Well... here I go.
When I watched "The Next Generation", and I saw "Q, Who?" for the first time, I really thought the Borg had potential. They had potential to end up being one of the coolest species introduced in Trek lore.
For the duration of TNG, they were. They were creepy. They were different. They actually looked
UNBEATABLE. That was the key with the Borg - by having that invincibility, they became scary. Scary is cool. I guess that's why people used to like the Borg so much.
Then Star Trek: Voyager came along, and I think that's pretty self-evident with regards to what that series did to the Borg.
I wouldn't be surprised if a few writers at one point came up with the genius idea of having Janeway open the window in her quarters when a Borg Cube was attacking, and have her fire a handheld phaser at the ship. Being Star Trek: Voyager, the Cube would be instantly destroyed, yet somehow render the warp engines on Voyager useless.
I suppose that's one of the numerous reasons why I felt Star Trek: Voyager to be considered one of the low points of Star Trek history.
Then Enterprise comes along, and shows such great potential. The potential to be something really different, something that could make the inner fanboys laugh and smile, much like the ending in
X2: X-Men United did.
Boy, was I wrong. Not only was I wrong, but Trek fans were wrong. All of us. We actually spent our time anticipating this show.
Regeneration did NOTHING to help this wasted cause.
Like it's been mentioned before, Enterprise did not need this episode. Star Trek did not need this episode. I did not find this entertaining at all - I thought it was Paramount's money (I'm trying to avoid the term "Hard-Earned money") being put to waste.
You can show me a hundred little tidbits about how little snippets of the story were taken out, or how thought out this episode was, and I credit you for that,
MikeSussman. You are willing to do what the Star Trek: Voyager writers could not - actually think things through.
Unfortunately, I cannot give acclaim to your general ideas as a writer and as a Star Trek fan.
Imagine this: Joel Schumacher decides to hold an interview with a movie website, let's say, CHUD. The plans are for him to talk about "Batman & Robin". He spends 10 pages of text explaining about how thought out his story was, and how plastic nipples were actually part of the Batman lore. Having him say those things would not help me appreciate the quality of the film though - It's still a bad film! Not only bad, but I consider it to be one of the worst. Having him explain the philosophy behind the film does not help matters at all.
My issues with Regeneration, and Enterprise in general, is not about the canon of the details, or the little tidbits that were taken out of the final script.
I'm talking about the lack of solid, GOOD Star Trek stories.
I remember a day when Star Trek used to be able to make you think about real-life issues happening in the current day. Right now, it seems to me that those days have been left behind, and instead we're left with episodes like Regeneration, which just make you wonder about how many more people are going to stop watching Enterprise after every episode.
I frequent another message board, and I inquired about their opinions about the episode. I would consider them a very grounded group, people who like to keep their expectations grounded. They were not impressed by this episode at all.
Again, I applaud you
MikeSussman for actually spending the time to address our concerns. In fact, you wrote my favorite Enterprise episode to date with Future Tense. It's just that talking about our proposed continuity errors is not going to change the fact of the matter that the general idea behind this episode was lacklustre.
I understand you were addressing
Samuel T. Cogley's initial review, and you were probably giving your above comments with good intentions. But like someone else mentioned above (I apologise but I can't seem to remember who), it seems you're the kind of person who says "Well I love you too" when they received an intentional and blatant insult. Maybe it's just me, but I have this nagging feeling that people really aren't listening to us at all - just putting on a pretty face for the angered Trek base.
You may flame me if you want, but that's just how I'm perceiving things. This was not meant as an insult, by the way.
Interesting read, though, that first post...
