Antipodean Posted November 13, 2005 Share Posted November 13, 2005 I've just been watching the Enterprise series sequentially... and LOVING IT. I thought to myself, bloody hell, the franchise has come to its senses! And then all of a sudden, Osama, sorry, the Xindi attack and THE US, sorry, I mean the earth is under threat. And bam - Out goes that dense moral core that sustained the whole star trek frenchise and gave it value. I mean, Capt Archer halfway suffocated a person to get some info. THAT SHIT JUST ISN'T COOL AND IT SURE AS HELL ISN'T STAR TREK. Gene Roddenberry would be having fits in his grave. He bloody well invented star trek during the cold war, partly to show that things could be done better than that. Also we get perve shots of T'pol on the flimsiest excuse every second episode. I don't think the objectification of women was a part of Roddenberry's dream either. And the plots? - suddenly each and every one of them is all 'bang bang' and zap zap with the phasers. What is this? Star Wars or Star Trek... and now I've reached the episode 'Impulse' - Only to find VULCAN ZOMBIES. For god's sake? Did it really come to this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philly Posted November 13, 2005 Share Posted November 13, 2005 Yup it did, if anything caused the death of the ST series what happened in season 3 did it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFMF Posted November 13, 2005 Share Posted November 13, 2005 Archer suffocating that man was out of despiration ultimatly trying to save Earth! + In TOS and TNG - we had Women and.....for some twisted reason Men in Short Skirts - so don't say the T'Pol shots were "perve" and Impulse isn't even far into the season - it's a really good season - you have to keep watching Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GorunNova Posted November 13, 2005 Share Posted November 13, 2005 Hmmm... I'm only starting Season 2, so I'll reserve judgement until I get there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antipodean Posted November 13, 2005 Author Share Posted November 13, 2005 I've done a bit of reading about on the net, so I know I'm not the first to say this, but I do reckon September 11 did impact the direction of enterprise. Actually what I've seen of Season 3 so far is an appropriate metaphor for some of the cultural changes, at least as they appear to an Australian news media junky, that the US seems to have undergone since 2001. It was you Americans that gave so much to world in the past in terms of the values of liberty and justice. Hell, even the UN was born on your shores... and it's no coincidence that the federation and UN logos are so similar. Anyhow, to get back to the Star Trek universe... this isn't the first time earth has been under threat, be it the borg or the dominion etc. But at no point were the essential star trek values corrupted in those fights... sure you had Section 31 getting a bit questionable, but the point was to keep them in check. The difference now is that earth -read the US- actually got hit this time and civialians were the ones that suffered. So yeah... I think you can identify September 11 as a turning point resulting in a MAJOR values shift in the US. The world, and that includes any informed americans know perfectly well that basic human rights and the geneva convention have gone out the window in camp x-ray and Iraq with Aru Graib prison etc... AND i can understand the justification that finds its mirror in TFMF's comment above that "Archer suffocating that man was out of despiration ultimatly trying to save Earth!". The thing is, the US is not the first country to endure massive civilian casualties in war and conflict. Australia had japanese subs in Sydney Harbour in WW2, and Darwin got bombed to smithereens. The English had to endure the blitz. The difference is... we never gave up on the Geneva Convention. We never gave up the values we were fighting for in the first place. I know this all sounds a bit pejorative, and I'm sorry to generalize with such broad brushstrokes. But I do want to know why America seems so ready to give up on the ideals that made it great... that gave the whole world something greater to believe in - the very same values that find expression in Star Trek. I hope I'm making sense and do not mean to offend anybody with my comments - they are open to criticism, so feel free to pull me up on anything I've said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFMF Posted November 13, 2005 Share Posted November 13, 2005 No i don't think you offended anybody - not me anyway - Yeah Season 3 was deffinetly influenced by 9/11 - but all things considering - i think they did a good job of representing Earth being threatened and the challanges and mental struggle through these dark times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenebrae Posted November 14, 2005 Share Posted November 14, 2005 In many ways, the war on terror in Enterprise - which I myself have referred to many times before - was a bad decision by Berman... hahaha, one of MANY. It did give rise to some continuity and the arcs in season 4 that spelled the only real redeeming feature but yes, people generally watch these things to escape and a thinly veiled war on terror was pretty laughable. Anyone that takes offence at the notion that season 3 was essentially influenced by 9/11 is just horribly over-sensitive. As someone that lives in Great Britain, a country that has endured terrorism for decades, I find that the US's over-reaction was massive. Then of course, we stood - thanks to Bush's lapdog Blair - side by side with America... and guess what, all we get out of it was a couple of wars and the SECOND London gets targetted by terrorists, what does our "special partner" do? They order all their personel to give London a wide birth... oh dear, that's rather a rant... Anyway, the parallels are paper thin and it was only spoiled by the whole "Oh, we were just misunderstanding each other". Bit of a Trek-style out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GorunNova Posted November 14, 2005 Share Posted November 14, 2005 Just watching the last ep. of Season 2 now, and I'm already noticing the severe redirection... but so far it doesn't seem bad, but I'm just starting into the Season 3 stretch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annika Posted November 14, 2005 Share Posted November 14, 2005 Anyhow' date=' to get back to the Star Trek universe... this isn't the first time earth has been under threat, be it the borg or the dominion etc. [/quote'] Actually it was the first time ;) Borg, Dominion etc. all came later. So maybe they just learned from their mistakes :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centurion Posted November 14, 2005 Share Posted November 14, 2005 I agree with most of the things said previously, but, in my opinion, the Xindi are the main problem with season 3 of Enterprise, not the story line etc. It was really an unfortunate decision to dedicate a whole season of Star Trek to an unknown alien species. Indeed, season 3 would make more sense if Earth was attacked by the Romulans (instead of the Xindi) in some sort of prelude to the Romulan Wars... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFMF Posted November 14, 2005 Share Posted November 14, 2005 Ah - now that would have been interesting - and we see more of this in season 4 as well - about the Unification of Vulcan and Romulus but - In Season 3 - they had some nice season fillers too - and season 3 was very much a season of exploration - and it was a bit like Voyager - being stuck in that region of space all alone with no back-up - so i really did think Season 3 was one of the best series of Enterprise - plenty of action and i think the fact that it was a whole season was really good cause it allowd the story to develop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holly18 Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 I enjoyed S3 much more than S2. Malcolm calling T'Pol "Stinky" was right up there with the DS9 Baseball episode and the TNG Egyptian mask episode as Star Trek's most embarassing moments. In any case, Enterprise redeemed itself for me in S4 up to and including Terra Prime. The final episode (with Troi and Riker's much aged appearance since "Pegasus") was a bit of a disappointment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annika Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 a bit of a disappointment. That's the understatement of the year :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenebrae Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 I don't get why people seem to think that Terra Prime was such a good episode... The last Enterprise episode was pretty much a suitably mediocre way for the show to finish. If it had all been like season 4 with nice little mini-arcs... things might have been different... I don't think it was a coincedence that Berman and Braga left and it actually got good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antipodean Posted November 15, 2005 Author Share Posted November 15, 2005 Personally... I just hope that the Star Trek franchise will still live on, maintaining all those virtues that gave it value. But I figure that if Dr Who could come back from the grave, even after the damage done to the show in Hollywood's hands... then there's always hope for Star Trek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenebrae Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 If you're basing that on the parallels, I'd say you were drawing it erroneously. Dr. Who was taken off the air because it successive BBC executives had set it as a lower priority, until Greg Dyke killed it off. The film didn't really do that much damage, it's simply that it's failure to make an impression on the American market meant that instead of being revived then, it was done now. Star Trek is not in the hands of an organisation so benevolent as the BBC though and hence it's fate is less secure... but anyway, I think the distinction you made is important. Star Trek has to remain Star Trek, so to speak and not simply be something in space with the word Star Trek stuck on it because they know that'll guarntee millions of dullards will tune in regardlesss of the quality. It sometimes seems that in their desperation to see a show continue that fanboys will ignore the very thing that made it special or worthwhile in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GorunNova Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 Season 3, Episode 5 - Doom, starring Vulcans! :D ... well, more likely 'Resident Evil' ;p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFMF Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 I enjoyed S3 much more than S2. Malcolm calling T'Pol "Stinky" was right up there with the DS9 Baseball episode and the TNG Egyptian mask episode as Star Trek's most embarassing moments. In any case' date=' Enterprise redeemed itself for me in S4 up to and including Terra Prime. The final episode (with Troi and Riker's much aged appearance since "Pegasus") was a bit of a disappointment.[/quote'] Yeah ok - the finale wasn't so good - but much of season 4 was - In a Mirror darkly were good episodes The way i rate the seasons is Season 3: top notch Season 4: Good Season 2: Also quite good Season 1: bit boring really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 I would go with 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howiepoohs Posted November 15, 2005 Share Posted November 15, 2005 I think the whole idea of Enterprise was flawed. Going back before Kirks time IMHO was a bad move and they should have gone forward, not looked back. The Milkyway isnt the only Galaxy in the universe, couldnt they have sent a crew off in new experimental craft or something to a different Galaxy where they could have invented any new aliens ect they wanted hang on thats sounds like Atlantis! I didnt like Enterprise much, it seems to lack the enduring qualities of TNG. It did not feature any likeable or interesting characters and "oh boy!" as captain, lacked the presence required. Most of season 1 seemed to be them traped in some way then escaping. Season 2 was too dull to remember any episodes. Season 3 enough has been said about that. Season 4, total horse poo. Featured the worse ever final episode and vaugley redeemed itself a touch with the theme tune from the mirror one. I confess to have watched every episode of TNG at least 5 times maybe more and wil happily sit a watch re-runs on Sky at the weekends while the kids take over my PCs and other TV. Yes I know much of season 1 of TNG was rubbish, but they had some superb eps such as Conspricy and The Neutral Zone. I was waiting for Enterprise to grow up like TNG did and as did Voyager, but it never did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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