My Review-‘Broken Bow’
WARNING! IF U R YET TO SEE ENTERPRISE THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Wow. Did I just watch a Trek pilot which
didn’t feature a superior race? They didn’t even judge humanity! Oh u may
laugh (or u may not, it’s not a very good joke) but it’s true. ‘The
Cage’ had the Talosians. ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ had the Q. ‘Emissary
had the prophets. And of course ‘Caretaker’ had the Caretaker. I suppose
this is another sign that this is ‘a new kind of Trek’ as the hype fervently
suggests. Well each of the series is a new kind of Trek. Bringing something new
to the formula. TNG made the characters more 3D. DS9 brought huge characters
arcs while Voyager specialised in stand-alone episodes. Enterprise remains
faithful to the formula in some ways while being completely different in others.
Now let’s get all the controversial stuff out of the way.
Ok first. The theme- what was all the fuss
about? OK it’s not the greatest song ever written but it does match Enterprise
and it’s titles particularly well. I like the titles. I always liked DS9’s
the best (very awe inspiring I always felt, especially when the Defiant came
into shot) but these are good too. Now let’s have a look at the storyline:
STORYLINE
Well the idea of a ‘temporal cold war’ I
like. It’s different that’s for sure. The story of this episode is somewhat
similar to ‘Saving Private Ryan’ a comparison I believe Scott Bakula has
also made. U have to get him home at all costs. The Suliban are very cool and
very alien which I like. All the other races in Trek (Klingons in particular)
have been humanised so much they’re no longer frightening. The Suliban are
alien enough to be suspenseful. Their special abilities are fascinating. But we
don’t know very much about their philosophy besides they wish to evolve
quicker than normal. The action scenes were a little off but the cast is still
adjusting to their characters. I liked the ending although I wish someone had
got killed. Just to spice things up a bit. Other than Sarin that is, someone
which we got to know for more than 30 seconds. I don’t like the way the
Vulcans are being portrayed. First of all they all appear to show emotion at one
point or another! And they are unbelievably arrogant. I can accept the Vulcans
not handing over technology, after all in a few hundred years Starfleet will do
the same thing, but they’re trying to stop the Enterprise going out into space
I do not like. In Trek terms it is probably closest to the Federation-Klingon
alliance throughout TNG. It is unstable and the Klingons often wanted something
the Federation couldn’t give them. Now we get to see the other side. Except in
order to make us ‘faithful’ to this side it has been decided that the
Vulcans should behave like arrogant close minded idiots. Of course I was
expecting this. Vulcans have been treated this way since Spock left. Shame,
they’re a very cool alien. In other terms the alliance is probably most
similar to the relationship between Earth and it’s allies in Stargate SG-1,
the Tolan in particular. The Klingons of course are being portrayed as
themselves (Read: Surly) and it’s nice to know they’ll be a few Klingons
around. Trek just wouldn’t be Trek without a bunch of drunken barbarians we
all know and love J.
I liked the scene in the ‘central core’ with ‘future guy’ as a lot of
people like to call him. The bending of reality though, screamed Braga! Anyone
who knows a lot about the writers will know Braga likes to bend reality. (Go
watch Voyager’s ‘Projections’, TNG’s ‘Cause and Effect’, ‘All Good
Things’ ‘Parallels’ et al) The effect though was interesting and reminded
me of the Manheim effect in TNG’s ‘We’ll always have Paris’. Except that
was far more staggered. All in all I liked the story, I really did.
THE SHIP
Last night while watching Enterprise launch
I realised something. The Enterprise is the first brand new ship which we ever
saw launch. (Of course we saw NCC-1701 launch in the movies but it wasn’t
brand new. It was just refitted :D ) I also note that the ship appears to have a
new warp effect. I like it but it don’t beat the TNG stretching. That was
class ;) . The Enterprise is a good looking ship too. It’s rugged, kind of
like the Defiant except it still manages to look Star Trek. And although it does
kinda look like an Akira, it’s different enough for me to be happy. The ship
is frighteningly flat. Looks like someone stuck a 200 tonne weight on it! :D I
also note the Enterprise’s weapon systems. I had heard complaints from one
Trekkie047 that the lasers on the Enterprise didn’t look as good as phasers. I
personally disagree. I think the lasers look better than phasers. They remind me
of the pulse phasers on the Defiant except red and God damn do I like them. Of
course they can’t hit anything with them yet! But I do like them. Talking
about the fact they can’t hit anything it will be nice to see if the
Enterprise does slowly get better. While Voyager should of slowly gotten worse
of as it neared home, slowly getting pounded to death, with shuttles and
torpedoes at a premium, due to the fact that Voyager cant just park itself in a
starbase for a few weeks. the Enterprise should slowly get better off, certain
systems should work that didn’t before. It will be interesting to see if in
the last episode they manage to get 100% accuracy on the lasers or if they still
miss a bit. There was a lot of attention on the Enterprise, mainly because the
only other vessels we saw were Suliban probes and they were Shuttle size.
It’ll be nice to see if the Suliban have proper starships. I like the
Enterprise transporter effect, but I would like it if some crewmembers felt
perfectly happy about it. There are certain people who always trust new
innovations no matter what. I think Trip and T’Pol would be biggest candidates
as they have the most knowledge being the science and engineering officer’s. I
like the Shuttles, especially the way they are dropped straight out of the ship.
I don’t like the wings though. But it is a probable intervention for a shuttle
in atmospheric flight so I wont complain much.
THE
CHARACTERS
In
general I like the crew, they’re a little two dimensional at the moment but
I’m sure they’ll improve as the actors get used to their characters. Now I
will some up each character, going down the ranks, cos I have to find some way
;) .
Captain
Johnathan Archer- Hello Mr. Kirk. That would probably be the best way to
describe Archer. He’s got a similar ‘I’ll do what I like then see what
Starfleet and co have to say about it!’ attitude. Of course he has been
designed as a Kirk for the 21st Century. And that can already be seen
in his attitude mainly but also in the fact that he has already kissed someone,
his grudge against Vulcans is cool but unlike Berman and Braga will tell u he
isn’t the first Captain we’ve seen to have a grudge against a race. I seem
to remember a certain Captain James Tiberius Kirk not liking the Klingons after
they killed David Marcus. And he’s certainly not the first officer, O’Brien
and Kira both had a grudge against Cardassians. However I do like that Archer
may be the one that causes a lot of stress between the humans and Vulcans.
However his line at the end about giving up grudges could be indicative that his
grudge is already over. In which case we’ve missed out of some great character
development and an excellent possible character arc. Archer seems to off got a
catch phrase already in ‘Let’s go!’. The only other Trek catch phrases I
remember are Picard’s ‘Engage’ and ‘Make it so!’ and although they
have more power, ‘Let’s go!’ encapsulates Enterprise’s feeling of
exploration more.
Subcommander
T’Pol- AHH! CRINGE! CRINGE! OK that may be a little extreme but ouch that’s
bad acting. TOO MUCH EMOTION! Man. Plus there’s the gel scene. Man! There are
better ways to show someone cleaning themselves and we could show the
conversation they had later. Plus they went overboard a tad with the eroticism.
I like erotic things I really do. But there is such a thing as overboard. It
probably would have been sexier had it been more subtle. T’Pol isn’t even
great looking. Damn Vulcan make-up. I actually prefer Sato. She’s much more
next-door type and I like that. Plus I like Asian women ;) . Anyway continuing
on:
Commander
Charles ‘Trip’ Tucker the Third- What kind of bloody nickname is
‘Trip’?! This is probably the first blatantly Southern Starfleet officer
we’ve seen. And although normally I don’t like Southerners (they do tend to
have, controversial, viewpoints) I do like Trip. Mainly as he has a more
Northern view. Sisko came from New Orleans, but by Sisko’s time they appear to
of eradicated horrible accents and idiots. Of course this is further evidence of
the time frame. Humanity is still growing and thus Southerner’s still exist.
Btw Trip seems to be a crap pilot. First he crashes his shuttle into the
Enterprise, evidently scratching the paint. Then he crashes the Suliban probe
he’s on into the central core not once but twice. (Hitting the docking bay
doors the second time) Anyway I like Trip. I really do. However a frightening
occurrence has occurred. His appearance in the gel scene with T’Pol suggests
two things. One, Trip and T’Pol are supposed to be matched up some time in the
future. Two, Trip is the Enterprise ‘hunk’. Each series has one person who
is supposed to appeal to women. On TOS it was Kirk, on TNG it was Riker, on DS9
it was Bashir to a certain extent but it didn’t really have one. Voyager had,
surprisingly, Tom Paris and sometimes Chakotay. Here it’s Trip and Archer. But
this scene seems to show Trip more than Archer.
Lieutenant
Malcolm Reed- Reed has a dry wit and calm cynicism. I like :D . In some ways he
reminds me of myself. Except he’s a lot thinner than I am L . I like Reed’s relationship with Mayweather. It’s similar to the
Tom Paris/Harry Kim relationship in Voyager. Two, pretty low ranking Starfleet
officer’s, both friends. One more experienced with life and women, one nervous
with life and women. It should prove interesting. I like Reed and so far he is
my favourite character. Although we have seen little of him.
Ensign
Travis Mayweather- Surprisingly the most experienced member of the crew is also
an Ensign. As I have already mentioned I like his relationship with Reed. He has
an almost frightening amount of energy. U know that when everyone else is saying
“we’re gonna die” he’s going to be the one going “We’re gonna live!
We’re gonna live!” Man he must drink a lot of Red Bull :D ! We didn’t see
much of Mayweather as the episode concentrates on Archer, T’Pol and Trip but I
like him and I expect to see great things come out of him and Reed.
Ensign
Hoshi Sato- Sato will be known as ‘the screaming one’. Although this is
annoying on a certain level. I like it. It shows an unfamiliarity with space and
the people in it. Her reaction to Klingons for example, even Troi wouldn’t do.
She seems uneasy and jumpy, and this show’s part of the shows brief to show
people, where meeting a new species isn’t ‘part of the job’. Yet again we
saw little of Sato but it appears that in Enterprise the most promising
characters are the ones on the lower ranks.
Dr.
Phlox- I dunno what rank Phlox has. It seems likely he doesn’t even have one,
which is why I’ve stuck him last. Although I was afraid I would be watching
‘Son of Neelix’ until I reached the age of 23 I was happy to find Phlox not
nearly as annoying. His love of exploration is great and I think he’s a
fascinating character. He’s very much happy with his job and that’s great to
see. Although we are yet to see interaction between him and Reed, I suspect they
will play of each other well. Phlox’s optimism and Reed’s British cynicism (TM-
British Government 1678-2002) will work well of each other. John Billingsham
appears to be one of the shows real finds. A great actor. He almost balances out
Jolene Blalock. ALMOST.
STAR
TREK NOTES.
“The
Klingons will have a fleet of Warbirds surrounding the planet.” Err… only if
they start stealing Romulan ships :D . Of course Bird of Prey was originally a
Romulan term so I suspect this is another side-effect of the Klingon-Romulan
alliance.
I
like the way the technology manages to be worse than we’re used to in Star
Trek, while also managing to be realistic.
I
love Phlox’s embracement of alternative treatments, after all, a lot of
alternative treatments have general healing properties.
Err…
TNG states that First Contact with the Klingons was a disaster that led to
decades of war. Didn’t look like a disaster from where I was standing.
I
wonder how they’re gonna deal with the Earth-Romulan war.
I
would really like it, if Archer’s crew or the Suliban were mentioned in
Nemesis.
I
like the grappler. That’s some nice effects!
Klaang
breaks the record for tallest Klingon at 7ft.
I
see Tiny Todd, in a quest to be on as much Trek as possible has already got a
foothold on Enterprise. Ah well soon Jeffrey Combs will fight back in the war of
the most guest appearances.
Plasma
rifle? That would do a hell of a lot damage than simply knocking Klaang back.
Although it did knock him back quite a way.
We
see loads of Archer’s dad in the flashbacks but what of Archer’s mum?
Rigel
was a system mentioned a lot in TOS. But never actually visited on screen.
However only Rigel II, IV, V, VII and XII were mentioned with this being the
first appearance of X. That’s one busy system. The star Rigel actually exists.
It’s on one of the ‘legs’ of the Constellation Orion.
I
like Klaang but then I like Klingons. They’ve got a charisma about them. Or is
that a smell?
Vulcans
never use their hands to eat food? That doesn’t sound logical.
Jolene
Blalock’s acting as T’Pol is still better than Kim Cattrall as Valeris!
DUDE! BAD ACTING!
I
see the gel scene wasn’t obscene enough. U can see T’Pol’s nipples.
Is
it just me or are the Suliban using phasers?
SUMMARY:
A
good action-adventure show. The thing is, do I want Trek to be an
action-adventure show? Just as long as Enterprise continues to portray an
optimistic future I will be happy. I would like the odd ethical debate episode
please though! With the exploration it still has that feeling of Star Trek-ness.
I also see that they’re in an odd position. Everyone knows what’s in the
history books isn’t 100% what happened so the odd ret-con is fine. Of course
there’s a difference between ret-con and ‘I’m going to write stories how I
like, damn continuity.’ I hope it’s the first. The odd ret-con I don’t
mind. But I have this creeping sensation that it may go beyond, ret-con’s.
So
in short:
Acting:
A little 2D but what do u expect from a pilot. I expect them to get better as
they go along. T’Pol and the Vulcans though is truly cringe-worthy .
Plot:
I like. It should appeal to me in a similar way to Farscape, SG-1 and the like.
I will be watching it. Just as long as it still projects a liberal viewpoint
I’m happy.
Direction:
Good. Solid. No complaints here.
