Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

Season 1

Episode 3 Fight or Flight

Not a good choice for the second episode.  Going back to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The show found its footing in season three when each episode became character driven.  Therefore each character got their own episode centered around them where they learn a lesson and become a better person.  It's ultimately what Saved The Next Generation because those first two seasons were rough.  Extremely rough.  Once the episodes became character based and shifted away from sci-fi plot centric episodes, the stories got better, became more relatable.  

 

Star Trek took this character driven story writing method and applied it to its spin-offs Deep Space Nine and Voyager.  But episode 2 is centered around one of its whinier characters.  Hoshi Sato will spend the entire series putting people to sleep with her lack of confidence.  Characters that lack confidence work as secondary characters but when you devote entire episodes to their neurosis it’s less compelling story telling and more of a chore.  

 

Ultimately Sato has to use her great linguistic skills to solve a misunderstanding with an alien species.  Then everyone flies off all–the-better for the experience.  It’s a bit “by the numbers” for Star Trek by this point and one can wonder which abandoned script was dusted off from an old series to craft this story. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

Welcome to the first of an ongoing series where we review TV shows one episode at a time.  We’re starting with the lesser loved Star Trek series Enterprise.  Why?  Because it’s ripe for criticism but it’s not without its charm.  

Season 1

Episode 1 & 2 Broken Bow 

 

The first two episodes were aired back to back and offered a new take on the Star Trek mythos.  It is a prequel series about Earth before Starfleet was formed.  It establishes tension between Humans and Vulcans.  Jonathan Archer is about to embark on a historic expedition with a brand new starship powered by the warp 5 engine, the fastest warp engine mankind has ever created.  It will allow them to travel further and faster than had ever been possible for humans before.  

 

Shenanigans happen and a Klingon crashes on their planet.  Due to a misunderstanding the Klingon gets shot by a farmer.  Vulcans advise to pull the plug while he’s in a coma.  Earth insists on bringing him back to the Klingon home world to deliver a message.  

 

During their voyage to the planet Kronos the Klingon gets kidnapped by the Suliban who are part of a temporal cold war.  They are helping some dude in the future in exchange for evolutionary upgrades.  This was supposed to be the series ongoing story arc mixed in with stand-alone episodes.  As the season progress fans showed frustration with the storyline and it was finally abandoned by season 4.  The concept was the time travel story could be used to explain away any story inconsistencies created by other established Star Trek series.  

 

Eventually the Enterprise save the kidnapped Klingon, take him back to Kronos.  Begin their exploration of the galaxy.  

 

It’s a solid establishing episode.  We meet all the characters.  Learn about the plot of the show.  Has some interesting action.  It’s a good first start.  Not the best first episode ever made but certainly not the worst.  It’s far better that the first episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com