Blog Dialog

I've already gotten several very interesting comments in repsonse to the post I wrote earlier today about Enterprise, and I was going to post a comment myself with some responses. But I quickly realized that if I went rambling on as much as I figured I was going to, the comment would probably end up being longer than the original post! It would thus seem a bit more reasonable to just write another post with said responses so, hey, that's what I'm going to do.

Right, then. Delving into the last post's comments section...

To begin with, gmd said:

An oh yea, I remember the reason I was so thrilled about getting the Sci Fi channel years ago was because of Star Trek.

You know, I've been ragging on the Sci Fi Channel pretty mercilessly of late, but I do have to say that the way they aired the original Star Trek episodes uncut with the interviews and extras added in to fill the time slot was very much a Good Thing. It showed respect for the viewers, a desire to deliver a quality product, and an understanding that their core audience consists of people who actually care about what they're watching. I really wish I knew where that attitude went...

Then JenBen wrote:

It is REALLY sad when YOU!, Ms. Sci-Fi , calls ST boring!

Heh. The thing is, it's probably because I'm such a big sci-fi fan that I find Enterprise boring. If I'd never watched any science fiction TV in my life, then maybe the dull old retread stories Enterprise tends to do would actually be new to me, and I'd enjoy them more...

You know what I thought was great about ST:NG is encapsulated in the episode, Darmok First, it made you think. What if you were faced with a species that talked in metaphors based on their unique history? How can you communicate? Add to that Picard telling the ancient story from the near-east of Gilgamesh, thought to be the first story that mentions a world altering flood. So you have linguistics, psychology and mythology all rolled into a very entertaining hour with Patrick Stewart! What could be better?

Oh, yeah! "Darmok" was a great episode! Admittedly, it's not too difficult to pick nits in the basic premise (like, how could such a language have possibly evolved in the first place?) and, yeah, a lot of that nitpicking really is justified. But I honestly don't care, because the episode succeeds in doing everything that it's trying to do. It presents a very original idea, it keeps you entertained, and it really gets your brain working and makes you start thinking about these interesting issues of communication. And it's also just a good story that's well-acted and moves along nicely. Plus it manages to do something I always particularly love to see, which is to take a very familiar, even cliched plot (in this case, two people finding common ground in the face of a mutual danger) and do something genuinely fresh with it. Yeah, episodes like "Darmok" are exactly what Enterprise needs, and so far it hasn't even come remotely close. It's particularly sad when you consider that Enterprise's whole basic setup would seem absolutely ideal for doing these kinds of thought-provoking stories about first contacts and culture clashes and communications problems. So much wasted potential...

My personal problem with Enterprise is that there are too many male characters that I can't figure out who they are or what they do. Yes, they talk with different accents but it's hardly as distinctive as the Asian actress and the vulcan woman. I even have a strange connection to Linda Park, who plays Hoshi on the show (2 degrees of seperation thing) and I stopped watching last season.

I don't have a problem remembering which character is which, but I can definitely understand finding them hard to differentiate. The simple truth is, the characters are bland, and there isn't much to distinguish them one from another. The only ones who really seem to have been given any sort of strong personality at all are Dr. Phlox (who, like the Voyager Doctor before him is really too good a character to be tied down to such a lackluster series) and Malcolm Reed, the weapons officer (and even his characterization has been sporadic at best). I deeply pity the actor who plays Travis, a character who has consistently been a faceless, near-dialog-less non-entity since the show began. I can't even figure out what he's doing in the crew, other than pushing buttons on the navigations console once in a while when the plot demands it. Frankly, he makes Chekov look like the world's most well-rounded and indespensible crew member!

No, my biggest problem isn't that I can't tell them apart, it's that I really just don't care about any of them. I mean, I've seen The Wrath of Khan about 30 times now, and I still get teary-eyed at the end. Even though I know Spock's gonna be back in the next movie, I get choked up every time I see it. That's because the people who made the original Star Trek made me care about Spock, they made me believe in him as a character, as a person. But I have zero emotional attachment to anybody on Enterprise. They could blow the whole ship up and kill off everybody, and I wouldn't feel the tiniest twinge of emotion. And Enterprise really needs to give us reasons to care, because with no reason to care, there's no great reason to watch.

have I rambled enough?

Nah, I don't think you're nearly up to my level yet!

Moving along, Deborah said:

Well, we were generally okay with Enterprise around here (though I agree it is boring and predictible at times) until you sent that dadgummed Farscape best of season one DVD.

Heh heh heh. Actually, one thing that I was thinking the entire way through typing that last post (and which I didn't say only because I imagine people are probably getting tired of hearing me say it) is that I think a big part of the reason why I've been so disappointed with Enterprise is simply because it isn't more like Farscape. Which is really rather unfair of me, I know. But the truth is, having discovered that it is possible for there to be a show that scratches my every itch (for continuity, for excitement, for drama, for characterization, for unpredictability, for humor), it's very difficult not to be critical of the ones that fall short of that.

And by the way, you could have warned me the last episode on it was A CLIFFHANGER. That way I could have maybe chosen not to actually watch it and now want to get the next season DVDs. Geesh

Bwahahahaha! I am eeeevil!

Actually, truth to be told, I didn't even think about it. Which is odd, because I remember that I did make a point of warning my sister and her husband when we rented that DVD for them to see. On the other hand, anything that induces people to want to watch more episodes of Farscape is in my view no bad thing!