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).
“e2” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. But it’s a very interesting episode. I like the part where some of the crews of the two Enterprises meet each other. I also like the “generational ship” aspect. Reminds me of Star Trek: Voyager.
I give it five stars out of five.
“The Council” See this for a plot summary.
At this point there’s almost nothing new that’s political- aside from the alliance Archer has made with some of the Xindi.
There is one thing I wanted to high-light. Trip’s sister was killed by the probe that attacked Earth at the end of the 2nd season (seven million were killed). A Xindi named Degra designed that weapon and is also the first senior Xindi to accept what Archer is telling him- about how humanity is not the enemy of the Xindi. He interacts with Trip about 2 times when Trip is very hostile towards him. At one point, they have the following exchange:
Trip: Do me a favor- don’t try to get on my good side.
Degra: I understand you and I will always be enemies.
Trip: You got that right
Degra: I can’t change what happened to your sister, or any of the 7 million. But I am risking my life, I am risking the lives of my family. I’ve killed members of my own species. All because I’m trying to save both ours worlds.
Later on they build on that improvement with Trip acknowledging that Degra has taken some serious risks for peace between the Xindi and humanity.
I give this episode four stars out of five.
“Countdown” See this for a plot summary.
Aside from being a part of the Xindi story line, there’s basically nothing political here. Even Archer’s efforts at convincing Xindi that humanity isn’t their enemy are basically over.
I give it four stars out of five.
“Zero Hour” See this for a plot summary.
Aside from being a part of the Xindi story line, there’s not much political here. Even Archer’s efforts at convincing Xindi that humanity isn’t their enemy are over.
There is some discussion of the future formation of the Federation which is political and very inspiring. In general, with some exceptions, I think political mergers are a good thing. On a similar note, I like the involvement of Shran and the Andorians in attacking the Xindi weapon.
In general season three was sort of what I had remembered from watching it about 13 months ago. It’s inspired by a non-progressive response to 9/11. But there was also more progressive elements than I remembered, and as I said earlier, the darker side of Archer’s efforts is probably more or less realistic (that that sort of thing would come up in his mission). It’d be nice if StarFleet had, after the mission found some way to give Archer a slap on the wrist for the immoral things he did. I’ll learn for sure soon as I start watching the 4th season, but I don’t remember that happening (a slap on the wrist of some sort would be good- overall Archer has been a great StarFleet officer and he shouldn’t be tossed away in jail or something; but some punishment would remind other officers that they need to try and come up with alternatives before doing something immoral)
I don’t like the ending where they’re all sent back in time- although I might change my opinion of that after I watch the first two episodes of season four, it just seems like a bad end to the Xindi story line, when they’re supposed to return to Earth as heroes.
I give it four stars out of five.
No comments:
Post a Comment