First time watching Enterprise!

[Merlanthe]

I have made a start on season 3 and am already up to the fifth episode Impulse. so far I am really enjoying it and will post my thoughts on the episodes soon but first I just wanted to have a quick ramble on about T'Pol's costume change.

I like her new hairstyle. At least I think that its a new hairstyle it certainly looks different to me than the previous two seasons. Its only slightly longer but appears softer and lighter in color. At first I wasnt sure about it since it made her look like the back of her head was huge but i think it suits her a lot better than the one she had. It looks a lot more Vulcan to me than her original one.

(On a random side note I find it funny that the female Vulcans in Enterprise have the same short hair as their male counterparts or female Vulcans of later trek series when the female Vulcans seen in TOS era have longer hair in T'Prings case long enough to put into a elaborate style. I would have thought that taking place just before the TOS era that female Vulcans appearing on Enterprise would have longer hair unless long hair was merely a brief fashion trend on Vulcan.)

Also T'Pol has gone from having a single brown outfit to wear to having various multicolored jumpsuits. They dont look very Vulcan neither do they appear part of human fashion. They also look stiff round the neck and shoulders. The lower neckline is probably intended to emphasise cleavage but i find it makes her appear a little less top heavy without revealing very much of anything so i dont mind it. I will probably get used to her new uniforms after a couple episodes and not think about them overly much.

I do really really like her pygamas. They look soft and comfortable and happen to be my favourite color so now i think that if i ever met T'Pol and was allowed to ask her a single question it would be where she buys her pygamas form because i want some.

 

[dubeau]

I am relistening for the second time the 4 seasons...I tough the #1 season was very good and promising. The #2 season was very poor until episode 14. After that it began to pickup where season one left. They probably destroyed their audience with the very shallow season 2 first 13 episodes. I saw in the extras it was due to budget cuts...fine...but the stories were not so appealing. I almost miss all the season 4, but I remember how much I like the Expense stories in 3. So I am looking foward to it.

 

[Merlanthe]

The Xindi

I was left feeling a little disappointed by this first episode. Its partly becuase I have a hard time believing that they have been in the Delphic expanse for six months.

Maybe its because its only been less than a month since I finished the previous season. I’m sure for those watching it air on tv there was a longer wait between seasons making the sudden jump forward less jarring. But its also because there are little things that don’t add up. That scene with Hoshi introducing herself to the macos is the most obvious. I find it hard to believe that Hoshi would wait six months before introducing herself to them. This is a confident character who loves to meet new people and analyse their speech patterns.

The conflict between Reed and Hayes also doesn’t fit. Is this really the first time in the six months since Enterprise entered the expanse that these guys have a chance to experience some combat action? Which leads directly to my main problem and the reason for my feelings of disappointment. The finale of season 2 and the flashback segment preceding The Xindi build up the idea of the expanse as a highly dangerous place of freakishly weird phenomena. The only Vulcans to successfully return had been anatomically inverted whilst still alive.

Yet it appears the Enterprise has been in there a whole six months and encountered very little to get excited about. They haven’t experienced any dangerous situations that would require security or the macos to get involved and the only anomalies they have encountered have been of the annoying but harmless variety if Archer and Trips reaction to the one in the cargo bay is anything to go by. I find that hard to believe.

I really enjoyed the main part of the story with the treacherous slimy mine supervisor and the dangerous escape attempt followed by the wonderfully timed rescue by Reed and the macos. I really really liked the design of one of the prisoners in the trellium mine. It was dark reddish brown with spikes along the back of its head but we never saw it from the front so I wonder if they just never got round to designing the front of its face. Anyhow this episode gets three stars.

Anomaly

I find this episode a lot more satisfying than the first and a better introduction to the expanse. We get to see strange anomalies being dangerous and freaky and to see Archers frustration building throughout the episode as the anomalies disrupt the daily routine making it difficult for the ship to function. The sphere was also great I love the design of it and like that it doesn’t get explained straight away. Hoping this sphere will be part of a subplot since I have heard that this season is a lot heavier with continuity and ongoing story arcs.

I liked the little twist that the pirates were originally traders from outside the expanse who came looking for new markets and found themselves trapped. Their descent into piracy and abandonment of civilised morality comes across as a gradual thing and makes them seem sympathetic even as they pose a dangerous threat. It leaves me wondering if we will see that same slow abandonment of civilised morality as the Enterprise gets deeper into the expanse.

Also I really like how they casually introduced Trellium D in an offhand way in the first episode. The slimy mine supervisor brings it up casually mentioning that the trellium D ore being mined at that facility is used to line ships hulls with and asking Archer what Enterprise is lined with but it comes across as meaningless chit chat and the audience, much like Archer, is dismissive barely paying attention to what he is saying. Here we learn that trellium D is quite important and the crew will need to get hold of some if they want to be safe from those freakish anomalies.

Overall this episode gets four and a half stars.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Wait, I thought the Enterprise was in the Expanse for six weeks at the start of "The Xindi", not six months? Am I just misremembering?

 

[Skywalker]

It was six weeks. Though I still agree with the basic point. Six weeks in the Expanse without a single lead or anything else of particular interest happening seems incredibly jarring.

 

[Merlanthe]

Ah six weeks sorry my mistake

Though it still seems a long time for nothing to happen after all that build up of how dangerous and weird the place is. I stand by my original thoughts especially about it being odd for Hoshit o wait so long to introduce herself to new people. Just think fo the linguistic puzzles these macos could represent :P

 

[dubeau]

Season 3 was nothing short of spectacular. Very tense end season. Apart maybe from one episode that made no sens (Probably more for budget reasons) there was a great sens of continuity.

Season 4 is quite good too (At episode 15). 2-3 episodes series were a good choice in my book. What I really like however is how they tried harder into bringing new camera angles and presentations into the show. It was too late by then, but they could have brought something unique into the realm of scifi...but sadly maybe 3 season too late.

Sad that the first two seasons launch such a shadow on the 3 and 4.

 

[Yanks]

Season 3 was nothing short of spectacular. Very tense end season. Apart maybe from one episode that made no sens (Probably more for budget reasons) there was a great sens of continuity.

Season 4 is quite good too (At episode 15). 2-3 episodes series were a good choice in my book. What I really like however is how they tried harder into bringing new camera angles and presentations into the show. It was too late by then, but they could have brought something unique into the realm of scifi...but sadly maybe 3 season too late.

Sad that the first two seasons launch such a shadow on the 3 and 4.

I'm not a season's 1 & 2 hater. I thought they were great.

 

[Keith1701]

Okay so i recently acquired the complete all 4 seasons of Enterprise on dvd. I've only ever seen a handful of episodes from the first season back when the show first premiered on tv (gosh it seems so long long ago) and a couple episodes that were on my borg/time travel/alternate reality fan collectives.

So i wouldnt say i was a complete stranger to the series but apart from the aforementioned handful of episodes i have a lot of unseen material and am quite excited at the prospect of the many many epsiodes (entire seasons of episodes!) of unseen trek that i have yet to discover

Im going to post my thoughts on each episode on this thread in case any one is interested to read them starting with my thoughts on the pilot Broken Bow tomorrow.

I never watched any of the Star Trek shows until I meet my boyfriend. My name is Tina by the way. Now that I have started watching them I really like them.

 

[Endgame]

I acquired Seasons 1 - 4 last year and have been watching them too and am currently in Season 3. I just read through this thread. Very cool.

I am not sure if there were spoilers present or not. I have read some of the books published since 2005 or thereabouts in the multiverse. Look forward to watching the rest of the series.

Thanks also for the suggestion of watching "Continuum" but I do not watch TV and am wondering if it is a TV series. I did watch the SG movie with that title already.

Maybe sometime I can start reading the ENT novels. I wonder if they take place during the series or after the series or both.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Some novels take place during the series, like By the Book (season 1), Daedalus and Daedalus' Children (end of season 2), Last Full Measure (early season 3), Rosetta (season 4). The rest (The Good That Men Do, Kobayashi Maru, The Romulan War #1 and #2) take place after the series. Most recently was Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures which picks up a few years later, when many of the crew have moved on to new posts and the Enterprise retired.

 

[mattman8907]

i thought the series was good. it was actually the only series i watched from beginning to end. like most people I thought Seasons 3 and 4 were good. just wish it went a few more seasons. love to have seen the Earth-Romulan War.

 

[Merlanthe]

Extinction.

I love the portrayal of the lo’qek (sp?). Their makeup is not much more than what we usually get bumpy forehead wise but their mannerisms and way of moving, the hisses and clicks that punctuate their speech, make them appear far more alien in nature.

The do come across as a fairly primitive species seemingly driven by instinct and not just in their desire to return to their city but also in how they interact. Archer and Reed fight over who gets to the remaining bug pod but they don’t try to take Hoshi’s bug pod and Archer offers T’Pol some bugs before chowing down himself. When Reed crawls over displaying submissive begging behaviour he allows him to eat. Its indicative of a pack mentality/hierarchy and primitive instincts at work.

I did find myself wondering how this species driven by such primitive instincts would have been able to build an underground city with flying gardens but this is a small group of individuals altered into Lo’qek and suffering memory loss. The guy in charge of quarantining the place was scary in his determination though its hard to blame him given the harm caused by this mutagenic virus thing.

I do find it quite hypocritical of Archer at the end. He and Phlox are quite happy to preserve the last remaining sample of a dangerous and highly infectious mutagenic virus so that the species it represents wont be entirely wiped form existence but previously were quite happy to allow a living species that had asked for their help to die out because it was ‘what nature intended’.

Yeah I call bs on that but the rest of the episode was great so four stars.

Rajin.

Okay her powers are freaky. At first I wasn’t sure what she was doing though it eventually became clear that she was scanning their biology whilst influencing their minds in a date rapey kinda way.

All the scenes where Rajin uses her powers freak me out. The scene where she assaults T’Pol is especially freaky. I wonder if the really strong date rapey vibes were intentional or something that wasn’t evident in the script itself but showed up when they came to film it. Or maybe its all in my weird mind. Good thing Trip was meant to be visiting and he didn’t just assume she was asleep or something but then he knows her well enough by now to know that if she doesn’t answer her door after arranging to meet him there is something up.

Also sexual slavery in a star trek episode that doesn’t resolve itself with the crew rescuing all of the sex slaves and freeing them. I didn’t expect to see that. It is quite refreshing that they didn’t go all morally preachy but surprising that they didn’t try to interfere. Its good that they aren’t involving themselves in an alien cultures buissiness just because it goes against human morals. The alien pimp guy should still burn in a special hell though.

That apothecary who sells them the formula for manufacturing trillium D in its liquid state is delightfully weird and funny. Also I kinda wonder what happens with Rajin is she allowed to go free or does she count as the property of the Xindi now and spends her days in a cell when not being deployed on reconnaissance missions.

Three and a half stars

Impulse.

Zombie vulcans!

I love this episode. It was really atmospheric on the damaged Vulcan ship with the blinking lights and mess of the corridors and the way crazy Vulcans keep popping up and attacking our guys as they stumble about trying to find a way out. T’Pols growing paranoia and increasing inability to control her emotions is interesting to watch. It isn’t until quite far into the episode that she begins to turn on Archer and Reed and the other guy whose name I can’t recall.

The subplot with Travis and Trip trying to get some Trellion D ore from the very active/chaotic asteroid field is at first amusing then more serious. Its good that the crew finally got their hands on some of the ore and aren’t going to drag this subplot out too long though I was worried it would remove the handy plot device of ship encounters freaky special anomalies. As it turns out Trellion D is poisonous to Vulcans and the reason for the Vulcan Zombies. I really like how the two plots tie together this way.

Four and a half stars

Exile

I really like the design of the alien in this episode and how he isn’t just a bumpy forehead but something different from human aesthetics. I think they could have made him look way weirder but what they did was pretty good. Bonus points for there being a reason why he wouldn’t be welcomed by his own people that isn’t the over used last of his kind cliché.

I like that Archer is protective of Hoshi even though he is driven in his quest to find the Xindi he hasn’t let it become an obsession that erodes his moral character. His protectiveness at the beginning of the episode is quite touching. You can tell that the Archer who visits Hoshi toward the end is an illusion just by his complete change in attitude to the idea of her remaining with the exiled alien dude.

I really really love how strong and confident Hoshi is here. She is creeped out by how the alien guy can see her thoughts and memories but she is confident in her own ability to handle the situation. She isn’t entirely in control of the situation but she doesn’t lose what little control she does have over it and does a very good job of standing up to the alien guy when he tries to get what he wants by force and manipulation.

Its kind of a shame cause without him trying to force her to stay with him they could have been friends creepy mind reading aside. He backs down and lets her go and still helps because he does genuinely care about her. I think his isolation and his abilities have made him bad at interacting with people.

We get more on the spheres and an explanation for why the expanse is plagued by freakish anomalies though it only leads to more questions about the spheres where they came from their purpose other than cause anomalies and inconvenience everyone.

Four and a half stars

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm glad you liked "Extinction", a lot of people around here don't. I didn't love it myself, but I applaud them doing something different and going all-out in the attempt.

 

[Yanks]

I'm glad you liked "Extinction", a lot of people around here don't. I didn't love it myself, but I applaud them doing something different and going all-out in the attempt.

Exactly.

The haters always complain that Enterprise was just more of the same (TNG) and then dump on them when they are origonal.

I thought this episode was pretty good.

 

[BruntFCA]

I remember hating "Extinction" with a passion(been a few years) but that was because I thought the aliens that the crew turned into were painfully annoying, the premise itself wasn't too bad at all.

 

[SpHeRe31459]

I remember hating "Extinction" with a passion(been a few years) but that was because I thought the aliens that the crew turned into were painfully annoying, the premise itself wasn't too bad at all.

Interestingly, Brannon Braga says he thought Extinction was "one of the singularly most embarrassing episodes of Star Trek I’ve been involved with" in the Season 3 Blu-ray documentary.

 

[milojthatch]

Was I the only fan here that saw all 98 episode of Enterprise first run?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Me too (well, first run in the UK)

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Was I the only fan here that saw all 98 episode of Enterprise first run?

Nope, with a few DVR'd for later viewing, I saw them in order as well. For most of the run, I was the forum moderator here at TrekBBS.