Best Season 4 episodes

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, the tension in the Augment arc was handled pretty well. You never knew from episode to episode if they were going to spark the century-long deterioration of relations that led up to TOS. And the threat to destroy the colony with the metagenic weapon was pretty touch-and-go for a little while. I kept hoping the Beebs and Coto would allow the colony to be destroyed just to build up more backstory to the human-Klingon conflict.

 

[jgdst]

For me, Home, Cold Station 12 and the Terra Prime arc was season 4 at its very best.

The torture scene in Cold Station 12 is one of the most chilling in most of modern Trek I think.

That torture scene in Cold Station 12 is chilling and very disturbing. The Augments were ruthles and coldblooded when it came to trying start a war with the Klingons and Starfleet.

I to have to say, that the Augment arc WAS trully outstanding, and Cold Station 12 was VERY well done. Argeed on one of the most chilling moments in modern trek!

Yeah, there's a rare moment of Enterprise hitting a nerve for me and making me feel uncomfortable (which is a good thing in this case), it's so chilling, whenever I've seen it repeated on British TV, that scene's always been massively edited, so they must've done something right

I know what you mean about leading up to The Incident. We seemd to miss out on the "disastrous first contact" between humans and Klingons, and I have to admit, I was expecting them to pull something out of the bag regarding that during the Augment arc.

I was disappointed they didn't, but we still got a pretty great story out of it

 

[Captain X]

I have to say, I especially liked the Augments arc. I can't really articulate as to why, but I'll try anyway.

Brent Spiner was awesome as Erik Soong, and while I found his turn-around at the end cliched, his character was still interesting, and I also liked the Augments themselves. I kind of wished the one without any super-human strength had been developed more, though. I also wished that some of the Augments had been allowed to surrender rather than their insane leader killing them all, and I really thought his cliched undetected beam-over robbed his "death" of what it could have been. Other than that I thought those three episodes were pretty good.

I also liked the Klingon arc, despite the fact I never really cared for the Klingons being on the show. As with the Vulcans, the Klingons had kind of been screwed up a bit, and while some people apparently wanted to go on pretending the Klingons always looked as they pretty much always have from ST3 onwards, like it or not Trials and Tribble-ations acknowledged the difference, and went out of its way to recreate TOS, much to the butt-hurt of reboot advocated and JJ fans everywhere. However, unlike the way the Vulcans were "fixed", the way the Klingons' appearance was established as changing was actually pretty decent, and in my mind at least somewhat believable. I only really have a couple of nitpicks, one being Reed's sudden ret-conned association with an organization that IMO shouldn't have existed yet, and the other being the unintentionally hilarious way Archer just charged to the rescue all on his own.

The only other strong episode of the season, I felt, was Observer Effect. While the idea of having aliens take over crewmembers was nothing new and is usually boring or stupid, I thought they did a pretty good job in this episode with that. While I could have done without ti-kwan-Hoshi, I liked the way they brought back something of that brother/sister friendship between Hoshi and Trip, which really hadn't been played with for over a season. I also liked the way Archer was presented in this episode, as a leader I could respect, and someone who deserved the loyalty we have basically just been told his crew had for him. For once, it's actually completely believable that Archer would be the one to try to selflessly rescue his crewmembers, since one of them was supposed to be his best friend, and the other was basically the greenhorn - basically stuff that had been lost for a long time coming back, good things too. I also found the scene where he put his hand on Trip's chest as he died to be very poignant, and I can honestly say it touched me on a deep level.

IaMD I liked, but it wasn't so much for it being "strong" so much as just fun.

 

[24thcenstfan]

With Season Four being my favorite, there were quite a few episodes that I really liked.

At the top of my list were the Vulcan oriented episodes. The Forge, Awakening and Kir’Shara. I enjoyed the overall delving into the cultural aspects of Vulcan society and the various factions competing with one another…

Home. I think this was an exhausting time in the character’s lives and it was good to see them doing some soul searching and life assessment regarding the previous few years. I also liked that T’Pol and Trip finally seemed to be dealing with their emotions for one another. The situation didn’t end as I expected, but that is part of the twists of good story-making.

Storm Front I and II… I was pretty annoyed that the crew had fought so hard to restore things to order during Season 3 only to end up having to deal with more time altering TCW drama. Going back and watching this two-parter (separated from that initial annoyance), it was actually a pretty good addition to the season. Intense time period, interesting characters, funky space Nazis, altered history… just a lot of elements that made for an intriguing story.

These Are the Voyages……

I think to like this episode one needs to watch “Broken Bow” and then “TATV” right afterwards. The series seemed to come full circle for T’Pol and Archer. They started off in the unfriendly spectrum and when it was over they had developed a lasting friendship. Their journey together was an important one to focus on. The rest of the crew was making plans for their future as well. It was sad that Trip couldn’t be with them, but everyone else made it through the TCW, the Xinidi threat, troublesome times on the Vulcan homeworld and a few other personal situations…and were gearing up to continue their adventures. I was left with those thoughts and is why I can like TATV.

There were some negatives (e.g. Trip’s rushed illogical death, the TNG influence when it should have been mostly an ENT oriented episode and I wanted to hear some of this all important speech at the end), but the positives for me outweighed the negatives just enough.

There were a few other episodes that I found some enjoyment in as well...

 

[bluedana]

Observer Effect. It's one of the few times that every single member of the bridge crew, and Phlox, was necessary to the story. And, it's just a lovely story.

Cold Station 12. I just didn't expect Trek to go there - to actually torture someone to death. I loved Soong's layers, how he completely lost control of the evil his ego had unleashed. And the resolution of the cliffhanger (the opening of Part III) has one of my favorite effects: Archer's shirtsleeve space walk. I love that moment.

I also liked the Klingon arc. The doctor's missing. Reed's lying to the captain (one of my all time favorite scenes). Trip wants a transfer. And the Klingons have run amuck. Talk about Murphy's Law.

Terra Prime is really good, even though I have to skip some scenes.

 

[Seven of Five]

Home was a very nice wrapup of season 3's arc, and should have been the first episode.

Cold Station 12 was the best episode from the Augment arc, with the torture of Phlox's friend, Lucas. Seeing the effect it has on Soong shows us how he was misguided; he was the most interesting character in the arc. The Augments were one-dimensional though, IMO.

I really enjoyed the Vulcan arc - I was a bit skeptical of season 4 after having to wade through the dreck of Storm Front, and then the hit-and-miss Augment arc. However this really did a good job of weaving ENT's versions of Vulcans seamlessly into Trek mythology. It was a good way of setting up the Romulan threat, too.

Daedelus was trite, but Observer Effect was really nicely done. A typical bottles episode that utilises our characters well, and then also makes an effectively creepy prelude to Errand of Mercy.

I really enjoyed the Andorian arc up until The Aenar. In fact that episode feels tacked on to what we had before. Anyway, the two episodes before it are nice, alluding to the future alliance they will all be a part of. Again, the Romulans making an appearance was good.

I found the Klingon two-parter average, and the answer to the age-old question of different-looking Klingons to be totally contrived. Bound was shocking.

In a Mirror, Darkly was inspired, but I felt that two episodes was one too many. I realise that they needed two episodes to budget for the original Enterprise (well, Defiant I suppose) set so I let it pass for that. I liked all of the rampant evil throughout the characters, but the joke was wearing a bit thin towards the end of part 2.

Demons/Terra Prime was the perfect conclusion to the season. And I'll say no more.

 

[Captain Zog]

Any other season, I could easily respond to your query. The top quality eps from the first two seasons are easily discerned. Even with Season 3, it's possible to select the very best eps. But Season 4 had so much going for it. It'd be much easier if I just told you the handful of eps I don't consider essential Trek.

The 2-part "Storm Front" saga was good and served a useful purpose (the only good TCW eps in my humble opinion) but not quite in the same league as the later arcs. It was somewhat overshadowed by the outstanding Season 3 Xindi showdown arc that preceded it ("The Council", "Countdown" and - to a lesser extent - "Zero Hour") and the upcoming stand-alone ep "Home" and the Augment arc.

"Daedalus" was the only poor episode of the season I've seen thus far (have yet to see the finale this time round). Creepy the way they depict transporter malfunctions but it was not of Season 4 calibre.

"Observer Effect" - Also enjoyable. Good ep but not quite as good as most of the others in this season.


Season 4 set the bar very high - higher even than the brilliant season 3. Even the bad eps were good, with the noteworthy exception of "Daedalus" (and, I guess, "These Are the Voyages").

 

[cooleddie74]

"Demons" and "Terra Prime" rank near the top for me as well. Solid. Moving. Great malevolent hamming by Peter Weller as Paxton. And we got one more look at the 22nd century Section 31.

 

[Chip]

Here's my favorites from the 4th season;
1.Demons/Terra Prime
2. IAMD 1&2
3. Affliction/Divergence
4 The Babel One Arc (It had Shran in it!)
5. The Vulcan Arc.
In fact, most of the episodes of the 4th season were pretty good except for the "finale" if you could call that trashy episode a finale!
Daedalus and Bound were interesting, but they could have been better!

 

[pookha]

observer effect
united
babel one
forge
the first mirror story
terra prime and demon

 

[neogothboy74]

It would be hard for me (and kind of pointless) for me to list the majority of the season as I did love most of season 4. But if I had to narrow it down I'd list "Home" and then the Vulcan trilogy that followed shortly after - especially "The Forge" - the continuity in that episode astounded me! And the Vulcan trilogy took the Vulcans of the Enterprise era and made sense of them in the context of the rest of the Trek universe - which at that point I didn't think was possible. They really cemented my love of the series. Everything after was just gravy.

Except for the 'Finale'. Even with "The Good That Men Do" fixing it, I find it hard to watch it. It just brings back all my loathing, and sense of utter betrayal.

 

[Mach5]

Except for the 'Finale'. Even with "The Good That Men Do" fixing it, I find it hard to watch it. It just brings back all my loathing, and sense of utter betrayal.

So do what I do - pretend it doesn't exist!
The "'Manny Coto' Enterprise" ends with Terra Prime, and quite nicely I might add. Watching TATV after Terra Prime is a Star Trek equivalent of being woken up from a sweet dream by someone shoving a spoon in your anus.

 

[Keith1701]

Vulcan arc. Hands down.

I agree.

 

[Kemaiku]

Just finished watching Season 4 all the way through last night.

Good: I love all of the arc based story lines and of course the IaMD two parter. Observer Effect was very well done with an abundance of amusing and moving scenes. Its hard to choose between the arc's, each one had its good and bad points equally to me. Demons and Terra Prime are a fitting end to the show that cap off the previous ones nicely.

Bad: Then theres the space Nazi opening and the horrendous finale. And Daedalus was to me quite boring and should have been featured earlier in the show around Season 1 or 2. Bound was just...kinda there, had its amusing moments but overall added little that couldn't have been done earlier.

 

[cooleddie74]

"Home."

Solid. Effective. Even the comical CGI of Phlox's "involuntary defensive reaction" in the San Francisco bar fight was neat and worth watching.

 

[SFRabid]

Speaking of best season 4 episodes. HD is running the Mirror episodes right now.

I own all the ST DVD's now and season 4 of ENT is my favorite. It makes me feel a bit depressed thinking what season 5 might have been like.

 

[gblews]

Demons/Terra Prime

These two are among the few episodes in the Trek franchise which could be called "important".

D/TP present a profound message about real human nature while staying firmly planted within the confines of Star Trek canon and the episodes' stories, and managing to put forth the message in a subtle, under the radar, kind of way.

Ent's lasting legacy to the franchise, I believe, is presenting compelling stories and images, but D/TP are right up there with the best of TNG in terms profundity.

 

[rramarr]

I can't believe no one has mentioned "Bound" Did you see that well choreographed dance routine at the beginning? For a change T'Pol was given some competition and it wasn't Trip getting all the female play.

Bound also was a throw back to TOS: "Mudd's Women".

 

[cooleddie74]

"Bound" had great skin and gyrating. Everything else sucked. End of story.

I'm a notorious pussy hound in this BBS...but even I can only be impressed so much by skimpy outfits and ass dancing.

 

[Keith1701]

Demons/Terra Prime

These two are among the few episodes in the Trek franchise which could be called "important".

D/TP present a profound message about real human nature while staying firmly planted within the confines of Star Trek canon and the episodes' stories, and managing to put forth the message in a subtle, under the radar, kind of way.

Ent's lasting legacy to the franchise, I believe, is presenting compelling stories and images, but D/TP are right up there with the best of TNG in terms profundity.

I agree......all the way.....