T Campbell's Blog
Writer of Penny and Aggie, Fans (also called Faans), Rip & Teri, Search Engine Funnies and A History of Webcomics. Experienced webcomics editor, currently seeking full-time work and working on strange and interesting new things...Sunday, May 15, 2005
Oh Yeah, That Finale.
I wasn't planning on seeing the last couple of episodes of Enterprise. After all, I'd noisily retired from the series a year ago and nothing I heard really made me regret it. Brent Spiner inspired a brief pang, but I got over that when I heard the plot of his arc. I don't like the word "fanwank;" I think it's unnecessarily vulgar and insulting. But nothing else fits.
Two things changed my mind: first, the awful coverage. Too many news articles about the end of Enterprise seem to be written by horribly biased Trekkies (no, not "Trekkers"). I want to be informed about these things.
Second: the desperate last-ditch move of hiring actual writers. (I hear Manny Coto was pretty good too, but nothing was getting me back for a full season.)
The verdict? Not too bad but not great. "Terra Prime," the one with the writers, was a solidly entertaining action story, not without its coincidences and cliches, but mitigating them with some surprise twists and the best villain I ever saw on Enterprise. "These Are The Voyages" opens with a clever conceit, but the story rationale makes no sense. Trip's story really doesn't have any relevance for Riker except "sometimes it's okay to disobey," and I think Troi could rack her brains and come up with a slightly better parable than that. Unless Riker was really meant to learn the lesson, "hook back up with your ex now, because you never know when you might die in an explosion." That would have been funny, but I can't tell if it was intentional.
The actors did a fine job, ESPECIALLY Connor Traineer, whose best scenes were the highlight of both shows. Linda Park finally got a couple of interesting scenes (watching her try to dismiss a nine-year-old crush was great fun). Even notoriously unhappy camper Jolene Blalock turned in some great work (and no wonder she was unhappy: I still counted two incidents of T'Pol abuse, and I wasn't really trying).
All in all, a somewhat dignified end to an otherwise embarrassing chapter in science-fiction history. Worth seeing if you have some personal stake in Trek. But if you just want a good popcorn SF fix, stick with Clone Wars. And if you want the kind of intelligent SF that Trek used to be, read a good book.
Two things changed my mind: first, the awful coverage. Too many news articles about the end of Enterprise seem to be written by horribly biased Trekkies (no, not "Trekkers"). I want to be informed about these things.
Second: the desperate last-ditch move of hiring actual writers. (I hear Manny Coto was pretty good too, but nothing was getting me back for a full season.)
The verdict? Not too bad but not great. "Terra Prime," the one with the writers, was a solidly entertaining action story, not without its coincidences and cliches, but mitigating them with some surprise twists and the best villain I ever saw on Enterprise. "These Are The Voyages" opens with a clever conceit, but the story rationale makes no sense. Trip's story really doesn't have any relevance for Riker except "sometimes it's okay to disobey," and I think Troi could rack her brains and come up with a slightly better parable than that. Unless Riker was really meant to learn the lesson, "hook back up with your ex now, because you never know when you might die in an explosion." That would have been funny, but I can't tell if it was intentional.
The actors did a fine job, ESPECIALLY Connor Traineer, whose best scenes were the highlight of both shows. Linda Park finally got a couple of interesting scenes (watching her try to dismiss a nine-year-old crush was great fun). Even notoriously unhappy camper Jolene Blalock turned in some great work (and no wonder she was unhappy: I still counted two incidents of T'Pol abuse, and I wasn't really trying).
All in all, a somewhat dignified end to an otherwise embarrassing chapter in science-fiction history. Worth seeing if you have some personal stake in Trek. But if you just want a good popcorn SF fix, stick with Clone Wars. And if you want the kind of intelligent SF that Trek used to be, read a good book.
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Let's just hope they let the Star Trek legacy end with this black eye and don't try to continue it on to the everlasting shame of the series....oh right too late.
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