Nov 23 | Chuckreturns 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 Chuckas 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
As with the previous set, all 26 episodes of the second season of ENTERPRISE are presented in anamorphic widescreen format, as the series was shot and intended for high definition presentation, so there's no picture information lost. Each episode is evenly divided into eight chapters apiece, and the chapter breaks are wonderfully set either during commercial breaks or in the middle of longer acts. Colors and blacks are nicely balanced on screen, and there's a crispness to it that makes everything leap out on screen. I remember watching these episodes on my local UPN affiliate, and even then they didn't look this good!
In addition, all of the episodes are presented with your choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 sound mixes, with English subtitles and closed captions for the hearing impaired. I like the 5.1 mix a lot better, because of the immersive surround quality of the atmosphere, though you can't go wrong with the 2.0 mix either. Now if we can just get a 6.1 or a DTS mix included, that would sweeten the pot just a little bit more for you serious home theater buffs.
Packaging and Menus:
The packaging design is the same as on the ENTERPRISE first season set, a large silver case embossed with the ENTERPRISE logo on the front and indented on the top and back in the same pattern as before. Like the first season set, the case separates into two halves to reveal the DVD packaging itself, a plastic book-style tray containing the discs themselves and a plastic slipcover surrounding the entire disc tray. All of the discs are nicely and legibly arranged with episode title, airdate, stardate, and DVD information evenly balanced and spread across the discs. In addition, the DVD package comes with a colorful 12-page booklet that offers episode synopses, a first season recap, a profile on the Borg, and a look ahead to the third season.
The animation for the DVD menus is again exceptionally presented with CGI animation of the Klingon birds of prey, battle cruisers, and marauders in space. The main menu, where you select the individual episodes, focuses on the Klingon bird of prey in an Enterprise screen schematic. Each of the individual episode menus presents a side view of the Klingon vessel, where you can make your choices of launching the episode, selecting the individual chapters, audio and subtitle options, and (where indicated) the selection of audio commentary, text commentary, or deleted scenes. Each of these individual sub-menus makes you feel like you're accessing the Enterprise's computer functions, and all of the menus are easily navigable.
The Extras:
The second season of ENTERPRISE comes chock full of extras totaling over five hours altogether among the entire seven-disc set. While most of these extras can be found on Disc 7, the remainder of the other discs has their own little perks as well.
TREK historians Michael and Denise Okuda return with optional textual commentary on two episodes, 'Stigma" and 'First Flight". Their trivia tracks, presented in 'Pop-Up Video" style, are once again filled with little tidbits of production information on the relevance of both episodes to modern-day influences and those little things that creep up during the series. Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong deliver two strong and engaging audio commentaries on the episodes 'Dead Stop" and 'Regeneration", discussing their original ideas for the episodes, their energy in writing for STAR TREK, and their appreciation for the franchise as a whole.
The inclusion of deleted scenes from several episodes ('Minefield", 'A Night in Sickbay", 'Dawn", 'Stigma", 'Cease Fire", and 'The Expanse") is once again a welcome addition for this new DVD. All of the deleted scenes are presented in anamorphic widescreen format and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, with production audio only, and completed visual effects where seen. Only one deleted sequence, from 'Dawn", is missing visual effects, and a brief portion of the sequence is presented in black and white (according to the DVD, the color portion of the scene is lifted from the show, while the black and white portion is retained in the final episode). Most of these deleted scenes present great additional character moments, with most of the scenes revolving around Archer, including one sequence edited from 'The Expanse" that really fleshes out Archer's personal life. If these deleted scenes had been edited back into the episodes via seamless branching, this would have been a hands-down winner. Nevertheless, it's a welcome addition to the set.
The majority of the bonus features on Disc 7 begins with ENTERPRISE MOMENTS: SEASON TWO, a brief look back at the development of the second season. One of the more interesting pieces of footage to grace this series is the on-set footage of Jolene Blalock and the crew on the set filming the first episode of the season, 'Carbon Creek". Blalock and Rick Berman discuss the fun in doing a time travel tale that is atypical for a time travel tale, particularly in dealing with T'Pol's ancestor. Berman, Brannon Braga, and Scott Bakula offer their thoughts on 'Shockwave, Part II" and the problems inherent in resolving the first season cliffhanger. Mike Sussman talks about his first script for the series, 'Dead Stop", how he and co-writer Phyllis Strong had to pick up the pieces from 'Minefield" and carry forth in making a haunted house mystery on an automated space station, and Anthony Montgomery chimes in on how interesting he found it to play a dead person in the episode. Linda Park talks about the character growth Hoshi goes through in 'Vanishing Point", relating it to the role her character plays on the Enterprise. Sussman returns to discuss 'The Catwalk", relating the concept for the script on actual NASA studies of protecting its astronauts from solar flares and the basis for the poker scene on numerous MASH episodes. Sussman also discusses the original concepts for 'Future Tense", revealing that he had intended to do a prequel to the Original Series episode 'The Tholian Web" (which was later turned into the two-part 'In a Mirror, Darkly" for the fourth season) and that the final ship concept lent itself in inspiration to the Tardis from DOCTOR WHO. Blalock and John Billingsley discuss the hot and heavy moments of 'Bounty", and Blalock adds that it was hard not to deliberately appear sexy and running around in her underwear (as if viewers of the series can buy into that explanation!). Bakula and Michael Okuda discuss the many inspirations for what is considered by some as the best episode of the second season, 'First Flight". This love letter to NASA's space program was filled with introspection and heaviness, as 'First Flight" was developed in the wake of the Columbia tragedy (more again later), and Bakula was instrumental in convincing Berman and Braga to address these issues on screen. The featurette ends with Berman offering up a spoiler-filled discussion of the season finale, 'The Expanse". Running time: 19:07.
The second ENTERPRISE PROFILE presented for this series spotlights Jolene Blalock and starts off with a humorous clip of her attempting to describe the second season then telling viewers to buy the DVD. An Original Series fan from San Diego who watched the series with her family, Blalock studied acting in Toronto and Los Angeles before pursuing acting auditions and modeling prior to her ENTERPRISE stint. A combination of behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, and rare modeling footage accompany her discussion, as she talks about how she didn't want to do a repeat of what had come before in the STAR TREK franchise but pursued the role of T'Pol after becoming intrigued with the prequel concept. She also candidly discusses the often difficult process of acting auditions, three to five per day, and how her original audition wasn't the best, but after further rehearsal with her family she managed to snag the part. Brannon Braga talks about how he and Rick Berman wanted to make T'Pol interesting (i.e., sexy and in her underwear a lot) and how the Vulcan culture had never been explored on STAR TREK (as if he hadn't seen 'Amok Time, 'Journey to Babel", 'The Search for Spock" or 'The Voyage Home"!). Both Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating have high praise for Blalock, and Trinneer describes how rare it was for him not to see her in Vulcan makeup. Blalock also talks about the growth in her character, her place among humans on the Enterprise, and the growth in her relationships with the crew (most notably Trip!). Running time: 14:25.
I would start a petition to ask (or demand, depending on one's point of view) for Paramount to redo the fourth disc to include "STIGMA" with the Columbia tribute, but I'm not that eloquent with words. But if anyone wishes to start one, I'd definitely sign it.
Season 2 has always been what, in my mind anyway, really killed Enterprise. I still remember that there was a cautious optimism at the start of Season 2 following what had been a solid block of episodes at the end of Season 1. People felt the show had it together and was about to take off.
And then the exact opposite happened. Following Dead Stop, one of the most loved episodes of the series at that point, the show just bottomed out with stale, derivative episodes that instead of trying to build any kind of arc, be it TCW or otherwise, were unremarkable stand alones.
I don't recall a real stand-out episode until the next February when Future Tense aired (although I think the under-rated Singularity was in there somewhere). Even now, that episode only excelled at the "cool factor" and the events in the episode played absolutely no part in any future TCW episodes. Other episodes that managed to generate some excitement, such as Cogenitor, were interesting upon first viewing, but held no repeat value.
At this point, I only distinctly remember Dead Stop, Future Tense and Regeneration as the real great episodes of the season. There was still time to pull it together in Season 2 when many people were still on the fence and they just didn't do it. It's so damn perplexing how everything fell apart right when it shouldn't have. It was timing and that Season 2 slump proved to be the only real bad stretch of episodes the series suffered. I suppose there's never a good time to have a slump, but certainly not during sweeps that's for sure.
You just mentioned two of the most controversial episodes in your post. Dead Stop showed Romulans with cloaking devices and Regeneration had The Borg.
That is partly what killed the series, the pissing on continuity. B & B just did not care. They were in it for the "wow" factor and did not care whether or not what they were doing would annoy or upset long time fans.
And Future Tense? More Temporal Cold War, more time travel, going back to that tired old plot device we have seen far too much of where 'Trek is concerned.
Season two just showed a thorough lack of creativity, a lack of regard for continuity, and a lack of good taste with crap like A Night In Sickbay and Bounty.
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"Oh, I'll wake up
To any sound of engines,
Ev'ry gull a seeking craft..."
Quote: You just mentioned two of the most controversial episodes in your post. Dead Stop showed Romulans with cloaking devices...
You're thinking of Minefield. :-) And yeah, I do agree they could have simply fixed that continuity gaffe by having the ship's sensors down and Reed looking the other direction. That would have satisfied me on that issue.
Quote: That is partly what killed the series, the pissing on continuity. B & B just did not care. They were in it for the "wow" factor and did not care whether or not what they were doing would annoy or upset long time fans.
I never had much of a problem with the continuity of the series so much as I did with the bland and rehashed stories. Regeneration reinstilled that sense of dread that had been missing from the Borg for so long. For me, the Romulans having cloaking technology was the only out-and-out continuity violation that ever bothered me.
Quote: Season two just showed a thorough lack of creativity...and a lack of good taste...
I see it's listed here at $99, I ordered mine a few weeks back for $90, and I'd bet DeepDiscountdvd ist still at $92 or so. So does $9 go in Steve's pocket?
Actually, it appears that the $99.99 price is just a mistake. Amazon is actually selling it for around $90, and if you follow the link at the top of the review, that's the price you get.
"A billion robot lives are about to be extinguished! Oh, the Jedis are going to feel this one..."
-Hubert Farnsworth (Futurama: Crimes of the Hot)
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"The Andorian Mining Consortium runs from no one!"
-Shran (ENT: Proving Ground)
I didn't find the story as bad as what most articles claim it to be. Maybe it's becauee I'm an animal person that I felt bad for Archer (and of course Porthos) and I found the byplay between Archer and Phlox amusing. And the end where Archer gets dressed up and made up and saws the tree is hilarious. As far as I'm concerned, Precious Cargo is the turkey of the season (blatant ripoff of The Perfect Mate).
Am I reading that correctly, or is that zero stars? If it's 5, there's not much of an explanation as to why it got 5 stars. Certainly the content of the episodes wouldn't warrant it since it was up there with the worst seasons in Star Trek history and simply a poorly executed rehash of TNG. At the very least it was the worst season of the series. The extras don't seem to be particularly interesting either. A feature on A Night in Sickbay? Might as well have audio commentary on Precious Cargo. And they left out the Columbia tribute. This is the one of the few times I've actually thought a DVD set got a review *higher* than it deserved. Much higher than it deserved.
Maybe the audio and visuals sounded and looked good, but I pay more attention to the episodes, and I'd say this set deserves nothing more than two stars.
It was meant to be a cumulative 4-star review, with a 5/5 for the overall DVD presentation, 3/5 for the lack of more audio commentaries and the caliber of episodes for this season. It's been corrected to a 4-star review. Sorry for the confusion!
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