In spite of the fact that Star Trek has been an enduring force in our culture for over 50 years now, the literature on Star Trek and race remains limited, and most of what has been written on the subject has been by academic publishers for academic audiences. The most prominent text is Daniel Leonard …
With a new year upon us, I decided the least I could resolve for 2019 was to try and finally finish Enterprise. I’ve seen almost all of Season 1 plus a smattering of episodes from the other seasons, but it’s time to fill in the gaps, starting with “Minefield.” If “Shuttlepod One” wasn’t enough, get …
In “Judgment,” Enterprise draws inspiration from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country by putting Archer on trial in a Klingon court and sending him to Rura Penthe. What makes this feel like a great episode rather than a ripoff are two things: 1) The casting of two excellent guest-stars: J.G. Hertzler and John Vickery, and 2) The integration …
When I hit “The Crossing,” I thought I had hit gold. Finally, I thought, an Enterprise episode that is both done well and truly, truly captures the spirit and philosophy of Star Trek. And then, somehow an episode about the spirit of exploration became an episode whose main message was: “Beings that are different are not …
“Canamar” is a strong, fast-paced, action-packed episode in which Archer and Trip are stuck on a prison ship that’s hijacked by two desperate prisoners. Sort of Con Air in space but better because Scott Bakula > Nicholas Cage. It’s also an episode where T’Pol’s in charge of Enterprise, and Hoshi and Mayweather get more than usual to …
In this episode, Enterprise finds a TARDIS-esque MacGuffin drifting through space. The Tholians appear for the first time since we saw them in TOS. A temporal anomaly means Reed and Archer have the same boring conversation over and over. T’Pol and Archer get awkward. So they tractor in this mysterious pod that is bigger on …
Another entry in the “Harry Kim Must Suffer” series of episodes. This time it’s not at the hands of scary clowns, space STDs, parallel universes or promotion-stingy Captain Janeway. This time, Harry Kim is imperilled by that most dangerous of foes: a society of sexy women! We start out with Harry on the bridge experiencing deja …