The Trek ends . . . .

[Cowperson]

For sci-fi fans, the two hour season finale for Star Trek: Enterprise is tonight.

After the two-hour finale airs tonight this will be the first time in 18 years that no first-run Trek series is on TV.

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovinc...7e-5f56731c2c97

I agree with critics that this franchise, and Gene Roddenbury's original vision, simply lost touch with an increasingly sophisticated and jaded audience.

While the idealized world of Star Trek dies, a competitor like Battlestar Galactica, with its flawed human's, sex, religious overtones, terrorism, and bleak outlook for the future, was the number one drama on American cable TV through the winter.

Star Trek died while another "Wagon Train To The Stars" thrived.

Its interesting to note that Battlestar Galactica is in fact, the vision of former Star Trek writers who now have the freedom to do what the tight Star Trek franchise had denied them, the pointed criticism something you can certainly see in this brief note from the creator.

http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/mini/about/intro/

The series for anyone interested:

http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/

Will anyone miss Star Trek?

Cowperson

[tjinaz]

I will miss it. The last few episodes, especially the evil universe two-parter, were very cool. I hope Sci Fi picks up the series like they did SG-1

[CaptainCrunch]

Its really kind of sad when you think about it. Star Trek could be considered a Cultural Icon in a lot of ways.

Starting on cheap wooden sets in the late 60's it redefined television, and gave people in a dire time a hope for the future.

(personally it was all about the green chicks for me)

The original series took a wink at itself and featured a strong and dynamic cast, and no matter what was going on backstage, they seemed to enjoy being in front of the camera.

The original series spawned 6 movies that did well at the box office (even though number 5 stunk like feet), and spawned the Next Generation, a show that I watched but wasn't fond of. It featured more diplomacy then exploration, and seemed to stumble and lose its way as it became the Data and Picard show, as the other characters basically became card board props. But it did create a villian unlike any other villian on T.V., the borg, a cybernetic race that functioned as a collective. What set them aside was the fact that they weren't evil, but singleminded in thier approach to improving life.

The next generation spawned DS9, which I was a fan of because it featured a darker more unstable Federation with flawed people and politics, and they went back to featuring a strong ensemble cast as opposed to featuring one or two characters. But the thing that set it apart for me was that the sets looked lived in, they were grubby, and looked like they barely functioned as opposed to the carpeted new car smell of the next generation.

In the mean time the Next Generation spawned 4 more movies that were absoulutly terrible, sadly missing strong writing and featuring pathetic villians that probably had trouble not zipping thier members into thier flys. Leaving a particular sour note in my mind was the dreck that was Nemisis, a poor execution of a even worse storyline.

DS9 gave way to Voyager, a show that had a good concept and a decent cast, but introduced a new concept to the concept, the hot chick in the tight jumpsuit. Again bad writing and implasible stories gave another body blow to the longest running franchise in T.V., and when they got desparate they gutted the Borg, making them into a tin pot error prone Marx brother society, whos catch phrase instead of being "You will be assimiliated" should have been "We are the Borg, pull some lame ass 4th grade scheme out and we'll fall for it"

Finally we get to enterprise, a show that is handicapped by the fact that people had been oversaturated by Trek, and were expecting to see the same lame time traveling mirror universe, everyone is flawed but us plot lines that had punched out the Trek Universe since NG came on the screen. You could verbally hear groans (or nerds doing something gross) everytime the now canon hot chick in spandex walked onto the screen. In the end, you just couldn't care anymore.

Sadly Enterprise did have something in common with the original series. When the original series was moved to Friday nights because of a scheduling conflict with laugh in Roddenberry threw up his arms and declared it to be the graveyard for bad T.V. shows. its kinda ironic that Enterprise ends its run on a Friday Night.

Whats even more scary is that there is a rumor of a new Star Trek movie being written as we speak, can we expect a return to the bad villians, impossible technical solutions out of nowhere, and stupid subplots revolving around a cast member falling in love with an alien who should not have the same genitalia, or a return to the fun explorations or a limitless universe, featuring a ensemble crew that almost seems to be winking at the camera.

Time will tell, but I'm hoping that they take the negatives of the NG, Voyager, Enterprise and all of the next gen movies and beam it into the Stars.

Wow what a rant

[Looger]

i hate to say it but star trek can never be what it was, ever again.

every movie or new series has expectations that destroy any creativity the writers may like to use.

the composition of the bridge crews, the 'star trek moments' ™, the expected this and expected that.

good riddance.

[ricosuave]

exactly. i for one am glad its gone. it jumped the shark round about star trek 4.

time for new ideas instead of hashing out old ones.

[Thunderball]

I'm gonna miss it, but I really think its weakness was poor leadership.

Give it a couple years, replace Berman and Braga, and it'll be good again. Battlestar Galactica is just a fad, a fad that would've been blown away by well-written Star Trek, like Enterprise's Season 4 is shaping up to be.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I'd agree with Thunderball, Berman and Braga are the cause of Star Trek's demise, not the franchise. No matter what they try and do to spice up the receipe it still tastes the same. I thought Enterprise would have a much different look and feel, which it did at the start, but it slowly morphed into it's old self.

People always fall into a Star Trek or Star Wars camp, and for me Trek has always had a little more of a reality based angle to it, rather than the pure fantasy of Star Wars. Probably because the TV series let them add some substance to the franchise, rather than 3 good movies, 2 bad ones, and some kids cartoons.

My favorite is still DS9 from Seasons 3-7. For all the reasons CC above said. The whole Dominion story line was fantastic, and was wrapped up beautifully. Sisko was one bad ass captain, at least him kicking the crap out of someone was believable, unlike Picard or Janeway.

I think Enterprise killed itself when they did that story arc when they were trapped in the Expanse. I know that's when I tuned out. Never even bothered to find out when new episodes were airing.

A new vision is what's needed. I think it might be interesting to explore some of the non ship / station based areas of the Star Trek universe. Star Trek Homefront perhaps?

[Envitro]

Galactica reminds me of Space: Above and Beyond, which was an awesome show. But, for me TNG will always be the best!

[tjinaz]

Space above and Beyond ruled. I still have the first 4 seasons of TNG on collector edition Video Cassette. Wasn't a big fan of Voyager, some DS9 was good other parts were quite lame although the Defiant was the baddest ship ever. I just recently started watching enterprise and except for the theme song it has been pretty good.

[Looger]

space above and beyond was great, which is why it had to go.

as for the defiant, it reeks of dungeons & dragons geeks one-upping each other,

'my fake dragon does a million hit points damage with its ice fire'

let's make a little cloaking ship that can kick total ass, with ships a thousand times its mass doing less. sure, ok.

star trek, lost in geekdom forever.

[Nehkara]

I will miss it.

Personally, my favourite series was DS9 and mostly because of the war... it was dirty and hard and there was a lot of terrorism and deception... some of the best Star Trek episodes came during that time.

However, anyone who thinks Star Trek is gone for good is not good friends with reality. There is already another Star Trek movie on the way although it is a few years off... and many believe that the "break" from Trek TV series will be no longer than 3 years.

Star Trek could really use something new though... and I'm not sure what it would be... as it is not my job to figure it out. I think going back to the beginning was not the smoothest move. I think they should have continued their push into the future with new ships, technologies, battles, wars, and new first contacts.

Another good idea could be placing a Star Trek series in the Academy, possibly red squad.

Also, not really in the vein of Star Trek at times, but I think that it would be interesting to see a series where the Federation is mostly defeated, only holding on to small scattered areas of their previous territory (perhaps the Sol system, Vulcan, and other nearby worlds).

There are places to go with Trek but perhaps now is a good time to step back and really look at the options and give people some time to get hungry for more.

[CaramonLS]

My interest with Star Trek died with The next generation, amazing series and the re-runs are still incredibly entertaining.

I tried watching DS 9, but that really that blew. Voyager was trash, and Enterprise was NEVER on, cept on A channel on sundays, which I'm never home for. Maybe it was good, never saw it.

[V]

I will never get sick of watching TNG re-runs. DS9 I thought was boring. Way too heavy on the political crap. That's not why I watch ST.

I enjoyed Voyager, and up until this season I enjoyed Enterprise.

Never watched the original live, but I've seen most of the re-runs and I enjoy it, even though Kirk drives me crazy. I just can't stand the emphasis he gives words.

For the most part the movies were just bad. What was the one with Picard and Kirk?? Generations, or something like that? That was god awful.

[Hack&Lube]

I don't understand how people can hate DS9. I think it's usually because they don't view the series as a whole especially the second half which features \ the most amazingly large-scale space battles and thick espionage, dark politics, as well as character and drama plots ever seen in Trek.

I consider DS9 the second best show after TOS. It's a series half-set in a brutal galactic war. The politics are great, the characters are even better.

I hated TNG and Voyager was just plain garbage. The problem was Berman and Braga created this completely boring, cliche, and Trek structure and Enterprise turned into Voyager all over again (oh really? Delphic Expanse doesn't equal Delta Quadrant? LOL).

The oniginal Trek just has a quality that can't be reproduced properly. It was always about the charaters and the stories...along the way those things were replaced by pastel plots and showing off technology. Stra Trek in TNG and espeically afterwards in Voyager just became: "oh well, we're in a fix, we'll just invent *technobabble* device and everything will be fixed".

The original Trek was just raw science fiction and character play at it's best. Nothing comes close to it. Everything else has been a pale imitation. Attempts and replicating elements from it just don't work...ie: the Vulcan or Unemotional Alien officer is just monotone and plain boring stick-the-rules guy or sexy babe in a tight outfit in Voyager and Enterprise. Leonard Nimoy as Spock in TOS...brough emotion and character into what was defined as an emotionless character...so much that it made you cry.

I think Walter Koenig said it best on CNN a few days ago that the rest of the cast could have been played by different actors, but Nimoy was unique. Nobody else could have been Spock that held the ship and even the triumvirate friendship of Kirk, Spock and McCoy together.

[BaronInEdmonton]

Its probably a common complaint. But I thought Star Trek (the spin offs) were always to light and feel good. The next generation always seemed to have problem that either Wesley or the human spirit could solve. DS9 and Voyageur were boring until they got dark in their later seasons. The Dominion War seasons were very good, but I don't think they ever finished it. Enterprise had some good stories, but always fell back onto happy endings. The 3 part WW2 episode, for example, someone goes back in time and changes history so the German's invade the US. It could have been great, but the ending just worked out so perfectly and easily that it totally turned me off from the series.

Same with the movies. Glorified two hour, after school special type, episodes.


Edit: spelling / grammar

[Hack&Lube]

Originally posted by BaronInEdmonton@May 14 2005, 01:31 AM
Its probably a common complaint. But I thought Star Trek (the spin offs) were always to light and feel good. The next generation always seemed to have problem that either Wesley or the human spirit could solve. DS9 and Voyageur were boring until they got dark in their later seasons. The Dominion War seasons were very good, but I don't think they ever finished it. Enterprise had some good stories, but always fell back onto happy endings. The 3 part WW2 episode, for example, someone goes back in time and changes history so the German's invade the US. It could have been great, but the ending just worked out so perfectly and easily that it totally turned me off from the series.

Same with the movies. Glorified two hour, after school special type, episodes.


Edit: spelling / grammar

The Dominion War ended, and pretty darkly in several spots. DS9 concluded very well.

Happy endings or reset buttons are the fault of Berman and Braga. Fortunately, they were too busy messing up Voyager and let Ira Stephen Behr do his own thing on DS9 during the later half.

I just watched the final episode of Enterprise. No wonder the cast of Enterprise hated it, they had their show and their finale goodbye stolen from them and it was twisted into some demented bas**rd child segment of the Next Generation Episode Pegasus.

And seriously...sure I guess they rebuilt some Ent-D sets, but the Turbolift is seriously wrong as is the observation lounge.

[Thunderball]

I think that "These are the Voyages" could've been an awesome stand-alone episode, with a few tweaks here and there (like not killing off a liked character needlessly). As the finale, it is just insulting to both the cast of Enterprise and the fans.

TOS is the greatest show ever devised as far as I am concerned, just way ahead of its time, funny, violent, sexual, intelligent and addressed social issues all at the same time... TNG was also pretty good, but got rather dry because of the utopian future. DS9 was instrumental in showing that humans really do still have a spine in the post-TOS future. Voyager was a crap fest, IMO, and Enterprise suffered from Voyager's leadership. Had Enterprise been as good as it was at the end in Season 1 or 2, it would never, ever get cancelled.

But rest assured, Trek will be back. Lets hope its not a ######ed TOS remake, cause no one can be Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy but the three that did so well before.

[calgaryred]

Growing up I loved watching the original Star Trek reruns and I will admit I started watching he last couple seasons of the next generation pretty much because my girlfriends father always watched it, so I kinda got hooked into the storylines after awhile. Once the next generation ended that was it I never really watched Deep Space Nine, Voyager or Enterprise it wasn't my thing. I saw the pilot for DS9 and thought it sucked. I heard of Voyager and Enterprise but never took an interest in watching them. I'm curious did those shows go off the air due to poor ratings or were they just to be short series. I will admit I love Star Wars to me they are the best movies ever made, as for Star Trek I respect the original series and next generation (though I haven't watched a full show since it went off the air) but it's not my bag baby.

[Cube Inmate]

Yeah, I'm digging up an old thread here (a whole day old), but Cowperson pointed out an interesting number:

For 18 YEARS now, we've had continuous Star Trek exposure. Now think about it -- it was 18 years between the end of TOS and the beginning of TNG. That's why it was so successful to start...because it was 18 years different from what fans had seen before. In that time, "the creators" had time to come up with fancy things like holodecks, almost-human androids, flat panel displays, and friendly klingons. Since 1987, there's really been nothing new...it's just evolved.

Maybe in another couple of decades, this could be revived with some new ideas about what things will be like in 200 or 400 years, depending on where they decide to set it, and we'll watch again.

As for me, I'll stick with ST II on DVD for my fix.

[Cube Inmate]

Originally posted by Hack&Lube@May 15 2005, 12:58 AM
And seriously...sure I guess they rebuilt some Ent-D sets, but the Turbolift is seriously wrong as is the observation lounge.

...and the impulse engines on the saucer section were ignited and shouldn't have been, and Marina Sirtis had lousy plastic surgery, and...

:geek: