'Enterprise' and Star Trek Cognoscenti, Welcome!

Day after Thanksgiving there will be a 14 hour marathon of STG. I can imagine I know where ALL you people will be thenn!

Yeah, I agree the woman Captain Archer befriended (and vice versa) is very interesting. She's highly intelligent; and she didn't get all reactionary and weird when she learned about space ships, et alii, which is a very refreshing change from the long-standing clichÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] dragged out whenever two vastly-different cultures meet. She'd make a good crew member on the Enterprise, but it's more important for her to remain home and help her ill countrymen.

:martian:

This brings me to the hair-up-in-a-bun clichÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] regarding Star Trek: Voyager and now Enterprise. What's with Captain Janeway's awful hair style during the first half of that series' run? And then there's Seven of Nine's awful hair style throughout that series. Now we've Sub-Commander T'Pol doing the same thing. I've seen plenty of images beamed back from space-shuttle missions, showing female cranial hair loose on board. But in science fiction, in spite of the presence of artificial gravity, one can mandate politically-correct hair when and where it's "needed."



=^..^=

Archer went Kirk like on us. Kissing aliens - what's that about?

It's not a good idea for the captain to get all smoochified with crew members; and those space mission are long.

:tounge2:

=^..^=

"Smoochified" lol!

You've never had long hair, have you? Now I don't know about Deanna Troi, but she mostly talked to people, so she wasn't looking down very often. But if you have a desk job or even do stuff that involves reading or looking at a display unit, all that hair just gets in the way! Not to mention how hot it is against the back of the neck if you're doing something physical or that back in the Industrial Revolution many women factory workers were killed by getting their hair caught in the machinery. I admit, I liked Janeway's June Allyson look better, but most women who put their hair up, do it for a reason.

Indeed, I appreciate what you're saying about dangerous working conditions vis-a-vis hair. Yet I've worked with women in factories (talk about depressing work), not to mention many other workplaces; and the ones who didn't wear their hair long went the pony-tail route. I'm wondering why that style isn't seen on television (that I can recall).



New series: Star Trek: Hair. Ideas for episodes welcomed!

:martian:

=^..^=

Okay . . .

The Borg as a collective of hairdressers. Instead of "You will be assimilated" they say "You will be asphyxiated" and fire big streams of hairspray at their enemies, who end up with fake plastic hair (think of Devo in their rubber hair incarnation). Or maybe the girls end up with big cliche country singer hair and the guys all get Elvis pompadors. Have to work on that. Their "hive" ship is a beehive hairdo. Their implants make them look like Edward Scissorhands, maybe they have blowdryers or curling irons in hip holsters, some fingers on the other hand are combs. Or perhaps they can attach different tools to the end of one wrist.

Hmmm . . .

I like it! Good idea!

:martian:

Okay, here's mine: "Hair Police." This episode of Star Trek: Hair shows the United Federation of Planets Hair Police, whose mission is to make sure no woman has long hair (except during one episode every season in keeping with that long-standing tradition). If a woman on any conveyance is found with long hair, she is first beaten and then taken away to have her head shaved. Such a woman is then required to wear a sombrero for one year. "Long-haired women are infidels," is the motto of the Hair Police. Many of these Hair Police have second jobs as Terran television-network executives.



=^..^=

Well, better late than never, I finally watched last week's episode. Talk about your cultural contamination! But I expected this type of thing from Enterprise. After all, it's retro and they aren't supposed to be as "enlightened" as your garden-variety Picard-era Star Fleet personnel. I enjoyed it, nonetheless.

For all you Trek fans, past and present, Star Fleet personnel will be featured on next Monday's Weakest Link. May the best Vulcan win!

Thanks for the tip! I'll make an attempt at my first viewing of Weakest Link.



=^..^=

The show is kind of a hoot, anyway, especially the celebrity editions, because you really see that these people did not make it based upon their brain power. The clip showed Shatner at his "Kirk" best, trying to make time with Anne Robinson, the Weakest Link lady. In the brief glimpse, I saw Robert Picardo (the Doctor on Voyager) as another of the contestants. I'll be watching.

The first episode I have been "eh" about. Boomer does not really impress me as a character. The plot reminded me of some other Trek episode, although I can't directly put my finger on it. At any rate, next week's episode looks promising.

re: Weakest Link - I noticed Q and LeVar Burton in the ad I saw tonight.

re:Tonight's Enterprise - Not all characters are as interesting as others. I think it's interesting to know a little about Boomer because he's probably from the first generation born in space. It opens up some issues about loyalties and even immigration and I think there's some promise. Kind of states' rights versus federal jurisdiction. It could develop into an ongoing subplot.

I bet it's contractual. You remember the lady who played Tasha Yar in Next Gen left because she felt she wasn't getting enough air time. It's that ensemble cast thing. Everyone wants to be part of the next Kirk-Spock-McCoy, nobody wants to be Sulu, Uhura, Chekov or even Scotty (let's not even mention Nurse Chapell or Yeoman Rand). They are recurring minor characters, but they don't get more than a line or two in most stories. I kind of miss a good supporting character. These days everyone wants to be a star.

Not overly found of this week's episode. I just found something fundementally wrong with the Enterprise being shot at by other Humans. I still don't know if they handled it the best way. I hope next week's is better! Can't wait to see how omnipotent Q is on the Weekest Link.

I have to agree. I found this week's episode to be, well, boring. Plus, I'm just not getting the idea that no Star Fleet ship was sent out exploring before Enterprise, just because they were waiting for warp 5?!? In the meantime, though, there are all of these commercial freighter ships with warp 1.8 capability that are cruising all over the place? This whole idea that Boomer grew up on one of these freighters, and there are lots of others doing the same, yet Star Fleet is sitting at home on its hands waiting for a better warp engine? It doesn't add up for me. I would think that some type of official envoy would want to be out there first. It's the equivalent of some company going to the moon, and NASA deciding to go later.

Well, I liked this past episode! The reluctance of Star Fleet to patrol the cosmos earlier is easily imagined if one considers the workings of politics: Budget cuts, turf wars, political-party philosophies, et cetera, could stifle any efforts involving a government agency (which is what Star Fleet is). The freighters are no doubt operated by for-profit organizations; and hence they are more apt to get their way in a capitalistic system. Working conditions (including safety) would be secondary to profit, as is now and has always been the case. Hence, the lack of adequate weaponry on the freighters. Corporate bottom-line bean counters no doubt decided new weapons-systems weren't cost effective!

Star Trek as a concept seems based upon the viewing public's liking of cops-and-robbers scenarios. Star Fleet is, after all, a cosmic police force. The absence of non-military people on board Star Fleet spacecraft featured in the serials indicates they're there for law-enforcement purposes, period. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine departed ever so slightly from that clichÃ[emoji]169[/emoji].) Scientific research and/or diplomatic efforts run a distant second to handcuff-rattling.

Personally, I think a series based upon life on a freighter (in which families are raised) would be quite interesting. I'd not thought about this until viewing the most recent episode. I appreciate the different philosophies and life styles presented: the Star Fleet military style, devoid of family and marriage; the freighter style, replete with long-term relationships and a do-it-yourself attitude.

Both approaches to life in the cosmos have value and are interesting, so there!

:tounge2:

=^..^=

Did anybody else watch this? I was disciplining a child, so I missed the first 15 minutes or so.

I was amazed by Armin Shimerman who played Quark the Ferengi on DS9. I had 2 thoughts: He looks like DeeDee's father on the Rugrats (okay, I have a 5 year old, I get to see this show pretty often) AND, well, I'd always thought those big ears were part of his costume, but . . .

Wil Wheaton got a lot of attention from her. In his comments later, he said he was playing the part of a self-sbsorbed young star, but it seemed awfully genuine. I don't know if he's that good an actor.

Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) looked like a soccer mom.

Robert Picardo and LeVar Burton ended up being the last two, which was interesting. Usually out of the last 3, a smart one and a ahem not so smart one make it into the final round because of the competition factor (easier to beat a less knowledgeable opponent). I was pretty impressed with both of them, they both seemed quite intelligent. Robert Picardo of course is middle aged with a family so he certainly has life experience on his side, but LeVar Burton must have learned a lot when he was doing Reading Rainbow, he was very intelligent.

Hubby came in in the middle. He loves that show. He was pretty impressed with me until I told him it was all Star Trek people. He doesn't watch the shows so he didn't recognize any of them!

Latest episode was back to standard, with a bit of a mysterious twist. I had heard that the Suliban would be back. The ending shot of the sealed quarters also added to the feeling of more to come.

In a production note, it's good to see the Star Trek family taking care of its own. Last week's episode was directed by LeVar Burton, and this week's by Robert Duncan McNeill.

I like the Suliban as an enemy. That sounds odd! But in order for things to happen there has to be a bad guy, even if we find out later he's not that different from the good guy. Suliban make good villains.

I agree. That long final shot of the locked door is clearly an indication of things to come.

I think this series has what they call a story arc. Babylon 5 kind of had one, DS9 too. Lots of the episodes could stand alone, but the idea was that when the series ended, they hoped to cover a certain amount of territory. So I think it could easily be a year or more before we find out what else is in that room.

But it could be next week, you never know . . .

Without a doubt! Voyager did a few of those, too. DS9 actually more bordered on a soap opera style in the end. For awhile it sucked, because if you missed one, you were in the dark. I actually never saw most of the last season. Our UPN station is repeating the old DS9s. They are on the last season. I can hardly wait for the final episode. I tape 'em every week so I don't miss it. I have only read a synopsis of it in a Trek book my son has.