Fearless Prediction: "Enterprise" will not last th
It really pains me to have to say it, but the writing on "Enterprise" has become *so* atrocious that I think even UPN will cancel it, probably before the turn of the year. Somehow or other, the powers-that-be have managed to take one of the most venerable and beloved franchises in entertainment history and completely destroy it.
The much-vaunted "new direction" of the show would have been all well-and-good, but the "nd" apparently included a clause that said "we shall no longer employ good writers who know anything about the show".
Worse yet, in another bone of contention, they managed to take the controversial yet interesting theme song, "Faith of the Heart", and re-mixed it to the point that even those of us who *like* it are pissed off!
I like the remix of the theme song better than the old one, thank you very much! :P
I still don't think it fits a Trek show, however... Bring back the old opening voiceover, have Archer doing the whole "Space, the final frontier ... where no man has gone before" thing. Then have a new (WORDLESS!!) song more evocative of Trek.
As for Enterprise being cancelled, not bloody likely! It's like UPN's #2 show after Smackdown. It may suck in the overall ratings scheme of things, but it's still likely gonna bring in higher ratings than whatever they'd find to replace it. Plus considering Viacom owns both Trek and UPN, it's not like they're paying someone else to make it. They make it themselves.
Does it suck? Yeah. Is there hope? Yeah. The first two episodes of the season were actually pretty good, I thought. The alien council in the first episode was more creative than Trek aliens have been in ages. Unfortunately the third ep of the season was right back to crap-o-rama again, but 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Of course if 4 on are bad, then we've got problems, but I think the show will continue to be uneven, rather than bad.
All that said, when I finally saw Nemesis on DVD a few months ago, I realized how much more I'd like to see a show about the Enterprise E than this one, even though a huge chunk of the TNG crew left by the end, but I know that ain't happening.
On a constructive note, I very much compliment you on having a *most* amusing "handle" --- I guess I wasn't feeling all that creative when I plunked myself down here :-). [Actually, that is a long-standing problem of mine, that everything I *wanted* to use, here, there, or everywhere was already "taken". Woe is me . . . LOL!)
"I like the remix of the theme song better than the old one, thank you very much! :P"
Well, SH, you will find me a "rarity" amongst people who post about Trek, in that, while I do have my opinion, I don't get all riled about it (therefore, I am boring, eh? :-)).
You are probably familiar with all of the arguments about "Faith of the Heart", and where I landed was this: I *am* one of those people who liked how the original "Where My Heart Will Take Me" built up slowly, instrumentally speaking, from soft acoustic stuff through a *little* bit of "artillery", until we got to all of the over-the-top Joe-Satriani-ish distorted melt-down.
I can see your point, in that the "new" version is eh-more-or-less somewhat more "cheerful" and "upbeat" (I *think* this is "where you were going") than the original, but this is what I thought was a problem:
If the show, itself, was going to take on a new, "darker" direction, the pseudo-neo-Wagnerian power-ballad stuff was even more appropriate now than it was in the beginning.
The theme is now "more* "cheery", whereas the show is now less-so --- that is what bothers me.
Side observation: Are you familiar with how much of the dialogue around the new season has involved people getting bent (either positively or negatively) about the *music*? In a way, this warms the cockles of my heart *chuckle!*, no matter *which* way a given person's opinion runs --- Your Humble Narrator being probably " 'music-fan' *first* and 'TV-drama-fan' *second*".
"Bring back the old opening voice-over, have Archer doing the whole "Space, the final frontier ... where no man has gone before" thing. Then have a new (WORDLESS!!) song more evocative of Trek."
My love of "Faith of the Heart" aside, I can see this, also; very good observation/suggestion! I wouldn't use the *exact* original monologue, but something with the flavour of it. You know how, back in happier days (for "Enterprise") there have been some allusions to the possibility that maybe Archer *did* eventually wind up being "Admiral Johnny", and furthermore that it was perhaps his musings on the nature of the celestial community which led to the founding of the UFP.
Now, see, *that* is what "Enterprise" is "supposed to be about", IMHO *chuckle!*
So, I can "go with you", there --- give Bakula a "precursor to Kirk" monologue, and throw *that* in there. I *would* accept that, much as I love how it was originally done.
Obviously, I am also very well aware of the long-standing "tradition" of ST themes being orchestral instrumentals. I do not necessarily "disagree" with this, but I sometimes think about how "even *more* interesting" the original opening would have been if Alex Courage's music had also used the words Roddenberry wrote for it, sung (I would suggest) by Nichelle Nichols.
Probably a bit much for '66, culturally-speaking, but then maybe not --- at that time, it was very common to have R&B-ish vocals right alongside The Who, in rapid succession. (I'm not that old, but I know my pop-culture history quite well :-))
Help me out a bit, here --- where was it that NN sang "Beyond Antares"? A rare *true* "musical moment" in the original Trek . . . I'm thinking it was in "The Changeling". . . ????
"As for Enterprise being cancelled, not bloody likely! It's like UPN's #2 show after Smackdown."
Heheheheh! Your media-savvy commentary gives me both hope and despair :-). "Hope" for an eventual "righting of the ship", and "despair" because, until the new season started, I myself had voiced pretty-much the same opinion, i.e. "What the hell *else* does UPN have?"
Not to slag 'em unnecessarily, but . . . I mean, for the love of God! All they have are a pro-wrestling show, a few urban-Black-oriented sitcoms . . .
. . . and, almost as an afterthought . . . the Star Trek franchise. Maybe I have lived too long (a "Requiem for Methuselah", no? :-)), but I know what *I* would be putting my clout behind, were I a programming exec. But, it is not so. :-(
"The first two episodes of the season were actually pretty good, I thought."
I would say that "Anomaly" was okay . . . but I mean *only* okay. Speaking of "perspective" --- I had the great "misfortune" of happening to have, on my "rotation" tape (stuff I just casually "want to watch") a few of the later eps of *last* season, especially "First Flight", "Cease Fire", and "Present, Tense". . .
*Any* of the above are superior to anything we have seen *this* season, IMHO :-). [And you notice I have not mentioned one of the *real* "gems", "Carbon Creek" (?))
"The alien council in the first episode was more creative than Trek aliens have been in ages."
Well, I *did* think, unlike some of my fellow commentators, that this was at least a good "steal", to have "The Xindi" not be some monolithic species, but rather a multi-species *culture* which had evolved.
To me, that was a *nice* echo of the whole scene in "Dune Messiah" with the Tleilaxu, the Bene Gesserit, the Guild Steersman, etc. all trying to sit down and try what to do with Paul Atreides. I *will* give "Team Roddenberry" credit for a good "borrow" :-), i.e. I don't "slag" people for being "derivative" --- most "good" things are; what matters is how well you combine the various elements, and how well you paint the picture.
"All that said, when I finally saw Nemesis on DVD a few months ago, I realized how much more I'd like to see a show about the Enterprise E than this one . . ."
I have yet to see "Nemesis", but I think where I would go with the "Ent-E" thing would be *similar* to what-all was happening late last season of "Enterprise", and I understand this is sort-of where "Nemesis" goes --- we have a *very* capable starship, *but* we also have some very determined adversaries.
I refer back, again, to last season's "Present, Tense". This is the one where they encounter the small scout-ship with the occupant who was both Human and Vulcan, and *everybody*, including the long-"missing" Tholians, were after it, in a big way.
The funny thing is that time-travel stuff very much annoys me, since I have seen it too many times (LOL! eh?), and time-*loops* make me positively *angry* *chuckle*, because it is lazy writing, but somehow-or-other "Present, Tense" *worked* for me, because there *was* all of the allusion to the "future that we know", i.e. the later Trek (including that *very* funny take on "could a Human and a Vulcan really mate?" --- yeah, I know, the Vulcan Science Directorate says it's impossible . . . :-))
Finally: I absolutely *refused* to watch "Raijin". I have *no* objection to sex-on-Trek, but it should be *classy*, which is what T'Pol was, and for that matter, everyone *else* was, when the show started. They should keep it "sly" (and *funny*, too, which is "how it was done" on all the other Treks), I think, as opposed to the eh-more-or-less "overt" stuff going on now.
Anyway, very much enjoyed your commentary on "Enterprise", even though I somewhat disagreed with it :-)! There *is* intelligent life out there *chuckle!* . . .
Steve
P.S. I *could* go on about how Ens. Sato is *way* more attractive and interesting than Sub-Commander T'Pol, but that would be a digression . . . , and probably indicative of a totally-reprehensible prejudice toward "Oriental-Earth-chicks-with-big-dark-eyes" on my part . . . can't have *that*, now, can we? ROTFLMAO!!!!
If "X-Files" were still around, I would ask myself: "So, just why *is* it that Orientals have the eyes and facial characteristics of 'grey' aliens?"
This was "played-with", *perhaps*, in the ep "Hell Money", but that is one of the more cautious and "sly" ones :-). Probably Carter feared some charge of "racial prejudice", but the funny thing is that the way he "left it" was probably more "insensitive" than it would have been to suggest that there might be something *very* interesting in the ol' East Asian gene-pool.
Agent Scully disagrees with me, of course, since . . . we are *all* "not from around here!" [Per "Gethsemane", "Redux I", and "Redux II"]
atheene
Unregistered User
(10/15/03 10:25 pm) Reply
Theme song
The re-mix to the Enterprise theme is so awful in my opinion. The original version (despite the controversy) was well done. It had a folkish rock feel to it - which I like. But you cannot take a song like that and remix and make it sound appropriate. I know I am not the only one who feels this way. Most of the Enterprise watchers I know did not really like the song to begin with and now mute the TV when the theme starts. I hope they realize their fatal mistake soon! It is just dreadful.
Damned right, that the demise of the original "Enterprise" theme forshadowed the slow death the show is now undergoing :-(.
"It had a folkish rock feel to it - which I like. But you cannot take a song like that and remix and make it sound appropriate."
Exactly right! It was the perfect mix of things gentle and things forceful! :-)
Steve
. . . whose house on Rock Street is between that of the Byrds and The WHO. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are my neighbors over the back fence, and Bob Dylan and Neil Young live across the street *chuckle!*
"NEW" Enterprise???
I believe UPN is trying to hang on to Enterprise however, it is not living up to what they said it really is. My meaning is this: This Enterprise is suppose to be before Kirk's Enterprise. Now if this is true, there was an episode where Kirk's ship is the first to see what a Klingon looks like. Second, they did not have any kind of holographic projectors like the showed on the new Enterprise.
The new Enterprise has a better computer system than Kirk's. So as far as I am concerned, they really screwed up with the writings of this show.
As far as the theme song, I don't recall ever hearing it before but I do not like it. It does not go with the theme of the show as far as that goes. It is not "Star Trekie" enough for me.
I still watch it however I agree it is not as good as all the rest were. It seems to be the same old Star Trec story line. This new season has some merit however, I still dont think the writing is as exceptional as was with the original and the Next Generation. As for Deep Space Nine, I found that to be quite boring.
This is just my @ cents worth. I am hoping for a new and better show in the near future.
Fearless Prediction: "Enterprise" will not last th
Perspectives on Trek 
, and probably indicative of a totally-reprehensible prejudice toward "Oriental-Earth-chicks-with-big-dark-eyes" 
on my part . . . can't have *that*, now, can we? ROTFLMAO!!!! 
Theme song
i understand
"NEW" Enterprise???
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