Hm. Reptiles closely related to mammals.
Multiple alien types.
Eugenics Wars?
I liked it for the most part. Captain getting captured again was a bit annoying. The characters are looking a bit thin. I hope they take some time away from action-action-action to build them a little better. I really like those SpecOps guys, though. One thing Trek has always needed is some folks who just kick ass.
Starfleet security was always a laughable concent to me. Who do we have guarding important points and doing security/landing party work in our military? Marines. Marines fight. Navy boys just press buttons. Starfleet got seriously wussy by the time of STNG.
And I seem to be the only one, but I liked the alian coalition or whatever. It is the first time StarTrek has really had aliens who look like anything but humans with bumpy foreheads.
OK… Mixed feelings. Nice Panda but silly too. Vulcupressure? What next Aromavlcantherapy?
I always wondered how the hell the theme could be worse… I honestly thought it couldn’t boy was I wrong.
Ok First Nice aliens. Even two non humanoid types (I don’t count the Lizard folk) My guess is they aren’t merely aliens of the expanse but instead they are the many versions of the Xindi that the human Xindi mentioned. Yep those are all Xindi.
Archers opening scene: The Worst example of Exposition I’ve ever seen. I’m sure that Malcolm knew they were in there for six weeks and had updated equipment… you know a simple Captains log works much better for this type of catch up and is more forgivable.
The New additions of the Space Marines: Reminds me too much of the old Animated show Star Blazers (Comet Empire season) you have these rough and ready Marines having to fit in and work together with the Space sailor types.
Sure it has good grounds for inner conflict but it seems too familiar and unless the inner conflict leads to mistakes and fatalities because of egos it is a pointless conflict.
The Physics of the expanse… Anyone want to guess how long before there is a crew plagued by anomalies episode which leads to A) Crew acting erratically B) Something takes over crew members C) T’pol acts very unvulcan like allowing for more PANDA.
or D) Ugggh “The ship is so badly damaged or destroyed they can’t possibly continue but oh wait here is the reset” episode.
The Mine. I liked it I loved the dust everywhere. I loved the administrator, what a character. I liked the little nuanced things he did like pick something from his head and smell it before tossing it aside. It was weird and gross but you could believe this emphasimic fellow had spent to much time there. Great.
The Sewage: Just plain Gross. Not only did Trip have to go up to his neck in raw sewage but he was the last man up the ladder and had the sewage dripping on him from the others as well as the blue goo.
The Plasma Ducts: Nice try to explain why he knew about them and never used them and why they had levers to open them… didn’t work for me, of course it could have been an elaborate set up.
The Escape. Nicely done (loved the Phaser Sniper rifle)
Over all Dark and brooding. I like it.
Are the humans in the right for taking this out as a vengeance mission? I’m betting by the end they will not.
The over all arc though is looking to be like Star blazers (Spaceship Yammato) Different factions will take the attack to them to stop them and fail until they find the homeworld of the Xinti. We’ll see.
[cough] Horta![/cough]
Lets see:
Hate, hate, hate, hate what they did to the theme song.
Basil Exposition anyone? Archer’s cheesy exposition couldn’t have been any more hamfisted.
Late night Cinemax quality pandering sub-plot. Yeesh, it was like Penthouse letters come to life.
Where’s Porthos?
Do they shoot every “bad” planet scene through a blue filter?
Upside:
Minimal Hoshi- yeah!
Even more minimal Travis (he can’t act!)
Marines were well done. Combat scenes were well done. The Xindi getting shot at the ship was a bit on the lame side. Sniper rifle very cool.
No corn pone from Trip. Plus he does angry better then Archer. Malcom’s jealous issues with the marines was nice.
Overall it was pretty decent but needed another couple of rewrites to tone down the eye-rollers.
I give it a 7.
Am I the only one who kinda was disappointed by the Space Marines?
OK, so maybe they don’t have personal shielding/force fields yet (or do they?) - how about at least a helmet to keep shrapnel from hitting you (not necessary the energy rays themsleves, but chunks blasted off walls that the rays hit).
Second - if you watch Mail Call or any one of many other History Channel shows, you know that within 10-20 years our armed forces (in the real world) will have small Heads-Up-Displays (perhaps in sunglasses, or on a stalk that pivots in front of their eye) that show tatical information, aiming, night vision, etc.
This was lost by the 22nd century - everyone just looking around and aiming by eyeballing it? (And I was quite willing to believe they had HUD contact lenses, except they showed the marine using the stupid sniper scope which came out of the rifle, wasting precious seconds - clearly he didn’t have any other sensing device).
You’d think that the sensing technology they have on board ship which can not only sense ships coming from far away but also detect their configurations, they could provide their soliders with personal tracking and aiming equipment (at least equivalent to what we have now…).
I’m so irked by this I need to post smilied :mad: :rolleyes: :mad: :rolleyes: :mad:
kingpengvin, I knew somebody was going to bring up the stinkin’ horta! There’s also the Crystalline Entity, numerous formless Godlike beings (who always appear in human form anyway), the Tar Pit that killed Yar, the bajillions of unicellular organisms that were all part of a bigger one that killed a lot of people (including Kirk’s brother) and tribbles.
They were all just faceless “bad guys” for a single episode.
The consortium is obviously going to be a big part of this season, which means we should find out a lot about why they are doing what they are doing, their cultures and worlds, etc. This is the first time there will be something akin to actual characters that are far from very human-looking.
Are they even going to pretend that Mayweather is on the crew anymore? Did he even have any lines? Not as many as the Space Marine from Duluth, in any case.
Anyone else know more about the cause of the Xindi planet’s demise? I’ve read this:
Earth is to blame for the destruction of the Xindi homeworld, in 2550.
Argh. Damned hamsters ate my previous post so here it is condensed:
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**SirRay]/b], TOS never had the technology that you’re expecting Enterprise to have and it took place a hundred years later. It’d be even less believable for them to lost that technology from the 2150s to the 2260s than it would for them to lose it between 2003 and 2150.
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I NEED TAPE OF SHOW NOW.
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Is this many new posters typical of season premieres or did we get our own contingent of marines as well?
A promising start to the new season, despite the fact that the craptacular song is still in place.
I noticed a strong Attack of the Clones thing going on. The planet looked like Geonosis, the insectoid aliens’ click language sounded like the Geonosians’, and the alien war council was like the scene on Geonosis where Darth Tyrannus and his Seperatists planned the upcoming battle.
I was sooooo happy to see non-humanoid aliens!
Wow, what an episode! I’m not sure if I like the Xindi council scenes, though–but the 5 different species are quite interesting! Nice to see some really alien-looking aliens for a change. 
Enterprise better hope that they do not meet up with the Insectoid-like Xindi first, though.
The new darker tone will take some getting used to for me, although DS9 has always been my favorite Trek series, so probably the adjustment will go fairly smoothly.
Who was the actor playing the mining colony overseer?! His voice, even with the wheezing, sounded familiar to me, yet I couldn’t place it. Looks like I’ll have to do some searching.
As for the Panda… YOW! I could barely (LOL I guess pun intended there!) believe how much we were allowed to see, even if it was just a glimpse–Enterprise is shown in the 8 PM time slot in the Washington DC market, and honestly that’s a bit too much (IMHO) for that time slot. I like T’Pol’s look this season–she looks more relaxed and thank goodness they’ve given her some colors to wear! Still catsuit tight, though. 
And where is Porthos?!
Definitely – he was the most interesting guest character in this episode. He’s like that nasty great-uncle that you wish your parents would stop taking you with them when they visit him.
So how far away is this expanse supposed to be to be from Earth, anyways? I would have to assume that all the “places” in this series would necessarily be closer to Earth than in Kirk-Trek or Picard-Trek, since we can’t travel as fast and have explored less here.
So the Xindi homeworld is already destroyed, but the Earth is supposed to destroy it in 500 years…? Um. I’m seriously hoping that they don’t try to claim that by flying into the Delphic Expanse, the ship has travelled into the future…
And Cervaise, good call on the Vulcan ship thing from the end of last season. They try to make the expanse scary with video of Vulcan ship going all Event Horizon on us, but the Enterprise spends 6 weeks in the place, and Sam Neill hasn’t even shown up once…
He had seemed familiar to me, too.
What about Lt Arex and Lt M’Ris? (Am I a fan-boy or what?)
The episode seemed to end around the :45 mark, then had the Panda padding, then a quick shot of blown up planet. Maybe the homeworld is already destroyed because of time traveling aliens from the future that go back in time (or at least that is what they are told).
Remix of the theme song: Needs more record scratches, audio blurbs, and references to “smackin’ my ho’s” and “smokin’ da Ganj”
Panda: Wrong chick for my tastes.
MACOs: Has that Asian dude i think is a good actor, Minnesota guy is lame, the chick MACO will be big, supposedly she’ll have lines coming up and is some model. Excellent rescue scene, these dudes kick butt.
Xindi: As a biologist, it pains me deeply to ignore the stupid stupid line that the different Xindi are more related than we are to chimps. Unless the scales are caused by one freaking mutation and he is really a mammal, no, sorry. Hopefully they don’t try that crap with the Bug and Manatee Xindi. But i love that their are non-human aliens. B and B did something right, and i will give them credit for that.
Nice to know in the future they line plasma conduites with Smurf Goo.
No doubt purchased by underhanded means from the chaotic and dispicable Gargamel Empire.
Also known to their subjects as “The Dorkminion”.
That was my impression, too. Except for the “surprise” of the so-called Xindi homeworld being so-called blown up so-called 120 years ago… The ending was a bit anticlimactic. (Well, the real ending 15 minutes earlier was pretty good).
Seems like the Panda should have been a filler scene more in the middle, except that Tripp was too busy wading around in sewage to get his Vulcan Backgasm until later.
I think the Bug Xindi has something to do with the planet blow-y up-y ness. We will probably find that it is all a ruse. An elaborate feint within a feint like in the Dune series.
Which is what the Xindi War Council reminded me of. Remember how Spice made Emperor Leto and the Guild Navigators different? Maybe the properties of the Delphic Expanse accelerates and adds wierdness to the evolution of Xindi. Also, picture Earth with two or more dominent species evolving on widely separated continents. Given millions of years of isolation, could not one area develope insectoid forms while another developes mammallian? Remember one of the lines offered by the Humanic-Xindi, about species evolving on FIVE different continents. The biology would be radically different, though I think. So, Phlox’s statement was illconceived. He could’ve said something generic and still cool sounding like, “They share certain genetic markers, as though they all branched off from one proto life form…”
The Bug-Xindi seems to be the one to watch. Not only do the others defer to him (even if begrudgingly), but he made clear what he would do if the Council’s plans failed. HE would take care of it. The inhumanity and potential violence locked up in that character is enormous, if you ask me.
As for the Marines technology (or lack of it). Remember that in the Trek Universe, Earth went through Eugenic Wars, Bell Riots, WWIII, and a Post Apocalyptic Horror, any of which could’ve a loss of certain types of technology.
Now, as for the Panda Qs, here is an old explanation:
Those council scenes reminded me of Dune, too – if only because the manatee-Xindi in the tank reminded me of the Guild Navigators.
(If Sting shows up in a guest spot, I’m outta here…)
I’d say you’re right about the bug. He (and his Xindi species) are the likely instigators behind the whole attack on Earth in the first place.
Perhaps the result of some First Contact Misunderstanding in the future involving a Federation ship, a Xindi ship, and a gigantic can of Raid.