DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Star Trek Enterprise - The Complete First Season (1 Viewer)

[Scott Kimball]

I think that's reaching a bit.

Given that Enterprise puts the Archer family name at almost an equal footing as the Cochrane name, one would think we'd have heard it in a significant way.

You can keep pulling threads, but I stand by my statement that there were too many liberties taken in this show. There are many fans who agree, as Braga even admits in the commentary. For those of us who grew up watching TOS, the timeline seems to matter more than it did for Braga and Berman. If they couldn't respect the history of the franchise, it makes it difficult for fans to respect the direction they took.

There are things to like about Enterprise. Continuity with thre rest of the franchise isn't one of them.

 

[george kaplan]

When's the last time a contemporary show mentioned George Washington, Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson? Very rarely. Does that mean that those people aren't important characters in our history, or just that they're not very likely to come up in casual conversation during the run of most television shows?

Hell, how often did you hear James T. Kirk mentioned on The Next Generation tv show?

 

[Scott Kimball]

Actually, his name was mentioned at least two or three times on the TNG series, he was featured prominently in a TNG movie, a DS9 episode, and his name was brought up once or twice in Voyager.

.. and thanks for bringing out the geek in me...

Cochrane's name, however, is frequently used througout Trek. My point was, if Cochrane popped up so often, and Archer was nearly as important to Warp drive development, we should have heard of him.

 

[george kaplan]

Well Fermi was nearly as important to the development of nuclear physics as Einstein, but you don't hear him mentioned in popular culture as often.

My point is, that just because someone is not prominently mentioned on a tv show, means essentially nothing about that persons prominence in the world or history of the world in which that tv show is set. For all we know, Geordi could have spent hours reading biographies of Archer and Kimball and other important warp drive pioneers, and having long conversations about them with Ensign DeWitte, even though none of that (including Ensign DeWitte and hundreds of other crew members) is ever shown on-screen.

 

[Nelson Au]

For a series that has had such a rough life, Paramount has done a really top notch effort for this Season Set of Enterprise.

I really like the decisions made beginning with the TOS sets last year to invest in the kinds of tooling necessary to manufacture the injection molded cases for these sets. The amount of effort put into the design and execution is pretty exceptional considering the cost to design, engineer and make these boxes. This on top of the effort to master and collect the contents.(And remaster some of the TOS episodes) Audio and video is most paramount to the collectors here of course, but the packaging while it seems trivial to some, I can appreciate. Being in the design industry, I know decisions are consrantly being made to cut costs and cut features to minimize spending. And I hope this is not considered fuel to argue the cost of these sets. Considering the efforts I mention above, they could charge more. There certain economies made to make the cost of the packaging as minimal as possible for the best bang for the buck.

I think they did a wonderful job and don't forget the cost to manufacture the paper and plastic cases done for TNG, DS9 and Voyager is pretty low compared to the hard molded plastic cases. To really make the cost of the hard molded case break even, they have to mold hundreds of thousands. And I doubt there's that many being sold. So they must have gotten a great deal on the cases overseas.

And yeah, the video and audio for the short portion of Broken Bow I've seen has been also great.

 

[Lee Jamilkowski]

All is explained at http://www.startrek.com/startrek/vie...icle/7607.html - just click the link that says [B}Launch the Borg Timeline[/b].

 

[Scott Kimball]

Lee, while that makes an interesting argument, how is a viewer who watches the series, but doesn't participate in all the online fandom, supposed to know that? I'm one of those people. I like to experience a show on my own terms.

Also, as I mentioned - most of the "fixes" for inconsistencies were just that - patches put on the show years later to correct the problems. How does that help someone who was just ticked off by the first couple of episodes and left, never to look back?

The info in your spoiler kind of bolsters my point - that the Archer name should have been heard before, in series which took place later in the timeline.

It's really a silly argument, anyway. If you aren't bothered by the inconsistencies, more power to you. I'm glad you can look beyond them.

Most of the Trek fans that I associate with are Trekkies from way back - we grew up with TOS. There seem to be more old-time fans who were bothered by Enterprise - at least that seems true by my casual observation of the people I know personally.

-Scott

 

[andrew markworthy]

[rant] Newsflash - most people who watch Star Trek have lives. They don't give a rat's ass when the Borg were first encountered or who was first meant to meet the Ferengi. Taken on its own merits, the average viewer (and I hate to break it to diehard fans, but it's the average viewer who always forms the bulk of the audience)should find this series better acted than TOS (not difficult, admittedly), less cloyingly politically correct than TNG and with far fewer annoying characters than Voyager. If some spurious 'official' history is broken, so what? Most of us don't give a rat's ass, and for those that do bother about such things - you are aware that for a large section of the population, 'trekkie' is an insult, aren't you? [/rant]

Back on thread - excellent review, Scott, but no way am I buying this set until it comes down in price. CSI, 24, etc, have similar length seasons, but they are way cheaper.

 

[Scott Kimball]

Perhaps. But I have a life AND I care about consistency in storytelling.

And, while the average viewer does form the bulk of the audience, by not alienating the core audience, the show would have enjoyed more grassroots support... Word of mouth from such support tends to win viewership.

Certainly, everyone is entitled to an opinion, and I respect that. As much as I harp on the inconsistencies, they are not what ultimately led to my abandoning ship - so to speak.

-Scott

 

[Jay Pennington]

Isn't her presense in the rescue party answer enough?

 

[andrew markworthy]

Scott I'm sure you do have a life and my gripe wasn't with you. In fact, I was expressing annoyance that your review had been used as an excuse to revive an old and frankly rather boring litany of complaints. I'll try to explain.

All threads about a film or series with a cult fan base inevitably seem to end up being dominated by people who claim they're fans whining about inconsistencies or how the presentation isn't just what they think it should be (let's ignore what the director wanted - what could they possibly know?). Some of these guys never once say how much they like a particular series or movie - they seem to think that they have a nitpickers' charter to complain and show off their arcane knowledge. This is tedious and most of the time I can ignore it but once in a while I feel like having a little bite back. I know the answer to this is 'ignore these threads', but having read Scott's excellent review, I thought that the discussion might actually be on the DVD release, and not yet another tedious rant about how awful some people think the series is. Surely that particular horse has been flogged to death several times over?

 

[Jack Briggs]

To pick up on what Andrew is saying:

Please vent out (or praise) the series in the ongoing thread in the TV Shows section. No more carping about the series itself here. Limit the discussion to the DVDs and their attributes as described in Scott's review.

 

[Sean.S]

I picked up this set a few days ago at Wal-Mart (complete with the alternate uber-sized cardboard outer-box) and have enjoyed it throughly. I hated "Broken Bow" upon first viewing but enjoy it now. I've also enjoyed some great episodes like "Dear Doctor," "Sleeping Dogs," "Acquisition," "The Andorian Incident," and "Fortunate Son." The picture quality is amazing and the sound quality is even better. I love the spacedock menus and the deleted scenes are nifty. THe outtakes also rock. This season is great, much better than my first impression led me to believe. I'm definately going to buy Season 2 now (already planned on 3 and 4, which I love).

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Is it just me? When watching that episode I couldn’t stop thinking about the way that rebellious cargo ship guy acted. I’m talking about the actor. It looked like he was thinking he is giving a great performance and was overreacting through out the episode like he is going to win an Emmy or something!

 

[Rutgar]

Maybe in a George Lucas sort of way.

 

[Steve Meil]

tell me does anybody care what films you or your 4 year old son watches. This is a tv section

 

[John H Ross]

Still no major problems noted with scratched/scuffed discs? I might consider picking this up but ONLY if I'm not going to have weeks of hassle sending boxes back and forth between the US and UK.

John

 

[Sebastien S]

Like I said in another thread, "the packaging for this set really protects the discs inside".

 

[george kaplan]

Well the vast majority of my posts are in 'movie' sections, although I think that's irrelevant. Since when do people's signatures have to have anything to do with what they're posting? And as far as I know, there's no way to have signatures only show up in certain forums.

If it bothers you so much, don't read it. :rolleyes

And to answer your question, Yes, people do care. I've had many polite posts in which people comment or ask questions about my son's viewing habits. And of course one or two very rude replies like yours.

 

[Scott Kimball]

So, Steve is offended by George's sig listing his and his son's recent viewings. I wonder how many people care about Steve's collection, as available in his sig?

Keep posting that sig, George. I've actually read it, from time to time. I like to know what other people are watching. There could be something good that may otherwise pass me by.

-Scott