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Boy’z in the (Space)’ Hood
(or how Barbie Borg
goes Vulcan)
The
pluses - unparalleled special effects and production values
The minuses -
Vulcans that display more emotion than Spock, who was only
half-Vulcan
Entirely too much gratuitous sexual references (are men ruled by
their genitals after all?)
Time travel strikes again (really Brannon is that the very best you
can do?)
Continuity is a precious commodity, yet it appears it is about to
be sacrificed
A very sentimental theme song, as opposed to one with real feeling
This is supposed to be the pre-Federation version of Star Trek, yet here we have
Star Fleet. Whose Star Fleet? The Vulcans appear to be in charge. Why is
that? And the Vulcans we see appear to be more emotional than Spock. These
guys act more like Romulans than Vulcans. An exasperated Vulcan? T’Pol, the
first Vulcan babe in all of Trek, is even more emotional than Tuvok, who went
through special conditioning to ensure he would be a logical Vulcan. Speaking
of T’Pol, how is it that she needs a form fitting outfit, which we never saw on
any Vulcan female before? Her entire demeanor calls to mind Barbie Borg with
Vulcan ears. Human reactions to the Vulcans are borderline racist at best,
which still begs the question as to why the Vulcans are in charge.
The Suliban are a race we have never run into before, who possess ‘stealth’
technology (is that the same as cloaked?) provided, it appears, by a mysterious
group we can’t see too well. (My money is on the Romulans (a serious continuity
issue IMO)). And they are fighting a temporal cold war? Oh man, can we spell:
Continuity alert!
Since when is a Klingon corpse all that important? If I recall correctly,
courtesy of TNG, the body is just a shell and the real concern is sending the
soul on to Sto-vo-kor (sp?) Continuity alert!
Although this ship is going to achieve Warp 4.5, it is evident that humans have
been traveling through space for quite a while. There is a specific reference
to cargo ships. If so, why are they so ignorant about other species? And how
to deal with those species?
I counted at least 3 references to sexual issues; the women with 3?, the dancing
girls with the long tongues, and of course that decontamination scene that spent
so much loving time on T’Pol’s anatomy. Are we to believe that men (and male
viewers) are ruled by their genitalia after all?
I must say that Dr. Phlox looks like a cross between a Cardassian and something
else. Is he the Neelix of this ship? Hoshi is such a wuss. This is a Star
Fleet officer?
I will wait at least 2-3 more episodes before pronouncing sentence, but so far,
not overly exciting. I am sure humans are going to be dorks when we first get
out in space, but this premiere just doesn't do it for me. Probably because of
the quirks in it. Berman and Braga should know better. Brannon claims they
learned from their mistakes.
How much of what we saw is sentimental claptrap or premiere jitters? In any
case, I give it 3 out of 5. No one can beat the production values, which is
what Brannon cares about anyway. I hope we don’t run into any more
sentimentality masquerading as real emotion.
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