:: Star Trek 1964 - Today ::

:: Saturday, September 27, 2003 ::

Series 3: 053

The "I Have Faith" introduction music, or theme has been jazzed up with the begginning of season 3, a most unfortunate eventuallity. The promise to bring more adventure to the stories has been honoured. T'Pol's new uniform is no less modest than the previous episodes, white, light blue and red are the three colors I've seen so far, as well as her two piece night attire. A short commnet: Although Jolene Blalock is an attractive and young rendering of a Vulcan, I find it extraordinary that such figure hugging uniforms would be warn by a member of the "High Command" and protoge of Ambassadore S'Val. There you are, just one of he anomalies that cause some cerebral disonance in this reviewer.

We are advised that Enterprise has been six weeks into the Expanse with only the unreliable evidence of a suspect freighter captain to a planet with a Xindi on it. This planet is a mining concern, apparently run by slavers to which the crew of the Enterprise are a tempting target. Here they have been told there is a Xindi, to whom they have to pay to see by an unscrupulous slaver/mine mamager. The Xindi is differnet from the dead example from the probe that destroyed large sections of Florida, enough to be a differnet species, as Captain Archer says to Dr. Flox, when he is trying to explain the difference, "Like the diference between Neanderthal and Human?". "A good analogy", says Flox.

The task to interview this Xindi is complicated by the fact that he refuses to co-operate unless they help him escape. This they do, and leads to some life threatening events, with the military unit onboard Enterprise showing its skills to rescue them in the end, of course. The Xindi gives the co-ordinates of his homeworld before expiring due to injuries sustained in the rescue.

Observations

I've already mentioned T'Pol's attire. We are to assume that their translter machine found the languages of the Xindi and the Slaver/Manager not a problem. The environment on this planet which seemed only for mining was only marginally livable, the miners themselves looked like they were suffering from the effects of the gas and/or dust of the mining operation itself, much like today's underground mines. Being slaves, I gues a union was out of the question.

We were also intoduced to a bold and uncompromising Captain Archer, determined to find the Xindi and prevent the forecast (predicted or observed by whoever it was that gave the Suliban the information) of the Earth's destruction. Whether this urgency in the currant episodes is related to the 911 incident and the following search for Osama bin Laden in the real world I don't know, but it does sort of point to it.

:: Clifford 7:34 am [+] ::
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Enterprise: The Expanse

Series 2: 052

This is an introduction to a number of episodes to be expected in series 3, a bit of excitement and time travel (despite the Vulcan High Command having determined that time travel is impossible). On top of that, new species and problems within the Delphic Expanse.

The episodes begins with a device approaching Earth where it begins to destroy a linear swath through Florida and Cuba down to Venezuala, a kilometer wide and about the same deep, the loss of life is extreme. The parrallels with 911 are obvious, an unkown enemy has attacked the US, apparently unprovoked.

Then we move off to where the Enterprse is on it's mission and the reports come in from Star Fleet, at this satge in the Star Trek Calendar this organisation is still a small International concern judging by the graphics of the San Francisco HQ. Whilst conducting a briefing of the senior officers Enterprise comes under attack and it is the Suliban who (as is their usual behaviour) kidnap Archer where Silik slitthers in to advise him someone wants to talk to him. Since the Suliban are not exactly the friends one wants Archer is querious at best, Silik refuses to tell who it is who wishes to speak to him. It is of course the Suliban's Time Lord (to borrow a term from Dr Who) whose ghost like image advises him that the Xindi are reponsible for the attack on Earth, that another faction in the Temporal Wars has told these Xindi that the Humans will destroy their planet in 500 years, so they produced this first salvo in a premptive strike to destrot the Earth first before the Humans get a chance to carry out this alleged attack. Who the Xzindi are and who is advising them is unkown, even Crewman Daniels had not given a clue, even though the temporal Cold War was mentioned sin passing. Well it has hotted up somewhat and Enterprise and Captain Archer in particular must convince Star Fleet and the Vulcans that a mission to a particular location will find those responsible for the devastation on Earth. This is not easy as Soval, the Vulcan Ambassador does not accept Archers story and even tries to declare him unsuitable to command Enterprise and remove T'Pol from the ship as well. he shows a transmission from a Vulcan ship that went through the Delphic Expanse recently and had returned to destroy itself. Archer convinces Admiral Forrest and they are on their way, with a brief flyby of the new Enterprise class warp 5 ship nearing completion.

Unfortunately for the Enterprise, Duras as waiting to apprehend Archer no matter what, and dogs the mission even more, surfice it to say, our heroes servive and enter "The Delphic Expanse" to leave us stewing over what happens next:

• Are Silik and his mysterious informer telling the truth.
• The sexual tension between T'Pol and Archer is displayed in her efforts to stay on the Enterprise rather than follow Vulcan High Command orders, do they accept her resignation?
• What is the nature of this Temporal Cold War?

We have to wait until Season Three starts with "The Xindi". Incidentally, the Xindi appear to Humanoid, wouldn't you agree?
:: Clifford 7:39 pm [+] ::
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