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crack_van2003-10-14 12:53 pm
marag.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2003-10-14 12:53 pm
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Enterprise: An Overview
This contains spoilers all the way through the first several episodes of season three. European readers beware!
Major Characters and Alien Races
Jonathan Archer, Captain of the Enterprise NX-01
Jon is the son of Henry Archer, who designed the first Warp 5 engine. The pressure of having a famous father made Jon pretty anxious to get the whole show on the road. Nonetheless, once the ship was on its mission, Jon was pretty easygoing, happy to fly a shuttle down to any planet with absolutely no security precautions and help anybody who wandered by--that is, a standard Starfleet captain--until a crisis at the end of Season 2 turned him into Captain Asshat (tm the folks at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
treksoap). Now he's prone to stuffing people in airlocks and letting the air leak out until they confess. He still likes a good game of waterpolo, however. (The whole waterpolo thing was darn adorable the first ten times, you know?)
Sub-commander T'Pol, science officer
T'Pol was originally assigned to Enterprise by the Vulcan Science Directorate for its initial mission, so that she could keep an eye on the humans. It was expected that she would be unable to deal with humans any longer than a few weeks. To her--and everyone else's--surprise, she's taken rather a liking to this particular bunch of humans, although they still annoy the hell out of her on a regular basis. At the end of season 2, she told her superiors at the Vulcan Science Directorate to take her job and shove it; as the Enterprise set out for its new mission, she went with it. Unfortunately, TPTB gave T'Pol new uniforms, which can best be described as disco meets Josie and the Pussycats.
Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III, chief engineer
Trip is the ship's chief engineer, as well as being an adorable southern gentleman. Or maybe that's country bumpkin. He loves catfish, uses quaint colloquialisms, and plays the harmonica. No, I'm not kidding. He's the character the writers use when they want to show somebody being pig ignorant, which is annoying considering that he's Starfleet's top engineer. Trip's been friends with the captain since their days building the Enterprise and he really is a darn good engineer. When he's not kissing random alien women. Or getting pregnant. Yes, folks, in Enterprise fandom, mpreg is canon. Trip's sister was killed recently in that handy season 2 cliffhanger and it's made him a bit edgy. More on that later.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, security/tactical officer
Malcolm's probably had the most inconsistent characterization of anyone aboard the NX-01. Voted "Most Likely to Be Portrayed as Gay Gay Gay in Fanfic," Malcolm has been written as incredibly by-the-book...except when it's convenient for the plot. Poor Malcolm is always trying to get the crew to take elementary security precautions, but naturally they ignore him. He's highly underused, although he invented the Red Alert (teasingly called the Reed Alert), energy shields, and phasers. "They have two settings, stun and kill. It would be best not to confuse them."
Dr. Phlox, chief medical officer
Phlox is a Denobulan, a new race invented for this series for no apparent purpose that I've been able to discern. Nonetheless, the excellent acting and occasional good writing have made his character enjoyable, even if he is that hoary old stereotype of "The Cheery Alien Out to Learn About All the Adorable Peculiarities of Humans, Har Har." Phlox isn't entirely sure about all this newfangled medicine and prefers to treat his crewmates with leeches and osmotic eels and crushed things you really don't want to think too closely about. One rather wonders why said crewmates haven't accidentally spaced him by now.
Ensign Hoshi Sato, communications officer and linguist
Hoshi is a language genius, a PhD in her early 20s who was teaching at the university level when the captain personally convinced her to join the mission. Enterprise needs her badly, since the Universal Translator...isn't. She was portrayed early on as rather fearful of space, but she's since gotten her space legs and saved the ship a number of times. Hoshi doesn't get to do much, unfortunately, and seems to suffer from a severe case of Uhura Syndrome in most episodes.
Ensign Travis Mayweather, helmsman
Sad to say, it often seems that Travis is Enterprise's token black guy, and fans cheer every time he gets more than three lines in an episode. Especially if any of them are something other than "Aye, Captain." Travis is a "boomer" which means that he spent most of his life in space, where his family hauls cargo for a living. He's young and cheerful and generally adorable, as well as being a great pilot.
Soval, Vulcan Ambassador to Earth
Soval is a serious jerk. His attitude would make Spock break down in tears of anger, really. Soval's main purpose on the show is to make snide comments at Captain Archer. He shows up every once in a while to sneer, explain that humans are juvenile poopyheads, and then Archer does something annoying. Like compare humans to gazelles. (Don't ask. Just...don't ask.)
Admiral Maxwell Forrest
Jon's boss, the admiral often shows up to give bad news--like that people have died, the Earth's been attacked. Cheery stuff like that. He shows up most often in fic to tell somebody that they can't have a relationship/get married/screw like bunnies.
Shran
Shran is Andorian, which means he's blue with those cool rotating antennae. You gotta love him just for that, you know? Shran really hates the Vulcans, who are currently at war with the Andorians, and he's got this love/hate thing going with the captain. Depending on where his honor leads him, he's switched sides a few times, and it's difficult to tell which way he's going to turn.
The Suliban
New aliens introduced in the pilot, many of the Suliban are genetically enhanced, which gives them Magical Plot Warping Abilities--they can magically do whatever the writer needs, such as shapeshifting or chameleon-like skin changes. See below for discussion of the Temporal Cold War.
Xindi
There are--at last count--five different species of the villains of season 3: humanoid, reptilian, insectoid, aquatic, and sloth. Yes, that list is bizarre, but I didn't make it up, so don't blame me. Anyway, supposedly the Xindi have heard that the humans are going to destroy their homeworld, so they have set out to create a superweapon to destroy the Earth first. Of course, when the Enterprise arrived at the coordinates of the Xindi homeworld, it had been destroyed centuries before. No, it doesn't make any sense to me, either, and the show seems to have forgotten this plot twist.
Overview of the Show
This Enterprise (the NX-01) is the first Starfleet Warp 5 vessel and in that sense, the crew is Earth's first real ambassadors to the rest of the universe. Captain Archer and the gang feel this very deeply, but unfortunately the rest of the universe couldn't give a flying tribble. This has led to much angst.
The Vulcans didn't want Enterprise to launch, since they see humans as immature and reckless. The fact that they're abso-friggin-lutely right doesn't seem to have penetrated anyone's skull yet. Anyway, the Enterprise has been meandering around for two seasons causing havoc and whatnot, contaminating cultures, making friends and influencing people. You know, the usual.
The overarching storyline of Enterprise, however, is the Temporal Cold War. Love it or hate it, you can't avoid it when watching the show. See, all of these races from the future are fighting in the present. Or maybe it's the past. To change the future. Or was it to make sure the future came about? Honestly, I don't think the writers know the answer, so I can't see how the viewer's supposed to figure it out.
In any case, the Suliban spend a great deal of their time doing totally incomprehensible things on order of a humanoid from the future known in fanon as Future Guy. Future Guy (whose identity is Topp Sekrit, or maybe the writers haven't decided yet) has been causing Enterprise a great deal of trouble, trying to blow them up and stuff. Until now.
At the end of season 2, a probe showed up and blew up a swath of the Earth, killing millions of people. Future Guy, for reasons known only to TPTB, decided to warn Captain Archer that it was the--hithertofore unknown--Xindi who sent the probe and that they want to destroy Earth entirely.
The Xindi probe also destroyed the patch of Florida that included Trip's sister. Naturally, this has made him a bit peeved. Unfortunately for the viewers, this peevishness has led to an interminable number of scenes involving a scantily-clad T'Pol teaching him some Vulcan pressure point technique we've never heard of that involves them taking off a lot of clothing. If T'Pol were human, this would make me suspicious.
Now Enterprise has a Mission (tm): Find the Xindi and blow their shit up. Or something like that.
To achieve this desperate mission to save Earth, the Enterprise has entered the Delphic Expanse, which is sort of the Bermuda Triangle of outer space. Lots of spooky and scary things happen in this area, including the tendency of large objects to hurtle randomly around the room and people's bodies to turn inside out. No, I'm not making that up either.
Essentially, this isn't your father's Star Trek.
Ships (not the space kind), Fandom, and Fanfic Archives
Ships
The most popular ship in the moderately wide world of Enterprise het fandom is Tucker/T'Pol. Like the Temporal Cold War, you either love this ship or you hate it. (From my comments above, I think you can guess where I stand on this issue.)
This ship is overburdened with stories in which Trip and T'Pol fight and fight and then fall madly in love. Bad pon farr stories abound. ::shudders::
On the slash side, Tucker/Reed is generally the most popular, but there are very strong contingents for nearly every possible combination, except possibly Anybody/Phlox. Poor Phlox!
What the fandom is short in, unfortunately, is good science fiction, or stories that truly deal with exploration.
Cliches
There are a number of major cliches in this fandom, besides the aforementioned pon farr stories--two crewmembers lost on a planet, stuck in jail, caught in a cave-in...who then discover they're in lurve. Aww.
In addition, because of the canonicity of mpreg, there are many mpreg stories.
On the show, there is a great attachment to nudity and semi-nudity, under the apparent belief that more naked people will make the show better. Apparently, the guys who make Enterprise also write for The Man Show. So, people are always stripping down for decontamination, getting their shirts accidentally or on purpose ripped off, or running about the ship in their underwear. Good thing all Starfleet recruits are screened for attractiveness!
The show is also obsessed with the idea that all alien races find T'Pol attractive. Why? That's a question for a wiser woman than I.
Although this isn't restricted to Enterprise, I should note that both the show and fic seem obsessed with the idea that any two members of the opposite sex who argue are secretly in love with each other. The show's producers are thinking of Trip and T'Pol, but slash fans are often thinking of Trip and Malcolm.
In fic, people seem to have an idea that Trip cries a lot. Not to mention how Malcolm may get whumped on most often, but Trip seems to get raped rather more often than I can explain.
The captain is usually portrayed as the original bumbling diplomat. I'd love to say this is a fanfic problem, but--sad to say--it's practically canon.
And many people feel compelled to write endlessly about Malcolm's horrible childhood and wretched parents, and how they've made him a cold fish who can only be softened by someone or other's deep and abiding love.
Hoshi's original trepidation about space travel is often taken to extremes in fic, combined with naivete, and such sweetness and niceness it would make your teeth hurt.
Major fic archive links
This is a fandom without a lot of major fic archives. The vast majority are small and either personal preference sites or dedicated to a specific character or pairing. Really, the only archive that even pretends to be comprehensive is the Warp 5 Complex. They have links to many of the other small archives on their links page.
A small, but quality, site I recommend you check out is Luminosity. You can also find slash of all ships at Archer's Enterprise.
Hoshi fic can be found at the Linguistics Database.
Malcolm fic can be found at Reed's Armory.
Archer fic can be found at Captain Archer's Fanfic.
Trip fic can be found at House of Tucker.
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
samgirl, stexgirl2000, mareel, and _xehra for their assistance. Nonetheless, all opinions expressed herein cannot be blamed on them. I can be pigheaded and opinionated all by myself ::grin::.
All suggestions, additions, subtractions, and amendments are gratefully accepted in the comments.
Major Characters and Alien Races
Jonathan Archer, Captain of the Enterprise NX-01
Jon is the son of Henry Archer, who designed the first Warp 5 engine. The pressure of having a famous father made Jon pretty anxious to get the whole show on the road. Nonetheless, once the ship was on its mission, Jon was pretty easygoing, happy to fly a shuttle down to any planet with absolutely no security precautions and help anybody who wandered by--that is, a standard Starfleet captain--until a crisis at the end of Season 2 turned him into Captain Asshat (tm the folks at
treksoap). Now he's prone to stuffing people in airlocks and letting the air leak out until they confess. He still likes a good game of waterpolo, however. (The whole waterpolo thing was darn adorable the first ten times, you know?)Sub-commander T'Pol, science officer
T'Pol was originally assigned to Enterprise by the Vulcan Science Directorate for its initial mission, so that she could keep an eye on the humans. It was expected that she would be unable to deal with humans any longer than a few weeks. To her--and everyone else's--surprise, she's taken rather a liking to this particular bunch of humans, although they still annoy the hell out of her on a regular basis. At the end of season 2, she told her superiors at the Vulcan Science Directorate to take her job and shove it; as the Enterprise set out for its new mission, she went with it. Unfortunately, TPTB gave T'Pol new uniforms, which can best be described as disco meets Josie and the Pussycats.
Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III, chief engineer
Trip is the ship's chief engineer, as well as being an adorable southern gentleman. Or maybe that's country bumpkin. He loves catfish, uses quaint colloquialisms, and plays the harmonica. No, I'm not kidding. He's the character the writers use when they want to show somebody being pig ignorant, which is annoying considering that he's Starfleet's top engineer. Trip's been friends with the captain since their days building the Enterprise and he really is a darn good engineer. When he's not kissing random alien women. Or getting pregnant. Yes, folks, in Enterprise fandom, mpreg is canon. Trip's sister was killed recently in that handy season 2 cliffhanger and it's made him a bit edgy. More on that later.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, security/tactical officer
Malcolm's probably had the most inconsistent characterization of anyone aboard the NX-01. Voted "Most Likely to Be Portrayed as Gay Gay Gay in Fanfic," Malcolm has been written as incredibly by-the-book...except when it's convenient for the plot. Poor Malcolm is always trying to get the crew to take elementary security precautions, but naturally they ignore him. He's highly underused, although he invented the Red Alert (teasingly called the Reed Alert), energy shields, and phasers. "They have two settings, stun and kill. It would be best not to confuse them."
Dr. Phlox, chief medical officer
Phlox is a Denobulan, a new race invented for this series for no apparent purpose that I've been able to discern. Nonetheless, the excellent acting and occasional good writing have made his character enjoyable, even if he is that hoary old stereotype of "The Cheery Alien Out to Learn About All the Adorable Peculiarities of Humans, Har Har." Phlox isn't entirely sure about all this newfangled medicine and prefers to treat his crewmates with leeches and osmotic eels and crushed things you really don't want to think too closely about. One rather wonders why said crewmates haven't accidentally spaced him by now.
Ensign Hoshi Sato, communications officer and linguist
Hoshi is a language genius, a PhD in her early 20s who was teaching at the university level when the captain personally convinced her to join the mission. Enterprise needs her badly, since the Universal Translator...isn't. She was portrayed early on as rather fearful of space, but she's since gotten her space legs and saved the ship a number of times. Hoshi doesn't get to do much, unfortunately, and seems to suffer from a severe case of Uhura Syndrome in most episodes.
Ensign Travis Mayweather, helmsman
Sad to say, it often seems that Travis is Enterprise's token black guy, and fans cheer every time he gets more than three lines in an episode. Especially if any of them are something other than "Aye, Captain." Travis is a "boomer" which means that he spent most of his life in space, where his family hauls cargo for a living. He's young and cheerful and generally adorable, as well as being a great pilot.
Soval, Vulcan Ambassador to Earth
Soval is a serious jerk. His attitude would make Spock break down in tears of anger, really. Soval's main purpose on the show is to make snide comments at Captain Archer. He shows up every once in a while to sneer, explain that humans are juvenile poopyheads, and then Archer does something annoying. Like compare humans to gazelles. (Don't ask. Just...don't ask.)
Admiral Maxwell Forrest
Jon's boss, the admiral often shows up to give bad news--like that people have died, the Earth's been attacked. Cheery stuff like that. He shows up most often in fic to tell somebody that they can't have a relationship/get married/screw like bunnies.
Shran
Shran is Andorian, which means he's blue with those cool rotating antennae. You gotta love him just for that, you know? Shran really hates the Vulcans, who are currently at war with the Andorians, and he's got this love/hate thing going with the captain. Depending on where his honor leads him, he's switched sides a few times, and it's difficult to tell which way he's going to turn.
The Suliban
New aliens introduced in the pilot, many of the Suliban are genetically enhanced, which gives them Magical Plot Warping Abilities--they can magically do whatever the writer needs, such as shapeshifting or chameleon-like skin changes. See below for discussion of the Temporal Cold War.
Xindi
There are--at last count--five different species of the villains of season 3: humanoid, reptilian, insectoid, aquatic, and sloth. Yes, that list is bizarre, but I didn't make it up, so don't blame me. Anyway, supposedly the Xindi have heard that the humans are going to destroy their homeworld, so they have set out to create a superweapon to destroy the Earth first. Of course, when the Enterprise arrived at the coordinates of the Xindi homeworld, it had been destroyed centuries before. No, it doesn't make any sense to me, either, and the show seems to have forgotten this plot twist.
Overview of the Show
This Enterprise (the NX-01) is the first Starfleet Warp 5 vessel and in that sense, the crew is Earth's first real ambassadors to the rest of the universe. Captain Archer and the gang feel this very deeply, but unfortunately the rest of the universe couldn't give a flying tribble. This has led to much angst.
The Vulcans didn't want Enterprise to launch, since they see humans as immature and reckless. The fact that they're abso-friggin-lutely right doesn't seem to have penetrated anyone's skull yet. Anyway, the Enterprise has been meandering around for two seasons causing havoc and whatnot, contaminating cultures, making friends and influencing people. You know, the usual.
The overarching storyline of Enterprise, however, is the Temporal Cold War. Love it or hate it, you can't avoid it when watching the show. See, all of these races from the future are fighting in the present. Or maybe it's the past. To change the future. Or was it to make sure the future came about? Honestly, I don't think the writers know the answer, so I can't see how the viewer's supposed to figure it out.
In any case, the Suliban spend a great deal of their time doing totally incomprehensible things on order of a humanoid from the future known in fanon as Future Guy. Future Guy (whose identity is Topp Sekrit, or maybe the writers haven't decided yet) has been causing Enterprise a great deal of trouble, trying to blow them up and stuff. Until now.
At the end of season 2, a probe showed up and blew up a swath of the Earth, killing millions of people. Future Guy, for reasons known only to TPTB, decided to warn Captain Archer that it was the--hithertofore unknown--Xindi who sent the probe and that they want to destroy Earth entirely.
The Xindi probe also destroyed the patch of Florida that included Trip's sister. Naturally, this has made him a bit peeved. Unfortunately for the viewers, this peevishness has led to an interminable number of scenes involving a scantily-clad T'Pol teaching him some Vulcan pressure point technique we've never heard of that involves them taking off a lot of clothing. If T'Pol were human, this would make me suspicious.
Now Enterprise has a Mission (tm): Find the Xindi and blow their shit up. Or something like that.
To achieve this desperate mission to save Earth, the Enterprise has entered the Delphic Expanse, which is sort of the Bermuda Triangle of outer space. Lots of spooky and scary things happen in this area, including the tendency of large objects to hurtle randomly around the room and people's bodies to turn inside out. No, I'm not making that up either.
Essentially, this isn't your father's Star Trek.
Ships (not the space kind), Fandom, and Fanfic Archives
Ships
The most popular ship in the moderately wide world of Enterprise het fandom is Tucker/T'Pol. Like the Temporal Cold War, you either love this ship or you hate it. (From my comments above, I think you can guess where I stand on this issue.)
This ship is overburdened with stories in which Trip and T'Pol fight and fight and then fall madly in love. Bad pon farr stories abound. ::shudders::
On the slash side, Tucker/Reed is generally the most popular, but there are very strong contingents for nearly every possible combination, except possibly Anybody/Phlox. Poor Phlox!
What the fandom is short in, unfortunately, is good science fiction, or stories that truly deal with exploration.
Cliches
There are a number of major cliches in this fandom, besides the aforementioned pon farr stories--two crewmembers lost on a planet, stuck in jail, caught in a cave-in...who then discover they're in lurve. Aww.
In addition, because of the canonicity of mpreg, there are many mpreg stories.
On the show, there is a great attachment to nudity and semi-nudity, under the apparent belief that more naked people will make the show better. Apparently, the guys who make Enterprise also write for The Man Show. So, people are always stripping down for decontamination, getting their shirts accidentally or on purpose ripped off, or running about the ship in their underwear. Good thing all Starfleet recruits are screened for attractiveness!
The show is also obsessed with the idea that all alien races find T'Pol attractive. Why? That's a question for a wiser woman than I.
Although this isn't restricted to Enterprise, I should note that both the show and fic seem obsessed with the idea that any two members of the opposite sex who argue are secretly in love with each other. The show's producers are thinking of Trip and T'Pol, but slash fans are often thinking of Trip and Malcolm.
In fic, people seem to have an idea that Trip cries a lot. Not to mention how Malcolm may get whumped on most often, but Trip seems to get raped rather more often than I can explain.
The captain is usually portrayed as the original bumbling diplomat. I'd love to say this is a fanfic problem, but--sad to say--it's practically canon.
And many people feel compelled to write endlessly about Malcolm's horrible childhood and wretched parents, and how they've made him a cold fish who can only be softened by someone or other's deep and abiding love.
Hoshi's original trepidation about space travel is often taken to extremes in fic, combined with naivete, and such sweetness and niceness it would make your teeth hurt.
Major fic archive links
This is a fandom without a lot of major fic archives. The vast majority are small and either personal preference sites or dedicated to a specific character or pairing. Really, the only archive that even pretends to be comprehensive is the Warp 5 Complex. They have links to many of the other small archives on their links page.
A small, but quality, site I recommend you check out is Luminosity. You can also find slash of all ships at Archer's Enterprise.
Hoshi fic can be found at the Linguistics Database.
Malcolm fic can be found at Reed's Armory.
Archer fic can be found at Captain Archer's Fanfic.
Trip fic can be found at House of Tucker.
Thanks to
samgirl, stexgirl2000, mareel, and _xehra for their assistance. Nonetheless, all opinions expressed herein cannot be blamed on them. I can be pigheaded and opinionated all by myself ::grin::.All suggestions, additions, subtractions, and amendments are gratefully accepted in the comments.
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