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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.
Just somehow bring the Borg into an episode. That'll sell it. Oh wait, they're already doing that....
What's going to happen, a trekkie is going to lose his virginity?
No holodeck.
No Q
"If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone."
~Epictetus
what they need is new writers.
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?
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
says it all
Peace and love, y'all
New aliens and a few hairdo's wont change the story or character dynamics which reack.
http://saveie6.com/
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.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
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!
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.
Om, nomnomnom...
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
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.
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?
Fuzzy Knights: New RPG Strips Tuesday and Friday!:
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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.
-R
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.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
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.
The only way to save enterprise is to put Archer in an orange sweatshirt and have him die every episode.
\Drew National Data Director, John Edwards for President
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.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
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.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
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!
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
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
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
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.
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.
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?
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.
Smegma.
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.