Battle of the prequels

[Kolinar Romanov]

Lately, I have been watching Star Trek : Enterprise, which is, to the original Star Trek, Episode 1 to Star Wars.

Now, this interests me. Both are prequels, and yet, here, it seems to be that Star Trek was much more favoured, though only in ratings. The idea of a Humanity, first exposed to a New Frontier, may seem old, but, the thought of being the first to do so, seem to be more with the Star Trek newbies than those Trekkies. I myself, being not a Trekkie, found Enterprise easier. Sure, there's all the speudoscience, but not that much. ANd there are no redshirts.

Episode 1 , compared to 4, flopped. I mean, Jar-jar. That's one reason.

Another, more substantial one ? The plot, though interesting, and not bad at all, seemed to be a rehash on Episode 4. The Trade Federation ships were identical to the Death Star, at least the Droid command centre was. Anakin blowing up the droid control ship seem to remind me of Luke vs. the death star.

That's my opinion, but, of the prequels, Star Trek :Enterprise was more agreeable by newbies to Science fiction than Episode 1.

Sure: if those fools from Enterprise tried to take on the Republic, I very much doubt the Republic might win here, and beat all those redshirt...oops, bluesuits.

But, I just wonder: which was better to you all ? Star Trek : Enterprise ? Or Star Wars: Episode 1 ?

Noe that I'm not discussing technology here: I'm talking about presentation.

[Kolinar Romanov]

Ooops, mistake !

I very much doubt the Federation would win here. WHy, the Republic will whopp the Federation's ass ! (that's what i think.)

[Master of Ossus]

TPM was a much better prequel. It did not ignore canon, as Enterprise appears to have done, and it played a necessary role in a larger saga. Interestingly, critics even appear to favor Enterprise over AotC, which is part of why I now treat them with such contempt.

Fact is, Enterprise is a very weak show. Its plots tend to be mediocre, and not really anything revolutionary. Some of its plots are atrocious. Its writing tends to be fairly weak (nearly all of the dialogue is stereotypical, which is the primary attack on TPM and AotC), and look at some of the scenes that they've had! I confess that I have not watched much of the show, but some highlights from the bits and pieces I have seen include: re-routing the entire ship in an effort to release a pet earthworm--thus likely disrupting the ecosystem of an entire planet (I'm serious. It happened.); having long discussions with non-existent pen-pals from Earth while complaining about the kinds of questions they were asking; and sitting in a "decontamination chamber" (handy excuse for these crappy bikinis they wear) while discussing nothing in particular with dialogue that could have been written for TOS, except it never would have been as bad there. Its presentation is also lacking.

To my knowledge there are only about 7 members of the crew: Archer, T'Pol, Trip, the drunk weapons guy, the translator who does jack, and the black helmsman who they avoid showing much of the time by shooting over his shoulder, and the Doctor who has none of the qualities that made ANY of the other ST doctors reasonable characters. Seriously, is there anyone even walking the halls, in most episodes? Its like their bridge crew is the only crew they've got. Now, this lack of characters would be extremely forgiveable if ANY of them were interesting, but they're not! Think about it. None of them, with the POSSIBLE exception of Trip (my friend likes Trip for some reason) have any personalities. That is a serious issue. They really don't even have stereotypical personalities. They are ridiculously weak characters. Can anyone think of one personality trait that they would use to describe, say, Captain Archer, or Doctor Phlox? Is there any description available for Malcolm or T'Pol?

Add to that the series' total disregard for ST canon and you have a recipe for thoroughly infuriating long term Trekkies.

And BTW, I thought Enterprise said (basically) that their show would be weak, but at least they were going to get some hot chicks. I have never yet seen a girl on that show that would make me want to watch Enterprise over Friends or any of the similar garbage featured on more powerful networks. It's pathetic, really, they're terrible in every way.

[jegs2]

I'll second that excellent analysis. The show is weak. I'm not as anti-ST as many here and was somewhat looking forward to it. My disappointment is that they seem to ignore TOS in regards to the quirky political incorrectness of that show that made it fun to watch. The far-left dogma is thick enough to choke on. I agree -- fire the current writers, now.

[SirNitram]

I enjoyed TPM and AOTC.

What a tragedy, eh?

TPM was a bit slow, but I don't mind.. I know it's setting the stage, getting all the peices on the board. AOTC, while it could have done without the romantic subplot(Though it did a good job in illustrating how strangely a relationship between two people with zero knowledge of romance goes), rocked. I'm sorry, but Palpatine's machinations, the revelation of the Death Star plans, the awesome sequence between Slave I and the Jedi Starfighter... Not to mention the ground battle.. I still think AOTC blows away ROTJ and ANH.

As for Enterprise? I second the others. Anything I go into at length would only be re-wording them.

[Sea Skimmer]

TPM is better, at least it doesn't totally ass fuck established canon. Its fairly good movie with quite good special effects and a most excellent light saber battle. Most of its problems relate to the general light bright happy atmosphere of the movie, not the underlying plot.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

I couldn't agree more, I liked TPM a lot, I just think that Jar Jar should have been a stronger character. AOTC, was even better, I just think some of the lines in the romance sequences could have been written better. Otherwise I have no complaints.

As for Enterprise, I'll agree with what's been said. It's should have the feeling of TOS, but with some great story innovations, and stayed within continuity. But, Alas, B&B made this into another Voyager.

[Mr. B]

You actually watched Enterprise. I pity you.

[Master of Ossus]

Who said that Enterprise was better? I'd be very interested to hear why. It seems to be a rather unusual point of view, and so I want to hear if I'm missing something about either prequel.

[BioDroid]

I tried watching Enterprise, I really did. I was excited about a show that would have taken place before TOS and all the bullshit of TNG. But alas, I was sorely diappointed. Their technical writing had gotten even weaker (i.e. A race that can synthesize carbohydrates, but couldn't make water) and their complete disregard for canon events of ANY show that came before them really ticked me off. I stop watching after the third show.

As for TPM and AotC, hey...I saw them each over 20x in the theater.

[Master of Ossus]

That thing about carbohydrates did not bother me as much as their stupid alien creations. I especially hated that one that lived in the cargo bay and tried to assimilate....erm.... join with members of the crew, and how they created that crappy force field to contain it. Honestly, part of what made ST interesting were the different aliens they came across, which usually had something strange about them that was more often than not reasonably interesting. In B5, part of the fun is that you have all of these bizarre aliens running around with their own cultures and needs and habits. But in Enterprise all you get is these aliens that have been re-hashed from other series, episodes, and movies. Enterprise lacks the originality that made TOS and TNG fun. It lacks the spark that made the rest of the series worth watching. And it lacks the characters that the other shows had. That is why I find it the weakest of Trek series.

[TheDarkling]

I dont think Enterprise will turn out to be that good but in truth no trek show barring TOS had a good first season, TNG didnt start to pull its head above water until season 3, DS9 was the same and Voyager never did.

From what I have seen of it so far the only half way interesting character is the Doctor but if he hasnt got anyone to play off of then he isnt going to capable of much im afraid.

Just look at the Enterprise section of this website http://www.firsttvdrama.com/ it highlights the complete idiocy of some of the episodes, in fact I think the guy reviewing it (mocking would be a better word) only finds one episode not worthy of scorn.

[Imperial Federation]

Enterprise is also guilty of over-using time travel plots more than all the other Star Treks put together.
Virtually every other episode involved time-travel, the god damn pilot had antagonists with help from the future, and it just got worse from their.

I am so sick of time travel, do the Trek writers not have anything else left or what?

Enterprise is not a prequel, it's a massive cash-in operation, you can't even compare it to TPM and AotC.

[Master of Ossus]

That guy who wrote that site defaming Enterprise must really hate the show. How could he put up with watching all of those episodes? And that is funny how Phlox is the same as Neelix.

I also find it funny how in Galaxy Quest the one woman's job was to repeat whatever the computer says, and in Enterprise we have Hoshi repeating whatever the computer says. Someday soon we will learn the mysteries of the Berylium sphere.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

He's dead-on concerning Jolene Blalock vs Linda Parks (Hoshi). That Real Life pic of Parks shows that she's more beautiful (and cuter ) then I thought.

And personally, I think Phlox is really fucking creepy. In the looks department alone, he gives me the fucking creeps. :shudder:

[TheDarkling]

The actor who plays Phlox was on sg1 a couple of weeks ago and he did well but I doubt the Enterprise writers will give him much to do on there show, apparently his best bit of character developement was erased because it showed the crew was a big happy family, when the writers dare to actually write the paramount execs slap them down .

[beyond hope]

I can sum it up pretty easily:

I saw 5 showings of The Phantom Menace on opening day, starting at 1 after midnight. I've now easily seen it more than 40 times.

Enterprise is something my roommate is watching when I walk through the living room to go out for a smoke.

I tried to have an open mind watching the pilot for Enterprise... I really did. When I realized the technobabble was still just as plainly in evidence as always, and that there was no discernable sign of continuity, I gave it up as a lost cause. Now, it's that damned noise from the living room while I'm trying to chat online.