• Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:

    1. The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
    2. Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration

    Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I'm watching Enterprise, for the second time. I tried the show some years ago, enjoying it, but also having lots of problems with it. I just was really annoyed by the crew, especially at the beginning, where they are so careless, and ignore T'Pols valuable insights all the time. I also had only access to the first two seasons, so this is still the only Old Trek that I haven't watched completely.

I'm at episode four now, where the crew finds a planet that looks inhabitable.
While Archers first impression was really bad, he and the other human crew members aren't as obnoxious as I remember. They are still too gung-ho, but they also are competent (considering the setting) and somewhat careful, if they not just find a new planet, or something.

I do see more clearly now, how T'Pol is hard to deal with, and just way too careful. This is clearly not the Federation of the Kirk-, or even the Picard-era, being mainly driven bay carefulness.

The setting is pretty cool. I really like the conflict between the Vulcans and the Humans. I vaguely remember that they don't do enough with it, but it'interesting for now. And seeing Humans being afraid of teleporters and similar things are nice details.

I really like Phlox.

I don't like, how the show started with an action scene at the very beginning, and the sronger focus on action in the pilot felt like a sign of how TV in general had changed in the early 00's. Everything is darker (not atmospherically, just the lighting on the ship) and the cameras aren't fixed in place anymore, the have always a light shaking to them. But it also feels somewhat in tone with the way DS9 had developed. And we seem to desperately needed to make Trek mire adult, so there is this stupid scene in episode 3, where Trip and T'Pol have to apply stuff to their skin, and are half naked.

Please don't do that ever again, shoe. Me not want.

Also, episode for is a callback to The Naked Truth/Now, isn't it? First, someone tells a ghost story about someone who behaved like a member of the crews in both episodes. And then people are getting paranoid. It was also way better than both older episodes.

The whole show is actually off to a strong start. Looking foward to more, especialle the second half.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Change of Heart - I found this to be an episode that is largely lackluster but I appreciated the last act. Specifically all the stuff with them wandering through the forest left me cold but the fall out and Worf choosing his wife over a mission, which leads to a man's death, is decent stuff. Good stuff in the last bit but I didn't really care for the stuff leading up to it.

Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night - Now that's a title. Anyway, a pretty good Kira episode as she struggles with her feelings towards her mother. I kind of wasn't looking forward to a Dukat-centric time travel episode but I like that despite the "don't mess with the timeline warnings" that never come into play. And I feel that works well with Kira who doesn't seem like the person who follows rules if she sees someone suffering in front of her. Its not the strongest Kira episode but I feel like she gets to see her mother differently, both the good and the bad.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
Still watching Enterprise, still enjoying it way more than expected. I do have one question, and I had it for years: Why do people dislike the intro so much. I find it to be very fitting for Star Trek, this pure, unapologetic optimism.

Is it the lyrics? Is it too cheesy? Or does anyone else also like it?
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Or does anyone else also like it?
I like it a lot! However, that changed when (extremely mild spoiler about the opening song) they slightly change the instruments in season 3 onward. I think all they did was make it fully acoustic instead of partially electric instrumentation, but now I don't actually let the credits play if I can help it :(
 

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
Still watching Enterprise, still enjoying it way more than expected. I do have one question, and I had it for years: Why do people dislike the intro so much. I find it to be very fitting for Star Trek, this pure, unapologetic optimism.

The music is shmaltzy John-Cougar-Mellancamp-by-way-of-Marc-Cohn Heartland Rock, with lyrics that could easily be a Support Our Troops ballad.
 
Glad you're giving ENT another try and are liking it better this time, Felix. It's not remotely a perfect show, but it's got a lot going for it and a lot of people pass/ed it over when it deserves better.
I don't like, how the show started with an action scene at the very beginning, and the sronger focus on action in the pilot felt like a sign of how TV in general had changed in the early 00's. Everything is darker (not atmospherically, just the lighting on the ship) and the cameras aren't fixed in place anymore, the have always a light shaking to them.
This is one of those things where context matters I think. ENT was one of the first shows broadcasted in HD, widescreen. So the whole show you can just tell that they're trying to figure out how to even make a TV show in HD in the first place. They're blazing new trails and doing a lot of stuff that doesn't quite work in the cinematography department, but some stuff does. But they're also beginning to do a lot of neat stuff too that wouldn't have been possible in previous Star Treks with regards to scene composition and using digital models. There's a point late in the show where the Enterprise flies over NYC in an air battle and it's super majestic and it just would have been impossible earlier in the franchise's history. And since this is the first fulltime-CGI ship in the franchise, it's a lot easier for the show to do things like, have crew members standing out on the hull to get a better feel for how massive these ships are, or do camera tricks that would have been impossible with conventional models and physical cameras. But they don't go to the extremes that the Abrams movies do with regards to cameras that move so fast that you can't even tell what's going on. It's this nice medium that unfortunately media in general doesn't understand how to handle.

Re: the theme song - I like the song! It's not gonna work for everyone, but it works for me. The "problem" with it IMO is:
- It's not a "traditional" Star Trek opening, and the only thing Star Trek fans hate more than Star Trek is change.
- It's got lyrics, which is never gonna make a lot of people happy. There was a shift in the 80s and 90s where TV shows stopped having lyrics in their opening songs because Americans think they're corny, and ENT decided to go against the grain on that to predictable results.

I think Buge's got a point and I'm not trying to slander anyone's opinions, but I think the above two points are big motivating factors for a lot of Star Trek fans.
 

Rascally Badger

El Capitan de la outro espacio
(He/Him)
I watched "Trials and Tribble-ations" today. I did not expect Bashir to try to a Fry and become his own grandfather, but maybe I should have.
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
I'm five episodes into TOS season 3, and maybe it earns its reputation later, but so far it's not nearly the wreck people have claimed. There are absolutely s1-2 episodes as poorly written as Spock's Brain and as problematic as The Paradise Syndrome (and even then, the Enterprise half of that episode is great). Does it get worse? Is it just the lack of any standout episodes that get cited as TV classics?
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
When I watched S3 of TOS a few years back, I didn't think the quality was lower than before. It was a very even show to me. There were a few more silly premises, but I always had fun with the show.

I just thought, back then, it's kust fans being fans.
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
My dad had a TOS-themed After Dark screen saver + sound effects pack on Windows 3.1, and it's been fun seeing what episodes it pulled from on my first full view-through. Here's 10 minutes of the Tholian Web:


My introduction to TOS was actually the movies, the two MS-DOS adventure games, and this screen saver, with very little experience with the actual series. So this has been an interesting viewing experience, retro-engineering pieces of the show I picked up from elsewhere.
 
I'm five episodes into TOS season 3, and maybe it earns its reputation later, but so far it's not nearly the wreck people have claimed. There are absolutely s1-2 episodes as poorly written as Spock's Brain and as problematic as The Paradise Syndrome (and even then, the Enterprise half of that episode is great). Does it get worse? Is it just the lack of any standout episodes that get cited as TV classics?

I also found it to be basically the same quality as seasons 1 and 2, which are also extremely uneven. Season 3 even has its share of classics, and because of its undeserved poor reputation there's a better chance you'll get to view them without already having absorbed the gist of them through cultural osmosis.
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
It's tough to put my finger on why, but it also feels the most like later Trek of any of the three seasons. Maybe because the crew's personalities are better developed by this point and Kirk isn't always front and center.
 
You probably already know this, but if you're enjoying your time with TOS and have room for a little more after finishing season 3, The Animated Series is a worthwhile continuation. I thought it would really feel like a kids' show but mostly it was just TOS episodes that happened to be animated and 20 minutes long.
 
I thought it would really feel like a kids' show but mostly it was just TOS episodes that happened to be animated and 20 minutes long.
The back half of TAS does dip into humorous situations with far more frequency, and it's clear to me that after the early episodes finished they thought they needed to try and recalibrate the show for its intended audience. But even then it's still good stuff. Someday we'll see Giant Spock again. (Whose existence was even referenced in a recent Lower Decks episode.)
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
I definitely plan to watch it somewhere down the line, though I still have a lot of unseen Trek in general. Discovery's probably next for us.
 
A little bit of Star Trek news:

Kate Mulgrew is coming back as Kathryn Janeway in the Nickelodeon show Star Trek: Prodigy.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Super happy to hear that. Though I wonder where this places that show on the timeline? Doubtful it's pre-Voyager, but afterward she'd likely be an Admiral so I wonder how that would play in a show mostly about teen vagabonds obsconding with a starship?
 

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
Wow. Netflix's episode description completely gives away the mystery of the TNG episode "Remember Me".
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
That's interesting because I've found a lot of the DS9 descriptions keep things limited to the cold open, which sometimes results in it being amusingly misrepresentative.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I should probably write more, because the first season of Enterprise has a bunch of great, interesting episodes. Not necessarily all-time classics, but fun and interesting. But I just watched Carbon Creek, the episode where we learn that T'Pols great-great-grandmother was stuck on Earth for some time in the 50s. The main story was excellent, up there with the best episodes of all Trek (The Inner Light comes to mind, of course).

Even the framing of the episode is fun, and shows that T'Pol came a long way. Good, good stuff.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Speaking of Enterprise, I'm almost done with my watchthrough. I just started the Mirror Universe 2-parter last night, which was neat if only because it changed the opening credits to show clips of war and conquest.

But I just watched Carbon Creek, the episode where we learn that T'Pols great-great-grandmother was stuck on Earth for some time in the 50s. The main story was excellent, up there with the best episodes of all Trek (The Inner Light comes to mind, of course)
Carbon Creek is definitely one of the best episodes of the show.
 
Just watched Galaxy's Child, and I gotta say...

Ick, Geordi.

Ick.

Geordi and Leah Brahams is probably my least favorite element in all Star Trek. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but one of the first indicators for me that the future in All Good Things was a dark timeline is that Geordi and Brahams are married. Horrifying.

Even if there wasn't a threat to all living things in existence, it was a future that needed to be erased for that reason alone.
 
Top