I thought this was a really well done episode! The Andorians came off exactly as I thought they would be. I also liked how the Vulcans were found out at the end. Now I know where the Romulans got their sneakyness from.
So far I am delighted by how the series in general is going. I may even excuse the awful theme song. Next week, they’re going to be on a comet! Awesome!
This was also a pretty funny episode. I slapped my knee 3 times!
I also like how Archer gets all excited about doing new stuff. That’s so like me. And I would drive out of my way to see an ancient Vulcan monastery and a 6 meter wide ball of string.
p.s. Only 5 more years till the Human - Romulan war. I wonder if the Vulcans will be the trigger?
why did it strike no one as odd, that the ?relic-quary? which nobody had entered in years had lots of lit candles???
All that adrenalin flooded our minds from phaser-fire?
hmmm, that’s right up there with releasing an alien worm on a planet not its own.
Maybe the Andorians were so kind as to light the place up when they got there?
It struck me as odd too until they showed that hidden sensor array thingy. Obviously they had been lying about no one going down there in years. Or did you mean it didn’t strike the people on the show as odd? I’d say they were too busy fighting at the time to comment on it and then they found the array so no one brought it up.
Hey was the Andorian leader last night Weyoun from DS9?
On another note, I thought Vulcans didn’t lie?
(arches eyebrow) Interesting…
You know, I really think the title of this thread should be changed to “The Andorian Incident–WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER”.
[geek mode on]
Yes, that was Jeffrey Combs, who not only played Weyoun but also Liquidator Brunt of the Ferengi Commerce Authority.
That particular myth was debunked in the original series episode “The Enterprise Incident”.
[geek mode–well, is it ever really off?]
Jeffrey Combs kicks ass.
I noticed the candles. But I guess that could be explained away because there were OBVIOUSLY people down there.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Vulcans explain this. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been programmed by B5 to expect ongoing plots, but I know damn well that the Klingon situation is going to go downhill, and this sure seemed like setup for later stuff.
I really liked this episode. The Vulcans are supercillious as hell, but this is the first indication of why we were the ones who got the Federation started – because we believe in the Rule of Law. (And, if relations between the various races in the local region are as bad as those between the vulcans and andorians, the Federation seems like a very good idea indeed.) I also liked the story was crafted within the already-established continuity. I’m not a big continuity hound and I will forgive discrepancies if they result in good stories, but I’m even happier when good stories and observance of continuity combine. I also liked how the andorian make-up was constructed. The modern techniques made them much more believeable than back in Journey to Babel, but unlike the Klingons, there was no confusion about who these folks were.
–Cliffy
P.S. Also I dug the fact that T’Pol and Phlox ate celery – an homage to TOS that didn’t interrupt the story for the non-Trekkies.
I liked it, and I don’t mean to be nitpicky (who am I kidding, I love to nitpick), but the military strategy on both sides was just jaw droppingly abysmally bad.
Let’s break it down a bit, shall we?
So the Andorians have technology that can detect a transporter beam, huh? I won’t even ask how the Enterprise can know this, not having tested it already. But I will ask why they automatically assumed that the Andorians wouldn’t be able to pick up communication devices? Hey Trip, they could be monitoring your secret conversation so make it short. No chit chat, m’kay?
Trip, Archer, trying to catch that first Andorian was just weak. You BOTH decided to crash through a wall to do it. First, you’re needlessly destroying a temple. Second, you have no clue if there are other Andorians about, which there were. Third, you have no clue if the wall will cave in or just dislocate your shoulders. Fourth, it threw you off balance! How can you apprehend him if you’re struggling just to stay on your feet? Ah yes…you can’t.
Hey Andorians, you’re not getting off scot free here. Ever think about, oh, I dunno, guarding your prisoners? How long were they in the catacombs because no one actually went in to check and see that everyone was accounted for?
Hey Enterprise commando team. You have three clear holes to fire from in (relative) safety. But you decide to blow the whole thing up, blinding everyone. In the process, you almost get a crewman killed and you let two of them escape through the very hole you created. Brilliant.
Andorians. Yeah, you again. Ever think about interrogating your prisoners? Smacking Archer around like a bitch obviously isn’t getting anywhere but there just might be a few other techniques on several other people that you can try.
I’m wondering how this is going to damage human-vulcan relations. I mean, if you really look at it, we exposed an ally’s secret sensor array to an as yet unknown(at least to humans), and hostile, alien race. I wonder if Archer would have been as adament in handing over all information about the sensor array if the espisode involved the Klingons instead of the Andorians.
Not to worry Humans are much like Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap, we are the Luke Warm water. Humans are rational enough to explain the logic of opening up to the Andorians to the Vulcans while emotional enough to be abale to communicate with the Andorians.
Good episode. I like the fact that relations with the Vulcans will still be a rough ride. Liking the characters more and more.
What I learned this week: The planet Andorians come from is not Andor… It is Andoria.
or we could be the Yoko Ono of the galaxy. :eek:
My only problem (hey, c’mon, it’s only TV! Forgive some tactical boo-boos.) is that the andorians are now very dark blue, almost grey in some scenes. It would’ve been nice to keep them that light powder blue color…and the tips of the antennae are smaller than they used to be, it kinda looked odd.
Of course, this could mean that the Tick is actually an Andorrian on steroids…
Frankly, this episode rather restored my faith in Vulcan logic and rationality. Let’s face it, there’s always been a wide streak of mystic mumbo-jumbo in Vulcan culture. Granted, Vulcans aren’t really “emotionless”, they just suppress their emotions, and I imagine for any humanoid (especially a humanoid who at heart is an aggressive and high-strung Romulan) to completely suppress their emotions would take a fair amount of meditation and ritual and so forth. Also, I suppose it’s not fair to characterize something as “mystic mumbo-jumbo” if it actually works–Vulcans do have all sorts of woo-woo psychic abilities (e.g., mind melds).
Nonetheless, the mumbo-jumbo in this episode initially seemed a bit thick. I mean saying it would be “blasphemy” for any outsider to see the “holy relics”? And if Master Whosis kicks off, it isn’t really very logical to stash his body in the catacombs and treat him like King Tut. Logically, you should grind him up for fertilizer or harvest his organs or something.
But–using apparent mystic mumbo-jumbo as cover for a hardheaded covert intelligence-gathering operation is highly rational. After all, to a certain extent, the whole “this is an ancient and esoteric holy place for our culture” line is kind of unquestionable–everyone’s esoteric mumbo-jumbo looks kind of incomprehensible and maybe even a little silly from outside, and yet, given the nature of most humanoid lifeforms, you can’t really question it for fear of transgressing some deep-seated taboo.
Of course, the whole business isn’t very honorable, but “honor” isn’t really a very logical thing when you think about it. Klingons are big on “honor”, but no one ever accused the Klingons of being hyper-rationalists. The idea of Vulcans as pacifists has always struck me as over-simplified. Concepts like deterrence and self-defense and espionage (i.e., keeping an eye on potentially hostile neighbors) are arguably quite logical. And I think it would be a mistake to conclude that just because the Andorians happened to be right in this one case that they’re just a bunch of peace-loving sweethearts, and the Vulcans are evil militarists bent on galactic domination. The Andorians are clearly a tempermental lot, easily given to waving guns in people’s faces and giving prisoners a good slapping around and a bit of sexual harrassment to boot. Keeping a close eye on them is a perfectly rational thing to do.
Boy, the Andorians are my Kinda people! What say we dump the Vulcans and go with them as our allies/protectors?
Probaly not, but I hope the Andorians remember this a couple of years down the road, when we have that little scuffle, the Earth-Romulan War.
They looked the same on my set… Could one of our tint or colour controls be out of whack??
It wasn’t the Andorian skin that was too dark – it was the set. Someone thought it would be fun to use key lights thru the windows. Unfortunately, B’Elanna pointed her camera at the walls, where everyone was in shadow. Bugged me in a few scenes.
Didn’t fool me for a second. “Blasphemy?” Illogical. Besides, the “protostar” exchange early in the episode established that Vulcans can be sneaky.
Returning to my ceaseless nitpick: Sure, Malcom Reed got more face time, but he still comes off as little more than Gunsy McBangbang. I suppose there are such one-dimensional people in real life, but I don’t necessarily want to invite them into my living room each week.
Notice how they made everyone apprehensive regarding humans in the transporter – for about 10 seconds. Waaaay too casual. Especially when it would’ve been simple enough to beam down weapons for Archer & Tucker to use. Wasn’t it just last week T’Pol suggested using the transporter to send in stun grenades?
And wasn’t it odd that the Andorians were fluent in Pinkskinese?
I suppose I should withdraw my previous complaints that the show ignores the limitations of lightspeed communication. They seem to be admitting that FTL radio has been invented (in violation of established continuity). I know this because Enterprise would have outraced the lightspeed message they sent to the monastery while travelling there at warp. Also, Trip’s “We better notify Starfleet Command” joke indicates they are not cut off from communication, like Magellan or Lewis & Clark. And finally, the Vulcan “long range sensor” suggests that they are monitoring Andorians using some FTL energy output, since any intelligence gathered from light-years away would be out of date. This implies that Enterprise is borrowing FTL radio technology from the Vulcans.
Hey! I like the theme song and video that goes with it.
I enjoyed it, but why was it necessary for Archer to get beat up a second time just so he could put that figurine in the face on the wall to see where it lead, when Trip could walk right up to it from the catacombs, look out and see where it lead? And I agree with Enderw24 about their tactics – Keystone Kops. Other than that, the rotten apple in this barrel for me is and has been…T’pol. Yeah, I know we’ve been round and round on this – she’s
full-blooded Vulcan, whereas Spock was half-human, so she has no emotions. Poppycock. For one thing, don’t full-blooded Vulcans still have emotions which they have been trained to suppress? And then continue to meditate and discipline themselves throughout their lives to keep their emotions under wraps? Regardless, why does “no emotions” have to mean speaking in a monotone, having no facial expressions, and very few physical reactions of any kind? She’s one-dimensional and boring. In the final scene where the bad-guy Vulcan had his weapon on them, my immediate thought was: T’pol is going to turn around and punch him out – and that’s what should’ve happened – it would’ve been a surprise to the others, would’ve shown her loyalty to the Captain and I would’ve liked her for it. They could set up a Spock/McCoy thing with her and, oh, Hoshi maybe. Oh, and I too enjoyed the moments of levity, especially Trip’s “for a race with no emotions, you sure have a flair for the dramatic!” Exactly! Give T’pol a little flair for the dramatic occasionally, or get rid of her. She adds nothing to the show, IMHO.
The two bits about the face in the atrium did originally strike me as kind of odd. I’m referring to where Archer had to throw a thingy through the mouth, rather than letting Trip just look through, and where the assault party couldn’t just shoot through the holes in the wall. But when you look at it, it looks sort of like the ground leading up to the face from the back was covered with loose lumber or something - it’s possible that they couldn’t walk up to it without making a lot of noise. That would explain both those points.