The episode starts off with Captain Archer walking in on his crew as they were going over nearby things to explore. It was one boring thing after another, nothing getting his attention until Trip tells him about an M class planet nearby. Archer finally get excited about something.
They soon find out that the planet is far behind us when it comes to technological advancement. T'Pol tells them the Vulcan believe that you should not interfere with a species until they are ready. Archer ignores her and decides that they should just make themselves look like the people down there. At first Hoshi was to be the only one sent down to the planet but once they discovered tech that shouldn't be on the planet, Archer, Trip and T'Pol decided to join her. They had to figure out what was going on down there after all. The away team quickly closes in on the source of the readings but they can't get into the building, well at least until Trip finds a work around. He hacks into the building. After all you always need a lock smith on the team. As they are breaking in someone in the shadows is watching them. The stranger turns out to be a woman who confronts them and tells them that the nightly deliveries are making people sick. Before she can say anymore T'Pol stuns her. Archer sends the others back to the shuttle while he stays behind and tries to get information from her. He tells her just enough information to keep her talking all the while learning a bit more about the shop keep and what might be causing the sickness. Archer and Trip go and pay him a visit the next day. It doesn't take long for both the crew and the shop keep to figure out that neither one of them are from this planet. He tells Archer that he came to this world to explore, much like Archer and co but he was so taken with the world he decided to stay. He assures Archer that he isn't making people sick, that the sickness is natural to the planet and that he is only being blamed because he is new here. He won't allow Archer to look at his replicator. T'Pol goes over Archer's new friends information about the sickness and takes it back to Phlox who seems taken by how intelligent she is despite being from such a back water world. It doesn't take Phlox long to figure out what is making them sick, a contaminate being leaked into the water. Archer and the woman start to hit it off when the universal translator gives out. So he does what any man would do, well what Kirk would do, he went in for a kiss until it could fix itself. He then went on to blame it on some fictional person walking past. Got to give the man credit for being quick on his feet, maybe one day he will be as big a player as James T. Kirk. Archer finds out the ship keep and during a struggle his new friend learns that the shop keep is an alien. Archer ends up telling her everything. The two of them try to figure out how to turn off the field blocking the Enterprise from beaming the reactor up from the planet but they hit the wrong button, trapping themselves inside. The shop keep than calls the Enterprise and threatens to destroy them if they don't leave. The shop keep tells Archer that he will let them go if they agree to never return. Instead Archer arms the woman, telling the shop keep what his answer is. Meanwhile in space Trip and T'Pol argue over what to do. Trip believes that T'Pol is trying to leave the captain but she insists that isn't the case. Archer lowers the force field on the planet and orders T'Pol to beam the reactor up. The battle is helping matters. The Enterprise defeats the aliens as Archer beats the shop keep, saving the day. Archer gives his friend the cure to help her people and tells her that the Vulcans will look in on her people from time to time. He then asks her not to tell anyone, she agrees. After all, who will believe her. Archer kisses her goodbye, he has fallen for her. Poor guy, but great episode!
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But they were talking about a game called Star Trek Timelines and I can't put it down. It has put me in a real Star Trek funk. You guys should all play it if you are fans of Star Trek.
Ok, now that I'm done telling you about stuff that have little to nothing to do with this blog but hey whatever. Back to this episode. We start off with Trip and Phlox looking at artwork drawn by kids on Earth. T'pol is not amused. The Enterprise drops out of warp as they come across an undiscovered asteroid.
Trip and T'Pol have dinner together and he clearly gets on her nerves. The relationship they will one day have is a far far way off. It turns out that the Asteroid has minerals that they could use so they decide to send a shuttle out. But before they get a chance Vulcans show up and tell the crew that they are investigating why the humans are interested in the comet. I love how much tension there is between humans and vulcans in this show. Something that none of the other shows in this universe ever had. Archer feels about Vulcans the way that Kirk feels about Klingons but I couldn't imagine him having one for a 1st officer. Reed and Mayweather are the ones who take the shuttle down to the surface. Trip reports to Archer that T'Pol is speaking to the Vulcans in private. They have Hoshi hack in and find out what they are talking about while Archer sends a message back to Earth. Once again we see just how different this show is than the ones that came before but take place after. During the questions Trip gets stuck with a question about human waste. He is not happy about it, this is one of the funner scenes of the show. I love the humor that always seems to happen at Trip's expense. Reed and Mayweather have decide to have some fun and build a snowman but get yelled out by Archer who doesn't want to look bad in front of the Vulcans. Hoshi unlocks the message and turns it over to Trip without reading it. Turns out the letter was a personal letter. He tells Archer and the two of them can't figured out why it was encoded. Trip decides that he has to tell T'Pol because it is the right thing to do. For a species that doesn't feel emotion she sure does get pissed at Trip for reading it. She makes him promise not to tell anyone what it was about. Archer is getting more and more annoyed about the Vulcans watching them so he asks T'Pol to invite them to dinner. He wants to show them that he has nothing to hide and then to send them away. It seems that T'Pol can't sleep due to a tenison headache. She doesn't want to tell Phlox what is wrong but he encourages her to talk to someone if she can. Reed and Mayweather finish their snowman and then blow it up so that they can start their drill. The dinner is not going well. The Vulcan doesn't seem to like Archer and keeps trying to make him feel like shit. Archer is clearly getting annoyed. Archer starts talking shit to the Vulcan but Trip tries to cut in and ease the tension a bit. Archer more or less kicks the Vulcan off the ship. It seems that the explosion that they used to start the drill changed the rotation of the asteroid. Reed and Mayweather only have two hours to finish their work and get off before it's too late. Trip is called into T'Pol room and she asks him what he thinks about the fact that her marriage is about to be called off. Trip doesn't seem to get prearranged marriage. She asks his advice and gets mad when he keeps insulting her people. He tells her that she should do what feels right to herself. He then points out that it seems like she made up her mind and ends the conversation. He tells her that it seems like she doesn't want to get married and leave the crew for a year and she is just looking for an excuse to stay. She doesn't like that answer much. While heading back to the shuttle Mayweather trips and falls, messing up his knee. Reed gets the core sample and helps Mayweather the long way to the shuttle, leaving the equipment behind. The sun starts to come up as they make their way. The Asteroid starts to melt. They don't have much time left. The whole thing is breaking apart. They make it inside as the ground falls out from under them. They crash inside the asteroid before they can take off and now they are trapped. Archer takes the helm of the Enterprise so that he can move the ship close enough for Trip to send the grappling hook. The Vulcans call and ask if Archer needs help but Archer sends them away, showing some of that Kirk pride. Only one of the hooks gets a hold of the ship. It isn't enough to pull them out. they are still stuck. They start to lose a hold of the shuttlepod and it falls back to the base of the Asteroid. They rotate out of the sunlight and it starts to freeze again. T'Pol talks Archer into letting the Vulcans using the tractor-beam to pull them out. Archer accepts their help, but only after T'Pol uses Trip's words against him. T'Pol decides to stay on the ship. Trip acts all smug about it. Seems the romance isn't as far off as I thought. The seeds are already showing. One of the most important episodes of season one written by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga & Fred Dekker setting up not only the rest of this show but the universe we all know and love. The opening sees a Vulcan monastery being taken over by a group of Andrians lead by Thy'lek Shran, an important character that will come back time and time again.
Tucker and Archer tell T'Pol they want to visit the monastery that was just taken over. She is against it at first but Archer over rules her. Phlox points out to T'Pol that Vulcans and humans are not that different. Something that she doesn't much care to hear. We learn that the Vulcans here don't have technology so the Enterprise is showing up unannounced. There are a great many rules for dealing with them but Archer and Trip decide that it is worth it. The Vulcans pretend like nothing is wrong but T'Pol notices that things seem to be out of place. She has a sharp eye. Archer doesn't accept the goodbye gift and starts walking around looking for clues. The Vulcan looks annoyed, something that is a weird fit on Vulcans. Archer sees the Andorian hiding, he points him out to Trip. The two of them attack the man and take his phaser from him. Too bad their are more of them. Now Trip, Archer and T'Pol are prisoners as well. It seems the Andorian's have never heard of Earth or Humans before. Shran doesn't trust Archer or the others. He makes a claim that this monastery is really a surveillance planet that is being used to spy on them. The three of them think that they are crazy and trust the Vulcans. That is a mistake if I ever heard one. It seems that the Vulcans and the Andorians don't like each other. There is a treaty in place but the Andorians believe that the Vulcans are breaking it by spying on them and that is why they are here. The Vulcans think that they will just leave when they don't find anything. They tell Archer that him showing up has only made things worse. The Enterprise is in orbit and Reed finds out that another ship is in orbit. He is also starting to worry about the fact that the crew hasn't called in yet. He starts talking about what should be standard procedure for Earth ships. Something that will come to pass. Archer keeps trying to tell Shran that he doesn't work for the Vulcans but he doesn't want to hear it. Instead he keeps beating the captain up. Shran calls the Enterprise and tells them that the captain is their prisoner he then breaks the communicator. Breaks all of them. Reed orders a shuttle-pod to be made ready, despite the fact that he was told doing that would mean the death of his 3 superior officers. Archer tells the Vulcans that if they can't call the ship soon than Reed will storm the planet. The Vulcans tell him that there is an old transmitter below them. It might be able to call the ship. Things are starting to look fishy with these guys if I do say so myself!!! Trip goes down below to try and get it working so they can call the ship to tell Reed to stay put. Trip finds an even deeper passageway but the Vulcans take him away from that to an old transmitter. The Andorians come to check in on them in the middle of the night but lucky Trip and his guide make it back in time. Archer wants to have a team teleport in but T'Pol points out the fault in the logic. The two of them get into an argument about it. We see a bit more of Archer's dislike for Vulcans shine through. Trip calls into the ship and tells the crew what the situation is like on the planet. He tells them to sit tight. Trip tells them there is stairs leading down the old room but the Vulcans say that it is blasphemy to go down there. The Andorians are starting to think this is all a waste of time but Shran is holding his ground. He is sure something is here he just has to find it. Archer tells him he needs to speak to him alone, he has information for them. Archer starts talking about nothing to buy time. The Andorians want none of it. He gets a tiny figure and manages to drop it in the mouth formed into the wall to see if it leads to the back rooms that Tucker found. Trip finds the figure, their plan can work! Reed leads a team onto the teleporter and beam down to the planet. The Andorians detect it but see no signs of anything. T'Pol tries to play it off but Shran is having none of it. He leaves his men behind to watch them. Reed gets his team in place. The Andorians detect more humans on the planet but before they can find out where they are Reed makes his move. One of the Andorians keeps hitting on T'Pol but Archer puts a stop to it. Archer and Trip take out the Andorian guarding them while Reed takes out the rest. Shran and a few others escape into the tunnels. The Vulcans blame Archer for everything that happened. Telling him that this is a place of peace and that violence is not welcome there. The Andorians go into a room that the Vulcan who goes with them won't let them go into. Archer goes anyways. A firefight starts out in the middle of all the stuff that the Vulcans were worried about destroying. That is when Reed spots a mechanical door and Archer goes to open it. He yells for a cease fire and calls Shran over. It turns out the man was correct. The Vulcans have been using this location to spy on the Andorians this whole time. T'Pol is in shock, Archer orders her to take all the images he can but the Vulcan threatens to shoot Archer. He doesn't stay conscious for long. Archer orders T'Pol to give it to Shran. He then tells the Enterprise to let them go. Archer is not happy with the Vulcans right now and the Andorians are now in his debt. T'Pol feels a great sense of shame in her people, you can see it all over her face. She didn't think her government was capable of something like this and it hurts her to learn the truth. Such a great episode that leads to so many great things. And Shran is such a great character, I always enjoy it when he shows up. This episode of Enterprise written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga, sees the crew on its way to Terra Nova, a colony that just up and vanished one day. It is a sci-fi version of Roanoke, the colony in North America that vanished with nothing but a word written into a tree.
No one knows what happened here, it seems that relations between Earth and Terra Nova became difficult. They didn't want another colony to set up on their world. One day they just stopped responding to Earth. It has been 70 years since anyone has heard from them. T'Pol asks why Earth didn't ask the Vulcans to reach out to them and Trip simples replies that asking Vulcans for help comes with too much baggage. The Enterprise finds the colony, it is intact but there seems to be no one around. However there is radiation on the surface. Not a lot but enough that staying for a long time could cause problems. Archer, T'pol go down to the surface with Reed and Mayweather to see if they can find any clues. It seems the radiation 70 years ago, when they stopped talking to Earth would have been deadly. But if that killed them then where are the bodies? T'Pol asks if they could have left but it seems their city is built out of the ship. Reed finds someone running in the woods and gives chase. The person leads them down into the caves where Archer and Reed follow suit. T'Pol and Mayweather stay topside to keep look out. Archer ad Reed find weird looking aliens. He tries to talk to them and as if they have seen any of the people from the surface. A fight breaks out and the captain and Reed take off running. They call T'Pol for directions on how to escape from the tunnels. Reed gets shot but it isn't bad, he starts forward but is captured by the aliens. They keep firing preventing Archer from going back for them. One of the aliens attack Mayweather but T'Pol saves him. The three of them take off leaving Reed behind. T'Pol tells them that her scans show they aren't aliens, they are in fact human. There are over 50 of them in the underground caves. Archer and Phlox go back to the surface to try and find Reed. The humans take them down to the tunnels to find them. They seem to deeply distrust humans. They don't think that they are humans. They want Archer and co gone. Arche agrees they just need to get Reed up and running again. The people on this world think that the humans dropped poison on them and drove them underground. Only one person there, an older lady is the only one who was alive 70 years ago when it happened. She was nothing more than a child when it happened. Archer tries to tell them that they too are human and they don't want to believe Archer. It seems the old lady has lung cancer and needs treatment. Phlox offers to treat her but she needs to go back to the ship. Her son demands to go with her and that Reed stays here to assure that no harm comes to them. Reed agrees and Archer goes along with it. Archer keeps trying to convince them that they use to be humans. They fight against this knowledge so hard. They ask for him to stop and Archer leaves Phlox to his work. T'Pol finds an asteroid crash site that explains what happened. It is what caused the rain that nearly wiped them all out. It seems that the radiation that forced them underground has started to get into their water, it is what caused her cancer. He finds a picture of the old lady when she was a little kid, as a human. Proving that she is a human. Her son tries to get her away from these truths. While the son doesn't want to believe it the mother is starting too. She remembers just a bit of it. Archer freaks out, he can't leave the humans down there to die but they don't want his help. T'Pol suggests using force to move them. Archer says they can't use force he has to get them to agree to it. T'Pol asks if it is the right thing to do, they won't fit in on Earth. The tunnels are their homes, Earth wouldn't be the right fit for them. It would destroy who they are. Archer calls Trip into his office. The three of them start looking for a new location to move the colony that is outside of the radiation field. Archer goes to take the mother and son back to the tunnels and tries to talk the mother into moving her people to that part of the planet. The son believes that Archer wants their tunnels for himself. The shuttle lands and falls through the ground. It seems that the tunnel has given way to the weight of the shuttle. The son takes Archer's phaser and leads his mother and Archer to Reed and the others while Mayweather stays with the ship. One of the planets people is pinned in the water below. Archer and the son work together to save the fallen man, going a long way to prove faith in each others people. The two of them make it down to help the trapped man but he water is getting higher and higher, they don't have much time left. They can't get the tree off of him and Archer asks for his phaser back. The son doesn't trust him at first but Archer talks him into it and uses the phaser to cut the tree in half. They free the man before he drowns. They get him back to camp alive. Reed isn't doing so well, his wound is starting to get infected. The mother forces her son to tell the others what they have learned. Her son doesn't want to believe it, he just wants to stay and be happy but the mother believes Archer and talks her people into moving onto the other side of the planet. Mayweather is beyond excited that the crew figured out what happened. Archer lets him put the report together and thus ends the tale of what happens when humans split off from civilization. The fifth episode is written by Brannon Braga and Rick Berman. The episode starts off in the most annoying way possible, well for the characters. It must be such a pain in the ass to be in the middle of a shower when gravity turns off and the water floats away. Poor Archer falls hard to the ground as it turns on. The early days of Space travel seem like such a drag. I wish I could go!
The ship keeps having more and more problems. Tucker is sure that he can handle it but as it gets worse he orders them out of warp. T'Pol figures out that something is messing up their warp field. They fire behind themselves and find a cloaked ship following in their wake. They are the reason that all of their systems are having problems. Archer calls them and asks them to move away from their ships. The cloaked ship does as it is told and tells Archer that they are having problems with their engines. They were trying to use the Enterprise to make repairs. Tucker goes over to the other ship to help fix their engines. He is going to be stuck there till the work is finished. He isn't to thrilled with the idea. Tucker goes into a room that is filled with gas and starts to freak out. He has to stay in here for 3 hours before he can enter their ship. It is how they decontaminate people. Trip does not handle this well. He keeps calling and complaining to Archer. I love Trip but he is a bit of a diva. He makes it onto the ship and it is amazing! They have animals swimming through hallways and everything. Very cool. He has a hard time getting use to the environment. He can't focus or breath right on the ship. It turns out he just needs some sleep. Archer orders him to take a nap and if he still feels like this than he can come home. Reluctantly he agrees. When he wakes up he feels more normal. It seems that the captain was right. The ship grows food all over the ship. That is very awesome. These creatures don't drink water, that's weird. The female engineer feeds Trip, the two of them start to build a connection, maybe too strong a connection. Trip thinks he's Kirk hooking up with aliens and what not. True Kirk won't be born for another hundred years or so but still. Trip finally starts to work and is loving it over there. He loves that they have grass growing on the ship, almost as if they are Andalites. If you don't know what Andalites are than you have never read or seen Animorphs and I feel sorry for you. The woman shows Trip their holodeck, something that humans will not get until The Next Generation about 200 years after this. It takes some getting use to for Trip but he loves it. There is nothing I would want more than a holodeck, it would make playing as a kid so much more fun. She plays a game with him, you just put your hands in weird crystals. She doesn't tell him anything more than that. She really should have told him more! The two of them put all four of their hands into the crystals and start to see inside each others minds. It is very weird and creepy. There good time is cut short by their work finishing. Trip goes back home, he loved it over there. He was almost sorry to come home, almost. The trip over there made him remember why he set out into space to begin with. He loved it and can't wait to get back out there into the void and see what else there is to learn. Once back on the Enterprise he starts to feel weird. Doctor Phlox asks him if he had sex over on the other ship, Trip tells him no and the doctor informs him that he is pregnant. It's JR. all over. He isn't the father, he is just a host for the baby. T'Pol starts digging into Trip and tearing him down. Phlox tells him that he had to do something in order to exchange this much DNA. He tells him about the game they played. Phlox says that is most likely how it happened. They can't seem to find the ship, without it they don't know how to get the baby out of Trip. He is getting more and more moody. They tell him that he might have to give birth to the baby. He is due in another 5 weeks or so. They finally find the ship, it is hiding in the wake of a Klingon ship. The Enterprise hails them but they attack in return. Archer tells them about the ship and the Klingon's orders them destroyed, Archer doesn't accept that. T'Pol tells the Klingons about how Archer and the Enterprise saved the Klingon empire. They are in his debt and owe him this. Archer has to tell them about how Trip has been impregnated, the Klingons allow him to come with them. They manage to transfer the baby to anther host and the aliens give the Klingons the hologram technology. The Klingons tell Archer that their debt is paid. They have nothing more to say to each other. This was a fun episode that shows what classic Star Trek can be when done right. Welcome back to Star Wars, today is such a Star Wars day for me, over on the movie review channel I just reviewed the film The Captains! http://www.blueroofproductions.com/movies/the-captains Such a great doc!
Ok so lets start in on this episode, right off the bat we meet Elizabeth Cutler, a character that will pop up from time to time on the show. The crew discovers a new M-Class, Archer and Trip want to head down and explore but T'Pol puts out Vulcan protocol. Seeing as the Prime Directive does not exist Archer blew her off and gathered his people to go Planet side, even bringing Porthos so that he could run around and stretch his legs. T'Pol is not amused by any of it. The captain and his team are late returning to camp due to having so much fun exploring. T'Pol keeps her team over night in order to do more research while Trip and Mayweather stay on the planet to go camping and enjoy the night air. A horrible storm hits the camp ground as Trip and Mayweather deal with a bug in their tent. The planet side crew moves inside a nearby cave for shelter. Reed wants to go down to pick them up but T'Pol points out that it would not be easy for them to land a shuttle in the storm so Archer orders it be placed on standby until it passes. The crew forget the food at the campsite, how do you forget the food? Nothing is more important than food! Nothing! While Mayweather goes back to retrieve it he spots someone out in the storm. No one believes him. The other crew members start seeing people hiding out in the shadows in the back of the cave. He runs out into the storm. Something or someone on the planet is messing with their heads. Trip and Mayweather go out in serech of the crazed crew member while T'Pol goes further into the cave looking for what they might have seen. Leaving Cutler alone in the cave by herself. When everyone returns she tells Trip that T'Pol has been talking to the shadow people. Things are getting tense. The crew member that ran out of the cave tells of Archer when they finally get a hold of him. He doesn't trust them. Archer has to break off his rescue, the shuttle can't land in it. The crew is running out of water and Trip pulls his blaster out on T'Pol to keep her in check. She has sold them out after all, well not really but they are clearly going crazy. Reed tries to teleport the crewman up into the ship but due to the weather leaves and sticks were beamed up with him, leaving him near death. T'Pol is starting to get emotional as well. It took a bit longer but she is just as affected by whatever is doing this to them. The doctor saved the crewman that was beamed up. It turns out that there is some kind of chemical that is causing them all the problems. It makes them paranoid, Trip won't believe him, but he does obey the order to lower his weapon. T'Pol at least understands that she is also affected by this and can try to stay in control of herself. Not long after she stops speaking English and goes back to speaking Vulcan. It turns out that the chemical that is affecting them is toxic, the crewman on the Enterprise is dying and it doesn't look good for those on the surface of the planet. They need to get to them ASAP but have to wait 9 hours for the storm to pass. While speaking to Archer T'Pol speaks English again. Archer tells them that she is sending them an antidote. She falls back into Vulcan and Hoshi translates and Archer tries to talk Trip down but he won't do it. So Archer spins a tale to him, Trip buys it. He lowers his weapon and T'Pol shoots him on stun. She then ejects everyone with the cure. Morning comes and everyone slowly starts to wake up, clear headed. Trip apologizes and T'Pol puts it on the pollen and lets it go. The crewman beamed onto the ship is going to be fine. The shuttle comes to pick them up and everything is going to be fine. At the end of the day there was no real harm done and everything ends on a happy note. This episode was a cool look into the head space of the crew and helped move forward the different character arcs. Ok so right off the bat I know some people are going to be wondering what happened to episode 2. Well the first episode was really a two-parter so that would make the next episode episode 3. Now that that is cleared up lets dive in.
In this episode, written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga we open up on Hoshi talking to a slug who doesn't feel at home in space. Something that she can relate to, she can't even sleep in her room because the stars don't look right. Meanwhile Archer is anxious to get the mission truly started. He wants to get out and explore. To go and meet new species and see all that the universe has to offer. The two are perfect parallels to each other. Reed and Trip are both feeling anxious as well. Reed feels that the ship's weapons aren't ready for combat and that they will need them up and running as soon as possible where as Trip feels much the same way as Archer. They both just want to get out and see the universe. The crew comes across a ship and Archer forces Hoshi to come with him as he goes aboard, leaving Trip behind. Everyone is upset by his choice but he is the captain and that is that. On the ship they find the crew dead. T'Pol tells Archer there is nothing they can do and talks him into leaving. He does but it doesn't set well with him. He turns the Enterprise around and heads back for the ship. He wants to do something to help them. Trip gets his wish and gets to come on the ship this time. Hoshi is forced to go a second time and decides that she wants to go home. She can't handle this life. She misses Earth. Reed's fears are proven to be correct when an alien ship shows up as Archer and crew are still on the abandoned ship. The new ship opens fire but Reed isn't ready to return fire yet. His systems are still being fixed up, if only Archer had given him the extra time he needed. Archer gets back on his ship but their warp is damaged. They fire back but are out matched. A second ship shows up. This one is the same species as the dead crew. Hoshi tries to explain to them what is going on but she is overwhelmed by everything. It is making her work sloppy. Nothing is going the way that Archer would have hoped. He figures out a way to prove they didn't do it but the translator doesn't work. Hoshi has to do it, but her fear cripples her. Archer talks her into it and she saves the day. All you need is a little faith in yourself, even if you think that you have no chance in hell at pulling something off. Sometimes you might just surprise yourself. Thanks to Hoshi the new ship attacks the ship that was attacking the Enterprise and Reed fixes the ships weapons. They are ready for battle. Well this battle is over but they will be ready for the next one. Hoshi returns the slug to a planet close to where it was from and tells it that you can adapt. Speaking more about herself than the slug. Thisepisode is clearly really well written and a great follow up to the pilot. Now how weird is it that we start the Star Trek reviews with the show that ended the streak. The last three shows before this one each had 7 seasons and the last two shows that stared a ship named Enterprise had movies afterward. This one had neither.
Out of all the shows Enterprise had the most naysayers. People didn't seem to like the going back in time of it all. Setting a show a 100 years before Kirk rubbed people the wrong way. I'll never get it. It was such a great show. I've been a huge fan of Scott Bakula since I was a kid watching Quantum Leap. Mix that with growing up watching the original Star Trek and this show was made for me. The first two episodes were put together to create the pilot called Broken Bow. It opens on a young Jonathan Archer, can I just take a moment to say how much I love his first name, playing with a toy spaceship asking his dad how long the Vulcans were going to stand in the way of him finishing his warp 5 engine. Already you can see that the Vulcans are this series Klingons. Not that Klingons are lacking in this show. This whole episode is about a Klingon who crash lands on Earth. Archer sends his ship, the original Enterprise out early in order to take him home. The Vulcans are not happy but Earth has waited long enough. What made the original series so great was the friendship between Kirk, Bones and Spock. Every show since has had some version of that to one degree or another. On this show the friendship Between Archer and Tucker takes that spot with T'Pol feeling in the void of Spock. Unlike Spock she is full Vulcan so she doesn't have that pesky humanity getting in the way, but she isn't what we know as full Vulcan either. It won't be till the end of this series that Vulcans become how we know them in the OG show. Now while we are talking about great friendships we can't forget to talk about Archer's real best friend, Porthos. He brought his dog on the ship with him. What a great guy! Very early into this two parter we already get a feel for all of these characters and they more or less stay the same as the show goes on, but for T'Pol who goes the most. As Archer sits in his command chair and readies to take his ship out of dock while listening to the words of Zefram Cochrane this is a historic moment in the Star Trek universe. It is the first time that an Earth star ship has left dock on a mission. Archer is a legend. Now Enterprise tries to play both sides of the coin. It is highly serialized in the style of Deep Space Nine and Voyager but it is also episodic like the OG show and Next Gen. This episode starts an ark that goes throughout most of the show. A war in the future that uses the past as a battleground. Now Star Trek had always played around with time travel but normally only the past. They never really dealt with the future before. It was a drastic change that not a lot of people could gel with. Personally I always loved the idea. I feel that a lot of the plot lines in the first couple of seasons were great examples of what Trek does so well. It deals with what it is like to be human. What it means to be going where no one has gone before. The whole story line with Hoshi having so much trouble dealing with what it is like being in space. Or like Tucker being jealous of Mayweather and all the worlds he has traveled too in his youth. The ship loses power as it is invaded and the Klingon they are returning home is stolen from the medical bay. This causes a fight between Archer and T'Pol. We see something that we haven't seen since the OG Kirk. Hatred. Kirk was racist against Klingons, or speciesist and now Archer is that way towards Vulcans. Most humans on this show are. They tend to blame Vulcans for how slow Humans are growing as if they have kept us in cages. The crew visits a planet they hope will lead them to the missing Klingon. It is a real cultural clash for them. Tucker sees a mother pulling an oxygen mask off of a kid and he starts yelling at her. It turns out that she is in fact helping the kid learn how to breath. T"Pol points out that Tucker is putting his own narrow views onto other species and that if humans are to move into the larger universe they will have to learn to see things as they are and not just from a human perspective. Not long after that Archer finally learns about the future war and how he and his time period are nothing more than pawns. This is the first real action in the series, we finally have a shoot out. Not that Star Trek has ever been real action heavy but for JJ's films and old school Kirk hitting everyone. I love how everyone is so scared of the transporter. It has been the hallmark of the series since the start of the OG show and yet now no one wants to use it. They believe that it will flip them all inside out. It's like a ship full of Dr. McCoys. The crew manage to free the Klingon from the Suliban. Archer stays behind while Tucker gets him back to the ship. T'Pol and Tucker get into an argument over going back to rescue the captain or returning the Klingon to his homeworld Q'onoS. Needless to say they save Archer and return the Klingon to his homeworld, everyone wins. It was the first interaction between humans and Klingons and it didn't go as bad as it could have. Due to the success of the mission the Enterprise is allowed to keep moving forward with their mission. Archer asks T'Pol if she would like to stay on as his 1st officer. She agrees and asks on his behalf so that he doesn't look weak to the Vulcan high command. When I first watched this episode the only problem I had with it was that the Klingon's looked the way they do. They looked like the Klingons from the movies and Next Gen and not the ones from the original series. It was a disconnect, so the Klingons look like this, then look more human then go back to looking like this. What the hell? Well season four of this show fixes a lot of problems but we aren't there yet. Over all Enterprise is a great addition to the Star Trek Universe no matter what anyone says! |
AuthorThe most hopeful version of the future we have ever seen. Welcome to Star Trek Archives
March 2017
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