First-Timer's Impressions of Enterprise

[lceb]

Jimmy Bob wrote:

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The humans in this are far too nice to be like us, and yet they are far too child-like to be like Picard. Too child-like to be even us. That scene with Archer and that mysterious alien woman, and Archer and that bad suliban... Archer really feels so amusingly child-like and oblivious to the universe in those scenes.

Now that you mention it I remember I had thought exactly the same. There was an optimism and an innocence in the humans that I found fascinating and I liked very much. Like if after WW III and the Vulcan presence on Earth people had become cleaner, more child-like as you say and I consider that a positive characteristic. It was one of the things that attracted me to Enterprise.

[Jimmy Bob]

Strange New World

I think I really... really like Trip. I think that Trip is... awesome. And I don't why. Some things just are like that. Trip is amazing.

"Gimme your boot!"
"What for?"
"So I can squash it!"
"Are we allowed to squash alien lifeforms!"
"If they're inside your sleeping bag! ... Where'd you put the phase pistols?"
"You want to shoot a bug?"
"I'm just gonna stun it!"
- Trip and Travis

I enjoyed this episode. I liked the child-like joy and innocence the crew had when exploring the planet. Taking pictures and walking dogs. Also they had similar tents to mine. And I think I've yet to hear "son of a bitch" in Trek before.

Both Flight or Fight and this are pretty much quiet episodes, where the crew members just casually interact with each other. And both manage to portray rather well just how small and insignificant humans are at that moment.

"That's it. To the left of that trinary cluster."
"What?"
"Our sun."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah I'm positive. Just another speck of light... no different than any other."

However this episode is way better and way more entertaining than Flight or Fight. Because of Trip. Trip rules. I realize that now. I don't know how I could not see this before. That scene in the cave, where Trip goes mad... that was so awesome and intense. And I believe T'Pol was really frightened in her vulcan way. It really felt like he is really going to kill T'Pol. Trip is awesome. Not because he yells and points guns at women... he just is. It's something you feel. I can't explain it.

Also I think that T'Pol has some S&M tendencies. She was so flirting with Trip when she said: "I'm afraid I did (shoot you)."

I'm also glad that the stupid crewmember survived. I actually hate to see these sort of random deaths, so I'm glad he survived.

[Count Zero]

Jimmy Bob wrote:

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I'm also glad that the stupid crewmember survived. I actually hate to see these sort of random deaths, so I'm glad he survived.

Yeah, that was a nice change to the custom redshirt death in Trek. I really expected him to die. Apparently, he was originally supposed to die, but Scott Bakula argued that it would be wrong to have him die and not address his death in any way, so they changed it. At least that's what it says on Memory Alpha.

[Mach5]

Jimmy Bob wrote:

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I think I really... really like Trip. I think that Trip is... awesome. And I don't why. Some things just are like that. Trip is amazing.
...

Trip is awesome. Not because he yells and points guns at women... he just is. It's something you feel. I can't explain it.

Welcome to the club!
(You ain't seen nothing yet, BTW)

[seigezunt]

political wrong-way-rubbing aside, good post. I hope to do the same as soon as amazon sends me my first season set. Damn, I opted for the free delivery, so it will probably be a while...

[Jimmy Bob]

Unexpected

At some point everyone who is interested in Trek will hear horror stories of Enterprise's stupid stories like Trip getting pregnant.

And everyone will encounter the common opinion of: TNG rules - Voyager, indistinguishable from TNG, sucks - Enterprise, indistinguishable from VOY and TNG, sucks even more. When I watch these series I try to find what makes each show unique and I approach with the utmost positive intentions. So I will never say that Enterprise sucks, because that's not my agenda.

But back to Trip getting pregnant horror episode. I liked this episode. Trip's my favorite character, alien ship is very different and interesting, and Trip meets a very sensual alien woman. The interaction between Trip and the very sensual alien woman is what makes me like the episode. And I found it funny. Archer's shower scene, T'Pol's reaction, Archer trying to resist laughing all the time, Trip... I laughed.

Why does Braga like DNA so much?

They now pretty much established Trip, Archer and T'Pol as characters. Doctor and Hoshi have gotten some characterization too. And it's Travis and Malcolm who mostly exist as actors than characters.

[Dane_Whitman]

After the somewhat stale Voyager, it was refreshing to see Starfleet officers react to the unknown with a profound sense of wonder. It made me identify with the humans of the 22nd century in a way the 24th century shows never made possible.

[Count Zero]

I liked "Unexpected", too. Sure, the premise is a bit silly but I thought it was a lot of fun. And the alienness of the other ship was portrayed brilliantly. I wish we would have seen things like that more often.

[SharkD]

I just started with Season 1 today. I think it's OK. The actors are whiney, but the plot so far is OK. Not as cringe-worthy (yet) as the big V. And, they certainly have a lot cooler looking sets/props/special effects than any of the other Trek series!

When the show first aired I had reservations along the same lines as the "Bush-era" politics comment earlier in the thread. Watching it now (he's been gone for a while now...) I'm not distracted by it as much--except when the theme song is playing! Yuck! I don't want to go take my dog fishing!

[commodore64]

Jimmy Bob and Shark, welcome to the forum. I think your summary of the characters is pretty fair. They're a bit bland at first. I also think it's interesting you like Archer from the beginning. So did I.

[HopefulRomantic]

Jimmy Bob wrote:

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The Doctor is a very peculiar morbid character... very, very different from what I've used to. Refreshing. Disturbing.

Archer is the knee-jerk ethical outrage kind-hearted taxi driver of the universe...

Trip... I dunno about him yet. Doesn't stand really out.

Jimmy Bob wrote:

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I think I really... really like Trip. I think that Trip is... awesome. And I don't why. Some things just are like that. Trip is amazing.

Also I think that T'Pol has some S&M tendencies. She was so flirting with Trip when she said: "I'm afraid I did (shoot you)."

SharkD wrote:

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...except when the theme song is playing! Yuck! I don't want to go take my dog fishing!

I love reading other folks' first impressions. Or in some cases, third impressions.

[Jimmy Bob]

Terra Nova

At first I feared that this is going to be yet another one of those "Help! My DNA malfunctioned!" episodes that Braga is so well known for. However, once again it was just the "creator's sign". So far, all episodes have had Braga either involved in just story or both story and teleplay, and so far all episodes have had some sort of DNA thing. Suliban from Broken Bow, DNA harvesting from Fight or Flight and DNA infection in Strange New World (okay, these last too I might have made up, but that's because I said all episodes so now I have to stretch), interracial DNA surprise in Unexpected and these slightly altered DNA humans from this episode.

It's like when most parents scared their kids with policemen or Jesus or whatever, then Braga's parents must have scared him with DNA... and that's why he's so obsessed. "If you're a bad boy Branna, your DNA will malfunction and you'll turn into a lizard!"

I found this episode to be boring, however I liked the idea of a human colony due to catastrophe, becoming an entirely new people. History has a lot of examples how nations (in this case, "nation" as in shared collective group identity - ranging from tribes to modern nation-states) are born from the randomest things. Slight change and a completely new people are born - east slavs separating into russians, ukrainians and belorussians in 13th century, anglo-saxon folk into english, american, australian during the course of past few centuries... it's just one of those things that'll keep on going. It just now that we pretend that a national identity is something fixed and eternal. So I was quite interested in this idea - asteroid, parents die, little children grow up and create their own myth and understanding of these events and something completely new is born. They were cut off completely from their parent's culture. And the culture they did had created some pretty damn impressive and calming flute music. That flute music scene was probably my favorite scene.

There's this theory that sense of history goes only back to 100 years in societies without writing or very limited access to writing (middle ages for example), and thus everything that happens until to one's grandparents is fixed and sensed history, but beyond that everything exists in a mythic existence and events that have had 100 years between them are sensed as co-existing. Or forgotten at all. For example, indians who descended from the folks who did Cahokia and it's world, had forgotten about it completely by the time when the whities came. So in some cases, you might be dealing with completely new people in 100 years, as their ancestry and origin might be obvious, their identity is something else and thus you have two completely different people with different sense of history - even when one is descendant from the other.

And only in societies with a wide access to writing (or focused efforts by the ruling class) can a longer sense of history be created and maintained. And re-created of course - I'd imagine quite a lot of european brethren folk (those who in some cases have like 80% of same vocabulary - most slavs, balts, finns and estonians, germanic folk) didn't think of themselves as brethren in earlier times. And these re-created "pre-historic separation points" actually affect quite a lot... suddenly one is part of these bigger group of people, who after all, were once the same.

It's just this episode reminded me somewhat that. Otherwise boring. Save some random kid and suddenly everything is okay and everyone understands their mistakes.... a bit too like Kevin Sorbo Hercules, but without the humor. And I'm not sure, but I might even have forgotten what really went on in this episode. Already.

When Travis spoke about the mysterious dissapearance of Amelia Earhart I wasn't thinking of Voyager at all. Perhaps this world's vibe is just closer to our own and my brain just forgot that it's the same Star Trek universe and thus did not connect these two events.

[Pemmer Harge]

Having seen episodes 2 and 3, the obvious solution to their problems would be to write to Starfleet and ask to have T'Pol made captain. Sure she's a jerk (so far at least, although so might you be in the same situation), but in both episodes they got into trouble because Archer ignored her advice.

[Jimmy Bob]

Andorian Incident



This is the first really impressive Enterprise episode so far. Until now, I was more positively disposed towards the show than the show to me. But now, captain getting beaten up, T'pol in sack with a human, vulcan culture and politics – it was a good watch.

I was impressed by T'Pol in this episode. Jolene seemed to do a lot of subtle nuances in this episode. Perhaps because of a woman director with herself having 7-year experince as an actress on Star Trek, knew what suggestions to make and how to focus on Jolene?

What's in a smell anyway (I refer to the vulcan priest worringly asking T'Pol how she deals with the human smell)? Whenever someone refers to other's... uh... otherness I guess, they always say they smell bad. „Russians smell funny!“ „Blacks smell funny!“ „Celts smell funny!“ „Muslims smell funny!“ „Jews smell funny!“

I really really like what Enterprise is doing with the vulcans. It's not like an enlightened people inviting other people into universal utopia at all. Not that any other Trek said it was so, but I guess that's how I imagined the beginning to be.

„Hello humans. Oh is that a warp drive I see. Wonderful, just wonderful. We welcome you humans into a new world and new era of the friendship of people's. Make the best of it.“

They're pretty benevolent compared to similar powers in history, but they are a political privileged power and they want to keep their privileges. When I called the vulcan era a „vulcan occupation“ in my first post, I didn't mean it was like occupation in the traditional sense – just somewhat similar. Perhaps there is a special term for this, but right now I can't think of it. It's not the universe the humans are getting into, it's the vulcan world. Somebody already „rules“ space. Humans went warp drive and were all like „wow, this rocks.“ And then vulcans sent some agents – could have felt like a punishment for some vulcans – to keep this remote insignificant province under control. Like they kept andorians under control in this episode. In their own way. It's probably the strong religious traditions that make them do these thing in their „own way“. But this „own way“ works for them.

I imagine the vulcan religion has same symptoms with all organized religions. Strong traditions do keep a society in balance, but sometimes these religious traditions serve and maintain another idea, different from it's origin... or well... I think vulcans might have their own „different interpretations“ of what Surak really meant.

You know, kinda like:

„Jesus says we should create worldwide social welfare, in where no kid has to suffer hunger, no woman abuse, no man hatred.“
„No! You lie Satan! Jesus says we should kill all homosexuals and evolutionists.“*

At least I think vulcans might have similar "different interpretations". Not that there was anything implying that the vulcan politics are religious in nature, just that I assume that it's their religious traditions that make them do usual "control politics" in a relatively non-violent way. Sabotage instead of genocide. Anyway, I'm not anti-vulcan. Many of my best friends are vulcan. But considering it's a fictional universe, I guess it won't rub anyone the wrong way, when I suggest why Archer might have felt a bonding with the andorians. That these reasons don't exist just in his head, but have a ground in his reality.

*Completely off-topic, but if anyone here has felt this sort of strange anger-like feeling whenever some fundamental christian goes „God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of those nasty gays“, it might be interesting to know that the Jews had a completely different interpretation of that. And so did Old Testament. Ezekiel 16:49 "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." An interesting example of "different interpretations".

[HopefulRomantic]

Er, Jimmy Bob... remember when I said upthread that the ENT forum is not the place for potentially contentious political opinions or inappropriate racial references?

Jimmy Bob wrote:

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What's in a smell anyway (I refer to the vulcan priest worringly asking T'Pol how she deals with the human smell)? Whenever someone refers to other's... uh... otherness I guess, they always say they smell bad. „Russians smell funny!“ „Blacks smell funny!“ „Celts smell funny!“ „Muslims smell funny!“ „Jews smell funny!“

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You know, kinda like:

„Jesus says we should create worldwide social welfare, in where no kid has to suffer hunger, no woman abuse, no man hatred.“
„No! You lie Satan! Jesus says we should kill all homosexuals and evolutionists.“*

*Completely off-topic, but if anyone here has felt this sort of strange anger-like feeling whenever some fundamental christian goes...

< rest of rant snipped >

This is not quite what I had in mind.

Please add "religion" to the "inappropriate for this forum" list.

Though your observations can be interesting, certain of your examples, quoted here, unnecessarily drag in contentious real-world issues, and can be interpreted as derogatory or inflammatory. They are not to be discussed here. Ethnic, sexual, and racial slurs are not permitted anywhere on this board. Let's have no more of them.