Have you ever given up on a Trek series? If so, what was the last straw for you?

[DarrenTR1970]

Is that what happened? I think they were planned as fodder from the jump.

I remember reading Entertainment Weekly where the producers were saying that they were planning on introducing two new characters to the show who had supposedly been there from the beginning.

They were going to show up as background characters for a few episodes before getting their flashbacks, then they would be fully integrated into the cast as if they were always there.

I think the negative fan response was almost immediate from their first appearance and the producers realized that they had made a mistake and quickly wrote them out.​

 

[DonIago]

The best part about Nikki and Paolo for me was that I only started watching the show with S3, so I didn't really have any idea what was going on with them I picked up S1 and S2 on DVD and when S3 had their hiatus I caught myself up and only then realized that N&P hadn't actually been there from the beginning (....or had they? ).

The whole thing completely jumbled my memories of what happened when on the show though, which somehow worked perfectly given the nature of the show itself (though it hadn't gotten to actual time travel yet).

The best part of that whole viewing order was that the beginning of S3 is generally considered the weakest part of the whole series, so I effectively got the worst part out of the way first.

 

[Mage]

A criticism of ENT that I read was that it had most every bit of tech TNG had, just termed slightly differently. "Phase Pistols" instead of Phasers, and "Polarized Hull Plating" instead of Shields.

If I remember correctly, Berman and Braga weren't planning on that. They really wanted more simple tech. But the studios wanted phase pistols and a transporter because it was more Star Trek.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Yeah, that’s it. They wanted to do all kinds of interesting stuff with ENT, but they were halted. Pity.

 

[Vanyel]

We already have ablative armor and reactive armor. Maybe the ships could have had that kind of armored hull plating just much strong than what we have now. I do like the idea of transporters, but because of there being less computer power to keep track of all the neutrons and protons and the postions of the atoms kept it only as cargo transport. Food and medical suplies would have to be flown to the ship to prevent possible mutations. Proposed upgraded NX-01 with an engineering hull could also have introduced transporters that could safely transport organic tissue and introduced phasers.

The first few seasons would have had the Enterprise and all Earth ships running with their tail between the warp nacelles if they didn't have something in between the missles and photon torpedoes. However, since they could make a matter antimatter reactor, a photon torpedo could be possible. Someone in charge of weapons R&D could have had the thought: Hey, if we put a small amount of matter and an equal amount of antimatter into a warhead that'd be a a good weapon. Having a warp core would have lead to a photon torpedo rather quickly. We did it before, just backwards. We, humans, used nuclear bombs on Japan in 1945; the first nuclear reactor for power generation was just 10 years later in the USSR.

 

[Freman]

People giving up on Prodigy, especially before season 2, are missing out big time.

 

[Farscape One]

People giving up on Prodigy, especially before season 2, are missing out big time.

Agreed. I was quite surprised at how good the show actually was.

In fact, one of the two best episodes of the entire Kurtzman era is in season 2 of PRODIGY, "IS THERE IN BEAUTY NO TRUTH?".

 

[fireproof78]

People giving up on Prodigy, especially before season 2, are missing out big time.

Probably but the dream planet irked me too much.

 

[Farscape One]

Probably but the dream planet irked me too much.

Can I ask why?

 

[fireproof78]

Can I ask why?

Just very upsetting at the end.

 

[Farscape One]

Just very upsetting at the end.

I can see that being upsetting for a father.

 

[fireproof78]

I can see that being upsetting for a father.

Well, it was more Rok and her feeling unacceptable that broke my heart.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I liked PRO less and less the more heavy it got on callbacks. It became a VOY sequel. I really didn’t need more Chakotay in my life. I gave up halfway through Season 2 and can’t imagine I’ll ever go back to it.

 

[Toril Toran]

Discovery. I think I watched the first two seasons and that was it. It was awful.
I couldn’t watch it anymore.
I may go back and watch it a couple episodes at a time. That is the only way I could watch it.

 

[Set Harth]

I really didn’t need more Chakotay in my life.

 

[tomalak301]

I liked PRO less and less the more heavy it got on callbacks. It became a VOY sequel. I really didn’t need more Chakotay in my life. I gave up halfway through Season 2 and can’t imagine I’ll ever go back to it.

At least Chakotay was actually used in Prodigy. He was barely visible in the last few seasons of Voyager. Also, as for the sequel, wasn't it always designed as a Voyager sequel because of Hologram Janeway?

 

[Richard S. Ta]

At least Chakotay was actually used in Prodigy. He was barely visible in the last few seasons of Voyager. Also, as for the sequel, wasn't it always designed as a Voyager sequel because of Hologram Janeway?

It was nice to have the Janeway hologram. I don’t mind a callback. It was how layered on those callbacks became that ended up becoming a problem for me.

Janeway, then a new Voyager, then Chakotay, then the EMH then wider stuff like Wesley and all the Assignment: Earth stuff…

Those early episodes felt much more fresh to me. It was less like another Star Trek show and more like an animated Blakes 7 with younger characters.

I also found the animation itself to be quite janky at times. At times, I stress. Not generally.

 

[Firebird]

I liked PRO less and less the more heavy it got on callbacks. It became a VOY sequel. I really didn’t need more Chakotay in my life. I gave up halfway through Season 2 and can’t imagine I’ll ever go back to it.

You're missing some legitimately great storytelling. Prodigy managed to finally make Chakotay a compelling character, and even made parts of Picard better. When it uses fanservice, it's there for an actual reason to propel Prodigy's story and the original characters, rather than just audience titillation. I'd go so far as to say Prodigy is really the only Star Trek series that did serialized storytelling correctly, managing a full story arc told across those 40 episodes.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

You're missing some legitimately great storytelling. Prodigy managed to finally make Chakotay a compelling character, and even made parts of Picard better. When it uses fanservice, it's there for an actual reason to propel Prodigy's story and the original characters, rather than just audience titillation. I'd go so far as to say Prodigy is really the only Star Trek series that did serialized storytelling correctly, managing a full story arc told across those 40 episodes.

More than willing to concede I'm missing out. Sadly, I just got bored of it.

Honestly, I like the 45-50 minutes and done aspect of Star Trek. There's other things I turn to when I'm looking for long-form storytelling. I'm in Star Trek for the anthology nature of it.

Edit - Another aspect I disliked was the characters inevitably being rolled into Starfleet. I loved the Blakes 7 style aspect of a bunch of losers on the run, in a ship they didn't comprehend angle in earlier episodes. That was thrown away quite quickly.

 

[Davy]

I gave up on Enterprise after Broken Bow and a few eps in. It just felt so tired and like a retread of better Berman-Trek. Now we've had decades of cons and books I know WHY that is, from network interference to producer burnout but it doesn't make it easier to watch.
Luckily I persevered years on and loved S3 and S4.