rhinobean
Hall of Fame
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The first movie was great for usfolks who were teenagers when TOS ran! Sucks overall!
Best and Worst of Trek
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brokeu91
The super shrink
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I have a question that I never really saw answered. Does Voyager supposedly take place around the same time frame as The Next Generation or is it later? I remember one Voyager episode where Captain Janeway quotes Picard and Chacotay calls him "one of the greats", which makes me think it must happen sometime after the events of TNG.
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Yeah, I think at the time, people were just SO starved for New Trek, that they loved TMP at first. Once they had a great movie to compare it to in The Wrath of Khan, it didn't hold up well.
I do think that TMP could REALLY benefit from a Director's Cut though.
From what I've gathered, each season of TNG/DS9/Voyager/Enterprise represents one real year, just with the boring bits not shown.
This is also shown with stardates starting with TNG. All 1st season stardates were 41xxx, with 4 short for 24th century and 1 for 1st season. These episodes took place during the year 2364 by our dating. Then the 2nd season had stardates of 42xxx. From the Wikipedia article on Stardate, DS9 started on Stardate 46379.1, indicating that it's occurring in the same year as TNG season 6, and Voyager starts with Stardate 48315.6, which would be the year after TNG. Star Trek: Nemesis, which takes place after Voyager's return (as shown by Kathryn Janeway being the Admiral who orders Picard to go do the movie's mission), takes place on Stardate 56844.9, or the year 2379.
Fear my nerd prowess!
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Let’s carry on with the last bits of the classic Star Trek universe. Wait, you say, what about Enterprise? Oh, we’ll get to that next time.
Season 4: (1997-1998)
Overview: The show enters its good period with Kes gone and Seven of Nine present. However, one major premise to the show changes in that they manage to establish contact with Starfleet to let them know they’re still alive and coming home.
Best Episode: The Killing Game. The Hirogen, an alien race who love to hunt other sentient races, take over Voyager, and using the holodecks and mind control chips, place the crew into a number of holographic scenarios where they’re being hunted. So it’s up to the Voyager crew to resist and drive off the Hirogen. Good story, great special effects, and the sheer unadulterated joy that is Klingons beating up on Nazis are all here. Also, it’s the only Trek episode I know of that became the subject of a song’s remix. Honorable Mention: Year of Hell, Concerning Flight, Message in a Bottle, Living Witness.
Worst Episode: Mortal Coil. Neelix dies. Yay! But Seven uses Borg nanoprobes to bring him back. What?! Oh nooooooooooo! Neelix then proceeds to whine the rest of the episode about how there’s no afterlife. Of course, if Neelix views this as conclusive proof that there is no afterlife, what with only being “dead” for a few minutes, then… yeah. No. Dishonorable Mention: Retrospect
Season 5: (1998-1999)
Overview: Pretty much continuing in the same vein of last season
Best Episode: Bride of Chaotica! Paris’ holodeck adventures (wait, how precisely did holodeck usage become less energy draining than simply replicating a meal? The latter was rationed, while the former never was.) simulating a 1930’s-esque serial end up attracting and trapping a group of other dimensional aliens who mistake the simulation for reality and believe themselves to be at war with the story’s antagonist, Chaotica. Other crew members have to join the simulation to defeat Chaotica and convince the aliens to leave, including a brilliantly scene chewing performance by Janeway as the titular bride. Honorable Mention: In The Flesh, Timeless, Nothing Human, Bliss, Course: Oblivion, Relativity, Equinox.
Worst Episode: Extreme Risk. B’Elanna keeps putting herself in, as the title states, Extreme Risk by running holodeck scenarios with the safeties off… which Worf did all the time and it was no big deal. Turns out, she feels guilty over all her former Maquis friends back in the Alpha Quadrant dying. B’Elanna apparently has issues. Dishonorable Mention: Thirty Days, The Fight,
Season 6: (1999-2000)
Overview: Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The crew continues on its journey home.
Best Episode: Life Line. What’s better than one Robert Picardo? TWO Robert Picardos! Lewis Zimmerman, The Doctor’s creator is sick and The Doctor travels back to the Alpha Quadrant to help him. Unfortunately, Zimmerman has severe issues with the Mark I programs, which all look like him and are regarded as failures. Even the guest starring Deanna Troi gets frustrated dealing with both of them. Picardo’s banter with himself is excellent. Honorable Mention: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy, The Voyager Conspiracy, Pathfinder, Tsunkatse, Live Fast and Prosper, Fury, Unimatrix Zero
Worst Episode: Fair Haven: OK, they say that in the military, it’s improper to become romatically involved with anyone in your command (which didn’t stop Picard but bear with me). This leaves Janeway pretty much out of luck since anyone not in her command becomes out of range within a few days. So when Janeway is attracted to a holodeck program, she changes just a few things about him, including the fact he has a wife. Chakotay’s issue is not that she’s having a relationship with a non self aware hologram (though that got fixed later), but that she’s changing him to suit her needs, which is pretty unhealthy to try to do in a normal relationship. Dishonorable Mention: Dragon’s Teeth, Virtuoso, Spirit Folk, Ashes to Ashes
Season 7: (2000-2001)
Overview: It’s the last season, so a lot of plots are wrapped up. Neelix leaves the ship to join a colony of Talaxians improbably far from Talax. Joseph Carey (not seen outside of flashback episodes since Episode 11) is brought back only to be killed. And B’Elanna and Tom finally get married only and expect a child… who turns out to be Klingon Jesus. Chakotay starts a dumb relationship with Seven that only happened because Robert Beltran complained to the writers. And they make it home.
Best Episode: Endgame. In the future, it turns out that Voyager took 23 years to get home. Along the way, Seven was killed, Chakotay ended up dying in grief and Tuvok was afflicted by a neurological disease that they could have cured in the Alpha Quadrant. So she manages to travel back through time and space to Voyager just as it’s coming near a Borg transwarp gate that could bring them home now. But, if they leave the gate intact, the Borg can use it to cause a lot of harm to the galaxy. Is there some way to get home and destroy the Borg gate? Honorable Mention: Drive, Inside Man, Shattered, The Void, Q2, Author Author
Worst Episode: Flesh and Blood: Here’s another of those episodes that lands on the stupid list for characters being stupid. The Doctor ends up leaving the crew when invited to by a bunch of “prey” hologram that broke loose from the Hirogen, even though he knows the Voyager crew doesn’t abuse him. Boy is his face red when the leader turns out to be a few photons short of a working brain and is sociopath towards organic life. Dishonorable Mention: Lineage, Repentance, Human Error, Friendship One.
Best of Voyager’s 2nd Half: The Killing Game
Worst: Mortal Coil
Next time, we cover Enterprise and a brief bit on the reboot continuity, then wrap it all up with the overall best and worst announced.
Season 4: (1997-1998)
Overview: The show enters its good period with Kes gone and Seven of Nine present. However, one major premise to the show changes in that they manage to establish contact with Starfleet to let them know they’re still alive and coming home.
Best Episode: The Killing Game. The Hirogen, an alien race who love to hunt other sentient races, take over Voyager, and using the holodecks and mind control chips, place the crew into a number of holographic scenarios where they’re being hunted. So it’s up to the Voyager crew to resist and drive off the Hirogen. Good story, great special effects, and the sheer unadulterated joy that is Klingons beating up on Nazis are all here. Also, it’s the only Trek episode I know of that became the subject of a song’s remix. Honorable Mention: Year of Hell, Concerning Flight, Message in a Bottle, Living Witness.
Worst Episode: Mortal Coil. Neelix dies. Yay! But Seven uses Borg nanoprobes to bring him back. What?! Oh nooooooooooo! Neelix then proceeds to whine the rest of the episode about how there’s no afterlife. Of course, if Neelix views this as conclusive proof that there is no afterlife, what with only being “dead” for a few minutes, then… yeah. No. Dishonorable Mention: Retrospect
Season 5: (1998-1999)
Overview: Pretty much continuing in the same vein of last season
Best Episode: Bride of Chaotica! Paris’ holodeck adventures (wait, how precisely did holodeck usage become less energy draining than simply replicating a meal? The latter was rationed, while the former never was.) simulating a 1930’s-esque serial end up attracting and trapping a group of other dimensional aliens who mistake the simulation for reality and believe themselves to be at war with the story’s antagonist, Chaotica. Other crew members have to join the simulation to defeat Chaotica and convince the aliens to leave, including a brilliantly scene chewing performance by Janeway as the titular bride. Honorable Mention: In The Flesh, Timeless, Nothing Human, Bliss, Course: Oblivion, Relativity, Equinox.
Worst Episode: Extreme Risk. B’Elanna keeps putting herself in, as the title states, Extreme Risk by running holodeck scenarios with the safeties off… which Worf did all the time and it was no big deal. Turns out, she feels guilty over all her former Maquis friends back in the Alpha Quadrant dying. B’Elanna apparently has issues. Dishonorable Mention: Thirty Days, The Fight,
Season 6: (1999-2000)
Overview: Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The crew continues on its journey home.
Best Episode: Life Line. What’s better than one Robert Picardo? TWO Robert Picardos! Lewis Zimmerman, The Doctor’s creator is sick and The Doctor travels back to the Alpha Quadrant to help him. Unfortunately, Zimmerman has severe issues with the Mark I programs, which all look like him and are regarded as failures. Even the guest starring Deanna Troi gets frustrated dealing with both of them. Picardo’s banter with himself is excellent. Honorable Mention: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy, The Voyager Conspiracy, Pathfinder, Tsunkatse, Live Fast and Prosper, Fury, Unimatrix Zero
Worst Episode: Fair Haven: OK, they say that in the military, it’s improper to become romatically involved with anyone in your command (which didn’t stop Picard but bear with me). This leaves Janeway pretty much out of luck since anyone not in her command becomes out of range within a few days. So when Janeway is attracted to a holodeck program, she changes just a few things about him, including the fact he has a wife. Chakotay’s issue is not that she’s having a relationship with a non self aware hologram (though that got fixed later), but that she’s changing him to suit her needs, which is pretty unhealthy to try to do in a normal relationship. Dishonorable Mention: Dragon’s Teeth, Virtuoso, Spirit Folk, Ashes to Ashes
Season 7: (2000-2001)
Overview: It’s the last season, so a lot of plots are wrapped up. Neelix leaves the ship to join a colony of Talaxians improbably far from Talax. Joseph Carey (not seen outside of flashback episodes since Episode 11) is brought back only to be killed. And B’Elanna and Tom finally get married only and expect a child… who turns out to be Klingon Jesus. Chakotay starts a dumb relationship with Seven that only happened because Robert Beltran complained to the writers. And they make it home.
Best Episode: Endgame. In the future, it turns out that Voyager took 23 years to get home. Along the way, Seven was killed, Chakotay ended up dying in grief and Tuvok was afflicted by a neurological disease that they could have cured in the Alpha Quadrant. So she manages to travel back through time and space to Voyager just as it’s coming near a Borg transwarp gate that could bring them home now. But, if they leave the gate intact, the Borg can use it to cause a lot of harm to the galaxy. Is there some way to get home and destroy the Borg gate? Honorable Mention: Drive, Inside Man, Shattered, The Void, Q2, Author Author
Worst Episode: Flesh and Blood: Here’s another of those episodes that lands on the stupid list for characters being stupid. The Doctor ends up leaving the crew when invited to by a bunch of “prey” hologram that broke loose from the Hirogen, even though he knows the Voyager crew doesn’t abuse him. Boy is his face red when the leader turns out to be a few photons short of a working brain and is sociopath towards organic life. Dishonorable Mention: Lineage, Repentance, Human Error, Friendship One.
Best of Voyager’s 2nd Half: The Killing Game
Worst: Mortal Coil
Next time, we cover Enterprise and a brief bit on the reboot continuity, then wrap it all up with the overall best and worst announced.
Ram Quixote
Knight Errant
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Let’s finish of the Best and Worst of Trek series with Enterprise,and as a bonus, the final best and worst episodes/movies of Trek.
General Overview: ‘Cause I’ve got faith of the heart… sorry. Enterprise,a prequel series set 100 years before The Original Series, is probably the most controversial Trek series. At first, it wasn’t even titled Star Trek, and it has a lot of continuity problems with later shows.
In fact, my personal theory is that Enterprise is NOT in the same continuity with the later shows. When you look at the changes in the first movie, it’s somewhat hard to believe they are all caused by Nero’s and Spock’s time travel. My theory is that the alternate timeline of the reboots actually started in the 8th Star Trek movie, First Contact which saw the Next Generation crew travel back to 2063 to stop the Borg’s attempts to make the titular First Contact not occur. My theory is that while said First Contact did occur, the past was changed, and this was the beginning of the new timeline that was changed even further by the events of the reboot movie. So that’s why it’s here in this series, after all the shows of the “Prime Universe”.
Let’s go.
Season 1: (2001-2002)
Overview: Humanity, without the assistance of the Vulcans, have invented their own Warp 5 drive, and installed it on a new ship to start exploring the galaxy. Because of this non-interference from the Vulcans, Captain Jonathan Archer is dealing with a lot of resentment towards them.
Best Episode: Broken Bow: This is the debut episode of the series, and it does a great job setting up the crew’s motivations, as well asthe Temporal Cold War arc that would be revisited (not very well) during the series. While not perfect, it was promising. Honorable Mention: The Andorian Incident.
Worst Episode: Dear Doctor: Ugh. Okay, get this. The Enterprise is tootling along when it comes across a manned probe. The people inside were deliberately putting themselves out in hopeless probe missions hoping to get the attention of aliens because their species is being decimated by disease. Upon investigation, the crew learns that there’s a second species on the planet.This second species is sentient, or nearly so, and is completely unrelated to the first. Dr. Phlox eventually finds a cure, but decides that this disease is evolution attempting to get rid of the first species so the second species can become dominant. Archer agrees with this lunacy and ruminates how one day,there will be some sort of Prime Directive (do you get it? DO YOU?!) about non-interference.
OK, I can see what they were trying to do. The Prime Directive is a major force in Trek stories, and Archer as a character needed a chance to see the whole question of whether or not aliens should interfere from the other side, so he could get over his resentment of Vulcans. The problems are twofold though. First of all, if you want some kind of sentient force directing a race towards a destiny, you don’t want evolution. You want God.Second, the reason there is no destiny of evolution is that according to the theory, it’s adaptation to external factors, so where it should go depends entirely on what those external factors are. So the conclusions of the episode are insulting nonsense.
In today’s world, let’s say a doctor saves the life of a sick little girl. For all the doctor knows, that girl can grow up to have a son who will become the next Hitler, or will win the affections of a girl who would have otherwise married someone else and produced a child that would cure AIDS or whatever. By the standard this episode gives us, that’s interference. But it’s interference that it would be inhumane not to give. The fact that the aliens specifically sought them out to invite them negates the argument of “We shouldn’t interfere at all”. Awful, offensive episode.
Season 2: (2002-2003)
Overview: Basically continued on in the first season’s wake,although the plotline of the Xindi attack on Earth was set up at the end.
Best Episode: Carbon Creek. This one is hit or miss with a lot of people but I liked it. T’Pol tells the story of her conveniently identical Vulcan ancestor and her crew of explorers crash landing near a small Pennsylvania mining town during the 1950’s. The crew ends up having to blend in with humanity due to running out of food. It’s a nice change of pace, though the role of Velcro in the episode is a bit silly, and it’s ruined somewhat byanother episode this season, First Flight, also using the device of the episode being a story from the past told by a crew member and not taking place in the setting of the series.
Worst Episode: Cogenitor. OK, I've got to rant about this one. While studying a hypergiant star, our heroes encounter another ship. It turns out the race is more advanced than humanity and very friendly. They're invited aboard for first contact and things go swimmingly.
UNTIL... Trip decides to have a chat with the alien Chief Engineer and his wife... and a not very communicative person with them. It turns out that it is a cogenitor, neither male nor female but a third gender necessary for conception of children. 3% of children born to these people are cogenitors. When Trip asks about it, the Chief Engineer tells him basically to ignore it (and from here on, I'll switch to her as a pronoun for convenience as indeed the show itself does.) Further conversation tells Trip that cogenitors do not receive education (the entire concept is called silly, since assisting with child conception is all they do) and that when the couple is done with her, she'll eventually be returned to the government to be given to a new couple.
Treating this person as a piece of meat really doesn't sit well with Trip, especially when he gets a brain scan on her that shows she is capable of just as much intelligence as the male and female (in a race that reads so fast that Shakespeare's entire catalog of works can be read and mostly retained in one night). Despite T'Pol telling him not to interfere, Trip sneaks away from the Chief Engineer on a visit to the ship to visit his quarters and teach the cogenitor to read (which she picks up very fast) and eventually lets her visit Enterprise to actually learn things rather than just sit in the Chief Engineer's quarters all day.
Eventually, the alien ship notices Trip is missing and when they find out he's been talking to the cogenitor, he's banned from returning. But the cogenitor gets aboard Enterprise and says she wants to stay. It's just then that Archer gets back from his male bonding trip with the alien captain, and he gets all up in Trip's Kool-Aid about interfering and judging their culture and blah blah blah, but he has to consider the request for asylum. This causes the alien Captain, Chief Engineer and Chief Engineer's Wife to have a meeting with Archer. The only thing resembling an argument against the asylum is:
Chief Engineer: What if one of your stewards requested asylum because he was being treated unfairly?
Archer: Our stewards aren't here against their will...
Chief Engineer: Oh, I'm sorry, Captain. I guess I don't understand your culture...
And it was pretty clear we were supposed to think that was some sick burn or something.
Archer decides to force the cogenitor back into slavery. A little later, the alien ship contacts them again. The cogenitor committed suicide rather than live with her old conditions again, and Archer blames Trip, pointing out that she never would have done so if he hadn't gotten involved. And the lesson we're supposed to learn is not judging other cultures by our standards.
To which I say... BULL!
The cogenitor was for all intents and purposes a slave. She had no choice in being passed around and treated like property. Like slavery, the Chief Engineer didn't even think of her as a person. Worse... she's a sex slave. Sex slavery is unfortunately a huge real world problem today. While this certainly wasn't writers Berman and Braga's intent with this, they're defending sex slavery on the basis that "It's another culture! So you shouldn't judge!"
To a degree, one shouldn't place one's own cultural judgments onto another culture. You HAVE to learn that when you live in another culture for a sustained period like I did. But certain things go above and beyond that if you're anything resembling a good person. Pretty much tied for first on that list are "ethnic cleansing is wrong" and "slavery is wrong". No one besides Trip even tried arguing that the cogenitor was a PERSON and deserved better than a life of being passed around like a piece of meat just because of her gender. The writers even make clear they know it's sex slavery by having Archer point out "This isn't Singapore!"
Let's just say I wasn't surprised to learn that Berman and Braga were the writers of the piece of crap... this was BAD. Dishonorable mention: Stigma.
Season 3: (2003-2004)
Overview: The show was not doing well in its previous two seasons, so it finally adopted the Star Trek name and concentrated on a story arc.
Best Episode: E²: The Enterprise encounters a version of itself that was transported 117 years back in time, and populated by their descendants. T’Pol’s future self reveals that she ended up with Trip and knows that our T’Pol has feelings for him. The existence of the time traveling Enterprise is nullified at the end of the episode. It’s the best of a mediocre season, but it’s also very similar to the DS9 episode Children of Time
Worst Episode: Similitude: Another episode that focuses on the T’Pol/Trip relationship doesn’t fare as well. After Trip is injured and becomes comatose, Dr. Phlox makes a clone of him (that for some reason is an adult but will only live for 15 days) and then discovers that they will have to kill the clone to harvest said brain tissue. It reminds me a lot of the Voyager episode Tuvix. Creation of a new self-aware life is a new deal and killing someone against their will to save someone else is wrong. The creators should have learned this lesson the first time.
Season 4: (2004-2005)
Overview: A lot of people agree the show was definitely getting better during its later half, but it was too little too late as thisshow would become the first Trek show since TOS to not last seven seasons.
Best Episode: In A Mirror Darkly. This episode takes place completely in the Mirror Universe first explored in the TOS episode Mirror, Mirror and in fact we only see “our” crew in a delusion. The U.S.S. Defiant (from the TOS episode The Tholian Web, not the DS9 one) is found to have traveled from the future of our universe. Archer, who is the 1st Officer of Enterprise in this universe hears rumors about it and takes over the Enterprise to investigate it. It ends up mainly an excuse for all the characters to act evil and wear TOS uniforms and it’s a lot of fun. Honorable Mention: Terra Prime
Worst Episode: These Are the Voyages…: The Enterprise crew doesn’t even get their own finale as this episode actually takes place as a holodeck recreation used by TNG’s William Riker during the events of the TNG episode The Pegasus. It takes place six years after the most recent episode and covers the last voyage of the ship before the official formation of the Federation. In a weird move, Trip Tucker is pointlessly killed during the story. It’s my second least favorite series finale ever, behind only Quantum Leap… which also starred Scott Bakula. I fear for NCIS: New Orleans. The Enterprise novel “The Good That Men Do” actually retcons the episode, saying that Trip’s death was faked.
Enterprise as a whole:
Best Episode: In A Mirror, Darkly
Worst Episode: Dear Doctor
And as a bonus:
The Reboot Movies (2009 and 2013)
Overview: Basically, after Enterprise,rather than risk a new continuity being rejected, these new movies reboot (and act as a prequel to) the Star Trek Prime Universe (TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager). I don’t want to go into too much detail, since Star Trek Into Darkness (oddly enough there’s no colon in the title) is still new enough that people may still need to avoid spoilers, so I’ll say that both are good,and I liked STID better.
THE FINAL VERDICT:
The Best:
TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles
TAS: Yesteryear
Classic Movies: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
TNG, Part 1: The Best of Both Worlds
TNG, Part 2: The Inner Light
TNG Movies: Star Trek: First Contact
DS9, Part 1: Duet
DS9, Part 2: Trials and Tribbleations
Voyager, Part 1: Scorpion
Voyager, Part 2: The Killing Game
Enterprise: In A Mirror Darkly
Reboot: Star Trek Into Darkness
All of this makes for some really good Trek. This list isn’t necessarily THE best episodes, but you can’t go wrong. I have take Wrath of Khan though. After the abysmal returns on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, TWOK was intended to the big go out with a bang for the franchise and would have been extremely memorable as such if it was.
The Worst:
TOS: Spock’s Brain
TAS: BEM
Classic Movies: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
TNG, Part 1: Code of Honor
TNG, Part 2: The Outcast
TNG Movies: Star Trek: Insurrection
DS9, Part 1: Life Support
DS9, Part 2: Chrysalis
Voyager, Part 1: Threshold
Voyager, Part 2: Flesh and Blood
Enterprise: Dear Doctor
The Outcast made a huge run for this title, not only given the misdirection of the message that I cited in my review, but Internet sci-fi reviewer SF Debris’ review of the episode clued me in on another issue. It’s obviously intended to be a message show about homosexuality, but the actors involved are male and female and the character’s feelings are still male and female, so it ends up being a sermon where they can’t even bring themselves to say what the sermon is about.
But in the end, I couldn’t pass up Dear Doctor. The more you study it, the more offensive and stupid it is.
But yeah, avoid any of these episodes.
I hope you all enjoyed this little series. Live long and prosper.
General Overview: ‘Cause I’ve got faith of the heart… sorry. Enterprise,a prequel series set 100 years before The Original Series, is probably the most controversial Trek series. At first, it wasn’t even titled Star Trek, and it has a lot of continuity problems with later shows.
In fact, my personal theory is that Enterprise is NOT in the same continuity with the later shows. When you look at the changes in the first movie, it’s somewhat hard to believe they are all caused by Nero’s and Spock’s time travel. My theory is that the alternate timeline of the reboots actually started in the 8th Star Trek movie, First Contact which saw the Next Generation crew travel back to 2063 to stop the Borg’s attempts to make the titular First Contact not occur. My theory is that while said First Contact did occur, the past was changed, and this was the beginning of the new timeline that was changed even further by the events of the reboot movie. So that’s why it’s here in this series, after all the shows of the “Prime Universe”.
Let’s go.
Season 1: (2001-2002)
Overview: Humanity, without the assistance of the Vulcans, have invented their own Warp 5 drive, and installed it on a new ship to start exploring the galaxy. Because of this non-interference from the Vulcans, Captain Jonathan Archer is dealing with a lot of resentment towards them.
Best Episode: Broken Bow: This is the debut episode of the series, and it does a great job setting up the crew’s motivations, as well asthe Temporal Cold War arc that would be revisited (not very well) during the series. While not perfect, it was promising. Honorable Mention: The Andorian Incident.
Worst Episode: Dear Doctor: Ugh. Okay, get this. The Enterprise is tootling along when it comes across a manned probe. The people inside were deliberately putting themselves out in hopeless probe missions hoping to get the attention of aliens because their species is being decimated by disease. Upon investigation, the crew learns that there’s a second species on the planet.This second species is sentient, or nearly so, and is completely unrelated to the first. Dr. Phlox eventually finds a cure, but decides that this disease is evolution attempting to get rid of the first species so the second species can become dominant. Archer agrees with this lunacy and ruminates how one day,there will be some sort of Prime Directive (do you get it? DO YOU?!) about non-interference.
OK, I can see what they were trying to do. The Prime Directive is a major force in Trek stories, and Archer as a character needed a chance to see the whole question of whether or not aliens should interfere from the other side, so he could get over his resentment of Vulcans. The problems are twofold though. First of all, if you want some kind of sentient force directing a race towards a destiny, you don’t want evolution. You want God.Second, the reason there is no destiny of evolution is that according to the theory, it’s adaptation to external factors, so where it should go depends entirely on what those external factors are. So the conclusions of the episode are insulting nonsense.
In today’s world, let’s say a doctor saves the life of a sick little girl. For all the doctor knows, that girl can grow up to have a son who will become the next Hitler, or will win the affections of a girl who would have otherwise married someone else and produced a child that would cure AIDS or whatever. By the standard this episode gives us, that’s interference. But it’s interference that it would be inhumane not to give. The fact that the aliens specifically sought them out to invite them negates the argument of “We shouldn’t interfere at all”. Awful, offensive episode.
Season 2: (2002-2003)
Overview: Basically continued on in the first season’s wake,although the plotline of the Xindi attack on Earth was set up at the end.
Best Episode: Carbon Creek. This one is hit or miss with a lot of people but I liked it. T’Pol tells the story of her conveniently identical Vulcan ancestor and her crew of explorers crash landing near a small Pennsylvania mining town during the 1950’s. The crew ends up having to blend in with humanity due to running out of food. It’s a nice change of pace, though the role of Velcro in the episode is a bit silly, and it’s ruined somewhat byanother episode this season, First Flight, also using the device of the episode being a story from the past told by a crew member and not taking place in the setting of the series.
Worst Episode: Cogenitor. OK, I've got to rant about this one. While studying a hypergiant star, our heroes encounter another ship. It turns out the race is more advanced than humanity and very friendly. They're invited aboard for first contact and things go swimmingly.
UNTIL... Trip decides to have a chat with the alien Chief Engineer and his wife... and a not very communicative person with them. It turns out that it is a cogenitor, neither male nor female but a third gender necessary for conception of children. 3% of children born to these people are cogenitors. When Trip asks about it, the Chief Engineer tells him basically to ignore it (and from here on, I'll switch to her as a pronoun for convenience as indeed the show itself does.) Further conversation tells Trip that cogenitors do not receive education (the entire concept is called silly, since assisting with child conception is all they do) and that when the couple is done with her, she'll eventually be returned to the government to be given to a new couple.
Treating this person as a piece of meat really doesn't sit well with Trip, especially when he gets a brain scan on her that shows she is capable of just as much intelligence as the male and female (in a race that reads so fast that Shakespeare's entire catalog of works can be read and mostly retained in one night). Despite T'Pol telling him not to interfere, Trip sneaks away from the Chief Engineer on a visit to the ship to visit his quarters and teach the cogenitor to read (which she picks up very fast) and eventually lets her visit Enterprise to actually learn things rather than just sit in the Chief Engineer's quarters all day.
Eventually, the alien ship notices Trip is missing and when they find out he's been talking to the cogenitor, he's banned from returning. But the cogenitor gets aboard Enterprise and says she wants to stay. It's just then that Archer gets back from his male bonding trip with the alien captain, and he gets all up in Trip's Kool-Aid about interfering and judging their culture and blah blah blah, but he has to consider the request for asylum. This causes the alien Captain, Chief Engineer and Chief Engineer's Wife to have a meeting with Archer. The only thing resembling an argument against the asylum is:
Chief Engineer: What if one of your stewards requested asylum because he was being treated unfairly?
Archer: Our stewards aren't here against their will...
Chief Engineer: Oh, I'm sorry, Captain. I guess I don't understand your culture...
And it was pretty clear we were supposed to think that was some sick burn or something.
Archer decides to force the cogenitor back into slavery. A little later, the alien ship contacts them again. The cogenitor committed suicide rather than live with her old conditions again, and Archer blames Trip, pointing out that she never would have done so if he hadn't gotten involved. And the lesson we're supposed to learn is not judging other cultures by our standards.
To which I say... BULL!
The cogenitor was for all intents and purposes a slave. She had no choice in being passed around and treated like property. Like slavery, the Chief Engineer didn't even think of her as a person. Worse... she's a sex slave. Sex slavery is unfortunately a huge real world problem today. While this certainly wasn't writers Berman and Braga's intent with this, they're defending sex slavery on the basis that "It's another culture! So you shouldn't judge!"
To a degree, one shouldn't place one's own cultural judgments onto another culture. You HAVE to learn that when you live in another culture for a sustained period like I did. But certain things go above and beyond that if you're anything resembling a good person. Pretty much tied for first on that list are "ethnic cleansing is wrong" and "slavery is wrong". No one besides Trip even tried arguing that the cogenitor was a PERSON and deserved better than a life of being passed around like a piece of meat just because of her gender. The writers even make clear they know it's sex slavery by having Archer point out "This isn't Singapore!"
Let's just say I wasn't surprised to learn that Berman and Braga were the writers of the piece of crap... this was BAD. Dishonorable mention: Stigma.
Season 3: (2003-2004)
Overview: The show was not doing well in its previous two seasons, so it finally adopted the Star Trek name and concentrated on a story arc.
Best Episode: E²: The Enterprise encounters a version of itself that was transported 117 years back in time, and populated by their descendants. T’Pol’s future self reveals that she ended up with Trip and knows that our T’Pol has feelings for him. The existence of the time traveling Enterprise is nullified at the end of the episode. It’s the best of a mediocre season, but it’s also very similar to the DS9 episode Children of Time
Worst Episode: Similitude: Another episode that focuses on the T’Pol/Trip relationship doesn’t fare as well. After Trip is injured and becomes comatose, Dr. Phlox makes a clone of him (that for some reason is an adult but will only live for 15 days) and then discovers that they will have to kill the clone to harvest said brain tissue. It reminds me a lot of the Voyager episode Tuvix. Creation of a new self-aware life is a new deal and killing someone against their will to save someone else is wrong. The creators should have learned this lesson the first time.
Season 4: (2004-2005)
Overview: A lot of people agree the show was definitely getting better during its later half, but it was too little too late as thisshow would become the first Trek show since TOS to not last seven seasons.
Best Episode: In A Mirror Darkly. This episode takes place completely in the Mirror Universe first explored in the TOS episode Mirror, Mirror and in fact we only see “our” crew in a delusion. The U.S.S. Defiant (from the TOS episode The Tholian Web, not the DS9 one) is found to have traveled from the future of our universe. Archer, who is the 1st Officer of Enterprise in this universe hears rumors about it and takes over the Enterprise to investigate it. It ends up mainly an excuse for all the characters to act evil and wear TOS uniforms and it’s a lot of fun. Honorable Mention: Terra Prime
Worst Episode: These Are the Voyages…: The Enterprise crew doesn’t even get their own finale as this episode actually takes place as a holodeck recreation used by TNG’s William Riker during the events of the TNG episode The Pegasus. It takes place six years after the most recent episode and covers the last voyage of the ship before the official formation of the Federation. In a weird move, Trip Tucker is pointlessly killed during the story. It’s my second least favorite series finale ever, behind only Quantum Leap… which also starred Scott Bakula. I fear for NCIS: New Orleans. The Enterprise novel “The Good That Men Do” actually retcons the episode, saying that Trip’s death was faked.
Enterprise as a whole:
Best Episode: In A Mirror, Darkly
Worst Episode: Dear Doctor
And as a bonus:
The Reboot Movies (2009 and 2013)
Overview: Basically, after Enterprise,rather than risk a new continuity being rejected, these new movies reboot (and act as a prequel to) the Star Trek Prime Universe (TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager). I don’t want to go into too much detail, since Star Trek Into Darkness (oddly enough there’s no colon in the title) is still new enough that people may still need to avoid spoilers, so I’ll say that both are good,and I liked STID better.
THE FINAL VERDICT:
The Best:
TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles
TAS: Yesteryear
Classic Movies: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
TNG, Part 1: The Best of Both Worlds
TNG, Part 2: The Inner Light
TNG Movies: Star Trek: First Contact
DS9, Part 1: Duet
DS9, Part 2: Trials and Tribbleations
Voyager, Part 1: Scorpion
Voyager, Part 2: The Killing Game
Enterprise: In A Mirror Darkly
Reboot: Star Trek Into Darkness
All of this makes for some really good Trek. This list isn’t necessarily THE best episodes, but you can’t go wrong. I have take Wrath of Khan though. After the abysmal returns on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, TWOK was intended to the big go out with a bang for the franchise and would have been extremely memorable as such if it was.
The Worst:
TOS: Spock’s Brain
TAS: BEM
Classic Movies: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
TNG, Part 1: Code of Honor
TNG, Part 2: The Outcast
TNG Movies: Star Trek: Insurrection
DS9, Part 1: Life Support
DS9, Part 2: Chrysalis
Voyager, Part 1: Threshold
Voyager, Part 2: Flesh and Blood
Enterprise: Dear Doctor
The Outcast made a huge run for this title, not only given the misdirection of the message that I cited in my review, but Internet sci-fi reviewer SF Debris’ review of the episode clued me in on another issue. It’s obviously intended to be a message show about homosexuality, but the actors involved are male and female and the character’s feelings are still male and female, so it ends up being a sermon where they can’t even bring themselves to say what the sermon is about.
But in the end, I couldn’t pass up Dear Doctor. The more you study it, the more offensive and stupid it is.
But yeah, avoid any of these episodes.
I hope you all enjoyed this little series. Live long and prosper.
rhinobean
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As I didn't enjoy IN A Mirror Darkly, I guess that this is the only one we sorta disagree on. Thank you and I hope you revisit this thread again and again. Don't retain minutia like I used to so this was fun reading and remembering!
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It did. http://www.darkhorizons.com/reviews/739/star-trek-the-motion-picture-director-s-cut
I'm a fan of TMP. I think it's biggest downfall(even with the improved Directors cut) is that there's very little comic relief like there was with TOS and subsequent feature films.
To be honest, the reboot films(which i do like) could learn a lot from this film. Science and exploration has been lost on the new films.
Ram Quixote
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I vaguely remember this episode. The problem with the script is that in constructing the culture, they forget that humanity has always had it's progressive moments, so why not this culture? I mean, wouldn't their scientists have come to the same conclusion that Trip did? They are more advanced. Wouldn't it be more likely that this 3% percent was pampered rather than dismissed?
I think what they were trying to do was create the most offensive scenario they could, and ram it down the viewer's sensibilities, to the point that it made Archer look insensitive. And yet, Trip succeeded; what being would not suddenly become aware of how hollow their life was once they were shown what was possible?
I think what they were trying to do was create the most offensive scenario they could, and ram it down the viewer's sensibilities, to the point that it made Archer look insensitive. And yet, Trip succeeded; what being would not suddenly become aware of how hollow their life was once they were shown what was possible?
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Online reviewer SF Debris had much the same thought on this episode, that these Cogenitors should be running the planet, not treated as a slave class.
I think it was much the same issue as Dear Doctor... they started with what they thought was a good idea... then the execution, in part due to executive meddling, ended up disastrous.
Ram Quixote
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Well, on the other hand, there might have been a coup in which the Cogenitors were deposed and subjugated so far just so that they could not rule again.
Zombie Slayer
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They take place in the same time frame. At the end of of Star Trek Nemisis you see Picard talk to Admiral Janeway for a few seconds at his desk. TNG, DSN and Voyager take place around the same time as you see Picard at DSN in that series' first episode.