Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
3x03 - "Extinction"
This episode felt like a "Voyager" episode, and not in a good way. I'm usually a fan of LeVar Burton-directed episodes, but even he couldn't polish this turd.
Clearly they're building toward Trip and T'Pol hooking up. I get it, and maybe even ship it; they have real chemistry together, and there's a fun contrast between the most and least emotionally volatile of our series regulars. But the whole Vulcan massages thing feels like a forced and awkward way to get there.
The whole thing with the mutagenic virus seemed like an excuse to put Scott Bakula, Dominic Keating, and Linda Park into alien makeup and have them dance around like primates. We've seen variations on the theme before, and I wasn't particular enamored with those episodes either.
And then the society that keeps the planet quarantined is used to create an artificial ticking clock. I would have to believe that any viable path to a cure would be of overriding importance, but no; they have to act irrationally overzealous to create drama.
It would have been bad enough during the first two seasons, when Enterprise's stated mission was exploration, but it's even worse here. They visit the planet because it was the last planet the Xindi ship from the previous episode had visited. But then, once the plot is underway, that setup gets completely forgotten. There is no explanation for why the Xindi ship visited the planet, nor why they weren't affected by the virus. Maybe it will be explained in a future episode, but it felt lazy that Enterprise's senior officers didn't at least ask the question.
This episode felt like a "Voyager" episode, and not in a good way. I'm usually a fan of LeVar Burton-directed episodes, but even he couldn't polish this turd.
Clearly they're building toward Trip and T'Pol hooking up. I get it, and maybe even ship it; they have real chemistry together, and there's a fun contrast between the most and least emotionally volatile of our series regulars. But the whole Vulcan massages thing feels like a forced and awkward way to get there.
The whole thing with the mutagenic virus seemed like an excuse to put Scott Bakula, Dominic Keating, and Linda Park into alien makeup and have them dance around like primates. We've seen variations on the theme before, and I wasn't particular enamored with those episodes either.
And then the society that keeps the planet quarantined is used to create an artificial ticking clock. I would have to believe that any viable path to a cure would be of overriding importance, but no; they have to act irrationally overzealous to create drama.
It would have been bad enough during the first two seasons, when Enterprise's stated mission was exploration, but it's even worse here. They visit the planet because it was the last planet the Xindi ship from the previous episode had visited. But then, once the plot is underway, that setup gets completely forgotten. There is no explanation for why the Xindi ship visited the planet, nor why they weren't affected by the virus. Maybe it will be explained in a future episode, but it felt lazy that Enterprise's senior officers didn't at least ask the question.