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.

Comments

Borg

[dsyu]

Just somehow bring the Borg into an episode. That'll sell it. Oh wait, they're already doing that....

Re:Borg

[NanoGator]

"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.

Re:Borg

[hpa]

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.

Given the fact that First Contact introduced the first Earth warp ship, bar none, wouldn't you say that's pretty well established already?

Re:Borg

[NanoGator]

"Given the fact that First Contact introduced the first Earth warp ship, bar none, wouldn't you say that's pretty well established already? "

No. That ship happened before the Enterprise went back in time. The reason that the Enterprise-E was involved with repairing (not building) that ship was because the Borg Sphere attacked it.

B'sides, most of the people I've heard bitching about the continuity of Enterprise don't seem to recognize the time-line is different, even though you're pretty much beaten over the head with the Temporal Cold War that was introduced in the pilot. Either people just like to bitch or they're just plain non-observant.

"Wait a minute! They can't meet the Feringi, Picard first met the Feringi! WTF?! Damn Brannon and Berman!" -- I've seriously heard that stupid comment. They can remember a passing detail in an old ep of TNG, but they can't remember the Temporal Cold War, First Contact, or the that the NX-01 left space dock several days earlier than planned. Heh.

Okay, that rant was pretty geeky. I just find it startling that people can be beaten over the head with information and still not get it.

Re:Borg

[orcus]

"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.)


Excuse me? I believe ST:TNG did it first, in "I, Borg" from Season V, the Borg were well on their way to being domesticated.

Voyager had more lame episodes than good ones, but don't blame them for screwing up the Borg.

Re:Borg

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

"Even if this ep bombs, there's still some potential here. (Note: I'll never forgive Voyager for pussifying the Borg.)"

Actully I think most would agree putting some pussy in the borg was a nice move.

Re:Borg

[The Monster]

I already covered this over a month ago. Any and all discontnuities with the established TOS/TNG/DS9/Voyager timeline are explained away by First Contact.

Re:Borg

[h3llfish]

Ok, a different timeline is one thing, but the word "before" just can't be correct. The whole enterprise series by definition takes place long after the time of Cochran and Company. Not before - after.

I understand what you're saying... you mean that from the point of view of Archer and crew, the past has not yet been sullied by the intrustion of the Borg and Picard. I'm not really sure what difference that makes though, since it's been established that Picard and co "fixed" the past so that it was close enough to what had originally occured that there were no significant differences.

That being the case, then why does it matter if Archer is in the same timeline or not? It's a given that the future can be changed... we've seen that again and again. So anything that happens to Archer has ramifications for all subsequent events. But if Berman was so bold as to say that events had become so messed up that all of the things in previous shows didn't happen, wouldn't we then have to form a mob and KILL him?

Shawn

A trekkie who has had sex with actual girls... and has the pictures to prove it.

Re:Borg

[Restil]

Actually, Picard's encounter with the Ferrengi was THAT CREW's first encounter with them. The ferrengi were even mentioned in the farpoint episode, and Riker acknowledged that he both knew about them and had enough information to offer a retort to the comment made about them.

However, if the Ferrengi didn't get too involved in the early years, they would have been mostly ignored for a couple centuries. The Federation had bigger fish to fry back in Kirk's day. The Ferrengi probably never established themselves as a significant race until the TNG timeline.

-Restil

Re:Borg

[silentbozo]

If you read the William Shatner books (the ones where Kirk is resurrected by the Borg) you'll find that the explaination for the "evil" mirror universe is that the intrusion of the Borg, and the cultural contamination of the First Contact Cochran & Co. creates a Vulcan/Starfleet that is expansionist in nature.

There's no indication that this is the case with the Archer timeline, but as Berman has clearly demonstrated (assuming that Earth really does get wasted big-time next season) THIS IS NOT THE SAME TIMELINE AS KIRK/TNG. Ergo, the future in Enterprise is NOT the same TNG we all know and love (or in the case of Voyager, hate with a rabid mania.)

I think this is a GOOD thing, as it gives Berman a lot of freedom to play with. The question is whether he's actually making good use of that freedom...

Re:Borg

[NanoGator]

"I understand what you're saying... you mean that from the point of view of Archer and crew, the past has not yet been sullied by the intrustion of the Borg and Picard"

No, I'm saying that the timeline that Archer exists in, Picard and the Borg *have* changed the time line. The big startling clue here is that the NX-01 was named Enterprise, yet the NX-01 was never mentioned in any of the other series. This wouldn't be a big deal except the ready room on the Enterprise-D depicts all of the ships named Enterprise starting with the aircraft carrier in service today.

" I'm not really sure what difference that makes though, since it's been established that Picard and co "fixed" the past so that it was close enough to what had originally occured that there were no significant differences."

Not really. We're missing a key bit of information here: Did the Enterprise-E return to the timeline it originally came from, or did it show up in the post-FC timeline? That isn't clear, and the method of travel used makes the answer to that question a bit fuzzy. We (the audience) don't know for sure what happened right after that.

"That being the case, then why does it matter if Archer is in the same timeline or not? It's a given that the future can be changed... we've seen that again and again. So anything that happens to Archer has ramifications for all subsequent events. But if Berman was so bold as to say that events had become so messed up that all of the things in previous shows didn't happen, wouldn't we then have to form a mob and KILL him?"

The point I was making is that STTNG, TOS, DS9, even VOY took place happened before the time-line was polluted. Archer exists in the polluted time-line. That means that no matter what happens in Enterprise, the original series would be completely in tact. Confusing? Watch Back to the Future 2. That movie explains what I'm talking about better than I can here on Slashdot. There'd be no reason to get mad at Berman over it, they found a unique way to tell a new story. It'd be boring if we saw a documentary of passing references over 24 seasons of Star Trek.

Re:Borg

[aanantha]

I agree that there is a potential for history to be rewritten, but I think the "Yesterday's Enterprise" episode would be a bad example. In the time travel scenarios in the original Star Trek and the The Next Generation, we've been seeing self reenforcing loops in time.

Take "Yesterday's Enterprise". If the Enterprise-D had never helped the Enterprise-C in the "original" timeline, wouldn't the C have been destroyed? They were on the verge of destruction before they went forward in time. My understanding was that history had never really been rewritten, except for the short span of time where the "C" had gone into the future. When the "C" went back, they eventually caused the Klingon-Federation peace treaty and the normal timeline was made possible. Nothing the "C" did has caused the normal timeline to be any different from our perspective. Any evidence of Tasha Yar existing in the past was erased as far as the Federation knew until Sela Yar made her appearance later.

Also, in the "Voyage Home", the Enterprise crew didn't make any changes to the past that we'd be aware of. A couple of whales and a whale researcher disappeared. Kirk sold off his pair of glasses, which he later re-acquired as antiques. Scotty gave away transparent aluminum technology, but then points out that maybe the guy he gave it to was recorded as the inventor anyway.

And in "First Contact", we don't really know that history turned out to be any different than the way the Next Generation crew had originally perceived it. There hasn't (yet) been any evidence of it. Cochrane did everything they remembered him doing. And in all the cases where they divulged the future to Cochrane, it might have made him do all the things they remembered him to have done.

The only case I remember of a non-sustaining loop in time was that TNG episode where the Enterprise-D kept getting destroyed until Data figured out what message to send back to get them out of the loop. That might establish the possibility in Trekdom that history can be rewritten. All that Star Trek series might just be one iteration of that non-sustaining loop.

That would be really lame of B&B to do this. But I wouldn't put it past them. They've already demonstrated that they have little regard for Roddenberry's work. Hasn't Braga been quoted as saying that he didn't like the original Star Trek series? Honestly, if those guys want to rejuvinate Star Trek they don't need to rewrite Star Trek history. They could try sticking to the spirit of Star Trek instead of just recycling old plots and techonobabble. How often did the original Star Trek revisit planets or mention the events of previous episodes? Star Trek 2 might have been the first time that's happened.

But I'm not saying that every episode should be independant. Babylon 5's strength was that hardly anything happened in an episode that wasn't important later on. But even Babylon 5 had a introduction, middle, and conclusion. It was like a novel told over 5 years. But there was a real ending, and the ending had signficance. But Star Trek just drags on now. If B&B want creative freedom, maybe they shouldn't have made a show that occurs between First Contact and the original Star Trek. Haven't we explored Vulcans to death by now? It was interesting the first time around with Spock, and probably because he was only half Vulcan.

Re:Borg

[DNS-and-BIND]

I think the Trek writers are doing whatever seems expedient to them at the moment, and not caring a fig for canon or How Things Happened.

Re:Borg

[NanoGator]

" Ahem - the big, startling clue here is that the Enterprise never met these MARKETING people before. I betcha there was a round-table on this ("But 'nX' sounds so much more cool than just 'n', and we want that demographic") "

I know you're trying to be funny. (And it is funny to the uninitiated.) But I might as well show off my Trek knowledge that's kept me GF-less until about a year ago. The 'x' stands for eXperimental. The NX-01 is the first warp five ship bla bla bla. Remember the Excelsior from Trek 3? That had an NX registry also because it had the first 'trans-warp' drive. Then, when the Defiant came along in DS9, it also had an NX registry because it was an experimental war ship.

Okay, I'm sorry I sucked the fun out of your joke there, but I hang out on a 3D forum that likes Trek a lot. They have those discussions all the time and I participate in the debates once in a while. Heheh :)

A Star Trek "First"?

[Ieshan]

What's going to happen, a trekkie is going to lose his virginity?

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[NineNine]

What's going to happen, a trekkie is going to lose his virginity?

Sure that could happen... in an episode where they travel to an alternate dimension.

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[Anonymous Coward]

What they mean by bringing in new aliens is bringing in more attractive aliens. The main reason a lot of people wach enterprise is to see if T'Pol will show some skin (at least my "little brother" :) does)

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[TexVex]

You didn't see the trailer after last night's episode? Apparently they ARE going to involve the Borg. Next week.

I wasn't particularly thrilled with last night's episode. And if they're bringing the Borg into the mix, then that just might cross my threshold of tolerance for how Star Trek history is being rewritten.

Ugh!

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[Jeremy Erwin]

Don't worry. We'll learn some years from hence (or perhaps sooner) that Archer's adventures will lead to a radical restructuring of the universe. The Earth will be plunged into a technological dark age, and lose all technology more advanced than what would later appear on James T Kirk's enterprise. Earth will lose half of its astrogation knowledge, allowing Picard'e encounter with the Borg in "unexplored space" to seem novel. And the Klingons will indulge in cosmetic surgery.

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[TexVex]

I simply didn't find the plot believable. An adult member of that species became literate in under a day. How the hell could someone THAT INTELLIGENT utterly fail to become at least someone educated simply by being around written words and people who talk? I'm supposed to believe that 3% of that species' population never learned anything or had any motivation whatsoever, despite the fact that their sole purpose involved them moving from couple to couple doing their cogentior thing? That's just hard to swallow. Unless you are keeping them locked up in boxes and only taking them out to breed, they'd have to learn something merely by being awake.

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[AmateurCoder]

I didn't see the trailer either but after you mentioned it I checked out the summary of the next episode at upn.com/shows/enterprise . Here it is:

"Regeneration"

An excavation team on Earth makes an astounding discovery when they uncover a pair of never-seen-before cybernetic aliens (Borg drones) buried in the Arctic Circle. When these aliens mysteriously revive themselves and take off into space in one of the Earth ships, Enterprise is called upon to investigate and stop them. Meanwhile, as Archer and the crew close in on the fleeing aliens, the drones send a signal back to The Collective meaning regardless of what happens in this fight, humans and the Borg are destined to meet again.

I totally agree with you that including the borg into the preqel series would ruin it.

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[anonymous loser]

This is exactly why I watch the show. I like to think of it as Enterprise, starring Jolene Blalock's Ass.

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[AndroidCat]

I totally agree with you that including the borg into the preqel series would ruin it.

Don't worry, they'll only meet Pakkled drones. "We need things to make us go. Resistance is .. a pretty hard word."

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[Motor]

You didn't see the trailer after last night's episode?

No... I'm in the UK.

Apparently they ARE going to involve the Borg.

Oh dear. They really do need new writers, don't they.

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[Dark Lord Seth]

No, the Enterprise encounters a large unchartered cloud of hydrogen, helium and various heavy elements. Further scanning concludes, without any incidents happening, that the large cloud of hydrogen, helium and various heavy elements is indeed a large cloud of hydrogen, helium and various heavy elements. Or:

The Enterprise and her crew encounter a new species, who after careful consideration and non-rash diplomatic talks agrees to sign a peace treaty with the federation. Technology and businees booms as trade starts between the federation and the new species, who aren't afflicted with some sort of plague, who aren't warlike and who don't have any custms that piss of any runaway Federation captains with ships too small for their ego. Or either:

The Enterprise and her crew suddenly realize that time has shifted ahead one hour! After several days of frantic, though conservative research and violating NO protocols regarding temporal stuff, they simply realize the Federation has instituted daylight savings and the relevant subspace message got thrown away along with the usual spam messages by the captain.

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[lobsterGun]

The only way the a Borg prequel episode would work would be if they were antiques Borg based on vacuume tube/hydraulic technology. Hell! even I would tune in for that!

[ excerpt from script ]
Evil Pre-Borg carrying a bicycle pump and a light bulb approaches a crewman.

Crewman: Dude! what the hell are you doing?

Pre-Borg: I'm assimilating you. Please do not resist (attempts to jam lightbulb into crewmans neck)

Crewman: OW! goddammit! enough with that lightbulb already!

Pre-Borg: It's not a lightbulb, It's a vacuum tube.

Crewman: Whatever Poindexter. (Punches pre-borg. The sound of glass shattering is heard)

Pre-Borg: Fuck! (slumps to the ground)

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[wirde]

So...
How many antique Borgs does it take to screw in a lightbulb into a crewman?

Please god,

[Red Warrior]

No holodeck.
No Q

Re:Please god,

[Pharmboy]

Wait a second, I LIKE Q. I had heard that Q was going to visit them, but the main story didnt mention it.

Q has potential, and the early Q episodes were pretty good, I thought. The Voyager Q episodes kinda sucked tho.

More importantly, they will be stocking new weapons so they can destroy stuff, including people. This is worth waiting for. The better episodes so far (relatively speaking) have been where they focused on the weapons anyway. First use of photon torpedos (hinted to this on last night's episode, which was an ok episode)

Guess I'm just a typical American, I want to see them blow shit up.

Re:Please god,

[BabyDave]

Hey, it could be worse:

• [Archer] I'd like to introduce our newest crew member, Ensign Binks.
• [Binks] Meesa muy-muy pleased to meet allayousa
• [Trekkies everywhere] Right, where did I put that fully-functional replica phase pistol?

Re:Please god,

[monopole]

Of course

Two Borgs... Therefore
One is Borgified Wesly Crusher
One is Borgified Q (This should eliminate any residual continuity or logic)

They trap the Enterprise in a primitive holodeck jerry-rigged from a PS2 running 'GTA3 Vice City'

As a result the new uniforms are 'Members Only' Jackets and the entire crew gets Flock of Seagulls haircuts.

Re:Please god,

[Pharmboy]

You KNOW they will get around it, because time is meaningless to the Q, so he could have visited Jean Luke before he visits Archer. At least that is THEIR story, and they would stick to it ;)

Re:Please god,

[amuro98]

Oh, and having Enterprise meet the Ferengi and the Borg isn't going to mess things up?

Having the Klingon homeworld only 3-5 days away at Enterprise's warp 5 isn't going to mess things up?

If you believe in a Federation with some dark aspects, it would be quite possible for Starfleet to simply mark reports about, say, Q as "need to know." Perhaps Picard wasn't the only one visited by Q in TNG, leading to the information about Q becoming more available.

But this only works because Q isn't a threat to mankind (if anything, they're just observing and cheering us on...) The Borg, on the other hand...

Maybe Starfleet's headquarters get nuked in the first war, and they don't have backups, and so they lose information about early contact with the Ferengi, Borg, etc...

Of course this all pivots on whether the writers actually care about creating a world/universe that has consistancy. So far, they've shown none.

Thank goodness!!!

[ciroknight]

FINALLY!!! That show was actually pretty lame compared to the Next Generation, and the sadest thing about it is they have the coolest looking Enterprize yet. Those Sovergn class Ships make the Galaxy class crusiers look so old and obsolete. Seriously though, they better do something awesome to avoid going down in history as the least watched star trek ever. First step: COME BACK TO MAINSTREAM CABLE PLEEEEEEASE!!!!!

Re:Thank goodness!!!

[Dr. Spork]

No, for the dignity of ST fans, this crap should go down in history as the least watched ST spinoff. Because it sucks. This way, at least history will record that we had some taste.

Forget about new aliens and hairdos...

[ajuda]

what they need is new writers.

Re:Forget about new aliens and hairdos...

[Faust7]

what they need is new writers.

Dude, if I had the power to get J. Michael Straczynski on board, I'd do it in a second.

Only thing is, he's used to working with coherent, well-planned, non-contradictory storylines. I doubt even he could save Enterprise or Trek as a whole at this point.

Re:Forget about new aliens and hairdos...

[Jason1729]

What Trek needs is to dump Berman and his lackeys.

Jason
ProfQuotes

But, no!

[jonabbey]

I've been loving the show this season. Great characters, a focus on the kind of culture clash stories that TOS specialized in..

It sounds like they're not getting the ratings that they want, but I hope they don't change the show too much. An alien probe coming to earth which wreaks havoc? Haven't we seen that before?

Re:But, no!

[tbmaddux]

I've been loving the show this season.

While I won't say I'm loving it, it definitely shows signs of promise this season. "Cogenitor" and "The Breach" were both actually thought-provoking and well-written science fiction episodes that were not merely about the existence of cool tech or weird aliens, but explored their impacts. "Cogenitor" from the ads in particular looked like it was going to be pathetic and obvious, but it was not. And "Future Tense" was a very good science fiction action episode. It got me watching again.

So, I may not be loving, but I'm watching. Hopefully whatever this "new direction" is, it isn't back in the direction of more decontamination gel rubdowns.

Re:But, no!

[Planesdragon]

Dear god, not Cogenitor. I may never watch Enterprise again after that.

All Trip did was teach a person how to read--she killed herself. He is NOT responsible for her suicide, and Archer chewing trip out is just, well, so out of character I can't stand it.

TOS would have written it off as "a tradgedy", and Kirk certainy wouldn't have blamed Checkov for trying to teach someone how to read.

Hell, they should have let her go back, but perhaps foever cloistered but able to read... or had her die from "information overload" that the casual scan couldn't account for. Or just had her kill herself, and not have %!#$#@^Ting Berman make a subtle "America is bad for thinking our culture is right" line.

It's dead, Jim.

[whig]

says it all

Re:It's dead, Jim.

[stefanlasiewski]

More like:

"It's dead Jim, let's kick it around some more."

"It's dead Jim. But this is StarTrek, so we can solve the problem by 'modulating the frequency'."

Re:It's dead, Jim.

[CleverNickName]

More like:

"It's dead Jim, let's kick it around some more."

"It's dead Jim. But this is StarTrek, so we can solve the problem by 'modulating the frequency'."

More like, why don't YOU modulate the frequency, NERD?
(only funny if you are a regular reader of the Strongbad Emails, particularly this one.)

For everyone else:

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that the best way to fix any problem is to modify the sensor array to emit an inverse tachyon pulse into the heart of the anomaly.

Or go ask Data, but ask him while he's in the Holodeck playing Sherlock Holmes.

Fire Berman!

[Billly Gates]

He is a terrible writer and the same guy who wrote the lame voyager series. Bring back some of the old ST:TNG writers. Pay them for what they are worth.

New aliens and a few hairdo's wont change the story or character dynamics which reack.

Re:Fire Berman!

[eddy the lip]

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.

Re:Fire Berman!

[Watts Martin]

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....

Actually, the episode from yesterday to which you refer did something virtually unheard of in modern "Trek." The humans interfered with good intentions in the oh-very-PC way that they often do and it ended in tragedy. Not even an "in darkness there is hope" final scene. They followed it to the logical, unpleasant conclusion instead of pulling a happy ending out of their ass.

Your sarcasm is cute, but it breezes past the fact that freeing the cogenitor from the perceived oppression would have been the point in most Trek episodes, and this one took a markedly different route. While I don't think depressing episodes are in and of themselves signs of quality, if more "Enterprise" episodes had the courage to be that honest, there'd be a lot less to bitch about.

I hope they don't use Borgs!

[antdude]

Next week's episode (5/7/2003) will be a Borg episode.

Synopsis:
An arctic research team on Earth discovers debris from an alien vessel, nearly a century old, buried in a glacier along with the bodies of two cybernetically enhanced humanoids. Once those beings are thawed for investigation, they come to life and abduct the scientists and their transport vessel. Enterprise is called to intercept, but Captain Archer and his crew find these cyborgs to be an intractable, insidious enemy.

Re:I hope they don't use Borgs!

[Dausha]

Come on! You know Bergman uses "Star Trek" plot dice. These are two eight-sided dice that establish what plot and which races are involved in a given episode. He then reaches for the shelf and finds an old script for 'research.'

Sex it up!

[ChuckleBug]

Don't get me wrong - I like hot babes in form-fitting clothes and all, but after Seven of Nine and T'Pol, how about a hot babe with all the nice bits PLUS an actual PERSONALITY? Sure, the physical goods are there, but their behavior isn't exactly sexy.

"Captain, it is 1300 hours. Time for our afternoon copulation."

Then again, since ratings are down, try a proven formula: Have Archer shave his head, grow a beard, and bring in Worf!

Re:Sex it up!

[nurightshu]

The disturbing juxtaposition of the subject line and your last suggestion made me think of this.

Here come the Borg!

[diverman]

Yeah... the default backup plan when ratings go south... Bring on the Borg! Oh wait! That's what the preview for next week indicated!

I certainly hope they are doing more than that to improve the show! Just bringing in the Borg kind of breaks the idea that Earth didn't have any major confrontation until STTNG. If an earlier Enterprise happened to encounter the Borg, I would think that some records would have existed for Pickard to to be more prepared. :)

-Alex

Re:Here come the Borg!

[Dylan Zimmerman]

The series finale for Enterprise is going to involve them going through time fixing all sorts of things. The Suliban will be prevented from existing, the first encounter with the Borg will be removed from history, etc.

I can almost guarantee that that is what they are going to pull. They've been hinting at it since the first episode, what with the whole "temporal cold war" that was never refered to in any other show and all.

Slipping all season?

[Mashiki]

It's been slipping the last two seasons.

Same show, rehatched ideas, visionless direction; lather rinse repeat. Bah...it's turned into a "PC our morality is always right" and your is always wrong show. Last nights episode was a good example.

What happened to entertainment, if I wanted to be taught morality, I would goto my local public school.

Re:Slipping all season?

[11223]

Really? Have we been watching the same show? I thought it was a "our morality is always wrong" show. Sort of like TNG and Voyager, for that matter.

Re:Slipping all season?

[NanoGator]

"Bah...it's turned into a "PC our morality is always right" and your is always wrong show. Last nights episode was a good example."

Err did you watch to the end of that episode? "Morality" caused somebody to commit suicide. Not only did this episode illustrate why the Prime Directive is more important than human morality, but it also showed (again) that the Enterprise really fucked up. It's startlingly different from STNG or Voyager where everything ends better for the good guys.

What I particularly liked about the end of this episode was the chewing Trip got over the whole situation he caused. It was evident that some serious damage was caused between Archer and his First Officer. If this carries over into future episodes, we could have a heck of a story arc.

I agree that Enterprise has been a little stale in recent episodes, but last night was a surprisingly good one. The catch is that you have to really pay attention to what's said in the end to enjoy it. Turn it off early and the whole ep is wasted.

Re:Slipping all season?

[pantropik]

First Officer? What did T'Pol have to do with it?

Tripp is Chief Engineer. That's why T'Pol always gets left in command when Archer is off flying through stars and stuff (and then usually placed in a situation where it would be "logical" but not very nice to betray Archer "for his own good".)

Maybe partly off-topic, but

[compupc1]

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!

Re:Maybe partly off-topic, but

[nytes]

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.

I agree 100%. I wanna see T'Pol without the catsuit on!

(Sorry, that was just too easy to pass up :-)

Fucking Trek Leadership

[dupper]

I woke my family screaming "NO!!!" upon reading the synopsis for the upcoming Enterprise episode "Regeneration. What the hell is wrong with B&B (Brannon Braga and Rick Berman), or whoever is responsible for this. I wasn't expecting the show to stoop to this level of gimmickery for at least several seasons (even worse with the T'Pol pon-farr-ish episode supposedly coming up), and, even then, I thought they would at least try to maintain some degree of continuity (the 200 year thing is complete BS, especially considering that subspace transmissions travel faster than the fastest starships, and Voyager would have only taken 70 years from the Delta Quadrant). Either give the show some decent writers and general creative control (ie, kill B&B in some horrible, painfuil way), or cancel the fucking series while it still has some damn dignity left.

On the other hand, last night's episode "Cogenitor" was the first episode of Enterprise I've ever seen which actually had a reasonably original story (trigendered species and a crewmember's fuck-up with cultural interference, clearly meant to establish the principles behind the future prime directive) and which didn't do a hollyood-liberal hippocritical pussy/cop/whore-out, and have the end be all preachy, with a thousand years of injustices and hatred completely reversed with a single visit and impassioned speach by the captain (are you listening, Voyager?). Kudos on that, but the episode was still dull as an old dog's balls.

Re:Fucking Trek Leadership

[kongjie]

I only watch Enterprise about once a month and I have to say I was very impressed by the non-copout last night. It came close to revolutionary for this show.

Usually they will let the character, Trip in this case, just plod along repeating the same dumb behavior season after season.

I kept on waiting for Archer to add "Yeah, you were wrong. And I would have made the same mistake" at the end of his speech. But no, he left him hanging high and dry.

Of course, they had to alienate themselves from that race, otherwise there would be no explanation for why the humans didn't get a shitload of the cool technology.

the "problem" with Enterprise...

[Keebler71]

I don't "get" why Trekies (no, not Trekers) don't like Enterprise. I have never been a fan of Star Trek. The only series that I could tolerate at all was TNG and then only the later episodes. So why is it that I, a non-trekie, loves Enterprise yet the faithful despise it? The characters are well-developed, the acting is impressive and the story lines are not nearly as predicatable as TNG. Oh, and last night's episode was the first one I can recall where there wasn't any ass-kicking at all! None of that sissy Picard diplomacy crap.

Some thoughts:

-is it because the story predates what people are familiar with?

-is it not faithful to the Trek universe?

I am genuinely curious why do you all hate it so much? Does CleverNickName have any insight?

Re:the "problem" with Enterprise...

[eyeye]

Its like a cowboy drama in space, thats why we hate it.
Bad science fiction is the old stories but fought with ray guns instead of colts.
Good science fiction is where the plot is intimately entwined in a scientific concept. A genuinely new story based on a hypothetical concept.

Also Enterprise is shit because its totally illogical check out http://www.firsttvdrama.com/enterprise/e1.php3 for a small sample..

Re:the "problem" with Enterprise...

[WIAKywbfatw]

First of all, just so everyone can flame me for being a philistine, I'll list the various flavours of Star Trek in the order in which I rate them: DS9, TNG, Voyager, TOS, Enterprise.

Now, given that I find watching all but a handful of episodes of TOS a painful experience, that should give you some indication of how badly I think of Enterprise.

Granted, I've only watched about 8-10 episodes of this latest show, but it doesn't take more than that to see that this latest offering is dire, dire, dire.

It's not that the show predates all other Treks per se, it's just that putting it before all the others shows in the Trek universe timeline seriously limits the writers as to what they can and can't do with the characters, races and technology available to them. Putting your writers in a creative straightjacket, limiting their creative scope and presenting the viewers with a wider story that leads them somewhere that they've already been doesn't work very well - just look at the Star Wars prequels for evidence. (So that's yes to your first question; but not for the reasons that you were probably expecting.)

And it's not just that it rewrites Star Trek history on the fly (Klingons that look like TNG/DS9/Voyager versions, rather than TOS oneS, etc), rather that it does so so badly. (So that's a yes to your second question; it's not entirely faithful to the previously established Trek universe.)

But if I had to give just one reason why Enterprise sucks it would be that it's dull as dishwater. None of the characters seem to have any depth to them, and there isn't a single one that I can empathise or admire in the way that I do Data, Worf, Picard, Sisko, Odo, O'Brien, Chakotay or Spock.

Frankly, Enterprise seems like a one-dimensional show with a bunch of one-dimensional characters.

Re:Haha

[anotherone]

Reminds me of something I saw on Invader Zim once...

Re:Alien aliens

[NanoGator]

"It would be nice if they'd use cgi to create some real alien aliens rather than just creating a different shaped latex mask for a human. "

The problem with doing that is that Star Trek tries to maintain a style that doesn't degrade much over the years. For example, there's very little in STNG (post season 3) that makes people wince today like Dr. Who does. That's one of the reasons that they stick with the 'bumpy head' approach. Okay, it's not so 'alienesque' but it does stand the test of time longer than other approaches, plus the actors can act with them.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I'd be on the side of surprise if they did do that. Still though, I'd prefer it to muppets.

The idea was blown from the beginning...

[Mossfoot]

You want a REALLY fresh idea for Star Trek, something new and different? Well, they shouldn't have blown it from the get go. Come on, we're talking about the BEGINING of decent exploration from Earth for crying out loud! What is more interesting than the idea of being true pioneers?

Only one problem, everything here feels the same as every other show. They still have transporters, they just don't use them on people much. They don't have tractor beams, but that's an excuse so they can have a cool lookin toilet plunger launcher instead. Their phasers aren't as powerful as later shows, but big whoop, they're still phasers. Same shit, different smell, music by a Ron Stweart wannabe.

A show I WOULD have watched eagerly would have been one BEFORE all this technology (save the ability to travel at warp). NO transporters, NO phasers, NO tractor beams, heck no artificial gravity even (though that could be a problem cost wise and quailty wise, unless you have rotating sections like B5, though that doesn't mesh with its own "history"). And if you think that no longer makes it Star Trek, then you really are brainwashed about that show.

Give us something different instead of the same and simply changing it a little to seem different while giving writers the exact same conventions to fall back on under different guises.

This would help.

Well, that and having decent writers that don't simply add the "alien with the cigarette burn on the forhead of the week" each episode.

Oh yeah, and water polo? Who the hell watches water polo?

The Trek Sex Virus

[retro128]

Slipping is an understatement. Nothing says "it's over" like the crew encountering an alien race that requres a threesome in order to reproduce.

Seriously, if I wanted to see a bunch of oddly proportioned women who wear too much makeup getting it on with average looking guys, I'll watch a porn.

Rick Berman needs to just go.

[gadlaw]

Where to begin. This is a guy who has never had the first clue about what made Star Trek successful and will never ever know it. He killed Kirk stupidly and that was inexcusable. He's had a deathgrip on the Star Trek franchise and has been intent on squeezing the last dollar out of it. It's no fun, it's Politically Correct and boring. There isn't anyone 'Boldly going where no man has gone before' - it's all the same aliens with a different rubber thing on their heads. It's all about United Nations like problems and the proper UN type solutions. It's just completely unwatchable and just plain sad. Berman- don't go away mad, just go away.

Re:Bold New Direction? Ask the fans!!!!!

[Silent_E]

Most "bold, new directions" are about marketing: which hairstyle do you like better, ma'am? or which charcter would increase your demographics in this or that ratings area? Real changes have to be more fundamental: what kind of stories do we want to tell?

I'm with the "GET NEW WRITERS" crowd. I love star trek, having grown up on the original, and enjoyed young adulthood on TNG. I never bothered watching the latest after catching an piece of an episode while channel surfing. What a waste of 10 minutes. If you can't make me care about a character in 10 minutes, something is very wrong.

Ask the fans what they'd like to see. The new show is just trying to pander to the FOX crowd, not real SF fans.

*sigh*

[Faust7]

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.

Re:*sigh*

[hal200]

Indeed. My problem with bringing the borg to Enterprise (which I rarely watch anyway) is that they are simply too powerful an enemy to be dealt with in a reasonable manner.

I mean, these are the same borg that fought their way to Earth in the 24th century, against 24th century weapons and defenses, then traveled back in time to the 22nd century. They kicked righteous Federation ass. Now they're being unleashed on 22nd century Enterprise? What the hell are the writers thinking?

This is the same Enterprise that has 'polarized hull plating', pulse cannons and a top speed of what? Warp 5? It's been established that they're not even a match for the Vulcans! And they're pairing them up against the Borg who can rip through 24th century shields in a couple of minutes, are nearly immune to phasers and photon torpedoes and can propel their ships at speeds well above warp 10 using transwarp?

If you want an idea of how badly this will go for the good guys, go watch the first ST:TNG borg episode again, and multiply the ass whooping that Picard and crew took by 100. It's like putting Pee Wee Herman in the ring against Mike Tyson on PCP. It's pretty much guaranteed to be short, brutal and very messy.

The only way they'll be able to hit the proverbial 'reset' button in an hour is by introducing some horrible plot device, because there is no plausible way for the crew to handle something like this on their own. Basically, the entire episode is going to go like this: (given an episode length of 47 minutes without commercials)

1) Enterprise is called to investigate (20 minutes)
2) The Borg kick Enterprise's ass. (20 minutes)
3) A miracle happens. (5 minutes)
4) Everyone lives happily ever after. (2 minutes)

Ugh. I think I'll just save my brain the agony, thank you very much. This is just another example of one of the three classic horrible sci-fi plots. There is no faster way to ruin a good story than by introducing time travel, clones or alternate dimensions. (and heaven help you if you manage to mire your audience in all three!) Yes, it is possible to do them right, but it's dreadfully easy to do them wrong...so very wrong.

The Simpsons In Space

[Bendebecker]

"Furthermore, the dangerous Delphic Expanse, likened to the Bermuda Triangle, causes those who enter to "become anatomically inverted (skin on the inside, organs on the outside)"brWasn't that one of the Simpson's Holloween Specials? "Look! It's that funny gas that turns people inside-out!"

The only way

[actappan]

The only way to save enterprise is to put Archer in an orange sweatshirt and have him die every episode.

Re:Haha

[cybermace5]

That was the exact plot (well, except for the space part) of a radio skit from the 1940's.

IT's as if DS9 never existed....

[YetAnotherAnonymousC]

"What we are about to do is a first for STAR TREK," Berman tells TVG. "In the past, our captains have had the general mission to explore outer space and, in the case of Voyager, a mission to find a way back home. But there has never been a Trek series built around a specific mission and specific stakes-in this case, the very future of mankind."

Funny, I thought the last few seasons of DS9 did deal with a specific threat to the very future of mankind. Does Berman want to pretend that DS9 doesn't exist?

It's already oversexed...

[stefanlasiewski]

how about a hot babe with all the nice bits PLUS an actual PERSONALITY?

Wrong. Treat me like I'm not a walking lump of hormones. I have an intelligent brain and I like to watch intelligent shows that don't use sex as a replacement for a storyline.

The sex factor in Enterprise was already overused from episode one. "Hey, I have a great idea, let's have T'Pol strip down to her underwear, and rub lotion all over the studly guy. And we'll make it the longest scene in the show, to show off the 'smart storyline'. That's gotta be original, and it will appeal to the intelligent women in the audience."

What the hell were they thinking? How the hell can I take this show seriously when they stoop so low?

I'd rather them focus on the storyline. There are dozens of TV shows with cute girls, even some with personality, but few of the shows are worth watching.

How about some good plots with believable struggles science. Time travel? Please...

I miss Babylon 5. Granted, the characters weren't very sexy, some of the acting was cheesy, and yes the Vorlon-Shadow war had a really stupid ending, but in general it had a good, consistant storyline which kept me coming back episode after episode. I have most of Season 3 & 4 on tape, and I still watch them.

Deep Space Nine got really damn good, and it had better actors then B5.

Star Trek's 9/11

[falsification]

In the season finale, "a mysterious probe from space will blast a swath of destruction across North and Central America, causing epic explosions and annihilating everything between Florida and Venezuela," according to the article. "As viewers will learn, this is a preemptive strike by an alien race known as the Xindi (that's Zin-dee), who have obtained knowledge that Earth will destroy their home world 400 years in the future. The hour ends on a chilling threat of more devastation to come, but this is no mere summer cliff-hanger. In fact, it marks a whole new direction for the series." ... It's up to Captain Archer to go there and stop them from destroying us altogether."

The Xindi attack is obviously a rehash of 9/11. This whole thing is just a cheap shot against the War on Terrorism.

Just substitute the "Xindi" for Arabs. The "Arabs" attacked America on 9/11. The Xindi attacked Earth in the Star Trek future. Note that the Trek producers call the Xindi attack "preemptive." That's how Bush referred to the Iraq war. Berman is turning Star Trek into utterly non-subtle hard left political correctness run amok.

SPOILERS. Here's what will happen. I guarantee this. It's so predictable. First, Archer will angrily make a military foray against the Xindi, determining to wage his own preemptive strike. He will look with disdain and haughtiness at all diplomatic solutions. But his military efforts will prove fruitless. He will only succeed in killing a lot of civilians. Then, there will be a big moment that hammers the "cycle of violence" fallacy home with an opprobrious sledgehammer. Then, Archer will realize that the only way to stop the "cycle of violence" is to hang out with the Xindi in their bars and holy places and become friends with them, and even take up their traditional practice of basket weaving or whatever. Unfortunately, Archer's "epic lesson" (of LIES!!) will be forgotten by an arrogant Federation. Then, in the next TNG movie the Xindi will attack again! (Well shucks, like that isn't obvious.) That's when Picard must go through the same process that Archer went through. Fortunately, Kirk's legacy will be dead and so there will be no unnecessary blastings. And of course, the Xindi will turn out to be fundamentally friendly. As for why they blew up a large chunk of planet Earth, well, hey, you can't blame them for that! At the time, the Xindi were led by Republicans! They were warlike and militaristic. They thought that was the best way of protecting themselves, by striking first! Only Jonathan Archer taught them how to live in peace.

Give me a break.

I used to like Star Trek. Now, I can't tolerate it. No matter how much Star Trek there is on TV or in the movies, that won't change the fact of how, for example, little Iraqi children will no longer have to endure electric drills being pushed through their wrists while their parents are forced to watch.

Rick Berman, you are a loser.

I'm sure someone will say something like, "Hey, how do you know this isn't a return to TOS, and epic space battles? Why do you assume that this will be antiwar propaganda?" Hey, buddy. This is Star Trek. It's wussy sci-fi.

The crew must die

[Dr. Spork]

Oh, I love to rant about this show but I've decided it just sucks too much to be worth the effort of ranting. But I'll say this:

If they want the show to have some dignity, the whole crew should die. I really mean die. It's not like that sort of thing doesn't happen in experimental spaceship programs, especially when those ships are getting shot at. Maybe Mayweather could live, because I like him. But the rest should die. The ship should be rebuilt and taken over by a more interesting crew, and they should get some less open-ended missions, something better than "go out there and look around." (Realistic example: espionage on the Klingons, acquisition of advanced tech from other races who are willing to deal, support of Earth-friendly regimes in space, etc.)

The whole point of flashing back to the pre-federation days with the show is that they don't have to be so goody-goody, especially when it seems like all of space is out to get the Earth's goods.

I also really hate the fact that on our first voyage into deep space, we pick fights and don't get our asses handed to us in the first milisecond. How likely is that? Many of these hostile races have been fighting in interstellar space for generations. The Enterprise is the first ship we built which is sturdy enough to take us really far. But to pretend that this reconissance ship could fight a battle in deep space is like thinking the Aztecs could have challenged the British navy with a paddleboat and a harpoon.

That's why I think it's very realistic that they would all die. And, it would improve the show. It would be just the sort of bold, interesting move Berman is advertising, but won't deliver.

The Eugenics Wars

[DeadVulcan]

I agree with those saying there's been no imagination in coming up with new Star Trek series. They are all carbon copies of each other, with the possible exception of DS9.

In the vein of different Star Trek stories, has anyone read the novel(s) "The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh?" It's in two parts, and I'm impatiently waiting for the second to appear in paperback.

I know this is just slightly off-topic, but I must talk about it!

The story (obviously) follows the life of Khan. However, in an absolute stroke of genius, the writer also included the character of Gary Seven, the mysterious alien-bred human introduced in the original series. The episode was clearly being set up to be spun off, but never did.

As I said before, I think that putting Gary Seven and Khan on the same stage (or rather, realizing that they would have been contemporaries) was a stroke of genius. They're both genetically enhanced, but with completely opposite political and personal ideologies.You could not ask for two men more perfectly crafted to oppose each other in a dramatic conflict.

Gary Seven was sent to Earth to quietly pull strings and guide world events for the betterment of the human race. Khan actually has similar motives, but intends to fix the world by forcibly taking control of everything. He's not the obsessed villain of ST:TWOK (not yet, anyway), and he's a thoroughly believable character.

It's amazing that the stage, the plot, and the characters for this story could all emerge by accident! When you realize they were on the same planet at the same time, you realize they must have butted heads.

Make a miniseries of this, I say. I'd be all over it.

BTW, if you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. There's a little bit of gratuitous reference-dropping, but I have nothing else bad to say about it. Read it!

Enterprise is nothing but left-wing propaganda

[leereyno]

The problem with this show is that it's being used as a platform for left-wing propaganda. It's the worst example of this since the Alien Nation series on Fox a decade back. I've only watched a handful of episodes and each time I was left with the feeling that the story and characters were little more than a gimmick to get people to watch what was otherwise a one-hour presentation on left-wing ideology.

The only way this show can be "fixed" is to get rid of whoever is writing that kind of crap and replace them with real writers.

Lee

Ripping off JMS *again*?

[steveha]

J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, deserves credit for a bunch of creative new ideas... that were lifted for Star Trek.

Babylon 5 had a heavy story arc. Later, Deep Space 9 developed a story arc. Babylon 5 used CGI heavily when Trek was using models. Of course Trek now uses CGI; perhaps that one was inevitable, but they probably adopted it sooner because of the example of Babylon 5.

After Babylon 5, JMS had a short-lived series called Crusade. The ship in Crusade had a limited amount of time to find a cure that would save the lives of all humans on Earth. Now we find out that Enterprise is turning into Crusade -- they will have to go and stop the Xindi super-weapon.

And new hair styles? Given that Babylon 5 was famous for its wild hair styles, I was amazed they were hyping this.

All that said -- I'll try to hope. Stopping a superweapon is closer to "Trek with phasers" than preachy episodes like "Cogenitor". I'd like to see it be fun and exciting, with far less lecturing.

But I'm afraid that next week (the Borg prequel) is going to be the "jump the shark" episode.

steveha

Re:Ripping off JMS *again*?

[Trillan]

I'm a huge DS9 fan, but I find this really tough to swallow.

Babylon 5 had a heavy story arc. Later, Deep Space 9 developed a story arc.

So did TNG. Remember the Klingons? That was spread out over several years.

Babylon 5 used CGI heavily when Trek was using models. Of course Trek now uses CGI; perhaps that one was inevitable, but they probably adopted it sooner because of the example of Babylon 5.

Technology increases at the speed that it is researched.

After Babylon 5, JMS had a short-lived series called Crusade. The ship in Crusade had a limited amount of time to find a cure that would save the lives of all humans on Earth. Now we find out that Enterprise is turning into Crusade -- they will have to go and stop the Xindi super-weapon.

God knows we never saw the "save Earth against next to impossible odds!" plot before Crusade.

And new hair styles? Given that Babylon 5 was famous for its wild hair styles, I was amazed they were hyping this.

I don't really see "them" hyping this, rather reporters and Slashdot. I saw "them" casually mention it. And why shouldn't they?

All that said -- I'll try to hope. Stopping a superweapon is closer to "Trek with phasers" than preachy episodes like "Cogenitor". I'd like to see it be fun and exciting, with far less lecturing.

I still need to consider whether I liked or hated Cogenitor, heh. But not that much different than I, Borg or The Outcast for instance. Although Enterprise took a much darker conclusion.

I really think anyone who views Enterprise as that much worse than TNG is relying on nostalgia, rather than the actually TNG episodes. I find Enterprise the most interesting Star Trek series so far by a wide margin (although comparing anything to the granddaddy of them all is apples to lemons).

Re:Ripping off JMS *again*?

[sholden]

Babylon 5 used CGI heavily when Trek was using models. Of course Trek now uses CGI; perhaps that one was inevitable, but they probably adopted it sooner because of the example of Babylon 5.

I seriously doubt it. The cost of CGI had been dropping (and continues to do so) relative to using models. CGI was cheaper at that point then using models - for Babylon 5. For Trek CGI was still more expensive, because they already had the models.

If you were starting from scratch CGI was cheaper. If you had already built a bunch of models then models were cheaper. Trek exists solely to make money, as soon as doing CGI was cheap enough to make the change worthwhile they did it.

I guess you could argue that Babylon 5's use of CGI helped bring the price down faster.

Re:Ripping off JMS *again*?

[fadeaway]

Babylon 5 had a heavy story arc. Later, Deep Space 9 developed a story arc. Babylon 5 used CGI heavily when Trek was using models.

This just isn't true. Babylon 5 didn't air until 1994, at which point TNG was was in it's 7th season. TNG was using CGI nearly a decade before Babylon 5's inception. In fact the series pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint", was acclaimed at a milestone in the field of television special effects, and is widely considered to be the show responsible for the CGI breakthrough in television.

Q's giant space-cargo-net might not be very impressive now, but it was CGI, and it was there. ;)

Re:Ripping off JMS *again*?

[eloki]

Babylon 5 had a heavy story arc. Later, Deep Space 9 developed a story arc.

I think this is a silly thing to say. Sci-fi shows don't exist in a vacuum independent of other ones. Why are we talking as if no TV show previous to either of these had a story arc? Episodic story arcs are not some fancy invention of B5.

Re:In case the original article is slashdotted...

[Dausha]

What the article did not reveal, and what few of us really know, is who the leader of the Xindi is. Most of the third season will be spent with them slowly unraveling that cold, horrible truth. And, no, Bergman did not name the show after his girlfriend Cindy.

Cindy Lauperwill star as the evil leader of the Xindi--who in reality are just a bunch of girls who want to have fun. At least this time, the ST crew will encounter a race with a cool new name, instead of some rip off of something from Earth's culture (Romulan, Vulcan, Borg, Cindy^H^H^H^H^H etc.).The other neat thing is that the evil leader speaks in song.

She bop--he bop--a--we bop I bop--you bop--a--they bop Be bop--be bop--a--lu--she bop

Translation: "I hope He will understand."

What "Enterprise" should have been.

[drdink]

In Star Trek: The Next Generation's All Good Things finale, Q plots out where Star Trek should have gone in future series after TNG:

"Exactly. For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you had never considered. THAT is the exploration that awaits you: not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence."

If the people who made Star Trek could have pulled it off, what Q proposes could have been an amazingly cool show. For anybody who enjoyed Q, this would have brought a whole new spin to Star Trek and a new reason to tune in and watch. All that woudl be required is to think extremely far out of the box.

Re:Vulcan loins on fire!

[Carnivorous Carrot]

> Synopsis: "A Tellarite bounty hunter captures
> Archer intending to turn him over to the
> Klingons for a substantial reward. Meanwhile,
> T'Pol is infected with an alien pathogen that
> unleashes her primal Vulcan urges."

Hey! You can do the same little trick with Star Trek synopsis as you can do with Chinese fortune cookies:

- A Tellarite bounty hunter captures Archer intending to turn him over to the Klingons for a substantial reward... ...in bed!

- Meanwhile, T'Pol is infected with an alien pathogen that unleashes her primal Vulcan urges... ...in bed!

Star trek first

[peragrin]

Every one is forgetting something. The Romulans. There has yet to be the all out war between the Romulans and the federation. That was supposed to happen nearly a hundered years before Kirk. They have already introduced the romulans, I say war is brewing and Romulans have weapons of mass descruction. oops wrong time

Forehead mods and smoothness

[Sabalon]

Hows that for a subject.

My first main beef is that nigh every alien species is just a human with a funny forehead or nose...no creativity.

My second beef is just about every alien world (cheap sets) is a semi-desert planet with what look like mud huts with technology dried into the walls, or some leftover hippie commune looking place. Can't they find a city like NYC or something on some Class M?

That aside, since this is star trek afterall, my main problem with Enterprise is how smoothly the ship seems to run. Basically our first big ship and it has less problems than the Red Dwarf.

The Reset Button

[shade1475]

So I see this whole thing violating continuity even more (big war before the big Romulan War that should be coming up soon? come on...) but it's not going to matter.
I'm starting to wonder if the whole "Temporal Cold War" thing is just going to be a really convenient Trek Reset Button when they wind the series down/do anything substantial. Aliens from the future, Warship Enterprise, lotsa death, destruction, and mayhem--and then whoops! It was all an alternate timeline that was never supposed to happen, so the 29th century time guys put it all straight by the end of the season, if not the episode.
Enterprise is fine for dumb fun, but it could be sooo much better. I wish it was.

Pussifying the Borg

[CleverNickName]

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.

Re:Pussifying the Borg

[The Night Watchman]

Worst. Screwing up of a cool bad guy. EVER.

While I definitely have to agree with you on that, I have to add that the Klingons are a very close second in this regard. Remember in ST3, featuring Klingon Commander Jim Ignatowski? He kicked ass!! If I may cite the following examples of his badass-itude.

1) Blowing up his girlfriend's ship because she happened to see the Genesis information
2) Wrestling with and killing that giant worm-constrictor thing that was wrapping itself around his neck, and then throwing its carcass aside as though that happened to him all the time
3) "Kill one of them... I don't care which."

They were portrayed as a society that believed in honor and courage, and in the movies you *believed* that. They could be taken seriously. TNG turned the Klingons into a caricature of themselves. I just couldn't accept them, it was like they were playing pretend or something. All they did was talk the talk, strut around and occasionally fight each other, but nothing truly bastardly; nothing in the spirit of the movies.

Now ST6... General Chang with a thick metal eyepatch bolted to his skull. THAT was badass.

---

original?

[tero]

Superduper alien weapon threatening the Earth and the existance of mankind? All new hairdos and plastic noses? Ooh.
Maybe this is new to Trek, but haven't we all seen and heard this before? About dozen times?
At least B5 and JMS did with style, somehow I have a feeling that B&B will turn this into mainstreamed, preprocessed junk that Voyager was (and the current Enterprise episodes have been).
How about a real first frontier sci-fi series? Wagons, cattle, gunsliging captains and a interesting story? Oh that's right, you took the sky from me... damn Fox.

Actually, that kind of makes sense...

[clambake]

You know, if you think about all the numbskulls on TNG that got assimilated, it only makes sense that their addition would have a negative impact on the collective... er, present company excluded?

Stand-Alone? Oh dear.

[Joel Rowbottom]

"What we are about to do is a first for STAR TREK," Berman tells TVG. "In the past, our captains have had the general mission to explore outer space and, in the case of Voyager, a mission to find a way back home. But there has never been a Trek series built around a specific mission and specific stakes-in this case, the very future of mankind."

Ahh, right, so the DS9 Delta Quadrant stuff never happened. Mm.

This sounds *well* sucky, and goes on to fulfil a pet hate of mine which is that episodes will no longer be 'stand-alone'. Which is a pity.

mmm...where have I seen this before, I wonder ?

[master_p]

a mysterious probe from space will blast a swath of destruction across North and Central America, causing epic explosions and annihilating everything between Florida and Venezuela," according to the article. "As viewers will learn, this is a preemptive strike by an alien race known as the Xindi (that's Zin-dee)

Well, at last Star Trek catches up with Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers. There was no other way to go for the show to keep it going. As a reminder, the 1st season of SBY has the following story:

In the year 2199, Earth is under attack by the mysterious planet Gamilon. Planet bombs destroy all of Earth's surface, forcing people to live underground. Radiation from the bombs is everywhere, and life on Earth has one more year left. All Earth space fleets are destroyed. A mysterious message arrives from Iscandar, probing Earth people to travel 248,000 light years across space to get the Cosmo DNA machine which will remove the radioactivity and restore the planet in its former state. Since Earth has no other spaceships, they retrofit the Yamato for space travel, fitting the wave motion engine (blueprints of it were sent along with the message) so they can warp through space, and also converting it to the wave motion gun which blasts a huge planet-destroying beam but leaves the ship helpless for a few minutes.

I keep mentioning Space Battleship Yamato here in Slashdot for younger people to learn that the wonderous things they see today or tomorrow have been established 30 years ago. Many anime cliches (for example, the hero, his best friend and rival, his girlfriend, the wise but sick captain, the cyborg mechanic, the megalomaniac alien emperor bent on destroying Earth) have been introduced en mass in SBY. There is a rumour that George Lucas was heavily inspired by it during his early trip in Japan before he wrote Star Wars.

As you can see from the above text, the few lines of the SBY scenario already sound more interesting than the new Enterprise. There is no other way to go for Star Trek in my opinion, cause they have played almost every card, except the "alien invasion" plot. Now it's time for the real Star Trek: huge battles and an epic race to save Earth from destruction.

By the way, if SBY sounds similar to the plot in Babylon 5's Crusade, it's because it is. They have stolen heavily from Yamato.

Finally, they could throw some bits of Robotech in the Enterprise, huge robots transforming, you know the stuff. Whatever they do, I bet there's gonna be more interesting than ever.

Star Trek: No Heart, No Soul.

[rinkjustice]

How about having aliens that don't speak english, don't have two eyes, ears and one mouth, and use their God given imaginations for a change?! Do the creators/script writers even care about how weak Star trek/B5 looks, or are they just there to pick up a paycheck?

The whole Star Trek franchise is lame. So-called "aliens" from another universe look more normal than most high school kids these days.

Creation of the Borg

[CleverNickName]

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.


It was Michael Piller who created the Borg, and it was he who made them the terrifying badasses that they were in Best of Both Worlds I&II.

On the DVD for Season 3 or 4, Michael says that he was planning to leave TNG after he wrote Best of Both Worlds Part I, so he went ahead and made them so bad ass, and so undefeatable, because "someone else would have to figure out what to do with them."

Then Gene convinced him to stick around another year, so he ended up being "someone else!"

I think this is awesome, and it's a good lesson for writers: get your characters into trouble. Put them in a place where REAL death is certain, and then let them figure out how to get out of it. Michael wrote those stories without any hesitation or fear, and that's why they are two of the best TNG episodes ever.

For the record: In my opinion, Michael Piller is responsible for some of the best stories -- well, some of the best everything -- on The Next Generation.

Re:Alien aliens

[tenman]

I think they could get some great ideas for completely off-the wall characters by attending just one Star Trek convention.