Revisiting Enterprise

[tomalak301]

Vox Sola (****)

I remember Vox Sola as one of my favorite episodes of the series. Upon rewatching it tonight, I think that was too high a praise, but I still really liked it for the most part. The only thing I didn't like was the Kratassian plotline about eating and mating, and Mayweather's "apology" came off as laughable. The more I watch this show and see Travis as almost a non-entity, the more I wonder if I should be thankful because Montgomery can't act. Yeah, he was decent in Fortunate Son, but here, I was wondering how he kept a straight face during that whole thing.

That's the only part of the episode I didn't like, which means this episode had so many other great parts. I think this might be Enterprise's "Devil in the Dark" in that you encounter a new lifeform and you come to a better understanding with said lifeform. We learn that yes the organism did take 5 members of the crew, but it wasn't meant to be hostile, but more to survive. Also, nobody died, which I think helped the episode a lot.

I also really liked how this gave everybody a chance to shine. This point was probably the biggest point the last time, but you had Reed working on the force field, Phlox studying it, and T'Pol and Hoshi trying to communicate with it. On the T'Pol and Hoshi part, that was some great stuff. I think the two found a new respect for one another, or at least T'pol has with Hoshi. It gave those two characters a chance to grow and that's great. As for Reed and Phlox, it was a clash of personalities form Silent Enemy/Shuttlepod One (Reed) and Dear Doctor (Phlox). It was interesting and worked. Also, this was probably one of Enterprise's best musical scores. The violin was hauntingly beautiful.

Great episode, and while it wasn't one of Season 1's best, it was close to it.

 

[Willieck]

Not my favourite. I would have preferred to watch The Wages of Fear. (I wonder if they did ever get to see it )

 

[tomalak301]

I'm finally at the end of Season 1. Did a three episode run last night, so hopefully I remember everything

Fallen Hero (****½)

I really really liked this episode. It continued the theme of Vulcan/Human trust and I think it went deeper here with V'Lar and her secret mission. Fionnula Flanagan has been in a number of Trek episodes (TNG's Inharitance, and DS9's Dax come to mind) and I think this might be her best performance. She came across as believeable as a Vulcan here and shared great chemistry between Trip and Archer.

I think what I really liked most about this episode (And confused by) was the chase scene. Enterprise was supposed to meet a Vulcan ship and have to push the engines to the limit to evade the Mazarites and what we have was a very very exciting and tension filled scene. The end scene that buys them more time was one of the more well executed scenes of the season so far.

Desert Crossing (***)

This episode felt like watching two different episodes. One was an allegory on the whole Isrealites/Palestinians tensions that featured Clancy Brown as the head leader of the ring. The other was the routine survival in the desert that made the episode feel dragged.

Getting to the first story first, there were some good ideas here. Zobral (Clancy Brown) invites Archer and Trip down for some hospitality and asks for help on preconcieved misconceptions that Archer is this high and mighty warrior who has done so much in the year he has been out there. I wish this would have been delved into this part, because there were some good things and then at the end Archer has to clarify what he really did. It could have been a much meatier episode.

The other part of the episode was the whole Trip/Archer in the desert. While it made for some interesting scenery, I felt it made the episode drag. We've seen this in Trek (Two characters stuck in the elements trying to survive) and this is no different.

Two Days and Two Nights (****)

One of the things that went through the last two episodes (And even Vox Sola) was the need for Vacation for the crew and T'Pol recommends Risa. It took 3 episodes, but they've finally made it to Risa for some much needed time off. I'm not sure how much flak I might get for this, but this was Let He Who is Without Sin done so much better. We had three different stories here, all of which were engaging and fun.

The first one was Archer getting his own Villa overlooking the ocean and meeting and pretty woman through their Dogs. Before I get further, I have to mention that scene where Kayla's Dog and Porthos are about to face off in some dog on dog action. The look on Porthos really said it all in that scene. I still maintain Porthos might be the best character on the show. Anyway, going back to the human storyline, it's nice, until, once again we find out Kayla isn't all who she says she is. She turns out to be a Tendaran, who does a bad job undercover by the way when she starts asking the same questions Grat does. I still wish more would be done with this storyline and Stockwell would come back. It wasn't meant to be however.

The second storyline involved Trip and Reed getting robbed by being tricked by two beautiful woman in what I found funny and just overall fun. Not much else to say about that.

The third involved an accident with Mayweather (Of course) rock climbing and having to wake up Phlox from his hybernation. I loved this scene. Phlox was hilarious in his waking up scenes playing that kind of delirious drunken and Bellingsley pulled it off so well. Might be the first time I've laughed at a scene in Enterprise. (Even though T'Pol's bum scenes come to mind)

The only one who had a nice vacation was Hoshi but her story really isn't one worth mentioning. I will say though she's getting better and languages and if there is one surprise this season it was Hoshi's development. She's not one of the major characters, but it was interesting to see her grow this season.

 

[Noname Given]

Fallen Hero (****½)

I really really liked this episode. It continued the theme of Vulcan/Human trust and I think it went deeper here with V'Lar and her secret mission. Fionnula Flanagan has been in a number of Trek episodes (TNG's Inharitance, and DS9's Dax come to mind) and I think this might be her best performance. She came across as believeable as a Vulcan here and shared great chemistry between Trip and Archer.

I think what I really liked most about this episode (And confused by) was the chase scene. Enterprise was supposed to meet a Vulcan ship and have to push the engines to the limit to evade the Mazarites and what we have was a very very exciting and tension filled scene. The end scene that buys them more time was one of the more well executed scenes of the season so far.

Yes, I still like this eppisode a lt. (my favorite of the first season). And while it was cliche to a point, I really liked the scene between Trip and Archer when Archer is telling Trip to go to Warp 5 (it's cliche in that scenes like it had been done in many situations before in Trek and other entertainment, but I just like the aspect that while Trip is confident in the technology and it works, it highlights the 'yes this is the first time we're really seeing JUST what we can do with it.)

I loved the exchange:

Archer: "It's called a 'Warp 5 Engine'."

Trip: "On paper!"

 

[tomalak301]

^That was a great exchange, but I realized I forgot to mention where the confusion came in. It was pretty much weren't they going Warp 5, or at least bragging about it, in other episodes? Maybe I just misunderstood, but I thought they were sustaining Warp 5 quite a bit

 

[Lady Conqueror]

^I think they were generally cruising around at Warp 4 - 4.5 before Fallen Hero.

 

[tomalak301]

Shockwave I (*****)

Enterprise had one hell of a season finale to finish off season 1. From the explosion of the colony (Which looked great, even though the explosion on the Gammack Base in Farscape's Season 1 Finale was better ) to the stealing of the discs and then the ending, it felt like the pace of this episode was top notch. I was starting to get emotional during the somber scenes where there was a wide array of guilt amongst the crew over the death of the colonists and then when Daniels showed up things got turned up a notch and it made for one hell of a finale. As for the end, what a shocking ending that was, and the pull back (Something Enterprise does really well by the way) was awesome.

As for the return of Daniels, it was nice seeing him again. I can't say though we got more from the Temporal Cold War which was a bummer, but this episode was more about Enterprise, the mission, and the guilt surrounding the crew rather than the TCW. I will say though I think this was the episode where the writers kind of threw up their hands and said Screw this story because it seemed like they stopped developing it other than what we already know from Cold Front.

Shockwave II (**)

I think the best adjective to describe this episode was underwhelming. I said it seemed like the writers threw up their hands regarding the TCW, and this was the episode were it was pretty much official. We really didn't learn all that much more about it, and the scenes with Archer and Daniels kind of got repetitive, with Archer asking questions and Daniels speaking in riddles. Archer was thrown into the 31st century, and other than finding out about the Federation or the Romulans, nothing really happened there. This was the episode to really get into the TCW, and that didn't happen.

As for what happened on the ship, it was the routine ship takeover episode with a very unnecessary losing of the top for Hoshi. Just when I think she was looking attractive crawling through the tight space, the writers go and blow it by punching me in the face with it. Things were natural the way they were and that scene ruined it for me. Also, how many times did T'Pol say "The Vulcan science consolate believes Time Travel is impossible," despite everything that's been happening.

As for the Gazelle speech, what the ____ was that? Midway through the speech Archer's all like "Humans aren't like that." When he said that, I'm going "Than why bring it up you idiot." His argument was a joke, but T'Pol's save (And that's what it was) was pretty good. In fact, there were only two things that I liked about this episode. The first was that scene with T'Pol, and the second was Archer coming through the Future Guy (This would have been the episode to reveal who Future Guy was) portal telling Silik he was an ugly bastard.

Season 1 Thoughts

So that's Season 1. I was surprised how much I liked it, probably more than before. Yeah it was a bit uneven, but most episodes had likeable qualities, and the characters got introduced and developed soon. I can already tell Mayweather is not going to get much development, but I was surprised how much Hoshi got. I think one of the problems people had with this series was simply it didn't feel like a prequel. I'm not sure if it's fair to judge it based on the rest of the franchise, but if we were, than I've got to say they have a point. Judging it on it's own though, you had the conflict with the Vulcans, the start of the Vulcan/Andorian conflict, and Archer planting the seeds of directives that the Federation is going to adapt. I enjoyed it for what it was, on it's individual level.

As for top 5 episodes this season, and trying to go in order:

Silent Enemy
Shuttlepod One
Shockwave
Fallen Hero
The Andorian Incident/Broken Bow

 

[tomalak301]

Carbon Creek (***)

This episode reminded me of Voyager's 11:59, an episode I also loved. It deals with a Vulcan ancestor of T'Pol and two other Vulcan scientists who crash land in a little town in PA. I thought it was a "nice" episode, but probably could have been more affecting than it was. One of the things I liked about 11:59 was that while it dealt with a Janeway Ancestor, it was emotionally moving, and it's memorable in the time in which it aired. Carbon Creek doesn't have the luxury of being aired before the start of a new Millennium, and has to go on story and acting. For that alone, it was just "nice" as I said, with some good dialog and humor, such as the Moe line. I was also pleased that it ended ambigiously to the point of letting us ponder if that actually happened or not. As for the Velcro scene, talk about random. Who would have thought Velcro and Star Trek would combine together.

 

[Willieck]

Carbon Creek is definitely one of my favourite ENT episodes. Even within the confines of ST the storyline was unbelievable but very entertaining. I loved seeing "T.Pol" in mufti. This is one of the episodes I can watch over and over.

 

[tomalak301]

You know, I don't feel like doing this anymore, in terms of talking about every episode. I thought there would be more back and forth, but when I write up an episode and then wake up the next day only to find out that there was no one who wrote anything back, it loses it's appeal. That, and I've actually been getting into Enterprise to the point of just watching an episode and then going to the next one. When I did Babylon 5, the difference was I had never seen the series before and it was a much busier forum. This forum isn't the same and like I said, I simply don't feel like doing it anymore.

I think as a compromise, I might come and write any interesting observations from an episode or two but I won't talk about them all. I will say though that I'm enjoying this rewatch and I'm glad I'm giving Enterprise the time because like I said when I started, I almost treated ENT like it didn't exist. Then I ended up finishing the collection and it's been enjoyable for the most part. So what I'm saying is I'm not going to post much in this thread anymore. If it dies, it dies. I subscribe to threads so I might bring it back from time to time to write down some observations, mainly because whenever I watch something, I get a little too excited that I want to share my thoughts (And I do search for episodes to see what was said about them in the past).

So, as my final regular review, I watched Minefield tonight. Best episode of Season 2 so far. Like how they dealt with the Romulans and not violating Balance of Terror, and also what this episode did for Reed even though I do notice the writing for him is starting to get a little repetitive. I wonder if he develops to someone who doesn't have a death wish later on and becomes more comfortable because man he is so closed off from everything.

I'm a little nervous that I'm approaching Disc two and the Dog in Sickbay episode (Yes I know what it's called). I was listening to a podcast last night (Star Trek podcast as a matter of fact) where they listed this one as one in their best of trek series. I couldn't believe it.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I wish I had more time to comment on each episode. I have been enjoying your thoughts. Alas, the reviews have come more rapidly than expected. If you reconsider pulling back on your comments, you might think about posting a review every few days, to give folks more time to reply.

If you don't want to spend a lot of downtime between episodes, you could jot down your thoughts in a Notepad file and save them, so you can paste them into this thread at your leisure.

Whatever you decide, it's good to hear that you're enjoying your rewatch.

As for "A Night in Sickbay"... I'm one of those happy few who really enjoyed it.

[ducks]

 

[Willieck]

HopefulRomantic Wrote

As for "A Night in Sickbay"... I'm one of those happy few who really enjoyed it.

Me too!

 

[Willieck]

Keep going Tomalak. I'm doing something similar on TOS. Not everyone responds to every post but I think it is interesting to get people's reactions. I do not mention every episode I watch.

 

[tomalak301]

Willieck,

The thing is though other than you and HopefulRomantic, I'm not getting all that many reactions. I'm finding myself on occasion almost having a conversation with myself and spamming my own thread. Like I said, when I did Babylon 5, there were quite a bit of reaction, but that might be because I hadn't seen the show before and there are more B5 fans than Enterprise Fans.

HopefulRomantic,

I do admit I have been going fast. Sometimes, it's the excitement, and being unemployed, especially at nights, I have the time.

I'll tell you what,

I'll continue this but will not be so formal with it. Maybe every other day or two, I'll write up some observations of episodes I've seen in the meantime and then that gives more time for other comments. It is nice writing out my thoughts, but maybe I've just gotten a bit overboard with it. I'm going to step back a bit, but still talk about anything I get really excited about.

With that being said, I saw A Night in Sickbay last night. There were some fun bits (I really do like Phlox and how can you just not adore Porthos), but it was silly and dumb. I'd like to know what the writers were thinking, but they've done something like this in all the series, such as Star Trek's A Way to Eden, or DS9's The Muse.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I'm glad you will be continuing. Just have fun with it.

As for "A Night in Sickbay," it worked for me because of my viewpoint, I think. I am an animal lover and dog owner; I have worried day and night over a beloved pet whose life was in peril; I have been profoundly sleep-deprived, which made me moody and impatient; and I have dealt with people who seem inordinately petty and self-absorbed, while being dismissive of the feelings of everyone around them. So I understood Archer's perspective.

I also "got" why Archer felt the Kreetassans could have avoided the Porthos situation altogether, by paying a bit more attention to the samples Phlox sent them to determine if anyone from Enterprise was vulnerable to pathogens.

For me, ANIS is "Captain Archer's Very Bad Day." A goofy romp with some life-or-death suspense thrown in. With a happy ending (see my av).

 

[tomalak301]

Watched more episodes tonight and one that I liked the best of the three was definitely The Seventh. I just really liked the psychological aspect of it and what it does for T'Pol, as well as moving the Archer/T'Pol relationship along. Yeah there are some qualms, like why didn't she use the stun setting, but after Night in Sickbay and Mauaders, the Seventh returned to good enjoyable viewing. Also liked Davison as Menos. The Trip story was funny. "I'll get back to you".

As for the other ones, I found the Communicator kind of stupid and Singularity actually enjoyable and it brought in the tactical alert, which will be important for Season 3.

I also saw the end of Zero Hour on SyFy today and given there are some threads on the aquatic ships, I'm itching to see Season 3 again. Still get a little mind blown about that ending, but I'm getting way ahead of myself.

 

[Willieck]

Well, The Seventh did not do it for me at all. Difficult to say why; it just didn't click.

On the other hand I really liked The Communicator despite the extremely far-fetched rescue at the end. A good yarn.

Singularity was fun so we agree on that one.

 

[bluedana]

The thing I liked most about The Communicator was the reactions of Reed and Archer, knowing they were going to be executed and autopsied. They're both, ultimately, okay with their impending deaths -- but it's Archer who finally breaks at the prospect of Malcolm's execution and begs for his life. I just think that moment is a really great touch, and sets up his relationship with the crew in other episodes (Minefield, Azati Prime, etc.).

I don't feel the hateration for The Seventh. The mystery of Menos' is he/isn't he a bad guy is pretty compelling. And I think it's ultimately a great character reason why T'Pol would throw her lot in with the humans at the end of S2.

Singularity? One word: Carrots-uh!! (It's the exasperated Japanese inflection that makes it art.)

 

[tomalak301]

I've got a question and if this is too risque for this board, let me know. Why are the most attractive looking woman some of the worst actors to ever grace the screen? I mean you watch something like softcore porn on Cinemax, and yeah you don't really watch it for the acting, but the acting is atrocious.

I bring this up because I watched Precious Cargo tonight and man, that actress was great to look at (Even at the end with the Enterprise uniform on) but was an absolutely terrible actress. The episode was really bad, probably worse than A Night in Sickbay, which had the benefit of a really cute dog and some fun bits. This one acted like it was serious and did a horrible job at being somewhat watchable. It felt long, tedious, and did I say the actress was really really bad? I know they were going for an Eleen of Troyius motif, but come on.

So back to the actress question, why is it that way. Why can't someone be smokin' hot, and have talent all the same. There's probably many actresses that do, but far too many that don't.

 

[Monty_66]

'Precious Cargo' is definitely a contender for one of the worst Enterprise (and worst Trek) episodes ever. However, I think 'Bound' from season four wins that prize.

I love both 'The Seventh' and 'Singularity'. The former gives some great background about T'Pol and gives us glimpses of emotion (guilt and remorse) and shows how strong her relationship with Archer is becoming. Jolene Blalock gave a great performance in that one.

The latter episode I simply find really quite funny in some places. Watching Tucker making a noise on the bridge and Reed's tactical alert going off ("This isn't a bloody pleasure cruise!") always makes me laugh.