posted
So, in the wake of the cancellation of Enterprise, I see they have given Braga one more shot at making a Star Trek show. And I thought Enterprise was a brutal punch in the fan gut! Once again, they leave the words "Star Trek" completely out of the title, but that's the least of it. This time, they don't even have a starship!
But OK. So apparently, according to this, before the Vulcans, Earth is contacted by a weird space probe thing (possibly connected to the probe from Star Trek IV, in the only nod to continuity I could see) which sends out a signal mutating some folks. Starfleet Command (which, in a ludicrous act of "hipping up the franchise," has been renamed "the Department of Homeland Security," as if that's a believable agency name) gathers together a team of what I guess are supposed to be their best and brightest, because Data is on it at least, but who are these other people? They don't bother to wear traditional color-coded uniforms, so I have no idea what they're supposed to be doing.
Anyway, a few more specific nitpicks:
Their linguist is much shorter than average. Does Braga expect us to just forget that the Federation has access to the perfect anti-shortness technology as seen in Star Trek V: hovershoes?
And Data is worried about being infected by the alien n-dimensional mutato-signal, but come on, that won't be able to crack his positronic network. Not even the Borg could do that! Not to mention that the episode seems to treat him almost as if he is another character altogether!
I can only shake my fists at the southern horizon and distant Los Angeles beyond.
((Oh man, have I been waiting a long time for that. I think the joke was funnier in my head, though. But, like, OK, for serious: Did anyone see this? I suspect most people were watching SG-1 and Battlestar, but for those of you with this Tivo thing I hear about on the radio, or who, like me, get east coast cable feeds and thus would have been done with those shows already when 9:00 PM rolled around. I didn't get to catch most of it, actually, for a few boring reasons, but I watched some snippets, and it seemed OK, from what I could see.))
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
So...through the haze of the crack you've been smoking, I'm guessing that you saw some horrible TV movie on the Sci Fi channel that "starred" one or more former Trek actors and it broke your mind.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Yep, Brannon Braga, from his infinite well of superb creativity, came up with the idea of an independent sci-fi series about aliens creating some sort of wacky DNA-mutating disease that turns Humans into aliens. And he decided to call it "Threshold", in honor of the worst Star Trek episode he ever wrote. Me, I could easily see that it was a disturbing harbinger of things to come.
I'm a bit curious to read some of the reviews, but aside from the random snippets of raving critics quoted on the TV commercials, everything I've read suggests that this show has exactly the same kind of problems with it that plagued Voyager and Enterprise for the last eight years or so.
Also, I've got no interest in watching any TV show that airs opposite my beloved Stargate and Galactica. It just goes to show that network television still doesn't understand science fiction fans!
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I watched it last night and thought it wasn't too bad, i.e. I'll watch it next week. My wife really liked it, but she's not familiar enough with sci-fi to notice how unoriginal most of the show's elements were.
To me it was like they took X-Files' paranoia and aliens, Star Trek's technobabble, Armageddon's team of socially maladjusted specialists, and every cliche ever used in an action movie and mixed them up in a blender.
It was nice to see Brent Spiner again, but I think the guy may have finally locked himself permanently into the role of the science fiction scientist.
-------------------- "Having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TSN: The show wasn't bad, but, so far, it seems pretty run-of-the-mill for prime-time network TV. Except, with aliens.
Jason : I recommend you research the concept of "satire".
Except that ST: Threshold conjurs up that crappy Voyager episode and I've never heard of this "original" new series.
Taking in that context, the post is a crack haze of random thoughts....I just did not forsee that they would wawnt to (in any way) recall the Voyager episode.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
So you think of yourself as Holy nowadays, or just your rambling post? A pearl it aint.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Seeing as how I don't get Sci-Fi and have to rely on other means to watch Stargate and BSG, I had the time to watch this show. But, it was on at the same time as another new show premiering (Supernatural), so I watched it instead. I rather enjoyed Supernatural, and from what I hear I'm glad I didn't watch Threshold.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Supernatural WAS better. I have two brothers, and we did all sorts of crazy shit like that, so I totally sympathized with that show. With fewer special effects, mind. But still, it was fun.
Threshhold - meh. Good enough to follow up with what happened on the ship next week, but I doubt I'll be sticking to it. The acting and production values are up to snuff, but not too much of the story grabbed me. I thought I missed X-Files' in-its-primeness, and this made me wonder if that show was all that great either. It's vaguely Bruckheimer-esque, but I doubt that will last as we inevitably have the many stories in small-town breadbasket locales... Anyone rembember "Psi Factor"? It's pretty much the same thing, except only with aliens. This show is supposed to cash in on the "Lost" storytelling craze, and I hope that one SF show manages to do that when Lost becomes last season's flavor.
posted
For some reason I watched all of Threshold today. It wasn't as bad as many had made it out to be. Braga bashing aside, it held promise. Obviously not, like, Firefly promise, but there was an arc and I was compelled by what happened next. And Ethan Rom was scary and extradimensional spookiness sort of fell away to invasion of the body-snatchers. Did we find out what the rest of the series would have been?
Sol is dead on about generic mercenary guy. At first I was hoping they'd have him be the kind of dumb guy who is really athletic and good with guns and kung-fu that all the smarties hide behind. But then they didn't learn the rule about interesting characters having shortcomings. Spiner was great, but Dinklage pretty much stole the show. When Charles S. Dutton looks serious, it's frickin' terrifying. Could have done with more of that. Also Carla Gugino is seriously smokin'.
Registered: Sep 2000
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