Enterpise S1E14 - Shadows of P'Jem

T'Pol is recalled to Vulcan after the events of "The Andorian Incident". During her final away mission, she and Archer are kidnapped, leading to a confrontation between Vulcans and Andorians. a pandemic – Wikipedia

The good:

Nice opening shot of Star Fleet command in San Francisco.

I am not forgiving the weaknesses of “The Andorian Incident”, but it is comforting to know that there were serious repercussions to the events at P’Jem. And by the way, the Vulcans totally deserved to have their little sanctuary blasted to bits…at least the Andorians gave them time to evacuate.

Mad props to T’Pol for apparently being the only Vulcan in the universe who can stand being around humans for more than five minutes.

I was very happy with the fairly nuanced and far reaching politics in this episode. Vulcan and Andoria are inches from interstellar war. Vulcans and humans are definitely not besties any more. Should we be philosophically rooting for the rebels? Are the Vulcans actually imperialistic jerks setting up puppet governments to secure mineral rights? Good stuff…particularly since we didn’t get burdened with too many exposition scenes.

The slapstick scene where Archer-T’Pol tried to escape their bonds was predictable but acceptable, primary because the inevitable pratfall resulted in the face-full-o-boob instead of the ever-more-popular man-on-top landing.

Andorians always look cool coming out of the shadows. I have to admit I was not expecting them at all…should have…but didn’t.

No PYITFST! 

Overall I thought this episode was decent story that continued a major plotline, and provided tons of possibilities for future development.

The bad:

I thought Archer was a little trigger happy when the rebels intercepted their shuttle pod. Sure, they had an invite from the chancellor, but I don’t remember Enterprise announcing their arrival or asking permission to land in the Coridan capital city. It was totally plausible that they would be approached by a sentry and ordered to redirect away from restricted airspace. Archer didn’t even try identify or explain himself, he just went to evasive maneuvers and started blasting away. Good thing the rebels wanted him alive, the Coridan military would have been totally justified in blowing him out of the sky.

The “rescue plan” was a bit hammy. An alien walks up to a sentry and offers to share a bottle of booze? I’m pretty sure they cover that scenario in mook boot camp.

Every day I'm shuttling.

Yeah....someone made this into an actual song!

Check it out here.

Enterprise S1E13 - Sleeping Dogs

Hoshi, Malcolm and T’Pol board an uresponsive Klingon ship on decaying orbit into the crushing pressures of a gas giant – Wikipedia

The good:

I thought this episode presented a clever spin on the ticking time bomb motif. Gas giants are badass and scary.

The target practice simulator was pretty cool, very reminiscent of Luke’s lightsaber drone in Star Wars.

I was going to freak out about the fact that Enterprise had to bail out so quick from the gas giant while the Klingon ship still had “a few hours”, but they justified it with super armor plating. Good enough.

I didn’t hate this episode, but I found it pretty forgettable, which is a shame because I liked the basic concept. I just don’t think they pulled it off very well.

The bad:

Why did Hoshi and Malcolm have to stop weapon’s training just because the ship dropped out of warp to investigate a gas giant? There was no apparent threat, and they’d not been hailed to the bridge.

“Hey, we just boarded this unidentified vessel floating dead inside the atmosphere of a freakin’ gas giant. I took sensor readings of the ship’s atmosphere for about two seconds. Might as well take off our helmets for no reason” … except of course to set up the bad smell theme. Sure it provided a slight sense of grim foreshadowing, but it was mainly to set up the incredibly weak one-liner at the end of the episode. Totally not worth it.

Hoshi identifies the ship by reading Klingon, and the next scene complains about how hard it is for her to read Klingon.

On that note, it’s OK if T’Pol doesn’t have every single Klingon vessel committed to memory, but the ships computer is incapable of running an image search to try and identify a ship? That sure seems like a handy app.

Did T’Pol and Hoshi just do it? I don’t usually succumb to the equivalent of dick and fart jokes, but check this out…

“Take my hand. Close your eyes.”

“Whatever you’re trying to do it’s not working!”

“Focus.”

…deep breath… ”That was amazing” … exhale…

“When we return to the ship, I’ll teach you how to do it on your own.”

“Thanks.”

This is the third or fourth time Enterprise has encountered the Klingons, and this is the first time that Archer bothers to type “Klingon” into Vulcan google? The Klingons have been a pain in the ass for years, but Vulcans never briefed the crew on basic Klingon psychology…especially since saving a Klingon was the actual reason Enterprise launched early? Weaksauce.

No crewmen are available to weld girders into a shuttle except the captain and the chief engineer?

The captain piloted the shuttle craft on the really really really dangerous, no guarantee of survival, last ditch rescue mission into a metaphorical burning building? Sure, why not.

The weird spa/tanning salon thing with the decontamination chamber at the end was just…odd. I eventually got it that they were supposed to be really happy they were getting “clean”, but it sure didn’t come off that way at first. It sort seemed like a weird pre-orgy sauna, which I guess would have been awesome. However, It DID seem like they finally regretted taking off their helmets, so maybe next time we won’t have to deal with that foolishness.