Okay, I'll admit it: I've been an avid reader of science fiction since I was barely able to read (Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in the Sunday funnies, then on from there), and although I'm not an organized Trekkie (or Trekker) and I don't go to Star Trek conventions, I'll come out of the closet and admit that I'm a Trekaholic.---------------------
I watched and taped at the same time, and I haven't watched the tape yet, so at this point all I have are first impressions. Here we go.
Well . . . good points and bad points:—
Bad (or at least questionable) stuff first:— In general, I think they tried to pack too much into the first episode, especially a first episode where they were attempting, according to Rick Berman, the executive producer, to ". . . bring back the wonder and excitement and scariness of outer space." Once the Enterprise left the space dock, there should have been a fairly extensive "Wow!" factor, but I didn't really sense that. Granted, most of them had been in space and to other inhabited planets before, but this was supposed to be the first real starship, capable of more than just a couple times the speed of light (twice the speed of light and it's still going to take you about twenty-six months to get to Alpha Centauri, and that's just next door). Now they could travel to more distant star systems, and things were really beginning to open up. Insufficient "Wow!"
For those relatively inexperienced in contact with alien cultures, they were too much at home on the planet where they were searching for Sarin. Nice T & A in the cabaret sequence, but I think they were trying to borrow a chunk from the Star Wars cantina scene (the Frblznrx females have three what? Eyes?). As they were trying to get away, the Raygun Fight at the O.K. Corral was too confusing and dragged on much too long.
It always astounds me how, after a few minutes study, they can figure out how to run an alien computer and/or fly an alien spacecraft. Even with a handy manual, most people can't figure out how to program a VCR, and I don't seriously think that earthlings are going to change that much in the next 150 years (Starfleet training must be really comprehensive). But then, all incarnations of Star Trek did that.
Nit-picks:—
Why would an Oklahoma corn farmer need to keep something as high-tech as a plasma rifle around? Sounds expensive. It would've been a nice (more realistic) touch if he it used an old .30-.30 deer rifle to nail the Klingon. ("Klang." Click and Clack's evil triplet?) I had a little trouble keeping a couple of the characters straight: Chief Engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) look so much alike I kept losing track of who was who (whom?). The breezy, high-spirited Dr Phlox (John Billingsley). I'm not sure. Okay, maybe, but I think for a first deep-space mission, an all-earthling crew, except for a somewhat overbearing and contemptuous Vulcan baby-sitter might have been . . . well, I dunno.
I've seen Scott Bakula in a number of roles and he's a heck of an actor. He's going to be just fine. Stop comparing him to William Shatner and Patrick Stewart. He's not Kirk and he's not Picard, he's Capt. Jonathan Archer. Whole different person. Archer has a bit of Han Solo in him and, considering where he comes in the sequence, that's a plus (re: Star Trek captains, Bakula is the second best actor, after Patrick Stewart).
Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) has had more experience in space and on alien planets than any of the rest of the crew, including Archer. He didn't have much to do in this episode, but in future episodes he could prove highly valuable as the alien expert.
Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), good. Whiz at picking up languages (there are people like that in real-life) and frustrated and irritated at the blunders of the "universal translator." [I'm trying to break in a voice-recognition program, and I can relate to that!]. Feisty.
T'Pol (Joleen Blalock). Okay, so she's built like a refugee from Baywatch. Try to ignore that (?!?). Pretty good job at looking down her straight Vulcan nose at these emotional, irrational, impulsive earthlings and trying to micro-manage them and keep them from falling off their tricycles or skinning their knees. At the end of the show she seemed to have developed a molecule or two of respect for Archer. But not too much, I hope. Archer's firm-jawed, crooked-smiled, "Let's get on with it!" approach to things and T'Pol's rational, cautious, "keep-the-reins-tight" house-mothering promises some sparks in plot-lines.
I really liked:— The ship. It looked like a space ship, rivets and all, not like a Revell plastic model. Word is they spent some time aboard a nuclear submarine before they designed the interior. Efficient use of space: the bridge is functional but, of necessity, pretty cluttered and very high-tech (from an early twenty-first century perspective); crew quarters are pretty cramped, unlike the "suites" the crews will have on Constitution and Galaxy class starships in the future. No holodeck. No ten-forward. The new-fangled transporter is cranky and unreliable and except of extreme emergencies, they use it only for transporting cargo and such. It works, but every now and then it reassembles somebody bass-ackwards or intimately integrated with whatever inanimate objects happen to be around (possible plot-lines there). Everybody hates the thing. Shields are primitive yet, and mainly for deflecting micro-meteorites before they blow gaping holes in the hull. Phase-pistols, a more complex form of laser, with only two settings (stun and kill—can't use them for heating a cup of coffee as Yeoman Rand did with a phaser-pistol once on TOS). Big problem the designers had: Kirk's communicator looks primitive and clunky beside cell-phones that we have now. Well, Archer used a communicator once, and it looked pretty similar to Kirk's, but a bit neater. A bit like a cell-phone that flips open. No great jar.
My solution to The Klingon Problem: Worf had that. "We don't like to talk about it, all right?!?!?!?" So let's just don't talk about it.
The producers said they wanted to bring back the "Sense of Wonder" that characterized early science fiction, the first tentative, scary steps into deep space and first contacts with alien cultures. During much of the show, I felt a Sense of Wondering what in the hell they're doing. But, all in all, I thought the show was . . . nnnyyeeeee . . . okay.
I remain cautiously optimistic.
---------------------Those are my preliminary thoughts. I'll do my full review once I've viewed the tape.
All right! Who said that? ("Get a life" indeed!!)
Don Firth