Enterprise S1E5 - Terra Nova

An early human colony on Terra Nova mysteriously disappeared 70 years ago, and Enterprise is sent to find out what happened to them – Wikipedia.

First thoughts:

I think this was the best overall episode so far.

Directed by LeVar Burton.

I liked to the tie-in to Earth’s earlier exploration efforts. The scenario felt realistic concerning the separatist element and the “lost colony” legend.

No drama between crew members, everyone was effective and efficient at their jobs. Good solid teamwork effort…particularly the completely smooth sailing between T’Pol and Archer.

I continue to be impressed with Dr. Phlox, he is easily one of my favorite characters on the show so far. Straight-shooting, competent, and professional.  Interesting without any drama. Great great work by John Billingsley.

The Novan language was right on the edge of being annoying. However, I thought it was mostly a useful plot device to reinforce the idea that the originally cave dwellers had only been children when they were orphaned. Over the course of two generations, they developed a context specific vocabulary.

Nitpicks:

Meh…nothing major actually. Generally it was a focused storyline that didn’t rely on crazy special effects, aliens, or pseudo-science.

It was hard to keep track of the extras, but it seemed like the Novan’s had some odd demographics. Two old people. Everyone else looked to be in their twenties or thirties. No one in between. No young kids.

I’m not a scientist, but I feel like 52 people is pretty lean to maintain a stable gene pool in the long term.  I don’t have high hopes for long term survival of the Novans.

Nadet definitely looked old enough in her childhood picture to have clear memories of her life before going underground, but it played out like she could barely remember it.

Serendipity

Swing and a miss.

Enterprise S1E4 - Unexpected

Trip helps an alien crew fix their engines only to find himself pregnant – Wikipedia.

First Thoughts:

The cold open was cheesy but effective to demonstrate the systems malfunctions.

The Tekkno-babble was silly of course, but I really liked the idea of a cloaked ship hitching a ride in their wake.

Great introduction to the holodeck! Are these aliens the source of the later Federation technology?

Nice tie in with the Klingons…glad to see they are assholes again. All is right with the universe.

Gratuitous Porthos scene…Yay!

I am soooo glad that Trip didn’t actually sleep with Ah’len...way to go for Starfleet officers that actually do exhibit restraint and professionalism while on duty….although it was cool to see T’Pol get all Vulcan-jealous.

Nitpicks:

Sorry, I just don’t like the theme song. I like what they are doing with the montage…and when the song first starts it seems OK, but the chorus just loses me every time.

I am not going to bother worrying about the actual biological logistics of Trip’s pregnancy. It made enough sense in the context of the episode, and they didn’t overplay it.

The concept of the Xyrillion ship was muddled. They were obviously going for an organic-y feel with the grass and wall food, but then their propulsion system is a Dexter’s lab mess of tubes and coils.

Speaking of which…sure didn’t see any grass on their home world, not sure why they needed it for the ship.

It’s OK that the Xyrillions are a passive race, but they are obviously technologically advanced…no one on their crew has the ability to fix or maintain their propulsion system?

Enterprise S1E3 - Strange New World

A storm traps an away team on an alien world, while spores cause them to experience psychosis – Wikipedia.

First Thoughts:

Earth – with a twist! Porthos gets to be the first dog to pee on an alien planet.

Nice touch to explain the origin of Class-M planet.

I like that the Enterprise crew is still basically bumbling around. They’re still green.

I was initially a little put off by how Archer continues to publicly blow off his second in command when she gives reasonable advice…like we should totally take a little bit of time to check out this alien planet we just found before we start walking around on it. However, I realized that it’ll work if it turns into Archer maturing and learning to trust T’Pol’s experience. She’s done this a lot. The whole point of having her along is to benefit from it.

Holy crap, do we get to play around with the sexual tension between T’Pol and Trip during this episode or what? I seriously thought they might just start making out in the middle of that cave. On a related note, was it just me, or was T’Pol kinda sexy talking all Vulcan-y?

The initial hallucination scenes were pretty cool. I was momentarily freaked out when Travis was seeing crew members walking around in the woods, and Cutler’s hallucination about T’Pol was great.

Banged up, but a little bit wiser, the crew of the Enterprise limps off to the next adventure.

Nitpicks:

Archer really brought along a water-polo ball to space?

At no time did the away team ever seem in actual danger from the weather. It was pretty windy. That’s about it. Speaking of which…the orbiting ship with sensors had no idea that a massive storm was about to hit the landing zone in a few hours?

It was completely obvious they were going to hallucinate somehow from the moment Novakovich smelled the flower…and there was no way they were going to off a major character in the third episode…so not too much dramatic tension here.

So tricorders can take spectral analysis of rocks and stuff, but can’t warn you when you’re about to walk into a massive chasm?

The aborted shuttle landing was super lame. Archer told them to go to a nearby clearing, but it was obviously still too close to the cliff face. Why didn’t they just go back to the initial landing zone? It was “less than a kilometer” away. Travis had already gone there and back without incident when they were at the cave.

Need to rethink their supplies for next time. Apparently they ran out of food and water in like 6 hours. When Travis went back to camp to get the food…he only picked up one small silver bag. He even made a big show of diving to catch it in the wind, so it wasn’t that heavy. Super dehydrated I guess. They were really worried about lack of water after only a few hours? Even if that wasn’t weird, they just spent the whole afternoon skipping stones across a creek just few minutes from the campground…I’m sure they would have pulled through.

The failed transporter scene with Novakovich was totally AWESOME and they blew it. He was a red shirt, he could have had a rockin’ death as half-tree half-man, but no! He just had some stupid flesh-wounds…and then dies pathetically of drug overdose on a slab in sickbay. Sure they learned about the neurotoxin along the way, but they could have found that out from a postmortem when he died as tree man.

AND…once they set up that he survived the transport essentially unharmed, there was no compelling reason NOT to beam up the rest of the away team. So what if they get some cuts and bruises? Sure it’s dangerous and all, but Archer’s first and second officers were seconds away from killing each other in a drug induced rage. That sounds like a textbook emergency situation to me.

Very minor nitpick…but those cases for the phasers are REALLY bulky. That huge case for just four pistols? LOTS of foam padding…better safe then sorry I guess.

Enterprise S1E2 - Fight or Flight

Hoshi faces her fears on an alien ship whose crew was murdered, while Malcolm tries to upgrade the ship’s defense system. – Wikipedia.

First thoughts:

Not too bad, but nothing to write home about.

Good character development for Hoshi. It was interesting to hear her wistfully talk about going back home. In the other series, I always had the impression that people viewed the ship as home, she reminds us that this is actually supposed to be more like a tour of duty.

Hoshi seems like sort of a counselor Troi for the crew in this episode. She can get “impressions” of the Anaxar, but not perfect. I wonder if that’s going to keep going?

She did pull a “I’m a translator, not a…” line in sickbay. Nice throwback, as long as it doesn’t get overplayed.

I love Archer’s dog.

I really like Dr. Phlox.

I like the continued feel of the Enterprise crew still figuring everything out. They are all amateurs at this. For example, Malcom and Travis calibrating the targeting computer. The crew doesn’t have established protocols for encounters, because they haven’t had any yet. Who should go on away teams? What do they do when they actually find stuff? Lots of ways to build and maintain tension. Good times.

The argument on the bridge between Archer and T’Pol was interesting, but a little misplaced in my opinion. I get her argument that different species have different protocols for interaction, but there was fairly compelling evidence that the Anaxar ship had been raided and was in distress. The continuation of their argument over dinner was much more effective. Overall, it is still working to keep the “Vulcans and Humans learning to like each other” arc.

I LOVE that they quarantine the away teams when they return to ship (forgot to give props to that from the last episode). Nice touch that easily could have been overlooked. We are so used to the “clean” transporter mechanism. Nice that they aren’t relying on that yet…but I’m sure that’ll change soon enough.

I was kind of weird to see a photon torpedo ricochet off another ship. I know that they are basically super-sized artillery shells, but it was still odd…and r-e-a-l-l-y slow. But it does leave obvious room for the technology to improve over time.

Loved the super slow shuttle craft docking and the topside hatch. Very old school feel.

Nitpicks:

Hoshi was very whine-y in this episode. I know it was her character building episode, but still. Hope she’s gotten over herself for next time.

Translators…so they do have translators (used initially when hailing the Anaxar ship)…but Hoshi has to spend a lot of time on the computer decoding the Anaxar language, even though they had extended samples from the Anaxar ship logs. Even so, in the big moment, the computer couldn’t do it, but Hoshi could? Good for her, but it felt like a big stretch.

I know that it is the Star Trek “thing”, and I promise not to comment on it every time, but it makes NO sense at all that the captain…or any senior executive officer…would ever be the first on the ground for anything except the most routine of missions. Peaceful exploration or not, this is still basically the space navy. They would totally send a bunch of red-shirts first to scope it out every.single.time.

The captain started to order security teams to repel boarders from the bio-smugglers’ ship, but he is distracted by the hail from the incoming Anaxar ship. Malcolm was just about to get on the turbolift before the hail, but then immediate returned to his station on the bridge…like he couldn’t possible anticipate what Archer wanted? Archer never belayed the order. However, even when it is still going down, and their freakin’ hull is getting breached, Archer STILL never finalized the order for internal security. Like, everyone NOT on the bridge was just sitting around doing their thing, waiting to get murdered by space pirates.

And on a related note…any time that Archer wants to go to red alert is probably OK.

THE STUPID SLUG! Fine…it is moderately humorous that the Enterprise’s “first contact” (after meeting Vulcans, and Klingons, and Sulibans, and all the other assorted aliens from the space bar in the first episode…) was a simple slug. Why did Hoshi ever bring it back on the ship anyway? She seemed so worried about it but she couldn’t predict that they would know NOTHING about how to take care of it? Why take only one, if you are taking one at all? She said it needed an argon rich atmosphere…presumably different from typical class M atmosphere. But Dr. Phlox just casually opened the lid to feed it in sick bay. And when they dropped of the slug at the end, no one was wearing environmental suits. I know that argon is a non-reactive gas, but either the slug breathes Earth air, or it doesn’t. Archer really rerouted the ship just to drop off the slug? I guess. BUT THEY JUST DROPPED THE POOR THING OFF ON SOME RANDOM ALIEN (TO IT) WORLD. HOW IS THAT BETTER THAN JUST LETTING IT DIE IN SICK BAY? Yeah sure, Hoshi gets to tie it up all pretty at the end with her Hoshi/slug metaphor…but it isn’t going to magically survive on a different plant just because she feels better about herself. 

Enterprise S1E1 - Broken Bow 1 & 2

OK, I've decided that I will do my best to post something for each episode. Might as well, it's a blog right? Also, I think there will be benefit by stopping to consider each episode in the moment, rather than bombing through half a season on a lazy Saturday. Also, will be great to have a long term record of the experience...kind of like...you know...a blog.

Future critics please take note....I make no claims to be a Star Trek expert. Up to this point I have simply been a casual fan. I have never seen the vast majority of episodes for anything except probably TNG, which I watched fairly regularly during its initial broadcast. 

These posts will be from that point of view...my thoughts based on a first time viewing...and of course the obligatory nitpicks. I generally will NOT do full episode synopsis though, that's what Wikipedia is for.

On that note, I will make every effort keep it legit, and avoid "previewing" episode descriptions in advance, although I'll probably reference Wikipedia to check names and stuff when doing my posts. 

So here goes...

First contact with the Klingons; the Enterprise (NX-01) is launched. Archer finds himself in the middle of a Temporal Cold War. - Wikipedia.

First thoughts:

Enterprise seems pretty cool so far. I don't know what I really expected, I had never seen a single episode of this series.

The ship design is neat...I dunno...the later incarnations seemed to get more and more curvy in my memory. I like the flat streamline. 

The atmosphere isn't quite gritty like Aliens or A New Hope...but I appreciate the efforts to make things seem like they are kind of on the edge. For example, I love the biological solutions in sick bay like the slugs. I remember the medical stuff as always being pretty boring by design...press a button on a thing and poof you are cured.

The scene where the Ensign Mayweather was floating at the "sweet spot" or whatever he called it...in the middle of the ship was pretty cool. Again, cool atmosphere...the gravity technology is not perfect.

I LOVE phasers that look like guns with a proper grip. I get it that the TNG phasers are more streamlined or something, but I just never liked them. Guns should look like guns.

I like the crew so far. Bakula seems solid as Archer. (I hope they don't overplay the "doing it all for daddy" stuff though). 

Nice call on playing with our expectations for Klingons and Vulcans right off the bat. Vulcans are perceived as a pain in the ass necessary evil. Klingons are just another race out there with no particular hostility toward humans. Sets up two obvious potential story arcs to move forward on the series.

Are the Suliban going to be returning bad guys? The possibilities with their chameleon capabilities would be pretty awesome if done right. BTW...the moment when Silik wrapped his hand around backward to grab the gun from Archer was pretty boss.

The Helix was neat...my first impression was just a Cloud City rip-off, but the docking hub twist was nice, although I was worried for a moment that they were going to go for some Voltron thing with the "interlocking components"

Nitpicks:

The Mos Eisley-ish bar scene with the weird butterfly-tongue stuff, and the exposition/sexual tension scene in decontamination unit the between T'Pol and Trip were a bit sigh inducing to me, but passable...definitely have seen worse.

  

Enterprise crew capture one of the Helix pods with a grappler - FINE...I liked the "low-tech" solution.

They quickly learn how to fly it fairly well - FINE - it gives us a glimpse of both Travis's and Trip's skills.

Archer and Trip land the pod that they just captured FROM the Helix ONTO the Helix - LAME - because Suliban totally don't have identification transponders on their vehicles, nor would they check out vehicles that want to land on the Helix, nor would there be any kind of alert on the vehicle that was JUST stolen.

Timeline?

TOS - 80 episodes at average length of 50 mins = 4000 mins

TAS - 22 episodes at average length of 22 mins = 528 mins

TNG - 177 episodes at average length of 45 mins = 7965 mins

DS9 - 173 episodes at average length of 45 mins = 7785 mins

VOY - 168 episodes at average length of 45 mins = 7560 mins

ENT - 97 episodes at average length of 45 mins = 4365 mins

Motion Picture - 132 mins

Wrath of Khan - 113 mins

Spock - 105 mins

Voyage Home - 122 mins

Final Frontier - 106 mins

Undiscovered Country - 110 mins

Generations - 118 mins

First Contact - 111 mins

Insurrection - 103 mins

Nemesis - 116 mins

Star Trek (2009) - 126 mins

Into Darkness - 133 mins

Total hours of viewing time - 560

Average viewing pace of 3 hours per week = approximately 3.5 years to completion

The rules

Ok,here are some of my guiding principals for "Operation: Star Trek"

 1. Watch in "real" chronological order (e.g. Enterprise prequel before TOS)). I will be using the Star Trek Chronology Project list for viewing order. There are others around that are slightly different, but I like that they laid out their methodology (this is important stuff people...). The only addition is that I'll also watch the animated series directly following the original series and before the Motion Picture...and of course add Into Darkness, and anything else that might come along, at the end.

 2. I will post updates on my progress at major milestones (e.g. season and series completions). No promises on individual episode commentary, I definitely don't have a goal to do that for each episode. However, I'm sure I'll post some commentary as it goes on.

 3. Just for the heck of it, I'll post my most and least favorite episodes for each milestone.

 4. Spoilers - this is a tough one. I mean, we're talking about TV and movies that are, generally, several decades old. There will be spoilers.

 5. Time - Heh...no promises on this one other than I do intend to complete the project. I would have to imagine that this will take several years to complete. If I finish it any sooner than that please find me and put me out if my misery.

6. Abbreviations

TOS - the original series

TAS - the animated series

TNG - the Next Generation

DS9 - Deep Space Nine

VOY - Voyager

ENT - Enterprise (prequel series)

It begins

I have decided to watch all of Star Trek. TOS. TAS. TNG. DS9. VOY. ENT. The movies. The whole enchilada. Why? I dunno...to get to the other side I guess.