# Enterprise Future Tense Spoilers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065 "2003-02-19T04:34:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/61 "2003-02-21T15:32:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > **So given all of that, if in some parallel universe I were handed the assignment of writing _Future Tense_, here’s what I’d do.** … I’d have the Tholians use their web generators! Why bother showing Tholians if they don’t spin webs? Pah! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/62 "2003-02-21T15:34:44Z")
That’s called the reset button, Cervaise, and fans hunt writers down and kill them for it. ^:)^ You’re right, shoulda waxed the Vulcans. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/63 "2003-02-21T15:40:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Achernar \* > \*\*Because the Suliban would have fought for the ship until they died. \*\* I guess I’m getting some kind of double standard here. The Suliban are ugly, so you can kill them. You can’t kill humans and Vulcans because they look like us. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/64 "2003-02-21T15:56:16Z")
No, I think it’s because the (getting into some sociology here) the Suliban have been defined as ‘other’ or ‘different’ while the Vulcan’s are defined as ‘self’ or ‘same’ in the context of the show. It’s almost always OK to visit disaster on ‘other’ in western fiction. The reader isn’t _supposed_ to feel compassion for them as they’re perceived as ‘non-human’ or ‘non-self’. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/65 "2003-02-21T15:59:25Z")
**Cervaise** you really hit upon my problems with this ep - and what little of Enterprise I have seen. I can’t convince myself to care about a show that has such crappy science/common sense. Couldn’t they at least wear some respirators of something? Then add on the reckless climbing around inside the thing. Plus, somehow or another they KNOW that box is the only thing in there worth checking out. They sure were good at opening hatches and such. Love the line posted above about plugging the cellphone into an ox! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/66 "2003-02-21T16:00:01Z")
You expressed that much better than I, Chance. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/67 "2003-02-21T16:11:16Z")
Yeah, but you’re cuter. ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/68 "2003-02-21T16:41:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > **My biggest problem with the show was during the first half, the sloppy containment and investigation procedures. It’s summed up by the moment where they crank open the future ship’s hatch, and Archer, with his face right by the opening, wrinkles his nose at the bad smell.** Heh, remember the Firefly ep “Bushwhacked” where Dr. Tam was told to go into the derelict ship with a suit on and he was completely terrified until he runs into the Serenity crew and they are standing around and laugh at him? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/69 "2003-02-21T17:28:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kasuo \* > \*\* standing around and laugh at him? \*\* That was part of the “Jayne is an Asshole” buildup, where not only did we all think Reynolds was going to suborbitally defenestrate him, some of us _wanted_ him to. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/70 "2003-02-21T18:52:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > **That’s called the reset button, Cervaise, and fans hunt writers down and kill them for it.** Sort of, but not really, because there are actual consequences. It doesn’t reset everything to exactly the way it was before; now we know stuff the characters don’t, and we can anticipate plot twists of which Archer & Co. will be ignorant. If handled correctly, I think it would have been a mind-blower. As it is, the episode was merely decent. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/71 "2003-02-21T20:38:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > No, I think it’s because the (getting into some sociology here) the Suliban have been defined as ‘other’ or ‘different’ while the Vulcan’s are defined as ‘self’ or ‘same’ in the context of the show. Okay, my answer to this question was the answer given _within_ the plot, not why the writers wrote it like they did, if that makes sense. I agree that the chief reason that it was written that way was not to make it more believable, but I don’t think it’s as extreme as all that. Where are you getting this definition of _other_ and _different_ idea? The reason it’s okay to kill Suliban soldiers is because they’re the bad guys! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/72 "2003-02-21T20:55:41Z")
And the bad guys are ugly and mean, like the Indians in 50’s Westerns. This doesn’t go along with the Suliban Archer rescued from the camp, however. Cervaise: Mrs. Plant would throw objects at the televsion, and I haven’t paid for it yet. If Mr. Wolfe were writing Enterprise, your idea would be great. Actually, he probably would have written it that way. There is a large fan base that get really, really teed off at what is best described as “the loss of character development” in the so-called reset button stories. Perhaps Mrs. Plant describes it best when she says “I hate it when it’s a dream”. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/73 "2003-02-21T22:15:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > And the bad guys are ugly and mean, like the Indians in 50’s Westerns. Re: ugly. I’ll accept this as half-true. Villains have to be able to inspire fear when it’s called for, so making them look ugly to a certain extent is reasonable for a story writer. But _Enterprise_ is not like the _Lost in Space_ movie, where cute = good and ugly = bad; remember the Axanar from “Fight or Flight”? Not exactly comeliness incarnate. Re: mean. Well, yeah. That’s part of what makes them bad guys. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/74 "2003-02-21T22:25:00Z")
I want an episode where Suliban are eating babies, and then Archer and T’Pol have a kid, but the Suliban eat it, and Archer goes all “I am the Angel of Death” and starts killing Suliban left and right, and his captain’s chair is built on a pile of Suliban skulls. And then Worf shows up. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/75 "2003-02-21T22:30:58Z")
Suliban skulls wouldn’t make a good chair, since their skeletons are apparently rubber. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/76 "2003-02-21T22:41:56Z")
The bounciness would absorb some of the impact of the random weapons fire our heroes get every week. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/77 "2003-02-22T00:06:31Z")
Calm yourselves. The squishy/bouncy aspect was done by Future Guy for his minions, not all the Suliban. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/78 "2003-02-22T00:37:37Z")
Who is Future guy anyhow? I heard some banter way back about it being Lor. Any guesses? ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/79 "2003-02-22T00:44:11Z")
Future Guy is W! Or Jackie Chan. Now that would be cool… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065/80 "2003-02-22T01:03:34Z")
What would really freak people out is have Future Guy played by William B. Davis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enterprise-future-tense-spoilers/156065.md?page=5)