[TNG_Trekman]

I've begun the Xindi arc again. And I've noticed something that I didn't before.

Braga and Berman suck at writing romantically interesting scenes between Trip and T'pol. They just talk some science technobabble and then take off their clothes. The excuses they come up with to get those two to strip is just ridiculous. Vulcan Neuro Pressure? Why not just call it a back rub? And why would you need to get naked for that? Professional Messages sure, but between two officers in the military? Give me a break.

Those two tried waaay to hard to give Trek sex. The whole "de-contamination orgy room?" Yeah that makes sense in the 22nd century, they've evolved so much.

Sex in film/tv doesn't bother me at all, Jolene Blalock is hot. But when it's just thrown in for flare and really doesn't add anything interesting to the subplots, it's crap writing.

Here's a way it could of worked. Trip is losing it because his sister was killed, T'pol has feelings for Trip, she comforts Trip and the two bond that way. Having someone comfort you when you lose someone is a very real and believable situation.

[chator]

T'Pol's a Vulcan, she needs some technical excuse like a Vulcan Neuro pressure rub to touch Trip, she's not going to just confess her feelings to him, that would be out of character.

[TNG_Trekman]

Originally Posted by chator

T'Pol's a Vulcan, she needs some technical excuse like a Vulcan Neuro pressure rub to touch Trip, she's not going to just confess her feelings to him, that would be out of character.

On the contrary. Unless i'm mistaken the writers decided to give T'pol more use of her emotions than other Vulcans in prior Trek. One could say it would suit her character, and even if she doesn't come out and say she has feelings for Trip, she can still be internally conflicted (which she was later on). And when I say they get close it would be over the course of the season. Not just one episode, BANG, and it's done.

Just use a better way than fracking "Back Rubs in Space." Maybe that'll be my nickname for Season 3, "Back Rubs in Space." I like it.

Ultimately it's Berman and Braga's un-imaginative reasons for actors to get naked. That's my biggest hate.

[HippyDave]

I don't disagree, to be honest. Enterprise was definitely pitched at a mature audience from the get-go and tackled adult themes more openly than Trek ever had before, but I think the decades of careful PC-tiptoeing around the Big Sex Issue led to the writers trying to soften the blow whilst making the most of the physical attributes of the actors on the set. The decon room definitely smacked of a cheap trick rather than a plausible plot device. The Vulcan neuropressure thing seems less tacked on. It might be a tad implausible for Starfleet Officers to git nekkid and up close and personal, but then again I think it was, in terms of the timeline, a bit of a test case.

Although: as far as T'Pol is concerned, wasn't one of the big bugbears about Vulcans as depicted in Enterprise that they were "too emotional"? I think some of the Vulcan history explored in Season 4 went a long way towards explaining emotion from a Vulcan perspective, but as the Vulcans of the period seemed less unemotional in their interactions with humans, it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch to see T'Pol touched (emotionally, that is!) by Trip's grief and resulting anger toward the Xindi.

[horatio]

First, watch the whole goddamn Trip and T'Pol romance, it lasts or rather has impacts until "Terra Prime".
Second, decon and neuropressure is as cheap a trick as putting all the ladies in Theiss-wear and letting Kirk screw every second.
ENT de-sterilized Trek and it was quite necessary after TNG and VOY. I like those two shows, but yes, they were often too sterile.

[Roysten]

I don't think Ent was pitched particularly at a more mature audience, the shows just evolved with the times, though you can definitely say they evolved with respects to each other.

As for Trip and T'Pol, I think the neuropressure was sexed up but worked quite well building up the tension over quite a few episodes. As hot as Jolene Blalock is I don't watch Ent for soft-core-esque porn so the decon scenes were a bit cringeworthy, still sex does bring in certain age groups amoung the audience.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

TV in the US in general has been getting more sexed up in recent years. Star Trek is not alone in that trend. Just a sign of the times I suppose.

[horatio]

TOS is far more sexed up than any of the other series.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

Originally Posted by horatio

TOS is far more sexed up than any of the other series.

That's very true, TOS never shied away from it.

[horatio]

I am always puzzled when someone complains about decon and catsuits when this was the usual TOS stuff.