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Even in this relatively decent episode, In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II, there is a pretty obvious canon violation, in the level of agility that the Gorn has.
When was it ever stated in TOS that all Gorn have to be slow and lumbering? Just because one Gorn was like that doesn't mean they all have to be. Arnold Schwarzenegger is big and bulky while Lance Armstrong is lean and fast, yet they're both Humans.
Even in this relatively decent episode, In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II, there is a pretty obvious canon violation, in the level of agility that the Gorn has.
When was it ever stated in TOS that all Gorn have to be slow and lumbering? Just because one Gorn was like that doesn't mean they all have to be. Arnold Schwarzenegger is big and bulky while Lance Armstrong is lean and fast, yet they're both Humans.
Exactly. It's generalizing, like saying "all Klingons are honorable warriors" or "every TNG-era Romulan must have a ridged forehead". Then again, people do both those things and we've seen MANY more diverse Klingons and Romulans than the single Gorn we saw before "In a Mirror, Darkly"
...and why are we using spoiler tags on episodes six and forty years old??
As a fan of Star Trek for forty years I disagree that it fits "quite well". IMO, ENT was often at its worst when it tried to lead into the other series. The lead-in backstory proved by ENT is generally forced and contrived, usually the ENT characters are Sues and Stews, and quite often it would make more sense if you could forget about the events in TOS.
This is one reason I pick Azati Prime as my favorite ENT episode, over either part of In a Mirror, Darkly. The main reason I recommended In a Mirror, Darkly, Parts I and II, which are my third and second favorite ENT episodes, respectively, were for their novelty value. At least in these episodes, they broke from the usual.
Even in this relatively decent episode, In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II, there is a pretty obvious canon violation, in the level of agility that the Gorn has.
Well, to each his own, as I've been a fan since 1969; (still think TOS is/was te best series o the Franchise; but ENT is easily #2 in my view), and I thought overall ENT fit into established continuity quite well (and even as far a UESPA and some of the early inco nsitencies presented in 'The Cage' TOS pilot; and the first 13 or so episodes of TOS, the manner in which ENT presents UESPA and the early Earth StarFleet gels pretty well overall.)
Like others have said, it DID shake up and violate a loyt of 'fanon' built up over the years, but hell, so did a lot of the more accepted 'approved' TOS Novels (by Diane Duane or others) who tried very much to tie those novels into existing TO and general Trel 'canon'; but given ENT was the first and only on screen depiction of that era, I have no issue whatsoever with 'fanon' either being ignored or re-written.
I honestly thought it did a good job (more in Seasons 3 and 4), of tying into many TOS era backstories and threads. If you knew what they were refering to, it was kind of an extra 'Easter Egg'; but especially in the 4th season what I liked is - if you had zero knowledge of Star Trek prior to ENT; the stories still stood on there own as good stories (well, maybe not Stormfront or Deadalus ) - and if you went on to watch TOS and some of the other series, you might get a little more out of both the later series and ENT.
There are a few credibility issues with ENT, rather than outright continuity violations.
The only really big continuity violation is having cloaking devices all over the place, especially by the Romulans. Either they kept horrible records in the 22nd Century, or Kirk and Spock are utter morons in "Balance of Terror."
April, Spock said "selective bending of light". In ENT, it is specifically mentioned that a certain kind of radiation causes the cloaking, not "selective bending of light". See "The Communicator" epsode of ENT. This is what i mentioned earlier, that ENT writers had a harder time thinking inside the box of continuity. They couldn't do whatever they wanted.
If that's the case, they should've made a bigger deal of it; they wouldn't have gotten half the level of crap that they did over "The Minefield" if they had.
In any case, this should make it easier to reconcile ENT for the Concordance...
Enterprise isn't something I've thought since I watched it on TV when it was on, except for a moment, earlier this year, when I was thinking about watching all of Star Trek on DVD. So far, only watched DS9, as that is all I have (and a few movies). One day I'll get around to watching it, but first need the price of trek DVDs to drop.
It was watchable. I wouldn't call it great, there were some episodes I enjoyed, but it's been a long time since I watched any of this series.
If that's the case, they should've made a bigger deal of it; they wouldn't have gotten half the level of crap that they did over "The Minefield" if they had..
I prefer to think they screwed up and forgot that the Romulans didn't have cloaking technology in the mid-22nd century, so I ignore it. So much easier than trying to make that particular square peg fit into the round hole of continuity.
ok so technology is a straight line? they HAVE to use one kind of cloak? prototypes? maybe after this, the Romulans realized the weakness of "radioation-type" cloaks, and moved onto bending light, which they didnt perfect until the 23rd century? Think outside simply saying "its a retcon".
The problem in ENT:Minefield wasn't that the Romulans used invisibility. Rather, it was that their invisibility screens were discovered by Starfleet. To fit the dialog in TOS:Balance of Terror, the writers of ENT needed to construct a story in which either the Romulans did not yet have any kind of invisibility screen at all or they did but its use went undetected by Starfleet! Instead, they chose a third, stupider alternative, in which their invisibility technology was observed in action, and recognized as such.
Regardless of how the Romulan invisibility screen works, the NX-01 witnesses a ship identified as Romulan disengaging its invisibility screen. That cannot be reconciled with Balance of Terror, in which it is plain that the ability of the Romulans to employ invisibility screens of any kind is news to Starfleet. That is, of course, unless you assume that both Kirk and Spock are unaware of history, and that for some reason there are no records of known Romulan technology in the library computer that Spock can find. Spock offers selective bending of light, which would require great power, as one theoretically possible explanation for the observed invisibility. It is never actually established in TOS whether that is in fact how the Romulan cloaking device works. Indeed, subsequent improvements in cloaking technology baffle Federation scientists to such a degree that Kirk's Enterprise is ordered to steal an improved cloaking device in The Enterprise Incident. No, ENT:Minefield is in summary, yawn, yet another retcon.
Actually a much more serious problem is that the cloaking device beans had already been spilled by the authors' insistence on using cloaks so freely in ENT, beginning with the Suliban. For some reason, Spock can find no record of that either in his library computer. I wonder why?
For a much, much better ENT episode in the second season, see Horizon.
Point conceded. Of course, theres always the possibility Spock was simply wrong. He was half-human. Anyway, I liked Horizon, minus the scene where Anthony Montgomery was "sad". He was forcing the emotion into his voice, and I feel it didn't work.
What did work was a little-seen glimpse into civilian space travel in the Trekverse. Showing how our culture adapts to space travel as more than a novelty.
) - and if you went on to watch TOS and some of the other series, you might get a little more out of both the later series and ENT.
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