Klingonmike

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Posts posted by Klingonmike

  1. Posted

    Every kind of form of entertainment goes by a formula, sitcoms have a formula that is re-used over and over Sci-Fi also has a formula that can be re-used over and over. The ART is to re-use this formula and make it unique to that episode. I've seen simularities in all the Star Trek series. TOS had a couple of episodes that reminded me of Lost in Space episodes and Outer Limits episodes. TNG most certainly used a few old TOS episodes and re-hashed them to make them their own. Its all about taking a formula that works well and making it your own.

     

    "Dawn" was used as an example, although there are a couple of simularities to the film "Enemy Mine" it was done in a way that was completely different from the film. For me the only thing that made "Dawn" like the film was there was a human and an alien stranded on a planet and they kept trying to kill or fight each other and eventually they became friends,somewhat.The journey that took us thru the episode is what made the difference between it and the film and of course it ended totally different than the film ended.

    There is an art to rehashing story lines and Enterprise has some great 'artist' writing these stories.

  3. Posted · Edited by Klingonmike

    This show keeps getting better!

     

    Click for Spoiler:

    Absolutly the best episode so far, this one is now my all time favorite. Great acting, great special effects, I agree the bridge being destoyed was awesome and terrifying at the same time. I taped it and when I watched it again I slow-moed that scene and you can actually see some of the bodies of the bridge crew flying out into space with the debris. And Hoshi became such a cutie with that future hairstyle! Although I knew everything would be alright in the end this episode was still "a sit on the edge of your seat kinda show.

  8. Posted

    I agree with VBG, the ratings system they have is out dated, they don't give a true number of how many people watch Enterprise. I believe there are alot more people watching than the ratings say. They only count a small percentage of viewers. I just don't believe in the ratings.

  10. Posted

    Looks great.I'll be watching on Wednesday.I think Enterprise has finally hit its stride.The shows have been consistently good this season,and hopefully the best is yet to come.

    I totally agree with you. I thought Enterprise was pretty good the first and second season but it is certainly getting much better with every new episode. kudos to the writing and production staff of Enterprise for a job well done.

  13. Posted · Edited by Klingonmike

    Halloween is morphed from an old Pagen holiday, nothing satanic about it. Here is a little history lesson on the origins of halloween:

     

    Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

     

    The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

     

    One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

     

    Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

     

    Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

     

    Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.

     

    The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

     

    The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

     

    The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

     

    The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

     

    The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

     

    According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

     

    The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

     

    So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

     

    © 1995-2002 by Jerry Wilson

     

    References: Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, 1987; and Dr. Joseph Gahagan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Personal letter, 1997

  14. Posted

    I just don't see the dress as a ratings ploy, if it was meant to up the ratings they would have shown her in something sexy for the commercials they air to get people to watch. To me the dress was just not sexy, it was just a dress. Maybe its because I see people dressed liked that everyday that I'm not seeing any thing sexy about it.

  15. Posted

    Short sexy dress? What are you talking about? When I saw the dress I thought "Why is she wearing an old style dress girls wore in the 21st century?" I see woman and teenage girls wearing that exact same style dress everyday here in Florida, at the mall, in schools, or walking around the park.

    It seems some folks keep trying to make Enterprise seem like its over sexed and to me its been the more tamer than the other Star Trek shows.

  19. Posted · Edited by Klingonmike

    I agree with some of your statements and I also dis-agree with some. I don't see Captain Archer as teflon coated at all. To me he's been very believeable since the beginning. He's the first human Captain to go into deep space, he wants to explore and looks at everything with wonderment. he meets new aliens and tries to be a nice guy in the hopes they will be nice back,thats just plain being a normal human, when he and his ship is threatened he takes the approperate actions to save his ship and not cause a war with another race. Now this season we see him being more angry because the Xindi have attacked Earth, he no longer seems to care about being nice because after a couple of years in space he now knows that being nice to everyone does not work and he now has a new mission to stop the Xindi from attacking Earth.I find Archer to be very believable and true to the human condition.After seeing what was done to Earth has shocked them and most,especially Trip who wants revange. To qoute Admiral Yamamoto after bombing Pearl Harbor,"I'm afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with great resolve." I see it in Archer's eyes now, he wants to stop the Xindi and damn anyone that tries to stop him.

    As for the sexuality,well Star Trek has always had a touch of that since it began with TOS ( do you relize how many times Gene Roddenberry had to struggle with network censors because they claimed Star Trek was to sexually explicit?) As for what T'Pol wears, well they have changed that this new season and I admit I like her new look much better,but then again in other Star Trek shows the form fitting costumes have been around for awhile,take 7 of 9 from Voyager for example and on DS9 Jadzia looked hot in that tught Starfleet uniform and Kira had extra padding in her uniform to make it look like she had bigger breasts than she really had.In TNG Troi went from tight clothes to low cut showing the cleavage (Which I admit looked great) to then wearing a regular uniform.

     

    I agree with your choices of great episodes, but there are more that you left out,I assume because you just didn't want post every good episode and I understand that,But "Cogenitor", "Regeneration" and "Carbon Creek" are other outstanding episodes. Yes Enterprise has done some episodes that are not up to par, but then again there are many bad episodes from TOS,TNG,DS9, and Voyager as well. I'm sure when the writers come up with scripts they all look good on paper but some just do not come across well on screen,thats not really anyone's fault, thats just the nature of the beast.

    I also agree they need to utilize the other characters on the show. I'm a big Hoshi fan and I would like to see her more involved ( I loved the episode "Exile" she was great in that) and Mayweather needs more screen time too. I really enjoy the Trip and Reed friendship thats developed, reminds me alot of Bashir and O'Brian from DS9.

    Is Enterprise perfect? No, but then again neither were the other shows carrying the Star Trek name, but they are all great shows and very entertaining. I think if Mr. Roddenberry were alive today he would have been very proud of Enterprise.

  20. Posted

    I talked with the woman I work with this morning and she says they have not closed down the places she orders her meds from which she says she's thankful for.There are about a half dozen places in the area that order meds from Canada. Barbara (The lady I work with) says she is saving close to $300.00 a month and if they take away tha Canada connection she doesn't know what she'll do.She's very pissed off at the goverment and the drug companies right now.Something needs to be done or eventually there will be thousands of good honest people breaking the law because TPTB are not cutting them a break.

  24. Posted

    I'm curious, for the members that are outside of the U.S., do you celebrate Halloween and if so how is it celebrated?

     

    Well, Halloween is no "regular" celebration here in Germany. But in the last few years it has come up celebrating it here as well. People dress up like vampires, witches or whatever and celebrate it at parties and all that. And on TV there are scary movies and such a stuff :angry:

     

     

    Mrs. Captain Picard

    Where in Germany do you live? When I was in the military I was stationed at a base near Dexhiem. It was on the Rhine river about 40-50 miles south of Mainz.