Tag Archives: Enterprise

Movies & TV

Star Trek XI Trailer

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I shared the HD version of this on my link blog a couple of days ago – but the trailer has now turned up on YouTube too in a version that wasn’t filmed by someone in a cinema on their mobile phone…

For those not aware, this is a definite change of direction for the Star Trek movies in that they’ve handed control to a totally new team, and aside from Leonard Nimoy, no original cast members are involved – and William Shatner is still moaning about his character having been killed off…

J.J.Abrams has already stated that almost any way to involve Shatner into the movie would feel like a transparent fanboy attempt just to get him in. Certainly that bodes well for the movie having a good story rather than being like some sort of fan movie at a convention. You can watch a video of J.J.Abrams talking about his ideas on storytelling in a TED video that I linked to a couple of weeks ago. The wikipedia article on the film is keeping pretty up to date with casting and production details.

Anyway, the trailer takes a few cues from the opening titles of Star Trek: Enterprise with soundbytes from the space race in the 1960’s layering into Leonard Nimoy delivering a very familiar line as the camera pans over the Enterprise. Certainly watching this the change of direction is pretty clear, and I’m looking forward to what J.J.Abrams makes of the franchise.

Movies & TV

Enterprise ‘Finale’

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So we’ve just watched the so called finale of Enterprise.

To be honest it is just as bad as everybody has said, and whilst it was good to see a bit of the Next Generation Enterprise, this was totally the wrong context. The actual plot was wafer thin, instead we had about half the episode of Riker pretending to be the cook and talking to the different members of the cast. For no apparent reason they kill off Trip, in a totally contrived way, almost just for some drama, but it just leaves you cold.

The final insult so-to-speak was that what should have been the grand final scene, with Archer making a speech at the formation of the Federation, (which as Troi said, she studied in school), instead after loads of padding we get Riker and Troi walking back onto the Next Generation Enterprise, and no speech.

As I said last week, the penultimate episode was much more of a finale than this fiasco. Perhaps the only saving grace was a nice sequence at the end bringing together the three Enterprises from the various series, but ultimately the episode was a great disappointment.

Movies & TV

Penultimate Enterprise

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So last night we watched the last of the Manny Coto episodes of Star Trek Enterprise, Terra Prime.

It has to be said that many fans regard this episode as a better finale than the actual finale episode that airs next week, certainly a simple rearrangement of the last few scenes would finish it well. However instead we finish with the Berman and Braga effort which flips six years into the future, includes Riker and Troi from the Next Generation and for no apparent reason kills off a major character. Hardly seems like a celebration of the series on paper, but quite how it actually turns out we’ll see next week.

In some ways it is a rather sad passing. Whilst the early stories weren’t really great, season three started to improve, and I really enjoyed season four, especially as they started to sort out a lot of the continuity problems that had been introduced by the earlier seasons. In amongst that they even had time for the Mirror Universe two parter complete with special credit sequences. However by this point the damage was done, and despite the improvement, the US networks were shunting the series around the schedules, so it never recovered, and it became the first series since the original to get cancelled.

However whilst it’s sad to see the end of the series, Manny Coto is off to join 24, and whilst one long running sci-fi series ends, it is looking good for the reborn Doctor Who. (A series that perhaps should be stamped ‘By Royal Approval‘!)

Movies & TV

Enterprise Flies On To The End

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I’ve just finished watching the latest episode of Enterprise to air in the UK, and to be honest it was great. It didn’t get lost in technobable, nor did it suffer from plot holes the size of the Channel Tunnel. It was just a generally very entertaining hours entertainment.

I have to say that although I particularly enjoyed this episode, most of the rest of the series has been great too. Basically, once series four kicked off, Brannon Braga and Rick Berman handed control to new boy Manny Coto and the series is all the better for it. Berman and Braga only returned to write the reportedly lousy series finale that we get in the UK at the beginning of August.

To be honest, it seems that what the team decided to do in the final series was just go for fan pleasing episodes, the kind of stuff the fans were expecting from the beginning. So tonight we saw the green skinned Orion slave girls again, who appeared in the very first episode of Star Trek, and in the closing credits for many episodes, and other original series aliens were mentioned. The plot was simple, and one that had been done before, with the Orion girls being part of a plan to capture the Enterprise, with all but two of the crew affected, however it was very well executed and entertaining, even having an almost Spock like moment of dead-pan Vulcan humour towards the end.

All in all, had Enterprise been the show it has been during these final episodes from the beginning I’m sure it would have been much more of a success. Anyway, at least Manny Coto has found a new home on 24, and I for one can’t wait to see what effect he has there.

Movies & TV

24 Series Four Concludes

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We’ve just finished watching the Sky One back-to-back showing of hours 23 and 24 of series four of 24.

The last two hours started with Tony held captive by Mandy, the profesional terrorist who has been in the background through all four series, right from the early episodes of series one currently reshowing on BBC, and including her assasination attempt on President Palmer at the end of series 2. Needless to say, it was slightly predictable Tony getting caught as in the previous episode he and Michelle had just got back together, however the writers were nice, and although at one point you thought Tony was dead, ultimately the two of them got together.

Jack was not so lucky. As with previous series, the main series plotline was tied up within a few minutes of the start of episode 24, when CTU managed to locate the missile and it was shot down. This left Jack to come back to base to be dumped by his girlfriend, and then to discover that the Chinese wanted him arrested for the slightly botched raid on their consulate earlier in the series. The current presidential security adviser decided that Jack was too much of a risk to fall into Chinese hands, and arranged for him to be arrested and then killed. However, Jack got a warning from ex-President Palmer, and with the help of Tony, Michelle and Chloe, made his escape, after faking his own death. Of course as Tony and Michelle dropped him off, they left him with a handy secure mobile phone, ready for series five next year.

To some extent, what was promised with series four, with it being a different show without the regular cast didn’t materialise, by the middle of the series, about the only regular who hadn’t appeared was Kim, and then by the end we even had ex-President Palmer coming along too, in many cases almost replacing new characters that had appeared at the beginning of the series. There have also been criticisms that much of series four was a rehash of series two, and also concerns about the focus on arab terrorists. Another area of concern was the more extensive use of torture, with some commentators speculating whether the show was attempting to legitimise torture in the War on Terror.

Series five may well have to be different, with Jack having to go on the run. However it seems apparent that the writers have decided that they need a group of familiar characters, hence why many of the regulars were brought back in during this run. One positive note is that, following the demise of Enterprise, 24 has gained the services of Manny Coto, widely credited with having produced some of the best episodes of Enterprise during it’s final year. Since 24 has already been given a sixth season, hopefully he’ll have a better run at this show than he got with Enterprise!