…the Star Trek series Enterprise was cancelled. It actually started to become interesting in its fourth season, to become the show I’d wanted to watch when it first aired. The prequel; the show that actually paid attention to its future canon and told the story about the first days of Starfleet and the founding of the Federation, and tread those already sketched-out paths in imaginative ways that couldn’t be predicted (their take on how the Klingons lost their forehead ridges for a while, ribbing off the human Eugenics Wars? Inspired, because it was so, so in character for the Klingons).
I suppose it was a show that was doomed to failure from the beginning. You can’t explore strange new worlds and seek out new civilizations when your characters are just getting to know species that to the audience are familiar faces. You either have to take the story far afield into alien species we don’t understand why we never heard of before (which they did a lot of, for three years), or write that prequel that could fall so quickly into predictability.
In the end, I didn’t watch the show because I didn’t bond personally with any of the characters. There was no one who intrigued me, or got under my skin. And so many of the early plots seemed warmed over [insert TOS/TNG/DSN/Voy episode here].
I finally got done catching up on the entire series on Netflix. Now to figure out what to catch up on next.
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
I vote for Stargate SG-1. I think you’ve already watched everything else I really love. (Terminator, Roswell, Firefly, Buffy (obviously). Dark Angel? Have you watched that yet?)
I tried watching Star Gate. Just couldn’t get into it.
Watched Season 1 of Dark Angel. Couldn’t get into that, either.
😦 Stargate SG-1 is my all-time favorite. There are a few slow episodes in season one, but overall I love it lots. If you can get through season one of Babylon 5 you can definitely make it through season one of Stargate SG-1. Which raises the issue — have you seen Babylon 5?
But Jessica Alba, with cute hair and leather!
Yeah, saw all of that. Saw the entire thing. But other than the epic Sinclair/Valen arc, it never really got under my skin.
You can just stare at her all day and get that.
; D
The other problem with Stargate is I have a few friends on my flist who talk about it all the time, I can’t approach it from a neutral standpoint. My head is full of their baggage. So it’s the kind of thing I might come back to in ten years when I’m baggage-adjacent.
I suppose it was a show that was doomed to failure from the beginning. You can’t explore strange new worlds and seek out new civilizations when your characters are just getting to know species that to the audience are familiar faces. You either have to take the story far afield into alien species we don’t understand why we never heard of before (which they did a lot of, for three years), or write that prequel that could fall so quickly into predictability.
Agreed. That was the very first thing my parents said before the series ever aired. And I never liked half of these new enemies, especially that really dangerous one (the name escapes me) since if they were so bad why had no one else ever talked about them.
In the end, I didn’t watch the show because I didn’t bond personally with any of the characters.
ditto. I gave up before it ended
It’s the only Trek I never watched in its entirety (much less repeatedly like I have all the others), so I thought I’d sit through it once.
There were times during my DVD rewatch I let the rental disc sit there on my shelf for a month, it was so boring.
I was among those who wanted to see them building the foundation for the Star Trek world we knew from TOS, and was bitterly disappointed. I gave up somewhere early in the third season, because I really didn’t care about any of them anymore.
Too bad, because there was potential for some interesting stuff.
Have you seen Farscape? Awesomeness!
Farscape. Yet another show I tried watching and couldn’t get into. I couldn’t get past that muppet.
Same here to the not watching it all and I can believe you just let it sit. It was an interesting idea that just utterly failed in its execution
Farscape too? You gave up on Farscape! I am appalled. There is clearly no hope for you. You should be tied down and forced to watch the last two seasons of Sliders, or something equally appalling, but that’s really the worst thing I own. *shrug*
Here, have some Doctor Who. *cringes and waits anxiously*
*sad sigh* But it has archaeology and space aliens and (sometimes) robots and Daniel Jackson is just so Daniel and then there’s Vala who is totally wonderful . . . *gives up and pouts*
New Who. Also another show I tried to w….
yada, yada, yada
I’m sure it will stand the test of time when I check back on it in 2020. That’s right around the time I’ll be able to watch Farscape with a neutral eye as well.
I could never watch that show because the theme song curled my hair. Plus, I’d heard they had the Borg, and that just me unable to accept it as canon.
What???? Farscape was great! It had Aeryn Sun! And leather! And an awesome villain (Scorpius)! And muppets! And leather!
Holy crap, we might actually be two completely different people after all. *stunned*
To be fair Caprica lost me immediately and I relaly didn’t like season 1 of SGU.That being said I believe that SGU was finding its footing in the second season, stuff was happening and it was starting to move along, there were actual characters that I got interested in. It would have been relaly interesting to see what happened in a third season and it could have gone either way depending on how safe they played it. As it is there are still ten episodes to go and I’m sure I’ll watch them.I’m not so concerned I guess with them cancelling it though I was disappointed, I’m cranky that they tell the fans that they’re going to be releasing more stuff and then fail to deliver. Reply
They had a couple episodes where they had brief run-ins with species the Federation would not meet for another hundred years, but wrote those in such a way that the crew didn’t see their opponents. I seem to recall one was the Borg. I do remember the one where the ship was taken over by Ferengi pirates, but they knocked the crew unconscious during their raid.
In all honesty, it was the muppet I had a problem with, not anything else. And I do plan to revisit it. Later on down the line when my brain isn’t swimming with what everyone else has elliptically said about it.
Alias? Veronica Mars? Battlestar Galactica?
Liked Alias, although I haven’t gotten around to watching the final season yet. Like Veronica Mars, but sort of bailed in Season 3. Watched up to the middle of season two of BG before bailing.
Liked Alias, although I haven’t gotten around to watching the final season yet.
Yeah, you’re not missing much there, really.
Like Veronica Mars, but sort of bailed in Season 3.
Can’t argue with that one.
Watched up to the middle of season two of BG before bailing.
There’s a reason why I don’t often rec that one. But unless I get desperate and start suggesting Andromeda or Sanctuary or something . . . oh, I’ve heard much good about Legend of the Seeker, which I have yet to watch myself. My to-watch list also has Being Human.
I am just about to embark on Being Human, Series 2. I heartily recommend Series 1 of that show.
*bumps up Being Human on the list*
I also forgot to mention Merlin. You have to work pretty hard to maintain a suspension of disbelief, but it is entertaining. (I had to construct some fairly elaborate head-canon to watch it, but it has proven worth my effort. Also, it has jousting.)
You have to work pretty hard to maintain a suspension of disbelief
Oh, I kind of suck at that. It’s what made Stargate difficult. Traveling to other planets where everyone speaks English, and they don’t have a handy plot device like a Universal Translator to help make my belief-suspending easier?
Oh, see, the Stargate equivalent of the UT is built into the DHD somehow, just like it’s the TARDIS that does the translating invisibly in Who,, which is why everyone understands everyone else everywhere in the galaxy except on Earth — we have a gate and no DHD. And please don’t pick holes, I cling to that theory with the desperation necessary to defend my own sanity, because it’s all real and very very important, you know.
Well yes, that’s the reason for the poster over there by the Star Wars action figures, but the show’s good too, or at least I thought so.
I sense a pattern here. You’re picky about your teevee!
It’s got to speak to my story and/or character kinks, and do it fast, or I wander off. Apparently.