Ryva Takes On Enterprise (Again)
- Thread starter Ryva Brall
- Start date
I think we see Archer really quite over his head in Fortunate Son. Which may have been what they intended but if we puny 21st century folk can come up with better diplomacy (like "call Forrest" LOL) it's lame. What we should have seen is Archer make decisions that we can see the logic of and seem to be solid, good decisions, but they blow up in his face and he has to learn to be more of a lateral thinking like Kirk.
I'm still waiting for this to happen. But so far, what I've seen of Archer has led me to the conclusion that if I were under his command, I'd probably jettison myself in an escape pod at the earliest available opportunity.
Ah, well, you see? I never made it past Season Two during the original airing, so I never found out if it got any better. If I had been patient for just a little while longer, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble. Instead, I get to bore everyone with my rewatch/review thread. 
Taking the prisoner wasn't wrong. As I said previously, the alternatives are to kill him, or let him rob you blind. Both seem worse. Archer doing the right thing though? He escalated the situation with that silly threat to remove all the components they installed when he should've been trying to talk the Fortunate down, and take the prisoner(who by maritime law is a pirate) until Starfleet can establish diplomatic contact with the Naussicans and sort this out.
You must have seen my post about "Darmok".Nonsense, Archer did everything right and acted like the captain of the Fortunate would have done. The young kid couldn't handle the big seat, had to compensate for it via playing tough boy, nearly destroyed the Fortunate while fighting with the Naussicans and was demoted once the old man was fit again.
Yeah, seemed as good a time as any.
Agreed. He handled himself poorly as well, but Archer didn't make it any better. Instead of trying to talk Ryan down, Archer just forced his hand by issuing that threat thus forcing the conflict he was supposedly trying to avoid.
Okay, you guys, settle down. I have a new episode for you to take apart.
Cold Front:
Oh, boy. Time travel already? Jeez, guys, we're not even halfway through the first season.
So it turns out that a member of the Enterprise crew is actually some sort of temporal agent from the future. Well, I highly doubt it was a surprise to anyone watching that Daniels (Matt Winston, who I'm pretty sure was in Galaxy Quest) was not who he appeared to be. From his very first scene, it was obvious that he would figure prominently in this episode, for one reason or another. Maybe if he had appeared once or twice in previous episodes, it would have been more of a surprise when it was revealed who he really was. Oh well. Just one more missed opportunity.
The interesting part of this episode is the mystery surrounding the motives of both Daniels and Silik. Daniels claims he's there to apprehend Silik, but Silik claims his mission was to prevent the Enterprise from being destroyed. Archer, naturally, is stuck trying to decide who to believe. Ultimately, he trusts Daniels, which seems to be the right choice, as Silik ends up shooting Archer, vaporizing Daniels, stealing his little temporal snowglobe dealie, and escaping through the shuttle bay door. (I'm pretty sure you can't sky-dive in space, but I'll let it slide.)
So, is Silik a bad guy? Looks that way. But then again, I don't remember anything about this Temporal Cold War story arc from the first time I watched ENT. So what do I know?
There were some dumb things about this episode that the writers apparently didn't catch. Like Daniels saying that he didn't want anyone to know he was a time traveller, and then walking through walls right in front of the engineering crew. And how is it that the universal translator can instantly translate what those alien pilgrims were saying, even though it's never heard a word of their language before? And yet it magically doesn't translate the invocation of the Great Plume of Whoozawhatsits when Phlox is speaking? (AAAHH, shut up, Ryva, don't think about it!)
I did like the little tidbit that Phlox is interested in other species' religions. It was consistent with his character's natural curiosity. I also liked the story with the aliens on their pilgrimage, and the scenes where the Enterprise crew showed them around the ship. The whole "meeting new civilizations" thing felt like genuine Trek to me. And the shots of the stellar nursery were beautiful.
This episode was directed by Robert Duncan McNeill. Yay! I've enjoyed his directing in the past, for VOY as well as for the series Chuck. And, well, despite the unoriginal time travel premise and the usual plot holes, I think he did a good job with what he was given to work with. The camera work was nicely done, and the acting was on a better level than what I've seen so far. Well done, Robbie.
Cold Front:
Oh, boy. Time travel already? Jeez, guys, we're not even halfway through the first season.
So it turns out that a member of the Enterprise crew is actually some sort of temporal agent from the future. Well, I highly doubt it was a surprise to anyone watching that Daniels (Matt Winston, who I'm pretty sure was in Galaxy Quest) was not who he appeared to be. From his very first scene, it was obvious that he would figure prominently in this episode, for one reason or another. Maybe if he had appeared once or twice in previous episodes, it would have been more of a surprise when it was revealed who he really was. Oh well. Just one more missed opportunity.
The interesting part of this episode is the mystery surrounding the motives of both Daniels and Silik. Daniels claims he's there to apprehend Silik, but Silik claims his mission was to prevent the Enterprise from being destroyed. Archer, naturally, is stuck trying to decide who to believe. Ultimately, he trusts Daniels, which seems to be the right choice, as Silik ends up shooting Archer, vaporizing Daniels, stealing his little temporal snowglobe dealie, and escaping through the shuttle bay door. (I'm pretty sure you can't sky-dive in space, but I'll let it slide.)
So, is Silik a bad guy? Looks that way. But then again, I don't remember anything about this Temporal Cold War story arc from the first time I watched ENT. So what do I know?
There were some dumb things about this episode that the writers apparently didn't catch. Like Daniels saying that he didn't want anyone to know he was a time traveller, and then walking through walls right in front of the engineering crew. And how is it that the universal translator can instantly translate what those alien pilgrims were saying, even though it's never heard a word of their language before? And yet it magically doesn't translate the invocation of the Great Plume of Whoozawhatsits when Phlox is speaking? (AAAHH, shut up, Ryva, don't think about it!)
I did like the little tidbit that Phlox is interested in other species' religions. It was consistent with his character's natural curiosity. I also liked the story with the aliens on their pilgrimage, and the scenes where the Enterprise crew showed them around the ship. The whole "meeting new civilizations" thing felt like genuine Trek to me. And the shots of the stellar nursery were beautiful.
This episode was directed by Robert Duncan McNeill. Yay! I've enjoyed his directing in the past, for VOY as well as for the series Chuck. And, well, despite the unoriginal time travel premise and the usual plot holes, I think he did a good job with what he was given to work with. The camera work was nicely done, and the acting was on a better level than what I've seen so far. Well done, Robbie.
I dislike this episode simply because it contains Temporal Cold War nonsense. Enterprise has more time travel related episodes than Voyager, and that's saying something given it only ran four seasons. It's not the worst one by far, but it just sets prescent for the godawful nonsense to come. I could rant more... but it'd be spoiler heavy.
Phlox's bubbly curiosity was a nice change from the status quo, and I never thought it was annoying though a lot of people seem to. As for the universal translator... it's a very plot sensitive device in the early 22nd century, working at some times, not working at others.
Phlox's bubbly curiosity was a nice change from the status quo, and I never thought it was annoying though a lot of people seem to. As for the universal translator... it's a very plot sensitive device in the early 22nd century, working at some times, not working at others.
To be honest, John Billingsley is one of the few things keeping me watching at this point... other than my obsession with watching every Trek series, whether it's good or not.
After ENT, I plan to watch The Animated Series.I know, I know... I need to just let it go. But they might as well put Hoshi in a miniskirt, because for all her skills in linguistics, she's basically become this show's Uhura; in other words, the Enterprise's phone receptionist.
I hated the Temporal Cold War from the moment it began in "Broken Bow". Braga claimed it was the result of the network wanting something futuristic. Something futuristic in a science fiction series? Oh, please. That doesn't necessarily mean the TCW was the network's idea, no matter how Braga wants to paint it after the fact. It was bad enough the pilot had to introduce the Enterprise, its crew, and its mission, but it saddles us with this big mysterious war and its various factions as well. Even the more popular Xindi Arc is part of it, as an arc within an arc. The damn TCW even stretches into the start of the 4th season, so until the network said wrap up the arc, they must have intended for it to run 7 years.
To be honest, John Billingsley is one of the few things keeping me watching at this point... other than my obsession with watching every Trek series, whether it's good or not.
Um... you may wanna do yourself a favor and skip Dear Doctor then...
Even that last episode in the arc before they dropped it just made me want to....
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
No, no, no. Dear Doctor is in my top 5 ENT favorites on a host of different levels. If Billingsley's work intrigues you, this one is special.
No, no, no. Dear Doctor is in my top 5 ENT favorites on a host of different levels. If Billingsley's work intrigues you, this one is special.
