My Review- 'Fusion'

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING IS A 'FUSION' OF SPOILERS AND MY OWN PERSONAL RANTING!

*Sigh* my reaction to this ep when I first heard about it can be summed up like this "Oh please, God not more Vulcan badness." Anyone who has read my reviews regularly will know I haven't really enjoyed the Vulcan characterisation on ENT. They've been shown as arrogant, cynical and rather one-sidedly from a human perspective. I also dont like T'Pol that much. Blalock isnt the best actress in the world, but it's not just her fault. She's been scripted incredibly badly too, being used blatant sex appeal or the embodiment of Vulcan badness. It doesnt help me much either that we've seen two previous Vulcans as regular stars and T'Pol brings nothing new to the mix. Oh woh is me.

STORYLINE  

So 'Fusion' has, like many Trek storylines an A and B plot. Respectively these are the 'T'Pol is tempted to reintegrate her emotions' and the 'Trip and Kov' storyline. First to guess which one I felt came off better and which one came off worst gets a Mars Bar. That's right the B plot. The B plot, came off brilliantly. While the A plot came of pretty badly. So shall I insult the episode? Yes, I shall. It is often the most enjoyable part :) Well for one thing, the episode started off a little slow for my taste, there really wasn't much going on. Then there was the bad direction of the A plot, it wasn't bad all the time, but there were two scenes which struck me as having particularly bad direction. The 'Mind Meld' scene where Blalock and the actor portraying Talaris (who I cant remember the name off right now) attempt to battle for the coveted position of 'Who can pull the most hilarious face?' and Archer's final confrontation with Talaris, which I felt came off a tad... claustrophobic. Then there was the whole mind meld thing. You're telling me, that when in 100 years time melds will be quite acceptable, normal Vulcans dont even know what one is? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! Then again, as previously stated in my 'Shadows of P'Jem' review I have this incoming feeling that there may be some big change in Vulcan culture in the future. If this is true, then episodes like this will definitely improve but for now, they do not fly with me at all. One last quibble with the A plot is we never get a real feeling of WHY Talaris does what he does. As I previously said the 'Trip/Kov' material was the best stuff. The part about his father really touched my heart, and the earlier parts are a lot of fun. The only quibble I had was Kov seemed a little inexperienced to of been a Chief Engineer for eight years, but I am prepared to believe something happened to the previous Chief Engineer just a few months ago and Kov took over.

THE SHIP  

Apparently it would take 'several weeks' to scan an area the size of our solar system. That seems to be hard to believe. Then again as Trek has often shown Nebulas to be hard to scan through I'll let it off.

THE CHARACTERS  

Neither Blalock nor the actor playing Talaris came off that well for any extended period, Connor Trinnear did pretty damn well for the second episode in a row. Part of me's secretly hoping T'Pol will get killed off next season. I enjoyed T'Pol's dream and I will now attempt to help understanding of it. Well my understanding of it anyway. One of the great things about symbolism is it's pretty damn subjective.

The parts of T'Pol and Talaris in bed represented for me at least, her willing to succumb to emotions. The part where the statue of Surak toppled showed her old beliefs being shattered to make way for new ones. And of course the Jazz Club was pretty damn obvious after further explanation later. I loved it.

STAR TREK NOTES.  

Is it just me? Or from the rear did the Vulcan ship look a little TIE fighter-esque. It's funny how they get these Star Wars references in and no one notices. For more Wars references watch DS9s 'Shattered Mirror' the lines in it sound like someone was watching Wars the night before they wrote the script. Half the lines seem to be 'borrowed'.

Rating (out of 10): 5/10. Mainly for the Trip/Kov stuff but also for the dream sequence and a few other small bits and pieces.