 "Shadows of P'Jem" |
|||
by David E. Sluss |
12 February 2002 |
||
|
Home >> Enterprise Season 1 >> >> Episode Review
Episode Guides:
Other Opinions:
|
THE BOTTOM LINE: A laudable exercise in continuity and follow-through which is hopelessly marred by silliness. CYNICS CORNER RATING: 6.5 (D) FILLER OF THE WEEK: Perhaps some fanpersons were enthralled by the endless scenes of Archer and T'Pol in bondage, but I for one was appalled. Berman and Braga seemed to go out of their way this time to humiliate their characters. Indeed, the mistreatment was so outrageous that it has sparked an international outcry, as reported by CyNN:
STAR TREK CLICHE OF THE WEEK: The shuttle crashes, and in this case we don't even know whether it was recovered. I guess we'll find out whether Voyager's Shuttle Regeneration technology has time-warped its way back to Enterprise... ANDROMEDA CLICHE OF THE WEEK: A badly lit and largely incoherent shoot-em-up at the climax of the episode, with Super-Slo-Mo, to boot. ANDORIAN UNINTELLIGENCE OF THE WEEK: The Andorians aren't supposed to be subtle, of course, but you have to wonder about their escape plan for Archer, which involves smuggling a communications device into the cell -- a device which glows bright red and which activates without regard to whether Coridan goons might be in the room. NEW TECHNOLOGY OF THE WEEK: Subspace communications, which operated with at least a continuity fig leaf of static just a couple of weeks ago in "Silent Enemy," now functions in perfect, real-time, high definition. CULTURAL GENOCIDE OF THE WEEK: It's been clear since "Broken Bow" that these are not your father's Vulcans on Enterprise, but in this episode, only the pointy ears would suggest that these people are Vulcans at all. The Vulcan ambassador displays obvious anger in the teaser, and to a lesser extent the Vulcan captain does later in the episode as well. It seems to be a combination of bad writing and bad acting; in the case of the latter, someone needs to make sure that all "Vulcan actors," including Jolene Blalock, are subjected to tape loops of Tuvok and Spock. Both Tim Russ and Leonard Nimoy had a way of expressing "non-emotional irritation" that this week's guest stars failed at utterly, and which Blalock has only been able to do inconsistently. There is also something unsettling about a Vulcan commando raid. The brute force used here seems to me to be beneath them. I would expect that their solution would be more cunning and covert, or that the Vulcans would at least use soldiers of their puppet Coridan government to do the actual dirty work. It also seems illogical (though necessary script-wise so that T'Pol's predicament could be reset) for the Vulcan captain, who according to Shran commands the Vulcan fleet in Coridan's sector, to participate personally in the raid. NEW LINGUISTICS OF THE WEEK: The universal translator can translate
the Coridan language perfectly. OK, I'll buy that, since Coridan is in the Vulcan
database. But what are Archer, T'Pol, and their captors speaking in the cell, after the
UTs were presumably confiscated? Even if the captors had their own UTs, their leader
acknowledged that he had never heard of Archer's race before, which would suggest that
English wouldn't be programmed into their devices. And how is Trip able to walk up to the
guards and ply them with booze, without anyone noticing that he's speaking through a
translator? Yes, yes, an old problem, I know... |
||
| Previous:
"Sleeping Dogs" Next: "Shuttlepod One" |
NEXT WEEK: An "imaginary tale" of the Enterprise's destruction and T'Pol's seduction. | ||
|
satisfied customers since 31 January 1999 |
This review is copyright
© 2002 David E. Sluss |
