What Star Trek Ep/Movie Did you Watch Today?

[nx01a]

DS9 and VOY are far more somber themes. TNG's theme gets the blood pumping.

[jelgate]

DS9 and VOY are far more somber themes. TNG's theme gets the blood pumping.

and the eardrums

[nx01a]

Them, too.

[DigiFluid]

ENT 1.21 "Detained"
Dean Stockwell! Dean Stockwell! Dean Stockwell!

Besides just being awesome in general, it's just a joy to see him and Scott Bakula re-united on screen once again. My only gripes with the Stockwell angle (which aren't really gripes) are that at no point did Bakula get to say "oh boy", or did Stockwell get to frustratedly knock the side of a handheld piece of equipment

To flip back over to the Enterprise side of things, though, there's some really nice stuff in this episode. I really enjoy that Archer demonstrated a prejudice against the Suliban race when he was giving the child's father a hard time. Not that I want to see my Starfleet characters are racist, mind, I just think that it's a particularly nice touch given the experiences of the ship so far. It's nice to see a demonstration of ignorance from the heroes once in a while.

It's a good theme for the episode, and it's pretty representative of Star Trek and science fiction as a whole: using fiction as a vehicle to explore real human issues. In this case racial prejudice, with particular attention apparently paid to historical precedents such as the Canadian and internment of Japanese-descended citizens of their own countries.

A couple of issues with an episode that was otherwise very good:
1) Alongside Bakula in this racially-charged episode is the only black man in the show's cast--and they don't bother to acknowledge that? I guess it's mitigated a bit by Mayweather getting pissed at one of the Suliban prisoners for his prejudice, but still.
2) I'm not totally comfortable with a Starfleet captain trying to right the social wrongs of a completely alien civilization. I realize this is supposed to be pre-Prime Directive, but surely "choose your battles" hasn't gone completely out of vernacular by 2151?
3) VFX issue....a few episodes back, the shuttlepod was shown firing some kind of pulse phasers. So why is it firing regular phaser beams this time around?

Overall, probably the best episode of the season so far--and not just because of the Quantum Leap connection


ENT 1.22 "Vox Sola"
Not a terribly interesting episode, especially after the excellent previous one, but still had its nice moments. I liked seeing Malcolm and Phlox argue over who has authority over the tendril, and having T'Pol and Hoshi work together was a nice scene. Seeing T'Pol re-assure her was a nice character moment for both of them.

It's nice to see a creative new, non-humanoid alien but I wasn't big on seeing Archer and Trip drenched in suggestive white goo....


ENT 1.23 "Fallen Hero"
Another one I don't find especially interesting. But there was one really nice spot in the episode; when Archer and T'Pol were in a corridor discussing the reality of meeting their heroes.

[nx01a]

Fallen Hero was my favourite episode of the season.
It delved into Vulcan/Human relations, the reasons why Vulcans are still wary of us going into deep space, and showed a Vulcan who's willing to trust humans... eventually. It bodes well for the future of the two species. Add to that the battles, the NX01 going to warp 5 finally AND the kick-ass Vulcan combat cruiser... And it's my fave.

[Alan Wake]

The only thing I don't like about ENT, it really made the Vulcan's seem... disturbed? throughout the series.

It really flushed them out as a species though, but not the way I would have preferred.

Mostly the later episodes with T'pol and the High command. The episode where she becomes sick? and they refuse to release the knowledge to help her. That episode alone gives us an insight into how paranoid and self righteous the species is. Something not shown in any of the other series.

[DigiFluid]

ENT 1.24 "Desert Crossing"
Hey, it's Clancy Brown! Now there's another great guest actor. I only wish he'd just used his natural voice rather than putting one on for the role. His voice is amazing as-is, I could listen to him read the dictionary

Not big on the goofy Starfleet desert gear seen here, but that's rather nicely mitigated by the locals' costumes and sets of the desert planet (which, itself, was also nice to see). Good solid Tatooine feel. Couldn't help but notice that the 'exotic' desert sport was just lacrosse though. Could've done without all the Baywatch shots of Bakula dn Trineer, too

I don't even remember most of this episode, so I'm coming at it pretty fresh. And I liked how it approached the issue of terrorism; the whole 'one man's enemy is another man's freedom fighter' thing. I also really like how the events of the episode are a direct result of Archer's actions in liberating the Suliban internment camp a couple episodes back. Great continuity there. And a solid end to the episode too, Archer licking his wounds after dealing with the consequences of his actions in Detained.

[DigiFluid]

ENT 1.25 "Two Days and Two Nights"
Finally, Risa. Only took 3 episodes of talking about it before they got here. A nice little appearance from the lovely Crewman Cutler (her final appearance ), and I got a kick out of Malcolm and Trip just being completely open about planning on spending their whole two days trying to get laid as many times as they can with as many species as they can. And then another laugh out of Trip's very 80s-looking white jacket

Thematically, it's nice to see the crew taking time for a bit of a break after almost a year in the fairly cramped quarters of Earth's first deep-space exploration ship. And, after the ambassador's friendship comment back in Fallen Hero, I thought it was a nice touch that T'Pol sent the Surak book gift ahead of Archer to his room. Nice to see everyone in civvies for a change too (especially Hoshi).

Archer's story made a nice little tie-in to both Detained a few episodes back, as well as the broader TCW story overall. And it's kind of funny that Hoshi, the only one of them who went there for a working holiday, is also the only one who successfully got laid.

Overall....I think the individual stories might not be as strong as they could've been, but put together the episode add up to more than the sum of their parts.


ENT 1.26 "Shockwave, Part I"
So um, here's a thought: if you're going to visit a planet with a flammable atmosphere, use the transporter instead of a shuttle.

Like I've mentioned before, this time around I'm finding that I'm very interested in the Temporal Cold War story. Something I really like about it (in a frustrating sort of way) is how they've written Daniels' dialogue to be a lot of double-talk and vagueness, such that the understanding of temporal mechanics in the 31st-century is so advanced that even veteran sci-fi fans like us can't follow it. One complaint I have with that though is how Archer seems to have a photographic and flawless memory of advanced quantum engineering techniques that baffle even his chief engineer.

The raid on the Suliban ship was nicely shot and pretty well choreographed, but the whole experience was very nearly ruined by some goofy-ass CGI Sulican falling out the torn docking umbilical. And the throwaway "it took us a while to figure them out" line about the Suliban data discs was pretty laughable after the over-the-top quantum engineering stuff a few minutes prior.

Good cliffhanger ending though. Archer and Daniels in the ruins of 31st-century Earth with no way to send him back because Earth is in ruins, pretty cool.


ENT 2.01 "Shockwave, Part II"
Somewhat lackluster defusal of the Silik/Enterprise situation, but more than made up for by all the awesome stuff on ruined Earth. There's just so much about it that I wish I could know, even though it's only a temporary alteration. I also really like the moment in the library when Archer sees a book titled "The Romulan Star Empire", but Daniels stops him from reading it. That's a pretty nice nod to the impending Earth-Romulan War (which I'm quite looking forward to reading in Beneath the Raptor's Wing).

Part II suffers a little bit from an imbalance of A- and B-plots, as I really don't find the detention of the crew and the ship to be especially interesting or compelling--especially given how bloody long it takes before they even get around to trying to break out.

By contrast, I think the Temporal Cold War stuff throughout this episode is awesome. I've already spoken to Archer and Daniels in the ruined future, but Silik and the Helix are pretty cool as well. The Helix CGI is really neat, and I like how frantic Silik is in his search of the "temporal bands" to make contact with Future Guy. It does a great job of illustrating current events as a serious misfire in the conflict, badly negatively affecting both sides and showing just how hazardous a war across time can be.

I really have to question some of the costuming decisions in this episode (and series) though. Why the hell do all the male crew wear those goofy blue underwear/undershirt combos? And why on Earth do all the women crewmembers wear too-small tank tops (apparently with no bras, to boot)? And Daniels' stripy/spandexy futurewear, oh man. Straight up ridiculous.

Oh well. Good episode nonetheless.

[Alan Wake]

Having a colony on a planet with a flammable atmosphere?

...

Not a good idea at all.

Also, because of the fact that the transporter is still in the earliest stages... that's probably why it wasn't used.

They express the discomfort of using in numerous times throughout the show.

[DigiFluid]

ENT 2.02 "Carbon Creek"
For me this suffers just a little bit for using Jolene Blalock as her own ancestor. I don't know if that was a creative or a budgetary choice (there were a lot of guest actors in this one), but I think the story could've been slightly better told with a different actress playing the part.

That said, I still think this makes a really nice story. The back half of season 1 was a lot of big and/or heady stuff, building up to the monster finale/premiere. I really like how, for the first regular episode of the season, they rolled things back to tell a much more personal and intimate story.

[General Jumper One]

The Last Outpost
Star Trek The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 4, Disc 2

Where No One Has Gone Before
Star Trek The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 5, Disc 2

Lonely Among Us
Star Trek The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 6, Disc 2

Justice
Star Trek The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 7, Disc 2

Spoiler:

I want to stay and play

[Alan Wake]

ENT: Twilight

I'd argue that this is one of the best episodes of the series.

It had everything. Time travel, emotion, great visual effects, the death of tapal, gray haired Archer, destruction of earth... etc.

[Cold Fuzz]

For the first time in literally years, I watched TNG's The Big Goodbye. When I first watched the episode 22 years ago, I didn't particularly like it because much of it took place in the holodeck. But now that I'm much older, in the law enforcement track, and greatly appreciate the history of the 1940s (especially World War II), The Big Goodbye is now one of my favorite all-time episodes in Trek lore.

Now that I think about it, it would have been nice to see Odo in a holosuite program of one of the Mickey Spillane stories. He would have been perfect.

[DigiFluid]

ENT 2.03 "Minefield"
I like the tone of this episode. The idea that there could just be a minefield orbiting a planet, unbeknownst until it's too late, strikes me as interesting. The whole concept of there being areas in space where explorers are not welcome is a pretty intriguing angle in Star Trek. From Klingons to Romulans to the Dominion, it's a pretty established theme in the universe.

And while the Reed-pinned-leg story is a pretty tired and overdone one, it at least allowed for some gorgeous shots of Reed and Archer on the hull--particularly when the nacelle is visible in the background. I also had to laugh at the Oliver Twist reference Nice to see literary references continuing in Trek.

The Romulan encounter could have been handled a little better. As I'm watching the show with 'alternate universe' in mind, I'm trying to distance myself from aspects of this episode that aggravate me. With that in mind, I still think there's stuff that could've been done better.

I don't like that there was verbal communication between them and the Enterprise. I think it took away from the mystique of them encountering an unknown militaristic, xenophobic alien race. A couple of threatening text-only messages, dramatically read by a bridge officer with some nice doom-and-gloom music playing would've been a lot better.

Major props to the CGI team for their work in this episode too. From the blasted off section of the hull, to the looming red bussard collector on the nacelle behind Reed, to the terrific shots watching Archer and Reed drift off the ship....fantastic, just fantastic. The Romulan birds of prey were gorgeous too.


ENT 2.04 "Dead Stop"
I read on Memory Alpha that this episode was a deliberate attempt by the producers to step away from the Big Red Reset Button by following up on events from the previous episode. I like that they recognized this was a problem in Voyager and decided to address it here in ENT and continued to do so as seasons 3 and 4 were more arc-based.

As much as I like this idea, I'm a bit puzzled by how quickly Archer agrees to the terms for repairing the ship. I know they needed it and all, but they've been on the station for like 10 minutes, nobody's home, no idea who built it, but sure we'll let it poke around and do whatever it wants to our ship. He doesn't even start to question it until the repairs are already underway.

The Travis "death" was the poorest part of the episode for me. It felt forced and really just not believable. It's a bit unfortunate that a potentially good story was just wasted on being a means to an end--vis a vis the station computer core's explanation. And while that part of the story was interesting, the fake Travis death really was not.

As much as the 'brain in a jar' idea is old hat, I liked how it was presented here. While it may not be a novel or unique idea, the dread with which it was presented was really quite nice. On one level, I wish we'd learned who built the station, but on another it also adds something fun and mysterious to the universe.

Great CGI in the one, too.

[Alan Wake]

How did Reed know how to defuse an alien mine?