I am getting worried about ENT. It is like someone snuck into the writers room and replaced all the scripts with something from Star Trek. I am not trying to say this is the greatest episode of all time or honestly even the greatest of ENT this season, but damn it this episode felt like Trek. It had a mystery with a scifi twist, it had adventure and it even had a bit of character! Also the characters are thus far so shallow I would hardly have been surprised if Travis had actually been killed. Especially if the actor wanted out, who could blame him after season one? I really liked the mysterious repair platform and honestly appreciated that it wasn't just another reference to some other Trek. TOS never worried about totally rewriting the universe each episode so why does so much of ENT feel like it is walking on eggshells?
We open with actual consiquences from the previous episode, and this isn't even a two parter. What the hell is this DS9??? But in any case they are limping towards earth so slowly it will take a decade so they decide to put out a call for help. A freighter in the area points them at a repair station which when they arrive begins re-configuring itself to fit their needs. The station seems suspiciously friendly but as far as they can tell it is making a fair offer and only asks that no one enter the area being actively repaired. They are surprised to find full food replicators on board and everything seems to be going smoothly. So smoothly Trip and Malcolm start worrying it is up to something so they start poking around, but as soon as they get near the computer core they are beamed to the bridge of Enterprise where Archer acts pissed, but really wants to know what they found. Travis responds to a call to the shuttle bay from the captain but when he gets there something goes wrong and they find hid body soon after. But Phlox discovers it isn't actually his body but a careful copy and Archer decides to snoop around. He has Trip deliver the payment, a reasonable supply of warp plasma, and do some stalling while he sneaks to the computer with Malcolm and T'Pol. Malcolm triggers the alarm but T'Pol blasts their way through and they find a bunch of aliens attached to the computer along with Travis. They rescue him and escape back to Enterprise but the station is locked onto them. The payment turns out to be a bomb which Malcolm detonates and they blast their way to safety as the station explodes. But after they leave we see it begin to repair itself.
Review: This would have been a very decent TNG episode and is a welcome addition to Trek lore unlike so much of what has come before it.
6 out of 10
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Friday, January 6, 2017
ENT: Minefield
Holy hell, it is almost like they writers on ENT have actually watched an episode of Star Trek before! Any maybe they even paid attention to what happened and tried to not directly contradict things we were told in TOS. Specifically they don't break with what we were told in Balance of Terror that humanity fought a war with the Romulans and negotiated peace without ever seeing them face to face. The icing on the cake is the fact that their ships even look like the ones in TOS. Sure, they are CGI, but they seem to be the same design in general and not something way more futuristic like some of the Klingon ships we have seen. They also managed to give some story and character to Malcolm which is something I had pretty much given up on. The idea that he is afraid of water seemed kinda silly, but it does at least explain why he is obsessed with navy ships but is in fact not in the navy.
We open with the captain having Malcolm over for breakfast and trying to get some small talk going with him. Malcolm is visibly bothered by all this and is eager to get out of it when the bridge calls with news of an unexplored planet. Archer tells them to drop out of warp to investigate but as soon as they enter orbit there is a huge explosion which knocks out a chunk of the saucer section. Even worse they detect what appears to be a mine lodged to the hull near a fusion generator which Malcolm immediately volunteers to go defuse (which actually makes sense since he is armory guy, had this been season one Hoshi would have gone and taken her shirt of for no reason in the process). Even worse an unidentified ship shows up and starts acting menacing which is extra bad since Hoshi is in the infirmary and the computer can't understand them.
Things get even worse when the mine impales Malcolms leg to the hull of the ship with one of its spikes and the captain goes out to help. Hoshi manages to get the comm logs and gets working on a translation and figures out it is the Romulans and they want Enterprise to leave now. On the outside the captain is working with Malcolm to defuse the mine and manages to drag some actual personal information out of the guy in the process. It seems Malcolm doesn't believe captains and their crew should get to know each other due to his families history with the Royal Navy, but he does admit his fear of water is why he didn't join. He also makes it clear he is willing to sacrifice himself to save the ship. The Romulans get extra pushy so Archer comes up with a plan to activate the mine after separating it from the ship and then cutting Malcolm out before it can explode and using doors from the shuttlepods to shield them from the blast. Despite that seeming like maybe a bad idea it of course works and Malcolm admits he is glad the captain ignored his advice.
Review: This episode manages to have some actual tension in addition to character growth from one of its least developed characters in a way that made me actually like him a bit. Still ENT, but a much better ENT that first season ever gave us.
6 out of 10
We open with the captain having Malcolm over for breakfast and trying to get some small talk going with him. Malcolm is visibly bothered by all this and is eager to get out of it when the bridge calls with news of an unexplored planet. Archer tells them to drop out of warp to investigate but as soon as they enter orbit there is a huge explosion which knocks out a chunk of the saucer section. Even worse they detect what appears to be a mine lodged to the hull near a fusion generator which Malcolm immediately volunteers to go defuse (which actually makes sense since he is armory guy, had this been season one Hoshi would have gone and taken her shirt of for no reason in the process). Even worse an unidentified ship shows up and starts acting menacing which is extra bad since Hoshi is in the infirmary and the computer can't understand them.
Things get even worse when the mine impales Malcolms leg to the hull of the ship with one of its spikes and the captain goes out to help. Hoshi manages to get the comm logs and gets working on a translation and figures out it is the Romulans and they want Enterprise to leave now. On the outside the captain is working with Malcolm to defuse the mine and manages to drag some actual personal information out of the guy in the process. It seems Malcolm doesn't believe captains and their crew should get to know each other due to his families history with the Royal Navy, but he does admit his fear of water is why he didn't join. He also makes it clear he is willing to sacrifice himself to save the ship. The Romulans get extra pushy so Archer comes up with a plan to activate the mine after separating it from the ship and then cutting Malcolm out before it can explode and using doors from the shuttlepods to shield them from the blast. Despite that seeming like maybe a bad idea it of course works and Malcolm admits he is glad the captain ignored his advice.
Review: This episode manages to have some actual tension in addition to character growth from one of its least developed characters in a way that made me actually like him a bit. Still ENT, but a much better ENT that first season ever gave us.
6 out of 10
Thursday, January 5, 2017
ENT: Carbon Creek
It isn't a good sign when my favorite episode so far involves essentially none of the main cast. It also has Vulcan's lying their asses off all over the place but whatever. This is by far the best episode of ENT so far and I really hope this trend continues. Season one was a total train wreck so hopefully season two can continue the trend of improving. It didn't hurt a bit that the town they filmed the episode in reminded me strongly of one of my favorite towns, South Lake Tahoe. And yes, I know it was some town right outside LA, isn't everything in television? I also really liked the idea of a Vulcan deciding to stay behind and live out his life on earth. I actually wish they would go back to him at some future date, but from what I have seen on the Wiki this is highly unlikely. This episode clearly borrows a few things from The Voyage Home, but not in a bad way.
We open with T'Pol about to have dinner with Trip and Archer. The captain asks her about a visit she made to the town of Carbon Creek when she was last on earth and she offers the story of the first Vulcans to visit earth. They are surprised it wasn't the one from FIrst Contact, but she assures them her great grandmother was on earth in the 1950's. A Vulcan ship was there to investigate sputnik when they suffered engine trouble and were forced to land in isolated Pennsylvania. Her grandmother, T'Mir, was in charge after the captain was killed in the crash. She and the two surviving crew, Mestral and Stron. She and Stron head into town to look for supplies and Stron gets some cash by winning a game of pool. They make friends with the bartender and her son who is an aspiring engineer looking to go to college but without much money. Stron starts working odd jobs around town, mostly plumbing, and Mestral gets a job in the local coal mine.
Things seem to be going fine but T'Mir is concerned that Mestral and the bartender are hitting it off romantically. One day there is a collapse in the mines and Mestral insists on saving them with a phaser with T'Mir resists, that assists with. Soon after they learn that the aspiring engineer has failed to get enough money for college so T'Mir sells the idea for velcro to get enough money for him. Soon after they finally hear from a rescue ship by Mestral doesn't want to leave. In the end T'Mir tells the captain of the rescue ship that Mestral was killed and cremated along with the captain and he believes her since Vulcans don't lie. Trip and Archer are incredulous and T'Pol refuses to tell them if the story was true, but that evening she returns to her quarters and unwraps T'Mir's purse from her time on earth.
Review: Damn I wish more of ENT was this good, and maybe it will be. I kinda doubt it, but it was really fun to see Vulcans trapped in the 1950's. I still don't get why they can just lie all the time, but whatever, it worked well for this story.
8 out of 10
We open with T'Pol about to have dinner with Trip and Archer. The captain asks her about a visit she made to the town of Carbon Creek when she was last on earth and she offers the story of the first Vulcans to visit earth. They are surprised it wasn't the one from FIrst Contact, but she assures them her great grandmother was on earth in the 1950's. A Vulcan ship was there to investigate sputnik when they suffered engine trouble and were forced to land in isolated Pennsylvania. Her grandmother, T'Mir, was in charge after the captain was killed in the crash. She and the two surviving crew, Mestral and Stron. She and Stron head into town to look for supplies and Stron gets some cash by winning a game of pool. They make friends with the bartender and her son who is an aspiring engineer looking to go to college but without much money. Stron starts working odd jobs around town, mostly plumbing, and Mestral gets a job in the local coal mine.
Things seem to be going fine but T'Mir is concerned that Mestral and the bartender are hitting it off romantically. One day there is a collapse in the mines and Mestral insists on saving them with a phaser with T'Mir resists, that assists with. Soon after they learn that the aspiring engineer has failed to get enough money for college so T'Mir sells the idea for velcro to get enough money for him. Soon after they finally hear from a rescue ship by Mestral doesn't want to leave. In the end T'Mir tells the captain of the rescue ship that Mestral was killed and cremated along with the captain and he believes her since Vulcans don't lie. Trip and Archer are incredulous and T'Pol refuses to tell them if the story was true, but that evening she returns to her quarters and unwraps T'Mir's purse from her time on earth.
Review: Damn I wish more of ENT was this good, and maybe it will be. I kinda doubt it, but it was really fun to see Vulcans trapped in the 1950's. I still don't get why they can just lie all the time, but whatever, it worked well for this story.
8 out of 10
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
ENT: Shockwave, Part II
Like most two part episodes the second half of this one wasn't as good as the first half. But it wasn't awful so I will take it. I would like to say I am not sure why Hoshi had to be the one to crawl through the ducts to let them all out of their quarters, but clearly it was just an excuse to have her take her clothes off. I am not sure I buy the Suliban being able to easily take over and operate Enterprise, but then again they were fooled by the fake warp core breach. You probably all know by now that I am not a huge fan of the actor playing Archer, but damn he looks good when he is with Daniels. That dude is actually terrible. Still not sure what is going on with future guy, but I actually really liked when Archer jumped through his time portal to kick the Suliban dude in the ass. I am pretty sure this is the first hand to hand engagement that Archer has won in all of ENT so well done.
We open where we left off with Archer trapped in the future and Enterprise surrounded by Suliban. Even though I think the order is reversed in the show I am going to start with the stuff on the ship. T'Pol surrenders to the Suliban and lets them board the ship to search for Archer. Eventually they realize he is gone but there is a temporal signature or something so they take T'Pol in for questioning, but don't get anything from her. In the future Archer has to talk Daniels out of being super depressed that the Federation never existed and after digging through a library they decide to make a communicator across time. Archer calls T'Pol and gets her to organize the rest of the crew to get a piece of equipment from Daniels room. Hoshi has to crawl through the ducts but the plan works and they send Malcolm in with the device. But he is caught, which turns out to be the actual plan. The head Suliban takes the device from Daniels quarters to his time chamber while Trip manages to fake a warp core breach and free Enterprise. Archer jumps through the time portal and beats up the head Suliban getting him to agree to stop attacking Enterprise along the way. Also he destroys the time portal thing. Finally Archer makes it back to Enterprise in a pod and gets told the Vulcans still want to shut Enterprise down. But T'Pol speaks up and it is enough to convince Starfleet to give them another shot.
Review: A decent conclusion to the story they started last episode, but still not much with the temporal cold war or anything like that. The idea of Starfleet shutting them down has also been played out for me at this point, but I guess it gives them a source of tension or whatever.
5 out of 10
We open where we left off with Archer trapped in the future and Enterprise surrounded by Suliban. Even though I think the order is reversed in the show I am going to start with the stuff on the ship. T'Pol surrenders to the Suliban and lets them board the ship to search for Archer. Eventually they realize he is gone but there is a temporal signature or something so they take T'Pol in for questioning, but don't get anything from her. In the future Archer has to talk Daniels out of being super depressed that the Federation never existed and after digging through a library they decide to make a communicator across time. Archer calls T'Pol and gets her to organize the rest of the crew to get a piece of equipment from Daniels room. Hoshi has to crawl through the ducts but the plan works and they send Malcolm in with the device. But he is caught, which turns out to be the actual plan. The head Suliban takes the device from Daniels quarters to his time chamber while Trip manages to fake a warp core breach and free Enterprise. Archer jumps through the time portal and beats up the head Suliban getting him to agree to stop attacking Enterprise along the way. Also he destroys the time portal thing. Finally Archer makes it back to Enterprise in a pod and gets told the Vulcans still want to shut Enterprise down. But T'Pol speaks up and it is enough to convince Starfleet to give them another shot.
Review: A decent conclusion to the story they started last episode, but still not much with the temporal cold war or anything like that. The idea of Starfleet shutting them down has also been played out for me at this point, but I guess it gives them a source of tension or whatever.
5 out of 10
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
ENT: Shockwave
Wow, finally an episode that actually feels like an episode of Star Trek! I had just about given up on such a thing. Now it is still hardly perfect, but it at least made some sense and even managed to make the temporal cold war at least a little bit interesting. I like the idea that the time travelers don't know everything as well. It was getting pretty bland when everything he said was true and worked perfectly. The raid on the Suliban ship actually made sense in the context of the story which was great. So often this show seems to throw in some action when it really doesn't make any sense. I do hope they had an interesting idea for how to conclude this two parter, but for now I am just enjoying having watched a not entirely terrible episode of ENT.
We open with Enterprise arriving at a matriarchal mining colony and Trip is of course excited to visit. They get a shuttlepod prepped and spend some time going over local procedures. But when they enter the atmosphere something goes wrong and they end up lighting up the atmosphere and killing everyone on the surface. Starfleet is understandably pissed and demands that Enterprise return home. Archer is super depressed and takes it out on his crew because he is a terrible captain. When he goes to bed though Archer finds himself ten months earlier on earth. Crewman Daniels appears despite having died a while ago and tells him that this is temporal cold war business. When Archer leaves his cabin a few hours later he calls the senior staff together. He has Trip get working on beacons to reveal cloaked ships and gets Malcolm to locate a device on the shuttle that caused the disaster. They return to the area and locate a cloaked vessel. Archer, Trip and T'Pol head to the cloaked ship after Enterprise disables her with weapons and steal some data disks. We see the Suliban leader get yelled at by future guy and get instructed to bring Archer back. They surround Enterprise with attack drones or something and demand Archer. He puts T'Pol in command and heads over to surrender (would Kirk have done this???). But before he can he finds himself in the ruins of the 31st century where Daniels tells him a disaster has happened and all the time travel equipment is gone and they are screwed.
Review: A actually decent episode, I may regret this later but I think it is even slightly above average for Trek. Possibly if part II turns out awful I may revise this score, but for now:
6 out of 10
We open with Enterprise arriving at a matriarchal mining colony and Trip is of course excited to visit. They get a shuttlepod prepped and spend some time going over local procedures. But when they enter the atmosphere something goes wrong and they end up lighting up the atmosphere and killing everyone on the surface. Starfleet is understandably pissed and demands that Enterprise return home. Archer is super depressed and takes it out on his crew because he is a terrible captain. When he goes to bed though Archer finds himself ten months earlier on earth. Crewman Daniels appears despite having died a while ago and tells him that this is temporal cold war business. When Archer leaves his cabin a few hours later he calls the senior staff together. He has Trip get working on beacons to reveal cloaked ships and gets Malcolm to locate a device on the shuttle that caused the disaster. They return to the area and locate a cloaked vessel. Archer, Trip and T'Pol head to the cloaked ship after Enterprise disables her with weapons and steal some data disks. We see the Suliban leader get yelled at by future guy and get instructed to bring Archer back. They surround Enterprise with attack drones or something and demand Archer. He puts T'Pol in command and heads over to surrender (would Kirk have done this???). But before he can he finds himself in the ruins of the 31st century where Daniels tells him a disaster has happened and all the time travel equipment is gone and they are screwed.
Review: A actually decent episode, I may regret this later but I think it is even slightly above average for Trek. Possibly if part II turns out awful I may revise this score, but for now:
6 out of 10
Monday, January 2, 2017
ENT: Two Days and Two Nights
I didn't know it was possible to make an entire episode out of B stories, but ENT managed to prove me wrong. I guess it was at least a little clever to have Hoshi be the only one to end up enjoying her time on Risa in the "traditional" manner. Also it seemed like Picard was pretty unaware of Risa in Captain's Holiday which made me assume it wasn't a place starfleet spent much time at, but no, it turns out they have been going there since Enterprise. I actually really appreciated that they didn't talk about horga'hns the entire time. They are present in the background a few times and the door switch in Archers villa. Dragging the temporal cold war into it was totally silly though and didn't add to the episode one bit. Especially since they don't actually move that story forward, at all.
We open with Enterprise finally making it to Risa and Archer heading to the surface in a shuttle with Trip, Malcolm, Travis and Hoshi. Trip and Malcolm are just there for the ladies, Travis wants to go rock climbing, and Hoshi wants to work on her language skills. Archer and Portho get checked into their room and he quickly notices a beautiful woman with a dog on her balcony near to his window. Somehow her dog makes its way onto his balcony and she comes up to get it (they never actually bother to explain how the dog managed to fly to my memory, but whatever). The two of them hit it off quickly. Trip and Malcolm meanwhile pick up some ladies in a bar but it turns out they are shapeshifters who knocked them out and steal their stuff. Hoshi ends up hooking up with some dude and stays the night with him. On Enterprise Phlox decides to do his hibernation since nothing is going on so of course Travis gets hurt and has a bad reaction so Phlox has to be awoken and is comically out of it. The lady Archer was hooking up with of course is an anti-Suliban agent who tries to get information out of Archer before knocking him out. They all joke about their adventures on the way back to Enterprise the end.
Review: While not as openly annoying or bland as some episodes this one really feels like it is missing an actual plot to make it work as an episode. Some fun character moments save it from being truly abysmal at least.
4 out of 10
We open with Enterprise finally making it to Risa and Archer heading to the surface in a shuttle with Trip, Malcolm, Travis and Hoshi. Trip and Malcolm are just there for the ladies, Travis wants to go rock climbing, and Hoshi wants to work on her language skills. Archer and Portho get checked into their room and he quickly notices a beautiful woman with a dog on her balcony near to his window. Somehow her dog makes its way onto his balcony and she comes up to get it (they never actually bother to explain how the dog managed to fly to my memory, but whatever). The two of them hit it off quickly. Trip and Malcolm meanwhile pick up some ladies in a bar but it turns out they are shapeshifters who knocked them out and steal their stuff. Hoshi ends up hooking up with some dude and stays the night with him. On Enterprise Phlox decides to do his hibernation since nothing is going on so of course Travis gets hurt and has a bad reaction so Phlox has to be awoken and is comically out of it. The lady Archer was hooking up with of course is an anti-Suliban agent who tries to get information out of Archer before knocking him out. They all joke about their adventures on the way back to Enterprise the end.
Review: While not as openly annoying or bland as some episodes this one really feels like it is missing an actual plot to make it work as an episode. Some fun character moments save it from being truly abysmal at least.
4 out of 10
Sunday, January 1, 2017
ENT: Desert Crossing
Now suddenly Archer once again believes that he shouldn't interfere in the affairs of other cultures. This is especially jarring since they directly reference the recent episode where he did just that. I guess this is supposed to be leading the way to the prime directive but it just didn't work at all. The real problem in this episode is that Archer decides he and Trip need to leave Zobral's camp for no clear reason and then spend literally half the episode almost dying in the desert due to one poor decision after another until they get rescued by T'Pol. Also it seems like the writers think the only risk of being in a desert is lack of water which just makes the character look extra stupid.
We open with Enterprise again on her way to Risa when they get a distress call. They help out the extremely friendly Zobral who invites them back to his world. Archer is hesitant but agrees and heads to the surface with Trip. They have a nice meal and Trip seems to be settling in. Next they get challenged to a game of desert lacrosse but midgame Archer gets a call from T'Pol. It seems the local government considers Zobral a terrorist. He tells Archer he is part of the former lower caste which is still actively oppressed on his world and he was hoping to get Archers help after what he did for the Suliban. But this time Archer refuses just at the government attacks. Archer leads Trip into the desert where they wander around until T'Pol rescues them.
Review: Yup, the summary above is pretty complete. Not a great episode which raises significant questions about previous questionable episodes.
3 out of 10
We open with Enterprise again on her way to Risa when they get a distress call. They help out the extremely friendly Zobral who invites them back to his world. Archer is hesitant but agrees and heads to the surface with Trip. They have a nice meal and Trip seems to be settling in. Next they get challenged to a game of desert lacrosse but midgame Archer gets a call from T'Pol. It seems the local government considers Zobral a terrorist. He tells Archer he is part of the former lower caste which is still actively oppressed on his world and he was hoping to get Archers help after what he did for the Suliban. But this time Archer refuses just at the government attacks. Archer leads Trip into the desert where they wander around until T'Pol rescues them.
Review: Yup, the summary above is pretty complete. Not a great episode which raises significant questions about previous questionable episodes.
3 out of 10
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