Do you mean 'A Night In Sickbay'? 'Dear Doctor' has some serious issues, but A Night In Sickbay is a total clunker. And don't worry, they ain't all clunkers, far from it.
the one where they respect the prime directive that doesn't exist yet and endorse genocide. I want to skip that one.
A Night In Sickbay has always been in my 'worst of trek' list. That one, at least, isn't one I like to watch again lol
E Yes, it's certainly not one of the best episodes (though I find the rewatch value higher than most of the Discovery episodes).
I really liked Fight or Flight. Space feels huge and empty and dangerous. I liked the black market aspect of the drug-harvesters and the horror aspects of the harvesting system and derelict ship. This kind of stuff could have been more commonplace before the Federation was there to patrol and police stuff of this nature. It definitely has a wild west feel to it so far. It had shades of Wrath of Khan with the bodies hanging. They had no idea what a tractor beam is! Did the communicator sound effects change since Broken Bow? I swear it sounded more TOSish last episode. Good character piece for Hoshi for this early in the show. Kind of made fun of the whole "girl screaming" cliche and turned it on its side, with her being her own biggest critic. They contaminated a new world with that alien slug. Watching T'Pol, Trip and Jonathan having dinner as a trio made me think of the TOS Trinity. Archer isn't as far removed from Kirk as I'd been led to believe (at first glance.) T'Pol shows all sorts of emotion right beneath the surface. Best Vulcan since Nimoy. In another time and place, I could see this being a remix/re-imaginging/reboot of TOS. Still loving the colors and markings in the sequences when they launch the shuttlepod. The Axanar! Maybe this event leads to a war between the pirates and the Axanar, followed up by a peace summit....
Strange New World seemed a bit more generic. TOS soundstages looked more alien than this. Its so obviously a standard Earth location shoot. The whole epsiode is a bit cliche on a bunch of levels. Why would they bring the dog to an untested alien planet?? Minshara class planets... Vulcan star charts.... so much of the Federation is built on the human/vulcan alliance... almost in its entirety. It reminded me a bit of The Enemy Within, but if we had followed the landing party the whole time. The paranoia and hallucinations paralleled the dark side coming out. A bit of this side of paraidse, with the plants spreading mood altering pollen. There were some strange transporter inconsistancies, like if they beamed up the one guy, why not the rest of them? And they were able to beam down the cure in the storm no problem. Archer had quite a Kirk-like bluff there at the end to keep Trip in line. First Vulcan neck pinch!
Unexpected..... was unexpected. As in, this was pretty bad. Or maybe its one of the very few episodes I saw back in the day. Beyond predictable. I either had seen it before or read about it in detail, but I am definitely leaning towards the former. Was this the episode they were attempting to use another model for the Klingons and instead pulled out the old D7 again? 4 episodes in and they already have a holodeck and cloaking screens, even if they were alien ones. The male pregnancy / first cross species pregnancy / accidental pregnancy was such a cliche. I guess I'm glad it was just an accident and not "bwahaha evil alien plot" at least. They didn't seemed surprised by the existence of a tractor beam anymore.
If that was what Braga said, then I take him at his word about the casting situation regarding Trinneer as Trip. Nevertheless, when Tucker explained in "First Flight" how he got his nickname Trip, I couldn't help but think that the writers might have had some presidential inspiration, as crazy as my thinking may be; first the physical resemblance between Trinneer and Bush and then the origin of the character's name. Tucker's formal name is Charles Tucker III. He explained that "Trip" was short for triple, meaning he was the third Charles Tucker of his family, or the triple "I"s in his name. The nickname "Trip" was to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, who were named Charles Tucker as well. George W. Bush has the same first and last name as his father. Bush Jr. is often referred to by his nickname "Dubya", which distinguishes him from his father. Both "Trip" and "W" are a play, or variation, on their formal names, and a way to distinguish each from their father (and grandfather in Tucker's case). Anyway, enough of the Bush coincidences (real or imagined ), back to "First Flight". This episode was Enterprise meets The Right Stuff. It was a good story about Archer's days as a hotshot test pilot, competing for the chance to be the first human to fly at warp speed. There was even a cliche bar room fight scene in the episode. The story was also interesting, imho, in that Archer and T'Pol reversed roles. In "Carbon Creek", T'pol was the story teller and Archer was the audience. This time Archer was the story teller and T'Pol was the captive audience. T'Pol's tale sounded like a tall tale, at least to Archer. Her story was no where to be found in any history book. Interestingly, Archer noted that the account of that first flight was completely off the record as well. I suppose that, in-universe, both the events in "Carbon Creek" and "First Flight" did happen. There was whimsy in the way T'Pol told her story, whereas Archer's story was straightforward and seemingly meant to be taken as in-universe factual by the viewer.
But then she went back to her quarters and took out her great grandmother’s purse to physically reconnect with that past event. I remember the momentary chills I felt, similar to the episode where she ended up with a slice of pecan pie beneath her meditation candle.
^ It was a riveting moment, at the end, when T'Pol pulled out that purse. I think what might have made that moment so effective was because T'Pol was so wily when Archer and Tucker asked her if the tale was indeed true. T'Pol wouldn't reveal. She left it to their imagination (and, I guess, the viewer's) if they wanted to believe the story or not. Also, her Carbon Creek story had a feel good ending, at least for me. T'Pol's great grandmother was good hearted enough to leave that mother and son money for his college education and she did it secretly and didn't take credit for. And in the process, she "invented" velcro.
I think Archer and Phlox were wrong, but that doesn't make it a bad episode. It explored a interesting issue, and revealed that just because they're some of the "heroes" of the series doesn't mean they're perfect or don't make horrifying mistakes. And feel good about themselves when they do it. They condemed (likely) billions of people to eventual death, and started the process of introducing (years later) a directive that probably killed billions more. Please don't skip the episode, it is one of Enterprise's more important stories.
This surprised me on my rewatch. I remember actually liking Reed the first time around, maybe not my favorite character but I had some affection for him for some reason. Not so on the second viewing. I thought he was arrogant, immature, and made poor decisions.
I finished watching season 3 on H&I. I was disappointed that Hoshi was essentially relegated to being a background character for most of the season. "Exile" was one of my favorite eps of the season because it was a Hoshi centered ep. It was actually a decent episode regardless. One of the standout guest characters of season 3 was Degra, the Xindi scientist who developed the planet destroying weapon but who also had a conscience. I am curious if the writers who created Degra were inspired by the real life scientist Robert Oppenheimer, the man who made the atomic bomb and had a guilty conscience about it. Degra was a memorable character. I liked the storyline involving Degra in "Stratagem". The plot reminded me of some of the old Mission:Impossible plots. The Enterprise crew built a false shuttle craft with Degra in it, as a ruse to deceive Degra into spilling his secrets about the weapon. I also enjoyed the episode "The Shipment". I thought It was an exciting story where Archer and his assault team had to infiltrate a Xindi weapons lab located in a forest in an attempt to sabotage the weapon. The Xindi themselves made me think about similarities to the apes of the Planet of the Apes franchise. The gorillas were the brutes, the chimps were the scientists. The reptilian Xindis were the war mongers, the Xindi primates and arboreals were generally the scientists. Most of the fighting, pew pew pew, of the Xindi war took place towards the end of the season. There were plenty of good episodes that led up to the climax.
There aren't that many Trek characters I dislike completely but Reed is certainly one of them. I kept waiting for him to grow on me but it never happened.
There were two oddball episodes from season 3 that I can't forget. The two are "North Star" and "Carpenter Street". They stand out from the rest of the season's episodes. At times, when I was watching those episodes, I momentarily forgot that I was watching Star Trek Enterprise. The setting sort of takes your mind away from the usual Star Trek universe. "North Star" was, I suppose, more or less a morality play with a theme (closed mindedness, xenophobia, oppression of a different species) that had been done before in other Trek episodes. But "North Star" had its own twist and its own unique way of presenting it. I loved the Old West setting. I thought Archer did the right thing by telling the humans, living there, the real story of their origins and how they got where they were. And he gave them hope that things could get better, one step at a time if they make the effort; that they could live in harmony and as equals with the Skags; and that one day they too will be able to reach for the stars. It was another feel good ending. "Carpenter Street" was a different kind of oddball. It was dark. It was set in the mean streets of contemporary Detroit, although I think it was actually filmed in the mean streets of L.A. It was amusing seeing Archer and T'Pol walking down some dark random street, casing all the parked cars to see which one they could easily steal. I had to chuckle when they ordered some burgers at a fast food drive thru. The story seemed to give off a crime drama vibe with Archer and T'Pol as two rogue cops who, with the help of a petty criminal, were searching for Xindi criminals on the loose. Beyond what the plot was, I am not sure if there was a moral to the story. In any case, I found both episodes entertaining.
Normally, I like to hear smart conspiracy theories but, I think I won't give a chance for this one. At the ENT Trek Bible characters name is Charlie "Spike" Tucker. Then someone realized Spike is already given And there is a well known funny anecdote from Trinneer about how he got informed about the change. Maybe I can find the video, when I have time. Ohh, I remember the name of other guy. TPTB wanted to Eric Close as Trip who is really nothing physically to do with Bush Jr. According to Braga, he was the only one who wanted to cast Trinneer for the Trip/Spike.
Tera Nova was a pretty solid episode. Into the Trek Blender definitely went "Miri" (kids surviving a mutation/disease that killed everyone that was older.) Their stunted lingo for before, after, above, below, etc, played into this as well. I'm truly not sure how they survived 70 years. I wasn't quite sure if their apperance was from being underground or mutated. The relocation plot looked like it was lifted partially from TNG: Homeward. The pieces added up to a nice, watchable story, however. It seems strange that no one checked on the colony yet but in a way shows how haphazard and chaotic everything was, including communicating not only from the Humans to Vulcans, but from one set of humans to another, again going with the wild west / slow communications / legends of the frontier theme, and on a smaller level, applying it right to the lack of communication between the Terra Nova colony and Earth proper. I enjoyed hearing about the colony ship and how it was made to be disassembled, and made me wonder where in the timeline other early Earth colonies / missing ships that TOS references actually fit into this. It broadened the scope of the universe, if one can look at this as a new show and not a prequel. This ship is now fast enough to get to places that were completely out of range, and just hit the edge of the known frontier. Travis has had more to do then Malcolm so far; at least he got to make the report, and solve the ghost story/legend, while Malcolm was just a plot device. Still loving the look of the shuttle pod.
While rewatching some of the stories of the season 3 Xindi war arc, I couldn't help but think of the current events happening at the time when that season originally aired. The Xindi attack that destroyed a vast swath of Florida, and Trip losing his sister in that attack, had a 9/11 overtone. There were three episodes, that come to mind, that reminded me of that time. "The Forgotten", "Damage" and "Chosen Realm". "The Forgotten" is the one where Trip was struggling to find the right words for a condolence letter that he had to write to the parents of a crewman under his command who had fallen in the line of duty. I would guess that particular story might have resonated much more strongly back then when the Iraq war was going on. In "Damage", the theme seemed to be more than about the physical damage that the Enterprise ship had suffered. The episode, not so subtly, showed how the Xindi war had damaged Archer's moral compass. Archer resorted to highway robbery to steal the warp coils from an innocent friendly alien ship after they wouldn't trade it away. The mission was all consuming for Archer, he did things he otherwise would not have done. I think the writers were making a commentary about the effect that the wars at the time were having on the country. The religious zealots who hijacked the Enterprise in "Chosen Realm" seemed to be a metaphor for the enemy that the US was fighting. At one point one the zealots used a version of a suicide vest to blow himself up to demonstrate to Archer that they were deadly serious. I suppose those zealots could have been a metaphor about any kind of religious extremism, but the suicide bombing seemed pretty specific. I give the writers credit for not being afraid to write that kind of story.