Started watching Enterprise for the first time ever
- Thread starter Deimos Anomaly
- Start date
"Similtude"
Utter fucked up situation. Seemed like an attempt to revisit the famous "Good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one" dilemma from TWOK, but with a rather more unhappy ending. It started taking on the atmosphere of an American lethal injection execution, complete with Sim lying down on the gurney and getting, well, a lethal injection.
Oddly enough, the FUBAR situation with Trip/Sim wasn't what pissed me off the most about this ep. The thing that really ground my gears was the absolute, total understanding-laws-of-physics fail that was presented during the scene where they try to tow the ship with shuttles.
The shuttles attach their clamps to the ship and fire up their thrusters, and they get these specially modified thrusters up to a monstrous level of straining, with components overheating, circuits inside the shuttles shorting out etc, and still the damn Enterprise doesn't move. T'pol is like "zero forward movement" and the ship sits there for almost a minute, an then suddenly starts moving.
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! The level of dumb was maddening! I think I could feel myself becoming dumber by osmosis just watching it. My initial reaction was that I wanted to chuck something at the screen. My subsequent, more productive thought, was that I'd like to find the writers of this ep and grab them by the hair with one hand, and shove a copy of Newton's laws of motion down their throat with my other hand.
A single, unmodified shuttle should have been able to immediately begin putting some acceleration on Enterprise, rather than two specially-modified shuttles, straining like tugs trying to pull a stranded ship off the rocks for a minute before anything happened.
I realise this particular ep review probably comes off more like a rant, but it's the kind of such utter, blatant, stupidstupidstupid basic physics pissing-on session, and in a show that prides itself on supposedly being a "more realistic" or "more scientific" sci fi, that it really sticks in my craw something awful.
Utter fucked up situation. Seemed like an attempt to revisit the famous "Good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one" dilemma from TWOK, but with a rather more unhappy ending. It started taking on the atmosphere of an American lethal injection execution, complete with Sim lying down on the gurney and getting, well, a lethal injection.
Oddly enough, the FUBAR situation with Trip/Sim wasn't what pissed me off the most about this ep. The thing that really ground my gears was the absolute, total understanding-laws-of-physics fail that was presented during the scene where they try to tow the ship with shuttles.
The shuttles attach their clamps to the ship and fire up their thrusters, and they get these specially modified thrusters up to a monstrous level of straining, with components overheating, circuits inside the shuttles shorting out etc, and still the damn Enterprise doesn't move. T'pol is like "zero forward movement" and the ship sits there for almost a minute, an then suddenly starts moving.
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! The level of dumb was maddening! I think I could feel myself becoming dumber by osmosis just watching it. My initial reaction was that I wanted to chuck something at the screen. My subsequent, more productive thought, was that I'd like to find the writers of this ep and grab them by the hair with one hand, and shove a copy of Newton's laws of motion down their throat with my other hand.
A single, unmodified shuttle should have been able to immediately begin putting some acceleration on Enterprise, rather than two specially-modified shuttles, straining like tugs trying to pull a stranded ship off the rocks for a minute before anything happened.
I realise this particular ep review probably comes off more like a rant, but it's the kind of such utter, blatant, stupidstupidstupid basic physics pissing-on session, and in a show that prides itself on supposedly being a "more realistic" or "more scientific" sci fi, that it really sticks in my craw something awful.
Yeah, ENT science does have proportionally a bit more than its share of Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics (TM) moments - but at the very least they did get away from the Treknobabble a bit. A fair trade-off? Your mileage may vary...
As to the merits of S3, I'll just say that was the season where I completely lost interest in the show. I did go back later, much later, to watch S4, and that was a great improvement over all three previous. But S3 was just nauseatingly bad in a hit-you-over-the-head-with-our-preachy-topicality kind of way. The entire thing just struck me as being bogged down in contrived storytelling and the Flanderisation of most of the main cast. Archer goes from being a barely-tolerable douchebag to being a completely intolerable motherfucking psychopath, Trip becomes an emo basket case, they ruined T'Pol's character (she underwent some rehabilitation in S4), and I really can't agree with you about the MACOs. To me they were basically just Starship Troopers rejects who are basically there to be the steroid-addicted, beefed-up Redshirts of the season (except we didn't have the saving grace of Paul Verhoeven's subtle satirical eye and we got stuck with the stultified self-righteousness of Brannon Braga and Rick Borefest). All moral reasoning goes straight down the tubes as we get stuck with a crew who believe that 'right is whatever we do'. I'm not sure I could go back and rewatch S3 without skipping through great portions of it.
S4 is indeed excellent, though. Good watching, DA; hope S3 isn't too much of a chore!
As to the merits of S3, I'll just say that was the season where I completely lost interest in the show. I did go back later, much later, to watch S4, and that was a great improvement over all three previous. But S3 was just nauseatingly bad in a hit-you-over-the-head-with-our-preachy-topicality kind of way. The entire thing just struck me as being bogged down in contrived storytelling and the Flanderisation of most of the main cast. Archer goes from being a barely-tolerable douchebag to being a completely intolerable motherfucking psychopath, Trip becomes an emo basket case, they ruined T'Pol's character (she underwent some rehabilitation in S4), and I really can't agree with you about the MACOs. To me they were basically just Starship Troopers rejects who are basically there to be the steroid-addicted, beefed-up Redshirts of the season (except we didn't have the saving grace of Paul Verhoeven's subtle satirical eye and we got stuck with the stultified self-righteousness of Brannon Braga and Rick Borefest). All moral reasoning goes straight down the tubes as we get stuck with a crew who believe that 'right is whatever we do'. I'm not sure I could go back and rewatch S3 without skipping through great portions of it.
S4 is indeed excellent, though. Good watching, DA; hope S3 isn't too much of a chore!
On further reflection it occurs to me that Similitude is to an extent a retelling of the classic Christian-influenced sacrifice tragedy that has been laced through western popular fiction for years, centuries even. Sim lays down his life, literally to save all mankind, given the Xindi situation. Oh, and this sacrifice was his destiny, the very raison d'etre of his being brought into existence. He's basically a Jesus Christ character.
Other examples of this trope are easy to spot if you look hard enough. Probably one of the more well known Jesuses is Optimus Prime.
Other examples of this trope are easy to spot if you look hard enough. Probably one of the more well known Jesuses is Optimus Prime.
Wow, that's quite the anti-S3 rant. Well, hopefully the remainder is not only not a chore but entertaining for our good friend, the TC.
Well. Happily for me, I have a different view of Season 3: it is my favorite season of Enterprise. I found the character development and "going to the dark side" theme to be remarkably compelling and emotionally evocative.
"Similitude" is among my top 3 episodes of the series. "Star Trek Science" doesn't usually bother me or distract me; typically it seems to exist as a framework for the real focus, the characters and drama, and I just roll with it, warts and all. I thought "Similitude" was a great example of the classic Trek "impossible choice" dilemma. I found Archer's gradual deterioration over the course of the episode, as his dilemma weighed ever heavier on him, and Sim's sacrifice at the end, very moving.
DA, I hope you get something good out of your watch of Season 3.
"Similitude" is among my top 3 episodes of the series. "Star Trek Science" doesn't usually bother me or distract me; typically it seems to exist as a framework for the real focus, the characters and drama, and I just roll with it, warts and all. I thought "Similitude" was a great example of the classic Trek "impossible choice" dilemma. I found Archer's gradual deterioration over the course of the episode, as his dilemma weighed ever heavier on him, and Sim's sacrifice at the end, very moving.
DA, I hope you get something good out of your watch of Season 3.
Speaking of going to the dark side, I just watched the ep where Archer and T'pol are sent back in time to 2004. When the guy they're interrogating won't tell them anything, Archer starts beating him up.
It reminded me of the alien they captured some episodes back who told them that they were too civilised, and that they would need to change (i.e. become brutalised) in order to survive in the expanse.
Well, it is changing them. Many of them are veering towards humanity's darker tendencies under the circumstances, it's most notable with Archer, perhaps with Reed and Trip as well. It actually reminded me of Quark's comments to Nog in The Siege of Ar-558, where he tells him how prolonged conflict, danger etc. turns the hew-mons into violent bloodthirsty people who behave like Klingons.
It reminded me of the alien they captured some episodes back who told them that they were too civilised, and that they would need to change (i.e. become brutalised) in order to survive in the expanse.
Well, it is changing them. Many of them are veering towards humanity's darker tendencies under the circumstances, it's most notable with Archer, perhaps with Reed and Trip as well. It actually reminded me of Quark's comments to Nog in The Siege of Ar-558, where he tells him how prolonged conflict, danger etc. turns the hew-mons into violent bloodthirsty people who behave like Klingons.
Deimos Anomaly said:
That's certainly true, except FWIR we didn't get a Quark (or a Spock or a Seven) in ENT S3 to be the interlocutor for what the 'hew-mons' were becoming. That might have been interesting, a way to actually make good use of the topicality they were going for; T'Pol did fulfil that role in S1 (and later in S4), but by S3 her character was just completely gimped, and the audience is expected to see her practically as a vindication of human frailty through her Trellium-D addiction. Hell, even a self-interlocutor like Sisko ca. 'In the Pale Moonlight' would have been appreciated! (Sadly, for reasons I could never figure out, Scott Bakula has all the emotional range of Keanu Reeves in the Archer role.) Instead of taking full responsibility and confronting head-on the evils he commits, as Sisko did, Archer merely rationalises them away (as in 'Damage') or blames the victim (as in 'Anomaly').
Okay, I'm really done ranting this time; I am indeed actually interested in seeing what you make of the rest of ENT. I think most people are in agreement here that S4 is the best of the run, so I certainly look forward to your reviews of those!
Agreed S3 (Also my favorite.) seems to be mostly centered around character development. The Xindi arc feels like it was more of a subplot than main storyline.
Well, I just saw the Enterprise taken over by alien space-jihadis. These people worship "The Makers" (of the spheres in the delphic expanse) and have also been in a century-old genocidal war between two factions, over a seemingly minor difference in doctrine.
Apparently they're unaware of transporter technology... I got a kick out of Archer calling the transporter an execution device, and then stepping onto it to be "disintigrated" with all the solemnity and finality of an actual death, while everyone watching knows of course that T'pol is transporting him somewhere within the ship to start the fightback against the aliens.
By the end of the ep the ship is back in human hands of course, and then they proceed to he alien homeworld for a suitably downer ending.
As in most ST where religion is portrayed, the group is led by a cult-guru type with a penchant for demagoguery. I got a slight kick out of the scene at the captain's table where this uber-religious guy and the uber-unreligious logical T'pol seemed on the verge of a full on argument (in which the religious guy might have got violent) but for Archer's distracting them.
Apparently they're unaware of transporter technology... I got a kick out of Archer calling the transporter an execution device, and then stepping onto it to be "disintigrated" with all the solemnity and finality of an actual death, while everyone watching knows of course that T'pol is transporting him somewhere within the ship to start the fightback against the aliens.
By the end of the ep the ship is back in human hands of course, and then they proceed to he alien homeworld for a suitably downer ending.
As in most ST where religion is portrayed, the group is led by a cult-guru type with a penchant for demagoguery. I got a slight kick out of the scene at the captain's table where this uber-religious guy and the uber-unreligious logical T'pol seemed on the verge of a full on argument (in which the religious guy might have got violent) but for Archer's distracting them.
Hmmm, I was sure that self sacrifice and stories of extended back further than 2000 years and the time of Christ. In that time the greatest tells of war might include the brave soldier that gave his life for the group.
Glad to see you're enjoying Enterprise. It's the series that got me into Star Trek (season 3, to be precise), and I still think it's the second-best Trek next only to DS9. It had some pretty severe mess-ups (Dear Doctor's ending was one of the worst), but overall I really love the show.
I am glad that you embarked on this journey to watch ENT. It is my favorite Trek of all time, it is wonderfully put together and as the other series, it was slow to begin with. It picked up faster than the others imo and just sad that it never made it beyone a 4th season. It would have been wonderful.
I agree TATV is the worst ever, good idea but somewhere along the line it went horribly wrong. Enjoy the rest of the series
I agree TATV is the worst ever, good idea but somewhere along the line it went horribly wrong. Enjoy the rest of the series
Had a bit of a break there while the house was undergoing some major works and the computer where I stored the downloads was shoved out of the road.
Back on track now...
A recent episode was a hallucination-athon haunted house suspense ep featuring Phlox left in charge of the ship while the entire crew is unconcious while passing through a distorted region of space.
Then there was the one with the Xindi insectoid hatchery... Is it bad that I figured out by the time I'd got halfway through the episode, that his mind must be getting affected by the chemical the egg sprayed on him? I've seen enough ST that it sorta telegraphed itself to me.
Back on track now...
A recent episode was a hallucination-athon haunted house suspense ep featuring Phlox left in charge of the ship while the entire crew is unconcious while passing through a distorted region of space.
Then there was the one with the Xindi insectoid hatchery... Is it bad that I figured out by the time I'd got halfway through the episode, that his mind must be getting affected by the chemical the egg sprayed on him? I've seen enough ST that it sorta telegraphed itself to me.
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