United - Best Episode Ever?

[Dac]

I just rewatched this last night, and I was struck by just how good it was. It had a great deal of action that was dictated by the story, the plot progressed at a decent rate, the guest stars (namely the awesome Jeffrey Combs) had a great part in it, It laid the foundations for the Romulan War AND the Federation, we found out more about the Andorian culture and perhaps most importantly.... it gave Mayweather and Hoshi something to do!

And this was all in ONE episode! I know its part of a 3 part arc with Babel One and The Aenar (both of which are also cracking eps) but Im just taken aback by just how on the ball everyone was with this ep. Ive re-watched most of the series these past few weeks, but I wasn't this engrossed by an episode. Just fantastic.

I know its flogging a dead horse, but its a damn shame when eps like this came along the show was already dead.

 

[startrekwatcher]

It's a good episode but I think it is overrated. My contenders for best episodes--The Forge, Twilight, The Council, Azati Prime, Broken Bow.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

I liked it a lot; but find it best viewed in "trilogy" format.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

It's OK. I never really got into that whole arc though.

My candidates for best episode would be Cogenitor, Twilight, Damage, Countdown and Terra Prime.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Best. Episode. Ever.

Other top contenders - The Andorian Incident; Shuttlepod One; Twilight; The Forge; Kir'Shara; Babel One; In a Mirror, Darky (I and II)

 

[Joeman]

Been awhile since I've seen it, so can't comment too specifically on it. But I did rate it a 6.5/10 after two separate viewings, so I guess I disagree. In fact, even though a 6.5 puts it between "pretty good" and "good", that makes it one of the lowest rated episodes of Enterprise of the entire series for me. I'll pay extra attention next time I watch it so see if I can get more out of it. I wish I knew what it was that made it not great for me, but with my poor memory I honestly can't recall much detail very long after I watch an episode of Trek. I mean, there are so many!

 

[F. King Daniel]

I thought it was a good episode.

The ending, where the crew burst into the empty bridge of the drone ship, then we get a pan out from the (remote) control room to the city of Ki Baratan on Romulus was an OMG-WTF-WOW! moment.

As much as I enjoyed the trilogy, I don't think a long Romulan War arc would have been very good. I dislike the version of the war depicted in the post-series novels (The Good That Men Do, Kobayahi Maru and Beneath the Raptor's Wing), and we'd just seen an ongoing war saga with (IMO) far more interesting bad guys in season three. That said, I kinda liked the sound of the Romulan War ("War" = epic battle in Earth orbit) in the cancelled movie Star Trek: The Beginning.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I'm not sure if it's my favorite in the whole series, but it's really, really close. I love it. Part 2 is definitely the strongest of that trilogy, just like I feel Kir'Shara is definitely the strongest of the Vulcan trilogy. The only three-parter I thought was hard to decide on a clear winner with was the Soong stint.

 

[Noname Given]

The Andorian arc is my favorite of the entire series.

 

[jolene_b_fan]

yea, the andorians did add a good element to the show. the drone ship, romulans and andorians, all solid pieces to the story. Coombs as Shran is one of the strongest elements of the series for sure. Anytime you involve him, its Trek gold. (or latinum)

 

[I am Surak]

Admiral Shran is a man of honor. He needs to work on suppressing his emotions though.
That being said he is my favorite non vulcan.
My condolences on the loss of his life partner.

 

[Jack Bauer]

Definitely one of the best episodes of season 4. Almost anything involving Andorians on Enterprise was awesome.

 

[commodore64]

Really good episode, great TOS backdrop (without being a mere copy or parody) and showcases why the Reeves-Stevens writing team are not to be beaten.

 

[Noname Given]

What I really enjoyed about it, is that it set up the entire reason for the Earth/Romulan War;which with the Romulans being portrayed as xenophobic and not venturing far outside their territory, I always wondered why they choose to attack Eart directly.

Now we know: For centuries they had been successful in secretly manipulating events to keep the various species in the Alpha Quadrant in conflict; and along comes humanity making headway in changing that dynamic, and starting to get the various species talking and working together.

I really liked that as I could see why in a few more years, the Romulans would say: "Time to take these meddlers out.'

 

[Dac]

As much as I enjoyed the trilogy, I don't think a long Romulan War arc would have been very good. I dislike the version of the war depicted in the post-series novels (The Good That Men Do, Kobayahi Maru and Beneath the Raptor's Wing), and we'd just seen an ongoing war saga with (IMO) far more interesting bad guys in season three. That said, I kinda liked the sound of the Romulan War ("War" = epic battle in Earth orbit) in the cancelled movie Star Trek: The Beginning.

I dunno, I think thats the biggest shame of Enterprise. The Romulan War was bound to be its "big finish" so to speak. Given that Earth only had Enterprise and Columbia (and possibly Challenger) out in deep space by the time the war would have broken out, I guess it would have been them 3 darting all along the boarder putting out minor skirmishes with the aid of Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans. With the romulans biding there time and marshalling their forces, the alliance would have thought they were on a winning side until the finale which would have probably been an all out assault on Earth, with the only concentration of ships able to defend her being right on her door step.

As for the line in TOS about it being thought with "Atomic Weapons", im pretty sure Reed would have devised a quick and dirty method of using Nukes to disable (or render inert) Romulan cloaking devices with the amount of radiation released, allowing conventional weapons to be used to finish off the job. Would've made for some impressive light shows.