Wee. New page. New post. New viewing. New everything.
So I read the first two pages, hijacks and all, until it ALL turned to one big mushy hijack full of pandas and prostitutes.
Cervaise made some really good comments regarding character development. That’s one of the main reasons I stopped watching Voyager. I just didn’t care for many of the characters. They had such a wonderful concept and instead of developing it to its full potential (hell, even half its potential would have been something), it rode through seven years on the Star Trek name alone.
In Voyager you had a crew that could have been constantly battling each other for supremecy. The Maqui broke away precisely because they didn’t want to be part of the Federation and suddenly they’re forced to work side by side with each other. Worse, they find out that Tuvok has been spying on them for months, ready to turn them all in to the authorities. Yet, when forced to work together, suddenly they’re in happy Candyland Utopia Shangri-La because deep psychological wars are booooring.
Enterprise is practically a renegade ship of its own. They’re oftentimes tens of lightyears away from any possible human help, they don’t know what aliens are out there and they don’t even know if they can fully trust the Vulcans. There’s no Federation. There are no prime directives. They have to wing it as they go along.
At any moment they could be ordered back home, the journey at an end. How does that affect the crew? Meanwhile, the ensigns of the ship have very little room for advancement, much like Voyager, because Enterprise is the ONLY ship roaming the quadrant so there are no slots for promotion or transfers.
Nitpicks about the episode:
Trip said he wanted to take a look at the warp engine of Cochrane. Then he says goodbye to Malcolm and leaves, having never looked at the engine!
Malcolm mentions that Enterprise has travelled 150 light years in its two years. But they say at the beginning of this episode that Enterprise is taking a “slight detour” of 30 light years to visit this volcanic planet. That’s a hell of a detour. It would be like travelling from L.A. to D.C. and having to make a slight detour in Kansas…to Minnesota.
That’s it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled panda flogging, already in progress.