The mirror universe was kick ass, personally. Far better than the utter snorefest of MU episodes on DS9 (Although I'm sure many of ya'll enjoyed the Ezri/Kira kiss in the last one ). But the one about Klingon forehead ridges was an utter waste of time. As much as the writing improved, it does feel at times that ENT lost the identity it was finally starting to make for itself in season three with trying to become TOS: The Lost Episodes. I appriciate the sentiment of Coto actually, you know, caring about the fanbase, but...it was over the top sometimes Agreed. ENT was definately an improvement in that department with the Xindi. I didn't get why everyone was so apeshit about the sloth Xindi, but given what they'd been fed since '87... :?
Good riddance. It was supposed to be a prequel to TOS from the outset. Screw the other "identity", TOS prequel was it's premise. If they wanted it to be some other show, let 'em make some Andromeda POS. Well, if they'd thrown the fans a bone throughout the series like they were supposed to, it wouldn't have seemed so, but Coto only had the 3rd season left to cram all the fan-dream episodes into. It's B&B's fault for pissing away the first 3 seasons.
The Hortas in starfleet idea made about as much sense to me as grizzly bears in starfleet. Just because Spock said they're "remarkabley intelligent" doesn't mean they're smart enough to be people. Dolphins are remarkabley intelligent too, but they're still no smarter than 5-year-old humans.
I enjoyed the MU episodes from every series that featured them. DS9's were great as well. I don't see how they were a snoozefest.
I meant making an identity besides Voyager part II. The biggest problem wth all the Tos referrences was that it came too late for most to care. This was the type of stuff that should have been used to hook the viewers back in s1 (since b&b weren't gonna develope most of the characters anyway). After four seasons, most everyone is invested into the characters (the three with the most screetime mostly) and coming off the heels of a very exciting and I assume life-changing arc, I would gladly trade Klingon forehead ridges for a bit more Xindi fall-out. IMO.
Jammer sums it up pretty well about the one in season seven: http://www.jammersreviews.com/ds9-7/emperor.php
A dolphin can't negotiate a cease-fire with its enemies and agree to work with them. At any rate, as smart as humans are, it took George and Gracie to tell the Probe to fuck off.
Possibley thru a mind meld, they can. It was really never made clear of course, but the impression I've always gotten from the Horta episode was that it's an especially smart animal, nothing more. Besides, it's SO different than humanoids, and needs such a radically different environment, it'd be insane to try to make one a crewmember on a humanoid ship.
I do think the Horta crewmember idea of Diane Duane's was way over the top. Forget about having one on the Enterprise? How would one go about getting an education PRIOR to joining Starfleet? Its not like those rocky mine tunnels looked like they had some kind of library or archive where even a Horta could study. I suppose it is possible that a young Horta would be able to have information handed down to it by the "mother" Perhaps even the Horta race has some kind of "memory rocks". That is some kind of rocks that are encoded with information that the young Horta could digest and absorb...... And sure, the Hortas might have all kinds of information about how much acid to produce to dissolve 100 meters of granite and bedrock. But what else would they have knowledge of?
And by the way, I think that if Star Trek were "realistic" in any meaningful sense...you would NOT have different alien races serving on the same ships. You would have humans on their own ships, Vulcans on their own (like the original series Intrepid), Andorians on their own ships..........
Why, because they don't get along? Hell, even humans don't get along. Should they go about separating humans onto different starships based on race and personality types? Star Trek taught me an important lesson growing up: learn to get along with people, because it's just not worth it to focus on differences and bicker all the time. Just because someone looks different, doesn't mean they are different or weird.
Because organizations work most efficiently when they are as homogenous as possible. Significant physical and cultural differences as just one more thing to hassle with. Note, in the Original Series, it is very strongly implied that the Enterprise is a "human only" crew and that Spock is the only Vulcan to serve aboard a human crewed ship. And that only because he is half human.
It would make more sense to group all the people with special needs together. People who secrete acid to dissolve rocks, for example. Or people who breathe water, or function best in a low-gravity environment. And I don't care how enlightened you are, if your crewmate looks like something out of your most horrific childhood nightmare, it's gonna have an effect on your performance.
I'd probably rather have a Vulcan science officer or Klingon security officer or a robot Operations officer over a human any day. Spock proved that it is possible for aliens to get along.
Aren't you stereotyping there? The idea that any Vulcan would be better at science or Klingon at security (Worfs son certainly wasn't security chief material). Spock was half human. And he was the only alien apparently aboard the Enterprise. Members of a minority group who are utterly isolated among a far larger majority group tend to instinctively conform their behavior, attitudes, and actions to that of the larger group.
How's Mister Naraht (Duane's Horta ensign) supposed to come to the aid of an injured shipmate? Administer first aid? Take a tricorder reading? Operate a scanner designed for use by carbon-based humanoids with the senses of sight and hearing? Etc etc. How's a human crewmember supposed to render first aid to the Horta? We ain't all Dr. McCoy with a pound of cement. Are we going to reconfigure all medkits when the Horta is along? etc etc IDIC is a wonderful thing, but at the level of the 23rd century, there are practical limits as to who should be serving together aboard starships on deep space missions.
Yeah, but on the other hand, a Horta is damned hard to kill and when the away team is captured he can just dig an escape tunnel. Not to mention that a Horta can apparently function in a much wider variety of environments. Like, for example, rumble around on Mercury's day side or sample a lava lake or stuff like that. Not to mention the ability to dig in a hurry. Need an instant underground shelter? Got crewmen trapped miles underground and can't use a transporter? Send the Horta. Using the advantages of various alien races makes sense...sure, Naraht might not be able to slap a bandaid on an injured crew person, but on the other hand if you're in a scrap with a gang of salt vampires or huge spear-throwing ogres, you might not need the bandaids if you have a mobile armored acid-spraying rock on your side.
I think the question of why season 4 got such good notice was specifically because it was the prequal any of us would have written if we had the chance. I believe it was said by pretty much everyone as season one unfolded that we did NOT want a whole new backstory created, we wanted to see the backstory we already knew existed. The reason everyone loved the Vulcan/Andorian storyline was because it fit into the Trek universe we knew about. Sure, folks split over whether the Vulcans were being proper Vulcans - but even that illustrated that all of us had a concept of what a proper Vulcan ought to act like. One need only go back and see which episodes are still the most well regarded and most of them involve races and situations which fit into the established trek-verse. That's what season 4 gave us. Frankly, I DO think that you could take about 1/3 oif the eps from the first two seasons and keep them...as a vehicle to establish who these people are...And I could have lived with a smaller arc - say seven episodes - on the whole Xindi thing (with all the TCW crap deleated) to establish the crew as "heroes"....that takes you through Season one and then you fall right into the "fanboy" episodes from what was Season 4 for your second season and you are in fine shape.
There was a godawful TNG novel that featured the crew heading back to the Dyson Sphere. Somehow, they managed to work a ship manned entirely by Horta into the plot. Stupidest thing I ever heard. How the fuck do Horta work the controls, anyway?
Not a clue. But then again... In "Devil In The Dark", how did momma Horta manage to carry off the reactor pump without destroying it in the first place? But I will agree with what was said above. Enterprise made a huge ass mistake when they made the Suliban and temporal cold war (two things never heard of before in Star Trek) part of a prequel series. I think fans might've tolerated lots of Vulcans who turned out to be real bastards. And irritating Andorians. But when you base a prequel on alot of junk that has never even been hinted at before.......
And in the first fucking episode, no less. I've never cared one lick for the TCW. Can't even get ass myself to care over Future Guy's identity. And as little about Trek that I knew (I didn't even remember the name of Picard's ship five years ago, if you can believe that ), the asshole Vulcans and Andorians were two reasons I kept on watching. It was months after the andorian's firs appearanc e that I learned they were, in fact, a race from TOS. Probably the only favor B&B ever did for this show.
Yes, but I'm not the one who made Vulcans good at smart things, Klingons good at beating people up, Cardassians good at lying, and Ferengi good with money.
I still don't see how the MU episodes on DS9 were a snoozefest. One was a little less than stellar, but none were snoozefests.
The trilogy from S2-S3-S4 (Crossover/Through The Looking Glass/Shattered Mirror) are very good. But the other two DS9 episodes relating to the mirror universe, S6's Resurrection and S7's The Emperor's New Cloak are far inferior.
Still, they weren't snoozefests, IMO. All MU episodes are pretty entertaining. Some better than others.
The last two mirror universe episodes of DS9 weren't that great, but they were still better than some of the earlier season episodes of DS9.
