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I'm Going To Re-Watch Star Trek Enterprise
- Thread starter DrForester
- Start date
Eh, for all the flak the show gets, all i can say is that when i rewatched it a year or so ago, i was really reminded of the fact that this was kind of the last show that actually still FELT like Trek to me. Warts and all, the "background" feeling when watching even the duller episodes (and even TNG had plenty of those as well) that you get feels "right" and you know you're watching actual Star Trek like back in the day. It's pretty hard to describe i guess, but that feeling was missing in the newer stuff and i am not quite sure why that is....
I'll give it a try: It's inoffensive and doesn't demand attention. Syndication fodder.
Have you tried Lower Decks? Because you should try Lower Decks. Give it a couple episodes (like maybe 5), because it starts a little rough but it quickly gets better and better (and they're short episodes in a short season).
I have heard of it and would LOVE to try it.... it doesn't exist over here though. (EU) Not legally anyway, so fuck that until it properly comes to a streaming service or whatever.
Also, to get back on Topic, Enterprise may be inoffensive yes, but as the show goes along, i think it develops a lot of heart and you start to care about the characters, a hallmark of what trek is supposed to be about imo.
They certainly play up the southern aspect of his personality, but he also does some ballsy shit during "Cease Fire" and shows some depth of thought in his conversation with dumbass Malcolm in "Future Tense".
"Suppose you could look into some future book and find out the name of the woman you're going to marry. Would you want to know it?"
"Absolutely. Think of all the awkward first dates I could avoid."
"Fine. So one day you meet Jane Doe, you go out a few times and then you pop the question. She says, 'I do', and the two of you live happily ever after."
"Sounds perfect."
"Now, did you marry her for love, or because some book told you to?"
"If we're living happily ever after, what difference does it make?"
- Tucker and Reed
"Absolutely. Think of all the awkward first dates I could avoid."
"Fine. So one day you meet Jane Doe, you go out a few times and then you pop the question. She says, 'I do', and the two of you live happily ever after."
"Sounds perfect."
"Now, did you marry her for love, or because some book told you to?"
"If we're living happily ever after, what difference does it make?"
- Tucker and Reed
Your spoiler, though, ouch. That's not exactly "old country doctor" quaint.
I know people say that you shouldn't watch the last episode but I couldn't get through Terra Prime as well. Watching a xenophobic movement exploit people's fears was way too much for me to handle about a year ago.
It's a good two parter but yeah, subject matter hits close to home these days.
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Carbon Creek:
Better than the similar Voyager episode, 11:59. I recognized the non-asshole Vulcan as a regular Trek guest star. I had a tough time not seeing him as a Nazi from that Voyager holodeck episode (and he apparently plays a Nazi again in Enterprise when the Space Nazis show up)
Better than the similar Voyager episode, 11:59. I recognized the non-asshole Vulcan as a regular Trek guest star. I had a tough time not seeing him as a Nazi from that Voyager holodeck episode (and he apparently plays a Nazi again in Enterprise when the Space Nazis show up)
Keep an eye out, during the Nazi episode a war film plays and a building is shown being shot with phasers and blowing it. It's the same building explosion from that Voyager episode.
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Oh wow, I never knew she died either. Shame, I liked her character too.
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Minefield:
Took a full season, but here we have Archer acting like a good leader. Trying to boost moral of an injured crewman, and trying everything to save them while there's time. Reed continues to be the only competent member of the crew.
Took a full season, but here we have Archer acting like a good leader. Trying to boost moral of an injured crewman, and trying everything to save them while there's time. Reed continues to be the only competent member of the crew.
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Dead Stop:
Torres lures the crew of the Enterprise in with promises of speedy repairs after the minefield incident from the last episode (nice bit of continuity). Probably on orders from Janeway, she kidnaps Mayweather in order to use his brain in her ultimate computer.
Joking aside, this episode wasn't bad. I wonder what future plans they had for the station, or the race that created it. The tease ending was nice and creepy.
Torres lures the crew of the Enterprise in with promises of speedy repairs after the minefield incident from the last episode (nice bit of continuity). Probably on orders from Janeway, she kidnaps Mayweather in order to use his brain in her ultimate computer.
Joking aside, this episode wasn't bad. I wonder what future plans they had for the station, or the race that created it. The tease ending was nice and creepy.
One of my favorite episodes actually. As for what plans they had? Probably non. Bragga especially loved to set up sequels with no actual plans for one.
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A Night In Sickbay deserved it's own thread:
www.resetera.com
Marauders:
So, I remembered the decon chamber when I started the re-watch, but I forgot how they loved to get T'Pol into a tank top whenever possible.
It's nice to see the crew doing good, but the episode really did need to end with the Klingons being killed. There's no reason for them not to seek vengeance by bombarding the camp from orbit.
I also like how Tucker comments that they outnumber the Klingons by about 10:1, but we only ever see like 6 people in the settlement at any given time.
Johnathan Archer Is The Most Incompetent Captain In Starfleet - Let's Talk About That Time He Threatened To Piss On An Alien World's Sacred Trees
A Night In Sickbay: The Story: Enterprise's plasma injectors are on the brink of failure, which would render their warp drive useless. They ask the Kreetassans for help, a species they had previously encountered, and knows are easily offended. Captain Dumbass brings his dog on the away...
www.resetera.com
Marauders:
So, I remembered the decon chamber when I started the re-watch, but I forgot how they loved to get T'Pol into a tank top whenever possible.
It's nice to see the crew doing good, but the episode really did need to end with the Klingons being killed. There's no reason for them not to seek vengeance by bombarding the camp from orbit.
I also like how Tucker comments that they outnumber the Klingons by about 10:1, but we only ever see like 6 people in the settlement at any given time.
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The Seventh:
T'Pol needs to go on a secret mission to return a fugitive. She takes Archer and Mayweather. Despite this episode only being about the three of them, Mayweather gets almost zero lines. Why even bring him? It was just going to be T'Pol and Mayweather, but then she wants Archer to come too because she needs someone to help her. Like Mayweather is just completely useless.
T'Pol needs to go on a secret mission to return a fugitive. She takes Archer and Mayweather. Despite this episode only being about the three of them, Mayweather gets almost zero lines. Why even bring him? It was just going to be T'Pol and Mayweather, but then she wants Archer to come too because she needs someone to help her. Like Mayweather is just completely useless.
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The Communicator:
Reed is now just as incompetent as the rest of the crew. leaving his communicator behind.
Showing how poorly planned this show is. Once again we're on a mission to a pre-warp civilization. And once again, no one with any training in anthropology. That could have been a unique addition to a trek show. An Anthropologist that actually gets to use their skills (without looking it up, do you know what main cast member of a previous show was a trained Anthropologist?).
Anyways, the episode is just more screw ups by the crew. Especially when Archer tries to pass him and Reed off as spies for the other nation. They're captured, more of the tech has been captured. They're even playing with the phaser they brought with them. The aliens correctly guess that they're aliens. But then Archer decided to fuck things up even more.
They're about to go to war, and Archer decides to tell them that their enemy is genetically enhances and possesses vastly superior technology. Like that won't lead to a bigger war and arms race by making them thing that. That's going to contaminate their culture less than just telling them the truth?
Reed is now just as incompetent as the rest of the crew. leaving his communicator behind.
Showing how poorly planned this show is. Once again we're on a mission to a pre-warp civilization. And once again, no one with any training in anthropology. That could have been a unique addition to a trek show. An Anthropologist that actually gets to use their skills (without looking it up, do you know what main cast member of a previous show was a trained Anthropologist?).
Anyways, the episode is just more screw ups by the crew. Especially when Archer tries to pass him and Reed off as spies for the other nation. They're captured, more of the tech has been captured. They're even playing with the phaser they brought with them. The aliens correctly guess that they're aliens. But then Archer decided to fuck things up even more.
They're about to go to war, and Archer decides to tell them that their enemy is genetically enhances and possesses vastly superior technology. Like that won't lead to a bigger war and arms race by making them thing that. That's going to contaminate their culture less than just telling them the truth?
Alright I'm diving into this also. My vague recollection is that its the boldest premise any Star Trek show has ever had and they try to commit to showing just how difficult things like founding the Federation was but its held back by the TV format of the era with way too many episodes produced on way too tight a schedule
It is interesting just how vivid the break in the production design is for this show, right out of the gate. The TOS era and the Discovery era have their own distinct looks as a result of when they were made of course, but this comes right on the heels of Voyager which wraps up the very consistent TNG/VOY/DS9 era of visual identity. Its not just that they (obviously) didn't make the ships look like the Enterprise D, but I would bet a good chunk of money that they were looking specifically at Stargate SG1 when they were putting together the overall approach to how the uniforms, technology, and interiors look. Maybe a bit of Babylon 5 also, but I get major Stargate vibes off of a lot of this
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I think they were just looking for something between a Trek uniform and an old military uniforms. I actually like the look of the Enterprise jumpsuits.
As for Stargate influences on the tech, I don't really see it. They wanted the ship to look cramped, like a submarine. Kind of like what would be done on Battlestar Galactica. Also, Enterprise premiered before Stargate started bringing in big Earth fleet ships.
It might be more that SG1/Enterprise/Atlantis/Battlestar themselves represent a distinct period of design for American sci-fi shows haha. Lots of railings and metal panelling everywhere. Plenty of fog usage
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Atlantis hadn't started yet. SG1 was only in Season 4.
I Think it was just UPN wanting another Trek show to replace Voyager.
I remember being so excited when Manny Coto took over, and hearing about how he wanted to do an entire season set in the Mirror Universe. I wish we had gotten that.
The enterprise jumpsuits feel both appropriate (astronaut jumpsuits) and familiar (purp, black, and some departmental piping)
I haven't watched Discovery but the show looks over designed to hell and back. The uniforms in particular. i thought 09 Star Trek did a fantastic job of updating the TOS unis into something more modern while pretty much completely staying true to the show.
I haven't watched Discovery but the show looks over designed to hell and back. The uniforms in particular. i thought 09 Star Trek did a fantastic job of updating the TOS unis into something more modern while pretty much completely staying true to the show.
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I'm not a huge fan of the DIscovery uniforms either. I don't think they're bad, but they're certainly underwhelming. The sad part is that Enterprise did update the TOS uniforms and they're even better than the Kelvin-Timeline uniforms.
I think Generations Enterprise D lighting look ludicrous, but returning to TNG after all these years, yes, the lighting is too flat.
it sticks out the same way studio lighting from movies in the 60s sticks out.
Nah, those Pike unis feel over engineered to me too... the flaps feel Extraneous and they don't look comfortable. The ribbing or whatever doesnt look good and is more engineering.
IMO
it drives me nuts because I'd kill To have a chance to get to create an entire style for the series from the ground up
IMO
it drives me nuts because I'd kill To have a chance to get to create an entire style for the series from the ground up
Also, I stumbled onto a pic of the Disco Enterprise bridge and it's ridiculously gigantic.
but I digress, I'm derailing your thread. By the end of next week, you'll be ahead of my Enterprise rewatch.
but I digress, I'm derailing your thread. By the end of next week, you'll be ahead of my Enterprise rewatch.
It is but I'm not sure if Enterprise's approach of "Everything is lit by multiple small lights off camera" is much better lol
Also, for curiosity, what would an ideal modern Star Trek show be like for fans? I don't mean just a shinier version of TOS or TNG, but something that pushed things forward in interesting ways and introduced completely different characters, tackled themes that are relevant to current society etc. I guess not too dissimilar to what TNG did for TOS, but drawing even further from advances in modern television, effects, whatever.
Discovery is very close structurally to what I want, honestly, almost all of its problems come down to the actual writing. It's got way too much Alex Kurtzman in its DNA, especially in the plotting, characters are written to be a little too schmaltzy at times, and maybe most importantly it doesn't seem to have a great understanding of like...sociology and history and how organizations and communities act and react (which many other Trek shows are pretty dang good at). But those are all solvable problems, they've got a pretty good balance in terms of juggling episodic plots with long form plots with character development, which is the thing I think you need to make a "modern" Star Trek work
Good writing is obviously something you would assume a good contemporary ST show would need have to succeed. But yeah, what you're describing is basically the reason why a lot of sci-fi fails to grab mainstream audiences. You need to know how our own world works and how history formed the present to really leverage the science fiction concepts in ways that resonate with people. If the fantastical elements reflect your own reality in some way then it becomes more than just cool shit.
You can see a lot of the influence of the last decade and a half of Hollywood big-budget genre screenwriting on it, which makes sense given Kurtzman's involvement. A lot of emotional stuff doesn't work because it feels like its being stitched together with the assumption that a good music swell or lighting cue will generate the "correct" response in the audience, and they don't have time to build up the actual groundwork for those moments because there's a ton of minute to minute inefficiencies. I think it's the show's biggest flaw (but it's better than Picard, which was just abysmal for these exact same reasons)
I rewatched TNG two years ago now in its entirety and in contrast its amazing how efficient that show is. Its genuinely incredible what they can do in 45 minutes in terms of establishing stakes, grounding those stakes in conflicting motivations, complicating them and then reaching some sort of resolution. Ironically the show to best manage this in the modern era is Lower Decks, which somehow manages similar dramatic economy in like 25 minutes (albeit, at a breakneck pace sometimes). But then that's an area where the showrunner coming from Rick and Morty is a major strength, R&M has some of the best pacing of episodic TV in the last decade period and he clearly learned a lot from his time there.
So what do I want from a modern Trek show I guess? The balance of short term plot, long term plot, and character development of Discovery with the pure craft skill that the Lower Decks writers clearly have.
I recently rewatched season 3 and 4 (except the final) and they are still hold up. Just a shame they wasted so many characters.
Mariner did mention the sex ghost thing lol
Mariner did mention the sex ghost thing lol
Also I just finished Broken Bow and yeah that was a pretty damn good premiere. Sets up the state of the galaxy and where humans sit in it really effectively considering the challenge that the show's very premise contains. I have a feeling its going to go downhill from here...
Never really asked for that either, but I believe you. Just curious what expectations were. You can't please everyone, but I'm pretty sure there's a way to do a show that at least gets some core tenets right that most fans can agree on, yes?
Not familiar with the segmentation of the ST fanbase, but it seems like all the well liked shows have a few things in common.
It would be the Orville but without the comedy which leaves you basically with TNG.
Honestly I'd just love to see a new show done in roughly the visual style of TNG (slightly modernized) placed some time after Voyager. Make it about a small frigate sized Federation ship with a small imperfect crew whose mission is simply to explore deep space out on the fringes. Make the stories a nice mix of episodic but serialized too, like a mix of BSG and DS9.
Don't bother with "save the galaxy" stuff at all, just focus on character stories about a relatively minor ship in the Federation who consistently gets in over their head, deals with being away from home and civilization for so long, has to deal with repairs to the ship on their own in deep space, actually spends time exploring strange new worlds so we can get to see some Space Porn in abundance. Don't make the crew a super crew who can solve every situation with techno babble, actually challenge them to deal with situations they aren't equipped to handle sometimes, even lose now and then.
Basically I just want a new Star Trek show that feels like Star Trek and not something else I guess. For this reason I'm greatly enjoying my Enterprise rewatch right now, warts and all.
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Singularity:
While approaching a black hole, the crew starts to act stupid(er than usual).
Stupid Archer Moment: Before going in-rage in of the singularity, Archer order Tucker to fix his slightly unfomfortable chair. Tucker was planning to do some maitenance work on the propultion system for the ship, but Captain Dumbass has his priorities.
While approaching a black hole, the crew starts to act stupid(er than usual).
Stupid Archer Moment: Before going in-rage in of the singularity, Archer order Tucker to fix his slightly unfomfortable chair. Tucker was planning to do some maitenance work on the propultion system for the ship, but Captain Dumbass has his priorities.