Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews M

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).

These episodes are more or less part of the Xindi story line that lasts the entire 3rd season of Enterprise. For some introductory comments from me and a link to a plot summary of the first episode of this story line, see this where I discuss the episode “The Expanse” (which is the last episode of the 2nd season).

“North Star” See this for a plot summary.

A fairly political episode. It’s a good illustration of racial oppression. It’s illegal to educate the Skagarans, there’s one set of laws for humans, another for Skagarans etc.

I also like the idea of finding the descendants of people taken from Earth by aliens centuries before they are discovered by Enterprise.

One thing I was kind of disappointed with was that there could have been more about dismantling the anti-Skagaran laws and/or about encouraging humans to change their attitudes towards Skagarans. More generally it ties social progress with TECHNOLOGICAL progress, a connection I doubt exists.

I give it five stars out of five.

“Similitude” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. It’s very interesting. I give it four stars out of five.

“Carpenter Street” See this for a plot summary.

There is some commentary about Earth having a problem back in those days (the early years of this century) with “greed, violence, and moral corruption.” At one point Archer starts to say something about Earth and fossil fuels being exhausted in 2061, but doesn’t finish- I imagine it would have something to do with things like the electric car.

There’s also another incident of Archer crossing the line while interrogating someone (overall, the message from Star Trek is that torture is wrong).

I give it three stars out of five.

“Chosen Realm” See this for a plot summary.

This is largely about fundamentalist religion taken even further than usual in a negative direction (one sect believes that the “Chosen Realm” was made by the Makers in nine days; the other sect says ten days, and they’ve been at war for 100 years). It illustrates that well, and I liked the episode. I’m concerned that ST overall gives people the idea that religion is incompatible with the values of the Federation and/or StarFleet. More of my thoughts on religion can be found here, here (while discussing the episode "Who Watches The Watchers?"), here (while discussing the episode "Destiny"), here (while discussing the episode "In The Hands Of The Prophets").

This episode also has what I believe is the very first time that ST has said something about abortion. It’s more or less a pro-choice statement, although not very explicit.

I give this episode three stars.