Enterprise's biggest sin is that it isn't interesting. With all of the possibilities that a prequel offered, Enterprise has missed them. Now they're off on some weird future guy / bermuda triangle / x-files tangent and they can't right (or is it write?) themselves. The writers keep trying to throw enough stuff on the wall in the hopes that something will stick. It isn't happening and there is no evidence that an arc or an ark or a Porthos bark will save them.

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What series was Braga watching? Enterprise might have had a better season 2 if it were a "shoot the aliens out of the sky every week". The season 2 that I saw was pretty much "Archer goes to jail every week". I guess it just goes to prove that they don't even watch their own show.

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In saying that they live in fear and 'trek may not always be on tv, well that pretty much spells the end of 'trek days.
We can all try and kid ourselves that next season wont be a rehash of the last, but who are we trying to kid? B&B will make some small changes like making Archer more angry when he's indesicive, T'Pol will be more human, and the better qualities of Trip will be written away.
Notice how EVERYONE else on the show isn't mentioned? Maybe next season they'll drop Mayweather and Hoshi and replace them with the orinials they are obviously copied from! I'm sure George and Nichel would jump at the chance to act again! "Hailing frequencies open", "Ahead warp factor one". Oh yes I can see it now.
Explanation? Hell no, they'll do it and shrug their shoulders and say the fans will come up with something better (true enough).
You know, some people complain that Original Star Trek had poor effects, bad costumes and make-up, but never comment on the fact that 35 years later it's shown world wide, again and again and again and againand again...why? Classic Star Trek had solid stories with morals, metiphors, pathos, irony, humour, everything great tv has (look at Law & Order). You'll find these things lacking on Enterprise (better than Voyager where it never was, maybe they left it back in the Alpha Quadrant?).
Could I do a better job? Let's put it this way, with one year to go, I couldn't do worse.
Somewhere on one of these treads some Trekker outlined a faboulous plot for the remainder of the series (should it go 7 years), and the tragity is that since he's not the producer's kid (say what's the Piller kid doing these days?) he'll never sell the idea and we'll all read it and wonder what Enterprise could have been like.

--..second star to the right, and straight on..

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Boy, oh boy, did I have hopes for Enterprise. I was expecting a new concept, fascinatingly original characters, a sweet-looking ship from an age before all the primary colors of TOS, and a reintroduction to races like the Andorians, the Tellarites, and the Tholians. Well, we've come up pretty short. The only thing they've really delivered on is the Andorians...I just love any episode they're in. I think they're a fascinating race, and I hope we see more of them before the final nail is pounded into Enterprise's coffin.

Since B&B have more or less let me down in every other conceivable way, I have little to no confidence in any of their statements about season 3. Sure, on the surface, it sounds like a promising concept, and all their flashy promises, handled correctly, could really invigorate the series...but, let's think about it, the show's still going to be handled by the same uninspired and creativity-impaired people! It's not like they're bringing new writers and directors in to try some new things...they're just giving new ideas to the same ol' hacks, who will then convert it into the same crud Berman and Braga have been shoveling out to us like chum!

Okay, The Xindi...great, but I know what you're gonna do, guys! It's going to be another humanoid costume with goofy foreheads and odd makeup! I mean, heaven forbid you create an alien that doesn't look mostly human!!! I know you said there may be offshoots, like insectoids...well, I'll believe it when I see it! And, I'm sure they'll be able to speak perfect English, too! And, don't give me that Universal Translator crap! This is a brand-new alien race, never before encountered, the UT shouldn't be able to figure out their language that fast! Period!

And, what to do with T'Pol? Oh, yes, of course, a different haircut and a tighter catsuit, because that's what she really needs, rather than more character depth.

Archer, harder-edged? Right. So he'll just be more angry when he's being indecisive? Yay.

And, oh yes, let's take away some of the attributes that made Trip one of the more enjoyable characters on Enterprise! There ya go! Good thinkin' there, geniuses!

And, Enterprise is not going to be a reprise of Voyager? Hmm, let's see...a Starfleet vessel traveling through an dangerous and unexplored region of space, with a tough-but-fair captain and a shapely woman in a tight outfit, not to mention a quirky doctor! Wow, you're right, certainly no similarities there!

Hey, I won't kid myself and pretend that I could do it any better. Well, actually, I think I could, but that's not the point here. The point is that while things have the potential of improving, they very likely will not, and that's something we're all going to have to face. We've got to go into this not expecting much. If we play it that way, we'll either be pleasantly surprised, or not disappointed. Win-win, I think.

Then again, this all becomes moot, practically, considering that Enterprise is being shown against Smallville, one of the WB's highest-rated shows, and another favorite of mine. That pretty much spells death for Enterprise. Smallville will stomp on it like a narc at a biker rally in the ratings. Thanks a load, Paramount. At least it should bring us fans comfort that it isn't us shooting you guys in the foot.

Scott J. Hauenstein

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What is it with these guys? It seems everytime they open their mouths, they piss me off! I read the entire Zap2it /Braga article and like Berman before him, Braga refused to mention or acknowledge that DS9 did a storyline of the earth being threaten/attacked! How small of them. Several of the movies used the earth threat/attack storyline. 7 million killed doesn't make it fresh to me. All they want to do is spin half truths and misinformation. I really hope ENTERPRISE gets cancelled soon so that hopefully these two can be put away. STAR TREK might be able to survive and remain a movie series only, if we can get these two promoted, demoted, fired,...whatever. As a fan I can live with no new TREK on the tube. TREK has run it's course on television anyway and needs to be retired from it. That has been obvious since the 2nd season of VOYAGER. Some may even say since the 2nd and 3rd seasons of DS9. A 2.8 rating for THE EXPANSE--a season finale--IS PROOF OF THAT!

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...is while t'pol becomes more "human", archer becomes more "vulcan". they'd never do it, but it would be interesting. but i've never equated "enterprise" with "interesting" so whut-evah.

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...if you take Star Trek to the root of what it was with TNG TV series. Cutting edge sc-fi, moral thought provoking dillemas, character devolpement, good acting and high calibre FX all mixed in one neat episode of a package. Else do Fear...you deserve it thus far

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"The mighty Star Trek would fall before us"-B&B

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I view that "we live in fear" statement as a bad omen. I don't recall this guy ever expressing some doubt before, maybe some exec grabbed his ear and told him to fix things or they would look at cancelling the show.

You know what bugs me? Trip was the best character on the show, he seemed like the only one that was a character. Now they are going to change him? Why? He was fine, what about Mayweather the wallpaper, wouldn't it have been more interesting to see this goody-two-shoes pilot living on the edge? That the Captain had a hard tiem trusting him because he was bent on vengence? I mean Trip was fine.

In all honesty though, I was on the streets of NYC watching 9-11 happen right before my eyes. The Last thing, and I mean the last thing I want to see these days is that day being rehashed by people who weren't even there. I can't tell you how insulting it is to have that event belittled into a TV show. A word of advice to that butthead, TRY SOMETHING ORIGINAL!

I'd rahter him rip off another shakespear novel than the reality we have to live. Using 9-11 makes him a grade-A dirtbag.

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This sounds good. It sounds like they are listening to the fans. Lets see if it plays out in the next season. I have hope and faith that it will. :-)

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"Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
-- Winston Churchill

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...is he learning? The major complaints of "The Expanse" is that everything seemed too rushed, too much action, not enough thinking. Which I suppose is understandable, given that the crew has suffered a major trauma. I'm glad to here that they'll start to question and thing about what's going on next season rather than just blow up every Xindi-related species in sight. But I suppose that's what the soldiers are for...

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With SMALLVILLE moving to Wednesday night, ENTERPRISE will have to evolve or die. It sounds like the show is going to do what it was supposed to do in the first place, entertain us and give the viewer a reason to tune in week after week. The X-Files influence is becoming more and more obvious now, and I'm glad that ENT has taken this new approach, I think it bodes well for the future of the franchise.

As far as T'Pol's character is concerned, I think they're treading on dangerous ground. What purpose does she have to experiment with human emotions? Or will they be Denobulan emotions, as Dr. Phlox is the one who will be assisting her with that (shades of VOYAGER's Doctor & 7 of 9 backstory).

I don't get how they can say in the first paragraph of the article that this series is doing what no other Star Trek series has ever done before: experimenting. Every series had it's own direction which was somewhat of an experiment. VOYAGER failed, and so did the first two seasons of ENT.

Now, take a look at this quote from Brannon Braga and tell me what's wrong with it:

"We live in fear," Braga admits. "Look, 'Star Trek' has been around for a long time, and the fear that drives us to keep pushing ourselves is we're competing with 650 episodes of 'Star Trek.' We're competing with five TV shows, 10 movies and 35 years."

Did you see it? It says five tv shows. Unless he's talking about TAS, then he's either admitting that he's competing against the first two years of ENTERPRISE or he's too tired to be accurate in his statements, probably because he's losing sleep and hair over the future of Star Trek. Which brings me to the next quote:

"It's not as though some higher force has decreed that 'Star Trek' will be on the air, forever. You can't take that for granted. I'll tell you right now, if you don't keep evolving the show, trying new things, and showing that 'Star Trek' is still relevant, 'Star Trek' could go away. So we live in fear all the time, are you kidding?"

Damn right Brannon, the show needed to be carefully written. Season one was so sub-sub standard for a Star Trek series that I was very disappointed and dismayed that it was put on the air at all. The humans not being ready for travel into deep space seems like an analogy for the show not being ready to go on the air. Humans find a purpose when faced with a crisis, much like the crew of the NX-01 and Brannon Braga himself.

Anyway, for a show that had a low bodycount (0) in it's first two years, the deaths of 7 million humans gives the show the edge it needed. No matter how good ENT'S start could have been, it still would have taken time to build the show up to a point where it really started coasting smoothly. Now there's a reason to watch, at least tentatively.

I predict that Archer or Trip will be the very ones who destroy the Xindi homeworld 400 years in the future as a result of the Xindi attacking Earth, it's a closed loop of time with the Xindi actually bring about their own destruction.

For the first time since before the premiere of Broken Bow I'm curious and a little excited about ENTERPRISE again.

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Does the current state of Star Trek piss you off? Then visit: TREK FANS UNITED to learn what you can do. Share this link with a freind.

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Let the ripping, bashing, rants and tearing apart BBEEGGIINN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I have an appointment with ETERNITY... and I don't want to be late.
-- Malcolm McDowell (Dr. Soran -- Star Trek 7: Generations)

Visit my site at Web-knight.net

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You're right Brannon. The only power that decides if Star Trek stays on the air is the power of the fans. Keep us entertained with engaging stories, powerful character developement, elements of danger that actually seem real (watch X2 to see how sci-fi can do that), and thoughtful action...action that isn't there just because it can be, but action with purpose.

Do all of that, and the fans will keep coming back.

As for Trek XI, you need all of the above, just put it on Deep Space Nine...with Bajor standing on it's own...and bring in some Voyager cast to reprise their roles on DS9. Have Seven of Nine be the new science officer, and bring in Harry Kim to be the replacement for O'Brian.....just my personal thoughts.

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