Arrrgh can this season get any more frustrating. Subtly goes out the window in this episode as well as any sense of continuity with Trek and itself!!!
[spoiler] So now Vulcan mind melds are done by a “deviant” portion of the society which causes a disease by those involved. And those with the disease are not properly treated and stigmatized. Only those who were forced to mind meld might be an exception.
Hmmm Gee I wonder what issue they are discussing in such a cleverly disguised way. A brain-dead chimp could have made the connection (for those brain-dead chimps who didn’t I’ll say AIDS)
Why the hell has the Mind meld become a sexual act?!? First it was used to oh so subtly show date rape now it leaves a disease behind. Oh those clever creators have now f*cked up any sense of continuity.
So in 100 years or so the Vulcans all come out of the closet and start melding like it was 2199 even though they act like only a few can do it in this series. Also They are spreading some disease without warning beings first.?
And If the meld is sexual how do I take Spock’s melding with Kirk, or the Horta or even Nomad. Damn what about the imposition of melding with McCoy in Star Trek II?!? How about Sareks demand
in Star Trek III for Kirk to Give him his thoughts?
It seems that the only two references they used were Spocks first Mind Meld and His last. In the first one (Dagger of the Mind) he mentions it is a personal and private thing Vulcan’s never do often I believe he even used the word intimate (Of course he starts doing it left right and centre after that episode) The last occurs in Star Trek VI where he forcefully extracts the information from Valeris in what almost looks like mental rape. Now I can give that one leave as it seemed Spock was desperate and resorted to something he seemed to find distasteful himself.
Everything else is ignored and thrown out the window so they can make a statement. [/spoiler]
That’s not all. They even ignore things they themselves have created!
Though the characterization of Feezal (one of Phlox’s wives) was not bad, especially how she mimicked Phlox’s cadence when she spoke (nice touch), however suddenly Denoblians have no problem with physical intimate contact. The way She was pawing Tripp was ridiculous considering in “Dear Doctor” Phlox Bristled at the slightest touch of a hand.
In 1903, what do you suppose the reaction of society would be to a young women who admitted sleeping with her boyfriend after six months, or admitted to enjoying giving and receiving oral sex even though she was unmarried?
Yet here we are in 2003, when those admission would raise barely an eyebrow.
Social mores, on Vulcan as well as Earth, can change drastically in 100 years.
Perhaps, but then again that behaviour is still frowned upon by many large powerful segments of our society today Say religious leaders and even some government leaders who speak out against pre marital relations. There are individuals who would still condemn those acts as sinful and wrong.
So even after 100 years it is merely tolerated not nescessarily completely accepted.
The fact is that this episode seems to equate the mind meld with a different type of “deviance”. I’m sure that in that light it seems that it would not suddenly become everyone’s lifestyle choice after 100 years.
On the contrary, kingpengvin - your post highlights the fallacy in accepting statements in one episode from a few people and applying them to an entire planetary society. If a viewer were to watch an episode of “The Humans,” and hear Pat Robertson talk, he might well complain about the continuity problems when, next season, he heard Dan Savage talk. “Those whacky writers! Last season they established how humans believe homosexual conduct is wrong and will lead to eternal perdition; this season they are ignoring that!”
Oh, cripes. Are you telling me this episode is going to be all tinged with psycho-social significance?
All I want is a little Panda in my life, goshdarnit… And maybe some nice big explosions.
Bricker if it were the real world I’d agree with you, but in this series individuals are supposed to represent the whole culture.
These characters are the top Vulcan medical people (they are on high level symposium) Their attitudes represent the medical community. Each Vulcan Character say that there is an outright shunning of those “deviants” by the society as a whole. What am I to make of that? T’Pol says it each of the Doctors say it
the closet melder says it
But that isn’t my main bone of contention. It is that suddenly what was originally a means to gain information in a an alien way has suddenly not only become equated with a sexual act but also now supposedly leaves a disease behind. I’m sorry but if my Vulcan buddy suggests melding with me I’d tell him to take a flying leap because of the effects it may have on me.
Are they suddenly going to explain it away? Oh it was just a conspiracy to keep people from Melding (a la “do that and you’ll go blind”) Phooey!
There was no need to do it, except to make a big Social Message episode that could have been done in any number of means without screwing around with the entire Seires (all forms of Trek) continuity.
Enterprise has been sadly lacking this season and it is mainly because it has strayed so far from its own history and continuity. I didn’t mind the Vulcans being slightly demystified (They can lie and only state they don’t) but they are going too far.
king, it wasn’t very long ago that “top medical people” agreed that homosexuality was a disease.
I’m sorry - I don’t accept your contention that a few people are representative of a whole species in the series. I remember when Tuvok was cast and some fans were discomfited - “Vulcans aren’t BLACK!” In fact, the mere fact that we’d never before seen a black Vulcan meant nothing – except the fact that we’d never seen one before. Any inference you might have drawn from the previous lack of any black Vulcans was suspect.
Tu…vok???
Sorry that name doesn’t register neither does the series that he was supposedly in and never happened.
Ok fine I won’t split hairs.
But I will be slightly sarcastic.
The creators of Enterprise are right Mind melding was secretive thing (or maybe not because the doctors were lying), that was only done by a select few (or maybe everyone on Vulcan except the ones on this show and of course the episode “FUSION” that made mind melding look like something foreign to even T’Pol) but 100 years later many key members of Vulcan society have accepted it and use it in front of anyone at any time.
There I said it
None of that changes the fact that those same creators have totally f*cked up what a mind meld is supposed to be by unnecessarily adding these new connotations.
In the original series it was a plot device used to avoid boring interrogations that gave the Vulcan’s a sense of mystical and alienness (At least that was what the creators intended)
Now it is used to symbolize not just sex but it also carries the mental equivalent of STDs I mean what the hell?
Is the Nerve Pinch now a homeopathic remedy practiced only by elders that leaves physiological damage or maybe now there is a Vulcan Death grip!
Or perhaps we’ll get to see someone practice Fal tor pan (The refusion) even though the high priestess previously stated that it had not practiced in millennia and even then only in legend.
I think the mind melding fits. Its the nest step in Vulcan evolution and by Kirk’s time just about everyone has it.
Otherwise a fairly weak episode but pretty good compared to the others. The high note was seeing the Panda tap dance for the Koalas heart. Brought a tear to my eye.
From another thread I started before I saw youse guys…
I’m beginning to become annoyed with Enterprise. It takes a lot to get me hacked at Trek. I like Voyager.
How long have they got to make mind melds available to everyone given that Vulcans live to be 150-200? Picard shared Spock’s father’s with Spock. Come to think of it, T’pel told Sarek “What thee asks has not been done since ages past”, and melded to reformat Spock with his katra.
I think this violates canon no matter what they make up to straighten it out.
Enterprise, like Voyager became “The Seven Of Nine Show”, or “Star Trek-Big Tits” is becoming the “T’Pol Show”.
I don’t mind preachy messages so long as they are subtle and entertaining.
Old school Trek was preachy but it still knew it had to entertain. I can handle a lesson on the balance of power and the cold war politics of vietnam as long as there was a Mugatoo attack, and a few fisticuffs to catch my attention.
This on the other hand is just wrongheaded and dull.
