Episode Guest Reviews - Reviewer

Reviewer :	Ben
Ave Rating :	2.5789 for 19 reviews

Title :	Twilight	Rating :
Writers :	Michael Sussman	Year :	2153
Review :	Pretty visuals and a nicely understated romance between T'Pol and Archer aren't quite enough for me to acclaim this episode. Time Travel episodes are always messy, as they are based on the concept of "changing the timeline" and setting aright, thus leading to paradoxes. The other major criticism I have is that it is another episode with a "reset" button. This concept aggravates me, as it renders the episode irrelevant from the perspective of the characters. Yes it's nice to see T'Pol caring for and falling in love with Archer, but when the characters in the "real" timeline don't get the benefit of this deep relationship, what's the point? I'd rather see an episode develop further the sexual tension between T'Pol and Trip.

Title :	Similitude	Rating :
Writers :	Manny Coto	Year :	2153
Review :	This episode is by leaps and bounds the best Enterprise episode yet. It tackles head-on the enormously difficult issues raised in philosophy of mind. What is the self, the "I"? Rather than simplistically insist that the man lying in a coma is the one and only Trip, Sim and Sim's interactions with others makes the viewer think about themselves, about what it is to be youself. Archer's emotional outburst played far better than Janeway's sad attempt at iron will (in Tuvix). I liked that the danger to Enterprise wasn't the focal point of the episode; getting the ship out of the cloud wasn't the climax, so the episode more clearly focused on Sim.

Title :	Carpenter Street	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga	Year :	2153
Review :	A messy concept, a bit pointless and raises a lot of "why" questions. But, it's executed well, and the story is entertaining enough. I have to wonder about T'Pol's remark about Daniels having all the time in the world - was this a wink and a nod for the fans who groan at every time travel inconsistency, or was it just sloppy writing?

Title :	Doctor's Orders	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga	Year :	2154
Review :	The main review hit on the biggest flaw in this episode - just lazy writing, and the twist comes too abruptly at the end. It does raise some questions though, such as how much of the episode was Phlox hallucinating, and how much was real? Trip's remarks about the engine make it appear that there was a crisis of some kind, and Phlox managed to avert disaster, but can we trust that the anomaly did in fact expand? If it did, why? How come they were so far off in their calculations? It did become obvious that Phlox was hallucinating fairly quickly - noises in the engine room are one thing, but the events soon took on the obvious shape of his fear of failure (eg the somewhat absurd transformation of Hoshi). Once it is established that Phlox is stark raving, anything in the episode is open to question - including the existence of T'Pol. I thought Blalock and Billingsley did admirable jobs carrying this episode, and I think Blalock showed remarkable restraint - I feel when T'Pol is, for whatever reason, on the brink of emotional display, it seems to come to easily. In this episode we got the feel that she was still partially in control, but on the verge of losing it. If this episode had not already aired (Voyager's "One"), it might deserve a higher rating.

Title :	Hatchery	Rating :
Writers :	Andre Bormanis, Mike Sussman	Year :	2154
Review :	Ooh, Archer is sprayed with an alien compound, then starts acting stragely - I wonder what's going on? Major Hayes is apparently a knee-jerk jingoistic idiot - yay mission, yay captain, boo insubortinators. It doesn't make much sense to me that he would so willingly follow Archer's orders, especially since he of all people seems determined to fight the Xindi threat. Given that Phlox had a senior officer with him, why couldn't he get a lowly corporal to confine the captain to quarters, or at least submit to an examination? There's no reason for the MACOs to favour Archer over the majority of senior officers. Unless they have been trained to blindly follow commands - which I would hope no military organization would be. Enterprise consistently gets minor points for execution - this episode is no different, but it's pretty bad.

Title :	Countdown	Rating :
Writers :	Chris Black, André Bormanis	Year :	2154
Review :	This episode is a well-executed piece of the current arc, with a handful of quibbles - the most noticeable for me that Phlox is pretty much just standing around while Major Hayes is seriously injured. Why wouldn't he be a flurry of activity, trying to stop bleeding, repair tissue, etc? I'm also a little annoyed at the reptiles/insects bad, mammals good dichotomy that seems very common in Star Trek and other sci-fi. T'Pol's addiction recovery is a bit frustrating too - I wouldn't mind if she were actually struggling with some kind of withdrawal symptoms, but instead it feels like a cheap ploy to remake Vulcans in humanity's image. This quibble is more with the arc as a whole, but this episode seemed to highlight it for me.

Title :	Zero Hour	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga	Year :	2154
Review :	A well executed action episode, serving as a fitting climax (and most of a resolution) to this arc. Some great special effects and cgi, nice looking space battles, and a decent fight for Archer (with a hilarious ending). The shot with Archer running on the catwalk while everything explodes around him was a little cheesy though. The episode as a whole was arresting, and managed to create a decent amount of tension, which is a win for the writers/director because I'm coming at this episode from the DVDs, so I know that Archer and Earth will be A-OK. I have a bit of a problem with how they handled Hoshi - it's nice to see Reed showing some compassion and concern for her well-being, but she looks more like she's recovering from the flu than from worms in her brain! Maybe they'll show some recovery, after effects in season 4, but in this episode they glossed over it a bit too easily. I'm always a little confused by the whole "trans-dimensional/out-of-phase/quantum vibrating/" aliens who can walk through walls but damage systems in doing so. Apparently the effects on normal physical objects varies with the whim of the alien - it sure doesn't hurt a wall to walk through it, but stick a hand in a plasma conduit and it starts going wonky. It's all just a little messy and vague. I didn't mind Shran showing up, but it's a little weird that he was the only help they got - where were the other Starfleet vessels, the Vulcan ships? Even if we accept that whatever time-travel effect that connects with the ending of the episode is happening on earth, it apparently hasn't affected Andoria, so why aren't the Vulcans nearby? I know they're a bit antagonistic in ENT, but this seems a bit much. I'm not a huge fan of period pieces in Star Trek, so I'm a bit worried about where it's going, and it made for a somewhat cheesy ending to an otherwise very good episode.

Title :	Storm Front, Part 1	Rating :
Writers :	Manny Coto	Year :	2154
Review :	This episode gets two stars only because it didn't bore me. There are, however, many flaws. The most glaring being that there is too much going on - aliens altering WWII, Sillik and Daniels reappearing, Archer and the resistance, Trip and Mayweather...and the entire summary is given in a brief deathbed utterance from Daniels - the temporal cold war is now at the brink of "destroying all time". I rolled my eyes at this. This feels like the writers and producers trying to wrap things up in a few episodes. I don't think it will work. What in the world is Schirripa doing on Enterprise? He was an actor for the freakin' Sopranos...and now he's acting as a two-bit criminal written for Star Trek?

Title :	Storm Front, Part 2	Rating :
Writers :	Manny Coto	Year :	2154
Review :	It sounds odd, but time-travelling aliens skewing WWII in favour of the Nazi's only to be thwarted by Archer, Silik et al. bored me to tears. I'm somewhat grateful that Coto seems to want to do away with the Temporal Cold War, and move on from the Xindi arc, but this two-parter was a lacklustre way to do it. Some beautiful visuals, including our concluding (?) shot with Daniels, but it's all just a bit too pat. Blow up a facility and presto! the timeline is magically fixed. Just sloppy writing. Get this one behind us, and onward to the rest of the galaxy, please.

Title :	Home	Rating :
Writers :	Michael Sussman	Year :	2154
Review :	If TNG hadn't already done this episode, it might have been passable. But the xenophobia plotline and Archer needing to climb a rock and get it on with a girl to move on plotline felt flat to me. The love triangle between T'Pol, Koss and Trip was effective. Not a bad episode.

Title :	Borderland	Rating :
Writers :	Ken LaZebnik	Year :	2154
Review :	Out of the frying pan, into a new three-story arc for the intrepid crew of the Enterprise. No rest for the weary I guess. Not a bad beginning to the story, though I thought the Augments seemed a little tribal for being such highly intelligent group. Not to mention the ridiculous artfully-torn spandex uniforms they wore. The scene with Malik announcing his attack on Archer was a little much. But...Spiner was great and this arc looks promising.

Title :	Kir'Shara	Rating :
Writers :	Michael Sussman	Year :	2154
Review :	Nothing fantastic here, but a solid conclusion to a good story arc. I like to interpret the scene where T'Pol is being cured of Pa'Nar as Coto and company flipping the bird at B&B's disrespect for Vulcans. Probably not what they intended, but it gives me a sense of satisfaction. I think Archer's newfound fighting prowess could possibly be attributed to Surak's ketra.

Title :	Daedalus	Rating :
Writers :	Michael Bryant, Ken LaZebnik	Year :	2154
Review :	For it's premise, this was a remarkably boring episode. The viewer isn't kept in suspense, but there's no emotional payoff once we know the whole story. Bill Cobbs seemed flat, and the backstory of Quinn being Archer's best friend seems thrown together. It doesn't arise naturally in the dialogue, so I felt no connection when Archer is screaming and yelling about getting Quinn back. Archer's never been afraid of emoting, but this just seemed over-the-top and irrational. I've never though Bakula was a world-class actor, but for some reason his physical acting in this episode really, really bugged me. The material had promise, but it was executed poorly. At least a few scenes had some merit - T'Pol and Phlox, and then T'Pol with Trip; Trip eagerly wanting to work with Erickson, and then being rebuffed (and starting to put the pieces together).

Title :	Observer Effect	Rating :
Writers :	Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Judith Reeves-Stevens	Year :	2154
Review :	One of Enterprise's best efforts. While I may not entirely agree with all the themes this episode looks at, the writers did an excellent job at presenting their viewpoint. All the main characters get screen time and make the most of it. It's great to see Montgomery get to do some acting (though it's unfortunately not as Mayweather. I'd really like to see his character get some development), and we see he is quite competent. Using Reed as a host was a tour-de-force, as his character fits pretty closely to the Organian's. Great scenes with Hoshi and Trip, and hearing Hoshi babble in various languages was really cool.

Title :	United	Rating :
Writers :	Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Judith Reeves-Stevens	Year :	2154
Review :	Overall this was a good episode; decent action, political tension, watching the series edge closer to the founding of the Federation, and a remarkably touching scene between Shran and Talas (though later in the episode, he seems relatively unaffected). Although the intrigue with the meddlesome Romulans is cool, the whole drone concept is pretty weak. The ship itself seems waaaaaaaay too agile, especially since it seems to be well-armed and well-armoured. The thing jumps and twists around like the flea it resembles. Makes for cool CGI battles, but it's a little hard to swallow. This combined with the technical improbabilities (the amount of energy required to get the controlling signal from Romulan territory to the drone would be huge, and yet it seems to be controlled from a nondescript tower on a Romulan planet - why not on a space station or array? And how did they manage to create self-repairing technology so easily? Where did the metal to repair the huge cracks in the hull and systems come from?) stretches this concept toward the absurd...I'll give it high points for being interesting though.

Title :	Bound	Rating :
Writers :	Manny Coto	Year :	2154
Review :	Well this episode was a disappointment after a run of quite decent episodes. The premise itself has been done to death, and watching men trip over themselves because they can see a little skin gets old pretty fast (how about an episode where beautiful men take over the ship by seducing all the women? At least it would be a twist on the concept). I know the pheromones affect everybody, but the women only seem to get a bit testy and jealous - so why couldn't T'Pol, Trip and the female crew members (assuming there aren't any lesbians on board) stage a temporary coup? Even accepting the plot as it is, it was incredulous that T'Pol, seeing the effects on Archer outside the decon room, would leave two male MACOs to guard them. When Kelby sabotages the engines, why is Trip the only one doing anything? Surely the others would be either working to counteract Kelby's sabotage or trying to incapacitate him. The scene, near the end, in sickbay was a nice touch. Very TOS, right down to the music and poking fun at the Vulcan. 1.5 out of 5.

Title :	In A Mirror, Darkly	Rating :
Writers :	Michael Sussman	Year :	2155
Review :	A fantastic episode. Had me hooked from the start, and held on until the bitter end. Phlox and Reed gleefully demonstrating their new torture apparatus was wonderful, and Hoshi's transformation from demure wallflower to power-seeking sexpot was great to see, as was T'Pol's use of sex and mindmelds as weapons for her personal gain. Would be nice to see Archer a little more hard-edged (or at least reveal some practical reasons for keeping Forrest and the Tholian alive), but in the majority of scenes he was delightfully immoral and power-hungry. I loved the touch of Enterprise stealing Suliban cloaking technology and using it. Can't wait to see part two, this is probably the best Enterprise has done so far.

Title :	These Are The Voyages...	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga	Year :	2370
Review :	A mess of an episode, this is not a "valentine for the fans" but a self-indulgent wank for Berman and Braga.

Title :	The Alternative Factor	Rating :
Writers :	Don Ingalls	Year :	2267
Review :	It's too bad there's so much expository dialogue in this episode; it would be tolerable as a silly, absurdly plotted sci-fi thriller. Instead we get reams of inane, ridiculous, incorrect technobabble that try to fit "anti-matter" and 'alternate universes' where they don't belong. Coming at this episode from the age of the LHC, where everyone and their dog knows the basics of anti-matter, this episode is just painful.

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Last updated : 19 Apr 2024