Anticlimactic teasers?

[Wil has a posse]

I'm watching Act 1 of ENT "Desert Crossing": Archer is recording a personal log about looking forward to Risa while he packs his bag. T'pol hails to inform him a ship is approaching. They are unrecognized; do we alter course? Archer says yes, then turns to Porthos and says "Looks like your walk on the beach will have to wait".

An ominous musical cue plays, and Porthos puts his head down in disappointment.

This struck me as a remarkably anticlimactic way to start an episode. What casual viewer is going to see that teaser and be drawn in? Mind you, I'm under no illusions that every episode must begin with a phaser battle--far from it--but in my opinion, the dialogue could have been punched up a bit.

What do you think is the most anticlimactic teaser of any series?

 

[DevilEyes]

VOY Human Error: Seven plays piano! Riveting!

 

[steevo]

TNG's "Genesis"- I haven't seen the episode in a long time, but the teaser consisted of a funny bit in sickbay involving Barclay, giving very little to the plot that was about to happen!

 

[TheGodBen]

VOY Human Error: Seven plays piano! Riveting!

That's the one that comes to mind for me as well. "Oh no, she might play the wrong note! "

Although I must admit that I prefer these pointless anti-climactic teasers to ones that create a false sense of danger which quickly goes away after the credits roll. ENT's Bound is an example of this.

REED: Captain, an Orion ship is approaching! Their weapons are armed!
ARCHER: Tactical Alert!
ORION CAPTAIN: Deactivate your weapons or we will destroy you!
(credits)
ORION CAPTAIN: Um, why are you pointing weapons at us?
ARCHER: Because you're pointing your weapons at us.
ORION CAPTAIN: Oh, sorry. I'm deactivating them now.

I think all of this is a problem to do with the shortening of teasers over the years, they went from 2-3 minutes to 20-50 seconds, and that's just not enough time to set up the story adequately. One of the things I loved about BSG was that it didn't cut the teasers and they would frequently run for 5-7 minutes.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Although I must admit that I prefer these pointless anti-climactic teasers to ones that create a false sense of danger which quickly goes away after the credits roll. ENT's Bound is an example of this.

REED: Captain, an Orion ship is approaching! Their weapons are armed!
ARCHER: Tactical Alert!
ORION CAPTAIN: Deactivate your weapons or we will destroy you!
(credits)
ORION CAPTAIN: Um, why are you pointing weapons at us?
ARCHER: Because you're pointing your weapons at us.
ORION CAPTAIN: Oh, sorry. I'm deactivating them now.

Good one.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think all of this is a problem to do with the shortening of teasers over the years, they went from 2-3 minutes to 20-50 seconds, and that's just not enough time to set up the story adequately. One of the things I loved about BSG was that it didn't cut the teasers and they would frequently run for 5-7 minutes.

Most shows still have decent length teasers, it was only Star Trek that had shorter teasers. It actually started with Voyager, though despite being short they still seemed relevant to the episode. Enterprise had teasers so short, so pointless that I wondered why they even bothered with a teaser.

 

[I am not Spock]

Voyager's ones were usually OK. It was ENT that started the whole 'twenty seconds and pointless' teasers bandwagon.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Yes, Enterprise often had "ah hell, let's get it over with so that we can start the opening credits" teasers.

There were a few counterexamples, "Twilight" for instance: Archer has no idea what the frak is going on and then Earth gets blown up. Or "Similitude": Trip lies dead in a coffin.

 

[Start Wreck]

I know this isn't the place for good teasers, but nothing will ever beat TNG's Cause and Effect.

"All hands abandon ship! Repeat, all hands aband-..."

*KABOOOOOM!!!*


[roll credits]


Audience:

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The strangest teaser is "Schisms".

 

[Finn]

TNG's "Genesis"- I haven't seen the episode in a long time, but the teaser consisted of a funny bit in sickbay involving Barclay, giving very little to the plot that was about to happen!

No. That scene shows how the whole thing started, with Barclay's treatment which prompted that weird mutation thing that afflicted the entire crew.

 

[Gepard]

The strangest teaser is "Schisms".

Just what I was thinking – Riker falling asleep? Oh no! We'd better roll credits!

Mind, you it's not a bad teaser (it did give us "Ode to Spot"), it's just the wrong kind of teaser for an episode about alien abductions, traumatic memories and dead crew members.

 

[Piper]

The Quality of Life. Will Riker and Geordi lose their bet? Will they agree to shave off their beards? Will anyone even remember once the episode proper starts?

The answer to all the above was: no.

 

[SFRabid]

DS9 seemed to start a trend that teasers were no longer teasers, they were long, drawn out and sometimes multi part scenes. A teaser is supposed to be a short bit to draw you in. Sometimes when watching DS9 I felt that I had missed the opening scene and was already in the main story.

 

[Valin]

VOY Human Error: Seven plays piano! Riveting!

Actually, that teaser was noteworthy!

 

[Trek Survivor]

DS9 seemed to start a trend that teasers were no longer teasers, they were long, drawn out and sometimes multi part scenes. A teaser is supposed to be a short bit to draw you in. Sometimes when watching DS9 I felt that I had missed the opening scene and was already in the main story.

Anyone remember the show "Due South"? It was KING for this kind of thing. The longest "teaser" they had was TEN MINUTES (it was the one where Fraser and Ray crash their plane or some such; second season opener? Give me a break, I haven't seen it in 13 or 14 years...)

 

[Alidar Jarok]

DS9 seemed to start a trend that teasers were no longer teasers, they were long, drawn out and sometimes multi part scenes. A teaser is supposed to be a short bit to draw you in. Sometimes when watching DS9 I felt that I had missed the opening scene and was already in the main story.

Well, DS9 didn't start a trend because nobody followed them. Enterprise had 30-60 second teasers and I feel like some might have been shorter than that!

I actually liked the long scenes because they showed daily life on DS9 before the event driving the episode happened (which usually ended it and started the credits).

 

[The Wormhole]

Indeed, if anything Voyager "started the trend" of short teasers. In fact, I can pinpoint exactly where that started, Scorpion Part 1, which just consisted of two Borg ships instantly getting blown apart.

I remember even the first time I saw that episode, pumped though I was because what I'd heard about the episode excited me, I was disappointed at such a short and insignificant teaser.

Unfortunately, Scorpion's teaser proved popular among fans, in fact I think it still ends up in the top ten of fans' favourite teasers which may have contributed to the teasers getting shorter in Voyager's run until finally Enterprise had completely meaningless teasers.

 

[Rojixus]

The teaser for "Parallels" was as exciting as cold milk. Worf has a surprise party? An episode where Worf jumps through parallel universes and they start off with Worf having a party?

 

[Finn]

^Yeah, except it was a recurring theme throughout the movie all the way to the end when it turns out that there was no party in the prime universe, unlike that poker game where Beverly tried to bet the men's beards on the game which never got even a mention after the opening credits.