What is 'Enterprise' missing?

[Ranger REG]

I thought they have crossed the line when poor Porthos had to have a threesome with Hoshi and Archer.

But I digress, it was the episode in which Porthos contracted something that nearly killed him, and Archer had to sacrifice his dignity for performing an apology ritual.

 

[myrdden]

In the episode when they placed both Hoshi and T'Pol in decon with Malcolm, I thought they might have been pushing their luck...but I forgave them.

A gentle soul you are.

Myrdden

 

[Mark CMG]

A gentle soul you are.

Myrdden

I try to keep open-minded when the quest for ratings also gives me immediate benefits.

 

[Gizzard]

I try to keep open-minded when the quest for ratings also gives me immediate benefits.

As much as I like to see women with prosthetic ears lathering each other with futuristic gels, its somehow not what Trek is about to me. (Although I admit we saw Kirk lathering his share of women or woman-like aliens. I cant explain the dichotomy in my reaction here.)

I wonder if this tangent relates back to the original question: "What is Enterprise missing?" The XFL comment struck a nerve; its as if the current Trek producers are purposely aiming low and not bothering to be subtle about it. I mean 7-of-9 may have been brought on as eye-candy, but they at least bothered to write interesting stories about her. The gel-shower is nothing but a sloppy tribute to soft-core porn.

I think that the suggestion of the spinoff is the best one here: UPN can spin off "Vulcan Girls Gone Wild" while focussing a bit more on "Enterprise". ;-)

 

[John Crichton]

As much as I like to see women with prosthetic ears lathering each other with futuristic gels, its somehow not what Trek is about to me. (Although I admit we saw Kirk lathering his share of women or woman-like aliens. I cant explain the dichotomy in my reaction here.)

Well, that is good because that's not what Enterprise is about, even though we just made a few jokes about it.

I continue to say give it some time. They have a good cast in place and if this Romulan War happens, the show can only improve.

 

[Orius]

Star Trek canon

Here's a link to a "Federation Galaxy Map" that might help some folks select some options. There's a lot more that is written canon from novels that I have no knowledge of, so I am not sure what sort of facts and timelines may be untouchable as to who is first contacted, when, in what order, etc. I can only speak to what I know from the various television shows and movies.

That's an interesting map, but some of it's out of date. For example, it lists first contact with the Klingons as 2218 and first contact with the Romulans as 2150, which are both wrong. In any case, I don't know how "official" it can be considered.

As for overall canon in the Star Trek universe, only stuff presented in the live action TV shows and movies are considered canonical. The animated series and all the various Trek novels are not. Some of the official reference books are considered canonical as well, such as the Star Trek Encyclopedia, since almost all of the data is taken from canonical sources. The Next Generation technical manual and Klingon dictionary are also considered canonical, I believe.

 

[Orius]

If you watched "Stigma" then you'll know that's the kind of episode I like. I also like revisiting the old TOS races and perhaps learn more about them. And like TOS, start to realize their other human civilization out there, and provide the Preserver theory.

(Yes, I know that the TOS had limited budget then so they couldn't feature more aliens in makeup, but it has become part of Trek lore.)

Well, the biggest problem with "Stigma" was the whole "melders are a minority" bit which seems to contradict everything we've seen about Vulcans so far.

But I agree with your point in general. It'd like to see the classic races shown more and explored more. That was one of the strong points of DS9; that many of the prominent races in the show were explored and fleshed out. There's a lot here for Enterprise to work with. We could see even more Vulcan background fleshed out; it's been done somewhat already, but it seems to be fairly important to the background of the Trek universe. There could be more appearances by the Andorians. He's a pretty important Federation race, yet we know very little about them. Same with a lot of classic Trek races like Tellarites, Tholians, and so on. It's also good to see them mix some stuff from 24th century Trek in as well, like the Nausicaan episode from last season.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

The XFL comment struck a nerve; its as if the current Trek producers are purposely aiming low and not bothering to be subtle about it

That is sort of what I meant when I made the comparison to the XFL.

As the ratings for the XFL dropped- the ppl behind it did not realize that the people still watching were people who loved football (like myself) and were irritated with the sensational bs, but still wanted to watch football.

So- they made it more sensational. Which is what their existing audiance did not want, and it killed their interest.

I fear Star Trek is going down the same route. The ratings/sales are dropping off- and they are alienating the die hard star trek fans.. who are the only people watching/buying.

I may be wrong- and for the show's sake, I hope I am.

Of course, that does not mean I am going to start watching again.

They lost me when it was quite clear that T'pol is 37ddof9 part 2.

SD

 

[Orius]

Hmmm, they gave the Suliban a good whuppin, but only with help from the future Daniels. Otherwise I'd say they have been slapped around pretty good by everyone else...

I don't know if this would mess with continuity, but I think that because the ship lacks sheilding it can't stay in a fight that long. They can do a decent amount of damage with their phase cannons and torpedoes but a few hits and they are out of the fight. The polorized shield plating isn't doing a whole lot for them.

EDIT: As for the continuity, when did Starfleet finally have the ability to give a ship sheilding like the stuff in TOS and beyond?

I think the fact that they aren't a match for everyone out there is part of the point. The Vulcans had their reasons for wanting to keep human from going into deep space too soon. Remember the episode form last season when they were harrassed by those aliens and they finally got the phasers err, I mean phase cannons on line? Archer realized that maybe the Vulcans really did have a good reason to keep humanity from deep space.

I would imagine that the get energy shields when the Federation is finally formed. I think the Vulcans probably have them at this point, and I think technology sharing would be one of the major purposes of the Federation.

 

[Orius]

I wouldn't mind seeing the Orions in a few episodes. Haven't heard much about them and the TOS made them sound like pretty devious maffia types.

The Orions would be interesting to see again. Trek hasn't had any scantilly-clad green women for quite a while... I get the impression the the Orions were kind of like space pirates in TOS, and eventually "evolved" into a major crime organization in the 24th century.

One thing I think the show has done reasonably well, and would like continued, is the 'deus ex machina' of advanced technology. Unreliable transporters; no tractor beam; limited shields; no inverted tachyons/obscure particle; no temporal anomalies (no wait...they have had that...) and so forth. The show really needs to demonstrate that early space exploration was challenging and required resourceful people. With a substantial reduction in technology, I would think this should be relatively easy. For me, the show has been pretty decent on this point. Except for the universal translator, poor Hoshi doesn't seem to be doing much lately.

Agreed; the technobabble of TNG and Voyager could be a real drag at times. DS9 had its share of technobabble as well, but they a lot more different types of stories that didn't require it, so it wasn't as glaring.

I also see it as a type of exploration; Enterprise is using mostly human technology; though with perhaps with a little bit of help from the Vulcans. Now they're going out and they're seeing what else is possible with technology that they don't have, but 23rd or 24th century humans might take for granted: tractor beams, holodecks, replicators, etc.