Enterprise S4E10 Daedalus

Dr. Emory Erickson, inventor of the transporter, conducts a long-range experiment in order to recover his lost son – Wikipedia.

The good:

It’s cool to meet early pioneers in critical Starfleet technology. Transporters are a big deal. In particular, I loved the discussion on early competition between warp drive and transporter technology. Which one is actually better? There isn’t always a clear “right” answer at the beginning.

On a related note, these technologies were inherently dangerous and even unpredictable in the developmental stages. Of course, transporter malfunctions are a staple of Star Trek, but it makes sense. Transporters are freakin’ weird and scary if you think about it.

Emerson’s nod to the moral/philosophical arguments of transporter technology and the nature of the human soul. Of course, he only brought it up to immediately dismiss it – no time to go down that rabbit hole. Read more about it here.

Nice character development with Archer and Danica.

Great job on including the Kir’Shara – T’Pol was reading Surak in the mess hall. The Kir’Shara is a cultural bombshell – and logically it’s what all the cool Vulcans will be reading for quite some time. I was fairly certain that it was going to be an immediate throwaway despite being the focus of a three-episode arc.

Quinn’s radiation ghost looked pretty cool.

The bad:

Poor Tucker! He just wanted to hang out with his childhood hero. He was totally star struck. It was going to be one of the highlights of his life. And Emerson just took a crap on him the whole time. It’s good to have characters that are flawed and unlikable…still felt bad for the guy.

Very straightforward and forgettable bottle episode.

Enterprise S4E7-9 The Forge...of Boredom

S4E7 The Forge - Earth's embassy on Vulcan is partially destroyed by a bomb, killing Admiral Forrest. Archer & T'Pol travel to Vulcan in search of an alleged terrorist group blamed for the explosion, of which T'Pol's mother is s member.

S4E8 Awakening - Archer & T'Pol find T'Pau and T'Pol's mother and learn that Archer is carrying Surak'skatra.

S4E9 Kir'Shara - Archer and T'Pol bring back the Kir'Shara (Surek's artifact) that will lead changes in the Vulcan world. T'Pol's Pa'nar Syndrome is cured by T'Pau.

The good:

It was cool to see planet Vulcan.

Introduction of the katra.

T'Pol gets cured...end of a meh plot line.

The Vulcans are forced to finally get over themselves a bit.

The bad:

"T'Pol's Pa'nar Syndrome is cured by T'Pau" is perhaps the geekiest sentence I have ever written.

I don't have many plot issues. This three story arc introduced a key concept with the katra, resolved a sub-plots (T'Pol's illness and marriage), and set up a critically important development in human-Vulcan relations.

Having said that, I cannot offer specifics as to why this was so forgettable and boring. It took me a couple of months to get through these episodes. If memory serves, it took 3-4 viewing sessions to get through the Forge and at least two sessions to get through Awakening. I watched Kir'Shara immediateky following Awakening...and I fell asleep in the middle. Part of the problem was that I kept trying to watch after I went to bed...but I stay awake too late watching plenty of other shows. It was just a snooze-fest (literally).

I don't even have any pithy remarks, just glad to move on.

I'm BACK baby!

Long time no post. Sometimes life gets so busy that there simply isn't enough time to update my geek blog about old TV shows. After a significant hiatus, I was finally able to return to Enterprise. However, I had to give myself permission to not jump back into blogging at the same time. It's really weird, but it was like a mental block. I put off watching the show because I felt pressured to write the blog. Ha! A self-imposed geek prison. Anyway, I jammed through a bunch of episodes to reinvest in the show. Now let's get back to business. I left off at the end of season 1, but I have now watched through to season 4. The reality is that I don't remember specific details about many of the episodes that I binged. There is NO WAY I am going to re-watch them to refresh my memory, and anyway the premise of this blog is to respond the the episodes after a single viewing and without any background research.

So here's the deal. Wikipedia has season guides with brief (1-2 sentence) summaries for each episode. It was very interesting to read through and see which episodes "stuck" with me. Most of the episodes were fine. Some were memorable. Unfortunately, the main plot arcs were only so so.

Major Plot Lines

The Temporal Cold War

• Great premise with a good start. The Suliban are a very cool species with a lot of potential. The final episodes of that plot line (StormFront I/II) were mildly interesting. Aliens time-travel to give aid to the Nazis to turn the course of history. The CGI of Nazi tanks in front of the White House looked like it was composed in Microsoft Paint. Anyway, it just sort of lost steam. Something throws the time stream out of whack and then Daniels pops in, grabs Archer, and...fixes it somehow....again.

The Delphic Expanse

• It sounds sweet...but meh. There were cool elements. Vulcan space madness. The special effects for the temporal anomalies. The cloak and dagger politics of the Xindi council was a little interesting. The Enterprise was racing the clock to save the Earth from complete destruction so the drama was watching the crew try to not lose their shit under the stressful conditions. But...come on. At no point did I ever remotely entertain the idea that Earth was going to get blown up. I think this is were Enterprise suffers as a prequel. We already know everything is going to be alright no matter what.

Memorable Episodes

S2E2 Carbon Creek: Sub-Commander T'Pol relates the tale of a Vulcan crew stranded on Earth in the 1950s. 

• THIS was the episode that re-ignited my interest in the show. It was a pseudo-time travel episode via flashback. T'Pol's great grandmother bore a remarkable resemblance to T'Pol herself. Anyway, this is a tried and true Star Trek maneuver...a fish out of water story set on 20th century Earth. Honestly, most of it is boilerplate...except for the most amazing scene where three Vulcans are sitting around watching sitcom television while arguing in textbook sitcom fashion...in Vulcan deadpan. It was high art and it was beautiful. 

S2E5 A Night in Sickbay: The Captain's beagle, Porthos, becomes ill from an alien pathogen, and Captain Archer frets in Sickbay waiting for him to recover.

• A one-off featuring Porthos and Phlox. Porthos pees on a magic alien tree and gets space sickness until Archer gets over himself and apologizes to the aliens. There is a great scene where Archer and Phlox chase a weird blue bat bird around sickbay. It's the best. 

S2E9 Singularity: Enterprise charts a course through a trinary star system to investigate a black hole, and the crew find themselves suffering from a condition similar to OCD.

• Great progression of the OCD sickness over time. Tucker builds a super swell chair for Archer. Phlox wants to put Mayweather in a blender to cure his headache. Malcom gets a Tactical Alert boner. T'Pol watches in annoyance.

S2E10 Vanishing Point: After her first trip through the transporter, Ensign Sato finds herself becoming incorporeal, with the crew believing she has perished.

• Again, a great progression of "something is wrong". It always works to make transporters dangerous. Plus...Sato slowly disappears and nobody can hear her anymore...sign me up! Don't worry kids, it was all a dream.

S2E18 The Crossing: Incorporeal aliens attempt to take over Enterprise.

• The aliens have a totally boss ship. Tucker and Reed are fantastic as possessed aliens. I loved Tucker's scene in the mess hall. Those poor aliens were just looking to settle down into a new home by using the Enterprise crew as meat puppet hosts. I wasn't sure who to root for.

S2 E26 The Expanse: After an alien attack on Earth, Enterprise is refitted before being sent into the Delphic Expanse. Sub-Commander T'Pol resigns her commission with the Vulcan High Command, and Commander Tucker is troubled by the death of his sister.

• This was decent as a season closer. A giant space laser destroys Florida! Woohooo!

S3E8 Twilight: A parasite causes Captain Archer to lose his long-term memory, and he (with the help of T'Pol and Doctor Phlox) seeks a way to change the past.

• I think I generally love the alternate history episodes. To me, this had a great vibe reminiscent of Battlestar Gallactica on New Caprica.

S3E10 Similitude: Commander Tucker becomes comatose after an accident, and a rapid-growing clone is created for the purpose of harvesting brain tissue.

• I was annoyed by the bait and switch opening funeral for Tucker. Don't worry, it was his clone. However, it gave us a great way to learn more about Tucker's past and gave "him" a chance to tell T'Pol his true feelings. Good acting by Connor Trinneer.

S3E16 Doctor’s Orders: As Enterprise passes through a "trans-dimensional disturbance," the crew is put into hibernation, leaving Doctor Phlox in control of the ship.

• Phlox saves the day with help from T'Pol. Sort of. Great semi-creepy mood to set up T'Pol's entrance and it was hilarious when she started to break down and just shrug a lot at the end. This is one of the few episodes that I think would be even better on second viewing. 

S3E21 E^2: The Enterprise crew meet their own descendants from an alternate timeline in the past.

• Alternate history again. I'm a sucker.

S4E5 Cold Station 12: A space station crew is held hostage as Dr. Arik Soong and his Augments work to obtain hundreds of Augment embryos in hopes of creating an Augment population.

S4E6 The Augments: Dr. Arik Soong finds himself overthrown as "father" of the Augments and Archer rushes to prevent the destruction of a Klingon colony. As a result of his dashed hopes of enhancing humans, Soong turns in a new direction of research.

S4E7 The Forge: Earth's embassy on Vulcan is partially destroyed by a bomb, killing Admiral Forrest. Archer & T'Pol travel to Vulcan in search of an alleged terrorist group blamed for the explosion, of which T'Pol's mother is a member.

• A nice three story arc. Good to see Brent Spiner again...this time as a "bad ass". Cannot go wrong by giving props to Wrath of Khan. The one Augment girls was pretty hot. #winning

So that's the catch up. We are at the beginning of the fourth (and final) season of Enterprise. I'm going to give a shot at going back to posting per episode starting with episode 9.