{"id":3596,"date":"2023-12-09T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3596"},"modified":"2023-11-30T23:23:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T23:23:31","slug":"trekaday-122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/12\/09\/trekaday-122\/","title":{"rendered":"Trekaday #122: Storm Front, Home, Borderland, Cold Station 12, The Augments"},"content":{"rendered":"

ENT S04E01 Storm Front <\/strong>(\"2). Oh joy. Nazis. Apart from the fact that our people deserved a win, this feels like a massively stupid and irrelevant twist to suddenly impose upon a series which had haltingly, falteringly, started to figure out what it was for and how it worked. Anyway, maybe now T\u2019Pol will accept that time travel is possible. Enterprise<\/em> is still being infiltrated by the Acne Squad, who are presumably responsible, so this doesn\u2019t feel much like the start of a whole new version of the show, more like still trying to make bits of the old show work and feel important. New showrunner Manny Coto takes over from here, but clearly had little choice but to do the dopey time travel story he\u2019d been handed by Brannon Braga on his way out the door. He does at least try and write out Daniels, but 45 minutes isn\u2019t enough to unravel all of this, so we\u2019ll have more of the same next time. Ropey plotting here too as Trip and Travis beam down and get captured, essentially swapping places with Archer who escapes capture and beams back on board the ship. That\u2019s not storytelling, it\u2019s just busywork.<\/p>\n

Time Magazine<\/em> referred to \u201cWorld War II\u201d as early as 1939 so it\u2019s hard to see why Alicia hasn\u2019t heard the phrase before. First episode of Star Trek<\/strong> shot on digital cameras, and it looks absolutely fantastic, I\u2019ll give it that.<\/p>\n

ENT S04E02 Storm Front, Part II <\/strong>(\"1.5). Some nifty compositing shows Hitler in Times Square and sailing past the Statue of Liberty, which is at least an arresting set of images, possibly proving that their might be a few dregs left at the bottom of the Star Trek<\/strong> vs The Nazis barrel. But British character actors doing Allo Allo<\/em> accents while declaiming at people in rubber heads is still a pretty ludicrous sight, no matter the justification. Meanwhile, Archer attempts to make Alicia feel at home by listing his ship\u2019s casualties at her, which is a pretty weird seduction ploy to say the least. Golden Brooks is a very appealing presence though, and once again gets more and more interesting things to do than many of the regular cast. Silik had formed the idea that Earth people were some kind of hippy peaceniks. Enterprise<\/em> kicking some Xindi ass set him straight. Trip and Archer, who used up some screen time swapping places last episode, use up more screen time swapping back again this time. I don\u2019t think Manny Coto\u2019s heart was in this one. Still at least the Temporal Cold War is done and dusted now \u2013 and all it took was blowing up one not very large building. Who knew it could be so easy?<\/p>\n

ENT S04E03 Home <\/strong>(\"3.5). There\u2019s a parade for the heroes who saved Earth (or seven of them at any rate). Archer knows that twenty-seven people didn\u2019t make it back, but can\u2019t name any of them, natch. We do find time to check in with most of the seven people that apparently did all the actual work. T\u2019Pol is bringing Trip home to meet her mum (science fiction royalty Joanna Cassidy from off of Blade Runner<\/em>). These Vulcans are still the same touchy, catty, neurotic, paranoid nut-jobs that they have been since Season 1. They fulfil obligations because it makes their parents feel good rather than for any other reason. They preferentially respond to certain \u201cinfluential\u201d members of their society, rather than judging each person\u2019s arguments on its own merits. Why has Star Trek<\/strong>\u2019s longest established culture suddenly become so hard to write for?<\/p>\n

Phlox is disembarking with his private menagerie and hoping not to be the victim of a hate crime, despite Malcolm\u2019s warnings. Presumably Hoshi and Travis have loved ones who are waiting for them too, but, you know, screw those guys. And Archer is helping his old girlfriend with the fit-out of Columbia<\/em>, and re-opening the debate about whether Starfleet is a military outfit or not. He also has to explain some of his less than ideal ethical choices to a typically acidulous Vulcan tribunal (which feels a bit like the new showrunner marking the old showrunner\u2019s homework). Archer again demonstrates his childish short temper and general unsuitability for the role he\u2019s been given. Some things never change, apparently. Malcolm and Travis waste little time before getting into a bar-fight too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nice to have some focus on (some of) the characters, and although it\u2019s clumsy, I appreciate the attempt to show what effect the Xindi attack has had on Earth (or on belligerent America males, at any rate). But this isn\u2019t anything like as good as TNG<\/strong>\u2019s Family<\/em> (which it is obviously cribbed from) and some plotlines are left frustratingly unresolved or underdeveloped. T\u2019Pol gets all the best stuff as usual, and having her go through with marrying her unsuitable boyfriend is a bold note on which to end the episode. Now can we go back to discovering strange new worlds?<\/p>\n

While Archer was gone, another World War Three epic swept all the awards.<\/p>\n

ENT S04E04 Borderland <\/strong>(\"4). For a show whose very raison d\u2019etre would appear to be connecting Berman-Trek<\/strong> to The Original Series<\/strong>, this final roll of the dice seems to be going back to the TNG<\/strong> well instead, with some very nineties looking Klingons and a guest appearance by none other than Brent Spiner, playing a nutty ancestor of Data\u2019s daddy. In a riff on The Silence of the Lambs<\/em>, crazy criminal scientist Arik Soong is the only one who can catch the augmented superhumans currently on the loose. Quite why this is Archer and Enterprise<\/em>\u2019s business is anyone\u2019s guess, as is why Archer in uniform is giving the mission briefing to his six trusted bridge crew all of whom are in civvies. (T\u2019Pol later appears in a skintight purple version of the uniform which cannot be Starfleet standard issue. Why the hell can\u2019t they dress her like the others?)<\/p>\n

It used to be the case that Archer\u2019s mission represented humanity\u2019s first few faltering steps outside the solar system. But now Soong, who has been in prison for years, seems to know everything about Klingons, Orion Slave Traders (who are at least part of Kirk\u2019s series) and much else besides, of which Archer is entirely ignorant. That puts Scott Bakula back in tetchy headmaster mode, but this plays off Spiner\u2019s casual insouciance rather well, and having T\u2019Pol and various redshirts kidnapped and sold as slaves is a nice high-stakes twist. I\u2019ve commented before that this is by far the most useless and ill-suited bridge crew we\u2019ve seen, but god, the redshirts are even worse. Only one is featured, T\u2019Pol literally doesn\u2019t know his name and when she finds him, he\u2019s basically wetting himself with fear. Not exactly the right stuff. And just when I was thinking \u201cthere\u2019s a lot here to wrap up and not much time left\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s to be continued. But at least there aren\u2019t any space Nazis. And there are boy slaves this time, which I guess is some kind of progress (even if the girl slaves are still in silver bikinis). One of the Augments saying \u201cI\u2019m going to attack you,\u201d and still getting the drop on Archer is just the right side of ridiculous. They\u2019re great villains, but they need to stop arguing among themselves (shades of the Xindi).<\/p>\n

ENT S04E05 Cold Station 12 <\/strong>(\"4.5). This is all presumably supposed to tie into the Eugenics Wars \/ anti-genetic engineering stuff which began in Space Seed<\/em> and which was a turning point for Dr Bashir\u2019s character in Deep Space Nine<\/strong> (and which played out again in Picard<\/strong> many years later). I don\u2019t really know how much sense any of this makes, but if what I\u2019m being offered is Brent Spiner as a seemingly-benevolent father figure at the head of a race of aggressive superhumans who are hell-bent on the destruction of everything we hold dear, then I\u2019m pretty happy. The Augments are suitably creepy and Aryan and there are some nice nods to sixties NBC looking technology in the set dressing.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the superhumans reject the gimpy one who didn\u2019t turn out so awesome, and it\u2019s nice that \u201cSmike\u201d refuses to betray the siblings who turned their backs on him, at least at first. And the prospect of power-mad Soong unleashing an army of genetically-superior murder-brats is a suitably compelling one. About the only thing which this exciting space adventure has in common with the previous three or so years is that Hoshi and Travis have nothing to do. Best scene \u2013 Soong vs Richard Riehle\u2019s Dr Lucas vs his own conscience. Cracking stuff.<\/p>\n

ENT S04E06 The Augments <\/strong>(\"4). Part three of, I assume, three. This has been fairly thick-eared adventure stuff for the most part, with a shiny guest star executing his evil plan, the heroic captain being square-jawed and heroic, and the brave crew doing whichever job needs doing efficiently and anonymously. But within those limitations, it\u2019s very effective and Archer\u2019s thrilling escape from death is pretty wild stuff. My only qualm is that once again, it will be the villains squabbling among themselves which will prove to be their undoing, more than any brilliant tactical innovations on the parts of our heroes.<\/p>\n

I think the hope of the creative team was that the eugenics theme and the vacillation of Brent Spiner\u2019s character would provide some conceptual or emotional ballast, but neither does all that much to anchor this breezy trilogy, which kind of comes down whether our orange glowing ball of pixels will overtake their green glowing ball of pixels. What\u2019s really missing is that Star Trek<\/strong> sense of wonder and optimism, to say nothing of family. We do get a nice scene between T\u2019Pol and Trip (reviewing the former\u2019s choice at the end of Home<\/em>), but this is still The Captain Jonathan Archer Show and he\u2019s just not all that interesting. However, the renewed sense of confidence is undeniable.<\/p>\n

References to Khan, Botany Bay and the Briar Patch feel like slightly pointless Easter Eggs rather than a new stitch in the great Star Trek<\/strong> quilt of history, but I don\u2019t object to them (maybe the Briar Patch just a little).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ENT S04E01 Storm Front (). Oh joy. Nazis. Apart from the fact that our people deserved a win, this feels like a massively stupid and irrelevant twist to suddenly impose upon a series which had haltingly, falteringly, started to figure out what it was for and how it worked. Anyway, maybe now T\u2019Pol will accept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[539,19,79,528],"class_list":["post-3596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-enterprise","tag-reviews","tag-star-trek","tag-trekaday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-W0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3599,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}