"Rajiin" - UGH

[Gaith]

C'mon, Enterprise S3, I'm trying to work with you here. Your premiere sucked, but at least we got into the Expanse. Then Anomaly perpetuated the lie that torture generally works, but it was well-paced and had some good action. Extinction was ludicrous, with its near-instant interspecies morphing, but I kinda liked it anyways, in a goofy sort of way.

But then you serve up the ultimate crap sandwich with "Rajiin". There's pages' worth of awful, but I'll focus on a few points:

- Archer dines with a prostitute/slave... alone. Apparently his mind is still warped by the whole morphing-into-an-alien thing, because that's wildly inappropriate in ten different ways. He also doesn't assign her a minder, because it's not as though they're on an important mission or anything.

- Rajiin beats the crap outta T'Pol, who (unless B&B forgot) is a Vulcan and thus pretty darn strong, but he still enters her brig cell alone and unobserved. Then the ship is attacked, and he just stands there in the brig, waiting for the play-by-play.

- The Xindi beat the crap outta our guys and then leave. We see several MACOs dropped. Are they dead, or just stunned? Are we really expected not to ask?

And then, just to put a cherry of awful on top of everything, after introducing this totally hot babe who might actually turn into an interesting character, she's never heard from again. I know, because I Memory Alpha'd her, queasily expecting that to be the case.

The Netflix Instant directory should have a big, bold "Warning: this ep really blows chunks" label on it.

 

[horatio83]

Apart from some obsessive bitching about logic or plot holes or however people who do not understand drama call this stuff and a lack of understanding that a mysterious character is not meant to reappear precisely in order to not destroy the sense of mystery (Trekkers who wanna see how the Borg and V'Ger and so on are related do not understand the word mystery), not to mention that characters from stand-alone episodes never reappear, I did not see anything in your post that actually addresses the story.

Now to talk about the forest instead of the trees, it wasn't a particularly good episode and it mainly worked because of atmosphere. And the 'pepper' alien was kinda fun. Showing these little differences among species is often a better way to show the alienness of aliens than fancy makeups.

 

[ALF]

I like Rajin, but I'd say the decisions made creatively during season 3 really lined up the last few nails in the coffin.

 

[RandyS]

Yeah, season 3 was shit. I still say that making the stakes the destruction of Earth in the prequel show, when we all know from the other series that it wasn't destroyed rendered the entire season redundant.

Ironically, the best episode from that year was "Twilight" where Earth WAS destroyed and everybody is living in an alternate timeline.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

"Making the stakes the destruction of Earth" may be a bad idea but it's no more or less so because "the show is a prequel." If you've ever watched a series or movie anything like this in your life and you think that there's a chance the story arc will end with Earth's destruction you're terminally clueless.

The only part of Enterprise I didn't enjoy was a good part of the second year.

There's nothing about the story logic of this episode that's not pretty typical of Star Trek going right back to the beginning.

 

[Saul]

I'm rewatching season 3 too. This was a bad episode but I know there is worse to come. T`pol and Rajin fighting was somebody's fantasy. Between that and the action it really comes across as trying to be bold and new but falling on it's face. It's like an eighty year old man trying to do hip hop.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I loved season three. It's my favourite season in all of Star Trek. Fun!

That said, "Rajin" was just cheap titillation. Somehow I can't imagine a them putting a guy in the role doing the same to the guys that she did to the girls!

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I quite liked the actress and I quite liked the ending. The feeling up T'Pol scenes were embarrassingly bad

 

[Miss Lemon]

The feeling up T'Pol scenes were embarrassingly bad

Seconded. What where they thinking..?

That scene ruins the episode for me.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Stupid Rajiin - sent to investigate humans, spends time feeling up the one Vulcan on board...

 

[Skywalker]

"Raijin" is a terrible episode (only "Extinction" is worse in Season Three, IMO). The best thing about it is there's hardly any follow-up to it, except for "Carpenter Street" (which also wasn't very good).

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I loved Carpenter Street! The guest actor was great (can't remember who he was off hand). It was a splash of X-files.

 

[Saul]

Just watched 'Carpenter Street' today and it wasn't that great. When you compare it to the more fun and exciting episodes like Future's End or City on the Edge of Forever or Star Trek IV it's a really poor time travel episode. It's just T'pol and Archer driving around at night referencing things about the 20th century. Their attempt at comedy was going to a fast food drive through which wasn't funny at all.

 

[Gaith]

"Raijin" is a terrible episode (only "Extinction" is worse in Season Three, IMO).

Not only did I like "Extinction" for the goofy yarn it was, it also had the decency to wrap things up pretty well. As sloppy and juvenile as "Rajiin" is, I actually did want to see/hear from the character again, even if that's in large part due to her complete hotness. But to just forget about her entirely? Lame, man, lame.

 

[Skywalker]

She was worth forgetting about.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

C'mon, Enterprise S3, I'm trying to work with you here.

That's your first problem. ENT S3 does not care, not one little bit.

 

[Gaith]

But... I just watched "North Star" and "Chosen Realm", and both treated me very well!

 

[Nerys Myk]

I had to look up Rajjin just to remind myself of the plot. It's one that totally slipped my mind. Which appears to be a good thing.

 

[Saul]

But... I just watched "North Star" and "Chosen Realm", and both treated me very well!

Just finished 'Chosen Realm'. Good episode thanks to Mr. Manny Coto! Loved the ending.

 

[I am Surak]

Ahh - Rajiin. She did nothing for me. I guess I am not a fan of curly hair. But here is the scene that brought viewers back the next week. On a side note I find the fit of her pajama pants interesting. Is there more to Jolene than we know?