"Oh Ricky"

[Mijoro]

Firefly is dead on TV. Joss Whedon has stated that he's looking into other "options" for the show. I'm guessing a movie of the week or miniseries kind of thing.

[KillerWhale]

About the "Earth in danger" approach, I don't really believe that was the key to the success of ST 4 and 8.

ST 4 worked because of the humour all along the film. "Earth in danger" was just the plot device to justify the colliding of civilizations.

ST 8 worked because of the Borg, an awesome enemy, threatening the FUTURE and the characters we love. Not Earth.

I'm not bashing Ent - I'm truly curious to see how this idea goes and I'm more than willing to give it a chance. However, I believe Ricky's analysis is flawed.

And I loved STTMP

[The Transformed Man]

I could see this storyline working out well, and tying up all of the loose threads the continuity nazis have been complaining about.

One of the biggest complaints from that group is the way the Vulcans are portrayed... as being arrogant, and condecending toward humans. Well there's a reason for this. Vulcans view humans as the little child with a new toy, or worse yet, a gun. Humans, to them, have no comprehension of the awesome power the warp engine gives them. They view Human history as evidence that man cannot weild this power in a rational, controlled way; that man is not ready for this journey...

Well guess what, after Archer and co. successfully complete their mission in the Expanse, Vulcans will have a new respect for Humans. Mankind will have succeded whereas Vulcans failed. The Vulcans will finally realize man is ready for the challenge of space exploration.

The story could also be used as a catalyst to see man's change in attitude regarding alien life. Maybe the Xinji (or how ever they are spelled), have been manipulated by one of the time travel factions... or maybe they simply see their race being wiped out by humans, so they are reacting out of fear Somehow Archer and co. will have to find a way to demonstrate to the Xinji that humans are benevolent and change Xinji attitudes about humans... Or maybe the Xinji expand their attack to include other founding Federation members... Archer and co have to save their bacon too and viola we see the first stages of the formation of a federation.

This storyline could also be a great way to segue into the Earth-Romulan conflict. Earth's forces, having just come out it's war with the Xinji have been depleted... Archer and co run into the Romulans... the Romulans feel Earth's defenses are weak, and Earth is ripe for conquest... viola' Earth-Romulan War.

The point is, this is a good change in direction for the show, and expandes the possibilities for ENT. Of course, I doubt this will have any effect on ratings... only syndication will change that.

On the other hand if "The Expanse" story arc simply degenerates into another bug-hunt story I will be sorely dissappointed.

Yancy (aka The Transformed Man)