Episode Guest Reviews - Reviewer

Reviewer :	Cailus
Ave Rating :	3.2143 for 14 reviews

Title :	Time's Orphan	Rating :
Writers :	Joe Menosky	Year :	2374
Review :	For me, this episode is exemplary of some of the very best things about DS9. Of all the Trek series, even including the movies, DS9 has been the only one to really dedicate itself to creating a real family. Voyager tried to go down the same road, with the Borg children and the Paris/B'Elanna marriage, but never really hit the same chord that DS9 have. To see how successful a show has been in developing its characters, you only have to compare the last season to the first. With TOS, you see younger, fitter versions of the TOS crew compared to Undiscovered Country. With TNG, you see a more naive crew, that grow into a tight-knit group. With Voyager you see an older, more experienced cast that have grown close in those seven seasons. In Enterprise...well, I think it'd just shame those few Ent fans that exist, so I won't even start. But there's no doubt that it's DS9 that features the greatest change. Just try comparing the O'Brien family to their first arrival at DS9; Odo and Kira's relationship, the war, Kira having Kirayoshi for the O'Briens, Worf and Dax...it's an incredible list compared to other series. This episode, while having little action and focused on character work, featured all of these superbly well. I couldn't help but smile at Worf's babysitting, and Kirayoshi's "GON GON GON!"

Title :	These Are The Voyages...	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga	Year :	2370
Review :	Season 1? Utter, complete, gigantic piece of rubbish. But that's okay, Voyager wasn't much better and TNG was almost as bad at first. Season 2? Well, now it's getting silly; you'd expect at least some improvement... Season 3? Nice change, and an improvement, but still a general dissappointment. The moral conflicts were interesting, but the whole Temporal Civil War thing just felt a bit over the top, and the Xindi were hardly any better than the Kazon as baddies. It was only with Season 4, under Manny Coto, that Enterprise really began to come into its own. They did the best Mirror Universe episodes in Trek, fixed the Vulcans, some nice other stories; even the characters began to grow from 2-D figuresticks to actual people. And then, B&B do this. The only conclusion can be that they intentionally made it as awful as physically possible, almost like a stiff middle finger to Mr Fixer Coto. Honestly, if you must watch Enterprise, only ever watch Season 4, and stay well away from this episode. Final Frontier looks like an ageless classic compared to this heap of garbage.

Title :	Twilight	Rating :
Writers :	Michael Sussman	Year :	2153
Review :	Probably one of Enterprise's finest hours (and let's face it, there weren't many of them). It has all the action of Zero Hour, but also has some interesting character work. Personally, I would've preferred for them to go a little further in exploring the last remnants of humnaity, and the grittiness of it, rather than focusing so much on Archer. This episode serves to really rap up the stakes for Enterprise's mission, and is one of the few occasions where the magic reset button can be justified from a dramatic point of view. A superb action episode, but by over-doing the character work, let itself down.

Title :	Year of Hell, Part 1	Rating :
Writers :	Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky	Year :	2374
Review :	Most definitely one of Voyager's finest hours. Brilliant acting, stunning special effects and an intriguing story, this has all the marks of a classic episode. One of the best parts of this is the dilemna Janeway faces; fight on and probably die, or separate and some live. I love that this time, the writers actually chose to go for one of the options, rather than finding the super-convenient super-cheap third option, and shows us the command crew dealing with Janeway's decision. Her descent into pure instinctual thinking is an excellent one, as well. Also, the incredible damage Voyager takes during this episode defies belief, and is a very dark, and very appropriate part of this episode. Janeway's talk about the link between crew and ship is especially potent, considering the extraordinary damage Voyager has taken. One of my all time favourites.

Title :	Nemesis	Rating :
Writers :	John Logan	Year :	2379
Review :	Star Trek X is, for me, downright superb. I've always been surprised by people who claim it isn't, or those who hate it; that genuinely confuses me. The villain, Shinzon, is probably one of the very best villans we have ever seen on Star Trek. Very well acted, he has an beautiful interplay with Picard, and this film does a stunning job of portraying his tortured character. When you compare Shinzon to other villains such as the Borg Queen, Ru'afel, and Chang, he's miles above them in quality. The audience is drawn to like him, but he is still suitably intimidating not because he's sexy (Borg Queen...) or ugly (Ru'afel...), but because he's intelligent. The only low point, for me, is when Picard, Data and Worf find B-4, but apart from this, it flows perfectly. The final battle is extremely well done, with good effects and changes of fortune for both sides. Data's death, while not as well done as Spock's, is still a good touch, and a good piece of continuity in the end, when Riker mentions his meeting Data in Encounter at Farpoint. Overall, probably TNG's best movie. Fantastic.

Title :	Star Trek	Rating :
Writers :	Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci	Year :	2258
Review :	For me, Star Trek XI is like a sandwich with fine tuna, fresh bread, and lovely salad...but horribly burnt. The effects were, for the most part, excellent. However, the interiors of the Enterprise are a big disappointment. It all seems too white, too generic, and the engineering section doesn't look dissimilar to an old steam ship. If they'd made more effort to individualise the bridge stations, and actually show that the engine room is from the 23rd century, I'd be happer. The acting, too, was excellent. Although Chris Pine wasn't particularly impressive, there were hints that when he grows into the role, he'll actually turn out quite well. All the other actors, however, was fantastic in their roles, and I can certainly see this crew living up to the hype. Unfortunately, the letdown are the writers. The first 20 minutes or so, as the Kelvin is attacked, are absolutely and undeniably incredible. The Academy piece is decent, certainy. However, this movie collapses for me when, ironically, the Enterprise starts moving. The writers turn the tough security officer Chekov into pathetic comic relief, invent a bizarre relationship between Spock and Uhura (seriously, why the hell did they do that?), create classic bad science (it works because...er...because we say it does!) and then we have Nero. Now, I'm sorry, but I'm tired of insane villains, we've really had enough of them. Shinzon was a refresher, a sign of hope, but then we get Nero. Nero, who doesn't even LOOK Romulan. Nero, who is insane, but is apparently still able to convince thousands of crewmen to commit xenocide and follow him into a war. About half of Trek movie villains are apparently genocidal maniacs, and really, that might work once or twice, but for pete's sake... And of course, really, look at Kirk. The guy is a CADET. A CADET. On Starfleet's newest starship, launched from the very heart of the Federation, the best they can find are a load of cadets for a command crew. And in the end, what does Kirk even do that's so special? He takes command, sneaks up to Narada with technobabble, does a load of shooting, finds Pike, does more shooting, and is then rescued. For that, which is exactly what a security squad could have achieved, he is given a field promotion to Captain. Yeah, right. So, overall, the writers took the potential for an incredible Trek film that could have equalled Wrath of Khan, and turned it into a pretty good action flick. I can only hope that they use different writers next time, because there is fantastic potential here.

Title :	Broken Bow	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga	Year :	2151
Review :	Out of all the TNG+ pilots, this is easily the worst. All of the other pilots introduced an interesting premise, interesting characters, and an interesting setting; using an old Cardassian mining station for DS9 is a personal favourite, and the DS9 cast was fantastic, most certainly equal to the TNG cast. And then we have this. Enterprise. So first off, premise. Enterprise is Earth's first true starship? Okay, not bad. Enterprise is taking, and then rescuing, a Klingon diplomat? Huh? The writers had three good beginnings to look at, and they produced this piece of trash? How the hell does rescuing a dumb Klingon compare with Sisko explaining time to the Prophets or Picard arguing for the continued existence of humanity? And then, of course, we have the cast. The only one who is even attempting to approach a real character is T'Pol, and even then, she is an awful copy of Spock, and representative of the similarily awful Enterprise version of the Vulcans. Archer comes off as a brash, impulsive prick in all the wrong ways, and looks to have the intelligence of a peanut-and really, that's an insult to peanuts. And of course, the ship. Aesthetically it looks just as futuristic as TNG-era ships...which makes plenty of sense, since it was designed TWO HUNDREDS YEARS PREVIOUS. Really, it's a blessing that they used keyboards, because that's one of very few things they managed to get right. The ship has absolutely no interesting features; it's just tech that we already know given other fancy names. So, in the end, an awful beginning to an awful show. An insult, really.

Title :	Equinox, Part 2	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky	Year :	2376
Review :	It's a classic B&B slam job. Take something, and abuse it hard enough to leave it squealing. The concept is fascinating. Seriously. The beginning, middle and end are all absolutely, undeniably riveting: Janeway's fury over the Equinox's betrayal, driving towards obsession is a particular highlight. One of the worst crimes of a Trek episode with a dilemna is picking the convenient "third option", where there's some technobabble or some other kind of rubbish that makes the dilemna meaningless. Equinox doesn't do this; every dilemna is solved by the characters taking one option or the other, and living with the consequences, and leaving us wondering which is right. Unfortunately, this episode is let down by B&B. Joe Menosky does a stunning job of writing the concept and dilemnas, but the mistake is in letting B&B do the rest, the details. It's frighteningly easy to see where B&B contaminated this script.

Title :	Fury	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Bryan Fuller	Year :	2376
Review :	The plot is, in some ways, not that bad. The idea of Kes returning and...er...going "dark side" is okay on paper, and I'm certain that everybody felt it would be good to revisit the cast and atmosphere of the first season. Unfortunately, this is let down by two quite important things. First, there is Kes...who is about as interesting as a blind squirrel, and twice as placid. Second, there is the unavoidable fact that Season 1 of Voyager, while not quite as terrible as TNG Season 1, was certainly as brain damaging. In the end, the episode is saved by some fancy effects and some uncharacteristic good acting from...bizarrely...everybody. The writing is decent (from B&B...odd...), and somehow, the episode turns out to be a decent watch. Not a masterpiece, but far superior to the normal Voyager fare.

Title :	Home	Rating :
Writers :	Michael Sussman	Year :	2154
Review :	This episode has two plotlines: Archer getting it on with Hernandez and recovering emotionally after a hard battle (deja vu, anyone?) and T'Pol with Trip on Vulcan. The Archer plotline...actually kinda works. It's odd, but it does an excellent job of showing how Enterprise has changed: for the better. And, then...the Vulcans. So...there's arranged marriages. And the only way to get out of them is for the guy to change his mind (inequality in a logic-based society) or a fight to the death (we moved on from that about...two thousand, three thousand years ago?). Really, this episode mangles Vulcan culture to the extreme. Fortunately, T'Pol and Tucker seem to save the plotline...just. Emphasis, please, on the "just".

Title :	Endgame	Rating :
Writers :	Rick Berman, Kenneth Biller, Brannon Braga	Year :	2377
Review :	Generally, final episodes are meant to define a series. They close up outstanding plotlines and represent the best qualities of the show. Endgame manages neither. We have the Borg, who have been demoted from badass to bad guy of the week. We have random tech appearing with absolutely no precursor in the seven years of Voyager. And-naturally-we have convenient plot devices. Got a dilemna? Blow the Borg Hub to hell, or leave it intact to get to Earth? To hell with moral dilemnas, who ever needed them? We'll do some fancy stuff and do both! Good performances from the actors save the episode to some degree; I especially liked Miral. However, the future scenes do very little except set up the trip back through time-which removes much of the fun of seeing the future. Ultimately, despite the pretty eye candy, this episode fails. It's not nearly as bad as Enterprise's final episode, but given the good episodes Voyager has pulled out occasionally, you would expect better.

Title :	Damage	Rating :
Writers :	Phyllis Strong	Year :	2154
Review :	Bravo to everyone here. Enterprise not only gets its butt kicked, but it gets its butt kicked hard. The only time time we see a starship get this badly damaged in Trek is Voyager in Year of Hell...and technically, that didn't even happen. We see the crew forced to deal with their extreme situation, and stress shows with some surprisingly good acting. And finally, brilliantly, the show actualy succeeds in presenting a moral dilemna: is it right to attack and steal from the innocent to save billions of lives? Great acting, great writing, great special effects: one of Enterprise's finest outings.

Title :	Regeneration	Rating :
Writers :	Phyllis Strong, Michael Sussman	Year :	2153
Review :	Avoiding continuity, this is probably the best Enterprise episode of the first two seasons. Decent writing, good atmosphere, half-decent acting, and an actual successful attempt at the Borg. I imagine that the producers told the writers, "We want a Borg episode. Make it happen!" and that was that. Given fairly obvious limitations, the writers do an excellent job, making this the best episode of the first two seasons...although honestly, that's like saying a snail is better than a slug.

Title :	Star Trek Into Darkness	Rating :
Writers :	Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci	Year :	2259
Review :	The painful truth is that while I enjoyed the film...I enjoyed it despite itself. There were good bits, such as Kirk's continuing to mature...and bad bits. The entire end of the film was simply awful. The rehash of WoK's death scene, Spock's emotional rampage, and THAT BLOODY SCREAM. I relished the idea of Spock vs Khan, but the implementation was poor, a simple fistfight. A good fistfight, sure, but nothing noteworthy. You give us Khan's brilliant mind, his ferocity, his passion and sheer brutality. You give us Spock's brilliant mind, his scientific knowledge, his subtle compassion and Vulcan logic. And you make them punch each other. Woohoo. And in the meantime, Kirk, who has been on his own journey, lies in the background. No Kirk vs Khan. We don' get to see Kirk's brilliant mind, his mastery of the Enterprise and starship combat, his tactical and strategic mastery...we get to see him punching Section 31 (sigh...), punching Scotty, and kicking his own ship in the balls. This film was sadly like its predecessor. Great acting, great special effects, and writers who need to get fired.

Page views : 11,440

Last updated : 18 Apr 2024