I just saw Archer's gazelle speech...

[Bones]

What a legend. Surely the man's up there with Kirk in the captain stakes.

But yeah, Shockwave part 2 was on. And watching that bit at the end about mistakes and learning and that made me wonder if this may have been the writers/producers' analogy about how they'd not always got it right but were improving. Of course, this was the start of season 2 and it was perhaps as hit and miss as season 1, but where it hit, it hit better. Or maybe I'm reading my own interpretation into it retroactively.

Any thoughts?

[Lady Conqueror]

It was meant to be a bad speech hence T'Pol jumping in to save the day by making her own speech and thus finally cementing her place as being on the human's side.

[King Daniel]

I bet he resused it for his birth of the Federation speech at end of "These Are the Voyages"

That's why Riker turned off the holodeck before the end.

[Mach5]

USS Bones wrote:

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Any thoughts?

A speech worthy of a thousand facepalms...

[Shatnertage]

If it was meant to be a bad speech, they really went all-out. The way the camera pans around dramatically makes it feel like this is going to be an epic statement; if this is tongue-in-cheek, it was incredibly nuanced.

It's the build-up to what will surely be a stunning refutation of humanity's critics. Then we get...the baby gazelle talk.

In my book, certainly not the finest hour for the ENT team.

Although Bones is right, on a meta-level it makes sense, kind of like Archer's speech in IAMD 2 about how they're not responsible for "losing this war," it's the people in command off the front lines.

[mirandafave]

KingDaniel wrote:

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I bet he resused it for his birth of the Federation speech at end of "These Are the Voyages"

That's why Riker turned off the holodeck before the end.

The reaction to the speech then being:

'We the Denobulan congregation would like now to propose our withdrawal from the proposed Federation and choose to now sequester ourselves away from the rest of the galaxy because of this speech. Don't be surprised if you never see any of us in years to come!'

'We the Xindi also will do likewise.'

'We the Vulcan congregation have heard it all before. Meh - what are you going to do - they are humans, so we'll stick it out.'

[Dac]

I've been re watching a lot of enterprise lately, and have been enjoying it immensely. Far more so than I did originally but I too caught Shockwave Part 2, and as much as Im enjoying the show, that gazelle speech is hilariously odd. It isn't bad per se, it gets the message across that Archer intends, but its just so out of place in any situation I can't help but laugh.

[tomalak301]

Lady Conqueror wrote:

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It was meant to be a bad speech hence T'Pol jumping in to save the day by making her own speech and thus finally cementing her place as being on the human's side.

It was bad the moment Archer said that humans were not like Gazelles, thus throwing everything he said before out the window. T'Pol coming in was awesome though, but that speech, as bad as it was, could have been a little better as to not make it that obvious.

[Noname Given]

I think Archer (and the writing staff) couldn't have done worse if the had started with Archer saying:

"A Human, Vulcan, and Denobulan walked into a bar..."

and have T'Pol step in at THAT point.

[number6]

I don't think the Gazelle speech was so bad. I don't really get all the hate.

[I am Surak]

It gave T'Pol another reason to shine.

[Graywand2]

I like the gazelle speech actually.

[JiNX-01]

Mach5 wrote:

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A speech worthy of a thousand facepalms...

[commodore64]

Lady Conqueror wrote:

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It was meant to be a bad speech hence T'Pol jumping in to save the day by making her own speech and thus finally cementing her place as being on the human's side.

I believe the writer's wanted the metaphor to be a bit more meaningful, but definitely T'Pol is meant to jump in and save the day thus being on the human's side.

You know what, like most things in Enterprise and on this forum, it wasn't God awful nor was it brilliant. It was somewhere in between. Granted, I don't think it was as effective as it could've been, but ... I think people got the point.

[teacake]

It always makes me wonder--do Vulcans leap from the womb and start running across the desert? Probably not and that just makes it even more cringe worthy.