Even I have standards ("A Night in Sickbay")...

[CaptainHawk1]

So, all year long I watch all of Trek in chronological order and my one rule is that no matter how bad I remember an episode being, I watch the entire episode. I had to break that rule last night when I popped in the DVD and was tortured by the absolutely horrific A Night in Sickbay.

Here are the problems I have with it in the 10 minutes I watched before jumping to the next episode, Marauders. First, Archer's getting pissed and considers the new race of people because he didn't follow their rules. Who the F*** is he already? He thinks he's above being contrite and humble with these people? He's actually annoyed because he had to wait nine hours for them when he was the one who violated their protocol? Hey, jackass, this ain't your planet! You're a guest and people do things different here!

Next, why the F*** is he bringing his f***ing dog down to the planet especially considering that this first contact situation is already strained? Then, when the dog is found out to be sick, he makes some off-handed remark implying retaliation against these people if something bad ultimately happens to the stupid dog. And not for nothing, I love my dogs but Archer seems like a 5 year-old going on and on about the damned dog. Way to inspire confidence in your crew Cap'n.

And this when I turned it off...

Sickening.

This has got to be the worst wpisode of the series besides TATV.

Marauders was good, though.

-Shawn

 

[JiNX-01]

Actually, it's worse than that. Archer and Co. had met the Kretassans in the episode Vox Sola, where the aliens demontrated just how easily offended a species can get.
So what does Archer do? ...

 

[Gepard]

Indeed. Personally, ANIS vies for the spot as not only the worst episode of ENT but one of--maybe the--worst episodes of all of Star Trek. And I'm including "Threshold" and "And the Children Shall Lead." Just a shameful, shameful episode.

Still, ENT gave us "Silent Enemy," so, you know, thats a plus...

 

[ialfan]

I actually liked ANIS. It's an underrated episode to me anyways. It's not great but is way better than "Precious Cargo" and didn't violate continuity with TOS like "The Crossing" did so it's better than that one as well.

 

[JiNX-01]

I actually liked ANIS. It's an underrated episode to me anyways. It's not great but is way better than "Precious Cargo" and didn't violate continuity with TOS like "The Crossing" did so it's better than that one as well.

ANIS and Precious Cargo both stunk for different reasons.

And how does The Crossing violate TOS canon?

 

[Dream]

Checked Memory Alpha and it looked like A Night in Sickbay was nominated for a Hugo award.

 

[Gepard]

Checked Memory Alpha and it looked like A Night in Sickbay was nominated for a Hugo award.

Yeah. I remember that. Somebody, somewhere, must have been on drugs...

 

[Captain X]

Have you guys read the recap at the Agony Booth?

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Checked Memory Alpha and it looked like A Night in Sickbay was nominated for a Hugo award.

You've gotta be shittin' me.

-Shawn

 

[CaptainHawk1]

I actually liked ANIS. It's an underrated episode to me anyways. It's not great but is way better than "Precious Cargo" and didn't violate continuity with TOS like "The Crossing" did so it's better than that one as well.

So you've got no problem with A.) Archer being an arrogant ass and showing contempt for a new species during first contact. B.) Him bringing his stupid dog along for an already contentious meeting C.) Him suggesting retailiation against these people for his dog's illness or D.) Him nearly having sex with the dog on-screen for theentire episode instead of commanding the ship and dealing with a delicate diplomatic situation as the representative from Earth?



-Shawn

 

[Gepard]

Have you guys read the recap at the Agony Booth?

A.) Yes.

B.) There was a thread here about it that did not end well. Even less well? The outcome of the thread about the "Two Days and Two Nights" recap.

 

[miriel68]

Actually, I read a lot of negative comments about ANIS before even watching the episode, so I was a bit prevented against it. However, some time later I read an interview with Scott Bakula, and when asked about his favourite episode, he said Cogenitor, Judgement and also ANIS. Now, why should he nominate this episode, if it was so bad? I decided to give it a second chance and I came to a conclusion, that actually it is a VERY GOOD one.
What is the main offence of the episode? That Archer is making fool of himself. That's right, he is. It is stupid of him to take Porthos on the meeting, it is irrational to get angry with Kreetassans and to yell at Phlox, T'Pol and everybody because he is worried about Porthos. If you nurture a heroic concept of what a starfleet captain should be: always right, always serious, always responsible superhuman kind, it can ibe insulting. And Archer's behaviour is indeed irritating, as always when someone we know becomes irrational. However, in a real life, everyone sometimes makes fool fo him/herself... or not? Moments of stupidity are implied in everyone's life.
So, the main problem the episode deals with is not momentaneus irrational behaviour but the way one is able to handle it. Archer did a stupid thing. OK. So what next? No one likes to admit his/her own error, especially being in a place of command. And apologising is not always easy, you can certainly bring a numer of examples from your own experience. Yet, for all Archer's yelling and fussing, it is quite obvious from the beginning that his are empty threads and that he will apologize to Kreetassans. He knows it (hence his bad mood) and his crew knows it (because they prepare everything for the ridiculous ceremony while he is still fussing about the dog in Sickbay). Now, the apologies Kreetassans want are indeed rather humiliating and to go through them requiers a great deal of personal courage. Archer swallows his pride, because he knows that without more plasma injectors the ship and the crew could be at risk: in other words he put his crew's needs over his personal feelings, just like a mature leader should do, even if it is not a life-threatening situation. In a sense, it is more heroic than to blast boldly some alien enemy.

 

[SFRabid]

Checked Memory Alpha and it looked like A Night in Sickbay was nominated for a Hugo award.

That was a conspiracy by Enterprise haters who did it in hopes that the public would think that ANIS is the best that Enterprise has to offer.

 

[jgdst]

I also didn't mind ANIS... I think when you've got episodes like Rogue Planet, Precious Cargo, Extinction, Exile, North Star, Bound and of course the ebola virus of all Trek, These Are The Voyagers, episodes like ANIS should be nominated for AND WIN Hugos.

At least this episode (as far as I'm aware) was designed to show that Archer as the first captain out in space that far doesn't always get it right, and he's got to start playing by other people's rulebooks before doing his own thing. Given that Enterprise didn't seem as comfortable with doing the "comedy" episodes like DS9 and VOY could do, I thought this was a fairly decent effort. It broke the mould of "standard" episodes at least. Though as shown by the opinions on here, can have comepletely opposite polar reactions.

I just get the impression this episode didn't try to take itself too seriously, unlike Extinction, for example...


Also - how did The Crossing violate continuity? If anything it surely reinforced it. Early episodes of TOS show that Kirk is more than willing to kill off any enemy (even if it's the last in a species), to protect the lives of his crew...

 

[Captain X]

ANIS was a classic example of how bad of a captain Archer made, and frankly how bad ENT could get. There's a difference between inexperience and ineptitude, and frankly any responsible officer should have never conducted himself the way Archer did in this episode, regardless of experience level - he was acting like an entitled teenager throwing a temper tantrum. A green ensign shouldn't have conducted himself the way Archer did, let alone someone supposed to represent the best Earth has to offer, and yet people continually make excuses for him.

Another thing about this episode is something that's actually pointed out in that recap, which is that Archer was continually described as a diplomat, but he acted pretty much the opposite.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

ANIS was a classic example of how bad of a captain Archer made, and frankly how bad ENT could get. There's a difference between inexperience and ineptitude, and frankly any responsible officer should have never conducted himself the way Archer did in this episode, regardless of experience level - he was acting like an entitled teenager throwing a temper tantrum. A green ensign shouldn't have conducted himself the way Archer did, let alone someone supposed to represent the best Earth has to offer, and yet people continually make excuses for him.

Another thing about this episode is something that's actually pointed out in that recap, which is that Archer was continually described as a diplomat, but he acted pretty much the opposite.

Thank you for saving me the time and effort of having to explain that to the gushers.

Ditto everything you said.

-Shawn

 

[Lindley]

Another thing about this episode is something that's actually pointed out in that recap, which is that Archer was continually described as a diplomat, but he acted pretty much the opposite.

There were a number of occasions on which other characters said things about Archer that didn't jive with how he was actually depicted. Wasn't just that episode.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Another thing about this episode is something that's actually pointed out in that recap, which is that Archer was continually described as a diplomat, but he acted pretty much the opposite.

There were a number of occasions on which other characters said things about Archer that didn't jive with how he was actually depicted. Wasn't just that episode.

No, but this is exceptionally bad as the role of every captain in Trek has been diplomat so it doesn't necessarily matter what the characters said about his role and it not jiving. We know that a starship captain is a diplomat.

-Shawn

 

[Captain X]

There were a number of occasions on which other characters said things about Archer that didn't jive with how he was actually depicted. Wasn't just that episode.

Yeah, this was just one of the worst examples that tends to stand out, but I know what you mean. He was made out to be so awesome and the crew was always shown to have such respect and loyalty to him despite never having done anything to earn it, and on several occasions doing things that should have actually had the opposite effect. The ANiS recap just points out all the times Trip brings up the fact that Archer is a trained diplomat, and yet Archer is acting like anything but. I forget the term for it and I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment, but it's a case of where a character is described a certain way by other characters and then fails to live up to that description.

 

[TEH BABA]

Next, trek series needs a military advisor. If Archer behaved like that in US Navy he would have been chewed out by a admiral. For instant Hubbard in command firing at magnetic anomoly gets Mexican and local Admiral ticked off at him. Stuff like being really fucking stupid and making politically embarrising moves causes people to lose command. Wish they'd show that in Trek more often. Have a captain forced out cause he annoys politicians.