What's your ruling on "Judgement"?

[Tom Riley]

I'm a first time Enterprise watcher, before two weeks ago I had only seen "These Are The Voyages" and "In A Mirror Darkly" I and II. Now that CBS.com has them online, I've been watching them through. I just got to the season 2 episode "Judgement"... So far I've liked most of the episodes, and haven't hated any... So far...Then... I saw Judgement...

Judgement just really detracted from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, to me... I understand that the parallels were done on purpose, but it just didn't work for me. The court in TUC was big and epic. The judge was creepy and more of a mysterious figure in the dark, the sounds echoed throughout the hall. When the Klingons were chanting and pounding their sticks on the floor, it really got to you. However, in Judgement it just seemed more like a small middle school's sports team's parents on the sidelines of one of the less important away games... In TUC it just overall felt more... epic... (I seem to be unable to think of another word to describe it... ) Even the scenes on Rura Penthe were darker and seemed more filled with danger in TUC. I understand that obviously Enterprise doesn't have the kind of budget that TUC did, and just couldn't recreate it, but that's not enough of an excuse in my book.

And it's not just the looks and feel of the court and Rura Penthe scenes. Reed was just able to walk in to a heavily guarded penal colony, and then walk out with Archer??? That takes away from the gravity of Kirk's situation completely. His escape was much more complicated, seemed a lot more difficult, and was completely shat upon () by Archer's "escape".

Don't get me wrong, I'm really liking the series so far, but that episode left a bad taste in my mouth. Since I haven't seen anything beyond this episode yet, I don't know if this episode has some big impact later on, but it seems to me that it is more of a one off episode, and I think that it would have been much better if this episode just hadn't been made at all. [EDIT -- It appears I spoke too soon, the story arc continues a bit. ]

What's everyone else's opinions of this episode? Anyone else share my opinion? Anyone actually like it?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I'm a first time Enterprise watcher, before two weeks ago I had only seen "These Are The Voyages" and "In A Mirror Darkly" I and II. /

OMFG what what what what. what. waht.

(that was a TATV reaction)

I thought Judgement was awesome. BUT. I had not seen VI in some time. And I adore VI. Having watched VI a few times recently I agree with your post.. though Judgement still has some strong scenes.

The escape sucked. It detracted from the impact of VI. Actually Rura Penthe just looked very vanilla in ENT compared to VI (and lets face it, we know it would be a thousand times worse in reality).

BUT. WATCH MORE ENT. Much of it is awesome

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Just another obligatory Trek trial episode.

None of the Klingon stuff was especially handled well on Enterprise. Had they planned the series better, invested more into "Judgement", maybe making it part of the actual first contact with the Klingons and a 2-parter...they might've had something more worthwhile.

The one thing Judgement does address is the warriors-above-all-else culture the Klingons became obsessed with. Even then, that seems an out as to why Archer's defense lawyer actually gives a shit about his fate.

Was the court supposed to be same as TUC, or just a similar regional court?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Just another obligatory Trek trial episode.

Really, oddly, Judgment was the only trial ep I liked. I think that is why I was so wowed by it because if there's anything I hate it's the freaking trial eps.

The one thing Judgement does address is the warriors-above-all-else culture the Klingons became obsessed with.

That is explored in a lot of Treklit, so I found it pretty neat to see on screen. If you're not a Treklit person it might be less meaningful.

 

[JiNX-01]

Here's my ruling: J.G. Hertzler elevates anything he's in.


And yes, the easy escape was painfully lame.


I didn't really have issues with the trial or the courtroom setting. After all this trial is set at least 100 years before Kirk's trial. Do we have courtrooms that are exactly like the ones at the turn of the 20th century?

 

[bluedana]

Other than the easy escape which, well yeah, was lame, I love Judgment. The smaller scale doesn't bother me; in real life, courtrooms vary like that all over.

One of my favorite movies is Rashomon, and I love Rashomon-homages. The difference between Duras' version ("this is the Battlecruiser Enterprise -- and your mother is ugly!") and Archer's version ("we're here to help, and would you like some tea and cookies?") is hilarious. You just know that neither one of them is completely accurate. I thought Bakula got to do some of his best acting in the whole second season, from defiant to challenging to hopeful to crushed, all in the space of a few scenes. Hertzler was terrific, setting the stage for the Divergence mini-arc in S4.

I do wish the resolution had been a bit better thought out, though.

 

[Tom Riley]

It's not so much that the court room doesn't look the same, or that it's smaller that I meant I had a problem with, it's the atmosphere of the courtroom I meant. They made it extremely similar but the atmosphere given off by those scenes just didn't have the same effect, and it was painfully obvious that they were TRYING to make them as similar as possible.

If it had been set up to look purposefully different, and more like something that had a few similarities that we could see would evolve into the courtroom that we saw in TUC, I would've had no problem with it.

I do agree, bluedana, seeing the differences between the stories was kinda funny.

 

[Reanok]

I like Judgement and J.G. Hertzler certainly did an excellent job in the role as Archer's arbitor.I like his role of Martok on ds9.Yes there were similarities to startrek 6 it was nice to see a coonection to a Tos movie. I liked the fact Malcolm was able to help Archer break out of Rua Penthe.

 

[Tom Riley]

I did like J.G. Hertzler's role as the advocate. He is a good actor, and I like him as Martok too. He's definitely my favorite part of the episode.

I'm coming up on "Bounty" so, we'll see if the rest of the arc helps out that episode.

 

[FormerLurker]

The trial in Judgement was a trial, the trial in ST VI was a show-trial.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I thought the implication was that all Klingon trials are show trials.

 

[FormerLurker]

No, that's the Cardassians.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I think it's both, the trial in Judgment begins after he is already pronounced guilty.

 

[DonIago]

I appreciated the episode as an homage to TUC, with the inevitable shortcomings that arose from it being an episode of television instead of a feature film.