Star Trek Enterprise cancelled, the end of Trek or beginning of endless fandom?

[Josh Bass]

I think all y'all are smokin' the crack. I like voyager a lot, I think DS9 is brilliant, and I think next generation had the best stories.

[K. Forman]

"I like voyager a lot, I think DS9 is brilliant, and I think next generation had the best stories."

And WHO's been smokin crack? Just kidding... Sorta...

[Josh Bass]

Hey dudes, whatever. I've had unpopular opinions before. I really just don't see where you guys are coming from.

Voyager, at least for a while, had a lot of interesting stories. YEah, I could do without the "Rocket. . .whatever" stuff, and the "Fairhaven" stuff, but all in all, not bad.

Enterprise, while I like it, tends to have story arcs that span many episodes, and aren't that intriguing to begin with, to me. No cool plot twists, no clever setups, etc.

DS9 was like putting the characters in the series under a microscope, in a lot of places, which was kind of different. I liked the last seasons too. My only problem with that shows is that the WHOLE THING is a story arc, and you can't really get into it without knowing the whole backstory.

My two centicles.

[Boyd Ostroff]

The original series was fun; I remember watching the first episode when I was in high school and the quality of the sets and effects blew me away. So just for nostalgia I still enjoy those episodes. The other incarnations are just OK for me, sometimes I'll watch a little of an episode but rarely sit through the whole thing.

I just have a problem with the whole genre anymore. By now they've pretty much exhausted all the permutations of goofy masks they can put on humans who are supposed to be aliens (all of which speak English of course). I guess I just can't suspend my disbelief long enough these days :-)

I have generally enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica remakes however, although the last few episodes weren't nearly as good as the earlier ones.

[Josh Bass]

Only other sci fi series that I've seen that I could stomach was Babylon 5. I think they still make it, but it's not the same show as it once was. I'm talking the older ones, with Bruce Boxlietner (sp?), and that British dude who I thought for a long time was the same actor who played Bashir on DS9. These were from a quite a while ago, like mid-late 90s.

I agree on the alien masks. Unfortunately, when they try to make them not look human, we get unrealistic CG.

[K. Forman]

I am in total agreement with you on the story arcs, which is the main reason I don't care for Voyager, DS9, and sometimes Enterprise. It gets too soapy, and if you miss a few shows, you're lost. My issues with Next Gen run deeper, but even they had a few great stories.

[K. Forman]

One of the best sci-fi shows I EVER ENJOYED, was Firefly, which died too soon.

Babylon 5 was also a great show, but the whole show was a continuous story arc, which was cool. But again, if you missed one or two major episodes, you were lost. Then there was the spinoff, Excalibur, that looked promising but didn't cut it.

The new Battlestar series is a really interesting spin on the old show, and more adult in it's presentation. But I'm also worried that they will bring the same silliness in, as did the old show. They already have the kid with the mop cut, and if they bring in the robo dog, I'm outta there!

What is next? Buck Rogers and Tweeky? Oh, the pain... the pain!

[Imran Zaidi]

Maybe I'm crazy, but I think the smart and subtle ways in which Enterprise is managing to reconcile old Star Trek with newer Star Trek is borderline genius.

I mean, a 3-episode action packed adventure all to explain how come the old Star Trek Klingons didn't have the big nutcracker heads?

And another long series of episodes to intelligently and believably explain the transition of Vulcan culture and politics in a manner that's very relevant to politics and our supposed war on terror today? That's what good sci-fi is about - removing current stigma and analysing a human situation in another world so we can get back our perspective.

I submit to you that Enterprise is great sci-fi. Note - I only got into it for the last 1.5 seasons, so I can't speak for the earlier episodes. I had completely written off Star Trek for the idiocy and the suspended disbelief required to enjoy Voyager, but was very surprised when I tuned into Enterprise.

[Josh Bass]

I guess I like my sci-fi a little more epic and outlandish, then.

[K. Forman]

<<<-- Originally posted by Josh Bass : I guess I like my sci-fi a little more epic and outlandish, then. -->>>

Such as...? I've been hooked on sci-fi since I was a toddler watching TOS, and have watched a lot... even some of the worst tripe to be called sci-fi.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Heh, right now I'm watching the 1955 George Pal Epic The Conquest of Space. They just don't get much more epic than this! Lots of fun - what a classic. Nice anamorphic transfer too, part of the Paramount Widescreen Collection.

[Yi Fong Yu]

i suppose i must say that my reactions to ds9+voy comes mainly out of other people's reactions. although i've seen ds9+voy, i missed nearly all of the episodes. i've seen nearly every single one of TOS, TNG and VOY. haven't had time to make up for it yet =(... one of these days...

re: charles, that's awesome! did amy get any signatures/photos with any of the cast/crew?

josh, i think you're referring to technobabble, which braga+berman excels @.

as for really, really outlandish (well to you folx) SF, i highly recommend flash gordon (1939), buck rogers space solder (1937), buck rogers trip to mars (1938) and buck rogers conquers the universe (1940). the 4 DVDs are film serials of the late 30s and early 40s that inspired lucas's star wars main title. in fact if you've seen it, you'll have realized why lucas made starwars episode 1-6 the way they are. it's a bit of a secret. as far as i know that's the earliest known series of works (epic-size enough) in the SF genre unless you wanna start counting melies's trip to the moon in 1903.

[Josh Bass]

Ok, for instance:

Enterprise crew dealing with some virus that makes Klingons look human = snorefest

DS9 dudes dealing with a shapeshifting race that thinks they own the universe, and some other dude trying to resurrect evil gods = woo hoo!

Enterprise crew dealing with genetically augented humans (for three episodes,might I add), eventually explaining the whole Data thing in TNG = not quite a snorefest, but not real mindblowing either

Voyager crew dealing with another Voyager crew who were all really clones from some planet that developed life when the real crew visited there previously, but thought they were the real crew = woohoo (this is one of the best episodes I remember)

I likes me the time travel, and the silliness, and all the crazy scifi stuff, rather than the more "human" "harder" more Asimov-like stuff.

By the way, have you read the stuff by this Alistair Reynolds guy? Me likey. Robert J. Sawyer, too, but in a different way.

God I'm a nerd.

By the way, one thing that Voyager and Next Gen did (not so much DS9 -- kinda uneven in that some episodes were very studious of one or two characters, while others were very epic in scope) was to make each episode a mystery. Something would happen, and you'd think it was one thing, but then it would turn around and be another. I don't really get that from Enterprise. Little bitty plot twists, maybe, sometimes, but not biggies.

Oh, and the blatant exploitation of poor, hot, Jolene Blalock bugs me a bit. Yeah, I know Jeri Ryan went through the same, but she wasn't always showering or giving backrubs.

[K. Forman]

I almost feel bad, because I enjoyed Jolene and Jeri, but not JUST because they were hot... but it didn't hurt ;) But that isn't anything new, because Capt. Kirk kept his cuties in barely broadcastable uniforms and outfits too. Oh, that Yeoman Rand!

Enterprise is (was) doing a decent job of tying together all of the stories in Trek history. Stuff like the Klingon brows, which was hinted at in DS9's greatest episode... Trials and Tribbleations.

One of DS9's best points, was the way they filled out Worf, Obrien, and Vashir's characters. There really was a great chemistry amongst all of it's characters, which I will admit, sets it above the rest.

[Josh Bass]

Ah hell ya. All my DS9 peeps in the hizzie, yo.