Enterprise, Star Trek Falling On It's Own Bat'Leth!

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Enterprise' started by jazzstick, Aug 22, 2013.

  1. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ENTERPRISE WAS FABULOUS.

    That is all. EXCEPT.. I just saw John Billingsly on True Blood (as in RIGHT NOW) and I had to pause it to come to the ENT forum to pant. Because it was very exciting.

    People don't appreciate ENT because they wore out all their Trek love on TNG and DS9.

    Not everyone has my kind of stamina.
     
  2. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Enterprise was a little flawed from the get go. It was meant to be a prequel set a century before Kirk, but the kept all the same technology that Kirk and Picard had and instead of a meaningful "birth of the Federation" storyline we got the same disposable and forgettable planet-of-the-week plots which we'd seen ad nausium in TOS, TNG and VOY.

    They originally dropped "Star Trek" from the title because they wanted to attract a wider audience - I guess the rationale being "If it says 'Star Trek' in the title it's just for Trekkies" (*cut to J.J. Abrams' laughing*)

    Archer was annoying, incredibly naive (we're talking common sense fails here, not believable first-timers-in-space mistakes) and foolish, pestering aliens like an intergalactic Jehovah's Witness.

    BUT, in spite of all this they managed a few great episodes in the first two seasons (as well as lots of cack or completely forgettable ones). And around the time of "Regeneration" I thought the show was starting to hit it's stride. Then came the season three revamp and Xindi story. Archer was fixed (and changed so much, he came across as bipolar), the others stopped being cardboard cutouts and for the first time, I was eagerly awaiting next week's episode because I didn't have a clue what was going to happen next. It was fun! My favourite season in all of Trek.

    In season four they became the prequel that people expected from the get-go. I liked it, although not as much as the Xindi story.


    Last year I rewatched all of The Original Series, Enterprise and Voyager, and enjoyed them. This year I tried to rewatch The Next Generation and couldn't. I loved it at the time, but it's aged terribly. Bad acting and direction, trite morals, little to no action....ugh.
     
  3. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    But don't you find that when you go back and watch seasons 1 and 2 you SEE what they become?
     
  4. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    I didn't see the entire series until this year, and I've watched all the episodes several times since then. There definitely is growth in many of the characters-- though Travis didn't seem to change that much for me.
     
  5. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Teacake, I say this without irony. You're an example of the idealism of all us Trekkies. You always see the best. We can argue what that is, but never do you fail to look upon the franchise in a positive light. :)
     
  6. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Who?

    That's very sweet of you. When I eventually choke down a TNG rewatch I will keep this in mind as a personal goal.
     
  7. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well I never recall you saying anything bad about TNG(or that I think about it anything at all...) ... but to your statement who can ask more? I still qualify you as a "pure" Trekkie in your love for the franchise as you seldom criticize any of it. :)

    I fully admit TNG was what I grew up on, and is always something that makes me smile. It may not be fair that I don't hold Voyager or Enterprise up to it's standards.... but how can I avoid it? TNG was good... and then DS9 raised the bar so high that no Trek franchise could match. But I can dream that one day one will.
     
  8. Tulin

    Tulin Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Or, you know, they didn't like it, because people have different opinions.

    Your idea of "stamina" might be somebody else's idea of needless "self punishment".
     
  9. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't like being a hater. I might have had a few characters over the years I've hated on but they've all somehow muddled their way into redemption other than Riker so now all my hating falls on him. Oh and TATV.

    I grew up on TOS reruns which I was in love with. The usual blah blah blah socially odd child who relates to Spock and is inspired by Star Trek. I was a walking trope LOLOL..

    Then, as an adult, I had friends who had bought the TNG videos come over each week for a TNG session. I was happy to watch Star Trek and I was happy that Star Trek was continuing but never fell in love with it. Some of it was just so embarrassing.. though I readily admired Picard as a captain and I appreciated how they took a deliberate step to make him quite different than Kirk. Never was enamored with him like Kirk but I appreciated him.

    Some years later I started renting DS9 videos and I was like.. OMFG. THIS IS TELEVISION. And the instant I was done with that I started renting VOY videos and I was laughing my ass off over the humor and loving the mood shift from DS9 and I was very very happy. I LOVED THEM BOTH SO MUCH!! And of course I still loved TOS, I had bought all the videos on ebay and it was actually better than I remembered and Kirk was hotter than I remembered too :lol:

    With ENT I was bored watching on tv here, playing at midnight with endless phone sex ads, put on hold for every possible sport.. but then I watched it in my own time with no ads and when I got to season 3 I was shocked at how good it was. And when I watched season 4 I found myself thinking this was some of the best Trek I had ever seen (and yes, fanwank, totally agree.. still enjoy it.)

    I don't have a conversion story with TNG. It's too bad, but 5 out of 6 is still a lovely success (I have left out my TAS tale of happiness, LOL).

    I totally get that a lot of people got hooked on Trek with TNG and it is special. And I am very happy it did just that because that's why we are still getting movies and you and I can still hope that one day we may be watching and reviewing and bitching about a series that surpasses them all.
     
  10. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I have Star Trek viagra. I'm willing to make deals.
     
  11. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well... to me.... TOS was the movies. The actual episodes just seemed cheesy to me. TNG was what I grew up on. There were a few exceptions mind you, but Picard was the Trekkly god figure to me as a child.

    Then came DS9.... oh my god, I remember Ds9 first as being a god awful abomination..... why did they steal O'brien from us? I was wrong and however in hindsight was I pleased to be.

    Then came Voyager..... this was probably the series I was most eager to love. I -wanted- to love it..... yet it didn't deliver for me. I even gave up on the series in favor of Ds9. The premise of Voyager utterly fascinated me.... it just failed to deliver. How cool would it be to have a half Maquis crew? Oh wait.... they're completely assimilated within a year.

    I openly proclaim Voyager to be the most disappointing Trek series. The worst? Hardly. In fact.... frankly.... it occurs to me, I watch Voyager these days more often than TOS..... nostalgia aside..... I think VOY does rank 3rd on my list these days. I just repent that it could've been so much better.... is that bad?
     
  12. ALF

    ALF Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Have you been to the Voyager board lately? :lol: I always see critical threads of every type over there. Check it out.
    I think Enterprise may have been a bit too serious in execution. There's not as much comic relief in other series'.
    However, Enterprise is great, and a worthy chapter in the Star Trek saga.
     
  13. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'd like to ask you what you would name "the worst" R. Star but I'm afraid it would be TOS and then I would have to cut you loose to die alone in some kind of tachyon nebula void.

    There is no "worst", they all are parts of a great and lovely sum.

    IF THERE WAS NO VOY? Then no female captain. So, fucked.

    If there was no TOS? EVERYTHING COLLAPSES! You don't get wannabe-Kirks and anti-Kirks and the recurring forever and ever amen Spock type character if you don't have Kirk and Spock.
     
  14. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    I really need to avoid trying to read the board as soon as I wake up, because I almost answered this question.
     
  15. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Admiral

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    Burn-out and overkill. At least for me...

    Star Trek: Enterprise represented the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th seasons of Modern Trek and, honestly, it all started to blur together. There's only so many times you can do the holodeck creates an inconvenience, the Klingons are mad, the Klingons mumbling about honor, the Vulcans don't have emotions, the captain struggles with whether to help primitives, the shields are failing and so on.

    As a series, there just wasn't enough that simply felt fresh. One out of about every ten episodes they made would wow you with something really great, but that's a really poor batting average for a TV series.
     
  16. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    It didn't help that the first contact with Klingons occurred in the very first episode, and was about 50 years earlier than had been suggested in the other shows. Then that the first contact with them didn't trigger all the conflict we'd been led to believe.

    Then subspace radio shows up before the USS Horizon leaves "The Book" at Sigma Iotia II in 2168, which happened before subspace radio existed.
     
  17. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    No... Enterprise will always be the worst. DS9, TNG, VOY, TOS, ENT in that order. Honestly what kept TOS in 3rd for me all these years were the movies more than the series itself. But... I admit I watch Voyager more than the six movies.... so yeah, it deserves a promotion.

    No female captain? Erika Hernandez would've saved Enterprise I say.
     
  18. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    I would have a lot of trouble ranking the series because I really love watching them all.

    I suppose, just based on rewatching alone, I would have to go with:

    VOY/DS9 --> I rewatch often.
    TNG --> I am currently doing a full series rewatch now and am enjoying it.
    TOS/ENT --> Did a once-through watch of both series and haven't had a chance to rewatch yet. Doesn't mean I don't like them.
     
  19. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think that was the guy at the helm who got replaced with a dead body in one of the episodes. The other characters didn't notice and they just left the body at the helm for the rest of the series. ;)
     
  20. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    Yeah, the one I'm watching to prepare for a review has Travis, the real athletic guy who always hurts himself so he can get some Phlox time, breaking his leg in a cave.

    Remember "Two Days and Two Nights"? He gets sick there too. Phlox is hibernating, and when Travis hears that, he says "Well wake him up!" I really thought he should have said, "Well wake his ass up!"