Enterprise 2002-11-06: At least it doesn't stink as bad as last week's episode. (1 Viewer)

[Steve Enemark]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
My new girlfriend is a regular watcher of Enterprise, so I am too (again). Another dreadfully boring, tepid episode. Somebody put a fork in Star Trek, it's done. :frowning:

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Could someone point me to the reference to Chief O'Brien being sentenced to prison? I'm a faithful Trekker, but I missed nearly ALL of the last season of DS9

Arrgggh! That was the best Trek EVER(season 7)

There were 2 O'Brian prison eps. The first one was when the Cardassians grabbed him and put him on trial for helping the Maqui, but in actuality they were using it to cover their own aid to their own colonists

Time 2 was when the memories of a 20 year prison sentence were implanted in his head. I believe they were removed when his innocense was proven, but not 100% sure

 

[Eric F]

Jeff, they couldn't remove the memories for whatever reason, and the whole episode revolved around O'Brien dealing with his past and his guilt over murdering his "virtual" cellmate.
That was definately one of the best Treks ever, and I was really shocked that in the remaining episodes they never once addressed it again. At least when Picard experienced a whole other life it was brought up, along with its ramifications. Loved that flute theme.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Damn, but if that wasn't what I was thinking when I was reading all this. "Light" resonated in a way that seemed to miss the DS9 effort, as good as it was.

Speaking of DS9, I was getting excited this evening, on my way home. Was anticipating a new piece of HT gear to be delivered from UPS (it arrived). And then I had a cheerful thought about the forthcoming DS9 season boxsets.

My thought was, What a great time for Trek obsessives—even Nemesis looks promising.

Then I remembered Enterprise, and the ghost of Dickens, C. past reappeared: "It was the best of times and the worst of times."

 

[Paul E. Fox II]

Thanks guys. Now that you've pointed me in the right direction, I remember the episode.
The Inner Light was, without a doubt, THE episode of The Next Generation that made me believe that Science Fiction could hold a crowd if done correctly! What a STORY!
As much as I defend both Voyager and Enterprise, which I truly enjoy, the stories don't seem to live up to THAT particular Next Generation episode. That being said, I felt that DS9 was a little off the mark until the Dominion rolled in too!

 

[Eric F]

As long as we're talking about Trek in general, Avery Brooks as well as Colm Meany had some wonderfull episodes, some of the best Trek was on DS9. It's just that in its last season it got off track, and I'm not sure if it was because Terry Farrel left so abruptly or the writers were more concerned with Voyager.
For some reason "other lifes" or "parallel worlds" is a theme with Trek, especially DS9. It was really brilliant when they brought in that whole Benny Sisko persona, and made you wonder if Benny's world was the real one and DS9 was the dream. What was the name of the episode? "Dreamer or the Dream?" Starting to sound like Shakespeare now.
I would like to buy the DS9 set, but that last season, especially the last episode. What a dissapointment. It was kind of sad to find out that Sisko's path was pre-detertimed, and to me that was completely opposite of what Trek was until that point. I wonder what made them do that?
To have Sisko be a "demi-god" was just plain weird.

 

[Everlasting Gobstopper]

What was the name of the episode? "Dreamer or the Dream?" Starting to sound like Shakespeare now.

There were two episodes that explored this. The first was Far Beyond The Stars, and the second is Image in the Sand, the season 7 opener. FBTS is the one everyone remembers, and IITS is the one people try to forget. In IITS, we find out that the Benny hallucinations are sent to him via the pagh wraiths in order to keep Sisko from fulfilling his destiny. The whole demi-god destiny thing smacks of the writers not knowing where to take the last season.

 

[PhilipG]

I would like to buy the DS9 set, but that last season, especially the last episode. What a dissapointment.

You're talking about the best season of Trek and the best series finale I've ever seen. Funny how opinions differ. I'd also rate Darmok over The Inner Light.
As for Enterprise, Berman/Braga are the true Masters of Mediocrity. Would anyone, besides their bank managers, care if Enterprise was cancelled now? Let's have done with it, and replace it with a new series called "Star Trek: Baywatch", about a young female starfleet crew in charge of the first swimming pool built on Risa for diplomats. It's clear they can't do science fiction, action, drama, or comedy. In fact, it can be an improv show. Dress a few people up as various aliens, and see what hilarious scraps they get into when they meet by the pool. If any intelligent conversations develop, they can always cut away to more T&A.

 

[Jack Briggs]

The new series should simply have been set in the same time as the TNG universe. Since B&B don't give a rat's ass about continuity issues (or anything else about Star Trek other than their paychecks), it was a dreadful mistake to introduce an out-of-left-field wrinkle into the Trek fabric (what is an NX-01? who's Jonathan Archer?). They should have taken seriously how there have been absolutely no mentions of an Enterprise before the NCC-1701. Too, the "stories" that are being told on this show fit more easily into the TNG universe. That way, they can keep falling back on Ferengis, the planet Risa, the matter-of-fact attitude everybody seems to possess about their surroundings, the works.

But, as we all know, B&B don't care. So why should we any longer?

 

[Jason Seaver]

So what are you saying here, Jack? That "Enterprise" is an inherently bad idea, or that the B-team should have set it in the TNG era so that they could more easily fall back on the same old clichés? I can't say I agree with either position.
"Enterprise" is a great idea; easily good enough to overlook the hiccups it might add to continuity. Because, really, doing another TOS/TNG-style show in the 2380s is a recipe for disaster; it's tapped out (now, doing a show about Federation civilians, maybe focusing on a supporting character from a previous series working as a reporter...). But the "Enterprise" era has great story potential.
What we're looking at here is plain, simple laziness. And I really don't know who at Paramount/Viacom/UPN has the power to extricate Berman, or if they are capable of seeing the need to do so.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Luckily, I was bracing myself for that one.
Yet the deal is, a pre-Kirk universe could have been done correctly, but I would have eschewed a Starship Enterprise. Maybe an anthology-type series set in the early days of Starfleet.
Despite all that, overcoming laziness and producing decent stories could salvage this current mess. But we're headed inexorably to Voyager depths as it is.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

No it's not as bad as voyager, not yet, and I too would've rathered a different ship, but they just need to get the show a focus. And that focus should'nt be this temporal cold war. It should be the founding of the federation. I Would do this. Do these single stand alone stories this year but slowly tie them the dealing with an overt threat from the Romulans. Have the Enterprise returned to Earth to deal with the Romulan threat possibly coming there. Then have the 3rd season start off with Starfleet building a masive space station to be a quasi Base. Have them start making the Enterprise's main mission finding allies to help with the rising Rom threat. Season 4 is where all out War with the Roms begin, you can get 2 season's of stories out of this. Season 7 the alliance forces the Roms to sign a treaty. Starfleet realizes that this alliance may again be needed in the future(For the Klingons) and they along with the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellerites and others come together to form the Federation. The NEW Federation Starship Endeavor (See no Federation starship enterprise in this time period) is launched with the Former Enterprise Crew in their new Dandy TOS Uniforms to Boldly go....

 

[Jason Seaver]

Despite all that, overcoming laziness and producing decent stories could salvage this current mess.

That's the beauty of not having a strong macrostory - if Paramount decided Berman & Braga were a liability tomorrow, John Shiban could right the ship very quickly. And there are some decent writers on staff, despite the B-team's apparent need to have their name on every episode's writing credits.

 

[Jack Briggs]

So Ira Behr is over at Twilight Zone, eh.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Has been all year. I haven't watched this week's ep yet, but there seems to be a very definite "written by guys Ira worked with on DS9: good, written by guys Densham knew on 'The Outer Limits': bad" pattern emerging. Which, really, should surprise no-one.

 

[Andrew Beacom]

Another poor episode. But like the ST schmuck I am I watched it. My wife was a huge TNG fan and kept faith with Voyager longer than I did. I think she perfectly described Enterprise when she called it "Vanilla" ST.

It's there, you've had it before, it's predictable and there will never be any flavor. But it's a brand you like so you keep eating.

The only positive in the episode was Archer acting like an Authority figure for once. Which is strange he's the Capt. he shouldn't be doing that.

These vulcans with constant outward emotions are getting tiresome. If they wanted that they needed to go back further in Time and have a show about the eveolution of the Vulcan people. That might have been watchable.

 

[Jeff]

No it's not as bad as voyager

Well it is if you compare it with Seasons 4, 5 and some of 6.

 

[Jeff Pryor]

I was really hoping Enterprise would become interesting during the 2nd season and so far I've been very disappointed. I liked the 1st season, but even I am beginning to bitch at the TV when I see 'written by B&B'. I see shades of Voyager emerging.

 

[Eric F]

These vulcans with constant outward emotions are getting tiresome. If they wanted that they needed to go back further in Time and have a show about the eveolution of the Vulcan people. That might have been watchable.

If you want to learn about the evolution of the Vulcan people Diane Duanne did a much better job in her book "Spock's World" than any TV show could do. Too bad it's not cannon, but then again I wonder if B&B read at all, much less any SF.

I cut them some slack this week. You have to remember that the Vulcans are depitcted in Enterprise as arrogant and fairly Xenophobic, which makes it kind of odd they've taken on Humans as their "pet project". There are obviously hidden motives which will be revealed (and I hope it doesn't tie in with the stupid Future-Guy story)in time.

I think in this case B&B has it right, if it eventually becomes revealed how and why the Vulcans decide to throw their lot in with Humanity (aka The Federation), a race they seem to openly despise. That is the more interesting story. Up until ENT there has been little shown about Vulcans and their history, except through the eyes of Spock.

So even though I might not like every episode there is enough there to hold my interest (so far). That might change if they don't get on the ball soon...

 

[Mark Kalzer]

I too am dissapointed with the way they are depicting Vulcans. Remember back in Star Trek First Contact? At that moment, when the alien visitor revealed his pointed ears, it was a joyous moment. The Vulcans were rather intreaged (spelling?) by us humans and our customs, and it seemed as if they haven't been exploring space that long on their own. I think Star Trek had a lot more integrity when the humans and vulcans were assumed to have developed together onwards from the moment of First Contact. Instead, in Enterprise, we're boldly going where many much smarter vulcans have already been, or boldy going where the vulcans are telling us to go.

And this constant stupidity of the crew has got to stop. These are STARFLEET OFFICERS for crying out loud. They're the offspring of NASA. Are NASA astronauts really this inept? That officer, I forget his name, is stuck in command, and when asked for permission to perscribe vaccines for a disease which has the side effect of diarehha, he stalls his decision because "I don't want to be the one to give everyone the runs." Is that the responsible thing to do? There's a DISEASE on the ship. Show some professionalism will you? He then stalls EVERY command order he has to make after that. Okay...I know that these people are not as experienced with space travel as our friends from the 23rd and 24th century are, but those older shows were written by people from the 20th century. Obvious we as humans know a few things about diplomacy and leadership. (Heck...I'd make a better leader than that sorry excuse for an officer) Earth's finest these are not.