Ranadok …doesn't have much better to do

Star Trek? What a nerd…

I watch a fair amount of TV (shock!). In fact, I'm almost always watching TV when I'm working on my computer or in my room or online or some combination thereof (dual screen monitors!).  In fact, I'm watching a TV show at this very moment (Middleman - 'tis awesome). During most of the year, I mainly watch currently airing stuff. During the off-season, I watch older stuff. This summer, I decided to watch me some Star Trek (because of the movie and all that). I hadn't seen either Voyager or Enterprise since they originally aired a decadeish ago, so it was interesting going back and watching them again. Here are some quick thoughts:

Voyager:

I like the concept, but they dropped the ball bigtime. The show could have been a really cool Battlestar-ish (before the new Battlestar) show where the ship and crew slowly deteriorated as they fought to make their way back home.  There were a few glimpses of this early on (and the excellent Year of Hell two-parter), but all the references to rationing and power/fuel shortages seemed to peter out after a few seasons and ended up just being there to set up the occasional plot (we are in this system... to look for fuel!).  The ship being all alone was used fairly well in the respect that they couldn't call for reinforcements against some big bad guy or defend Earth and that sort of thing... but those are kind of some of the best episodes of the other Treks. Overall, the episodes were a mix of forgettable Alien Planet of the Week episodes and OH NO BORG!!! episodes (or would that be Oh? No Borg?), with the occasional decent one thrown in from time to time. The characters mostly sucked (save The Doctor) and the writers seemed to have an unnatural fear of minor characters - if a member of the main bridge crew was gone for some reason, they would usually get a different member of the main cast, usually Chakotay, to do their job rather than a faceless ensign like in all the other series. Overall, the show didn't really add anything that the other shows didn't already bring to the table, but it wasn't so much bad as it was bland.

But hey, at least the ship looked cool. It was like a throwing knife with warp nacelles. Neat stuff.

Enterprise:

Enterprise was almost like three different shows, the seasons were so different.

First/Second season: Take what I wrote about Voyager, and put it here. Nothing really new offered here, mostly a rehash of general Star Trek themes. They did a fairly decent job of playing up the whole exploration/first one out there aspect, but overall it was just more of the same. The prequel opportunity was generally wasted, as they pretty much just replaced the terms 'shields' with 'hull plating', 'phasers' with 'phase pistols' and called it done. Oh, and some time travel crap.

Third season: Going all gritty and taking an entire season on a single plot with heavy handed political allegory just doesn't work. Perhaps with better writers (mentioning Battlestar for the second time here), but it seemed too forced and took too long to get to the point without having any real excitement along the way. Oh, and some more time travel crap thrown in for good measure.

Fourth season: Much better. With the fourth season, it seems that the writers had finally realized that they can play in the universe that they spent five series developing, and they created some fun episodes as a result. The mini-arcs worked fairly well, and struck a good balance between season 3's mega-arc and 1&2's standalone episodes. I was really disappointed when the show was cancelled, and I still wish I could see more along the lines of this final season.

The finale still sucked, though.