Rate "The Expanse"

[Rayaru]

Well, it was a great ending. I think it was a very character-driven episode: we see the Duras conflict end (abruptly), Trip gets a revenge complex, and T'pol goes against her superiors and takes the "emotional" decision to stay with Enterprise--looks like all that time amongst Humans is starting to rub off

I'm giving this episode a 10. And BTW, I think there's some good RPG material from this (ie manuvers, NX refit, new vessels of the era).

[Greg Davis]

I gave it a '9'. I would have liked to see a more dramatic conclusion to to the Duras element of the story, as it felt a bit tacked on, but aside from that, I thought it was good.

I think it's good to see Humanity willing to more vocally disagree with the Vulcans and do their own thing, though, if Earth really is in danger, why would the Vulcans stick around. That doesn't seem all that logical to me (but, then again, Vulcans are often hypocrites, so it's cool...no one person (or small group of people)defines a race, in my opinion, so maybe they're told to stay and try to help Humanity figure out what to do about all this.

I like the defensive upgrades that Enterprise got (new torpedoes and improved hull plating polarization), but I wonder if torpedo count is going to become an issue (or running joke, as I recall from Voyager)?

I do find it hard to believe that Archer would leave without having assigned a new Science officer to replace T'pol. Sure, a crewmember from Enterprise might have more experience, but that's not guaranteed, and it doesn't seem like Enterprise has a lot of officers running around, so the new Science officer would probably have been a Crewman (not that there's anything wrong with that, I suppose).

I'm also surprised that it's supposed to be 14 months until the NX-02 is launched. I would have thought that would have been the ship that the Duvall character would have been assigned to, and, from the space scenes where Enterprise is rescued, it looked like 2 of the 3 ships were of NX design. I'd have to watch it again to be sure, though.

All in all, a good, solid episode, in my opinion. I would have liked to see the 'commando' characters that were added, as well as more information about what changes were made to Enterprise (though I suppose both bits will be thought about before the next season starts and then fleshed out as the season goes along). Also, I'm curious about T'Pol in the command structure of the ship, since she quit the Vulcan High Command (something that should have been shown on screen, I think). For that matter, I'm curious how the new commando unit will fit into the ship's structure, especially their leader (whatever rank he is).

As a side note, I'm a bit surprised that Earth would still have a 'military' force (in a traditional sense), though I do think that it was mentioned that Reed's family were all British Navy men, and that he was the first to break that tradition. I'm hoping that this will be fleshed out in the next season, as well (though this does bring back the old 'Starfleet Marines' debate with some fuel for the Pro Marine faction ).

So, like I said, pretty good, and it leaves me really looking forward to season 3 (which was its job, after all). I think that this new arc has a lot of potential, but could become a dud pretty easily as well, so only time will tell.

Anyway, here's hoping that it's going to be good.


Greg

[Antonsb214]

I thought that it was a great episode, I love the look on Duras's face when the Earth starships show up or when the photonic torpedoes hit him for the first time, not getting the hint must be a dominant gene in that family. Tripp's loss and his mental state should make for some interesting episodes.
As far as the special team from the "military" goes, it makes sense, if you're going into a potential combat zone, take some specialists in mayhem.
As far as a chain of command goes, they are always under the captains command, unit commander may be equivalent to a commander (major or captain). They could be a separate team or augment the away teams, like Archer said, extra muscle.
BTW, the bridge of Duras's ship took a big hit, but he could still be alive, if Klingon ships have really good survival supplies and systems.
The Earth Starfleet ships were not NX class, one looked like the aft shot in the intro, and one looked a little like a wedge hull, almost like a Texas-class CL from SFB. But they sure meant business, I guess after an attack on Earth, they were looking for some butts to kick and Duras just happened to be handy.
So I give this one a ten.

[Cochrane]

I caught that the Delphic Expanse is 2000 ly across, but did anyone catch how far it is from Earth or the total amount of time the episode took up?

[qerlin]

Decent lead-in; let's see where it goes. Has a Star Blazers/Crusade kinda feel to it...

This Duras guy might want to bone up on his tactics. What a loser...

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

It was seven weeks at Warp 5. However since they were traveling at Warp 3 prior to the attack by Duras where they disabled his engines and making for Vulcan at Warp Five after that. It leaves one to wonder where that seven weeks begins from.

Overall I thought the story was not bad. I had certain issues with some of things introduced and done but given that I have already resigned myself to the fact that this is just how they are going to do things I can almost ignore it.

It was quite character-driven and there has been some nice expansion and depth given to a number of characters including the Admiral. It may have worked better if they had turned this into a three-episode arc with the first two-parts this season as I felt that they could have explored the character issues far more.

As for the Earth ships looking like the NX-class, they are very close but there are differences, look closely at the angle of the nacelle struts for one.

Regards,
CKV.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

10, I have to say that I was losing confidence in it for a few episodes in the middle of Season 2. Wow though, Bounty, First Flight, Regeneration, and now Expanse, have all been phenomenal episodes in my not so humble opinion. So I felt really good about what Season 3 will be about.

[Slobberknocker]

I have been very down oh Ent as of late but this brings me hope. Now they need to seize the moment. Good overall, Great when compaired to the standards the show has set for itself.

[AslanC]

Okay Pros.

1] Action was very well done.

2] The new Klingon ships (to me anyway) looked very very cool.

3] Archer finally came off like and actor and Trip was not annoying to me

4] Dr. Phlox. Remains my favourite character of she show.

Cons

1] I had the same feeling in my stomach after 9/11, I felt very worried and then once I indentified why, I felt they really should have tried another angle on this.

2] Klingon Bird of Prey? Just giving up aren't we? TOS Klingons are dead and buried for all time.

3] Again what's with these Vulcans? They really worry me.

4] Future guy moment. Seemed too contrived and heavy handed. I would rather have seen him explain it to Archer and convince him, than see Archer sumarize (badly) to his crew or the Admiralty.

Overall I gave it a 5, which still ranks it above most of the series which gets between 2 and 4 with me.

Excepting The Andorian Incident, Shadows of PJ, Cease Fire and Future Tense which all really really really impressed me.

[Cmdr Powers]

My single criticism- which brings my rating down to a 9- is that we never heard of the Xindi or of this horrible attack before. I don't care how screwed up the records are from this era, surely Kirk or Picard might have remembered this massacre?

-unless it never happened. Damn time travel!

[Capt. Anderson]

Originally posted by AslanC
Cons

1] I had the same feeling in my stomach after 9/11, I felt very worried and then once I indentified why, I felt they really should have tried another angle on this.

Exactly why I gave this episode a 6. It should have been Vulcan that was hit. It would work to explain the formation of the Federation.

[Balok]

A generally solid episode that leaves me with some hope for the next season. A few things I didn't like:
<ul>
<li>I'm a little leery of the potential "fanboy kewl" aspects of the Delphic Expanse; the writers (through the Vulcans) seem to have gone to a great deal of trouble to make this seem a horrible place (people turned inside out, insane Vulcans, etc.).
<li>It is strange that we have not heard of any of these species or this region in any subsequent episodes. It could be that after a hundred years (and presuming the Xindi were discouraged in some fashion) the events just aren't important enough to be mentioned except in historical discusses of appropriate context, which may never have occurred. One wonders how many times the World Trade Center destruction will be mentioned in 100 years. I would guess not often, unless the whole "War on Terrorism" turns into World War III, or something equally horrible.
</ul>
I liked the Enterprise refit (can they make more "photonic torpedoes" on board? They sure used a bunch dealing with Duras...) We also see Earth lurching steadily closer to war with the Klingons (I'm certain Duras has additional supporters within the Empire, and as the Empire begins to lose its honorable nature, these sorts will undoubtedly rise to power.)

I wonder if they're borrowing the concept of a season long "big bad" from that other popular show; will the Xindi be the bulk of next season's episodes?

[Cochrane]

The constellation Delphinus is spinward by coreward, in the direction of the Breen.

Hey! could the Xindi be the Tzenkethi?

[Joe Dizzy]

Bugger this, I'm gonna start watching Gilmore Girls for my Trek fix now.

[Evan van Eyk]

Congrats, I just watched the worst Star Trek show ever. My god, what poor story. How often is Earth attacked, actually?

OK, why was the story poor. OK, lets start with the beginning:

The probe ( why is it a probe if its manned? ), attacks Earth. Remember when Archer gets home with three ships arriving within seconds - so where were they when Earth was attacked?????? Right in the series' pilot the Vulcans warned them of the Klingons attacking them, the last episodes, including expanse mention that most species are hostile towards Archer, so why the hack is the no protection of Earth?????

Second it is a very poor copy of what we saw in the Dominion War, which I fear will take up season three.

Additionally I wonder where the good temporal guys are? Why haven't they warned Earth, Archer, whomever. They could have simply told the Xindi that those who told them about Earth were truly attacking them, or whatever, why aren't they involved?

Next, Enterprise takes two years to its current position but quickly arrives at Earth? Where was that wormwhole?

Then there is the refit of Enterprise and we see Photon Torps. What??? Its been season one, when Reed mentioned he never heared of those. He wasn't even able to take alook at those and now Starfleet has them themselves. Even funnier is when Duras asks what this was, hello? You have thos torps as well.

The Duras plot was absolutely annoying and misplaced. It was a poor try to give tension to a pointless episode. There was no tension at all. No drama in this plot. Earth is attacked, NX-01 called back, and then endless debating if or if not to enter the Delphic Expanse.

The destruction of Duras was satisfiying because this poor story element was gone, but I think it was a poor ending for the 'Bounty on Archer' plotline, very poor.

Last but not least I wonder when we see this commando team on the ship. I thinks its a mistake not to introduce these new characters in this new 'pilot' how Berman called it.



Well concluding I hope that this will not be what we see from ENT in season three. We had a war already in a ST series. It was nice and tense, but why make a prequel if it only copies an older series. Additionally I do not buy the argument 'exploration is not exiting enough for a series'. Well I wonder what the Classic series, TNG and Voy did and I like ENT as it was, I liked it so much that it soon became my favourite series.

Really funny is that many complained about the poor character development. This was so poor! Trip is reduced to a mindless killer, Archer to the bold warrior and T'Pol is now the rebel.

Well after these bad points, I'd like to say what I liked. The special effects were great as usual, although they could have changed the view of the photon torps. The Starfleet ships were really nice looking and gave another view on 'non-NX' Starfleet.
It remains to be seen how this all develops, maybe the next parts are better than this ( but I would not put such an episode as last one in a season ) and I hope we see more exploration as well, because that makes it Star Trek, otherwise I could just watch Space - Above and Beyound ( which I like as well ).
As of now, it happened what I feared, maybe that will change. I hope so. If not, farewell to a nice Star Trek series, there is plenty else Sci-Fi to watch.