WARNING: This review contains spoilers for both part 1 and part 2 of "Broken Bow". Do not read if you haven't seen both episodes of the two-parter.
[7.1/10] I like the idea of Star Trek: Enterprise. I like the notion of seeing how Starfleet became Starfleet, when humans were taking their first steps into the final frontier rather than blazing through it. I like the theme of humans and Vulcans not trusting one another, the former feeling limited by their overprotective guides and the latter feeling tested by their impulsive allies. I like the idea of a temporal cold war, and a species trying to speed up evolution, and a period setting when the familiar was still foreign.
But boy, the execution leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. The bones of a good Star Trek series are here (no pun intended), but the details, the texture, the characters that are meant to bring it all to life and make you invested in those space-bound adventures just don’t. Unconvincing dialogue, hammy acting, gratuitous attempts at sex appeal, and character dynamics that feel retrograde rather than like homage absolutely hobble Enterprise right out of the space dock.
It’s the latter point that really concerns me. It takes both writers and actors time to figure out a show, and pilots are always due some leeway. But it seems clear that Archer, T’Pol, and Trip are meant to carry the same dynamic and focus of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy triumvirate. That push and pull is all well and good, but there were parts of their interactions that come off tonally awkward today, and yet are forgivable for a show that started airing in 1966. The same can’t be said for one debuting in 2001 (an appropriate year for a space odyssey), with optics issues that are harder to resolve if the show means to stick with this setting throughout its run.
At least the show is sound enough to connect that tug-of-war with the larger theme of the episode, and some preliminary character arcs, however ham-handed it may be in the early going. If the overall theme set up here is tension between humans and Vulcans, than it’s represented by the tension between Archer and T’Pol (and to a lesser extent, Trip). Archer holds a grudge against the Vulcans for what he views as preventing his dad from using his warp engine to take to the skies. And T’Pol sees humans as arrogant and reckless, with some gestured-to connection to Archer’s father’s past to boot.
But what do you know, Archer proves the worthiness of his way of doing things by risking his life to save T’Pol’s, and T’Pol proves her trustworthiness by following Archer’s plan when he’s incapacitated when she has the authority to play it safe. By the end of the episode, there’s still friction between them, but they see one another’s value and are letting their preconceived notions melt away a little. The dialogue underline that idea a little too strongly, and those dramatized obstacles make the point a little too neatly, but it’s a solid enough basis to build on.
The same goes for the specific plot of the episode. The crew of the Enterprise NX-01 is in search of a Klingon who was blasted in a midwestern cornfield on Earth. The Klingon is being chased by a some a small group of Suliban, a previously unknown race, who have augmented themselves to be able to camouflage and twist limbs and do all other sorts of things to advance their development. Both our heroes and the Suliban Cabal want the Klingon, leading to a race and a fight through different locals as both sides play capture the flag with him.
It’s not much in and of itself, but it provides an excuse for the titular Enterprise to go on its first mission early, heightening tensions between the terrans and the Vulcans. Along the way, there’s some interesting reveals and teases. An unnecessarily seductive informant tells Archer that the Suliban are trying to incite civil war among the Klingons by staging attacks to look like internecine skirmishes. There’s talk of the Suliban getting help from some shadowy figure from the distant future. And there’s even some hand-to-blurry-hand combat between Archer and one of the Suliban fighters in some weird time-dilated chamber.
The graphics and effects used to make all this happen are nothing to write home about. Even for 2001 on television, the CGI looks obvious and unconvincing, most everything looks obviously like a soundstage, and the quality is just close enough to the present to look a little rudimentary without the charm of seeming retro. That’s all easy enough to forgive rationally, but dampens the show’s ability to be exciting or visceral when it’s trying to ramp up the thrills and chills.
Worse yet are the painfully transparent attempts at sex appeal. Lord knows that the 1960s show had its fair share of cheesecake, due in no small part to William Theiss’s barely-there costumes. But decades later, that same tack is just embarrassing. Whether it’s a shot of a couple of alien erotic dancers, a thinly-justified seduction routine from a shape-shifted Suliban, or a mutual scrubbing between T’Pol and Trip with camera pans that make Game of Thrones seem reserved, UPN clearly wants to be HBO and it’s utterly cringeworthy.
Still, all of this is tolerable, particularly with the richness of the premise, if only the nuts and bolts of the show were better. Archer seems like a generic, self-righteous douche. T’Pol is meant to be the Spock analogue but can’t find either the stoicism or subtle snark that the inimitable Leonard Nimoy brought to the role. Trip is a standard space cowboy. And the other characters have gimmicks more than they do personalities at this point, which there’s time to fix. On top of that, the dialogue is pretty rough here, with tense moments that lack any real punch, emotional exposition that is overly blunt, and tin-eared exchanges that are bereft of either fun or gravitas.
In short, the opening salvo of Enterprise is, like many first outings for Star Trek series, one with more potential than proof. It’s the black sheep of the Star Trek flock, and while I want to give the show a fair shake, it’s hard not to see why fans had their doubts based on this first outing. There’s plenty of promise here -- in the theme of human/Vulcan friction, in the temporal cold war arc that’s kicked off, and in the beginning of Starfleet exploring in the galaxy -- but there’s also plenty of basic T.V. thing the show does weakly that might rightly make you wary of venturing deeper into the galaxy with this crew. Let’s hope Archer and company manage to right the ship.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-04-10T03:10:31Z
WARNING: This review contains spoilers for both part 1 and part 2 of "Broken Bow". Do not read if you haven't seen both episodes of the two-parter.
[7.1/10] I like the idea of Star Trek: Enterprise. I like the notion of seeing how Starfleet became Starfleet, when humans were taking their first steps into the final frontier rather than blazing through it. I like the theme of humans and Vulcans not trusting one another, the former feeling limited by their overprotective guides and the latter feeling tested by their impulsive allies. I like the idea of a temporal cold war, and a species trying to speed up evolution, and a period setting when the familiar was still foreign.
But boy, the execution leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. The bones of a good Star Trek series are here (no pun intended), but the details, the texture, the characters that are meant to bring it all to life and make you invested in those space-bound adventures just don’t. Unconvincing dialogue, hammy acting, gratuitous attempts at sex appeal, and character dynamics that feel retrograde rather than like homage absolutely hobble Enterprise right out of the space dock.
It’s the latter point that really concerns me. It takes both writers and actors time to figure out a show, and pilots are always due some leeway. But it seems clear that Archer, T’Pol, and Trip are meant to carry the same dynamic and focus of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy triumvirate. That push and pull is all well and good, but there were parts of their interactions that come off tonally awkward today, and yet are forgivable for a show that started airing in 1966. The same can’t be said for one debuting in 2001 (an appropriate year for a space odyssey), with optics issues that are harder to resolve if the show means to stick with this setting throughout its run.
At least the show is sound enough to connect that tug-of-war with the larger theme of the episode, and some preliminary character arcs, however ham-handed it may be in the early going. If the overall theme set up here is tension between humans and Vulcans, than it’s represented by the tension between Archer and T’Pol (and to a lesser extent, Trip). Archer holds a grudge against the Vulcans for what he views as preventing his dad from using his warp engine to take to the skies. And T’Pol sees humans as arrogant and reckless, with some gestured-to connection to Archer’s father’s past to boot.
But what do you know, Archer proves the worthiness of his way of doing things by risking his life to save T’Pol’s, and T’Pol proves her trustworthiness by following Archer’s plan when he’s incapacitated when she has the authority to play it safe. By the end of the episode, there’s still friction between them, but they see one another’s value and are letting their preconceived notions melt away a little. The dialogue underline that idea a little too strongly, and those dramatized obstacles make the point a little too neatly, but it’s a solid enough basis to build on.
The same goes for the specific plot of the episode. The crew of the Enterprise NX-01 is in search of a Klingon who was blasted in a midwestern cornfield on Earth. The Klingon is being chased by a some a small group of Suliban, a previously unknown race, who have augmented themselves to be able to camouflage and twist limbs and do all other sorts of things to advance their development. Both our heroes and the Suliban Cabal want the Klingon, leading to a race and a fight through different locals as both sides play capture the flag with him.
It’s not much in and of itself, but it provides an excuse for the titular Enterprise to go on its first mission early, heightening tensions between the terrans and the Vulcans. Along the way, there’s some interesting reveals and teases. An unnecessarily seductive informant tells Archer that the Suliban are trying to incite civil war among the Klingons by staging attacks to look like internecine skirmishes. There’s talk of the Suliban getting help from some shadowy figure from the distant future. And there’s even some hand-to-blurry-hand combat between Archer and one of the Suliban fighters in some weird time-dilated chamber.
The graphics and effects used to make all this happen are nothing to write home about. Even for 2001 on television, the CGI looks obvious and unconvincing, most everything looks obviously like a soundstage, and the quality is just close enough to the present to look a little rudimentary without the charm of seeming retro. That’s all easy enough to forgive rationally, but dampens the show’s ability to be exciting or visceral when it’s trying to ramp up the thrills and chills.
Worse yet are the painfully transparent attempts at sex appeal. Lord knows that the 1960s show had its fair share of cheesecake, due in no small part to William Theiss’s barely-there costumes. But decades later, that same tack is just embarrassing. Whether it’s a shot of a couple of alien erotic dancers, a thinly-justified seduction routine from a shape-shifted Suliban, or a mutual scrubbing between T’Pol and Trip with camera pans that make Game of Thrones seem reserved, UPN clearly wants to be HBO and it’s utterly cringeworthy.
Still, all of this is tolerable, particularly with the richness of the premise, if only the nuts and bolts of the show were better. Archer seems like a generic, self-righteous douche. T’Pol is meant to be the Spock analogue but can’t find either the stoicism or subtle snark that the inimitable Leonard Nimoy brought to the role. Trip is a standard space cowboy. And the other characters have gimmicks more than they do personalities at this point, which there’s time to fix. On top of that, the dialogue is pretty rough here, with tense moments that lack any real punch, emotional exposition that is overly blunt, and tin-eared exchanges that are bereft of either fun or gravitas.
In short, the opening salvo of Enterprise is, like many first outings for Star Trek series, one with more potential than proof. It’s the black sheep of the Star Trek flock, and while I want to give the show a fair shake, it’s hard not to see why fans had their doubts based on this first outing. There’s plenty of promise here -- in the theme of human/Vulcan friction, in the temporal cold war arc that’s kicked off, and in the beginning of Starfleet exploring in the galaxy -- but there’s also plenty of basic T.V. thing the show does weakly that might rightly make you wary of venturing deeper into the galaxy with this crew. Let’s hope Archer and company manage to right the ship.