Enterprise Episode 6 (Spoilers)

[prophetsteve]

Ah the infamous Andorian episode, the one many people in Trekdom concider a test of Enterprise and its devotion to Trek.

I was going to give this episode a bad rating until the last ten minutes - they sucked me into thinking that this was going to be another crappy episode that flys in the face of canon. While it wasn't completely satisfying it was better than I thought it would be.

I give it a thumbs up.


Plot Points

1. Andorian Makeup: Wow. While the antenna seem a tad small, they went all out on the prosthetics. They move! As for their placement I don't really care. If people can accept that Klingons always had bumps then I can accept Andorians always had forehead antennae.

2. Gestopo- The Next Generation: The first scene has Andorians breaking into the Vuclan monastary. They are all dressed in leather and "Weyoun" removes his gloves in a way that reminds me of Nazis in a WW2 flick. Not a complaint, just an observation.

3. Vulcan starcharts: Nice idea to explain why Enterprise is going around places others have been instead of pushing out to unknown space. Both the fact that humans have not been there and that Vulcans have "inaccurate" star charts. Before we all jump on the later statement, keep in mind that while advanced and precise, Vulcans seem to have a very particular idea of what is important and what isn't. That often clashes with what humans think are important (such as proto-stars and other stellar phenominon). As such, humanity might want to visit the regions that others have visited to find things that Vulcans think are unimportant.

4. Allusions. Many people think this episode has allusions to the situation in the Middle-East. However I think its closer to Tibet, with Vulcans as Tibetans and the Andorian "Empire" as the Chinese.

5. Andorian Portrayl: Andorians distrust Vulcans. Not surprising since Andorians are emotional and Vulcans have suppressed emotions. At first I wasn't happy at first when I saw their portrayl - They seemed like a paranoid race that loves to bully, threaten, kidnap, torture, and do evil evil evil things to those they don't like. However by the end I realized they were a passionate race that seemed forced to do nasty things in a despirate attempt to discover the Vulcan's secrets. The last statement "we are in your debt" leaves open to more pleasant relations. I wasn't 100% happy with the portrayl but it made more sense than I thought it would.

6. Transporters: Well they can take more than one person, despite our thoeries otherwise. The red-shirts apprehensiveness was a nice touch. He heards stories it wasn't safe eh? Well as the crew of various Enterprises after NX-01 can attest, it isn't .

7. Vulcans: Add untrustworthy to the list now. Not only do they hold back humanity and hide information from them, they sign treaties and break them. This is not the noble race from TOS - this is the sleazy sociopaths from DS9. Where is the Vuclans that we knew and loved. A far cry from Spock or even Tuvok... I thought they were going to slam Andorians but they slammed the Vulcans instead...

[Dan Stack]

I'll be sure to post my always wonderful comments later, but a quick non-moderator request? Could we start naming the episodes next week? In three months "Enterprise Episode Six" will mean nothing to me but "The Andorian Incident" will.

(Kinda reminds me of that Saturday Night Live Skit. "Ummm, Mr. Shater, in Episode 23, what was the combination of your safe?"

[darkwing duck1]

That's the trouble with logic: you can justify nearly anything with it. And this isn't the first time we've seen a less-than-noble Vulcan; does the name T'pring ring any bells (or gongs, as the case may be)?

[prophetsteve]

I'll be sure to post my always wonderful comments later, but a quick non-moderator request? Could we start naming the episodes next week?

No problem - I probably would have done it this week but Phantom had beat me to it.

[Captain Blake]

Comments:

1) The make up rocked. Each of the Andorians was slightly different. They had different facial structures, and antenna.

2) Leather is still pretty good at stopping bladed weapons. Not much stops energy weapons, so Leather Armor is about as good as is needed.

3) Vulcan Starcharts being faulty. This goes with my theory that Enterprise was given the backwater/sandbox charts to play with. "Hey, since we can't keep them on their home planet, let's give them something we know is unimportant to do. It'll make them happy, and keep them out of trouble."

It has even more support now that we know that Vulcans can mislead people if necessary.

4) I don't know, I was drawing more recent parallels with captured spy planes and border raids to capture outposts.

5) I commented on this in Phantoms thread, but here goes again. The only person that gets beat up is Archer. Why, because the Andorians figure that he's a weaker link than the Vulcans. They threaten T'pol to try to get to him. If he breaks, and gives them the information, then they have the information, and this new "Client Race" of the Vulcans knows the Andorian Empire (or what have you) means business.

6) Well, they've been working on it, obviously. And, yes, the sec guy's paranoia was fun to watch.

7) Vulcans got everything else (Super Strength, Super Toughness, Psionics, Super senses of hearing and now smell) so, they're arrogant putzes. I think that B&B are projecting a little personal insecurity on the Vulcans.

Spock was Half Vulcan, and just like Warf who was raised amongst humans, he had the furvor of the recently converted. They both were more "Ideal Vulcan" and "Ideal Klingon" than any other member of their species.

But, yes, the Vulcans look really bad in this. But, fortunately, the Andorians and Humans look like friends now. The Andorians realize that Humans aren't a Vulcan client state, and the Humans know that the Andorians, while a tad on the violent side, aren't all bad.

After all, when Archer told them to stop firing, rather than blow the hell out of everyone, and then look, they stopped.

All, in all, my favorite episode since the pilot. And again, one that doesn't mess up my views of Andorians much.

Alex

[prophetsteve]

I made the Tibetan/Chinese comment before the last ten minutes of the episode. It was written while I was suckered in.

While the Vulcans seem very tibetan, there really is no clear parallel.

Not unless you want to bring up the China/Spy Plane incident but then you would have to explain why the Vulcans and Americans are not the same

[Captain Blake]

I don't think I could explain that away.

Alex

[Dan Stack]

Without getting too deep into politics, there is a big difference between the spyplane incident and the episode. There was no secret that the US Spyplanes were flying near China. The Chinese didn't like it, but the US made no secret of it. (I am not passing judement whether this makes it "ok", just the facts).

However, in "The Andorian Incident" the Vulcans had hidden their monitoring equipment and pretty much denied its presence.

That said, the difference might be monitor to those on the receiving end of the camera...

[tonyg]

Juding from T'Pol's reaction to the sensor array, it doesn't seem like all Vulcans would approve of this. In fact, it is likely that the Vulcans are being maniuplated by the enigmatic villians from the future. Especially if the favored theory on thier identity is correct, and the time villians turn out to be Romulans.

Te Vulcans of ENTERPRISE, while stressing that humanity must learn to give up thier own prejudices and learn to respect the ways of other cultures obviously do not practice what they preach. They want humans to act like Vulcans.


So far none of the first contacts that have occured in ENTERPRISE appear to match up with what we believed were the facts. THis could all be due to "temporal interference".

Tieiny this in with what cannon evidence we do have, it looks like the Earth-Romulan war is going to end up being the catalyst that results in the FEDERATION.

[Diamond]

So far none of the first contacts that have occured in ENTERPRISE appear to match up with what we believed were the facts. THis could all be due to "temporal interference".

No, so far none of the first contacts that have occured in ENTERPRISE appear to have ever contradicted anything we knew to be a fact.

What it has done is contradicted things assumed but not known to be true. Enterprise's first contact with the Anexarians fits exactly with what has been shown in TOS, but it conflicted with FASA, fans, and novels ASSUMPTIONS. Enterprise's first contact with the Klingons fits exactly with what has been shown in TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager (ie, none of them had much to say about how first contact went). It has violated some assumptions fans have made up. But everything Enterprise has shown has made good sense.

Take the Klingon's TOS-looking battlecruiser. Well, it MAKES SENSE the Klingons didn't advance in technology as fast as Earth and the Federation. After all, they have more warriors and fewer scientists. It gives them an edge in battle but advance slower. The similarity of styling between the movie klingon's technologies and the TNG-era technologies is evidence in support of this. Heck, we've even seen an example of this before: The Klingon Bird of Prey design is used from the movie era to the TNG era. So it makes PERFECT SENSE the Klingons use a design from Enterprise to TOS era.

Enterprise has not broken cannon anywhere. They just have made the things they reveal INTERESTING instead of serving up what fans have MADE UP independantly. Gee, they're being innovative instead of copycating. Kudos to them.

They clearly are being respectful of the Star Trek universe in a way that they were somewhat cavalier with in Voyager. This is despite the fact that being a Prequel they're hemmed in by the assumptions of what is to come rather severely.

[qerlin]

This is coming from the guy that thought this show would suck...

LOVED IT!

I liked their protrayal of the Andorians; fit with the few things we saw in TOS. I liked the makeup -- especially the non-bluebell topped antennae; they look more like the antennae from the movies.

I like the forhead antennae; probably linked to their sinus passages, so more likely have something to do with smell -- something that was central to the episode.

They're wearing leathers: fine with me.

I want more blue guys!

Man, I hate to say it, but this show is really winning me over.

[Sarge]

Does SIR SIG know that Vulcan and Andor are now canonically "neighboring systems"?

[Cochrane]

Maybe all the vulcans we've seen so far are Romulans. Maybe Romulans from the future conquered Vulcan in the past. Maybe The Romulan War has begun.

From the preview the Andorians looked cheesy, but after seeing the episode they're not that bad. So the Andorian system is near the Vulcan system, eh? Ya think we'll get official word whether the Vulcan System is 40 Eridani, Epsilon Eridani, or a nameless star farther away?

new ranking:
1 The Andorian Incident
2 Broken Bow
3 Fight Or Flight
4 Unexpected
5 Strange New World
6 Terra Nova

[Captain Blake]

Originally posted by Sarge
Does SIR SIG know that Vulcan and Andor are now canonically "neighboring systems"?

Hey, someone, activate the SIG SIGNAL. Let's go to SIG ALERT.

Now, more seriously, I agree with Diamond.

"The disasterous first contact with the Klingons lead to new first contact protocols" from the episode with the Malcorans. That's the only screen canon thing I can think of that's been torpedoed. After all, they haven't lead to any protocals.

McCoy's comments about 50 years of war in "Day of the Dove" didn't mension anything about first contact, just about the current hostilities.

"Andorians are a violent, warlike race." Check. Being a little too gung ho doesn't violate screen canon.

Remember, none of the books, novels, RPG stuff, Encyclopedia or Tech Manuals are canon. No matter how much we'd like it to be, all that stuff is only speculation.

Alex

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by Captain Blake



"
Remember, none of the books, novels, RPG stuff, Encyclopedia or Tech Manuals are canon. No matter how much we'd like it to be, all that stuff is only speculation.

Alex

Explain this to me. The encyclopedia, the information in which is DERIVED FROM the show ISN'T canon?