Sussman Responds to Cogley!

[Dorian Thompson]

Oh ya, one other thing, how about more Archer and Trip moments? There's lots of us out here invested in that friendship.

Ditto. Count me among them. The Archer/Trip (& Trip/Malcolm) pairings offer the most heartfelt interpersonal character moments to date. If you happen to have your executive producers' ear, revisiting the sad events in "Cogenitor" at some point in the future, even in a subtle way, would be most welcome from a dramatic standpoint.

 

[Event-Horizon]

Posted by CountLestat:

Posted by MikeSussman:

And does Starfleet have no other ships in the fleet?

Enterprise is the only ship in Starfleet capable of intercepting a vessel at warp 3.9 or higher; the rest of the fleet is zipping along at a leisurely warp two.

Warp 2?????

Could someone tell but have I dreamt the episode 'Fortunate Son' where it was mentioned that a cargo ship with a warp 2 engine could upgrade to a Warp 3 Engine???? Did I dream this???? now see I'm thinking if a freighter can get warp 3 engines, why can't a star fleet vessel?

Any ideas?

They said that "in the future" they would upgrade to higher warp speeds. They were planning Warp 3 ships. They were brand new or in prototype stage at the time.

 

[Terak Rall]

Sam, entertaining review as always, I shared a small number of your nitpicks but on the whole found the episode very enjoyable, but I won't hold that against you - everyone's entitled to an opinion

And MikeSussman, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us - it's nice to be able to hear from the other side of the fence, so to speak.

One complaint about the direction this thread is taking - MikeSussman clearly meant it as a forum in which he could address Sam's concerns about the episode, and it's clearly turning into a war of insults going back and forth between those who are just trying to be kind to the writing staff and those who think they're brown-nosing or sucking up. Now, I'm certainly no moderator, but shouldn't we focus on what the thread was intended for?

(I could ask for world peace too, but that doesn't mean I expect to get either )

 

[Dr. Bashir]

Posted by Worf999:
IIRC, Braga and Menosky wrote the teleplay. They probably made some changes to the actual story. The teleplays are much more informative of a writer's ability than the story is. Not that the story is important but the teleplay can ruin or make a script. And IMO, as of this season Sussman and Strong are the best writers on the show.

"Best writers on the show".

Isn't that like being the best students in a special ed class? Look at the shows he's worked on, Voyager and Enteprise---the two bastard children of the Star Trek franchise.

 

[Guest]

^^ yea... see now you're ruining it for others.

 

[Guest]

Posted by Dr. Bashir:
Isn't that like being the best students in a special ed class?

Someone sounds a little jealous!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The episode was actually a pretty effective action piece. I particularly liked the music. As I said somewhere else, this episode was entertaining, which places it among the best of ENT just because ENT is usually not even that.

And I like the fact that Archer is back to Personality A, the one he exhibits when B&Bs names are not on the writing and story credits, in which he actually behaves like a real, live starship captain and not a spoiled child and/or raving hypocrite.

However, there are still those little problems with continuity (with the caveat that there are problems only if you assume Starfleet is not composed of total idiots; I guess strictly speaking, that could be consistent with continuity).

I still can't believe Starfleet wouldn't have a database capable storing the video images of the Borg and allowing future crews to simply use face recognition technology to compare the viewscreen image of that first Borg (in BOBW, right? Long time ago - but somebody did the You Will Be Assimilated routine in that eppy, I'm pretty sure) with all known species and should quickly get a match just on looks alone. It's not like the Borg can be mistaken for anyone else...

Then Picard & crew would have access to all the info from this episode, including Reed's weapons research and Phlox's medical research. Surely the fact that another ship named Enterprise originally encountered these same critters would be worth a mention! The Borg shields/adaptation thing should have come as no surprise; neither should the fact that Picard was assimilated and looked and acted starkly different. All this would have been consistent with what the TNG crew could glean from the database.

The idea that nobody can store and quickly retrieve vital information on aggressive aliens who might KILL you unless you know their NAME - which is just one way of distinguishing one species from all others, and far from being the most important - is simply ludicrous. For such a situation to persist over centuries can only be explained by the utter incompetence of Starfleet (in particular their IT department. But isn't it always the fault of the IT department?)

The database I described is probably doable with current technology, and it has very obvious uses in saving the lives of Starfleet personnel. I would hope it would get pretty damned high priority in Starfleet's To Do list. Or maybe the Starfleet IT department is a lot like the one at the company where I work, and their priorities have absolutely nothing to do with logic or reality.

And this thread makes me wonder: has anyone thought to grab the username Dr. Basher?

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

Posted by TerakRall:
One complaint about the direction this thread is taking - MikeSussman clearly meant it as a forum in which he could address Sam's concerns about the episode, and it's clearly turning into a war of insults going back and forth between those who are just trying to be kind to the writing staff and those who think they're brown-nosing or sucking up. Now, I'm certainly no moderator, but shouldn't we focus on what the thread was intended for?

(I could ask for world peace too, but that doesn't mean I expect to get either )

Yeah, I'll agree with this.

It takes time to put together the kind of reply that Mike Sussman did. And he's not doing it as an angry writer who's trying to voice his side of the story.

He's clearly showing us that he not only cares enough about what we think to take the time to read our thoughts, but that he is also willing to take the time to respond to those points that he thinks have a valid explanation.

Rather than kiss his ass, or bash his episode, why not take advantage of the fact that we have the writer's ear and let's really make some intelligent posts and/or commentary? At the very least, let's try to be civil. Let's give a reason to want to come back here, not fifty reasons to make him wish he never showed up here in the first place.

 

[emily_reich]

Posted by Dr. Bashir:
"Best writers on the show".

Isn't that like being the best students in a special ed class? Look at the shows he's worked on, Voyager and Enteprise---the two bastard children of the Star Trek franchise.

now. now.... just cuz YOU don't like them doesn't mean that S&S are bad just cuz they write best (in the opinion of many, including myself) on a show that you just happen to not like...

seriously... you could at least be nice to him for caring about the viewers enough to even post...

 

[JohnM]

Posted by Samuel T. Cogley:

Posted by TerakRall:
One complaint about the direction this thread is taking - MikeSussman clearly meant it as a forum in which he could address Sam's concerns about the episode, and it's clearly turning into a war of insults going back and forth between those who are just trying to be kind to the writing staff and those who think they're brown-nosing or sucking up. Now, I'm certainly no moderator, but shouldn't we focus on what the thread was intended for?

(I could ask for world peace too, but that doesn't mean I expect to get either )

Yeah, I'll agree with this.

It takes time to put together the kind of reply that Mike Sussman did. And he's not doing it as an angry writer who's trying to voice his side of the story.

He's clearly showing us that he not only cares enough about what we think to take the time to read our thoughts, but that he is also willing to take the time to respond to those points that he thinks have a valid explanation.

Rather than kiss his ass, or bash his episode, why not take advantage of the fact that we have the writer's ear and let's really make some intelligent posts and/or commentary? At the very least, let's try to be civil. Let's give a reason to want to come back here, not fifty reasons to make him wish he never showed up here in the first place.

Why is every time someone says "Good Job" its kissing ass??

Come on

 

[Dr. Bashir]

Posted by JohnM:

Posted by Dr. Bashir:

Posted by Plum:
... there are lots of other threads sucking up way more!

Yeah,

it's damn annoying when I see Trek fans just kissing ass and sucking up whenever a producer or writer from ENT shows up. What the hell, like they're going to get a gig in Hollywood because they kissed the ass of a Trek producer over the internet.

I don't think we should flame, bash or be nasty to these semi-celebrity folks that work on ENT, but we're not helping out the Trek franchise when we just kiss up to these guys. We should speak our minds and tell them what we honestly think. ENT is a boring show, and NEM was a boring movie. They need to know this, otherwise they come on here and see all this sucking up and think everything is just dandy and keep giving out mediocre episodes or more episodes revolving around 24th century aliens/plot devices.

My guess for your age is about 15.


Thanking writers and producers for taking their time to come and talk on a BBS is NOT kissing ass.

Once you graduate High school you might have the intelligence to understand this.

Maybe not.

Kids like YOU ruin all the fun for everyone else.

And JohnM, you'd be 14 years old from the silly threads you post in TNZ. Don't think anyone has forgotten about how you wanted to record images of American soldiers being executed so you can show your future children. Or your countless reactionary immature threads about wanting to MOAB bomb the Iraqis to hell for doing this and that.

I am certainly not advocating bashing or flaming any of these writers or producers, but I do not think we should hold back on our true opinions on the show, an episode or even what we think of their storytelling or writing abilities. Thanking them for showing up and discussing an episode or the state of the franchise is fine and understandably acceptable,....but there is genuine sucking up and ass kissing going on here. The man's rear end has got to be looking like a prune by now.

 

[KlingonMyBallz]

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us fanboys, Mike! But could you explain why exactly Picard left a big honking chunk of a Borg Sphere in the arctic? He never seemed that careless on TNG. Also, can I pitch an idea for a Hoshi episode to you by PM?

Ballz!

 

[Gavilan]

Posted by JohnM:
Next time think about your reviews before you write them. You might not have the writer coming on and having to explain everything to you next time.

I think the fact the the writer even needed to "come on and have to explain everything" just about says it all.

 

[Guest]

^Thanks pal. You're going to get the thread closed for those little remarks.

Sounds like your ego is doing just fine.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Why don't you two get a tape measure and settle this like adults?

 

[emily_reich]

Posted by JohnM:

Why is every time someone says "Good Job" its kissing ass??

i don't think that's what he meant (i could be wrong though)...

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

I'm going to post a link to this thread after my review, since I think Mike Sussman's post makes a nice rebuttal to some of the points I brought up.

I'm sure Dennis Bailey wouldn't mind if Mike Sussman registered over at Subspace, but I think this link will do for now.

 

[JohnM]

Posted by Dr. Bashir:

Posted by JohnM:

Posted by Dr. Bashir:

Posted by Plum:
... there are lots of other threads sucking up way more!

Yeah,

it's damn annoying when I see Trek fans just kissing ass and sucking up whenever a producer or writer from ENT shows up. What the hell, like they're going to get a gig in Hollywood because they kissed the ass of a Trek producer over the internet.

I don't think we should flame, bash or be nasty to these semi-celebrity folks that work on ENT, but we're not helping out the Trek franchise when we just kiss up to these guys. We should speak our minds and tell them what we honestly think. ENT is a boring show, and NEM was a boring movie. They need to know this, otherwise they come on here and see all this sucking up and think everything is just dandy and keep giving out mediocre episodes or more episodes revolving around 24th century aliens/plot devices.

My guess for your age is about 15.


Thanking writers and producers for taking their time to come and talk on a BBS is NOT kissing ass.

Once you graduate High school you might have the intelligence to understand this.

Maybe not.

Kids like YOU ruin all the fun for everyone else.

And JohnM, you'd be 14 years old from the silly threads you post in TNZ. Don't think anyone has forgotten about how you wanted to record images of American soldiers being executed so you can show your future children. Or your countless reactionary immature threads about wanting to MOAB bomb the Iraqis to hell for doing this and that.

I am certainly not advocating bashing or flaming any of these writers or producers, but I do not think we should hold back on our true opinions on the show, an episode or even what we think of their storytelling or writing abilities. Thanking them for showing up and discussing an episode or the state of the franchise is fine and understandably acceptable,....but there is genuine sucking up and ass kissing going on here. The man's rear end has got to be looking like a prune by now.

Thanks for putting words in my mouth. "Images of American Soldiers"

Umm, NO. How about recording the War. Thats what I said. I was recording the entire war so my children can grow up and watch it one day.

And there's something wrong with that?

And if you do your research, I didnt really talk about the MOAB bomb. I talked about the Iraqi Death Count. Jeriko was excited about the MOAB.

See, bringing discussions from TNZ to other forums. Really mature

Thanking them for showing up and discussing an episode or the state of the franchise is fine and understandably acceptable,....but there is genuine sucking up and ass kissing going on here. The man's rear end has got to be looking like a prune by now.

Do you even know what the meaning of ass kissing means? I guess not. I havent seen one member "Ass Kissing" or a member "Making the man's rear end look like a prune by now"

You are such a child.

 

[Dr. Bashir]

Posted by emily_reich:
now. now.... just cuz YOU don't like them doesn't mean that S&S are bad just cuz they write best (in the opinion of many, including myself) on a show that you just happen to not like...

seriously... you could at least be nice to him for caring about the viewers enough to even post...

Well perhaps I should have thanked MikeSussman for showing up, but in my original post I clearly stated and stressed that I mean nothing personal against him as a person.

I feel that they need to know what our opinions and feelings on VOY and ENT are. Berman seemed to be genuienly dumbfounded on why NEM failed. If we aren't honest with them about what we think of VOY, NEM, and ENT then we aren't helping out the Trek franchise.

 

[Guest]

^Since when does name calling constitute as honesty?

Your doing a good job of getting your credibility shattered here.