HELP SAVE ENTERPRISE
POSTED BY: ZiggyKarlos
UPDATED: Sunday, August 8, 2004 05:45
VIEWED: 10289
PAGE 2 of 4
A fan response like Joss got with Firefly resurrected something well worth saving, because it was an unprecedented action. Few things like this had ever happened before. It was a great tactic.
However ... if overused, the TV and movie people won't listen any more. That's the problem. Save that last bullet for Barbarossa, so to speak.
Jen dao mei.
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I've been a Trek fan from waaaay back. I've watched all the shows, bought the BEST series, DS9, on DVD (of the "new" shows, anyway), and I make a little effort every week to watch Enterprise. I've got no problems with the settings, the characters, the ship, or the actors... but I really hate the writing.
There are several things wrong with Enterprises scripts and a lot of the problems start with Roddenberry's edict that "Fed types all get along." You wanna fix Trek? Ditch the edict (these are pre-Fed types anyway...), let them fight and argue and be generally odd and cranky... then have them GROW into a crew that becomes the template for the future Federation. Fix that problem, and 90% of the crappy scripts are gone. The other problems deals with the "anomaly of the week" syndrome... dump that in favor of "character issues of the week", throw in the occasional anomaly or bad guy or wacky situation as a backdrop for character development, and BAM! you've got a better script.
Other show problems deal with a lack of language, sex and violence... Trek has always been too clean... the stories need to be allowed to get "dirty" when needed (gratuitous shots of T'Pol's butt do not count, appreciated though they are...). "Jeremiah" didn't pull any punches and I think that was a great show (I'd love to have all sci-fi shows produced in the Jeremiah style, actually - screw the censors and the Moral Majority I say).
The only other major problem is the boring presentation. The camera work, lighting, and music (especially the music...) needs to be pumped up... Trek needs interesting angles, a hand camera, odd lights, moody music, etc. something to make it a little edgier...
Anyway, that's my two cents worth of opinion... I think Enterprise has a good foundation - the problem is that Berman and Paramount are so scared to mess with the Next Generation formula, they have doomed the show to death by blandness... and Trek deserves so much better.
"Just remember... all success is illusion: what has really been accomplished is the displacement of an area of specific failure to somewhere else... or is it the other way around?"
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Quote:
Originally posted by Micronaut:
The other problems deals with the "anomaly of the week" syndrome... dump that in favor of "character issues of the week"
Ack... Funny how subjective things are... Thats EXACTLY the sort of tripe that I felt killed NextGen.
Typical week for my wife and I after the 5th season or so of NextGen:
"Oh, look honey, its a "troy" episode."
"I see... Ummm... Wanna watch cspan?"
"Sure."
Why not just put some lawyers on the enterprise while you are at it. Throw in a little crime and just turn it into EVERY OTHER SHOW ON TV!!
I do not like enterprise in its current form either... It just needs to go away. NONE of the series have captured the character interaction of The Original Series, IMO. The chemistry of Kirk, Bones and Spock remain unmatched. But at least part of Nextgen and some of DS9 compensated with GOOD PLOTS... Voyager and Enterprise had/have neither...
Character episodes? Bleh...
Anomoly! Anomoly! Anomoly! Anomoly! Anomoly! YEAH!!!
Cheers,
Gruesome
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I don't much care either way - stay on, go off. I don't watch it either way.
But....didn't the captain on Enterprise have a beagle - Porthos, or somesuch - and didn't Firefly talk about smuggling some black market beagles?? Now that's some kind of funny!
****
I know your name, jackass.
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Hack, funny laughing,
No No please
Oh stop me!
Enterprise???
I'm evil 
and must go pay pennance now.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn." --Joss
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Quote:
Originally posted by gruesome:
Ack... Funny how subjective things are... Thats EXACTLY the sort of tripe that I felt killed NextGen.
Typical week for my wife and I after the 5th season or so of NextGen:
"Oh, look honey, its a "troy" episode."
"I see... Ummm... Wanna watch cspan?"
"Sure."
Why not just put some lawyers on the enterprise while you are at it. Throw in a little crime and just turn it into EVERY OTHER SHOW ON TV!!
Character episodes? Bleh...
Anomoly! Anomoly! Anomoly! Anomoly! Anomoly! YEAH!!!
Let me clarify the "character issues" bit... character issues like "Jayne gets greedy and betrays Simon and River" or "Mal defends Inara's honor and ends up in a swordfight" or perhaps "Jayne finds he is the unlikely hero of a work town" or even "Inara convinces the crew to help an old friend, then has problems dealing with Mal's attraction to her...". Those issues Trek needs... not "Malcom tunes the phaser cannons" or "Trip screws up the engines" or "Archer goes nuts" type issues... those are plot device shows, not "character issue" shows... big difference.
"Just remember... all success is illusion: what has really been accomplished is the displacement of an area of specific failure to somewhere else... or is it the other way around?"
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What's with the Barbarossa comment? If I'm not very much mistaken the guy drowned (in a really silly way I just can't seem to remember). Is this some kind of saying I don't know?
Anyways
I would really like to pretend I would care if Enterprise gets cancelled and honestly I probably would miss it, but it just doesn't do it for me anymore. Contrary to what others have said on this thread I love all the weird temporal cold war stuff, it's a good idea to create a connection between this series and past ST series.
But ST is just too squeaky clean and boring. Firefly and Farscape have shown us how you can make a Sci-Fi show without all the stupid morals and with good character development. Sorry but Star Trek needs to wake up and realize that things have changed.
Also the series is so US-American it makes you cringe (no offense to you Americans, I've got nothing against you). Everyone on the bridge is from an English-speaking country ('cept Hoshi), we only visit American locations (Oklahoma (Klingon crashes, San Fransisco (Starfleet), Florida (Xindi Attack). Seeing a pattern here? Also we see American culture everywhere, they eat American style food (ever see one of them eating an enchilada? or sushi? ('cept Hoshi in that episode where they all become crazy...)), they watch American movies, most of them ('cept Reed) speak with an American accent, plus you have American values aplenty (which where replaced by George W. Bush's values in season 3 (yes I see the difference), fight "Terrorism", defend us from the evil aliens, the whole "us versus them" scenario". I can find absolutely nothing I (a self-acknowledged "European") can relate to. NextGen had France, TOS had Russia (Checkov(sp?)). Both DS9 and Voyager had the same problem but not to the same extent.
At times Enterprise feels like a space western which it's, unlike Firefly, not supposed to. It's supposed to be about humanity reaching out to the stars, it's supposed to highlight what's bad with our current world situation by highlighting how we could do it better (again: remember the Russian sitting on the bridge in the middle of the cold war?).
Despite all it's flaws I still like Enterprise, but probably more because it's Star Trek (and I love Star Trek) than because of its merit as a series. I think the idea of Star Trek on another planet (such as Q'onos(Sp very much?) would be interesting. I think Star Trek as a prequel could have been interesting if they'd stuck to the original formula and reinvented the writing instead of the concept (some season 1 episodes were actually rather good). They need to wait a few years now. Then they need to come up with a BRILLIANT concept, then they need to hire brilliant writers, then they could try to make a new show. As it stands all I can say is good riddance, there are shows that deserve our support more than Enterprise.
If anyone in the US does not watch Wonderfalls I urge them to watch it. It's quite simply the best show I've had the pleasure of being introduced to in a looooong while. Also Angel deserves to stay a lot more than Enterprise does. Overall though TV has become bad for all of us cult addicts, hopefully it will recover soon....
---------------------
Coward
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Quote:
Originally posted by Micronaut:
Let me clarify the "character issues" bit... character issues like "Jayne gets greedy and betrays Simon and River" or "Mal defends Inara's honor and ends up in a swordfight" or perhaps "Jayne finds he is the unlikely hero of a work town" or even "Inara convinces the crew to help an old friend, then has problems dealing with Mal's attraction to her...". Those issues Trek needs... not "Malcom tunes the phaser cannons" or "Trip screws up the engines" or "Archer goes nuts" type issues... those are plot device shows, not "character issue" shows... big difference.
Ohhhhh!
Ok, you meant character issues with people like Tim Minnear and Joss Whedon writing them... Ok, sure! I am all for THAT!
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I'm pretty much there with the others, I watch Enterprise because I'm a sci-fi geek but do I care if it gets canned, nah. I enjoy seeing Trip & Archer shirtless but that's certainly no reason to write a letter. I wish you luck but I guess I can't save something I don't believe in. Now Firefly, on the other hand....
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