[ot, spoilers] Enterprise 27-2-02

[Masked]

So ... what was that?

You know, I'm not sure about ds9 or voyager, but I sure don't remember TNG ever having an episode where a year from now the characters won't even remember the episode. Nothing happened ... at all.

Well, it could be that I've chosen to ignore the mind meld/rape parallel, but that's not my fault. I'm still recovering from the Willow's addiction to magic = drugs episode from Buffy.

The Temporal Cold War episodes are a little funky. That is, they are funky in a bad way. However, they're better than "Hey look their Vulcans ... but they're weird." I'm starting to think that they're trying to only entice us with their commercials to watch the show and not the previous episodes.

Of course, yes, commercials are to entice, but they're something to be said for just making a good show.

<shrugs>

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Every version of Trek since TOS has been rampant with episodes where the crew won't ever remember what happened - almost all of them had to do with time travel. In TNG, there was the infamous "Enterprise colliding with another Starfleet ship and blowing up" episode, where they got caught in a time loop, and the episode where the Federation was going to be defeated in 6 months and Tasha Yar never died. There were others, as I recall.

If you mean that nothing in the new episode of Enterprise was of consequence, then I guess it's a matter of taste; this episode was one of the most interesting Star Trek episodes I've seen. For once we had an episode of character development that was actually interesting, and seemed like it was important to the character - namely T'Pol. The way the writing has been, I'm betting this episode will be touched upon in the future. I'd also bet it'll change how the characters, especially Archer and T'Pol, view each other.

Very fine writing. A great hour of television.

 

[Viking Bastard]

[ENT] is somewhere between 100 and 200 years before TOS, which is about 100 years before TNG. 900 years into the future, relative to Enterprise, is 600-700 years after the TNG/DS9/Voyager timeframe.

Yep. From the 30th or 31st century I believe, which means the Temporal Cold War is even further into the future than VOY's time police guys.

Today: 2002

ENT: in the 2150s
TOS: in the 2250s
TNG: in the 2350s
DS9+VOY: late 2350s and early 2360s

Time Police: 29th century
Temporal Cold War: 30th or 31st century

 

[Tom Cashel]

I can't remember, have we seen the Vulcan neck pinch done yet?

Second episode. When they're freaking out on psychedelic pollen in that cave, T'pol covertly gives one of them the neck pinch to put him out. Nobody else knows she can that, though.

I think T'pol is hot. She's got a cute little bum.

 

[Don]

I'm just not a big fan of T'Pol. No raised eyebrows, far too emotional, just an irritating character all around. There are only two, round reasons why she's in the show.

And did you see that episode where she and Archer are tied up together in a shack and they fall over? I could just hear the millions of prepubescent Trekkies cheer for Archer. Totally gratuitous.

 

[D'karr]

Totally Gratuitous

Yes, I fondly remember that episode....

And heck I'm about 25 years past prepubescence. Maybe I'm caught in a Temporal Cold Shower....

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I think Jolene Blalock (or however you spell it) is a good actress. Seriously. She has a good grasp on subtlety - in my opinion, one of her best moments was when Archer discovered the Vulcan listening station at the monastery; given what we know of Vulcans and how they express emotions, her stunned look spoke volumes - and they didn't go in for the big, melodramatic closeup, which was a big plus.

Sure, she was cast for her looks, but she's proven to be a very capable actress.

Now, this is pure speculation on my part, but perhaps her "emotional displays" (for a Vulcan) indicate she may be, at least partly, Romulan? Perhaps she was chosen for the mission with humans because she has enough emotion of her own to not be constantly irritated by humans? Hmmm...we'll see...

 

[Ciaran]

Now, this is pure speculation on my part, but perhaps her "emotional displays" (for a Vulcan) indicate she may be, at least partly, Romulan? Perhaps she was chosen for the mission with humans because she has enough emotion of her own to not be constantly irritated by humans? Hmmm...we'll see...

Last I checked, it's not that Vulcans are unemotional, but that they have tight emotion control to handle the fact that they can get very emotional. Presumably this came up in that episode... unfortunately I missed it. In any case, Romulans and Vulcans are equally emotional, and a half-Romulan raised by Vulcans would have the usual Vulcan control. So maybe T'pol is just terribly undisciplined?

- Eric

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I think you are partially correct. It has been mentioned in past episodes of Enterprise that Vulcans have a gland which actually suppresses emotion. While they didn't go into detail on how the Vulcans who were embracing emotion did it, one can assume that they bypass that organ in doing so, somehow, but it's physically and mentally dangerous to do so.

I don't think T'Pol has shown an inordinate amount of emotion, espacially when compared to other Vulcans we've seen so far on Enterprise. Remember that captain of the ship that was shadowing Enterprise, who was invited to dinner? He seemed at different times disdainful, condescending, and angry. At least for a Vulcan. Also, consider that Enterprise is showing a side of Vulcans we've never seen on any Trek show - we have seen that they are capable of lying (the whole incident with the Andorians at the monastery, for example), and seen that they are rather intolerant and disdainful of other races and cultures, and seem to be carrying the "Vulcan burden" when it comes to relating to aliens, in the sense that they feel they know best in regards to their "inferiors," like humans. It's a wonder that humans and Vulcans ever got to the point of forming the Federation - which may be the point of the "temporal Cold War." Someone is sabotaging the already fragile relations between Vulcans and humans in order to keep the Federation from happening. Or so it seems to me.

 

[drnuncheon]

I think Jolene Blalock (or however you spell it) is a good actress. Seriously. She has a good grasp on subtlety...and they didn't go in for the big, melodramatic closeup, which was a big plus.

I've been pleased by the subtle bits in Enterprise. I cracked up laughing when Trip as talking to the Vucan about ..."you know"...and when the Vulcan makes his outburst, you can see all the out-of-focus people in the background stopping and turning around to look. They didn't make a big deal out of it, which made it funnier than if they'd gone for the slapstick.

J