De Reviews - Star Trek: Enterprise
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
De Reviews "Proving Ground"
My sincere apologies for the tardiness of this review. Real life has gotten in the way once again, but things seem to have settled down for now. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be catching up on these reviews as repeats are aired at 9p.m. after the oh-so intelligent series, The Mullets (good going UPN :-/) And now, on with the review…
Jeffrey Combs is one of those guest stars that always seems to bring his best game to episodes where he appears. I was first exposed to him long ago when he starred in the film Re-Animator (which went on to spawn a couple of sequels) and was more than excited when he began appearing on DS9. The man is incredibly talented and manages to portray a range of emotions, even when under heavy makeup and prosthetics. His appearances as Shran on this series have always been a delight to watch and this outing was no different.
"Proving Ground" could have easily been another middling outing that has been all-too common this season. Thankfully, there was enough decent writing to put it above the usual Enterprise fare.
The recaps at the beginning of the episodes are a welcome addition. By providing some background about the storyline, it allows for the unfamiliar viewer to become acquainted enough with the story so far. Unfortunately, this particular recap suffers due to not providing any background on Archer's history with the Andorians. To the new viewer, Archer's relationship with Shran sort of appears out of nowhere.
This episode does a pretty good job of establishing a little more background for an alien race that has more or less been forgotten since their first appearance in "Journey to Babel." T'Pol sheds a little more light on the origins of Vulcan-Andorian relations, as does Shran during his conversation with his superior
officer. One item I noted was the spacious bridge of the Andorian starship. Could the bridge of Picard’s Enterprise on TNG be attributed to the blue guys? It's an interesting prospect at least.
This episode is soaking in series continuity. Obviously Shran's appearance stems from previous episodes, but it's noted that the Enterprise crew has found the Xindi proving ground by somehow locating the radiolytic signature planted in the kemocite back in "The Shipment." When Shran comes aboard, you'll notice the crew busy with repairs from the events in "Chosen Realm," the previous episode. Nice attention to detail.
However, I wasn’t thrilled with T'Pol’s line about reconstructing the database erased by the Triannon zealots last week. I cannot believe vital data isn't backed up on a daily or semi-daily basis. If T'Pol's assertion is to mean reconstructing the database from backups, that's another story but it's not the impression that came to mind.
As the crew prepares to steal the superweapon prototype (it seems part of the prediction in "Twilight" has come true), Shran brings up the death of Trip's sister. Trip's sanguine reaction was a bit of a disappointment considering that issue was the fire fueling his now non-existent rage, which was allegedly responsible for his need for Vulcan massages (nice and absent this week). Sure, it was good to see that issue brought up again (and not by his clone) but I was really hoping for Trip to take offense and really give it to a stranger who really had no business talking to him about it.
The plot is pretty straightforward with plenty of scheming going on - scheming to steal the weapon from the Xindi, scheming to sabotage the Enterprise and scheming to steal the stolen superweapon from the sabotaged Enterprise. It would seem Shran's orders to betray Archer come straight from the home office. These orders are hard for our favorite Andorian to swallow as he's come to like and trust Archer. Ditto Talas and her burgeoning friendship with Reed. It's interesting how Shran has come to be one of the most rounded characters in the series and he isn't even a regular! Imagine if this kind of characterization were applied to Mayweather or Sato.
A short aside regarding the theft of the prototype from Enterprise: If Archer had the activation codes; it would stand to reason that the Xindi did too. Why didn't they just destroy the prototype once it was stolen?
"Favors build alliances," Shran told Archer. Prior to limping out of the Expanse after Archer detonated the prototype, someone in the Andorian crew passed along scans of the weapon to Enterprise. Was it Shran or Talas? The episode doesn’t make it clear, but it helps set up the kind of future humanity will have with the Andorians. This isn't the kind of overt Federation building that the majority of fandom seems to want, but it does build upon the events of last season's "Cease Fire" to show how humanity becomes an integral part of what will become the United Federation of Planets.
Anyhoo, a few notes:
- I liked the mention of Bikini Atoll upon finding the Xindi proving ground. It provided a nice frame of reference for the viewer at home especially considering the doomsday parallels involved.
- Another great reference was Reed's mention of the crew not having done much exploring since entering the Expanse. It's good to know that particular human nuance hasn’t been erased this season.
- Was anyone else puzzled by the angry reaction of the Xindi Council after the test? Sure, the prototype didn't totally destroy the moon but it looked like it had done enough to render a planet more or less uninhabitable.
To wrap up:
Writing: Great work from Chris Black this week. There were a couple of hiccups, but we were mostly treated to a strong outing.
Directing: David Livingston continues doing what he knows best. This guy really knows how to work a camera.
Acting: Jeffrey Combs dazzled as he always does but Molly Brink (as Talas) had a few iffy, cardboard moments. Particularly strong work from Bakula and Trineer again this week.
Talk about one-upmanship. This episode blew "Chosen Realm" out of the water and I happened to like "Chosen Realm." I think I speak for many a fan, when I say that Shran needs to appear more often on this series. He's both a terrific foil for Archer as well as a character you can really care about. Although not without a couple of head-scratching moments, I'd like more episodes like this please. Grade: A-.
NEXT WEEK: Enterprise meets Mission Impossible.
"I need all the caffeine I can get."
--Malcolm Reed or the mantra of college students the night before finals
Thursday, January 15, 2004
De Reviews "Chosen Realm"
After more than a month of repeats, Enterprise finally got underway with a new episode. This episode, the second penned by newcomer Manny Coto, was certainly better than the superficial time travel dud, "Carpenter Street," that capped off the November Sweeps period.
Religion is always a touchy subject with people. Considering its incredibly personal nature, it’s probably wise that Star Trek tends to mostly leave human religion alone and let it be the province of aliens. However, since we have yet to encounter aliens here on Earth, alien religions on Star Trek have a habit of paralleling what we know in the here and now.
One thing I think we all know is that extremist fanaticism in religion isn’t a good thing. Heck, extremist fanaticism in anything isn’t a good thing, be it Star Trek fandom, playing video games, working, or anything else. Unfortunately, it’s the extremists that get the press and make impressions on subjects we’re unfamiliar with. And it’s extremists who received the spotlight in this episode.
Because the plot was given away in the teaser, not much came as a surprise during the course of the episode. We knew the aliens were planning on hijacking the ship, also known as Plotline #2. Plotline #1 is, of course, Archer getting captured. I didn’t mind this so much, because Archer wasn’t written as a total moron. He took precautions before docking with the Triannon vessel and D’Jamat had mentioned the spheres, which could yield clues as to where to find the Xindi.
Thankfully, the episode waits until the end of the first act before springing the hijacking plot on the crew (not on us, because we knew it was coming). I was a little concerned about how these aliens could insinuate themselves into sensitive areas of the ship without some form of resistance from either Malcolm’s security detail or the MACOs. Mind you, this had to happen before D’Jamat visited Archer and informed him of his plot and the ensuing suicide bombing.
The scenes featuring the battles of wills between Archer and D’Jamat were done reasonably well. I especially enjoyed Archer being reminded on how he
tortured a prisoner for information back in "Anomaly." What I didn’t enjoy, was the convenient ignorance about the transporter, since D’Jamat had supposedly been reading the captain’s logs. The transporter "execution" might have worked had the logs not been read, but it sticks out as a huge plot hole here.
Basing an entire religion around the mysterious spheres isn’t much of a stretch. The fanaticism of D’Jamat and his followers were obviously meant to parallel modern day extremists and while it’s a bit of a sledgehammered approach, I didn’t mind it too much. While others have mentioned the reasons for the war as being superficial a la TOS’ "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (the episode with the literally half-white, half-black folks), I didn’t see it that way. When Archer asked Yarrick why they were at war, he said it was because the other side believed the "Chosen Realm" was created in ten days, as opposed to nine. While it may sound inconsequential, I think that difference is the tip of the iceberg between the two dogmas. I’ve heard plenty of folks simplify the difference between Jews and Muslims as being a difference in belief as to the identity of their original ancestor (Isaac versus Ishmael -special thanks to Keith from Psi Phi for the correction).
Since the fourth act of an Enterprise episode is rarely action-free, we had not one, but two action subplots: retaking the ship and fighting the other faction in space. As always, the visuals were top notch even if the scene progression was pretty uninspired.
The most glaring nod to "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was the ending. The religious war had decimated the planet while D’Jamat had been out in space. A conflict waged to bring peace ironically ended in utter ruin. I liked that aspect a lot, even if it was more than a little derivative.
Anyhoo, a few notes:
- Another crewman died in this episode, but we didn’t learn her name. I appreciated Archer not forgetting about her in his dealings with D’Jamat but hopefully we’ll be told who she was in a subsequent episode.
- Does anyone truly believe that the Xindi database has been totally erased? I would think the crew would have a backup somewhere.
- While Travis didn’t have much to do this week, I did appreciate him being cool when the phase pistol was pointed at his head.
To wrap up:
Writing: Manny Coto delivered a mostly enjoyable by-the-numbers script with a decent, if derivative ending.
Directing: Aside from some interesting angles on the bridge during the firefight, most of the episode seemed pretty uninspired.
Acting: Decent work from just about everybody this week in their varying degrees of importance. I liked the scenes between Scott Bakula and Conor O’Farell.
After the incredibly disappointing "Carpenter Street," there was virtually nowhere else to go but up. Although "Chosen Realm" was hardly original territory, it was an entertaining hour of television and a step in the right direction for the series. Grade: B-.
NEXT WEEK: Archer gets the blues.
"Go ahead. Try to blow yourselves up. I’ll wait."
--Captain Jonathan Archer with the upper hand
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
De Reviews “Carpenter Street” (spoiler-laden)
Sorry for the delay folks. The holidays are in full swing at Casa Baisch having just moved, dealing with a sick child and preparing for my father-in-law’s visit. Oh yeah, add all the regular holiday goodness and it’s sheer bedlam. Aiiieeee!
Time travel is almost as prevalent in Trek as space travel, with many episodes using the plot device being classics. “Carpenter Street” is not one of them. The episode that was supposed to tie the Xindi mission and Temporal Cold War story arcs ends up being more about the setting than about the aforementioned storylines.
The teaser was interesting if only to see an alien use a telephone. Loomis as a character was portrayed incredibly well and I have to give Leland Orser credit for being able to rise above the material and make the character believable. The character of Loomis is abject slime -- no question about it. He’s willing to brutally kidnap people for his “benefactors” without regard for the consequences to his victims all in the name of the almighty dollar. T’Pol’s description of him as embodying the most despicable aspects of humanity was totally unnecessary because it was so friggin’ obvious.
Once Daniels enters the picture is when the plot begins to suffer considerably. Archer’s sentiment of “It’s about time you showed up” echoed mine. Unfortunately, his presence did little to explain what the heck has been happening this season. We’re served a bunch of potential lies as he ludicrously claims that it takes time for events to ripple through the timeline. That pretty much flies in the face of every other depiction of time travel in the Star Trek universe. Kirk’s Enterprise disappeared after McCoy jumped through the Guardian of Forever, Picard’s Enterprise instantly changed when the Enterprise-C came through the time rift and so on and so on. We’ve been down this road before, even on this series, when Daniels’ future was changed upon Archer’s arrival back in “Shockwave”.
Now Daniels has a habit of being vague and probably knows a lot more than he lets on, but it bugs me that Archer is again the Big Idiot. Surely Archer remembered stepping into the apocalyptic 31st century once he left the ship in “Shockwave”. But did he question Daniels’ assertion? Nope. For someone who was adamant about a successful mission last week, you would think he’d have more questions.
Incongruities with established time travel doctrine aside, the real point of this episode is to tie two story arcs together. Well, you might want to tell the writers that because what was received, was a waste of time. Usually when Star Trek travels back to contemporary times, it’s usually to illustrate the dichotomy of our present with the future with a plot thrown in. I don’t mind the obligatory “fish out of water” sequences but this episode dwelled way too long on the reactions of Archer and T’Pol to life in 2004 when the focus wasn’t on Loomis. After stealing a car, robbing an ATM and ordering fast food, there was maybe 15 minutes left to deal with the Xindi.
What happens in the course of 15 minutes? Well, it’s the typical Final Act Action Sequence that has been all too prevalent this season. Don’t believe me? Re-examine the final acts of just about every episode this season and you’ll find some big action sequence toward the closing minutes. Combine said sequence with abominable dialogue, i.e. “Your species is doomed” and the final November Sweeps episode ends on a fairly disappointing note, which left this viewer very dissatisfied.
I had really hoped we’d see some clue as to who was providing the Xindi with their information and/or means to travel back in time and space. We’ve seen plenty of scenes from the Xindi point of view before, would it really have hurt this episode to clue us in on some of these details in lieu of a prolonged shot of Loomis eating a hamburger?
While I had plenty to rant about in this episode, I did like the “fish out of water” stuff and the character of Loomis, not to mention his fate. Nods to previous episodes, particularly “Raijin” and its bio-weapon subplot were appreciated. Perhaps if this were a two-part episode, we might have received something resembling the payoff we were expecting.
Anyhoo, a few notes:
*Archer mentioned that it wouldn’t be until 2061 before something was done about the fossil fuel problem. If I remember my Trek history correctly, World War III began in 2053 or 10 years before the Zefram Cochrane portion of Star Trek: First Contact. I suppose someone figuring out a solution to the energy crisis is just as likely as someone developing warp drive on post-Holocaust Earth. Perhaps it was Cochrane’s warp engine design that paved the way.
*Archer tells T’Pol to search the database for period clothing. At least that’s a clue as to where the away mission garb comes from and partially clears up the issue from “North Star”.
*Hopefully the loot brought back to the ship will help the mission along. I guess we’ll see.
To wrap up:
Writing: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have returned to the writing credit with fairly dismal results.
Directing: The seediness of the city was portrayed quite well, almost to where I wanted to take a shower after screening the episode.
Acting: A lot of reacting on the part of Bakula and Blalock, while Leland Orser’s Loomis was terrific. The Xindi guest stars had pretty much nothing to work with outside of cartoon dialogue.
I had some pretty high hopes for this episode since I genuinely enjoy the Temporal Cold War storyline, but I have to say I was pretty disappointed. “Carpenter Street” was pretty much style and little substance, feeling like a badly manufactured ratings stunt. While there was some interesting stuff to see, I’m afraid it didn’t add up to very much. Grade: D.
NEXT MONTH: Holy war, Batman! No really, a holy war.
“Robot Opera Singer…who fights crime!”
--Possibly a segment from Conan that the wheelchair victim missed thanks to Loomis
Thursday, November 20, 2003
De Reviews “Similitude” (spoiler-laden)
Modern Trek is full of episodes dealing with the issue of medical ethics. From TNG’s “Ethics,” which featured a doctor that routinely used patients for medical testing to DS9’s “Hippocratic Oath,” where Dr. Bashir’s research would have aided the enemy, we’ve definitely seen this type of thing before. However, the episode that’s probably the most similar is Voyager’s “Tuvix.” The plot of “Tuvix” revolved around a gestalt being containing both Tuvok and Neelix stemming from a transporter accident and the inevitable moral dilemma posed when Tuvix decides he wants to live as he is, instead of being separated.
Since this series rarely takes any kind of risk that isn’t fixed in the span of an episode, I had no doubt that the Trip seen in the torpedo tube wasn’t the real Trip. The set up for the events in this episode were handled well enough, but the execution was based on an extremely ludicrous premise with only some decent drama left to try and prop it up.
With Trip in a coma after the engine test, Phlox suggests the option of cloning the engineer to harvest organs necessary for his well-being. It’s here where the science seems to be chucked out the window in favor of some artificial (albeit well performed) drama. With all the debate about stem cell research in the past couple of years, why was it necessary to clone an entire person in order to obtain the necessary organs? Couldn’t Phlox use the Lysarian symbiont larva to help steer him toward replicating the neural tissue? I know, I know -- if that had been the case, then we couldn’t feel sad when it came time for Sym to die. A 1978 film called Parts: The Clonus Horror was based on this premise, ultimately becoming comedic fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Adding insult to injury to the outdated scientific premise was the incredibly wrong assertion that human memories were encoded in DNA. Yes, this allowed Sym to eventually become a useful member of the crew but when Phlox hailed it as some kind of discovery, I was seething. Modern Trek has often taken liberty with the entire concept of DNA, usually treating it as some kind of means to a particular end that is ultimately reversible with everything going back to normal. This aspect to Sym was not at all necessary and the “I want to live” scenario in the final act could probably have played out just as well without it.
Sometimes we can overlook the scientific implausibility and move on with the story. When the suggestion of cloning Trip in his entirety was presented, I could deal with it. It was an unnecessary and artificial means of adding drama to the episode, but I could deal with it. However, once Trip’s memories began surfacing in Sym as he aged, that’s when watching the episode became difficult. If I may be allowed to step up on my soapbox for a minute -- I understand that sometimes scientific accuracy is tossed aside in favor of a story but when it becomes such a regular occurrence and a series still has the audacity to credit a science consultant is when I get a little pissed off. Because the entire concept of cloning and stem cell research has become reality to the point of governments legislating it, it is irresponsible of a television series to present falsehoods on such a touchy issue in order to tug a heartstring or two.
Aside from the whole concept of a clone with memories, the rest of the episode featured some great acting. John Billingsley did a phenomenal job portraying the regret of his actions after realizing Sym wouldn’t survive the transplant. Connor Trinneer definitely had us believing that Trip and Sym were two different people. Jolene Blalock’s semi-emotional portrayal of T’Pol was decent but a little out of place thanks to some suspect writing (how logical is a pre-mortem kiss?). Also a victim of suspect writing this week was Scott Bakula, reverting to the character of Angry Archer in order not to become emotionally attached to the supposedly “disposable” Sym.
On a positive note, one of the most interesting parts of this episode was the polaric field attracting meteoroids to the ship’s hull. The visuals of rock caked to the portholes as well as the “deep-fried” Enterprise were really well done. While it’s not important, I’m curious how the rest of the meteor crust was stripped away after leaving the field. Did Malcolm shoot it off or did it simply slip away after their escape?
One of the most glaring questions is raised in this episode: Isn’t there an assistant engineer who’s capable of restoring the engines or is Trip surrounded by enlisted technicians in the engine room? I know T’Pol needed something to do, but even modern naval vessels have assistant engineers. Couldn’t Travis have helped out a little more down there? It wasn’t like the ship was going anywhere, and if anyone needs something to do on this series it’s Travis. Hoshi wasn’t used very much in this episode either, for that matter.
The ending of the episode comes full circle with the teaser as we rejoin the funeral. Archer mentions the mission and how it’s been given renewed purpose with Sym’s sacrifice. The torpedo launching was a nice touch, but I’m curious as to why we didn’t see something similar for Crewman Fuller (the ship’s first casualty) after the action back in “Anomaly.”
Anyhoo, a couple of notes:
*The manual shutoff for the warp engine is on top? While this may be a great idea for keeping a boarding party from shutting off the engine, it’s horrible in case of an emergency. Perhaps Starfleet installed the change during the ship’s minor refit in “The Expanse” as a result of Archer’s track record the first two years :-)
*Did anyone else think the Lysarian symbiont larva looked like a water balloon after Phlox plucked it out of the tank?
*Archer’s ship model was a nice touch of continuity that hasn’t been seen since the flashbacks in “Broken Bow.” I think it’s pretty cool that he would keep it in his quarters.
To wrap up:
Writing: Manny Coto’s initial outing had some decent dialogue sprinkled into a story with a dubious, irresponsible premise.
Directing: Nothing really special from LeVar Burton this week.
Acting: Great work from the regulars and the kids playing Sym at various ages.
I really wanted to like this episode and was hoping for a medical dilemma along the lines of “Dear Doctor” from the first season. Instead, we received artificial drama as a result of glaring scientific inaccuracy. What could have been an interesting examination of humanity as a result of controversial technology was sacrificed in the hopes of making us cry at the end. Grade: D+.
NEXT WEEK: The first time travel episode of the season.
“You were one hell of a father.”
“You were one hell of a son.”
--Sym and Phlox
Kellie Waymire (1968–2003)
Jonathan Brandis (1976–2003)
Friday, November 14, 2003
De Reviews "North Star" (spoiler-laden, thou are warned)
"It’s not possible, but there it is."
Captain James T. Kirk uttered this line back in 1966 in the episode "Miri" where the first of several parallel Earths was encountered. While there was no Western-themed planet in the original series ("Spectre of the Gun" took place in the minds of the crew), other planets appeared with more than a passing resemblance to Earth at various stages. The spin-off series had more or less avoided visiting such places (except in the holodeck or through hallucinations) until now.
You can’t help but recall the aforementioned "Spectre of the Gun" or TNG's "A Fistful of Datas" when watching "North Star." However, both episodes offer enough of a departure from the Western clichés to be acceptable entries. "Spectre of the Gun" offered the weird juxtaposition of the crew with participants of the O.K. Corral with the obvious soundstage and building facades in an alien test. "A Fistful of Datas" lampooned the clichés of the genre in the holodeck. "North Star" concentrates on having the crew interact with a Western film for most of the episode and the results are mixed.
Just about all of the Western standbys are present and accounted for in this episode. The stalwart sheriff keeps order in his town while his deputy takes his title a little too seriously. The local schoolmarm is sympathetic to the stranger who comes to town. Said stranger is first involved in the conflict that inevitably erupts in the saloon and appears later for the shootout at the end. There’s nothing wrong with having all of this, but the situation has to be somewhat believable and I can’t say I buy it.
The back-story is believable enough aliens abduct humans for slave labor (and take a few horses too); the humans eventually revolt and then become the oppressors themselves. Okay, no problems there. What I do have a problem with, is that there seems to have been no technological progress in 200 years. Weren’t the humans the least bit curious about the superior technology of their former masters? Even if they weren’t, you would think that some type of progress would have been made over time. This particular point just seemed like a huge contrivance to whip out all of the props left over from the films Open Range and Unforgiven. I don’t mind Western influences, but it has to be somewhat believable.
Speaking of believability, where the heck did Archer, Trip and T'Pol get the Western-style clothes and guns? It’s one thing for Picard to order period clothing before an away mission because it’s been established that there are replicators aboard his Enterprise. However, Archer can’t do that and I’m sure that the cargo holds don’t happen to have this stuff in case the crew wants to throw a Halloween party. Do Archer and Trip do a Will and Roy Rogers routine when the crew needs a break from movie night? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Another point from the Sense Defying department was the reason Archer and Company was there in the first place. The teaser starts off with the hanging of the Skagaran by the locals with the first act beginning
the next day in town. I’m assuming the crew found the planet while searching for the Xindi ship carrying the kemocite (two weeks ago in "The Shipment") but no explanation is given other than T’Pol confirming a few things about the culture. Considering that the whole point of this mission into the Delphic Expanse is to find the Xindi, I’m curious why Archer thought it was necessary to stop and check out the colony. Sure, it’s weird to find human life signs in the Expanse but couldn’t it wait? Color me strange, but finding a super weapon that could destroy everything and everyone I hold dear would be my first priority unless there was some clue in that colony.
Setting aside these particular issues, the episode suffers from the "too little too late" syndrome. After Bethany is shot and beams away with Archer, the episode drops us into Prime Directive territory with Deputy Bennings understandably assuming that Archer is working with the Skagarans to overthrow the colony. Instead of running away or returning Bethany and then running away, the crew pays a visit in their shuttle pod.
The episode from this point on does a semi-decent job of finishing up. Sure we get the big shootout as a result of Bennings_ mistrust, but it’s believable. I really liked that most of the colonists believed Earth to be a myth. Archer’s spiel on tolerance seemed a little heavy-handed but it beats waxing about gazelles.
Everything seems to wrap up in a nice little bow as Archer’s optimism seems to be contagious to the sheriff. Bethany gets to teach kids about the advances of Earth as the sheriff looks on and we wonder if Archer will return to this place to take them to Earth. Woo hoo.
Anyhoo, a couple of notes:
*The writing staff must have a film buff or two considering all the classic movie references on this series. Trip’s mention of John Ford before riding away on the horse was great.
*I have to admit that Reed’s tactic of stunning T’Pol after her capture made me laugh out loud. The locals didn’t know they were being stunned, so it made sense in a way.
*Travis Scoreboard: One line. Hopefully the residuals from this series will let him live in relative comfort after the series is over.
To wrap up:
Writing: David Goodman managed to cram almost every Western cliché into this episode without any explanation of Archer’s presence at this colony.
Directing: It looked like David Straiton borrowed some camera tricks from assorted Western films. Look for the slow motion during the gunfight in the third act.
Acting: Nothing special this week. Everyone was pretty two-dimensional.
If the writing team had paid attention to some details, this episode might have been more enjoyable.
Instead, we received gratuitous clichés that may or may not have been homages. If we’re going to take departures from the Xindi mission, then at least provide a legitimate reason. I won’t go so far as to call this episode awful, but it’s certainly close with only a few saving graces. Grade: D+.
NEXT WEEK: Enterprise III: The Search for Trip.
"Do you think I could get some more coffee before you shoot him?"
--Archer to Deputy Dawg, er Bennings
A tip of the jaunty cap to Tim Lynch.
Thursday, November 06, 2003
De Reviews "Twilight" (spoiler-laden, thou are warned)
When I saw the preview for "Twilight" last week, I immediately had thoughts to every lame "It was all a dream" episode of any series to use such an all-too convenient premise -- from St. Elsewhere to Dallas, even Enterprise itself (Hoshi’s transporter "adventure" last season). Thankfully, we were spared from this tired story convention this week but the effect was just the same i.e., the reset button was pushed and everything returned to normal.
"Twilight" will forever be compared to other modern Trek outings that have taken extensive liberties with their storylines only to have the future affect the past and reset the present. Let’s look at a few, shall we? TNG ended their television series on this very premise in "All Good Things..." when the Picard of 25 years in the future affected events in the past in an elaborate scenario created by Q. Deep Space Nine’s fourth-season emotional tour-de-force "The Visitor" had a future Jake Sisko devise a technobabble solution to change history and keep his father from disappearing into subspace. Lastly, Voyager’s "Year of Hell" two-parter (capping off the first half of its fourth season) put the ship and its crew through some rough times before colliding with the responsible device to set things as if nothing happened.
Suffice it to say that the franchise has "been there and done that." Unfortunately, the borrowing wasn’t just limited to raiding old scripts for ideas. Long-term memory loss was used extensively in the incredible film, Memento. Although I do have to acknowledge that the writers didn’t totally rip off the film since they didn’t have Archer do the legwork on his own and the future setting did continue to move forward. However, story elements from both the Star Wars and Battlestar: Galactica franchises were found in this episode. I’m speaking of the Xindi "Death Star" super weapon seen in the teaser and the "ragtag, fugitive fleet" seen in the second act. While I can live with the Battlestar: Enterprise homage, I had hoped the super weapon would have been more reminiscent of the Xindi starships rather than simply inflating the mini-probe from last year’s "The Expanse."
I know the scenario was erased, but can anyone tell me why the Xindi used a Death Star-sized version of its original killer probe? I thought the whole idea was to build some kind of bio-weapon to use against the inhabitants of Earth, as mentioned in "Raijin." Why bother with biological scans if the purpose of the super weapon is to obliterate a planet? Were the bio scans conducted by Raijin for sensor calibration so the Xindi could find human colonies? That’s the only explanation I can think of since they already know where Earth is located unless the probe in "The Expanse" was sent from the future. If that’s the case, why not build the super weapon in the future and send it back. Yeesh, I am starting to develop one serious migraine here.
So we begin the first act with Archer and T’Pol mysteriously in some kind of domestic setting 12 years in the future or 2165 (keep that date in mind for later). T’Pol begins to again recount the events of the past several years to amnesiac Archer. I understand that the anomaly hitting the ship is crucial to this story but doesn’t that smack of slight incompetence on T’Pol’s part? Remember back in "Exile," T’Pol was able to extrapolate the number of anomaly-inducing spheres in the Delphic Expanse and told Archer that she should be able to track the anomalies from now on. The crew seemed genuinely surprised by the anomaly’s appearance so I guess T’Pol’s tracking didn’t work so well after all.
The anomaly deposits a colony of interspatial parasites into Archer’s brain, thus kicking off the loss of his long-term memory. Forrest granting command of Enterprise to T’Pol makes sense and she finally puts on a uniform. Why couldn’t this have happened at the outset of this season? The character looked so much more professional in the uniform than she ever did in the catsuits. Speaking of looks, I liked the look of future T’Pol if only because her real hair was used instead of the crappy wig we see every week. This is another change that should have been made this season since her character’s resignation from the Vulcan High Command. I know that UPN is desperate to pull the 18-35 male demographic away from Smallville so I won’t hold my breath about any of these changes ever coming back.
I know the budget was already pretty high for this episode considering the plethora of terrific visual and makeup effects, but I was disheartened to not only see Hoshi in her usual diminished role, but seeing Travis as one of the first casualties during the Xindi attack. He doesn’t get a single line and winds up dead too. Talk about adding insult to injury! If I were Anthony Montgomery, I’d be pulling a Robert Beltran and badmouthing the show on a regular basis. Travis sits at his helm station and that’s it. I thought Trek series were supposed to be ensemble casts. But hey, what do I know?
It’s interesting to see just how much history changed due to the unresolved Xindi conflict in this alternate future. The year is 2165 and it appears that the Earth-Romulan War (mentioned in TOS’ "Balance of Terror") never happened. The destruction of Earth appears to be a cause of the Federation never being founded (Soval’s conversation with T’Pol seems to bear this out). No Federation pretty much cancels out the rest of history as we know it. I assume this also includes Crewman Daniels (who has been mysteriously absent since "Shockwave, Part II" last season) and whatever authority he works for.
Speaking of Daniels, I’m really surprised he hasn’t weighed in on all this Xindi stuff. Could he be the one responsible for setting this entire chain of events into motion? Does anyone want to place a wager on when we’ll see this guy again?
I know that Phlox mentioned that the parasites existed in a spatial dimension much different than our own, but I can’t help but wonder how Phlox would know that killing the parasites in the future would kill them in the past. It’s sort of like Data holding his own head in TNG’s "Time’s Arrow." If time exists in one continuum, then Phlox really shouldn’t have known that the parasites he killed existed at all. As much as I’d like to go into the nitty gritty details of temporal mechanics, I’ll spare all of you the boring lecture this time around :-)
Anyhoo, a couple of notes:
*It’s interesting that the remainder of humanity settled on Ceti Alpha V in the Mutara sector. You might remember this planet as the one Khan was exiled to in TOS’ "Space Seed" only to fall victim to an orbital shift after the explosion of neighboring Ceti Alpha VI. I wonder how many colonists died from the ear-burrowing eels.
*It’s good to know that Shran was alive in the alternate future, having risen to the rank of general in the Andorian Imperial Guard. I thought it was kind of cool that he gave shield technology to the Enterprise crew.
*I wasn’t too thrilled with one of fleet ships essentially being one of the Nova-class models with old-style nacelles attached. I know there were a lot of visual effects in this episode, but surely they could have used one of the ship renderings from "The Expanse."
*Speaking of visual effects, I was quite impressed with just about all of them in the episode -- from the destruction of Earth to the human colony to the battle around the star. This series almost never fails to deliver in the visual effects department.
To wrap up:
Writing: Some really cool elements thrown into an almost completely recycled plot.
Directing: Robert McNeil had some decent moments this week. I especially liked the "soft camera" on T’Pol while she and Archer were having their heart-to-heart conversation.
Acting: Excellent work from Jolene Blalock, but only so-so from Scott Bakula. A little too subdued a performance from Connor Trinneer. The rest of the cast didn’t have very much to work with.
When plots are recycled, it’s the writers’ jobs to come up with a way to make them stand out from the other attempts. "The Visitor" relied on the emotional gravitas between a boy and his father, "Year of Hell" really illustrated how bad things had become, and "All Good Things..." managed to tie in three separate periods of time. I really didn’t see how "Twilight" deviated from any of these examples. Some of the concepts were indeed interesting and I did enjoy Jolene Blalock’s performance as well the progression of T’Pol’s relationship with Archer, but it barely kept this episode from being another push of the reset button.
Grade: C+.
NEXT WEEK: More script robbing occurs when Enterprise tries to be the original Star Trek.
"Come on. It’s Rosemary’s Baby. It’ll scare the pants off of you."
--Archer to T’Pol discussing the constantly excellent film selections of movie night
A tip of the jaunty cap to Tim Lynch.
Sunday, November 02, 2003
De Reviews "The Shipment" (spoiler-laden, thou are warned)
While I had hoped this episode would serve as a key to the rest of the season, "The Shipment" only managed to drop a few plot elements while treading all-too familiar ground in this franchise. Series continuity is helped along rather well here, but there are a few head-scratching moments that will hopefully be dealt with in future installments.
I was pleased to see the "Previously on Enterprise" device used in this weeks teaser to bring folks up to speed who might have missed "Exile" a couple of weeks ago. This is a device that has been used constantly on just about every David E. Kelly drama (Boston Public, The Practice, etc) as a means of letting first-timers and occasional viewers into "the loop." As the series becomes more serialized, we may be seeing this device used more often. However, I do hope that it won't become a crutch to eat up time when a script falls short.
After the brief recap, we begin in the Xindi war room where we're let in on the fact that the super weapon needs more kemocite before it can be tested. Ah yes, the super weapon. We'll get to that particular plot point a little bit later.
DS9 fans probably remember kemocite as the stuff that sent Quark, Rom and Nog back in time to 1947 in the episode, "Little Green Men." I remember the substance as being rather unstable, but the kemocite here seems to weather the transporter okay enough. Maybe the kemocite seen here is a more stable isotope than the contraband carried aboard Quark's shuttle (like uranium-238 compared to uranium-235 here on Earth). Just wanted to nip that little nitpick in the bud before we proceeded any further.
The coordinates provided by Tarquin in "Exile" point to a mining colony operated by the Xindi. Instead of sending an invasion force, Archer does the smart thing and sends a recon team to check the place out and maybe find more information on the super weapon. The not-so smart thing is including himself in the recon team with the better-suited Malcolm and Major Hayes. Since this isn't TNG, I won't go nuts over having the captain play soldier since Kirk did it almost every week on TOS. It was good to see that Hayes still existed, even if he was sorely underused in this episode. I had hoped to see Hayes and Archer butting
heads on strategy a little more than we did.
When Archer and Company follow Gralik to his home, I thought it would be the return of Angry Archer and another one-note performance from Scott Bakula. Thankfully, this wasn't the case. After analyzing a stolen kemocite sample, T'Pol reports that the Xindi probe that attacked Earth in "The Expanse" as well as the slime gun captured in "Raijin" has the same quantum imprint" as the kemocite. While I understand what the writers were trying to accomplish, I didn't feel it was necessary to insert pseudo-science to make a point. A spectrographic analysis would have worked just fine here since the substance wasn't radioactive (spontaneously emitting radiation), just radiolytic (decomposes when exposed to radiation). Last Dr. Science moment for today, I promise.
The exchanges between Archer and Gralik were fairly predictable and the writers really didn't have any way of making it new or interesting. There were two options for Gralik: be helpful or betray Archer and the recon team. Either one of these would have laid out a predictable path to be followed. While I liked the prospect of Archer making allies within the Delphic Expanse, I was really hoping for some kind of confrontation with Trip for not destroying the colony. Granted, that short debate was had with Malcolm but Trip is the character that has a personal stake in all of this. I guess it's a good thing Archer left him aboard the ship.
Gralik provides a short history lesson on the Xindi, even mentioning the one-time existence of Avians on their homeworld. Here's where the head scratching begins:
If the Insectoids and Reptilians destroyed the Xindi homeworld during the inter-species wars, then what is their motivation for attacking Earth?
In "The Expanse," the Sulibans' "Future Guy" told Archer that humanity would destroy the Xindi homeworld in 400 years. We've already seen that the Xindi homeworld had been destroyed 120 years ago in "The Xindi." Did the Xindi settle or will they settle on a new homeworld? If so, is the war council plotting from a ship or one of those anomaly-inducing spheres? Something doesn't add up here. Hopefully some kind of explanation will be forthcoming.
After running from some Seekers in the forest, Archer devises a plan to slip a tracking device aboard the Xindi ship carrying the kemocite. Wouldn't it have been easier for Graylik to make the switch instead of Archer? I know artificial suspense isn't manufactured that way, but it makes a lot more sense.
Meanwhile back at the B-plot, Trip and T'Pol conduct some tests on the slime gun with Phlox's help. Trip is able to dismantle the weapon without too much trouble but attempting to fire it results in self-destruction? While I like the idea of not allowing the enemy to fire your weapons, what's to stop an advanced-enough race from reverse-engineering the thing if they can open it without problem? Phlox helping out with the organic portion made sense, but holding an alien worm in your hand does not. It's not as if the Enterprise is devoid of science facilities or tools and Phlox saw what these worms were capable of spitting out. Yeesh.
Anyhoo, a couple of notes:
*I had hoped that we would never see the force field emitters again, but they turn up in Trip's aborted weapon test. We haven't seen these things since "Vox Sola" back in the first season and they didn't work so well then. I'm surprised Trip thought he could get them to work for the weapon test.
*Although Hoshi figured prominently in the last installment, she's virtually unseen until the last act. As usual, Travis gets short shrift again this week. He could have operated the transporter or something.
*Nice nod to TOS with the mention of delta radiation. I'm curious as to how large a dose would be considered fatal. Captain Pike was nailed with a pretty hefty dose of the stuff before his appearance in 'The Menagerie' and he managed not to die from it.
*So what is the kemocite used for in a biological weapon? Is it part of a delivery system?
To wrap up:
Writing: Pretty predictable stuff that only manages to leave some details behind.
Directing: Good work from David Straiton this week, especially during the conversation scenes. It could easily have become one talking head cutting to another, but Straiton managed to mix things up a bit.
Acting: Good stuff from John Cothran (Graylik) and Scott Bakula. The rest of the cast didn't have a whole lot to work with this week.
While I enjoy that we're not being given everything in the span of an episode, I didn't really feel that things were furthered too much this week. Instead, I felt as if we were just handed some details and sent on our way. Grade: C.
NEXT WEEK: Enterprise meets St. Elsewhere and, to a lesser extent, Dallas.
"Who said you could speak freely?"
--Archer to Major Hayes
A tip of the jaunty cap to Tim Lynch.
