The premier was quite interesting. As expected, Berman re-wrote just about everything established in TOS in the very first episode and overall, it didn't fit with the "normal" Star Trek timeline, however, IMO, it did provide an interesting story involving the Sebulan and these shodowy guys from the future. (Evil Braxton from series ? maybe??) The special effects were good and I discovered that the Enterprise wasn't that identical from the Akira class ship. However, they still do look similar. The Enterprise can apparently take one hell of a beating despite the fact that it doesn't have any shields.
Basically the whole thing starts when a Klingon ship crash lands at a farm with 2 Sebulan operatives chasing him. After a spine chilling display from one of the Sebulan flatening itself out to slip under a door, the Klingon manages to kill them both only to get blasted by a local farmer. The klingon survived and while Archer and company was trying to get him back to his homeworld they waste no time in letting him get kidnapped by the Sebulan. After a trip to Rigel 10 (a planet that is undoubtably part of the galactic 3rd world) and Archer getting shot in the leg by a Sebulan phaser, the crew finds out that the Klingon was trying to get a message to the Klingon Empire informing them that rouge factions of the Empire haven't been staging the attacks against other rouge factions or something like that. It was the Sebulans all along. Now the crew of the Enterprise must find the Klingon. They follow a Sebulan ship to their home base inside a large Gas/liquid planet where they promptly find the kidnapped Klingon inside a not-so-massive structure mad from seemingly hundreds of tiny Sebulan fighters. After capturing a fighter the crew pulls the whole Trojan Horse thing to infiltrate the base, grab the Klingon and bolt! A while later they deliver the Klingon to the homeworld.
I'm not gonna bore you with other details, but over all it was a good story and it's obviously not the last we've seen of the Sebulan or their shadowy leader. If I may suggest one thing, if it's not too late for you. Don't have dinner while watching this episode of Enterprise. Especally during the scene where Archer prides himself with his first Sebulan kill on Enterprise and Phlox decided to pride himself with his first Sebulan disection on Enterprise! YEE-HAW!
Good points:
Good story.
Kick ass effects.
The Enterprise wasn't so Akira-like as previously thought.
A good dose of T@A during the Rigel 10 scenes. (a.k.a. the galactic third world.)
Kick ass cameo from Ol' Z as Lily would call him. (Was that the same actor from ST:FC or somebody else?)
Bad points: Berman, to nobody's surprise, re-wrote everything that has been established in TOS. (phasers, transporters, early first contact with the Klingons, the fact that we even MADE contact with the Sebulan ect. ect.)
T'Pol is rather touchy and emotional one moment and just like a typical Vulcan the next. Typical mood-swings that are associated with Vulcan PMS?
Overall 1-10 rating: 8
Aside from the fact that Berman decided to ignore what had been established in the previous series, he has done quite well with the Enterprise preimer. However, I'm not celebrating just yet! I think all of you remember that the Voyager premier was quite good too, and just look what happened!
Bon apetite!!! Or something similar.
[ September 26, 2001: Message edited by: MIB ]
also the shadowy leader was a romulan...bwhahahahahaha
betting good money here boys
the whole trojan horse bit sucked....the sulliban sensors must be crappier than our heros on the Pre-E.
quote:
Originally posted by MIB:
Berman, to nobody's surprise, re-wrote everything that has been established in TOS. (phasers,
There were no phasers in Enterprise... where is the contradiction?
quote:
Originally posted by MIB:
transporters
The original series never mentioned when transporters were invented. "Realm of Fear" (TNG) establishes that they were invented before 2209. Enterprise is before 2209... where is the contradiction?
quote:
Originally posted MIB:
early first contact with the Klingons
The original series never mentioned when first contact with the Klingons occurred. "First Contact" (TNG) establishes that it was centuries before the 2360s. Enterprise is centuries before the 2360s... where is the contradiction?
quote:
Originally posted by MIB:
the fact that we even MADE contact with the Sebulan
The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager never mentioned the fact that we even MADE contact with the Organians in the original series, a race certainly as mention-worthy as the Suliban. Are these series, then, inconsistent as well? Assuming the Suliban essentially keep quiet after the 2150s, why would the be mentioned later?
quote:
Originally posted by MIB:
Aside from the fact that Berman decided to ignore what had been established in the previous series
Please provide an example. I haven't seen any, yet.
Just for fun, a few of the nice continuity touches.
[ September 26, 2001: Message edited by: Ryan McReynolds ]
It will be interesting to see just how the Vulcans got from over-protective and restrictive to "just another member of the Federation" within a mere 100 or so years. With Vulcans, that is hardly a long time.
quote:
Originally posted by MIB:
hmmmm I should have worded that better. ok. I'm not gonna consider the "look" of TOS official, but I am gonna continue to recognize the stories as official Trek.
That's similar to how I do it. Really, though, the "look" could stay the same; it's how they achieve the look that I mentally edit. For example, in my internal version of the original series:
Stuff like that. It's not neccessary to change production design so much as production techniques. The Enterprise can look the same, just make it CGI and light it realistically.
quote:
Originally posted by MIB:
With Vulcans, [100 years] is hardly a long time.
Indeed. If T'Pol is 65 in 2151 (as Jolene Blalock says in interviews), then she'd be 170 at the beginning of the original series, the equivalent of maybe 60 for a human. It's only a matter of time before this finds its way into a novel...
For one thing, the Vulcans might be aware of some potentially dangerous aliens not too far from Earth that might even have some sort of connection with Vulcan. Why, if humans just ran out and made independant contact with these mysterious aliens, they might develop all sorts of crazy ideas...
quote:
Originally posted by Ryan McReynolds:That's similar to how I do it. Really, though, the "look" could stay the same; it's how they achieve the look that I mentally edit. For example, in my internal version of the original series:
Those bridge screens actually change to show relevant information and it's animated.The alien planets have horizons farther than ten meters away, and occasionally clouds in the sky.
The lighting and standard television makeup aren't 60-style, so nobody looks so greasy.
Stuff like that. It's not neccessary to change production design so much as production techniques. The Enterprise can look the same, just make it CGI and light it realistically.
Similar? That is exactly how I do it. I also invision the Enterprise to look more metallic and high-tech rather than it looking like a plastic model hung up on strings. I also invision something in the engineering room. A warp core, anti-matter tank, ANYTHING!! One more thing I do is invision exactly what the dot-of-light ships ACTUALLY look like. IE: the Gorn and the Orion vessels. I usually invision them to look as they do in the game Starfleet Command.
Where there any tricorder-ish devices? If so, how did they look?
quote:
Originally posted by Harry:
Where there any tricorder-ish devices? If so, how did they look?
Archer used a smallish scanner that was about the size of a PDA. They never called it a "tricorder" and they never mentioned its capabilities, so it may be a specialized life-form reader (since that was it's use).
One gripe: The Klingon Homeworld is only 4 days away from Earth????
Lance
www.thetrekker.org
quote:
Originally posted by MIB:
I also invision the Enterprise to look more metallic and high-tech rather than it looking like a plastic model hung up on strings.
Ironic, since the original Enterprise model was neither plastic nor hung on strings.
It was mostly painted wood, and held on a stand for filming not unlike later starships. Furthermore, the actual model is far more detailed than people realize from watching the show. In my opinion, the original Enterprise looked more like this or this (with proper lighting, of course) than this. Note that all three images are of the same model, though in the first two it had been restored by Ed Miarecki for the Smithsonian exhibit.
quote:
Originally posted by Sol System:
I am somewhat partial to the "Trials and Tribble-ations" version, though. What a pretty ship.
Yeah, that was nice. Actually, I'd like to see someone with 3D modeling skills take an accurate Constitution mesh and apply a movie-style Aztec pattern, leaving the hull markings, main section lines, and windows alone. No structural changes of any kind, just the hull. If I could see any evaluate it, that might ultimately be my preferred version of the original Enterprise... then again, it might not.
Of course, if any of those vessels were to be canon, they would be Constitution-class (variant) but its really interesting to see the evolution. If they ever do a special edition of 'The Ultimate computer' it would be nice if each of the four constitutions present had different features like those described to discern them in the chaos.
the new show was cool too...
quote:
Originally posted by CaptainMike:
>Achernar-class (the version with all the grids on the hull like the Smithsonian revision)
The Smithsonian "revision" didn't add anything, it just made the already existing lines more noticeable; they were there from the beginning, but before the renovation they were just pencilled lines.
The Achernar is Franz Joseph's highly innaccurate version of the Constitution from his Tech Manual with a larger, curvy secondary hull, reshaped nacelles, and a much more rounded "teardrop" assembly under the bridge.
But yes, it does have the hull grids.
quote:
I am somewhat partial to the "Trials and Tribble-ations" version, though. What a pretty ship.
Me too.
Was that CGI or fancy photograpy of the original model?
quote:
Originally posted by CaptainMike:
So its definitely a revision, since the grid lines were not added until several years after the model was filmed, and never appeared on screen.
In any case, I definitely prefer the grid in place, and fairly strong. While Jeffries wanted the hull to be mostly smooth, every other starship has had something to break it up. The grid-lined version looks more consistent, and much more realistic, to my eyes.
quote:
Originally posted by Obi Juan:
Yeah, it looks like an old, beat up ship.
It was twenty years old... no other main series ship has been more than a year old when we see it.