Enterprise Review: “Storm Front, Part I”

I’m baaaack. If you thought the other stuff being reviewed during October were scary, just you wait…

Storm Front, Part I

Cast & Crew

Director: Allan Kroeker
Written By: Manny Coto

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
Golden Brooks as Alicia
Jack Gwaltney as Vosk
John Fleck as Silik
Joe Maruzzo as Sal
Tom Wright as Ghrath
Matt Winston as Daniels
Christopher Neame as German General
Steven R. Schirripa as Carmine
J. Paul Boehmer as SS Agent
John Harnagel as Joe Prazki
Sonny Surowiec as German Soldier

Episode Information

Originally Aired: October 8, 2004
Season: Four
Episode: One
Production: 077

What Happened

Having mysteriously survived the destruction of the Xindi superweapon, a battered Archer awakes to find himself back on Earth in the 1940s in the custody of Nazi SS agents, and learns that Nazi-uniformed aliens have successfully helped Germany invade the United States. When he manages to break free of his captors, Archer joins forces with American resistance fighters to unravel the conspiracy behind the occupation.

Meanwhile, believing Archer sacrificed himself to save Earth, T’Pol and the battle-weary Enterprise crew attempt to figure out how to return to their own time. But then a near-dead Daniels appears and informs them that the future has been wiped out by a faction of the Temporal Cold War, the same faction responsible for the altered events on Earth, and they must be stopped.

Review

Here we go again. I think Coto’s got his work cut out for him. He’s got to wrap this arc up and FAST! No one will tune in if this keeps up. Though I imagine there are a lot of fans chewing on the furniture to see Spiner back on Trek. Manny, you promised us certain things. Fans aren’t likely to be as forgiving as they once were.

High Point

So hard to find something. I guess the unintentional humor of T’Pol’s speechlessness at Archer’s return. I imagine they wanted something painful and touching, but let’s face it, Blalock can’t really do that.

Low Point

Why is it when one person is rescued at least one more must be captured. Is it that hard to come up with some other way to instill tension?

The Scores

Originality: Oh look, the crew’s stuck in the past. Again. 2 out of 6.

Effects: Fairly plain, but that’s expected. The P-51s looked cool. 4 out of 6.

Story: Incredibly predictable. 2 out of 6.

Acting: This was dull for the season opener, but there probably doing their best with the material given them. 3 out of 6.

Emotional Response: We know how this will sort out, so why should be care? 1 out of 6.

Production: What can I say, except: Why does upstate New York look more like souther California? 3 out of 6

Overall: I’m not in the mood for this silly Temporal Cold War stuff. Get on with what was promised, a better season covering more Trek history. 3 out of 6.

Total: 18 out of 42

Next Week on Enterprise (October 15, 2004)

Storm Front, Part II

Archer reunites with his astonished Enterprise crew and learns from Daniels on his deathbed that a radical Temporal Cold War faction threatens to obliterate the timeline. Archer returns to the Nazi-occupied eastern United States of the 1940s, and enlists the help of resistance fighters Alicia Travers and Carmine to destroy a massive time machine under construction on the surface.

Meanwhile, hoping to forge an alliance with Archer, alien leader Vosk releases his captured prisoners Tucker and Mayweather, but this forces temporal agent Silik to emerge from the shadows to pursue his own agenda against Vosk. More from StarTrek.com

Additional Notes and Comments

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

TheAngrymob

10 replies on “Enterprise Review: “Storm Front, Part I””

  1. ugh.
    OK. You know the timeline is borked, you know you’re here to fix it, you blow up your shuttle with a bunch of guys in it further altering your time line, yet you just stand there armed with phasers when people show up to capture you.

    By about that point my wife told me to be quiet because I’d been yelling at the TV for 30 min now every time they did something really, really stupid which was about every other minute.

    I mean Phlox isn’t going to be so ‘ooh, don’t hurt him’ when he knows they’re screwed in time because of this and half of his body is ancient and half is newborn. I don’t know, I guess I’d expect my doctor to at least say soemthing like ‘it looks like he’s been blasted forward and backward in time all at once’ instead of the lines he was given.

    And then to re-run the next week, ugh.

    • Re: ugh.

      And then to re-run the next week, ugh.

      Duh, hey fix your review. It’s storm front pt. 2 not zero hour which was last seasons episode :)

  2. If you think this story is bad …
    According to StartTrek.com, after the Temporal Cold War crap is over with, the crew comes back to earth (And I guess
    the Enterprise gets a Major League Makeover).

    THEN….we start a 3 episode story arc based on TOS episode “space seed” and the second movie “the wrath of Khan”.
    Seems to take place after the Eugenics war and before Kirk
    finds the Botnay Bay floating in space. Another chance
    to royally screw up the time line…….

    • Re: If you think this story is bad …

      According to StartTrek.com, after the Temporal Cold War crap is over with

      Although there was far too much cliche, it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I think the idea of a time war could be food for a lot of interesting ideas in hands of someone creative. But it would be really hard to do well and really easy to screw up. And when Tripp & co beam in, but don’t beam out the instant they blow up the shuttle, you know it’s not going to be the former.

      • Re: If you think this story is bad …

        According to StartTrek.com, after the Temporal Cold War crap is over with

        And when Tripp & co beam in, but don’t beam out the instant they blow up the shuttle, you know it’s not going to be the former.

        The total lack of faith in the transporter is really starting to get old. Also like I said they knew the time line was borked so why didn’t they at least put up some resistance with their phasers? You can’t tell me in 1941 if ray guns started firing at you there’d be enough of a confusion to ‘get away’ via transporter as everyone tried to figure out what the heck is going on…

    • Re: If you think this story is bad …
      …Avoid it like the plague?!!

      I’ve put aside watching this series ever since the seasons end. However, like another I am still hopeful about a fresh story series. Reading the positive comments of you brave viewers may entice me back to the Trek side of the farce.

      Yet, what is it we want to see? Looks like the simple answers are continuity(*!*), non-formulaeic solutions to presented dilemna’s not seen before, steadfast antagonists we can love to hate, rare time travel, and a “human” interest or two speckled about. The writers may be sorely challenged in providing this.

  3. My highs and lows…

    High point: After next week they could be done with the Temporal Cold War. Forever. I was ready to allow Manny Coto a Dallas moment to achieve this end, so I’ll certainly survive a lame two-parter.

    Low point: After next week, they could spend the remainder of season four gallivanting through timelines and I will have to give up on Star Trek forever.

    Note, now, that I’ve intentionally skipped the posts talking about what the future plans seemed to be just as I’ve skipped startrek.com’s info… I’m willing to give it a chance to surprise me. This, of course, may be due to TiVo, which means I can watch it Saturday night while drunk off my ass and with nothing better to do… or it may just be that I’m willing to give a fair shake to anyone whose name isn’t Berman or Braga. I stuck with Voyager until about season 5, so I guess this won’t kill me. ;)

    • Re: My highs and lows…

      I can watch it Saturday night while drunk off my ass

      Well, they seem to writting it that way…
      Maybe they should put a warning at the beginning: WARNING: Watching this
      television show while sober may lead to severe disapointment. ;-)

    • Re: My highs and lows…

      which means I can watch it Saturday night while drunk off my ass and with nothing better to do… I stuck with Voyager until about season 5, so I guess this won’t kill me. ;)

      I think you might have a severe drinking problem if you consumed enough alcohol to make it to season 5. ;)

  4. leftovers

    I still think they took some costumes UPN had lying around after Buffy ended and used them in a variation-on-a-theme First Contact script.

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