Next week...

[Tricky]

How come next week's episode looks like an ep. of "Threat Matrix" or "Jake 2.0"? I mean, I know the Xindi are bound by Star Trek storylines to threaten the timeline, but couldn't they do something not so "torn from today's headlines"? That's what "Law and Order" is for!!

[Rayaru]

Star Trek should be dealing with things from today's headlines.... those are the things intelligent viewers will really care about.

[Sea Tyger]

Gene's original concept of Star Trek was a vehicle for addressing the major issues of the day in a fantastic (in this case, science fiction) setting.

"A Private Little War" was a direct corrolary to the superpowers in Korea and Vietnam. "Mark of Gideon" was a treatise on the perils of overpopulation. "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield" was a warning about rampant racism and its consequences. The list goes on.

It's only appropriate that Star Trek: Enterprise continues that tradition of relevant stories for an enlightened audience...and the 14-27 male demographic.

[REG]

Yep. That is pretty much the root of Star Trek: taking current social and political issues and spin them into tales in which the aliens are dealing with the problems and humans viewing them from the outside.

[Tricky]

yeah, I get the 'using the story to examine a problem' concept, but did they have to go back to 2004 for the episode. Now I know I'm doing this sight unseen, but couldn't they do the bio-terror episode in their time (unless the Xindi, despite their lack of physiological data on humans, understand 21 century Earth much better than us 21st Century Humans ie. they hope to start a war).

[prophetsteve]

yeah, I get the 'using the story to examine a problem' concept, but did they have to go back to 2004 for the episode.

Well, the Xindi issue is part of the Temporal Cold War, and nothing says Timewar like star trekkin to the primative past

Seriously, I think it has more to with Braga than anything else. Every series he has helmed (Voyager and now Enterprise) has had a time port back to the "modern day".

It will be interesting to see how the episode plays out but the UPN previews are just plain awful. Likely have no impact on the actual episode but for some reason I think UPN could have done a better job...

[REG]

UPN have a tendency to give a spoiler in their trailer. Personally, trailers should be done by the production company that did the show or film, not the network's marketing agency that takes the show and start clipping it into a trailer.

Case in point, I was pissed when New Line Cinema actually showed Gandalf the White in the The Two Towers trailer prior to the movie's opening. They should have kept his face out and let the moviegoers (not all of them Tolkien literary fans) guess if that white-robed figure in the forest is Saruman or someone else.

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by prophetsteve
Seriously, I think it has more to with Braga than anything else. Every series he has helmed (Voyager and now Enterprise) has had a time port back to the "modern day".

Huh?? And Gene didn't? Did you forget "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "Gary Seven" in TOS...Star Trek IV, perhaps? I don't recall Braga ever being involved in those shows.

Even TNG went back to 19th Century San Fransisco.

[prophetsteve]

Huh?? And Gene didn't? Did you forget "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "Gary Seven" in TOS...Star Trek IV, perhaps? I don't recall Braga ever being involved in those shows.

Very true.

Though Braga's time travel episodes seem to be a bit more pointless than Gene's... but no by much

The Voyager episode seemed to be crafted solely to give the Doctor a way to walk around.

Can't say anything about this episode other than I honestly don't see the need for a timetravel episode to be in this particular story arc.

Then again I haven't seen the episode so It might turn out alright.

*crosses fingers*

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by prophetsteve
Very true.

Though Braga's time travel episodes seem to be a bit more pointless than Gene's... but no by much

To be honest, it seems that the two TOS episodes were fillers. Only ST IV really had any significant purpose to the time travel.

The Voyager episode seemed to be crafted solely to give the Doctor a way to walk around.

Is this the one where they went back to 1999 or something...and they ignored any reference to the Eugenics Wars?

Then again I haven't seen the episode so It might turn out alright.

*crosses fingers*

Well, I just hope the quality is as good as most of the other eps this season.

[prophetsteve]

Originally posted by Sea Tyger
To be honest, it seems that the two TOS episodes were fillers. Only ST IV really had any significant purpose to the time travel.

Then again in the defense of those two episodes, most of TOS was pretty episodic and throwaway - episodes never had much impact on the next (at best they got a cursory mention)

Is this the one where they went back to 1999 or something...and they ignored any reference to the Eugenics Wars?

Yep. Crew of Voyager against Bill Gates . Again, it seemed that the whole purpose was to give the Doctor the funky holo-dodad and explain some of the shadow history of the 20th Century (computer technology skyrocketed because a major software and hardware company used 29th century technology reverse engineered from a crashed timeship

Oh, and no Eugenics Wars

Voyager bashing aside, I found it interesting that the Enterprise episode was exactly the opposite of the Voyager time episode in many respects. Voyager had a 2-parter that seemed too long, while Enterprise was a 1-hour show that seemed too rushed. Voyager had a lot of interaction with the modern day while strangely Enterprise had very little (even after grand theft auto and the bank machine incident...or the raygun battle... hmmmm).

Both in various respects uninspiring but not _bad_ per se.

Well, I just hope the quality is as good as most of the other eps this season.

After seeing it my personal opinion is no, but they needed a not-so-good one so we all would have fresh material to joke about