Revisiting Enterprise

[tomalak301]

Civilization (***)

There is very little to say about this episode I think. We get our first "First Contact" show for a prequal series that should be asking these questions, and it really doesn't. It goes on as a routine action show and doesn't even get involved in the civilization they are trying to protect. For what is was though, it was enjoyable, and Rion and T'Pol in long hair was hot. Other than that, I'm not sure what else needs to be said.

 

[Lady Conqueror]

^Civilisation has one of my favourite Hoshi scenes - the one with her giggling in excitement as she listens in on all the languages coming from the planet below. Just a great way of showing why Hoshi wants to be there in spite of her being afraid of the actual space stuff.

 

[tomalak301]

^Civilisation has one of my favourite Hoshi scenes - the one with her giggling in excitement as she listens in on all the languages coming from the planet below. Just a great way of showing why Hoshi wants to be there in spite of her being afraid of the actual space stuff.

She does seem more comfortable now than in Fight or Flight. Also, explaining the UT to the Children back home was a nice character growth moment. When you're out for two months, the jitters seems to go away.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

^Civilisation has one of my favourite Hoshi scenes - the one with her giggling in excitement as she listens in on all the languages coming from the planet below.

One of my favorite scenes as well.

I loved the look of this episode -- the costumes, the apothecary set, the candlelight. The cinematography was so rich. And watching our strangers in a strange land, exploring while trying not to adversely impact the natives, was fun.

I liked the character of Riann -- intelligent, observant, and nice chemistry with Archer. She's one of those characters who, I imagine, would be able to adapt to a futuristic society, like the oceanographer in STIV so seamlessly adapted to the future.

 

[tomalak301]

Fortunate Son (****½)

I went into this episode not really expecting much. I came out of this episode really liking it, and realizing that this episode did what Civilization couldn't do. It took an issue that has lasting implications on the series as a whole, adds in the thriller adventure plot, and it made for one of the seasons best episodes. We have Mayweather, who got some much needed meat here giving us the boomer side of things, allowing him to speak is own language and be the main solution to the problem. I really liked Montgomery here, both in the climatic scene and the lunch scene. I also liked Ryan in this story. He was a character I came to understand, and it was quite engaging.

I think the thing that really brings this episode together is the final one, between Archer and the Fortunate Captain. We finally get an episode about the ships that came before Enterprise, and this scene came out and brought everything together. These ships have to adapt to the times, and while that may be a difficult task, it's doable.

 

[Servo]

Funnily enough, the Virgin1 channel over here in the UK has just started showing Enterprise from the beginning every weekday (although, for some reason, they skipped 'Broken Bow' and went straight into 'Strange New World'). They just showed 'The Andorian Incident' today, which is a great episode - mostly because of Combs as Shran. Let's face it, any episode with Combs in it is intant win. The guy is a legend.

I must say, I'm enjoying the show a lot more than I remember doing first time round. Not sure if I'll be able to bring myself to watch TATV again, though. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

 

[Noname Given]

Not sure if I'll be able to bring myself to watch TATV again, though. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Why would you WANT to watch a TNG episode? I mean if you're going to watch ENT all the way through, the last ENT episode OS Terra Prime.

Save TATV for TNG Season 7 where it belongs.

 

[Servo]

Save TATV for TNG Season 7 where it belongs.

Not a bad idea...

I could actually watch 'The Pegasus' up to the point when Riker is struggling with his decision to tell Picard about the phase cloak, pause it, then watch 'TATV', then resume watching 'The Pegasus', and see if it works as a feature length crossover epsiode.

 

[RookieBatman]

^Only if you're not distracted by Riker and Troi suddenly getting a lot older.

 

[Servo]

Suspension of disbelief is your friend.

 

[Noname Given]

^Only if you're not distracted by Riker and Troi suddenly getting a lot older.

^^^
It was all the stress.

 

[tomalak301]

The Xindi year came today in the mail. Kinda wish it was Season one instead but now I have Seasons 3 and 4. When I get back in a week, I'll probably have the rest.

 

[RookieBatman]

Suspension of disbelief is your friend.

True, true. If you can pull it off, your next assignment is to watch TUC, with VOY: Flashback spliced in.

 

[tomalak301]

Hey all,

Just got back from my Vacation to Family Camp. I got all the sets now and looking forward to continuing the revisiting of this series. I think I left off on Cold Front so hopefully I watch that and a few others this weekend.

 

[tomalak301]

Cold Front (***½)

Cold Front is an episode that I think suffers on repeated viewings because of what we come to know about the Temporal Cold War and what we see in Storm Front. I haven't seen Storm Front in a long time, so I'm not going to talk about it, but I do know that the TCW arc ended kind of hap-hazardly in that episode. It made this episode go from an interesting midseason cliffhanger, to kind of more of an adventure story that could have made for some interesting ideas that never came to pass.

I wonder if fan pressure had anything to do with some of the ideas presented here never really having a chance to grow. Something I never understood as a criticism was that the TCW lasted too long. Well, if memory serves, didn't it only last for a few episodes? Yeah, maybe it had no place in a prequel series, but it was here and I don't think it really had the opportunity to develop. I actually liked it, and would have liked it more if the writers had an idea and plotted out where they wanted to go.

Yeah, I'm sidetracking, but I feel the only way to talk about this episode is to talk about the overall opinion on the TCW itself. We're introduced to Daniels, who was one creepy bastard if I may say so, and we see Silik again. Visually, this episode was great, with the plume and Silik's escape route. Storywise, however, I wish some stuff was more developed, and we were given a more "neutral" look at this whole thing instead of being told who was the bad guy and who was the good guy. One thing I was thinking was if Silik saved the ship, what are his motivations, really? Here comes Daniels who says this stuff about factions who want to violate the temporal accords and shows some nice lights, and the only way to gain his trust is his statement about scrambled eggs.

I'm talking like I disliked this episode, but I actually quite liked it. I liked the position it put Archer, and I really liked the ominous musical score at the end showing Daniel's room. I just wish some of these ideas I brought up was given more detail, rather than making this whole arc feel rushed. Would have been nice I think.

 

[tomalak301]

Silent Enemy (*****)

I remember this episode as the "Reed Loves Pineapple" episode, but there was so much more to it. In fact, there was a fantastic story here that I'm giving it my first 5 star rating of the series. Here was a story about Enterprise meeting a very hostile race, something truly alien instead of something humanly alien and first contact doesn't go very well. We don't know motivations, but that really doesn't matter because all we're supposed to know is that here is an alien that is not very friendly. What it does to the characters as the episode goes along is some really good writing. From Enterprise returning the earth, to Archer questioning his decision to take Klang back to Kronos, we kind of see the psychological issues that Archer's dealing with.

We also get some really nice scenes between Trip and Reed, a first if I'm not mistaken. I know we really get to know them later in another great Season 1 episode, but here, we saw them do their jobs, and Enterprise get's some new armory. So this was the episode they got the phase canons ha? Cool.

As for the Reed loves Pineapple stuff, it was decent. Didn't stand in the way of the main story and offered a counterbalance to the more serious stuff that was happening.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

The TCW kind of ebbed and flowed, but one element I always liked was Silik, because John Fleck was so perfect in the role. When we actually got to see the actor's true face in "Storm Front," that was a great touch.

Perhaps one reason the TCW didn't seem to gel or have a satisfying overall arc was because it wasn't originally part of the premise of the show. I've read somewhere here (didn't do a search for a source, sorry -- it's laaaaaate) that UPN wanted more "futuristic-ness" in the show, and this is what B&B came up with. When an idea is shoehorned into a writer's vision, sometimes it's hard to really get behind it and make it shine.

That being said, I think there were some cool elements to the TCW. The running idea of "what-if" with all the different possible timelines. Time travel gives me a headache so I didn't sit down and try to make sense out of every little element, but I thought "Cold Front" had some good stuff. The whole sequence of Silik's escape and Archer struggling to get out of the airless launch bay was great.

I thought "Silent Enemy" was a great look at humans coming up against something truly alien, and being totally in the dark as to their motivations for being threatening, and the urgency and suspense of watching our crew battle a superior force with no guarantee that they'll come out of it in one piece. Gripping stuff.

 

[tomalak301]

I was watching one of the special features (I think the one about Time Travel) and Braga said something similar, that the whole TCW was a request from the studio and he had preferred it to have it's own show. He still said it wasn't bad, but it seems like he even had some issues with it. Something I've always liked about Braga. He always seems upfront and honest with everything.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I love the TCW and I'm not in the least bothered by its lack of resolve. It's a mystery.. one that perhaps will be explained in ST:XII (now wouldn't that be a popular plot line). Most of the action goes on behind the scenes between mysterious factions, that it's resolve would not be seen by our crew seems quite logical.

 

[corairs]

Where channel is Star Trek Enterpise airing on in the U.S.A. now ?