[mr-data]

As mentioned in the topic title, I am interested in knowing how you feel about/looks at a) Star Trek: Enterprise and b) JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie.

Here is my opinions:

Star Trek: Enterprise:
I can honestly say, that when this show started, I had a somewhat negative opinion about it. This was primarily due to the fact, that it oversteps parts of establish canon within trek, and that the Enterprise looked way to modern (a show set 200 years before the TNG-era, yet it ship looked like something from the 2360 or '70, not 21xx).
But recently, my opinions have changed. This was primarily beacuse I realised, that when the Enterprise E went back to 2063 in "First Contact", eventhough the timeline was reset; the events in that movie created an alternate timeline/canon. And thus, an alternative canon was also created.

Star Trek (2009):
My emotions towards this movie was very mixed; on one hand, it was nice to see the trek-franchise being revived, but I generally do not like prequels. This is due to the fact, that many prequels (and this movie aswell) has a tendency to violate or contradict the original. But when I actually saw, I felt pretty good about it; but at the same time I came with a new general rule about movie/tv-series and so forth:

Prequels are set in alternate timelines; no matter what the producers might say.

But how do you feel about the movie and show mentioned above? And about the rule I created, for that matter?

[Endeavour]

Enterprise was never my favourite show, but I liked it enough to watch. It really found it's way with series 4, but then got cancelled.

Loved the JJ movie, it was great.

I like that rule, means the Prequel Trilogy for Star Wars was an alternate universe and we can forget about it. :p
If we were to go by that rule, though, then TNG never was in the "original" timeline, due to several events in TOS and ST:IV, so we're a few alternate realities over.

[mr-data]

I might have made my rule less than perfectly clear; what I meant what that rule was "rule of thumb" or "general" rule. After further thought, I have decided to alter the rule slightly: IF a prequel does not contradict or violate the original timeline or alter events, then I can accept it as taking place in the original timeline.

As for TNG vs. TOS vs. ST:IV, I am not sure. I must admit, that I have never seen as much as a single episode of TOS (except the movies with that crew), for various reason. But generally speaking, the vast majority of TNG episodes does adhere to the timeline established in TOS (canon) or ...? When talking about a show, if only a few episodes fails to adhere to the established timeline, but the show as a whole does adhere to it, then those episodes take place in an alternate timeline.

While on the topic, I do remember a discussion I had some years ago: According to my "opponent" (in lack of a better word), a major flaw about VOY was data-capacity and computer-speed, which on Voyager is a lot bigger/faster opposed to the Enterprise D. While I do acknowledge the difference in size and speed, I do not really see it as a flaw. Keep in mind, there are an age-diffence of 15 - 20 years between the Galaxy class and the Intrepid class. And how large an increase in computing speed and storage capacity have we seen in 15 - 20 years? A few thousand times, if memory serves me right. And is it entirely in-plausible to assume, that there has been a similar development in the 24th century, even if it was never mentioned on screen?

[Endeavour]

I believe the Gel Packs in Voyager were the given reason for increased capacity and speed.

[mr-data]

The Bio-neural Gel Packs were, as you said, responsible for the increased speed and storage capacity. However, I cannot and will not believe that they are only components responsible for the increase in speed and storage capacity.
I have a firm belief, that technology will always evolve. Isolinear circuitry were still a vital part of a ship's computersystem when the Intrepid class was launched, and the Bio-neural Gel Packs were a aupplemental system, primarily introduced because it's bio-neural part works as a artifiacial brain. And while computers does offer a significantly increased speed for calculations, a biological brain is still much better at handling complex informations and such.

While we are on the topic, in the previously mentioned argument, my opponent claimed that because the Intrepid class' iso-linear component looked the same as on the Galaxy class', they were identical. I then had to remind him, that the ATX-formfactor for computer-components still looks very much the same today as it did when introduced in the mid-1990's (thoug with some differences), but in just over 5 years, computing speed was increased ten-fold, and storage capacity grew even more, despite the hdd still looked the same and utilised the same interface.

[Terrell]

Enterprise was OK, I watched it mainly just to get my Star Trek fix. The Xindi story arc was interesting but the characters didn't have much depth to them, and the tech looked far more advanced that what was shown in TOS. The other point being the Enterprise was just an inverted Akira really took the biscuit lol. Huge overuse of time travel too in my opinion.

JJ Trek, well that's a big can of worms. There are so many problems with it, but I'll try not to rant!

Firstly, the science behind it. Star Trek has always maintained a reasonable link with scientific theory, a good example being warp drive which is possible... just the energy requirements are colossal! JJ just throws that out the window, with warp engines propelling the ships forward like hyperdrives out of Star Wars. The famous blue phasers are now more like something I'd expect to see from a Star Destroyer . The ship is damned ugly, there are MUCH better fan made Enterprises out there. My favourite being Madkoifishs' Enterprise which can be found on Youtube here --> http://youtu.be/7HN1H_ShuIo

I do watch the film from time to time, as I guess ANY Trek is better that no Trek at all. Quite plain to see that it's been altered for the CoD kids though .

[Stormy]

I like them both.

I'm now in the process of watching Enterprise all the way through from episode 1. It's been a good journey and I'm actually enjoying it more this time than when it was in first run. The "look" thing with the interior is pretty easy to rationalize. That's the difference between making a television show in the 1970s and today. You no longer have to use black cardboard panels with pinholes backed by a light bulb for space screens as they did with TOS. I really don't think we would have wanted them to do that with ST:E.

As for the movie, there are a couple of things I didn't like, but for the most part I am a huge fan. I think the casting was perfect, I have no problem with the look of the ship and I thought the story was pretty danged good. The movie grabs you with the opening scene and keeps you until the end.

[Terrell]

I guess its just the small things that bug me in it. Like at one point Spock says that Vulcans and Romulans have a common heritage, but how can he know this when they don't even find out what Romulans look like until Balance of Terror? Similar inconsistencies throughout the film just bug me lol. If I just sit back and switch my brain off and be awed by the special effects then its good, but yeah I'm fairly critical of films not always a good thing!

[Endeavour]

They must have known from the Romulan war. I find it hard to believe there was no hand to hand combat in the war. Don't forget the Romulan and Vulcan species could space travel long before Humans, and the Vulcans never have been very open about anything.

[Terrell]

Well what made me think about it is that in Balance of Terror Spock says that in the Earth Romulan war ships were only equipped with audio comms systems and no viewing screens and thus no Human had ever set eyes on a Romulan, hence why the bridge crew look at Spock amazed that the Romulans look like Vulcans. To be fair though Star Trek has shot itself in the foot when it comes to continuity it could be overlooked.

[Terrell]

Quote from Balance of Terror...
Spock: "Which allowed no quarter, no captives. Nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication. Therefore, no human, Romulan, or ally has ever seen the other."