I cannot possibly disagree more. Having them be Romulans would be just lame and really unconvincing. For one thing, if T'Pol and the High Command hadn't known that there were Vulcans who had a different lifestyle and beliefs, they would have figured out easily that those guys were fishy. There's no way Romulans would have fooled anyone that way - and why would they even try?! If Romulans were pretending to be Vulcans, surely they would be pretending to be typical, emotion-suppressing Vulcans! And really, the introduction of a different faction of Vulcans with unorthodox interpretation of Surak's teachings and a non-mainstream lifestyle, was the best thing about this episode. It only makes sense that there would be some Vulcans who do not accept the majority views - especially since Vulcan is not supposed to be a totalitarian civilization, where such people would be persecuted or imprisoned. I am always very pleasantly surprised when Trek portrays one of its alien races as having some cultural diversity, rather than being a Planet of Hats. A couple of other observations: I liked the idea that the attitude of Vulcan society to mind-melds changed so drastically in the 100 years between ENT and TOS timeline. Real life cultures aren't static. However, I did not like the fact that they canonized the fanon belief that Vulcan males only feel the urge to have sex every 7 years - even though D.C.Fontana has tried to explain many times that this was a misinterpretation of the fans, and that TOS writers didn't mean it that way - that it was just the only time when they had to have sex; not that they couldn't or wouldn't any other time. Oh, and this was a really good episode for T'Pol. And, one might say that the episode is about the (possible) fusion of logic and emotion.
I think you really strike up some good points here. I found myself agreeing with a lot of what you had to say. My ultimate problem with this episode is the mind meld parts. It just seems to me that the switch over to Mind Melds becomin accepted in TOS when its strictly forbidden in ENT doesn't sit well with me. Like I had said, I always saw Mind Melds are something that Vulcans embraced because it was a part of them. Maybe it's just fanon, but I recall Spock telling Picard in "Unification" that his father never melded with him. I was interpreted that line as meaning that Vulcans often performed a mind meld with children once they reach a certain age. I thought this was such an interesting concept. Maybe I was just reading too much into it . . . In terms of reinterpretation of Surak's teachings, I'm fine with that, but the focus of the episode was lost on me. There some cliches about Trip's pal and then it devolved into mind rape. Had the attention of the episode remained on this aspect and truly challenging T'Pol's beliefs, I would have bought into it more. It's been a few weeks since I've watched the episode and I'm about a season ahead of myself. Was this in there? Did I just miss it? ------------- Series: Enterprise – Season Two Episode: “Cease Fire” Trek Installment # 40 Grade: B + Viewing Date: October 19, 2009 Like I said before, there are generally two mythology’s in Enterprise. You have the Temporal Cold War, which is featured heavily in “Broken Bow,” “Cold Front,” “Shockwave,” and “Future Tense.” Then there’s the secondary mythology, which is the eventual founding of the Federation. While the secondary mythology hasn’t really been touched on much, we start to see it here. “Cease Fire” presents us with a story that creates one of the building blocks for the Federation and firmly puts Archer (and by extension, Starfleet) into position as a mediator. The episode itself is well-executed, giving ample time to both the Vulcans and Andorians. Even though Soval is still a jackass, the character plays off well against Shran and T’Pol. Archer tends to run around a lot and continue to be preachy, but for once, it works. Shran is, well, Shran. He’s probably one of my favorite characters on Enterprise and in Trek in general. Ultimately, the importance of this episode in the greater sense of both the series and continuity is large. This is where we begin to see Earth’s destiny as the heart of the Federation and the beginning of the end of hostilities between Andoria and Vulcan.
Hmmm....It never occured to me to interpret that line that way, but you may be right. I just thought that he was emphasizing that he wasn't that close to his father as father and son should be... Anyway, there's no doubt that mind-melds were an accepted and apparently quite widespread practice in Vulcan society by Spock's time. I mean, Spock himself mind-melded with anyone and anything when there was a need to get information, from people he barely knew, to Horta, to whales, and even computers! So, in that light, it is quite ironic that he never mind-melded with someone as close to his own father. But I find the idea that ENT introduced in the episode - that mind-melds were almost a taboo just one century before, and only practiced by rebellious 'emotional' factions of Vulcans - very interesting, and I don't think it's improbable. Societies are dynamic, and judging by human history, it's not at all uncommon to suppress things which are part of people's nature. Sex for pleasure is a part of human nature, and so is female orgasm... yet both those things were a taboo in "polite society" 150 years ago. If mind-meld is a part of Vulcan nature, it doesn't mean that they always had to embrace it... After all, strong emotions are a part of their nature, too, but their culture is build on their suppression. You know, that's something that annoys me about Trek in general. Whenever a male assaults a female in any way, people immediately start calling it "rape", even if it is not sexual in nature. Yet when a male does the same to a male, or a female does it to a male, nobody calls it a rape, nor does the episode treat it as such. I've even seen dozens of comments calling what the alien (whose name escapes me at the moment) was supposed to have done to Seven in VOY "Retrospect" an analogy to rape - when in fact, it was the closest to organ harvesting: there was nothing sexual between the two characters, and the guy just wanted to take the technology she had in her body. I don't recall people saying that Neelix was "raped" when the Vidiians stole his lungs! Here, in "Fusion", there was sexual tension between T'Pol and Tolaris and she had a sexual fantasy about him, which might have helped Braga to make the forced mind-meld look like an analogy for rape. But Trek has been terribly inconsistent with its treatment of forced mind-melds. There was a debate on the Trek Lit forum about the Spock/Valeris meld in "The Undiscovered Country". Some posters were claiming that a mind-meld was a horrible violation, a criminal act, a mind-rape; and "Fusion" was mentioned as another example, where it is treated as such. But what about Tuvok in VOY "Random Thoughts" starting to force a meld on that alien telepathic guy - that wasn't all that different from what Tolaris did in "Fusion", but I haven't seen anyone call it a mind-rape? Could it be because the victim was male? And what about Sakonna unsuccessfully trying to force a mind-meld on Dukat in DS9 "The Maquis"? Even though in this case there was clearly no consent to begin with, I don't see anyone calling it an attempted mind-rape,and the episode definitely didn't treat it as such - quite the opposite, the characters all talk about as if it were a mild and nice interrogation technique, as opposed to Cardassian torture techniques. I know Sakonna is a terrorist, but, although she has been trying to use a forced meld to interrogate a prisoner, she remains holier-than-thou about how humane they are ("We don't have the Cardassian gift for inflicting pain, nor would we want to have it"). Inconsistent or what? A mind-meld is a mind-meld is a mind-meld. Either a forced mind-meld is a mind-rape no matter which the genders of the assailant and the victim, or it is not. It can't only be a mind-rape when the victim is female, but not when it's the other way round. It's when the plump Vulcan - the one with the ill dad (I'm bad with names!) is chatting with Trip in the mess hall about human and Vulcan customs. He says that males feel an urge to have sex every 7 years, but "there are efforts to accelerate that cycle".
The most interesting thing for me in the episode was how the treatment of the shapeshifters by the humanoid hunters justified/illustrated the Founders' claims about their treatment by the solids. Even though this was a different shapeshifting species, it is likely that this kind of humanoid attitude towards shapeshifters was not uncommon throughout the galaxy. Fortunately for Archer's crew and the Alpha Quadrant, members of the species from the Rogue Planet were less inclined to regard all solids as their enemies because of the few that were hunting them.
Back to the mind meld thing, I don't think it helped that "Stigma" ended up being such an allegory for rape. I suppose it might be a little sexest and maybe I should try and steer more towards the idea of simple "violation" over rape. But your observations about attitude say a lot about Trek. In the larger scheme of things, one could also make the arugement that Sarek's generation of Vulcan's still had trouble fully accepting mind melds as a part of their culture. When Spock's generation came around and that younger generation embraced this part of their hertiage, mind melds became more regular -- but Sarek, who was already weary of this practice and feared emotional transference (see ST11), decided for a long time to not practice this with his son. Perhaps the "sex every seven years" conversation could also be chocked up to differences in Vulcan culture. Maybe these Vulcans could seek to only focus on only having sex when they needed and instead made every effort to maintain balance with their emotions. ------- Series: Enterprise – Season Two Episode: “Future Tense” Trek Installment # 41 Grade: B + Viewing Date: October 19, 2009 This episode is a lot like “Cold Front,” in that it uses the confusion of the time travel to keep the viewer asking questions. The problem with that is, after a while, I want some answers. My appetite is whetted, so throw me a bone. A minor revelation, a small clue, an idea. Something. We know all about the Suliban, but what’s up with the Tholians? What’s their stake? Who are they working for? Anyone? Themselves? The episode itself is executed very well. Archer himself verbalizes our own problems with the Temporal Cold War. I liked the Zephram Cochrane reference a lot. Nice continuity, Enterprise. The results of the time ship being on board was fun – what with all the déjà vu. The Time Ship itself was a nice mystery – bringing qualities of Doctor Who into the Trek universe. It served as a good crux for the episode and did a good job of giving us something to wonder about. My issue is that we can only wonder about it for so long before we start to get antsy.
Series: Enterprise – Season Two Episode: “Canamar” Trek Installment # 42 Grade: B - Viewing Date: October 19, 2009 “Canamar” was a surprisingly good episode. It’s a fairly typical jailbreak concept, but the characters are actually more interesting than the average fair. I liked how Canamar was never really seen, just talked about often enough to give us a basic idea that this place is pretty bad. I do have to call up one of my old criticisms in that we get foreheads of the week as opposed to aliens we’ve only seen here or there (see “Maraduers”). I enjoyed the character of Kuroda as he was an actual bad guy not just the standard “misunderstood nice guy with good intentions.” There was no speech to him about his potential to be good, no excusing his actions, and no mercy from him. I would have liked to have seen him – or more like him – later on in the series.
You must have serious patience.. I bought the entire Star Trek collection last month and was tempted to do something like this, but in the end the urge to re-watch all of DS9 won out.But yeah, how are you watching these?did you buy all the dvd's seperately or are you watching off Netflix?I got the dvd's all together in one bundle, I'd be pretty sickened to learn there's a cheaper way to see them all..
I'm buying them one-by-one. I've up to TNG season one. In terms of partience, it's tough. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting to get to TOS, which hopefully I'll be able to do so this weekend. -------- Series: Enterprise – Season Two Episode: “The Crossing” Trek Installment # 43 Grade: C + Viewing Date: October 19, 2009 This was a pretty decent episode, though it showed off the vast differences between Archer and some of his predecessors. Archer is so totally against “the crossing” that it makes him into a sort of anti-Kirk, as he was willing to swap out with Sargon for a while. Actually this race reminded me a lot of Sargon’s people and I would have liked to have seen a real connection made between them. They also kinda reminded me of the Calamarian. There weren’t a whole lot of flaws to it, but it didn’t really grab me as much as so many others. This is the beginning of a long line of non-corporal entities.
Whew! I'm way behind! I just finished "Enterprise" today and I'm still posting season two! Here's a two fer to help me catch up a bit . . . Series: Enterprise – Season Two Episode: “Judgment” Trek Installment # 44 Grade: B Viewing Date: October 19, 2009 Out of all the Enterprise Klingon episodes, “Judgment” is by far the best. It deals with the many consequences of Archer’s other involvements with the Klingon, but what really works for it is that it shows us the Klingon Empire in the beginning of its age of corruption and war. Hertzler’s Kolos is a great character, an aging relic of a greater age. I’m reminded a lot of Ezri Dax’s point of view of the Klingons here, in that by the 24th centrury, the level of corruption and warmongering is excessive. This is where he begins, I feel. The story is pretty good as well and surprisingly character-centric, as most Enterprise Klingon episodes mainly just deal with the “cool” aspect of having the Klingons around. *** Series: Enterprise – Season Two Episode: “Horizon” Trek Installment # 45 Grade: C- Viewing Date: October 21, 2009 A Mayweather episode that’s as boring as Mayweather himself. While his character does do some developing, we spend far too much time rehashing parts of “Fortunate Son” rather than focusing on Travis’ grief over his father’s passing. We slip right back into sci-fi mode with some random aliens shooting at the Horizon because, well, we needed some action. On other hand, the B-story about getting T’Pol to movie night was appropriately grin-worthy. Movie night is the down-time for the characters. TOS had the rec room and chess, TNG had ten forward and poker, DS9 had Quark’s and Vic’s, and Voyager had the mess hall and the holodeck. ENT? It has movie night. While I grant that watching characters watching movies can be pretty boring, I still would have liked to of seen more of that. Imagine T’Pol’s reaction to “Star Wars!”
Series: Enterprise - Season Two Episode: “The Breach” Trek Installment # 46 Grade: D + Viewing Date: October 21, 2009 Not a good one. The Denobulans in the cave was extremely dull, the planet was uninteresting and the side-plot of Phlox dealing with prejudice was the only juice here. Actually, as a Phlox episode, it wasn’t too bad and it exposed more of Phlox than what we’ve seen in the past. Unfortunately, the rather pointless running around the caves just bogged the Phlox plot down and made the episode difficult to hold my ADD-stricken attention – HEY, MY WIFE BOUGHT MORE CANDY CORN! What was I talking about?
Series: Enterprise - Season Two Episode: “Cogenitor” Trek Installment # 47 Grade: D Viewing Date: October 21, 2009 Yay! A first contact goes great! A friendly species of explorers boldly embraces our heroes! They get have fun in the sun! They want to watch our movies! They . . . shit, Tucker, what the hell did you do? I swear, this episode would have been just fine with Enterprise dealing with this species. Instead, we have Trip acting like a jackass. Every time he talks to the engineer, he reminds me of Michael Scott from “The Office” and much like Michael, I just want to fast-forward through it. I did like Archer’s verbal bitch slap at the end of the episode because, now that I think about, Trip does get into a lot of trouble. Had a one-night stand with a princess, got pregnant, and was seduced by a hologram. Boy’s gotta calm down. Archer’s adventure in the sun is more much entertaining, as it’s a nice break from the usual barrage of phaser fire and preachy-ness. Although, Archer really does contradict himself when he tells Trip that “we’re out here to meet new species, not tell them what to do” - as he’s done that before. A lot. That being said, the Vissian’s technology looks very much like 24th LCARS tech, which could indicate that their world eventually joined the Federation and it was integrated with Starfleet standard.
Series: Enterprise - Season Two Episode: “First Flight” Trek Installment # 48 Grade: A Viewing Date: October 24, 2009 So . . . where’s “Regeneration?” Hasn’t happened yet. I’ll explain it when I get to it. Later. Trust me. Shhhh. This was by far the best of the season. Not only does it take the time to explore the events leading up to “Broken Bow,” but also gives Archer some character development. It captures the essence of Star Trek - the perseverance and desire to explore, the determination to improve ourselves and go further. I would have loved to seen more episodes like this – to me, Enterprise needed to reach back to the past and serve as a bridge to TOS. My favorite scene, though, was when Archer looks up as the dark nebula becomes apparent. Bakula pulls this off so well – is it just me or can we actually see tears in his eyes?
Series: Enterprise - Season Two Episode: “Bounty” Trek Installment # 49 Grade: C Viewing Date: October 24, 2009 Archer gets nabbed by a not-so-bright wimpy Tellarite bounty hunter, which makes for the best part of this episode. It’s interesting to me that the Enterprise writing staff can come up with some surprisingly decent characters . . . but can’t seem to fit them into a genuinely good episode. Despite Skalarr’s ineptitude, I still liked him a lot. He was unique and offered some new to the table Of course, the majority of the episode is bogged down with the horny adventures of T’Pol that . . . to be honest . . . was not very good at all.
Series: Enterprise - Season Two Episode: “The Expanse” Trek Installment # 50 Grade: B Viewing Date: October 24, 2009 The following things happened in this episode: Earth was attacked; seven million people died including Trip’s sister; Trip had angst; the Klingons went after Archer big time, with Duras battling Enterprise no less than three times; the Suliban showed up; Future Guy made his final appearance with his identity still an underdeveloped secret; Soval made everyone watch his crazy Vulcan home videos; T’Pol quit and joined Starfleet (and yet did not get a uniform); we saw NX-02 under construction; and we get photonic torpedoes. This episode marks the beginning of the Xindi arc, which dominates the up-coming third season (which I don’t have . . . yet). Everything gets kinda crammed into this one episode, leaving me feel like the plot was just shoved into my brain. I mean everyone is in the episode – Forest, Soval, Silik, Future Guy, Duras. Everyone but Porthos and Daniels! It makes for a crowded episode and it’s a little difficult to take it all in. That being said, even though the plot is a little thick, it’s still gets pulled off well. We mainly follow the emotional paths of Archer, T’Pol, and Trip as they both deal with the attack and the up-coming mission. In that, the episode shows its greatest strengths. The scenes immediately after the attack are the best, as they capture the stirred emotions rather well. There’s a presence of loss and shock that can be easily felt from the actors. I’ve often questioned the creation and use of the Xindi, though I think those comments would be left for the end of the third season. I do have to say that the use of the Xindi instead of someone like, say, the Klingons or the Suliban themselves is rather effective in generating a threat that is both mysterious and something to be feared. If it was the Klingons, then we’d know that they wouldn’t have the firepower for another attack like that and that Enterprise and those other ships that fought off Duras would go pounce on Qu’nos in a heartbeat. Same with the Suliban. Giving us a new enemy opens up the many possibilities that at this point, there’s no telling what could happen.
Season Two Overview Overall Season Rating: C Best Episode: First Flight Best Episode Runner-Up: Minefield Worst Episode: Marauders and Precious Cargo (tie) Season two took Enterprise from where we ended last season . . . and took us absolutely nowhere. The season continued to rely on the clichés of its predecessor. It reached creative highs with “First Flight” (despite some very clichéd story elements) and dumped a big load of stupid on us with “Marauders” and “Precious Cargo.” With the exception of a few of the more “mythology episodes,” there was nothing new here. It’s a great pity that this season meandered like it did. It lost all sense of direction at times, drifting from one hostile alien to another. Focusing on the positives, though, Enterprise achieved some strong universe building with episodes like “Minefield,” which dealt with the Romulans – and “Cease Fire,” which would be a big Federation-founding episode. On the same token, “Future Tense” made up for the lack of Temporal Cold War fun that “Shockwave, Part Two” failed to deliver. Furthermore, “Judgment” introduced us to the concept that Klingon Empire has grown corrupt, something we’d see more and more in the 24th century. “Carbon Creek” and “First Flight” are both strong episodes that deal with the history of humanity, though at different points and with different stories. I hoard these episodes because these are the best of this season. They’re not all perfect, but they are head and shoulders above the rest. We then have episodes that focus on the characters, all to various degrees of quality and none of them digging too deeply – with “First Flight” and “The Seventh” being two exceptions. Trip seems to steal the spotlight a lot, with him having all sorts of wacky space adventures . . . before his sister gets killed by an alien super-weapon. There are episodes here that seemed like they could have been good ideas at one point in time. “The Communicator” is one, “The Crossing” and “The Catwalk” are others. The rest just kinda fall in between the cracks, some better than others, but none of them very memorable. And there’s the final episode of the season, “The Expanse,” which propels us out of the stagnating waters of season two and thrusts into a ramped up, supped up season three. In the macro sense, season two is a rehash of season one; a season that fails to live up to its potential. I say once more that I would have loved to seen more recognizable aliens rather than the forehead of the week. This was not a good season for Enterprise and certainly not for Star Trek in general. I yelled at the screen too many times. Character wise, Archer did some growing, finally putting his xenophobia and general anger towards Vulcans behind him. T’Pol also loosened up, allowing herself to become more open at times. The Pa’Nar syndrome certainly explains that with the weakening of her control. Everyone else . . . pretty much stayed the same. *** Trek Species: Klingons: These guys continued to be bullies in “Marauders,” offering us nothing new about their species except for their want to be bullies and apparently never seeing “Seven Samurai.” “Judgment” gives a more internal view of the Klingons and calls upon the more familiar parts of this species. We learn that corruption has pried upon the Empire and that there is nothing – nothing – anyone can do about it. I have a little more to say about that a little later. Of course, this kinda falls apart after the Klingons put a bounty on Archer’s head. Duras chases him to the Expanse and then dies. Gotta wonder what that did for humanity’s reputation within the Empire, as I think that the House of Duras was a pretty respectable house back in those days. Romulans: The first appearance of the Romulans is kept a pretty big mystery and turns out to be a prelude to what is to come. But they’re out there, we know they’re there, and we know they’re going to be trouble.
Series: Enterprise - Season Three Episode: “The Xindi” Trek Installment # 51 Grade: B- Viewing Date: November 5, 2009 After a bit of a hiatus, I’m back to Enterprise and I find it to be a different place from where I left it. There is a marked difference in the show and it’s direction. Gone are the days of drifting between worlds and comets/. The days of preachy “humans are better” drift behind us (at least I hope so). This is a new beginning, a new chapter. And it feels like a first chapter. Plot-wise, there’s not much to it. There are some golden moments here and there, but overall, the episode doesn’t offer much. There’s plenty of action and we establish the structure of the Xindi – we find out that their homeworld was destroyed and that there are several different kinds of them. There are little things in this episode that set us up for what’s to come. The presence of the MACOs and the Command Center offer something new to the series. And hey, the MACOs actually have aim! I liked Hoshi’s conversation with the MACO’s in the mess hall, as it showed her off a little bit as being very welcoming to the newcomers. I also found myself like the character of Major Hayes and look forward to his bumping with Reed. The random anomaly did a good job of establishing the strange newness of this area of space. I enjoyed the opening scene with the Xindi Council, as it showed off the diversity and uniqueness of our new enemies. Trip’s nightmare was very effective – though I’m not certain how I feel about the whole neuro-pressure. It’s obviously just an excuse for some “sex” factor, but at the same time, I can kinda see it. I guess. Trip’s new sense of anger and hostility is a little jarring, as is Archers (especially at his yelling of Reed in the fancy new command center). I’m not completely won over by the new direction, but I’m certainly looking forward to a new change of pace. The mining facility and the foremen were nicely alien. I liked it a lot.
Series: Enterprise - Season Three Episode: “Anomaly” Trek Installment # 52 Grade: C+ Viewing Date: November 5, 2009 Captain Archer: badass. I’m of two different opinions of this episode. On the one hand, I liked the progression that the overall Xindi arc gets. It’s kinda like the Temporal Cold War . . . except that we’ll eventually get answers to our questions. What’s up with that Sphere? Don’t know, but it’s connected to the anomalies. That being said, the invasion by the Osaarians just seemed so big and surprising. The crew has been attacked like this before – why don’t they have plans to secure the most valuable areas in the place? It just seems a little sloppy. Further, the death of Crewman Fuller – I wish – should have given an extra minute or two. The biggest event in this episode is Archer’s torturing of the Osaarian, which I’m still debating about in my head whether or not it was a good. Yes, it was a positive thing for the crew, as it gave them the ability to learn more about the Xindi. But at the same time, it sparks a debate about torture – something Star Trek should do more often. Nonetheless, this is a line for Archer to cross and for him to have gone that far speaks a lot of this man who considered himself pretty damn civilized.
Series: Enterprise - Season Three Episode: “Extinction” Trek Installment # 53 Grade: F Viewing Date: November 5, 2009 I think there were some interesting ideas here, but in ultimate execution . . . well, the ideas suck. Like magic, Archer, Reed, and Hoshi suddenly act like crazy alien lizard people with nothing more than some nice make-up. There’s no internal struggle, no real transition, and nothing relevant tying into the larger Xindi arc. The story gets wrapped too easily, the struggle with the foreheads-of-the-week too flat, and any sort of conflict gets taken care of lickity-split. Y’know, we know these characters going to be fine at the end of the episode, why not try and make the transformation and the search for the city more dramatic and different? Instead . . . it’s stupid. And boring. And I cringed with almost line of dialogue from Archer, Hoshi, and Reed. What would have worked better is if the extinct species turned out to be the Xindi-Avians!