Subj : Re: Was It Rally That Bad?
To   : alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise
From : Gerald Meazell
Date : Wed Sep 28 2005 14:45:26

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise

Ron Hubbard wrote:
> As the song says, how bizarre. I try to watch these
> shows without bias and TOS had a lot more hits
> than misses. There was a workable combination
> of  humor and seriousness, and a great sense of
> camaraderie especially between Kirk, Spock, and
> McCoy but also with the other members of the
> bridge crew.

I will give you that.  TOS's characters had more depth.  However I think 
ENT's characters had the same depth as those of TNG and VOY.

> 
> Now special effects aside, I thought TOS was a
> damn good series. In my opinion, nothing came
> close to it's writing. But Voyager had come closest
> to TOS in terms of concept and spirit: Janeway and
> crew were on their own for the most part without
> any aid or contact from Starfleet. Much of the
> time that was the situation with Kirk & crew.

The general consensus is the TOS's third season sucked.  No wonder it 
got cancelled.

> 
> Yet, I had gotten a bad taste in my mouth from the
> very first episode of Enterprise. It's dark and dingy
> compared to the NCC-1701; Archer didn't inspire
> any feeling of ... well, any of the things that made
> Kirk or even Sisko interesting. The Archer/Trip
> dynamic is even worse than Janeway and Chakotay
> and the series wasn't true to it's premise of life
> before the Federation.

Some people just never could get it.  It was a PREQUEL.  Did you want 
the NX-01 to be as spacious and bright as the 1701D?  Please, I'm sure 
our first spacefaring vehicles will look more like submarines.  As for 
the rest of this paragraph, it's a judgement call and I couldn't 
disagree more.  While Archer/Trip was no Kirk/Spock, it was way better 
than Janeway/Chakotay and probably approaching Picard/Riker.  Also, 
where do you get the idea it wasn't true to its premise?  That's what it 
was all about.


> 
> There were so many things that could've been written
> about, yet B&B chose to make Enterprise a TNG-Lite
> series with "phase" pistols (Worf made it clear that
> laser guns were in use back than and even as far as
> Pike's time), Reisa, Ferengi, and the Borg. Well,
> they did go back in time, so okay with the Borgs but
> I don't think B&B had that in mind at first.

Phasers/Lasers is just a nit.  Reisa?  C'mon, just because Kirk and crew 
never mentioned it doesn't mean it didn't exist or wasn't known about. 
Ferengi and Borg, yes, B&B did play fast and loose with those, but they 
managed to cover it up somewhat.


> 
> Too much time was being wasted on the hostility
> between humans and Vulcans, but not until late in
> the series did it start getting good with Andorians
> and Tellarites, and any of the races that populated
> the TOS universe. Instead so much time was wasted
> with the Xindi and the pointless time travel arc. Despite
> continued criticism, they continued along a downward
> spiral until the end, then it was too little great writing
> too late to save the show.

I will concede this point.  The TCW and the Suliban were terrible things 
to put in this series.  They could have made very interesting stories 
with just the aliens from TOS.  The Human/Vulcan thing was OK by me. 
Fanwise, most people's favorite aliens are the Vulcans so it was fitting 
that the series had a big Vulcan focus.

> 
> I just don't see anything that makes Enterprise
> second to any Trek show; to me, it's at the very
> bottom of the list with ST:TNG a bit higher up
> than Enterprise. To me, TNG was a bit too much
> esoteric and not enough action or great aliens.

I think all the Trek series had their bad points and ENT was no 
different.  The people in TNG spent waaaaay too much time on the 
holodeck, for example.  That thing put the ship and crew in danger over 
and over both on TNG and VOY.  If I had been captain of either vessel, I 
would have ejected it into space and replicated some 20th century sports 
equipment for used in the bay.

It's kind of like the Rumsfeld rule: You have to like the Trek series 
you have, not the one you want to have.

--
Gerald

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