Date Posted:18:46:22 10/01/01 Mon Author:Tom Subject: Enterprise: Good Thing, Bad Thing
Hey, all. You may not remember me, but I used to be a regular poster here till I fell back into lurker status. (I would sometimes post under Tom-H or Tom H.) Anyway, I saw Enterprise this past week and I just had some thoughts to share with everybody. So here we go:
GOOD THING: The opening title montage was quite nice.
BAD THING: The opening title song, though, was all wrong. What was with that Rod Stewart-esque ballad? In fact, it's a cover of a song Rod did a few years ago. The producers assured us that it wouldn't be Stewart himself singing, but then they hired someone who sounded exactly like him! I don't mind a break from the orchestral themes; after all, Enterprise is supposed to be about redefining Trek. However, this song does not make me feel at all like flying off to the stars. How about "Higher" by Creed? For that matter, how about that rock song that was played all summer throughout the previews, whatever it was? I thought that was going to be the theme anyway.
GOOD THING: Scott Bakula is back in something respectable--a weekly SF series, no less! IMHO, Scott is one of the most underrated actors in the industry, and I've been depressed to watch him slog through drek like Major League 3 over the last eight years. He seems much more confident in this role than I've seen him in a long time. Here's hoping Enterprise gives him the exposure he deserves.
BAD THING: This series has yet to give Scott someone that he plays off as well as he did Dean Stockwell. (I'll give them some time for that, though.)
GOOD THING: The internal conflict on board the ship is well set-up and makes sense. The Vulcans have been reluctant to help humans get into space because they aren't convinced of humanity's newfound enlightenment. The Vulcans fear that once we get out there, we'll revert to our baser instincts. On the other hand, Capt. Jonathan Archer (Bakula's character) watched as his father never got to achieve his dreams of going into space because of years of bureaucratic red tape set up by the Vulcans. Archer and most of the other humans on board realize how genuinely condescending the Vulcans are, and have pretty much had their fill of it. The audience can see both sides to the argument, and there's lots of potential for this conflict to play out in interesting ways in the weeks to come.
BAD THING: Unfortunately, this is the only character conflict on the whole ship. There aren't various conflicts between different members of the crew; there's one conflict between T'Pal and all the other characters. The writers kept hitting that note over and over again during the episode till it became boring and T'Pal became irritating. The challenge for the writers in future episodes will to be expand the relationships, both good and bad, between all of the characters on the ship.
There will also have to be more surprises in terms of the characterization, and some actual growth. I knew that before the end of the episode, T'Pal would act "illogically" and help Capt. Archer with the mission. Too many Trek characters have been down this road, but no actual character growth ever occurs till the final episode, if then. If Enterprise is headed down the same path, there's no need to stay on board.
GOOD: The design of the ship was neat. It didn't look exactly like every other starship we've seen in Trek. As the producers themselves noted, it has kind of the claustrophobic feel of a submarine.
BAD: If it were me, I'd have gone even more retro. I would have liked to have seen a spaceship that looked like it was from a TV show in the '50s (in a cool way). That way, visual consistency is maintained; we'd be able to see the progression to the designs that were used in the original series. I'd even like to have seen cheaper special effects, but there's no way they would have gotten that by the network.
GOOD: A nice touch of realism is that everything doesn't work perfectly on the 22nd-century Enterprise. The communicators have the same distance problems that modern cellphones have; the ship makes funny noises that unsettle crew members; and no human wants to step foot in the transporters.
BAD: I could see the rescue-by-transporter scene coming a mile away. Ah, I guess part of the fun of a prequel series is letting us see the first time a human was beamed through the transporter. But couldn't we have waited a few weeks till a time when it was less obvious? Besides, the real question that us prequel-watchers want to know is: when will the first extra in the red uniform get killed?
GOOD: The most striking visual of the pilot episode was the scene of the Klingon running through the cornfield in Omaha. This juxtaposition of the familiar with the strange--or, more accurately, the juxtaposition of the familiar of our universe with the familiar of Trek's universe--was fascinating to look at, and even more intruiging to watch was humanity's reaction to a universe they don't understand yet. The farmer and the Klingon can't understand each other's language, and finally the farmer shoots the Klingon. Fascinating.
BAD: The writers didn't seem to realize how interesting the Earth stuff was, and promptly saddled the crew with the same mission that Kirk and Picard had: go and explore; don't come home for a while. Yawn. I'd have the crew stay on Earth as their home base, being sent out on a single mission every week. Given the crew's level of experience, and the fact that the first mission was less than extremely successful, that would seem more logical, as well as allowing the audience a chance to see more of how humans react to these other creatures becoming part of their world.
GOOD: The writers remembered their history. For some reason, part of me was expecting a vindication for Archer when he got the Klingon back to his home world. However, the Klingons acted in true fashion and were angered and offended by what the humans had done. How could I forget? The long-standing feud between the humans and the Klingons in the original series would have started here. Things were so bad by the time of TOS, Kirk seemed to think the only good Klingon was a dead one. The breakthrough between these two species wouldn't happen till Star Trek VI, so for the run of this series, there's gonna be lots of trouble between Klingons and humans.
BAD: Didn't Klingons look different during the original series? Really different? Like, barely any makeup at all? Certainly not those giant foreheads. Granted, the 24th century versions are much more impressive-looking, but I would like to have seen some attempt at carrying on the continuity. Also, having the first mission end in vain was a poor choice. I definitely felt the episode should have ended on more of a high note.
THE FINAL VERDICT:
I enjoyed a lot of things about this show, but naturally, there's a lot of areas for improvement. During the final scene, one of the crew comments that they won't necessarily be running into humanoids every week. Sounds to me like Trek has learned a lesson from Farscape, and every alien won't just be a variation on the bumpy-forehead theme. If the writers plan to introduce us to a whole series of new aliens, though, it will be interesting to see how they explain the fact that none of these species are around anymore by the 23rd and 24th century.
The shape-shifting creatures are visually appealing, as well as potentially formidable foes. The idea of a temporal cold war is an intriguing one. I hope they don't rely on time-travel stories every week, though. Trek has too often resorted to such storylines. (Producer/writers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have done so many time travel stories in Trek, in fact, that I often wonder why they don't just do a pure time-travel series and be done with it.)
Basically, what bothered me more than anything else about this pilot was the lack of a sense of fun or of awe. This is humankind's first real chance to go into space and interact with other species, so I was hoping for a real feeling of excitement from this crew. Instead, the crew spent most of their time annoyed with the genuinely grating Vulcans. When they got to new worlds and saw new civilizations, they seemed either angry or bored. That's why longtime Trek producers Berman and Braga should have been replaced for this series: instead of a feeling of fresh, new excitement, we have the feeling of people who have stayed in this universe too long and are just tired of it. There was also very little humor, which would have helped to keep the episode from feeling like it was dragging at certain points.
All in all, it wasn't terrible; I was just hoping for more than what I saw. I do understand that there was a lot of setup necessary in this episode; perhaps the writers can have more fun in later episodes. And they definitely have a chance to improve. After all, I really liked Next Generation, but I'll be the first to tell you that Encounter at Farpoint wasn't a great pilot. I hope Enterprise hits its stride soon.
