Chew

Since series threads are being started early.....


Episode Title: 'The Expanse'



Written By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
Directed By: Allan Kroeker


OK, I'll admit I'm looking forward to this one. I don't know how all these changes will work out (if they will at all), but I'm certainly glad they're finally doing something.

Braga claims this storyline will last the whole season. Can B&B actually sustain a story arc for an entire season? Find out starting here!

resinrats

From the preview, the effect of attacking Earth reminded me of Titan A.E. with the shockwave sweeping over the planet.

Bandoman

I guess we can just throw the whole timeline developed in all the previous ST series out the proverbial window.

Okay, I'll go with it - for now. But B&B have not demonstrated an ability to write an interesting and consistent long-term story arc.

strife

They found the solution to all the descrepencies between Enterprise and rest of the series. It's so simple the planet was destroyed and no one will remember anything.

Red Dog

I'm getting scared. I have actually enjoyed the last 3 episodes of Enterprise. Could they possibly have 4 in a row that are decent?

Chew

I think Braga may of read my Borg/timeline idea from a few weeks ago:
Link
And as to the whole temporal cold war plot:

Mark Holtz

Based upon what I've read, this episode may be interesting. However, it is, in my view, Star Trek's last stand. If I am not convinced to view the series after tonight's episode, then goodbye, I'm not watching UPN anymore.

Chew

Cripes!! Spoiler that! What happens if Bandoman reads this!

Bandoman

Wizdar! [shakes fist] Did you just spoilerize B5?


Don't worry, I guessed that somehow the Shadows would be defeated in the end. At least I hoped that would be the case.

Wizdar

I am SO SORRY guys! I would never do that if my brain was attached.

Bando can you ever forgive me?

A thousand and one pardons.

MvRojo

That was apparently a reused FX from last season's finale.

Josh Z

Isn't that what they did by starting this show in the first place?

Bandoman

Money talks. Make me an offer.

mikehunt

did I miss the destruction of Earth from the preview?
photon torpedoes
other starfleet ships
the newsgroups will be interesting tomorrow

Patman

Did this feel a little like Crusade in some respects?

Anyhow, this was basically a reboot for Enterprise, a second chance/pilot to get it right or better.

MvRojo

I liked how there was a lot going on. There's been a lot of episodes where there were scenes that were unnecessary. This episode kept that to a limit, and went straight to the important parts.

Nathan Gervais

eh. Interesting watching Star Trek X: The Wrath of the Clone earlier in the day and seeing another Star Trek II nod with the "new" direction of Enterprise. It is time for the franchise to take a time-out, get rid of B&B and either come up with something truly different or shut the warp core down.

Chew

Good Points: Stuff happened!. I'm not sure I necessarily agree 7 million people live along a (wide) line from Florida to South America though. We have temporary closure to the Klingon storyline. They continued the Temporal Cold War.

Bad Points: I don't agree with B&B's choice to go with a new race for this plotline. The Xindi were never heard from during Kirk's or Picard's time? Why not continue true Trek history by having the Romulans hiding out in the Expanse and therefore plant the seeds of the coming war? (They would never truly have to see one another to continue the plotline and stay true to the history of Romulan/Earth contact).

Why is it after a 7 week journey (which seems a lot less than 3 months ), they still can contact Starfleet? I remember TOS would say a communication from Starfleet would take weeks sometimes.
They've now developed variable yield photon torpedoes?

Another question: Did anybody get a good look at the new Starfleet vessels? Two seemed to be smaller, but didn't the third look like an NX? (Even though NX-02 is still being built)

But even with all this, I still look forward to what's going to happen next season.

I think I'm coming down with Wizdar disease....

lisadoris

This is what I was thinking throughout the episode. First we have G'Kar showing up and now this, I guess they're mining JMS material all over the place

The episode itself wasn't bad. This was the first episode I really liked Tripp so that worked out. Nice to see them pick up the Klingon storyline again. I missed most of the first season so I'm still trying to play catch-up with the temporal cold war storylines that keep popping up.

I'll stick around next season to see where they go with this.

Red Dog

Eh. I think the Romulan idea above would have been a better way to go.

I also don't like the torpedos - if I remember correctly, the Enterprise in TOS did not have torpedoes until Season 2.

razorbackfan

I've usually been the biggest defender of ENTERPRISE on this board, but I felt The Expanse was a disappointment. I would think if 7 million people were killed, there would have been a bit more emotion displayed instead of the cardboard acting (remember the country's emotions after 911?). Maybe the season finale would have been better served in a two part episode. There could have been more on the destruction caused by V'Ger, I mean the alien probe, really showing the people struggle and the ENTERPRISE crew deal with this event. T'Pol just decides "Ok I'll go with you" without even contacting the High Command? That could have been a great dramatic scene. About the only scene I did enjoy was the Archer-Tripp drinking scene, but even that was flat and showed little emotion. And the military was placed on ENTERPRISE at Archers request. Where were they? I was told next season will be edge of your seat stuff, with . For the sake of the show, and what little fans are left, I hope so.

TK-421

I was a little surprised photon torpedos appeared.. does that mean they've had photon torpedos for 200 years almost?

Still, the rest of the episode was OK... I think they said the Xindi will be destroyed 400 years from present day, so that would be in 2550s, which is the 26th century. That's probably why Kirk or Picard never heard of them.

Spooky

Did the ending remind anyone of the battle in Star Trek II? The Enterprise in a cloud making a maneuver so they can blow up a ship by sneaking in behind them?

Overall, not a bad show though...although I'm not convinced that this "new direction" is going to add many new fans to the series.

Wizdar

Looks like you and I are the only ones who caught that.
&
Interesting. They had a “heavily-armed” group of researchers going to a frozen wasteland where there wasn’t a soul for thousands of miles, but don’t have a “military” presence on a mildly-armed starship?

BTW, those were antimatter torpedoes. And it appears that they can just have them lying around without any worry about containment.

I enjoyed this one, but I thought there was just too much going on and it wondered aimlessly. This would have worked well as a two-parter cliffhanger. I expected a cliffhanger.

And, why would the Xindi shoot us with a weapon that would only piss us off?? Since they’re building a planet buster, it would make more sense to use that first and be done with us.

I could do half a page on why the whole time-stream concept that they’re using is brutally flawed. (Are we gonna have a repeat of Dallas?) Many objected to the overuse of holodecks on Voyager. I think reaching into the Suliban bag and pulling out the ole time capsule when they have writer’s block is worse.

I don’t like where this is going with respect to N’Pol. Obviously, like last week, there will be more opportunities for Blalock to showcase her talents. She has none. (OK. She has two.) She and Keanu Reeves are quite equal in the talent department, IMHO.



Like a car crash, I can’t not look. If it went away, I wouldn’t miss it at all.



God help you!

grunter

So, did I understand this correctly?

Since Enterprise is getting a complement of military personel on this new mission - to whom we were never introduced in this season ender - will we have new cast members next year?