Excellent episode. Excellent review. A quick thought:
With all the bru haha that seems to be forming around Trip and T'Pol and emotions, it occured to me that there is a sub-sub arc dwelling somewhere in all this neuropressure and "drug" use. We see a Vulcan is having trouble controling her emotions, and we see a human who is controling his emotions a little too much (by Terran standards). I think that's a very inspired thing to do on the writers part, showing these two ends of the spectrum and their various trials. I know I'll get bashed for this, but think about it for a second.
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"A billion robot lives are about to be extinguished! Oh, the Jedis are going to feel this one..."
-Hubert Farnsworth (Futurama: Crimes of the Hot)
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"The Andorian Mining Consortium runs from no one!"
-Shran (ENT: Proving Ground)
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I won't bash you for it. I think that's exactly what it's been about this whole time. I've said it before and I'll say it again, people don't give the neuropressure plot enough credit simply because they aren't mature enough to handle watching people give one another massages.
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"Time is a face on the water."
-Stephen King, The Dark Tower Series-
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Umm...yes maturity.
Especially if the people involved get undressed, if the woman in question goes topless, if some of the massage positions involve outakes from the Kama Sutra, if those scenes are surrounded by sexual innuendo as blatant as an episode of Three's Company...and if the massage partners end up having sex.
But never mind all this, this is obviously an issue of people too immature to grasp how high minded soft core porn is.
I like Deus's review and agree with him. I thought the episode was excellent. The second-half of this season on Enterprise has been very good. It's a shame that so much crap went before this latest batch of episodes because they are much better than the prior efforts.
Unfortunately, the die may already be cast on Enterprise due to the past two season's poor effort. I hope not.
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Much the same attitude was prevailent in the early days about TNG. Until that majic 3rd season, the reviews and general feeling about TNG was it is crap but at least its Trek.
Hopefully, ENT will continue and the general quality will also increase.
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"Please continue the petty bickering. I find it most intriguing."
- Data
Why are the writers wasting their time with T'pol stories? The whole non-emotional character finding humanity stories have been beaten to death (and beyond) in Star Trek. Out of Spock, Data, Odo, and 7of9, T'pol is the worst by far. As far as I'm concerned T'pol is a pathetic drug user, who should be stripped of her rank. I find it unbelievable somebody of her rank can get away with using a drugs without being disciplined. She should be relegated to giving the crew massage and happy endings.
I agree Trip dealing with the loss of his sister had huge potential. And the viewers have no idea at all what kind of relationship Trip had with his sister.... just little vignettes of her getting blown up by the weapon and one picture at the end. Are we supposed to sympathize with Trip in feeling she was more than just one out of the 7 million??
And I agree about Reed... the Reed/Trip combo was one of the few things going right for this show before the season.. why did they dump it?
I really enjoyed this episode.
It was well written and directed.
Sadly, this is not going to save the show. Too many viewers have given up on Enterprise and this week's episode won't attract new ones.
Why on earth couldn't this be done 2 years ago instead of the crap that was put out?
All in all a good review, though I still disagree with Deus over his assessment of the T'Pol subplot which I still find one of the most fascinating aspects of the series (among many other fascinating aspects).
I also disagree regarding the handling of Trip's grief. As someone who didn't cry for a dead grandmother for nearly a year it is NOT uncommon for people to put it off. In the case of Trip, he was distracted both by work and by T'Pol -- and he masked a lot of his grief with anger. But when is forced to confront the loss of his sister through the loss of fellow crewpeople, it all comes out. This was the PERFECT time for Trip to finally grieve, and I think the show has treated it perfectly throughout the season (and I'm including the neuropressure sessions in this assessment). The "goodbye Elizabeth" scene is the most clear closure of a sub-arc that Trek has likely ever provided.
There were so many other good things about this episode I could go on all day. I do not feel it is better than Damage, which in turn is only a hair lower on the scale than Twilight. But man -- is it ever getting crowded at the top of the scale!
Alex
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Yeah, I agree on the Trip grief thing. It was the same thing when my best friend died of cancer. I think its a nice touch on the writers part, and makes it a lot more real in some ways than other shows where characters must deal with death.
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"Time is a face on the water."
-Stephen King, The Dark Tower Series-
This is one of those episodes that, for me, instantly made it to my All Time Favorite Trek Episodes list. OK, I don't have one, but you get the idea.
This ep had all of what I like most about Star Trek (forgive my crude formatting attempt):
-->how people, humans in particular, deal with extraordinary situations
----Seeing the crew struggle to keep Enterprise from falling apart
----The emotional and physical toll the overall mission takes on the crew, especially Archer & Trip
----The crew lining up for ration packs was a nice touch
-->Solid drama and acting
----The emotional scene between Trip and T'Pol was perfect, both in acting and story content. I have NO problems with Trip's seemingly sudden grieving over his sister's death; delayed/oppressed grief is all too common among us Humans
----Trinneer did a masterful job throughout the ep, and Blaylock did a fine job as well
----The tenseness and fragility of the interplay between Archer and Degra was palpable
----Trip's open hostility to Degra, Degra's resulting anguish, and Archer's duty to ensure that the delicate alliance with Degra not be jeopardized
----Nice bits of humor too (Trip & Phlox, T'Pol and her pepperoni pizza)
-->Compelling story
----Many elements of the Xindi arc came together nicely, and in complex ways
----Similarly, plot undertones from previous episodes came back in relevant ways
-->Character continuity
----Archer's growing sense of urgent determination driven by certain doom, coupled with the burden of recent hard command decisions made to get this far
----T'Pol's detox seems wrapped up (thanks for that), while her ability to keep her emotions under control over the long-term still seems questionable
----The use of Trip's writing a letter to a fallen colleague's parents to draw out his own grief was clever, and very well done
-->Plot developments
----Archer, Degra, and the Xindi Arboreal's tentative alliance
----Degra's decision to destroy the Reptilian warship (they may have their differences, but Degra still killed his own people)
----Enterprise is still very much in danger as a result of the vicious attack in "Azati Prime"
-->Well-done FX
----Enterprise looks like hell (inside and out), and nearly incapable of sustaining both warp and its crew (much worse than VOY's "Year of Hell", although the door to Archer's ready room got fixed pretty quickly)
----The plasma leak was nicely done too; the spacewalking looked better than in other eps
So, all in all, this was one of the best Trek episodes, and stands on it's own among all of the other series. Enterprise seems to be getting better and better. Now if only more people would just watch, they'd find that they've been missing good Trek....
Never stop seeking that which seems unattainable.
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Never stop seeking that which seems unattainable.
'The Forgotten' was a great episode in nearly all departments ... True I would've liked to have scene just how/when Degra got his memory back, however Trip's grieving process coupled with having to write the letter for a fallen comrade was a great and moving scene ... T'Pol is still T'Pol and I am beginning to like her less and less ... On the other hand Archer has gone up in my estimation, and of course once again Randy Oglesby delivers another amazing performace as Degra, I agree with you on his scene just after destroying the Reptillians.
Nice to see Reed doing something again, although he seems to be getting the Mayweather treatment (Character development via injury)
Nice special effects with the plasma fire.
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"I was told this ship was the pride of Starfleet. I find it is small, and unimpressive."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you."
Archer and Gral spar verbally in: "Babel One."
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