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.
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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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