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Terra Prime-A good finale, I think...

Joel_Kirk

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Oh, my goodness.

This was the finale, I think. Treklit, could have told us what happened to the characters, Starfleet, etc...after the Terra Prime occurrance.

My only nitpick(s) with this episode is that damn song, 'Faith of the Heart.' :scream:

Someone--Berman--was trying to be hip, and that type of music only is hip to a certain demographic. (I can tell ya it ain't my demographic!:lol:).

And, I'm going to leave it at that....:p

My other nitpick is the montage over this episode; yes, that montage that begins the series: Here we have a show that is showing' the beginnings of various species coming together, and we have only clips from space exploration from the United States?

Um, the world is supposed to be a little smaller during this timeframe. We should see Russia, China--and any other country that is thought to have been involved in space travel--making it to space. How are 'we' supposed to get along with alien species if we can't get along with ourselves?

However, on to the story and the characters; I'm just going to gush...so bear with me:

Everyone was top form, and I do mean everyone....from Phlox to Archer, himself.

Hoshi Sato gets to have the command chair since all other senior members are part of a rescue landing party. (I refuse to use the term 'away mission'). Her character is nearly about to break down while Samuels, the bureaucrat, tells her to break radio silence with Earth...while she is keeping the ENT out of Weller's sensors, IIRC.

I forget the specifics, but the general idea was: Samuels wasn't making it easy for Sato.

A note on why Hoshi is a bad-ass in this episode: She keeps her composure with Samuels on the bridge even though she is given a hard time; after everything has calmed down, she is having coffee with the man, and addresses him as 'sir.'

You go girl....!:techman:

Moreover, the aforementioned Phlox goes with the landing party; he is given a phase pistol....but Phlox isn't one for weapons.

Travis is seen again in a big way; him and Reed weed out a spy on ENT who is feeding information to Peter Weller's organization and takes part in the big rescue mission. {I seriously thought that Travis might have been the 'sex symbol' of the show; I want to say he is what Riker was to TNG, but I'm not fond of Riker; and I would like to have Travis be a gentleman rather than a man-slut. :lol:. However, I do realize that the other males on the show have their female--and male--fans; ENT was blessed with an attractive crew, more so than the other series. Anyway, we get to see that Travis indeed knows the goings on with the ship, and so forth...i.e. he is a character with depth.

T'Pol balances her emotions with her Vulcan control, especially in a poignant scene when Trip walks in and breaks down after the death of their child, finding out the death was intentional.(Note: Trip, a character who I think is overexposed, has one of the most moving scenes in Trek, I think).

That scene further sold me on this episode.

I would say these two episodes--Demons and Terra Prime--pretty much had what I like in Trek: Action, adventure, characters you care about, a strong storyline, villians with depth....(Something like what DS9 did, and unfortunately what Trek 2009 failed to fully do; although, it--Trek 2009--had the fun, adventure....and the characters with life)...

...and Trek 2009 is still one of my favorite films, but I digress.

Peter Weller's character reminded me A LOT of Gul Dukat, who himself believed--seriously believed--that he was doing the right thing. Here Weller's character, like Dukat, believes he is a savior, and those who don't understand his intentions are to be pitied, and killed if necessary.

Archer's speech was reminiscent of Kirk's speech from Star Trek VI. You wonder how Archer's captaincy would have been after this time; would he have finally grown as the leader we wanted him to be?

As for Reed? {I don't think he's seen the last of Section 31}.

And, Mr. Kelby! (Why don't I trust that guy?) I want to believe he had something to do with the Terra Prime incident. He just didn't get caught. :lol:

As I mentioned in another thread, I have to wonder if Travis' ex was involved with Section 31....

This seemed to be a big moment in universal history, so there were probably S-31 people getting paranoid for Terran security...and feeind off of the xenophobia from Earth citizens...;)

Now, I'm getting to the point where I'm rambling, so I'll just end by saying....

Bravo, on a cool Trek episode.
 
I read somewhere last year that the writers (I believe it was the Stevens) said that people had grown to like Kelby and therefore they couldn't make him the Section 31 villain.

So they invented Ensign No-Name and gave him a scene to die.
 
^^

That's understandable....but I think we should have been given a built up on Ensign No-Name's treason....

A minor nitpick from me, though. It was a good episode.

I swear, though, I was crackin' up when Travis and Reed came into Kelby's quarters all set to take him down if necessary.:lol:

I wouldn't mind seeing TrekLit redeem the character in someway, though...;)
 
I love Terra Prime. When I read on this forum the comments that it could be seen as the ENT finale in place of that thing I was rather thrilled with this, wow.. and now that I am rewatching ENT a 4th time through I intend to do just that.

I'm all for making characters we've grown fond of into secret Section 31 agents though. After all real spies are people with jobs and families and when they are revealed to be spies everyone is betrayed and horrified.. lets have some of that in Trek, as well as some grey area as to the ethics of Section 31.
 
I'm glad it wasn't the finale. Then again, I think the finale we got could've been better. Option C: None of the above.
 
This is the Finale as far as I'm concerned and originally this was supposed to be a 3 part episode. Instead it was shaved to two to make room for you know what Finale.

Great episode. The final enemy was Humans.
 
Forced and preachy.

I think.

Peter Weller's baddie has to have a hypocritical failing, and is made totally a black hat baddie. Strange, after season 3's "the Xindi aren't all evil", season 4 had a fair amount of blatant bad guys/girls (conspiring Vulcans, ruthless augments, human bigots, dragon lady orion women, time travelling space alien nazis). I suppose Dr. Soong was "grey", but that was more to appeal to Spiner.

The baby created to show that mixed species kids are bad? WHAT??

Sending baby's biological parents undercover to find out what's going on?

Syrranites in reverse. We did this better earlier in the season. Now the fringe group is bad, and gubbermint good.
 
It was a pretty good finale, for many reasons.

Every regular character plays an important part in this episode:

- Malcolm with his Section-31 connections...
- Hoshi gets to command the NX-01...
- Travis - even he has something to do. Hell, they even gave him a gorgeous love interest
- Phlox - he feels more like a family doctor than a ships physician in this ep.
- Trip & T'Pol - they finally come full circle, completing the arc which began with the introduction scene in Broken Bow (T'Pol refusing a handshake), and ended with the two holding hands.
- Archer fulfills his destiny as a man who removes the final obstacle on humanity's path to becoming a full member of interstellar society, and gives a speech that gave every true ENT fan goosebumps (myself included).

More than anything, this two-parter follows a tradition started by "All good things," continued in "What you leave behind" and (even) "Endgame" - showing the crew finally "graduate" from cremates to a true family.

Up until about a hundred years ago, there was one question that burned in every human, that made us study the stars and dream of traveling to them, Are we alone? Our generation is privileged to know the answer to that question. We are all explorers, driven to know what's over the horizon, what's beyond our own shores. And yet, the more I've experienced, the more I've learned that no matter how far we travel, or how fast we get there, the most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star. They're within us, woven into the threads that bind us, all of us, to each other. The final frontier begins in this hall. Let's explore it together.
 
Up until about a hundred years ago, there was one question that burned in every human, that made us study the stars and dream of traveling to them, Are we alone? Our generation is privileged to know the answer to that question. We are all explorers, driven to know what's over the horizon, what's beyond our own shores. And yet, the more I've experienced, the more I've learned that no matter how far we travel, or how fast we get there, the most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star. They're within us, woven into the threads that bind us, all of us, to each other. The final frontier begins in this hall. Let's explore it together.
I soooo love this!
The only thing I didn't care for is seeing Trip and T'Pol there. I think they should have been allowed to remain on Enterprise with their baby.
 
Forced and preachy.

I think.

Peter Weller's baddie has to have a hypocritical failing, and is made totally a black hat baddie. Strange, after season 3's "the Xindi aren't all evil", season 4 had a fair amount of blatant bad guys/girls (conspiring Vulcans, ruthless augments, human bigots, dragon lady orion women, time travelling space alien nazis). I suppose Dr. Soong was "grey", but that was more to appeal to Spiner.

The baby created to show that mixed species kids are bad? WHAT??

Sending baby's biological parents undercover to find out what's going on?

Worse, the undercover the parents did was like they'd never been undercover before. T'Pol didn't bother to hide her ears and Trip didn't like try and grow a beard or even cut his hair. It's like they were utterly incapable of going undercover -- something they did successfully in the first season. Why did they get dumber?!

MeanJoe, you successfully summed up why I thought it wouldn't work.
 
Forced and preachy.

I think.

Peter Weller's baddie has to have a hypocritical failing, and is made totally a black hat baddie. Strange, after season 3's "the Xindi aren't all evil", season 4 had a fair amount of blatant bad guys/girls (conspiring Vulcans, ruthless augments, human bigots, dragon lady orion women, time travelling space alien nazis). I suppose Dr. Soong was "grey", but that was more to appeal to Spiner.

The baby created to show that mixed species kids are bad? WHAT??

Sending baby's biological parents undercover to find out what's going on?

Worse, the undercover the parents did was like they'd never been undercover before. T'Pol didn't bother to hide her ears and Trip didn't like try and grow a beard or even cut his hair. It's like they were utterly incapable of going undercover -- something they did successfully in the first season. Why did they get dumber?!

MeanJoe, you successfully summed up why I thought it wouldn't work.

I don't have an answer for Trip and T'Pol not disguising themselves....but, if I remember correctly...they didn't know they had a child until after it was brought aboard the ENT....

Even if they did, being parents, I think they would have wanted to go on the mission anyhow.
 
This was just so-so for me. I would like to have seen the Vulican trilogy as the finale. It left you thinking about the upcomming Romulan war.
 
Hoshi Sato gets to have the command chair since all other senior members are part of a rescue landing party. (I refuse to use the term 'away mission'). Her character is nearly about to break down while Samuels, the bureaucrat, tells her to break radio silence with Earth...while she is keeping the ENT out of Weller's sensors, IIRC.

I have one nitpick here: Nathan Samuels is not a bureaucrat. He is a Minister in the government of United Earth, meaning he is a democratically elected official. He is, in short, a world leader. That's not a bureaucrat -- bureaucrats are people who implement the decisions of world leaders like Samuels at a much lower level of government.
 
Hoshi Sato gets to have the command chair since all other senior members are part of a rescue landing party. (I refuse to use the term 'away mission'). Her character is nearly about to break down while Samuels, the bureaucrat, tells her to break radio silence with Earth...while she is keeping the ENT out of Weller's sensors, IIRC.

I have one nitpick here: Nathan Samuels is not a bureaucrat. He is a Minister in the government of United Earth, meaning he is a democratically elected official. He is, in short, a world leader. That's not a bureaucrat -- bureaucrats are people who implement the decisions of world leaders like Samuels at a much lower level of government.

Alrighty....

'Government official' then....;)
 
I remember watching this episode, but don't remember anything about it. Guess it's time to go get the DVD.
 
Forced and preachy.

I think.

Peter Weller's baddie has to have a hypocritical failing, and is made totally a black hat baddie. Strange, after season 3's "the Xindi aren't all evil", season 4 had a fair amount of blatant bad guys/girls (conspiring Vulcans, ruthless augments, human bigots, dragon lady orion women, time travelling space alien nazis). I suppose Dr. Soong was "grey", but that was more to appeal to Spiner.

The baby created to show that mixed species kids are bad? WHAT??

Sending baby's biological parents undercover to find out what's going on?
Worse, the undercover the parents did was like they'd never been undercover before. T'Pol didn't bother to hide her ears and Trip didn't like try and grow a beard or even cut his hair. It's like they were utterly incapable of going undercover -- something they did successfully in the first season. Why did they get dumber?!

MeanJoe, you successfully summed up why I thought it wouldn't work.

I don't have an answer for Trip and T'Pol not disguising themselves....but, if I remember correctly...they didn't know they had a child until after it was brought aboard the ENT....

Even if they did, being parents, I think they would have wanted to go on the mission anyhow.

They knew it was theirs, it's why they went "undercover" and Archer supported them.
 
It's good to see so many others who also think that the Terra Prime 2-parter is the REAL conclusion to the series. I've only seen...that OTHER episode once, when it first aired. In subsequent airings of the series, I don't watch it. I prefer to think that the series ends with Archer going into his speech to unofficially found the Federation.
 
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