Enterprise Review: “United”

With a finite number of episodes ahead, the path to the Federation is becoming clearer.

United

Cast & Crew

Director: David Livingston
Teleplay By: Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Story By: Manny Coto

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

Guest Cast
Jeffrey Combs as Shran
Lee Arenberg as Gral (Tellarite)
Brian Thompson as Valdore
Geno Silva as Vrax
Kevin Brief as Naarg
Molly Brink as Talas
J. Michael Flynn as Nijil
Scott Allen Rinker as Pilot

Episode Information

Originally Aired: February 4, 2004
Season: Four
Episode: Thirteen
Production: 089

What Happened

Trapped aboard a mysterious drone ship that’s been terrorizing the region, Trip and Malcolm work to outwit the Romulans, who are piloting the vessel via remote control, in order to save their own lives and stop the feuding Andorians and Tellarites from going to war.

Review

This just burns. Enterprise gets back to its Trek roots only in time to be shown the door.

High Points

  1. The final shot of the Enterprise leading a fleet of alliance ships. Please tell me we get to end the series with the signing of the Federation charter. If not, I will be so pissed.
  2. Humans actually singled out for doing something better than other races? No way. I thought we were the Special Ed group of the galaxy.
  3. The locker room banter between Trip and Malcolm. It’s nothing special, but it does convey the fact that the crew is coming together, forming a bond.
  4. Hoshi and Travis looking for the loophole. Also, not much by itself, but it gets the whole crew involved in the action. It was a regular occurance on other Trek series to have secondary characters bail out the primaries. It shows that they’re smart too and are devoted to their superiors.

Low Points

  1. Can we lose the cheesy ass “Give a little bit” part of the promo? I can take the theme song, isn’t that enough?
  2. The revelation of the pilot’s identity. It’s not so much a low point, just something I say coming (though the specifics weren’t there). I just have a bad feeling about where this is going with regards to next week. Hopefully I’m wrong.

The Scores

Originality: “You must fight me to honor our ways.” Damn that gets old. 2 out of 6.

Effects: That’s still one nasty looking ship. Also the beauty passes from Trip and Malcolm’s point-of-view were very cool. 6 out of 6.

Story: A decent story with some good dialogue. 4 out of 6.

Acting: Combs and Bakula have a great thing going with their characters. 5 out of 6.

Emotional Response: You can feel the bond between Shran and Archer and it isn’t forced. 4 out of 6.

Production: Great atmosphere inside the Romulan maurader. 4 out of 6

Overall: An OK story, but the payoff is huge. 5 out of 6.

Total: 30 out of 42

Next Week on Enterprise (February 11, 2005)

The Aenar

Archer visits Shran’s icy homeworld to find an Andorian subspecies called the Aenar, to determine their connection to the marauder destroying ships in the region.

Additional Notes and Comments

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

TheAngrymob

14 replies on “Enterprise Review: “United””

  1. Very Impressive
    In spite of a few flaws, I’ve found this and last weeks episodes to be the best Enterprise has offered. I hope that they make Coto the sole executive producer when they produce the next Trek series.

    Yes, the Romulan War makes for some great Trek.

    If Paramount was smart (they aren’t) then they would tell B&B to take a hike, put Coto in charge of the Trek movies, keep the same writing staff, and use the Enterprise cast.

    They could make The Romulan War trilogy of movies. Each could be 2 hours long and each made for the cost of, say, 4 TV episodes.

    Get the Columbia and another 5 ships, including a Dreadnaught design.

    They could REALLY go somewhere with the Romulan War and make some cash.

    • Re: Very Impressive

      In spite of a few flaws, I’ve found this and last weeks episodes to be the best Enterprise has offered. I hope that they make Coto the sole executive producer when they produce the next Trek series.

      Yes, the Romulan War makes for some great Trek.

      If Paramount was smart (they aren’t) then they would tell B&B to take a hike, put Coto in charge of the Trek movies, keep the same writing staff, and use the Enterprise cast.

      They could make The Romulan War trilogy of movies. Each could be 2 hours long and each made for the cost of, say, 4 TV episodes.

      Get the Columbia and another 5 ships, including a Dreadnaught design.

      They could REALLY go somewhere with the Romulan War and make some cash.

      I’d wager even a miniseries strategically placed during sweeps week might do well. :)

      -Joe G.

      • Re: Very Impressive

        I’d wager even a miniseries strategically placed during sweeps week might do well. :)

        5 quatloos on the Romulan war series!

    • Re: Very Impressive

      In spite of a few flaws, I’ve found this and last weeks episodes to be the best Enterprise has offered. I hope that they make Coto the sole executive producer when they produce the next Trek series.

      Yes, the Romulan War makes for some great Trek.

      If Paramount was smart (they aren’t) then they would tell B&B to take a hike, put Coto in charge of the Trek movies, keep the same writing staff, and use the Enterprise cast.

      They could make The Romulan War trilogy of movies. Each could be 2 hours long and each made for the cost of, say, 4 TV episodes.

      Get the Columbia and another 5 ships, including a Dreadnaught design.

      They could REALLY go somewhere with the Romulan War and make some cash.

      YES…. unfortunately… it’ll probably never happen.

  2. Shran
    during this trek series I’ve come to really like Shran’s character. The guy who plays him does an excellent job. The interaction between Shran and Archer is always good.

    • Re: Shran

      The guy who plays him does an excellent job.

      He’s always done a good job. Remember “Weyoun” in DS9? He also played the Ferengi “Liquidator Brunt” in DS9.

      • Re: Shran

        He’s always done a good job. Remember “Weyoun” in DS9? He also played the Ferengi “Liquidator Brunt” in DS9.

        I love Jeffrey Combs! From IMDb, “Along with J.G. Hertzler [Martok], Randy Oglesby and Thomas Kopache, he is one of only four actors to play seven different characters on ‘Star Trek.'” I’m not sure if Shran makes 7 or 8. They should do a whole show of just Combs characters. :)

        • Re: Shran

          I love Jeffrey Combs!…They should do a whole show of just Combs characters. :)

          Add my vote that that ;-) He’s great!

  3. typo

    Romulan maurader.

    You mean “Marauder”…

    And I can’t watch the shows, but that picture of a handshake with 4 individuals, each of a different species, does indeed project an enjoyable aura of “early days of the Federation”.

  4. Now wait just a god-damned minute, admiral

    I really HATED the loophole.

    “I’m sorry, I can’t fight to the death anymore, I’ve become incapacitated.” Sorry, I just don’t buy that, not for a second. Isn’t becoming incapacitated part of a fight to the death?????

    • Re: Now wait just a god-damned minute, admiral

      I really HATED the loophole.

      “I’m sorry, I can’t fight to the death anymore, I’ve become incapacitated.” Sorry, I just don’t buy that, not for a second. Isn’t becoming incapacitated part of a fight to the death?????

      It’s basically saying “the victor can spare the loser”, and is probably only referred to as a fight to the death because that would most likely be the common outcome, since it would normally be between people who REALLY don’t like each other.

  5. my low point
    Gah, my low-point in this episode was the brief appearance of the damned Space Nosferatu. In general it was good, but they really didn’t need those abortions in the episode. They served no point other than to allow someone to wear a tonne of latex and make-up.

    • Re: my low point

      Gah, my low-point in this episode was the brief appearance of the damned Space Nosferatu. In general it was good, but they really didn’t need those abortions in the episode. They served no point other than to allow someone to wear a tonne of latex and make-up.

      This time, I thought, they were a reasonable addition. They looked like they were in the expected “enforcer” class for the ruling Romulans.

      Speaking of which, my low point was when the higher ranked Romulan made it clear that he knew things were going sour with the project, and the Romulan in charge of the project looked surprised. I wanted the older guy to slap him and say something like, “didn’t you assume that as your boss I would have multiple listening devices in every room you ever see? Have you been living in this culture or under a rock somewhere?”

      I mean, spying on everyone you work with seems strange to us, but it is just paar for the course with Romulans. They really shouldn’t show surprise over it.

  6. samething over and over….
    wow this wasn’t new to me, filled with action, shifting story lines and 5 min speices breakdown i have only seen this about A BILLION TIMES in the run of STE. Hey i got an idea, how about doing some episodes on the rest of the crew insted of the main 3 charchers archer, trip, t’pol. But i did like one thing about this episode, at no time did the episode turn into a softcore porno with t’pol. i think they learned there lession with that massage thing she was doing to trip. Remmember you don’t need sex to sell star trek, star trek sells it self!

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