Star Trek: Enterprise Reactions? 1689
So, what did you think of it? The theme song has to go. Commander Tucker ("Kumanduh Tuckah") needs to get a personality other than "he'll be just like McCoy, only clumsy and stupid". Is it really necessary to rehash "cold emotionless Vulcans vs. thoughtless, reckless humans"? That plot device was old thirty years ago and it's physically painful to watch now. How can armor plating go "offline"? Electromagnetic shields maybe, but one of the virtues of a hunk of steel is that it doesn't go "offline". And what's with the soft porn? I was waiting for the bow-chicka-bow-wow music to kick in. CT: I didn't get to see it! I don't get UPN! Curses!
Spoiler-tastic (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously. Not everyone watched or even *could* watch Enterprise tonight. You could have at least had the courtesy to hide the spoilers "under the fold", so to speak.
Now, for my opinion (some spoiler content).
It looks good as far as a stand-alone show is concerned. But it seems to break from the "known" Star Trek history, as described by the other shows and movies (not books and fanfic). For instance, we're looking at the later appearance of the Klingons, when Worf told us that something happened to change their appearance that "we don't like to talk about". And Picard told us that the war with the Klingons was sparked by a botched first contact with them. But that contact didn't seem to be botched.
I'm a little disappointed with how contrived the disinfectant scene was. And the way the camera paused during it was just silly. And Archer's whole thing with staying on the station after he set the maglock charge was pointless. First, it should have been longer than 5 seconds. Second, there was noone shooting at him, so there wasn't really a reason to set it and stand there, rather than setting it and running.
I think I'll wait for a couple more episodes to reevaluate that and see if I really care about this series. As it is, I can take it or leave it.
-Todd
What have we learned so far? (Score:5, Interesting)
Star Trek: The Original: First season
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done.
Star Trek: TNG: First Season
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done (just watch some of them fer chrissakes!).
DS9: First Season:
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done.
Voyager: First season (and second, and third...)
-Wooden acting, hokey stories, lotsa work to be done.
Give the series a little time to put down some roots.
Sheesh.
1950 (Score:4, Interesting)
1950 meets 2001 meets 2150
We knew it would be a problem, and it's interesting to see it play out on the screen. Humans have achieved world peace, yet captains and admirals are all white males. Computers have speech capability, yet voice-activation is not yet invented. And, of course what we all expected -- no gender-neutral language yet.
Soft porn... yeah (Score:1, Interesting)
Also I thought the ship looked too good. While I realize it had to look better than the 196x original series's Enterprise, it just looks too cool. And now how are they going to explain away the change in Klingons' appearance? For ~100 years the klingons looked like Genghis Khan, but then went back to looking like Klingons? At least they didn't forget to leave out the universal translator... that would have been retarded, hearing English from a Klingon.
I didn't catch any of the plot really so I can't comment on it at all, but I'm sure UPN will be rebroadcasting it every day, so I'm not too worried.
Pilot (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Spoiler-tastic (Score:2, Interesting)
Besides, there weren't any spoilers on the top page. Bad theme music, that somebody doesn't have a developed character, that they'd abuse the Vulcan/human relationship, that there was space combat, and they used a little skin to get their young male demographic to like the show. Are these things that you hadn't come to expect?
Revealing my Trekkiehood (Score:2, Interesting)
Wonder what other famous ppl besides T'Pau and Zephram Cochran we might see ? (or at least famous species...like Orion slave girls?...actually when I saw those reptiloid ladies eating the butterflies...I thought of the Orions...but they weren't green of course!
It's not perfect... but I like it (Score:3, Interesting)
- This is the later Klingon look, but in TNG Worf says "something happened" to change the Klingons' appearance that they don't discuss. However, if there were originally two Klingon races, one with the "old" look and one with the new, maybe the old-style ones were forcibly changed to look like the others. Thus they (the formerly-old-style Klingons) would not like to talk about being forced to change their cultural identity.
- The first contact we have here might indeed be botched. We don't yet know. There might turn out to be something the Enterprise crew has done that the Klingons haven't found out about yet. Or maybe "first contact" is an ongoing event and this is just the first note of the movement.
- This Enterprise doesn't appear in Picard's set of models. But is it specifically stated that Picard's models are all the Enterprises? (I don't remember what ships exactly were included -- the carrier? the Space Shuttle? the wooden frigate?) Maybe he just had all the NCC-1701x Enterprises.
And I liked the theme. My favorite is still the Voyager intro (even though I never really liked the show) but this is a close second.
Re:Klingon appearance (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:"Beem me up" (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What have we learned so far? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's not perfect... but I like it (Score:5, Interesting)
If I recall correctly, this was in an episode that was an intentionally campy retrospective; Worf's comment was a joke on the part of the writers. Don't think of this as a continuity error; rather, think of it as the new series taking advantage of better makeup techniques in order to better represent the Klingons.
Star Trek, despite its geeky appeal, does not have to have absolute internal consistency.
Have to say, I liked it. (Score:4, Interesting)
The dislike/prejudice between the Vulcans and Humans was well explained, and made quite a lot of sense as far as I was concerned. Actually did a lot for me... think it's good for there to be a bit of distrust/tension on the bridge.
Another thing I enjoyed was the Klingon, though mostly because it was the first. That's one of the nice things about this show... we get to see all the firsts. The first 'Phase Pistols' (read, phasers), the first time at Rigel-X, the first Klingon encounter, etc.
Personally I'm looking forward to seeing what alienates the Klingons and Starfleet (Though is it just me or did it sound like the Vulcan ambassador talking to the just-introduced aliens? Possibly it was, his interaction is discovered, and the Klinzhai find fault with Starfleet also since they're allies of the Vulcans? Hmmm...)
And people keep talking about the decon scene (Read: Shower scene). What purpose did it play? To show that the vulcan's stacked, that's why. Worked quite well too, as far as I was concerned.
But there was one thing that just absolutely bugged the crap out of me. That's the transporter. Berman had said that they wouldn't have one in this series, mostly since it was too much of a plot safety-net. When the writers couldn't think of a plausible method to do something, out came the transporter. Then what does he go and do? He hands them back the safety net. (Though the 'Leap' effect was pretty neat)
Which reminds me, wouldn't the transporter systems need to be newer than 300yrs for Bones to always be worked up about the 'newfangled gadgets'? If something's been around for that long, I don't think someone would have that sort of reaction.
But overall I have to say that I'm looking forward to the coming episodes of 'Quantum Enterprise'.
Acting? Plotline? (Score:3, Interesting)
None of the "actors" could perform.
Yeah, let's look at the pilot for TOS. The very first one. Then the second one. Then we'll look at TNG's pilot.
Them people damned near had broom handles where ther spines were. The acting was INCREDIBLY stiff. No one knew their characters yet. In TOS, there wasn't even a 'mold' for that type of character yet (yes, there was Sci-fi stuff done before that, but just LOOK at it. EEEKS! Most of it was so bad it wasn't even worth it.) TNG they had something they could look towards for a model, but, none of the characters were really easily translated (Picard, for instance, couldn't be a remodled Kirk.) It wasn't until the second Season that TNG got to be very good, and continued to improve. TOS managed to 'get it' a little quicker, IMHO (Why? Dunno.) Give it time... they will grow into thier rolls, and make the characters live (heck, even the Voyager group managed THAT MUCH eventually. It took them almost the entier series to do it ;-)
The vulcan was a hissing bitch during the first half, I thought count bakula wanted to cry several time, the plot was mediocre even by the standards of the crew that brought us voyager.
Well, considering that Archer already told her at thier first meeting he'd love to knock her on her ass, can you BLAME HER? ;-)
On the Count Bakula comment, I've got no clue WTF you are talking about. Heck, he probably gave the best performance in the show. Which other actor showed much emotion on thier faces during the whole show? Not many, since they really don't know the character enough yet to really know what the character is thinking.
As for the plot - Ok, I'll give you a point for it being 'mediocre'. Comparied to the V word, naw - they already set the standard for what mediocre episodes are, and for bad episodes. ('Cept possibly "Spock's Brain" from TOS ;-) It could have been better. I think alot of it was time spent trying to prove "Hey, this isn't the Trek Universe you are used to", and trying to set the stage for where the series is going to head in the future.
What amazes me is that no one seems to have gone back to the original ST series to see what made it great. It was daring culturally for its time and tried to present a complex cast of characters. Was it perfect? No. But the Berman vision of the future is a piece of plasticine crap undistinguished by any character motivation or deep emotion.
You say Scott Bakula looked like he was going to cry, but, then say there wasn't any emotion? Sheesh.
TOS didn't have much of a complex cast. It had 3 primary characters, and 5 lesser characters. Heck, Friends has almost that many characters. So far, Enterprise hasn't even had much of a chance to explore these characters.
And of course - when all else fails when flaming Trek, pull out the Berman card. Fine, I'll trump ya with a... shoot. Ok, I gotta admit - most of what Berman touches turns to shit. He's got the Septic Tank touch. But he's finally way from the V word - he's got the chance to break free. With ST:Borager, there was a trap - once it started a direction, it was DAMNED HARD (IMHO) to change that direction. Here he's got the chance at a clean slate to work from. Given the start here, it might actually work out. Personally, I think Enterprise is gonna ROCK starting about second season, once the writers, the actors, etc., finally get in tune with thier characters and the job at hand. But I could be wrong - it's too damned hard to tell just from one episode. Give it a season to work out the kinks, then check it out again if you don't like it so far.
If nothing else, tune in for time to time just to check out the latest advances in Vulcan anatomy... ;-)
Let me clarify (Score:3, Interesting)
Hottie + Plagiarism = Continued Franchise (Score:2, Interesting)
The whole thing with the DNA-encoded secret information. 1) It's unlikely that the Klingons would have such a technology. (In TNG, they hadn't the technical sophistication to fix Worf's broken spine, since they often favored euthanasia to advancing medical science.) 2) I won an award from HP and the ACM for a science fiction story I wrote in which the underground of a plutechnocratic Silicon Valley used the same biological transfer methods as their "underground newspaper." I'm pissed.
Enterprise (Score:2, Interesting)
They are the only series that I can think of (except for M*A*S*H) that builds a thoughtful platform for discussing philosophy. Transmitting philosophy and encouraging rational thinking has always been the hallmark of ST, started by good old James T. Kirk/Bones and perfected by Picard and Riker.
What else on television sets such a great example for the moral standards we should set, not only in the future but today as well?
The return of "cowboy diplomacy" (Score:2, Interesting)
I, for one, was glad to see them play up the tension between the humans and vulcans (gee, you mean we haven't always been best friends?). Just goes to show you what was achieved by Kirk's time. I was glad to see the humans buck them and take the bull by the horns and just do what we've always done...explore. For no logical reason other than that's what we want to do.
Loved the ship, loved Bakkula, he's a "regular" guy who has a dog and a ball cap. I was beginning to think pets had been outlawed in the future and so had headgear (except for Guinan's dopey hats). Glad to see a smaller crew (instead of a cast of 1000's). This is what Trek was all about once upon a time--human beings taking risks and exploring, not managing crises. Picard was OK, but he was no captain in my book.
Not sure about the temporal villans yet, time will tell (pun intended).
As for the boney-headed Klingons, the story supposedly was that they adopted a "more human" look during the original ST years to more easily deal with humans, but that it was a dismal failure and a shameful episode in their history, that's why they don't discuss it.
In all, the best Trek I've seen in a long, long time.
What I liked (Score:5, Interesting)
Vulcan vs. Human interactions: The pilot had a nice twist by pitting the two races together on a governmental level where representatives of each could display their predjudice, mistrust, and fear of each other. This was perfectly believable. As insufferable as the rather pretentious and overprotective vulcans are and as impulsive and basically untrustworthy as humans are, I'm surprised the two never ended up in a war on opposite sides. Obviously the vulcan / human thing has been overdone in the past but it was always on a mano y mano level , never at the level of governments maneuvering for control of a situation.
The tribute to green (and other coloured) Orion slave girls: Remembering Christopher Pike's Talos induced vision of a visit to Rigel's slave markets was a nice touch.
I didn't think the disinfectant scene was too pr0nish... To me, it actually seemed as if the director had vague arty pretensions and thought the sensuality of the scene, mixed with the harsh dialogue, would create a lovely bit of dissonance. I think he almost succeeded in this effect.
I really liked the joy these ship-board geeks found in their technology, such as "warp 4.5!" or the sweet spot. TOS had a similar love of technology but the later series seemed to lose their joy in what could be done and what the possibilities are.
I like that the characters finally have a measure of humanity. They're occasionally noble, often shortsighted, easily amused and excited, sometimes brave, usually susceptible to blind predjudice, quarrelsome, hypocritical, and driven by baser instincts they usually dont try to understand. This is a return to the happier days of TOS when (wo)men were (wo)men and even when Kirk would give a sanctimonious speech about his / Federation ideals at the end of an episode, you could hardly forget that he spent the bulk of the episode violating almost every single one of the Federation's sacred beliefs and rules. That sort of willful inconsistency and hypocrisy is typical of almost every human who has held any sort of real power. That is how people would really act, not as the insufferable, always correct robot that was Picard / Janeway. Most leaders will always have more Shatner than Stewart in them. For example Bush's line: "We value our freedom and we value America. That's why we're going to ban any real encryption because freedom is a wonderful thing." could have just as easily been spoken by Kirk in some vague defense of the Prime Directive after he topples a planet's leader and sleeps with all the green and lavender women with iron brassieres he could grab.
Ranting aside, its nice to see the Ugly American in space again.
I think this was the best ST pilot since The Cage and the dark few first minutes of DS9. It wasn't great sci-fi but I think it'll have half a chance if the writers can resist the urge for preachiness.
Relationships, love -- always the end of Trek. (Score:1, Interesting)
this has a lot of potential and they'll need to do some character development and re-orging like in the last few series before it is comfortable.
The thing that I'm leary about is the vulcan chick. .
1) Original Trek there was alien ass but no "love".
2) Next Gen ended when Wharf and Troy started their 'relationship'.
3) Voyager added 9 for some T+A ratings which was good, however as soon as she started having 'human' feeling it ended.
4) DS9 went severly down hill after the Kira and Odo thing.
"Love" is always a sign that the Trek producers are hurting and attempting to appeal to a wider audience. Imagine if the original Trek got to the point that Ohura (sp?) and Kirk had a "relationsip"? That would have been plain ass lame.
If they just keep her attractiveness at POA status and don't do anything with it we're cool. .
Absolutely Right... (Score:5, Interesting)
The same is true of the writers. The writers have to know the characters and know how the actors fit into their characters' shoes (or bodysuits, in the case of 7 and the Vulcan chick...hehe...). This means by definition that both the writing and the acting in the first season of a ST series are not going to be up to par. It takes time for the actors, the characters, and the writers to all "mesh" well.
That's why I was pleasantly surprised by the passable story and acting. It's better than the first few episodes of any other ST series. It's promising.
I especially like hearkening back to the old TOS rough-and-tumble attitudes. That's something a lot of people forget--that Roddenberry set out to write a "Wagon Train to the Stars," a sort of Western set in deep space. In that respect shows like Babylon 5 and even Andromeda (yuck--sorry, but--yuck) and of course Farscape have been far closer to the concept of TOS than any of the newer ST series have been. So despite the bitching thus far, I think Roddenberry would have been very happy with this episode and with the potential of this series.
Not that there's anything wrong with the world of TNG and DS9 and even Voyager (80% of the episodes were "good enough" in the last 2 seasons, so wuite yer bitching)--as a geek I love the technobabble and the idea of having such an advanced technological framework. I love the wormholes and tachyon beams and especialy the episodes involving quantum mechanics. But there's also nothing wrong with returning to ST's shoot-from-the-hip roots. Especially since it got to a point where many average folks couldn't watch ST--my grandmother for instance was a smart woman, but she never understood half of the technical stuff they were saying and so after loyally watching TOS and then TNG for 30 years she gave up. This is a chance to recapture those people.
That said, I agree with what so many have said--the opening music has to go. What the FUCK were they thinking? I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. What they should have done and what they can still do is have Scott Bakula read off the a variation of the old standard, "Space, the final frontier..." They could reasonably inster a few anachronisms, like calling it the "spaceship Enterprise" instead of the "starship Enterprise" and such. Because, that opening music alone is enough to alienate most or the current ST fanbase, who'll view it as a sign that the show is catering to a certain uneducated demographic alone.
And finally, as for the tits--why complain? As long as the stories are good, the tits are just a bonus. How can any man woman or child with a pulse complain? I mean, did you SEE those things in the rubdown scene? Those nipples were like two stiff warp nacelles, boldly jutting out where every man would love to go...
Now excuse me while I go jerk off to the thought of a borgalicious lesbian encounter between 7 of 9 and that Vulcan chick. Mmmm, now *where* did she just put that tricorder???
Umm.. wha? (Score:3, Interesting)
Secondly, I don't see where you get off with that crack about "prejudice, intolerance, and violence" in TOS. I *assume* you meant to say "pleasantly surprised by the extremely low level of (etc., etc., etc.)", seeing as how THAT is the only possible analogy to TOS. Devil in the Dark? The Empath? The Corbomite Maneuver? Yep, all sorts of prejudice, intolerance, and violence there. Suuuuuure. Yeah. Riiiiiiight.
-Kasreyn
it sucked even worse than I thought it would (Score:2, Interesting)
- Bakula still can't act, and as a captain he's laughable in his attempts to be tough. Why in gods name didn't they pick some hungry nobody willing to bust his ass for this role?
- The communications chick was a complete loser, the stereotypical pre-Xena "I'm a screaming bitch who needs to be rescued by a big strong man" kind of girl. I thought we'd put those days behind us in SF....
- What the hell was up with Texas boy? Can you get any more wooden than that? He's even worse than Bakula.
- The doctor could actually act, but for chrissakes - interstellar LEECHES? That's what we've come to??? Roddenberry has to be turning over in his grave.
- more hackneyed Vulcan shit. On the brighter side, not only was the Vulcan one hell of a Hot Star Trek Babe(TM), but the best actor of the lot. That isn't saying much, but one can see how she might improve over time.
- the entire Vulcan lot was openly emotional, even when they denied it. For a moment I wigged and thought they were Romulans.
- the Enterprise was just plain ugly on the outside, and doubly ugly on the inside. I mean, it looked like a tramp steamer run by a bunch of lackwits. No wonder the Vulcans kept saying "um, maybe you should wait on this interstellar exploration thing". The graphics design team should be put up against a wall and shot.
- hey, guess what? At warp 4 it's only FOUR DAYS from Earth to the Klingon homeworld! Wow! Completely contradicts anything ever said on the subject in previous series, but hell - who cares? This is Star Trek, birth place of TV paradoxes!
- argh! Time travel in the pilot! Surely a sign of imminent doom if there ever was one.
- "polarized plating" - and it 'goes down', like shields. Metal that disappears! And comes back once it repolarizes! Nifty.
- the chemical composition of the gas giant just isn't possible. Chemistry 101 folks; or hell, spend a quarter, call a college astronomer, ask him what *real* gas giants are made of.
- no actual plot. Maybe one will come clear in the future, but other than 'get the Klingon dude home' the rest was confused wandering.
- the Enterprise certainly can't shoot for shit. Guess we're going to have more eps of "the Enterprise is badly outgunned by everyone they run into" or "power fails mysteriously once again" or "the computer's been possessed again".
- Berman. 'nuff said. This guy turns everything he touches to shit.
Man, I can go on and on. But I'd rather watch Farscape. At least it's internally consistent and the girls can kick as as well as, or better, than any man.
Max
Re:Spoiler-tastic (Score:4, Interesting)
The Human/Vulcan tension worked (Score:3, Interesting)
In the shows thus far, Vulcans have been friends of Earth, respected, and mostly liked. As Data said in ST:TNG "Vulcans are a highly respect race." The tension between Humans and Vulcans were the differences between two friends who respect each other but go about things in a very different way. Kirk and Spock were of significantly different temperaments, but they were brothers-in-arms.
In Enterprise the relationship is quite different. Vulcans consider themselves superior. Humans, while resenting it, have unfortunately allowed themselves to slip into that role for several generations. Now the Human race is emerging from adolescence into adulthood and the Vulcans are having a hard time dealing with that.
Overall, I thought that element of the story worked quite well.
Not quite but close. (Score:2, Interesting)
HESH has been primarily used as a combat engineering vehicle round for bunker busting and the like. Most obviously in the 165mm demolition howitzer used by the British and if I remember correctly on the M60 based engineering vehicles of the US. It was also used experimentally in a round launched from an M16 rifle. Imagine if you will a rocket propelled basketball. The problem with HESH is that if it is fired at too high a velocity, the charge will literally splatter onto the target dispersing the charge before it can detonate. This factor makes HESH less useful in high velocity guns and at long ranges (slower round, longer time of flight, less likely to hit).
The primary tank killer is still the kinetic penetrator. Usually using a discarding sabot around a small dense projectile, these rounds punch through the armour of the opposing vehicle. The key to these rounds is cross sectional density, thus tungsten is popular as well as DU (depleted uranium), the stuff that everyone was worried about in Bosnia and Iraq.
Reactive armour, by exploding, disrupts and de-focusses the gas jet of the HEAT round rendering it much less effective. It most certainly will interfere with the scabbing effect of HESH as well.
Spaced and reactive armour is used on Canadian reconnaisance vehicles. It's attached by velcro........
stfu (Score:3, Interesting)
Can we please not bastardize everything in existence just to make a few whiners happy?
Ok, mod me down, I'm not PC
Compare not Babylon 5 to any Drek series (Score:3, Interesting)
The minor characters were great too. Lennier could get more across with one look than the typical Trek character could with an entire scene of their hand-wringing monologues. Even the recurring guest characters on B5 were far beyond the regulars on a Trek show. Who could forget Lord Reefa or Mr. Morden or the Emperor Cartagia?
Sinclair was wooden in a cheesy fashion, but it seemed to work for him, the same way Kirk's cheesiness ultimately made for a more interesting character. The only actor on B5 that I found really bad was the the red-headed telepath. Can't remember he name off-hand. Lyta, maybe? Zack was pretty bad too, but still likable.
Warp-distance problems (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, how the hell can they not have shields, when shields are basically the same technology as the warp drive and the anti-gravity system. I guess maybe they haven't encountered hostile forces yet, but then why would they have weapons? Very odd.
Now, it's not going to impact my enjoyment of the show, which, for a ST pilot, was quite good. But, as someone who spent a lot of hours in high school being very interested in the technical aspects of the series, this is just annoying.
Re:Waitaminute! (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a huge difference. The mass ratio between a missile and your plane is on the order of what, 1/100? On a spaceship you'll easily be 1000x that ratio. Moving a 3 ton missile vs a 300,000 ton spaceship is going to be a LOT easier to do, especially if you don't have scifi tech (or the ability to ignore physics) like inertial dampeners or omnidirectional phasers. But even in sci-fi you'd be much better off to launch a pile of missiles that can maneuver and travel 10x faster than you can to get there, and it's much more difficult to shoot them down. Plus you _can_ launch them from several light-second distances, which makes dogfights impossible anyways, even if you had omnidirectional lasers. Additionally space is much much bigger than what you can get in the air here, with no obligation to get close to your enemy.
And if you don't have scifi abilities, then you're most likely going to be stuck with a laser (or something) cannon, which won't be omnidirectional, thus requiring you to either move your ship or the laser around, which won't be fast. Plus at several light second distances, you won't be able to target your enemies anyways.
Modern day aircraft fights are
a) sensors/radar detect enemy fighters on approach
b) fighters scrambled
c) fighters lock on and fire missiles far out of range of sight (5+km away)
d) either your ECM works and you're ok, your missiles hit them and you win, or their missiles get you and you're dead. Either way the other party goes home, or mops up the mess.
Perhaps a reaction to losing a war with humans? (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps it was a social/religious reaction to losing a war with humans
This would be similar to a religious group of Kzin (Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, Throne of Ringworld, et al, by Larry Niven) who believed that humans were favored by the Gods, and so cloaked themselves in the skin of dead humans in an effort to decieve the Gods long enough to win a war and conquer earth. Said religion was of course ruthlessly suppressed by the establishment, but that didn't prevent some highly placed Kzin from practicing it and/or believing it at some deep level (e.g. Speaker-to-Animals, later Chmee).
We've seen T'Pol before! (Score:3, Interesting)
T'Pol, the most decorated Vulcan of all time. T'Pol, who helped her (son? relation of some sort) Sarek become an Ambassador to Earth, where he met and married a human, to the chagrine of his Vulcan brethren, who later gave birth to a son they named Spock.
T'Pol is the head of Spock's family. Something tells me that Enterprise is going to be showing ALOT of backstory.
And I liked the opening sequence visuals. Showing all the REAL Enterprise ships, and the timeline of human exploration was quite nice.
~Donald
Am I the only one who caught. . . (Score:2, Interesting)
2. Doesn't the heart of the Klingon Empire seem a little close to home at less than 4 days travel from the heart of Star'fleet'? At warp 4? (But then I am told the Universe is expanding. .
3. I thought humans hadn't left Earth yet. So what's with the guy with all the cargo ship experience? And WHAT cargo, exactly? I thought the Vulcans were restricting trade. No WAY would Earth not have ALL the cool tech within about 10 years if people were allowed to travel in cargo ships.
4. Leave the locker room scenes in the locker room, please. This is Trek. If I want to watch crap like that, I'll watch LEXX.
(Brr! Did I actually say that?)
5. For later ships in later years, I see no problem with non-perfect crew compliments. But for the VERY first crew representing Earth? No way. They would be super-trained, super-perfect, super-men. Just like the first crews of real astronauts. And all chosen at the last second? Yeah. Right. The audition lines of ultra trained super people would stretch WAAAY back. And where's the televised link to the ravenous public? Of course, this would make the show very boring, much like the real space program. So I forgive.
6. Why were none of the Russian space accomplishments, (First satelite. First manned orbit), included with that country music? Typical American revisionism-through-ignorance.
HOWEVER. . .
I DID like:
1. The letterboxing.
2. The planets and general effects FINALLY look right.
3. The shoot-em-up scene, while obviously Quake inspired, was nonetheless fun. One of the more engaging I've seen in film or television, in fact.
4. I LOVE the interior design of the ship. Inspired by elements of our current space craft and space stations. Bravo! Too bad the exterior has too much borrowed from ship designs which came centuries later. That's just stupid. Oh well. . .
5. None of the actors pissed me off. Wooden and uncertain, yes, but I can see the makings of a fine crew. Give them time.
6. Plenty of great raw material for future episodes. It doesn't look or feel anything like the cartoon TNG, DS9 and Voyager Trek universe. There's lots of room to grow!
7. I love the shuttle craft deployment. Looks great!
8. I like the new take on space medicine. Better health through dung ingestion!
9. The two idiot producers, (responsible for such atrocities as Generations and First Trek Episodes everywhere), rarely grace the world with their insipid writing. This means the REAL writers will soon get their teeth into this rich bed of possibilities. Plus, everybody already hates the show, which means the hot young execs will not want to be anywhere near such a potential bomb, which will allow the actual creative staff some room to do their jobs.
I have a good feeling about this show. I think in a year, Enterprise may well rank up there among the best sci-fi ever produced on TV.
Here's to hoping!
-Fantastic Lad
I see a chance for drama (Score:1, Interesting)
So Bakula's character admitting at the end of the episode that he needs to lose his prejudice and preconceptions if he's going to succeed gave me hope that we are going to see quite a bit of interesting evolution in the characters. And the uncertain diplomatic situation they're facing promises excellent space battles, unholy alliances, unmitigated catastrophies, and dogged perseverance resulting in triumph.
And for all the nitpickers out there, hey, at least they explained where that "to boldly go where no man has gone before" bit came from, which I thought an especially nice touch. And for all the prudes complaining about disinfectant gel scenes, hey, it's a damn sight better than listening to a superfluous ship's counselor screaming, "Pain! Terrible terrible pain!"
Mmmm, disinfectant gel. Think I'm gonna like this series.
Military Government? (Score:1, Interesting)
I can see the plotlines now...flashbacks to the late-20th century where the original military-Vulcan conspiracy was formed...the mid-21st century nuclear war that was precipitated by Vulcan secret agents out to keep humanity in chains...and finally, the glorious people's revolution that overthrows the evil dictatorship and establishes the United Federation of Planets!
I like it (Score:2, Interesting)
The DS9 tribble episode establishes that the klingons really did look the way they did so it's something that must be adressed and I honestly don't think it's that hard to come up with something though most people probably won't like it. The klingon skull is somewhat bigger so they might require a preop if they are to pose as other species in the field. It's hard not to notice a klingon. Also the new species, the Suluban, are trying to speed up evolution, why couldn't the klingons head down the same path? They are not exactly a cautious people.
The way the Valcan's directly patronize humans is overacted. To be in character and follow the story they should be subdued like the Talons in EFC. They seem overly preoccupied with keeping humans restrained yet are quiet and unjudgemental conserning all other species.
This was definetly a successful first contact. Unless they plan on time travel that drasticly changes history ala Dallas(old drama show in the 80's) which I doubt it is inconsistent with the few references to first contact with the Klingons.
I'm looking forward to ten years from now when this series dies and TOS will be revamped to update the effects, makeup, and ships. The sets were all neutral colored so it should be quite possible to update the TOS enterprise to better match the ST Movies. They might even be able to repair some trivial ST history that they are bound to mess up with this series. It would certainly be neat to see TOS with a ship and sets like this series. They could ironically update the tribble episode so that we get to see the tribble episode such that we see glimpses of the DS9 cast.
Pertinent, real sex scenes (Score:2, Interesting)
You want pertinent? I'll give you pertinent: Humans love to have sex and do warm, fun, fuzzy things with each other. It would have been *very* pertinent if Tucker had taken some gel in his hands, gotten all hot and bothered and grabbed Vulcan-babe for a good old-fashioned Kirk-style throat examination with his tongue.
Her reaction would have been interesting to watch, and would have instantly developed a tense sub-plot in the midst of the greater tension of the Captain's absence.
The surprise when she suddenly was swayed by her erstwhile lover's insistence to press on to Kronos instead of returning to Earth would have brought the house down under these more tense circumstances and raised questions about her ability to suppress those base emotions that Vulcans hate--er, eschew--so much.