First time watching Enterprise!

[Merlanthe]

I havent had any time to watch stuff lately but i havent given up on watching Enterprise. I plan to start watching it again in september so will start posting my thoughts about episode again then. Just thought i would mention this in case anyone had been following my first time watching and wanted to continue following.

Teacake is Rachel Nichols a good actress in Continuum? I've only ever seen her in Criminal Minds and she was terrible but im not sure how much was due to writing/direction or the actress or both as the writing was starting to go down in quality that season but the other cast members still managed to give really good perfomances.

 

[Yanks]

I love Continuum. I couldn't recommend it highly enough.

Better than The Ark of Truth I thought.

 

[Yanks]

Teacake is Rachel Nichols a good actress in Continuum?

I like her allot.

She makes a pretty hot Orion Slave Girl as well

 

[Merlanthe]

That’s Rachel Nichols

I never would have guessed. Anyhow in other news I finished watching season 2 of Enterprise yaaay. I will post my thoughts on all the episodes I watched before I start season 3 though it may take a couple days.

Stigma

It felt like T’pols illness came outta left field and didn’t like that Archer was initially angry at T’pol and Phlox for not revealing confidential medical info that did not in any way affect T’pols ability to do her job (at least not yet anyhow).

The rest of the episode was good Archer was properly angry on T’pols behalf and frustrated by her unwillingness to stand up for herself. T’pol had a great reason for not revealing the circumstances that led to her affliction. The Vulcan doctor who outed himself for her was a good character I liked him. I hope we get some follow up on this later down the line. This episode gets four stars.

 

[Merlanthe]

Ceasefire brings the return of Shran yaaay. So I really liked this episode so much that I watched it twice. Ambassador Soval never really registered before. He just seemed to be there but not really stand out. After watching Ceasefire I really like him.

Soval seems to strongly dislike Archer and I cant really blame him given Archers rude behaviour towards Vulcans in general especially during season one. He hasn’t spent the last season and a half hanging out on Enterprise with Archer so he hasn’t seen Archers attitude towards Vulcans gradually change. From his perspective he has been putting a lot fo hard work and time into opening talks with the Andorians with the hope of ending the conflict only to be told that he has to have Archer, that aggressive and highly illogical human, as a mediator or the Andorians wont listen.

But unlike a fair few Vulcans in this series he doesn’t let his own dislike of Archer blind his reasoning or interfere with his ambassador duties. He does what is best for bringing an end to the conflict and agrees to go meet with Shran. Then comes the fun part of the episode as the shuttle gets shot down and our heroes have to wander round a war zone dodging gunfire and trading snarky banter. I love this whole setup and how Soval’s previous experience of the planet ties in and is useful.

The situation with Shrans second in command betraying the negotiations before they even begin is given enough foreshadowing to be predictable but they also give her enough development to be more than just an obvious villain. I find it funny that Archer got beat up by her but I am also oddly pleased that when he fought back he didn’t hold back or try to underestimate her. She was an experienced soldier who had earned her high rank even if she did end up losing it all due to villainous plotting.

Little touches that I liked where Soval not understanding what the balls in your court meant, his questioning why humans are so fixated on Vulcan ears and T’pols brilliant response, the look of smug satisfaction on Reeds face when told to initiate red alert, Shran’s toast to mutual dissatisfaction of everyone and how vulcans don’t drink but Soval was willing to make an exception.

This episode gets a full five stars

 

[Merlanthe]

Future tense

I like this episode a lot especially its ambiguity. We get to see these different factions fighting over the future ship yet we don’t get a lot of exposition dumped on us. We never properly discover who the weird ship belonged to or how it came to be drifting in space just then. We don’t find out who the Tholians work for. We don’t get to see the Tholians themselves just their ships and their eerie voices.

The episode functions as an offshoot of the temporal cold war arc but doesn’t seem directly connected to those events. The main Suliban guy and his shadowy future boss aren’t present and there isn’t any sense that the timeline could be drastically altered by the outcome of events in this episode. Unless they go back and expand upon it further down the line then you could skip this episode and not notice.

When Reed and Trip started to experience little time loops when in proximity to the future ship I at first thought that the dvd had skipped back but then I noticed that though the dialogue and the actors movements were the same the scene was being seen from a different camera angle than before. And when a third time loop occurred we had yet another camera angle. It was a good way to signal to viewers that something was wrong besides the scene seemingly repeating itself.

I really like how the Suliban taunts Archer saying the Vulcans wont help and there is a slight moment of doubt but Archer sticks with the belief that the Vulcan ship they are racing toward will help. As it turns out the Vulcan ship got attacked and neutralised before it could try to help but the helpful sentiment was still there something that Archer recognises and thanks them for as well as apologising for dragging them into that mess in the first place. Its quite different from how he would have behaved during season one when he wouldn’t have asked for help or trusted Vulcans to help out without an ulterior motive.

Canamar

I think I may have caught the beginning of this on tv many years ago. The opening scenes are familiar though I obviously didn’t get to see all of it since the middle and end of the episode where completely new.

The familiarity could be because it seems to have the same plot as Con Air, a movie in which a plane transporting prisoners is hijacked by the prisoners and Nicholas Cage, a parolee hitching a ride home, must pretend he is a hardened criminal and make himself useful to John Malkovich, the guy who masterminded the hijack, in an attempt to make sure that few people get as possible get hurt and the authorities catch up to them. The bad guys in that also had the plan of going to an out of the way place to abandon the other prisoners whilst they get picked up by a smaller plane.

I really feel sorry for Trip being stuck next to that weird looking alien guy who wont stop talking. Even the prisoners sat in front where clearly getting annoyed by his constant non-stop babbling about himself. And then he goes and ruins the escape plan out of a naïve belief that Kuroda is telling the truth and his plan will end with everyone allowed to go free as opposed to everyone dying. I don’t know who to feel sorry for. The only way this could be funnier is if it had turned out that weird looking alien guy was actually a female with a crush on Trip.

I give this episode three and a half stars.

The crossing

Creepy ghostly wisps try to hijack the crews bodies. Creeeepy. I like that we get to see the crew having to make do hiding out in the catwalk again. Obviously their not as organised as last time when they set up their little shanty town.

Though I do wonder if the creepy wisps weren’t able to get into the catwalk, due to some element the walls were made from I think, then how did that one wisp manage to take over Trip again? I could buy that having already swapped consciousness with him so many times before it had established some connection to his physical form making it easier to just pop into his body whenever but the catwalk was meant to be a safe place where the wisps couldn’t go.

I like that the creepy wisps weren’t able to take over Phlox or T’pol as easily as they could the humans. Alien biology at work. I wonder what happened to the creepy wisps are they still wandering space in their weird giant ship? I give this episode three stars.

 

[Yanks]

Love reading your reviews Merlanthe

 

[Merlanthe]

Thanks

I should be able to post my thoughts on the rest of season 2 next week once i finish writing them up and hopefully when i start season 3 i will be more consistent and post my thoughts after each episode instead of waiting until i already watched everything.

 

[Merlanthe]

From now on I'm not gonna make any predictions about when I will be able to post my thoughts on the episodes I've watched because every time I do real life stuff happens that makes me post later than previously promised.

Judgement

Awesome

Its great to see the Klingon legal system in action and to hear not-Martok talk about how Klingon society used to be more than just warriors. The easy escape from Rura Penthe is slightly annoying after all of the trouble Kirk and McCoy will have but I guess they upped security over the years. I cant really think of much else to say about the episode other than awesome

I do wonder if not-Martok is an ancestor of general Martok. Maybe once he got out of Rura Penthe he took up farming

I give this episode four and a half stars.

Horizon

Mayweather receives some bad news and pays a visit home. I like that we get some backstory on him and this episode seems to further some of the themes from Fortunate Son where Travis is made to feel bad for leaving his freighter family to join Starfleet and also experiences being seen as an outsider because of this.

I find myself sympathising with his younger brother a lot. The guy is still dealing with the emotional pain of losing his dad yet has to take charge of the ship and be responsible for it running on time and the safety and well being of everyone on board. To top that off is the knowledge that it was his brother Travis who had been groomed to take the leadership role but he ran off to Starfleet instead.

Having Travis suddenly show up after not hearing form him for so long with all these tales of his adventures aboard Enterprise and his helpful ideas about upgrades that he just goes ahead with only asking permission after hes been found out and its not surprising there would be some resentment.

Overall I give this episode four stars.

 

[Merlanthe]

The Breach

This was an amazing episode with great acting from Phlox. The issues presented in the episode, primarily the scenario of someone being held accountable for the atrocities committed by their people during a war that was over long before they were born and how both sides continue to persist in seeing the other as monsters, is handled very well imho. I like how there is a glimmer of hope at the end that things may slowly begin to change but at the same time its going to be a long hard up hill struggle for that change to have any great lasting effects on either society.

The finding missing Denobulan scientist plotline managed to be both suspenseful and funny and I like it that Travis has a chance to do something beyond sitting at the helm. His interest in rock climbing established in previous episodes comes in handy and its nice to see the camaraderie between Travis, Trip and Reed. I really love that they don’t make the rendezvous just in the nick of time but are fairly late due to the delays suffered like Travis injury and the Denobulan scientists initial reluctance to be rescued.

Cogenitor

Is it bad that I found the scenes with Trip and the cogenitor so boring that I fast forwarded through them? I know this is trying to talk about a serious issue, maybe, but it just feels contrived, and slightly outta character, and confusing as im not entirely sure what issue this is meant to represent.

It feels like the montage of him teaching her stuff and them bonding is meant to elicit a more positive response but it just makes me wonder why no one on the alien ship has noticed him constantly visiting that couple quarters when their both out on duty or why no one on Enterprise has noticed his long absences since he is the chief engineer and therefore necessary presence if the ship is to keep running smoothly (though T’Pol does later confront him on this so at least one person is paying attention).

The scenes with Archer and the alien leader exploring inside a star together is fun and interesting in how Archer is most impressed with the aliens technology whilst the alien guy is most impressed by earths literature. Shows the different cultural values nicely.

Also Reed and the alien gal and their blatant flirting and innuendo. I guessing since her suggestion of spending the night together took place before the montage of Trip teaching the cogenitor about...being a person i guess . I assume that montage was supposed to cover a good couple of days that Reed and the alien girl got to do the horizontal mambo together and the episode just didn’t see the need to reference that particular subplot again.

I give this episode one and a half stars and that’s for the Archer and Reed subplots cause the mainplot is a definite zero imho.

 

[Merlanthe]

Regeneration

I‘ve seen this one before its on my Borg fan collective dvd set. It has Bonita in it, phlox’s real life wife, I had the opportunity to meet her once and she is so lovely and awesome not to mention does a great job as General Beckman in the series Chuck.

It feels like this episode has a different tone to the rest of the series with the focus on the threat posed by these unknown beings and lots of tension as their attempts to stop the Borg drones mostly fail. I kinda like the episode but the whole thing where Phlox just invents a way to cure a Borg nano probe infection annoys me as well as the whole here are the Borg and in the future when Picard and his crew encounter them for the first time there wont be any record of this encounter of Phlox’s nano probe cure (not that the Borg Picard and crew encountered had nano probes cause they happened later).

It gets three stars.

First Flight

I have heard it said that the creators of Enterpise originally wanted the first season or half a season to be set on earth and show the events leading up to the creation and launch of Enterprise. I don’t know how true that is but if this was the kind of stories they had in mind then I would have loved having the first half of season one being on earth.

I love this episode. We get to see some backstory for Archer and Trip and how they met. We get to see that bar maid that has been mentioned in previous episodes by various characters. We get a really good character in the form of Robinson I wish eh was in more episodes. We also get to see the Vulcans being frustrating in their interference and influence in the development of human technology.

The events in this episode make Archers earlier behaviour toward Vulcans just as dickish as before but more understandable if you see it as the result of years, decades even, of having to put up with this kind of interference.

I'm hoping there are more episodes like this one and I award it a full five stars

 

[Yanks]

Love reading your reviews Merlanthe.

I'm interested in your view of the Cogenitor. Was Trip right to teach it? Was Archer right in giving it back after it had requested asylum?

 

[Merlanthe]

I'm glad your enjoying thsi thread sorry if i keep taking a while to update it. As to the cogenitor im not sure if i can adequately express my opinion on that but i will give it a go.

I dont think Trip was right to interfere. The situation of how these aliens treat their third gender is wrong by humanstandards but his sneaking around behind peoples backs and teaching it that led to its suicide. This was a new race and they had only just begun to learn about their socioty and customs which were obviously different from humans.

Trip was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of a third gender and that was before he found out that it wasnt granted the same rights as the other two. But if he wanted to try and change that he sure went about it the wrong way. He should have done proper research into understanding how this alien socioty works and finding open minded members of this race to try and convince. Instead he went sneaking round behind peoples backs, tresspassing uninvited in their homes, and only succeeded in seeding distrust between the two races and causing an unnecessary death.

Whats more he had her believing that the humans with their great beliefs about freedom and individuality and asylum would save her if she asked them to. If Archer had agreed to her asylum he would have made a bad situation worse perhaps even caused a hostile response form this more advanced species and most likely have ended any friendly relationship that might one day arise between Humans and Vissians.

It was wrong that the Vissians wouldnt grant the cogenitor equal rights and very unfortunate that she chose to kill herself but there is the glimmer of hope that this incident will make the Vissians reconsider how cogenitors are treated. So bascially i think the Vissians were wrong but i dont agree woth what Trip did and i do agree with what Archer did

 

[Yanks]

I'm glad your enjoying thsi thread sorry if i keep taking a while to update it. As to the cogenitor im not sure if i can adequately express my opinion on that but i will give it a go.

I dont think Trip was right to interfere. The situation of how these aliens treat their third gender is wrong by humanstandards but his sneaking around behind peoples backs and teaching it that led to its suicide. This was a new race and they had only just begun to learn about their socioty and customs which were obviously different from humans.

Trip was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of a third gender and that was before he found out that it wasnt granted the same rights as the other two. But if he wanted to try and change that he sure went about it the wrong way. He should have done proper research into understanding how this alien socioty works and finding open minded members of this race to try and convince. Instead he went sneaking round behind peoples backs, tresspassing uninvited in their homes, and only succeeded in seeding distrust between the two races and causing an unnecessary death.

Whats more he had her believing that the humans with their great beliefs about freedom and individuality and asylum would save her if she asked them to. If Archer had agreed to her asylum he would have made a bad situation worse perhaps even caused a hostile response form this more advanced species and most likely have ended any friendly relationship that might one day arise between Humans and Vissians.

It was wrong that the Vissians wouldnt grant the cogenitor equal rights and very unfortunate that she chose to kill herself but there is the glimmer of hope that this incident will make the Vissians reconsider how cogenitors are treated. So bascially i think the Vissians were wrong but i dont agree woth what Trip did and i do agree with what Archer did

Great assessment in my view.

One thing I'll add. We don't know that the treatment of the cogenitor was indeed wrong. It was indicated in the episode that they only comprise about 3 percent of the population. For something like this to result in a suicide, one could assume that this third gender was not emotionally stable. That could very well be the reason "it" was treated like it was.

 

[Yanks]

First Flight

I have heard it said that the creators of Enterprise originally wanted the first season or half a season to be set on earth and show the events leading up to the creation and launch of Enterprise. I don’t know how true that is but if this was the kind of stories they had in mind then I would have loved having the first half of season one being on earth.

I love this episode. We get to see some backstory for Archer and Trip and how they met. We get to see that bar maid that has been mentioned in previous episodes by various characters. We get a really good character in the form of Robinson I wish eh was in more episodes. We also get to see the Vulcans being frustrating in their interference and influence in the development of human technology.

The events in this episode make Archers earlier behaviour toward Vulcans just as dickish as before but more understandable if you see it as the result of years, decades even, of having to put up with this kind of interference.

I'm hoping there are more episodes like this one and I award it a full five stars

Brandon Braga said at the Vegas convention in 2010 that he did want the first season to be on Earth. It was the network that said no.

This is one of my favorite episodes. (#5 in Enterprise)

I love how they told the story and love the dialog between Archer and T'Pol throughout.

Love how T'Pol sensed something wrong with Archer and thought he needed some company on his trip.

T'POL: We should reach the edge of the phenomenon in two hours, forty six minutes. I can pass the time by meditating, but if you'd prefer to talk?
ARCHER: Go ahead and meditate.
T'POL: Would you like to join me? You seem quite unsettled since your call from Admiral Forrest.
ARCHER: I'm fine.
T'POL: Commander Tucker was reluctant to discuss it as well, though he did mention an old colleague had died.

ARCHER: T'Pol, come up and look at this a minute.
T'POL: I have to monitor the quantum field.
ARCHER: Let the sensors do it. That's why AG and I worked so hard to get out here.

T'POL: I believe there's a human custom that says when you discover something of merit, you earn the right to name it.
ARCHER: What would you suggest? The T'Pol - Archer nebula?
T'POL: I was thinking the Robinson nebula would be more appropriate.

 

[Merlanthe]

Bounty

So this episode divides into two separate plots whereby Archer gets kidnapped by a Tellarite bounty hunter and T’pol undergoes an artificially induced pon farr.

Poor Reed. After that episode where he and Trip were lost and he rather drunkenly went on about how nice he thinks her ass is he now has her rubbing up against him suggesting they get intimate and not only is he unable to say yes because of her clearly unnatural state of mind he is also stuck in a bulky spacesuit and unable to appreciate the rubbing up against him stuff. At least eh managed to get laid by a pretty blond alien a couple episodes back.

Phlox’s sudden shyness and claims about Denobulan males being less extrovert and more private about their bodies than the females is a nice gender dynamic but doesn’t quite jive with the cheerfully open attitude towards sexuality that we’ve seen him display in previous episodes. I do wonder at the end if his serum worked or he had to resort to the old fashioned method and if his serum did work why isn’t it used to help alleviate pon farr in future series? Though if the serum was made to target the bacteria causing the pon farr rather than the pon farr itself that would make it useless in helping to alleviate actual pon farr which is caused by brain chemicals not alien bacteria so I guess that answers that question.

Archers plot is a follow up from the episode Judgement and I like that we have consequences from those events. You cant simply escape form a Klingon penal colony and expect to be able to left alone to fly about exploring. Klingons are a proud race and hate to be made fools of. They are also dangerous to cross as this Tellarite has learnt. I feel sorry for the guy having lost his ship and had his relationship with his brother ruined because of the Klingons. I like the plan he and Archer came up with and that he gets away with enough darsecs to maybe be able to buy a new ship and definitely to get a new start in life probably somewhere far away from Klingon space.

Overall this episode gets four and a half stars

The Expanse

This episode is both sad and exciting. The opening scene is so unexpected and completely random that it isn’t until the following scenes where Archer must inform his officers that you fully comprehend what you just saw. Earth being attacked. Even then it isn’t until you see Trip worrying over his baby sister, his inability to get hold of her or find anyone who knows where she is, his slowly fading hope that she wasn’t home at the time, that the emotional consequences of this attack become apparent.

The other crew members are shocked and saddened by what has happened but it is Trip with his missing sister that is the most connected to the event and allows the audience to see and understand the tragedy of this seemingly random attack in more personalised terms. His acting is great and I like that he focuses his grief and disbelief of what has happened into anger at those responsible.

The episode is also exciting as it really shakes things up. Before they were just flying round exploring and meeting new people with a bit of continuity and a time travel plot that popped up every now and again mixed in but now they suddenly have a purpose, a very specific mission, and an area of space that is essentially the Bermuda triangle to go exploring in. The sudden attack on earth, the worry over whether T’pol will stay or leave, being pursued by a bunch of Klingon ships seeking revenge all makes for a tense fast paced episode.

Then there is T’Pol and we really get to see how much her attitude toward Archer and the crew of the Enterprise has changed as she chooses to remain with them rather than return home, to follow her heart rather than listen to logic. I found many of her scenes this episode were nearly heartbreaking. Soval really seems to care for her and want whats best for her and just can’t understand her feelings on the matter. Then there is the scene where Archer is trying to do what’s best for her by telling her she should leave when really he wants her to stay and the whole time she is arguing against him. Uggh this episode just had so many moments that engaged my emotions in a great way.

Overall I give this episode five full stars. The show seems to be headed in an entirely new direction and I am excited to see where it goes. Now that I have finished posting my thoughts on season 2 I can start season 3 yaaay!!!

 

[F. King Daniel]

If you liked "The Expanse" you're gonna love what's to come.

 

[jespah]

This ^

With sehlats.

 

[Yanks]

Bounty

I'm a huge T'Pol and Enterprise fan and I don't rank this one as high as you did. I really enjoyed Archer's part of the story too, but I thought they really didn't need to exploit T'Pol like that.

Not that I minded this at all.

The Expanse

Stand by! you're gonna love season 3!

 

[Merlanthe]

I'm a huge T'Pol and Enterprise fan and I don't rank this one as high as you did. I really enjoyed Archer's part of the story too, but I thought they really didn't need to exploit T'Pol like that.

Not that I minded this at all.

Yeah i dont really like how tptb behind Enteprise seem to think that T'Pol should be mrs fanservice but by this point im kinda resigned. At least there is a reason for her to be wandering round in her skivvies though i dont understand why they dont have a simple coverall for people to wear whilst their trapped in decon.

Of course if Reed or Trip decided to wander round the ship topless for some barely present plot purpose i wouldnt mind that at all :P