In general it was just OK, though it seemed they had to throw in the sex to keep interest since the plot was pretty pedestrian.
Two minor nitpicks, one already covered.
The typical Star Trek confusion about individuals “evolving.”
IIRC the original series warp scale was W1 = 1c, W2 = 2c, W3 = 4c, W4 = 8C, W5 = 32c. The Klingon Empire was 4 days away. At Warp 5, that would only make it about 128 light days away. Nothing is this close to us.
I thought it was warp n = c^n.
Anyway, travel time is always different in the various series, poetic license and all that. Heck, Bran Stoker screwed in up in Dracula. 
I don’t normally give a hoot about Trek stuff, but I was over at a friend’s house last night, and they do. First off, who the hell thought Diane Warren could write their theme song? Yikes.
Second, the glitches threw off my friend’s TiVo recording. It couldn’t pick the stream up again, so we only saw up to the little kid having his asthma-ish problems. The vulcan chick was just starting to explain that when it died.
I can’t say I’m terribly excited to see the rest of it. My friends are horribly distraught. I just don’t get it.
He was raised on a transport ship. Probably also has at least a decade of experience at one helm or another.
I do recall a conversation about Chinese food but not the decontamination shower. Of course I wasn’t always paying complete attention to the show.
Loved it. The more Tiny Lester, the better. Can he join the crew? The two chinless men were hard to tell apart at first. I eventually got it: the engineer has NO chin, while the ensign has a WEAK chin. The captain’s chin could shingle a roof.
T’Pol is wondrous. If she keeps up all these breaches of protocol, someone is gonna have her ass.
Why did Archer stand there and watch his bomb explode? I’m guessing plot device, but Lord what a bonehead move.
GAAAK! Will someone please hand Brannon & Braga a friggin’ copy of one of Stephen Jay Gould’s books so they will learn what the hell “evolution” means?
and Rigel??? Archer didn’t know what Rigel is?? It’s a friggin’ blue-white giant in Orion, for Crom’s sake! It’s one of the brightest stars in the winter sky from Earth.
Anyhoo, I liked that Berman spent some FX money on the Suliban so they looked more alien than an actor with a putty nose, as is usually the case on Star Trek.
I also enjoyed the rubbing-with-gel-scene, although from a different perspective than most. Man, that Tripp is one muscular, blonde sumbitch! Plus Scott Bakula in his undies!
Woo-hoo!
My boyfriend called up during the scene with the Suliban spy, so I missed some crucial exposition. What information was the Klingon carrying in his DNA? Why did the Suliban want it?
The Suliban were messing with the Klingons and blaming it on factions within the Klngon empire to start a civil war.
I didn’t actually watch the thing, I’m trying to avoid anything with a “Berman” or a “Braga” attached to it. However, I did notice that our friends over at the Brunching Shuttlecocks have some ideas about this show.
Presenting:
Although we were never told why the Klingon messenger didn’t know his own message, and how those pictures in his genes communicated that message.
gobear, you’re calling Trip blond. I don’t see him as blond; to me he has brown hair, like the English guy who could be his twin.
And I don’t know why y’all keep going on about the Vulcan babe. I want to see the Japanese babe decontaminate herself. She may use some of my gel…
Oh, and KeithB, in James Blish’s novelizations of TOS it was established that warp speeds were equal to (n^3 * c), where n is the “warp factor.”
So Warp 1 = speed of light, Warp 2 = 8x speed of light,
Warp 5 = 125x speed of light.
I realize the books are non-canonical, but if you extrapolate from that to Warp 9 = 729c you get roughly the speed that would translate to Voyager needing 70+ years to get back from the Delta Quadrant under maximum warp. And Voyager, unfortunately, is canonical.
So given those parameters, how far from Earth was Kronos?
[sub]No, I am not a geek! Shut up![/sub]
It wasn’t a bomb. It was a magnetic disruptor. All of the ships on this city where held together by a magnetic field. The disruptor caused the field to dissapate and the ships to go flying everywhere.
To my ear, the guy in the funky time room sounded a lot like the Vulcan ambassador–the one played by Sikes from Alien Nation. If so, we’ve got a bit of a problem with a Vulcan faction. Couldn’t really tell for sure, though.
Overall, I thought the show looked more promising than previous ST series. The characters seemed more natural in general. T’Pol seemed a bit too human at times, but occasionally hit the Vulcan thing perfectly.
I’m actually glad that they have finally figured out that camera techonology has progressed to the point that they don’t have to flood-light every set. Variance in lighting makes for a much more interesting viewing experience.
I don’t watch Star Trek expecting to see science. There are other channels for that. I don’t get all wound up over captains not knowing names of stars (maybe it’s another star that someone else calls “Rigel”) or actual speeds of warp. I watch Star Trek for entertainment purposes only, and for that, it was fine. I’ll watch it again.
It wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be. Actually, I liked it well enough. Science and continuity errors? Of course. It’s Star Trek. But I didn’t find any of them too glaring.
A few thoughts…
Theme song: HATED it. My god! Lose that piece of crap!
The captain: It seemed a bit too obvious that they were trying to get away from the “intellectual” types of the later series’ and get back to a Kirk-style tough guy. Still, I guess I can live with it.
Vulcan chick: Rowr!
Goo scene: worked for me.
Time travel: stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid…
It was nice to see old Zephraim Cochran. Did anybody else notice he said “where no MAN has gone before.” I’ve always maintained that that is more correct (using it in the “mankind” sense), than the more PC “noONE has gone before.”
Now that would be cool! I always thought he would grow up to be some kind of crazy cosmic mad scientist supervillain.
Conclusion: I’ll watch the next one, anyway.
Make up budget and design in the original series. It is fiction guys.
Archer told Phlox that their passenger had to be on his feet within 80 hours. With the example above, the trip would be at least 10,000 light-hours. I remember Archer saying their speed in MPH but I forgot what it was, nor do I recall any mention of hitting warp 5. If my math is right, Kronos is at least 6,707,734 miles away.
Heh. Forgot to multiply by that 10,000.
Roger. My point was that he needed to get off the ship and instead he just stood there and pulled a Lord Of Illusions. I should know better than to write imprecisely in a thread where warp speed equations are being flourished.
Theme music sucked
Gel-rubbing scene totally gratuitious, not related to the plot, and obviously pandering – what is this, the WB?
He’s never heard of Rigel? You could fit what I know about astronomy (not to mention “astrometrics”) into a thimble, and I’ve heard of Rigel.
Grave reservations about the whole “we’re getting orders from the far future” thing.
Otherwise – I liked it. I’ll watch it again, though it’s too soon to tell if I’ll be making a point to watch it.
He reminded me of Mick Jagger.
Paint it, black.
I will agree that they crammed a lot into the first episode (first use of phasers, first human (or for that matter living) transport, time travel) but all in all it was still good.
The thing that annoyed me most, however, were the flashback scenes,
“Don’t be afraid of the wind, ride it.” or something stupid and corny like that. Ugh.
I did notice that the vulcan is essentially another Seven of Nine. I mean, she’s sexy, and likes logic. But, unlike Seven, she’s willing to show a little skin now and then as well as a skin tight body suit, hehe.
But for the love of God no more of that crappy theme song! I will wear down the mute button if that is used every show!
I rather liked it. I figured there’d be aspects of it I wouldn’t like (and there were), but expected something roughish 'cause its a Trek pilot. The UPN affilate here had just run a Next Gen marathon the other day and I watched Encounter at Farpoint Station and HOOBOY! did that suck! I would easily stick this pilot above that one.
I, for one, am not bothered in the slightest by the ridge headed Klingons. They didn’t have the budget and skill in the 60s to have elaborate makeup, but they do now…so why kvetch? (I know they tried to “explain” it in the movies and used the older looking Klingons, but I don’t neccessarily agree with that). In the same light, I don’t have any problem with the instruments looking more advanced than the TOS.
If you remain true to the spirit of what you’re trying to do, the window dressing isn’t entirely important.