For me it has to be "Extinction". Some good special effects but left me thoroughly unimpressed.
Weakest Season 3 Episode
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Extinction was definitely the worst of season three with no other ties to the Xindi arc other than investigating a ship that visited there. With regards to North Star, it was actually a good episode that made sense. I always enjoy it and the spin on Racism. It was just in the wrong season because you're right, they should have ignored the fact there were humans on the planet and found the weapon first. They could always come back later once Earth was safe. I find Harbinger was a soft episode and not enough happened. The ending was awesome but the quiet shot of the ship flying away didn't fit. When the Sphere Builder said what he said to Archer, the screen should have gone black and ended with strong music, sort of like Lost.
Lastly, what is 'frakking'?! Did you mean 'freaking', 'fricking', or 'frigging'? Is the planet you're referring to named after Jonathan Frakes?
Sorry, I had to!
Harbinger -- it's critical to understand what's happening with the Sphere Builders and because of the lack of time devoted to them, the audience is still somewhat confused. Also, I thought it depicted the characters (in all regards) terribly.
For me it is a choice between:
Chosen Realm - A story that has been done too many times and all of them were much better than this attempt.
Hachery - Archer is willing to sacrifice the mission to save some bugs and it takes an entire episode for the crew to figure out something is wrong?
Chosen Realm - A story that has been done too many times and all of them were much better than this attempt.
Hachery - Archer is willing to sacrifice the mission to save some bugs and it takes an entire episode for the crew to figure out something is wrong?
Extinction, Exile (which I actually saw as more of a Beauty and the Beast rip-off than anything else), North Star, E^2. I'm in two minds whether or not to put Carpenter Street and Twilight on the list - good episodes, but two more unnecessary distractions from the more pressing story arc, I felt.
Hatchery was a bit meh, but the first time I saw it, I was itching to see Azati Prime, so this just seemed to be another obstacle.
I think I'm one of the few who doesn't really mind Harbinger and Doctor's Orders. I'm a bad person
Hatchery was a bit meh, but the first time I saw it, I was itching to see Azati Prime, so this just seemed to be another obstacle.
I think I'm one of the few who doesn't really mind Harbinger and Doctor's Orders. I'm a bad person
You seriously put Harbinger before Extinction and The Exile? Wow... To each his own I suppose.
(Okay, Harbinger is by no means a swell episode, but the seasons weakest?)
Extinction was definitely the worst of season three with no other ties to the Xindi arc other than investigating a ship that visited there. With regards to North Star, it was actually a good episode that made sense. I always enjoy it and the spin on Racism. It was just in the wrong season because you're right, they should have ignored the fact there were humans on the planet and found the weapon first. They could always come back later once Earth was safe. I find Harbinger was a soft episode and not enough happened. The ending was awesome but the quiet shot of the ship flying away didn't fit. When the Sphere Builder said what he said to Archer, the screen should have gone black and ended with strong music, sort of like Lost.
Lastly, what is 'frakking'?! Did you mean 'freaking', 'fricking', or 'frigging'? Is the planet you're referring to named after Jonathan Frakes?
How in the name of the gods do you not know what frakking is?!
I agree that North Star isn't a bad episode in itself, its just that season 3 was absolutely the wrong place to put it, had it been in season 2 or 4 I wouldn't be so hard on it. Season 3 was really beginning to heat up and it came off the heals of Twilight which I consider to be in top five of all Enterprise. It is like boarding a plane, waiting for it to get to the runway, the engines begin to roar, the plane starts to build up speed... and then it stops so the pilot can have a sandwich.
"Harbinger"
"Exile"
"Extinction"
"Exile"
"Extinction"
Extinction was definitely the worst of season three with no other ties to the Xindi arc other than investigating a ship that visited there. With regards to North Star, it was actually a good episode that made sense. I always enjoy it and the spin on Racism. It was just in the wrong season because you're right, they should have ignored the fact there were humans on the planet and found the weapon first. They could always come back later once Earth was safe. I find Harbinger was a soft episode and not enough happened. The ending was awesome but the quiet shot of the ship flying away didn't fit. When the Sphere Builder said what he said to Archer, the screen should have gone black and ended with strong music, sort of like Lost.
Lastly, what is 'frakking'?! Did you mean 'freaking', 'fricking', or 'frigging'? Is the planet you're referring to named after Jonathan Frakes?
How in the name of the gods do you not know what frakking is?!
I agree that North Star isn't a bad episode in itself, its just that season 3 was absolutely the wrong place to put it, had it been in season 2 or 4 I wouldn't be so hard on it. Season 3 was really beginning to heat up and it came off the heals of Twilight which I consider to be in top five of all Enterprise. It is like boarding a plane, waiting for it to get to the runway, the engines begin to roar, the plane starts to build up speed... and then it stops so the pilot can have a sandwich.
That is a very good analogy and it's completely true. I loved Twilight as well because I think it was important to establish a 'what if' storyline to reaffirm early in the season how important this mission is for the audience - that if Archer fails, humanity will be destroyed. I think it made the episodes that came after more important as well. Twilight showed us what the Xindi are capable of.
"North Star" was good cheesy TOS-style fun on several levels so I never rank it among the absolute worst of that season. And "Carpenter Street" had a solid, creepy performance by the reliable Leland Orser as Loomis as well as some nice Archer/T'Pol dialogue in 2004 Detroit...so I can't hate on it either even if it wasn't a great episode.
Actually, that was Twilight's greatest flaw.
How so? We knew from the existence of the other four series (and common sense) that Earth would survive and it was easy to dismiss the Xindi arc as a gimmick, so an episode where we saw what was at stake was needed to get cynics like me interested in what was going on. After seeing Twilight I stopped questioning the show's new direction and let myself go along for the ride, and I still think that the third season was the best of Enterprise and better than anything Voyager did in 7 years.
I normally hate reset button episodes, especially how overused they became, but Twilight was one of the few which I consider great. From the very start it was obviously going to have a reset button ending and it never tried to hide that fact, so the exploration of what it would be like for Humanity if Earth was destroyed is what it relied upon and I thought it managed that quite well. I wasn't a fan of the T'Pol/Archer romance which was hinted at, but otherwise it did a damn fine job.
"If Archer fails, humanity will be destroyed." was the part I've found ridiculous. Twilight suggested that Humanity was utterly helpless without one single captain (Archer) and it portrayed Captain Tucker as a stubborn, borderline-incompetent dick.
The Archer/T'Pol hint I had absolutely no trouble with, since the timeline in which it might have (we don't really know if it did) happened was so grim and screwed up.
One thing that did bother me though was T'Pol saying that their relationship evolved. While her regard for him may have (and would have in given circumstances) evolved, it takes two for relationship to progress, and Archer's condition made that completely impossible. In fact, the life in which she had to explain everything over and over again every day seemed like a pretty fair imitation of hell to me (and reminds me of "The Notebook" which is, in every aspect, a ridiculously crappy movie).
Overall, the ep was not bad, but as a Star Trek episode, it was pretty mediocre.
I had the extact same reaction ... I would have liked it some other time...
Well I can certainly understand that viewpoint, the reason I don't hold Similitude in high regard is because there was so much insistence that Tucker was needed or else Earth would be destroyed and I just didn't buy it.
For me, Exile.
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