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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.
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.
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.
"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."
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!:
http://www.fuzzyknights.com
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.
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.
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
Given the fact that First Contact introduced the first Earth warp ship, bar none, wouldn't you say that's pretty well established already?
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
"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.
"Derp de derp."
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
"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.
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
"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.
"Derp de derp."
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.
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.