"Observer Effect"

[Dale Sams]

I hadn't even heard of this ep. That was great. Except for poor Mayweather...I think, if you go right across the board, overall the ENT cast are the best actors of any series. Overall that is.

Great directing in that ep too. Vejar rarely fails to impress.

If I threw in DS9's recurring characters they might nudge ENT out, but I'm very impressed.

As for the EP....I don't know if the events of "Errand of Mercy" were a form of first contact, or if the Organians just changed their interference policy, but this ep lays the groundwork for a more elegant solution to "So whatever happened to the Organians" than:

1) The Q kicked them out.

2) They moved onto a different galaxy.

I think they just changed their minds again about interfering.


This also explains why almost all the aliens that Star Trek runs into are hard-headed, and arrogant. Because that's the norm apparently!

 

[BillJ]

I think Enterprise has the worst group of actors. The best I think belongs to Voyager, a shame they wasted so much talent.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

^ This.

Voyager is a tragedy for being a show with an amazing cast of actors with some of the most dreadful story development in history.

My main problem with "Observer Effect" though is that I wish they'd used someone other than the Organians for this one. This doesn't seem to fit well with their "We mainly keep to ourselves and abhor violence" aspect of the Organians from "Errand of Mercy." Actually, I think it would have made more sense if they had been the Metrons or various other incorporeal beings the TOS Enterprise encountered. Organia was just a very poor fit IMO.

 

[gblews]

Observer Effect was one of my favorite season 4 episodes. When you consider that it was a"bottle" episode, you have to give real credit to the cast for the way they portrayed different versions of their characters. A real accomplishment.

I think Enterprise has the worst group of actors. The best I think belongs to Voyager, a shame they wasted so much talent.

^ This.

Voyager is a tragedy for being a show with an amazing cast of actors

I put both Voy and Ent casts at the bottom when it comes to rating the various casts with respect to acting ability.

DS9 would be my choice as the best acting ensemble mainly because of Rene Aberjonois, Nana Visitor, Avery Brooks, followed by the TOS group because of Leonard Nimoy and Shatner (Shat defined the most important role in the franchise), then TNG because of Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I hated this episode ... so bad. Just so bad ...

 

[Delta Vega]

As far as the respective acting ability of various casts, I think Enterprises cast holds up well.

Blalock is a great Vulcan, the best since Nimoy

Keating does staid and stuffy English Officer type very well

Bakula, for me, is a great Captain, in the mould of Kirk, because he isnt afraid to get down and dirty and trade drop kicks with the bad guy.

Generally across the other Treks I enjoyed Enterprise a lot, with honourable mentions going to Nimoy, Shatner, Spiner, Auberjonois, Ryan, Visitor and Picardo.

Just my take.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I liked Hoshi sprouting hacking skills - she says something like "mathematics is just another language" before opening the decon chamber door.

I think it was also the most that Mayweather ever got to say on the show.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think it was also the most that Mayweather ever got to say on the show.

I think he said way more on "Horizon".

 

[Yanks]

Great episode. My favorite from season 4.

 

[Danny99]

As far as the respective acting ability of various casts, I think Enterprises cast holds up well.

Blalock is a great Vulcan, the best since Nimoy

Keating does staid and stuffy English Officer type very well

Bakula, for me, is a great Captain, in the mould of Kirk, because he isnt afraid to get down and dirty and trade drop kicks with the bad guy.

Blalock was boring as paste for the first two and a half seasons. Nimoy had a way of making Vulcans interesting while being emotionless, while Blalock was more wooden that a coffee table.

Keating and Trinneer got shoehorned into stereotypes, but were still the stars of the cast.

Bakula, in my opinion, was a poor choice for captain. The guy can act, but not in serious drama. Anything I've seen him in has been comedic. He just wasn't the right fit.

As for the episode, it was one of the better of Season 4 if not the series. The Organians' spying also fits well. They abhor violence, so they watch and don't interfere so they don't get stuck in the middle of it.

 

[Delta Vega]

As far as the respective acting ability of various casts, I think Enterprises cast holds up well.

Blalock is a great Vulcan, the best since Nimoy

Keating does staid and stuffy English Officer type very well

Bakula, for me, is a great Captain, in the mould of Kirk, because he isnt afraid to get down and dirty and trade drop kicks with the bad guy.

Blalock was boring as paste for the first two and a half seasons. Nimoy had a way of making Vulcans interesting while being emotionless, while Blalock was more wooden that a coffee table.

Keating and Trinneer got shoehorned into stereotypes, but were still the stars of the cast.

Bakula, in my opinion, was a poor choice for captain. The guy can act, but not in serious drama. Anything I've seen him in has been comedic. He just wasn't the right fit.

As for the episode, it was one of the better of Season 4 if not the series. The Organians' spying also fits well. They abhor violence, so they watch and don't interfere so they don't get stuck in the middle of it.

I agree about Trinneer, he played his role well and grew to be indispensable.
Until they disposed of him that is
As for Blalock, I think you are being very unfair on her, no one can hold a candle to Nimoys Vulcan demeanour, but Blalock done a fine job in my opinion.
There have been other Vulcans in other Trek series` and Films, none of them convinced me, well maybe the honourable exception of Mark Lenard as Sarek, but for me T`Pol was a great character played very well by an actress who hasnt really shone in any other roles.
She made the part her own and done a fine job.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Observer Effect was one of my favorite season 4 episodes. When you consider that it was a"bottle" episode, you have to give real credit to the cast for the way they portrayed different versions of their characters. A real accomplishment.

I think Enterprise has the worst group of actors. The best I think belongs to Voyager, a shame they wasted so much talent.

^ This.

Voyager is a tragedy for being a show with an amazing cast of actors

I put both Voy and Ent casts at the bottom when it comes to rating the various casts with respect to acting ability.

On the contrary, Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltram are actually stupendous actors in almost everything OTHER than Voyager. Jerri Ryan is also fantastic in everything else she's ever been in (in fact, a lot of the "Seven of Nine Episodes" had some of the better trek performances IMO).

The thing is, it's really hard to do a convincing character on television when 60% of your lines are meaningless technobabble. Another show you see this effect are the CSI spinoffs, particularly CSI New York, where some characters go entire episodes without saying anything that has any personal implications to anyone at all. They cease to become characters and become cyphers; they might as well be doing voiceovers for a computer terminal.

DS9 would be my choice as the best acting ensemble mainly because of Rene Aberjonois, Nana Visitor, Avery Brooks, followed by the TOS group because of Leonard Nimoy and Shatner (Shat defined the most important role in the franchise), then TNG because of Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner.

And TNG partially had the same problem after about Season 3. Compare Season 1 - 3 TNG with the latter years and you see their performances growing increasingly bland and pointless. Mainly this is because the turn for the technical leaves them running out of meaningful things to say to/about one another.

Of course, Enterprise is a rare case where they really DID have some horrible actors, so even the non-technobabble moments were delivered horribly. Anthony Montgommery in particular came off as "black Wesley crusher" only without the benefit of being a kid.

 

[gblews]

Observer Effect was one of my favorite season 4 episodes. When you consider that it was a"bottle" episode, you have to give real credit to the cast for the way they portrayed different versions of their characters. A real accomplishment.

I think Enterprise has the worst group of actors. The best I think belongs to Voyager, a shame they wasted so much talent.

I put both Voy and Ent casts at the bottom when it comes to rating the various casts with respect to acting ability.

On the contrary, Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltram are actually stupendous actors in almost everything OTHER than Voyager. Jerri Ryan is also fantastic in everything else she's ever been in (in fact, a lot of the "Seven of Nine Episodes" had some of the better trek performances IMO).

Just to clarify, and I should have made this more clear, when I wrote, "with respect to acting ability", I meant, "on Voyager", "on ENT", etc.

I've never seen Beltran in anything else, but Mulgrew in Orange is the New Black, is positively brilliant. And Jeri Ryan, IMO, may be the best female actor in a regular role in all of TV Trek.

The thing is, it's really hard to do a convincing character on television when 60% of your lines are meaningless technobabble. Another show you see this effect are the CSI spinoffs, particularly CSI New York, where some characters go entire episodes without saying anything that has any personal implications to anyone at all. They cease to become characters and become cyphers; they might as well be doing voiceovers for a computer terminal.

Yes, but some, like Patrick Stewart and Spiner for example, were able rise above the problem. Others could not. BTW, I think LaVar Burton may have been able to if his character had been called on to do more, more often.

Of course, Enterprise is a rare case where they really DID have some horrible actors, so even the non-technobabble moments were delivered horribly. Anthony Montgommery in particular came off as "black Wesley crusher" only without the benefit of being a kid.

But I do think that Connor Trinneer and John Billingsley were the best of the lot. Linda Park, I see similarly to the way I saw LaVar Burton, an actor capable of much more but rarely ever asked.

 

[I am not Spock]

About actors on the series, I wouldn't exactly call Avery Brooks or Nana Visitor great actors. DS9 is a great series, and they did improve as the show went on, but Kira and Sisko are hilarious in their hammy-ness in the first couple of seasons.

VOY did have some wonderful actors , especially Ryan, Picardo, and Phillips. Beltran and Wang were wooden as wooden in Voyager, but apparently good in other roles (I haven't seen them in anything else, though). Tim Russ I thought was good, certainly the best Vulcan since Nimoy.

I didn't think Blalock was especially good as a Vulcan. The highlights of the ENT cast are probably Keating, Trinneer, and Billingsley

 

[bluedana]

This thread isn't anywhere near on-topic. Reel it back in, or I'll close it.

 

[Damian]

I've been watching Enterprise and just finished this episode again and I was thinking of a discussion on another board a few weeks back. We were discussing how out of character it seemed for the Organians to be 'observing' in the first place since in 'Errand of Mercy' they indicated contact with life forms such as ourselves all but disgusts them.

Moving beyond that, I also found it out of character that the Organians would have let other species knowingly become infected in the first place. That they wouldn't have eliminated the source of the virus so people would not have to suffer. The Organians frankly didn't seem to be that cold blooded to me.

Otherwise I thought it was one of the best episodes of the season. I thought the actors did a good job and I actually thought Scott Bakula turned in a great performance, esp. his emotional, heart wrenching plea at the end to the Organians.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I'm always happy to see a (mostly) positive review of this episode, it's my favorite of the series!

BUT since this thread has been dead for over 4 years, best to let it rest in peace. You're welcome to start a new thread to discuss "Observer Effect" further.

*closed*