Broken Bow, Prod#ST:ENT 101/102
Synopsis: The Enterprise crew sets on a maiden voyage with a mission to return a wounded
Klingon to his people.
MJC Review:
The Drama -
Humans have always been eager, excited, and somewhat desperate to get into deep space. For
the last century, they've relied on Vulcans on "what's out there", but now
humans want to stand (or float) on their on feet in space. Now they have the means to go
"where no man has gone before". For Captain Archer, this is a boyhood dream come
true. The mission is straight forward - take the Klingon back to his homeworld. What
Captain and crew found out along the way was a bit more than what they had expected. Along
their journey, they explore a strange new world, meet weird aliens, and wonder where they
will boldly go next. Hey, that's why it's called an adventure. The Vulcan/Human
relationship was interesting. Both races work together yet disagree on so many things.
Humans feel that the Vulcans have hindered their exploration efforts, while Vulcans think
that Humans need more time to develop their "logic" before exploring the unknown.
Yet, despite all that, both races do work together. For Archer, his feelings towards
Vulcans is most intense. He blames them for slowing down human space exploration and for
his father not being able to see the warp 5 project come true. So one, can image how
infuriated Archer is when a Vulcan, T'Pol, is assigned to his ship. Oh, well. As events
unfold unexpectedly, both Archer and T'Pol find ways to work together to complete a
successful mission. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to overcome Archer and T'Pol during the
mission was their preconceived ideas about each other. Well, I guess that they will
have to put those silly notions behind them if they are going to work together. I
wouldn't say that they are friends, but they both realize that working together is more
beneficial for each and everyone than not.
So how does this Klingon feel? First, he crash lands on Earth, gets shot by a farmer, gets
abducted and interrogated by the Suliban, recaptured by the the humans, then finally gets
back to his homeworld. No wonder he wants to be killed when he finally gets there -
"I've been dishonored in a way you can't imagine".
I'm not sure what to make of the Suliban. Genetically engineered? Suliban dissidents?
Interference from the future? Temporal cold war? The whole gives me a head-ache. However,
they do make good for special effects. I wish I could turn my hand around like they do.
I thought that the regular characters were well written in. Each had an important role for
the plot that only that character could fill. Mayweather is just a natural for space deep
space travel. While everyone else is "oo-ing and ah-ing" at everything, Tucker
is more like "hey, I was born and raised in this environment" . The scenes with
Sato and the universal translator where hilarious. These darn things don't really work
right all the time! She has to rely on her own natural abilities and instinct when
technology can't translate everything for you. Read is spit and polish. He goes
by-the-book. I think is "book" will need adjusting as he ventures into the
unknown. I sense that Tucker and Archer go way back. Tucker seems very knowledgeable and
intelligent, but he also seems to have much to learn of new ideas and new worlds. I think
his offbeat sense of humor is about to get a does of shocking reality as he goes where no
man has gone before. His scene with T'Pol, Archer, and Archer's dog was great when
referring to T'Pol's keen sense of smell - "I had a shower this morning". I
think T'Pol may end up being my favorite character - a logical, young (only 50 - that's
young for Vulcans) female Vulcan all in one. Can I stand the pain! More!! Seriously,
she'll definitely be the wise one who guides the humans to the unknown. In time, I think
she'll learn to respect the emotional and irrational humans a bit more. It'll be
interesting to see over time how much she gets emotionally contaminated by being around a
ship full of humans all the time. And who is this Phlox character?? Besides having an
unusual approach to medicine, not much is known about him. However, he does share a lot
curiosity about meeting new species as the humans do. I guess he'll be the mystery
character for awhile. It'll be interesting to see how these characters and Archer grow-up
over time has they venture into deep space.
I was pleased that they did give credit to Gene Roddenberry in the opening credits -
justly done. The first pilot of Enterprise remains true to one of Star Trek's main themes:
Exploration.
Tid Bits -
I don't know about the series theme song. It may take awhile to get used too. I DO think
that the producers should put Star Trek as part of the series name. After all, this IS
Star Trek!! And how'bout that Vulcan chick, T'Pol! Whew!! She brings a whole new meaning
to Pon-farr! I thought 'Warbird' was a Romulan-type ship. Oh well, Berman and gang have
been known for their oops-inconstancies, but we can forgive them......sometimes. Oh! And
that dude in the temporal chamber....looks like a Romulan. Cool looking new Enterprise
ship, too. Can I get one? I think I could like this pre-federation starship if they
keep serving steak for dinner - A1 sauce, please. I do have one question about the
Enterprise: Got milk?
What it all means -
"To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations,
to boldly go where no man has gone before."
4 cool peace signs
MJC 200109.29