Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

Season 2

Episode 38 The Catwalk

 

This is a solid episode with some nice tension.  The entire ship must seek refuge in the two nacelles while some fancy shmancy sci-fi mumbo jumbo anomaly happens.  The prep to move the entire crew before the storm hits is nice drama.  But of course like all Star Trek shows, when the entire ship is emptied out an alien species, team of criminals, or random riffraff end up trying to cause shenanigans on the ship.  

 

The crew has to fight off the bad guys while making sure they don’t turn the engines on and kill everyone hiding in the nacelles.  Overall the episode, while a bit copycatted, works.  The way the story plays out is original enough and has enough excitement to sustain itself for its runtime.   

 

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

Untitled Poem

You say you're a gangsta, you think you're a don? 

Wanna approach me with a knife or a gun? 

Fist full of money and a gat in your hand, when you were a child, was that in your plan? 

You must've made mama oh so damn proud, looting and shooting while running your mouth. 

Holding a weapon to steal what you want, 

You ain't no damn gansta, you're a pussy ass punk. 

Fight like a man, hold up your fists. 

Stop actin' so hard cuz your weak ass ain't shit. 

Tough guy you are? Strappin' your stuff; 

You gotta ACT hard cuz you can't get it up. 

Go get a job! Stop actin' a fool. 

I pay my taxes, how about you? 

Talking a game that you can't even play. 

Quit actin' so stupid, just go away. 

If he was alive, I guarantee this... 

Capone would've shown you who's the real bitch.

 

By Kristin Smith 

©2023 Kristin Smith

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

Season 2

Episode 37 Precious Cargo

 

Tucker saves a woman who was kidnaped but she’s a bit stuck-up and they don’t get along.  As per TV law they develop a thing for one another.   She’s returned to her home planet to become queen or something.  

 

Anyone who ever watched Quantum Leap would recognize it as very similar to Leaping of The Shrew.  Brooke Shields is stranded on a boat with Sam (Scott Bakula) trying to get rescued.  It would have actually been a stellar callback if they had Archer find the beautiful woman and she was Brook Shields.  

 

Ultimately its not a terrible episode since Padma Lakshmi is so easy on the eyes.  

 

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

Untitled Poem

She grows in dark cascades of light, the sun glistening as the moon rays guide her. 

A pathway of meandering wonder, the shadows of the past follow in consequential jest. 

Lalligagging in poppy fields only to find time did not wait for her. 

Awoken from clandestine dreams, only to find nightmares in reality. 

There's no place like home, clicking heels until her soul bleeds to infinity. 

She beckons the demons to summon the gods. 

Twisted karma unravels the now, searching past lives to figure it out. 

Searching, learning, growing, knowing. 

At the end of her journey, she'll eventually see, 

She is dead... but finally free.

 

By Kristin Smith 

©2023 Kristin Smith

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

 

Season 2

Episode 36 Vanishing Point

 

Horrible, boring, redundant.  Ensign Sato has to use the transporter despite her fear but an accident happens, she disappears from existence.  But wait it was all a dream.   She just took an extra moment to transport because of some weird storm.  Thanks for wasting an hour of our lives. You take one of the most least liked characters, and give her an episode where she is let lose to whine and complain.  

 

The redundant "transporter malfunction causes problems" in Star Trek aside, it’s near identical to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Realm Of Fear where Lieutenant Barclay has a fear of transporting.  He has to overcome his fear for a mission.  While doing so there is of course a malfunction.  He becomes obsessed he got sick or didn’t comeback complete.  As he investigates, he somehow saves a bunch of people trapped in the transport buffer. A better character who actually learns and grows from his experience.  Also, his neurosis is entertaining, not boring.  And it wasn’t a lame dream sequence episode. 

 

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

Misunderstood Butterfly

 Lost in translation, scared little girl; striving to live in a lost, senseless world. 

Addicted, restricted, conflicted with pain, knowing that growing will happen with change. 

She thrived in excuses, backed by her shame; 

A one person party, marching in vain. 

No one can help her, she’s all on her own 

No one can tell her what flatters her soul. 

A nudge or a punch won’t jostle her mind; 

Her path is hers, it’s her path to find. 

She'll meet many characters while acting in play, 

Dressed in rehearsal just for today.

 

By Kristin Smith 

©2023 Kristin Smith

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

 

Season 2

Episode 35 Singularity

 

Everyone in the Enterprise crew accept T’Pol goes crazy after being exposed to some weird space radiation.  It’s a nice budget minded episode that keeps all the action on the ship.  It’s also a been there done that Star Trek story.  It’s similar to the Star Trek original series episode The Naked Time where everyone loses their ambitions through a virus spread by touch or sweat or something.  Then Star Trek The Next Generation brought the virus back in The Naked Now. 

 

What’s even more tiring about the story is how many times did a popular Star Trek alien avoid the affects or radiation, a virus, anomaly, alien mind-wipe?  It’s a tired Star Trek trope that the ship is saved by the one alien or android who is immune to the condition that humans are susceptible to.  

 

 

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

Just Me

All I really need is me,

No man-made God can set me free. 

Intentions, fears and thoughts alike 

Create perceptions in shredded light. 

Soul inception, spirit infection. 

I exist to resist in a societal direction. 

Clean streets exist when collective minds resist dirty myths. 

Confounded by bounded minds who can't mind their minds. I wonder why? 

They can keep their shackled existence in a matrix that craves resistance. 

The sun retires and darkness sheds light upon the sea, 

And finally I see, it's reality, all I need to do is just be, all I really need is me.

 

By Kristin Smith 

©2023 Kristin Smith

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

Season 2

Episode 34 The Communicator

 

A nice return to form to the theme of a legitimate Star Trek prequel.  This episode captures that and in the most subtle way.  The Enterprise goes in disguise to investigate a pre-warp alien world and accidentally leaves technology behind.  They have to go back to retrieve it or risk contaminating the world with tech it cannot really manage, antics ensue, they get their technology back.  

 

Even though all the technology is recovered Archer admits they still managed to corrupt the civilization because of the technology the aliens witnessed and the lies they tried to tell to cover it up.  It sets the framework fro what will ultimately become the Prime Directive in the greater world of Star Trek.  

 

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