Precious Cargo

[Admiral Shran]

Could somebody explain the hatred towards this episode to me? I'll grant, it's nothing special, but I actually liked it. Am I the only one?

I've seen countless references here to how terrible the episode is. However, all I hear is "It's awful," "It's terrible," or "It's the worst ever" without an explanation as to why it's so bad.

Thanks.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

Precious Cargo is hated not only for its hokey writing and atrocious acting, but also for what this episode represents: A clueless attitude among the writers/producers that ultimately led to Enterprise's demise. Like so many episodes in season 2, this bore of an episode fills a spot that could have been filled by an episode that contributes to a greater whole and makes use of the shows unique premise. But no, they treated us to crap like Precious Cargo and Marauders.

 

[SFRabid]

I liked it, but then I accept the fact that I am watching sci fi on TV rather than attending a Shakespeare play on Broadway. It was fun and entertaining enough to keep me interersted.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I liked it, but then I accept the fact that I am watching sci fi on TV rather than attending a Shakespeare play on Broadway. It was fun and entertaining enough to keep me interersted.

Here, here. It looked to me as if the actors had a great time with it. There's that scene where Archer bows and scrapes to the "judicial administrator" T'Pol during the "tribunal" for Plinn... "Does your culture observe any postmortem rituals?" Funny stuff.

 

[JiNX-01]

I liked it, but then I accept the fact that I am watching sci fi on TV rather than attending a Shakespeare play on Broadway. It was fun and entertaining enough to keep me interersted.

Here, here. It looked to me as if the actors had a great time with it. There's that scene where Archer bows and scrapes to the "judicial administrator" T'Pol during the "tribunal" for Plinn... "Does your culture observe any postmortem rituals?" Funny stuff.

Yeah, the judicial administrator stuff was great.

Sadly, Connor ended up with the hard part... trying to carry the main plot with the dead weight of Padma Lakshmi and a lousy script. Absolutely no sparks in that dialogue. Sheesh.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I liked it, but then I accept the fact that I am watching sci fi on TV rather than attending a Shakespeare play on Broadway. It was fun and entertaining enough to keep me interersted.

That's the way I've always seen it.

As for contributing to the greater whole rather than another stand-alone episode, I'll agree with that. Enterprise definitely needed more episodes like that.

However, I thought this was a fun little episode. The acting was fine, in my opinion. Also, Padma Lakshmi did an alright job, not an amazing one I'll grant, but I liked her character.

 

[Skywalker]

Honestly, when I finally saw this for the first time a couple months ago, I didn't find it to be the "worst ENT episode ever!" some people consider it to be, but I did think it was very, very boring, like much of mid-S2. I did like the "judicial administrator" scene, though.

 

[fishingforships]

I just thought it was funny. A southern boy stuck with an uptight monarch. Yes the acting could use some help, but I found it a riot. By far not my favorite episode, but it does rank somewhere in the middle.

 

[Triskelion]

They do Shakespeare on Broadway? I gotta get out more.

Is it just me or does watching too much TV lower your expectations? I don't know how to rate this episode. Adequate for TV?

 

[Middleman]

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. Tucker was my favorite character in the series and this was a classic Tucker episode. Having said that, I think that those who criticized this episode have a point. I think Enterprise did have too may "filler" episodes that added nothing for charter development, the development of the overall story of the history federation and the relationships of crew. We could have done with less of these filler episodes like "Precious Cargo". However to say "Precious Cargo" had "hokey writing and atrocious acting" is an exaggeration at best. They were trying to do a "cutesy" story and that's what we got.

 

[SFRabid]

They do Shakespeare on Broadway? I gotta get out more.

...

Every now and then, when they are not packing the theaters with the likes of Rose, Prymate, Taller than a Dwarf, etc...

 

[Reanok]

I didn't really care for this show but did like T'Pol pretending to be a judicial administrator I thought it was a funny scene.I did like some of the scenes with trip& the princess.I remember Connor refused to do the stunt fight in the swamp and they ended up having a stuntman fight in the dirty stagnant water.

 

[digger]

My wife and I laugh every time at Malcolm's expression toward the end when the search party comes across Trip. The smirk he gives is priceless!

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I don't hate it, but it just feels like an episode I've seen a million times before (probably on some iteration of Star Trek). I don't think it's distinctive enough to hate.

 

[Spork111]

I actually remember Precious Cargo for a distinct reason - it was the first episode of Enterprise that I did not watch all the way through first run. I was an exceedingly loyal ENT viewer up to that point, but I remember that night, about a quarter or a third of the way through the episode, I got up and worked on some school project or something - not even due the next day!

It's not that I think Precious Cargo is particularly awful, but I think I was feeling a serious slump in the middle of season 2. I simply found it thoroughly mediocre. It just felt like we had seen it all before, and better in most cases. It was the disappointing trend that I think got to me more than the particular episode. The straw that broke the camel's back, as it were.

It was just boring. Vanilla. Drab. Like a great deal of the Berman-era Trek (especially in the later years of Voyager.) I think it was especially disappointing to me as I found the idea of a prequel to TOS a fascinating proposition and the greatest opportunity the franchise had seen since TNG to really "shake it up" and add some color and liveliness. Instead, we were consistently getting episodes like these that could just as easily have been an episode of Voyager. It felt like I had to wait through tons of filler episodes like this to get to the good stuff, like the Earth-Romulan War or the birth of the Federation. Little did I know...

 

[Crimea River]

I didn't really like Precious Cargo, either; but then again I enjoy more serious themes. There were some parts, though, that amused me a bit. I actually watched it the whole way through, however. Marauders, I enjoyed more.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

The first time I saw it, on tv, I was still not warmed up to ENT and I thought it very tacky and eye rolling. Such a cliche. The next time I saw it I was completely enamored with ENT and it was a mediocre episode with some good bits. Which, btw, is about as bad as ENT gets in my book, so yeah it's possibly "the worst" but the worst is mediocre.'

Is this really the Threshold of ENT? Is there some other ep more universally reviled?

If you're a Trip fan it's hard to see Precious Cargo as bad stuff because there is just so much Trip in it. Now if Precious Cargo had been a TNG ep and that had been Riker with her Royal Precious I would have wanted to disinfect my eyes and forget it ever existed.

 

[DonIago]

TATV or ANIS tend to be more reviled, I would think. Compared to those Precious Cargo just might be considered "forgettable".

This episode probably marked the time when I started being glad I got ENT on a delayed feed so I could read reviews of episodes before seeing them...or, in several cases, not seeing them.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

TATV or ANIS tend to be more reviled, I would think. Compared to those Precious Cargo just might be considered "forgettable".

This episode probably marked the time when I started being glad I got ENT on a delayed feed so I could read reviews of episodes before seeing them...or, in several cases, not seeing them.

OMG I had blocked TATV from my mind!! I was wracking my brain trying to think of a hated ep and I never remembered it. Oh yeah, that is "the worst".

ANIS I have no problem with at all.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Ah ANIS, another reviled episode I like.

For my money, neither "Precious Cargo" nor "A Night In Sickbay" come close to the horror of TATV. Not the same ballpark. Not the same league. Not even the same sport.