"United"
How ironic that one of the best episodes of the season comes out right after news of the show's cancellation. (*sigh*)... Well, I'll still be here, faithfully writing reviews till this thing ends.
So, at last we get to learn a little more about Andorian culture, as an emotionally wounded Shran attempts to challenge the Tellarite that killed Lt. Talas to a death-duel. We get that great scene in which he explains about returning a part of a fallen Guardsman back to "the ice of Andoria." And the he proceeds to splash Talas' blood on the Tellarite's hand. I didn't see that one coming at all. This ep definitely has Jeff Combs' best performance as Shran. And their situation gives birth to great lines like "Tellarite swine" and "Tellarite pig," which I love so much.
Of course, the Tellarite refuses, and Archer, being the only neutral guy in the mix, has to step in and fight Shran himself. At least, this time, while leading up to all that, he does it with his own style, and sounds pretty competant doing it. He's not channeling Picard as a diplomat, or channeling God-knows-who-else as an idiot. He does it in a more unique style, I think. The best part was how he explains he's always changing his habits to suit the diff't aliens onboard to make sure no one's offended, and suggests that Shran and Groll start acting like Humans for a change. Good stuff.
It's nice to see Hoshi and Mayweather showed up this time. They had a whole conversation and everything. They even helped solve the whole problem of the duel together, and Mayweather actually gave a shout-out to his dad. It's not much, but we have to take what we can get from these two.
The directing style for the ep was noticeable a notch above normal for me. I LOVED the shot where Shran first enters Sick Bay and the camera literally spins all the way around him as he goes through the range of emotions. Cool.
Speaking of cool, the Romulan Drone Ship was pretty cool as well. I liked the little glowing orb-thingies. And boy can that thing move. The first time it did one of those crazy spin-maneuvers I almost shat myself- I wasn't even sure if I had seen what I thought I'd seen. A ship that can holographically disguise itself as another is a pretty cool idea, I must say. One befitting of the Romulans- truly awesome way of giving explanation to the fact that the Romulans are never seen in this era.
Another awesome scene is the one in which Shran is asking about the pictures of all the ships named Enterprise. He offers an explanation that the Komari was a ship with a similar history, and that perhaps they will one day do something historical so that future ships are named after theirs. Fantastic! Probably the coolest prequel moment of them all, dialogue-wise. Where was this stuff 2 years ago?
More inventive stuff with Trip and Reed, with Reed setting the Phase-Pistol to overload and tricking the Romulan Commander to let him in with Trip.
Of course, the coolest sequence in the whole episode was when Trip and Reed open the airlock and go flying out of the Drone-Ship as the battle is still going on and suddenly all these Vulcan, Tellarite, and Andorian ship drop out of warp right in front of them, then go speeding off to chase the Drone. Gotta be one of the best moments.
Included in those great moments is the handshake between Groll and Shran (fitting that they use an Earth-gesture, after Archer's comment) which pulls back to show the fleet of allied ships. And then there's the final scene in which it's revealed that the person controlling the Drone is indeed an Andorian. Aw, poor guy.
I think this might actually now be my favorite ep so far this season- it was just that good. The irony is sickeningly clear. But in all honesty, I don't care how good the fourth season's episodes could have been- I don't think it would have gotten enough people to care to save the season. For now, I'm just happy with what I've got left. I give "United" an easy A+. I don't really have any complaints to speak of at all this time. This ep was awesome.
How ironic that one of the best episodes of the season comes out right after news of the show's cancellation. (*sigh*)... Well, I'll still be here, faithfully writing reviews till this thing ends.
So, at last we get to learn a little more about Andorian culture, as an emotionally wounded Shran attempts to challenge the Tellarite that killed Lt. Talas to a death-duel. We get that great scene in which he explains about returning a part of a fallen Guardsman back to "the ice of Andoria." And the he proceeds to splash Talas' blood on the Tellarite's hand. I didn't see that one coming at all. This ep definitely has Jeff Combs' best performance as Shran. And their situation gives birth to great lines like "Tellarite swine" and "Tellarite pig," which I love so much.
Of course, the Tellarite refuses, and Archer, being the only neutral guy in the mix, has to step in and fight Shran himself. At least, this time, while leading up to all that, he does it with his own style, and sounds pretty competant doing it. He's not channeling Picard as a diplomat, or channeling God-knows-who-else as an idiot. He does it in a more unique style, I think. The best part was how he explains he's always changing his habits to suit the diff't aliens onboard to make sure no one's offended, and suggests that Shran and Groll start acting like Humans for a change. Good stuff.
It's nice to see Hoshi and Mayweather showed up this time. They had a whole conversation and everything. They even helped solve the whole problem of the duel together, and Mayweather actually gave a shout-out to his dad. It's not much, but we have to take what we can get from these two.
The directing style for the ep was noticeable a notch above normal for me. I LOVED the shot where Shran first enters Sick Bay and the camera literally spins all the way around him as he goes through the range of emotions. Cool.
Speaking of cool, the Romulan Drone Ship was pretty cool as well. I liked the little glowing orb-thingies. And boy can that thing move. The first time it did one of those crazy spin-maneuvers I almost shat myself- I wasn't even sure if I had seen what I thought I'd seen. A ship that can holographically disguise itself as another is a pretty cool idea, I must say. One befitting of the Romulans- truly awesome way of giving explanation to the fact that the Romulans are never seen in this era.
Another awesome scene is the one in which Shran is asking about the pictures of all the ships named Enterprise. He offers an explanation that the Komari was a ship with a similar history, and that perhaps they will one day do something historical so that future ships are named after theirs. Fantastic! Probably the coolest prequel moment of them all, dialogue-wise. Where was this stuff 2 years ago?
More inventive stuff with Trip and Reed, with Reed setting the Phase-Pistol to overload and tricking the Romulan Commander to let him in with Trip.
Of course, the coolest sequence in the whole episode was when Trip and Reed open the airlock and go flying out of the Drone-Ship as the battle is still going on and suddenly all these Vulcan, Tellarite, and Andorian ship drop out of warp right in front of them, then go speeding off to chase the Drone. Gotta be one of the best moments.
Included in those great moments is the handshake between Groll and Shran (fitting that they use an Earth-gesture, after Archer's comment) which pulls back to show the fleet of allied ships. And then there's the final scene in which it's revealed that the person controlling the Drone is indeed an Andorian. Aw, poor guy.
I think this might actually now be my favorite ep so far this season- it was just that good. The irony is sickeningly clear. But in all honesty, I don't care how good the fourth season's episodes could have been- I don't think it would have gotten enough people to care to save the season. For now, I'm just happy with what I've got left. I give "United" an easy A+. I don't really have any complaints to speak of at all this time. This ep was awesome.
Comment