I'M on IMDb and these numbers still means little or nothing to me.
Spoilers Strange New Worlds General Discussion Thread
- Thread starter NewHeavensNewEarth
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It gets worse every year.
I stopped reading right there because your claim is utterly ridiculous. Enterprise is one of my top three Star Trek series, but overall I would hardly call it "intellectual".
I stopped reading right there because your claim is utterly ridiculous. Enterprise is one of my top three Star Trek series, but overall I would hardly call it "intellectual".
ENT was clearly the weakest of the original five live action series when it came to intellectual content.
What, you didn’t like the decontamination chamber scenes?
I'm an unabashed ENT defender but the decon gel scenes were so cheap and stupid I'm surprised they weren't loaded with toxic Chinese consumer chemicals.
In the hands of someone else (i.e. HBO, European tv), those decon scenes could have actually worked.
Since it wasn’t, they should have stuck to what they knew. It wasn’t like there was a shortage of ideas.
Since it wasn’t, they should have stuck to what they knew. It wasn’t like there was a shortage of ideas.
Trek is only ceiling-shattering highbrow on rare occasions. When it is it's outstanding. But when it's not it's not always noticeable. It tends to hit that comfortable middle of intelligent storytelling much of the time so the award-nominated and -winning stories are happy news and the absolute dreck isn't commonplace.
Indeed. Trek's intellectual status is greatly exaggerated. When it does, it does it well. But, TOS is a broad swath of storytelling possibilities, from basic adventure, comedy, and messaging. But, calling it "high brow" was a rare find indeed. Expecting it on a constant basis is asking for disappointment.
I can see a scenario where the focus of the decon scenes is on the internal conflict between professionalism and the temptation that comes from being in a physically intimate situation with a coworker with whom you must already spend the vast majority of your life inside of flying tin can. The loneliness and isolation of living aboard a starship probably could induce some feelings of romantic and sexual tension that could be interesting to explore and juxtapose against the demands of professionalism in a highly-visible, semi-public-facing role.
But doing it right would have required a fundamentally different set of creative conceits than American aughts-era network broadcast television allowed. And frankly it would also have required a greater depth of writing than the ENT S1 writing staff possessed; recruiting a lot more women writers, producers, and directors; and ditching the use of the male gaze. Berman and Braga were clearly more interested in showing off T'Pol's nipple pokies through her T-shirt than they were actually exploring the characters' emotional lives.
It could have worked as a standalone episode. Better as an ongoing arc throughout the show, but a standalone episode would have been ok. That they could not make such an idea work in the span of four seasons, with the decon chamber appeared in three season (absent in S3), and they were only in their underwear in that thing in the first two seasons. Just another reminder that the pre-planning of the show left much to be desired.
They may not have had the right people back then, but its still amazing they did not even try. At least it was more original than recycling an old episode from TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY.
Even when taking into account early aughts television and early aughts media in general, that era still had shows like Buffy on the air. It was already ongoing for at 5 seasons when ENT premiered.
Looking back on it, I’m surprised they didn’t break out the Ferengi style transporters when they did that Ferengi episode for the sake of the male gaze. And then tie that into further transporter anxiety for the crew that they'd lose their clothes.
At the same time, maybe its for the best they didn't remember that.
I mean, let's be clear here. The reason they didn't even try is that the decon scenes were not designed to explore deeper themes or emotions or to further character relationships. The sole purpose of the decon scenes was to contrive an excuse to film attractive women in their underwear having baby oil rubbed on their bodies. The purpose of those scenes was sexual objectification and nothing else.
Thank God no one gave them that idea 20 years ago...!
Nothing wrong with sexual objectification. it is a natural part of life and one of the most realistic part of life. people male gaze, female gaze , have sex and make love. I think star trek showing that is expected.
sex has always been a part of star trek, in fact Wikipedia has a whole page deliciated to the sexuality of star trek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_in_Star_Trek
Star trek also gave birth to slash pairing, which was about the sexual objectification of kirk and spock as a romantic item.
SNW series is based on the early TOS years, you know the show that gave us the very iconic photo of Nichelle Nichols Uhura with that mini sexy dress that captured her hourglass figure , holding a pad. which by the way was ground-breaking for a black female character. that photo of Nichelle Nichols was all bout the male gaze and sexy objectification.
Prior to that black female characters in mainstream white america were never considered, sexy or desirable or to be male gazed. another social barrier star trek broke with sexiness/ TOS uhura was a beloved female sex symbol in science fiction long before princess leia.
There was also amok time, an episode that was based on spock needing to have sex. this was in the 60s when the word sex was not all that mentioned on prime time tv and hollywood still had the haze code.
SNW is sexualised. I would say the sexual objectified characters are Tpring, Spock and Chapel and to a some extent Pike. I think this is why they are the characters who are also in a romantic story lines on the show because Hollywood tends to write romance and sexiness as one and SNW is no different. Spock is a global sex symbol that fans have interpreted him as Bi, Gay, Asexual and Hetro.I would say the top 5 sex symbols of star trek are
Spock -TOS
Kirk- TOS
Uhura- TOS
Picard- TNG
7 of 9.- Voyager
Honourable Mention
T-Pol (Enterprise)
Riker- TNG ( Since I remember as a kid, how people went on about Riker's Beard) We did not even how internet then, but his Beard was more talked about than SNW Pike's hair.
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If that's the only purpose in the story then it fails as part of the story. The decon chamber is just that and a complete failure in any way to add to the story or our understanding of the characters. Meaningless.
No I dont think that is or should only be the part of the story. I think for example why a character like Shatner Kirk became a break out star in the 60s was because he was the complete package. Kirk could be a handsome sexy ladies man with a high school jock like body and still be a good leader and make good decisions
I think what made science fiction characters back in those days like Princess Leia, Uhura, Kirk, Han Solo so beloved was that they were characters that had the whole package.
Which pretty much the opposite of Enterprise. The characters were lacking and the decon chambers were not additive.
I updated my list and added T-Pol.
But I do see to some extent with Enterprise the issue. The characters were kind of lacking - little sexy characters with weak story lines was not the best combination compared to TNG for example where Data was considered very sexually appealing to girls and Brent Spiner actually used to get the most fan mails with was driven by a demo of women.
Hilarious even Wikipedia Page for data says Data became a sex symbol. LOL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_(Star_Trek)#Popular_culture
Ironic data can be a sex smybol and also rank as one of the greatest star trek characters of all time and one of the most beloved sci-fi Androids in fiction. he is usually ranked third below C3P0 and R2D2 on many sci fi lists.
We will see if any SNW characters will stand the test of time in the coming years with characters who had it all like some TNG /TOS characters
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