Yeah, I know. But to add a small morsel of plausibility to the implausibility, I’m willing to bet that the word for “ship” would be relatively common in a ship’s log. “Distress” is pushing it.
Well, I liked it. Many criticisms of the pilot episode noted the fact that everything seemd too easy – that these people weren’t any more awed by the mysteries of space travel than the TNG crew was. This episode answered that critique handily. The crew doesn’t have a standard operating procedure. And why should they? The only First Contact they’ve really made before was with the Vulcans, and that was done on Earth soil. I enjoyed seeing all of them, including Archer, waver and second-guess their own decisions. I hope to see this improve over the next season or two, but it shouldn’t get fixed overnight.
–Cliffy
P.S. Upon a fourth hearing, I have now begun to appreciate the theme.
Be careful you don’t get banned for channelling Dr. Smith (“O the pain, the pain!”) from Lost in Space instead of Spock (“PAIN!”)
God, I am such a geek.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Dinsdale *
**
Okay, they’ve had this universal translator thingie since 1969 or 98 or whenever Star Trek was first on TV. Theirs has gone white side up and NOW you’re complaining?
Next you’ll be whining about faster than light travel.
Get a grip.
^:)^
I see your point, but I disagree. You don’t send a starship out into the cosmos without thinking thru the possibility of a first-contact situation. Let’s have some organization, people! You’ve got a “Star Fleet.” You’ve got admirals. You’ve got the best and brightest, representing humanity on an epochal mission of exploration. You don’t leave anything to chance.
Of course, a show about a space mission as thoroughly planned as an Apollo or STS flight, for example, might get boring week after week. But there should be some indication of pre-planning on the part of those brainiacs back in San Francisco.
What type of warheads were they using?
What would nukes look like going off in a vacumn?
I thought it was okay for a second episode. However, TOS’s best episodes were its first 13, before Shatner’s head swelled and he started throwing his weight around.
Berman and crew seem to require several episodes to work out the bugs before they hit their stride. Give 'em some more time before we hang 'em, says I.
I STILL hate the theme song. It’s like Muzac with lyrics.
–CAUTION: Take poster’s opinions with a grain of salt. She actually does like Voyager.–
The theme song sounds very, very familiar to me. I’m pretty sure it’s a clip from a song that was actually on the radio at some point.
Someone postulated (jokingly) that Hoshi might be an ancestor of Wesley Crusher…gods I didn’t realize that the “irritating” gene got stronger through breeding.
But it has Quantum Leap Guy. Good ol’ Quantum Leap Guy. Unfortunately, I keep thinking he’s just leaped into the body of a Star Fleet captain for this episode.
You do realize that there actually was a character named Yoshi in DS9, right? He was Miles and Keiko O’Brien’s son, the one that was carried by Kira.
Don’t read too much into this. It’s a Sci-Fi convention - have you seen a movie/show that DIDN’T do this? When you put someone into a helmet w/ a plastic/glass visor, you will have too much reflection from the studio lights to see the actors’ faces. Thus the lights on the inside.
So it seems that many people are frustrated with Hoshi’s innate ability to pick up a language. Why is it more reasonable to have a universal translator that automatically makes every race sound as though it speaks english? Have you ever seen a computer speak english? It seems to me that it is more difficult to get a computer to interpret language than it is to have a person do it.
Can you imagine what these episodes would be like if they had no ability to communicate? I think they have to do something or the episodes would be too dry for your average person to enjoy.
It seems to me that Vulcans are magnets for potentially infectious agents. It would only be prudent of the crew to send T’Pol through the decon unit at least once maybe twice an episode. I mean I’ll give them the faster than light travel and all that, but some things you just can’t write your way around without making it too unbeleivable.
I would gladly offer my assistance in these scenes. You know, for the benifit of the show. I mean she can’t be expected to rub that oily gue all over herself. How would she ever get the small of her back?
Oh yeah, that theme song sucks.Of all the self-sacrificing, altruistic gestures I’ve seen, this one is…I am at a loss for woeds.
WAG: Maybe they were trying to say that Klingons use different terms when addressing different people? Traditional Japanese, I believe, was spoken differently if you were a man than if you were a woman, and a number of languages have “formal” and “familiar” speech patterns.
It hasn’t been a problem all these years because the UT rarely called attention to itself. It’s when they belabor the issue, as in “Fight or Flight”, that the absurdity of instantaneous translation becomes too much to swallow.
Having seen the 2nd episode, I can now offer my $.02. Hoshi’s language business was atrocious, for the reasons stated above. However, I appreciate seeing her confront her cowardice, rather than letting that be her established character. Well done, I must say.
I also like the ominous sense of “over our heads” both when Enterprise fled the alien ship the first time, and when later outmatched by the yet-unidentified hostile race. There’s more of an “in the wilderness” tone here than anything Voyager ever mustered.
Sadly, the helmsman and weapons guy are still bland ciphers. The Vulcan needs to get blown out an airlock. Thankfully, the doctor is not nearly as irritating as I feared he would be.
All in all, much better than I expected. I am still bothered by the fact that this ship of exploration does not have a designated scientist (just an ambassador who’s the designated technobabble-spouter). A voyage of discovery – like Magellan, Captain Cook, or Lewis & Clark – ought to have a scientist to describe the novel findings. Indeed, had I been making the show, this scientist would have been the central character (then again, I have been reading Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle lately).
That said, I feel no further need to criticize the show after each episode.
Well, I for one can’t wait to see Tripp in his delicate condition next week.
ObPython:“Where’s the foetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box??!!”
Can we talk episode 3? or should we start a new thread? I’m inclined to keep it here until the thread gets too unwieldy as defined by a mod.
That’s one real stupid crew they got there. Hell, that’s one stupid Starfleet they’ve got there. It’s been 100 years since the Vulcans arrived, they’ve been working on this ship and its engine since Archer was a kid, and nobody came up with some suggestions about what to do when exploring a strange new planet?
But that might also explain the ‘you were given hallucinogenic drugs in training’ line… and still being unable to recognize an altered mental state.
My son screamed, “You idiot” when the guy sniffed the flowers. Said something about learning ebtter than that in cub scouts.
And they didn’t even lose a red shirt!
Did the pollen come from the flower the guy sniffed or did it blow down from the mountains as they suggested? Maybe both.
How long have they been in space? Archer said three weeks and Trip said six, but Trip was stoned.
Archer: Mr. Trip, did you bring enough for everyone?
Trip: I didn’t know there would be this many!
Anyone else notice that T’Pol was acting more Vulcan like in this episode. I think she’s starting to get a handle on her caharcter. I’m beginning to like this series, and yes let these guys make the stupid mistakes after all there are no real protocols yet.
New lesson this week: we now know what the M in M class planet stands for.