Enterprise Review: “E2

Counting down to the season finale!

E2

Cast & Crew

Director: Roxann Dawson
Written By: Michael Sussman

Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain
Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief
Engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander
T’Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt.
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi
Sato
John Billingsley
as Dr. Phlox

Guest Cast
David Andrews as Lorian
Randy Oglesby as Degra
Tucker Smallwood as Xindi-Humanoid
Rick Worthy as Xindi-Arboreal
Tess Lina as Karyn Archer
Tom Schanley as Greer
Steve Truitt as Crewman #1

Episode Information

Originally Aired: May 5, 2004
Season: Three
Episode: Twenty-One
Production: 073

What Happened

While on their way to face the Xindi Council, Archer and crew encounter a twin NX-01 manned by their own descendants, who warn that the subspace shortcut they intend to take will throw them 100 years into the past, ensuring Earth’s destruction.

Review

Well, I like it when I’m delightfully surprised. I was expecting a rehash of a similar DS9 episode, but got something altogether fitting and pleasent.

High Point

The writers seem to be acknowledging the time flubs with the intentionally unresolved ending. Questions that we would ask, are asked in the dialog.

Honorable Mention: Naming the NX-02 after the Columbia. Classy. Very classy.

Low Point

Lorian’s scenes with Trip bordered on really good. They should’ve played that up a little more.

The Scores

Originality: Been done, but still had some imagination. 3 out of 6.

Effects: Excellent effects as usual. 5 out of 6.

Story: It was interesting to see Archer’s “nothing will stand in our way”attitude come back to bite him by way of their desendents. 5 out of 6.

Acting: Guest and main cast looking good. 4 out of 6.

Emotional Response: Good emotion and humor. Reed turning on the charm to start flirting was very funny. 4 out of 6.

Production: I’m sure debris is hard. Really. 3 out of 6

Overall: A mild detour on the road to the finale, but worthwhile. 5 out of 6.

Total: 30 out of 42

Next Week on Enterprise (May 5, 2004)

The Council

T’Pol and Reed lead a team on a harrowing mission into one of the mysterious metallic Spheres to obtain vital information about how the Delphic Expanse was created, as Archer and Hoshi approach the Xindi Council hoping that diplomacy can stop the launch of the superweapon aimed at Earth. Meanwhile, with Enterprise about to derail their plans to invade our universe, the transdimensional Sphere-Builders urge key members of the Xindi Council to take drastic measures to undermine the humans’ peace overtures.

The Final Episodes of Season Three

The remainder of the third season goes like this:

  • Countdown (05.19.2004)
  • Zero Hour (05.26.2004)

Additional Notes and Comments

If you’re interested in what’s in TheAngryMob’s review queue, check out my What’s Coming page.

TheAngrymob

13 replies on “Enterprise Review: “E2“”

    • Re: Debris.

      Ehh… Only a 3, huh? Dont do much high-order modelling, eh?

      Effects got a good rating, probably by debris he means the stuff in the corridors of enterprise.

      • Re: Debris.

        Effects got a good rating, probably by debris he means the stuff in the corridors of enterprise.

        Ah! Sorry there, my fault for skimming. Completely didn’t see Effects section.

  1. Star Trek: Kicking Causality in the Ass Since 1966!
    I absolutely hated this episode. It embodies everything that I, and really a lot of people one this and other forums hate about Enterprise.

    It was a TOTAL filler episode. It may as well never have happened. And, oh yeah, it didn’t happen. Did it? I mean, did it? I mean… did it? I am so sick of Trek episodes that ‘never happened’. We’re trying to have a story arc here, and they still manage to have episodes that never happened.

    Also, that ship’s been flying arond for what, 100 years… they managed to keep the engines working, even install new technology, but in all that time they couldn’t find a friggin body-shop and slap some sheet-metal on the hull?

    And that’s your low point? How about Old T’Pol talking to Current T’Pol? How about Lorien being a total git for not even trying to TALK? How about Trip and Current T’Pol’s dialog? How about the whole It Never Happened thing?

    Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

    • Re: Star Trek: Kicking Causality in the Ass Since 1966!

      Are we so certain, however, that it didn’t happen?

      I, for one, was expecting this to be just your standard ST “meet the
      descendents, solve the problem, change the future” crap, but I was pleasantly
      surprised. I’m not convinced we’ve seen the last of Lorien and his
      Enterprise.

      I especially liked the way they tied it in to the questioning of Archer
      several eps ago. I haven’t watched Enterprise much at all this season
      (I think “E2” was maybe the third I’ve seen all year), but that was one ep I saw
      and the reference was nice.

      Old T’Pol was just silly looking. Better makeup, please. I guess Hoshi and
      [Navigator Guy whose name I can’t recall] still don’t have much to do, eh?

      I’m actually pretty interested in the last few episodes of this season. Now
      I kind of wish I had watched more so I’d know more about these Sphere-
      Builders. Who are they? What’s their deal? Are they the future folk that were
      helping the Suliban? Was that one in the previews for next week? Why did she
      look so much like a Founder? So many questions…

      • Re: Star Trek: Kicking Causality in the Ass Since 1966!

        Are we so certain, however, that it didn’t happen?

        Sure it did. I mean. Did it? Didn’t it? Did it? Aaaargh. See my point?…

        Now I kind of wish I had watched more so I’d know more about these Sphere-
        Builders. Who are they? What’s their deal? Are they the future folk that were
        helping the Suliban?

        *grins* Ok. The SPhere Builders are trans-dimentional beings. They cannot survive in our space, so they made the spheres to transform it into an area compatible with them.

        In the future, the federation will battle them in order to save everyone who lives in the expance, icluding the Xindi – some of whom will be on the crew of the future Enterprise-I (I think it was I) which Archer was shown a few weeks ago.

        They Aliens are, indeed, sending people over from the past to try and prevent the federation from bein formed, and more recently just trying to destroy humanity. If they do this, nobody will be there to stop them in the future.

        This is the information Archer is rying to deliver to the Xindi counsil – if the Xindi destroy Earth, they are condemning themselves to death, too.

          • Re: Star Trek: Kicking Causality in the Ass Since 1966!

            It was the J.

            I always get those two confused. You should see me trying to untar a .tar.bz2 file… /nerd

  2. they shoot, they score…
    Not pushing forward the story very much, BUT it was still fairly entertaining.

  3. No no…
    … the high points were Reed quickly decided that he didn’t have to accept a lonely fate and asked the gal to sit down with him. I like it when Star Trek remembers that it is about humans dealing with the wild circumstances that they find themselves in, and Reed’s was a very human move. As was Hoshi telling Mayweather that he should ask out the MACH (sp) gal.

    The other high point was the use of the transporter to tip the scales in the battle. About time it gets used like that. Better would have been if the Lorian had said “someone get to our transporter” only to be told, “that is what Archer disabled with the first beam-out.”

    Not that bad an episode, which is to say, it could have been much much worse. Still, I didn’t like the feeling that it was a big distraction from the real story.

    You are right about Archer’s attitude coming back to bite him. That was nice. But even nicer was that it didn’t cause him to change that attitude at all. We have spent too long watching Archer become hard and determined, I hope it isn’t ever wasted like that.

  4. It really did happen, therefore it didn’t., therefore it did
    So Enterprise was thrown back 100 years. 100 years later, they prevented themselves from being thrown back 100 years. Since they prevented it, they weren’t thrown back 100 years and therefore could not have stopped themselves 100 years later from being thrown back 100 years.

    So Enterprise was thrown back 100 years…

  5. About Time… not! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
    Once again we are treated to a time travel story; only in this one the future / past individuals don’t bother holding back info on what will happen in the near future that sends them to the far past so their decendants can show them the results in the present and stop them from jumping to the past.
    My problems w this story? Let me share…

    – Fight anywhere along a subspace corridor with energy weapons hitting your engines and we have ANOTHER time travel event; this one an accident? Its getting so that if Captain Archer even sneezes he will jump in time.

    – Generational Ship waits 100 years and doesn’t even try to warn Earth with all that advanced tech they traded plus the future stuff left in a certain cabin. They stay in the expance wandering about ALL THAT TIME? Then they decide to do the job themselves and fail and still don’t contact earth! Inbreeding must have developed.

    – How many species were found in the DNA again?? Damn, the ship must have met the bunny people of Venus Prime. This was a 3 – 4 generation old ship. People musta been knocking on Dr. Floxs door to force him to create a method for many interspecies prodigy. Assuredly, he was working overtime to manage to integrate all those species physiologies

    – Transporter aspects. Three things: (1) If I took a part out that regulated my propulsion and energy wouldnt I hear a few booms and cries of agony as energy leaked out? (2) Despite two moving bodies in motion, integrated equipment regulating plasma and energy fields, TPol manages to, without error or damage, remove these parts of a modified ship. (3)Wheren’t we told that the transporters would not be overused in this series?!

    I must be a masochist to continuously watch such. I am now suspecting we are being treated to a fantasy story and not science fiction.

    • Re: About Time… not! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
      The transporters weren’t overused – Lorien’s ship didn’t use theirs. Maybe it was broken and they couldn’t fix it.

      And that’s exceeded my sarcasm allowance for the day.

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