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Fri Dec 11
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@alphanumeric1971: i'd say he's still very much canadian. have you read rollback? that book is full of obscure canadian references from "as it happens" to um, pamela anderson?
no matter where he is, i trust that he will remain faithful to canada.
Enterprise was flawed from its conception. Setting a show BEFORE four other complete series and many movies is just begging fans to get pissed off by retconning and lack of consistency.
Say what you want about the state of continuity during TOS, but it was pretty well established that NCC-1701 was the first starship to bear the name, as well as among the first of a new class of starships in the history of the Trek universe.
So naming the new show "Enterprise" is a bad idea from the outset, because you're just beginning with a huge retcon.
Then, they didn't respect other aspects of continuity which were established. Early in TOS, there is mention of a Human-Romulan war 100 years prior. Sound interesting? Uh... YEAH! It seemed as of Coto was going this direction in Season 4, but unfortunately the plug got pulled too soon. Why not do this in the 3 seasons prior to the "good season?" Lack of respect and hubris, pure and simple.
Then, they added a bunch of whack-a-doodle stuff which wasn't in any show before or since. Suliban? Temporal Cold War? Xindi? The fact that no one has heard of these species in 300 years of continuity established after this series makes it a tough pill to swallow.
Then, they did stuff that they must have though was "cool" in the writers' room, but ends up being really tough to execute, and really pisses people off if done wrong. I'm talking about the Ferengi, the Borg, etc., all stuff that other series establish that they've done first. Now, there are potentially ways it could have been done right (for instance, if the Borg had been known by Starfleet but were kept classified until the time of 'Q Who'), but they didn't happen.
They just set themselves up to fail. They created a show that would have to try to shoehorn itself into a very complex continuity (in a franchise whose fans are especially obsessed with continuity), and staffed the show with people who didn't care to try.
If I were to try to create a prequel show, I would try to do it with a few important rules:
1. You have to have a Romulan War. It's just too cool to avoid.
2. You should show human expansion which wasn't moral and upright, a la "The Cage's" Orion slave traders.
3. You should show how the Federation was formed (they tried, halfheartedly, in Season 4, to do this), possibly tying it into the Romulan War and to the immoral expansion.
4. You can't name the ship USS Enterprise. You have to use the naming nomenclature established by other series (i.e. SS Valiant, etc.) in order to differentiate pre-federation and post-federation ships.
5. You have to ACTUALLY ESTABLISH the prime directive. Don't just hint at it forever and do nothing.
6. If you introduce new races, they have to not be huge, gigantic world beating enemies, because future continuity just doesn't support it. If not, they have to be destroyed by the end of the series so as not to raise questions for future stories.
Coto seemed to be trying to do something similar to this in Season 4. Braga didn't have the chops. He had ego, and he had used up most of his good ideas in TNG. So when it came down to it, Berman and Braga muffed on a finale and pissed upon anyone who cared, despite themselves, about the characters and the continuity which were established in Enterprise's 4 year run.
PS: I am most definitely NOT excited about the new movie. Seems like more of the same bad ideas, with a bigger budget. I hope it works in a way which is fun to watch but also respects what has gone before. I'm not optimistic.
The finale? Apologize for the whole show sucking. Actually, apologize for that last 4 movies and voyager too. Trek wasn't your wife, dude. It was some girl you drugged in a bar and date raped. Sure it seemed like she liked it while it was happening, but when she sobered up she realized what happened. I hope she presses charges against you, you slime ball.
@Mark 2000: Actually you could have added that having been convicted of his crimes, Brannon gets sentenced to spend the rest of eternity in a Federal PMITA prison...
@Evlsushi: I thought that was just an analogy, i.e. it didn't actually happen and he's just making that up as an example for explaining his actions....
I liked Enterprise, was surprised at the theme song, but after I LISTENED to the song, and realized how it expressed exactly what Star Trek was about (maybe only to me), it worked for me. I can only imagine that Gene would have loved it. He was a dreamer.
Voyager sucked to start with, but it went waaaaaayy off the rails after Braga started doing the Humpty Dance with Jeri Ryan. Every episode became about Seven of Nine's quest to understand humankind, and also about her ass.
Fun fact: Jeri Ryan dumped her husband to be with Braga, which led to the divorce filing that destroyed her husband's Illinois senate candidacy -- paving the way for Obama to become a senator, and then president. Thanks, Brannon Braga!
@Sproing: um, dumb-dumb, jeri's former husband forced her to essentially be a sex-slave. he would tie her up in his bondage room (doing freaky stuff), really against her fancy. he was also known to make her swing in swinger-ish parties as she reported. don't defend that guy like he was a saint, he was bizarro marv albert times ten. of course, i'd probably wanna tie up jeri as well, but i wouldn't force her into it, and only make her a willing sex slave. still that guy was SHIT. she had to fight tooth and nail to get rid of that dirtbag. it wasn't like she went brad pitt and left for the next hottie to come along. i hate braga and his work, and just dislike everything about him. he ruined everything he worked on, and i'm worried he'll ruin 24 as well. but bash him for his work, and not for having a boner for 7 of 9. we all wanted more 7 stories.
@lava: 69 became such an important character because they could pick an outfit for her (catsuit and something like 6" highheels) that wasn't a Starfleet uniform, she was younger/prettier than any of the other female characters (assuming that people are turned off by bumpy face-makeup), and they could pick an outfit for her that wasn't a Starfleet uniform. Did I mention that they could pick an outfit for her that wasn't a Starfleet uniform? Because the fact that they put her in a catsuit and high heels (i.e. "sexed her up") surely had a _LOT_ to do with the fact that 69 became an instant hit with the average Trekkie, and that would explain why the writers ended up leaning extra hard on her body...er, I mean character, to help drive the series forward.
Temporal Cold War and the final episode.. probably the worst crap in all of Star Trek. Just a complete void on the parts of the writers and producers.
Which really hurt as Enterprise had a very good unexplored storyline staring them in the face the entire time. They could have built an entire series between Archer, T'Pol, and Shran. First steps into space for the humans. First steps towards creating the Federation. They could have built a good series there. There were thousands of storylines they could have developed.
@rijrunner: The problem is the creation of interplanetary government bodies isn't interesting to the average joe. Sure, I love it. I still wonder how American Federalism would be able to survive another layer of government on top of it.
Actually, I really liked the final episode, where Rimmer tried to launch the bomb, but the laser had damaged it, and the ship was pregnant, and they were told to destroy the domes and come home, and ORAC tried to teleport them out, but they couldn't, because the Resurrection Hub had been destroyed, so Minmay started singing, and the Gohten-Go showed up to save the day, but it got pulled into The Nexus before it got there, and they were doomed, but it was OK, because Ladioss Sopp took the blue pill, and could save them using a plastic coat hangar, a used pair of odor eaters, and a frozen hamster, so they got into the escape pod hidden in the crate of hamdingers and made it home before Venkman could cross the streams- *BOOM!* {NO CARRIER}
I actually liked Enterprise. But I don't remember the final episode. I may have missed it or just thought it was a regular episode. I didn't like how they killed Trip. He should have Married T'pol and spent his life grinding his teeth in frustration at her logic.
@txtphile: Sure there was. That way he wouldn't have to endure the himiliation of being kicked to the curb while the two cheesiest TNG characters were given the final scene in current televised Star Trek history.
03/10/09
03/10/09
My bad.
03/10/09
no matter where he is, i trust that he will remain faithful to canada.
03/10/09
He will be coming to my city for a reading/signing (for his next book) and I look forward to asking him about about this in the Q&A.
03/10/09
02/11/09
The "Too Little" is missing from the in-page title. It's okay Merideth, I'm on your side here. ;)
02/11/09
02/11/09
02/11/09
Say what you want about the state of continuity during TOS, but it was pretty well established that NCC-1701 was the first starship to bear the name, as well as among the first of a new class of starships in the history of the Trek universe.
So naming the new show "Enterprise" is a bad idea from the outset, because you're just beginning with a huge retcon.
Then, they didn't respect other aspects of continuity which were established. Early in TOS, there is mention of a Human-Romulan war 100 years prior. Sound interesting? Uh... YEAH! It seemed as of Coto was going this direction in Season 4, but unfortunately the plug got pulled too soon. Why not do this in the 3 seasons prior to the "good season?" Lack of respect and hubris, pure and simple.
Then, they added a bunch of whack-a-doodle stuff which wasn't in any show before or since. Suliban? Temporal Cold War? Xindi? The fact that no one has heard of these species in 300 years of continuity established after this series makes it a tough pill to swallow.
Then, they did stuff that they must have though was "cool" in the writers' room, but ends up being really tough to execute, and really pisses people off if done wrong. I'm talking about the Ferengi, the Borg, etc., all stuff that other series establish that they've done first. Now, there are potentially ways it could have been done right (for instance, if the Borg had been known by Starfleet but were kept classified until the time of 'Q Who'), but they didn't happen.
They just set themselves up to fail. They created a show that would have to try to shoehorn itself into a very complex continuity (in a franchise whose fans are especially obsessed with continuity), and staffed the show with people who didn't care to try.
If I were to try to create a prequel show, I would try to do it with a few important rules:
1. You have to have a Romulan War. It's just too cool to avoid.
2. You should show human expansion which wasn't moral and upright, a la "The Cage's" Orion slave traders.
3. You should show how the Federation was formed (they tried, halfheartedly, in Season 4, to do this), possibly tying it into the Romulan War and to the immoral expansion.
4. You can't name the ship USS Enterprise. You have to use the naming nomenclature established by other series (i.e. SS Valiant, etc.) in order to differentiate pre-federation and post-federation ships.
5. You have to ACTUALLY ESTABLISH the prime directive. Don't just hint at it forever and do nothing.
6. If you introduce new races, they have to not be huge, gigantic world beating enemies, because future continuity just doesn't support it. If not, they have to be destroyed by the end of the series so as not to raise questions for future stories.
Coto seemed to be trying to do something similar to this in Season 4. Braga didn't have the chops. He had ego, and he had used up most of his good ideas in TNG. So when it came down to it, Berman and Braga muffed on a finale and pissed upon anyone who cared, despite themselves, about the characters and the continuity which were established in Enterprise's 4 year run.
PS: I am most definitely NOT excited about the new movie. Seems like more of the same bad ideas, with a bigger budget. I hope it works in a way which is fun to watch but also respects what has gone before. I'm not optimistic.
02/11/09
02/11/09
Did I take that analogy too far?
02/11/09
02/11/09
so what if tpol was fuckin sexy dumbasses... she was fun, god dam i hate super nerds... this is why the world hate u stupid loosers.
u guys hate action, females, sex, in star trek... so u like boring? i dont get it.
02/11/09
"this is why the world hate u stupid loosers."
Just wanted to repost this part.
02/11/09
Mr. Braga? Your pathetic is showing. Sorry to sound harsh, but wow. This is your apology? A weird awkward comment about your ex-wife and her new man?
Ew.
02/11/09
02/11/09
Well for his sake I hope he was joking. But it doesn't seem that way.
02/11/09
02/11/09
I liked Enterprise, was surprised at the theme song, but after I LISTENED to the song, and realized how it expressed exactly what Star Trek was about (maybe only to me), it worked for me. I can only imagine that Gene would have loved it. He was a dreamer.
As a finale, the finale sucked.
02/11/09
The first version of the DS9 theme is still the best.
02/11/09
Fun fact: Jeri Ryan dumped her husband to be with Braga, which led to the divorce filing that destroyed her husband's Illinois senate candidacy -- paving the way for Obama to become a senator, and then president. Thanks, Brannon Braga!
02/11/09
So...the Borg got their candidate into the White House? Get Picard on the phone!
02/11/09
02/11/09
um, dumb-dumb, jeri's former husband forced her to essentially be a sex-slave. he would tie her up in his bondage room (doing freaky stuff), really against her fancy. he was also known to make her swing in swinger-ish parties as she reported.
don't defend that guy like he was a saint, he was bizarro marv albert times ten. of course, i'd probably wanna tie up jeri as well, but i wouldn't force her into it, and only make her a willing sex slave. still that guy was SHIT. she had to fight tooth and nail to get rid of that dirtbag. it wasn't like she went brad pitt and left for the next hottie to come along.
i hate braga and his work, and just dislike everything about him. he ruined everything he worked on, and i'm worried he'll ruin 24 as well. but bash him for his work, and not for having a boner for 7 of 9. we all wanted more 7 stories.
02/11/09
02/11/09
02/11/09
69 became such an important character because they could pick an outfit for her (catsuit and something like 6" highheels) that wasn't a Starfleet uniform, she was younger/prettier than any of the other female characters (assuming that people are turned off by bumpy face-makeup), and they could pick an outfit for her that wasn't a Starfleet uniform. Did I mention that they could pick an outfit for her that wasn't a Starfleet uniform? Because the fact that they put her in a catsuit and high heels (i.e. "sexed her up") surely had a _LOT_ to do with the fact that 69 became an instant hit with the average Trekkie, and that would explain why the writers ended up leaning extra hard on her body...er, I mean character, to help drive the series forward.
02/11/09
Which really hurt as Enterprise had a very good unexplored storyline staring them in the face the entire time. They could have built an entire series between Archer, T'Pol, and Shran. First steps into space for the humans. First steps towards creating the Federation. They could have built a good series there. There were thousands of storylines they could have developed.
02/11/09
But not everyone is like me.
02/11/09
02/11/09
Sure its nice to see 7 of 9 wearing absurd clothes to tickle my fancy, but I dont need people rubbing lotion on each other.
02/11/09
02/11/09
02/11/09
Bastard.
Actually, I really liked the final episode, where Rimmer tried to launch the bomb, but the laser had damaged it, and the ship was pregnant, and they were told to destroy the domes and come home, and ORAC tried to teleport them out, but they couldn't, because the Resurrection Hub had been destroyed, so Minmay started singing, and the Gohten-Go showed up to save the day, but it got pulled into The Nexus before it got there, and they were doomed, but it was OK, because Ladioss Sopp took the blue pill, and could save them using a plastic coat hangar, a used pair of odor eaters, and a frozen hamster, so they got into the escape pod hidden in the crate of hamdingers and made it home before Venkman could cross the streams-
*BOOM!*
{NO CARRIER}
02/11/09
02/11/09
02/11/09
02/11/09
02/11/09
Sure there was. That way he wouldn't have to endure the himiliation of being kicked to the curb while the two cheesiest TNG characters were given the final scene in current televised Star Trek history.