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Star Trek Enterprise Tidbits 399

Posted by CmdrTaco from the only-a-few-weeks-away dept.
Carlo di Bonk writes: "I found a good article about the new Star Trek Enterprise television evil forces. These evil villains are from the future and the mirror universe. It seems to be an interesting chance that it is a different mirror universe though, to one seen in Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and other Star Trek television." Lots of little plot bits too, like the fact that they will have transporters, but they won't be trusted because they randomly kill people (like the first movie!) With Farscape running start to finish, my copy of Lexx Season 1 on DVD en route, and the new Star Trek a few weeks away, I think I need to take a week off ... a scifi sabbatical ;)
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Star Trek Enterprise Tidbits

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  • a different mirror universe though, to one seen in Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and other Star Trek television

    When was the TOS/DS9 mirror universe shown on ST:TNG?

    • It wasn't. But it was covered in a damned good book - Dark Mirror. So, yeah, the statement made above was somewhat incorrect.


      If you haven't read Dark Mirror, or don't read most Star Trek books in general - go ahead and read it. It's a very good story that I would have loved to have seen done in the series, or better yet, as a movie!


      • The star trek books are of a much higher quality than most of the episodes, IMHO - Plus, its much more fun to interpret the events in your own view. And many of the books i've read recently don't give away the ending too early in the book, either.

        I've recently read 3 of the "Section 31" books. A very interesting way of explaining certain things in the star trek timeline.

        • Unluckly, due to lack of time I've quit reading the books for about the last 6 months or so. I also REALLY enjoyed the New Frontier series with the Excalibur and it's crew members. Think Worf was a badass security officer? The Excalibur's security officer makes him look like a pansy - the guy is made of stone (I believe the name of his race was Brikar or something like that - they are living stone creatures.) All the characters on that ship are just... strange, but cool to learn about. Plus, they also have some characters from the TNG series - Morgan Lefler (her mom is also interesting), the gal that wanted Riker's job for awhile is the first officer, and the CMO is from the TNG series.


          Granted, with the ST book series there have been some real dogs. There's a couple of the TNG books that I consider to be worse than the worse TNG episodes. But all in all, you are right - the ST books in general are of higher quality, and offer the opportunity for the characters to be explored much more deeply.


          For those thinking about reading any of the books, here's a 'must read' list: Vendetta, Imzadi II, the entire New Frontier series, Prime Directive, Dark Mirror, and anything Peter David writes in the different series. :-)


          As for the Voyager books... well, they really don't seem to improve on the series any with some exceptions. Still not a Voyager fan (which is horrible when ya consider I think I've seen all of them. Sheesh.)

    • When was the TOS/DS9 mirror universe shown on ST:TNG?

      uuuhhh...I thought ST:TNG WAS the evil mirror universe...
    • The article refers to it as a a side-line mirror universe


      Is that like a vanity-mirror universe?

  • the original ST series .... all the chicks in those mini-dresses, yowzaa!

  • First episode (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I just hope the first episode is called "The Ass Menagerie"

  • Not enough silicon-based life forms on Star Trek? (Score:5, Funny)

    by tenzig_112 ( 213387 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:03PM (#2256315) Homepage
    Silicon-based life forms protest the Star Trek premiere for its aparent xenophobia.


    "There are simply not television shows featuring silicon-based characters on your earth television. Sure, there is the occasional silicon-based token character- usually just a humanoid who claims to be made of silicon. But it very often dies in the first ten minutes of an episode. That is wrong and we wish to see that rectified."


    "... In truth the science fiction industry has done a lousy job of representing non-human species. A glob of putty on the nose here, a pointed ear there and presto- an alien. Even the shows that strive for some level of originality stick human-centric arms and legs on them."



    full story:
    http://www.ridiculopathy.com/news_detail.php?displ ay=20010829 [ridiculopathy.com]

    • Hortas! (Score:4, Funny)

      by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:15PM (#2256394) Journal
      They were silicon based, turned out to be good guys, and had no manipulative digits. Looked like dog vomit, from a large dog, though.
    • Curse those actors for being bilaterally symetrical humanoids! That is the problem y'know; A woefull lack of non-human shaped actors.

  • Question (Score:3, Funny)

    by schnitzi ( 243781 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:04PM (#2256319) Homepage
    How many times can people from a parallel universe visit ours before we start considering this parallel universe part of our own? Sheesh, these parallel universe people are starting to outnumber Klingons.

    The only way Trek could be any worse would be if it was sung.

    • Re:Question (Score:3, Funny)

      by tb3 ( 313150 )
      Not sure if this is what you had in mind but this tidbit comes from the scifi wire website:

      Paramount has chosen English opera star Russell Watson to cover the Rod Stewart tune Faith of the Heart as the opening theme music of UPN's upcoming Enterprise series.


      Is that close enough to a Star Trek musical?


    • The parallel universe was the coolest thing in the original Trek episode, and it was nice to see it revisited in DS9... ONCE. But they are indeed going too far now.

      The only way Trek could be any worse would be if it was sung.

      After watching the 60 sec clip at startrek.com I am actually more jazzed about this show than ever. I always thought the prequel idea had a lot of merit, and the clip shows me that the producers "get it," at least a little. More than I thought they would, anyway. (no spandex, and people are wearing BALL CAPS. Crazy.)

      Watch the clip, you might find that it's better than you expected. (Of course, I couldn't view the clip on Win2k because it is Quicktime. Reinstalling QT didn't help, I had to open up the Mac and watch it there.)

      Of course the show can still suck ass. A good teaser proves nothing. But it gives me hope. (when, oh WHEN will I learn NOT TO TRUST THE CLIP? I have been burned too often.)
        • The parallel universe was the coolest thing in the original Trek episode, and it was nice to see it revisited in DS9... ONCE. But they are indeed going too far now

        Considering that it's already been parodied in South Park, I'd say that using it again demonstrates that either the producers are morons, or they assume that we are. Or heck, maybe it's both.

    • That would give a whole new meaning to the phrase "space opera"!

  • From the original article:


    These human supremacists don't want the soft liberal peace and love Federation of Kirk and the Next Generation's universe coming into fruition,[...]

    Peace and love? Kirk? I mean, besides the fact that he didn't always limit himself to homo sapiens, Kirk kicked butt and took names, he wasn't representative of any 'peace and love Federation.' Yeah, he met some hippies, but It's hard to see the 'Space Hippies' taking over the Feds. =)

  • Ugh, the new trek is on UPN, which isn't a part of Time-Warner Cable in Cincinnati. I gotta get out an antenna and try to get UPN outta neighboring cities. Talk about lame...

  • The Kirk spirit (Score:2, Insightful)

    by shd99004 ( 317968 )
    Will the captains be like those from TNG or VOY, or will they have that attitude, more like Kirk had?

  • I'm dying to watch Enterprise. While I've heard a couple of people say it's gonna suck, I really think it's possible it may end up being the best Trek yet.


    The future isnt' so far way in Enterprise - it's going to be easier, IMHO, to relate to the universe in the Enterprise series than it was in ST:TNG (and definitely easier to relate to than Voyager. Blah.) I also think they may have a chance to make statements about humanity in general again. Voyager pretty much never did it, and DS9 didn't make much of an effort.


    But, of course, that's just my opinion. No matter how good or bad it is, someone is gonna say it sucks compaired to (TOS, TNG, DS9, V, TAS ;-)


    The bad guys however - this could be interesting. I do hope they are used sparingly like they did the Borg for a while, instead of every episode centering around trying to duke it out with them.


    Everyone cross your fingers, and hope they manage to get this series right!


  • Anyone ready to place bets... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Masem ( 1171 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:08PM (#2256342)
    on how long into the series until Bakula's character has to say "Oh, boy!"?

  • Transporters that Kill: (Score:5, Funny)

    by AMuse ( 121806 ) <slashdot-amuse@f ... m minus caffeine> on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:09PM (#2256356) Homepage
    they will have transporters, but they won't be trusted because they randomly kill people

    Cool! Just like the Muni buses in San Francisco. :>
    • I thought those were the drivers . ..


      anyway, I'd like to see them gone, gone, gone.


      The enterprise had transporters for a very simple reason: the special effects budget couldn't handle a weekly landing.


      They were aware of the danger that these would be a worse plot than Commander Cleavage, and thus the comment or two about the danger of intra-ship use, etc. They seemed to have forgotten this by the time that spinoff occurred, and techno-babble became a substitute for a plot . . .


      hawk

  • Contrived plot (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:11PM (#2256368)
    It seems to me that this plot is too contrived to be taken seriously. "evil mirror-villains from the future"?? Isn't that the plot to "Power Rangers: Time Force!"?

    The other shows all had simple, realistic premises-the Enterprise is exploring the universe, Voyager is trying to get back home, the Enterprise is exploring the universe with a much crappier crew.

    Anyway, the point of this is that clearly the plot is degenerating as new shows are produced. This obviously means that each successive "Star Trek" show is worse than the last. This means that Kirk is much, much better than Picard. QED.

    • It seems to me that this plot is too contrived to be taken seriously. "evil mirror-villains from the future"??


      Gee, isn't a much richer plotline and a sense of deeper continuity a good part of what people said made Bab5 such a great show? Seems like P'mont is "getting it" this time, and trying the same tricks. Sounds like a perfectly good idea to me!


      The other shows all had simple, realistic premises-the Enterprise is exploring the universe, Voyager is trying to get back home, the Enterprise is exploring the universe with a much crappier crew.


      Well, for ST:TNG if you take the first episode and the last episode they used to try and tie up the entire series with, then the plot becomes a bit larger than just exploring the universe. It's humanity's trial by fire by a much greater power that sees potental within us. Q tells Picard at the begining we are on trial. At the end, Q give Picard both the power to destroy ourselves as a species, and gives him the power to expand his abilities beyond the human norm, to experience the universe ever so slightly like the Q does. Picard managed wrap his mind around the situation finally (but never completely understands it) and humanity (with Picard as it's representative) makes it past it's trial by fire.


      Too bad they never followed up on it at all in the movies or other series. They really could have had fun with humanity beinging to awaken it's self, instead of relying on technology solely.


      (In TNG's final episode, if you want to try and search to find deeper meaning, you can. But ya gotta try really hard - pretty much streaching it and giving the writers more credit than is really due. I'm definitely not going to give that synopsis here on Slashdot to have it picked through ;-)


      Anyway, the point of this is that clearly the plot is degenerating as new shows are produced. This obviously means that each successive "Star Trek" show is worse than the last. This means that Kirk is much, much better than Picard. QED.


      Troll. Really.


        • Gee, isn't a much richer plotline and a sense of deeper continuity a good part of what people said made Bab5 such a great show?

        A great show that tanked, and which is hard to pick up half way through in re-runs. Enterprise won't be allowed to do that, so they'll drop any idea of continuity and just cram in plenty of green Orion slave girl tits and ass as soon as the ratings flutter.

  • I fevently hope this article is pure BS! I am so damn tired of every Star Drek show being TimeTraveling Baddies From An Alternate Universe®. I was hoping, from the trailers, that Enterprise was going to be more like the STTOS. If this article is even half correct, then it's time to take the Star Trek universe and put a stake through its heart, fill its mouth with garlic bulbs, cut its head off with a gravedigger's shovel, and bury it at a crossroads in blessed ground.
    • Upon consideration, I can thing of exactly one [ucl.ac.uk] case in which I would accept TimeTraveling Baddies From An Alternate Universe® in the Star Trek Universe.

      However, this is somewhat unlikely to happen until CGI gets much better at rendering teeth and curls....

    • methods of death (Score:2, Funny)

      by Pope ( 17780 )
      So, I can see by the method of death that you're also looking forward to the new Buffy season? :)
      • What's pathetic is that there was MORE character development and story development (even unto having a story arc over the whole season) on Buffy than on Voyager.

        Just think: if five years ago I'd told you that a show based on the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer would have better writing than a show based on Star Trek....
  • That's how I can always tell who a TRUE geek is. We were the only ones who watched Voyager, anyway. Hopefully this one will have at least enough appeal to non-geeks to keep it on the air everywhere.
    • GEEK != watch crappy show because it makes us a geek.
      • That's how I can always tell who a TRUE geek is. We were the only ones who watched Voyager, anyway

      Yes, the Particle of the Week, consistent inconsistencies, and dumbing down (watch the spandex clad titties bounce, morons) really helped to appeal to that tiny but vital hard core geek audience, at the expense of the massive WWF Bitchslap lovin' Joe Sixpacks that every other prime time show relies on. Doofus.

  • early Klingons have been established to NOT have bumps. This was in TNG.
    • My understanding of the episode where Worf saw the ST:TOS Klingons was that, for some reason, the Klingons back then altered themselves to appear less inhuman than they were.

  • I'm seriously happy about one thing -- Enterprise won't have that god-awful writer's trick, the Holodeck. That damn thing ruined many a TNG and Voyager episode (it wasn't relied upon so heavily in DS9, thank goodness)

    Rayguns! Aliens! Rocketships! I love it!

    • Not used in DS9? You have now forced me to remind you of Vic Fontaine.

      • I don't have a problem with Vic as a character development tool for Odo. That was OK. But DS9 never did, that I recall, put the whole damn station in danger because of some rogue holodeck.

        Side note:

        Too bad Richard Dean Anderson couldn't do Stargate and another show at the same time. He'd be a great Trek captain. Hell, make him Captain O'Neil and just let him be his Stargate character.
        • . But DS9 never did, that I recall, put the whole damn station in danger because of some rogue holodeck.


          There was one "James Bond" episode where different cast members were parts of the Holodeck program (good guys and bad guys), and if they died in the program, they'd be dead for real.


          But that was mostly played for laughs. Avery Brooks in the Neru jacket as the Bond villian was awesome ;-)


          -jon

    • Well, they had basically the same thing on the original series, they'd relied on the idea of "the theory of parallel development" to explain how Kirk and Co. could end up on the planet of the Nazis, the Romans (if the empire hadn't ended), the gangsters (no wait... the aliens 'read a book' on mobland), the indians (remember Kirk (Kur-ock? was it?) becoming part of the tribe... the holodeck was just some handwaving to make the same kind of storytelling possible without straining credulity quite so much. (Though obviously it had its own unbelievabilities built in)
      • The indians' ancestors had been scooped up by some aliens a long time ago and deposited on a nice little forest planet while the Nazis were due to the influence of a tinkering Federation historian.

        But yeah, "Bread and Circuses" and "Miri" were kinda pushing it.
      • I'm seriously happy about one thing -- Enterprise won't have that god-awful writer's trick, the Holodeck

      Says who? It was in the original NCC 1701 blueprints, they just didn't have the budget to do it justice, and had enough variety in the writing that they didn't really need it.

      Now they've got the budget, and cowardly producers like Brannan and Braga (god help us all) who says they can't pull it back another generation?


    • Because Captain Proton will come and kick your silly little butt! Captain Proton was the most original thing in any of the ST series, and, amazingly, it came from ST:Voyager!

  • Star Trek isn't sci-fi (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:23PM (#2256432) Journal
    It's future-fantasy. Sci-fi is based on real, or at least plausible, science. It doesn't have a particle-of-the-week.

    That said, I'm looking forward to the show.

    • so name 3 sci-fi shows?
      • Well, we're talking hard sf here. Generally, FTL travel is fantasy. But..
        It's hard to name sci-fi books. Most of Larry Niven's Known Space books (pre-hyperdrive). 2001 (and the movie). Fountains of Paradise. Mote in Gods Eye (passes the plausibility test, great first contact novel)

        I like much of what's marketed as sf, Anne McCaffrey is my "guilty pleasure". Her early work was definitely fantasy, later moves towards sf.

        My favorites are Niven, Niven/Pournelle, Piper, Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein. Stephenson is the only modern author I've been able to read.

      • Alien Nation. Robocop. War of the Worlds.
        • name 3 sci-fi shows [based on real, or at least plausible science]
        • Bionic Man
        • Bionic Woman
        • Space: Above and Beyond.


    • Well, somebody agrees with you- sortof.


      I go to my local public library where I find books about dragons, wizards, and sword swinging heros in the "Science Fiction" category.


      I find all the books about space ships, phasers, dyson spheres, time travel, etc in the "Fantasy section".


      Somehow, somewhere, something went really wrong with these classifications.

    • sci-fi is the mad scientist, freak monster, etc. type of stuff . . .


      hawk

    • Not too long ago, I remember a scientific theory advanced that the reason we keep finding sub-atomic particles is because we keep looking for them!

      Not in the "Duh, I find walnuts when I try to" but in the "They exist because we repeatedly create the situations that cause their existence" sort of way.

      IANAP (Physicist), but if that theory has any validity, why NOT have a "particle of the week"? I mean, you need a particle with certain properties - just MAKE one!

      -Ben

    • "modern" ST or the original series?

      In the original series there was quite an attempt made at keeping rigorous science. Guys were called in from NASA etc. Experts were hired for ideas. Scripts were put through many rewrites. (and yes, I know about the "no sounds in space" thing. There was no other way.)

      ST today is particle of the week space opera, of course. Originally, it was much more. Of course, Gene always used science fiction the same way he used any other medium, as a device with which to tell the story he wanted to tell, which always involved people and their stories. The weakness of modern star trek is the storytelling is all based on so-called "science fiction" as the be-all and end-all, rather than on the interactions of the characters involved in the drama.

      The original series was good drama. Modern star trek is good eye candy. Now, which did you mean? ;-)

      -Kasreyn

  • song (Score:3, Informative)

    by zephc ( 225327 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:24PM (#2256442)
    just in case anyone is interested, the song from all the promos is called "Wherever You Will Go" by 'The Calling'

    startrek.com has all the promos/teasers available (in qt though)
    • God no. I hope that the song in that QT movie stays away from the series. If not, then just give the whole crew hairstyles from the latest gap commercial and throw them into a coffee shop to make politically correct observations on pop-culture.

  • No "morality play" potential. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rimbo ( 139781 ) <rimbosity@noSpam.sbcglobal.net> on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:24PM (#2256444) Homepage Journal
    The first thing that jumps out at me from this description is that there's no potential for morality plays, which was the basis of the original series and the Next Generation (while Roddenberry lived).

    I'm not here to say that this is better or worse, or to whine about things not being the same since Roddenberry died, but rather to discuss what has changed. Whether or not this is a good thing varies depending on your taste.

    Star Trek was set up as a mechanism for telling stories, not a story in itself. The characters represented archetypes (or even the id, ego, and superego -- guess which one is which). The Enterprise itself and its mission were just metaphors, and the fantastic nature was intended to give people the freedom to explore a variety of subjects in metaphorical, exaggerated, or "what if" ways. Just like a lot of great sci-fi.

    This doesn't deny the new series' potential to be very entertaining and very good. But the new series is clearly different. In the new series, the situation is clearly defined. Aliens are just aliens, not symbols of ourselves in various guises. The new series presents an interesting point of view: Star Trek represented a utopian vision of our future; this series could be a vehicle to explore how we can achieve that particular utopia.

    Although that's pretty limited compared to the scope of the original series, where various utopian ideals could be compared and contrasted from show to show, it still could be very fascinating, because many of us would have different ideas for how such a utopia could be reach, and in this age of irony, most of us probably doubt we could achieve it at all.
    • Months ago, the first articles about the new series quoted Scott Bakula as saying: "It's Star Trek, but with explosions."

      They deliberately set up this series for more action, less angst. And I for one am cool with that.

      Of course, if you do it right, you can have both exciting action and a morality play. Consider the original Star Trek episode "Arena": Kirk and one Gorn are stuck on a planet and told to kill each other; the Gorn is way stronger and tougher than Kirk, but slower, so Kirk evades the Gorn and builds a weapon that can kill the Gorn; then, at the last moment, Kirk refuses to kill the Gorn and instead gives a morality speech. That episode really rocked.
    • Star Trek represented a utopian vision of our future.


      Uh huh, an utopian future where there have been no new works of art/literature/music since the 20th century. An utopia where ships have tele/empathic thought police masquerading as "ship's counselers". An utopia where homosexuality, in fact any deviation from the norm, is viewed as suspect. An utopia which claims to respect all ideologies yet reacts with instant and total hate for the Ferengi (and I won't even get into the anti-semitic overtones of that particular Trek ideal). Their utopia is a sterile place indeed.


      They could make a damn good dark Trek series exploring the price the Federation payed for their "utopia". I don't think TOS suffers from this nearly to the degree TNG/DS9/STV do, so something had to have happened inbetween the 6th movie and TNG.

    • Just curious, but what did "tribbles" symbolize?

  • Que! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jordy ( 440 ) <jordan@COWsnocap.com minus herbivore> on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @01:26PM (#2256450) Homepage
    Bring back Que! Que was in my opinion the most entertaining character ever to grace ST. Ok, maybe I just like the idea of a morally blank omnipotent person who moves people around like chess peices to see how the other side responds.

    Everyone else was so emotionally blank and serious that having someone inject a little fun into their otherwise by-the-book lives was interesting.

    Of course, from what I understand, Enterprise is supposed to be before there was a book to go by, which might make things a bit more entertaining.

    Maybe they should just bring back the really, really short skirts, move it to Showtime beside SG-1 and do something more... interesting once in a while. Actually, compared to the original ST, TNG was a bit bland in that regard, but compared to TNG, the last generations of ST were seriously devoid of any serious long-term sexual tension.

    Of course, that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.

    • Bring back Que!


      Just a small note: it's 'Q', not 'Que'. But I gotta agree, Q was a cool ass character. Most of my favorite TNG episodes involved Q.


      I also somewhat agree with you comments about the 'sexual tension'.

    • its 'Queue' not 'Que'

      #pragma sarcasm_off

    • Re:Que! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by zephc ( 225327 )
      also, here's one of my favorite Q quotes

      "If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
      -Q, Star Trek:TNG episode 'Q Who'
    • Ok, maybe I just like the idea of a morally blank omnipotent person who moves people around like chess peices to see how the other side responds.


      Last season, John Delancie (the actor who plays Q) appeared on The West Wing as a lobbyist and on The Practice as a lawyer.

      Do you think he might be getting typecast here? What's next, the Jack Valenti biopic?

      k.

  • I like this part:

    "There's also color in the graphics on the screens, so it's never going to be a dull picture."

    Whoa, all the colors of the 'bow, man! :-)

  • Tired of pinko liberal Trek! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Robber Baron ( 112304 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @02:06PM (#2256728) Homepage
    These human supremacists don't want the soft liberal peace and love Federation of Kirk and the Next Generation's universe coming into fruition, and are planning to push it down a route which will leave the Earth absolute master of a million worlds.

    I'm tired of all this pinko-liberal, bleeding-heart, self-abasing BS! What's wrong with being a human? It's like they're taking this whole myth that white, hetro males are responsible for all the evils in the world and are extending it into a multi-species universe where humans can only "redeem" themselves by engaging in some twisted form of self-abasement! So humans want to be in charge?? So what! Bring it on! I wish this parallel universe really did exist and I could get to it because I'm real sick of the snivelling, bleeding-heart pathetic excuses for humans we have in this one!

    Signed, a disgusted, white, hetro, male!
    • . . . is the category of SF that you're looking for. It seems to have gone out of style, and is generally only found in short stories rather than novels, but they exist . . .and some are *really* well done


      hawk

  • The transporter keeps killing people, so... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Ruger ( 237212 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @02:12PM (#2256748) Homepage
    ...I'm guessing they're using Microsoft Heisenburg Compensators and the damn things are actually still in beta!

    What would be seriously funny though is to see a few corporate logos pop up in the show. Like if they walked into engineering and there were a bunch of boxes stacked up in the corner with cow spots on them. Or maybe an Intel Pentium XXVI logo on the side of all the bridge stations.

    Ruger

  • A few other Tidbits about the show. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anemophilous Coward ( 312040 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @02:23PM (#2256804)
    Got these from a TV Guide mag. a few weeks ago:

    - the Enterprise won't have power shields, but rather heavy armor plating.

    - no tractor beams, but it will have grappling hooks (hrm, interesting. I can see episodes now where they are going to get dragged around).

    - the aforementioned lack of transporter usage, they rely on shuttles for getting down to planets and use the transporters for non-living equipment.

    - one of the male (human) characters apparently becomes pregnant (I'm not sure how I feel about this, seems like old hokey plots...but we will see).

    - Scott Backula (Capt. Archer), looks to be even more of a womanizer than Kirk.

    Well thats enough for now, here's to waiting for the premier to see if it's gonna occupy my attention on Wed. nights.

    - A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.

    - AC

  • Star Trek is a Superhero Series (Score:5, Insightful)

    by joneshenry ( 9497 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2001 @02:43PM (#2256908)
    ...and that's what concerns me about the current series. It seems to me that Paramount and/or the creative team in charge of the Star Trek franchise is deliberately trying to downplay the essence of Star Trek as not just about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances but about being able to fantasize about superheroes.

    I argue the story of Star Trek: The Original Series is not about Kirk, it's about Spock. And from my perspective, Spock is a superhero. He can read minds. He's stronger than the average human. He has extreme intelligence and knowledge. Spock's abilities quite frequently solve the episode's problem.

    Similarly Star Trek: The Next Generation has Data, even stronger than Spock. Deep Space Nine has the shapeshifter Odo. Odo is not quite as impressive as Data, so notice that Paramount has to make emergency repairs midway in the show bringing back the character of Worf, now the unbeatable fighting knight-equivalent. And Bashir has to be souped up to have extreme intelligence.

    With Star Trek I The Motion Picture, Wesley in The Next Generation, and Sisko in Deep Space Nine, Paramount establishes quite a string of humans becoming gods/prophets.

    And then there's Voyager. The Data character is degraded into the balding holographic Doctor. Kes is the female Wesley who eventually becomes a godlike being, only she's too wimpy to do anything before she leaves. The series is teetering on collapse when Paramount finally makes the sensible decision to return to the roots and bring in a new superhero, 7 of 9. Once again we have a figure who is stronger than the average human, knows more, and is struggling to deal with emotions.

    I am frustrated by what seems to be an endless repeating cycle where Paramount continues to deny the essence of the show as being about superheroes, lets the series tank a couple of years, and then finally rescues the show by increasing the powers of the characters. I think that the claim of many fans that it takes a few years for the writers to get acclimated is a myth. The writers aren't given the raw materials to work with to produce entertaining superhero stories for the first few years, then they are authorized to use good materials, then the episodes improve. They could write a thousand stories about Harry Kim or Tom Paris or whatever vanilla characters they want and never find a groove. It's strictly a decision from above when the series is to improve, and that decision is simply whether to soup up the characters as superheroes.

    As UPN was saved by adding the World Wrestling Federation's Smackdown to their lineup, maybe they can learn what makes this show successful. It's called by the wrestling fans BOOKING. Yes, it is the responsibility of the owner/promoter to make decisions to hype one wrestler over another, to promote certain wrestlers above all others for long stretches of time. The World Wrestling Federation the past two decades has been carried first by the character of Hulk Hogan, then Stone Cold Steve Austin, and now The Rock. Perhaps with careful booking in the future it will be Kurt Angle or HHH.

    There is already another niche where people who are sort of ordinary interact in a tension-filled extraordinary situation. It's called reality television. It's Survivor, Big Brother, etc. Star Trek can't match that, Star Trek doesn't pretend to be giving ordinary people off the street a shot at fame and fortune. Star Trek has to create its fantasies in a different way. It has to be booked in a different fashion, to emphasize certain characters as superheroes.

    • I agree with you...a little. But I don't think these superpowers are the central theme of star trek. Data may have amazing capabilities, but it is how he uses them that makes him heroic. In this sense, Wesley is never really tested as a superhero. My favorite Star Trek character is Captain Picard. He is an ordinary human, somewhat aged and weak in comparison to many. But his ingenuity allows him to overcome the most daunting of challenges. I don't think Star Trek is about people endowed with superhuman abilities as it is about people (who sometimes have unusual abilities) developing themselves to a heroic stature. Worf is not born with abilities greater than a typical Klingon, but his strength of character (focus, training, loyalty, control) allows him to face the mightiest, mentally and physically. Another interesting thing to notice is that a character's unique strengths often become their challenges. Worf's loyalty to the Klingons tests his loyalty to starfleet. Data's impeccable programming make him very valuable, but also make him vulnurable to unusual threats. In First Contact, Captain Picard's pride becomes his test as he is faced with the choice of whether to abandon ship. This is the theme I most hope to see carried on in the new series.
  • I'm looking foward to a Star Trek without Picard/Janeway's preachy Prime Directive nonsense. If you look at TOS, the Prime Directive increased in its application between TOS and STTNG/DS9/Voyager. Janeway's use of the Prime Directive was so severe that I always thought of it as the "substantive interpretation of the Prime Directive" - much worse than TOS.

    Anyway, if you want morality plays, I'm sure that they will have several episodes in which the well-meaning crew of the Enterprise totally screws up alien civilizations, causing the Vulcan to say "I told you so" and the Earth to adopt the Prime Directive in it's TOS form.

  • These evil villains are from the future and the mirror universe.



    Let us all hope and pray that this visitor from a parrallel universe isn't Jar Jar.



    Oh, wait, that was a long time ago. And in a galaxy far, far away.

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