Anime/Sci Fi/TV → Re: Star Trek: 5/17/2013 Into Darkness

I think Enterprise tried to much to be an ongoing drama rather than one shot episdes like the series before it.

Even though DS9 had an ongoing story or plot, One could sit down and watch an episode and still enjoy it. but for two or three seasons of Enterprise if you missed a few you where lost.

the "Temporal Cold War" imo ruined the series. While it had some cool moments it also took away from the initial idea of a show revolving around the first true deep space exploration ship of Starfleet.

I know I'm in the minority, at least around here, but I enjoyed the Temporal Cold War bit.

I've noticed with many series the underlying theme is overplayed by the producers/writers. While the fans mainly like to sit down and enjoy each episode, as a separate piece of entertainment, the writers/producers often become obsessed with the theme they are weaving. They then keep returning to the theme, for far to many episodes, making the series become very predicatble and slow moving.
In a good scifi series one gets steady and developing characters, but their "adventures" should be as diverse as possible. So each week one tunes in for the unexpected scenarios. Enterprise could easily have run for more years, IMHO, if the producers had just "wised up" and removed their overplayed and stale theme.

Shows such as Babylon 5, Andromeda and SG1 managed this so much better. Again IMHO.

It is easier to gain viewers too when a show can be watched at any point.

for example I never got into lost so never watched it from the start. one night when channel surfing I put it on and had no idea WTF was happening. Yet with Star Trek TNG I could watch any point in all 7 season and get a full enjoyable and understandable TV episode of good scifi.

I agree with it being easier, but I've also found that a series that doesn't have some overall "big picture" story arc doesn't hold my attention for more than a few episodes.
If every episode of a series is a stand-alone story, with no connection to the rest of the season, I don't feel the need to keep watching unless the writing makes each episode very entertaining. Not many shows have that.
I pretty much need a continuing storyline.

I totally agree with this. That's why shows like Haven and Grimm were hard for me to get through the first half season or so -- they were too much "weirdness of the week" and "monster of the week" at the beginning. As the overall story arc developed, they got MUCH more interesting to me.

BSG was probably one of the the best SciFi shows on TV and I doubt very much you could just drop in on a random episode and truly appreciate how good it was or even enjoy it.

It goes both ways. Yes it is easier to start watching a show if each episode is 'stand alone' but having a story arc or shows that build upon each other allows people to see the development and tune in to see what happens next.

That is why I loved B5. Even though it had a story arc, there were many episodes (esp S1 and S2) that were essentially stand alone but might contain a small glimpse of the main story---tantilizing clues to the future. The stories built on each other. Made me want to make sure I watched it the following week. ST:TNG didn't compel me to watch every week. (I would still watch but if I missed one then no big deal).

well today I think its easier to do arcing stories due to VOD and DVRs. TNG was made in an era where the only way to keep up was setting your VCR and remembering to do so.

Now its just tell your cable box to record all new episodes.

The Temporal Cold war indeed ruined Enterprise. And since that's how they started the series, it had one foot in the grave on day 1. Had Enterprise had stories similar to those in the 4th season I believe it would have had a much better following and may have survived longer than it's 3.8 seasons.

Back on topic, I'm interested to see if this movie can build on the success of the previous one.