STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE 5/26/'04 "Zero Hour" (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

Well presented point of view with valid comments, Jason.

Dominic Keating is quoted from an article that Trekweb is quoting on their site regarding Zero Hour and the highs and lows of the past year as it pertains to UPN and possible cancellation and not fullfilling a full 7 year run. Of possible interest to some here are some comments concerning Braga and the new coming year:



If you want to read more, see this.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

So you didnt like it Jason?
Let's hope that Braga does retire or step back or spend more time with Jeri because I just may start watching again if that were to occur.



From Dominick Keating:
The new management has been put in place at UPN to try and eke out a new demographic and bolster up failing audiences, and we don't fit into what they imagine. But in the same bracket we happen to be their number one drama. So it's a double-edged sword. As much as they'd love to get rid of us, they can't."

What? Everytime I hear a cast interviewed they spread the blame everywhere except where it should be spread. The writers and producers of this show are the number reason this show and Voyager before it fell into mediocrity. And what new demographic is he speaking of? This is Trek after all. Are they looking for the Law and Order crowd?

Number one Drama? What other Drama do they have?

 

[Jason Seaver]

Hey, beating out Jake 2.0 was hard work! (As, likely, was waiting for Buffy to die.) To be fair, UPN does have a couple decent-looking dramas on their fall schedule in Veronica Mars and Kevin Hill.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Jason Seaver wrote (post #140):


I rather think they'd need both. If the code is encrypted with their own numerals, which, of course, shouldn't be , , , etc., they'd need a language specialist to sort out the numerals from nonnumerals (if such there be in the code itself).

But you're right; the producers of this show don't "sweat the details" by so much that we who do tend to be left unimpressed by the level of mediocrity all of their stuff rises (sinks?) to.

If this be "naysaying", too bad! That's what this kind of thing brings on itself and what its hapless creators deserve.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I guess I've already given up on people on Enterprise needing a linguist to understand alien languages. I mean, Hoshi would be good to have to recognize whether or not what they'd decrypted was gobbledegook or not (although showing it to one of the actual Xindi on the ship would be better), but just in terms of breaking a digital code... I mean, that's almost all math, right?

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Jason Seaver wrote (post #145):


Just listen to the theme song once or twice. It'll come to you. . . . But, I predict Star Trek will never capture the "demographic" they're hoping to snag.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

From TV guide...
Question:
I was wondering what you thought of the season finale of Enterprise. I thought it was very good up until the last five minutes or so, and then the only thing I could think of was "Oh, my God, it is just like the last season of Battlestar Galactica." This season of Enterprise had some very good episodes, like the one where they had to forcibly steal equipment from an innocent vessel to get the Enterprise moving again. To end the season on another alternate-timeline plot was just a slap in the face. I believe Scott Bakula was already in one time-traveling series, called Quantum Leap, and we really don't need Enterprise to turn into another one. Only thing I can hope is that they resolve this new plot twist in the first episode or two of the new season or it will definitely alienate the few fans they have left of this series. — David

Matt:
Quite a lot of reaction, most of it mixed, to this episode. Some liked it, many didn't. You're not the only one to mention the similarities to Galactica, although I admit that goes way outside my own frame of reference — unlike the Quantum Leap analogy, which, thankfully, I get. Most who wrote in seemed to like the twists and turns of the episode (and the season in general), up until the final reveal of a Nazi-dominated Earth awaiting our heroes upon their return. As Daryll A. puts it, "Did anyone else find themselves groaning aloud when the 'cliffhanger' for the last Enterprise turned out to be yet another jump through time? This gimmick has been grossly overused in the Star Trek franchise, especially beginning with Voyager. At least with Enterprise the writers can't use the holodeck every week to make up for a lack of original plots. I thought this was the best season yet of Enterprise, but if they keep using time travel as a crutch, I say let this be the last season."

When I reviewed this episode for the magazine's newly revised daily Hits & Misses column (check it out), I had to file before I even knew for sure if the show had been renewed. The Nazi twist mostly concerned me because if the show had been canned, this open ending would have sent the fans left hanging into a frenzy. As it stands, I side with David in hoping that this time-warp — or, if you will, Planet of the Apes-like — ending will be resolved quickly and isn't what the entire next season will revolve around.


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[RickER]

I love Star Trek...but Enterprise has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Only thing that could clean that slime was a good dose of FARSCAPE! Good writing, great production values = fantastic show.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Most certainly, encryption does not have to be related to mathematics at all.

An empirical example would be when the Allies in WWII used Navaho to "encrypt", as it were, messages.

Heck, this to me is more believable than having mathematical encryption in the ST universe. There's absolutely no encryption that is currently known that would withstand the possible brute force capabilities of ST computers.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Except I'm not sure how well a language-based encryption method would work for encoding schematics.

Of course, by writing that sentence, I've already given the idea more thought than Berman and Braga together.

 

[Kwang Suh]

As much as it pains me to write this, and it's not a dig at you at all, but most (>99.9%) fans can't write worth sh!t.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

I have a question for you 'casual' viewers. I need to understand if you don't like ANY season end cliff-hangers or is it just this one that is bothering you?

As for me, I'm hangling onto the edge of my seat and can't wait for the next episode. If you don't like this cliff-hanger, then you don't this show. The result would be that you'd just be another thread fart.

Glenn

 

[Jason Seaver]

Turth be told, I don't like season-ending cliffhangers as a rule. I tend to think it's a cheap device used by writers who aren't confident enough in the actual quality of their work to believe that the audience will return after a three-month hiatus and thus seek to trick us into coming back by having the story be incomplete otherwise. I think it tends to lead to weak writing because it involves the writers putting it down and picking it up cold three months later, and I think that it's bad business: If the show doesn't return, you've got an incomplete work to sell; you also set yourself up to have to write around actors coming, going, or changing their appearance. I also find it aesthetically displeasing; I like endings. And the type of cliffhanger used here, which has no apparent connection to the rest of the episode, is especially cheap.

But "Zero Hour" would have sucked even without the last five minutes.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

During the course of the season there was a whole episode devoted to the building of the Xindi weapon, and this material's name was featured prominently in that episode.

Also, the scene that occurred in the finale in which Archer was shown a glimpse of how he would shape the future of the Federation had to be there for some reason!

Put those two events together, and the finale would seem to be related to the events of the season.

Look: If you don't enjoy the show, then don't watch it! Nobody's forcing you to view this stuff. But if you feel compelled to criticize the show, then at least view it! There is no fair way for you to critique the last episode of the season unless you had viewed at least the seven episodes or so that preceded it. If you had done that, you would have had more of an emotional involvement with this incredible story arc, which required every member of the regular cast of characters to question their ethics and ideals at some point. The story arc, overall, transcended any individual episode.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Encryption of data and representing schematics are two different things. If all Hoshi had to do was crack the code, that is a different task than dealing with the representation of the schematics/instructions/whatever that presumably all the Xindi would be able to understand anyhow.

 

[Gordon St Pierre]

Well for what its worth ..I loved the ending ..& I am looking forward to next season a lot

 

[Francois Caron]

So let's hire the 0.1% that ARE good and have them finally save the franchise before B&B damages it beyond repair. Good fan fiction writers do exist out there. It's just a matter of FINDING them.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

One isnt allowed to critique the last episode or cliffhanger unless they watch seven or more episodes???
Star Trek of recent years hasnt been known for emotional involvement unless you count rubdowns and as far as the cliffhanger goes it didnt have anything to do with the rest of the episode so why would you have to watch a certain amount of episodes to enjoy it?
From what I have read on a lot of boards, most people enjoyed the episode for what it was but disliked the typical Braga-copout Time Travel plot device used for a cliffhanger.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Exactly. I had been increasingly disappointed with Enterprise during the second and most of the third season. To my surprise, the final few episodes dealing with the climax of the Xindi story were very interesting and had really softened my dislike for the direction the series was going.

The final coda on the season-ending episode was insultingly stupid, derivative and needless. I could care less what happens in the first episode of next season and doubt very much that I'll be watching. Who knows, maybe next season Archer will time-travel to Mars in 2003 and accidentally destroy a Beagle lander...

[How's that, Jack?]

 

[Jack Briggs]

Brent, watch it.