Enterprise, Civilization

Don’t make me get Prime Directive on yo ass. Click “Read More.”

Civilization

 

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
Diane DiLascio as Riann
Wade Andrew Williams
as Garos
Charlie Brewer as the
Alien

Original Airdate

November 14, 2001

Terra NovaWhat
Happened

Captain Archer and the crew discover a fully inhabited, civilized though less
advanced Earth-like planet. Disguised to look like its inhabitants, they pay
the planet an exploratory visit where they learn that a pernicious illness is
afflicting the local population. As Archer seeks to help them find the malady’s
source, he finds himself in a close encounter with a comely female alien.

As the story unfolds, we discover that aliens have set up a secret mine underground,
which is, in turn, polluting the city’s water table. After a tense confrontation,
Archer manages to stun the alien miners, and Enterprise barely manages
to disable the alien ship.

Review

Back to basics. We’ve done it before with Star Trek, but the newness of the
exploration and the lack of the dreaded Prime Directive managed to keep it fresh.

We are all well aware that Star Fleet has rules to spare, but where do they
come from? That’s what I’m hoping for most in Enterprise. Several books
and I think some of the TV eps hint at some horrible attrocity that a well-meaning
Star Fleet unleased on a primitive world, wouldn’t that make for an awesome
story arc?

High Point

I liked the final showdown between Enterprise and the alien ship. Good
use of effects and clever solution to Enterprise’s lack firepower.

I did get a good chuckle from T’Pol’s "Enjoy your…tea" line. Vulcan
whit is a great source of humor in Star Trek.

Low Point

Part of the problem with Trek is its predictability. We know the Captain’s
relationship with Riann isn’t going to last beyond the mission, why waste time
with it?

The Scores

Originality: Not really, but with some new elements. 3

Effects: Good stuff. The alien ship looked really cool and the various minor
effects throughout the episode look clean and polished. 4

Story: If this was supposed to be a character development episode, the writers
muffed this one. We didn’t learn anything new about Archer, except maybe he’s
on the prowl for a little native poontang. 2

Acting: This was a one-man show really. Bakula still exudes warmth and curiosity.
I’m hoping to see more of Lt. Reed, he’s sharp and intelligent and manages to
keep the ship in one piece while the Captain goes out to play. 4

Emotional Response: Not a whole lot. We know these "shore leave romances"
won’t last after the credits roll. 2

Production: Yep, another cave. But only for a minute. The buildings looked
really nice, kudos again to the production crew. Also, the costumes here were
nice. Not every alien race with cute females wear tight jumpsuits. 4

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

Total: 24 out of 42

Stills

From StarTrek.com

The Andorian IncidentNext
week

Fortunate
Son

The Enterprise crew is dispatched by Starfleet Command to assist Fortunate, a human freight vessel that has been attacked by Nausicaan pirates. On arriving,
they are surprised to find that Fortunate’s crew is resistant to Archer’s efforts
to help them and determined to seek revenge against their attackers, no matter
what the repercussions.

10 replies on “Enterprise, Civilization”

  1. Hoshi might turn out OK
    I had my doubts about Hoshi early in the series, but this week it seemed to me that she might be a good actress limited by her scripts. Watch her reaction during the shuttle scene when Trip indicates that T’Pol should cover her ears. This moment not only convinced me that Hoshi might see something developing between Trip and T’Pol, but it also indicates that Hoshi’s over-sensitive characterization in the first few episodes might develop into some early form of ship’s counsellor. (I just hope they don’t make that an official title, or we’ll be forced to wonder why the NCC-1701 didn’t have one.)

    • Re: Hoshi might turn out OK

      Watch her reaction during the shuttle scene when Trip indicates that T’Pol should cover her ears.

      The captain caught it too. He’s grinning in the background.

  2. Oh my…
    a mine? An underground one, sorta like a cave?

    Who’s that chap who keeps doing the “Enterprise Cave Watch”? Probably having a field day with this, I’ll wager.

    • Enterprise Cave Watch

      a mine? An underground one, sorta like a cave?
      Who’s that chap who keeps doing the “Enterprise Cave Watch”? Probably having a field day with this, I’ll wager.

      Argh… don’t mention wagers… here’s what I said last week:

      I’m going to go for a longshot here and taking the bet. I say NO caves, caverns, crevasses, or catacombs in next week’s episode!

      Ok, I’m cancelling that trip to Vegas. :-)

      So here’s the updated weekly Enterprise Cavewatch:
      Broken Bow: Underground spaceport
      Fight or Flight: Dark claustrophobic ship
      Strange New World: Crew hiding in cave
      Unexpected: Claustrophobic crawlspaces
      Terra Nova: Society living in caves
      The Andorian Incident: Vulcan catacombs
      Breaking The Ice: Stuck in an ice crevasse
      Civilization: Secret underground mines
      Fortunate Son: ?? I’m feeling lucky… Doesn’t look like any chance of a cave next episode…

  3. Acceptance of aliens
    I really enjoyed this episode. The only detail that really bothered me was the stereotype of a primative scientist who has no problem accepting the idea of aliens visiting. It would be nice to see something different for a change. How about the native scientist having an underlying fear of the visiting aliens?

  4. What’s with the lights?
    I agree with most of theangrymob’s comments. It was, over all, a good episode.

    What I don’t get is WTF is up with the lights?!?!? They’re concerned about being found out (the fact that they’re aliens); they go to the trouble of dressing themselves up to blend in. Then, when they go down to the planet, they use the freaking landing lights on the shuttle/pod (whatever they call it)! I know that this is before TOS and all that, but I have to assume that they do have better sensors (infrared/low light/night vision/whatever). They shouldn’t need to use the freaking lights. Especially considreing the fact that they don’t want to attract attention to themselves.

  5. Good episode
    However Yet another Alien Race that does not appear in any other TV show

    Nit picking I know

    The other thing I would like to say is I would like to see more of Sato, Mayweather, Reed & Phlox in the show

    Nearly died laughing when they ended up in the cave though……..I think they might want to change the name to Star trek: THE CAVE

    • One-shot alien races
      Of course we haven’t seen this race in the other series. The Prime Directive will come into play and stop humans from visiting that planet for quite some time to come.

      Now what would have been cool is if they had used the same aliens as from the TNG episode “First Contact.”

      • Re: One-shot alien races

        Of course we haven’t seen this race in the other series. The Prime Directive will come into play and stop humans from visiting that planet for quite some time to come.

        I was refering more to the Aliens doing the mineing.

  6. Enterprise Is On A Roll!!!

    Wow, first Breaking the Ice, then Civilization. This show is starting to get its legs! Note that both episodes were written by the same (married?) team of writers. These folks bear watching for future scripts. Kudos to them!

    Archer got more of a focus this time around, which was good, and tho he had to leave the girl behind, it was a nice-spirited encounter. Good flow of story, with the antimatter reactor tying everything together…locating the secret aliens, providing the alien shield to puzzle about penetrating, then using it to fight the aliens off. All in all, just a nice tight story, with no distinct A & B plotlines.

    Trip and T’Pol also are developing very subtly and very nicely. Trip expressed an almost tender concern as well as practicality in pointing out T’Pol’s ears, then had no problem at all standing up to her during the battle sequence, while T’Pol’s dry humor and commanding presence was just right in character for a Vulcan. Still need to figure out how to get the rest of the gang involved more, tho – there’s GOT to be a balance between having them as total background a la Uhura and Sulu, and as distracting side characters, a la Geordi and Worf….

    And so goes Enterprise, yet again DIGGING DEEP to MINE A VEIN of drama where no humans have crawled before….

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