One of Enterprise's (many) flaws
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:29 am
When TNG came out there was one element of the show that did not strike me until later in the series. When I watched the first couple seasons other glaring flaws sort of got in the way of this element of storytelling. Or perhaps the element was not there and was added later.
Anyway, the element I speak of is instantaneous communication. Often times Picard would get orders directly from Starfleet in real time. This meant that Picard was always being watched, that he had very little leeway in the way he could handle many situations because there was always his superiors just a phone call away. It is much the same way in our modern Navy where the Secretary of Defense can be put into contact with virtually any ship in the world in a matter of a couple minutes.
This was quite different in Kirk's day. Quite often it would take Kirk hours or even days to get or deliver a coded message, so many was the time where he would have to act on his own. Balance of Terror is an excellent example of this. It was like the Horatio Hornblower days (as others have compared TOS to) where British ships were at the other end of the world and communication was haphazard, and it made the series much more exciting because there was that feeling that Enterprise was on it's own. There was no back up and the only thing that would save the day would be Spock's logic, MCoy's compassion, Kirk's intuition and leadership skills. I really felt like we were looking at the best of the best on the Enterprise.
And this is where Enterprise failed. From the start Archer was always in contact with Admiral Forrest, never did we get the feeling that he was out there alone in the dark of space, cut off from authority. And help? The Vulcans were always a phone call away, it seemed. Never was there a feeling of tension, of danger, at least in those first two seasons. Heck, no one died until season three. Pre-Federation space was ridiculously safe.
I think Enterprise would have much better served if the show had felt more like TOS in that there was less communication with Earth, that any communication were in short bursts of coded messages rather than conversations with Forrest. Much like ELF transmissions with modern submarines. There was just no tension in a show about Man going where Vulcan has gone before, and being able to call home on a regular basis to talk about it.
Anyway, the element I speak of is instantaneous communication. Often times Picard would get orders directly from Starfleet in real time. This meant that Picard was always being watched, that he had very little leeway in the way he could handle many situations because there was always his superiors just a phone call away. It is much the same way in our modern Navy where the Secretary of Defense can be put into contact with virtually any ship in the world in a matter of a couple minutes.
This was quite different in Kirk's day. Quite often it would take Kirk hours or even days to get or deliver a coded message, so many was the time where he would have to act on his own. Balance of Terror is an excellent example of this. It was like the Horatio Hornblower days (as others have compared TOS to) where British ships were at the other end of the world and communication was haphazard, and it made the series much more exciting because there was that feeling that Enterprise was on it's own. There was no back up and the only thing that would save the day would be Spock's logic, MCoy's compassion, Kirk's intuition and leadership skills. I really felt like we were looking at the best of the best on the Enterprise.
And this is where Enterprise failed. From the start Archer was always in contact with Admiral Forrest, never did we get the feeling that he was out there alone in the dark of space, cut off from authority. And help? The Vulcans were always a phone call away, it seemed. Never was there a feeling of tension, of danger, at least in those first two seasons. Heck, no one died until season three. Pre-Federation space was ridiculously safe.
I think Enterprise would have much better served if the show had felt more like TOS in that there was less communication with Earth, that any communication were in short bursts of coded messages rather than conversations with Forrest. Much like ELF transmissions with modern submarines. There was just no tension in a show about Man going where Vulcan has gone before, and being able to call home on a regular basis to talk about it.
