gender? Woah! That's innovation! And there's a male and female of the species and they're married? Unbelievable....
I've thought (and still do) that Enterprise had the most potential since TNG, which I rather enjoyed most times. The biggest mistakes have been a) trying to hard to shoehorn foreshadowing of every bloody event in the future into the show, b) slavishly obeying the "resolve in one episode" law (I'm very surprised that Berman's talking about going with a longer story arc - he's said in more than one interview that that was a bad and stupid idea), c) worrying way too much about consistency with the rest of the ST universe.
Theoretically, they were trying to branch out a bit, bring in some new audience to the show. And frankly, the whole ST universe needs a good shaking up. It really wouldn't have hurt them a lot to pay lip service to continuity, but ignore it when it made the story better.
Oh, yeah, and fire Berman. Get someone in there who can write a story without resorting to travel to other timelines.
This is the voice of World Control. I bring you Peace.
Even if this ep bombs, there's still some potential here. (Note: I'll never forgive Voyager for pussifying the Borg.)
Dude, Voyager didn't pussify the Borg -- Next Gen did it.
Remember when we first saw them, and they were all bad ass? They were adjusting their shields for different phaser frequencies and stuff?
Then there was that whole Locutus thing . . . man, that sucked for us.
But through it all, the Borg were kicking ass, and not even bothering to take names . . . until some last-season Next Gen episode (forgive me or not knowing the title) where all it took to kill a Borg was popping the little tube out of its face.
What?!
From certain death for all humans, to falling down in a spray of liquid nitrogen just like that?
Worst. Screwing up of a cool bad guy. EVER.