Posted on 02/20/2005 6:43:05 PM PST by pabianice
"Timing is everything." We've all heard that one and it's true. Example: "Star Trek: Enterprise."
Paramount and UPN announced on February 2 that the show was being canceled at the end of this year's run in May. "Enterprise" had hit an all time low, with just a 2.5 rating the week before the announcement. UPN's decision to have placed it on Friday nights in the 'death slot' against the monster SciFi Friday lineup of "Stargate SG-1," "Stargate Atlantis," and a white-hot reincarnation of "Battlestar Galactica" almost certainly played a major part in the ratings drop for "Enterprise." However, weak to terrible writing until this season was also a big factor.
Well, the cancellation is official ... just in time for the new creative team headed by Manny Coto ("Odyssey 5") to have kicked in, and the change in the show is startling. The most recent shows have been fast, sharp, and nasty, breaking with the "I'm OK, You're OK" pablum spooned-out starting with Roddenberry's lobotomized "The Next Generation." This past week's "Enterprise" had espionage, danger, and an explanation of that 39-year-old riddle: why did the Klingons in the original "Star Trek" look so human when compared to later versions.
Now that the show has been canceled it is coming into its own with tight writing and interesting stories. Well, maybe Coto can find another show worthy of his talents. Paramount really screwed the pooch with they way they mishandled "Enterprise."
Worf (when asked why the Klingons look different): "We do NOT talk about that with outsiders."
O'Brien basically replied "Oh, okay" and that was it. I thought it was brilliant.
Next Generation and DS9 had some really good actors. Michael Dorn, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Louise Fletcher, James Cromwell, Brent Spiner, Andrew Robinson, Rosalind Chao are all really good actors.
I agree with the premise of the article. Coto has taken the series back in an interesting direction. I've really always thought that Berman and company ran out of ideas a LONG time ago and should have been replaced. What made the original show (now known simply as TOS) interesting were the ideas (however cheesy when produced) that came from real Science Fiction writers, like Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana.
The original was very politically correct. But its best moments and episodes - were not - even by the feminist standards then. The original had good writers, and a cast that came together well, particularly that bridge crew. Subsequent shows couldn't match the breakthrough score, the writing, and especially that sense that these characters really were in that reality and would die for each other, they were that close.
The show wasn't even that popular, at the time. And the third season was falling apart, episode by episode. And the 'science' - wasn't. It was a mix of absurdist speculation and day-dreaming from those unfamiliar with science of any kind. Sci-fi writers of that era were much more story-tellers, at least in my opinion.
What it was, was exploration. It was adventure. It was Lewis and Clark. It was seeing a Grizzly bear for the first time, or the Cherokee for the first, or getting out of a scrape with French forces, or whatever. Each episode wrapped within the hour. And they never got tired of the next adventure, even if it was on R n R.
The subsequent shows were depressing. Deep Space 9 only became interesting when it gave up the liberal presumption that all problems have gone away - which the Next Generation never really did, particularly the Picard character - and adopted the then VERY popular story lines of Babylon 5, of a universe in constant war; sort of Lord of the Rings, in outer space. The very premise of Voyager was not that they wanted to explore, but that they wanted to go home and watch tv, or whatever - but just get us home. That was almost a non-starter.
This latest show took itself very seriously. It suffered from the same bureacratic nonsense of Voyager and NG. Nobody seemed to be having fun. They went to work. They went to sleep. They encountered difficulties - not adventures. And then they slept, made pleasantries, went to work, slept, etc. That was the show. People going to work everyday, wishing they didn't have to, with a mission to find new civilizations, etc. Plus, in this case, they were second fiddle to the Vulcans. In the original, there was that bravado that the US - that is, the federation - was pretty much right to take on the Klingons and Romulans and so forth, without anyone giving them permission.
lol
The world of science fiction isn't helped either by the likes of those two loons camping out in front of a theater, months before the release of the latest Star Wars film.
The episode where the probe makes Picard live an entire virtual life is my favorite episode, too. The ending, where he sits in his room and plays the flute is the icing on the cake.
http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Inner_Light
The irony is that a science fiction film does not require any larger stretch of the imagination than does a horror movie. Yet, the horror genre is not stigmatized.
["Enemy Mine" by Barry B. Longyear won the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novella presented in 1980; it also won the Locus Poll for Best Novella and on the strength of this early promise the author also won the John W. Campbell Award that year.]--Excerpted from a review by Nicholas Whyte
Thanks much!
Hey, if I was Baltar, the Human Race would be history too!
Mark
Farscape's FX are state-of-the-art and flawless; the company Animal Logic has gotten a ton of work since doing the show. I thought the puppets were cheesy, but the writing was the key to the show. "Pilot" was a puppet but an interesting one, and well written. The worst Farscape is better written than any Star Trek I've ever sen; the relationships are more honest and interesting; the plots more bizarre and "science fiction-y" while ST is so overburdened by history and its crowded universe that there isn't a breath of spontaneity in it. FS is more imaginatively scored and art directed, too. It's a wile gourmet meal compared to the crackers and tap water of ST. (I don't say that in a mean way; it's just that Trek is sooooo boringly photographed and acted and written.)
And how has ST dealt with abortion or the military?
That's one of the ones I saw! I REALLY liked that one. I found the ending incredibly moving.
The other episodes I saw: The Borg 2-parter where Picard is a borg; the one where they are in an alternate universe where the blond chick is still alive; the one where she died (didn't much care for that one); and the final episode. I really enjoyed all of these, but when I tuned in the next episode I always got bored in minutes.
It looked like the earthlings were arrogant SOBs when they should have known better.
Eventually I stopped Quantum Leap Enterprise out of basic dislike of the characters and boredom.
Exactly as you'd think they would, from what I've been told.
Did you know he posts on slashdot.org? His UID is cleavernickname.
ST TNG had a woman doctor named "Beverly." I couldn't help but watch it.
Virtually (no pun intended) all of the ST stories could have been re-written to fit a Western theme or, maybe, a modern story. It might have been a stretch for the episodes that revolved around transportation mishaps or the Holo chamber.
There was a cloning episode last year that was new, but we will be dealing with the ethics of growing our twins for their parts before too long if we're not careful.
But, all the characters dealt with the age old questions of "Who am I?," "What is a person and who is my brother?, "Why am I here," "How shall I live?," and "Is there life out there/after death?" that all good literature addresses.
Their "deus ex machina" them was just better, is all.
Unfortunately, Enterprise is on a station that has not been reliable in the San Antonio area.
Are you crazy? Farscape was MUPPETS IN SPACE!!!
See, I have seen the show and have no idea what you are talking about. They do not show abortion in a good light nor do they make negative comments about military forces.
What exactly have you been told?
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