Silent Enemy.. A few thoughts.

I know they were still early in the show, and it felt like they didn't really have a direction for what kind of Captain Archer would be. This is one of my favourite episodes and I'm watching it now in a window while working on stuff. Her seems a bit too soft for my liking in this episode. I mean wanting to make something for Reed's birthday, just comes across to me a bit silly that a ship's Captain would go out of their way for one crewmember.

Having said that I do like the episode, and it's one of my favourites along with Civilization, Dead Stop. Regneration, Cogenitor, and the whole of season 3.

I'm still wondering who the mysterious aliens were. Maybe some species exists only to pick fights and fly off again. I like that, I do like that there is mystery as to who the aliens were and that it was never resolved. Too many shows try to solve everything. This was great that they did that.

Anyway yeah a great episode

7/10

 

Yes, those aliens were really neat looking, far better than humanoids with bumps on their heads. Maybe they were related to the Mars Attacks Martians

 

And yet we never see them again ever. They bog off once their ship is damaged. The ship was really neat too.

But the aliens in Mars Attacks were Martians

 

In the Enterprise The Rise of the Federation book series there's a novel that features these aliens Returning again T'pol and Hoshi have to deal with them along with the rest of T'Pol's starship crew The books are written by Christopher Bennett.

 

Yes, I know that. I was making a joke.

 

I'm not good at written humour

 

What's the deal with these guys? Do they like picking fights?

 

To answer your question the novel explores the back ground of these aliens and why they act so agressive and why they attack other Starships. I'll have to go through my Enterprise books and read it again. It's been awhile since I read the book. You can find the books for sale at Amazon.com

 

i like the scene when reed thinks hoshi is hitting on him

 

Yeah awkward....... But funny scene.

 

I got some Enterprise novels about the Vulcans and Romulans.

 

While I still think the thing about Reed's birthday is a tad silly, I think Archer had the right idea which I think was addressed in later episodes. The NX-01 was the only ship in Earth’s fleet capable of deep space travel at the time. For all he knows, there's a good chance that they won't see home for a very long time. He needs his crew to be more than just professional co-workers, they need to depend on each other. To show Reed the crew values him more than him just their tactical officer would be a slight morale booster of sorts.

I mean it's silly Archer made Sato drop most of her duties just to find out what food Reed likes but you can get the gist of what the show wants us to see. Course, had to be Sato because Mayweather had to pilot the ship (because other than that, we got nothing about Mayweather) and using a generic red stripe officer would lessen the impact. Trip and T'pol? Haha, you can’t have pseudo-Spock and McCoy do that job, they're main characters!

...Poor Sato.

 

The Enterprise books that feature the aliens form Silent Enemy are Choices of the future and Tower of Babel by Christopher L.Bennett.

 

Star Trek Online spent a lot of time on these guys. They called them the Elachi

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Elachi

They are basically sentient fungi. Their ships are cool.

 

Haha diversity in evolution

Sentient fungi, well you have the Grizzellas who are sentient bears.

 

I remember really liking the sense of inscrutable dread the alien ship provoked...The fact we didn't get any real answers! But it did annoy me that they never went back and revisited the story lines...Or the tele at least!.I'll have to check the book out! The Reed stuff...Pretty excruciating list of English cliches...I liked Reed as a character eventually - but by goodness they didn't know how to write his character for a while...Even the lauded 'Shuttlepod One' - I thought they made him pathetic...Might be being due to me being a Brit though! Good ep though!

 

What bugged me is that people's takeaway from the Reed/Hoshi storyline was that we're "on a quest to find out Reed's favorite food". No...we're discovering that Reed is incredibly closed off and doesn't share personal details even with his closest friends and family. It's a pretty important detail about him.

 

Reed is the Spock of ENT.

Kor

 

I'm not English, but I agree that Reed seems like a caricature at this point. I've just started my re-watch of the series, so I don't remember if he gets more natural later on, but I sure hope so. "Shuttlepod One" was a nice episode, but Reed does come off as childish (and I found it hard to believe that they didn't try exploring the crash site more closely in EV suits or something).

 

1I agree Kaelef! .Even in season 2 I remember cringing at how his character was written in 'Minefield' for example I'd say the relationship with Trip made him a bit more 'Natural'...Also the war arc in season 3 helped! And I think Manny Coto made more of an effort with the character - not sure how ii feel about the big reveal in season 4 but at least it tried to explain some of his more reserved characteristics! Always amused us Brits seeing Keating in the part as he was only known in UK really from his role in a cult comedy called 'Desmonds! I have to say I thought Keating as an actor did quite a bit with not much in the early days!