STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE 4/21/'04 "Damage" (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Grey]

True, but I think it says something about the poor state of Trek that a $60 million feature film with arguably the most beloved crew of modern day Trek can be bested by a one hour television episode of the most reviled Trek franchise ever.

 

[TheLongshot]

That's true, but it only works if it makes sense. Was there any reason for her to believe that injecting herself with that stuff would help her? Her explination didn't make much sense at all. Sounds more like covering for bad writing.

Jason

 

[Kevin Grey]

I thought her explanation was that the trillium (sp) made her more in touch with her emotions. She mentioned that the crew seemed to react better to her with it. Made sense to me.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Why bring in Casey Biggs for that minor role? This season really hasn't been about convenient devices like that. I think we'll see them again. The only thing working against that will be if the show is cancelled, but we may see them somewhere in the next six.

 

[Kevin Grey]

That actually seems the most realistic- having the question hang over them if they made it or not. Convenient and cliche would have the crew track them down after this is all over and replace their warp core for them.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

[geek]

uuh yeah, i liked the shower scene

[/geek]

 

[Will_B]

Subtly trying to pretend Voyager doesn't still hold that title?

 

[Kevin Grey]

I'm by no means a Trekkie (or Trekker or whatever they're calling themselves these days) and I only saw a few Voyager first season episodes but my impressions from reading various forums on the 'net is that Enterprise is generally less well liked than Voyager (which is saying a lot).

 

[Will_B]

Kevin, perhaps it would be accurate to say that in general:

People hated the characters on Voyager (the helium voiced captain, the bland blue eyed blond haired pilot, the big boobed 7 of 9, the Neelix guy, the perpetually whiny Ensign Kim, etc), and the stories with their infamous "reset button."

People hate the producers of Enterprise.

I think the difference is that the complaints about Voyager were about what was on screen, while the complaints about Enterprise are about what is happening off-screen which has hampered this otherwise excellent crew from boldy going where no one has gone before.

Just my take on it.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Kevin Grey wrote (post #48):



?????

If by "sold", you mean "convinced", that's not the way I remember it. The present members of the Xindi council seem singularly skeptical.

This episode rates three "ho-hums" (HHH)---my new rating system for this show---from me. While providing us with nothing particularly original, as usual, the writers go on to do their all too usual job of ignoring any scientific implications of their premises. What is a "transdimensional being"? The female alien looks humanoid to me. If she represents the physical type of the sphere-builders, why do they need to reconfigure the Expanse to fit their "type"? Do the writers or producers of this show even know what the word "dimension" means? And so on. Of a lot more interest to me than T'Pol's (no doubt temporary) trellium addiction.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I think it might be more accurate to say that Voyager is where we came to hate Berman & Braga, and then Enterprise frustrated us because it initially appeared that B&B had recognized their shortcomings and set out to avoid them, only to fall into the same traps.

I think the venom is more severe for Voyager in part because we (as fans) weren't yet familiar with the idea of Star Trek letting us down on a consistent basis, while there's a certain amount of acceptance (or abandoning hope) after seven years of that.

 

[Kevin Grey]

I wonder if that's part of why I was able to come in and enjoy this episode. Not having followed Enterprise, I really didn't have any expectations for "Damage" and enjoyed it as a relatively fun romp without the baggage of expectations of good science fiction or good Trek.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I don't get this. I really don't understand this point of view. If you didn't expect it to be good, why the heck were you spending your time watching it?

And before someone turns that around on me - yes, I do still expect Enterprise to be good on the weeks I watch it; enough of the cast and crew has shown enough ability to do good work for me to give it a shot. On a related note, I no longer tune in on nights Rick Berman or Brannon Braga has a writing credit.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Let me clarify- I was attracted to the episode after reading the premise in the program guide. The idea of attacking an innocent ship to potentially save a large amount of lives sounded interesting. I know that Enterprise has supposedly been trying to get itself out of the basement this season and the response here to "Anzati Prime" was favorable enough for me to give this episode a try. I enjoyed the episode so I don't consider it time wasted. Had I found my attention wandering I would have stopped it and turned to my huge backlog of books, TV shows, and movies that I know will entertain me.

My point about the baggage is that I didn't come into the show with the frustration built up that comes from watching a show consistently falling short of the precedent set by previous Trek series. I was attracted to the specific premise of "Damage" and thought they handled it pretty well. Not having followed the series that whole little alien commitee meeting went over my head and the T'Pol addiction story seemed well handled in this episode without having seen the genesis of the storyline.

I was an X-Files fan until the series dying days so I know the feeling of watching an episode thinking "the season so far has been crap so *this* episode better put the show back on track." Consequently I found myself slipping into the habit of evaluating an episode not on its individual merits but in comparison to the series as a whole. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I thought "Damage" was a stellar example of television as a whole, science-fiction, or Trek but it certainly entertained me.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

As usual I've caught this episode 2 weeks late...

As usual, I enjoyed it. Not stellar TV programming, but entertaining on a certain level and deliver the goods that I expected.

As usual, I tune into the discussion thread to find the usual complaining from the usual people and the usual problems... as usual.

If you don't like it, don't tune in... unless you're a massochist & enjoy punishing yourself with programming that upsets or disappoints you.

Hey, I'm not arguing that this is the best show on television, but some people enjoy it, and I'm willing to continue watching in the hopes that it will improve.

Moe.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks Jason.