Blue guys are cool

[wiseheart]

Meaning the Andorians in Star Trek, of course. With other words, I was watching Enterprise again.

I must admit right at the beginning that I don't particularly like the newest Star Trek incarnation. To put it very, very mildly. It seems to me like it would happen in the evil mirror universe altogether. I'm not pleased with the official canon rape they continue committing, shooting previous Trek canon to Hell and turning Vulcans - the most dignified alien species - into idiotic egomaniacs whose only goal seems to be to keep humanity in the Stone Age. And I don't buy the Temporal Cold War for a moment - it's just too stupid, and only a thin veil for screenwriter laziness, so that they won't have to work themselves through Trek lore.

Oh, and I can't stand Captain Sockface (nickname from a rabid Original Trekkie friend of mine) at all. Especially since he started gaining Speshul Powers(TM) like any good little Mary Sue. Erm, Marty Stu, since he's supposed to be male. In my not so humble opinion, his dog has more personality. Actually, Porthos is cool. Even though he is addicted to cheese. *g*

The only thing I really, really like in the series is what they did with the Andorians. Even though they rechristened their home planet (which, in DS9, was still called Andor) to Andoria. But that's not the only example for blatant canon disregard - nor would it be the last one, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I was watching Proving Ground today, and once again, I was excited about the Andorians. Of course, having the absolutely fantastic character actor Jeffrey Combs in a leading role once again, is always a treat. He was a great Vorta, a hilarious Ferengi, and he is a smashing Andorian as well. I wish he'd actually got the role of Gimli in the LOTR trilogy, as was rumoured - he'd have pulled out a fabulous Dwarf, too. But I digress...

I don't doubt that what little canon was there concerning Andorians (like them being ambidextrous and living in marriage groups of four individuals) has been stomped into the ground, or will be in the near future. But at least they got a chance to shine.

(This entry is cross-posted to the Otherworlds board and to Memory Alpha.)

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't at least some of the crew have wanted to settle down on the first M-class planet they came across? Life as a colonist would seem a better choice than remaining on a small ship until you died of old age!

Yep, remember that episode titled The 37ers? Aside from the harebrained idea of a truck floating in space for 400 years and then starting again, no problem at all, just how likely it is that nobody wanted to settle on the planet, with three beautiful cities and hundreds of thousands human inhabitants? Oh, please!

In my Alternate Voyager series a certain number of crew members will choose to settle down there, and in exchange some of the colonists will join the crew for the chance to see Earth.

And why did the Maquis accept Janeway's authority so readily?

Well, they needed to start transforming Chakotay into a spineless lapdog somewhen, didn't they? And the earlier the better.

I could easily see a large shipboard faction pushing for Chakotay to take over, resulting in real tensions between Chakotay and Janeway

Exactly! That's how it works in my story. Of course, I got a lot of grief about it from the Janeway-worshippers, but I don't reallly care.

I won't even go into how Brannon and Braga ruined the Borg by their constant overuse of them.

For me, the ultimate low point was Unimatrix Zero. Borg experiencing their individualism on a dreamscepe? Oh, please! And the Queen doing everything just to get Seven of Nine back? Yeah, well, that's very likely, isn't it? There were billions of drones, and she'd risk everything to retrieve one. Ridiculous.

And I am so tired of the seemingly-obligatory "female-crewman-in-tight-spandex". WHY, just once, can't all the women on the show be dressed in uniforms that DON'T look like they've been spray-painted on? The male crewmembers aren't treated as audience eye-candy, and that sexism is really annoying.

Well, in TNG'S first two seasons the uniforms were revealing enough - have you noticed Geordi and Data's tits? *g* But I agree with you whole-heartedly. It's especially annoying when it comes to T'Pol - she's a Vulcan, for Surak's sake! Of course, after the travesty Bernmaga are doing with Vulcans in general on the new series, you'd barely recognize the race as a whole.

And what about Kira in DS9? Drat, that woman used to be a freedom fighter/terrorist, depending on the POV, why should she have a uniform in which she couldn't even breathe without rupturing it?
I know in the original series women were clad in those miniskirts, too, but at least it was nice. Not voyeuristic, just nice. A lot more aesthetic than those utterly silly trousers and shrunk shirts the men wore. *g*