ENT: Precious Cargo

         An episode where Trip gets to rescue (and have sex with) a princess and that is by far the least offensive part of the episode is going to be interesting. I have come to the realization that the better ENT episodes are often cliched stories. Here is the thing, at least cliched stories are actually stories. A lot of ENT doesn't even seem like episodes of actual television. The bad part of this episode for me was Archer staging an capital punishment trial to get some guy to give them a little bit of information. Honestly it seemed like he probably didn't have the information any way and would have been more likely to just tell them something to save his life. But I guess Archer got told about anything like the Geneva Conventions or anything like that. Also, WTF, T'Pol takes part in this murder charade? That seems totally unreasonable and wildly out of character.
         We open with Trip hanging out in his quarters playing harmonica when the ship suddenly drops out of warp. He sees an alien vessel outside as the captain calls him to assist with repairs on the alien ship. No one thinks it is strange that their repair request is for a stasis pod with one passenger inside. While Archer dines with the captain of the stricken vessel Trip works on the pod whose occupant suddenly awakens and he manages to get her out only to realize that her hands are tied. One of the aliens hits him over the head and takes off with the ship stranding his comrade on Enterprise. Trip manages to get the universal translator going and figures out she is a kidnapped princess. She resists going with him but realizes it is her best shot. They manage to steal an escape pod and after a few hours crammed together they land on a swamp planet. Trip gets to show off his survival skills and after a fight the two start kissing and fade to black. On Enterprise Archer sets up a show trial to threaten his prisoner with execution to get the warp signature of the missing ship. On the planet Trip figures out there is a homing beacon on the escape pod when it starts beeping. He and the princess set up an ambush though and defeat the bad guy. Archer then shows up and they get the princess back home with an invitation to Trip to take a visit after she assumes the throne.

         Review: This was at least in general a fun episode to watch. Not that it is a good episode, just not actively unpleasant most of the time. That is the parts that aren't Archer committing war crimes at least.

4 out of 10