A Green Mushroom

After really enjoying the pilot of Star Trek: Enterprise I was quickly let down by the following episodes. Although I have to say, I really like the show's intro that walks through the history of flight and space travel.  I know it gets a ton of hate too, but it's actually one of my favorite Star Trek openings.  It has some character to it. After not clicking with the first few episodes after the pilot, I did what I have with a couple other series lately... I looked up a "best episodes" list.  Doing so let me sample the best of what Star Trek: Enterprise has to offer.  And honestly, some of these episodes are just as good as any other Star Trek show. The problem is that there aren't many of them. Most of the best episodes in the series tend to break the normal formula of a Star Trek episode.  That's when you can tell both the actors and writers are truly at their best. It's kind of funny, I find myself once again drawn to some of the time tr...

In this final season of Voyager it seems like the writers are finally having fun with the existing crew again.  I bet they feel confident that they can start wrapping up character arcs since it's the last season and it really shows. The characters all have moments that develop them further and it's great to see.  I love that two of the main characters, Tom and Be'lanna, finally get married.  It took basically the whole series, but that's ok.  They also get pregnant!  It's really good to see characters reach the completion of their arcs. It's great to slowly see the crew get more and more contact with Star Fleet as they get closer to home.  Some of my favorite episodes of the season were ones involving contact with Star Fleet after so much time apart. There's an episode where the Doctor gets to fight for his legal right to be acknowledged as a person and not an object.  While he doesn't get full legal acknowledgment as a person he does get leg...

I think that after writing this story for six seasons the writers are mostly out of new ideas.  There's a ton of reset TV this season. I was able to fly through this season because so many of the episodes were fast-forwardable or skippable. Again, new characters are shoehorned in where they aren't needed, like the Borg children.  It feels like they ran out of new ideas for the existing crew so the need to tack on extra characters to have it feel fresh.  Instead, I just don't care about the new characters. That being said, there are now some episodes that feel like they will lead to the conclusion of the series.  There's an especially cool one that mostly takes place in San Fransico.  There's a Star Fleet officer obsessed with re-establishing contact with Voyager now that they know the crew is alive.  In the end he's able to make contact for a minute or two and Voyager gets to trade ship logs and information with Star Fleet. By the end of the sea...

This is the first season of Voyager that seems full of pointless episodes.  This is where "reset TV" rears it's ugly head. A lot of TV shows in the 80s and 90s were set up so that they basically wrapped up every episode so neatly that you could watch it the next week without having missed anything.  Up through season 4 I felt like most of the Voyager episodes at least had some character development that pushed things forward each episode.  For season 5 this isn't true at all. There are so many episodes in this season that don't move the story or characters forward at all.  You can easily watch the cold open and then the last 2 minutes and still understand everything you needed to get out of the episode.  In a lot of cases you could safely skip the episodes entirely. At this point I'm committed to finishing the series but season 5 put a damper on my enthusiasm.  At least I know that there are only 7 seasons and then the show wraps up. It's not l...

Right near the beginning of the season some big changes happen on Voyager.  Kes leaves the ship in a blaze of telepathic glory that superspeeds the ship another 10 years closer to the Alpha Quadrant.  Right around the same time Seven of Nine comes aboard. Seven of Nine is a Borg who is freed from the collective and quickly becomes one of the most interesting characters on the ship.  She brings into question what it means to be human and how to discover your humanity after being raised without it.  The episodes that focus on her are some of the best of the season. There's also a lot of development between Tom and B'elanna.  It's the first real romantic relationship on the ship that we see consistently being developed.  This is the season where they finally come together and have an official relationship.  It's a nice common thread that keeps moving forward throughout most of the episodes in Season 4. Not to mention that the Doctor once again g...

Voyager is still going strong in season 3.  I don't have a ton to add to my initial impressions of the first two seasons, but it's worth noting that the show has remained consistently good.  I'm happy I've been able to find a Star Trek to enjoy... I was starting to worry that I wouldn't be able to recapture my ability to like the series. Season 3 finds the crew still on their roughly 70 year voyager home after getting flung into the Delta Quadrant of the galaxy. All the characters continue to develop but this season had particularly good episodes for The Doctor and Kes. The Doctor keeps evolving from his initial holo-programming and after one weird time travel episode he gets the technology to have a portable holo-emitter which allows him to finally walk wherever he wants.  It's used to great effect and he has some fantastic episodes.  I love seeing his personality continue to grow and I'm convinced that he's one of the best actors on the entir...

I needed a break from Voyager after flying through the last couple seasons, so I thought I would sample a few other things from my "to check out" list. Parks and Rec After hearing about this show for years my wife and I finally sat down and watched a couple episodes.  It took a few for us to get the style of comedy they're going for but now we're into season 2 and it's getting really good. Galaxy Quest After Alan Rickman died I heard this movie mentioned everywhere.  It's essentially satire and comedy about Star Trek.  It's ok, but not fantastic.  It's obvious that it's a late 90s movie.  I'm probably never going to rewatch it but I'm glad I watched it once. Stargate Universe This one was the biggest hit of the show sampling for me.  I watched the first episode and already I'm interested in the characters and the overall premise of the show.  If I wasn't specifically doing a sampler I would have immediately...

Typically I like to review season by season once I get into a show.  With Voyager I actually didn't realize I had finished the first season until I was half way through Season 2.  It looks like the first season was shorter than typical and the second season was longer, so this will cover them both.  There was no clear break point or big season finale for the first season, they just kind of flowed into one another. This is such better Star Trek than my attempts to watch the other shows.  Those quickly failed when I got bored or frustrated with some part of the storytelling or production.  Voyager still holds up, even the first season which is from 1995. There's a bit of crossover with the other Star Trek shows to launch the pilot of Voyager, but after the first episode the crew is lost and alone in the Delta Quadrant.  In Star Trek terms this means they've mysteriously been sent to the other side of the galaxy and it's going to take roughly 75 years ...

In trying to dig into Star Trek from my younger days I decided to pretty much tackle the different series in order and see if any of them stick. While TNG's late 80s / early 90s production values and pacing didn't hook me I still appreciated the acting and the stories. Deep Space 9 was next up and it failed to grab my attention on any front.  The production quality is similar, if not a bit better, but the acting and the premise just aren't as interesting as TNG.  Star Trek is typically about exploration but Deep Space 9 is about a space station that stays put in one place. The most interesting thing about it is that it has crossover episodes with both TNG and Star Trek Voyager.  It bridged the gap between to two and that's pretty cool.  Thinking back about it, there was some form of Star Trek on TV for a long time from the late 80s all the way to the early 2000s.  It's weird that it's been off the air for so long now. Anyway, with DS9 I tried the fir...

I remember being a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG) when I was little.  Based on when the show was released I probably didn't watch most of it until it was in syndication, but it's possible that I watched the last few seasons as they came out. It's been on my list to get back around to checking out as an adult.  I finally did and it's not a show that's sticking with me very well.  I'm not feeling it. I can tell the show is really good in some ways after findings it's feet after the first few seasons.  But it's just so... early 90s.  There was a way they made TV then and it just feels like it.  It's a product of it's time.  I can't quite get over it. In shows like this I really miss an overarching storyline.  I guess I take it for granted now that most shows have one, but back then almost every episode was self contained and it was rare for big changes to carry over week to week. This means it's easy to watch any rand...

This was an overwhelming week.  I got married and started my crazy summer work schedule.  I'm providing you with Sunday links anyway. I'm trying to stay in the Wordcount Blogathon 2010 by posting every day in May.  Half way done.  I hope I hang in there.  I'm extremely tired and worn out right now. Tobold has an epic EVE Online review made up entirely of comments people have posted on his blog.  A lot of EVE players got extremely worked up about Tobold's impressions, so he used what they had to say to prove his point.  It is remarkably well executed. Syp posted on earning your wings instead of being handed everything on a silver platter.  It is one of those stale MMO conventions that needs to be spiced up. Enjoy your Sunday and this Star Trek clip from jandrewedits.

Star Trek Online is one of the newest MMOs on the block.  There is a ton of coverage in the blogosphere and there are so many people playing it at the moment.  When bombarded from multiple fronts it is a hard game to ignore. But, how great would this game be if it had to stand on its own without the power of the IP behind it?  Would it still hold up as a decent MMO or are people overlooking flaws because they get to finally be in the Star Trek universe?  I think much of the current appeal is seeing your own character in a star fleet uniform.  Hearing the sound of a phaser (which has been burned into the fanboy mind) in battle is hard to resist. At this point it is impossible to divorce the game from the IP, but it is still interesting to think about how many people would have bought STO if it didn't have the power of the Star Trek license behind it. STO isn't the only game this applies to either.  Just look ahead to next year's launch of The Old Repub...