First time watching Enterprise!

[teacake]

Merlanthe wrote:

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But for me perosnally its more that the first half of the episode where we’re following Phlox during his day to day stuff, seeing his budding friendship with crewman Cutler, hearing his observations about human compassion, is quite enjoyable. If I were to judge this episode on the first half alone I would say it was great. Then they ruin it with the whole Menk might be better off without the Valekinas and we found a cure but wont give it to them stuff.

That's the way I feel about ANIS. I love all the Phlox pottering about stuff, the grooming revelations. Just get rid of Archer and his Tit'Pol fixations and his diplomacy fail and you'd have a lovely episode.

[Merlanthe]

When i met Billingsly i ended up asking him what his opinion on this episode was since it was one of the few i had watched at that time. He gave the very diplomatic answer that it was the first time the series tried to tackle a controversial topic, the kind that might be unpopular and generate lotsa debate amongst viewers, and he was pleased to be involved in it but that he didnt agree with the direction taken in the episode.

Anyhow i have watched the episode so i dont have to think about it anymore and will instead look forward to this ANIS which accoridng to Teacake has more Phlox bumbling round yaay. Which season is ANIS in btw?

[dub]

I haven't read the rest of this thread (in case there are spoilers) and I'm just writing this here based on the title of the thread. I'm going through Enterprise for the first time and just watched "The Expanse" followed by "The Xindi." I liked the show okay up to that point. After watching those two episodes, I have to say -- wow! Exciting stuff! And a side note -- I hope they make an Enterprise extended CD set. The music is unlike other Trek (to me). Hope the rest of the series doesn't disappoint me...

[jespah]

dub, you are getting into the good stuff.

[teacake]

Merlanthe ANIS is the fifth episode of season 2

[Merlanthe]

ooh so not too far away then

[BruntFCA]

A lot of people hate ANIS but personally Its one of my favorite episodes from the first 2 seasons. As much as I love seasons 3 & 4 the first 2 felt very tired and had a "been there done that" feel to them but ANIS for better or worse is unlike any other Trek episode. Also it made Archer interesting even if it was in a "WTF is wrong with this guy?" kind of way.

[WillowsWelsh]

When the series aired I was at a point in my life where I had no time for TV. I've been wanting to watch the series ever since. About two weeks ago I decided to watch the pilot. Loved it. I went through the entire series in about two weeks. Many days I got up extra early to watch another episode before work. I'll enjoy reading along on this thread.

[Merlanthe]

Sleeping Dogs

I <3 this episode.

It has plenty of Reed and Hoshi who are my fave characters so far. Hoshi has a couple moments of nervousness but is otherwise back to being her confident self and Reed gets to blow stuff up. That he gets to do so despite the potential for them getting blown up as well, is required to do so in order to save the day, and is ordered to do so by two very assertive women in skin tight outfits. I get the impression that all this probably makes him very happy.

I particularly like how the expedition to the unidentified alien vessel consists of just Hoshi, Reed and T’pol, who all fulfil necessary functions and each contribute in their own way to the mission. No dead weight or red shirts in this landing party which is quite refreshing and its funny how as soon as Hoshi identifies the writing on the wall as Klingon everyone draws their weapons.

I also love how the Klingons in this episode seem familiar yet also quite alien, a hard thing to pull off after all the exposure to Klingon culture provided by previous Trek series. But this episode manages it magnificently mainly by having all the Klingons incapacitated and unconscious for the majority of the episode. We see more of the ship with its strange writing that only Hoshi can decipher, dimly lit smoke filled corridors, bodies slumped over consoles, bizarre food preferences, than we do of the Klingons themselves, and we see it all through the eyes of Hoshi, Reed and T’pol as they stumble about trying to make sense of the situation.

The only Klingon who does play a significant role is female and, I get the impression, more of an engineer or something than a warrior. When we do finally get a swaggering aggressive male onscreen he is obviously still weak and recovering from the effects of the poisonous ale and his attempts to engage the Enterprise in battle make him seem foolish rather than fearsome. Instead of fighting we get lotsa verbal sparring. All an interesting departure from the norm.

I love this episode and give it a full five stars.

Shadows of P’jem

I like this episode a lot. It has that thing where events that happened in a previous episode effect have lasting repercussions that effect what happens in later episodes also known as continuity. It also has the reappearance of Shran yaaay!

It does seem a bit suspect that they were able to fool the Vulcan captain so easily at the end. Surely hes gonna feel foolish when he discovers that T’Pol wasn’t as seriously injured as he was led to believe which could come back to bite them later on. Also that heart to heart discussion between Archer and T’Pol about how the Vulcans ‘took something away from my father that meant a lot to him. They’re not going to do the same thing to me’ would have had more serious impact if he hadn’t been wriggling his hands round her a$$ only to almost suffocate a moment later when his face got buried in her boobs. Seriously they could have coordinated that scene better its like they couldn’t decide whether to make it serious or slapstick and went for both?

Otherwise I liked this episode. I particularly liked how they didn’t stick around to try to solve the planets problem for them but moved on and left them to their war. Shran was awesome and it seems from that line ‘it should be you dying not her’ that he has a better opinion of T'pol than most Vulcans. Then again he might just be saying that cause, like the Vulcan captain, he thinks she’s dying. Up til then he seemed to have been purposely ignoring her presence.

Anyhow four stars.

[Merlanthe]

I liked the friendship and camaraderie that seemed to develop between Trip and Reed in the earlier episode Silent Enemy so its great to see another episode that seems to explore that in more detail. In Shuttlepod One they are stuck in a little tin can with limited oxygen, barely any propulsion, the belief that Enterprise has been destroyed and the likely prospect of dying. Its interesting to see the conflicts that arise from their very different personalities and outlooks on the situation that they find themselves trapped in. Trip refuses to consider defeat and does everything possible to figure a way out of the situation whilst Reed prepares himself for the worst and begins recording goodbye messages for all his relatives and all his failed romantic prospects. Its not long before their getting on one anothers nerves and using up their precious oxygen supply shouting at each other over what should be trivial matters.

I really like how their not quite friends yet. Trip and Reed are co-workers who are friendly and get on well together but don’t really know each other that well and probably spend little time together outside of work or the mess hall. With the shared prospect of dying together we get to see their fledgling friendship tested and come out stronger for it. By the end of the episode they have learnt that Enterpise is alive and well but is unlikely to reach them in time, have drunkenly discussed T’pol’s bottom and had a heart to heart in which Reed confessed that contrary to what Trip may think he really doesn’t want to die. Now Trip is drunkenly attempting to climb into the airlock and sacrifice himself so that Reed might have a better chance of surviving until Enterprise finds them whilst Reed rather angrily rejects this latest turn of events even going so far as to point a phase pistol at Trip and threaten to shoot him.

I can easily sympathise with Reed and how aboard Enterprise he was finally feeling like he was starting to fit in and maybe form some friendships with the other crewmembers. I had that problem for a long time of having no friends only acquaintances or co-workers. Luckily for Reed they both survive and at the end he is allowed to call Tucker by his nickname Trip showing that their fledgling friendship has survived their ordeal yaay! My only dislike here is how early it was revealed that Enterprise was perfectly okay. Its already taken for granted that there must have been some misunderstanding and Enterprise will turn up okay just in time to save Trip and Reed so we don’t need a scene to confirm this though I suppose the couple scenes aboard Enterprise do serve to explain what crippled the shuttlepod that Trip and Reed are trapped in.

I award this episode four and a half stars.

[Merlanthe]

Fusion

Enterprise encounters some Vulcans who have embraced emotion rather than rejected it. There is an entire ship of these Vulcans but the only ones we get to meet are Captain Tavin who likes food, Kov who is friendly and naïve and surprised to learn that the Enteprise has so many female crewmembers, and Tolaris who is creepy and has anger management issues.

At first it seemed Tolaris was only trying to befriend T’Pol who was acting quite cold and distant towards these emotion embracing Vulcans. But he was also being clingy and kinda manipulative and quite frankly Kov’s surprise and wonderment at so many females on the ship makes me wonder just how many do the emotion embracing Vulcans have on theirs and is that why Tolaris is so eager to befriend T’Pol and try to tempt her to their way of thinking.

Of course it wasn’t til the scene aboard the emotion embracing Vulcans ship after T’Pol had attempted dreaming and been very disturbed by it and didn’t want to speak about it that Tolaris really tripped alarms. The way he follows her about when she is obviously trying to put distance between them, badgers her to tell him about her dream and gets angry when she is reluctant. Then she agrees to a mind meld with him, finds it a horrible experience only he wont stop when she tells him to.

It’s a good job we had Kov with his innocence and friendliness to offset Tolaris otherwise I would have been shouting for Enterprise to blast the emotion embracing Vulcans ship into oblivion. I really like Kov and his friendship with Trip and how his relationship with his father played out. Its good that he took Trip’s advice and avoided the emotion of regret. I also liked Archer who showed himself capable of being friendly and diplomatic and also protective of his crew and I was cheering when he told Tolaris where to go even though he did get thrown across a room, his own room at that. Its unfortunate that Archer tends to get beaten up easy as I would have liked to see Tolaris get thrown into a wall. Repeatedly. Til blood gushed forth form his head.

I may have overused the phrase emotion embracing Vulcans but its not a phrase that gets used very much in Trek so I might as well make the most of it. I hereby award this episode five stars despite the creepiness.

[Merlanthe]

Storywise I think Rogue Planet is a good episode. I like how Reed has 28 merit badges whilst Archer only has 26. I have no idea what an eagle scout is or how many badges is normal but I’m guessing that Archer and Reed have more than the usual amount? I like the hunting party, how their welcoming of Archer and his party but also distant with their own secrets and inside jokes. I dont like how they hunt obviously sentient beings but otherwise its interesting to see a species that is neither 'yaay lets be friends' nor 'go away before I kill you' but somewhere inbetween.
I like that Archer gets teased over his vision of a woman in a nightdress. I love the idea of these telepathic beings who can look however they want but get confused/panic if there are too many people present and their natural form is giant slug beasts yaay! Seriously the look on Archers face when he sees her true form at the end is sooo funny.

What I really don’t like or understand is how a planet where its always night, that’s just drifting in space with no sun to warm it or shine upon it, is somehow covered in very dense forest?

Granted the episode does try to explain it by saying the planet has many thermal vents keeping the surface warm but still without sunlight the plants cannot photsynthesize which means they cant feed themselves, cant grow, cant produce oxygen, etcetera. So why is this rogue planet covered in plants, how does it have a breathable atmosphere? Just because it has thermal vents doesn’t mean a good portion of the surface shouldn’t be covered in ice from travelling through space, why isn’t there a trail of debris and tiny dust particles trailing along behind it because it wouldn’t just be sitting motionless in the middle of nowhere? If it had enough gumption to break free of its orbit and leave its home solar system behind it should be moving slowly through the cosmos not just sitting there twiddling its thumbs.

If anyone can explain the why of all this I would be most grateful otherwise I give this episode 3 stars.

Having watched Acquisition I’m now convinced that Neelix would have been a much better character if he had been a scheming but slightly dim Ferengi who had ended up stranded in the delta quadrant after taking a short cut through the badlands (maybe he was smuggling illegal stuff) rather than the overly cheerful, overly possessive, mildly racist, bumbling Talaxian that he ended up being.

Why does it take Trip so long to find some pants?

And why does he end up having to steal a uniform from someone passed out in medbay? Since he was able to check all 14 armoury things scattered all over the ship surely he would have had a moment to stop at his quarters and grab his uniform. Surely he could have grabbed the uniform he was wearing prior to going into quarantine unless it was destroyed for some reason. Archer, Trip and T’pol make a good team quite effectively turning the bumbling Ferengi against one another and regaining control of the ship in a situation where they are outnumbered and unarmed though I do wonder why Trip and T’pol didn’t just sneak aboard the Ferengi ship and steal back all the weapons since the Ferengi couldn’t have been carrying all of them on their person the entire time?

On the bright side this episode has Jeffrey Coombs who is insidiously excellent in any role. This episode gets 2 and a half stars.

[LtChange]

I don't care about a real 100% scientifically accurate explication about the rouge planet because: we know so little about exoplanets that you just cannot say this is impossible and I really think that there can be some situation when a geothermal energy and geological activity is so high that it can sustain a stable warm atmosphere ...

[Merlanthe]

There still wouldnt be any sunlight which is essential for plants to grow and flourish grumble grumble

[teacake]

Merlanthe wrote:

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Why does it take Trip so long to find some pants?

This is the best part!!!