Trek Thru Trek

@trekthrutrek

725 episodes + 11 movies = 1 bad decision

724 posts

Star Trek

"Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives including your mother's. And yours. I dare you to do better." I love that speech. It's very inspiring.

The Kobayashi Maru stuff is fun. Kirk cheating on the test is classic Trek, but we never actually got to see it.

Destroying Vulcan is a bold story choice. It certainly firmly establishes that we are in a totally different timeline.

Spock maroons Kirk on a planet where future Spock just happens to be hanging out in a cave. Putting aside the absurd coincidence of Kirk and future Spock just running into each other like this, there's no way young Spock would have ejected Kirk from the ship. He could have just confined him to quarters or thrown him in the brig.

I've seen a lot of people comment that this movie totally misses what Star Trek is all about. But I would argue that that's true of all Star Trek movies, both good and bad. What Star Trek is really about doesn't translate well into movies. It can be talky and cerebral on the small screen, but that stuff just seems boring on the big screen. It's why the very first Star Trek movie is immensely dull and all the rest are very action-oriented. The only real failing of this movie for me is the same failing shared by every Star Trek film after Wrath of Khan and that's a lame villain.

ENT 4-22 These Are the Voyages...

Here we are at the end of an era. This is the final episode of eighteen straight years of Star Trek on television.

There are so many things that make this whole premise fall apart. Riker and Troi are noticeably older. They just look wrong. It's really distracting. And why is the holodeck changing Riker's clothes? That never happened on TNG. On the plus side, the CG version of the Enterprise-D looks awesome.

I find the choice to kill off one of the regular characters strange. DS9, far and away the darkest Star Trek series, had a sad ending but no one died. Trip's death is kind of awkward. He goes into the medical scanner and then they just cut to T'Pol packing up his things. And why do they put Riker's scene with Trip after his death? It's all too quick. It doesn't have the weight that it should.

I love TNG and I've never like Enterprise, but even I think this whole episode is ill-conceived. What are you saying about this show that you turn its series finale into a minor plot point in an episode of a different show?

I'm not sure how I feel about Enterprise now that I've watched it all. It definitely has its moments, but I never liked Archer. And it's tough for a really nerdy Trek fan like me to accept so much of what the show does.

ENT 4-21 Terra Prime

Paxton refers to the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced and then shows the baby. Really? That's your pitch? That people should be afraid of a cute little baby?

I still don't understand this plan. Paxton says the baby is an abomination and a freak and a threat to everything. Then why did you create it?

T'Pol is as awkward with the baby as you would expect. It's pretty funny actually.

"It hurts as if she were my own child." Aww, this ending is tougher than I was expecting. The final scene between Trip and T'Pol is really heartbreaking.

ENT 4-20 Demons

There better be a really good explanation for this Trip/T'Pol baby because it makes no sense to me why Terra Prime would want this kid.

Travis seems to want absolutely nothing to do with this woman until she kisses him. Then he's talking about giving up everything to stay on Earth with her. It's a pretty dramatic turn.

ENT 4-19 In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II

I didn't realize this ship is the one that disappeared in "The Tholian Web." That's great. The bodies on the bridge are even positioned exactly where they should be.

Archer is in the wraparound uniform. Of course he is. It makes sense that the characters would put on these uniforms because they came over in EV suits and they need something to wear. It seems like a little bit of a stretch that they would make sure to wear the proper color for their jobs, but why not?

Dude, there is a Gorn loose on the ship. I suddenly feel that I have been much too hard on this show in the past.

It doesn't reach the level of "Trials and Tribble-ations," but this episode is delightful.

ENT 4-18 In a Mirror, Darkly

Great teaser and there's a whole Terran Empire opening credits sequence. I'm digging this already.

They've taken this opportunity to have both T'Pol and Hoshi show a whole lot of skin, but it fits with the mirror universe episode from the original series. So I'll let it go this time.

The Tholian is really cool. Phlox takes so much glee in torturing it.

I'm disappointed that no one has an evil Spock goatee, but Trip's scars are pretty ridiculous.

I love that this is just a mirror universe story and it doesn't involve any characters crossing between universes.

The Constitution-class ship looks fantastic and the Tholians are making a web. We've reached a whole new level of original series fan service. Just listen to those sound effects on the bridge.

ENT 4-17 Bound

The Orion captain talks about the Gorn and Travis mentions Deltans. The references just keep coming.

Hey guys, having men guard the Orion women? Maybe a bad idea? Just a thought.

I'm not sure this concept that Orion men are actually slaves to the women makes any sense, but it's interesting.

ENT 4-16 Divergence

I feel like they're overdoing it with Trip's ability in this story. His replacement as chief engineer seems totally incompetent. Is there really no one else in all of Starfleet that can do this job?

Trip is going from one ship to another at warp via a cable? That's pretty crazy. But couldn't he have told someone how to fix it? Does he really have to be there? I guess they do a pretty good job of justifying it.

The away team to rescue Phlox from the Klingons consists of Captain Archer. No really. That's it.

"You're welcome to call with any questions." Aw Phlox, you still don't understand Klingons at all, do you?

I was just going to joke that Archer should develop cranial ridges and then he totally does. Well played.

ENT 4-15 Affliction

This explanation for why Klingons look different on the original series is not bad. It's such a ridiculous thing to try and explain.

It took them almost four seasons, but they finally managed to make Malcolm Reed mildly interesting. I'd say that this betrayal seems counter to his whole personality, but that would require him to actually have a personality.

ENT 4-14 The Aenar

There are Remans in this scene on Romulus. I don't know how I feel about that. Can't we all just pretend that Nemesis never happened?

Shran's balance is affected by the loss of his antenna. I like that. It's nice that they make the antenna seem like a real part of his physiology.

Once again they spent three episodes telling this story and I have very little to say about it. It was entertaining and Shran has really become a great character.

ENT 4-13 United

If the ship is controlled remotely from Romulus, that seems to track with the idea that the humans aren't going to see a Romulan during this story. So that's a good sign for continuity.

I don't understand Archer's plan with this duel. He explains that he has to be the one to die and then says that he won't let anything happen to himself.

I find it hard to believe that Shran would actually be satisfied with this nonsense. He wants revenge against a Tellarite and he gets a brawl with Archer.

ENT 4-12 Babel One

At this point, I think Shran is a more developed character than Hoshi or Travis.

It's a variation on "Journey to Babel," but revisiting an original series episode like this seems like a fun homage. When they lift stories from the later series, it just seems lazy.

ENT 4-11 Observer Effect

These scenes between Trip and Hoshi in decon develop her more as a character than practically the entirely of the last three seasons. Why do we not get more character moments like this with her? A little can go a long way.

ENT 4-10 Daedalus

That may be the most awkward lead-in to the opening credits in the whole series. Archer makes a really weak joke, Dr. Erickson cracks up like it's the funniest thing he's ever heard, roll credits.

I guess it's because of the power modifications that the lighting is so low, but almost every scene in this episode is so dark that you can barely tells what's happening.

It's not a terrible premise for an episode, but it just doesn't really work.

ENT 4-9 Kir'Shara

It's a story involving the Andorians, so guess who's here? To be fair, they actually seek out Shran this time. He doesn't just show up.

The Vulcans that attack Archer and T'Pol are fighting with lirpas. That's a nice touch.

A Romulan! Those devious bastards. The original series established that humans fought an entire war with the Romulans without ever seeing what they looked like. I always thought that seemed ridiculous, but I hope they stay consistent with it here.

ENT 4-8 Awakening

It isn't enough for Archer to be the savior of humanity? Now he's going to bring about a new Vulcan enlightenment?

So this whole thing is just about an attack on Andoria? Huh. I guess what this story really does is explain why Vulcans are so different in this series. They blame it all on a corruption of Surak's original teachings. They even specifically refer to using P'Jem as a monitoring station as something that does not fit with those teachings.

ENT 4-7 The Forge

We've gone right from one three-parter to another. It's time to dig into the Vulcans a bit.

Hey, it's a sehlat. I didn't know they showed one on this series. That's cool. And T'Pol had one as a pet just like Spock. "Vulcan children are never late with their sehlat's dinner." Good line. She talks about her inner eyelids as well and she gets an IDIC from her mother. They are just cranking out the original series references.

Now they're talking about transferring katras. It's like a tour of everything that's ever been established about Vulcans.

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