I've read numerous negative reviews of "Northstar", but I really like this ep. It's a morality play, which has been a Trek staple since TOS. It's well designed, well shot, well acted. I enjoyed the heck out of it. Any more lovers of this ep. out there?
Northstar---Yay or Boo?
- Thread starter Python Trek
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Fun parts that I liked: Cowboy Archer, beaming up in front of the natives, landing the shuttlepod in the middle of town and all the "aliens" emerge to the shock of the townspeople, Archer's "We need to talk" line that followed, the shootout, and T'Pol taken hostage then Reed just casually stunning her.
A fun episode with a heavy moral to balance it out.
A fun episode with a heavy moral to balance it out.
*raises hand* Yay! 
I really enjoyed "North Star." For me, it had rich production values, including the costumes and the location shoot on the Western streets of Universal Studios. That cool washed-out sepia look on the planet was great. Archer and Trip looked fabulous in their Western duds.
I agree, I thought the story was compelling and engaging, with interesting guest characters. Good casting, too. Glenn Morshower, who played Sheriff MacReady-- I just saw him in the opening of ST:Gen, what a trip! He's been in everything from "The X-Files" to Transformers, he's great to watch.
And I also thought the shuttle landing on dusty Main Street was very cool.
Also the staging of the shootout in the last act, wonderful stuff.
If anyone out there hasn't listened to the DVD commentary by 1st A.D. Mike DeMeritt, it's fascinating and really entertaining. It gives us a glimpse into the production process, as well as the creativity and hard work of the director and production crew.
I really enjoyed "North Star." For me, it had rich production values, including the costumes and the location shoot on the Western streets of Universal Studios. That cool washed-out sepia look on the planet was great. Archer and Trip looked fabulous in their Western duds.
I agree, I thought the story was compelling and engaging, with interesting guest characters. Good casting, too. Glenn Morshower, who played Sheriff MacReady-- I just saw him in the opening of ST:Gen, what a trip! He's been in everything from "The X-Files" to Transformers, he's great to watch.
And I also thought the shuttle landing on dusty Main Street was very cool.
Also the staging of the shootout in the last act, wonderful stuff.If anyone out there hasn't listened to the DVD commentary by 1st A.D. Mike DeMeritt, it's fascinating and really entertaining. It gives us a glimpse into the production process, as well as the creativity and hard work of the director and production crew.
J
Jetfire
Guest
Yay!
I liked it alot.
I liked it alot.
Yay. I really like the episode. I think the biggest issue people have with it is that it probably shouldn't have been during the Xindi arc. Really they should have taken note of the planet and promised to come back and check it out after they stop the Xindi weapon first. There was really no point in going down and investigating while the future of planet Earth hangs in the balance.
The episode itself though is fantastic. It really felt like a Star Trek episode to me, especially TNG.
The episode itself though is fantastic. It really felt like a Star Trek episode to me, especially TNG.
That's really my only issue with it. If it had been a Season 2 or a Season 4 episode, I don't think it would catch as much flak as it does.
It was a really great episode to look at too, cinematography wise.
I loved seeing AT&T in western garb. 
It made no sense to me that Archer would interrupt his "time is of the essence" mission (remember back when he tortured someone?) to spend a couple of days playing "Cowboys and Skagarans."
I liked the western angle, but I find that it was unfair in labelling Cooper Smith (the leader of the original slave rebellion) a butcher. He was faced with an untenable situation. The Skags had kidnapped and brutally enslaved humans - Smith couldn't take the risk they'd try again later. Why shouldn't he burn their ship, destroy their weapons, make sure that a *slave species* could never again do what they did? He did what was necessary.
Any other enslaved population would have done the SAME THING in his place. When slaves are freed, they will want revenge. It's a natural reaction. As the old song goes - the Skags got their "balls to the wall", as all slavers eventually will.
That being said, of course things could change *now* on that planet, since none of the Skags alive then were around when the slave rebellion took place...maybe that was the point.
Any other enslaved population would have done the SAME THING in his place. When slaves are freed, they will want revenge. It's a natural reaction. As the old song goes - the Skags got their "balls to the wall", as all slavers eventually will.
That being said, of course things could change *now* on that planet, since none of the Skags alive then were around when the slave rebellion took place...maybe that was the point.
I love this episode, just as I love the classic Westerns it's so careful to pay homage to. Although I just now put together that Sheriff MacReady is played by the same actor that plays Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce on 24. How did I not know that???
I think it's perfectly reasonable that the Skagarans (including the teacher, who was 1/8 Skagaran) regarded Cooper Smith as a butcher. It's a matter of perception.
The ep taking place in the middle of the Xindi arc doesn't bother me much; I'm not sure anyone would be able to pass up the WTF??? curiosity of finding humans in the Expanse. I love the unspoken, If y'all can't get along with each other, I'm so not going to tell you what ELSE is out there!
I think it's perfectly reasonable that the Skagarans (including the teacher, who was 1/8 Skagaran) regarded Cooper Smith as a butcher. It's a matter of perception.
The ep taking place in the middle of the Xindi arc doesn't bother me much; I'm not sure anyone would be able to pass up the WTF??? curiosity of finding humans in the Expanse. I love the unspoken, If y'all can't get along with each other, I'm so not going to tell you what ELSE is out there!
Of course. Because we knew from the start that the Skags were a slave owning species. They did it once - they could do it again. Anyone who dared to fight back - any slave who dared to question the order of things - would of course be painted in the worst possible light by all Skags. Quite incorrectly, I might add.
I see what you're saying, Laser Beam, but there's also another side to this. Clearly the slave owners/kidnappers can't be excused for what they did. However, let's say the slaves rise up and not only free themselves, but also decimate the slave owning population. They set up their own government, and in the process deny by law all rights to the former slave holders, including the right to literacy, for the next several generations.
The former slaves would regard the former slave holders historically as evil and deserving of their fate, and would consider themselves in modern day as heroes. The former slave holders would consider themselves in modern day as oppressed victims, and the former slaves historically as butchers. Both sides are working off their own perceptions, with the slaves decendants not wanting to lose the upper hand (and ensuring that through law), and the slave holder descendants feeling oppressed because they themselves did nothing wrong. Both sides are so entrenched in their roles that their society has literally stagnated.
The former slaves would regard the former slave holders historically as evil and deserving of their fate, and would consider themselves in modern day as heroes. The former slave holders would consider themselves in modern day as oppressed victims, and the former slaves historically as butchers. Both sides are working off their own perceptions, with the slaves decendants not wanting to lose the upper hand (and ensuring that through law), and the slave holder descendants feeling oppressed because they themselves did nothing wrong. Both sides are so entrenched in their roles that their society has literally stagnated.
I suppose so. I'm just not seeing what else Cooper Smith could, or should, have done.
Could the writers have included something with the Xindi so stopping there would make sense? That is, maybe there was a Xindi vessel that had crashed? Maybe the Xindi had found Humans on the planet and were going to wipe them out? I don't know, something to connect the Xindi arc with that planet?
IIRC, at the end of the Civil War, there were those in Lincoln's Cabinet who were bent on revenge, and wanted to beat down the remains of the rebellion. But Lincoln was insistent that, despite the terrible losses, the South be forgiven and that the nation be reunited peacefully... "with malice toward none, and charity to all," as he said in his second Inaugural address.
So that's another way Cooper Smith could have gone: forgiveness, and a new beginning. But it would have taken extraordinary vision and grace.
But that added another level of tension to the episode. They needed continuing conflict.
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