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.