Enterprise: "Countdown"

[vacantlook]

Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

The following post will contain details for the episode of Enterprise that was on tonight; if you haven't seen it and want to remain unspoiled, skip this post. Otherwise...

After watching "The Council" last week and enjoying it for the most part, I decided to watch "Countdown" tonight, which I ended up enjoying too. It's not the greatest sci fi ever, but it's better than a lot of the crap I see floating around on tv.

Some of the parts I enjoyed:

<ul type="square">[*]Hoshi trying to jump over the edge of the walkway intending to fall down to her death to prevent the Reptilians from using her to break the weapon's command codes.
[*]Hoshi secretly writing and using a program to lock out some of the controls from the Reptilians. Too bad they were able to get her back and get her to end the program and break the Aquatic's encryption.
[*]The entire MACO team stepping foward when Malcolm asked for three volunteers.
[*]The Archer-Trip-T'Pol-Porthos dinner scene. I liked that T'Pol said she was seriously considering formally joining Starfleet. It's a logical and appropriate progression for her character, I think. She's spent so much time as a member of this ship's crew and has had so much exposure to and experience with the humans on the ship that it's nice to see it affect her to the point of her altering her place in life as a result of the impact being on the ship.
[*]Phlox wanting to go with Archer on the ship at the end.
[*]The fracturing of the alliance between the Reptilians and the Insectoids, the Insectoids making it known they don't totally trust the Reptilians, and the Reptilians destroying the Insectoid ship.
[*]That huge Aquatic ship. I was reminded quite strongly of the physical shape of the White Stars on B5, but it was different enough to not look too much like them.[/list]

 

[hypatia]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

You know, I don't know if it's early vacation boredom, but I actually liked the episode, too.

I hate it has to be fight-based to be exciting, but I do have to confess I found this episode an improvement on what I last saw of Star Trek, Enterprise.

We shall see what we shall see, eh?

 

[vacantlook]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

I don't know what it is either, maybe I'm just in such a sci fi drought that it elevates the show some, or maybe the show is just getting better. I watched season one of Enterprise, but for the most part I found it lackluster and so stopped watching some point near the end of season one I think, and I hadn't watched a new episode until last week. Dropping into the story arc without having seen earlier episodes explaining a lot of things isn't something I usually have a problem with, provided the writing of the individual episode I'm watching is good. So last week, despite not knowing anything about the current story arc beside there's a group called the Xindi and the ship is in some place called the Expanse, I sat down to watch the episode out of not having anything else on tv to watch. There were things I didn't quite get, but that didn't deter or distract me from the episode. Having enjoyed last week, I tuned in again this week. I'm kind of glad that I've liked the last two episodes; there's like no sci fi I watch now, so these two eps have done nicely to remind me that I like the sci fi genre.

I enjoy big space battles quite a lot, but they're pointless to me unless there's some story context for them to happen. I'm not the type to just go, "Ooo, yay!" just because there are ships exploding on the screen. But if there is reason, point, plot, or whatever giving structure to the battle, I'll get all happy over it. "Countdown" had point to the fighting that worked for me, so I was happy to see the battle. The political meanderings behind the fighting helped provide context and point to the fighting. It wasn't like "there are some bad guy ships let's blow them up" kind of fighting, I guess one could say. It stood in contrast, for example, to this past week's episode of Andromeda in which the episode opens with a ship being chased by "renegade Commonwealth" ships and being fired at and Dylan has the Andromeda blow up those attacking ships and that's it; besides bringing the ship that was being attacked into the episode, they served no other purpose -- it was just gratuitous explosions, one could say.

 

[blibrandi]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Well as a person who has actually watched just about every episode I can definitely say that Enterprise has gotten better in the last couple of episodes. Granted there still were a few bad episodes during this season, but most of them were pretty good, probably because even the episodic episodes still related to the arc overall. I just hope that whats being done with this show continues into the next season, at least so that when it does happen to end, it at least ended with good episodes.

 

[GKarsEye]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

It was as good as can be expected given this absurd story arc they're on right now.

During this and recent eps, the characters reference what they'll do after the conflict is over and, as Archers said, "return to our original mission." I hope they do that.

Preview for next week involves the crew getting a glimpse at the future Federation, in an attempt to manipulate them (and us) into connecting Enterprise with future Trek.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Another time travel episode?

Well, I suppose I'll wait and see. But that does not sound very promising.

 

[ElScorcho]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

I liked that T'Pol said she was seriously considering formally joining Starfleet. It's a logical and appropriate progression for her character, I think. She's spent so much time as a member of this ship's crew and has had so much exposure to and experience with the humans on the ship that it's nice to see it affect her to the point of her altering her place in life as a result of the impact being on the ship.

Logical.

I don't know if you've been watching previous episodes, but there is also her "medical condition" to consider as well. In her current emotional state, she probably wouldn't be at all comfortable going back to Vulcan.

I think the last few episodes since the break have been really good, too. Then again, I've always been a fan of threaded storylines. I'm surprised at how well they're keeping the arc going with minimal fluff. I was kind of disappointed that they killed off Degra, but the deal with the Aquatics is unexpected.

Here's something that might be interesting - apparently, UPN has decided to give them one more shot and make the fourth season its last.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Could someone spoil the whole T'Pol medical condition thing?

I confess: I did stop watching the show some time ago. I heard something about an addiction of hers or something that was making her an emotional Vulcan.

I confess: I saw it as a pretty stupid plot possibility, but you make me curious. It sounds like they are treating it seriously, and I did like last Wednesday's episode of Enterprise.

Would anyone be willing to spoil this for me? I have no idea if I'll ever get to watch all of the episodes leading up to this oone, or not.

 

[GKarsEye]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Spoiling it for hypatia:

T'Pol had some metal or chemical substance (forgot what it's called) that made her emotional. They got it out of her but she wanted that back, so she started injecting some and became addicted. She's off the junk, but the effects are permanent and she has to deal with emotions the rest of her life.
During this time she also slept with Tucker and in one ep they met their descendants from one possible timeline that now doesn't happen and they learned that in that possibility they were married. The possible-future Enterprise also had an old T'Pol (Vulcans live long) who told young T'Pol that her relationship to Tucker helped her deal with her emotions.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Hmm.

Sounds like "Gone With the Wind" version of Star Trek.

Thanks for the sum-up, old Mighty.

 

[colonyearth]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Spoiling it for hypatia:

T'Pol had some metal or chemical substance (forgot what it's called) that made her emotional. They got it out of her but she wanted that back, so she started injecting some and became addicted. She's off the junk, but the effects are permanent and she has to deal with emotions the rest of her life.
During this time she also slept with Tucker and in one ep they met their descendants from one possible timeline that now doesn't happen and they learned that in that possibility they were married. The possible-future Enterprise also had an old T'Pol (Vulcans live long) who told young T'Pol that her relationship to Tucker helped her deal with her emotions.

Blah, blah, blah! Melodrama that gags. More time travel crap.

Here are some of my ideas on last night's ENT. that I posted over in the Ray of Hope for Trek Fans thread:

Though last night's ep of ENT. (which is the first I've seen since about 5 eps into this season) was cool looking...I was still able to pick up with little need for back knowledge and for the most part the characters were still the same. So some action and such has happened but not enough for me to feel lost and no character arcs to speak of really. Except maybe T'Pol but that's just an excuse to not have to write her as a Vulcan...I call that lazy. Besides, if this were happening to her, she would be reacting much more Vulcan-like than she is about it.

And someone in another thread [I was referring to this thread at the time] made the comment about how T'Pol's mention of joining Starfleet when they get back was a good thing and the next logical step for her character. BLAH! She can't, since if she does (like the rest of this Xindi thing) it will totally blow continuity, since it is clearly stated repeatedly during Kirk's time that Spock was the first Vulcan to join Starfleet. (Or are we now to believe that it's Kirk's period that didn't happen?)

Nope, as usual there appears to be no consequences to Trek, ever. That great "reset button" is poised to be pushed again and in a big way this time. In order to explain how we've never heard of any of these events, and given that there's yet more future conspiracy and time travel crap going on, my prediction is that in the end it will never have happened, and the mighty Trek "reset button" will have been pushed in the biggest way ever, to wipe out an entire season.

How many times is Trek going to pull this? Braga loves doing it, he's done it at least two times, starting with "Yesterday's Enterprise" where it was a cool original idea. Now it's been overused and it tends to piss off fans.

If they are able to explain why we've never heard of any of these events in future Trek without using the time travel, oops it never happened routine, I'll be impressed (as long as they do it in a way that I can believe and don't find lame and stupid -- good luck!). Personally, I don't think Berman and Co. have enough imagination to pull it off. They've already dumped on the time-line repeatedly and practically destroyed it with ENTERPRISE.

Either they'll just leave it alone and not care that it blows continuity to hell, or they'll make it so that it never happened. What's the point to a story that never happened? No consequences storytelling is lame and unimaginative.

Production quality is good, FX are good, and maybe if this weren't set in the Trek universe it would be better than most SF shows on right now, but it is set in the Trek universe but refuses to acknowledge Trek history and continuity. The characters are still mostly flat and OTT.

Sorry, it's decent, but still doesn't really impress me. If Paramount wants to really impress me, then they need to fire Berman and Braga and get someone with talent to run Trek.

And pretend that ENTERPRISE never happened.

 

[GKarsEye]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Blah, blah, blah! Melodrama that gags. More time travel crap.

Don't shoot the messenger.

At first I felt that T'Pol having emotion was an excuse to make her human, but it can also be defended by pointing out that having her not take on some human attributes would make her too much like Tuvoc. Like it or not, T'Pol is original in the Trek universe: a pure-bred Vulcan main character with human emotions.
I just don't think they're doing anything of interest with it.

I have a feeling that after this season we'll rarely hear about Xindi again.

The Aquatic ship blowing up looked very, very cool.

 

[colonyearth]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

At first I felt that T'Pol having emotion was an excuse to make her human, but it can also be defended by pointing out that having her not take on some human attributes would make her too much like Tuvoc. Like it or not, T'Pol is original in the Trek universe: a pure-bred Vulcan main character with human emotions.
I just don't think they're doing anything of interest with it.

I have a feeling that after this season we'll rarely hear about Xindi again.

I agree that if you're going to do something like this with a Vulcan it could be an interesting exploration into their culture and a clear growth for a character (like G'Kar or Londo), but they're (as usual) wasting the opportunity and using it for bad plot points and to excuse T&A.

And such a Vulcan is not original in ST...need I remind you of Sybok, Spock's half brother who embraced emotion...oh and there were those Vulcans who showed up in S1 who embraced emotion and that's when we got that really STUPID line about how mind meld's were forbidden and not practiced for centuries even though Spock has clearly indicated in TOS that mind melds were common practice and had been for millenia. (Which by the way, was one of the first major indications that ENT. wasn't going to give a shit about continuity -- which pissed me off royally.)

As for the Xindi...how can history just forget such events? Nope, they've f*@ked the timeline so badly that the only way to remotely redeem it is to wipe the events from existance...which would mean that the future "temporal cold war" (frelling dumb ass idea) caused the events to have never happened (lame ass writing).

If they just allow it to have happened and not mention it any more, then they've left a major historical point unmentioned for at least a couple of hundred years. Such an event would've been brought up in TOS, TNG, DS9 and even VOYAGER...to not mention it would be like the US just forgot about Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

Sorry, (though I will watch the season finalle to see how badly they end this arc), ST is dead to me until Paramount fires B&B and brings in someone with vision to repair the damage and give it direction and soul again.

CE

 

[GKarsEye]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

I didn't say T'Pol is the first Vulcan with emotions- I said she's the first main character like that. Spock's brother was just in one movie, one which Trek fans try to block from their minds.

The whole Xindi thing wasn't mentioned in those shows because they obviously just thought of it for this series. Honestly, of all the things to slam the show for, this is the least of it. Why would they have to mention everything that happened in their history on the Trek shows? Not talking about something doesn't mean it didn't happen. Nothing major was talked about in any of the Trek shows about the time in history after Cochrane's first warp flight and Kirk, accept that there was a brief war with the Romulans 80 (not sure about the exact number) years before Kirk's Enterprise.

So accept for minor details like the thing about no mind melds, they really haven't screwed with continuity that much. The only thing that really bugged me is that they had Borg on Earth at the time, implying that they sent out a signal that brought the Borg towards Earth at the time of TNG. This diminishes the impact of having Q force that encounter in that ep of TNG. But you can blame that as much on First Contact, which started this whole mess by senting Borg back into the past.

 

[blibrandi]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Its been a while since I saw that episode, but when Q brought the Enterprise to encounter the Borg, was it mentioned that humans were an unknown species to them? If not than there was no harm done. Also didn't they say that the signal would take a long time to reach the Borg anyway? Just my thoughts on this. I still see that there can be potential for Enterprise, though I do agree with most that getting rid of B&B would be the first step towards making it good.

 

[GKarsEye]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

I'm pretty sure the Borg did not know about humans before Q.

People always think of that episode as the first Borg ep, but it was really a Q ep. The whole point was that Q was so mad at Picard for not allowing him to join their crew that he flaunted his "superiority" by forcing them to face an enemy they weren't yet ready for. The idea is that humans would have eventually encountered the Borg anyway, but it wasn't supposed to happen that early. It was that ep that made the Borg aware of humans and made them specifically seek out the assimilation of humanity.

 

[blibrandi]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Thats how I thought it was. But again as you pointed out that one can be blamed on First Contact and not on Enterprise. Enterprise is only to blame for showing the Romulons a lot sooner than it was supposed to happen, IIRC, and first contact with the Klingons, which didn't go as smoothly as it seemed.

 

[crofootski]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Enterprise is only to blame for showing the Romulons a lot sooner than it was supposed to happen, IIRC...

I*I*RC, all we (and the Enterprise crew) got to see were the Romulan ships, not the Romulans themselves. Also, did they know the name of the aliens on the ships? Can't remember.

I would encourage those that feel like it and would like to know more about this past season's arc, to watch the reruns this summer. Enterprise improved quite a bit, for me anyway. There is one ep where the captain actually orders an attack on a friendly ship in order to steal something the Enterprise crew need to help complete their mission. Scott Bakula does a decent job showing how hard it was for him to come to that decision.

I'm actually getting to like most of the cast, too.

 

[Sindatur]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Yea, to the best of my knowledge, the Romulans were OK, they only showed ships, not Romulans, and in TOS there's knowledge of them already when we meet the first ones. I believe they even mention in TOS that it's been 100 years since they've seen a Romulan ship? (Or perhaps that's how they re-introduced them in TNG)

The Borg, yeah that's wrong, but as pointed out, First Contact and Time Travel and all, still grates against TNG though.

Klingon First Contact wasn't suppose to go well.

I just really dislike Scott Bakula. To me, a Pre-TOS captain should be like Christopher Walken or Michael Ironside, a real "Take Charge" kinda guy. Captain Archer, to me at least, makes Janeway look Macho.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Enterprise: \"Countdown\"

Ironically, I think I caught part of that episode, Crofootski. I have a bad habit of turning on Enterprise, getting bored, and leaving it on but also leaving the room. I do remember seeing him give his order, not looking all too pleased about it, saying they could still get to where they were going without it, or something like that.

Yes, I'll check out the summer reruns. Last week's Enterprise actually kept me in the room the entire time, so I'm willing to give the series another chance.

I'm also desperate for one day a week of watching a decent, new, science fiction show.