Mark said:
If something feels unacceptable to someone, they often term it as poor writing because the writing hasn't addressed their concerns in a way to make it acceptable.... It's a fair assessment from the audience perspective but it may not be the level of writing so much as the level of the audience that is in question. I'm not pointing to you in particular (or anyone, as a matter of fact) but ST fandom has developed a reputation for being overly critical, perhaps even hyper-critical.
I agree completely. Suspension of belief and reality is paramount to enjoying science fiction. Lately the cultures surrounding sci-fi in general have been extraordinarily critical of any sort of "high technology" that has not been explained.
To approach this from the other angle though, I think a lot of people aren't upset so much with the idea of "high technology", or even with technobabble. Rather, I think they're upset with the inconsistency of said technobabble, as well as the usage of high technology. Specifically in regards to that second point, the use of high technology as a deus ex machina rather than just another tool in the box.
There are trade offs that get made all the time when dealing with time constraints as to what level of acceptance the writers/editors feel the audience will bear. When ST writers push those boundaries they often get vilified by the fan base.
Well, here I can't really speak in generals (well, not that anyone can anyway), but I will answer for myself, regarding last weeks episode.
Time travel is a very tricky tool to use in the toolbox - it's
very easy to use it as the ultimate deus ex machina - the dreaded "reset button" being the most common in my experience. Without resorting to the reset, it's extremely tricky to work time travel into a story where the actions of those involved make sense. ST writers in particular are notorious for this - in part because it's a popular series, in part because in a lot of ways it has been a training ground for writers. There have been some great ST time travel/alternate dimension stories, no doubt. But there have been quite a few stinkers in there as well - not to mention other shows. Unfortunately there's not a one for one trade between good time travel/alternate dimension stories and bad ones... in fact, the ratio is quite a bit biased in favor of bad ones.
So when I see that a show,
any show, is going to involve some sort of alternate timeline or time travel, my first instinct is to cringe. There's a sort of feeling you get when the reset button is used (again, as it often is) that you've just wasted an hour of your time watching an episode of a series you like where nothing actually happened. If you read the Angel discussions here, you know how disappointed I am with just such an issue. Hell, that's exactly why I
didn't watch Enterprise the first two years it was on - because I had heard it would be about time travel.
Now, last week's episode of ST overcame that with, IMO, a pretty good story. Sure, none of what happened mattered at all in regards to the overall story. I had a fun time watching it though, and that's what matters. Did I need the time travel stuff to be explained to enjoy it? No. Then again, they used it in a manner which
helped the story - to complete the toolbox metaphor, they used the tool correctly.
Along the same lines I have noticed recently that the first twenty minutes of Enterprise episodes feel very "full" to me. Am I alone in this?
Not at all, I've found the first fifteen minutes or so to be really... full actually is a good word. Meaty is another. I think it's so that they can pull people in and keep them over the hour, instead of losing them, and I think it's working.
I must say, I really hope next season will be more like this one, and less like
Voyager - maybe B&B are finally waking up to the fact that people actually
like shows that have an overaching story.
