Enterprise, Breaking the Ice

Just chill for a bit and read up on the lastest Enterprise

Breaking the Ice

 

Cast & Crew

Director: Terry Windell
Written By: Maria Jacquemetton
& Andre Jacquemetton

Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Charles 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
William Utay as Vanik

Original Airdate

November 7, 2001

Terra NovaWhat
Happened

Encountering a giant (the largest ever seen by humans) comet, Archer decides to investigate. Soon after arriving, a Vulcan ship approaches to observe the Enterprise. Archer tries everything in his diplomatic bag of tricks to interest the Vulcan captain, Vanik, in a joint mission to the comet surface. But, apparently, Vulcans are just too cool to go comet hopping. As a result, Reed and Mayweather shuttle down to the comet alone.

Meanwhile, Trip snags an encoded transmission from the Vulcan ship to T’Pol’s quarters. Suspecting something is afoul, he shows the evidence to Archer. The captain too is suspicious, and asks Trip to have Hoshi decode it. He is obviously shaken by these events.

Trip reads the decoded message and discovers it is just a message from T’Pol’s fiancé, asking her to return to Vulcan, otherwise their wedding is off. She is now torn between her family obligations and her loyalty to the crew. Trip, being the only one to know of her predicament, is called upon to help T’Pol make a decision. Needless to say Trip brutal honesty doesn’t sit well with T’Pol’s desire to maintain strong family traditions. He feels that arranged marriages, a long dead concept on Earth, are ‘highly illogical’ and she should make up her own mind.

Archer asks Vanik to join him, T’Pol, and Trip for dinner. In the great tradition of Trek dinners (à la Star Trek VI) it goes poorly, with the Vulcan captain being escorted back to his ship. Archer concludes that the Vulcans are shadowing Enterprise just waiting for it to fail.

The comet begins to rotate (because of the sample blasting Reed and Mayweather are doing) and the sun begins to rise, thus melting the comet’s icy skin. Things are complicated when Mayweather injures himself and they make it back into the shuttle, only to have the ice cave in under the force of the engines.

Attempts to extract them with the Enterprise’s grappler fail and now Archer must ask the Vulcan captain for help, or else lose his crew members under a large sheet of ice as the comet cools again. T’Pol urges Archer to ask for Vanik’s help. He grudgingly agrees, and the Vulcan ship uses its tractor beam to pull the shuttle out.

T’Pol decides that she will remain on Enterprise and Vanik sees that humans aren’t all ego.

Review

Dost mine eyes deceive me? A character-driven episode? Ye gods! Yes there was some action elements, but this was really about T’Pol and Archer’s characters. Trip also shows us his softer side (well sort of). At any rate, we get to delve a little below the surface for T’Pol, and the sacrifices she’s making to be a part of Enterprise’s mission.

Like the Andorians, mankind seems to be underneath the Vulcan microscope. What trouble could be brewing from this? What happens when human’s overtake the Vulcan’s technologically? Could be fun.

High Point

A snowman on a comet. You know you’d do the exact same thing. Another high moment was the video letter to school kids back on Earth (Trip: "A poop question sir?"). The crew are celebrities back home, and this helps illustrate that fact.

Low Point

While delving into characters is great, silly stuff like the pie bit really serve no purpose. At least it wasn’t that stupid Tuvok two-step!

The Scores

Originality: It’s a building piece, so there’s nothing very original about it, though I can’t dismiss it’s necessity. 3

Effects: Nice stuff with the shuttle crash and retrieval. The Vulcan ship looked really neat, too bad we couldn’t see more of it. 4

Story: I’m all for building some depth to these characters, and T’Pol is a prime candidate for it. I know the writers have something heavier planned for
Trip and T’Pol, hope they can pull it off. 4

Acting: There was a great range of emotion here. Everything from excitement to fear, to frustration. Bakula is just sharp, and Blalock is really rolling into her role. Trinnear is working his way into "Trip" and I think, by the end of season one, he’ll have it solid. I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Mayweather and Reed, they have a fun relationship that’s been sadly missing from Trek since Bashir and O’Brien. 4

Emotional Response: Not a whole lot to get worked up about, though I was very interested in the contents of T’Pol’s message. 3

Production: Well, we still managed one cave! The comet surface was a well-done blend of Foam and CG. 3

Overall: We’ve been in need of some serious character definition. We should start seeing more of these with increasing frequency. 5

Total: 26 out of 42

Stills

From StarTrek.com

The Andorian IncidentNext week

Going in disguise to explore a pre-warp planet, Archer and company uncover a mysterious ailment that is slowly killing the planet’s population. How will a pre-Prime Directive Starfleet handle this situation? We’ll just have to watch "Civilization"

26 replies on “Enterprise, Breaking the Ice”

  1. Not the “Love Dingy”… please!
    Is it just me or is this episode setting something up between Trip and T’Pol?

    I say “Love Dingy” because DS9 was the “Love Boat” of Trek and, well, Enterprise is smaller…

    I don’t have anything against a little romantic involvement among the characters, but that little pie thing just makes it seem… tacky. Like the puppy; too cute to be allowed to survive.

    Anyway, maybe it’s just me.

    • Re: Not the “Love Dingy”… please!

      Is it just me or is this episode setting something up
      between Trip and T’Pol?

      Perhaps. That might not be a bad
      thing, either. T’Pol seems to grudgingly respect and
      tolerate Trip, but she’s been forced to confide in him
      to keep her personal life as private and personal as
      possible. This could turn into one of the show’s most
      interesting relationships, as a cold and (ideally)
      emotionless character is forced to become close to
      someone whose smell is almost intolerable. They’ve
      also got seven years for her to forsake her
      emotionless Vulcan ways and live as an emotional
      being, should the writers choose to really have fun
      with the character.

    • Trip & T’Pol, plus Continuity

      Is it just me or is this episode setting something up between Trip and T’Pol?

      Disclaimer: Haven’t seen “The Andorian Incident” or “Breaking the Ice” yet as I’m just now finishing downloading the files from Gnutella. I don’t get a UPN affiliate here so this is how I get to watch Enterprise.

      Now, Trip and T’Pol. Their eventualy union has been broadcast since “Broken Bow.” The show seems to go out of its way to pair them up and ensure their realtionship has that “I hate you but I’m starting to like you” quality to it. I’m predicting a Tom/B’Elanna type realtionship starting around the season’s end leading into season 2.

      Next thing, about maintaining continuity that has been discussed towards the end of the thread. Let me throw out a thought I’ve been having for a couple weeks now.

      Does anyone else get the impression that TOS is slowly being removed from continuity?

      I realize this idea borders on blasphemy, and to be sure TOS could never be completely removed from Star Trek continuity, but I see definite signs of erosion. I think Trip finding the “holodeck” on the alien ship struck me the most, but some little things seem to be edging me toward my conclusion. Things like the ship itself seem much closer to an early TNG Enterprise than a TOS Enterprise. I realize this is because of special effects technology, but it stil bothers me. The holodeck especially really just struck me as blatently ignoring TOS. Maybe its just me. (Read: probably)

      seth

      • Re: Trip & T’Pol, plus Continuity

        I think Trip finding the “holodeck” on the alien ship
        struck me the most, but some little things seem to be
        edging me toward my conclusion.

        There was a holodeck on the original
        Enterprise, if you consider the animated series to be
        canon.

        • Re: Trip & T’Pol, plus Continuity

          There was a holodeck on the original
          Enterprise, if you consider the animated series to be
          canon.

          I wouldn’t consider it canon, myself. If for no other reason than it wasn’t watched by anyone (after all, it did only run one season). Plus, unlike TOS, it hasn’t been resurrected in reruns and syndication.

          Come to think of it, the animated show sounds like a good candidate for Cartoon Network or maybe Boomerang since the series falls into the latter’s time frame.

          Anyway, I think everyone will agree that the holodeck is really associated with TNG more than anything else. That was my automatic association when I saw it on Enterprise.

          seth

          • Re: Trip & T’Pol, plus Continuity

            Come to think of it, the animated show sounds like a good candidate for Cartoon Network or maybe Boomerang since the series falls into the latter’s time frame.

            It was on Teletoon here in Canada for th first year they were on the air. They dropped it because it had such poor ratings. (I still haven’t seen The Soft Weapon either.)

            Anyway, I think everyone will agree that the holodeck is really associated with TNG more than anything else. That was my automatic association when I saw it on Enterprise.

            I agree with you here. Holodecks were primarily a TNG thing, which usually involved something that disengaged the holodeck safety mechanisms, leaving the people inside in moral peril. With the exception of the time Moriarty took over the ship’s functions, I think any of the holodeck danger episodes on TNG could have been fixed by beaming the crew out of there. Our Man Bashir on DS9 is the only Holodeck episode I really liked, perhaps because it never took itself seriously.

            • Re: Trip & T’Pol, plus Continuity

              I agree with you here. Holodecks were primarily a TNG thing…

              IIRC, when that show was first starting out, they made a big deal about the Holodeck being this “new” technology as well. I seem to remember Wesley saying something to that effect during the pilot, and visiting characters would sometimes comment on it as well. Maybe just my imagination, but it was always my impression that the Enterprise of that era was one of the few ships to have that kind of tech (at least starting out).

  2. A Cool Enterprise Story At Last….

    I really liked this episode, even if it did have a cave. This was a solid story that shows that Enterprise COULD POSSIBLY contine on to greatness. We can only hope.

    Maybe it’s because I like pecan pie as much as Trip, but I thought the piece o pie was actually an inspired plot point on several levels. More than just a snack, any Southerner will tell you that good pecan pie is indeed a true cultural artifact as profound as the IDIC is to T’Pol (God, if only they’d had the nerve to slap a can of ***Coca-Cola*** down on the table with it…but milk was just as appropriate) so Trip was sharing something with ***meaning***. Eating it was in fact Trip’s form of meditation (“bad for the body, good for the soul, I feel better already”) and T’Pol realized this, which is why she was preparing to sample it during her own meditation instead of in front of the Vulcan captain during dinner (which could have been a scene-stealer on its own). I suppose we could take it as her sampling a human vice in secret but I too hope she is “thawing” towards Trip. Forget Maddie and David and Moonlighting…we could have some real fun with Trip and T’Pol and Starlighting. Slow character development on Trek? Whodathunkit?

    They are coming perilously close to having Archer upstaged by Trip, tho, despite Bakula’s continuing excellent performance. He’s missing the chance to build continuity by not referring to the Vulcan monastary spy station at the end of the dinner conversation with the Vulcan captain despite several great openings for such a remark, and the gag of his quarters having low ceilings and his having to duck as he paces was obscured by the placement of T’Pol in the shot. Little details, to be sure, but these are the details that would slowly build his character. His continued hesitancy with coming up with the right word whether to schoolkids or Vulcans could become as much of a gag as Shatner’s forceful delivery if they aren’t careful with it. Give the guy a chance to be commanding! He can do it! Hope he gets the girl next week…looks promising.

    The other characters are still cardboard, altho Phlox is amusing cardboard. Especially ridiculous was the Merriweather-can’t-jump gimmick even while they were on a comet which should have had such weak gravity the problem should have been staying on it at all, not falling down and getting hurt. The Vulcans missed a good bet by passing on a specimen of that mineral – it must be made of molecularly bonded mini black holes to pull the pod down into a CAVE. I’ll lay 2 to 1 odds that there’s a CAVE in next week’s episode….

    • Re: A Cool Enterprise Story At Last….
      Your weekly cavewatch here.

      I really liked this episode, even if it did have a cave. This was a solid story that shows that Enterprise COULD POSSIBLY contine on to greatness. We can only hope.

      Agreed! Finally an episode I could “sink my teeth into” :-) I really enjoyed this one, and welcome more character development.

      the pod down into a CAVE. I’ll lay 2 to 1 odds that there’s a CAVE in next week’s episode….

      Even though I am the cavewatcher who started betting last week, I’m going to go for a longshot here and taking your bet. I say NO caves, caverns, crevasses, or catacombs in next week’s episode! Daring? Yes!

      Scorecard:
      Broken Bow: underground spaceport
      Fight or Flight: dark claustrophobic ship
      Strange New World: cave
      Unexpected: claustrophobic crawlspaces
      Terra Nova: caves
      The Andorian Incident: Catacombs
      Breaking The Ice: ice crevasse
      Civilization: We’ll see…?

  3. Quite nice…
    I’m in accord with the crowd so far, I liked this one. Nice pacing, good story, not much cave time. I thought the pie was a nice touch; it communicated a great deal without words.

    Dr. Phlox rocks! I find myself wishing he were even more off-beat in his timing and responses.

    I don’t have too much of an opinion about Trip and T’Pol, although I think you guys and gals may be jumping the gun a bit.

    But this does get me curious, do Vulcan females go through the seven year cycle thing, or is that only males? I seem to think that it is only males, but if not, maybe she could get caught in a shuttlecraft with some lucky ensign.

    Oh, and I’ve got a long term theory. I remember that Sloan once said that section 31’s history goes back to the beginning of the Federation. Archer has been quite suspicions and it wouldn’t be out of character for him to try and slip something like this in. When made, it could be to keep a covert eye on the Vulcans and/or to have an agency outside of their oversight. He need never imagine its future development.

    And speaking of the Tuvok two-step, I don’t understand the problem. Geez, Tuvok and Nelix got transporter-scrambled into a single person, and Nelix helped rehabilitate Tuvok when his brain had to rewire itself. Tuvok showing Nelix a little gesture of friendship, letting him be right about some silly little thing, was more than appropriate.

    • Re: Quite nice…
      This is a GREAT idea about showing the origin of Section 31, and is custom-made for Malcomb the weapons guy….They could tie it right into this episode, with Section 31 starting to investigate reports that Archer ignored encoded covert Vulcan transmissions because he trusted his crew…

    • Re: Quite nice…
      I suspect that the last episode did more to explain Section 31 then this episode did. after all Would not Vulcans KNOW about anything that was included in the Charter (Sloan said that it was in the original charter).

      After all how do you KNOW there are threats to the federation unless you are actively looking for them. Logical if parinod. But if you do find a threat, then it is not Paranoia, it is prudence.

  4. Bad physics
    It’s a shame an otherwise great episode has to have such horrible physics. It seems that no matter where they go, they have earth-normal gravity. Why couldn’t they have had an injury due to jumping into something? The pod could have gotten stuck for a different reason. Ugh.

    • Re: Bad physics

      It’s a shame an otherwise great episode has to have
      such horrible physics.

      I gave up on expecting anything
      resembling decent physics on Star Trek after the
      second episode of Voyager. I would have loved to see
      a low-g snowball fight, but I don’t think that’s going
      to happen. As you said, they treat gravity as either
      earth-normal or non-existant. (I did like the
      comments from Mayweather about growing up on a ship
      with gravity turned down to 0.8g, though.) Paramount
      and other major studios seem to have a hard time
      distinguishing between science fiction and space
      opera.

      I think I’ll stop before this really
      turns into a rant.

  5. Interesting
    I’m watching TOS episode Balance of Terror. This is our
    first introduction to the Romulans. Spock tells us the
    history of the Romulan wars. He says that it happened
    over a century ago when ships were so small they couldn’t
    carry passengers nor had ship to ship visual contact. He
    states that this is the first time humans will see
    Romulans. We’ve already seen on Enterprise use a ship to
    ship visual contact. Any one care to comment?

    • Re: Interesting
      The only way they could save that *VERY* important continuity element is to speak of the Romulan War in past tense and *never* encounter a Romulan vessel in the entire series.

      • Re: Interesting

        The only way they could save that *VERY* important continuity element is to speak of the Romulan War in past tense and *never* encounter a Romulan vessel in the entire series.

        Either that or try to come up with something to the effect that the Terrans and the Romulans have technology too different to allow ship to ship visual communications.

        Who am I kidding? They’ll probably just say that ship to ship visual communications were possible, but that the Romulans were (are?) so secretive/paranoid that they never used it, thereby leading the Terrans to believe that it wasn’t possible.

        Does any of this make any sense?

        • Re: Interesting
          Sci-Fi has been showing TOS episodes and it’s been years since I’ve watched them. But I’m already seeing minor continuity elements between TOS and Enterprise. The big ones are aparent when you see the Cage or as it’s later known the Managaire. I get the feeling that none of the writers for Enterprise have sat down and seriously reviewd the TOS episodes in order to keep continuity going. I’ve been looking around but haven’t been able to find the reference, exactly how much earlier is Enterprise supposed to take place than TOS?

          • Re: Interesting

            I’ve been looking around but haven’t been able to find
            the reference, exactly how much earlier is Enterprise
            supposed to take place than TOS?

            If memory serves, about 150 years.
            I’m sure theangrymob can correct me if I’m
            mistaken.

            • Re: Interesting

              If memory serves, about 150 years.
              I’m sure theangrymob can correct me if I’m
              mistaken.

              You are correct sir. There’s a detailed Timeline at StarTrek.com if anyone’s really interested.

              Romulans will probably appear, but the crew may never ‘see’ one, just their ship. Another possibility is that a few crew members see Romulans, but are forced to remain quiet about it (for whatever reason that could be). Vulcans (or at least a select few) may be fully aware of the existence of Romulans, they just never talk about them, finding their behavior offensive (you know, like the brother you never invite over for the holidays).

              At any rate, we know there are going to continuity issues. Some are big (holodecks) and some are small (Klingon Bird of Prey). I’m trying to focus on the new revelations. They need to be filling in the historical gaps (founding of the Federation) and stop trying to rewrite history.

            • Timeline and Romulans
              Uuuuuummmmmm……I ****think**** Enterprise takes place in the 2150s and TOS in the 2250s. That puts Enterprise 100 years (not 150) from TOS and 150 years from US.

              That’s as deep into the continuity thing as I’m gonna get. You can’t convince me a handful of sleep-deprived guys in 1966 struggling to meet an NBC airdate for yet another grind-it-out episode devoted the proper amount of thought to series continuity for a story 500+ episodes in the future, filmed 35+ years in the future, and set 100 years before the episode they were shooting. How’s that for a run-on sentence? Besides, the whole Romulan first episode had a flaw the size of a supernova in it just so they could get the dramatic effect of making Spock the heavy. We’re supposed to believe an entire group of Vulcans blasted off into space, became the Romulans, and the true Vulcans didn’t know squat about them for hundred of years until Spock saw them on a viewscreen? I don’t buy that. Screw continuity and bring on Archer vs. the Romulans, if for no other reason than to hear Trip’s comments about how some Vulcans don’t appear to be emotionless after all.

              • Re: Timeline and Romulans

                Uuuuuummmmmm……I ****think**** Enterprise takes place in the 2150s and TOS in the 2250s. That puts Enterprise 100 years (not 150) from TOS and 150 years from US.

                Whoops. I guess I should have, you know, read the freaking timeline myself! Enterprise takes place in the Year 2151, 150 years from now. TOS takes place an additional 100 years from there. For just BS reference, TNG starts 72 years after that. That puts the latest on-screen Trek event (USS Voyager returns home) at around 2337.

                And remember class, tomorrow we have a test on the life and times of Zephram Cochrane. Be sure to study!

                • Re: Timeline and Romulans

                  Whoops. I guess I should have, you know, read the freaking timeline myself! Enterprise takes place in the Year 2151, 150 years from now. TOS takes place an additional 100 years from there. For just BS reference, TNG starts 72 years after that. That puts the latest on-screen Trek event (USS Voyager returns home) at around 2337.

                  A first-season episode of TNG states that it takes place in the year 2367 or thereabouts. (The episode was “The Neutral Zone,” but I can’t find a tape of it, and it’s not listed in my Nitpicker’s Guide or anything else I have handy.)

                  Okay, I just confessed to having sufficient knowledge of TNG that I could pluck this one line from memory, out of 175+ episodes of the damn show. Excuse me, I have to go get a life now… :)

  6. Surprise guest star?
    It appears that Wil Wheaton (red is for evil) will be a special guest on Enterprise. According to sources close to the writers, he will spend the next 5 seasons on the ship to explain his strange disapearence in TNG.

    • Re: Surprise guest star?

      It appears that Wil Wheaton (red is for evil) will be a special guest on Enterprise. According to sources close to the writers, he will spend the next 5 seasons on the ship to explain his strange disapearence in TNG.

      I’m a bit skeptical on this one, especially when we have official word that he’s going to be in ST:X. I really don’t think he’d add much to Enterprise. Not in the meaningful way Worf boosted DS9.

      • Re: Surprise guest star?

        I’m a bit skeptical on this one, especially when we have official word that he’s going to be in ST:X. I really don’t think he’d add much to Enterprise. Not in the meaningful way Worf boosted DS9.

        Okay. Sorry, was not clear enough, I was only kidding.

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