Enterprise 10/31
 

third time's a charm (damn_errors)

I thought it was pretty good. Was a little surprised by

The Andorians were interesting, especially their antennae.

I also found it interesting that Vulcans .

Next week looks like a pretty basic run-of-the-mill, save the world at the last second kind of thing.

I like how UPN is showing armagedon or is that deep impact :)

Anyone want to tell me what happened after the crew beamed in? My tape ran out right at that point.

Man I KNEW they were going to be hiding something. Well I'm glad to know my suspicions were confirmed.

another episode, another cave ;) . just kidding of course, haven't missed an episode yet :)

and what was that big whatever it was at the end? i didn't understand the last 10 minutes or so.

--HN

That was the detector array that the Vulcans were using to spy on the Andorrians with.

Archer: With this you could tell what the Andorians are having for breakfast.

I'm having trouble with this whole Vulcans as liars thing. And it's not just at the monastery. The star charts had a big hole where the system belonged. It would be illogical to withhold information necessary for navigation, even from us stupid, smelly humans.

So, are the Andorians our friends now?




Am I the only one who thought, "Oh, no! His name is Crewman!"? :)

I was waiting for him to get killed. rotfl rotfl

I was thinking the same thing! :) They've got to get that crew out into the sun a bit more...

I was happy to see some actual Vulcans this time. N'Pol showed even more growth this week, but you could tell the other actors understood the Vulcan character a little better. Hopefully she learned something from them, because they were quite good I thought.

das

I was pretty disappointed in this episode. It was like they had an old ST:TNG script laying around so they just used it instead of anything new.

This was the first episode of "Enterprise" to really truly disappoint. Pointlessly plotted from beginning to end.

What was the reason for beaming down Reed and 2 "redshirts?" If the transporter is really so dangerous, why use it on humans at all when Mayweather could have just as easily beamed down a cache of phaser weapons and some explosives and had T'Pol, Tripp and Archer take care of the rest? It's not like their was an armada of Andorians holding the monastary hostage. IT WAS JUST 4 ANDORIANS!

Had this been the Original Series, Kirk would have karate-fu-ed those over-grown petulant smurfs into submission and uncovered the secret Vulcan military base before the first commercial break. The remainder of the episode should have been either Kirk making blustery dramatic "tut-tut" speaches to the Vulcans about the inherent cowardliness of waging covert war, while feigning passivity, and showing the chest-puffed out bravery of facing your enemy "mano-e-mano" with a belly full of fire. (Oh and Kirk would have a huge, but very artfully torn, cut down the middle of his green command shirt and a neat dribble of dried blood on the right side of his mouth as he exhorted the Vulcan monks to throw off their Vulcan stoicism just this once and do the right thing - the "human thing." "Fight, damn you. Pick up a weapon and defend your sanctuary . . . your . . . holy place. Or your homes . . . your . . . very . . . way of life . . . will be . . . NO MORE!!" Can't you just see it? :D )

Instead, we get another "flashlights-in-caves" plotline and more awkwardly forced human-vulcan xenophobia. This series is already deep into its "newer, fresher" cliches:

(1) Archer sees new planet - exclaims "yippee, gosh-golly-willickers, let's fulfill our mission"
(2) T'Pol balks - curtly barking "nuh-uh, Vulcans don't play that way"
(3) Tripp makes a snarky little "good ol' boy" comment, displaying his comic streak of Vulcan racism
(4) T'Pol makes her "clown-lips" face and puffs out her calico cat-suit haughtily
(5) Shuttle down to the "deserted" planet - rummage through caves with flashlights- primitive boogeyman alien attacks in the dark - yadda, yadda, yadda
(6) Hoshi screams
(7) Stripped of weapons and made to sit in the dirt, when questioned by his alien captors as to who he is and why he's here, Archer responds with the ever-witty "why are you here?," his head cocked thoughtfully to one side
(8) Insert obligatory "humans smell bad" joke
(9) Insert the obligatory "it's been X weeks since we first started on this mission" feint to series continuity
(10) Insert obligatory "no way, jose, those transporters aren't safe" scene
(11) Insert obligatory Starfleet standard-issue blue briefs scene
(12) Beam down reinforcements to planet anyway - kick alien's ass with much phaser fire and somersault-age - yadda, yadda, yadda
(13) End with CGI shot of shuttlecraft lifting off planet surface

What am I missing? Anybody?

While some of the throw-away charaterization lines are well-written (ya gotta love Phlox), the bulk of the plots need some serious re-tooling. We're not even midway through the season and the whole concept is quickly growing stale.

And again I ask: where are the Suliban? What of that "temporal cold-war"?

Grunter, from that message it seems like you frequent rec.arts.startrek.current and if you don't you should be.

Some of us just like Trek and sci-fi in general and are not so obsessed with continuity and every little plot element.

I like Enterprise alot. So far it's much more enjoyable than Voyager ever was. Fun stuff. :)

You missed 3 series staples:

Scene with the dog
Meal at the captain's table
Technology malfunction.

And, again, no decent place for Wizdar's pick for where "that line" should go. So, I'm givin' up. [And the crowd goes WILD!!!]


T'Pol YANKS the blanket from Archer -- in a very logical manner, of course.

Why didn't they just beam the Andorians someplace? (Do they have a brig? A cargo bay?)



Archer getting the cr@p beat out of him is back to good ole TOS stuff. I don't think anyone has gotten pummeled on a regular basis since then.


Eric, bitchin' about ST goes with the territory. Anybody who really dislikes the show has stopped watching a long time ago. IMHO, of course. :)

hmmmmm

good point

Didn't care for Voyager or DS9 at all, but I'm really liking this show. It truly does feel "fresh" while still keeping a Trek flavour. The writing is sharp, all of the characters are interesting (tho Linda Park pisses me off for some inexplicable reason) and the actors are well-chosen. The widescreen and film-like cinematography are quite nice, too. I even like the theme song. :)

The leader of the Andorians was played by Jeffrey Combs, making this his third Star Trek series appearance.

He played a few different characters on ST: DS9, but most notable was his role of Weyoun the Vorta. He also played Penk in the ST: VOY episode "Tsunkatse," where Seven has to fight The Rock. Jeffery Combs
I did like this episode and think the series is off to a great start. I'd really like to see a few subplots though.

It would not be illogical to attempt to conceal (many layers) your secret and illegal sensor array that violates a treaty you signed.

It might be illogical to have it, at least, its a little dishonest, but once you have it, the rest of the plot follows like night follows day. (IMO)

Except when someone hit Kirk, he tended to keep to his feet. Whenever the Andorians hit Archer, he goes down like a sack of bricks and lies there writhing in pain.

That's probably because he's more in touch with his feelings than Kirk was... :lol:

I agree in that I kept thinking, why not just beam three phasers down to Archer and friends?

Still, I really love this series. They're really doing Star Trek right. :)

I forget, were they able to actually triangulate the location of Archer, Trip and T'Pol from the radio transmission? If not, then the Enterprise couldn't quite beam some weapons down to Archer and company.

Interesting thought, Patman, but they were able to place the rescue party where they wanted, so why not phasers? The ship's sensors seem to be able to pinpoint locations fairly well.

My theory is that the sensors are still not strong enough to lock onto lifesigns to transport people out without another way of pinpointing the location exactly, like say the communicator signals. Of course it's all speculation... :p

I thought it was a fun episode though, with Jeffery Combs at the end, "We are in your debt", a nice touch. :)

So now that we've established that the Vulcans are damn dirty liars, what now?

-BT

Yes, it is interesting the Vulcans are being characterized as "damn dirty liars" in Enterprise, as they've been depicted as honorable in every other Trek show.

What this leads me to believe is that we'll be seeing alot more of human behavior rubbing off on Vulcans, starting with T'Pol. I thought it was stated (who said it?) that the Federation was exclusively a "Human/Vulcan club" in the beginning anyways. There has to be some impetus for the Vulcans wanting to form the Federation with Humans, so the groundwork has to be laid here, in the earliest days of Starfleet.

I wonder if there is going to be some big crisis that will bring the Humans and Vulcans closer together. Could be...

Here’s something I’ve been toying with for a while. Vulcan “logic” is a learned trait achieved through discipline. We’re dealing with about 150 years before Kirk & Co. come on the scene. It’s conceivable that the discipline is not quite as refined or perfected for the Vulcans as a race/culture as what we expect from TOS and later. This could be explained in a later Enterprise episode, perhaps introducing Surak into the timeline, where a cultural revolution takes place leading them to the path of true logic. And the ability to stand the human odor.

This would necessitate T’Pol’s return to Vulcan for a 3 to 4 episode hiatus (or a season-ending cliffhanger?) to learn the new ways. Which would coincidentally be about the same time the directors get tired of shooting above-the-waste shots of Blalock because she’s pregnant.*

The biggest problem with this is that Blalock would have to stop the lip treatments she’s been taking and start acting like a Vulcan. Also, I probably won’t get one damn_cent from the idea.



*No, as far as I know, she's not pregnant. But you know that it's gonna happen by about 2nd or 3rd season...;)

I agree.

I had a REAL PROBLEM with the amount of EMOTION she used when protesting Archer's questioning of her loyalty.

She clenched her teeth and and seemed liked she was about to either blow up or cry. Maybe they will explain this by saying she's still learning how to control her emotions like mentioned above.

rotfl

yep!!! And while fighting back he would always manage to get the phone number of any female alien chicks hanging about so he could hook up later!

Kirk was a MAN'S MAN!!!!

Does anyone have any info on the Vulcan/Romulan split? Why? When? It's been awhile and I don't remember why this happened.

BTW, did it happen before this series or after?

well before
I think it was right after the vulcans got all logical, some vulcans hated it and left to become the romulans, something like 1000 or more years before they met humans

I never understood how the Andorians were able to speak English immediately. Whatever happened to all the linguistic problems of previous episodes?

Good call! More Hoshi, a little less T'pol (I haven't really noticed much growth in her character, just poor acting).
More ship to ship space fights, too. It's gotta be in the budget. Make that polarized hull earn it's pay!
A little more involvement in the history of this reality by these characters might seem too coincidental, but it would be cool. I like when they tip their hats to trekkies (and trekkers :rolleyes: )by throwing in nostalgic crap.
Dang, now I'm 2 cents short.