Enterprise Season 2 Finale [SPOILERS]

[Recoil]

Ok,

Watched my third Enterprise episode of the season, mainly because I read about all the changes the series is going to go through next Season. I have to say I'm skeptical. First the criticism:

Granted they have had that "Shadow man" from the future who commands the Suliban in the series since Day 1, and I have always been interested in that plot thread, but its clear that this turn in the series was not planned since Day 1. This whole probe thing seems quite hoakey as well as this new race they are going to be looking for.

So some race 400 years in the future gets wiped out by the Human race. Odd choice for a story line. So somehow this race lets their folks in the past know about this, sends pieces of a probe back in time and attacks humanity. I agree with something GKE said in another thread, if you want to take the series in a new direction WHY THIS? Why not have it be the founding of the Federation. The early years of the Human / Romulan War. There are many things they could have done to make it exciting. OR dive deeper into that Suliban plot device, not simply use it because its convienent to alter the course of the series.

I also feel like Enterprise is going to be Voyager, except mean. They are going to be in an unexplored region of space where NO ONE has ever been before. Voyager was wandering aimlessly also in completely unknown territories cut off from Starfleet. The comments Trip had with Archer about not having to fall back on Starfleet protocol was key too. This wont be another "nice" Trek series anymore, which frankly Im OK with. Star Trek didnt get "nice" until Voyager, TOS seemed like a western to me in ways and I liked the excitement. So basically, its gonna be Voyager with no coffee breaks or earl grey.

Ok, what I see as promising?

Well as I mentioned before, the series now has the potential to get back to its TOS roots with excitement and unknown. I also wonder if the writers will actually be clever about the future threat. No one knows WHY humanity wiped out this race. We dont know anything about them. We also dont whats up with the "Shadow man" and the Suliban. Personally, Id really like to see this temporal thread not left dangling, but I have a sad feeling it will be. One possibility that I hope the writers have in mind is that this "Shadow man" is lying and setting up Archer. Perhaps HE contacted this race and is behind it. Perhaps HE is pulling the strings. He could have given this other race that device from the future. Either way I HATE to see good story possibilities dropped, so hopefully we will see this resolved.

In the end, this didnt feel like a cliffhanger at all. In fact, it didnt feel like a finale. It felt like a second pilot episode, which disturbes me...

 

[PsionTen]

Is it me or has Enterprise basically ripped off the premise to Crusade? I think you have to admit that there are a lot of similarities.

It felt like a second pilot episode, which disturbes me...

Exactly the same thought I had. It really needed to be a two-hour show, because it basically was a pilot.

 

[GKarsEye]

In the end, this didnt feel like a cliffhanger at all. In fact, it didnt feel like a finale. It felt like a second pilot episode, which disturbes me...

That's a good way of putting it. It's as if they're saying, "Folks, forget about the past two years, from now on it's gonna be different."

Which is fine, but I don't think it's different in a good way.

The main thing that bugged me was how contrived everything was.

- They send this weapon to hurt earth in order to "test it." Why risk having them be aware of them- couldn't they just test it on some asteroid or uninhabited planet? What's the point of of killing some of the people if you already plan on killing all of the people?

- Of course, the Enterprise had to be the ship taking T'Pol back, giving her the opportunity to defect and stay with the crew.

- Am I the only one that saw that loop trick to get the Klingon ship at the end a mile away? Why?- because it's the most common cliche in any dog fight on TV or film. I can't believe they resorted to it.


On the bright side, at least there will be some sort of story in the show, which the writers can dream up an outline for between seasons. Maybe it'll actually make some sort of sense. Still, I can't help but pine away for the series that could have been.

Imagine a series that had the same energy and feel of TOS, that of a starship exploring strange new beings and worlds. But this time, instead of dealing with the complex world of TNG and DS9, we have a more intimate and personal setting.

In my Enterprise, episodes like the one with the "cogenitor" would be the norm, not the exception. Maybe not everything would involve danger and action, but it would have wonder. A truly "bold, new direction" might have to involve not sticking to standard TV conventions- like TOS. To me, that's what Star Trek is really about. Take that away and we're left with Andromeda (I've never actually seen Andromeda, but I still take the liberty of bashing it ).

 

[Glacophane]

In the end, this didnt feel like a cliffhanger at all. In fact, it didnt feel like a finale. It felt like a second pilot episode, which disturbes me...

I felt the same way. You could forget everything that has happened before this episode and still be sort of up to date on everything. There were soo many other story ideas to choose from but I'm afraid they are going to try and capture an audience with eye candy such as the fire fights and explosions. These people will say, "That looks really cool," not "That was a good story". Of course eye candy can only go so far. If they plot this out correctly, next season might be some what interesting. If it's just another "planet spotted on your way through the Expanse what sort of trouble can we get into" episode I'll be disappointed.

 

[ShadowmageGalen]

I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet. This isn't the beginning of the Federation.....it's the beginning of the mirror universe whatever-it-was-called. :devil:

All of this chaos leads to a more militant Earth which decides to conquer everything. Dark, disturbing, and won't mess with continuity. They can even do crossover episodes to the true Trek universe with transporter accidents.

Hey, it's my delusion.

SmG

 

[Strifeguard]

I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet. This isn't the beginning of the Federation.....it's the beginning of the mirror universe whatever-it-was-called.

Oh, if only!

The main problem being, however, that in the evil-federation mirror universe, the women all wore extraordinarily skimpy outfits. (They were skimpy during the episode about the evil Federation, and that was back during the decade of severe TV censorship)

While I'm definitely not opposed to some shots of T'Pol and Hoshi trying out the latest "fashions", the writers on Enterprise seem convinced that T'Pol's body can be a plot all by itself, and a reusable plot at that. Anything that carries them further in that direction would definitely worry me...

Also, I totally agree, it feels like a new Pilot. I thought that the show would end with the Klingon ships in pursuit (outnumbering Enterprise 3 to 1) thus creating a cliff-hanger. Instead, they don't just disable Durass, they blow him away, creating no cliff-hanger and leaving the audience to wonder about next season with record levels of skepticism.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Best dialog of any episode so far.

Durass: "Surender or Die!"

Archer: "Go to Hell!"

The other two klingon ships did not have to follow enterpise into expanse because their captin's ass' were not on the line for getting archer back. I liked that they blew up Durass's ship. Finaly they fight somone like their lives are on the line. None of this just target their weapons or engiens crap, just strait up take them out followed by a nice boom. Archer fianly acts like a captin.

I felt that the episode did end in a cliff hager but it was more of a subtle one. Can they stop that species before they launch a full fledge war or are they being baited away from where they are really supposed to be? Is that race the real threat or are they being framed to decoy them away from the source of the real threat.

Yeah the just do a loop manuver is getting old, especilay since they did it juat last week. I also thought that it was kind of dumb of that speices to do their test fire on earth unless it turns out that they are being set up. I dont think that it will turn into a nasty version of voyager. Voyager did not have earth's safty to contend with.

 

[Recoil]

Yea I think its possible that the species in the Expanse is being set up. Perhaps that "Shadow man" dude is getting his ass kicked, by that species in 400 years, and he decides to use Enterprise to wipe them out in the past and thus he wins in the future.

Then again, these are Trek writers, they can't come up with ideas like that can they...

 

[MartinRoth]

Best dialog of any episode so far.

Durass: "Surender or Die!"

Archer: "Go to Hell!"

I admit I only managed to watch about two and a half episodes of this show before giving up on it, but it really scares me that your comment might not even be sarcastic...

 

[SamGadsby]

This could be a trick on Archer by Shadowman. He has completely removed Archers influence on the rest of the galaxy. Wasn't there something about him wanting to do that?

 

[Strifeguard]

Wasn't there something about him wanting to do that?

We don't really know. On the one hand, Shadowman has gone out of his way MANY times to try and capture Archer. On the other hand, he not only helps Archer in this episode (and captures him only to set him free), but he also sent the Cabal to save Enterprise in a previous episode from accidental destruction.

The point is, it's not really clear what Shadowman wants at all. Odder still is that "Crewman Daniels" who helped Archer to out-wit Shadowman claimed that Shadowman was trying to "pollute the timeline", while this time around it was Shadowman who complained about polluting the timeline. To top it all off, we learned from last season's finale that "Crewman Daniels" is part of the Federation's time travel program.

Wow...the end result is that the viewer doesn't really know anything...

 

[Strifeguard]

Wasn't there something about him wanting to do that?

We don't really know. On the one hand, Shadowman has gone out of his way MANY times to try and capture Archer. On the other hand, he not only helps Archer in this episode (and captures him only to set him free), but he also sent the Cabal to save Enterprise in a previous episode from accidental destruction.

The point is, it's not really clear what Shadowman wants at all. Odder still is that "Crewman Daniels" who helped Archer to out-wit Shadowman claimed that Shadowman was trying to "pollute the timeline", while this time around it was Shadowman who complained about polluting the timeline. To top it all off, we learned from last season's finale that "Crewman Daniels" is part of the Federation's time travel program.

Wow...the end result is that the viewer doesn't really know anything...

 

[Glacophane]

As Janeway said in Voyager about time travel:
"The future is the past, the past is the future. It all gives me a headache."

 

[Glacophane]

As Janeway said in Voyager about time travel:
"The future is the past, the past is the future. It all gives me a headache."

 

[StarStuff]

I thought of 'Rangers' when the ball was hurtling toward earth. I was waiting for germ warfare!

And, didn't the captain (or someone) say that Soldiers would be assigned to the Enterprise? Where were they?

 

[StarStuff]

I thought of 'Rangers' when the ball was hurtling toward earth. I was waiting for germ warfare!

And, didn't the captain (or someone) say that Soldiers would be assigned to the Enterprise? Where were they?

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I thought of 'Rangers' when the ball was hurtling toward earth. I was waiting for germ warfare!

And, didn't the captain (or someone) say that Soldiers would be assigned to the Enterprise? Where were they?

Oddly enough the first thing I thought of when I saw the ball was death star.

And yeah somone did mention that soldiers were being added to the crew. We probly did not see them because starfleet looks down upon human soldiers and proably made them ride in the back of the ship. Or, they simply have not hired the actors to play them yet since they would not need them untill they start getting ready for the next season.

I did find the fact earth does have a space defence force seprate from starfleet durring the enterpise time period interesting. But they only seemed to have fighters.

Also when they were refering to upgrading the weapons system were they only refering to the new torpedos or did they mean more than that.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I thought of 'Rangers' when the ball was hurtling toward earth. I was waiting for germ warfare!

And, didn't the captain (or someone) say that Soldiers would be assigned to the Enterprise? Where were they?

Oddly enough the first thing I thought of when I saw the ball was death star.

And yeah somone did mention that soldiers were being added to the crew. We probly did not see them because starfleet looks down upon human soldiers and proably made them ride in the back of the ship. Or, they simply have not hired the actors to play them yet since they would not need them untill they start getting ready for the next season.

I did find the fact earth does have a space defence force seprate from starfleet durring the enterpise time period interesting. But they only seemed to have fighters.

Also when they were refering to upgrading the weapons system were they only refering to the new torpedos or did they mean more than that.

 

[Strifeguard]

Also when they were refering to upgrading the weapons system were they only refering to the new torpedos or did they mean more than that.

Not really a "weapon" but when Durass tries to disable Enterprise's torpedo launcher, we're told that he can't because their hull plating has been improved.

I'm waiting for shields. Come on, Malcom got them to work once already on a small-scale. I'm just afraid that UPN is going to make an "Enterprise Event" out of it.

"Next Wednesday on UPN: Shields!, an Enterprise Event, be there!"

 

[Strifeguard]

Also when they were refering to upgrading the weapons system were they only refering to the new torpedos or did they mean more than that.

Not really a "weapon" but when Durass tries to disable Enterprise's torpedo launcher, we're told that he can't because their hull plating has been improved.

I'm waiting for shields. Come on, Malcom got them to work once already on a small-scale. I'm just afraid that UPN is going to make an "Enterprise Event" out of it.

"Next Wednesday on UPN: Shields!, an Enterprise Event, be there!"