ENTERPRISE 2/19/'03: "Crash Landing" (1 Viewer)

[Rex Bachmann]

episode: #42
original airdate: February 19, 2003
writers: Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong
director: James Whitmore Jr.

Synopsis: "The Enterprise crew finds a small craft drifting in space and is surprised to find it contains a human corpse. More questions arise when the Suliban make claim to the craft, as well as the Tholians."


SciFi Wire: Tholians Return To Trek

dateline: January 22, 2003 9:00 a.m. ET

February sweeps times are a'comin', and it's another dip into the past. I must admit, however, that, although I usually don't like "returns" and rehashes, I've always thought the Tholians deserved more air time. With today's CGI they can do wonders for the audience's experience of them. I hope they turn out not to be too "humanoid".

 

[Rex Bachmann]

According to STENTERPRISE.COM, this episode has been . . .

Whew! Without any disrepect to the recent tragedy, I have to ask: is the public as squeamish as the networks?

 

[Jason Seaver]

First I've heard about it being because of Columbia; I heard that the producers wanted a title that reflected the time-travel aspects of the episode (since they're apparently under the impression that people like the Temporal Cold War).

 

[Francois Caron]

Saw it last night. It's actually a decent episode even if it was partially inspired by "Doctor Who". It also has a few interesting and funny tidbits concerning *ahem* inter-species breeding (no, they didn't go overboard on the sex angle this time).

 

[Norm]

Who is Daniel? What was his first Episode? I haven't watched since the 7th episode.

 

[DeathStar1]

I found this one rather fun, even if the 'repeating time' bit was a stole TNG referance from Season 1.

 

[Norm]

I found the info I needed. Any word on a DVD release for the first season?

 

[Will_B]

I was prepared to be bored by Enterprise tonight, so I was immensely relieved to discover it was an entertaining and even slighting intense episode.

Our standards today are high -- we'd never accept, for example, the Next Gen episode when Wesley was in love with a girl who turned into a furry monster -- and this one came fairly close to delivering.

I also liked the different cinematography of the bridge shots - they seemed to be using a wider angle than usual, did anyone else notice this? Looked very filmic.

 

[Will_B]

slighting.... Slightly intense, I mean. I think my fingers have drunk too much, they're slurring my type.

 

[Everlasting Gobstopper]

I concur. Entertaining episode. Definitely a breath of fresh air. This doesn't make Ent a good series though. They need to be consistent, which, this season, they have not been.

 

[Norm]

I need to find a way to catch up on these Episodes. I want to see Cold Front & Shockwave part 1 & 2. I love the Time Travel Treks!

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Will_B wrote (post #8):

Some of our standards have always been high and we never accepted it---or almost any other "Wesley story", for that matter---but I'm unclear on the relevance of that story to this one. ("They both almost 'deliver'"? "You need low standards to appreciate them"?)

And, by the way: ". . . Wesley was in love with a girl who turned into a furry monster". . . . You've got that backwards.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

I missed the last couple of minutes. My mom called and wouldn't be shushed..

So I missed what happened with the time-travelling ship. Did it just dissappear, like the beacon? Did the Tholians just high-tail it after it dissapeared? What was all the dialogue about after that?

Thanks!

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Better than average, for an Enterprise episode.

Notables for this episode:

(a) Building the "Archer - T'Pol connexion": the knowing glances, the "bedroom eyes", the discussions about the dead mixed-breed voyager from the future, who's part human, part Vulcan, part other; Archer's speculation to her on "chromosome-swapping" and what human-Vulcan hybrids would look like, etc.


(b) Vulcan duplicity: The look on T'Pol's face every time she tells Archer that they should stay out of the "Temporal Cold War" doings bespeaks a knowing dissemblance. The repeated denial of the possibility, as well as the reality, of time travel on "logical" grounds wears thin. And T'Pol's expression when she reiterates what is obviously a "party line" ("The Vulcan Science Directorate/Academy has determined . . ."), again, betrays a lack of conviction bordering on disbelief and even disingenuity.

Vulcans know way more than they're telling about the whole matter.


(c) A little science, for a change: Interesting the concept of a ship with an expansive internal geometry (i.e., it's much more spacious on the inside than on the outside). Tell us more . . . .


(d) A "peekaboo!"-mystery: The producers tantalized us by having the Tholians board the Enterprise and start cutting through the docking bay doors, but having them turn away when the (boobytrapped) vessel they wanted is delivered to their surrounding ships.

Since, the interiors of the Tholian vessels are, apparently, superheated, must they wear environmental suits to board a vessel with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and, to them, cool temperatures?

Nice to see: the Tholians mopped up the Suliban like "that!"

Also, I very much liked the sound effects accompanying(?) the Tholian voices, but it's unclear whether some of the sounds were supposed to be their native language. T'Pol says something like, "I don't think they were paying you a compliment", when they "chirp" upon withdrawing after Archer threatens to destroy the captured vessel.

(e) "Without brains there is no life . . . ": A final, niggling point: the Earth folk shouldn't have needed the Tholians to tell them that something they just dragged in from outer space might be harmful to them. They all walked right up to the freshly captured vehicle in their docking port without any kind of protective covering. Not a realistic survival activity in deep space.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

doug zdanivsky wrote (post #13):

They didn't "high-tail" it, as that implies fleeing in fear. T'Pol speculates that they may have withdrawn because they only wanted the vessel and, once it had disappeared, they had no reason to stay around. (They'd already disposed of the Suliban.)

 

[CharlesD]

Whew! Without any disrepect to the recent tragedy, I have to ask: is the public as squeamish as the networks?

Probably not, but think about it, many Trek fans are probably also space junkies (like me) and it is a sad time right now. I wouldn't be offended by the original title & I don't know that any one would be, I'd look at the title change (if Columbia really is the reason for it) as more of a gesture of respect than anything else.

Reading this thread makes me almost sorry that I stopped watching Enterprise maybe I'll watch the re-run this weekend! :b

 

[Kwang Suh]

I thought for a second that they'd find the Eye of Harmony when they took that box out of the TARDIS, oops, Time Ship.

 

[DeathStar1]

>Vulcans know way more than they're telling about the whole matter.>

I was thinking this myself. Notice how at ease she seemed(even for a Vulcan) in reading this supposedly futureistic layout when they where searching the schematics for the ship. Not even a 'fascinating' said during the whole time .

Re:Tholian language. Anyone else remidned of the aliens that invaded the Enterprise D's cargo bay by taking crewmembers into their world via transdimentional gate? That's what that language reminded me of..

 

[Andrew Beacom]

I wasn't particularly impressed by this one. I'm not impressed by the TCW though. Enterprise needs good stories, or even some good SF, not more time travel.

To use Jack's rating system it's worth a watch while doing the laundry with occasional pauses for action.

 

[David Forbes]

Okay, this is the first Enterprise i've watched since about ep. six of season one. I also missed the first 15 or 20 minutes putting my son to bed. But I wanted to see what they did with the Tholians.

A question and a comment....

First, did they show an actual Tholian in the first act? I didn't see one later on, just their ships (and the admittedly cool cutting through the airlock, right out of the Stormtroopers boarding the blockade runner in Star Wars).

Now, the pet peeve....

The end chase completely pissed me off. Can't these writers get their facts straight? Why go into DETAIL about how far they are from the Vulcan ship if you can't do it right? First they're a "few million" kilometers from the Vulcan ship, and T'Pol says their ETA is three minutes. Then they're "600,000 kilometers" away, and still maybe a minute from arriving.

Now, the last time I checked, light travels at 186,282 miles per second. So, at mere lightspeed, they should reach the Vulcan ship from a "few million" kilometers away (let's say 5 million) in 27 seconds. At warp three (is that the top end for that ship?) it should be significantly faster. At 600,000 kilometers they would reach the ship before T'Pol finished her sentence.

Crap like that makes me nuts because it's so easy to get right and is just a sign of bad research.

Pet peeve off....

It wasn't enough to make me watch regularly again. I must admit I really do like Dr. Phlox, though.