Star Trek: Enterprise 10/29/'03: "the Shipment" (1 Viewer)

[Rex Bachmann]

episode title: "The Shipment"
episode: #59
original airdate: October 29, 2003
writer: Chris Black & Brent V. Friedman
director: David Straiton
synopsis: "After infiltrating a Xindi-Sloth plant that synthesizes vital explosive materials for the Xindi super-weapon, Archer, Reed, and MACO Major Hayes capture and interrogate the plant foreman, Gralik, who upon learning of the Xindi council's attack on Earth, establishes an uneasy alliance with Archer."


Note the date. That's next week's airing. "The Xindi" episode repeats this week.

Don't read the synopsis if you don't want to know the show's outcome (pretty predictable).

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Tonight's the night. Don't expect much.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Well, I haven't expected much since DS9 wrapped.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I've pretty much given up on Enterprise. I've watched every episode this season (except the Beauty & the Beast ep last week) and the best thing I can say is that they're not absolutely horrible. But I just can't see them producing anything stunning like DATA'S DAY or THE WIRE at this point.

 

[Will_B]

They are trying a different tactic - they're writing adventure stories, and then if the stories happen to touch on human themes so much the better. Fine with me, it was a good episode.

Anyone else realize that the doctor just found a way to disable the weapons without harming the crew? It hit me about a half hour after the episode ended.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

re: "The Shipment"

It's hard to know what to say about this episode, except that it was "okay", "run-of-the-mill", etc.

This episode has a regular little Xindi history lesson:


(a) Once again the cold-blooded and the "creepy crawlers" get the bad rep. The reptilians, along with the bug people, are cast as the bad guys, who inadvertently destroyed the Xindi homeworld (?) by rigging already unstable geographic sites with greater explosive power (in order to win their interspecies wars?). Primate prejudice? Here I must've missed something, because this narrative leaves me unclear as to how many "homeworlds" the Xindi have had and as to which one they're afraid of the Earthers blowing up. (Gralik says the descendants of the survivors of the homeworld devastation after the interspecies wars are scattered throughout the Expanse.) Do they all get a new homeworld together sometime in the future that they presently believe will be destroyed by humanity?

(b) It is at last made clear that all 6 intelligent Xindi "species"---including the now extinct "avian" species---developed on a single planet---in a single ecological macroniche. Now someone explain to me how that works. I asked it before: what happens to the food chain under such a historical scenario? At what point do the various "species" stop preying upon each other, why, and what do they substitute for food? Do they all become "vegans" at once, or what?

"That's incredible!":

---The trust that develops between Archer and Gralik Der is too "easy" to be fully credible, in my view. The latter's "qualms" about possibly betraying his own people to a "ruthless hostile species" that, as the humanoid Xindi claims, may wipe them out, are just too small and too short-lived.

---Archer's ability to enter the Xindi's shuttle undetected and unmolested so that he can switch "kemosite" (sp.?) cannisters also stretches credulity. After all, this material is intended for their superduper top-secret weapon, no? Why no guards in the house? Why no electronic guard against tampering? (I know. I know: "The plot needs the hole in it to work.")

Notable: John Cothran Jr. (Gralik) previously appeared as the comical Klingon captain, Nu'Daq, in "The Chase" (TNG) and as Klingon security officer Telok in the "mirror universe" in the "Crossover" episode of DS 9.


Will_B wrote (post #5):

What do you mean? Phlox's "delta radiation good"-"omicron radiation bad" speech? As Tripp says, it's a place to start, which I take to mean "we'll see". Radiation is radiation is radiation. I believe it is acknowledged that they still have to keep their distance. That's because, if it's ionizing radiation they're letting loose, it should last for some time in the environment into which it is introduced, no? If so, it's not a very "safe" weapon for its deployers.

 

[Will_B]

Point B isn't something anyone could possibly comment on, since we don't have experience with even a single other non-Earth world to compare and contrast our ecosystem to. Any speculation would be uninformed. Not that that will stop you, eh? You've already decided that life on their planet started as carnivors or omnivors and then became vegitarians, when for all you know all the life on their planet ate apples day in and day out. We don't know. My advice: get comfy with not knowing. It's the first step to knowing, I hear.

Point A:

Radiation is radiation is radiation

Not in the Trek world, my friend. For most kinds of radiation in the Trek world they have simple "innoculations" or "decontaminations" and then there's some kinds which are "harmless to humans" (we hear that at least once every three episodes) and so on. And even in the real world, we have radiation that will give us a sunburn, and radiation that will turn our insides to liquid. Who knows which kind the Omnimagazine Radiation is. But clearly, if the worms are busy reproducing they'll make for one very goopy weapon.

"Worms...why'd it have to be worms?!"

 

[Kwang Suh]

Radiation is radiation is radiation.

Radiation is anything that is in the eletromagnetic spectrum. Radio signals are a form of radiation. So is visible light.

 

[BobV]

I must say, I have been very impressed with this season. It is quickly becoming an absolute 'must see' rather than just a good show to keep up with. TPTB are doing their job in getting me to watch every week and I am very pleased with the 'new direction' that the show has taken this year. I am very interested to see where this whole story goes.

 

[Nelson Au]

I enjoyed it. I was hoping they took the route Archer did towards the end because I was begining to wonder why they were stringing the Xindi along in the forest. They should be making allies.

There was a moment when I thought that the destruction of the home world that was caused by the Reptilian Xindi was going to be blamed on Humanity.

Nelson

 

[PhilipG]

Now someone explain to me how that works. I asked it before: what happens to the food chain under such a historical scenario? At what point do the various "species" stop preying upon each other, why, and what do they substitute for food?

Why is this such a problem for you? The vast majority of humans don't eat dolphins, or chimpanzees, or dogs, or cats. Imagine what would happen if those species suddenly evolved to the point of meaningful communication. There are still thousands of other "stupid" species to feed upon, without any of them magically becoming vegan.

Not a great episode, but it still passed the time nicely.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Anyone know any way I can see this episode? Any reruns of it? The VCR I used to record it had not been reset for the end of Daylight Savings Time!

 

[TomK]

I must have missed this somewhere. But who told the Xindi that humans destroyed their planet in the future and why would they believe this person? There seems to me to be more going on here and I hope B&B can come up with the goods to make this a series saver.

Tom

 

[derek]

I really liked this episode. A great blend of action and drama. Some really neat CGI shots of the factory interior and reptilian shuttle ship. And no smut! *LOL* Enterprise is starting to take off...

 

[Hugh Jackes]

But wasn't this episode about 30 minutes too long? They could have given us the Xindi history lesson, the growing bond between Archer and the plant manager (an ewok?), the sustitution of substandard {insert technobabble here}, and the gun exposition in half an hour. Too much tedious filler.

 

[Brent Hutto]

We haven't seen "The Shipment" yet, we'll watch the tape tonight, but so far I have to grudgingly admit that this season has a higher proportion of watchable episodes than last season did. It seems obvious that the producers are trying harder than they did in Season 2 to breathe a little life into the stories and characters. Unfortunately, their abilities seem to suffer from fundamental limitations but by about the 30th or so episode of the series they were just totally going through the motions and not even matching the potential shown in the first half of Season 1. Thankfully, that trend is showing signs of reversing.

Hey, don't get me wrong. Enterprise is no Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1 or even Star Trek: TNG but at least for the moment they're no longer surpassing Voyager for sheer suckage on a weekly basis. That's a start.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Well, I think they're now better than Voyager. Then again, that's not saying much

But then again, I consider the first two seasons of TNG/DS9/VOY unwatchable (save a couple of episodes), so Enterprise is right on track

 

[Tony Whalen]

I enjoyed this ep. This season seems to keep getting better.

Notable: John Cothran Jr. (Gralik) previously appeared as the comical Klingon captain, Nu'Daq, in "The Chase" (TNG) and as Klingon security officer Telok in the "mirror universe" in the "Crossover" episode of DS 9.

THANK YOU. Man... I *knew* that "Gralik" was familiar... but I couldn't quite pin him down. That was bugging me!

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Since the World series over what do we use for an excuse that the ratings are still tanking?
Solar Flares?

"Smallville" (WB) - 5.9/9
"Star Trek: Enterprise" (UPN) - 3.9/6

 

[Rex Bachmann]

(post #6):

Yes, and massive exposure to high concentrations of any of them may well cause medical problems for biological entities, which is my point.


More later.