I did it! Technically I did it a few days ago, but it is nice to be able to look back and enjoy it. I put all the scores into Excel and my wife helped me crunch the numbers a bit and the final score is: DS9 6.49, TOS 6.25, TNG 6.16, TAS 6.09, VOY 5.48, and ENT 4.66. Not really all that shocking, but what stands out to me is that while DS9 has the highest average score, both TOS and TNG have significantly more episodes with perfect scores but also more terrible episodes that drag down the average. VOY and TAS both lack perfect episodes which isn't surprising. ENT was literally off the chart on the season averages when I started but is right in the pack season 4. Not enough to get it anywhere close to the other shows though. I think VOY is the series that surprised me the most with its occasional inspired episodes. I think DS9 had the least "hard science fiction" elements which may account partly for its lack of "perfect" episodes. Also obviously all these scores are individual to what I felt at the moment I reviewed them so I may be reading too much into this. At the same time I feel like I always knew when I had watched an episode that I was going to give a 10.
The movies meanwhile had few surprises other than maybe that Nemesis wasn't quite as awful as I remembered. Certainly not something I want to, say, watch again or anything, but noticeably better than Insurrection (although they have the same score, I just remember hating it less I guess). The odd/even pattern I remember noticing in my youth is very apparent, at least until you get to the TNG movies. Not sure where the movies will go from here, but at least we are getting something enjoyable to watch again.
As for me, I am taking a break from this daily review schedule for the immediate future. The arrival of the twins in a month and a half is going to take up more time than I have right now. After I get settled in though I may come back, but what to watch? No show is as ingrained in my subconscious as Star Trek. The show I care second most about is The Simpsons as my brother pointed out, but that is another two year mission. Something like Babylon 5 or Farscape might come first. But that is at least a few months away. For now I am going to relax and maybe watch the episodes and movies that got perfect scores. Below is a list of my 10's.
TOS:
Space Seed
The City on the Edge of Forever
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
TNG:
The Measure of a Man
Darmok
The Inner Light
Lower Decks
DS9:
Far Beyond the Stars
ENT:
The Forge
So before I even get started I want to say that it feels strange writing one of these for the last time. And at the same time I am pretty much certain this isn't actually the last time, just the last time for Star Trek. Babylon 5, Farscape and Buffy/Angel all come to mind as future shows to handle this way, but that is for the world after Irene and Eleanor arrive. Onto the matter at hand, I really liked Beyond, more than the first time I saw it honestly. And yes, part of that is I now get all the fairly subtle nods to ENT including the totally rad NX class USS Franklin that managed to look like the NX-1, but evolved into something more advanced. The structure of breaking the cast into pairs is genius since it gives all the characters a chance to shine like it Voyage Home. Even the fairly dumb motorcycle scene worked a lot better for me this time than when I saw it in theaters. Especially by the end they managed to make the cast really feel like a crew who have gotten to know each other unlike the first two movies that felt more like they were thrown together. I honestly really home they keep making these movies even though I also hope we go back to the Prime timeline for everything else.
We open with a great bit of Kirk trying to negotiate a treaty with tiny lizard men and getting into a hilarious brawl when things don't work out. He sends the MacGuffin off to storage before heading to Yorktown for a refit of the ship after spending three years in deep space. Their relaxation is interrupted by the arrival of an escape pod with a woman named Kalara who says her ship is crippled and stranded on a planet inside a super ominous uncharted nebula right next to Yorktown. Enterprise is of course the ship picked to go help her out but it is obviously a trap. They are attacked by a swarm of tiny ships that rip Enterprise to shreds and allow boarding parties to enter all over. After putting up a good fight the abandon ship in escape pods while Kirk and Chekov fly the saucer section down before also ditching. Most of the crew are captured except for Scotty who lands alone, Spock and McCoy who capture a small alien ship that crashes, and Kirk who along with Chekov and Kalara start making their way back to the saucer section.
Scotty runs into Jaylah who takes him to her hum on the USS Franklin. Spock is badly hurt but McCoy manages to stabilize him, but they are surrounded by enemy craft until Scotty beams them both to the Franklin. Chekov and Kirk get onto Enterprise with Kalara who turns on them as soon as Kirk tells her he is getting out the alien MacGuffin from the opening. They escape and are caught in one of Jaylah's traps. Krall shows up with the captured crew and threatens to kill Sulu until one of the crew gives him the MacGuffin and is killed for her help. Kirk comes up with a plan to rescue their crew by causing a distraction while Jaylah, Spock and McCoy beam the crew to the Franklin. We get a beam out rescue of Kirk and Jaylah is right out of Star Trek 2009 as Krall escapes to destroy Yorktown with his terror MacGuffin.
They barely get the Franklin flying but through some silliness the realize the only way to destroy the swarm ships is to turn on the volume on the Beastie Boys and cause a shock way that destroys all the swarm ships except for Krall's ship. It manages to get into Yorktown with pursuit by Spock and McCoy in a stolen alien ship and Franklin blasting in through the door like its no big deal. They stop Krall's ship but Uhura figures out Krall is actually the former captain of the Franklin, a disenchanted ex-MACO who feels abandoned by Starfleet. Krall makes his way to the air ducts but Kirk manages to vent him and the MacGuffin into space saving the day. Kirk doesn't accept promotion to admiral and Spock decides to stay in Starfleet. There is a really nice good bye toast to lost comrades before rolling credits.
Review: I really enjoyed this movie not just for the characters but also the adventure. Sure, it is another damn revenge plot, but we only really find that out in the last few minutes of the film which is a lot better than all the dwelling we got in the last two.
8 out of 10
Just like the first time I watched this movie I really wanted to like it. The first 45 minutes is honestly pretty great, but just like The Motion Picture it just bogs down in a story that doesn't go any where and festers for the rest of its screen time. Basically I am on board until the attack on the captains which was a cool scene, but the torpedoes with people in them? What? Why would you give Kirk Khan's crew? Do they literally only have those 72 torpedoes? And what is the deal with Carol Marcus? Did she just walk onto the shuttle and Kirk was so into her he didn't even bother to read the orders? I ask this because she is using a fake name, had she been acting on her fathers orders it would have been easy to grasp, but she clearly isn't. And then the central premise of the film, that Khan was there to design weapons, what? That makes no sense, weapon design isn't about ruthlessness, it is about technical skill and inattentiveness. Also, one of my objections to JJ Abrams is that he thinks you can see any planet from anywhere in the galaxy, but then he sets the climactic fight between Marcus/Khan and Kirk at the moon. You know you actually can see that from earth so if Marcus was going to murder literally everyone on Enterprise it would literally be visible from Starfleet headquarters which seems like maybe a poor choice. Finally, the entire scene with Spock chasing Khan is dumb and unnessesary. The film should have ended with Khan ship destroyed and Kirk dead. It is a moving scene even if it didn't need Spock pulling a Shatner. This movie is a mess and while I enjoyed some scenes it fits right in with the TNG movies in terms of not making a damn lick of sense and being another reboot of Wrath.
We open with a classic Kirk violating the prime directive by saving a primitive people from destruction by a volcano but having to fly Enterprise in front of them to save Spock at the last minute. And then Spock puts it in his report so Kirk gets busted back to the Academy? Is that really how it works, you are either a captain or a recruit? Of course that doesn't last long as he is drafted by Pike as his first officer. Khan meanwhile saves a child to get her father to set off a bomb in a secret Section 31 facility in London which means Kirk gets dragged to an all senior staff crisis meeting. Which is a set up for Khan to kill them all and then beam to Qo'noS which they didn't know he would do but is entirely vital to Marcus' evil plan.
And this is where the movie totally falls off the rails. Kirk gets sent to kill Khan with these super torpedoes that for some reason Scotty is willing to quit Starfleet rather than bring into Enterprise. They fly to the Klingon homeworld and lose warp engines due to sabotage but there are luckily literally no Klingon ships near their homeworld to notice which is nice I guess, but also hella dumb. They take an unarmed shuttle to the surface but are suddenly attacked by Klingon ships (wait, what???) but Khan saves them and then surrenders since luckily for him Kirk ignores his orders. Khan talks Kirk into opening a torpedo where he finds one of Khan's frozen crew for some reason. Then Marcus shows up with his dreadnought to destroy Enterprise but they manage to get away but are shot out of warp right by the moon (why were they still at warp there, and how can they not just call Earth????).
They have the big showdown where Scotty has somehow, despite leaving Starfleet, gotten onto the dreadnought by just flying a shuttle into it because that is how evil military bases work. Kirk takes Khan on board who of course kills Marcus and takes over the dreadnought but sends Kirk back to Enterprise because he is dumb. Spock is at least slightly clever so when Khan demands his crew back Spock sends him the torpedoes minus crew, but armed to explode (which you think the dreadnoughts sensors would detect, but come on, this movie is way past caring about making sense). The dreadnought explodes and Enterprise falls to Earth forcing Kirk to sacrifice himself to get the engines working again. Kirk dies and the dreadnought crashes instead so Spock goes to stop him. Chase scene with Uhura ex-machina at the end stopping Khan but also getting his blood which magically saves Kirk?????
Review: This movie is a mess and honestly not that fun to watch. Probably between Insurrection and Nemesis on the Trek movie scale. Not dull like The Motion Picture, but that isn't really a good thing.
3 out of 10
Feels strange not putting any subtitle on this film, but superficial problems like that I think caused a lot of people to dismiss this film as "not Star Trek" at all. And I am here to tell you they are wrong. This is certainly not a perfect movie and some of the plot holes are still as huge as the first day I watched it. But what this film does do so well is capture the feel of Star Trek in terms of how diversity is so important to making the Federation strong and how you have to just never give up when facing a dire threat. I know I have spent a lot of time lately complaining about ENT and I don't retract any of that, but what ENT did do well was show a universe where things were far less stable and safe for humanity and how well we deal with it and this movie does that much better than ENT. Also the depiction of Vulcans bothered me a lot less this time after having seen what they went through in ENT. Seeing Leonard Nemoy again was also awesome and he did an even better job than I remembered, but I also wish they had let him be more subtle in his instructions to Kirk. He tells Kirk everything he needs to know in a comment about how strongly he feels, but Kirk fails to take the hint so he just straight up tells him how to compromise his past self. I am sure I will get to lots more knitpicking below, but keep in my that I really enjoy this film.
We open with the strongest scene in the film with the USS Kelvin being destroyed as George Kirk sacrifices himself to save his wife and son. Cut to a rather silly scene of young Kirk destroying a corvette to show how rebellious he is. Then he is hitting on Uhura in a bar a few years later and gets his ass kicked by a bunch of starfleet dudes for his trouble. In the end Pike shows up and challenges him join up. Of course he does and after some academy shenanigans we get the hella lame Kobayashi Maru scene were he cheats so obviously that it is just straight up dumb and kinda misses the point on Kirk. But before he is ruled against war were declared and everybody but him is assigned to go serve on ships since they apparently have a bunch more ships that fully trained people to fly them (this is not generally how military budgets work). Bones gets him on though and before you can get your bearings he has saved the day by warning Pike about the attack by Nero. They still get attacked though but Nero recognizes the Enterprise and demands Pike come meet him which allows Pike to drop Sulu, Kirk and some red shirt onto the drill that is boring through Vulcan.
After the red shirt dies and Sulu wins his sword fight they stop the drill, but it is too late and the red matter gets dropped into Vulcan. There is a narrow beam up escape and Spock heads to the surface to save his parents and other senior Vulcans. His mother dies though which clearly upsets him, so much so that he ends up stranding Kirk on a frozen moon/planet within walking distance of old Spock and young Scotty. After talking with old Spock Kirk gets beamed onto Enterprise along with Scotty and Kirk confronts Spock to the point of losing control so Kirk takes over. They come up with a plan to beam the two of them onto Nero's ship to stop him from destroying Earth. Spock ends up stealing old Spock's ship while Kirk fights Nero. Spock destroys the drill which distracts Nero and allows Kirk to save Pike. Spock flies his red matter filled ship into Nero's hulking mining ship as Kirk and Pike are beamed to safety. In the end Kirk is given a promotion to captain of the Enterprise.
Review: While there are lots of problems with the story in terms of making sense it nails the characters and the feel of Star Trek so much better than any TNG movie other than maybe First Contact. Still very enjoyable to watch.
7 out of 10
A bit of a disappointing conclusion to a show that overall is a huge disappointment despite the very strong fourth season. I am honestly not sure why Riker and Troi were back other than that they both love Trek, but they honestly detracted from the story. Although honestly the story was pretty thin this time no matter how you cut it. Of course I am not going to object to seeing the D around again, but it was kinda sad to realize the sets are probably mostly gone since they were largely replaced by CGI sets. Trip dying felt kinda unearned for the episode, but at least they waited until the very end to kill him off. When I first started ENT I noticed his wiki entry listed him as diseased and since he is the only character I consistently found to likable I wasn't looking forward to ENT without him. Luckily for me Riker brings him back from a talk after he has died on screen, wait, that wasn't lucky, it was just confusing. Just like the entire Riker subplot. I guess it was all so we could get the three Enterprise send off at the end which made me tear up a little.
This episode revolves entirely around Riker watching the final cruise of the NX-1 from the holodeck of the Enterprise D so he can better make some decision we are never really told much about. It is ten years later on the NX-1 and they are supposed to be heading to Earth so Archer can give his big speech that kicks off the Federation, but of course something goes wrong along the way. Shran calls (honestly glad he was back for the conclusion) even though he is supposed to be dead. It seems his daughter was kidnapped and he needs Archer help. They trick the kidnappers into taking a fake prize before taking off. But the bad guys are somehow able to go warp 7 and beam on to Enterprise and try taking Archer hostage. But Trip steps in and tricks them into letting him blow most of them up along with himself. He dies of his injuries and Enterprise makes it back to Earth for the big speech. Along the way Riker has taken on the role of chef to have personal conversations with the crew. We close with the speech and Riker saying, "computer, end program." Then a final fly by of all three TV Enterprise ships with the opening lines from TOS and TNG mashed together with Archer delivering the final line.
Review: It is sad to finally reach the end of TV Trek as we know it, but I still have the three reboot movies to watch at least. And hopefully things done fall through on Discovery. ENT ended exactly how it had to, but it would have been nice to have a bit more of a coherent final episode.
4 out of 10
My summary today is going to be a little short out of exhaustion, not because I hated the episode as sometimes occurs. As a second to last episode of the show this was quite successful. It even made me kinda feel something for the IDIC, which always felt like the cash grab by Roddenberry (look it up, he made it to have something he created to sell at conventions), feel both important and meaningful on a personal level. And yes, the fact that my wife is pregnant with twins right now may cause episodes about babies to seem extra significant. At the same time I am still not sure why Paxton wanted to create the baby. It never seemed to be at the center of any of his plans, maybe it was just propaganda? But if so, why not just stick fake ears on a human baby and call it an abomination? Was the lady dying to get the hair to T'Pol part of the set up? Finally, man it sucks to be Kelby. First he gets hella shit for thinking Trip is coming back and taking away his job, which is exactly what happens, and this time he gets accused of being a spy when it obviously wasn't him.
We open with the video of Paxton giving his demands. All communication is blocked and why they try to come in closer Enterprise is his by the verteron array and forced to retreat to Earth (not at all clear why he doesn't just destroy them). Malcolm gets some hot tips on how to get in from Section 31 and they head to Mars to mount a rescue. The plan is to take a shuttle in hiding behind a comet to hide their approach. Travis gets a warning from his ex that she is actually Starfleet Intelligence and there is an actual Terra Prime agent but he ignores it until the engines go out on the shuttle but Travis flies them in on thrusters alone. They sneak into the evil lair and manage to get a showdown right as the array is being powered up. Samuels somehow talked his way onto Enterprise and tries to get Hoshi to destroy the array as soon as it powers up but she refuses since that would kill Archer and everybody else. Archer and company get into a fight concluding with the window being broken open and a climactic fight between Paxton and Archer. They fail to stop the array but Trip sabotaged it enough to miss Starfleet. Back on Enterprise they find the traitor who kills himself. Unfortunately the baby dies due to a problem with the clone process but Phlox tells Trip it is in fact possible to reproduce with a Vulcan. We close with Archer giving a Kirk speech to the gathered delegates as they presumably prepare to form the Federation.
Review: Hard to believe this is the second to last episode of Trek as we know it! Quite a bit of fun and some good messages, but also some plot holes you could fly a shuttlepod through, even on thrusters.
6 out of 10
Before I go any further I want to call out the brilliant casting of Peter Weller as the head of Terra Prime. In addition to it being fun to see him on screen, he NAILS the part. You both believe him as a hater of aliens and as the head of a vast, Bond-villainesque conspiracy to blast a hole in the moon. Now there are also parts of this that make absolutely zero sense, especially everything involving sending Trip AND T'Pol to track down the evil racists that have their baby. First of all, Trip is a well known member of the Enterprise crew as is T'Pol who is also a VULCAN. Why would you send a Vulcan to track down a group that espouses hatred of all Vulcans? They don't even bother to cover up the ears.
We open with an obviously evil dude named Paxton and his minion doctor looking over some female patient with both care and disgust, the camera pans down to reveal a baby with Vulcan ears. Cut to the inauguration of the "Coalition of Planets" which is obviously going to fail because it is not the Federation and Archer isn't in charge of founding it, some guy called Minister Samuels. After the speech by Samuels Tucker is stopped by his ex Gannet Brooks who is there to cover the event as a reporter. They are all interrupted when a woman bursts in saying, "they're going to kill her," before collapsing from a phase pistol shot to the abdomen. Before dying she handed T'Pol a vial of hair that Phlox determines came from Trip and T'Pol's child. Malcolm calls up his section 31 contact and finds out the people with the baby are called Terra Prime but not much more than that.
Archer starts work investigating while Travis gives his ex a tour of the ship that ends with them making out in a shuttlepod. On the moon Paxton keeps being evil and kills the doctor taking care of the child and watching inspirational videos of Colonel Green. Archer eventually figures out Terra Prime is likely based on the moon and the dumbest thing in the episode happens with Trip and T'Pol both sent to investigate. T'Pol gets shot and captured and Trip goes to a Terra Prime meeting where he is recognized and taken to Paxton. Travis is shocked when Archer and some MACOs show up in his quarters to arrest Gannet as a spy for Terra Prime which she initially denies before demanding a lawyer. On the moon Paxton goes full Bond villain by taking off his lunar mining colony, warping to Mars and taking over a comet redirection array. He blasts a hole in the moon and demands all aliens leave Sol system.
Review: It is classically Star Trek to deal with issues like xenophobia and racism and this feels like it fits right in. Humanities transition to the forward thinking people we see in TOS and TNG presumably didn't come easily. Not sure about the baby stuff or anything involving Trip and T'Pol this episode, but it didn't ruin things.
7 out of 10
Much like the first episode in this mini-arc this one lacked focus, but was still a hell of a lot of fun to watch. The idea of this Archer being driven mad by the idea that the other universe version of himself was more successful was an interesting twist. The constant backstabbing that goes on is the reason I kinda doubt the Terran Empire would have lasted long no matter what, but it does seem to generally fit with the rest of the Mirror Universe. It is super fun to see the crew of Enterprise working on the original Enterprise sets, although I suspect many of them were recreations. From the little background reading I have done it does appear that the idea of having Archer on a Constitution Class ship was the plan before there was a plot, and unfortunately it shows a bit.
We open with Archer using the superior firepower on the Defiant to stop the Tholian threat in about a minute. They get out of there but there is some problem with the warp drive. It turns out to be a Gorn lose on the ship and there is a brief bit where Archer has to fight it, and even has a clever gag were he turns up the grav plating trapping the reptile. Moving on though they rendezvous with a badly outnumbered Starfleet vessel and save the day by destroying the entire opposing fleet. But when the admiral comes on board it is clear he plans to take the glory from Archer so he is killed. T'Pol, Phlox and the Vulcan first officer of the other ship all start plotting to destroy the Defiant. But Archer is suspicious they might be up to something and sends all aliens except Phlox to the other ship. Phlox knocks out power as the other ship attacks but Trip manages to stop him and gets power going just in time for Archer to destroy the NX class vessel. That night he and Hoshi are celebrating, but when she gives him wine he starts choking and dies of poison as she starts making out with Travis. On the bridge she contacts the head of starfleet with the news that she is the new Empress of the Terran Empire.
Review: Could have used some work on a better story, but fun all around. Glad they got one last crack at the mirror.
6 out of 10
What a fun episode starting with the subverted first contact that we half saw in the movie of the same name. Then they replaced the intro which was probably my favorite part. It has been months since I have not skipped the intro so it was fun to see that yes, I do sometimes like show intros, just not the dumb standard ENT one. I also appreciate that they don't seem to be breaking the rule that Kirk was the first person from our universe to visit the mirror one, but by having the Tholians steal a TOS era Constitution Class ship they can sorta have things both ways. I wasn't sure why they didn't start with Archer as captain, but it became clear they wanted to show how brutal this Archer is. This only confuses me about why they then kill Forrest, but I guess so they would force Archer to take over the Defiant.
As I just mentioned we open with Zefram Cochrane murdering some Vulcans to get their stuff and then cut to the mirror opening. On Enterprise Malcolm is showing off the agony booth he apparently just invented to Captain Forrest and his first officer Archer. It seems Archer is eager to go get some weapon or something from the Tholians but Forrest isn't interested. It doesn't take long for Archer to show up with some followers though at seize command and throw Forrest in the brig. He gets Trip and T'Pol working to install a cloaking device and it is obvious T'Pol isn't really on his side. Before they can get the cloak working there is a sabotage in engineering which gets blamed on Trip who is put in the agony booth. They kidnap a Tholian and torture the location of a base out of him. Archer gets them underway as the actual saboteur T'Pol frees Forrest and takes back the ship. But Archer has locked in the controls and so it is a trip to the Tholians no matter what at this point. After torturing Archer Forrest finally listens to Archers plan, it seems the Tholians are travelling to an alternate universe and have taken back a ship, but a ship from the future as well. They arrive and find a constitution class Defiant in the Tholian base. For some reason Archer gets put in charge of the team sent to destroy the ship but Enterprise is destroyed before they can do it so they start powering it up instead.
Review: Not nearly a complete episode, but a fun part one with lots of nice nods to TOS. Looking forward to seeing where this goes from here!
6 out of 10
Now this is the TOS style episode I had hoped for when I started ENT. My only serious objection is that they didn't end with the joke and wink that they did such a good job setting up just before the end of the episode, but I guess I can't have everything. Also it seems Kelby was right to be worried about his job as chief engineer on Enterprise, but then again he clearly was no Trip. The twist near the end was just what this one needed that a first season episode never would have had so major credit there. And honestly it is nice to see a human side to Archer. So often he has been able to ignore or overcome things by just being a suborn jerk, but not this time. This time Trip gets to shoot him with a phase pistol and take over the ship. Also Trip and T'Pol do make a good team, too bad they spent three seasons doing nothing with that.
We open with Enterprise on its way to check out a planet with alleged dragons when they encounter an Orion ship. The captain Harrad-Sar tells them to surrender but Archer manages to talk him down and accepts a dinner invitation. Harrad-Sar wants to entertain them before business and after some drinks brings out the women. Three beautiful Orion women dance for Archer, Malcolm and the two MACOs they brought along. When he returns to Enterprise Archer informs T'Pol he signed a mining agreement with Harrad-Sar and accepted the gift of the three women. They immediately start looking around the ship and getting places they aren't supposed to go. Also all the men start acting strange and the women start feeling sick, well, everyone except Trip and T'Pol. After one of them gets Kelby to sabotage the engines Phlox figures out they are releasing a pheromone that is driving all the men crazy and making them suggestible so Archer has them confined in the decon chamber. But that works about as well as you would think. Harrad-Sar shows up and demands Archers head. When he doesn't get it he disables Enterprise and takes her in tow. When Archer tries to negotiate he tells them good luck, he is only a slave, it is the women who are in charge. They show up on the bridge as T'Pol arrives to try and send a pulse through the tow cable. They try to get Archer to have Malcolm arrest T'Pol but Trip shows up with a phase pistol and stuns all the men on the bridge. After they share some laughs in sickbay and we close with Trip and T'Pol finally having the talk and we learn Trip is coming back and T'Pol is still super into him.
Review: A highly enjoyable episode. Maybe not the most inciteful or full of message, but a good one that is easy to recommend.
7 out of 10
To be clear I went in to this episode fully prepared to hate it. The previous episode was exciting but raised so many more questions than it answered and had both the confusing virus plot and the dumb Malcolm working for Section 31 plot working against it. And both those stories continue in this episode, but damn it, I still loved it. The opening bit with Trip having to take a cable between Columbia and Enterprise at high warp was awesome. Then Trip had to reboot the whole engine system in under two minutes and they managed to make it feel actually rushed, very dangerous and down to the wire without being dumb. Then injecting Archer with the virus to make antibodies didn't pass muster with my biologist wife, but it was still a cool scene and I am totally with Trip, Archer is way better off with some head ridges. It also gave Phlox a chance to shine in his fight with the Klingon admiral in a way we haven't seen him do many times before.
We open with Enterprise stuck at warp, Malcolm in the brig, and Phlox working to cure the augment virus (or maybe perfect it, honestly not sure). They deal with the biggest problem first and Trip has to make his way to Enterprise over a cable between the two ships while they are locked at maximum warp. The way they put the scene together just worked for me and seeing Malcolm hauled back to the brig and the look on Trips face made it fantastic. Trip doesn't have much time go deal with it though as he rushes to engineering and restarts the engines in under two minutes while Columbia protected them with its warp field. Things slow down a bit as they deal with the Malcolm thing by having Archer yell at his commander or something and also we see the commander is losing control of the mission to the Klingons as Enterprise and Columbia head to the colony where Phlox is being held. They show up and beam Archer down while Columbia and Enterprise try to stop the destruction of the colony by a battle cruiser. On the surface Archer offers to speed things up by being injected with the virus which works, but also gives him ridges. Phlox beams the active virus onto the battle cruiser forcing them to choose between dying and letting the colony live to get the cure. Honestly I wasn't sure what the admiral would do. It seems like the Klingon thing to do is accept your death and do your job, but luckily he takes the other path. We close with Malcolm telling his Section 31 commander to get bent, but I am not sure it works that way...
Review: Certainly not perfect, but so much fun I can't give it anything other than a strong score. I wish the Malcolm spy plot had been started season 1 as it might have given him something interesting to do all these seasons, but adding it now felt like too much of an acknowledgement that his character is paper thin.
8 out of 10
Kinda stoked to finally find out what it is Klingons do not discuss with outsiders! So far I honestly don't get what is supposed to be happening with the virus. I am not sure if it is supposed to be a natural virus or if it was designed from the start. And why it seems to produce stable human looking klingons sometimes but always just kills them with the people Phlox is working with. The other subplots are a bit clearer although I am not sure who the guy Malcolm apparently actually works for is. Some sort of spy shit apparently, but it seems to have ended his career at this point and also pretty much totally failed to cover up the Klingon connection to Phlox's kidnapping. It seems like they are setting Trip up to return to Enterprise and probably hook up with T'Pol again, but who knows.
We begin with some Klingons working on some sort of genetic science stuff. They drag in a prisoner who insists his sentence was commuted before injecting him with some sort of stuff that makes his head ridges start to disappear. Back on the ship they have arrived at earth for the launch of Columbia and Trips transfer there as chief engineer. T'Pol shows up in his quarters and asks if he is leaving because of her and he says no but we all know the answer is yes. On the surface Hoshi and Phlox emerge from a Chinese restaurant and walk half a block before Phlox gets abducted by some sort of aliens. Archer shows up to help investigate but Starfleet is already on the job. Trip starts settling in, there is still a lot of work to do, but he seems excited to be doing it. He meets his new captain, Hernandez who we met a few episodes earlier when she went rock climbing with Archer. She invites him to dinner and he accepts, although it was actually probably an order. On Enterprise Archer talks T'Pol into mindmelding with Hoshi to try and clarify her memory of the attack and it works, she recognizes that one of the men spoke rigelian and one of their shuttles left earth right after the attack.
Malcolm is working on his part of the investigation when he tries to contact starfleet about a gap in the satellite coverage. His transmission instead goes to a dude in a leather jacket who orders him to meet him on earth. Malcolm meets the guy and we learn he is part of some sort of shadowy organization and apparently works for them before Enterprise. Phlox meanwhile gets taken to a Klingon colony where he is put to work on a virus he quickly realizes has augment DNA. The next day T'Pol is meditating when she finds Trip in her thoughts and it is apparently real as he wakes from the same "dream" in engineering on Columbia. Enterprise gets underway following the Rigelian shuttle when the find its debris. Malcolm hides the fact that it was Klingon weapons and destroys the data on the recorder on orders from his mysterious master but is caught by Archer and relieved of duty. Enterprise is attacked by Klingons who steal something and leave behind a computer virus that threatens to destroy the ship.
Review: Lots of excitement but especially the virus stuff was pretty unclear to me. Interesting to see where the Trip/T'Pol relationship is going too. Looking forward to tomorrows ep.
6 out of 10
A decent conclusion to this exciting saga. It felt like maybe a rewrite or two might have helped this one hold together, but they did have a lot going on. Ending with Trip asking to leave was one of the things that I was supposed to be shocking maybe but wasn't because they actually did a good job setting up his unhappiness with being on Enterprise, especially everything having to do with T'Pol. I hope this isn't the last we hear from Shran, but the way they said good bye made me think this might be the end for him. Presumably this is the last we see of the Romulans this series, but that's fine, they had them be evil without showing their faces which preserves what we know about them pretty well. I am not sure we needed the blind and psychic subrace of Andorians, but it wasn't a big problem or anything, just something I am pretty sure won't get explored much further.
We open on Romulus where things aren't going well. The admiral in charge of the drone ship project is getting pressure to deliver results which he is pushing down to his subordinates. On Enterprise Archer is discussing what they learned from the drone ship and tells Shran that it appears the drone is being controlled by a psychic, one with an Andorian brain. It doesn't take Shran long to come up with a reply, it seems there is a second race of Andorians who are blind and live in ice caves that are also powerful psychics. Archer and Shran go to Andoria to try and get some answers but Shran is badly injured due to his lack of balance. They are rescued by the Aenar who fairly quickly confirm that one of their number was kidnapped about a year earlier, but they are so pacifist they don't want to get involved. The kidnapped man's sister does though and joins them over the objections of her elders. On Enterprise Trip and Phlox have built a psychic amplification chair or something which T'Pol is determined to test herself despite it obviously injuring her which really bothers Trip. On Romulus they decide to send two drones under the control of the psychic even though it may kill him fairly quickly. The drones show up and start ripping Enterprise apart but the Aenar lady they brought along gets in the amplifier chair and talks her brother down which causes the Romulan admiral to kill him ending the attack. We close with Shran leaving with the Aenar who he seems to have become close with and Trip asking to leave Enterprise for good.
Review: I had almost forgotten what an average Trek episode felt like, but this is definitely one. Not bad, but lacking what it takes to stand out above the rest.
5 out of 10
We are at the point where I suspect the writers knew this was the end of ENT and that if they were going to have Archer help found the Federation they had better get moving. For pretty much the first time ever it even felt like yes, Archer might make a positive contribution to such a thing. I am not sure where they are going with the Romulans using a kidnapped Andorian, but I am sure there is some evil reason for it. The Tellarites still seem like jerks, but I guess sometimes you have to form alliances with jerks to keep the really dangerous people at bay. I do appreciate that we still haven't had a member of starfleet actually see a Romulan. An evil Vulcan did, but he may have actually been a surgically altered Romulan so who knows.
We open with Trip and Malcolm still stuck on the drone ship. They manage to disable the warp drive but this draws the attention of the Romulans. Trip gets into the engineering section to try and knock out all the power but they trap him there and increase the radiation levels. On Enterprise Archer is trying to put together an alliance to try and stop the drone ship, but Shran and the Tellarite ambassador just want to keep fighting. Things get worse when his fiance dies and he challenges the ambassadors aide to a duel. Archer finds a loophole though and takes the Tellarites place in the duel which upsets Shran, but he isn't willing to step down. The duel goes ahead and Archer manages to choke Shran long enough to cut off one of his antannas which destroys his balance and apparently ends the fight since he can no longer defend himself. Honor satisfied they move ahead with the joint action. On the drone Trip passes out and Malcolm turns on the warp drive so the Romulans will open the door to where Trip is. Malcolm brings their helmets and leaves a surprise behind, his phase pistol rigged to destroy the power grid. It works but the drone starts repairing itself as Enterprise locates it and comes under fire. Trip and Malcolm escape out a hatch but their presence keeps the alliance ships from firing and the drone escapes to Romulan space. We close with the reveal that the hooded figure controlling the drone ship is a pail faced Andorian.
Review: An action packed episode with some good starfleet lawyering. Not a lot of science fiction, but enough story and character to make it a good episode.
7 out of 10
As a prequel to Journey to Babel and as a continuation of the Romulan conspiracy this episode was a big success. It was obvious that they were setting it up so that neither the Andorians nor the Tellarites were responsible for the conflict, but it wasn't clear just what was actually happening. A holographic projector equipped ship is such a cool/obvious idea I am not sure how this hasn't been a thing up until now. Also it seems kinda high tech for a show that takes place before the rest of Trek, but I am not going to let that ruin it for me. In hindsight it should have been obvious that the Romulans weren't actually on the ship, but the reveal at the end actually got me which I really appreciated.
We open on the bridge of a crippled Andorian ship which we learn from an injured Shran was attacked by Tellarites and is about to suffer a warpcore breach. Cut to Hoshi and Archer bickering in what turns out to be a preparation for the arrival of a Tellarite ambassador. They are taking the ambassador to Babel where negotiations between the Tellarites and Andorians are scheduled. The ambassador arrives and Archer opens by insulting him which is apparently the right thing to do as we move to reception. Archer is called away though by the distress signal from Shran's ship. They pick of the survivors, less than a third of the crew, and head for Andoria. Shran is super pissed when he learns the Tellarites are on board and the Tellarites are pissed when they learn they are now going to Andoria. Enterprise is attacked by and Andorian ship before they make it far though and they don't listen to Shran when he tries to call them off. Even the information on their shield generator location proves wrong, but some torpedoes drive the ship off. Cut to the vessel and we see it has a small Romulan crew. Enterprise tracks the ship down and it seems to be disabled so Trip, Malcolm and two MACOs beam over, but soon it turns back on and escapes trapping Trip and Malcolm. While Archer and T'Pol try to figure out what is happening Shran and his fiance break out of their quarters and hold a gun to the Tellarite ambassador. Luckily Archer figures it out just in time and rushes in to defuse he situation. The Romulans though have figured out they have stowaways but can't stop Trip and Malcolm from making to the empty bridge. We close with a pull away shot revealing the Romlans are comfortably back on Romulus and have been remote flying the ship.
Review: A fun episode with my favorite guest star makes for an very enjoyable experience. By this point the audience is pretty well aware that the Andorians and Tellarites are founding members of the Federation along with Humans and Vulcans but it isn't clear how the Romulans figured it out. Still, not a bad group to pick for the villains of this particular bit of the story.
7 out of 10
ENT is clearly determined to get back to its TOS roots at this point and in general that is fine. It is however risky to start revisiting the various god like races since they generally only raise more questions than they answer. In this case we see the Organians only instead of being total pacifists pretending to have bodies like in TOS this time they are scientists observing different species reactions to an incurable illness. Apparently humans are the most compassionate race they have ever encountered which leads them to save us in this case. My only serious objection is that by taking over the bodies of those working to cure the disease in this episode they are clearly slowing down the reaction of those they are observing.
We open with Travis and Malcolm playing chess, only it isn't them. It seems they have been taken over by aliens and are discussing how many members of the crew will die on this mission. Soon Hoshi and Trip approach on a shuttle but as they get close Trip starts coughing and collapses forcing Hoshi to bring them in. As soon as they get onboard they are in quarantine. Travis and Malcolm are fascinated by the humans reactions to the events. Soon Phlox figures out that the virus is silicon in structure but he still has no idea how to cure the disease. The two aliens start jumping between bodies to get an idea whats happening and we learn there is a conflict between the two over whether it is right in intervene at some point. Hoshi freaks out and tries to break out of quarantine almost going out an airlock before Trip can stop her. The two are sedated but the aliens take over their bodies for a talk and Phlox notices, but they just erase his memory. Eventually Phlox finds a cure, a dose of radiation delivered in sickbay but that means going into the quarantine which he and Archer do in suits. But it is impossible to carry out the treatment in the isolation gloves to Archer opens his suit which is something apparently no race has done before. Trip and Hoshi die but the Organians as they turn out to be take over their bodies and talk to Archer about how interesting the Humans reaction was before erasing all their memories and bringing Hoshi and Trip back to life cured of the disease. They put up orange cones around the planet and get the hell out of there.
Review: An interesting idea for an episode that is ruined a bit by the fairly bland way of resolving it they come up with. Would have been more interesting if Phlox's curiosity or cleverness had been the solution rather than doing the thing every dumb human does in alien movies which is take off their helmet when it is clearly not safe to do so. But I guess this episode is saying that is literally what makes us human.
5 out of 10
I think this episode would have worked a lot better with a different title. As soon as I saw it I know it was his missing son that Emory was trying to save and since he was the inventor of transporters it was clear what had happened. This made the part where it was a mystery kinda bland and the actual scene where they try to save him also seemed like it was pretty obviously not going to work. Now this may be helped by the fact that I watched Logan earlier today so I kinda assume everything will go wrong in works of fiction right now, but I feel like it would have been apparent even under different circumstances. Not a bad episode, a bit too much Archer being sure he was right, but this time he wasn't really. I actually would have liked it if he had been more wrong, but not an episode ruining problem.
We open with Trip and Archer preparing to greet Emory Erikson, old friend of the captain and the inventor of the transporter. He arrives in a wheelchair along with his daughter to work on a long distance transportation project. He gets to work with Trip but it is obvious from the very beginning that he is hiding something. They perform the first test and it is a success! But for some reason Emory insists that he be alone when the data comes back. To rub in that there is a problem he and his daughter discuss how maybe they should tell Archer but Emory insists that as a starfleet officer he wouldn't help. In the armory Malcolm and one of his staff are working with the lights flicker and an energy being wanders through and kills the aide. They question Emory about this but he insists he has never even heard of anything like that. But it keeps happening and they eventually figure out that it is his lost son who never materialized during a transporter test. Archer agrees to help over Trip's strong objections In the end they get his son back, but he dies on the transporter pad, his signal was too degraded. There is also a bunch of stuff between Trip and T'Pol where she tells him that she isn't interested in renewing their relationship despite her being released from her arranged marriage.
Review: A decent story that maybe should have had a more subtle name. Overall it works as a tale of obsession and loss though on several levels.
6 out of 10
A solid conclusion that is not quite is unbelievably good as the start, but still very good. So many of my issues with the portrayal of Vulcans are basically resolved at this point, and while in theory this means I should revise a few earlier scores, nope. I have zero faith that this is what they intended to do with the Vulcans other than some broad outlines. Shran again proves to be the best character in the series by first of all not just gullibly buying the story about an invasion from Soval, then deciding he had to trust him and finally by saving Enterprise (and possibly the Earth/Vulcan alliance) once again. Finally the reveal that the reason the Vulcans have been so awful through most of ENT turns out the be Romulan influence! This is perfect because they honestly don't need to follow up at all. Of course the Romulans are trying to make the Vulcans more like them to seek reunification, this is exactly what Spock tries to do to them 200 or so years later.
We start with Palpatine, I mean V'Los, showing off his hella devious battle plan to the members of the high command and they seem kinda shocked. On Vulcan Archer and company are determined to take the Kir'Shara to the high command to shame them into stopping the war. On Enterprise they are trying to find a way to warn the Andorians when Soval steps in with information of their fleet location. Sure enough the contact Shran in no time but of course he is dubious of the information. He kidnaps Soval and starts torturing him for the truth, but Soval only has one story for him. On Vulcan T'Pau and T'Pol discuss mindmelding to share T'Les's memories with T'Pol, but she is sure she can't because of Pa'nar syndrome, but that turns out to also be a fraud of the high command and T'Pau cures her with a single mindmeld. Shran eventually decides to believe Soval before doing permanent damage and returns him to Enterprise. The Andorian fleet and Enterprise stand together against the Vulcans and in the high command V'Las is forced to admit the Andorians lack Xindi weapons, but he doesn't care and orders the attack anyway over the objections of his own staff. Elsewhere on Vulcan Archer has to fight off Vulcan security and gets saved by T'Pau. As the fight between the Andorians with Enterprise and the Vulcans heats up Archer and T'Pau get a code from T'Pol's husband and beam into the high command with the Kir'Shara. The present it to the high command who are all impressed except for V'Los who tries to destroy it and is stunned by his second in command. The Vulcan fleet stands down and we learn they have dissolved the high command entirely. In the final closing scene we see V'Los consulting with who we learn is the real power behind him, a Romulan agent.
Review: A well told episode with lots going on that still manages to keep everything going the right way. Making Archer competent at fighting is also a good move for season 4 since it makes him a lot less pathetic.
8 out of 10
As a middle episode this one wasn't quite as impressive as the preceding one, but it does seem to have set up an interesting conclusion tomorrow. The actors playing T'Les and T'Pau aren't quite up to the task it feels like, especially T'Pau, but part of that may also be how they are written. It does seem that Archer is going to have to save Vulcan alone, but at least he is presumably going to turn them back towards the path of logic that V'Las has now fully abandoned. The revelation of the coming war with the Andorians actually surprised me a bit, but it makes sense since they have really been the focus of Vulcan antagonism since the beginning.
While Enterprise remains in orbit over the Forge Archer starts having visions of Surak and tells the Vulcans about it. T'Pau is super fascinated by what has happened and is determined to remove the katra from him. The high command meanwhile is busy being pissed about the Syrrannites and seems determined to destroy them. Enterprise tries a rescue mission with a shuttle but it gets shot at forcing them to withdraw. V'Las orders the bombing of the Syrrannite compound but they need to get rid of Enterprise first. Archer learns about the Kir'Shara from Surak, some sort of artifact, and tells T'Pau about it after she fails to remove the katra from him. Enterprise is driven away by Vulcan attacks and as soon as they are gone the bombardment begins. Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau though don't flee into the desert with their friends and instead go searching for the Kir'Shara which Archer uses Suraks memories to locate. As we close Archer is looking over the debris of the sanctuary as Soval tells Trip about the plan to attack Andoria which sends him racing off to stop that.
Review: Unlike yesterday's episode this one had a bit more filler, but overall was a solid continuation of the story. Hope the conclusion is as good as The Forge.
7 out of 10
I had almost forgotten that good Star Trek is often clever and this episode is about the most clever thing I have seen. As always I still have some issues, but this episode doubles down on references to previous Trek (including TAS!!!) and deals with many of the problems created by ENT over the years without dismissing the previous events. When the dying Vulcan (who I just then realized was probably the one carrying Surak's katra) puts his hand on Archers face just before he died I literally leaped out of my chair. Holy hell, it was like watching something from TOS but also new, interesting, and clever! They still haven't solved the problem of T'Pol not really having much character, but they even seem to be working on that.
We open on a shot of a Vulcan funeral urn being cleaned and just before credits a voice says, "Surak." Cut to earth where Admiral Forrest is greeting the Vulcan ambassador Soval. The two are hoping to announce joint missions between Vulcans and Starfleet but neither knows if the high command will approve. Soval even tells Forrest that the reason his people don't trust humanity is because they are so similar, but humanity is evolving much faster. Suddenly there is an explosion and Forrest shields Soval with his body. Cut to Enterprise where T'Pol interrupts a senior staff basketball game with the news of the attack. Enterprise heads to earth to help with the investigation where they are greeted by the head of the high command and his investigator Stel. The humans are put in charge of the investigation on earth but it seems the vulcans are suspicious of one of their own sects known as the Syrrannites. In the rubble Malcolm and Travis are looking for evidence when they come across an unexploded bomb. Malcolm manages to get a scan just before they both beam out and the bomb explodes.
They find DNA from the scan belonging to a prominent Syrrannite named T'Pau and Stel announces that they need no more help and takes them off the case. Archer heads to the room full of caskets to be pissed off and isn't pleased when Soval walks in, but it seems Soval isn't buying it and tells Archer to keep looking. He even tells him to go to vulcan if necessary since he things the Syrrannites may be being framed. T'Pol meanwhile is approached by her husband unexpectedly. He has an IDIC from her mother which he was told is an heirloom. He also tells her that her mother is in hiding since she is a Syrrannite. T'Pol examines the IDIC and discovers it contains a map to a location in the Vulcan Forge, the most brutal desert on Vulcan where Surak went to find logic. Soval helps them get to the Forge where Archer and T'Pol beam down to go in search of the Syrrannites.
The desert is brutal and things only get worse when they are corned by wild sehlat. They escape up a rock face but things aren't looking good. On Enterprise they have discovered the DNA from T'Pau is a plant since it was from when she was an infant, but there is no way to tell Archer and T'Pol, but Soval is super interested. They talk him into mindmelding with a witness to the bombing who is in a coma and he discovers it was Stel who planted the bomb. On Vulcan Archer and T'Pol are saved by a man named Arev who fakes some sehlat calls. He lets them follow him but isn't trusting of Archer. They are forced to hide in a cave where Archer reveals there true mission. Arev tells tehm that Surak's katra has been discovered and is being carried by a vulcan who mindmelds with others. T'Pol doesn't buy it, but there isn't much time as the cave entrance collapses mortally wounding Arev. Just before he dies he mind melds with Archer telling him to carry "it" to the sanctuary. When they leave Archer is suddenly knowledgeable about things he shouldn't have any way to know and walks them right to the sanctuary where they are captured by Syrrannites.
Review: This is possibly the most trek thing I have ever seen without feeling like just a bunch of fan service. It is clever and fun and I would actually recommend it to any fan, but especially someone who has watched the rest of ENT and lost a hell of a lot of faith.
10 out of 10
Not quite the conclusion I was hoping for, but not bad, and certainly not a huge let down. It seems what I heard about ENT fourth season stories taking three part arcs was true, at least in this case as I don't see much more coming from what happened. Other than this somehow altering the entire Klingon race for a generation or two, but I am not sure how that is going to play out. It did seem after a while that killing all the augments was going to be the only way out of this crisis without messing things up for future Trek. I really liked that they made Malik quite different from Khan, but still made him almost as scary. Sure Malik protested when Soong tried to make the future embryos less aggressive, but in the end it was his over aggression that did him in. The finaly conclusion with Soong deciding to switch to robotics was fun, but it doesn't really explain how Soong managed to have actual children to carry on his legacy. At the same time it hardly seems like the Federation would keep somebody locked up forever so who knows.
We open with Archer saving everybody from the last episode but having to blow himself into space to escape death. Luckily the transporter saves him but he needs some time in sickbay to recover. On the augment ship things are going pretty rough as Malik and Soong continue to fight. It doesn't take long for Malik to start seeing who is on whose side. Enterprise manages to track down the augments but they drop the Denobulan shuttle into a gas giant forcing Enterprise to break off and mount a rescue. Archer has to talk his way past some Klingons and manages to pull it off, this time. Malik and Soong get into an argument over Soong altering the embryos they rescued to make them less aggressive. Things escalate when Malik reveals his plan to destroy a Klingon colony with the pathogens he stole in order to cover their tracks or something. He returns with the rest of the bridge crew and they place Soong in the brig, but his second in command helps Soong escape. He gets picked up but Enterprise and Archer throws him in the brig, but quickly realizes Soong was thrown out for not being radical enough and gets his help. Malik murders his second in command when he realizes she helped Soong and proceeds to launch the weapon. Enterprise destroys it just in time and tries to take the augments into custody but Malik destroys their ship. But first he makes his way to Enterprise (the Klingons have transports so presumably that way, but it isn't actually said) and tries to kill Soong but Archer kills him first. We close with Soong deciding to change his focus in life to androids.
Review: A decent conclusion, but not quite as interesting as I would have liked. Lots of action and some cheese at the very end, but not enough to make it bad.
6 out of 10
I did it! Technically I did it a few days ago, but it is nice to be able to look back and enjoy it. I put all the scores into Excel and my wife helped me crunch the numbers a bit and the final score is: DS9 6.49, TOS 6.25, TNG 6.16, TAS 6.09, VOY 5.48, and ENT 4.66. Not really all that shocking, but what stands out to me is that while DS9 has the highest average score, both TOS and TNG have significantly more episodes with perfect scores but also more terrible episodes that drag down the average. VOY and TAS both lack perfect episodes which isn't surprising. ENT was literally off the chart on the season averages when I started but is right in the pack season 4. Not enough to get it anywhere close to the other shows though. I think VOY is the series that surprised me the most with its occasional inspired episodes. I think DS9 had the least "hard science fiction" elements which may account partly for its lack of "perfect" episodes. Also obviously all these scores are individual to what I felt at the moment I reviewed them so I may be reading too much into this. At the same time I feel like I always knew when I had watched an episode that I was going to give a 10.
The movies meanwhile had few surprises other than maybe that Nemesis wasn't quite as awful as I remembered. Certainly not something I want to, say, watch again or anything, but noticeably better than Insurrection (although they have the same score, I just remember hating it less I guess). The odd/even pattern I remember noticing in my youth is very apparent, at least until you get to the TNG movies. Not sure where the movies will go from here, but at least we are getting something enjoyable to watch again.