Guilty Pleasures
We watch Enterprise, without fail, every time a new episode airs. And sometimes even the reruns.
I’m no sci-fi geek. On the Next Generation show, I had sophomoric thoughts every time someone said “tachyon emissions.” The show could be good, but I eventually lost interest — they weren’t allowed to do anything. Find a strange, new world, then ignore it because of the Prime Directive.
Enterprise is an entirely new animal. Well, except that it’s just like Classic Star Trek. Only better, thanks to improved production values and Jolene Blalock’s sickbay-enhanced chest.
Aside from the fun and the sex, the new show does stuff. That bald guy from Next Generation was a fine actor working with good writers and an amazing character. But he was still just a diplomat commanding a ship with a lounge for bridge. The sense of wonder was gone. Been there, done that, negotiated a deal with the Ferrenghis over it.
If you haven’t watched, the premise of Enterprise is seductively simple. 150 years before the original show takes place, Earth has just commissioned its first starship able to travel fast enough to explore deep into space. There’s no Federation of Planets, no bureaucracy, and only occasional contact with home. Captain Jonathan Archer isn’t a dimplomat from France, he’s an American explorer with a small chip on his shoulder and more than a little daring.
My favorite is his chief engineer, Trip Tucker, but not just because his character is so likeable. Not only is the ship new and untested, but so is much of the technology — all the fun gadgets taken for granted in the “later” shows. In a memorable episode from the first season, Trip, thinking with his other brain, got himself impregnated by an alien, ah, female.
The next best character is Blalock’s Sub-Commander T’Pol. Forget, if you can for a moment, her tight little body in that tight little uniform. Blalock has created the best Vulcan since Spock. Voyager’s Tuvok was a classic Vulcan, but often lacking that sense of — humanity — that Nimoy brought to Spock. Blalock has it in spades. She’s viciously funny, as in last night’s episode, where she caused my bride and I to cackle. Just because of the way she paused before saying the word “friction.”
And unlike Nimoy, she didn’t even have to raise an eyebrow.
Archer, Tucker, T’Pol. They make the show.
Original Trek worked because of the Holy Trinity of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Next Generation tried to copy the chemistry with Picard, Riker, and Troy — but it just didn’t work. There wasn’t any, well, friction. Everyone on STNG got along — which doesn’t compare well to the never-ending donnybrook between McCoy and Spock, or Kirk and anyone who gave him grief.
The new troika copies that old formula, and copies it well. Archer doesn’t trust the Vulcans — who held back his father’s work on improving warp drive — but is forced to work with one as his second-in-command. T’Pol, the Vulcan, is torn between loyalty to her species and her (often grudging) respect for her new captain and crew. Trip doesn’t like T’Pol’s haughtiness, but would really, truly like to show her his, um, plasma injector. Which goes double for Archer.
The other characters are weaker.
Communications officers Hoshi Sato isn’t just milquetoast, she also doesn’t want to be in space — and it shows.
The weapons guy is Brit Malcolm Reed. He’s not easy to get to know, and he gives the feeling that you don’t want to know badly enough to make it worth the effort.
Doctor Phlox reminds me too much of why Next Generation got tiresome, and we’re only getting started on the second season. On the other hand, he’s good for a bit of wisdom or comic relief, so his character isn’t a total waste.
Completely wasted, so far, is helmsman Travis Mayweather. He should be an interesting guy — he’s a “boomer,” raised on slow-moving old trade ships, a guy as happy in space as a fish in water. But he’s had little to do other than look constipated while navigating a Romulan minefield.
But the show? It’s adventurous. It’s fun. It’s not above showing me some barely-dressed women with great abs, or showing my bride well-built guys taking their shirts off. Characters rub each other the wrong way, the ship doesn’t always work as advertised, and there’s a great sense of American can-do spirit despite all the hardships.
It’s a good show. And if it stays true to itself, it’s only going to get better.
The first few episodes of Firefly have been pretty good. Our heroes are a scruffy band of mercenaries in a cargo ship, hopping from planet to planet looking for work. It was created by Joss Whedon, so it has the same attitude as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but without all the maxipad ads.
Well, that was annoying.
The idea of a man being impregnated by a female alien was exploited in a short story by Spider Robinson. Not sure if he was the first, but it’s also where the name “Fleming Ayniss” came from.
Glad to know that erudite pundits like yourself enjoy the best television shows. My own experience is a strong distaste for the original Star Trek, which has been tempered over the years but is nevertheless eclipsed by my adoration for The Next Generation. Sure, Roddenberry’s 1986 sequel was stuffed with silliness–the same inexplicable detachment from the past, a ridiculous utopian society where people had defeated conflict and yet still wore sidearms, atomic-beehive hairdos, sequin-bedecked jumpsuits, and ham-handed scripts. But once the Great Bird passed control along to his subordinates, the series came off with more grit and reality by the day; it abandoned stilted allegories and pushed into episodes where the only priority second to expert characterization was compelling storytelling. From the third season on, virtually every episode is a classic–or at least a good time.
Deep Space Nine was never my cup of tea; I did, of course, appreciate Worf’s tenure as I nodded in improvement when the show dropped its pretentions and gave the characters a doggoned starship to blast off of the plot-device tar pit that the space station represented. And then the Dominion war started; enter heartrending serials and twenty-second action sequences straight out of Return of the Jedi. For a few seasons in the latter half of the series I truly did enjoy the show, adenoidal actresses who play Bajorans and father the children of actors who play slimy English doctors notwithstanding.
The last season of DS9 showed a dovetailing of sorts with the wreck we know as Voyager; my personal theory is that the United Paramount Network took the reigns and tried to play genius heir Brannon Braga for a puppet. I’m talking memos that read:
“We really love the show, Bran! Really. It’s fabulous. Let me wing this at you: the board has been discussing the ‘Trek’ dynasty and feel that Voyager can forge a new path in commercial art. Namely, more breasts; less cerebral plots; less distracting emotion for more streamlined acting; easier-to-understand aliens with simple conflict-management skills, thereby involving less complicated ethics issues to resolve by an episode’s end; multiple romantic relationships between senior crew members; twice as many episodes this next season involving the ‘Borg’ characters as indicated in your season report last week. These and many other improvements should see this successful franchise to its greatest heights yet. Ciao!”
Needless to say, I think most people “missed out” on Voyager‘s season finale.
Funnily enough, I didn’t think much of Enterprise when I saw Bakula and company on the cover of a TV Guide. Then I watched the season premiere…and I found my new favorite show; somehow UPN’s talons were removed from Trek’s creative staff. I agree with your assessments regarding the show, and that the leads make everything work. It’s powerful, it’s tactile and it places the same emphasis on character development investment as would any television show that hoped for success and longevity (read: TNG).
Malcolm’s stoic persona finally made sense to me three episodes ago with the Romulan mine incident; his nervousness with fraternizing with the captain, his unrelenting self-reliance and the unnegotiable work ethic resulting from it; his desire to end his life to force the captain away from risking the entire crew for one man. I dunno…Braga and associates risked coming off as sensationalist but instead hit paydirt and viewers were able to glimpse the underbelly of a tough fellow.
Travis…he’s, er, a freighter guy. And, uh, a freighter guy. He gets beat up every other show. Full stop. My only guess is that the writing staff hasn’t figured out the perfect “Travis episode” yet, so they hold him back in deference to the characterization of the others.
Phlox–I thought he was a Buddhist ripoff of the inimitably abrasive Neelix, but the actor and this show’s writers know how to handle a goofy character who is comic relief on one hand–but wittily poignant when delivering. I thought last night’s show was a perfect spotlight. And did you notice the finishing of another’s sentences or the kindhearted glances and general comradery between him and the captain? That’s the stuff of good shows, and the foundation on which to build timeless stories.
Tapped a spring, here. Whew. In any case, yes: should it stay true to form, we will have another television classic–Trek, no less–on our hands.
Sheesh, I can’t believe I ever backed you for President. Enterprise is crap. I dealt with it in detail a while back.
Oh, well. To each his own, I guess.
Enterprise has interesting episodes but Firefly has been great so far, especially th most recent ep. A little over a year ago, soon after Buffy had been picked up by UPN, Joss Whedon went along with the press on a tour of the Enterprise and was like a kid in a candy store. It was only a matter of time before he did his own space opera.
Also I met the guy who plays Phlox. Very nice and funny.
Best TNG episode: The Inner Light
I haven’t been able to get into Enterprise – I think the cheesy-ass opening song ruined it for me when I watched the very first epsisode. Unforunate, since I was a huge Quantum Leap fan and was looking forward to seeing Bakula do more television… perhaps I will check it ou again when I remember it’s on.
I think the cheesy-ass opening song ruined it for me
Give it time to grow on you–in a heathily ironic Postmodern sense, of course!
And perhaps I’ll have fewer typos in the future. Must be residual effects from last night’s beer. Yes, that’s it, indeed.
I gave up on that lame show after this episode .
I stopped watching Enterprise after the “Hunting is bad, Mmmmkay” episode.
They made a half-hearted attempt at softening the message, but in the end it came out clearly: hunting animals for food is the same as murdering a person.
No thanks. I can do without that sort of propaganda, which I’m sure was lapped up by the producers. If I wanted to hear hypocrites snigger at how ‘redneck’ and cruel it is to hunt an animal that has a fighting chance while they munch on burgers made from cows that were shackled into pens and bolt-gunned, I’ll move to California.
Let’s face it…Bakula, in his own way, chews just as much scenery as Shatner ever did. By design, I think…
My wife and I enjoyed Enterprise a great deal. Unfortunately, our local UPN station is now a CBS affiliate and our cable company says, eloquently: “UPN?”
I’ve always felt a great sense of unease with the whole Star Trek rationale, tho especially with regards to TNG. Objectively speaking, Rodenberry can best be described as a Marxist. The Utopianism, the anticapitalism (no money economy, indiotic greedy Ferengi) and the love of bureacratic authority all get my goat. I will say, though, that Enterprise seems to have gone a fair ways to counterract these totalitarian impulses and thanks to your and Michael’s exceptionally learned and articulate reviews, I’ve determined to join my trekky wife in front of the tube on Wednesdays to salivate.
I agree with much of what you said… after some first season growing pains, the the second season has been spectacular (aside from last night’s “is Porthos gonna die” episode) I do think you’re a little harsh on Hoshi and Mayweather though. Hoshi did start out a little skittish but has slowly grown more confident. And Mayweather has been exuberant at the newness of the exploration without the normal geekiness and klutziness a newbie usually shows. (you pegged the stiff Britt and the Doc though.)
Next week they’re going to rerun the season 2 premiere, normally I’m pissed off when they do reruns this early, but that ep was so cool I’m really looking forward to it.
The first episode I ever saw was the infamous “Dear Doctor”, explaining the idiotarian roots of the Prime Directive. Blech. The bad song at the beginning was just salt in the wound. I liked DS9, even though it had similar moral problems. But I couldn’t help but like Garak. He was the most deliciously amoral character since Capt. Renault in Casablanca.
While I am a TNG fan, and still watch some of the reruns on TNN, nothing, and I mean NOTHING can compare w/seasons 2, 3 & part of 4 of Babylon 5. Unfortunately for the Great Maker, S4 was too abrupt. But when one doesn’t know if there’s a S5, one does the best one can.