Rate ST:ENT Augments

[Eric R.]

Augments
Enterprise pursues Arik Soong and his Augments across hostile Klingon space toward a planet where the geneticist intends to go back into isolation and raise an army of genetically engineered superhumans. But Soong's "children" revolt against him and plan a biological attack upon a Klingon colony, in order to incite retaliation against Earth.

For a Full Summary at Trek Nation go here

[Eric R.]

One more thing please notice I have started a separte Rate the entire arc poll as well so keep your comments on just this episode.

[Publius]

(Dittoing my comments from the FBR)

I have to say that this series is going in the right direction finally after some promising twists and disappointing turns. Thank goodness, but I have mentioned (as well as many others) that the various Trek series often have rocky starts that smooth out over time. As far as that goes, Enterprise is running about average (in terms of the progression of quality in trek series), and may well pull out some great fiction that goes alongside the best of DS9 and TNG.

With regards to this episode, I hardly found it funny that Malik had such a problem with Soong messing with the genome (of the as-yet unborn augments), just the tone he took. "You shouldn't mess with their genome because it's wrong" sounds a little strange coming from a guy whose sense of superiority comes from the fact that he has a genome that was messed with and "improved". The reality of course was that he did not like the idea of augments with lower aggression values, i.e. that the "improvement" would make them look less like him. As a political scientist I am well aware of an intellectually disingenuous argument layed over the thin firmament of self-interest (or in this case self-image). Note also that I do not comment here about whether Soong was right or not (save for another post), just the way the argument played out.

I also think that there was a lost opportunity in this, a final resolution to a connumdrum that has caused so much division in Trekdom. The Klingon Forehead Disparity. Once the exclusive province of handwaving ("that was what was in the budget") it was established that there was something going on ("we don't talk about it") but not what exactly that reason might have been. So many theories have come out since then, I don't really need to explore most of them as any decent website can get you that info.

An yet, here you have a bioweapon, a Klingon colony and a possible opportunity. What if the bioweapon had been mutated (maybe by Soong himself who was serruptitiously attempting to "tone down" the bio-agent but was not finished) and the Enterprise failed? The plague would have caused genetic abberations in Klingons, smoothing their foreheads and looking like badly painted humans, until at some point (just prior to ST:TMP) a cure was finally discovered. This would have created an enmity for the Klingons towards humanity and resolved this age (okay, decades) old question.

[mactavish]

I thought that this episode was a 7. I really didn't care for the briar patch reference, the Khan-esque bridge scene with Malik, or the fact that he appeared on <i>Enterprise</i> without any explanation.

On the other hand, I did like the arc as a whole, particularly with Dr. Soong being a proponent of genetic engineering then switching to cybernetics after the whole situation has been resolved.

Does anyone else think that he might actually be Noonien Soong, having genetically enhanced himself?

Publius, that is a stroke of brilliance. I think that wrapping the whole "bumpy forehead" situation up in one simple swipe would prove invaluable to trekkies worldwide.

mactavish out.

[Publius]

Originally posted by mactavish
Publius, that is a stroke of brilliance. I think that wrapping the whole "bumpy forehead" situation up in one simple swipe would prove invaluable to trekkies worldwide.

Thank you It would have been best if done that way right away (or alluded to), but one of the interesting things about it is that it still can be done. The virus is in the upper atmosphere, exposed to cosmic rays or whatever and mutating, maybe it takes time to filter through the system (or getting attached to the hull of a vessel that has been sent to 'check out' the explosion and thus having a much smaller intitial infection that would then take longer to transmit). Maybe the virus only expresses in newborns and yet can be contracted easily by adults who serve as carriers, so that by the time of Kirk a sizable portion of the population have smooth heads and bad paintjobs. The Klingons might not have even been able to make the connection if it took long enough for the infection to spread and/or the process to work. It might even make a good "campaign rule" if the canon sources don't offer any better suggestions. Maybe a good adventure for a PC team to discover/uncover/conceal????

Originally posted by mactavish
Does anyone else think that he might actually be Noonien Soong, having genetically enhanced himself?

While we are handing out kudos, that is a heck of an idea. I always wondered about the Noonien part of the name being a reference to Khan, how that would play in the "Khan was a big mistake" pre-TNG period when he would have been born/named. Having the name instead be his assumed name after resetting the aging process would be an homage to his prior attempts to perfect humanity and give yet another good reason for him to always pick out of the way places to do his research.

Related question: Do we have a birth date for Noonian Soong? Would the Soong from this era be that Soongs father or grandfather? I'll get around to doing this myself at some point when I get out of work but if someone else has the info handy that would be cool.

[Calcoran]

Wow! Now we're cooking. Gave it a 9 ... and I can't remember last time I gave a 9 to an Enterprise episode (although that might have happened).

Anyhow, I liked it. I liked it a lot. Actually, the only gripe I have with the episode is that the pathogen wasn't sent to the planet in the end (or was it? ... the torpedo made it explode, but it was already in the higher regions of the planet's athmosphere ... there may be a few germs left, it may take them some time to come down, but still). Anyhow, it'd have made the ending much more dramatic, and would have resolved the Klingons problem (what with them not being at war with earth and all) ... and could even have explained the TOS Klingons . It's just a minor gripe, the ending was pretty good the way it was, but still. Oh well, maybe they're waiting for the Federation to be quite a bit further on it's way before we go back to the original timeline ...

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

You expect that Enterprise will actually manage to merge with the original Timeline in a manner that keeps continuity? ;-)

Regards,
CKV.

[Calcoran]

Well, I had almost given up on that, but I must say they've done a pretty good job in this arc, so why not hope a bit .

[REG]

I also think that there was a lost opportunity in this, a final resolution to a connumdrum that has caused so much division in Trekdom. The Klingon Forehead Disparity.

With all due respect, some things are better left as mysteries. Even I don't want them to explain this. It's bad enough they mangled the image of the Romulan species by introducing their unknown subject citizen, the Remans. Some Klingon lore should be left to speculations.

[Eric R.]

looking back (Dec 04) this was perhaps my favorite Episode so far, diffenitly of the whole Arc

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

I thought that this episode was a 7. I really didn't care for the briar patch reference, the Khan-esque bridge scene with Malik, or the fact that he appeared on <i>Enterprise</i> without any explanation.

These points bothered me as well and if they had been dropped or in the case of his appearance explained, I would have enjoyed the episode more.

I was always under the impression that the "Briar Patch" was elsewhere and not anywhere near Klingon Space. However, one could treat this as two seperate places with the same name, it happens often enough here.

Regards,
CKV.