Ho-hum. I had high hopes for this show. I love Star Trek:TNG, Quantum Leap, even some of Voyager… But, ugh, as soon as that theme song hit…
The timing of the editing seemed pretty off to me… kinda got that same feeling I get when watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture. (i.e. “Okay… so, uh, when’s something gonna happen?”)
The action scenes… um, I couldn’t see them 'cause it was too dang dark.
Personally I think that the Suliban’s leader will be the Emperor. Looked just like Darth Vader talking to the Emperor! (I heard a rumor that Darth Sidous’s secret identity is the Suliban leader - who would’ve guessed?!) And the little pod they flew in looks like a detached cockpit to the Millenium Falcon!
Anyway, seemed like a sub-par Star Trek plot with a new, albeit cool lookin’ aesthetic. I want more character development, dang it! “Generic Klingon #2” isn’t cutting it for me.
I hope hope hope hope it gets better. And they get rid of the theme song.
I think it was the best Trek since TNG, if you don’t count the tiny handful of DS9 episodes that were quite good.
So he doesn’t know the name Rigel. So what? Maybe he just knows it as “Star #314159” or something.
The man on Rigel either spoke English or spoke a language that was recognized by their translators. This language was not necessarily Rigellian. Perhaps he’s quite the traveler and visits many planets?
I didn’t think the show was too dark at all. Seemed about right to me. Maybe my reception is screwy though.
Hey, look on the bright side. Nobody flew over a console panel as sparks flew.
I read the deal with the Ensign instructing them how to fly the alien ship as him knowing more alien technology cuz he grew up all over the galaxy. They made a big point of bringing that up previously - I don’t remember the exact story, but basically his parents were in some line of work that made it necessary for him to have spent time on lots of alien worlds. Because of this, he was more familiar with the alien technology. Am I the only one who made this leap?
The goo rubbing scene was completely gratuitous. Even Mr. Athena thought it was overboard. As was the theme song - if I have to listen to that every week I’ll have to become very intimate with the mute button.
I, took, got the glitch and the computer code. Weird.
I liked it. It had its flaws, but nothing that I thought was a real deal-breaker. For me, the only real groaners were the gratuitous stuff put in there just for the sexiness factor.
I too thought that the gel scene was a bit much - so they were infected with someting… I guess that ‘something’ can’t live in hair or get UNDER underwear, huh? With the camera shots they used I thought I was watching one of those ‘body wash’ commercials…
My main nitpick was with the pictures on the wall… Should there even BE a space shuttle Enterprise in the Trek universe? Wasn’t the original shuttle Enterprise named that after a campaign by Trek fans? I know that Shatner, and the crew were at the dedication/rolling out ceremony…
Actually, before they went down, the Vulvan said she programmed them with Rigelian, since Vulvans have been there before.
I hate the theme song, it breaks tradition. All other theme songs were cool orchestrated things. But the montague of stuff was cool, especially the scene of The Phoenix from First Contact.
Oddly enough, there was no glitch in the feed for me.
As for the show itself…eh. It seems that the Starfleet doctrine of “all bridge officers (and the Chief Engineer) must leave the ship, together, at every opportunity” was in place from the beginning. Oh, and “the Captain must demonstrate his Manliness and authority by assuming all of the most dangerous missions himself.”
Liked it in general. There were annoying bits, most of which have already been mentioned (LOSE THE THEME MUSIC, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD), but mostly I thought it wasn’t half bad. I won’t compare it to the other Trek shows overall, but I will compare the pilots – thought it blew Voyager’s pilot out of the water, was slightly better than DS9’s pilot, and was about on par or slightly worse than TNG’s pilot (which gets mega bonus points for the inclusion of Bones…although MrWhatsit points out that Enterprise’s pilot did have Zephram Cochrane, so that’s sort of a draw).
Because it’s the first episode, I’m willing to cut it a LOT of slack. It seems like most Trek shows need a year at least to really hit their stride, and I thought this was a fine effort. The porno scene with the Vulcan chick was fun, although totally unnecessary, and I do agree with everyone else that the Vulcans sure did seem to be showing a lot of emotion, but I also thought they did a pretty good job of fleshing out the characters and giving us a nice action-based story to follow. Although, how are they going to pad out their quota of shows for the season without the holodeck?!?
Anyway…I’ll be watching again next week. (Thank God it doesn’t conflict with West Wing.)
Vulvans?! Now those are some aliens I want to meet!!!
The Rigel thing bugged the shit out of me, too. In fact, I looked at my wife, and said, “There is no way in hell that someone who has, apparently, dreamed his entire life of going into space, and has probably had to learn some stellar navigation, doesn’t know what Rigel is.” For crying out loud, it’s the second brightest star in Orion, probably the most recognized constellation in the northern sky besides the Big Dipper.
The “more evolved” line hit me, too. A dumb line, and the writers probably didn’t even know why it’s dumb.
It did seem like they were trying to do too much in the first episode: “Look, the first Klingon! Look, the first phasers! Look, the first time the transporter is used on a person!” Pace yourselves, guys, unless you aren’t optimistic about having a long running series.
I thought the Future Dude giving the Suliban orders looked vaguely like he was wearing a TNG-era Starfleet uniform.
Very minor nitpick: When Archer said “I’ve never seen lightning in a snowstorm,” I thought “You’ve obviously never been to New Jersey.” I’ve seen it!
I did like the show, but as has been pointed out, there is room for improvement. Most of the secondary characters were not defined enough, but you can’t do everything in two hours.
No. What she said was that she programmed their sensors to detect Rigellian life signs, so they coulf filter them out and look for the Suliban and Klingon. She said nothing about translation.
I think my local UPN affiliate stuck in extra commercials.
Did anyone see Phlox ask Archer about Chinese food? or tell Archer that T’Pol and the engineer had to decontaminate in the shower?
“You raise your voice when you don’t get your way? Not very Vulcan of you.” BWAH HAH HAH! Loved that.
I was very disappointed that they couldn’t go one freakin’ episode without introducing time fufu stuff. Bleh.
I had the ugly feeling that the guy from the future was Q.
I also thought it was hilarious when the bad guy warned Archer not to use his weapon, then he used the weapon and got knocked ass over teakettle. Every other time somebody’s been warned about that (hello? Insurrection?), it’s been a bluff.
Personally, I liked the beginning. The tensions between the humans and Vulcans was nice. I was looking foreward to watching the humans clash cultures with the greater galactic community and it was set up well.
But then we got this plot which was, frankly, pretty standard by-the-numbers stuff. Plus my biggest complaint:
They started the fucking Time Travel shit already!
Sorry 'bout that.
A few other things.
I liked most of the secondary characters including the Communications Officer and Dr. Phlox (so sue me).
Didn’t like the theme music - did like the credit visuals.
The gel-smearing scene. The word “gratutious” does spring to mind. However, I’d like to add the word “patronizing”.
I thought that the episode shows that the series has potential. I don’t care to do any nitpicking since it isn’t going to help, and I was entertained. Face it, there are some difficulties in making the show look older than TOS, yet more modern than today.
I also liked the gratuitous gel smear scene.
I think that the person from the future, giving the Suliban orders is a Romulan.
Hmm, I like that. The Romulan War is coming up.
However, that gives them the chance to change time. Just as the Borg were known of earlier due to time travel in “First Contact”, the Romulans who were not seen during the War (TOS…dammit, I’n not enough of a geek to remember which episode) be seen due to this future guy and give Archer & crew new bad guys.
