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Enterprise Season Premiere Tonight
l0key432 writes "Enterprise, Star Trek's fifth series, begins its second season on UPN tonight at 8pm/7pm central with the episode Shockwave Part II, airing just before the series premier of the new 'The Twilight Zone' show at 9pm/8pm central. Shockwave II is the conclusion to last season's season-ending cliff-hanger, and additional info can be found at this page(possible spoilers!) on StarTrek.com." Of course with my luck, it'll be pre-empted by some sporting event.
Time Travel.
Wesley.
I hardly think it's morally correct to deny a race the cure to their genetic disease in favor of what might happen thousands or even millions of years in the future. To me it's the same moral question as "Does the end justify the means?" --- should one do something that seems wrong in the present in order to promote a future good?
Besides, on a more practical note, I think it would have made for more interesting character development later in the series if Archer had taken the opposite opinion and stuck to his moral guns, even if that meant a rift developed between him and Phlox. It would be fun to see the captain and the doctor at each other's throats!
We tend to forget that people involved with a specific popular thing have a perspsective bigger than that one thing. I don't know if Roddenberry would personally like Enterprise, but I'm certain he would judge it first as a television show and second as Star Trek. After all, he was a veteran writer, director and producer who did plenty of television other than Star Trek. I bet Gene would think pretty well of Enterprise as television, and would certainly allow that this one is somebody else's baby.
Did you notice how much better TNG got after he died? Did you notice that Roddenberry was egomaniac who claimed he had every good idea? Read Harlan Ellison's "City on the Edge of Forever" for a strongly opinionated (from Harlan? No way!) and documented (Harlan kept track? No way!) counter-view of "The Great Bird of the Galaxy."
In other words, perhaps "interfering" could also be part of nature's plan or "natural evolution". Humanity is a part of nature too...just as elephants are both destructive and constructive. We just use technology as our agent of change.
There actually have been a number of episodes which refer to previous episodes; mostly of the sort where they do something in one episode, and then encounter people who have heard about it and want them to do something else because of it.
I think they've done a good job of maintaining the Trek "everything is fixed at the end of the episode", while having people notice that this group has an impressive record of getting into situations and resolving them.
I'm not entirely convinced that Daniels's side is actually good; it seems like all of their information has come from Daniels, and he might just be feeding them propaganda. Sullick is clearly against them, but might have reasons for it. There's a lot of potential for a major plot twist at some point.
IMHO, the episode Shuttlepod One was one of the best Star Trek episodes I've ever seen.
Basically Reed and Trip are on a shuttlepod out in the middle of nowhere and it looks like the Enterprise has been destroyed. The pod is damaged and they have a very limited amount of air left. And they are light years away from anything.
It was Sci-Fi at it's best, a human drama between Trip's completely irrational hope (although deep down he knows the truth) and Reed's attempt to prepare for their pending deaths. They deal with things like whether or not to be comfortable and just accept death or be miserable and squeeze out a few more hours.
I'll take one of those episodes over 10 technobabble shows anyday.
Brian Ellenberger
I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but "Enterprise" is the first Star Trek series since the original '60s series that was really consistently interesting. TNG and it's many spinoffs were, for the most part, boring, politically-correct, pieces of crap. Not that all episodes were terrible, but I've avoided seeing WHOLE SEASONS of TNG because so many of the episodes became so boring, and I don't really care if I ever do see them. On the other hand, I've seen each of the original series' episodes at least 10 times.
Maybe the fact that "Enterprise" was intended to recapture the action and humor style of the original series and thats why it appeals to people like me (I generally see people who liked TNG dislike "Enterprise"). Or maybe the episodes are more like real science fiction and not just intended to expand the audience to people who'd rather watch "Friends"...
>Cure the sick, leaving them to continue their subjugation of a developing species, or allow nature to take its course while doing what they could to ease suffering.
;-)
:-)
I think there was a huge plot hole left open in the episode -- the Valakians were never fully told (or shown) that the other species was approching a full intelligence. Had they done that and shown a poor reaction to it, it would have made much more sense.
However, considering how the Valakians never appeard to mistreat the Menk, I consider the Doctor a serious jerk in this case. It seems pretty obvious it would be better for the two species to live in harmony (which it seems they would) than let one be wiped out. Or at least that's what Greenpeace would like us to think.
And, last but not least, the Doctor's counter-argument is a poor one at best. He doesn't consider the possibility that the two species (human/neanderthal) could possibly live together happily. Imagine the difference in the world if that had happened.
Fortunately, it still doesn't sour me on the captain. I just consider his feeble mind to have been swindled against by another half-argument.
(Okay, yeah, I take this too seriously. So what?)
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Apparently the NX-01 "bumps into" an alien ship. This is the cause of the debris field that Trip and Reed find.
See, Trip and Reed are off testing the weapons on the shuttlepod, which needs to be done a long long long long long way away (out of communications, no doubt).
By the time the two finish their tests and reach the 'meeting point' the NX-01 isn't there anymore because it is so damn important for Archer to ferry the de-shipped aliens home that they strand a warp-incapable shuttlepod out in the middle of nowhere. Hell, Archer doesn't even do the simple courtesy of leaving the poor guys a message of any sort saying "don't go anyplace, we'll be back soon, try not to choke while you're waiting".
More damningly, we are not even presented with any compelling reasons why the aliens need to get where they're headed right now, nor why Archer can't simply warp to the shuttlepod, cut their weapon testing short, pick 'em up and take the aliens home. He just leaves the meeting point without so much as a "bbiam" message, nor collecting the spare hull plating (what do they patch the hole with? hmm??).
That, combined with blatant scientific errors like using fingers and mashed potato as hull sealant, body hair growth after death and the supposed "drop your impulse engine and you slow down even in space"... well..
I suppose it was a good character piece, if two people getting drunk and discussing the local Vulcan ass is 'characterization'.
I could have gotten into the episode so much more if it wasn't a completely contrived situation. But the fact of the matter is, all it takes is a little bump for brave Captain Archer to strand his two best buddies in the middle of nowhere for three days while he ferries strange aliens someplace unimportant.
But what the hell! It was a "character" ep! Right??