Amph [NERRRD] Observations, rhetorical questions, comments & 55 Years of Star Trek (General Thread)

Normally, I'm not either, but those are the best sci-fi/metal covers I've heard since the Metallica cover of The Imperial March, and that was epic.

 

Watching an episode of Enterprise, Phlox and T'Pol in the decon chamber (they just love getting T'Pol in her undies)....and Phlox pulls a curtain. T'Pol wasn't aware a curtain had been installed. Phlox says he's not comfortable disrobing in front of others. Says Denobulan males are more inhibited. Strange for a polyamorous species, where each male has three wives.

But, yay privacy!?

Unfortunately, this is the episode where T'Pol goes through pon farr, caused by a microbe, naturally. Anything to get T'Pol in a sexual situation, I guess. So of course she's all coy and writhing around.

I actually think it makes more sense for both genders to go through pon farr, but that wasn't the case in canon before. Still, what good is it for the males to get so overwhelmingly horny if the females aren't also receptive? Otherwise, it seems like Vulcan females are just taking one for the team, which I suppose they could rationalize as logical, but it still seems pretty messed. Plus, I imagine it would lead to a lot of rape. The whole thing just seems like a can of worms. What do you guys think of pon farr?

At the end of the episode, T'Pol asks Phlox to keep it to himself, and Phlox says he would never violate a patient's privacy. Yay privacy!

 

I thought the interesting thing about pon farr generally was that it truly revealed that the vulcans species weren't acting robotic just for the sake of it, that there was this underlying current of highly volatile eomtion beneath the surface that Vulcans were always struggling to master. Pon farr was the one instance where that control slipped and their true selves were revealed. Obviously it has parallels in man's inner beast, and how we control our baser instincts, but I liked how the concept added depth to this alien race well beyond the pointy ears and philosophy of logic. These stoic, confident and utterly composed beings are turned into raging maniacs through a quirk of simple nature. It's also perhaps a reminder that no matter how civilised humans become, we may never escape our animal origins.

If there's one grievance I still have about Voyager and Enterprise, it was the crassness of their use of their sexy female lead. I really think it diminished the series. There have always been very pretty ladies in Trek, the original series is absolutely shock full of gorgeous people, but their portrayal remained more or less in good taste with at worst an Enterprise crewmember being put in a lovely dress and somebody kissing her. With Seven of Nine and then T'Pol, we were instead invited to oggle their bodies at seemingly every opportunity. It was just too blatant and gratuitious. Especially since these characters were very interesting outside of their obvious visual appeal and would have been attractive as hell even wearing sweatpants and thick jumpers.

 

I've decided to revisit TNG (in its entirety) on Netflix in the lead to Discovery. Just saw Encounter. I liked it. Not my favourite of the pilots but it set up its cast mostly well (Worf seemed a tad skimmed over to such an extent you know more about Wesley Crusher than you do the ship's Tactical officer), good story albeit a little padded in areas with effective, but in certain areas inconsistent, pacing. This is the type of episode that so many Trek episodes would borrow ideas. Phenomena/alien poses threat only to be revealed it is the parent or lover of another entity that masquerades as a home for some other species.

 

I'm about to start season three of Enterprise and I noticed they altered the theme slightly, they increased the tempo.

Up until this point, I had laughed every single time I heard it, every time, even if only slightly. Fifty-two episodes in a row. Every single time it changed gears from teaser to theme, I just couldn't keep a straight face, I always cracked a smile, I just couldn't help it. Like a joke you just can't stop laughing at, trying not to laugh just makes it harder to repress.

Well, the first episode of season three was the first time I didn't laugh. I was kinda sad about the change, the joke had come to an end. I'm going to miss that small pleasure.

 

Oh gawd the opening theme! That debate lasted for years on IMDB.

 

For those of you who have only just got Let it Go out of your ear.

 

I know, some will consider this a sacrilege, but I always liked the Enterprise intro, especially the montage of some of the important points in mankinds exploration of earth and space.

 

Yeah that I liked. I also liked that they changed the title sequence slightly every time a new component was added to the ISS, What I didn't like was that the title song was recycled from Patch Adams. That was just lazy film making IMHO.

 

I found the revision for the Enterprise mirror universe episodes a lot more entertaining than the original intro.

 

So that's where that song is from! No wonder I hate it. Patch Adams is a blight on cinema.

 

So guys, I was all excited about actually wanting to watch all of a Star Trek series (right now I've only seen the best episodes of TNG, according to what Guy told me).

... But with Bryan Fuller out of Discovery, I fully expect this to now become a terrible, typical CBS show. Which is a damned shame. NBC was kind enough to let Fuller make the most insane show I've ever seen on network TV with Hannibal. Leave it to CBS to be the network with zero understanding of good creative vision, though.

They should have put the show on Showtime, where Fuller's style wouldn't be as out of place. I'm just confused as to why they were surprised by Fuller's style. Had they never seen any of his other shows? Probably not.

 

My favourite T'Pol episode is actually a Season 2 one, The Seventh. T'Pol having a time keeping her Vulcan control but no real plot-related spores or virus or whatever reason, just because she has a history with the person their chasing, the always good Bruce Davidson. Not a big episode but probably my favourite performance by Balock in the series.

It doesn't seem they deliberately bounced him because they didn't like his stylistic choice, if anything he's trying to finish American Gods and couldn't juggle two shows at once and Discovery had to give.

 

No, the word is that they had a creative difference that he wasn't wiling to budge on, which CBS was insisting on. So he walked.

Which is what he should do. He has the benefit that many of us in the industry don't, in that he can choose his projects. He shouldn't cave to whatever pat CBS crap they wanted to turn the show into. I'm sure he wanted it to be more out there and they just wanted NCIS in Space. I'll give it a watch, but I was very excited about the show before. Now I have little faith I'll like it at all. I don't want to see a CBS show; I want to see a Bryan Fuller page.

 

I'm trying not to be pessimistic! They're still using his pilot script and his plan for the season.

But yes, it's just like CBS to **** up what should have been a home run.

 

Enterprise Complete Series boxed set coming in January

 

Considering studio meddling and clashing with the producers is largely what crippled Enterprise early on, I'm pretty concerned about Discovery at this point as well. And yeah, it doesn't help that this is CBS we're talking about.

 

Who are you and what have you done with Evan?!

 

I have zero faith in CBS actually giving any writers creative control. CBS has a particular philosophy of how to run shows and give notes. Fuller is just being nice because he's a notorious nice guy.

But it's not hard to figure out that CBS was likely just being CBS, and wanting a procedural with broad appeal. They are the ultimate bottom line network. Law of averages says that, while they might have been okay with the story outline for the season, they likely had very different priorities for how the episodes should be written. CBS actually has quite a few good writers, but there's a reason all of their shows are so bad. They go for lowest common denominator, and from a business perspective, that works for them. Why would they change that? They don't need or want to take risks.

Again, I think they ought to have put it on Showtime. That would have allowed the show more leeway (although the execs there still are some of the last people in the industry who don't understand the wisdom of ending a show after 5 or 6 seasons instead of waiting until the show's gone bad).

 

Yeah, it's a pretty good episode, we get a good taste of the primal savagery lurking beneath the Vulcan exterior. Past trauma that has been deeply repressed to the point of completely forgotten is coming back.

I watched Impulse, where Enterprise finds Vulcans in the Expanse. It's basically a zombie episode, a ship with crazed Vulcans staggering after the Enterprise boarding party. By the time they get back to Enterprise, T'Pol is in a full on psychotic rage. Fun stuff.

And she's behind a curtain in sickbay! Privacy! Well, she does seem to be naked underneath the sheets.

Oh, and I noticed Travis has pretty much disappeared from the show at this point. It's like he's been demoted to recurring extra.

 

Oh boy I can't wait for a freak of the week Trek show! That's why Voyager was soooo good!

 

^ Captain, I am detecting irony. It is on such a massive scale that our instruments cannot measure it.

 

Showtime would be the perfect fit!

Season One would be the best, tightest, and most critically acclaimed season.
Seasons Two - Three would be good, with some great episodes here and there.
Seasons Four would be the resurgence to near first season greatness.
Seasons Five - End would be a powder ked ****show where maybe once or twice a season there is a good episode but the rest are just status quo garbage that only the lifers would tolerate.