STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE 3/03/'04 "Azati Prime" (1 Viewer)

[Dan Hitchman]

Why can't Star Trek be sci-fi with realistic drama? Why must it pretty much always be wooden and stiff?? Is it the actors, the clunky dialog written by usually hack staff writers, lack of effort, or all of the above?

Man, wouldn't it be cool if you could actually care for the characters instead of saying... wow, what a neat effect!?

Dan

 

[Chris]

I had super high hopes for Enterprise when it started. What I was looking for was a TOS type series in which Enterprise ran around everywhere, dropped in on strange, unknown planets and met all sorts of "different" kinds of people for single-episode fun.. but instead it got murky with some attempt at all this "drama"..

TOS is not my favorite series (DS9 is of the ST set) but TOS had a unique feature to it, that they even managed to carry forward some in TNG and definitely in The Animated Series. That ability to "going where no one has gone before"

The idea of creating an overarching enemy to "heighten the tension" just seems to be so overwhelming that single stories or character growth really go by the wayside.

This episode wasn't a "wow" for me, it was an episode where I think I realized what it is about the show I dislike.. it seems to be lacking desperately in that wide-eyed optimism that was present in TOS, and there isn't a spirit about it that says "hey, so much to be discover!" instead, it's mostly about them getting beat up. I mean, if this is really how the federation started, then TOS makes almost no sense, you'd think that the federation would have evolved a heck of a lot more warlike then it did (ala the alternate universe Kirk witnessed)

In fact, if they prepare to can the series, I think a funny twist which would help some fans is to say "oh, and BTW, this is all set in the alternate universe"

 

[Nelson Au]

I think it's pretty hard to capture that spirit of wow of TOS and the "we are seeing new worlds for the first time" kind of feeling for today's Star Trek. The great days of TOS are over. They tried in TNG and it got old for some people after 7 years and Voyager was doing the same as they tried to get home.

There's just too much Sci-Fi out there on TV and films now that you, the audience, has just gotten too sophisticated for those naive days. Plus you'll say been there and done that. That's one reason why DS9 is so loved. TOS was unique, it had never been done before and it had a great cast and stories.

As everyone in Trekfandom wants and would be good to see is the creation of Starfleet and the Federation done in DS9 style. My fantasy scenerio for season 4 is to see the series open next year after a 3 or 4 year gap. After the Xindi war arc, the Enterprise crew had dispersed and helped to train the crews of other starships. A Lieutenent Styles has trained under Archer on the Enterprise and is ready to Captain his own ship. The original Archer crew reassembles on the refit Enterprise and head out for a new mission of exploration. Styles along the way gets caught up with the Romulans and sets up the events for the war. Archer and other Captains meanwhile begin to met new civilzations and set the groundwork for the Federation. These would set up a series of overlapping story arcs. The TCW would hopefully be dropped or quickly resolved in one of those Braga alternate universes.

 

[Ric Easton]

Second Impression: Still wow.



Of course we know he (and I think most of the ship) will survive. Heroes have been getting out of the no-win scenario since there have been heroes! How bout those matinee serials in the 40's. Sometimes cliffhangers can be fun.

The only thing that bothered me in the episode was T'Pol's emotion. I have felt that they haven't portrayed Vulcans right since they started this show.

But as for the rest, it was quite a ride and I can't wait to see how they recover. I just hope they don't hit the old reset button ala "Year of Hell"

Yes, I would like to see ST address real sci-fi ideas, the kind of stuff that opens your mind... makes you think... But sometimes a little helping of "flash-and-boom" can be fun as well. Remember a little episode called "The Best of Both Worlds"?

Oh, and Nelson, Archer's time is about 100 years before Kirk's and about 180 years before Picard's.

Ric

 

[Shane D]

Kirks time is only about 100 years, 150 years away i think, with picards time only 80 years after that.
I dont remember exactly, but enterprise is like 150 from us, 100 from Kirk.

And I thought the display of how the J looked was pretty dumb with the skinny backend and all

 

[David Forbes]

I haven't watched an episode in two years, but I do enjoy popping in on these threads to listen to the gnashing of teeth from those who torture themselves by continually watching a show they expressly do not like.

Rex, you really crack me up.



And what other kind of vanity is there? Should B&B begin pandering to the real Andorians tuning in each week?

 

[Jason Seaver]

Sure, the audience must feel that they're important. But it also raises the question of why the Federation won't exist without humanity. Within the context of this fictional universe, what makes them more likely to be crucial than the Vulcans, the Betazoids, the Tellarites, the Denobulans, etc.? Right now, it's just fiat - our audience is human, thus we play humanity's role up. There doesn't seem to be any reasoning behind it.

 

[Steve Crowley]

Best episode yet. And for all the bashers, why do you still watch? I thin B&B have finally gotten the message that people were just not watching the show. I think by taking this series into a serial mode aka 24 would be a good idea.
At least try something different,anything that would bring back the viewers. Cheers.

 

[Mike Broadman]

As we learn in First Contact, the Federation began with the relationship of humans and Vulcans, so without either of them, there would be no Federation. But since it's Earth that's in danger of being destroyed, not Vulcan, Daniels rightfully said that without humans, there would be no Federation.

 

[Nelson Au]

Regarding the time frame of Archer's time and Kirk's and Picard's time, I retract my comment. I had in my mind the TOS episode when it is established that Kirk's time is 300 years from 1966. I can't believe I forgot the time line, I had a long day!

 

[TheLongshot]

Unfortunatly, I don't agree. Involving Daniels again just ruined it for me. It is a cheat for bad writing. It would be nice if the crew could figure out things for themselves, but the writers aren't that good....

Jason

 

[Qui-Gon John]

From Todd S.

 

[todd s]

John Co,


I think to be really bold it be that That she is pregnant with Trip's baby. The Vulcan High Command would love that.

 

[Andrew Beacom]

Interesting and frustrating at the same time. Having the captain go on a suicide mission is beyond stupid. The enemey can always build another and you are abandoning your ship and crew in the middle of enemy territory.

Having T'Pol cry was something I was having trouble believing. If they want to show T'Pol having emotions they don't need to show her having extreme emotions.

The ending was interesting depending on how they resolve it. If the Enterprise is back flying under full steam ala Voyager in 1 episode then it was lame. It would be more interesting for a battle like that to have long lasting implications for the ship and the crew. I'm sure a reset button will be found though.

 

[Andrew Beacom]

The involvent of Daniels sucked the big one. It's just to easy to use him as a get out of jail free card. The writers don't appear to be able to write an arc like the Xindi one without using their magic time travel card.

 

[Anthony Hom]

The problem with this story is the extreme measures they take in this episode, which almost looks like a cliff hanger season ender. That's fine, this episode is better than the worst of this series, but the critical story in this season is how they resolve the extreme measures in this episode. That is, does the Enterprise get repaired here, does it do a time travel reset, or do they destroy the Enterprise this season, only to build a new one next season (a common occurence in the B&B movie series)

You don't need a roadmap to see what will happen next. Excluding details, its very obvious
1- Archer will get the other Xindi species to suspect the reptileans.
2- The enterprise will get repaired or replaced somehow - its the shows title!
3- The identity of some other species will be revealed that must have made a deal with the reptileans for a bigger scheme
4- Earth will be saved

All these things are likely to happen in this season- whether the stories will be any good is the problem.

An observation - I noticed the basis for this "story arc" a species known to be a sworn enemy, another race of that species wants to destroy earth, and the other race, thought to be an enemy to humans comes to the rescue? If the Xindi primates and others band together to defeat the insectoids and reptileans, then the story is borrowed from - Star Trek Nemesis.

IIRC, The Romulans in Nemesis had a subculture called the Remens. At a crtitical point, the Romulans come to the aid of Picard against the Remens. The ringleader in that case was Picards "evil twin".

 

[Greg_S_H]

The Enterprise universe doesn't "know" about the birth of the Federation. Somebody isn't going to wake up one day and say, "I think I'll dash off a message to the Andorians and the Vulcans so we can get together." Creating an organization like the Federation is bound to be a messy process, and it's going to take working out some things like the animosity between the Andorians and the Vulcans. Granted, I don't pretend that this is Berman and Braga's grand plan. But, if they have gotten away from the idea of the series as the birth of the Federation, last night's episode proves they are coming back around.

I don't mind the presence of Daniels at all. Like it or not, the Temporal Cold War has been established as part of this series. And, it is Future Guy who got Archer going into the Expanse anyway, I believe. It's been so long. Anyway, it makes sense that he would be there to guide the crew, and I'm glad they aren't just abandoning the storyline.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Still, don't you think it would be dramatically stronger to have the Enterprise crew figure things out on their own? My big issue with Daniels isn't so much that the Temporal Cold War is a stupid idea (that's my second biggest issue with him), but that whenever he appears, the series seems to become "The Crewman Daniels Show, with Special Guest Star Scott Bakula!"

I mean, you've got half a dozen people in the regular cast, plus the recurring MACO characters, and if either Hoshi or Mayweather has had something interesting to do in more than a handful of episodes, I seem to have missed it. These are the characters we're supposed to be invested in, not Daniels. And having him pop in to provide exposition makes the regular cast look like they're not doing their jobs.

 

[Ivan Lindenfeld]

I haven't seen it yet, and probably don't need to after giving in to uncovering the spoiler tags in this thread, but I have a question:

Is Daniels the "Q" of Enterprise? I mean, they dragged Q out when they needed a sweeps win and he was the bookend for the series. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Jack Briggs]

So, just how badly was the Enterprise banged up?