On the Fan Collection "Captain's Log", Disk 5: Enterprise, the First Fan Pick is These Are The Voyages. This was astonishing to me. I know BBS poster Fans frequently like some episodes of Series that the General Public doesn't like and vice versa, but, I don't usually detest episodes the General Public likes. In this case, from what I see on these (and other Boards), it seems These Are The Voyages is universally hated by the BBS Fandom (And I certainly don't like, it was a real slap in the face to us and to Coto, IMHO) yet it was a Fan Pick for a Box Set? Did the General Public really enjoy this episode, and that much?
I didn't hate it as much as other ENT fans, I think. I had read the reviews before watching, so I expected the worse. I thought it was a nice enough episode in itself, but not a great finale. I really like Troi and Riker, and it was nice to see some connection between the ENT and TNG series. What I didn't like about the episode was that in ten(?) years nothing had really changed for the ENT crew, except maybe for Hoshi's hair style.
The 'general public'....part of the reason is right there. A lot of people like to see a ship get blown up or major characters get killed off in indiscriminate and often senseless ways, unlike Trek fans who get tired of seeing that sort of thing over and over. It's sheer visceral kicks versus intelligent story development.
What passes for conventional wisdom on the internet doesn't necessarily translate into what the general population thinks about a given subject. Maybe enough ENT fans out there who are big internet commentators liked it so it won a place on the box set. It depends on where the poll was done. Was it on StarTrek.com? Perhaps there's a big enough fanbase for TATV there that it did well enough to make it onto the box set.
Heh, yea, I definitely understand BBS Posters have a much different take on things than the General Public. generally, when Fans grumble about stuff on the Internet, I think "it's not that bad", and sometimes I think, "Well, Gee, I actually liked it", but, in this case, I pretty much agree with all the grumbles about TATV, so that was why it was so startling to me, because, I thought in this case, the BBS Fans opinion was the majority one.
If you spend a lot of time in fandom land your tastes develop in ways that you don't get with casual viewing. However I have watched TATV a couple times with people who were watching the series through and I did not warn them ahead of time about it and each of them was horrified by its horribleness. Here's my theory. If the "Fan Pick" was done by poll it was swayed by casual TNG viewers who just went, "oh Riker, cool."
Ah, there you go, I'll take that one, they were TNG Fans, not Enterprise Fans Yea, though I posted on a B5 board, my dislike for TATV wasn't influenced by other posters, it's only been over the last few months of posting on the Trek Side of TrekBBS that I have come to know that many posters have my same disdain for it. And, funny thing is, my husband's favorite TOS episodes are amongst the least liked by posters, and some of the ones most liked by psoters are ones he can't stand
Cross-over episodes are usually fan favourites. I guess general Trek fans are less bothered by the fact that it's not a great way to end a series.
Both very good points, and I agree on both. I didn't hate the episode, I sorta liked the idea of having Troi and Riker in it, I just wish they had done it better. Maybe make it 2 hours, and have had the ENT crew be the center of attention, in my mind they were secondary and I HATED that. And naturally hated that Trip died, no matter if the series was going to end.
Remember, there were still a lot of TNG fans out there. They saw this as a chance to get a Riker/Troi/Voice of Data/Enterprise-D episode represented on the DVD set without having to buy an entire season of ENT.
You remind me of the Gorgs' Trash Heap. You have an explanation for everything! So do you think it was laziness on the writers' part?
No. Manny Coto supposedly offered to do a rewrite on the script to get some bugs out of it, but Berman told him "No".
I didn't know who Gorg or his trash heap was so I started thinking of where this came from and I suddenly remembered an episode whose series I cannot place. Our Heroes are in some gigantic space trash dump that is controlled by some aliens. They desperately need an item from one of the trashed ships and they do a deal with some lowling of the space dump to get it. There is a war underway (I think?) and it's very important to get this item. Of course, something goes wrong. What I couldn't remember is what series this is from. I've narrowed it down to ENT or DS9 and I'm leaning towards DS9. Unfortunately googleing Gorg did not help :: waits patiently for Therin's instant reply ::
It was his Valentine. What if Coto had failed to convey the love for the fans he was so very sure he was writing?