Chosen Realm is the worst EP of S3 so far.
Why? Apart from bad acting, predictability and lack of originality the first and foremost reason is that we (Europeans )get the impression that this show is aimed at American viewers solely (oh wait it is...) as a sort of brainwashing. If you think this episode was good then your brain has been successfully washed. Congratulations, be merry and shoot your neighbour or buy 10 more weapons so you feel safer at home. There's always the exception of course and I apologize for generalization here.
Does Bill own Paramount or why are we presented with an election campaign clad in a TV soap with a political hinge on current affairs? Yes there are stupid people fighting a stupid "holy war" blowing themselves and others to pieces. Does a TV soap "justice" to the subject at hand. No, it cannot and never should intend to even try.
Bad mistake Manny. Say NO to Bill next time.
All I can feel is sympathy for Manny Coto. The utterly creative mind behind Odyssey 5... the guy who provided us with such brain-stretching episodes in O5 and The Outer Limits... reduced to this.
This isn't Manny. This is just old Trek through and through. It was just apalling to watch (for all the reasons that O. Deus laid out and I won't rehash).
--------
Lydia: "I've never lost at mortal combat yet."
Diana: "Idiot. If you had, you'd be dead." -- V, "The Champion"
A "death to the Islamo-fascists" episode. The radical zealots on the Enterprise were the radical Muslims and the only way to get through to them is to "communicate" with them in the only language they seem to understand: force. This episode was HIGHLY realistic and close to the facts: hundreds of radical muslims have already blown themselves up in order to kill thousands and thousands of innocents, all in the name of religion. Millions more support and revere them. Talking with these radical-Muslims only emboldens them (a parallel with the first half of the show: Archer's talking with the radicals on his ship accomplishes nothing). The only solution left: meet force with force (parallel: the second half of the show). Disagree with me? Do you REALLY believe that the Islamo-fascists will be convinced at the negotiating table to stop killing? If so, you are ideologically rigid and need to look at evidence instead of naïve hopes (parallel: if an Enterprise crew member wanted, out of principle, to continue negotiating with the radicals, even after they demonstrated their murderous inflexibility, he/she would be the ideologically rigid, naïve one.).
Archer has a new haircut.
Slut Vulcan's breasts seem to have become smaller over Christmas.
Oh and the ship got taken-over yet again and then re-taken.
With all this going on in an episode, I think Season 4 is a certainty.
Actually, I thought it was a good episode *ducking* Pleasedon'thurtme!
Not ALL episodes have to be Instant Classics. Considering other episodes, it's actually quite good. And for the revelation of the fighting in this ep, I thought it was treated like an afterthought, rather than the Big Dramatic Shocker from "Battlefield". I distictly remember loud tubas and trumpets in 'Battlefield', but its been awhile.
I don't know. Even in its most cringe-worthy moments, there's something that makes me feel good in Enterprise. Sure, Archer may act like an idiot sometimes (and I love that fact that the baddie in this one rubbed the airlock adventure in his face). And T'Pol is a sissy and the opening theme hurt my ears and Mayweather is just...there. But I like that the writers are trying, throwing us contiunity and stuff, as opposed to shrugging and going quietly into cancellation.
I just can't help but being happy that Enterprise exists. I had skimmed Deus review and still I couldn't help but feel happy when I saw the episode and knowing there's another new one coming next week. Call me a hopeless optimist.
Yeah, Enterprise is choke-full of defects and Archer can be a real moron sometimes, but he's MY moron and I will feel sorry when the show is finally cancelled. Been awhile since I've looked foward to another episode from ANY tv series, frankly. And in my book, that is a Good Thing.
For me, the episode had a couple of good performances, noteably Archer and Prenom. As O.Deus mentioned Prenom was not the usual over the top character that has been seen before. Prenom was quite composed while controlling his followers and controlling events on Enterprise. It was Archer's performance that stood out though. Watching Archer's growing frustration as the situation unfolded was a fine example of understated acting. First he had to watch his ship being commandeered by a religious fanatic. Then he watched all their research on the Expanse was erased. Followed by a command to sacrifice one his crew. All the while having to maintain something akin to a discourse with Prenom.
From a the view of the storyline, I was fascinated at the mingling of the two themes in the TOS stories Space Seed and Let This Be Your Last Battlefield. The episode's screenplay was uneven as O. Deus mentioned but I still give it a passing grade for the performances that were central to the story.
...but everyone has their own opinion so it's all good. As has been said a million times before in life and on this board, there are no new story formulas. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy and it just comes down to how you dress up that plot device to make a story...and I think that this one actually does a really good job of that. I was intrigued the whole time, not what I expected at all. This episode really punched me in the gut a couple times... here's why.
While as a stand alone episode, the plot might not have been an amazing work of writing. When put in the cannon of this arc that were in right now it really throws us a few loops. Here we are, at the beginning of the hour, and we just find out that ENTERPRISE has found another sphere and we're so much closer to being able to identify exactly how many spheres there are in the expanse. The crew also now has a real alternative to using Trellium-D on the hull (remember how toxic it was for T'Pol) because they can more accuratly map where these spacial distortions will occur. Progress. They even take a shuttle through the cloaking barrier, which months ago was wreaking havoc on the ship. But then, BLAM! He erases their records in the situation room. Should they have a back-up somewhere? Probably, but that didn't make it any less painful to watch as our villian smugly stared at Archer as he deleted the files.
Another way the episode wrenched my insides was at the end. Even after watching this a**hole use his religion to destroy and belittle ENTERPRISES cause and resolve, I couldn't help but feel a little choked up when he stepped out of the pod and saw what had happened to his planet. I know, you all saw it before in TOS... but I didn't. :-)
Anyway, the only other thing I have to say is what's with all the talk about T'Pol not busting things up on the bridge? I'm sorry, but she and Mayweather were the only two of the crew on the bridge and they were outnumbered like 2 or 3 to 1 by the "fanatics..." and all of the "fanatics" were armed! It doesn't seem like a very logical step to try to overpower them with no weapons and those kind of odds, seeing as they probably would have killed her if she had tried to fight them. She did start to act up a little, but she quickly realized that there was no logic in getting herself and Mayweather killed.
I'm somewhat relieved to see that it was about fanatism only, and not religion in general. I was afraid it was going to be "religion bashing" as someone said here but that's not how I percieve this episode.
But I think O. Deus's review is spot on! The episode has all the problems he mention, and was quite messy in the portrayal of this species religion. Some elements were taken out of todays major religions, and I don't really see how it fits in. Things like abortion, about the proper way to treat the enemy, about paradise, are much more complex matters than even hinted at here. These elements were just thrown together. Maybe if the story took ONE thing and went into detail about that, it wouldn't seem so crazy.
On the other hand, it was probably wise not to go into details about such things and risk to alienate half the audience who believe in something else. I will make a very strong point out of saying: It's NOT Star Trek's job to teach religion, and that includes taking a stand on religious beliefs. It's not that I think there isn't any "truth" but I doubt it will come from Star Trek.
There was some focus on violence as a result of fanatism, which I think is fine to bring up. It's sad to see religion can amplify hatred.
Unfortunately, the second half of the episode developed into a mindless "lets regain control over the ship" story which dropped all reasoning and sense on the floor. I was ashamed. The worst thing is, I don't understand why TPTB can do this; it's certainly not going to save the Trek franchine. Time to END this mindless action.
The episode had a few interesting moments but honestly I can't give this more than 3 or 4 on Trekweb's rating scale.
I really expected this episode to disappoint. As usual, I find that going in with low expectations lets me actually come out with a pretty good opinion of an episode.
"Realm" clearly has problems, but I never got the impression that Deus and others have cited that the villain was two-dimensional. On the contrary, I found the dialogue b/w Archer and the Prenom to be quite well-written. Of course the parallels to suicide bombers and holy wars and non-believers is all very obvious, but I didn't have a problem with it. The script makes some very good points, like the absurdity of the rift between D'Jamat's followers and "heretics." This speaks not even so much to religious fanaticism to me as it does to religious conflict in general. It's like the Crusades. All fought because either side refused to believe in the other side's god. That is a simplification, but I've often felt that religious violence is often predicated an superficial differences that aren't worth killing over.
The final scene was also a big helper in making the episode an overall winner for me because instead of just leaving D'Jamat with his holier-than-thou "it is alright to kill all nonbelievers and you will never understand" mentality, instead Archer sticks it to him by showing the ultimate consequences of D'Jamat's (and those like him) actions. Their holy war destroyed their entire planet, and that's something you can believe may begin to actually get through D'Jamat's dogma.
"Realm"'s main problems are structural and creative. It's a good idea grafted onto the same skeleton of a million other ST episodes. I intend no offense to the writing staff, but honestly I wonder what the beat session is like for a story like this. I mean, as soon as they decide "religious zealots take over the Enterprise," can the next breath in the room realistically be "you know what would be really good? if one of the hijackers sympathizes with Archer and helps them retake the ship!" ? In other words, this plot device is so worn that there's probably not much breaking down that has to occur. Once they decide to go this route, they just send off Coto to write a script according to the "aliens takeover the ship" paradigm--to the T.
That is the most disappointing thing about the episode. The only other quibbles I had are that the "guests" were given free roam of the ship--so much so that they can just enter engineering and position themselves next to the warp reactor without any taking notice? Even though Archer told Reed that he wanted to make sure they had no weapons before taking them onboard--the setup for the organic suicide bombs--I still find it doubtful that Archer, especially this season, would let any unauthorized aliens roam whereever they want to, whether they are obviously armed or not. Certainly Reed or the MACO's wouldn't have. Also, having D'Jamat read Archer's logs made it hard to swallow that he didn't come across several logs referencing the use of the transporter. However, if they had been more careful to explain this away, I like the idea of using the transporter in this manner. It's a brief flash of originality in terms of the plot (at least I can't recall the crew ever fooling their captors into letting them use the transporter before).
On the plus side, I enjoyed the homage to instant messaging technology with Phlox and Archer in Sickbay. And it was refreshing to see Phlox have to actually connect a beaker of fluid to the environmental system--a far cry from the ease with which 24th century starships can target specific rooms to flood with gas to disable an enemy. Deleting the logs was also a good move, allowing the Xindi plot to back track a little.
Overall I'd give it a 6. Definitely better than the usual ENT--hey, the plot may have been done alreadya few times in this series, but at least this time the religious fanaticism angle offered something of a fresh take (it's better than the usual pirate angle). If they could just come up with a more inventive way of executing these kinds of plots, I think this episode did have the ideas. They were just weighed down in cliched plot progression and some gaps in logic.
Oh and, the visual effects continue to impress while the make-up department continues to disappoint.
--------
"I spot an Eagle, up in the trees / I for-get myself, into, what-I-see...
Caught a glimpse of another dream / I turned, and looked / I turned-and-looked-again / I see no trace!"
Hagar. "Eagle's Fly"
The Trekweb poll, with a large sample size, has voiced its opinion and disagrees with you, Deus. More people have rated Chosen Realm as a "10-Excellent" than any other rating. If it was just one or two people I could overlook this as statistical error, but I think given the large number of viewers who have seen and judged the episode, that perhaps the majority feel that not only is this episode NOT bad, but one of the best episodes made. Polls don't lie.
--------
"There's no way telling what happened."
-Rick Berman
"Saruman is our friend AND ally."
-Wormtongue
Ooh. Nice review Deus! I think this is possibly the best review of yours I've read. Some apt points and conjecture. :)
--------
"Unless we learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] we will die together as fools." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
I was reading Deus' review and had a flashback to a wine tasting tour. There I was, riding the bus with twenty wine know-it-alls, who could describe a beverage in a multitude of ways, and they were proud of it. After several stops, the know-it-alls were having no fun what so ever, but I enjoyed the ride as the sunshine played between the leaves. Do you drink wine to pick it apart, or enjoy the company of those around you?
Like beefies, I watched this ep with my son, and it provided an opportunity for us to talk about religion and how adherence to dogma can cause needless conflict on our planet. We talked about the examples, both obvious and not. We discussed the role of bullies who are in positions of authority, and how they use and abuse their power.
We also noted, the bat was neat, that the villains should have know what the transporter was for, that T'Pol should have kicked more butt and the display screens for ENTERPRISE are more helpful to the story than in previous Trek programs.
I taped the episode. When TOS appears on DVD by season, I'll share "Battlefield" with my kids and we'll compare notes. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the season.
The episode sucked. For most of the plot execution reasons Deus identified but moreso for the attempts at reflecting current sociopolitical events.
The aliens portrayed were a very clearly identifiable religion, from the suicide bombings, to the anger at Enterprise for desecrating the holy places of worship and pilgrimage by going inside them, to the alien leader condemning unbelievers to death, to the moderates disagreeing with the interpretation of their leader and having and abortion, which are banned in their religion.
Enterprise then, was presumably representing the nation which was attacked unprovoked, and was only out there trying to prevent future attacks.
If you're presuming to reflect reality, please do reflect reality.
Enterprise should have been shown as destroying half a dozen planets in response to that line across the equator. Presumably in an attempt to reflect justifiable regrets, what the alien leader did cite was Archer's torture of one person.
The aliens leader should have been shown as a renegade, and not the leader and representative of the entire people. The moderates should have been shown as the majority of the people, and not a couple of muted sympathisers.
Through the course of the episode, other stuff that rankled was the alien's painfully obvious ill-understanding of the world enterprise is in, and the trivialisation of their faith.
If you're subtly advocating peace, surely you neednt belittle any side to intellectual non-entities. You may think they are, but then again, if you're advocating rapproachment why even cause offence? Peace is a powerful enough cause to be argued from a neutral stance and still win.
Speaking from the perspective, presumably, of that moderate in the alien race currently aboard the enterprise, i'd like you to know that this peace loving alien and other peace loving aliens who watched the episode with him were all deeply offended.
this has to be the first time that I actually stopped watching a new episode of Enterprise. About 20 minutes in, I realized that even though there was a nice attempt at some current social commentary, there wasn't going to be much that was outstanding about this episode. There have been countless trek episodes where aliens take over the ship. In this case, adding relgious fanatics didn't add much. And the alien guy blowing himself up was a sad attempt to try to draw parralels to muslim extremism.
--------
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who know binary and those who don't."
I seem to have appreciated this episode more than most posters. Deus makes some apt criticisms and I had three myself, two minor and one major, but in general thought "Chosen Realm" wasn't a steaming heap o' dung.
Minor #1: like others, I wish T'Pol were depicted as the strong and capable officer she should be. She could have coolly neck-pinched the guy, thrown another across the bridge, and still been subdued by a phaser--wouldn't have changed the plot at all, but would have helped build the character a lot.
Minor #2: by the 22nd century, wouldn't humanity have learned to back up its hard drive?
Major: Archer's an idiot. Once his enemy's religious fundamentalism becomes clear, why keep arguing with him? Why not at least pretend to go along? Why not sit down and say something like, "We're new here, we meant no offense but acted out of ignorance, why don't you tell me more about your beliefs?" His goal should be to save his crew and ship so it can complete its mission, not score debate points.
However, as I've mentioned in the past, Enterprise is the first Trek series I've watched with my kids, which helps me see it more freshly through their eyes. They've never seen "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and found the climax a sobering stunner. I admit I found it very effective as well.
I'm also puzzled by those holding up "Battlefield" as some sort of paragon that "Chosen Realm" fails to live up to. I love "Battlefield" and consider it quintessential Star Trek, but isn't it generally regarded as one of the least subtle bang-you-over-the-head-with-a-message episodes ever? I mean, in hindsight, isn't a story in which the black-white guy hates the white-black guy (one of them played by Frank Gorshin, for goodness sake) kind of a dated 1960s embarrassment?
In that light, I thought "Chosen Realm" was a more subtle and interesting take on the idea, with a sympathetic villain (well-played, you could almost like the guy). I liked the transporter, liked the bat, liked the Instant Messaging, and didn't find the humorous touches out of place. I liked the depiction of a religious schism caused by a disagreement over one day: no more ridiculous than existing religions arguing over the consumption or pork or the symbolism of Communion. I liked that Archer didn't forget his dead crewperson, but seemed to feel her loss intensely. I liked the way Mayweather looked for T'Pol's approval after each demand.
I'd call it a good but not great episode: 3 out of 5.
Just a minor, minor nit, O. Deus. You said:
Certainly the notion that a starship would build a special device for executions on board a ship that doesn't have all that many people on it to begin with should have raised some serious suspicions.
In the episode, Archer actually said that it was a device used to dispose of hazardous materials, and on rare occasions, it was used as an execution device. It was not built as a "special device for executions."
I enjoyed "Chosen Realm." It certainly didn't deserve the poor word of mouth I've been hearing. Comparisons to "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" aside, I found it a poignant and apt allegory to the religious fanaticism that's tearing our own world apart.
Brilliant move on Archer's part, using the transporter to simulate his own "death."
The only thing I really couldn't swallow was how easily the MACOs were pacified at the beginning. For crying out loud, one of the reasons why they're on board is to prevent ENTERPRISE from being commandeered! Yet another story problem "conveniently" swept under the rug.
And I wish they'd stop portraying T'Pol as someone who's easily pushed around. She's a Vulcan, for pete's sake! She has several times the strength of humans.
Mayweather and Sato need more to do. Say it with me now: Mayweather and Sato need more to do! Mayweather and Sato need more to do! I pity Anthony Montgomery and Linda Park. They have to show up for work every day just to sit around and be part of the set dressing. Sheesh, we came here to actually act, Mr. Berman and Mr. Braga! Please don't treat us like Uhura and Sulu. We'd like to put our acting classes to good use.
Anyhow, it's nice to have STAR TREK ENTERPRISE back! I'm really excited for the second half of the season.
--------
Lord Edzo
I wasn't able to watch Enterprise last night even though I left work early to make sure to be home in time to see it. It was canceled in Dallas in favor of a local broadcast of the Mavericks v. 76ers game, which was also shown on ESPN2. The UPN station (21) did not make an announcement if and when this Enterprise episode would be broadcast.
Because I didn't see the episode, I didn't read Deus's review. Too bad, because whether I agree or disagree with his comments, I always find Deus's reviews thought-provoking and entertaining.
Well, they didn't really try to disguise this episode as being about religion, did they? TOS would have.
Anyway, the thing I did like about it was how it portrayed religious people. I'm not even talking about fundamentalists here, either. Despite a complete lack of evidence, they still hold to their beliefs no matter what. Having a debate with someone who's very religious is impossible. How do you debate someone who claims to know the truth and yet has absolutely no evidence, doesn't need any, and doesn't use any sort of logic in defending his/her beliefs? It's ridiculous to debate these people - in fact, it's a waste of time.
So I'm going now.
I thought it was a pretty good episode, but not great. The idea of the organic explosives was very cool. I also liked how the religious factions were doing all this fighting over such a minor defference in belief. The episode seemed like it had something to say, but never really did. I couldn't keep my mind from wandering at times. Archer's trick with the transporter was very nice though, a real Kirk-like move and shows some quick thinking on his part. I would have thought Reed would have more to do considering he is in charge of security. I guess that's why he got locked up first. Still, it wasn't bad and the end was a nice, if slightly expected, twist.
Just some stylistic issues in the review that annoy the hell out of me.
"There's a strong performance by both Archer and the Prenom."
Is is that hard to actually use the actors' names? The characters did not give a performance, the actors did. Also along the same lines:
"As such, he's closer to Kurtwood Smith's 'Annorax' than INSURRECTION's 'Ru'afo'."
Interesting, I've never seen this "Kurtwood Smith" movie. Seriously, though, that should be either the episode name, or "Insurrection" should be "F. Murray Abraham."
Anyhow, done nitpicking. The review was spot on: this was one of those "deep" episodes that wasn't. As Deus' notes, it really just confuses religion with religious fanaticism, and really does a bad job of both.
I am going to have to agree with Deus on this one. I was anxiously awaiting the beginning of the second part of this season and was ultimately let down. I never once felt like I was watching a classic, or something special. Not that I need to every episode, but this one just never seemed to have real spirit. It never had a point to prove or a message to send. It didn't even further the Sphere plot that much, I mean, we know they were a religious symbol for a society that is now pretty much non-existant now. Woop dee.
Anyway, good review Deus, I agree.
--------
"Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
-- Winston Churchill
(Picture of the City and Country building in Salt Lake City, UT)
(3)
| 
