Another great ep ... another questionable review
By timmer33

AUGMENTS was a great episode. It had its weaknesses, but luckily the ep's strengths overshadowed them.

THE BAD

- How did ENT find the Bird of Prey so fast when they crossed into Klingon space? It happened in about 5 seconds.

- The "masking" of the warp signature. A weak device to circumvent the Klingons. Just go into Klingon space and hope you don't get caught! That's what Kirk did in TOS.

- Did Mayweather have a single line in this three episode arc? He's a likeable guy. Use him!

THE GOOD

- The space battle was great. Some good f/x! The torpedo scene was especially good. Reminiscent of ST: TMP

- I noticed a few new things here. The magnify order, for instance. Rather than switching immediately to a larger view of the Klingon ship, the viewscreen quick-zoomed. It was quite a nice bit of detail added.

- Hoshi's earpiece! Excellent nod to TOS technology!

- Something I noticed in the bedroom scene between Malick and Persis. The music was very TOS! Did anyone else notice it? It was *very* reminiscent of the music during a Kirk love scene. I'm sure it was new to the series. Who else noticed this?

- The use of grapples was cool. Manny's using pre-TOS technology, which is important. We can't jump too far in the future in terms of technology. It's still only 2154.

- Spiner was awesome as usual. The ending in particular was great. I for one hope he'll return. He's the evil genius, the thorn in Archer's side ... but the very likeable thorn. He's this series' Q. Bring him back if you can, Manny. Maybe have him escape and create an android that malfunctions or something. Whatever. It'll be great to see Spiner a couple times each season.

- The new displays on the bridge are great.

- The story came to a nice conclusion. The idea to start a conflict between Earth and Klingon was a great idea. But it's too bad it didn't happen! According to Kirk, the contact between Humans and Klingons was "disasterous." We haven't seen that yet. We need to.

- Great story arc. Great part 1, part 2, and part 3. Congratulations all.

______________________________________________

As is usually the case, the good is overlooked by O. Deus. I swear, the guy doesn't know anything about Trek. He criticises the show endlessly without good cause. (I've said this one before: when there's the slightest hint of the relationship between Trip and T'Pol, Deus hates the episode. THis is another example of proof for that statement.)

Since you called for this two episodes ago, here are some statements you made that are utterly and completely FALSE. Are you even watching the same ep the rest of us are?

"Malik proceeds on the usual self-destructive course of villains ticking off every cliche along the way, right down to a shock horror movie-style reappearance when you least expect it."

Had Malik died when the ship self-destructed, you would be complaining that it was a copy of ST II. You would be saying the writers didn't show any originality. You see the negative in everything.

"Brent Spiner's Soong, who was responsible for much of the strength of "Cold Station 12," still gives a committed performance but the writing fails to give him a partner to play off"

A good character doesn't need a "partner to play off." You're nitpicking, as usual. A character can be excellent and not need a foil. Not every episode of television is like that. Once again, you see the negative in everything. Instead, how about saying "Spiner did a great job presenting us with a multi-faceted and conflicted character."

"Once Soong leaves the Augments' Klingon ship we're left with him trying to make his case to Archer, who in true Archer fashion never pays attention."

Not true. Archer thought he was trying to trick him, again. Soong eventually convinces him. You're saying false things here, Deus.

"Archer tells Soong that Malik's actions prove that the Augments are innately ruthless mass murderers but that may or may not be the case. The Augments were shaped by events."

Again, not true. The Augments are genetically bred to violence. This episode proved it. Space Seed proved it. TWOK proved it. Archer (and Phloxx) tried to convince Soong of this fact, and he succeeded at the end. Did you watch the ending of the episode? Soong was convinced this was the case.

"The distinction is that the Augments did not seek to rule humanity, they wanted to be left alone. On the flimsy excuse of conflict with the Klingons, Starfleet refused to do that."

Flimsy excuse? Give me a break. Are you even watching the same episode THE REST OF US ARE? The Augments were going to exterminate an entire Klingon colony, Deus. Starfleet recognized the threat that the Augments are and dealt with them. The Augments killed people on C-12. They killed the crew of a Klingon Bird of Prey. Do you actually think that Starfleet would throw its hands up and say, "Whatever. Let them be." Right. You see the negative in everything.

"If the embryos had survived at least and Archer had to ponder keeping them around or not, it might have been an interesting moral dilemma."

This could not have happened because thousands of embryos remained on C-12. Malik et al could only take eleven (?) as that was the number of gestation tanks they had (can't remember the exact name for them.) Deus, again you're not paying attention, and you criticise the show for it.

You criticise the show because it's not this, it's not that, it could have been this, it should have done that, and so on. If you think you're such an amazing critic of Trek, why are you writing reviews? Why not go and try to write some tv episodes of your own? Mel Brooks said it best:

"With the birth of the artist, came the inevitable AFTERBIRTH - the critic."

You can't sit back and enjoy a show that's a high quality entertaining ep like AUGMENTS was. You nitpick and criticise, and I just showed you how wrong you were about every damn criticism you made! What was the focus of this episode? It was the CLIMAX to the three part arc. For that very reason, it simply cannot have some of the things you're demanding. As the climax it's meant to be an action-filled episode with a little less characterization than the exposition ep (BORDERLAND) and the rising action wp (C-12). You don't know much about story, and you seem to know less about Trek. Leave the reviews to unbiased people who are willing to see the good and bad in every episode. Your reviews for the first two episodes of the season praised trek more than your reviews for two episodes of the Spiner arc, and that is a travesty. Classic Trek is being delivered to us on a silver platter now, thanks to Manny Coto, and you continue to spray your venom over it. WHy no mention of the TOS-era music in the bedroom scene? Why no mention of the Soong-Archer conflict? Why no mention of Soong's conflicted nature? Why no mention of Soong's plans for his future (you criticised this, when in fact it is a nice nod to continuity and further appearances by Spiner.)

With friends like you, who needs enemies? Steve, how about writing a review of this ep and posting it here? At least I know it'll be fair and balanced. I much prefer your reviews. They give positives and negatives and are fairly unbiased.

I'm sure Deus will look at this and criticise the "rants" by people here (as he did last week) rather than see this as a chance to improve his own negatively biased reviews of ENT. 90% of the people here disagree with his reviews, and Deus criticises US for ranting at him! That's ridiculous! Open your eyes man.