Watching all Trek chronologically

[apenpaap]

Awakening:
I know many people hate the fact that Enterprise Vulcans are such a bunch of bastards, but I actually like that. I think one of the reasons Tuvok was so underused on Voyager was that the Vulcan culture had already been explored through Spock, but Enterprise Vulcans don't suffer from that disadvantage, as their culture is quite different from the one we see later on. This arc does a nice job of explaining that, and does it in an exciting story. IIRC "Awakening" was the best episode of the arc, with "Kir'Sharra" being a bit underwhelming, but we'll see.
I like the story between T'pol and her mother, and the scene were she died was very sad.
When they went looking for the Kir'sharra, T'pau said she had searched for it for two years. It didn't look very difficult to find, though, so maybe she should've searched a bit harder. (Especially since it was behind a huge suspicious door-thing.)
Score: 7
P.S.: When they bombard the Syrranite camp, shouldn't they use photon torpedoes with a greater yield? Or nukes? Why would you use a weak weapon for wiping out people?

 

[Turd Ferguson]

OK, here's my order:
ENT Season 1-3
ENT Season 4, without In a Mirror, Darkly and These are the Voyages
TOS until The Tholian Web
In a Mirror, Darkly (The Defiant, which is the only thing from the Prime Universe in the episode, comes from The Tholian Web)
Rest of TOS
TAS
Movies 1-6 and the first bit of Generations
TNG Season 1-5
TNG Season 6 and DS9 Season 1
TNG Season 7 until The Pegasus and DS9 Season 2 until The Alternate
These are the Voyages (Set during The Pegasus)
Rest of TNG Season 7 and DS9 Season 2
DS9 Season 3 until Meridian
Generations
Rest of DS9 Season 3 and VOY Season 1
DS9 Season 4 and VOY Season 2
DS9 Season 5 until Things Past and VOY Season 3 until Warlord
First Contact
Rest of DS9 Season 5 and VOY Season 3
DS9 Season 6 and VOY Season 4 (Without Living Witness)
DS9 Season 7 until Covenant and VOY Season 5 until Thirty Days
Insurrection
Rest of DS9 Season 7 and VOY Season 5
VOY Season 6-7
Nemesis
Trek XI (Nero and Spock, the only people from the Prime Universe, are from 2387)
Living Witness (Set in the far future)

I have probably overlooked episodes for that list, though.

I've thought about doing this, but the logistics of it are staggering. First you'd have to start with a scene from "All Good Things..." where Q shows Captain Picard that the anti-time singularity killed the primordial ooze. Then (I'm not even sure if there's an episode that takes place before it, chronicalogically) Time's Arrow in the 19th century, then you'd have to watch the parts in City on the Edge of Forever that take place in the 1930s, then Little Green Men that take place at Roswell, then Carbon Creek in the 50s, then Assignment: Earth in the 1960s, followed by the San Franscisco scenes from The Voyage Home, the parts of the Bell Riots in Past Tense and finally 2063 in First Contact. Whew. That wore me out just thinking about it. Now imagine all the disc changes just to get certain events to happen at the right points in the timeline, and you've got your work cut out for you.

I may do it sometime, though. Just for shits and giggles.

 

[apenpaap]

^And that's exactly why I place Alternate Timelines and time-travel stories at the departure point. It wouldbe to much fuss to constantly watch loose scenes and stuff. You forgot to place the scene from "Death Wish" where Q hides Voyager in the Big Bang all the way at the beginning, BTW.

Kir'Shara:
I was wrong about this one being the worst of the Vulcan arc. It was actually quite good. As you can see from the scores, which haven't gone far from 7 since "Home", there isn't much of an increase or decrease in quality in these episodes IMPO. The scene where Shran tortures Soval was acted very well, by both sides. I also liked the space battle a lot, and I think Enterprise made the right choice to help the Andorians. The solution at the end is too easy, though IMO: why would the Vulcan ministers side against V'las because a notorious terrorist and a human whose antagonism against Vulcans is notorious came into the room carrying a pawn which can do cool holographic tricks? Why didn't any of them think it was a bomb?
Score: 7

 

[Falcor5]

OK, here's my order:
ENT Season 1-3
ENT Season 4, without In a Mirror, Darkly and These are the Voyages
TOS until The Tholian Web
In a Mirror, Darkly (The Defiant, which is the only thing from the Prime Universe in the episode, comes from The Tholian Web)
Rest of TOS
TAS
Movies 1-6 and the first bit of Generations
TNG Season 1-5
TNG Season 6 and DS9 Season 1
TNG Season 7 until The Pegasus and DS9 Season 2 until The Alternate
These are the Voyages (Set during The Pegasus)
Rest of TNG Season 7 and DS9 Season 2
DS9 Season 3 until Meridian
Generations
Rest of DS9 Season 3 and VOY Season 1
DS9 Season 4 and VOY Season 2
DS9 Season 5 until Things Past and VOY Season 3 until Warlord
First Contact
Rest of DS9 Season 5 and VOY Season 3
DS9 Season 6 and VOY Season 4 (Without Living Witness)
DS9 Season 7 until Covenant and VOY Season 5 until Thirty Days
Insurrection
Rest of DS9 Season 7 and VOY Season 5
VOY Season 6-7
Nemesis
Trek XI (Nero and Spock, the only people from the Prime Universe, are from 2387)
Living Witness (Set in the far future)

I have probably overlooked episodes for that list, though.

Wow thanks for posting this someday I may try this too!

 

[Captrek]

I bet Balance of Terror plays pretty differently if it is preceded by several ENT episodes in which Romulans are seen... and they don’t look like Vulcans.

 

[wecoyote]

OK, here's my order:
ENT Season 1-3
ENT Season 4, without In a Mirror, Darkly and These are the Voyages
TOS until The Tholian Web
In a Mirror, Darkly (The Defiant, which is the only thing from the Prime Universe in the episode, comes from The Tholian Web)
Rest of TOS
TAS
Movies 1-6 and the first bit of Generations
TNG Season 1-5
TNG Season 6 and DS9 Season 1
TNG Season 7 until The Pegasus and DS9 Season 2 until The Alternate
These are the Voyages (Set during The Pegasus)
Rest of TNG Season 7 and DS9 Season 2
DS9 Season 3 until Meridian
Generations
Rest of DS9 Season 3 and VOY Season 1
DS9 Season 4 and VOY Season 2
DS9 Season 5 until Things Past and VOY Season 3 until Warlord
First Contact
Rest of DS9 Season 5 and VOY Season 3
DS9 Season 6 and VOY Season 4 (Without Living Witness)
DS9 Season 7 until Covenant and VOY Season 5 until Thirty Days
Insurrection
Rest of DS9 Season 7 and VOY Season 5
VOY Season 6-7
Nemesis
Trek XI (Nero and Spock, the only people from the Prime Universe, are from 2387)
Living Witness (Set in the far future)

I have probably overlooked episodes for that list, though.

If anyone wants it, I have put the list into an excel spreadsheet that corresponds with the Netflix discs that are available.

 

[apenpaap]

Daedalus:
I have heard people claim that Enterprise's fourth season was pure fanwank. I don't agree, it's the show living up to its premise as a prequel, and it's also fun to non-fans (when I first watched it, I liked it a lot, even though the only Trek I'd seen before was ENT's season 3, the TNG movies, and a few VOY and TNG episodes). This episode is mainly fanwank, though, as it operates under the illusion that having the inventor of the transporter appear will make the episode fun, as it contains nothing but him. The story is a snoozefest, made worse by the fact that the anomaly-thing of the week is one of those that instantaneously kills redshirts, but is no pronblem for senior officers.
If that empty bubble is 100 lightyears across, then it should either take Enterprise years to reach it (it only goes 125 times the speed of light), or it should take up most of the sky (if it is 100 lightyears away, which would take Enterprise 9 months to reach it, then basic trigonometry tells it should take up almost 60 degrees of the sky). But at least it provided some cool shots of Enterprise in darkness.
Score: 2

I think I may have forgotten one for my chronological list: "Regeneration". Since it follows on First Contact, it should be placed after that one, so my revised list is:

ENT Season 1-3, without Regeneration
ENT Season 4, without In a Mirror, Darkly and These are the Voyages
TOS until The Tholian Web
In a Mirror, Darkly (The Defiant, which is the only thing from the Prime Universe in the episode, comes from The Tholian Web)
Rest of TOS
TAS
Movies 1-6 and the first bit of Generations
TNG Season 1-5
TNG Season 6 and DS9 Season 1
TNG Season 7 until The Pegasus and DS9 Season 2 until The Alternate
These are the Voyages (Set during The Pegasus)
Rest of TNG Season 7 and DS9 Season 2
DS9 Season 3 until Meridian
Generations
Rest of DS9 Season 3 and VOY Season 1
DS9 Season 4 and VOY Season 2
DS9 Season 5 until Things Past and VOY Season 3 until Warlord
First Contact
Regeneration
Rest of DS9 Season 5 and VOY Season 3
DS9 Season 6 and VOY Season 4 (Without Living Witness)
DS9 Season 7 until Covenant and VOY Season 5 until Thirty Days
Insurrection
Rest of DS9 Season 7 and VOY Season 5
VOY Season 6-7
Nemesis
Trek XI (Nero and Spock, the only people from the Prime Universe, are from 2387)
Living Witness (Set in the far future)

 

[wecoyote]

Daedalus:

TOS until The Tholian Web
In a Mirror, Darkly (The Defiant, which is the only thing from the Prime Universe in the episode, comes from The Tholian Web)
Rest of TOS


TNG Season 7 until The Pegasus and DS9 Season 2 until The Alternate


DS9 Season 3 until Meridian


DS9 Season 5 until Things Past and VOY Season 3 until Warlord

I have a cuple questions of how you word things that I do not know the star- date for... When you say "until" do you mean watch it before or after the break? For example, do you watch "Tholian Web" before or after Mirror and Darkly the Defiant? Do you watch "Pegasas" and "The Alternate" before or after "These are the voyages"? "Meridian" before or after "Generations"? etc...

 

[apenpaap]

Until means "up to and including" in this case, so The Tholian Web comes before in a mirror darkly, pegasus and the alternate come before these are the voyages... etc.

 

[DonIago]

Not to sound picky (he said before sounding picky) but possibly "through" would be a better word-choice then.

 

[apenpaap]

Observer Effect:
Though I generally don't like TOS's many episodes featuring noncorporeal beings, I thought this one was a good prequel to them. I don't know if the Argainians themselves actually made an appearance on TOS (I've only seen about 1/4th of TOS), but it's basically a prequel to all non-corporeal being episodes, and I think it's the only ENT episode featuring them. It's pretty scary, and the fact that the Argainians are casually chatting about how everyone dies in 69% of the cases, but that someone always dies makes it much scarier. The episode also featured some very good acting, especially by Scott Bakula. It was pretty cool that whoever the Argainians possessed, you could always tell which one was "Reed" and which one was "Mayweather". Which brings me to it being pretty hilarious that in the one episode of the season were Travis gets more then 2 lines, all of them are actually spoken by an alien possessing him.
I also like how this episode shows us the real morality of the fundamentalist clinging to the Prime Directive in episodes like "Homeward" and "Dear Doctor", as our heroes are on the other side of the fence this time.
Score: 7,5

 

[DonIago]

The problem with debating the Prime Directive is that the only way you can ultimately claim it's a bad idea is via hindsight.

A good number of people think Archer should have done more in "Cogenitor"...and that's all fine and good, but if Archer had interfered and ultimately caused the Vissians(?) to go extinct, would people still feel that his interfering was the right course of action?

It's easy to assume something will go right; it's a lot harder to acknowledge that it could go wrong.

 

[apenpaap]

Babel One:
The first bit after the teaser was hilarious. When Hoshi was complaining to Archer about everything, I thought it was for real, and that they were gonna do some character stuff for her, which could tie in with her revelation last episode that she broke an instructor's arm at the academy over a poker game (Of all crewmembers of Enterprise, I'd expect that from her the least). Then the Tellarites came aboard, and there was a hilarious exchange of insults between Archer and Gral:
"You people are even uglier then I remember."
"This ship is the pride of starfleet, but I find it small and unimpressive."
"Funny, I was about to say the same about you."
I like that they have both the Tellarites and the Andorians staying on the ship, trying to kill each other (and don't like that that Tellarite swine succeeded in killing Talas).
I also like that the Romulans finally appear. Valdore is a pretty cool villain (Which is why they brought him back for the relaunch), and it's a pretty neat surprise to find out that the Romulans and Mystery Guy were on Romulus the whole time. It's a shame they reused the ugly Romulan uniforms from Nemesis, though it does give me an opportunity to bring up this hilarious Caption Contest entry from a couple of months ago.
Score: 8

 

[apenpaap]

United:

I love this episode, and how it foreshadows the Federation and the Romulan War. It featured some very good acting by Jeffrey Combs. The fight between Archer and Shran was also pretty cool (Though it's kind of strange that the Andorian ritual duel is fought with mining equipment. How many cultures have you heard of that fight duels with a pickaxe?). Trip and Reed being trapped on the Romulan ship was scary, especially the scene were Valdore blackmailed them into repairing the warp core. That hadf a bit of a Saw feeling to it.
It also seems like Archer is finally living up to his Great Historic Purpose that Daniels was always whining about as he gets humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites to work together,
The best bit of it was the last part, when the humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites to work together.
I wonder what happened to the arrestation demand for Archer the Rigelians ordered. That bussiness was ignored after its first mention.
The end, where it was revealed the Romulans's Mystery Guy was an Aenar, made me laugh because it reminded me of this Caption Contest entry.
Score: 8

 

[apenpaap]

The Aenar:

I like this episode less then the other two of this arc, but it's still pretty good. Seeing Andoria (as a moon of a gasgiant, which may explain why people sometimes refer to Andoria and sometimes to Andor) was pretty cool and provided some beautiful eye candy, and the romance between Shran and Jhamal was also done pretty good.
Another good romance plot in the episode was between Trip and T'pol, and the resulting transfer of Trip. The episode lacked something, though, and I'm not referring to the Tellarites. I guess the solution was just a bit too easy (I'm starting to notice that Enterprise isn't very good at ending arcs).
Score: 7

 

[FalTorPan]

Good reviews so far, man.

I'd love to take an approach like this, and you're definitely doing a nice job of reminding me that I need to get off my ass and do it.

So you're going to get off your ass in order to sit on your ass and watch TV? (I'm kidding. It just sounded funny to me.)

 

[apenpaap]

Affliction:

With "Affliction", the Klingon ridge arc starts. I like the episodes, but was it really neccecary to explain why TOS Klingons don't have ridges? To me, the answer is pretty obvious: TOS was very low on budget and couldn't afford the extensive makeup. And if this makeup difference is gonna be explained, are they also going to make episodes about why TMP Klingons's ridges look more like a mohawk, why TUC's Klingon ridges are much flatter then other ones, why Worf's ridges chaange during TNG, why 23rd century (and 2387) Romulans have no bumpy foreheads? Why Bajorans's noseridges change between 2368 and 2369? And don't forget the Cardassians: where did their beards go?
Anyway, "Affliction" is pretty good. I like the debate between Phlox and the Klingons, as well as the storyline about Reed and Section 31. I don't like that they didn't explain were Commander Kelby came from, as I don't think we've seen him yet.
Score: 6

 

[Mrs. Spock]

Sorry, it's a little late for this, but wouldn't you put "Assignment: Earth" first? Because that entire episode is set in the year 1968 from beginning to end. Or do you not count time travel because the characters themselves were from the 23rd century?

 

[apenpaap]

If that episode has Kirk/Spock/Enterprise/Tribbles traveling to 1968, then I place it in the year they came from.

 

[apenpaap]

Divergence:

I loved the scene were they transferred Trip. NX-class ships look really beautiful, and seeing two of them do such a stunt was great. The shot right after "Faith of the Heart", were we see Enterprise at high warp coming towards the camera, passing just below the camera, and then we see Columbia approach, move through it's hull to the bridge were the camera stops just before Captain Hernandez's face was especially cool. I have two minor nitpicks for the scene, though: Trip acts as if he's in an atmosphere, holding on to the rope like that. Since it's in space, there's nothing to slow him down, so he could've just pushed off and floated to Enterprise (Though the rope would still be a good idea to keep him from missing Enterprise). Also, when he gets on Enterprise his uniform has an Enterprise patch instead of a Columbia one.
The rest of the episode was pretty good too. I liked the space battle, the Klingon admiral (IIRC he also appeared in the Relaunch) and how Phlox convinced him to stop attcking the colony. It is interesting that Section 31 is portrayed much less evil then in DS9. At this point, they seem much more like a legitimate government agency then in the 24th century, and IIRC they'll help the crew twice after this episode.
The scene were Archer got Malcolm to tell him where Phlox was was not very good. At one point, Scott Bakula overacted so horribly that I laughed.
Score: 7,5