Category: Star Trek

There’s been a flurry of blog articles recently over how the Federation of Planets is really an inept, but evil, band of quasi-military (but horribly undisciplined) goons, protecting an autocratic quasi-communistic homoginized state.

For examples, see Perry de Havilland, Natalie Solent, Perry again, and Moira Breen.

Kind of weird stuff, but interesting (not unlike much libertarian commentary). But, then, I’ve never been a huge fan of the Star Trek franchise. Well, not for a few decades, at least.

I watched the Star Trek Weakest Link episode on Monday night, and it was great fun. After the shock of Q — er, John deLancie being voted off first, I generally enjoyed the spectacle. It’s always interesting to see how actors perform in such circumstances — who’s smart, who’s dumb, and who’s in-between.

Wil Wheaton has an interesting blog or two on the whole shindig. It sounds like they cut most of the good stuff out.

UPDATE: Or three.

Note that, if you missed it last night, the following contains some SPOILERS.

::: The Good :::

• Solid casting. Bakula fits the role well, and the other parts, though only sketchily filled in thus far, look good.
• Good design work. This looks like a more primative ship (at least on the inside). The technology is more Buck Rogers than Next Generation.
• Nice sfx. This has some of the better work I’ve seen in a show of this sort. Natch, since it’s the newest of the breed, but, still …
• Human writing. This is not the plastic of TNG, the melodrama of TOS, or even the tired piecework of Voyager. In some ways, it reminded me of the first few seasons of DS9, with cultural politics playing (realistically) a role as big as technology in how the action progresses.
• Respect for the past. There were echoes from TOS (the ever-burgeoning Rigel system) and from ST: First Contact. Nothing happened that made me scratch my head and say, “Hey, if they could do that then, why couldn’t Kirk do that later?” (That’s going to be one of the most difficult problems for them to juggle.)
• Arc-y goodness. Who’s the mysterious figure from the (I assume) future? From what I’ve heard, that whole underlying plot will be a major one. There were hints at the foundations of the Federation. There was stuff occuring — not a lot, but at least some — to make me think that it will be more than a series of hour-long episodes.
• Minimal technoglibness. Nobody mentioned tetrions. Not once. We are truly blessed.
• Nice montage of images during the main titles. Very evocative of the sense of adventure and advancements they’re trying to build here.

::: The Bad :::

• Sketchy history. When last we left Earth and Z. Cochrane, human civilization was on the ropes. Now we’ve conquered war, hunger, and, oh yeah, cleaned up San Francisco, all in a relatively short time (and all while funding a major space program). Sure, the Vulcans might have helped. Sure, having a common goal of space might have helped. It still seems convenient. I hope we learn more.
• Foolish inconsistencies. The Klingon homeworld is only 80 hours, at Warp 4.5, from Earth? It’s a Small Universe After All.
• Convenient personality shifts. I didn’t buy the way the Vulcan science officer changed her mind about the mission. It was sloppy writing.
• A dumb ending. Earth’s first (and only) real starship. A major mission. A visit to distant worlds. A big battle. “Oh, never mind — go ahead and do some more exploring while you’re out there. It’s not like you could just pop back here for repairs and debriefing in — oh, 80 hours.”

::: The Worrisome :::

• The Vulcans know more than the Humans. How long will the “We know but we won’t tell you” schtick play before it becomes a real pain? Conversely, how long will the “Okay, we’ll tell you, but only because it will resolve this plot obstacle” (reconfiguring the sensors to track the plasma phase shift hoohah) schtick play before it becomes the equivalent of Geordi figuring out a new way to reallign the tetrion fields?
• I’m not sure how much sniggering we can stand about alien sex.
• Why the rush to introduce phasers? It would have been nice either to continue using the (apparently effective) plasma guns, or (if we want a way to “stun” folks) have phaser technology already present.
• How many years will it be before the main title music sounds really dated? The quasi-classical bits from the most recent three series will hold up for quite some time, and the TOS theme, while heavy on the 60s tones, is iconic. In ten years, this will simply sound like a 90s guitar ballad.

Overall, I give it a B+. Definitely watchable so far, with potential for fun. I don’t know that I’ll rearrange my social calendar, or pop a tape in if I have to be out of the house on Wednesday evenings, but it should be at least a quasi-regular on the Consortium TV Schedule.

(On a side note, I am more than a little concerned that the only thing that UPN could figure out to advertise from its schedule during Enterprise was (surprise) Buffy. The same two or three commercials, repeated near-endlessly — and not very good commercials, at that. True, they were somewhat less annoying than the also-oft-repeated Sprint PCS commercials, but, really, folks — do you have that few advertisers, and that few shows worth pluggling?)