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Nov 23 | Chuck returns to NBC with a special two-hour show on Sunday, Jan 10, 2010, before returning to its regular time slot, Mondays at 8pm on the following night. It's return to prime time television can be attributed to a successful fan renewnal campaign last year. CHUCK is a one-hour, action-comedy series that follows Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi, "Less Than Perfect") -- a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent. This upcoming season will include some special guest stars, including Brandon Routh of "Superman Returns" who will play CIA agent Daniel Shaw in an episode, and the addition of SUBWAY restaurant as a major advertiser to the show. Chuck averaged a 4.0/6 rating last season, about eight percent better than the recently cancelled "Trauma". Ratings-challenged Heroes moves back an hour when Chuck returns on Monday nights. STAR TREK VOYAGER's Robert Duncan McNeill serves Chuck as a supervising producer and director.
Nov 17 | Originally hired as co-executive producer to help with the second half of the show's first season, Kevin Murphy has now taken the reins of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel on Syfy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He now serves as an executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and oversees the day-to-day functions of the show.
Nov 12 | Star Trek star Zachary Quinto is loosely attached to star in the romantic dramedy Whirligig, reports Risky Business.Quinto would play the lead role in the independent Canadian film, which is aiming to shoot early next year. The movie centers on a man who, in a misguided attempt to woo an older woman, befriends the woman's adopted son.Chaz Thorne is directing the pic, based on a screenplay by Michael Amo, creator of the Canadian supernatural series "The Listener."
Nov 11 | The CNS Foundation, is hosting an on-line charity auction at www.charitybuzz.com. One of the items they are auctioning is a signed movie poster of the new Star Trek movie which has all the cast members and writers. The president of our organization is Carol Abrams, JJ's mother, and she arranged for the donation from Bad Robot Production Company. J.J. Abrams is also a major donor to their organization. The funds raised will go to help find a cure to neurological disorders in children. The auction link is here.
Nov 10 | Candice Bergen, Charles Lisanby, Don Pardo, Gene Roddenberry, Tom and Dick Smothers and Bob Stewart have been selected as the next inductees into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a Jan. 20 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture, changed television for the better and entertained us royally while doing so," TV Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said. More info at the Hollywood Reporter
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By Steve Krutzler / 09:52, 21 February 2004 / TrekWeb Features
By Jacqueline Bundy
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Um ...
It's cool to run around naked when you're home alone?
Erotic massage is the best way to deal with grief?
Using force gets the best results when you're trying to get information?
In all seriousness, despite how much I like the show this year compared to the year before ... these characters aren't role models. Sure, Archer may be rough and tough, but the fact that he's left his sense of ethics and principles behind to fight off the Xindi now is a little saddening; actually, a LOT saddening. What's even more saddening is that no one really seems to want to deal with the repercussions of that.
Well... supposedly next week's episode ENT "Hatchery" is going to cover that (mutiny?)
Although it seems that it is going to be him against the crew with respect to valuing life. Which really shouldn't be. The way Archer has been shown this season, after all the lines he has crossed, HE should be the one to attempt to destroy the eggs and have some "conscience" (although now, that's hard to find, what with the pseudo-Vulcan waffling with emotions and the Doctor no longer strongly arguing his ethics) have him reconsider.
This could have actually been a good place to stick Gralik to be that "conscience". In TOS "Devil in the Dark", which this is sounding more and more like (what, with Sussman as the writer of ENT "Hatchery"), Kirk is insistant on destroying the Horta (considered the "monster") until Spock, who was fascinated by the small silver spheres that the miners had found all around the mine tunnels, realizes they must have been eggs, convinces Kirk to reason with the creature (through him and a mind meld), and at that point, Kirk quits with destroying creatures (as had been done in TOS "The Man Trap") and starts reasoning with them...
But I know at that point in TOS, Gene Coon came in (and wrote that ep) and changed the way that our gallant TOS crew would react. And the question here, for something that is supposed to be "prequel", was Kirk the "first" to reconsider destroying rather than reasoning, or should Archer be that one. And that is diffcult to reconcile. If we ignore the change in writers and thought for TOS, which could be done, and redefine Humanity based on post-Gene Coon TOS, then such thinking could have conceivably been back as far as Archer...
But yes, this season was to supposedly address making Archer less of a "weakling" and "grow balls" or whatever. If you wanted to compare him to the other male Captains, he was not quite a Picard because he wasn't "cerebral" like Picard but he wasn't a supposed "action hero" like a Kirk. Nor was he a highly controlled guy like Sisko, although he actually showed shades of that in ENT "Shockwave I & II". And the one thing that I gave ENT "Shockwave I & II", was that they showed an Archer who accepted responsibility over something he felt his crew had done and he essentially grieves over the masive loss of life, his career, and the whole Warp program.... And time is spent to show him mull over it and then have to deal with his senior staff regarding their "change in plans". Even in ENT "Silent Enemy", Archer was shown as realizing they were way over their heads.
Both of those eps showed contrast. But now this 3rd season, there is no contrast. All of the characters act the same and no one questions or only weakly questions what is going on or ignores it all. And the only way to even indicate drama through contrast, is to do so by either going very far over the line (ie., have Archer literally kill someone without a care) OR have Archer back off like what seems might be the case in ENT "Hatchery" - and then people would complain that he lost his "balls" - IF it isn't done thoughtfully and with some sense to show how their behavior is just so unjustified. Ie., the consequences of revenge - because this is what is happening and revenge is a valid Human reaction... But in the context of Star Trek, there was some message that showed the consequences of revenge. And that requires that the creators and writers have some strong sentiment regarding this... And obviously it leads back to the sentiments that many people are familar with regarding Roddenberry and his staff's visions of such.
But be that as it may, he's "on a mission", where there is literally dialog that SOME character will repeat and remind the audience of in each and every episode this 3rd season, like a broken record. 
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I hate to say it, but Deep Space Nine may have set a dangerous precedent for Enterprise in 'In the Pale Moonlight,' where Sisko abandons his own sense of ethics for the greater good. What was wonderful about that episode was the fact that we actually saw Sisko struggle with his conscience for the whole hour.
Well most of the previous Treks, save VOY, seemed to revel at showing contrast to heighten the drama. DS9 "In the Pale Moonlight", like TOS "A Private Little War", had your Captains literally dictate - through a voice-over log, how they were going to break the law and why. And it is the WHY which makes a Trek. What is it about Humanity that causes them to do what they do. Not just the ends justifying the means, but WHAT drives someone to do what they do. And this has been missing from Archer.
In his case, there's really nothing personal deep down that should be driving this behavior. If he had BEEN THERE on Earth when the Xindi weapon was let loose, that's one thing. But it took them 6 weeks or thereabouts, travelling at Warp 5, to get home to see what happened.
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If Archer has had struggled with his conscience at all, we haven't seen it at all.
Oh it hasn't been shown. Not at all. He is the anti-hero "on a mission", without even a Charles Bronson ("Death Wish") personal reason for it. If Trip had been Archer, then it would make sense. But Trip has apparently gone on about his life like nothing happened. And even in ENT "Proving Ground" when Shran asks him about his sister (thanks to fans here... ;-)), what does he do? He talks about how "important" the "mission" is.
Oh well.
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To date, he's basically told Phlox to abandon medical ethics, threatened to kill Trip's clone, and throw an alien into an airlock all in the name of saving Earth, and not once have we seen him deal with any of the emotional aspects of these situations. It's as if his morals have just become disposable when there's a job to be done.
Kick-ass.
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I think it's become apparent that Enterprise would like to be a sign of the times, especially given the blatant analogies to 9/11 with the Xindi storyline, but what the producers have failed to realize is that Star Trek has always represented humanity living on past tragedy and striving to co-exist peacefully in the galaxy.
Well... I think that was the gist of ENT "North Star", but people so trashed it with respect to it being a "bottle episode" within this arc, and with respect to it having a "western" setting, that who knows how one can put a modern "message" in this show anymore.
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That's the message that Enterprise really needs to put across at the end of the day, especially during the times we live in now.
Yes, hopefully. If the show ever gets the chance to exist past this season.
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"I think the show talked to people through the characters. They're stories that speak to the heart. They talk about love, they talk about friendship, they talk about loyalty, they talk about patriotism, exploration, curiosity, reaching out... And I think all those things still touch people. Even when you look at a 30-year old show, it still has something to say." - D.C. Fontana, Sci Fi Channel Special Edition TOS 1998
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"If the season finale involves the re-built USS Reliant coming back in time to the 21st Century crewed by Moogie, Dr. Selar, Morn, Transporter Chief Kyle, and the Salt Vampire, then we'll know that Coto has gone too far." - tomba1701
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