Enterprise 04-02-03

[myrdden]

Yeah, there was a whole episode from earlier this season when they holed up in there.

Oh yeah.

I had completely forgotten about that episode. Makes sense to me now.

Myrdden

 

[JacktheRabbit]

T'Pol mentioned in the show after having linked with them that the ship was pretty much on its last leg and that's why the aliens were attempting to take over the crew. The catwalk runs along the nacel for repair work and is enclosed, of course, so they can make repairs in space, and heavily shielded I assume because it is a such a vital part of the ship or maybe because that type of shielding protects the crew from some sort of residual byproduct.

This was a dumb episode.


1. Why not capture everybody on Enterprise at once.

2. Gee what a surprise. The vulcan is immune.

3. Why let the Enterprise out of their ship since while in their they had the engines and weapons neutralized.

And the granddaddy of stupidities.

We are superadvanced aliens who are so ahead of you we no longer have physical bodies.

Oops, we forgot we would need our physical bodies to repair our ship.

 

[John Crichton]

Except Janeway.

Oh wait, you said good captains. Never mind... [smirk]

I'm glad someone caught that.

Yeah, but that's because it's the way the writers wrote it. It didn't feel very Trek-like though.

I didn't really have a problem with them destroying the other ship. It was a little un-Trekish but what else could they do? I didn't really see any other options (which doesn't mean they weren't there) or ways that the writers could have taken it.

 

[Shadowdancer]

The big problem I had with this episode was, just because the aliens left the crewmembers' bodies when the CO2 was released, how did Archer and the doctor know the crewmembers' spirits (or whatever they were) would return?

Earlier in the episode, one of the aliens brought back the removed spirit of Trip. He seemed unable to return on his own. So just because the aliens were forced out of their human hosts, that's no reason to assume the humans' spirits would/could return on their own.

 

[Mouseferatu]

You know, I liked the fact that they blew the crap out of the other ship. I was already rolling my eyes in expectation of a "We'll beat them off then find a way to help them" ending. I like the fact that not every encounter ends with tea and scones.

Frankly, that was my biggest problem with Next Gen (much as I liked it). Too much happy-happy. Kirk and crew didn't pick fights, but they weren't afraid to let the phasers fly when necessary. I'm glad that's back.

(Not saying the ep didn't have its flaws; just that I didn't think that was one of them.)

 

[John Crichton]

The big problem I had with this episode was, just because the aliens left the crewmembers' bodies when the CO2 was released, how did Archer and the doctor know the crewmembers' spirits (or whatever they were) would return?

Earlier in the episode, one of the aliens brought back the removed spirit of Trip. He seemed unable to return on his own. So just because the aliens were forced out of their human hosts, that's no reason to assume the humans' spirits would/could return on their own.

It was pretty obvious to me that it did have an internal logic. The beings were never shown as being able to leave a body as a "shell" so if the current soul left the the original inhabitant would be immediately returned. It all happened at the same time. And it happened like that every time so there is no reason to assume that the aliens even had the ability to leave the host without putting something back in its place.

 

[Mark]

It was pretty obvious to me that it did have an internal logic. The beings were never shown as being able to leave a body as a "shell" so if the current soul left the the original inhabitant would be immediately returned. It all happened at the same time. And it happened like that every time so there is no reason to assume that the aliens even had the ability to leave the host without putting something back in its place.

Although it isn't actually explained, which doesn't bother me in the least because I'm not sure spoon-feeding an ST audience is necessary, it was my impression that they only said that the "former inhabitant" left the body and could explore. By the descriptions from Trip, I figured that the owner of the body was "supressed" in some way, forcing them to live within their own memories and fantasies while the alien controled consciousness and motor functions. Once the alien left, the owner of the body could resurface.

 

[John Crichton]

I guess you could see it that way, as a type of suppression.

But according to Trip when they were inside the other ship, he said that he was looking down on his body which I took as he was actually not there. Plus the whole color-changing thing; I assumed that was him being "taken." I guess there are a few ways to look at it, which is part of what makes it fun.

 

[Mallus]

Frankly, that was my biggest problem with Next Gen (much as I liked it). Too much happy-happy. Kirk and crew didn't pick fights, but they weren't afraid to let the phasers fly when necessary. I'm glad that's back.

I didn't like the flaccid dramatics of all-too-many Next Gen episodes either {which usually get misattributed to "PC" --what that actually means}.

But I was talking specifically about how this episodes of Enterprise really ran contrary to the spirit of old Trek. Kirk and his posse. While Kirk never hesitated to let the phasers --or the Poilsh Hammers-- fly, rarely did he end up wiping out opponents who themselves were in dire need. He wound up re-educating them, saving them, albeit usually with his fists.

Kirk only really destroyed 'impersonal' enemies --the Space Amoeba, the Neutronium Log {now in vanilla and chocolate swirl} and the flying omelette-parasites on Deneva. Or machines; like M5 and Landru...

Most episodes of old Trek ended with speech-making, not explosions that consumed the entirety of the episodes antagonists.

So what show, exactly, did this episode "get back too"? It's different from Next Gen {which could be deadly dull}, but it isn't much like TOS, either {not that I thought it was a bad episode, per se}.

 

[Mark]

So what show, exactly, did this episode "get back too"?

Just the old "actors having to act as if they were being inhabited by incorporeal beings" kinda stuff. Archer was kind of a hard ass, firing that blast into their dying ship before leaving, but at least he could be sure he wasn't leaving a malevolent band of body snatchers out there for the next unwitting ship to stumble across. Plus, even though they had forced the beings to vacate their bodies, and the alien ship was on its last legs, it was still quicker than enterprise (it caught them once) and it seemed that the aliens were figuring out ways to get around the only protections that Enterprise had going for itself. All in all I can't imagine Archer wanting to be high-tailing it through space trying to outrun those bastards until he could (hopefully) run across someone who could help them. Let's face it, he tried to reason with the aliens to some extent and they made it pretty obvious they were going to press their advantage over the Enterprise crew no matter what was negotiated.