Enterprise: Civilization

It’s been a couple days since the most recent Enterprise episode, “Civilization“, and I hadn’t been able to come up with much to say about it. After working on it for a bit, I think it’s just because there really isn’t much to say — while it wasn’t a really bad episode, it certainly wasn’t really good, and was definitely nothing new. It basically felt like a retread of episodes that every Star Trek series have done at least once or twice at some point during their run, all around the same “Enterprise officers interacting with a primitive society, trying to hide, and failing miserably” theme. Decently done, but not exactly treading new ground.

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Enterprise: The Andorian Incident

Last night’s Enterprise episode (“The Andorian Incident“), was — at least IMNSHO — one of the better, if not the best, of the episodes I’ve seen yet. While according to current Star Trek lore, the Andorians were one of the three founding races of the United Federation of Planets (along with humans and Vulcans), yet we’ve rarely seen much of them, with their few ‘starring’ roles dating back to the original series. Well, this week we got re-introduced to them, and it looks like they may be much more major players than they have in the past, which could turn out to be quite interesting.

We are also being treated to a much more interesting view of the Vulcans. Always before, they’ve been coldly logical, somewhat aloof characters, with the race as a whole obviously a strong and trusted member of the UFP. However, we’re now seeing some of the Vulcans weaknesses and less-than-idealistic tendencies, and I for one find the new look at the history of the race fascinating (to coin a phrase). Typically, however, the new views have been raising quite a storm among many fans, and there are some very interesting arguments over at the Trek BBS on both sides of whether this is a good development or not. Personally, I think it is…but that’s just me, I suppose.

Looking forward to more….

Enterprise: Terra Nova

This week the Enterprise was off to “Terra Nova”:

The Enterprise crew alters course to investigate the mystery of Terra Nova, a legendary Earth colony whose inhabitants mysteriously disappeared decades ago. But when they arrive, they confront descendants of the colonists who have become more alien than Archer could ever have imagined.

Not bad, actually — definitely better overall than last week’s episode. I liked Archer’s frustration in being able to deal with the situation he ended up in — especially when he started fuming about how, “If I can’t make first contact with a group of humans…I don’t deserve to be on this ship.” T’Pol’s handling of Archer in the situation room was wonderful, too — I’m still not entirely sure just how serious her suggesting the stun grenades was, and how much of that was playing devil’s advocate.

Enterprise: Unexpected

Benefits to actually having a TV — while the reception is pretty cruddy, it does allow me to watch the single TV show I’ve got any real interest in, Enterprise. Last night’s episode was “Unexpected”:

When Tucker is dispatched to assist an alien ship with its power source problems, he is delighted to have a friendly encounter with one of the ship’s female engineers. But after discovering that their special moment has resulted in his becoming pregnant, he realizes he’s had an unwitting experience with alien sex. Now it’s up to the Archer and the crew to return the rapidly growing alien baby to its mother.

Definite mixed feelings about this episode, for me. It was enjoyable enough, and certainly fun to watch, but it definitely had a few moments that concern me a bit.

Things I liked: Trip’s attitude throughout the show — I really liked the understated, very dry approach he took. Archer’s reactions were hilarious, the number of times he had to work to stifle a smirk were hilarious. I do have to admit, too, to a thrill when the Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser appeared on the Enterprise’s viewscreen. I’ve always liked that ship (and Klingon design in general — though they were finally upstaged by the Next Generation-era Romulan Warbird…but I digress), and seeing it in action again was quite nice. On the other hand…

Things I didn’t like: We’re four episodes in, and they’ve already succumbed to the temptation to get some sort of Holodeck on the show. Okay, so the Enterprise didn’t end up with it, but still — is it that difficult to come up with original ideas? And would the Klingons really be appeased/tempted by the possibility of being given holographic technology? Seems to me that they’d be more interested in the cloaking technology that the alien ship was using. Besides, they seemed far to easily dissuaded — it’s hard for me to believe that given the level of tension between the Federation and the Klingon Empire during Kirk’s time, that any Klingon 100 years earlier, with far less contact with Humans to draw from, would put up with Archer’s down-home “Aw, shucks, Paw,” attitude for any longer than the time it would take to send a torpedo up the Enterprise’s tailpipe.

Anyway, taken as a whole, it was an okay episode, with some fairly amusing moments — but for someone who’s been watching Star Trek practically since birth, I really wonder how this show’s going to integrate its story arc with the known back story of the Trek universe. So far, they seem to be doing a fairly shaky job of that, which worries me. Ah, well — we’re also only four episodes in, and none of the Trek series have really hit their stride until somewhere between their second and fourth year, so I supposed it’s a little early to write “Enterprise” off just yet.

Still….

To boldly go…

…where three television series and nine movies have gone before.

Or something like that, right?

But hey — they’re doing it with style. Gotta admit, I thought last nights premiere of Enterprise, “Broken Bow,”, was pretty darn cool. Finally, it really does look like we’ve got a new entry to the Star Trek universe that just might be able to carry on the torch and keep viewers interested. It’s about time.

Things I liked:

The ship — especially the interiors. It really does look something like a cross between a starship and a submarine. Very cramped interiors, walkways going around the various parts of engineering…very nice look. Besides, I’ve always liked the design of the Star Trek universe.

The technology — they seem do be doing a credible job of placing the technology somewhere between what we have today and what was thought the future could look like in the original series, from the sliders on the transporter to T’Pol’s viewer on the science station. With nobody really trusting the transporters yet, it’ll be nice to have extra-vehicular missions using shuttlecraft the majority of the time (one of my favorite TOS episodes was The Galileo Seven, a premise which wouldn’t have worked without a shuttlecraft — sometimes the transporters made things a bit too convenient, I think). The use of an actual grappling hook device rather than a tractor beam was a very nice touch.

The cast — I have to say, I think they just may have done a good job here. I wasn’t sure what to think when I heard that Scott Bakula was going to be the new captain, but I ended up really liking Cpt. Scott Archer. The rest of the regulars came off well too — about my only reservations are with Ensign Hoshi Sato (while the constant nervousness about whether the ship is about to explode around her ears is amusing, the writers will have to tread carefully not to make it just flat-out annoying) and Dr. Phlox (reminds me a bit too much of characters like Neelix [VOY] and the early Ferengi [TNG/DS9] — good ideas that didn’t hold up well over the long run), but as this is solely based on a 2-hour first episode, these characters could become much more than they seem in a season or two. I was also pleasantly surprised with Sub-Commander T’Pol. Considering the jumpsuit they’ve put her in just screams out, “Look at me! I’m the resident token sex object!” she actually ended up with a character much more thought out than I at first expected. She also has that wonderful trick of managing to smile without actually doing it — I think it’s something in the eyes, but it’s something I haven’t really seen an actor pull off with a Vulcan character since Spock and Sarek.

The fact that the show is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen. Very cool — now if only I had a high-def TV and receiver to watch the thing on!

Things i’m iffy on:

Okay, what was the point to the decontamination scene? Or, rather, was there a point beyond titillation? Admittedly, it wasn’t bad as far as prime-time titillation goes, and I have to give them props — not only did they have T’Pol strip down to her skivvies, but they also had Commander Charles Tucker in there (either for the women or the gay men in the audience, or both) — but it seemed out of place, and clumsily done. Either the two of them were just helping each other with the decontamination gel, or they were flirting, but the scene played like a clumsy mix of both. Ah, well — at least it was good eye candy, right?

The opening theme. Y’know, assuming I ever get in a situation where I can watch this show on a weekly basis, I think that song is going to grate on me more and more every time. The visuals during the credit sequence are nice, I like the exploration theme — but did they have to go to some horrid, cheezy, adult-contemporary soft-rock ballad? Ugh. That can go, as far as I’m concerned — and it can go as far away as possible.

Overall

A good, solid B+, I think. I’ll catch more episodes when I can — whenever that may be — we just might finally have another worthy contender to the Star Trek universe here.

Enterprise

Ooers, yeah — one more thing. Tonight’s the premiere episode of Enterprise, the new Star Trek series. I’m hoping to be able to catch it, Damon has said I can hang out over at his place tonight to see the show. Hopefully it’ll be worthwhile — I’ve gotta admit, I’m intrigued by what I’ve read so far. Tonight’s episode is Broken Bow, where we get to launch not only the series, but also the first warp capable Enterprise, and Klingon/Human relations. Should be interesting!

Egypt, martial arts, drugs, sex.

Not much of an update today. Was supposed to go out with Miranda to see The Mummy Returns, unfortunately as she’s not feeling well, that’ll have to wait until later in the week. But, I’ve got a good selection of alternative entertainment available…this being a Tuesday with some good new releases, I came home with some more movies. Here’s this weeks loot….

Big Trouble in Little China: A mid-80’s John Carpenter classic that was probably way ahead of its time. Chinese mythology and fighting in the midst of San Francisco just didn’t fly when it came out…but in today’s age of wire-fighting turning up everywhere (from traditional type films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to The Matrix and Charlie’s Angels), then this one fits right in along with the rest. Besides — it’s just a kick-ass flick!

Requiem for a Dream: The sophomore effort from Darren Aronofsky, the man behind Pi, this was in no way a ‘sophmore slump.’ A masturfully done and incredibly disturbing film, this story of four people descending into the depths of various addictions is not one to expect to walk out of feeling happy with the world, but is a very powerful film. I was lucky enough to see it in the theater while I was in Seattle last November, and was just amazed by this one — Darren Aronofsky is definitely a director I’m going to keep my eye on in the future.

Sex and the City: Season 2: After Adri recommended Season 1 to me and I went through it, I was pleased to discover that this is a wonderfully entertaining show. Didn’t even realize that the Season 2 set came out today until I saw it on the shelves, then figured I might as well pick it up — pretty much just a whim purchase. Not a bad one, though, if it holds up to the quality of the first season. Here’s hoping!

So that’s it. I’m thinking this would be a good evening to watch Kurt Russel kick some butt in Chinatown….

Back to the usual

I’m back!

You’re thrilled, right?

Oh, well.

Okay, so Friday I got off work at 4. Spent a little time running around doing some last minute errands, then hopped online to chat until my ride showed up to take me to the airport. Got to the airport just in time to catch the plane, and headed up to Fairbanks. Kirsten and Jamie picked me up at the Fairbanks airport, and we headed back to Kirsten’s dorm at UAF (as she was kind enough to put me up for the weekend), where the three of us stayed up talking and BS’ing until way too early in the morning. But then — that’s the point of vacations, right?

Saturday was spent mostly with my family. Slept in, then walked down the hill from UAF about noon for breakfast with mom, dad, and Kevin. After breakfast we headed over to Emily’s work to visit her for a bit, then mom, dad, and Kevin headed off to do some shopping while I borrowed Kevin and Emily’s van to run around on my own. I ended up just tooling around Fairbanks for a bit, enjoying the sunshine and warm weather and listening to a great show on the public radio station called Mountain Stage — lots of really nice live acoustic bluegrass and country performances. Emily got off work at 4pm, so I headed back to meet up with everyone. We all went out to check out Kevin and Emily’s cabin (cute little one room cabin out in the middle of nowhere), then came back into town for family pictures at Sears and dinner at a local pizza parlor.

After dinner, Kevin dropped me off at the Backdoor bar, where I met up with fbkscpl2play, beckythesillygirl, meneleaous, b_converse, and ak_ghost_ryder (all chatters in the Alaska Yahoo! Chat room). We hung out there for a while, then fbkscpl2play and beckythesillygirl took me out to see a drag show at the Palace Saloon (a bar/showhall in Alaskaland). This was an absolute blast — the place was incrediby wild (maybe a side effect of having so little to do in Fairbanks?)! At one point, it was a toss-up as to which was going to be more entertaining — watching the drag queen performing on stage, or turning around and watching the people dancing on the tables!

After the show they cleared about half of the floor of tables and chairs and opened the place up for dancing. We made it until about 2:45am, then decided it was time to bail. I got dropped off back at the UAF dorms, talked with Kirsten for a bit longer, then passed out.

Sunday we slept late again and just hung out in Kirsten’s room until it was time for me to head out. She took me to the airport, and I came homeward bound. Miranda and Loren picked me up and ran me home, then they ran off to do some shopping while I kicked back and watched a few more Season 3 X-Files episodes. This show just gets better and better — unfortunately, I’ve now finished off all of Season 3, and have a few months to go until Season 4 comes out. Arrrrrrghhh! I hate cliffhangers!

Eventually I decided to get out of the house for a bit, and headed out to Century 16 to catch Shrek. This movie is just hilarious — it takes all the familiar fairytales we’ve grown up with, gives them a really wonderfully bizarre take, and has an absolute blast poking fun at Disney throughout the flick (especially the classic “princess singing with the birds” routine — I was laughing so hard after this that I almost missed the next few lines of dialogue!). Much as kids are going to enjoy watching it, I think it’s really the adults who are really going to get a kick out of all the jokes in the film — much of the dialogue is aimed squarely at the adults rather than children, and it makes for one of the funniest films I’ve seen in the theater in a very long time.

Then, not long after I got home, who should call but my friend Stacye — she was kinda bored and wanted to head out, so we met up at the Village Inn by my house, then headed out to ‘koots for a couple drinks. We sat there and talked until about 1:30am, when we realized how late it had gotten and each bailed for home to get some sleep before we got too far into Monday.

Today was a pretty normal day, just dead slow at work. Let a lady who works at GCI that’s expressed interest in buying my car take it for a test drive, though, so hopefully I may have found a buyer. Then came home, watched the extras on the X-Files set, and sold off a few more items from my online garage sale — the PowerMac 6500, SoundDesign stereo, and my old DJ equipment is now gone.

So, that was my weekend…now, back to the day to day drudge…fun fun fun!

TV time…kinda

As always, there have been a couple additions to my movie collection over the past few days. Rather than actual movies, though, I’m catching up on some of the watchable shows that I miss due to the fact that I don’t watch television.

At the recommendation of Adri, a good friend and co-worker of mine, I picked up the first season of HBO’s Sex and the City. Actually quite an entertaining little show — well written, the four main characters are all quite nice eye candy, and since it’s an HBO production, there’s even some gratuitous nudity every so often. Sure, the shows more along the lines of a “chick flick” style, I suppose, but that’s certainly never been a problem for me, and I trust Adri’s opinions — her tastes and mine, while not identical, do tend to mesh the majority of the time.

The one that’s going to keep me busy for a while, though, is today’s prize — The X-Files: Season Three. I’d never seen the X-Files before I picked up the first season box set, but am now quite hooked — and the cliffhanger end of the second season had me wishing I had the next set that day to keep watching. Well, I didn’t then, but I do now, and made it through the first four episodes tonight. Such fun stuff…should make it through the rest of this set within the next couple weeks — then it’ll just be counting the months until season four hits the shelves!