Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews D

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST..
I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Rogue Planet” See this for a plot summary.

This episode tells us that decades earlier on Earth, hunting animals ceased. I have weak, negative feelings about hunting- I have basically nothing besides that to say on the subject.

I give it two stars out of five.

“Acquisition” See this for a plot summary.

This episode is about Ferengis, who practice raw capitalism. There is an exchange between Archer and one of the Ferengi about the Rules of Acquisition, a Ferengi code of conduct.

Ferengi: ... the most important one- “a man is only worth the sum of his possesions.”

Archer: Back on my home world that kind of thinking almost destroyed our civilization.

“Oasis” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it four stars.

“Detained” See this for a plot summary.

A very political episode. The internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in most of the US during World War II is mentioned as something similar to what the Suliban are experiencing.

One of the interned Suliban explains that, “they told us it was only temporary, it was for our own safety- ‘once the cabal has been destroyed you will be free to go back to your homes.’ We’re still waiting” (eight years on).

This brings up two things:

1) It kind of reminds me of people being detained without a trial in the War on Terror and how that will probably not end in a few or even several decades.

2) If they were really interested in the safety of the Suliban (who were being attacked violently by Tandarans), the government would have made it very clear that attacks on them were unacceptable, and backed that up with the Army.


In general a good illustration of bigotry and oppression. I give it four stars out of five.