ENT was being jerked around by an unsupportive network (jeez, basically three incarnations in 4 seasons), shuffled in time slots, pre-empted all the time, and to top it off, every “fan” who could find a continuity error decided the show was crap. The “fans” are lucky JJ’s been green-lighted to go ahead with the franchise after the was ENT was treated by it’s supposed lifeblood.

If not naive enough to say ENT didn’t make mistakes. Sure they did. Lots of marginal stuff in Seas 1 and 2, but no worse than VOY, by and means. Take some time and look back at some of the droll in the first 2 seasons of TNG. The only reason “fans” let that go was they were desperate for more trek, not because it was good trek or better trek.

I think, from what I’ve seen around, ENT, now being viewed in the light of 2008/9 is getting a much better reception than when it was in first-run. If it had gotten the same support. and same open-mindedness, perhaps we’d be just finished with seas. 7 and getting a, what looks like, really cool new movie to boot.

If you’ve never seen ENT, don’t go by the bunch who feels they have to criticize it or they are worthy because B/B made some canon errors. See if for yourself. It’s a good show. I didn’t discover it until SCI-FI and after that bought the box set and enjoyed it a great deal. Check it out. It’s at least worth a good look – it’s closer to Gene’s vision of trek than DS9 or VOY ever were – the VFX are first rate – and when they hit the mark on a story – they really got the job done. In my opinion, a highly underrated cast, and a show that shouldn’t have had it’s legs cut off when it finally reached it’s stride in seas 4 when Coto took the helm with some enthusiasm.

Star Trek – Acadamy
They could have O’Brien, Jake Sisco, Nog, Hoshi (phwohhh), Tpal, Chacote, Tom Paris, Harry Kim and many others could be part of it if not all new cast.

Maybe Riker as a an ex Marquee could become a lecturer at the acadamy.

Starfleet command could continue to have problems with alien races, and bring back the Andorians.

No doubt ENT is more popular now than it was during it’s original run (sound familiar?), and a lot of that has to do with The Sci-Fi Channel. Maybe there is enough potential left for a TV movie.

They cast Jolene Blalock, who is one seriously sexy woman, and give her a rubbish genderless haircut that totally negates her catsuited physique. I don’t care whether her breasts are enhanced or not: theyre very nice either way!

Similarly with Linda Park: stunning actress and total failure to use those assets! Park and Blalock, when allowed to be sexy, a la In a Mirror Darkly, aren’t just damn attractive, they’re strong and powerful too! Sex is part of what made original Trek work and all the later Treks felt unsexy! The ‘gel rub’ scenes were plain horribly contrived and felt like sexless people trying to be cool. Those scenes would have been sexy if the characters themselves had been sexy.

In hardware terms, the attraction of ST:E should have been the lack of futuristic weapons. While laser cutters and the like could easily be used, regular machine guns, rifles and pistols should have had a placer in the armoury, as would hand grenades, smoke flares and so on.

We know from TOS that Romulans fired nukes at ships in the wars, so the Big E should have been much more heavily armoured and had far less powerful deflector shields. The E should have fired nuclear missiles rather than photonic torpedoes. Definitely no transporters, shuttlecraft only. In other words, what Ron Moore’s Galactica has got bang on!

The characters needed to be more of an extrapolation of our time. Their speech patterns and personalities were still those of the ‘evolved’ (read boring!) humans we saw in the 24th Century Treks. Actors were always told to underplay human roles in the modern Treks, to show up the non-humans more: a mistake in my opinion, because surely they should all have been working together normally!

Had Enterprise season four been its first, it might have lasted a lot longer. However, there was definitely a feel of franchise fatigue pervading the show and Berman and Braga were burnt out relics of 1980s TV. Trek itself had lost its engagement with the mainstream audience and had become its own parallel universe rather than a believable extrapolation of today’s society.

Oh well, it’s all very well with hindsight! I’ll simply look forward to the new movie.

“…and this is all just My Lame opinion…

Your opinion is not lame. It’s just… different. We all see things differently and that’s what makes life interesting. OMG that sounds so cliché. Oh well. Everyone, sing along:

“We are the world, we are…”

Anyway, I love discussing Trek anytime, anywhere with anyone as long as they don’t get angry if I don’t agree with them. I love all the Trek series with the occasional omitted episode that I don’t like. And I love the “over saturation”. Can’t get enough. My friend brought the second season of TOS over today and we watched “Amok Time”, “The Changeling” and “Mirror, Mirror”. Loved it.

“You know if you think about it, wouldn’t watching the entire Voyager series be considered waiting too long for a resolution? to see if they Get Back or not? You might Have more patience then you think.”

And come to think of it, I never thought of it. (Hah!) Not that way anyway. Very interesting point. One might say… “fascinating”. But you really had to know that they were going to get back, I mean, come on. It’s the ‘how’ that they kept you wanting to come back for. Well, some of us, anyway.

I haven’t seen ‘Enterprise’ since it went off the air. We cancelled our cable because we prefer to continue eating. Maybe I’ll get ‘Enterprise’ as a birthday present from someone tired of hearing me whine about having to cancel my cable service. [Ahem, hint, hint].

Anyway, keep offering your opinion, my friend. I’d say quite a few of us are interested.

#159. The Vulcanista

Really? I haven’t seen much of Rowan Atkinson though I know he is “Mr. Bean”. Saw Rowan in “Johnny English” and quite enjoyed it. Saw only a few scenes of Mr. Bean and they seem funny. Funny thing about Hugh Laurie is that he is very rarely serious in “House”. Mostly joking and sarcastic. Almost seems he’s still doing the comedy thing! Actually, I watch “House” regularly. Must admit that he’s starting to get to me though. The attitude is getting a little “old”. Just like Ted Danson in “Becker”. It got kind of tiring after a while but I watched it faithfully. Guess it didn’t bother me enough to change the channel.

Thanks for the info, girlfriend! Have a great week. Better go to bed. My eyes are closing.

kg

Katie, for more Hugh Laurie, check out the BBC comedy “Black Adder” series, starring Rowan Atkinson.

Laurie is better known for his comedy, and if I’m not mistaken, “House” is his first foray into drama, at least afa American audiences are concerned.

Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|

You know if you think about it, wouldn’t watching the entire Voyager series be considered waiting too long for a resolution? to see if they Get Back or not?
You might Have more patience then you think. I personally thought that Malcom was pretty cool. Enterprise was an okay show, I kinda grew up with TOS, and while it is Timeless and Classic, There’s no denying That DS9 was probably the Best Trek series ever, TNG was Great for a while….but I think It was the over-saturation on TV that diminished my interest in it, Like “Seinfeld”. I swear all I remember from some of they’re latter day Episodes was a TON of Techno-bable and at least one Show revolving around Geordi and Data’s Cat. when I heard the premise for Enterprise, I was upset , Why Go backward… There wasn’t anything Cool Before Kirk and Spock. but it surprised me a bit, I mean come on, Orion Slave girls, Hell yeah!! plus Telorites , Tholians, the Gorn man, the Gorn!!
and of course Andorians, Never understood why it was so hard to see at Least one of ‘em( in the background even ) on any of the other TNG era shows, but finally they brought ‘em back. Plus with a Kick ass Recurring character too. Movie TNG isn’t too terribly bad. Nemesis was the only Real Movie for them. And Voyager………Uhhhhhhhh No. I only see rushed production, sub- Par (and that’s being generous) Writing, and so many missed opportunities. Tuvok , and the Doctor(Early on only), were the only saving Graces for me. So that makes it TOS, DS9, ENT, TNG. plus the even Numbered Movies. and this is all just My Lame opinion So to anyone who Doesn’t agree with this, Including You Too Katie, it’s fine. no big deal and no offense intended.

Look, everyone, I’m not saying that Enterprise didn’t have shortcomings. But when I watch the show in retrospect I see alot of growth. The quality of the writing definitely improved and the direction (especially Roxann Dawson’s work) was occasionally excellent. Bakula’s Archer character works for me because he’s representative of humanity’s questionable readiness to move into a pretty chaotic environment. By the time you get to Kirk and especially Picard, the Federation is well-established, as are the requirements of a Starfleet officer. Archer’s character works because he is someone who in hindsight is not necessarily the best choice for a captain, but he manages to succeed anyway. That’s really the whole point. Archer grows and changes over the course of the series, and by the end of Season 4 we were just beginning to see the historic leader he would become. The real shame is that we never got to see the final fruition of that journey.

As for Archer, I see him as more of an intermediary type leader, capable of bringing people together, unlike Kirk who took divisive action regardless of the fallout and Picard who was more of a problem solver (of course that’s what they were trying to portray since this is the man who helped build the Federation). But again, they undermined the character by writing him out of situations in unbelievable ways. That does not lend to the character any credence of ingenuity as a leader. Instead, it came across as bad writing. I’m tired of him blasting his way into a situation despite the incredible odds when it should have been dealt with in a realistic manner. That’s the fault of the writers. Bakula himself was only partly convincing. Shatner came across like he was willing to do whatever it took. He had conviction for his ship and his crew. Stewart had a gravitas and presence. Bakula sounded like he was back in Quantum Leap making small talk. He’s a likable guy, but he never had any presence that people would truly respect as some sort of galactic peace keeper. Leonard as Sarek for instance had a serene reflectiveness about him. Bakula is too bubbly. Too much a part of himself. He doesn’t give off any palpable heat of emotion that one can sense and feel, at least not on the level necessary for the part.