First time watching Enterprise!

[Merlanthe]

Its not really the human/vulcan conflict that i dislike. It fits the context since the Vulcans are humanities first encounter and prologed contact with an alien species there is bound to be some mistrust and misunderstanding of motives. I do believe the Vulcans not sharing their tech is their version of prime directive plus we humans usually do place higher value on the things that we attain/create through our own efforts than when we have stuff handed to us on a platter (its surprising Archer doesnt seem to understand that)

Also there was a fair amount of verbal sparring occuring in TOS mainly between Spock and McCoy but Kirk and the others occasionally got in there too and Enterprise is set before TOS. So the mild conflict that does occur between Vulcans and humans is perfectly fine and gives the show a more interesting twist than if everyone got along.

The part that i dislike is that i think Archer takes things a step too far. Whilst he does have a reason to dislike the Vulcans (their witholding tech and info prevented his father from realising his dream) that doesnt give him any excuse to be so openly hostile and contemptuous in his behaviour towards the individual Vulcans that he encounters.

Threatening to knock people on their a$$ and his taunting of the male diplomat over raising his voice just comes off as petty. That scene where he threatens T'Pol because she 'withheld information' makes him look like a petulant child. She didnt inform him before because she didnt realise the information was relevant to their mission and imh interpretation of T'pol in that scene the slight but noticeable hesistation before revealing the information was because she was still unsure that the info was relevant to the situation at hand or was just gonna send them off on a possible wild goose chase and waste valuable time.

Despite being against the mission she never tries to sabotage it and does her best to help Archer fulfil it despite him treating her with barely concealed contempt and even open hostility at times. Imho the writers miscalculated here as the motivation given for Archer's dislike of Vulcans does not justify the amount of hostility and contempt he displays toward those Vulcans he interacts with.

[Spock/Uhura Fan]

merlanthe wrote:

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The part that i dislike is that i think Archer takes things a step too far.

That is one of my main problems with this character. Stay tuned for poor decision making and mood swings that look like he requires close monitoring and an extended treatment plan.

[Merlanthe]

BruntFCA wrote:

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Overall, "Broken Bow" is probably in my top two when it comes to Trek pilots. I also liked "Emissary" from DS9 quite a bit, I'm just not sure which I'd put at #1 and which at #2.

Emissary is my favourite pilot simply because imho it introduces each character, main cast and recurring, heroes and villains, in such a perfect way. You have a good idea of who everyone is the moment they step on screen. Some get more focus than others, cough Sisko cough, but each character manages to make a definite impression on the audiance even when their just being background dressing in someone elses scene.
Since it is only the pilot, their potential hasnt been fully realised just yet but your left with an idea of what they could be that makes you want to join them on the journey they are just beginning.

Aaand when i reread what i wrote there the words seem somehow insufficient. They fail to accurately capture my true meaning/feelings regarding Emissary and the characters that are introduced within its confines. Darn i love words i hate it when they fail me

Hanukkah Solo wrote:

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-I think you should rate the episodes as you go. I find that it allows others to compare and contrast someones feelings for the episodes and gives a clearer example of how you feel about each episode.

I can try to rate the episodes if you want but im not usually very good at that kinda thing. I tend to be inconsistent but here goes:

I hereby award Broken Bow 3 and a half stars (out of 5) it would have been higher if not for Archers silly behaviour and killing off the cool Suliban lady

[Merlanthe]

Flight or fight

This was an interesting episode. Despite their unfriendly encounter with the Suliban the crew of the enterprise is still enthusiastic about exploring and meeting new people. They’re also still incredibly naïve. Broadcasting the location of their homeworld to the first aliens they meet despite knowing nothing about them. Its interesting to note that T’Pol has the ability to face palm without the palm. That is to say she has a facial expression that conveys to exact same sentiment as the face palm gesture. I predict she will be using it a lot around Archer.

Hoshi gets some development but not the good kind. I can understand the nervousness at being in an unfamiliar environment and unsure of ones place. And I can definitely understand the claustrophobia that would be an interesting trait to have around given the rather cramped ship design. What I don’t understand is why Hoshi, who was presented in the pilot as a little nervous but also excited and, most importantly, confident in her own linguistic abilities, has suddenly degenerated into a child jumping at shadows. She practically oozes low self esteem and lack of confidence and its ridiculous that Archer had to cajole her into talking to the nice but grumpy alien man whilst the bad guys were practically drilling a hole into the ship! In Broken Bow she was practically salivating at the opportunity of speaking to an alien race in their native tongue. It’s such a drastic change of character for Hoshi that I’m annoyed at the writers.

I love how when they cant open the door Reed is all yaay explosives and then looks like someone kicked his puppy when Archer figures out the opening mechanism. I do think it would have been interesting if the good aliens had randomly shown up when the enterprise had first found the ship and gone aboard rather than wait for the distress signal. It would have been interesting to see how Archer and co talked their way outta that one when they had no time to prepare for their encounter.

My parents joined me in watching this episode (they also watched Broken Bow with me) and afterward both voiced their idea (that they arrived at separately) that Hoshi has a crush on Archer and is gonna hook up with him and maybe get married by the end of the series. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t happen since the episode E2 is on one of my fan collectives and they weren’t hooked up then.

Anyhow I award this episode 3 stars I like the ideas in it but the writers made Hoshi so different and annoying from what she was in the pilot.

Strange New World

And the crew is still quite naïve. Not that that’s a bad thing its quite refreshing to see a star trek crew being naïve because they genuinely are naïve and not just because the plot requires it. Whats even more interesting is that this episode is specifically about the crew being naïve and suffering the consequences and possibly learning form it.

I really like this episode especially how the away team manage to go completely loopy just from some unseen spore that has a psychotropic affect on humanoid life forms. Archer really should have followed T’Pols advice regarding doing planetary survey before heading down there.

Sure they were all excited at the prospect of exploring an uninhabited alien forest and she seemed to be pulling a Debbie downer by saying they should wait and do some research before jumping in a shuttle and heading out but what she said was basic common sense. It might just be me but Archer declaring shore leave and arranging an expedition to leave soon as possible despite T’Pols advice made it seem like he was doing the opposite of whatever she said just to spite her. That was the impression I got from the look he kept shooting her.

But it was really good that he trusted her when things started going whacko down on the planet with the psychotropic spores and badly animated imaginary rock aliens. It kinda made up for his childishly ignoring her advice earlier in the episode and the away teams gradually building paranoia was interesting to watch especially how Trip seemed the most severely affected of the away team. Travis and Cutler were also affected but were content to merely voice their psychotropic spore induces fears/suspicions from a comfortable seated position whilst Trip became quite aggressive and more than willing to act upon his beliefs regarding Vulcan/imaginary rock alien conspiracies. Archers solution was good thinking on his part though I wonder did T’Pol really forget how to speak english or was that a ploy on her part since she seemed to still understand Trip even when she seemed to have reverted to speaking only Vulcan. Also Hoshi was back to being confident in her own abilities yaay

I hereby grant this episode four and a half stars since I enjoyed all of it and there were only minor annoyances like Archer purposefully ignoring T’pols advice and wondering why they brought the chief engineer along on an away mission to an uninhabited totally organic planet?

[hamudm]

Self-jerk thread here, but back when ENT premiered, I didn't have the opportunity to watch it. Now, with Netflix, I'm catching up and although it had a shaky start, it gets better each season! Sad to see this show not get more than 4 seasons.

EDIT: Saw another ENT love thread... mods can delete this.

[jespah]

Well, love is good.

[teacake]

The more love the better.

ENT needs love and we the ENT fans need love and new people coming in and offering up the love is lovely.

[timmy84]

I've been rewatching a lot of Enterprise recently. Its one of my favorite Star Trek series. I read what they were supposedly planning for future plot lines recently. Made me sad.

[Merlanthe]

Unexpected

I have mixed feelings about this episode. There are some good elements mainly in how different the alien race is. Their still the rubber forehead variety common to all trek series but the design of their ship especially the interior and the long process of adjusting to their environment that involves a 3 hour decompression is interesting to see as usually they just pop over to the aliens ship no problem.

Trip constantly contacting Archer to moan is kinda funny though he acts so childish its also kinda annoying. Unfortunately the episode goes downhill from there. I can tell that its meant to be a funny episode and there are a couple bits here and there that are funny but the main plot of this episode is basically that Trip got taken advantage of by some female alien without even realising it and ended up pregnant. When that kinda thing happens in real life its not considered funny. Yes men cant get pregnant in real life but they can get taken advantage of and it doesn’t matter if the female alien didn’t think he could get pregnant she was still involving him in her peoples version of sex without informing him.

She was probably very embarrassed when she found out she had gotten him pregnant. I can just picture her fellow crewmates gossiping about it and I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out she was the female alien version of Kirk with a guy on every planet. As for Trips paranoia over T’Pol having possibly let slip about his pregnancy I think its misplaced. T’Pol really isn’t the gossiping kind and Archer is the one who seems to find humour in the situation. Imho it was probably one of the nurses in sick bay that usually hang about silently in the background except for rare occasions where Phlox needs someone to bring him a hypospray or other medical doohickey.

This episode gets one and half stars

Next up is Terra nova

The mystery of a disappeared colony is a good story idea. It really fits in with the idea that humans have been held back from exploring space for so long and only able to observe from a distance until now. Enterpise is out there able to go explore and experience stuff first hand now so naturally it gets sent to find out what happened to the Terra Nova colony that mysteriously went silent all those decades ago.

The mystery of the colony is set up quite well in the opening scene with Travis getting all excited over the prospect of solving it. The Enterprise then arrives to discover an abandoned empty shell of a colony and strange primitive mud people residing in the subterranean cave network and its fun to watch the crew piece together the clues to figure out that the mud people are the descendants of the missing colonists even if it is kinda obvious to the viewers. That scene where the old woman recognises herself in the photograph is quite emotional both in the sorrow for what was lost and cannot be regained and in the frustration at the elder mud peoples continued rejection of a truth so universally obvious.

The only downsides where that poor Reed gets stuck in a cave for most of the episode and it’s a bit odd how they completely forgot that they were ever human even if they were only children when the death rain first fell. I hereby award this episode four stars.

[R. Star]

Yeah, I don't like that the crew pretty much berated Trip for the moral equivalent of being raped. Even T'Pol wasn't above that.

Terra Nova seems just a rip off of a cheap scifi movie. Radiation makes people live underground and become mutants!

[teacake]

I love Terra Nova. I like their words, the mystery of it, the old woman recognizing the little blonde girl. I think it's great and also a bit of classic Trek.

[lurok]

Terra Nova was one of those episodes that really reminded of TOS. I half expected some dramatic twist ending and Archer's version of E Plebnista.

[jespah]

It was a lot like Miri, episodes like that.

[T'Parm]

In Unexpected I don't think anyone told the crew, Trip was being hyper sensitive and acting strange so the crew was responding to that. After all even Malcom didn't know until he showed the Klingons.

[teacake]

"Please Captain, not in front of the Klingons.."

We didn't quite get that line, LOL