Enterprise - Episode Review (With Spoilers)

[JRTStarlight]

These Are The Voyages Of The Starship Enterprise NX-01.

I'm not nearly as familiar with these episodes as I am with the episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series, and my opinions are not nearly as strong or as long, but since the brother and I have recently taken to watching this series on Netflix, I thought I might put forth an observation or two, or various comments and thoughts about each episode as we go along.

Naturally, I invite others to play along with their comments on the episode, or pertinent questions about the series in general, or just in response to what others have said in a back-and-forth discussion as we proceed through the episodes one-by-one. I can only hope those who partake have more nice or positive things to say than negative things, but we'll see.

I also invite others to post pictures from the episode they might find, or pictures they might like better than the ones I found and they feel better represent the episode or message.

Any posts about the episodes, really, will help move the thread along rather than allow it to stall in its tracks. On average, I hope to post about two episode reviews every week. That should allow plenty of time for questions, comments, images, and discussions. Thanks in advance to any and all participants.

First, here are the 98 episodes of the series - first in their airing order, then in alphabetical order.

Airing Order

Spoiler

SEASON 1

01 Broken Bow part 1
02 Broken Bow part 2
03 Fight or Flight
04 Strange New World
05 Unexpected
06 Terra Nova
07 The Andorian Incident
08 Breaking The Ice
09 Civilization
10 Fortunate Son
11 Cold Front
12 Silent Enemy
13 Dear Doctor
14 Sleeping Dogs
15 Shadows of P'Jem
16 Shuttlepod One
17 Fusion
18 Rogue Planet
19 Acquisition
20 Oasis
21 Detained
22 Vox Sola
23 Fallen Hero
24 Desert Crossing
25 Two Days and Two Nights
26 Shockwave part 1

SEASON 2

27 Shockwave part 2
28 Carbon Creek
29 Minefield
30 Dead Stop
31 A Night In Sickbay
32 Marauders
33 The Seventh
34 The Communicator
35 Singularity
36 Vanishing Point
37 Precious Cargo
38 The Catwalk
39 Dawn
40 Stigma
41 Cease Fire
42 Future Tense
43 Canamar
44 The Crossing
45 Judgment
46 Horizon
47 The Breach
48 Cogenitor
49 Regeneration
50 First Flight
51 Bounty
52 The Expanse

SEASON 3

53 The Xindi
54 Anomaly
55 Extinction
56 Rajiin
57 Impulse
58 Exile
59 The Shipment
60 Twilight
61 North Star
62 Similitude
63 Carpenter Street
64 Chosen Realm
65 Proving Ground
66 Stratagem
67 Harbinger
68 Doctor's Orders
69 Hatchery
70 Azati Prime
71 Damage
72 The Forgotten
73 E^2
74 The Council
75 Countdown
76 Zero Hour

SEASON 4

77 Storm Front part 1
78 Storm Front part 2
79 Home
80 Borderland
81 Cold Station 12
82 The Augments
83 The Forge
84 Awakening
85 Kir'Shara
86 Daedalus
87 Observer Effect
88 Babel One
89 United
90 The Aenar
91 Affliction
92 Divergence
93 Bound
94 In A Mirror, Darkly, part 1
95 In A Mirror, Darkly, part 2
96 Demons
97 Terra Prime
98 These Are The Voyages

Alphabetical Order

Spoiler

19 Acquisition
90 Aenar, The
91 Affliction
07 Andorian Incident, The
54 Anomaly
82 Augments, The
84 Awakening
70 Azati Prime
88 Babel One
80 Borderland
93 Bound
51 Bounty
47 Breach, The
08 Breaking The Ice
01 Broken Bow part 1
02 Broken Bow part 2
43 Canamar
28 Carbon Creek
63 Carpenter Street
38 Catwalk, The
41 Cease Fire
64 Chosen Realm
09 Civilization
48 Cogenitor
11 Cold Front
81 Cold Station 12
34 Communicator, The
74 Council, The
75 Countdown
44 Crossing, The
86 Daedalus
71 Damage
39 Dawn
30 Dead Stop
13 Dear Doctor
96 Demons
24 Desert Crossing
21 Detained
92 Divergence
68 Doctor's Orders
73 E^2
58 Exile
52 Expanse, The
55 Extinction
23 Fallen Hero
03 Fight or Flight
50 First Flight
83 Forge, The
72 Forgotten, The
10 Fortunate Son
17 Fusion
42 Future Tense
67 Harbinger
69 Hatchery
79 Home
46 Horizon
57 Impulse
94 In A Mirror, Darkly, part 1
95 In A Mirror, Darkly, part 2
45 Judgment
85 Kir'Shara
32 Marauders
29 Minefield
31 Night In Sickbay, A
61 North Star
20 Oasis
87 Observer Effect
37 Precious Cargo
65 Proving Ground
56 Rajiin
49 Regeneration
18 Rogue Planet
33 Seventh, The
15 Shadows of P'Jem
59 Shipment, The
26 Shockwave part 1
27 Shockwave part 2
16 Shuttlepod One
12 Silent Enemy
62 Similitude
35 Singularity
14 Sleeping Dogs
40 Stigma
77 Storm Front part 1
78 Storm Front part 2
04 Strange New World
66 Stratagem
06 Terra Nova
97 Terra Prime
98 These Are The Voyages
60 Twilight
25 Two Days and Two Nights
05 Unexpected
89 United
36 Vanishing Point
22 Vox Sola
53 Xindi, The
76 Zero Hour

 

[JRTStarlight]

Episodes 01 and 02

Broken Bow - part 1 and part 2.

Bow rhymes with hoe or dough or slow and NOT cow.

The Enterprise NX-01 sets off on its first mission, but alien forces are conspiring to thwart their efforts, so what seems a simple maiden voyage is anything but.

Read Full View

Spoiler

Broken Bow is the name of the town in Oklahoma where the Klingon, Klanng, crashed his small scout ship while trying to escape from two Suliban pursuers. This was probably due to wind sheer where the wind comes sweeping down the plains. Klanng manages to kill the pair of Suliban in a silo explosion, but a local farmer exercising his right to bear arms or something shoots the Klingon with a plasma rifle – luckily not in the 40-watt range, or he would have outright killed him. The language barrier is in full force – otherwise the farmer probably wouldn't have shot the menacing looking/acting guy at all. Maybe somebody who is wise in the way of the Klingon language can tell us what Klanng actually said there.

I did note Netflix CC misstated the fact that Hoshi was speaking/teaching Klingon to her students when Captain Archer came to get her. That was wrong. The first time she heard Klingon was when he played her a recording to convince her to come with him, so whatever language that was, it was not Klingon.

So, contrary to the Vulcans' advice that humans still aren't ready to boldly go where no human has gone before, Starfleet decides to send Captain Archer on the maiden voyage of the Enterprise NX-01, the first warp 5 capable Earth vessel, to the Klingon home planet to return their wounded man.

Archer hastily puts together some last minute additions to his crew and sets off for Kronos (Qo'noS), the Klingons' homeworld. But the Suliban (well, some faction or cabal of them that have been genetically enhanced with help from the future) try to stop the mission. They are engaged in a temporal cold war with help from some shadowy figure in the future who was trying to destabilize the Klingon Empire and make the great houses war with one another. But a dissenting Suliban woman on Rigel X gave Klanng some "proof" of this to take back to the Klingon High Council that could avert the Klingon civil war.

The feature length outing is pretty good, and introduces the cast in a way that isn't too tiresome or clunky. The mission is straightforward, the wrinkle in time, the plot, and the series is a temporal cold war, which will be an on-going thing for some time.

Main Cast Members (Series Spoilers)

Characters and Cast

Spoiler

First Row

Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula, is Captain of Earth's first Warp 5 starship, Enterprise. His father designed its engine, giving Archer a personal connection to his ship. He was envisaged as being a cross between Chuck Yeager and Han Solo by executive producer Rick Berman,while Brannon Braga said that he was more "laidback and relatable". The character was initially openly prejudiced against the Vulcans, but this softens over time.

Second Row

T'Pol, played by Jolene Blalock, is science officer of the Enterprise, originally attached to the Enterprise by the Vulcan High Command to keep the humans out of trouble. She becomes loyal to Archer, leaving her position in the High Command to accompany him to find the Xindi, and later joins Starfleet. In later seasons, she forms a romantic relationship with Tucker. She also has her DNA stolen, along with Tucker's, to make the first Vulcan/human hybrid, their daughter Elizabeth, who died from complications caused by inefficient cloning procedures used to create her.

Charles "Trip" Tucker III, played by Connor Trinneer, is chief engineer of the Enterprise and a longtime friend of Captain Archer. He starts the series as a conservatively modest personality, but becomes more seasoned and outspoken as the series runs. He loses a sister in the Xindi attack on Earth. Trip was killed in the series finale based 10 years in the future saving the ship while it was under attack.

Third Row

Malcolm Reed, played by Dominic Keating, is tactical officer of the Enterprise, also in charge of ship security. Reed comes from a long line of Royal Navy men, but joined Starfleet because of his fear of drowning. An extremely taciturn man, his own family, when asked, could not name his favorite food (pineapple).

Travis Mayweather, played by Anthony Montgomery, is the helmsman of the Enterprise. A "space boomer," Travis is unique on Enterprise, having been born in space. Son of a freighter captain, Travis knows many of the alien species as well as locations that Earth traders frequent. As Enterprise moves farther and farther from Earth, his value in this area lessens, but his skill at the helm is constantly appreciated, making him the pilot of choice for many missions.

Hoshi Sato, played by Linda Park, is communications officer of the Enterprise and linguistic genius. Capable of learning alien languages extremely quickly, Hoshi serves as the interpreter between the Enterprise crew and new alien species, even after the universal translator is on-line. She suffered anxiety about her place on board originally, but exposure to frequent danger helped her realize her value to the ship.

Dr. Phlox, played by John Billingsley, is chief medical officer of the Enterprise. A Denobulan member of the Inter-Species Medical Exchange, Phlox is brought aboard the Enterprise to care for the Klingon passenger during the ship's first mission. Afterwards, he volunteers to stay on, delighting in the experience of humanity taking its first steps onto the galactic stage. An exceedingly cheerful alien, Dr. Phlox uses many animals and naturalistic cures in practicing medicine, in addition to the usual technological methods.

I liked it, of course. I like most Trek, with some notable exceptions of a few episodes from every series.

The first planet visited by the Startship Enterprise NX-01 is Rigel X. It was the next system on the Doomsday Machine's hit list in a hundred years or so, but Kirk stopped it from ever getting to what seems to have become a Federation planet since Archer's time.

The fact that Kronos is less than 90 light years away from Earth and less than 4 days away at warp 4.5 is established. These Klingon guys are a lot closer to Earth than I ever realized before. Now if this all really works out on some star map, I have no idea, but I suspect it doesn't. Why is Klanng going from Rigel X toward Sol when Kronos is in the other direction? Those are some pretty hefty evasive maneuvers.

At warp 4.5, I would have thought it would take about 1 year to travel 90 light years or so, but some say many such things are explained as unmentioned natural subspace corridors that up the warp factor, but it's mostly sloppy writing and the fact nobody has a decent fictional 3D Federation Star Chart in front of them when they write these things. Later on they do seem to be making a regular pace outwards at a reasonable speed, but at any given time, the numbers in any particular episode probably won't stand up to close scrutiny.

But as some have said, unless you are a living calculator and can make these calculations in real time without reference material while watching the episode, any problems one might have when examining these numbers later is largely self-inflicted.

All that aside, I liked the story, the aliens, and the setting, and think the series got off to a good start.

And do not discount the opening music - often a great piece of music will help seal the deal.

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And Eye Candy Never Hurts. I put it under a spoiler, however, since some may not approve of the images.

Eye Candy

Spoiler

The Butterfly Dancers,

Or Sexy Time Decontamination.

Broken Bow Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/01.htm

7, maybe 8 out of 10. A good start.

Next: Fight or Flight

 

[Ssosmcin]

I love this review, so I'll post a comment. I always enjoyed this pilot episode a lot. It's really a great intro to the characters and format. A few things about the series - generally the oversexed decon scenes - were cringe worthy then and are the same now, but the characters are mostly well drawn and easy to like.

The episodes to follow that first year were hit or miss, but I appreciated the "Right Stuff" vibe and the excitement of exploration was there. It was a fine start to a more mature and, frankly, better series than Voyager. And, yeah, the theme song was an unpleasant shock to me when the series premiered, but it has grown on me since then and really does hammer home the point of the series.

Okay, write some more.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Great thread! I appreciate the effort and detail you are putting into this. Looking forward to more!

I enjoyed "Broken Bow." I think it did a good job of introducing the characters and conflicts to come, and I thought the production values were outstanding.

 

[JRTStarlight]

I've met more than a few people who have similarly felt the Enterprise sexy time decontamination scenes were embarrassing, uncomfortable, gratuitous, or unnecessary. And while I think most would agree the ultimate reason for the TOS miniskirt uniforms, guest stars' often quite revealing costumes, and later Trek series body paint, skimpy costumes, or skintight catsuits was to increase the show's sex appeal and boost the ratings, I think the sexy time decon scenes are probable and appropriate.

Given the para military nature of Starfleet, and the likely cramped quarters or limited space aboard a ship like the NX-01, I think unisex facilities are practical and necessary. You can't duplicate everything to have facilities for both genders, and more.

And it may well be the case the 22nd or 23rd century's attitude toward sexuality is far more relaxed than our own.

It may seem from the officers' examples of quarters every member of the 83-strong crew might have their own personal quarters, but I bet that's not the case. There are probably several barracks like setting below decks, or half a dozen or more crewmembers sharing larger rooms where they have little privacy. They might separate the genders for sleeping quarters, but most facilities are more likely unisex and shared, like in a family.

Now Star Trek never went as far as Starship Troopers did with unisex shower facilities, but I actually think those might become the norm in a tight, space ship setting. Since Trek never went that far, however, I felt the sexy time decon scenes really weren't all that bad or unexpected in comparison, or more to the point, unrealistic.

But I do understand why many may not like them.

 

[JRTStarlight]

Episode 3

Fight or Flight

A derelict ship and a dead crew are discovered, but who killed them? Play it safe and not stick around to find out, or investigate further, possibly endangering everyone on board? T'Pol recommends the former. What will the humans do?

Read Full Review

Spoiler

As the crew settles into their new ship and routine, they come across a drifting space ship. T'Pol recommends avoiding it, but Archer feels compelled to explore and/or render any assistance they might be able to give the disabled ship. Going aboard, they discover a massacred crew and find their bodies are being drained of their precious bodily fluid, Triglobulin (similar to a human's own lymphatic fluid, Phlox thinks somebody is harvesting valuable bio-chemicals and doubtlessly would find something useful in humans, too).

There is little they can do, so they leave, though this does not sit well with Archer. After a time, he changes his mind and reverses course. They are not out there to just play it safe. Once back to the disabled ship, Hoshi figures out some of the language and they send out a distress call in that language with the ship's tech. But the ship that shows up is not the one they were hoping for – its tech instead matching the tech draining the fluids from the corpses of the dead aliens. And that hostile ship begins to fire upon the Enterprise.

During the one-sided battle, another ship shows up – this time matching the first – but a communications problem persists and the translator just isn't cutting it. The uncertain Hoshi talks to them directly, not perfectly, but well enough to get the facts across that the humans were only trying to help and the other ship killed that crew, and a scan of the matching tech used to drain the bodies reveal who's who, so the newly arrived ship fires on the bad guys instead of the Enterprise. Obviously tactically superior, they quickly destroy the murdering harvesters (the evil race, never known). But the nice race turn out to be the Axanarians.

One of Kirk's first assignments was with diplomats to Axanar (mentioned in Whom Gods Destroy and Court Martial) and that's the race or area used in the Fan Film, Prelude To Axanar, too. So this is a close-by race, and that's good and right and proper, as it should be, and Earth had made contact with a friendly species. Huzzah!

Hoshi, who had doubted herself enough to the point of considering asking the captain to take her home, realizes the mission would have failed without her, and a new confidence inspires her to go on.

It is mentioned the Vulcans have determined only one in every 43,000 planets is likely to have intelligent life. How they could know this is uncertain. They do not seem to have explored much of the galaxy themselves, but Archer accepts this as a fact. One estimate as to how many stars in the Milky Way Galaxy is 120 billion, and assuming 10 planets in each stellar system (though this is a guess) would mean the Trek Milky Way has about 28 million intelligent species. This seems quite high, even for Trek. But then this is from the same people who have determined time travel is impossible, so what do they know?

I liked how Sluggo (the alien slug they picked up, was like a fish out of water, and how Hoshi was compared to it). It, too, was left in a place where they thought it might survive, just as Hoshi stayed aboard the Enterprise where she might survive and thrive as well. It makes the doctor's suggestion of just feeding it to his bat even funnier.

I loved the episode was rather Hoshi-centric rather than concentrating on the leads all the time like many shows, and I think it set the proper tone for more to come.

The exploration continues . . .

I don't recall anything so technically wrong that it pulled my focus, and I liked the Hoshi story. I may have my reservations about transplanting species like that, or my doubts it would survive at all on the new planet, but that didn't matter, as long as Hoshi felt she did the best she could for it.

Of course, I'd have fed it to the bat.

Fight or Flight Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/03.htm

Next: Strange New World

 

[Ensign Ellora Dannan]

Would it be easier for you to give a smaller "synopsis" of each episode? Maybe the Moderator would allow that? So, far I am enjoying reading these and I agree with you on the point that because this was a crew & ship from the 21st century there would be close quarters and a lot of shared spaces. The decom chamber was needed as we still don't know what kind of "space germs" may be out there and could possibly kill anyone who picks them up and doesn't go through decom. Also, since all of the crew and Captain were traveling to explore for the first time, it makes sense they were "babies" in their handling of things. Of course, they all matured and knew better by the time the series ended. I still wish they had continued for 2 more years or perhaps made a "spin off" of "In A Mirror, Darkly". Anyway, I'm enjoying thread! Keep it going!!

 

[JRTStarlight]

Episode 4

Strange New World

A beautiful world is found, much like Earth, but with no people - apparently. Is the landing party in for a treat, or is T'Pol plotting with aliens to betray them all?

Read Full Review

Spoiler

The Enterprise happens upon a new world not in the Vulcan database, and it is Minshara-Class. Just what they were looking for, really, so they go down to explore, despite T'Pol's belief it would be more prudent to send probes for a week or two before sending people. Well, they weren't going to do that or spend that much time there, so they crowd into a shuttle and down they go.

A Minshara-Class World means it is suitable for humanoid life and is apparently a Vulcan designation later adopted by the Federation and shortened to class-M. The first earthling to set foot upon the first M-Class world surveyed by Enterprise NX-01 was . . . Porthos. Woof. One giant leap for Dogkind. Kind of outshines Neil Armstrong in a way, though unlike Porthos, Neil didn't immediately relieve himself on the moon (I assume).

The landing party looks around the planet that is rich in diverse plant and insect life, but there are no intelligent species on the planet. It looks ideal for colonization. Part of the party remains behind as the captain returns to the ship, and essentially they camp out while Ensign Travis Mayweather tells ghost stories. But later, a storm churns up some nasty pollen and blows it down from the mountains. It contains Tropolisine, which is a hallucinogen, but also breaks down in the body into a toxin, poisoning those inflicted. But not before their hallucinations and paranoia convince most of the remaining landing party that T'Pol is working in secret with some aliens on the planet, plotting against them, their distrust growing in intensity until eventually T'Pol and Trip find themselves in a Mexican stand-off, phasers pointed at one another, ready to kill.

Maybe it'd be less offensive if we called this an M-Class stand off.

Maybe the ghost story vibe contributed, or the natural distrust of Vulcans, but from there I think it built up rather nicely and I enjoyed this story. But it was more down to earth and less outer space, except it was on a new planet, of course. Stories about outer demons to fight just appeal to me more than ones where we fight inner demons, but it was still good.

One might note this world later is named Archer IV, and is mentioned twice in TNG: Yesterday's Enterprise as their destination in the prime timeline, and a place the Enterprise-D kicked ass vs. the Klingons in a recent battle in the alternate timeline.

While the planet couldn't be colonized due to the toxic spores then, they eventually found an antidote for that and by TNG's time, the place had over 700 million inhabitants. Nice. Although, to go from nobody to 700+ million in just 200 years actually seems pretty unrealistic to me. It begins to look like with virtually all the power they need (I assume harvested from the local star) and replicator technology, they can almost effortlessly build large cities, and with a great place to live and all the food you might want, they can begin to reproduce at an alarming, almost tribble-like rate. And I would have to believe most people there were born there, for transporting people through space by the millions isn't really all that easy, even in TNG's time.

This is the first of three episodes with Elizabeth Cutler, played by Kellie Suzanne Waymire. She also played Layna in the Voyager episode, Muse. I liked her character, and liked that she seemed interested in the doctor romantically and was professionally becoming a medical tech and the next in line on the medical staff should the doctor not be available. One might wonder why there is only one doctor (heck, there's a whole thread around here somewhere questioning its very validity) but for 84 people, that's about the most one could reasonably hope for and it seems quite realistic to me. But her character didn't hang around long after that, and sadly, only now did I learn the reason. The actress died at the very young age of 36 from a heart attack due to known medical condition. Had she lived, she doubtlessly would have been in more episodes and Elizabeth Cutler might have become a regular.

R.I.P., Kellie.

Speaking of death, Novakovich was actually slated to die in this episode. He's the guy they beamed up whose skin was fused with plant debris since the transporter couldn't sort him out quite right. But it was the toxin that was going to kill him. However, Scott Bakula felt it was too soon to kill a crewman and not give it the right amount of screen time to deal with the loss, and since they didn't have that time, they had him survive. Not that he ever appeared again.

And T'Pol uses the Vulcan Nerve Pinch on Travis, so we're reminded she can do that.

I gave this episode a 6 out of 10. It is intense in places, but the action isn't so energetically kinetic. As far as spores for an enemy are concerned, at least Kirk's confrontation with spores seemed direr in that they came so close to losing the ship. But you can't count on consistency from that kind of enemy since it will at best be . . . sporadic.

Strange New World Transcript:
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/04.htm

Next: Unexpected

Thanks, Ellora Danna, for the encouragement. With a welcome comment now and again, I can proceed. Cheers.

 

[Ensign Ellora Dannan]

You're Welcome, Captain! And thank you for the interesting points of view on these episodes. Tonight I'll be viewing on of the last episodes, "Terra Prime". A real tear jerker. BTW, actor Connor Trinneer explained why he was so tearful when they filmed that episode at the Con. He stated that during that filming, he had just become a father (his son born) and when he thought about what baby Elizabeth would go through it brought him to tears. He explained that he never told the Producers that fact about his son. The only person he told was Jolene (T'Pol). He told her now he understood how he would feel if his son became ill and died. So the tears were real folks! Regarding the very last episode: "These Are The Voyages" I still think that it would have better if Captain Archer (or Admiral due to the time period) was the one to tell the story. I didn't like the fact that it was a Hologram created by Will Riker and to boot he revealed Trip's demise BEFORE the fans saw it happen! Poor Judgement there. Otherwise, the show is very deserving of all the awards it did get and the fact that the fans eventually came around to like it. I saw many, many "Enterprise" uniforms, men and women, walking around the Convention in Vegas this year - I suspect there will be even more by next year!

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

JRTStarlight, I love the meaty reviews, but it's possible that the length could be rather daunting to some members. I think Ensign Ellora Dannan is onto something with her suggestion about posting a short synopsis. Then you can put your full review behind a spoiler tag, the same as you're doing with your TOS rewatch thread.

Instead of, or in addition to, your synopsis, you might consider posting your favorite line of dialogue, or favorite scene, best shot, coolest makeup, etc., with visual aids if possible - whatever stood out for you, along with stats like your rating and the link to the transcript. Other members might enjoy replying with their own favorite elements of the episode - or nitpicks, or whatever - and posting pictures as examples. This has worked very well in past appreciation threads and review threads.

Regarding how often to post... I know you're excited about sharing your thoughts, but keep in mind that many of our members don't check in every day. Waiting 2 or 3 days between reviews would give others a chance to find and read your reviews, and respond if they wish. Give them time to chime in. That's the whole idea of a discussion board - to share thoughts and perspectives.

Carry on!

 

[JRTStarlight]

I don't know how much I'd change them, but putting the bulk under spoiler tags like in the TOS Review thread is probably a good idea. I was just using a good image and title above the spoiler, but a quick synopsis might be fine. I did most of those spoilers retroactively in the TOS Review Thread, and I can adjust these, too, in time. Soon, probably.

The suggestions as to what else to include sounds like the sort of thing I'd rather others made along the way, or in my responses to their comments, or with answers to questions or replies to their observations. This leaves room for any back and forth discussion above and beyond the review, which is half the point of the thread.

I had planned on posting at most one review per day, and sometimes not even that quickly depending on my schedule, but I can slow it down to give others more time to respond. As you suggest, if I reach the two in a row limit and nobody has responded for more than 3 days, I may post again if I'm ready after that "reasonable" amount of time and quit worrying about that rule for the review thread. But it should never be sooner than every three days. That should put up about two reviews a week, more or less, for the better part of one year.

Join in, everyone, and let's remember how good Enterprise was (or what we didn't like it about too sometimes.) It should be fun.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

As you suggest, if I reach the two in a row limit and nobody has responded for more than 3 days, I may post again if I'm ready after that "reasonable" amount of time

Actually, I'm suggesting you post one review every 2-3 days. If you haven't gotten any replies, wait another day or two rather than reply to yourself. Ask questions. Start a discussion. This isn't a race to see how many reviews you can post in how short a time. Your goal is back and forth discussion, yes?

and quit worrying about that rule for the review thread.

Quit worrying, certainly. But please don't quit following the rules. They exist for good reason. If you - or any poster - refrain from dominating the thread, and give your readers an inviting atmosphere to join the discussion, they will come.

Getting back on topic, I enjoyed "Strange New World" for the surreality of the different hallucinations, and for the character bits. Trip and his camera. Archer posing for a picture beside a stone-faced T'Pol, priceless. The he-men Starfleet officers all squirrelly over a bug. And the standoff between T'Pol and Trip in the cave, phase pistols drawn, Trip consumed by hallucinations and T'Pol struggling not to succumb...very gripping.

 

[JRTStarlight]

I actually didn't like the bug - partially since the way it moved looked so fake, but mostly because it looked exactly like one used in TNG: Conspiracy or the ones from The Wrath of Khan, so it sort of took me out of the moment in a way a new bug wouldn't have.

If it was a "call back" I think it was another bad one, of which there are many when some newer version of Trek tries too hard to tie itself to some older version of Trek to prove it's still Trek. Some are well done - many aren't. But if it was just a reuse of an effect they already had for budgetary reasons, well, I suppose you can't complain too much about them getting the show out on time and under budget. But a newer, different looking bug would have been better. It's a big galaxy.

But Tucker's reaction was fine - surprise and alarm at a bug. For all he knew, it could have been quite deadly. If anything, I thought it a little too reserve since he actually wanted to "just use stun" on his phase pistol to shoot the bug. That's an impressive regard for life in panicky moment. I'd have probably used kill. Then again, maybe the stun setting was to insure nobody else would be hurt, and even the stun level of force would squash a bug.

And that was quite a photograph with T'Pol and Archer.

Smile!

 

[Ensign Ellora Dannan]

I guess the use of stuff the the rest of the series shows is a bit weird but it turns out to be quite useful in explaining why they existed on the other series - or how they got there. Example: Running into the Borg - they didn't know just how dangerous they would be in the future and they didn't know what to call them either. Another Example: The "kill" switch on their phasers was all they had until Lt. Reed came up with the "stun" setting and the Red Alert system so the ship would be ready to respond to attacks quicker. And who knows? If Trip had survived, he and T'Pol would have been the first to have a Vulcan/Human child instead of Surok and Amanda who had Spock.

 

[JRTStarlight]

But he and T'Pol were the first - though it wasn't exactly consensual. But I'd like to think that from that union, doctors learned what they needed to ensure future unions could avoid such a fate, and in a way it contributed to Spock's birth and good health.

It never really helps when writers just assume these things can happen naturally and without medical assistance. Scientifically, we should have better luck cross breeding with a monkey than a Vulcan. That's why I'm convinced it doesn't happen naturally, but must be genetically manipulated to share one's genes with another species and splice them together like that, and then the fertilize egg can be implanted in the "mother-to-be" and born as normal, or born via an artificial womb/incubator. We just never see those details.

Even in the case of "rape" or a forced or coerced union, like with Tasha Yar and some unnamed Romulan General, though the rape may have happened, it alone wasn't the reason for Sela. Only later might genetic material have been taken from Tasha (perhaps without consent) and such a union was made in the lab. It might even explain why Commander Sela looks so much like Tasha, since the General was taken with her and might have insisted his daughter look more like her mother. Genetic manipulation would be quite developed in such societies. Tasha may have carried Sela, or they may have gone the incubator route, but since Tasha seemed quite attached to Sela and wanted to take her away, I'd assume the former.

But it's all just speculation.

 

[Ensign Ellora Dannan]

According to the series, yes Trip & T'Pol were the first but their DNA was stolen to create "Elizabeth" and those idiots at Terra Prime didn't complete the genetic code correctly which is why she died. Otherwise, she could've been saved by Phlox and would have been the only child on Archer's Enterprise and T'Pol would have had to raise her alone after Trip's death.

 

[JRTStarlight]

Episode 5

Unexpected

The Enterprise encounters some hitch hikers, of a sort, and they try to help them out. But Trip picks up an extra hitch hiker, an unexpected passenger he never bargained for.

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Spoiler

Captain Archer's gravity plating goes out while he's taking a shower, so the captain and drops of water are suddenly floating everywhere. In fact, the ship is recently being plagued by numerous malfunctions. Eventually they discover the cause is a cloaked ship riding in their plasma wake that is disrupting the power systems throughout the ship.

The cloaked ship belonged to the Xyrillians, a reptile-like humanoid race in shinny one-piece suits.

The Xyrillians are a technologically advanced species (cloaking tech, holo tech, bioship eco tech). They have grass floors and food growing on the wall and tanks of eels swimming in the walls. The higher-pressure atmosphere takes a few hours of compression therapy to get used to before entering, and a few more hours to come back. Trip finds the transition to be most unpleasant, but mostly since he didn't take the alien's advice and rest first before working. After he is forced to rest, he feels better and works on the ship's engines for 3 days, with breaks now and again.

I can only assume, though the race is technologically advanced, they aren't carrying any topnotch engineers with them so they can repair their own engines. But how many of us can fix our own cars or other advanced tech we carry around? Maybe that's almost a common occurrence. They do have an engineer, Ah'Len, but she requires help. Or maybe they just accept Trip's help to be diplomatic and so we won't destroy them.

During their breaks, Ah'Len shows Tucker their holodeck (it uses re-sequenced photons) and it amazes him, and they play a game that later turns out to have unintended consequences.

After the Xyrillians depart, Trip discovers he is pregnant (though technically since it contains none of his genetic material and he's little more than an incubator, it's more a parasitic infection).

The role reversal is somewhat amusing, and perhaps thought provoking to Men as they might consider Trip's situation in a way they had never considered it before as he deals with uncertainty, fear, morning sickness, or other issues uncommon to men.

The decision is made to track down the Xyrillians, and Trip contemplates having and raising the baby if they can't find them, but they eventually the ship riding in the plasma wake of a Klingon battle cruiser.

The Xyrillians apparently haven't learned their lesson, or they just don't seem to mind damaging other ships and their power systems on the sly while gathering plasma exhaust.

The Klingons threaten to destroy the Enterprise for approaching them uninvited, or later, for monitoring their systems since Archer knows all about their troubles, but Archer explains they hadn't done that and proves he knows about the Klingon's recent difficulties by ratting out the Xyrillians. The Klingons quickly find the cloaked ship and confirm what Archer has told them, but then prepare to destroy it. A hasty negotiation to spare the Xyrillians' lives is made, but only after Archer confesses it is a matter of honor since one of the Xyrillians got his man pregnant. The Klingon's relent, partially because T'Pol plays up Archer's importance and friendship with the Klingon high council a month ago, but mostly because they're laughing their asses off at Trip's predicament, and also in exchange for holotechnolgy. The Xyrillians comply, giving the tech to the Klingons, but not to us.

On impulse power, the Xyrillians will be able to get home in less than a month, so we might assume they will not try this trick again. The Xyrillians are also able to transplant the little girl Trip was carrying to another host. Archer bids the Klingons farewell until their next meeting, but Klingons consider all debts paid, and the next time they meet, they promise Archer will regret it. Klingons are not naturally a friendly bunch.

Well, the fact the NX-01 is putting out that much useable exhaust suggests to me the engines are not terribly efficient, and humans are polluting the galaxy. To think another ship can collect the exhaust and power their own warp drive (Teraphasic coil) suggests to me if we had collected the exhaust, we could have gotten better mileage ourselves and polluted the galaxy less. But even the more advanced Klingons aren't doing much better in this regard, their plasma wake as tasty as ours. It also suggests tracking a vessel by its exhaust might not be too difficult.

Though T'Pol says this is the first interspecies pregnancy for a human, and Trip is the first male to become pregnant, I'm not convinced this qualifies as a pregnancy, so I'm not sure those milestones are appropriately his.

I'd rate this episode an average 5 out of 10. It has its good points, its funny moments, and some interesting visuals. We see a Klingon battle cruiser, and perhaps learn where the Federation discovered, at least in principle, what they could do with holographic technology.

Unexpected Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/05.htm

Next: Terra Nova

 

[Ensign Ellora Dannan]

I loved T'pol's reaction to Trip's "condition. She did show an emotion - jealousy!

 

[JRTStarlight]

Episode 6

Terra Nova

Terra Nova, Earth's first attempt at off-world colonization, ended in a mystery, but with the Enterprise fast approaching the distant planet, maybe the crew will finally find the answer to this 70-year old riddle - or maybe they'll just find danger.

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Spoiler

Some 70 years back, in 2069, just six years after Zefram Cochrane's historic warp flight aboard the Phoenix, the first attempt at a human colony outside our own Solar System was made. Terra Nova, a mere 28 light years from Earth, was the closest M-Class planet found. So the Conestoga boarded 200 colonists and off they went. Huzzah!

9 years to get there (I figure at about Warp 1.45) they set off undaunted. About 5 years after that, Earth was going to send another colony ship, but the inhabitants of Terra Nova objected (via subspace radio, I assume). Their colony didn't want another 200 people sharing the planet. Now that really seems pretty damn unreasonable, if you ask me, and quite unrealistic, too. A heated exchange occurs and then all communications to Terra Nova were lost.

Earth didn't send another colony ship there. Too far to go just to find out what happened, and only then be turned away by a hostile force when they got there, so the matter passes into the history books as a mystery. They could have asked the Vulcans to go look with their much faster ships, but apparently favors from Vulcans tended to cost too much (in damaged pride, maybe, or other considerations).

And so . . .

Whatever Happened To Terra Nova?

Seven decades pass, and the stories abound as to the possibilities. Travis Mayweather, teller of ghost stories, in particular, has wanted to know since he was a kid. Now the Enterprise NX-01 is approaching, but they cannot make contact. Nothing. They arrive to find a ghost town, no humans anywhere, and like in Mirri, Reed spins the wheel of an old abandoned bike. But they soon discover they are not alone.

Mistaken for aliens, possibly the ones who killed the colonists, the landing party gives chase into some subterranean tunnels. But it's not aliens, but mud-covered, surviving humans, descendants of the original colonists, who have forgotten they are human and have come to believe humans attacked them and tried to kill them long ago and are now their sworn enemy!

This is a somewhat slow episode as this massive misunderstanding is sorted out. The so-called attack was an asteroid that had hit Terra Nova, which in turn cut off communications, so Earth never learned of the fate, and the survivors thought Earth attacked since they wanted the planet back that badly.

Dr. Phlox diagnoses an elderly woman's lung cancer and cures her, and they find old photographic records of that woman when she was just a child. Eventually, she comes to realize the humans are telling the truth, and she remembers, they are human. But, in the proverbial nick of time, the Enterprise discovered the ground water had recently become radioactive, like the surface had been for many decades, and it is killing them even while sheltered deep in the caves. They need to save the Novans, but the intense distrust has to first be overcome, and Archer does this when he saves a trapped Novan with his phase pistol.

What to do about them is discussed since the thought of forcing them back into Federation society seems unworkable.

A happy ending is had when they finally convince the survivors to move away from the now radioactive caves to the southern continent, where the radiation fall out and poisons from the asteroid never fell, and they can take up the sort of life style they had before, but now in the caves on the southern continent, or maybe even try living above ground. Their choice.

And so . . .

Mystery solved.

This episode's mystery meat. The Digger.

The wonderful thing about Diggers
Is Diggers are wonderfully neat!
Their tops are made out of armor
Their bottoms are made out of meat!
They're diggy, giggy, not too biggy,
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!
But the most wonderful thing about Diggers is
There's enough for everyone.

A Historical Prespective:

The SS Valiant was launched in about 2065, so 4 years before the Conestoga (the colony ship to Terra Nova), and 2 years after the Phoenix broke the warp 1 barrier. (TOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before).

2063 The Phoenix breaks the warp 1 barrier.
2065 SS Valiant Heads out for deep space exploration.
2069 Conestoga heads out to colonize Terra Nova.
2078 Colonists arrives at Terra Nova
2151 Enterprise NX-01 reestablishes contact with the Terra Nova colony.

And other things:

Dr. Phlox, we learn, is a "Denobulan." Good to know.

Erick Avari returns in another Trek role.
Before he was B'iJik in TNG: Unification, Vedek Yarka in DS9 Destiny, and now Jamin in ENT, Terra Nova.
The guy gets around.

I like most Trek stories just for background information on a great fictional universe, if nothing else, and while this episode supplies that, it's not terribly gripping. I gave it a 4.5 out of 10.

Terra Nova Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/06.htm

Next: The Andorian Incident

 

[Ensign Ellora Dannan]

Love your poem!! Great review but you left out that they held a wounded Malcolm prisoner and while he was with them the people played strange music on the bones of those diggers. Sounded an awful lot like Native American flute music.