Ready for *ENTERPRISE* season 2? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Bamberger]

I enjoy both Enterprise and Voyager reruns (just recently watched Unimatrix I and II and thoroughly enjoyed them).

Heck, even if there is a bad episode writing-wise, at least there is still Jeri Ryan and Jolene Blalock........

 

[Mark Kalzer]

I think the problem with these more modern Treks (I'm referring to VOY and ENT) is that they've lost the focus of Star Trek. While I did not watch much of DS9, (My bad, I'll pick up on it when the DVDs come out! ) the first two shows were simply about exploring the final frontier. Star Trek, is a show about dreams. We all dream of being an officer on board a starship, a captain especially, just like on Star Trek. We all dream of flying about the galaxy exploring and interacting with different species. It is purely a dream. To go along with that dream, the stories themselves are centered around the human condition. Each episode in some way or another centers around some aspect of the human condition.
DS9 was hard for Trek fans to get into, because the dream world was significantly reduced while being on remote space station, and they really killed the dream world with Voyager. Why would ANYONE dream of being on a starship 70,000 lightyears away from home, with their only goal being to return home, with bad food and boredom along the way. I also noticed that the human condition topic were significantly deteriating from Voyager. It's easy to figure out why. While the first two Treks allow pretty much anything to happen, orders from starfleet to transport ambassadors, subspace anomaly, etc. etc. etc., all of which would be used to delve further into the human condition, Voyager was just a situation Trek. Rather than having limitless ideals, they were restricted by the "Out in the middle of nowhere" hamper. Again, I can't speak for DS9.
Enterprise I'm finding is also out of focus with the original concept of Star Trek. It still has a degree of humanity, but I fear that the creators are more interested in making it funny and specatular, (Imagine the stereotypical network exec pitching the new Star Trek) that the focus on just telling stories is being lost.
I was considering watching the rerun of Enterprise today, and decided to watch the opening teaser to see if it's looks interesting. What happens is that the doctor enters his lab, says hello to his numerous pets. He goes around the room feeding them random things. He gets to the last one, and removes a cover. He pulls a slug of some sort out of a bag and throws it in. The then pulls another one out, almost throws it in, and then eats it. Cut to the intro.
My reaction..."What?! What was the point in that? It was not funny, nor compelling."
Earlier I was watching TNG episodes on DVD, and got to Yesterday's Enterprise (Possibly the best Trek episode ever written). Look at this one's teaser. Opens with ten-forward. Guinan introduces Worf to prune juice. He tries it and finds it pleasant. Guinan then encourages Worf to seek out female companionship. They argue for a bit, (Worf laughs and smiles? Unusual!) then Worf is called to the bridge as they notice a distortion outside the Ten-forward windows. As Worf leaves, Guinan reacts with shock. Cut to the bridge. They get readings on the distortion. Suddenly, another ship exits the distortion. The bridge suddenly goes through a strange transformation. The lighting darkens, and Picard (With a subtly more rugged voice) turns to Tasha Yar at tactical and asks her about the ship, not even noticing that anything has changed, Yar having been killed off two years ago. Cut to Ten-Forward. Guinan turns her head and sees her lounge a lot more crowded. It's a lot less comfy and more military. She realizes that something has changed here. Cut to the bridge. Yar finally receives readings. She reads the Federation registry off of it, "NCC-1701-C", delay, "U.S.S. Enterprise". Cut to intro.
Hmmm...see a difference? True that's one of the hallmark good teasers, but each one ended on a climax, and actually had SOMETHING to do with the story. The old treks were more focused on the human condition and telling single stories. Enterprise seems out of focus to me.

 

[Jodee]

Seriously - there's just no anticipation here. It's not negative as with "Voyager", but, really, how many of would really miss "Enterprise" if it didn't come back for a second year?

I couldn't agree more.

I can always gauge my interest in a show by how long the new episode sits unwatched on my ReplayTV.

Last spring, at one point there were THREE unwatched Enterprise episodes on my machine.

I watch it because it's Trek, but it's nothing I really look forward to seeing.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Will_B wrote:

Quote:

Not all of us. Some of us realize it takes a very special situation with very good writing to pull off "arc-stories". As I've said elsewhere, the problem with "arcs" is, if they're not done well or are themselves fundamentally bad stories, then the producers are stuck. If I don't like an "arc"-storyline, I, as a viewer, may well tune out.
Besides, I find no good reason that, with the cushion---both in terms of money and network/studio support---that a Star Trek "franchise" show enjoys, there can't be continuity from week to week about ongoing issues in the characters' universe (and personal lives) and still also be different main adventure plots each week. I don't find the two to be at odds with one another. Star Trek productions have the luxury of large writing staffs and the latter (presumably) meet regularly. Why can they not co-ordinate these matters?
(Could it be they're lazy and indifferent?)