ENT: Bound

         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