If the neutronic storm front is "traveling at high warp", how can Archer see it out his window? It should have already engulfed the ship by the time its reflected light reaches their position. (I accept that we, the viewers, can see it, for dramatic reasons…reluctantly.)
With the main power grid shut down, how can they polarize the hull plating? Sure, they have backup power systems that can keep stuff like life support running, but wouldn't polarizing the entire hull take an awful lot of power?
The galley has an awful lot of stuff sitting around that would have fallen to the deck by then, most likely, from all the turbulence. And if the radiation is lethal to a human after three minutes of exposure, are the foodstuffs they left behind even going to be edible after spending over a week bathed in it? I guess it depends on whether the radiation is absorbed and held by organic matter. (At any rate, the real reason food was left in the galley was probably so they could explode lettuce with weapons fire in a later scene. And things hadn't fallen to the deck yet because they needed stuff to fall due to turbulence during the firefight. Dramatic necessity, blah blah.)
My technical nitpicking aside, this was a fairly solid episode from a story standpoint. It was certainly much better than "Precious Cargo". About the only thing I really have to call out is Archer's slightly hokey handling of aliens appearing out of the blue, demanding to come aboard for shelter from a storm Enterprise hadn't even detected yet. (I suppose I should also call out Enterprise's failure to detect the storm on its own sooner. For a ship with supposedly decent long-range scanning capability, that was a fair flub.)
Sure, ok, make the first non-corporeal species Enterprise encounters evil, because two legs good, no legs bad, right. The xenophobic undertone of this episode is hilariously ironic when you consider the whole point of Star Trek is to examine and embrace other cultures and ways of life.
Also, I've come to the conclusion that the theme of Enterprise is "Star Trek, yes, but make it sexy."
They weren't even wearing helmets in that cave. Humans figured that out over a hundred years earlier. :person_facepalming:
[4.1/10] I am the king of complaining about Star Trek episodes where some Federation ship barges in and just completely upends somebody else’s society. If I had a nickel for every time Captain Kirk strolled onto some alien planet and, over the advice of Spock, decided that their way of life was wrong and he knew better, I could afford to build my own stentorian-voiced authoritarian supercomputer. There’s a lack of nuance and practicality that always drove me nuts in that, and it’s a strain of arrogant righteousness that ran from the 1960s series to the latest one.
But holy hell, “Cogentior” ends with Archer chewing Trip out for teaching a slave to read and blaming him for the slave’s suicide. I just....I don’t know what to do with that.
Let’s go back to the basics of the situation. The Enterprise is studying some megastar and runs into a more advanced species. They have fancier ships and better equipment and, for once, they’re friendly rather than hostile! They too are explorers, hoping to meet new species and learn more about the galaxy. After so much rough and tumble diplomacy, Archer and company meet some aliens who are excited to see them, ready to teach them about their technology, and seem to share the same values.
That alone is kind of refreshing. Granted, friendly aliens don’t usually make for great drama, which is probably why Star Trek tends to go more for the aggressive/greedy/paranoid types, but still. There’s something kind of adorable about Archer and the alien captain trading quotes about Shakespeare (a Trek tradition), and having their little mutual admiration society.
The catch to all of this is that Trip discovers the species’ titular “cogenitor.” You see, the Vissians have a third gender, who expectant couples take with them when they decide they want to have a baby. The episode plays things a little coy when Trip finds the setup a bit weird and has a certain purtianical curiosity about the whole thing. At first, it feels like an extension of the subplot from “Stigma”, where he’s just a little uncomfortable, or even close-minded, about other species’ cultural practices.
But then the episode takes a startling right left turn, when Trip discovers that the Vissians’ cogenitors are basically chattel. He follows on his shock and curiosity and uncovers the fact that neurologically, the congenitors are exactly the same as the other Vissians, despite the fact that they’re treated like will-less property. He is aghast, and aims to teach the nameless congenitor on board how to read and instill in it the idea that it could have freedom and self-direction and the capabilities to be something more that need not be penned in by the restrictions of the Vissians’ society.
That actually sets up a really interesting dilemma and bit of social commentary. Here you have one of the most kind, altruistic, advanced, and seemingly enlightened species that humanity has ever met. They have a lot to teach Archer and his crew, and it seems like the beginning of a long, fruitful, mutually beneficial relationship between the two peoples. What happens when you realize that your new best friends are slavers? What do you do when the nicest people in the galaxy, who’ve been exploring the galaxy for 1,000 years, turn out to casually treat sentient beings like pieces of property?
There is a push and pull between notions of moral relativism and practicality versus the founding values of Starfleet and respect for sentient beings’ human rights that is a worthwhile and engaging topic to plumb the depths of. It’s the sort of conundrum we rarely see, and it’s especially salient at a time when the Federation doesn't even exist yet, and humanity is the new kid on the block that needs all the help it can get rather than the intergalactic equivalent of a global superpower.
But for some godforsaken reason, Enterprise elides all of that, and basically comes down almost wholesale on the side of “it’s their culture, and if they want to have slaves, it’s none of our business, and shame on you for interfering!”
It is mindboggling. After forty years, this is where Star Trek draws the line? This is where the franchise finally takes its whole “noninterference” thing seriously? After dozens, maybe hundreds of episodes where the crew of Federation ship decides that their morality and ethics supersedes those of the other cultures they encounter, the hill that Trek is willing to die on is “so what if this species has fully sentient, socially subjugated, baby-making slaves? It’s none of our business!” What the bloody hell!
It doesn't help that, like “Stigma”, this episode breaks up its “Very Special Episode” seriousness with broad, inessential subplot. Chief among these is Reed flirting with one of the Vissians. It’s a pointless but cute bit of cultural exchange, and in another episode, I think I’d like it. It’s the sort of slice of life bit of Trek that we don’t get enough of. But here, it just feels out of place.
The same goes for Archer and the Vissian captain’s adventure exploring the megastar. Being the most charitable, you could argue that these scenes are necessary to establish the bond that Archer is forming with the Vissians, which makes him loathe to let anything disrupt the relationship. But really, it feels like a chance for the show to show off some mid-2000s CGI firestorm effects, which are fine for their time, but pretty unavailing when you’re dealing with a choppily-edited story of Trip trying to free a slave in the main story of the episode.
Naturally, when Archer gets back from his sojourn and learns what Trip’s done from the Vissians, there’s hell to pay. The episode pays lip service to Archer seriously considering the Cogenitor’s seeking asylum, but devolves into even more stultifying Archer speeches and Vissian recriminations about not judging other cultures. So in the end, Archer agrees to return the congenitor back to the Vissians.
That alone would be a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion, albeit probably a realistic one. But what happens next takes the cake. The Enterprise gets word that the congenitor, having been consigned to a life of repression and servitude, takes its own life after having been shown the greater possibilities it will never experience by Trip. Archer reams out his chief engineer over this, laying the death at Trip’s feet and tearing him a new one for being reckless, without any consideration for the fact that, you know, this is a sentient being who was in bondage that Trip was trying to help.
What kills me is that you could keep the major beats of this story and still make it work. All it would take is Archer being genuinely conflicted, genuinely understanding of why Trip did what he did, for someone other than Trip to acknowledge the utter horribleness of what the Vissians are doing to these people, however nice they may seem otherwise.
If there were some bit of realpolitik going on, of Archer or T’Pol or somebody else saying, “You are right. This is terrible. But being absolute novices in deep space and humanity’s only representatives means that sometimes we have to make hard choices about what we tolerate in the name of not making enemies when we need friends,” then this would still be a hard episode to watch, but it would be bearable and even comprehensible.
Instead, the message of the episode seems to be “Trip was dead wrong for teaching that slave how to read and that it deserves freedom, and the congenitor’s blood is on his hand.” That is a lesson so far removed from the enlightened, compassionate ethos of Star Trek that it feels like an insult. At its best, the franchises explores the moral gray areas of where personal ethics meet cross-cultural exchange, and the fraught sore spots that arise when those two things clash. But an episode that aims to do the same, and yet lands on a message of “how dare you mess with those aliens’ practice of slavery!” is utterly antithetical to the nuance and the values that have sustained Star Trek for so many years.
This was a fantastic episode but they hit my pet peeve twice. They seem unaware of math. If a ship traveling warp 4.9 was chasing a ship going 4.8 and that ship was 2 light years ahead of them, it would take 100 days to catch up. One is going about 7 times light speed faster than the other. Catching up in hours like they did on the show was so out of whack I didn't need to do the math to know it was wrong.
The second time was when T'Pol said a subspace signal would that 200 years to get to the Delta quadrant. That would put the signal speed at about warp 7.1. By their own rules it should be way faster.
I know those are geeky things but Star Trek is a geeky show.
The commencement speech Archer is reading on the monitor when Hoshi notifies him of the Tarkalean ship's distress call is a great touch. If you pause the blu-ray, you can actually read it (gotta love HD Star Trek). As I suspected, Archer confirms that they're Zefram Cochrane's words in a later scene. As much as Enterprise loves to mess with the existing continuity of the Trek universe, this episode is a great example of what it can do when it builds upon, instead of contradicts, the established events. The "message to the 24th century" is the only really trite part of this episode; everything else is extremely well done and fits so perfectly with the Borg stories we got to watch in the latter half of Voyager, it's hard to truly find fault with this episode.
What does bug me a bit is the seemingly automatic use of the established terms for things like "nanoprobes", "tubules", etc. Phlox is the one who introduces all of these Borg-related terms, which seems suspicious because he does so before becoming "infected" himself. It's been rather a long time since I saw First Contact, so perhaps those terms came up in Cochrane's retracted statements about the events surrounding his first warp flight and the influence of these cybernetic beings from the future?
It's much harder to excuse the fact that the security team's phase pistols cease working on the Borg drones who are trying to take over Enterprise well before the rifles Reed and Archer took over to the assimilated transport stop being effective. The same modifications were made to both weapon types, and the drones are part of the same local hive consciousness, so they should adapt to the weapons fire at the same time. (Yes, I was an avid reader of The Nitpicker's Guide when I last went through TNG.)
We already knew that the Quincies were the douchebags of the Bleach universe. It is surprising it took so long for someone to actually say they are the enemy.
A poor continuation of the original series. It is very rushed with very little of what made the original series so good. I love seeing the characters again, but this arc seems like they are just rushing to cash in on a few episodes instead of doing the final arc justice.
Why is there a recap and why is it so long? So dumb.
What a lazy way to eat up 15% of the episode.
Then the episode is way too rushed. This should have been several episodes.
Are they getting paid to not produce episodes?
Pretty solid episode. Finally, some story.
Am I the only one not enjoying this
It fired all its shot i feel and ultimately sits far far below the Vikings standard. This was a decent episode but he climax and realisation that you worked 6 episodes towards it is concerning. That’s it. Would take a bombshell of a finale to set up a third. Almost see it cancelled.
"You know what the new season needs to start off strong? A worse version of the already infamous opening song!"
At least T'Pol's clothes have shapes other than "skintight catsuit" now. I mean, they're still skintight catsuits, just more interesting ones.
Overall pretty entertaining, which is more than can be said for some late season two episodes.
When Stormfront is speaking German, it's actually pretty good, but with strong accents. She's saying: "Do you remember that day, Frederick, Cloe put her arms out the car window. We found the perfect spot by the river in the shade of an apple tree. It was the first time Cloe ate fresh apples."
A Japanese woman and a LGBT woman beating the living shit out of a Nazi
I call it Poetic Cinema chief kiss
ALSO WHAT THE FUCK
As expected, this finale ended up being slightly underwhelming. Honestly, this whole season has been somewhat underwhelming. But that's beside the point right now. As always, though, there were moments that I liked in this episode, moments that weren't underwhelming, so to speak. The episode itself, on the other hand, was essentially like all the other episodes of the season; plotlines and plot progression that take a few steps forward and then take more steps backward and stay there, slow (and not in a well-done way, in my opinion), and ultimately, probably easily forgettable; with, of course, moments that weren't or were more memorable.
Seemingly, The Boys are disbanded. M.M. has returned to his family; something that I think he brought up in the premiere, and some other times throughout the season, as well. Frenchie and Kimiko are growing closer and seem to be off on their own adventure. Billy seemed to decline Grace's offer at the end of the episode; well, he didn't answer. And Hughie wants a break from having guts all over him, thinks he doesn't fit in with The Boys and never has, and wants to stand on his own two feet for once, and now wants to do things the right way, in a way that seemingly indicates that it won't result in having guts all over him.
Of course, this seeming-to-be disbandment of The Boys isn't going to last. And I think I know what's going to bring everyone back together, minus Hughie; but maybe he'll come back, too, due to something else. I was expecting Grace to die in this finale. I remember that there was a flashback in the comics of The Boys making a deal with The Seven with Mallory (who was a guy in the comics) at the helm, a deal having to do with both parties no longer fighting each other, something like that; and that he was killed at some point after that deal was made, which led to The Boys coming back together, back in business, and then, that's what ended up leading to Billy recruiting Hughie.
Grace's death would work as a tool to bring everyone back together, no matter what. But Hughie doesn't know her as well as Billy, Frenchie, and M.M. do, which is why I think something else besides that will be the ultimate reason for Hughie to come back. And while Kimiko doesn't know Grace that well, either, she'll probably go wherever Frenchie goes.
So, Victoria has superpowers. And they seem to coincide with what happened at the end of the previous episode and with what happened to Susan. Based on that revelation, the scene with her and Grace talking to the Secretary of Defense is seen in a different light. In that scene, she placed blame on Vought ━ twice. She blamed them for what happened. Then, when Robert replied by stating that a bunch of their guys died, too, she responded by insinuating it was to cover their tracks. Those two details stick out now.
It's possible that she did all of that to push the President to start having people use Compound V, for some reason; political gain, perhaps, or maybe she's truly against Vought and is using Compound V; so she has the means to do it her way, like in the comics where The Boys used it to have better chances against those with superpowers and did things their way.
After all, the Church of the Collective is on Vought's side or something like that, and she probably knew that. Meaning, taking out Alastair wasn't a move that was done out of now being a villain but rather a necessary evil to deal a major blow to Vought, specifically Stan. I'm not convinced that she's going to be a villain. But I don't think that she was the one who killed Susan and those people in the courtroom in the previous episode.
At the end of this episode, we saw her eyes as a metallic, silvery color, which suggests that when she uses her powers, her eyes glow like that and that she has to be looking at the person, of course. And we didn't see her eyes do that in the courtroom. I think my theory about Compound V; Stan getting it into the systems of people who'd be in the courtroom; is correct or more likely than Victoria being responsible. And if I'm correct, that could mean Stan did that to push the President into supplying Compound V.
I don't quite have any ideas as to what the purpose of Victoria is going to be and what she's going to be used for in the third season because I think she's a character who's exclusive to the show. I don't think she's from the comics. But it's possible that there was a character in the comics who was somewhat significant and a politician, and her character is based around that character, or it's the same thing with her as it is with Grace and Stormfront; as in, their counterparts in the comics were men.
Also, what's up with Cindy? The last time we saw her was two episodes ago; she didn't show up again in the previous episode. There's no way she isn't going to return in the third season because that will be ridiculous on the writers' part to leave something like that open-ended and forget all about it. But, oddly, they didn't have her show up again in the last two episodes of the season. Could she have been in the comics, like Love Sausage, and that's why the last time we saw her was the way it was?
I think there were things done throughout this season, developments that were built, that are paving the way for the show to be closer to the comics, specifically in the third season and onward; certain aspects like the world itself, which I think is starting to become more similar to the way it was from the get-go in the comics, the way it felt; the relationships and dynamics between the characters, like Frenchie and Kimiko; new characters introduced that were prominent in the comics, developments to one's character that aligns said character more to his or her's counterpart in the comics, like the death of Billy's wife, Becca; so on and so forth. I think, as an entire thing, that was the highlight of the season, with there being moments that were other highlights, in a lesser and/or different sense.
Anyway, this finale was alright. I know that I rated the previous episode with an eight (out of ten), the highest rating I've given an episode of this season; it was because of the ending, but it was still like all the other episodes, as was this finale. The plot, story, or plotlines, whatever you'd call it, of this season was the main factor for the feeling of underwhelming-ness to each episode. Despite that, I still enjoyed watching each episode, including this finale. And, as I've said before, there were plenty of moments; yes, moments, throughout the season, throughout each episode, moments that were good and memorable, better than others, better than the episodes themselves. And, well, I guess that's good enough.
[9.1/10] There was a news story a few years ago about a little girl who was born with a degenerative condition. The treatment of the condition required a certain type of donation, and so her parents had another child specifically to be that donor. (Apologies in perpetuity throughout the universe for the details that I’m sure I’m getting wrong from this half-remembered story.) The situation raised the intrigue and outrage of ethicists and laymen alike. Is it okay to make life just to save another life? Is it okay to bring someone into this world with the deliberate purpose of serving, in some ways, the needs of someone else? What rights does that second child have to agree or refuse to the procedure, however great or minor the risks?
These are questions with no easy answers, to the extent that they have any real answers at all. Now take that already impossibly complicated situation and throw in a few more dimensions of complexity. What if the sick child wasn’t just a helpless kid, but a vital member of a team who could accomplish things no one else could? What if you were on a mission against what might be an existential threat for all of humanity? What if the second child was only going to live for a matter of weeks regardless? What if there were a risky and experimental treatment that could extend their life, but at the expense of the life of the sick child?
The difficulties and moral intricacies of that situation would expand exponentially. That’s essentially what “Similitude” accomplishes. It takes an already ethically fraught area -- the creation of one life not as an end unto itself, but to save another -- and piles on added consideration after added consideration that only makes the situation more thorny and harder to decide what side you come down on.
That is, in a word, wonderful. Don’t get me wrong, this is episode is tough to watch in stretches. There is a Benjamin Button peculiarity and fragileness to Sim’s life, where he has to get by in a community and in a miniature set of norms that are not built or meant for someone like him. That leads to hard realizations and difficult experiences for the poor soul at times. Even beyond his considerable plight, it’s hard to have to watch Archer and Dr. Phlox and others, who both care about Trip and care about this innocent being whose inner life is just as rich, have to wrestle with the quandary of who lives and who dies.
But that is the space where Star Trek, as a franchise, soars. It’s these little moral thought experiments that challenge our notion of what’s right and fair and just through the lens of abstraction that science fiction provides. I can honestly say that I don’t know what I would do were I in Sim’s or Archer’s or Dr. Phlox’s position. The episode builds the moral considerations on both sides of the ledger to the point that choosing anything, even vicariously through the characters, feels a little heartbreaking, which is the sign of both a well-designed thought experiment, and a well-built episode.
Granted, Enterprise takes some liberties here that grease the wheels a little too much in places. For one thing, the cold open with “Trip” in the coffin is a pretty cheesy fake out. For another, it seems awfully convenient that Phlox just has this creature at the ready and has never mentioned it before. And last but not least, it’s vaguely implausible (albeit well within the realm of willing suspension of disbelief for a sci-fi show) that Sim retains Trip’s memories, not just his physical structure.
None of that really matters in the final tally, though, because Enterprise doesn't just take this admittedly out there situation seriously; it takes the characters who are enmeshed in it seriously.
While Sim’s development is understandably rushed, the focus of the hour is on his journey, and the bizarre but pathos-ridden experience of being born to die, while having the memories and the lust for life of the man whose health you’re supposed to sacrifice yourself to restore. While, as usual, Bakula can’t quite pull off the “morally distraught but determined” vibe, the production and the script take pains to show the tolls this situation is taking on him, with his morals balanced against his duty to the people of Earth.
And my god, Jolene Blalock gives what is maybe the best performance of the series so far. The way she is able to convey the sense in which T’Pol harbors affection for Sim and for Trip, and how she’s quietly breaking apart beneath her stoic Vulcan veneer when facing this situation, is brilliant. She conveys so many layers of surprise, of caution, of concern of pulling in too close to someone she’ll just have to say goodbye to, with such minor changes in expressions. In an episode that understandably gives Connor Trineer a lot to do, Blalock still manages to stand out.
The episode isn’t just character studies and moral philosophy though. It manages to tie all of this into a specific plot obstacle -- namely that the ship is stuck in some sort of magnetic rust nebula and has to get out before they’re jammed their forever, adding extra urgency to the required Trip resurrection. But even that adds moral complexity to Archer’s choices, when Sim contributes the idea that makes their escape possible, but isn’t allowed to lead the mission lest Trip’s last hope for revival blows up in the process.
Still, it’s the moments after that problem is solved that are the most harrowing here. When Sim discovers that there might be a way to end his life, when Archer has to threaten to kill one innocent person to save another, when T’Pol resolves (if only for a moment) her complicated feelings for the man in a coma and the man who’s assumed his life, when Dr. Phlox has to set aside his “do no harm” principles, the episode rises to a gripping, heartrending crescendo.
It’s a climax that involves sacrifice, of recognizing the impact of the greater cause hanging over all of them, of reckoning with your own impending death, of being glad for the brief life you had. In short, it is the stuff that great Star Trek is made of: the character-focus, the sci-fi plot hurdles, and most of all the high-minded philosophical challenges, that come together to expand our minds and test our hearts.
“Similitude” was penned by Manny Coto, who would go on to showrun this series, and if this is what he has in store for the show, I can’t wait for more.
Wow, this episode really just gave us :sparkles:nothing:sparkles:
You can just fast forward this episode. There's literally nothing to watch expect for the last 15 mins
Jesse and Charlie's accent switching bit had be howling :joy: and also the
"- running a business is so easy
- yeah, sound about white "
“I’ve never been fed a pile of crap like that since truth or dare night at farm camp” - wow, that’s actually hilarious. Sometimes this show has a moment of brilliance so quick you may miss it :rofl::rofl:
When does this show start to become smart? this could be predicted so early. I want the writer's to be 10 steps ahead. I want Daemon to "win", because he has the most presence. All the other are lacking. Why are they bringing up "The prince that was promised"? that premise was fucked way too much in GOT.
Yikes. Horrible casting choices. Only the queen's older version feels like the same character. They either should have jumped earlier in the season or waited until season two. After kind of enjoying last week's episode I'm back to my overall impression of this being a poorly written and executed show.
the one eyed boy aged like +10years while the Rhaenyra's kids looked like they aged only 3years. the passage of time is so wildly different between characters, makes it feel so inconsistent
YIP YIP!! I love that!
I just wanna know how tf they built that bridge in the dark.
Boy, has this been an underwhelming season! Aside from 2 or 3 episodes, the writing has felt so generic and uninspired. And I know this is supposed to be for younger audiences as well, but it seemed like they leaned on the childish lines and dialogues way too much this time around.
From what I understand, there’s an outlined plan for the 7 seasons and this has clearly been sort of a new beginning, with the time-jump and everything. The first season was also the weakest, while the second and third were way stronger… I hope it will be the same case now.
My absolute favorite part of this episode? (spoiler) That that terrible theme song was gone(/spoiler)
Now that's the theme music they shud have had from the start instead of the pixie dust one we've had to suffer
