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Nov 06 | J.J. Abrams is in talks to direct the opening episode of "Undercovers," his Warner Bros. secret agent pilot at NBC. Schedule permitting, Abrams, who also serves as executive producer and co-writer for the pilot, will make "Undercovers" the first TV pilot he has directed since 2004's "Lost" two-part opener, which is considered one of the best-directed pilots of all time and helped launch Abrams' career into helming such theatrical films as "Mission: Impossible 3" and "Star Trek." The NBC pilot has been described as a mix between "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "The Bourne Identity." The original report is at the Hollywood Reporter.
Nov 05 | The upcoming MMORPG Star Trek Online has been given a release date. The game will be launched on February 2 in North America, and February 5 in Europe
Nov 02 | Journalist Edward Gross posted in his SciFi TV Zone.com website an animation that takes place on the bridge of the Enterprise, and it's where you can hear his... lord help us... impersonation of William Shatner. The url for the video is this.
Oct 27 | Leonard Nimoy narrates a new documentary about a historic synagogue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The film profiles Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pa., the only synagogue designed by the renowned architect. The building, a National Historic Landmark, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. A screening of the film will be shown at the dedication of the synagogue's newly designed visitors center on Nov. 15. Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine, will be on hand
Oct 27 | Leonard Nimoy is celebrating Halloween by taking pictures of the most crazily outfitted attendee at the Santa Monica Museum of Art's Halla Gala. Nimoy, who has practiced fine art photography since the age of 14, is offering a private portrait session at the Viceroy Santa Monica hotel to whomever wins the gala's Secret Self costume contest.
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By O. Deus / 15:16, 7 February 2005 / ENTERPRISE Reviews
Synopsis: Enterprise forms an alliance of Andorians, Tellarites, Vulcans and humans to pursue the Romulan marauder.
Review: "United" is a serviceable episode, though significantly weaker than "Babel One", in no small part because the story of the alliance gets reduced to a feud between Shran and a Tellarite. This is unfortunate since it pushes away the greatest strengths of the storyline in favor of a rather familiar STAR TREK cliche and a pointless action scene.
Jeffrey Combs once again does his best as Shran but the material that he's given teeters on the absurd and that does little to help matters. Meanwhile, the Romulan drone has proven to be a rather weak threat and quite unimpressive in comparison to its appearance in "Babel One" and only manages to survive by chance and lots of system redundancies.
The alliance, the early stirrings of the Federation, which was supposed to take center stage, instead occurs on the periphery. We never even see an actual Vulcan, aside from T'Pol, which would have been a nice touch, and we never get any of the sense of drama and momentum that, for example, underlaid the Xindi alliance with Enterprise. Instead it seems as if somewhere out there are ships, all hunting down a drone, which seems like overkill. Especially as the drone proves to be little match for even Enterprise, let alone Andorian or Vulcan ships which are supposed to be more powerful, and its only ability to cloak itself is quickly neutralized.
Still, "United"'s strongest moments are its character interactions. Trip and Reed's friendship is nicely renewed in scenes that echo "Two Days and Two Nights" and "Shuttlepod One." Archer and Shran have some strong scenes together and even Hoshi and Ensign Mayweather have a scene that's oddly more lively than a lot of the rest of the episode.
Overall, though, Shran's romance and tragic lost love was a poor idea, poorly executed, and when it becomes the main preoccupation of "United" it really becomes an awful one. The actual duel looks silly, the weapons they fight with look silly and the conclusion, which is sillier still, only make things worse. Archer defeating Shran is simply not credible. Shran giving up after losing an antenna is not credible either. From everything we've seen he's determined to the point of madness, he is hardly going to give up avenging the woman he loves because Archer briefly outmaneuvered him.
Finally, if the theme of this episode is unity, then there is a distinct shortage of it. If the theme is building the Federation, there's a distinct shortage of that too. The alliance we have here seems no more enduring thusfar than the one Janeway formed in "The Void," less so actually, since no one involved seems to be doing very much interacting.
"United" needed to show a lot more and tell less. It needed to sustain the momentum of "Babel One" but sadly it didn't. It needed to be well-paced, insightful and funny. It wasn't. ENTERPRISE needed to survive past this season but it didn't. Sic transit and all the rest.
Next week: Andorians with really pale eyes.
| Recent Reviews | ||
| Jan 31 | Babel One | 36 |
| Jan 24 | Observer Effect | 26 |
| Jan 16 | Daedalus | 23 |
| Dec 7 | Kir'Shara | 73 |
| Nov 29 | Awakening | 46 |
| More Reviews... | ||
| ENTERPRISE Mission Schedule | Logs by Season: 1 2 3 4 | ||
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United was a decent episode, though nowhere near as strong as Babel One. Part of the problem, I think, is that its a "middle episode". It doesn't start anything, it doesn't finish anything, and it just serves to push the action along to the conclusion.
That being said, there are some great parts here, and once again I'm impressed with the special effects. That scene of the Enterprise coming into view above Trip and Reed was awesome, and I thought the "flitty" movements of the drone were pretty cool.
Not a bad episode, but not groundbreaking.
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