Enterprise . . . by HaoLeHaoLe

OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

Enterprise . . .

POSTED BY: HAOLEHAOLE
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 19:01
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VIEWED: 5228
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Wednesday, December 21, 2005 4:45 PM

I went and got Season 1 of Enterprise, curious about the idea of the Trek Universe before TOS... It is a bit dissapointing.

It's not the stories so much, though a lot of them are rather generic Trek stuff. It's the writing. I've always had a general rule: If I can recite a character's line before the line is actually spoken (not having seen the episode previously), it's poorly written stuff.

To cite one example, one of the main Enterprise characters, Malcolm I think his name is, is in Sick Bay. He's sneezing and sniffling, and he says something like, "We've split the atom, we can fly through space faster than the speed of light... " pause . . .

... Anybody else see this next cliche line coming from about 10 light years away? Yes, that's it...

... "But we still can't cure the common cold." Jeez! And this show full of this stuff.

... Is this the kind of tripe that appeals to the masses (non-BrownCoats)? I can't help but remember my own giggly surprise in Firefly, "Serenity" (the ep, not the film) when the Alliance agent has a gun to River's head, threatening to kill her... Mal just casually strolls into the cargo bay from aft and blows him away with one shot! Anybody see that coming? I know *I* didn't and it was fantastic, as so many scenes and lines of Firefly are.

... Enterprise is entertaining enough, I suppose, if only to enjoy bashing it and picking it apart (what of the Romulan-Earth War? No mention of it... Doesn't fit with the canon stuff, etc...).

... I cannot help but wonder why more thought-out, plot(arc)-driven/character-driven series like Firefly don't seem to appeal to as many as this regurgitated Trek does. Life is full of mysteries.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005 5:11 PM

CYBERSNARK

The Romulan War hasn't happened yet. Humans barely have a presence outside the solar system (thanks in large part to the Vulcans).

Trust me, the show gets better.

S3 & S4 are two of the best Trek seasons we've had since DS9.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005 5:32 PM

GUNRUNNER

Skip right to the last two seasons of Enterprise. The first two were bad (with a few exceptions), the 3rd was ok, and the last with the exception of the first two and last episodes were good.

EV Nova Firefly mod Message Board:
http://s4.invisionfree.com/GunRunner/index.php?act=idx

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005 5:35 PM

GIANTEVILHEAD

There were also a lot of continuity errors.

Enterprise had great potential but it was all wasted. They didn’t have the Prime Directive but they acted like they had the Prime Directive. They didn’t have phasers but they had phase pistols which were exactly like phasers in just about every way. The top speed of their ships is warp 5 and yet they were able to travel around as fast as the Enterprise D. They had everything they weren’t supposed to have.

The show was supposed to be a prequel. It should have shown us how all the laws and technologies of the Federation were developed. They should have had projectile weapons instead of phase pistols and switched to lasers in later seasons. They should have had nukes instead of photon torpedoes. People should have had cybernetic implants. They should have given advanced technology to primitive races. They should have flown around and kicked the ass of any hostile aliens they encountered.

"I swallowed a bug." -River Tam

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005 6:41 PM

HAOLEHAOLE

... Thing is, in "Balance of Terror", from TOS, my favorite ep from the OS, when Kirk and his lot face off against the Romulans...

... The Earth Romulan War was fought with "primitive nuclear weapons", and "subspace communications didn't exist - so no Human has ever seen a Romulan... " etc...

... In Enterprise, they're being hailed all the time - "On screen" is the standard response...

... I know... Enterprise can't be perfect. I just wish they would have put a bit more effort into it. Especially the scripts.

... Thanks for the advice. I'll look for SEasons 3 & 4 cheap on DVD.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005 7:54 PM

STAKETHELURK

Yeah, I really do recommend the later two seasons, though I wouldn’t go so far to say that they’re among best Trek seasons out there.

My main problem with the show though, is that they never (well, almost never) give the characters more than one defining character trait: Archer played water polo, Trip is Southern, Reed is British, T’pol is Vulcan, Mayweather (when he has a personality) is a Boomer, etc, etc… The only character who seems to have more than one facet is Doctor Phlox, who manages to be curious, an Alien, and a homeopathic physician simultaneously, no doubt astounding his crewmates with his multitasking. Because we only saw one facet of most of the crew, I never really felt that I knew them the way I did on TNG and DS9--shows I only caught intermittently. The Enterprise crew always felt patently false to me, which kept me from investing much emotion in them and their situation.

I watched it during all of its run because I’m a sci-fi fan and, without cable, it was one of the only things on. But it only rarely got above “middling” as far as I’m concerned (though “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I” in Season Four was awesome). So definitely skip season two and go to seasons three and four, where the solid episodes generally outweighed the weaker ones.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005 8:16 PM

RIVER6213

pEOPLE WHO LOVE eNTERPRISE SHOULD JUST SLASH THEIR WRISTS

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Thursday, December 22, 2005 7:37 AM

CYBERSNARK

Quote:
Originally posted by StakeTheLurk:
My main problem with the show though, is that they never (well, almost never) give the characters more than one defining character trait: Archer played water polo, Trip is Southern, Reed is British, T’pol is Vulcan, Mayweather (when he has a personality) is a Boomer, etc, etc…

YMMV, of course. I saw plenty of character. The main problem, dramatically, is that, in S1 & 2, the crew had trained for (and were expecting) exactly these kinds of missions. There was little tension to be had because most of them were doing exactly what they had wanted to do with their lives. It was only in S3 that the stakes got raised enough to break the "status quo" effect.

Archer: Starts out ambitious and optimistic, a naive, brash adventurer. (No weapons? Let's hope we don't need 'em.) He's not fond of Vulcans, 'cause they've been holding humanity back. Enterprise is basically the story of Archer's loss of innocence, and of humanity as a whole taking responsibility for our own fate. First he learns that sometimes the bad guys are stronger than you. Sometimes the bad guys aren't entirely bad. And just maybe the Vulcans were right; humans aren't ready for what's out here, though we don't have any choice but to deal with it --you can't learn to walk without falling down a few times.

Trip: Much like Archer at first, optimistic and brash. Trip always wears his emotions on his sleeve (which is why he strikes such sparks off T'Pol). He's usually pretty easygoing: he enjoys his job, does it well, and is lucky enough to have a good boss who knows to let him do his work (how much faster would problems have been solved in the other series if Scotty, LaForge, O'Brien, and Torres hadn't had to explain what they were doing to the captain every three minutes?

). The Xindi Arc (S3) is his golden hour; he starts off wanting nothing more than vengeance, but then starts to realize that it's not that clear cut.

T'Pol: My favourite Vulcan of any series. T'Pol's got a wildness to her. It's repressed, since she's a Vulcan and has been raised in the Kohlinar tradition, but it's still there. If she'd been born a human, she'd likely have wildly-coloured hair, tattoos that can't be shown in public, numerous piercings, and probably a few nights in jail and/or rehab, but because she's a Vulcan, this drive to experiment has been channelled into mixed interests in science and intelligence/security (before Enterprise, she was a covert ops agent with the Vulcan military --sort of a Vulcan Sidney Bristow). She starts out looking down at humans (Trip in particular), but her time on Enterprise changes her. She starts to understand these humans, and eventually agrees with them that the Vulcan High Command's overprotectiveness has done more harm than good.

Reed: Career military, a legacy reaching back generations. Kinda paranoid (and a bit of a pyromaniac gun-nut --he and Jayne would get along famously, we don't call Reed "Captain Ka-Boom" for nothing). He's also something of a geek (you can tell that he spent his youth buried in books of military history and procedural manuals). Starfleet's non-military nature tends to thrust him into unfamiliar situations, but he learns to adapt. At first he and Trip don't get along too well (Reed sees Trip as unprofessional, Trip sees Reed as having a six-foot pole up his ass), but they eventually become fast friends.

Mayweather: Being a Boomer means he's lived his whole life in space, so he's the most navigationally savvy. It also means that his family is independent and critical of Starfleet's "big brother" status (if there's a Browncoat on Enterprise, it'd be Mayweather). Joining up was a big issue for him, and burned a lot of family-related bridges back home, but it was the only way to sate his wanderlust. As it is, he'll never be as spit-and-polish as he pretends to be. Like Archer, Mayweather is a born explorer, with stardust in his blood, and he'll never be comfortable unless he's in space.

Hoshi: A savant, gifted with languages as Simon is with medecine (which is to say not so much with anything else). The most brilliant linguist on Earth, Archer had to call in favours to get her assigned to his crew (if he'd had any grasp of what they'd find out there, he never would have --Hoshi's too innocent to be put at risk so casually). It took her a while to find her space legs, but they came at a cost; she'll never be that girl she once was. In S3, when Archer knowingly sends her into danger, and she knowingly accepts, we see how much she's grown (and how dark Archer's become).

Phlox: As you note, Phlox is curious and enthusiastic, but not without his own baggage. As open-minded and enlightened as he is, he does have some scraps of ego and Denobulan cultural bias.

Frankly, I don't feel the continuity flaws in Enterprise are any worse than in the Star Wars prequels (far, far less, in some cases). They take a little creative fanwanking to get around, but hey, what flashback/prequel doesn't?

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, December 22, 2005 7:40 AM

CBY

Quote:
Originally posted by RiveR6213:
pEOPLE WHO LOVE eNTERPRISE SHOULD JUST SLASH THEIR WRISTS

Charming, tolerant and friendly as always.

On topic: season one was okay, season two was a joke, three was great (at least in my opinion) and season four was above average. After all, they wasted a lot of chances.

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Friday, December 23, 2005 8:16 AM

VERASNEWOWNER

Im a life long Trek fan, and i saw episodes 1- 5 and have not seen one since, didnt even bother with the TOS crossover and im a TOS fan.

I thought Enterprise was the biggest load of crap to ever hit our screens since sci fi was invented.

-It had potential and it was wasted.
-They Scott Bakulas acting tallent, and they wasted him with crappy scripts.
-It had the chance to explain everything and it didnt.
-It was in dire need of character development from episode 1, never came.

I could go on but it depresses me.

If ure a life long Trek fan, steer clear of Enterprise if you havnt already seen it.

Just my two cents.

Ent just wasnt my cup of tea.

Chris

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Friday, December 23, 2005 3:52 PM

PSOLARIS

I actually loved Enterprise. Seasons 1 & 2 weren't so great, but I stuck with it because I am a trek fan. By the time season three came around, I was hooked. Some folks love it, some don't. It really depends upon you, but I'd say give it a try. Some folks loved Star Trek DS9...I didn't. I hated Voyager. Hated it! And me being a as big a Trek fan as I am, I really wanted to love the series. Those particular shows just weren't my taste.

I say always give something a try first before you say no. Heck, I watched the miniseries of BSG and didn't like it too much, but folks here have convinced me that it's something I should give a chance, so I'm gonna.

Psolaris

"Ten percent of nuthin' is...let me do the math here...nuthin' into nuthin'...carry the nuthin'"

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Friday, December 23, 2005 5:00 PM

PEULSAR5

We sniff the air, we don't kiss the dirt.

I guess I'm one of the few who liked seasons 1 and 2. Season 3 had a season-long storyline that while was good for some character development, but revolved around an incident and race of people that had never even been hinted at in ANY prior Star Trek incarnation. A war with the Romulans or the Klingons would probably been better for the series (look what the Dominion War did for DS9). In season 4 they started doing what the should have been doing since the beginning: bridging the gap between First Contact and TOS and the stories were GREAT! Unfortunately I guess it was too little too late and UPN pulled the show to make room for something else that probably didnt last 4 seasons

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Saturday, December 31, 2005 7:57 PM

AIDYN

I watched all things Star Trek, but I gave up on Enterprise. I was absolutely apalled. I do not believe the TNG would do well in our current age, but Enterprise was even worse than that. If your tired of shows like Enterprise and Stargate (and even Andromeda to an extent - with season 2 as an exemption) then you will definitely prefer shows like Firefly, Farscape, babylon 5 and battlestar galactica.

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Friday, January 13, 2006 9:18 AM

AERIN

Since they've started to re-run the first season of Enterprise late on weekends, I've caught a few episodes here and there. I like Trek, but I'm not real impressed. I guess I'll try to stick it out.

What's with the theme song? Where is the let's-go-exploring trumpet fanfare? My first thought was that they were trying to copy the success of the Firefly theme. Perhaps "faith of the heart" was used so we would develop a more emotional attachment to the characters. "You can't take the sky from me" works because it really describes Firefly, but so far the Enterprise characters are a too shallow for that kind of connection. Anyone else had that thought? I haven't been through all the threads.

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Monday, January 16, 2006 5:40 AM

RIVER6213

Everything was fine with Enterprise until the writers decided to blow it big time by having the Enterprise crew run into the Borg in one episode.....that killed the whole series for me.

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Monday, January 16, 2006 6:58 AM

ROBINHOOD

Some of you seem to know alot about Enterprise, my question is, 'why the hell did you watch this CRAP in the 1st place?'. Do you enjoy punishing yourselves, to see how long you can watch before passing out?
Seriously though,I find it an absolute chore to sit through and totally devoid of any entertainment value. The sequences that are meant have some excitement in them, they just ache with tedium. The actors sound like they can't wait to be somewhere else, (And lets face it, who can blame them?) and the incidental/background music is so dreary and unimaginative. (Has it changed at all since TNG?). The effects, like the music, have all the flare of a paper bag. Oh and of course, not forgetting the Aliens who all speak perfect English and in American accents not less. I really do hope this is the end of the Star Trek franchise.
Yes I am bitter. Bitter that this sh*t ran for so long and Firefly ran for 11 episodes, not to mention in the wrong order.
Thats the end of my rant. I have to check my blood pressure now.

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Monday, January 16, 2006 7:03 AM

RIVER6213

I watched Enterprise to see if I could find a little bit of TOS or TNG in it. I watched it to give it a chance, but after the "Borg" episode, I lost faith in the writers of the show and moved on to The Outer Limits.

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Monday, January 16, 2006 7:54 AM

THATWEIRDGIRL

The Borg ep killed me. I wanted to like Enterprise. I gave it a chance even though there was little character development and continuity screw ups everywhere. I saw most of the series, there were a few eps I missed and that doesn’t bother me at all. Sad when you miss an episode and you don't care.

And I wanted so much to see the beginning of things...

Don't watch the last ep. It's worthless and demeaning to the series.

www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"

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Monday, January 16, 2006 2:57 PM

AERIN

I admit, Enterprise always looked lame to me, but I don't have cable and there's not much else on at 2am Monday morning. I avoided Voyager because Janeway irritated me, but when they put it on at 12 each night I eventually saw the whole thing. I wish they would play TNG instead! Heck, they probably already have the rights.

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Wednesday, January 25, 2006 7:01 PM

RIVER6213

Even though it goes against my Vulcan nature...I apologize to you fans of Enterprise...perhaps I was out of line saying that you guys should slash your wrists for liking Enterprise.

I guess I wouldnt like it if someone said that about us Firefly, or Battlestar Galactica fans.

It was kinda mean...sorry.

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