TOS was, by today’s standards, crap. But for then it was cutting edge to have social commentary in a transplanted Western shoot 'em up and with characters that you cared about to boot. I am old enough (but barely) to have watched it the first time round.
TNG was special. A few stellar performers and some real good stories once they hit their stride.
DSN had its moments but in the attempt to make the future Federation a little less ideal they lost their focus and ended up getting a bit odd. I did like the way they seriously considered religion, spirituality, and religious institutions as meaningful entities though. And the Ferenghi humor. And they respected canon, referenced it even.
Voyager got good once they got SevenofNine. She brought an acting skill that they could write for.
Enterprise? I watch it. But I was expecting more from the writers. It was going to be fun to see how they showed how established canons came to be. What brought about the prime directive? What surprise twists could they come up with that did not leave the form of where we knew they had to end up? Then they ignored the rules of that game. And the characters I might care about aren’t given much to work with or developed in any interesting way. Okay, they’ve done a little with T’Pol but far from enough. No follow through on Hoshi’s initial phobias. Or on Malcolm’s death wish. Really just Archer sliding down the slope of any means is justified by the ends. Well, at least he didn’t take pictures. No focus. No message. None of TOS’s optimism for the nature of humanity or for the future. I hope they do not waste the chance to make this year a little bit better.
Enterprise isn’t as bad as Voyager, which is nice. But it’s not as good as DS9, so it’s simply not good enough. After DS9, I am a lot more demanding in regards to Star Trek, and those worthless hacks Berman and Braga don’t have a third of the talent of Ira Steven Behr and Ronald Moore, so this show will never be good enough for me.
Plus, it’s a continuity disaster. Berman doesn’t give a flying flip about continuity – but I do. I will not be insulted by a show that can’t even bother to stick to the most basic rules of continuity. You can bend continuity a few times, in extreme circumstances. But on Enterprise, they never even give continuity a chance, always going for the easy, but contradictory, option.
I watched the first half of the first season, and a few episodes of the second. The show had its chance with me, but now I hold it with the same disdain that I hold Voyager.
Enterprise and Voyager have made me, a lifelong Star Trek fan who still has a model of the NCC-1701 on my dresser in my bedroom, wish that Star Trek would simply go away. That’s sad.
I was also hoping for a more Kirk-like captain. I haven’t seem more than 10 or so episodes, but in general didn’t act much different from a TNG-era Federation captain.
Plus, it’s a continuity disaster. Berman doesn’t give a flying flip about continuity – but I do. I will not be insulted by a show that can’t even bother to stick to the most basic rules of continuity. You can bend continuity a few times, in extreme circumstances. But on Enterprise, they never even give continuity a chance, always going for the easy, but contradictory, option.QUOTE]
Well said!
Also I have to disagree with the poster who said TOS was crap by today’s standards. It is different from today’s standards in that it was comprised of relatively self contained stories. Yeah, remember when a writer actually had to be able to create and resolve a story in 48 minutes? Not pad it out (to a whole season). Or worse, have two marginally interesting stories and blend them together. Sorry, that is what’s known as a SOAP OPERA! F- that!
They blew a big chance. Archer has an inexperienced crew, a weak ship a NO ONE to call for help, it’s a big galaxy. The siatuation calls for a Kirk (or that captain from Firefly) instead we have an idealistic idiot that can’t zip his uniform. Without much thinking I can come up with better stories that those hacks (that will rename forever nameless).
Also the crew behaves like if they belonged to the Federation. I would like to see marines, it’s a tough universe.
Hoshi wears too much clothes (whatever happened to the skirts).-
Mayweather is still alive. Someone needs to dress him with a red shirt and send him to a “routine” mission.-
I would like to see the show more focused with earth. What things changed with the arrival of the Vulcans.
Did I say that Hoshi wears too much clothes? Doesn’t matter it’s worth repeating
DS9 is my favorite series and I agree with you in regards to Behr & Moore/Berman & Braga but I just wanted to point out that Berman was the executive producer or DS9 as well. It wasn’t a wholly different creative team.
That just shows that with the right writers (he was also co-executive producer during TNG’s later years), Berman can be quite good. Braga has proven nothing though.
I don’t “hate” Enterprise – I’m just bored with it. I put it on occasionally, mainly because there isn’t anything else worth watching, but I don’t really sit there and watch it - it’s just on and I glance at it every now and then in hopes something or someone interesting comes along. (Or see Trip running around in his underwear.) I’m bored with the whole Xindi plot and wish they’d move on to something else. The sets are dark and depressing, and I’ve hated T’Pol from the get-go. I think now that they tried to capture an audience with all the sexual innuendo (skimpy outfits and rubbing each other down in the decon chamber and T’Pol’s catsuit), but that isn’t going to hold anyone’s interest for long.
I’ve thought from the start that it had a lot of potential but weren’t using the characters to the max. I don’t like Archer (Bakula) , although I liked Bakula in other shows. I like Phlox – a lot of humorous moments with him, but in general I just don’t give a rat’s ass at this point.
Berman was mostly uninvolved with the day-to-day functioning of DS9 after the end of the second season. That’s when the show really took off. The man is a creative void, a moon that only reflects the light of others.
He did, however, go to bat with Paramount for what Behr and his team put together – including the controversial serializing of the show in Seasons 6 and 7. Berman deserves credit for fighting the good fight there.
I liked TOS okay when I was kid, because it was pretty much the only sf on television. That alone made it different enough to be interesting, although I don’t much enjoy it as an adult. TNG was cool because it was basically a more competent interpretation of the same basic idea used in TOS. Not a great show by any stretch, but certainly enjoyable.
DS9 had characters that resembled actual humans, a story line with some real depth to it, and a setting that was quasi-believable. It was the single most original show ever done with the Star Trek name, even if it was stealing pretty liberally from B5. I really liked that show, and hoped it was the model for future Trek shows.
Then came Voyager, which was a retread of TNG with less interesting characters. It sucked. And then Enterprise, which was yet another retread of TNG, with even blander characters. It sucked as hard, if not harder. Frankly, I’m sick of the entire “Boldly go where no man has gone before” schtick. It’s dull. Somebody wake me up when someone does something interesting with the Trek franchise again.
