AXE.. WHAT AXE? – or.. QUANTUM LEAPING JOEY’S ENTERPRISE

This week is a week of trepidation for me, and about an issue I usually care nothing about… television.

Now, let me say.. I’m not a big fan of most TV

But don’t we all have our favorite shows.. and haven’t we.. and don’t we all have to see the end of our favorite characters and their fictional lives we somehow have come to value?

Sometimes we get robbed, like when Sam never returned home in the anticlimactic end of Quantum Leap. Sometimes we get surprised, like when there is no “final episode”.. and sometimes we get to see the lives of characters move on in TV (like Frasier, and next year’s Friends spinoff “Joey”), or even in the movies (Highlander, Trek, and soon, X-Files).

This week is a week of trepidation for me, and about an issue I usually care nothing about… television.

Now, let me say.. I’m not a big fan of most TV

But don’t we all have our favorite shows.. and haven’t we.. and don’t we all have to see the end of our favorite characters and their fictional lives we somehow have come to value?

Sometimes we get robbed, like when Sam never returned home in the anticlimactic end of Quantum Leap. Sometimes we get surprised, like when there is no “final episode”.. and sometimes we get to see the lives of characters move on in TV (like Frasier, and next year’s Friends spinoff “Joey”), or even in the movies (Highlander, Trek, and soon, X-Files).

I remember when STAR TREK:TNG used to be #1 for the week in the ratings, and now.. fourteen years after that 3 week stint, I still faithfully watch Star Trek: Enterprise, knowing they are on the verge of cancellation because thier numbers are less than a third of #1 for wednesday nights.

An announcement will be coming in the next 14 days.

For all this time.. and for some.. even longer than that.. we’ve always known we could have some kind of Trek to tune into.. and now, if it doesn’t die this season, it will probably at the end of next.. and no more movies are coming.

Such is true for the “Buffy” fans this year, as “Angel” comes to a close, and for “Cheers” fans, as Frasier ends.

I’m lucky enough to be confident that Trek will probably come back some day in one way. but I marvel at the whole idea.. that we start to like these imaginary little worlds so much.. and when they go away, its a little sad.

The real fear is that with the new advent of reality TV, in a few years, people will look back at this whole phenomenon and not understand why we got sucked in..

90% of whats on TV sucks, no doubt.. but man.. that other 10%.

7 thoughts on “AXE.. WHAT AXE? – or.. QUANTUM LEAPING JOEY’S ENTERPRISE”

  1. TV

    I really don’t watch television, so unfortunately… I’m clueless. I literally watched thirty minutes last week, and it was the news. While I was exercising. Because I wanted to know if there were any wrecks in the way.

    I’m so lame.

    —
    Matthew P. Barnson

    1. this may be true.. but..

      Do you know the answers to five of the following 10 Questions?

      1) What can there “Be Only One” of?

      2) What is Azati Prime?

      3) Sometimes you want to go.. where?

      4) What does joey do for a living?

      5) Tossed salad and .. what?

      6) Who is Sam.. and Who is Al?

      7) What number was the MASH unit?

      8) Fill in the blanks.. “You will be ______, Resistance is ______”

      9) Who goes to Sunnydale?

      10) What show is about “nothing”

      Be honest.. you got at least a 60%

      1. Answers

        1. There can be only one Immortal. From Highlander, the movie. I heard something about a TV series at some point, though.
        2. OK, you got me on this one 🙂 Azati Prime is in the Expanse, where the Xindi are building The Weapon. And Enterprise looked hella beat-up at the end of that one. I’m waiting for someone to pull the usual “oh, but paradox intervenes due to something that happens to disrupt the timeline, and they are back to normal”. For once, I’d like to see Enterprise limp into space dock beat to scrap with three-quarters of its crew dead…
        3. Dude, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”. I was a glutton for TV when I was a kid, but in the last four years, not much.
        4. Another one that’s been on so long, that I can answer it though the last time I watched seriously was five years ago. He’s an actor, right? And in Charlie’s Angels, he’s an actor again. I don’t get that. Why would an actor want to play an actor in a movie when he’s an actor playing the part of an actor in a television show? It just makes me think that maybe Chandler’s dating Drew Barrymore on the side… I liked Matt LeBlanc in Lost in Space, though… “And the monkey flips the switch.” Too bad that movie bombed.
        5. Scrambled Eggs. Duh.
        6. Umm… Bundy?
        7. Oh, I know this one. 90210.
        8. Assimilated, Futile. Come on, dude, I was watching that in the eighties…
        9. SunnyChip? (humor-explanation: Chip & Dale)
        10. Seinfeld. Once again, a TV series on back when I watched TV…

        When Christy and I lived in Las Vegas, we had cable, and a television in the front room. It seemed to always be on. Now our TV is in the basement and we only get broadcast off the aerials. We watch a lot less, and I have a little more time to do other things 🙂

        —
        Matthew P. Barnson

  2. Trekking into Oblivion

    Well, my opinion is that the Trek spinoffs have gotten progressively worse over time. The reason Next Gen was #1 in the ratings is because it was a very well written show, with well fleshed out characters that you really took an interest in, and some of the most gripping storylines in any TV show. It remained strong until the end, and I was heartbroken when they announced they would stop making it at the height of its popularity.

    Deep Space Nine started out good – I watched the entire first season. But they ran out of ideas, and the one-dimensional characters descended into pissiness. Voyager looked promising but lost my interest rather quickly, and I watched two episodes of Enterprise before realizing that not even Scott Bakula could save the show.

    I suspect that without Gene Roddenberry, the Trek Universe’s moral and intellectual center, the Trek series simply became, well, ordinary sci-fi TV shows.

    So, if I ever watch Star Trek on TV, it’s the Next Gen reruns on Spike TV – even a dozen years later, the episodes seem as fresh and interesting as when they aired (except the ones about Troi – ah well).

    Just my opinion.

    — Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor

    1. Deep Space nine

      Ben, you, like so many others seem to have fallen prey to the latter half of the first season, and then the second season of Deep Space nine, which were substandard (much like the first 2 seasons of TNG)

      I submit to you that DS9, starting with midway through season 3, and definitely by season 4, becamse the BEST of all the Trek shows, and one of the finest shows on television.

      The problem is, they lost a lot of viewers in seasons 1 and 2.. but once they get a ship to leave the station, its a whole new show.. and once Worf joins.. and then there is a full scale WAR for 2 years, it becomes just a great great show.

      BTW: Star Trek DS9 is having a marathon on Spike for the next 5 days, 9 hours a day. Catch it if you can.

      1. you could be right

        That’s very possible. Following the last few seasons of TNG, which were nothing short of excellent television, I really WANTED DS9 to be good, and I guess I just wasn’t able to be patient with it.

        Maybe I’ll give it a try.

        — Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor

        1. If your friends are geeks..

          And willing to admit they have it on DVD, Check it out.. be patient. Sit thru the 1st couple seasons, and be sure to see the 2nd season finale..

          3rd season is an impending war – and a new ship 4th is a war with the Klingons and Worf joins the show 5-7 is all out fleet on fleet mayhem with also the deepest, richest characters in the entire world of trek.

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