And now into somewhat unfamiliar territory.... I believe this is the point at which I kind of lost track of watching the show week to week, so the remainder of the episodes I've only seen in patches on repeats (except for TATV, which I unfortunately have seen through). So it'll be nice now, seeing episodes more or less for the first time.
ENT 4.12 "Babel One"
...aaaaaaaand comfortably settled into the sort of episodes Enterprise should've been doing from the beginning. Diplomatic and exciting goodness involving Tellarites, Andorians, more Romulan meddling, and most importantly SHRAN!!!!? Sign me up!
It's a lot of the little moments that, for me, really make the show stronger. Seeing Archer muse to T'Pol about how they (Starfleet) may be in over their heads with regards to mediating the Andorian-Tellarite conflict was really something. I like how it so clearly shows Earth as being new at interstellar relations, hearkens back to the exploration earlier in the series and does a fun job of looking at TOS-ey stuff from a 'younger' perspective.
Another thing that really pleases me about this season is the....evolution of how things are so to speak. Everyone was afraid of the transporter for the first couple years, but as it became more and more necessary throughout the Xindi season it became old hat and now it doesn't really bother them anymore. Plus, the transporter got some fancy new walls this season lol
ENT 4.13 "United"
Hey! I spy Remans! Lots of clever stuff other than that too though
Well-executed Human/Andorian/Tellarite relations shown throughout the episode as Archer struggles to have them all work together (and with the Vulcans) to create a web of ships. Good stuff.
Even the stuff on personal levels is pretty well-done. I liked the Malcolm-Trip B-plot, those two play well off each other. I was touched when Shran's girl died, or rather at Jeffrey Combs' fantastic reaction to it in Sickbay. Archer and Shran's conversations are also well-scripted and -acted.
As far as the hand-to-hand combat though....bleh. Felt forced and unnecessary, and more than a little bit like it was lifting from TNG's terrible Code of Honor episode. I don't feel that it brought or added anything interesting to the episode other than an excuse for a dramatic build before what I assume was a commercial break.
Another great episode conclusion though. The slow zoom out from the Enterprise window to see the combined fleet was just beautiful. And then the reveal of the drone ship's sickly-looking Andorian pilot, excellent.
ENT 4.14 "The Aenar"
Seeing Andoria? Waaaaay too freaking cool
I absolutely loved seeing the Andorians as a whole get so developed here. Their frozen world, learning that all their cities are underground, and finding out about this strange telepathic Aenar sub-species (alright, so not just sickly-looking Andorians after all lol). And then, to actually see the Aenar city....wow. Nothing but props for the CGI team for this one.
I laughed really hard at this....
Jhmael to Archer: "Your mind has many facets, some of them are in conflict."
Shran: "That explains a lot."
*Archer shoots Shran a dirty look"
After leaving Andoria, The Aenar takes an interesting turn away from the diplomatic stuff seen thus far and into something a bit like a modernized Balance of Terror. And I think it was nicely played against the more intimate Jhamael-centric story (both between her and Shran and her and her brother[/i].
And humans still not seeing Romulans face-to-face...excellent work, Coto. Just one thing though: where did the Tellarites go?
ENT 4.12 "Babel One"
...aaaaaaaand comfortably settled into the sort of episodes Enterprise should've been doing from the beginning. Diplomatic and exciting goodness involving Tellarites, Andorians, more Romulan meddling, and most importantly SHRAN!!!!? Sign me up!
It's a lot of the little moments that, for me, really make the show stronger. Seeing Archer muse to T'Pol about how they (Starfleet) may be in over their heads with regards to mediating the Andorian-Tellarite conflict was really something. I like how it so clearly shows Earth as being new at interstellar relations, hearkens back to the exploration earlier in the series and does a fun job of looking at TOS-ey stuff from a 'younger' perspective.
Another thing that really pleases me about this season is the....evolution of how things are so to speak. Everyone was afraid of the transporter for the first couple years, but as it became more and more necessary throughout the Xindi season it became old hat and now it doesn't really bother them anymore. Plus, the transporter got some fancy new walls this season lol
ENT 4.13 "United"
Hey! I spy Remans! Lots of clever stuff other than that too though
Well-executed Human/Andorian/Tellarite relations shown throughout the episode as Archer struggles to have them all work together (and with the Vulcans) to create a web of ships. Good stuff.
Even the stuff on personal levels is pretty well-done. I liked the Malcolm-Trip B-plot, those two play well off each other. I was touched when Shran's girl died, or rather at Jeffrey Combs' fantastic reaction to it in Sickbay. Archer and Shran's conversations are also well-scripted and -acted.
As far as the hand-to-hand combat though....bleh. Felt forced and unnecessary, and more than a little bit like it was lifting from TNG's terrible Code of Honor episode. I don't feel that it brought or added anything interesting to the episode other than an excuse for a dramatic build before what I assume was a commercial break.
Another great episode conclusion though. The slow zoom out from the Enterprise window to see the combined fleet was just beautiful. And then the reveal of the drone ship's sickly-looking Andorian pilot, excellent.
ENT 4.14 "The Aenar"
Seeing Andoria? Waaaaay too freaking cool
I absolutely loved seeing the Andorians as a whole get so developed here. Their frozen world, learning that all their cities are underground, and finding out about this strange telepathic Aenar sub-species (alright, so not just sickly-looking Andorians after all lol). And then, to actually see the Aenar city....wow. Nothing but props for the CGI team for this one.I laughed really hard at this....
Jhmael to Archer: "Your mind has many facets, some of them are in conflict."
Shran: "That explains a lot."
*Archer shoots Shran a dirty look"
After leaving Andoria, The Aenar takes an interesting turn away from the diplomatic stuff seen thus far and into something a bit like a modernized Balance of Terror. And I think it was nicely played against the more intimate Jhamael-centric story (both between her and Shran and her and her brother[/i].
And humans still not seeing Romulans face-to-face...excellent work, Coto. Just one thing though: where did the Tellarites go?
I'm quite looking forward to the 'relaunch' books.
Wooooow, talk about ludicrous and exploitative. I had trouble even finishing this one.
And who would've ever thought I'd be a bit sad I only have two episodes left of Enterprise to watch?! 
(Though like I said, I might skip through it to see only the parts set in 2161).
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