Advice re episodes, please

[Tora Ziyal]

This is sort of a strange request; please bear w/ me.

Early this year, I started watching Enterprise straight through, and I was really enjoying. Problem is, since Memorial Day weekend, I have had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (because of something that happened in real life, not because of Enterprise ). My tolerance for violence, even in fiction, is very low. Almost non-existent.

I was more or less okay finishing the first two seasons, because I'd seen them before. But now I've started Season 3, which is all new to me. On the one hand, I can't cope w/ the Xindi (sp?) and the violence. On the other, I don't want to miss out on Trip and T'Pol's relationship or anything very important to the overall story.

So, I'm looking for info/advice/suggestions. Are there any particular episodes of Season 3 that you would suggest I make a point of avoiding (the most violent/creepy ones) or watching (Trip/T'Pol, anything relatively light)? If I don't watch Season 3 straight through, am I going to be confused if/when I watch Season 4?

Thanks.

 

[I am Surak]

Tora you are between a rock and a hard space on this one. All the good Trip/T'Pol interactions are in season three and it is the most gruesome and dark of all of enterprise.
Maybe reading the episode cliffnotes on Memory Alpha first will take some of the edge off.
On the other hand the Xindi are completely forgotten in season 4 which you should start with episode 3 if I remember right. "Home" has some beautiful moments on Vulcan.

 

[PsychoPere]

Minor correction to the above post: The Xindi aren't "completely forgotten" in season four, although they are only referenced and not seen after the end of season three. "Home," for example, has a nice conversation between Archer and NX-02 Columbia Captain Erika Hernandez about the trials of the past year.

 

[Gaith]

^ And one of the most absurdly patronizing scenes in all of Trek, with Phlox at the bar.


Best wishes, OHN; hope you speedily recover to the point where you can enjoy all of (good) Trek without incident.

 

[I am Surak]

Minor correction to the above post: The Xindi aren't "completely forgotten" in season four, although they are only referenced and not seen after the end of season three. "Home," for example, has a nice conversation between Archer and NX-02 Columbia Captain Erika Hernandez about the trials of the past year.

In the interest of answering the OP's question I left out the verbal references to the Xindi.
In "Home" the reptillian xindi are also seen briefly in a nightmare Archer experiences while mountain climbing.

 

[JiNX-01]

This is sort of a strange request; please bear w/ me.

Early this year, I started watching Enterprise straight through, and I was really enjoying. Problem is, since Memorial Day weekend, I have had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (because of something that happened in real life, not because of Enterprise ). My tolerance for violence, even in fiction, is very low. Almost non-existent.

I was more or less okay finishing the first two seasons, because I'd seen them before. But now I've started Season 3, which is all new to me. On the one hand, I can't cope w/ the Xindi (sp?) and the violence. On the other, I don't want to miss out on Trip and T'Pol's relationship or anything very important to the overall story.

So, I'm looking for info/advice/suggestions. Are there any particular episodes of Season 3 that you would suggest I make a point of avoiding (the most violent/creepy ones) or watching (Trip/T'Pol, anything relatively light)? If I don't watch Season 3 straight through, am I going to be confused if/when I watch Season 4?

Thanks.

I would say you can get by without season 3 and still follow season 4. The trouble is that there are scenes of violence in most of Season 4. (Observer Effect is the only one that comes to mind that has no violent scenes.

Tora you are between a rock and a hard space on this one. All the good Trip/T'Pol interactions are in season three and it is the most gruesome and dark of all of enterprise.
Maybe reading the episode cliffnotes on Memory Alpha first will take some of the edge off.

Excellent suggestion.

On the other hand the Xindi are completely forgotten in season 4 which you should start with episode 3 if I remember right. "Home" has some beautiful moments on Vulcan.

Edited to delete entry. Already covered above.

 

[Captain Robert April]

The pause and fast forward buttons are probably your best friends in this case.

 

[Holiday Romantic]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, O Holy Night. Best wishes to you on your road to recovery.

As noted above, Season 3 is a challenge. Good Trip/T'Pol interaction occurs in episodes that, unfortunately, do have scenes of violence. Short of having someone break down the scenes to tell you when to scan past the bad parts, you'll probably have to set aside the majority of the season for later. I think there are enough catch-up references in Season 4 to keep you from feeling lost, though.

As for reading the summaries on Memory Alpha...I fear you'll ruin enjoyment of (eventually) watching the shows by reading summaries that give everything away. Consider going to Wikipedia, where there is a list of Enterprise episodes, including one-sentence loglines of Season 3 that don't give the whole show away.

I looked for specific non-violent episodes in Season 3 that have T/T. If anyone disagrees, please speak up!

"Similitude" (some sad parts)
"Proving Ground" (one punch thrown)
"Damage" (a disturbing nightmare, and a gun battle with no deaths)
"The Forgotten" (an alien ship is blown up in one scene)
"E2" (some space battles)

That's about it. But Season 3 is about a war, so there are slim pickings.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Enterprise is probably the most violent Trek series of all. In seasons three and four, there's always either a space battle or fist fight or torture scene going on.

I'd sugggest season three's a dead loss, and the only violence-free season four episodes I can think of are "Observer Effect" and "Daedalus" (which features a bit of ghost-on-human violence).

Sorry, Tora Ziyal

 

[eepruls]

I agree that you'd probably have to skip season three completely. If you don't want to do that, maybe you should give yourself some time to recover before revisiting Enterprise. It's not going anywhere. Take care of yourself first and then when you're ready, try watching it. I think you might enjoy it more when you've worked through things. Good luck to you!

 

[Shatnertage]

Whatever you do, don't watch Impulse. Zombie violence, and a very short and disturbing tease.

 

[Count Zero]

Well, season three is probably the darkest season in all of Trek. I'm sorry to hear that you have these problems, Tora Ziyal, and it's hard for me to guess what scenes would trigger extreme reactions.
The problem is that while I think there aren't that many scenes with graphic violence there's an undercurrent of despair and aggression through nearly all the episodes of season three. I'm trying to be spoiler free here, but I'm thinking about episodes like Impulse, which as far as I can remember doesn't contain graphic violence (though there are some violent scenes) but is creepy as hell. Hatchery is also pretty creepy although it contains hardly any direct violence.
But yeah, episodes with no violence at all are very rare and continue to be so in season 4. If you decide to jump ahead, don't watch the Augments arc, Cold Station 12 contains a very gruesome scene. And the Vulcan arc has a lot of violence and destruction, too, although it's not graphic at least.
Maybe it would be better to wait until you've recovered somewhat. The DVDs won't run away and I think that nearly all of season three is worthwhile to watch and important for the character development of Trip, T'Pol and Archer.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Thanks so much, everyone. All of your comments were really helpful. I've decided to wait at least a few months before I watch any more Enterprise. If I need a fix of Star Trek in the meantime, I'll pull out my Next Gen DVD's. Overall, it's much lighter, and I know it well enough to know which few episodes to skip. I just bumped some silly Monty Python to the top of my Netflix queue. :-)

Ziyal

 

[Captain Robert April]

This might be useful...


Enterprise Transcripts

 

[Felonius]

I'd say quit being a bitch and man up and watch them anyways.

 

[I am Surak]

I'd say quit being a bitch and man up and watch them anyways.

I'd say you man up and resign from this Forum.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Did somebody miss the bit about PTSD at the beginning of the thread? This is not something to mess around with, and ignorant, smartass cracks from the sidelines don't exactly help.

 

[T'Grinch]

Bye to Felonius.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I'd say quit being a bitch and man up and watch them anyways.

Felonius: What was done to me six months ago, I wouldn't wish on anyone, ever. Including you. The person responsible is awaiting trial for several felonies that may give him life in prison; that's how serious it was.

Mods and everyone else: The young ensign's ignorance just emphasizes how supportive the rest of you have been. Thank you. Consider yourselves hugged.

 

[JiNX-01]

I'd say quit being a bitch and man up and watch them anyways.

Uh, why would you tell a woman to man up?

eta:

Bye to Felonius.

Thank you, Jingle T'Bonz!