I don't know what it takes to wake Deus from his slumber, but if he was sleeping through this latest episode, that at least would explain the review.
O'man.... You were right on the money as usual! I really am not sure if all these people who are praising the show actually watched this dreary and poorly written episode. What a mess! What is it with these crazy vulcans and continued wrinkles in ST continuity? I would really implore people to.... oh... wait a minute.... You know, I didn't watch it either! I lost hope about one and a half seasons ago. Sorry, my bad! Please continue the petty bickering.
Actually, I found the episode interesting because of the potential outcomes that are possible. Surak deciding to stay in Archer reminded me of the Valen storyline in Babylon 5. The episode was able to flesh out and capture the totality of Vulcan's philosophic deviance. The problem was laid at the doorstop of the Vulcan high command because they were nurishing and using this nationalistic imperative to further the High Command's aims.
And a potential war between Andoria and Vulcan driven by distrust and imperialistic fervor, is not unlike the present situation in Iraq. T'Pol having to deal with all the changes going on around her. She's been away from Vulcan for a long time so the present situation is pulling her sense of Vulcan society apart. Trying to resolve her mother's involvement in the resistance and being faced with the reality of Surak's Katra being present all at once. Trying to decide who deserves her loyalty and then having to deal with the death of her mother in her arms. T'Pol, with emotional problems of her own, is handling things the best she can. It will be interesting to see how she holds up this week.
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
John Milton (1608–74), English poet. Satan, in Paradise Lost, bk. 1.
Once again, who cares what this guy thinks, good or bad?
Signed, stumped in Stubingville.
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Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.
Quote:
When he commands his minions to comb the desert, you can't help but imagine the scene from SPACEBALLS in which the stormtroopers drag a giant comb along the sands.
I may have missed it, but I didn't see anyone point out this useless fact. The guy in Spaceballs who said, "we ain't found sh*t" was none other than Tim Russ, aka Tuvok of Star Trek: Voyager fame.
As for the episode, I didn't agree with ODeus on The Forge. I thought The Forge was an excellent attempt to try to undo the damage done to the Vulcans by Enterprise. The effort is there. I just found Awakening to be a bit of a let down.
I dislike agreeing with O.Deus because he bashes ENT to no end. However, to find him complaining about the lame this, and plodding that, well, I agree. So to fix it, I tapped the episode and watched it from tape. Presto! The episode moved faster without the baggage of twenty minutes of commercials.
My gripes this week:
1. Archers initial verbal attack on T'Pau was out of character. I think he looked dumb for being so, uh, dumb.
2. Is make-up logical? T'Les lips looked plastic.
So, to improve the show, I suggest UPN cut ten minutes of commercials and double the price for the remaining spots (supply/demand). Use the extra time to make villans more than two dimensional and get better screen time for the other minor characters.
Quote:
When he commands his minions to comb the desert, you can't help but imagine the scene from SPACEBALLS in which the stormtroopers drag a giant comb along the sands.
I must admit, Spaceballs was the first thing that came to mind when I heard that order.
"We ain't found shit!" LOL
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TREKMAN: The MAN Who Knows His TREK
Sit down, shut up, and just watch the show!
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
-General George S. Patton Jr.
I don't agree with O Deus' reveiw at all, and I'm normally critical of Enterprise as well. I'd grade it an 8 out of 10.
What I've liked about this arc is that it is much closer to my idea of what this series could have been than anything involving the Temporal Cold War or the Xindi. It's a prequel series, and this is exactly the kind of story this series was meant to do. It is much more relevant to the Trek universe, and since I wanted the political landscape of the 22nd century Alpha Quadrant to be more fully explored in the way DS9 did for the 24th century, this sort of episode is a very good beginning-the kind of beginning the should have happened three years ago.
I haven't found this arc boring. It doesn't have as much action, but then again, an embassy exploded, T'Pol and Archer got chased by seh'lats and firestorms(which was kind of pointless admittedly, but most action is, which is why action is not necessarily a good thing), a massacre occurred, the Enterprise was fired upon by crazy Vulcans, and there is a threat of war between the Vulcans and Andorians, so I don't know what to tell those of you who said there wasn't a lot of action...maybe you haven't watched a lot of TNG lately.
There isn't Krazy Kung-Fu Action such as what occurred in the Augments arc, and alternate Earths weren't created and then destroyed or subjugated under Nazi rule(I'm rolling my eyes at that one), but for me, the political tension, the character development in key Vulcan characters like T'Pol and Soval, and the tying in the Enterprise series with the Star Trek franchise all keep this arc from being boring, not to mention that the usually entertaining Andorians seem to be making an appearance next week.
O Deus missed the mark this time.
I have been enjoying Enterprise's attempt to fill TOS's very big shoes. This year is far better than any so far. However, I must admit that when the maniacal Vulcan leader said to "comb the desert", I too thought of Spaceballs right away. I hope the Enterprise doesn't go to Ludicrous Speed next week. While that probably won't happen, I heard there's a good chance that T'Pol might actually go from suck to blow and Shran will be rolling up in a brand new Mercedes starship (with matching blue luggage).
Maybe William Shatner will arrive on Enterprise as an alternate timeline version of a lunar base captain (ala Airplane II).
Another ENT bashing review from our favourite ENT-hater: O. Deus. Wonderful. A 6 out of 10. Get out of here.
Positives
- The writers are taking time by developing characters, particularly Soval. He's better than ever and I hope he takes the place as the Chief Administrator of Vulcan. There's been more character development this season than the first three combined.
- The Syrannite movement is wonderful ... the writers are bridging the gap between "present day" Vulcans and the Vulcans of TOS. That's the point of the prequel concept, something B&B knew nothing about.
- The scenes with SURAK were incredible, especially the one where the battle can be seen in the background.
- SURAK in Archer. I wonder how long this will last for, and what effects are in store for Archer. It could change him forever, and it could play a HUGE role in the future of Vulcan and the Federation of Planets. This arc (and ep.) leaves us wanting more.
- The story is wonderful ... this was the middle part to the arc (the "rising action"); it looks like next week is the action-packed climax.
Negatives
- How do the Syrannites operate a holographic generator in The Forge?
- Why no accent for T'Pau?
- Why does Syran both laugh and lick his thumb (after eating in the cave)? These actions are contradictory to what COTO is trying to do. The director's fault? Who knows.
NOTE TO STEVE: Steve, you complained that Archer found the artifact too fast, that the "hidden" corridor was too obvious. Well, the corridor wasn't a secret, it was the wall that Archer opened by touching three select points on the carving. *THAT'S* what the Syrannites couldn't find.
There were many positives to this episode and last. Deus bashes again.
I found plenty of things to like in this episode. It was well produced, well balanced between action and dialogue. There were some pleasant surprises, and nothing was really wrong. I congratulate Andre Bormains for the story. But I do have a few questionmarks in my head, that I will try to address here:
The story exposed the characters to different beliefs and I welcome that. I wonder though, if not T'Pol and Archer was needlessly eager to take a stand. Also, it was not fully clear to me, why the eradication of the Syrannites is so important to V'Lass. What is the general opinion on Vulcan about the decision to hunt them down? Using T'Pols opinion as indicator, the general opinion might be that "they believe in a corrupted form of Suraks teachings" and "they are pacifists". If so, I don't see why V'Lass considers them such an immediate danger. Maybe he is worried about increasing resistance among the Vulcan people, as he tries to conquer Andoria. The long-term consequences of letting the Syrannites in peace, could be more negative buzz. But the episode didn't flesh out this aspect.
I was also puzzled when T'Pau forced Archer to give up Surak's Katra. That doesn't appear very respectful towards Surak, who is now in Archer's mind and should be able to decide for himself, what comes next. If T'Paus decision was influenced by her disgust towards Archer, I suspect she is acting emotional and certainly reckless because her actions might not please Surak. It could hurt him, maybe even kill him.
I also did not quite understand why T'Pol immediately rejected her mother, who held out the hope that her daughter would join her, when she saw what they were doing. T'Pol just says "It was extremely foolish of you". Sounds like an ill-considered response, again likely based on her emotions, although there were no emotions in T'Pols voice. Maybe she still blames the Syrannites for bombing the Earth ambassy at this point. However it must be clear to her, that her MOTHER wouldn't support something like that. So in my opinion, T'Pol should have waited until she got a better idea of the situation. Okay, people are not always thinking rational. Even Vulcans. Even T'Pol, who is probably still affected by her Trillium addiction.
Enough nit-picking. The episode certainly managed to drag me into the action, so to speak. There were some truly interesting moments; In particular Surak's appearance I think was well acted, well produced, and well written. Surak is a very important character for the Vulcan people, almost a Messiah, and I liked how he was portrayed with dignity. The first vision inside Archers head was really an eye-opener. The second vision wasn't much of a conversation, for obvious reasons. Hopefully it was not the end of Surak. I don't know how Archer is going to deal with this "task" he was given. There is absolutely no quick way to unite the Vulcan people.
I didn't expect T'Pols mother to die in this episode, and from a creative standpoint I don't see why this was done. But perhaps it simply shows how life is vulnerable and can suddenly come to a meaningless end.
I hope, "Kir'Shara" will try to remain focused on intelligent conversation rather than drift into a "phasers and torpedoes" gallore.
If he is actually coming to Enterprise, I hope they improve the pacing of his episode to something like the Augments arc. Awakening was too slow. Did I miss something about the idol? It seemed so important that much screen time was used ogling it under dark light. This episode was OK, certainly not a classic. T'Pau was unneeded. I can do without Vulcan's giving the Enterprise a pasting, or Vulcans starting nuclear war. There was some kind of veiled comment on the political situation in here somewhere, laudible but unclear? Most important to this show was the portrayal of Archer. As always, he is a leaf adrift in the wind, allowing himself to be used to accomadate whatever plot twist of the week is needed. Plus, he's a convenient first all the time-- first in the Expanse, first with a mind meld, first with a Katra, first to see Borg, first to see Ferengi, first choice for Enterprise, yet the last to catch on to normal routine in running a ship. They need to do better if the bring Captain Kirk on. Shatner should see that script and make input. Also, the intro to this show is totally out of touch. Enterprise breaks no new ground in any exploratory way. I think it has improved somewhat and I hope they do a good job with Kirk so I can get it on DVD.
While I disagreed with your take on "Forge" I totally agree that this episode was a snooze-fest. And people ragged on me for saying it was all "yakkity-yak". That wasn't character development, kids, it was just streching stuff out and rambling on about the plot points
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An elephant never forgets . . .TO KILL!
I found this more entertaining than last week (not difficult).
But this is the standard I would expect from one of the worst episodes.
Unfortunately, many fans are praising this storyline as an absolute classic. I guess dry bread to a starving man is a feast.
Its disappointing though, that the action-figure brigade has to defend this material.
I did actually enjoy the various scenes with V'Lar and Trip & Soval. What a great regular Soval would make instead of T&A'Pol. I expect he will become the ultimate keeper of the katra next week.
But those blasted cave sets again! Hats off to the director for making the best of it and coming up with creative ways to shoot the same thing over and over again.
Again, lines from the movies are dropped in again. This isn't clever, simply now getting annoying.
However the rest was d-r-a-g-g-e-d o-u-t. The cunning plan of 3 episodes to strech the budget really showed this week.
And let me get this straight - T&A'Pol's mother lets her daughter get married to get her job back and then she just leaves it and buggers off? Brilliant.
Bakula was his usual uncharismatic self. In ST3, Kelley played McCoy with Katra with some style and humor. Here Bakula plays it as Archer with headache. Wonderful.
I do appreciate the move to more TOS-styled episodes, but the concentration on the unlikeable Archer and T&A'Pol is killing the show.
Unfortunately, Bakula seems to have to be the main man in every episode and no-one will have the balls to fire him.
Let's face it, with just a couple of exceptions (Hoshi, Phlox) the cast are downright unlikeable.
A mass cast-culling should be on the cards for the season finale. Maybe an ass-wipping in the ratings from the Stargates next year will help.
Stargate: Atlantis has managed to flesh some of the the characters more in the same number of episodes as Enterprise has had seasons.
And guys - drop in some humor for god's sake.
Finally, Dear UPN: Drop those 'teasers' before the commercials. I really didn't want to see T'Les dying 50 minutes before it happened. Thank you.
What, pray tell, is "dry" gravy?
Seriously, I think you believe your job as a "critic" is to find fault with everything you review. Howsabout becoming a "reviewer" instead, and give us the positives as well as the negatives? Let the viewer make up his or her own mind, instead of being predisposed to hand down your negativity from on high?
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"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever." - Lance Armstrong
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
--Robert Heinlein
"The timeline? This is no time to be arguing about time! We don't have the time!" -- Deanna Troi, Star Trek: First Contact
falcon
Funny that Deus should mention the "combing the desert" scene in Spaceballs... the actor that delivered the "We ain't found s*$t!" line was none other than Tim Russ... Tuvok!
Sorry, but this is the last ENT-Bashing review i'll be reading here at TrekWeb. I think it's time to find a more balanced, less bias person to review these episodes. You might as well have Scorned doing these things!
The episode was not perfect, but in no way did it deserve the review it got here. For once, it might actually HELP you to wait until the arc is over before judging certain aspects of the story. For all we know, V'Llas is working for, or IS a Romulan trying to destablize the sector.
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I find myself also not particularly liking the Vulcan High Command and V'Las. He is a typical "kill 'em all" badguy, and he's not even good at being said type of badguy. I think that's the general problem now: all of the villains are designed to be like Khan (Shinzon, Malik, and V'Las, and Dolim to name a few). They all have a singularly two-demensional way of doing things, ala Khan. But at least Khan had some depth to him: he was not only a good straight badguy, but he was a mindf**ker to boot.
None of these villains can get into someone's head like Khan can. Berman cheated with Shinzon and took that to literally mean to go into someones mind and have sex with them. That was friggen lame... and V'las is written no better.
About the Spaceballs line: I was thinking the same thing. I was waiting for the Vulcans to call up V'las, and spout: "We ain't found s**t!"
Good episode on the whole, as far a dramatics go - I will disagree with you about the pointless drivel that was spoken amongst the characters. But I will agree with the Vulcans at this point: they're all emotional wrecks. It seems that Archer is the only one not acting on his Emotions. WTF? I thought the Vulcans were supposed to be the ones to surpress emotions?
Anyway, I agree with 75% of this review... for a change. Good call this time around, Deus.
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"You are now the property of the Orion Syndicate! Break the rules, and you will suffer! Follow the rules, and you will suffer less!" ~ Big Green Orion Slave-Trade Marketing Dude, ENT: "Boarderland"
LOOKING FOR VOICE ACTORS! JOIN THE HUNT TODAY!
But I think your critcisms are unfounded. I really don't see your points in relation to the story. I found both episodes enjoyable and entertaining. Ratings are down, and this will probably the last of ENTERPRISE I get to see, but in the end, I still say these were good episodes...
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"Being A Jackass Is Not A Talent, It's A Science"
...Quoted By Me While Passed Out Drunk
"Live Hard, Die Young, And Leave A Good Looking Corpse!"
--Kindred: The Embraced
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