STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE 09/10/'03: "The Xindi" - Page 2

i assumed it was a breathing apparatus do to the toxic gas in that atmosphere.

Thanks Phillip! I knew there WERE some, but I thought they were out-weighed by some of the nagging problems (mostly the "bold, new direction" they're taking.. prison breaks, partial Vulcan nudity, uneccessary tangents.. yeah, really sets itself apart from the other seasons, doesn't it?).

Well, T'Pol now has the look of a futuristic soccer mom in those new colorful suit, and the slightly bigger hairdo.

I was rolling my eyes when they shifted from the narrow escape to T'Pol cupping her boobs while getting some "help" from Tripp in her quarters. Seriously, do B&B really think there's a significant demographic that still tunes into this show just to see some form of disrobing going on?

Yup, pretty sad..

This not only managed to be bor-ing but also cheap and sleazy. How is this new and exciting? They're still doing the same thing they've been doing the last time I managed to look in on Enterprise. And the Xindi Insect and Aquatic aliens looked about as realistic as Species 8472 did on Voyager... which is to say they looked like a walking, talking special effect.

I'm not even going to mention what they did to the opening titles... ICK!

And just when I thought I had seen everything that was bad about Star Trek today, they showed the teaser for next week's ep. Puleez! Enterprise is a total write-off.

I thought it was fairly well paced. I liked T'Pol's new Vulcan eye brows. Archer's anger might get one dimensional, but it's good to see him taking charge. The mystery at the end can be intriquing, are these Xindi from the past? The new theme is too upbeat for the dark tone of the series now. The last sequence with T'Pol and Trip was over the top exploitation.

It could be good, they've set up some conflicts now with the MACO Marines and Malcolm, I liked the female MACO beating up big bad aliens. Obviously they are trying something with Trip and T'Pol. The visual effects were bumped a notch up. The new effect going into warp had some color added. And they've added some dynamic flight angles for Enterprise fly-bys.

The Xindi council were mildly reminescent to the Founders. Though not as chilling nor threatening yet. Not sure about the value of multible Xindi species other then an excuse to make them have different looks. (The aquatic Xindi reminded me of the fish in Titan's lair on Stingray)

It looks promising if they continue to improve, eventhough a lot of the makeover was purely surface treatments. As someone earlier said, I was looking at the clock, not for it to end, but to see how much time is left as I too thought it was kinda exciting and I wanted to see more.

Nelson

My observations.

- The new theme song. Sounds like a modern country western tune now. Does that mean the crew will make the Xindi squeal like a pig?

- T'pol's covered breasts. I found the whole scene so ridiculous I actually stopped watching it for a while and missed that part. Something tells me I didn't miss much.

- The gullible Enterprise crew. Who in their right mind would walk into an unknown alien's realm with precious material and not prepare some kind of contigency plan in case the whole set-up ends up being a trap? At the very least they could have booby-trapped the case itself to blow up after a certain amount of time.

- The commandos are the only Federation people with enough cohones to pick a fight with someone and win. And they're not even part of the crew!

- The cheesy alien effects. As usual they stick out like a sore thumb. Computer graphics are perfect for mechanical effects, but still aren't advanced enough to replace any and all animals, either foreign or domestic.

This review from US Today just about says it all:


USA Today's Robert Bianco chimes in with his review of STAR TREK ENTERPRISE's season premiere "The Xindi" today, saying the revamped series still suffers fundamental flaws. Bianco found one scene involving Jolene Blalock's 'T'Pol' particularly disappointing.

"Unfortunately, like many of the changes, [the] tarting-up of T'Pol smacks of desperation," Bianco writes. "At one point, she even goes tastefully topless, which makes one wonder what the producers will do next if the ratings don't rise."

He goes on to say that the exciting premise with the Xindi adds some needed oomph to the show.

"The new premise does promise to provide more action and excitement, and giving the crew a purpose certainly can't hurt... Still, none of the alterations has come close to fixing the show's main problem, which is subpar writing."

Bianco says Connor Trinneer's 'Trip Tucker' falls victim to "erratic" writing and in the end has a distasteful recommendation for the show, and the franchise: "Sometimes the boldest tack is to go away."

Yes, that about covers it.. I hope they're listening!

I missed the theme song.. Sounds like I dodged a bullet.. Did they change the visuals as well? I thought they were pretty good.. Even the song was in tune with the theme of the show.

That's the danger. It can be all-too easy to find things to poke holes in Enterprise. Only two of those were significant, I thought:
1) the new upbeat theme, which I actually liked despite myself; unfortunately it doesn't match the tone of the episode one iota.
2) the tacked-on scene with T'Pol. B&B should move to Showtime, and take Blalock with them (maybe they can do Jeremiah when JMS leaves!).

One more thing (trivial really): Archer should really consider stockpiling precious metals etc to trade, rather than have to cannibalise parts every week.

The episode itself, as Nelson noted above, was well-paced (aside from that scene). The writing *was* sub-par, but did have its moments (I laughed out loud at the "I'd have noticed by now" gag).


The atmosphere was partially poisonous, remember?


Oh, come on, that's taking nitpicking too far. I enjoyed that scene for what it was.


I think they show great potential...


Nice idea. The other explanation is that Archer and co have unwittingly gone into the far future.

It was a clever thing they did to make the Xindi five species, each in a struggle for dominancy over the others. The question now becomes, will Archer unwittingly destroy the Xindi homeworld, or did one race of Xindi do it and have chosen the most seemingly-pacifistic race in the quadrant as a scapegoat? Is then the insectoid Xindi the obvious "bad guy", or just the easiest fooled? And if their planet is destroyed, where are they speaking from? A ship? Or could the Expanse contain two separate timelines at once? That might be interesting too.

Well, I didn't like it. They managed to make the theme unpleasant even for those of us who really liked it before, the story was stock, the characters aren't interesting, and the entire episode looked cheap, too. It reminded me of last year's Klingon episode, where something that was supposed to be a big deal managed to just look pathetic because the sets were small and cheap-looking.

And how stupid are the Xindi? "The humans are coming! We've got to do something!" "It's an invasion!" "Well, gee, Fred, maybe we shouldn't have shown them our superweapon and let them know we exist."

The spatial distortion thing makes no sense once a second's thought is applied to it - is it traveling along with Enterprise, at multiples times the speed of light, but still staying in the same position relative to the ship? That seems unlikely.

Starting next week, I'm back to not watching when B&B have writing credits. It's good to be reminded why I started ignoring them once in a while, though.

Okay, here's a third thought. They passed through the distortion (or rather two), which then reacted with the two cargo-bay walls, charging them with gravitational properties just strong enough to overcome the ship's normal "grav plating". As they then pass through different parts of the Expanse, one or the other wall is "charged" with more gravitational force.

Isn't the whole point of the expanse that the normal laws of physics don't always hold? It surely doesn't take much of a leap of imagination to "explain" this scene, even though no explanation should be required for what is really a script contrivance to remind the viewers about the dangerous anomaly they're all flying through.

If this is the show's new direction, I won't be tuning in beyond the next few episodes. I dropped in and out last season.





If you ask me, this is shades of DS9, and is hardly new or clever. The Dominion was made up of 3 species, simply because Ira Steven Behr et. al. wanted options, in case fans didn't like the nemesis they created. By having three distinct species, all at odds with one another, it gave the writers more options.

Seems to me, that's what they're trying to do here, too.

Funny that a similar "re-tooling" of DS9 also included a modified theme song.

The scene between Trip and T'Pol was painful to watch. It was extremely un-Vulcanlike for T'Pol's character (nothing new there). And it was just unnecessary. If they think showing a little Vulcan skin is going to gain viewership, the show is in trouble. It distracts from what the focus should be... and frankly, the show is so unfocused, I don't think Brannon and Braga know where it is, or where they're going.

It's very disappointing that Trek can go out like this. They need to give the franchise a rest. Reset, regroup, and revisit after a few years off the air.

-Scott

Aaarrgghh!
The premiere was yesterday???? When's the re-run?

Have you checked your local listings? Last season, my local UPN affiliate would show repeats of the Wednesday episode of Enterprise on Friday or Saturday nights depending on their programming schedule.

Give www.tvguide.com a look for repeats.

Re: the theme song: I think they need to let Trip (Connor Trinneer) do the song if they want more twang in the singing of the song.

I thought the episode was pretty good. One thing I have noticed is how people have criticized the various Xidi species. I am going to give the Trek production staff kudos for it. A lot of people(including me) have complained about how all the Trek aliens seem to be humans with something attached to the foreheads or ridges. Well, it looks like most of the Xindi were full make up versions. And I liked that.

Overall I really liked this episode. There were a few things that I didn't care for, but they were outweighed by the positives.

Did the insectoid Xindi (especially their vocalizations) remind anyone of the Geonosians in Ep 2?

I know most may not agree, but for me, this is the best Star Trek series that I have watched. I could never get into TNG, DS9, or Voyager (though I tried). But I find myself setting aside Wednesday at 8 to catch Enterprise. It's not perfect, but I like it.. oh well.

Sounds remarkably like the attendees at a Trek convention doesn't it

My thoughts exactly.

OK I liked it! Sure it didn't set me on my butt with all of the new things happening, but it was much better than most of last year.

LOVED the initial council meeting with Xindi. To me it reminded me of the meeting in SW ep2 only on a smaller scale.

They seemed to make the lighting a little more dramatic and I liked that too.

The scene with T'pol wasn't needed and took away from a better setup for the season.

I liked the military in the crew, and am hoping the interaction ISN't pleasant with the regular crew. A few squabbles would be nice.

Brent

edit

On the theme: I had always felt an instrumental, like the other series would have been best. However, once they decided and went with "It's been a long time", or whatever the title is, they shouldn't have changed it. Unless it was to go to an instrumental, as I mentioned before.

I still swear this "Xindi" sounds familiar. If not previously on Enterprise, then maybe on Voyager as in a very similar sounding name of a species, but not exactly the same. Oh, and with the Xindi, yet another species we see in the pre-Federation world that just drops off the face of the universe by the time of Kirk and co., and those who followed him.

The Dominion was the Founders + 2 slave races (Jem 'Hadar + Vorta). There was a clear hierarchy. The Xindi all evolved on the same planet, and have some form of "council". That is what is new. What's clever is that at the end of season 2, the Xindi were thought to be just one race; five sub-races gives the third season a whole new potential. It's also a very good thing that they are taking note of DS9, and not, for example, Voyager. Perhaps they saw the same documentaries that we did on the DVDs, and took notes...

The show was better then some, worse then others. I still do not think Scott Bakula has the role down. He seems to be angrier this season..... less a father figure to the crew and more a ring leader. The ship, at least inside, is spiffier. Sci Fi is a genre. At the risk of being blasted with a phaser, you can really do only so much. Get too cerebral and you lose the action audience. Too much action and you lose the "thinkers". And, by no means, don't ever do comedy. As long as the same producers are in charge you're not really going to see much difference from past seasons.

Yes, there was a hierarchy - but they all despised and distrusted one another. If it weren't for "the white", the Jem 'Hadar would have killed off the Vorta in record time.

I still can't get by the idea that Brannon and Braga are just covering themselves with a multi-racial nemesis. Heck, it worked before, in DS9. Point being, this was supposed to be fresh, new and different - or so said Braga.

I'm not seeing that.

-Scott

I'm not a purist by any stretch but I have enjoyed TOS and TNG, as well as their afilliated movies, for their entertainment value. DS9 and Voyager never did do anything for me. I do enjoy Enterprise, and I realize there is so much more that could be done with it. It's probably the potential of the show that keeps me watching.

I thought that whole Xindi council had an EP 2 flavor to it. All the bad guys (and insects) around the table arguing over the new universal order. That swimming thing looks like a rip-off of something I have seen relatively recently too.

It's a shame that UPN doesn't show this in HD. They have to start somewhere. Then again, if the show tanks it would only increase their losses.

With all things wrong with the writing, it's a petty complaint, but they really ruined the opening theme. It doesn't have that "lighter effect" anymore. It almost seems like an attempt to speed it up and get to the first commercial.

Well, I'll keep watching and hoping.

Ralph

I can understand they wanted to save money by reusing the Core's Suits, but whereas they made sense in the core they don't make sense in Enterprise. In the Core the suits are metallic to handle huge amounts of Heat. But I would think the Maco's would want to be low Key Stelth uniforms, not bright shiny mettalic that would stick out like a sore thumb. Anyone else agree?

An OK episode. I agree with everyone about the T'Pol scene at the end. It felt forced and contrived. Better effects (especially the shots of the Enterprise), but the suits that the MACO's wear are terrible! Are those supposed to be camouflaged?



Scott, it's Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, not Brannon and Braga...although I guess the two are interchangeable!

It's a country-western theme now?!? God give me strength..

I dunno, I'd like to see Enterprise improve, but I think I agree with the camp that thinks the whole franchise should be shelved.. If you love something, let it go.

And B&B should be ritually disemboweled..