Enterprise S1E22 - Fallen Hero

Enterprise finds itself under attack while transporting a Vulcan ambassador. – Wikipedia.

The good:

Another segment of the human-Vulcan frenemy soap opera. It was pretty cool when Archer called Ambassador V’lar’s bluff and started to take her back to the Mazarites.

T’pol’s backstory developed a bit more with the revelation that V’lar was an inspiration for her to join Vulcan Star Fleet.

Porthos.

Phlox’s rage-scream when the Mazarites shot up his sick bay was seriously the best acting moment so far in the entire series.

The Vulcan battleship was really awesome, it totally made me respect them more.

Enterprise held it together to hit Warp 5.0.

The bad:

Snooze-fest in general.

The open was really uncomfortable. T’Pol asked Archer and Trip the last time they got some, because she was worried about a three percent drop in efficiency. The suggestion? Go to a beach planet full of whores to blow off some steam. Seriously, it was only made worse by Trip talking about twelve-fingered masseuses later on.

Trip brought a Hawaiian shirt on an interstellar voyage? He probably had room for like two outfits that weren’t jumpsuits and he decides to bring a Hawaiian shirt? They have Hawaiian shirts in the 22^nd century?

What a weak set-up for Ambassador V’lar. T’Pol was so high-strung about the preparations that you just knew that V’lar would be the exact opposite of her expectations.

The entire premise of the episode was underdeveloped. Why should I care about the Mazarites at all? They were not presented as an important race. Hell, V’lar’s big secret was that their leadership was corrupt and she was essentially conducting an internal audit. Whoohoo. I mean, that is important enough, but why all the “need to know” bluster? Obviously her cover was already blown. Who exactly was Archer going to tell?

I don’t envy T’Pol for having to do mental math warp calculations on the rendezvous time with the Sh’Raan, but I’m pretty sure she screwed it up. My understanding is that warp speed increases exponentially. For example, warp 5 is WAAAAAY faster than warp 4.5…but it only cut the time in half when Enterprise put the pedal to the floor. And when the Sh’Raan started to approach at warp 7.0 (WAAAAAAAAAY faster than warp 5), it only cut the time from about an hour to 10-15 minutes? That doesn’t seem right, but it sure does seem convenient.

I know this is SUPER nitpicky, but sometimes I get weary of the big reveal of the plan to the audience. For example, Archer ordered V’lar to sick bay before the Mazarites arrive. She understandably wanted to know why. He complained that there isn’t time for explanations, but then went on a mini-rant about trust. Archer was going to need to take time to explain it Phlox off-screen anyway, why not just have her tell Plox? How about this, “Tell Phlox to pretend to put you in the scanner to buy us a few minutes of time!” 

The ending didn’t make any sense. Enterprise had to keep V’lar safe so she could testify about the corrupt Mazarites. In the process, the Mazarites repeated chased down and fired upon a Federation starship. Wasn’t that an act of war against Star Fleet? Then they sent an armed boarding party onto Enterprise who, as far as they knew at the time, openly murdered a critically injured Vulcan ambassador in front of witness. Wasn’t that an act of war against the Vulcans? But the ah-ha moment is that V’lar was still alive to testify about the corruption charges? Why didn’t Archer just arrest them right there? If he didn’t want to deal with it, why didn’t he turn them over to the Vulcans on the Sh’Raan? Why did they just let them go?

Enterprise S1E21 - Vox Sola

An unknown alien boards Enterprise and starts capturing crew members, linking them together neurologically – Wikipedia.

The good:

There was a strong Alien vibe when the entity was crawling around the walls, and when first encountered by redshirts Rostov and Kelly.

The entity was pretty cool. Webs are creepy…especially giant, sentient, people-eating webs.

I like that the entity was clearly “alien” and mysterious, but not evil. It was made stronger by the fact that we never really know much about it, including why it attached to the Kreetassan’s ship, or why it decided to come onto Enterprise. It was ultimately understandably self-interested and had a clear goal, to get back home.

The psychic link between the captured crewmembers was cool. It heightened the tension by symbolically eating them, while also creating a huge obstacle to saving them. Of course, it also gave us a chance to learn that it was both intelligent and ultimately non-hostile as otherwise the security team would have just fried it during the first rescue attempt.

“Not in my sickbay.” Phlox is the man.

Porthos.

Malcolm gets to play hero by finalizing an operational force field.

I guess Ensign Mayweather was the acting captain? He was the only one left on the bridge and conducting intergalactic diplomacy on behalf of Starfleet. Good for him.

Cool closing scene with the massive hive entity.

The bad:

Anytime the spotlight is on Hoshi, she just annoys me. She’s always whining that it’s not her fault and everyone is picking on her. Hey Hoshi…you’re the communications officer. When talks break down over a language barrier, the ball was ultimately in your court. Deal with it. But the words in the Kreetassan language can have multiple meanings dependent on context! Yeah, sounds like pretty much every language ever.

Phlox speculates that the entity is sensitive to EM based on his examination of the severed tendril. Malcolm builds special EM laser guns to fight it. Holy lame sauce. Why didn’t they just fix the lights on the cargo deck? Or go back with bigger flashlights? Or bring in amplifiers and rock out to Quiet Riot “Metal Health”? Because you know, those are all types of EM radiation.

The Kreetassan’s were just a plot device to get the entity onto the ship. I guess I was supposed to be blown away by the cultural misunderstanding over something we take for granted, but whatever. It would have been better if they were not brought back after the opening scene. Even the negotiation to get the planetary coordinates was ultimately unnecessary, because the crew got that information from the entity after they established contact. Speaking of which, the entity knows the latitude and longitude of where it was picked up on its home planet? Cool.

The entity sure shrank down a lot to fit in that box at the end.

Enterprise S1E20 - Detained

Archer and Travis find themselves imprisoned in a Suliban internment camp by the Tandarans – Wikipedia.

The good:

This was a great plot development episode to continue the Temporal Cold War plot. I like when we see complexity in the different factions. Of course not every Suliban is a hardened rebel/terrorist. Additionally, the Tandaran’s aren’t “bad” either… they’re just dealing with a messy situation.

Overall, this was an effective commentary on contemporary world events, which of course when Star Trek is at its best. This episode aired just at the same time that detention centers at Guantanamo Bay were being expanded to house prisoners from the War on Terror. The closer parallel, however, is to the Japanese internment camps of World War II, a fact that I believe was pointed out in the episode. What is the government’s responsibility to protect its citizens? What about citizens it does not trust? Such deep questions have no clear answers, but are sure to create strong opinions.

The prison break was believable only because they didn’t get too bogged down in the details. Trip provides air support. The Sullies breach the wall. Run for freedom. Yay.

I like the uncertain ending for the Suliban refugees. They are free…but where is their new home?

The bad:

PYINFST…or its much feared cousin…ISOLATION!!! Muahahahaha!

Another in media res cold open…I feel like we have seen a few of those lately. All things in moderation Star Trek writers.

I don’t want to pull a double spoiler…but a certain Tandaran is also a prominent bad guy on another sci-fi series. Not that I mind, but it was a bit distracting, I really couldn’t think of anything else when he was on screen. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, fuggedaboutit.

I appreciate that we were totally suppose to empathize with the Suliban, and that means we have to see the similarities…but it just felt a little weak. I never thought I was seeing a regular civilian from a different planet…just a bunch of dudes with wacky skin make-up. Maybe that’s a stupid thing to say since that describes pretty much all the aliens…but they’re just too damn human. The script writers haven’t really created a distinctive culture. Hopefully they work it out if we have to spend extended time with Suliban peeps in the future.

Enterprise S1E19 - Oasis

Archer, T'Pol, Trip and Travis find a crew apparently alive on a ship that crash-landed years ago - Wikipedia.

The good:

The opening scene was great. The space trader D’Marr looked really awesome. I’m glad they didn’t explain where he came from or how the Enterprise crew met him; it added texture and avoided unnecessary exposition. Sometimes less is more.

It was very creepy when Trip and T’Pol were exploring the engineering deck of the ship before they caught Liana.

I remember thinking that it didn’t seem believable that a crew that large could have survived for years on one small hydroponics farm and re-routed power from the ship’s core. I’m glad that wasn’t an oversight but rather a clue to the real situation.

Once it was evident that some of the crew members were holograms, it was fun to try and figure out who was real. I totally thought the mother was the only real one.

Computer core reminded me of computer on the Nostromo in Alien.

The bad:

It was immediately obvious that a bunch of the crew were holograms as soon as Ezral freaked out when T’Pol fiddled around with the main computer.

Ezral turned his entire ship into a holodeck…including creating an incredibly sophisticated AI to preserve the memories and personalities of his crew. All by himself. On a disabled ship with limited resources. Sure, why not?

Let’s just address the elephant in the room, OK? It’s a liiiiiiittle creepy that a dude is trapped alone with his daughter for two decades and as soon as help comes along, he’s like, “Nope…Everything’s fine. I like my life here. Go away.” Cue the banjo music.

Enterprise S1E18 - Acquisition

A group of Ferengi hijack Enterprise, but Trip, Archer and T'Pol play mind games with the pirates in order to win back their ship - Wikipedia

The good:

Great opening, dropped us right into the action.

This was a fun, light episode. The dynamic between the Ferengi was clearly inspired by the Three Stooges. It wasn’t actually slapstick, but in my head I kept picturing Muk performing a double-eye-poke on Ulis or Grish.

Good Porthos! Good boy for not telling them where the gold is!  Good boy!

The plan to double cross the Ferengi was actually believable. Archer improvised quickly and effectively rather than taking a pompous name-rank-and-serial-number “go to hell Commie” approach. Archer, Trip, and T'Pol played their parts well. I was particularly happy with the fake fight between Trip and Archer.

The bad:

Why would the Ferengi just leave the hypospray laying around? So Tripp can wake up T’Pol of course.

It was very convenient that Archer, Trip, and T'Pol could use any workstation to access a camera in any other part of the ship...and that those cameras always had an unobstructed view of the Ferengi invaders.

T’Pol actually got pissed at Archer because he told Krem that she’s a pain in the ass...because he was trying to convince Krem not to kidnap her and turn her into a rape slave? Definitely a sitcom style moment that was weak and out of character.

Krem was perilously close to being portrayed as completely mentally retarded.  In which case, Archer’s manipulation just wasn’t cool, man.