First-Timer's Impressions of Enterprise

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.

 

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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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".

 

Jimmy Bob, I must say I like your thread. It kinda reminds me of that Sadistro's "Misanthropes guide to Enterprise," only without the 'smug factor.'

Looking forward to your next post.

 

Breaking the Ice

Building a snowman on a comet? As much as I dig the Picard-era humanity... this child-like playfulness is growing on me. And I don't know which world I prefer – the dignity, respect, seriousness, intellectual ideals of TNG-era or this playfulness, feel-good ethics of Enterprise. And the ears were indeed a nice touch.

I enjoy these human-vulcan interactions. The tension, sense of superiority, inferiority complex. I also love how Archer does his tea. I know that to make tea in such a way should be pretty obvious, but personally I've never done it before like Archer, before I saw how Archer did it. Ideas that you get from Star Trek.

T'Pol doesn't want to marry with some vulcan, because she has three rugged human males to choose from. Dominic, Bakula and Connor are all wonderfully rugged male actors, which makes them also instantly likeable.

Civilization

Hey that's the guy from Prison Break. He looks so... surprisingly good.

Wow. Impressive costumes and sets. Hoshi looked really pretty. However, what was the point in dressing her up (not that I mind) when she was pretty much absent for the rest of the episode. However she did look pretty.




I just loved the costumes really and the various production trinkets you could see – like city maps. It just made this feel real.

And I thought that the universal translator malfunction scene was a nice touch – that suddenly mid-sentence it was a completely alien language. This should have happened in the Voyager episode, where the crew is stranded and their technology is taken away (Basics).

Regarding Doctor, Travis and Hoshi – so far they've not been very used. Sure they have scenes, but they're always almost irrelevant scenes. Travis is just „wow, this is cool!“ whenever a camera accidentally stumbles on him. Hoshi - she gets all dressed up but is disregarded after that. And Doctor – always some irrelevant scene, but he oozes coolness and memorable performance.

Malcolm however is inbetween „Trip, T'Pol and Archer“ and „Doctor,Travis and Hoshi“. Can't say I have a clear impression yet what kind of a character he is, but he's getting more and more noticeable. Rugged manly actor also helps. Doctor however is more distinct than he is.

It's good that they (the writers-creators-producers) established Trip, T'Pol and Archer in such a short amount of time. It's not uncommon in Star Trek to take a few seasons for a character to actually become a character. For example Riker. In first, I guess 2-3 seasons, I felt I couldn't say that Riker is funny or that Rike is brave because there was no Riker, it was just an actor with a funny line. But later on I saw Riker. Not that there was much difference. Just a subtle change in signal I guess. Same goes for some other TNG characters too.

But with Enterprise, while at first I might have seen Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap is one of my favorite shows), I see Archer now.

Both episodes were entertaining and satisfying, if not particulary memorable.

 

So far I like the four less important characters more than the main trio. And yes, Hoshi did look pretty, oh so very much.

 

Its like living in Nazi Germany being here sometimes, what mod school did these mods go to??
Its JimmyBob's thread, he should be allowed to speak about what the hell he likes, stop meddling where its not needed.

 

Fortunate Son

So this is a Travis episode...kinda. At least we have him being more nuanced than „wow, this is cool.“ Well, it seems that new nations are indeed born from the randomest things as we have this new freighter-people nation, who I assume are extinct by the time of Kirk. Some cultural collectives do get only a short amount time of being their own unique people. And Travis is a proud member of this freighter-people nation. A nation living it's last days because of the new heralds of the Starfleet era, like the ship Travis himself is on.

So I enjoyed the interaction between that freighter guy and Travis. What else do we learn of Travis? This episode puts the final brushes on the impression of Travis as simple-minded. Now the whole human crew of Enterprise is somewhat simple-minded and childlike, but Travis goes like one step further.

The revenge story of that freighter guy was really just a true patriot story. It's interesting to watch his struggles while keeping in mind how his struggle means little, because his world is already gone.

Were it just to end after Archer saved his ass this episode would be pretty meh, but I really enjoyed the ending dialogue between Archer and the old captain. It just had a nice vibe to it. And there were these insightful lines in there. Space-born people feeling a special connection with their fatherland – the space. And now because of progress, other humans are coming with their warp 5 drives and what not. Things change, but this sort of vanishing people thing always carries with itself a sense of melancholia.

 

One of the main premises of the show was to go back to the BIG THREE grouping of TOS. Kirk, Spock & McCoy get replaced by Archer, T'Pol & Trip. It is rather unfortunate for the others especially Hoshi & Travis (Phlox & Malcolm tend to get more chances to delineate their characters a little more).

 

I'm about as far in as you, and I have to comment that, while I'm enjoying it for the most part, I am starting to notice the A/B story structure that was in much of TNG and later.

While it sometimes worked, sometimes the B story really detracts and annoys, and I wished they'd just stick to one story. It feels like a gimmick, and lazy writing.

(when you get to "Silent Enemy" you'll see a great example of this).

 

Cold Front

There have been really quite a lot of former Trek actors directing episodes in this season so far. Heh, it's nice to recognize names.

I don't really know what to think. I'm just not sure. On one hand, this episode was pretty cool and interesting to watch. On the other hand.... Time War? It's a cool idea I guess... but people of the future waging war with people of the lesser future throughout time... I just don't know how I feel about it. True, I found myself interested when whatever his name said things like "Oh I come from the place called Illionois, just not the one you know" or "Define Earth". It's just very... comic-booky? Not a bad thing itself but...

Sulik's pretty cool actually.

The Doc's really something. For me, Doctor is one of the most important and defining characters in a Trek series. Especially after Robert Picardo. And I kinda treaded the doctor of the new series... but from the first moment this new Doctor has managed to fascinate me. Which is impressive considering the material he has got is what Picardo gets in one episode, and that Voy's season 1 had just some 3 episodes more than so far I've viewed Ent's episodes.

And I really enjoy his somewhat anthropological interest in other cultures.

Silent Enemy

This was pretty... well somewhat boring. The silent enemy just didn't really bring any real tension. However there were some nice touches.

1) They drank beer. Real beer. Take that TNG with your „humanity once was so primitive that they needed fermented drinks" and your synthehol that doesn't make anyone drunk. There are things that no amount of holodeck vixens can replace. And that something is the taste of real cold beer and a second one after that, and that wonderful light drunkeness that follows.

Mm... I think I'll have a beer now.

2) The crew's more casual. Captain on deck in his casual clothes, captain celebrating success with a cold beer, the right to sleep in... TNG-era sometimes went too insane with it's regulations.

Enterprise establishes quite quickly the impression of humans as japanese tourists. No one takes „your“ exploring seriously when you don't have some major destructive power to back it up. And I liked that this episode dealt with that issue. However... despite some nice touches, it all came down to: "I need to repolarize the maglemtic shield power to oxylectic power manager!"
"No! Are you insane!? If you do it you'll kill us all!"
"But if I just recharge the oxylectic power manager with dyslexic discharge isolation microscetic vibro-massager then it just might work."
"Oh.. okay."

And work it did.

It just... after so many viewed seasons of Trek one just automatically loses interest when this happens. Fortunately for Enterprise this is really the first time this has happened.

seigezunt wrote: "I'm about as far in as you, and I have to comment that, while I'm enjoying it for the most part, I am starting to notice the A/B story structure that was in much of TNG and later.
While it sometimes worked, sometimes the B story really detracts and annoys, and I wished they'd just stick to one story. It feels like a gimmick, and lazy writing.
(when you get to "Silent Enemy" you'll see a great example of this)."

Very true. The silent enemy itself wasn't interesting at all and more 100% focus on the crew and it's everyday life would have been better, as it was the everyday scenes that made it worth watching.

This was what troubled Voyager too. Voyager too had this kind of crew that just yelled for non-anomalious time for itself, and sometimes it got pretty close to this sort of day-in-the-life feel, but they never could let go of those unnecessary b stories. For example Night without any aliens - just crew having to deal with it's problems for 4 months. Would have been perfect.