'Enterprise' and Star Trek Cognoscenti, Welcome!

Greetings, fellow Star-Trek freaks! I thought tonight's episode of Enterprise was very well done. As you've mentioned, there was a certain something about the closing shot in that final scene: the sealed room, with (perhaps) some secret lurking therein — to become manifest on the Enterprise elsewhere in the cosmos.



No "happily ever after" ending, this time. I quite enjoy the ambiguity of space travel which this episode implied. And what a dilemma Captain Archer faced, with two competing and hard-to-grasp entities! He earned his captain's pay in this scenario, for sure.



"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." — Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5



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Well, I just watched the Star Trek Weakest Link episode that I had taped on Monday.

I love these guys! Compared to some of the other celebrity groups that program has showcased, I thought that as a whole the group came off as very intelligent (and they must be with a whopping total of $167,500). That's the highest take I've ever seen on that show.

Sunlion, you are right. I was glad to see Robert Picardo and LeVar Burton make it to the end. They certainly deserved to. I thought that Shatner was the lamest of the bunch; no surprise there. He was more self-absorbed than Wil (note one "l") Wheaton.

And how about those Armin Shimerman ears! His Ferengi make-up wasn't too much of a stretch.

All in all, I love the Star Trek series because I have this kind of respect for the message that the show usually tries to give. That respect extends to the actors involved too. They are a fine group of people. Too bad Leonard Nimoy wasn't one of the contestants on Monday night.

Final Note: Having Anne Robinson "beam out" at the end was a great touch.

Ok, I think I have gushed enough for one post.

Gushing is entirely permitted, at any time!

:tounge2:

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Are they showing these episodes out of sequence, or was tonight's episode a repeat that I somehow missed the first time around?

Admittedly, I only saw half of it, due to a miscalculation on exactly how much tape was left on the video. But there were beaucoup references to how they hadn't run into anybody.

I will delve further into this mystery when I catch the repeat on Saturday.

Yep, repeat. Can you believe they're doing repeats already? I remember when a season of shows was more than 20, now it's down to 13, and they seem to randomly choose when to show the new ones.

Okay, Joe, I know what games you've been playing! Took me a while, at first I thought maybe you changed your avatar to Hal 2000, the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey ("Is something wrong, Dave?"). But what the heck is that rotating thing?

Just to break the hold applied by Avatar Monotony, I've gone to HAL 9000 for the remainder of the year. After all, this is 2001; so I'm choosing to honor 2001: A Space Odyssey. Next year I'll go back to the cat avatar. Oh, and the rotating thing is my Björk Beacon. It runs 24 hours a day, to guide fellow Björk Guðmundsdóttir freaks as they journey through the vastness of the inter-net.



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Good morning, Dr. Langley.

Please forgive! I didn't recognize Hal9000. I should be banned from this and any other science fiction thread.

Deb, no bannings for you! You're too valuable an asset to this and any other thread (wherever that might be) regarding science fiction.



The only reason I thought of Hal was because I recently purchased a digital video disk player; and the first digital video disk I purchased was 2001: A Space Odyssey. Of course, the only proper way to view that film is in Cinerama as it was originally filmed and released; but as that's not possible anymore — except at the few Cinerama theaters which still exist (I know of one in Los Angeles and one in Seattle) — I must try to imagine the wonderful Cinerama effect via letter-box format on my television monitor. Oh, well.



Oh, by the way: I've a copy of the book 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Arthur C. Clarke and based upon the screenplay he wrote with Stanley Kubrick. It's the hardcover 1968 Book Club Edition, published by The New American Library Inc. at New York.

:tounge2:

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I actually remember the night my father went to see that movie. I was all of about 11. I always considered my dad to be an intelligent guy, and he was a major science fiction fan.

He returned from the movie, and I asked him how he liked it.

His reply was, "I didn't understand it."

I actually enjoyed 2010 as well.

I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey at the venerable Hollywood Theater here at Portland in the spring of 1969, shortly after I'd moved here after military service. A friend of mine in the Air Force had been to see the film with his wife and they both raved about it. (They were living in Texas at the time, as my friend Jerry was still in the military. I'd stopped by to see them on my way home to Florida after getting out of the Air Force in California.) To this day, I remember Jerry saying: "Here's what I think the ending meant." Just then, some distraction occurred and I never found out what he thought about the matter!



Anyway, I was thoroughly impressed with the film. I'd not seen a Cinerama movie before; and it blew me away. (At the time, I thought we just might be travelling to other planets by 2001. I'd forgotten about politics!) I'm still not sure what the film's ending means; and I'd love to hear what people think in that regard.



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:LOL: I should have known that Mr. Cat, who has a picture of Hal-9000 under his name (hey btw how do I add a graphic to mine? anyone? , would be a Trekkie! Or, rather, TrekkER if you prefer. I like the new show, although I've missed about half the season. I wasn't too sure about T'Pol at first, figuring she was just to add anatomically gifted geek lust factor, but I think she's a cool character. Neat dynamic with Tucker too. Can't wait for repeats so I can catch up!

Greetings! May you live long and prosper. (Actually, Sub-Commander T'Pol told me something else but I'll not repeat it here.)



Anyway, about an avatar: Well, go to the top of any page and you'll see a button labeled "User CP." Click on that, then look for a clickable topic near the top of the next page labeled "Edit Options." Click on that and scroll to the bottom of the page. There, you should see the doorway to Avatar Land. Mind, if you're going to use a custom avatar it must be 20 kilobytes or smaller; and it must have dimensions of 50X50 pixels (or smaller). "Tiny" is the word! If you're not adept at fiddling around with graphics, send me the image you want to use — at [email protected] — and I'll do my best to shrink it down to size for you.



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Thanks a million TC; I might take you up on that personalized avatar shrinking later

K'Pla :laughing:

You're entirely welcome! If you need help in future with the avatar-shrinking scenario, just look for the Interstellar Björk Beacon (below).

:tounge2:

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I am finally on the right page regarding this week's episode. It was a repeat. I had actually seen the 2nd half the first time around. (Are you following that bit of logic?) Must have been a night I had class and forgot to set the VCR. But having not seen the beginning of the show, I was thrown for a loop!

In other news, my DS9 reruns are winding down to series end. In this week's bizarre episode, Bashir finds a cure for Odo's disease. I have not seen any of these episodes, so it's all new to me. During the original run, I adanboned DS9 for awhile when it got too soap-operaish. I returned, but left again the last season. I think it had to do with a dislike of Ezri Dax. Oh well, these shows will get me through until Enterprise comes out of reruns.

I didn't know last week's episode was a repeat until you good folks pointed out the fact. So, it must have been one of the two episodes I'd missed orignally. I missed the second episode and one other episode, which I obviously can't describe, as well; so perhaps it'll turn up during this plague of re-runs. So, when do originals start up again? In February, perhaps?



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Hopefully before that! I was counting on after Christmas.

Well, I had to dig pretty deep to phaser out this thread after the Christmas hiatus.

Did anyone see the new episode this week?

I thought it was well done. I liked the character development for Malcolm. And although it bugs me that questions were left unanswered about the newest aliens, it was presented very true to life. Things don't always get wrapped up neatly in an hour.

I'm glad to see some stuff happening with the relationships between the cast members. It was that Kirk-Spock-McCoy dynamic that made original Trek so fun. T'Pal lacks Spocks sense of humor - he was very dry but I always thought he knew when he was being funny - but Malcolm might fill in nicely for that. I'm also glad to see (I forget her name) the liguist do something besides scream and freak out. And finally, I'm glad the dog Porthos showed up again! I was beginning to think he was only included so they could make that joke about where no dog has gone before. The aliens were very freaky, too, quite alienish.

I admit I missed a bunch of it because it's on from 7 to 8, and 8:00 is bedtime in our house, so it's a little hectic. Hopefully we will be getting satellite tv and Tivo in the next month or so, so timing will be less of an issue.

I saw it! I liked it! The business about Malcolm's parents not knowing his favorite food — and his father's disdain for Malcolm's career — was sad. But the overall quest for that favorite dish was funny! When it comes to personal matters Malcolm plays life close to the vest, doesn't he? He's just a rather private person, a wee bit like Seven of Nine and T'Pol in that regard, but he's a likeable fellow nonetheless.

It was good to see Archer make the intelligent decision to return to Earth rather than risk the lives of the crew; and the subsequent maximum-effort by the crew which made that return uneccessary was heartening. The combat scenario was properly done, insofar as it wasn't exploited via gratuitous violence. Hopefully Malcolm's father will learn of his son's performance in combat and modify his opinion somewhat.



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P.S.: Thank you Deb, for digging through the archives to resurrect this thread!