Well, I tried this on the BBC board with little success (didn't I read the banner? :)), so I'll try again here :)




So I had some free time, and I thought I'd pull out my Enterprise videos and give them another chance - after all, while I know Season 2 was a bit poor, I remember Season 1 being on the whole very good!Fingers crossed this wil be an ongoing thing, as I get to seeing the episodes :)

BROKEN BOW

Why is it the generally poorer received shows have the best pilots, and vice versa? TNG and DS9 had poor pilots on the whole, while VOY had a brilliant pilot. Broken Bow follows this theory - it's a very good story, which nicely sets up the TCW arc.

While possibly a bit unbelievable time wise (they get from Earth, to the Suliban Helix and then to Quo'nos in a few days), and despite several problems of convenience (such as the death-trap transporter oh-so-conveniently working when they need to save Archer), there were a few nice touches in an attempt to show the less-technologically advanced era (for example having physical grapplers in place of a tractor beam, and no handy universal translator so everyone speaks English).

Anyway, this is going more into commenting on the Enterprise set-up as a whole rather than the episode in particular, and I think the main criticism I could throw at it is that it's awfully rushed. With so many locations that could have had so much more made of them (such as the Rigel 'bazaar', or the ending on Quo'nos) I feel that it was a bit too ambitious for it's own good.

Side note – this episode had slightly different closing music to the usual theme.

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

This was another good one - evolving on various limitations of the era. It played a lot on Hoshi's role as a translator rather than just a phone operator, and also gave the impression that space was a big, bad scary place, again using Hoshi as the person out of her depth, suddenly thrown into a situation where she feels she's not ready. In typical Trek tradition, however, it seems she manages to get over all these fears by the end of the episode, which is a shame, as it would be nice to have someone who's not perfect.

It also played on the fact that Enterprise herself might not be quite ready for the big bad world of outer space, with the problems with Reed's weapons problem (which wasn't completely solved by the end of the episode). In addition to this, we were shown how Enterprises weapons weren't always going to be of any use, such as the wonderful scene where they fire at the alien ship, only for a little phaser blast to take out the torpedo before it even get close to the ship.

The only problem I has was that after meeting their first friendly alien race, all we got to see of it was a captain's log telling us all about them. Incidentally, it was a nice touch to see the aliens introduced as the Axanar, who were previously referenced in TOS's 'Whom Gods Destroy'.

This was in all a good episode, and a strong follow-up to the excellent ‘Broken Bow’.

Interestingly, this has another slightly different closing theme – while the tune is there, it’s still lacking something.

STRANGE NEW WORLD

This episode fills the second half of the Trek mandate – with the ‘Seek out new life and new civilisations’ covered in Fight or Flight, we’ve now got to ‘to explore strange new worlds’ (and you can argue that Broken Bow saw them ‘boldly go where no man has gone before’).

This episode plays a lot on the human/Vulcan divide (something frequently referenced in Broken Bow), especially with Trip’s paranoid belief that T’Pol is plotting against them – something that was also suggested at during Broken Bow.

We also saw a valid threat in the transporter, when Novakovich managed to get beamed up merged with a small forest – sadly he survived, as I felt it would have been a nice touch to emphasise how the transporter is a dangerous new toy. Shame it worked perfectly when Phlox beamed down the drugs…

A nice touch in these first few episodes is how the ensemble cast have been used – Fight or Flight had Hoshi and Reed in important positions, while Strange New World has used Trip, T’Pol and to a lesser extent Travis.

In all, while perhaps not as strong as the first two episodes, this was another good one.

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Well reviewed.

I personally did not think much of the pilot. I had eagerly waited for it and felt completly disapointed by the end. In hindsight I dont think I could get past the fact that the Klingons looked like the NEXT GEN ERA rather than KIRKS.

The other two episodes if I remember correctly were both much better and by episode 5 or 6 I was completly hooked.

Dont agree with you about season 2 though.

Hoorah - someone replied! :D

Well, hopefully when I get round to rewatching Season 2 it'll look better - you never know :)

Hopefully I'll get the next part with episodes 4 and 5 up soonish...

And finally I get the next video finished :)

UNEXPECTED

You can tell from the first scene that this episode is going to be one of the less serious ones - the scene of Archer in a gravity-less showed is played solely for laughs.

The episode itself really works in two parts - the first part involving the Xyrillians (with them and the Xindi perhaps B&B have a fetish for aliens beginning with X :)) and their "magic" ship gives no clues at all to the (sudden) revelation of Trip's pregnancy. Then suddenly the Klingons appear, they all meet the aliens again, and Trip's magically not pregnant any more and everyone flies off happily. Personally it felt too rushed, had had the feeling of being written as it was filmed, not to mention a quick fix ending.

Perhaps had B&B not been averse to story arcs, the story could have ended with Enterprise either not being able to find the Xyrillian ship (leading into a minor arc with them looking for the Xyrillians) or to see the Xyrillian ship destroyed, leaving them to find either another ship or their homeworld. Whilst this is going on, Trip has to deal with his pregnancy, giving the opportunity to show the frustrations of someone in Trip's position being forced to stay on the ship, or being restricted because of the pregnancy. This could then lead on to an episode where they find the Xyrillians, but by not Trip has become so accustomed to the baby that he's unsure if he wants to ige it up, and so on.

One thing that did annoy me was T'Pol's attitude. While her 'You couldn't last 3 days without knocking someone up' raised a smile, her ongoing superiority complex is really beginning to drag - perhaps this is what has put me off her...

And look at that - I didn't mention the inevitable holodeck. Aw, crap... :)

TERRA NOVA

While not as bad as some people would think (:)), this is probably one of the first forgettable episodes. To be honest, I've pretty much forgotten it now to comment on!

Still, a nice shot of Reed with a bicycle, mirroring TOS's 'Miri' :D