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Saving Enterprise

Sun, 02/27/2005 - 20:53 — kebernet

I guess everyone on the net, or people who get the dead tree version of The LA Times know there is a big thing going on to save Star Trek Enterprise (formerly known as just Enterprise) from cancellation at the end of this season. Wired has a big story about rallies and such.

Anybody who has talked to me about Star Trek in the last, oh, 10 years, know that I think the heads of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga need to be served up to the fans on a silver platter. These two have taken every iteration of Trek since DS9 and made it worse and worse and worse. Enterprise had 5 good episodes out of 26 in the first season, and guess what -- those were the ones not written by these two no talent ass clowns. Moreover, people like ISB and Ronald Moore and Michael Piller have become the talent that got away. Leaving the franchise to make some really really good Sci Fi TV ( The 4400, Battlestar Galactica and The Dead Zone respectively), while Star Trek has languished. B&B even managed to make an even numbered Star Trek that sucks in the abysmally wrong-headed Star Trek (X) Nemesis.

I have to admit, however, after the last 5 or 6 episodes of Enterprise (I still watch it because, well, I'm a nerd), I have to admit, I find myself not wishing death upon it quite yet. Finally drawing on the really interesting material of the timeline: Romulans, Klingons (and the Old Klingon vs New Klingon), the rise of Section 31 -- Tycho at Penny Arcade wondered at Enterprises inception why they didn't just spin off a whole Section 31 show, and I tend to agree with him -- and the rise of the Federation. After the galactically retarded and appropriately abandoned "Temporal Cold War" crap, the "Look we can be DS9 cool too!" retarded Xindi/Expanse season, it seems that they have finally decided to make the program fans -- this one anyway -- expected when they started this journey.

I think there is zero chance Enterprise will be back next fall. Some people potificate that Sci Fi Channel might come in and take up the helm, but why would they want an expensive ratings hole when they have Stargate and Galactica still dominating basic-cable ratings? Besides, the production would still be beholden to the B&B duopoly and their Paramount minions anyway.

Watching ENT these last couple of weeks has only really cemented in my mind what a waste it has been, and all the cool that could have been there and wasn't. It is a shame, but the crime has already been perpetrated.

Comments

Wed, 03/02/2005 - 15:54 — jheimann (not verified)

RE: Saving Enterprise

Let it die the death it so richly deserves. I watched the first few seasons but, like you, was totally bewildered when they started on the Temporal Cold War and Xindi thing. I mean, WTF? The whole show was supposed to be about the roots, the beginnings, etc. There were supposed to be issues in communication since the UT sucked ass. It was supposed to be more 'real life' than the STNG, DS9 etc because we weren't the 'mighty federation'.

Oh, and Battlestar Galactica rocks. While the fact that they have a 12-hour analog clock, what appears to be Sig Sauer 9mm handguns and many other Earth type things is disappointing, the show is so dark and 'psychological' thrilling that it is a real treat. Oh, and they use something close to real physics in space battles!!! I about shit when they were saying 'the Vipers are bingo fuel because of atmosphere operations - they need to run their engines all the time.' Hell yeah! And doing flips and sideways strafes...

Of course, there is still NO SOUND in space, but I'll let that slide too.

Thu, 03/03/2005 - 20:45 — cooper (not verified)

RE: Saving Enterprise

While the fact that they have a 12-hour analog clock, what appears to be Sig Sauer 9mm handguns and many other Earth type things is disappointing, the show is so dark and 'psychological' thrilling that it is a real treat.

Well, the brushed over this briefly in the opening of the miniseries: that phones with cords and mechanical weapons were used because they Cylons could distrupt things that were overly digital.

Of course the obvious truth of it, however, is that the use of regular looking telephones and clothes and clocks adds both a "military" cred to the show because it looks more like an actual submarine bridge and keeps the show about the characters and the plot and not about the widgets -- something Star Trek lost sight of through the Voyager years.

You are right, though. That was supposed to be part of the promise of Enterprise: the scaling back of "Clarkian-Magic" technology was supposed to drive a more plot/character driven story. That never really panned out, though. They just replaced every Phased Inducer with a Manifold and made the transporter somehow "sketchy" and viola!

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