Enterprise S1E8 - Civilization

Archer, Trip, Hoshi, and T’Pol go undercover to observe a pre-industrial civilization to find they aren’t the first observers there – Wikipedia

The good:

Aside from a few nitpicks, I really liked the storyline. It totally makes sense that more advanced civilizations would exploit less advanced civilizations for valuable raw materials. Also I dug the none-too-subtle anti-fracking message.

The cold open was good, T’Pol got to bond with the crew to set up the good news for Archer.

The very first images of the Akaali city from a distance were cool, particularly the moment when they got a shot of the sailing ship. As Archer pointed out, it basically fulfilled every history nerd’s dream of traveling back in time.

We got to see continued development of the Prime Directive in the bridge conversation between T’Pol and Archer.

Archer got his first alien-girl kiss.

T’Pol got to prove she can be quick-witted and bad-ass in a fight.

Hoshi got to feel all confident and have a translator-gasm.

The bad

The single most important word you need before interacting with a new civilization is the culture’s name for itself? Really? Like if I go to France, the most important thing I need to know is just the word “French”? How about “bathroom”?

If they are trying to go undercover, why do the following?

·        Have T’Pol go at all? She has Vulcan ears.

·        Not order T’Pol to at least wear her hood? Hoshi was wearing her hood. Of course, then we wouldn’t get to see our uptight Vulcan let her hair down a bit. BOOM…two puns in one blog post.

·        Send everyone down on a shuttle, which you plan on leaving unguarded, when you have a perfectly functioning transporter?

·        Whip out your damn tricorder and communicator every five feet?

That city sure was clean and sparkly.

But of course the most egregious sin was with the translator. Fine, Hoshi programmed the translator. But there two problems that we had to just ignore.

1.     Based on the alleyway scene between Archer and Riann, the crew clearly depended on their tricorder to do the translation. Meaning, the translated language in both directions would project from the tricorder itself. Even if we allow for the possibility that the crew were wearing earbuds, the Akaali certainly weren’t.

2.     Fine, the translator has a magic ventriloquism button that makes the sound come from the right spot, but Archer and pals are still MOUTHING WORDS IN ENGLISH. I can only imagine how freakin’ bizarre it would be to hear one language, and see lips moving in completely wrong ways to produce those words. Of course maybe I’m wrong. Riann’s lips change from “English” to Akaali when Archer’s translator goes on the fritz for no reason.