Comments on: Exclusive Video Interview: Braga & Coto Talk 24 and Enterprise

By: Mister Bigggs

Mister Bigggs — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:03:46 +0000

Sid – 100% in agreement – UPN switched timeslots so many times, so many preemptions, then ending up on Friday night – I never caught the show until SCI FI did a long marathon and I found I really enjoyed it and bought the DVD. Would’ve loved a quality seasons 5-7.

One the one hand – I was glad it ended IF they wouldn’t have kept the quality and UPN continued to treat it so poorly (well, they would’ve had to find another home anyway when UPN folded a year or so later – hopefully in syndication)

On the other hand – selfishly – I want three more box sets of ENT, which, besides TOS is my favorite trek – and I’ve seen them all multiple times. I thought the cast was highly underrated and, especially in the beginning, given some really poor writing to contend with. Also – Following VOY was rough, and then top it off with the similar ‘flow’ episodically really would’ve turn me off if I’d watched the first run episodes. Seas 3 and 4 were really terrific in my opinion. and there are definitely some gems in Seas 1 and 2 – just not enough that could sustain the audience thru to seas 3 and 4.

Last comment – I have rarely seen such vehement hate for any show as I have seen for ENT. The “fans” of trek really didn’t even give it a chance – yet many – from what I read now – have softened quite a bit on the show in 2008/9. Perhaps if they would’ve stood by the show and let it get it’s bearings, they’d have gotten to 7 seas. If I remember correctly (and I know I do) TNG and VOY both sucked a** in their first few seasons… No slack for ENT though.

By: Sid

Sid — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:55:30 +0000

Never bothered to watch ENT when it was on — I was totally Trek-fatigued.

Bought the DVDs last year and now am a huge fan. Most underrated Trek series ever, even if the model spaceship didn’t look right.

By: MORN SPEAKS

MORN SPEAKS — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:34:59 +0000

Great stuff, thx Anthony.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:33:48 +0000

“Bringing new and younger writers would really help their talent pool in bringing Trek back to the masses.”

for the most part i agree. but i believe it would also be wise to bring back a few writers who always seemed to have an affinity for writing solid trek stories: michael taylor, david gerrold, d.c. fontana, david weddle and bradley thompson. and maybe even guest spots from the likes of: j. michael straczynski and harlan ellison.

By: Holger

Holger — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:23:16 +0000

Though I’m a big fan of ENT, I, too, wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it when it first aired. I liked the show, but not too much. I was simply tired of Trek. The DVD sets I purchased years later made all the difference for me. One should really watch it detached from the 24th century shows. It works very well when seen as a prequel to TOS, on the other hand.

39: “These Are The Voyages”… what’s that? Is that supposed to be an ENT episode? Don’t remember ever watching it ;-)

By: senwod

senwod — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:03:16 +0000

DAMN YOU BRANNON BRAGA! DAMN YOU!!!

By: ChristopherPike

ChristopherPike — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:55:51 +0000

Dear Manny Coto, Brannon Braga –

Please give some thought to twisting CBS’s collective arm into backing an ENT movie for DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-XV5Yvm7ZI

By: Adam Cohen

Adam Cohen — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:39:37 +0000

Great interview, Anthony.

I watched “24″ last night and it was like I was home again.

By: sean

sean — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:26:01 +0000

#40

Thankfully Ron Moore kept Rick Berman out of DS9 (or he just plain gave up on it) – otherwise we’d have had The Rock guest starring as a Jemhadar! ;)

By: P Technobabble

P Technobabble — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:25:08 +0000

I have often wondered: after TOS, TNG, VOY, and ENT — each one a “traveling starship” premise — how do you come up with new, exciting ideas? We could see how many of each of these series contained episodes that were either deliberate re-hashes of previous episodes (”The Naked Time” = “The Naked Now”), while others were more loosely based, or used elements of previous episodes.
The basic premise is: starship goes to alien planet/encounters alien ship. Then, conflict. Followed by conflict resolved. After a while, this template becomes rather weary, eh? Writers kept falling back on what they knew. I found it terribly annoying to have VOY encountering Klingons, for example; or ENT encountering the Borg. I didn’t mind seeing new aliens, but quite often you could replace the new alien with Klingon, Romulan, whatever…
So, my question is: how do you get out of the Star Trek box? DS9 was an attempt to do something really different, and, in many ways, it had some of the best stories because they were forced to write something other than another “alien of the week” story.
The idea of an on-going arc does offer something a bit different, in that the story can be far more complex. But, even this can become a limitation. “Space, the final frontier…” seems like it should be an extremely unlimited thing.
I’m one of those people who were pretty critical of Trek under Berman and Braga, but I wouldn’t try to dismiss all of their accomplishments. Braga wrote some great episodes (”Cause and Effect” is one of my favorites). I just think they lost their “juice” for Star Trek. Even the best job in the world, after you’ve done it for 15-20 years, gets to be tedious.