ENT is moving to an hour later in TWO WEEKS.
It was a pretty good episode. I saw what was going to happen right off (I hadn’t read any spoilers) and it was fun. Archer looked very grubby with all that bug goo smeared all over his hair and uniform. I guess that was to show that he was losing it, big time.
I’m new to these Enterprise threads ('cause I just started catching up with the show), but I’m getting the impression that someone here on this thread likes Hoshi. Or perhaps I’m just imagining things. Some of you are so subtle with your admiration . . .
OK. Has there ever been a mutiny of the type I’m describing that actually played out in an episode, as opposed to being far in the past? It just doesn’t seem like Trek writers have the nerve to show a captain messing up like that; there always has to be some weird outside factor.
I suspect it’s because they figure that in the future, people just wouldn’t have cause to mutiny any more.
But do you buy that theory?
Ugh. The moment that the alien egg spat on Archer’s face, and there was a dramatic chord in the background music, and Archer didn’t immediately go into a seizure or turn into a giant lizard, I knew what was going to happen over the rest of the episode. It was so bleedin’ obvious. The commercials for this episode had gotten me all hopeful for a real mutiny based on real character conflict, but this one scene gave away the farm and ruined the whole episode for me. Yet another alien whooptie-thinger takes over one of the crewmember’s minds. Gee, Star Trek has never done a plot like that before! :rolleyes:
And what was with that whole “we can save 20 minutes of spacesuit air by opening our helmets and breathing alien air that might be full of God knows how many lethal alien microbes” deal? They gained nothing by opening their suits’ environmental seals, and risked their own lives and the lives of their fellow crewmembers should they have brought any alien air-bugs on board. And, of course, the insectoid Xindi egg’s mind-control-spit would’ve been kept out if they’d kept their helmets on, too.
Eh.
The best part was the interaction between the concerned crew and the order-following MACOs. The little grace notes where Reed apologized for snapping at Hayes about the simulation, and then at the end where Hayes said he couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t have opposed the mutiny, were very nice. Actually, they made the episode for me. More of this, please.
But besides that: Eh. As tracer and others say, making an external agent responsible for the episode’s central conflict is a writer’s dodge. It’s just another example of how the producers are afraid of “staining” the characters with unlikeable qualities, and don’t realize that their refusal to create plausibly flawed human beings is making it impossible to buy into the stories. Like I said above, the MACOs are finally coming into focus. The Archer story, the supposed A plot, is kind of a yawner.
And yeah, it bugged the shit out of me how they continue behaving stupidly in space. They never should have cracked their helmets. And what the hell were they talking about, even giving a passing thought to Archer’s nutty distress-call idea? Didn’t anybody realize that a “fully integrated ship” being reactivated might mean that the ship itself would be able to send the distress call? Couldn’t somebody mention that to him? It’s like they’re not even paying attention to their own storytelling.
Oh, and was anybody else struck by just how much more seriously T’Pol came across when she was in a regular uniform? Instead of that spray-painted gymnast’s outfit? Hey, you remember how TNG finally put Troi in a uniform in the middle of season six (I think it was six) when Captain Jellico took over the ship and told her to observe decorum? And suddenly she wasn’t so much of a joke any more? And what does Enterprise do? Did they even notice what they did before? Can’t they avoid making the same damn mistakes over and over? And do you think I could have more question marks in this paragraph? I didn’t think so.
So I give it another B, after the B last week, because the B story (how the mutiny was handled behind Archer’s back) was pretty interesting and fairly well handled, even while the A story was kinda dumb and pointless.
(Oh, and my wife and I are watching season three of Angel on DVD, so it was weird to see the up-and-coming Wolfram & Hart attorney villain from that season, the Korean guy, in a military outfit and playing a bit part as a good guy in this episode. Nice he’s getting work, but kinda distracting.)
I’ll see the episode this weekend and comment later since I’m under the gun here at work - assuming I don’t get fired for taking so long on this project (but, damn, it’s good software!).
But you’re forgetting that Troi was never hot in any style of dress. T’pol looks damn good in those body suits. I say stick with em.
Feh. Travis has been getting plenty of screen time in the past few episodes whereas my pretty little Hoshi has not. It’s a conspiracy! Once I’m done with Phlox for zombifying her, I’ll get Mayweather too.
WHAT?! WHY IS EVERYONE BEING SO MEAN TO HOSHI LATELY!? GRAH! HE’S DEAD TOO!
Who are you, Aristotle? 
Never is a long time on EVA.
T’Pol would be better in a uniform, but they can’t violate canon; Spock was/is the first Vulcan in Starfleet. Perhaps a uniform w/o insignia.
I have to say, I don’t think they were very smart about opening their helmets immediately in the room with the atmosphere. Yes, they’ve noted that there’s an oxygen/ nitrogen atmosphere, but did they look for microbes? How about poisonous trace elements- chlorine, arsenic, anyone? This has always been bad enough from TOS onwards, but at least there, I feel they are accustomed to visiting many earth-like planets. Enterprise, on the other hand, is set in a time when they should still have close memories of only spacing to places with vacuum and inhospitable atmospheres. I would think that the standard training and procedures would have them wait longer before losing the helmets.
Also, I want to say that I feel they are being way to obvious with what might have been called foreshadowing, had it actually been subtle. Just this week, our family caught up on watching the last 3 weeks’ of Enterprise (we have been pretty busy), one episode per night. And this stood out about all of them – the plot elements that could have been dramatic surprises at the end, seemed telegraphed. It seemed rather obvious that the alien in the pod would be a hostile force related to the spheres in Harbinger. You knew when you saw T’Pol in Doctor’s Orders that the doctor was seeing things. And then with Hatchery, it was the worst – Archer gets sprayed on the face, starts acting weird, and wants to protect the hatchlings. You might have well have written it in 36 point font on the bottom of the screen instead of the Game Over previews.
All of which is a shame, because I do think that I’m liking this season’s episodes better than the first season.
BWA HA HA HA!
Sorry. It’s just that you said “they can’t violate canon” and I
BWA HA HA HA HA!
Sorry again. Can’t help it.
Okay, the setup for the conflict was reallllly lame. I admit it. However, setting up the conflict with a lame device is a lot better than resolving the conflict with a lame device. And I think they resolved it well. I thought the whole “character interaction web” was pretty complex for a Trek episode, and I would have been confused if I didn’t already know all the characters well.
Uh, if a mutiny like that happened on a ship, and there were no extenuating circumstances to make it all right in the end, wouldn’t it kind of end the series? Hmmm? There have been people who disobey orders without having their brains hijacked. But if the first officer mutinies against the captain, aren’t they gonna stop serving on the same ship?
i caught this one, looked okay, though I thought it would have been cool if the baby bugs tried to eat Archer. Also, nice to see the tension between the crew and the MACO wacko’s isn’t going away and is causing firefights on the ship, that should lead to better character development (oh, wait, forgot what series i was talking about…)
This episode had too little Hoshi.
Heh. Like those terrestrial insects (or arachnids?) that lay their eggs and die, letting their larvae eat their body when said larvae hatch.
Funny, though, that the Xindi insectoid babies looked like miniature Xindi insectoid adults. What with the usual lack of creativity on the part of the Trek writers, I expect them to have a life cycle identical to insects on Earth, which start out in a larval stage that doesn’t resemble their adult form in the slightest.
Damn you. Damn you all to hell. I was thinking about just that very thing as I was driving home, you bastards, eager to post it and relish the afterglow of Trek Doper coitus.
Damn you.
Okay, I take back all the cursing, I LOVE you guys!
But… wouldn’t it be cool if they HAD done that. Or tried… Imagine that none of the other Xindi are aware of this little factoid about Bug Xindi. They just thought that Bug Xindi had a rather strict legal system, and that’s why so many of the other Xind never came back from Bug World. All this time, they just assumed they were improsoned, not being eaten!
Wuddaben cool. Wankers
I was waiting for maggots to emerge, and they should have had huge fangs and burrowed into Archers stomach while Trip watched in horror. And then Archer smiles a sickly smile of satisfaction and passes out, and that is when Trip takes him back.
But then again, they don’t let me write episodes…
UPN is advertising ENT!
On the OKC contemporary adult music radio station, KYIS 98.9FM, have been ads promoting ENT for at least the past two weeks. A recent advert is promoting some contesty thingy.
UPN StarTrek.com bastards!
I’ve been following their series of interviews, both live and um not…live, of Trek people and I have a major complaint.
They’re bastards! In the latest int with Majel Roddenberry, they used two questions of mine and didn’t give me credit. Everyone else gets a credit line, why not me? And, yes, I’m registered and I used my registration to submit the questions.
The only thing I can think of is that I’m flagged as a trouble maker somehow. I have been very vocal to the interviewing staff about their idiocy in regards to the mundane and worthless fluff they keep asking these people. Both as submissions and as e-mail they have received notice of my view of their ineptness and lack of real trekness.
But, they’ll use my questions! Bastards.
yes, I’m a geek. I should be a credited geek.