monkee reviews Enterprise: Season Three
Here's a quote from my Season Two review:
"As we move into the third season, the show is poised to go in a 'bold new direction.' I'm wary, since I thought the direction they were going in to begin with was just fine, but I'm willing to keep an open mind. This is going to be a dangerous time for Enterprise, both the ship and the show! The Xindi storyline will either breathe new life into the series, or cause it to crash and burn. It'll be...interesting, either way."
The Verdict? New life! And thank goodness. The days of an automatic seven seasons for a Trek series are over, I'm afraid. Television is changing daily, and Star Trek must compete with things I never even imagined. There was a real danger of the show not being renewed this year, but the powers that be came through for us with a well-written and executed season-long arc. Looking back on it now, I can't believe how well it was put together. They started with a generic evil threat, the Xindi, and very gradually added new elements - the interactions of the five Xindi species, the discovery of the spheres, the machinations of the council, and the revelation of Reptilians hiding in Earth's past. Then, they introduced individual Xindi (the Arboreal Scientist in 'The Shipment,' and, of course, Degra) who didn't seem evil after all, and a previously unknown nemesis, the sphere-builders, which had set the whole thing in motion to begin with. In the end, Archer was able to convince some, but not all, of the Xindi that he was not their enemy, and then it was a tense race to stop the weapon before it destroyed Earth. Ignoring the seemingly ridiculous Nazi twist at the end, it was a solid, season-long story well told. I've never seen that done on Trek. Deep Space Nine's Dominion War arc, and Voyager's Borg/getting home arcs were less focused and not as coherent. I was surprised at how well the Enterprise staff pulled this together when so much was at stake, and I was very impressed.
The Numbers: The average episode rating on the monkee scale for the third season was 8.8, compared to an 8.6 for the first season, and an 8.4 for the second. That sounds about right to me. The first season started out well, the second season floundered just a little, and the third season was packed with very solid stories that moved the arc along. A whopping fourteen out of twenty-four episodes scored 9 or above, with a good fistful of 9.5's in there, and one 10. Only one episode scored below an 8.
The Best: In a different reality, a kinder, gentler T'Pol helps an aging Archer relive his worst memories every day for twelve years as they sit in a shelter on Ceti Alpha Five. It still gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. For my money, 'Twilight' was the best episode of the season, and it ties with 'Carbon Creek' for 'best of series' so far. Not too far behind, however, was the wrenching 'Similitude.' It was a story that made Archer look so bad they could never have gotten away with it in any other season of Star Trek, but - oh, the angst, the pathos! 'Proving Ground' was another standout, as it featured a nice balance of respect and deception between Archer and the inimitable Shran. 'E2' was another one of those alternate timeline stories I'm so fond of, and I enjoyed this look at what might have been had the Xindi situation gone a little differently. 'The Council' won me over by bringing the season-long arc to a climax, and for the dramatic, and very sad, demise of Degra, who I'd come to admire and respect just as Archer had.
The Worst: "Harbinger' was a mess. Yes, the sphere builders were supposed to be mysterious, but they certainly could have been better introduced. The B and C stories were equally unpleasant. Reed and Hayes were acting like...well, five year-olds, and as for Trip and T'Pol? Ugh. I like the pairing, in general, but this cold consummation was a serious disappointment. Other than that, though, there were no real stinkers this season. 'Doctor's Orders,' 'Extinction,' and 'Impulse' all scored only 8.0, but each of them contained elements that I really enjoyed. I was disappointed in 'Carpenter Street,' perhaps just because sending characters back in time has been done too many times. I don't think Trek should count on that premise making an episode an automatic classic anymore!
The Regular Characters:
Mayweather: Hahaha! Poor Anthony Montgomery. I suppose I'm not surprised, given the dramatic arc, that Mayweather didn't get an episode. I hope he gets one next year, though. I enjoy what little I see of him in the occasional B or C story. I particularly like that, as a spacer with previous experience, he's often the only crewmember with enough gumption to question Archer's decisions. He was the first to grumble about Archer's behavior in 'The Hatchery,' and the only one who directly (and correctly) questioned his suicide mission in 'Azati Prime.' They could do a lot more with this man! And they should.
Sato: Although still underutilized, Hoshi got a bit more to do than poor Mayweather. She even got her own episode, the chick-oriented 'Exile,' which I enjoyed much more than last year's 'Vanishing Point.' She does well in her smaller appearances, too - as a tragic Loque'eque in 'Extinction,' as a reading instructor for young Sim in 'Similitude,' and as an emotionally tough bridge officer in the arc's climax. She SPAT in that Reptilian Xindi's face! You go, girl!
In 'Damage,' Mayweather tries to cheer up a discouraged Hoshi, who regrets that she never took piano lessons and fears it may be too late, seeing as how they're all doomed. It was one of my favorite quiet moments of the season. I'd like to see Enterprise do more with their friendship. They don't have to pair them off, but the two of them offer a unique, almost 'lower decks' perspective on whatever's going on with the more visible characters, and it would give them both more to do.
Phlox: Phlox was busy this season in the supporting role of the doctor on a ship essentially at war. He had some fine moments of compassion - with the vulnerable T'Pol in 'Impulse,' with the memory-impaired Archer in 'Twilight,' with his 'son' Sim in 'Similitude, and again with T'Pol as he helped her through her Trellium addiction. I didn't care for the monotonous shots of Phlox in the corridors in 'Doctor's Orders,' but the episode did offer some nice insight into the character's mind and culture. It also offered us a look at naked Phlox, and believe me, one look was enough!
Reed: This character fared well due to the nature of the arc. There were plenty of opportunities for him to shine both as chief of security and occasional field commander, and he was active in a lot of the B stories. Reed's established military mindset came into play often. In 'The Shipment,' he argued with Archer about giving the Xindi any benefit of the doubt after what they'd done - an attitude you'd expect him to have, at least at first. In 'The Hatchery,' he felt duty-bound to help organize a mutiny when Archer began behaving strangely. Over the course of the season, the character underwent an interesting transition with the MACOs. At first, he felt threatened by their presence, which led to the (insufferable) macho posturing with Hayes in 'Harbinger.' Yet by the end of the arc, he and Hayes were having heartfelt conversations about the burden of being responsible for the lives under one's command. Amanda the MACO was right - they were very much alike after all.
Trip Tucker: 'Similitude' was Trinneer's big episode of the season, and he was amazing. He balanced Sim's bitter anger towards Archer perfectly with Sim's gentler moments with T'Pol (and Porthos). But the Tripster had plenty of other things going on this year. He went through the various stages of grief over the attack on earth and the death of his sister - denial, anger, acceptance, forgiveness - right before our eyes. A lesser actor could never have made us care so much. "I've spent the last nine months trying to pretend she was just another victim, but she was my sister, T'Pol - my baby sister." Was there a dry eye in the house when Trip tearfully, finally, acknowledged his wrenching loss? Sniff. The Trip/Degra dynamic fascinated me, too. I think it was a good call that Trip never fully forgave him for building the weapon, but they did at least come to some understanding.
I have mixed feelings about the whole Trip/T'Pol thing. I can't stand the forced sensuality of some of the neuropressure scenes, and loathed the shallow consummation of the relationship ('Harbinger'), but I like the idea of the pairing. Their quiet, heartfelt conversations ('Similitude,' 'The Forgotten') do far more to convince me than anything else does. T'Pol is one messed up Vulcan chick, but it's clear that Trip's feelings for her are real (as are hers for him, despite her denial). I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.
T'Pol: I'm sorry to admit it, but they seem to have lost their way with T'Pol this year. I guess it was just too much to ask that they attempt to portray a completely logical Vulcan woman. There had to be a catch. I'm not completely unsympathetic. Vulcans are difficult to write for a human audience, after all. <g> They never did manage to do Tuvok justice on Voyager. It's a shame, though. If they could just pull it off, it could be...sorry, you know I have to say it...fascinating. So now T'Pol, recovering from a Trellium addiction, is always going to have wrestle with residual emotion. It makes you wonder - if the writers don't want to deal with Vulcan suppressed emotions, why do they keep creating Vulcan characters? Ah, well. If they had to do this to the character, at least they went to some trouble to set it up and have it make sense. T'Pol's curiosity about emotion was established in earlier seasons, most notably in 'Fusion,' so when she encountered a substance (Trellium) that helped bring emotion to the surface, it was almost logical for her to explore it. Becoming dependent on it wasn't logical, but addictions never are. Her addiction and recovery have been handled with sensitivity, but the story line had the unfortunate side effect of taking T'Pol out of the loop, in a sense, of the Xindi arc in the second half of the season. They were so busy addressing her 'emotions' and the addiction, that her role as second-in-command was reduced. Too bad, because sometimes Archer really needed a more visible voice of reason.
Don't get me wrong, though. She certainly had her moments, and Blalock has done as well as could be expected with the twists the character has taken. I was especially impressed by her performances in 'Twilight,' 'Similitude,' and 'E2.' I'll give her credit for 'Impulse,' too, although it wasn't one of my favorites.
Archer: I don't even know where to begin! Desperate circumstances tend to bring out the very best and the very worst in people, and we certainly saw both sides of Archer this year. You could argue that he did what he had to do, right? That's the standard argument in times of war. Well, it's okay to bend ethics a little bit, because we're up against people who won't hesitate to do the same. Except then they'll bend ethics a little bit more in retaliation, and before you know it, you're trapped in that downward spiral of darkness, and no one can get out at all. Sigh.
Sorry. For a minute there, I forgot what I was supposed to be writing about. Where was I?
Ah, Archer. Well, here's the bottom line. He did what he had to do. He found the Xindi. He stopped the weapon. He saved humanity and Earth. As a bonus, he even uncovered the true enemy, which wasn't the Xindi after all. At times, he was courageous and noble. At times, he was a compassionate, yet strong leader. At times, we could all admire him. But then, there were the other times. He tortured a prisoner for information, and nearly killed him in an airlock ('Anomaly'). He CLONED A HUMAN BEING in order to harvest part of his brain ('Similitude'). He STOLE a warp core from an alien ship ('Damage'). Are these the actions of an admirable man? I don't think so. I spent too much time this year NOT admiring Captain Archer. He was not the sort of starship captain I want in my Star Trek universe.
I know I tend to be a Trek Pollyanna. The world is not black and white, and the Trek universe shouldn't be either. But I thought they pushed it too far. Maybe the writers could have made it more palatable. In some of the episodes I mentioned it seemed like there were other gray areas that could have been explored before Archer resorted to something so drastic. For example, he really didn't spend a lot of time trying to convince the alien captain in 'Damage' to give up his warp core voluntarily. Surely there were deals and assurances he could have made. So some of Archer's shortcomings appear to be bad writing, or perhaps a lack of time (an hour of television gets shorter and shorter every year...) Whatever the reason, though, Archer is my least favorite character on Enterprise now. And I wish he weren't.
They could still salvage the character, though, by making him aware of what he's become. I want to see some psychological repercussions, here! I want Enterprise to find the alien ship whose warp core they stole - perhaps as a smoldering hunk of space debris. If Archer takes a good, hard look at himself and learns a little something, that will help.
Okay, let's put it all in perspective. It's difficult to chose Archer's 'big episodes,' since he was a focal point in nearly all of them. Personally, I liked 'Twilight,' 'Proving Ground,' 'Stratagem,' and 'The Council' the best. In those episodes, Archer was a noble man and an outstanding leader. I have to give credit to Bakula, too. Even in the episodes in which I despised Archer - maybe even especially in those episodes - I could see that Bakula was outstanding. And his trademark cranky delivery of lines worked well this season, for obvious reasons!
The macho MACOs: I wasn't sure I was going to like the macho MACOs much. For one, I'm a knee-jerk liberal peace-lovin' monkee, so their presence made me uncomfortable. In addition, I was afraid they'd end up like the Borg kids in Voyager - inserted into episodes in a somewhat random and clunky manner. I'm pleased to say, though, that they won me over. I may not have wanted a war arc, but there it was. Given the Enterprise's mission, the MACO's presence made complete sense. Whenever they did something I didn't like - like trigger-happy Hawkins wanting to shoot first and ask question later in 'Impulse,' or Hayes blindly supporting an obviously impaired Archer in 'The Hatchery' - they usually learned their lesson. And the MACOs, in turn, had a few things to show our band of explorers. I enjoyed watching them teach the Enterprise crew how to fight more effectively, and was quite pleased to see Reed and Hayes grow to respect and admire each other. I also loved seeing some strong, kick-ass women on the show, which normally only has two. I'm assuming that the MACOs will be leaving early in Season Four. I'm actually going to miss them!
The Xindi: When the season began, Enterprise's mission was to stop the Xindi. There was no talk about finding out WHY the Xindi had attacked them in the first place. I knew it was critical to the series that they do that - Star Trek has always, always been about finding out that you have more in common with your 'enemy' than you think. Thankfully, they delivered. Over the course of the season, we did find out why the Xindi had attacked Earth - we learned that they were being manipulated, and that they believed they were doing what they had to do. A large amount of the credit for that goes to the character of Degra, and the actor who portrayed him, Randy Oglesby. In the end, Degra was second to only Archer in terms of his importance to the overall arc. Yet the writers never made things too simple. The squabbling of the five Xindi species was aggravating, but very realistic. And Degra wasn't perfect, and was never completely exonerated. While things are looking up for the Xindi at the end of 'Zero Hour,' I'm not convinced they're going to make it. There's no pat ending here. Bottom line? The Xindi were good 'villains,' right up there with the Klingons, the Romulans, the Borg and the Cardassians. Good job, writers.
The Sphere-Builders: Of course, as we began to understand the Xindi better, the role of 'intrinsically evil villain' had to be transferred elsewhere. It's kind of a shame, but in Trek, as in a lot of storytelling, things usually come down to black and white. Someone's gotta be evil. The Sphere-Builders reminded me of Voyager's Species 8472 in 'Scorpion.' We never learn what their motivations might be - they're just rotten to the core. I thought it made them a bit dull. I mean, did anyone ever doubt that they'd get what was coming to them in the end?
When the arc was done, many of my concerns about how it fit into Trek canon had been addressed. The Expanse was gone, explaining why we never heard about it later, and the Xindi may well have faded into obscurity by Kirk's time. I don't know if there is any way to connect the Sphere-Builders to anyone who comes later in the Trek timeline. It might be interesting if later they could be found to have ties to the Borg, or the Shape-Shifters.
But let's move on to the truly important stuff...
PORTHOS! Yippee! He wasn't turned inside out by some horrid anomaly! The FSP (fearless space pup) lives! He continues to be a fuzzy little bright spot on the show for me. Whether he was barking at anomalies before they happened ('Anomaly'), providing pet therapy for a doomed clone ('Similitude'), or barreling through the corridors looking for his Dad ('Doctor's Orders'), he never failed to warm the cockles of my heart this season. I swear, even T'Pol is starting to like the little guy. Let's hear it for Porthos!
'shipper Watch: Trip and T'Pol were the big story on the 'shipper front this season, and as I said above, it was a mixed bag. I wish the writers could advance beyond the adolescent sex and boob jokes more often when they decide to do romance, but I'll have to be happy with those rare occasions when the couples truly connect. And even though I know I said I didn't want Archer and T'Pol to be involved, 'Twilight' sold me on the possibility. I enjoyed watching them in that alternate reality, and will now always appreciate the deep affection that they have for each other, even if they never address it again. Since the writers seem determined to avoid homosexual pairings, I guess that's all there is to say about Enterprise romance for now. I maintain, however, that they should matter-of-factly slip in a reference sometime to someone's partner back home or on the ship. It would cause absolutely no consternation, and it is long overdue.
In Conclusion - The Future of Enterprise: Enterprise needed a home run this season, and got one. I truly enjoyed the season-long arc. Here's the thing, though. I'm also glad it's over! A couple of times last year, someone would mention the optimistic goal of resolving the Xindi issue and returning to the original mission of exploration. I would inwardly cheer each time, because I LIKED the original mission of exploration. I want more, too, though, and if the spoilers are any indication, I think I'm going to get just that!
The Alien Nazis at the end of 'Zero Hour' really alarmed me. The whole concept was so off the wall after such a dramatic arc, and Trek has already done Nazis at least twice before. From what I understand, though, this oddity will be resolved relatively quickly, in just an episode or two. That sounds good to me. And I've calmed down a bit. Who knows? With a well-written story and good acting, I might even like an Alien Nazi episode. Whenever I start to panic about Star Trek, I remind myself that they once did a really cool 'evil clown' episode (Voyager's 'The Thaw'). I mean, if you can pull off a good evil clown episode, the sky's pretty much the limit, right?
But there's even more on the slate for the fourth season. I haven't read any extensive spoilers about individual episodes, but what I've seen has me really excited. A Soong ancestor and a follow-up to the Eugenics Wars...more Shran (!)...the Orion syndicate, and, more importantly, GREEN ORION SLAVE GIRLS...a Vulcan desert arc which will allegedly feature T'Pol's mother and help explain the change in Vulcans between now and Kirk's time...and, speaking of Kirk, a possible return of the man, himself! We're also supposed to be seeing the beginning hints of the birth of the Federation. Bring it on! Bring it ALL on! What's wonderful about all of these ideas is that they actually fulfill the promise and potential of the whole prequel concept. Let's tie it all together! Enterprise could be so amazing!
Another reason for optimism is a slight change in leadership. Berman and Braga will still be involved, but Manny Coto is going to be taking the lead in terms of executive producer duties. While I think, in general, Berman and Braga have done an admirable job with the franchise, I'm looking forward to some new energy. The latest issue of 'The Communicator' features a picture of Coto as a kid, sitting in his 70's family room, wearing 70's clothes, with the original series on the television behind him. THAT'S what we need - someone who loves the show, is completely familiar with it from all the way back to the beginning, and will do right by the fans because he is one himself.
Enterprise resumes this Friday night, October 8th with 'Storm Front.' Let's see what they've got for us now! Long live Star Trek - Woo hoo!
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