LizstarTrek - Enterprise Season 4 episodes 11-15

Every Sunday my Twitch subs and I watch Star Trek in my Discord. Here are my reviews and thoughts on each of the episodes as I see it. If you’re curious about a nerd’s views on Star Trek episodes, please read on, I go quite in depth with some of these episodes! I’ve watched some Star Trek before but not all of it!

IT’S BEEN A LOOOOONG ROOOOOAAAD

Observer Effect - ENT 10/10

Our episode starts with Mayweather and Reed playing Chess and talking very strangely. They are clearly taken over by other lifeforms, contemplating about how they need to be in character for non-interference observation, and they wonder if anyone is going to die today. Well that’s good news.

Travis and Hoshi are returning from a Klingon garbage site, and they get sick. They’re isolated in the decon chamber, first time we’ve seen that for a while. The Observers discuss how when the Klingons and Cardassians faced this illness, they just killed the infected, and expect little to be different. Mayweather’s host is a bit more optimistic, though. He’s also VERY bad at pretending to be Mayweather, being real invasive and asking the infected questions.

We get some Hoshi lore, holy SHIT. She got kicked out Starfleet Acadamy. Why? Because she broke a superior’s arm playing Poker. The superior tried to stop her from gambling, which was against the rules during hours, though she was playing off hours. So she fought back and was discharged. Well, that’s pretty fucking accurate to how that’d be handled.

This episode is actually filled with some amazing scenes with Hoshi and Trip. They’re faced with their possible mortality andu se it as a chance to get to know each other better, and connect. And then occasionally this is interrupted by the observers being really fucking bad at their jobs. The one in Mayweather is kind of a humanist, and is like “we should maybe do more to help these people and keep them alive, I kind of admire them”. They also start taking over other hosts, it’s creepy.

Hoshi starts straight up losing her mind. She hacks her way out of decon and almost opens a fucking airlock. What the hell? She says “I HAVE TO TELL THEM”, so maybe there’s wild shit going on with her, too. Thankfully, Trip talks her out of it, but they end up sedating them to stop them from possibly breaking out. Well, they make Trip sedate Hoshi and himself. He’s like “…I wonder if I’m ever going to wake up again.” This is the most likable and relatable Trip has ever been.

LOL the two observers take over the knocked out Hoshi and Trip, and Phlox sees them standing up like “What the FUCK????” Then he listens in on them talking, and is like “oh okay. Well, time to tell the captain-“ but he’s interrupted by the captain and T’Pol entering in, as hosts. They talk to Phlox about how they’re just here to observe, could help, but won’t. Phlox is disgusted by their behavior. “We are only caught in less than 2% of all cases.” DUDE. YOU ARE TRAGICALLY BAD AT THIS. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

Archer risks his life, taking off his isolation gear, to save Hoshi’s life, under Phlox’s advisory. The Observers are kind of stunned by this? Apparently no one has ever risked their life like this. Turns out Humans are absolutely fucking nuts. Despite everything, Phlox’s treatments fail. Hoshi dies, Trip is likely to die, and now Archer has a walking clock. Also a really good Archer moment tbh.

Archer mourns Trip as he dies… then Trip sits up and scares the shit out of him, which is very funny. They introduce themselves as Organians. Ahh, they were from TOS, cute. Archer wins the nicer one over with his talk of empathy and compassion, and they revive everyone, clear the virus, and then wipe their memories. Then the nicer one goes “I think I’ll make a report about making first contact with the humans. Maybe we’ll be ready in 5000 years or so.”

Over all this was a fantastic episode, ESPECIALLY for Enterprise. Also this is the best Trip has ever been? This is the first episode where he’s fully, ACTUALLY likable and relatable in every way.

Babel One - ENT 8.5/10

The cold open shows Shran’s ship fucking exploding. He sends out a distress call saying they were attacked by Tellarites, and calls for all to abandon ship.

Then we get Archer and Hoshi screaming at each other. Hoshi has a lot of trouble with the food and the dog, and is angy. Archer is angy back. Then, oh, twist, they’re just roleplaying to get ready for the Tellarites to come aboard. Okay, that’s funny. The Tellarites are a founding species of the Federation, but were very VERY rarely seen. Their hat is they like to argue. They’re frank, and kinda rude. I like them. So does Trip. So basically, Enterprise is here to bring the Tellarite ambassadors to a peace talk with the Andorians, across their space. Earth is allowed to travel, Tellarites are not, because of past conflicts. While going through, they hear Shran’s distress call.

Shran is here. He’s happy to see his pinkskin friends, but is NOT happy to hear the Tellarites are onboard. He was bringing his ambassador to the peace talks, but he’s dead now, so whoops! No one is happy about this. Archer is also quite obviously more friendly towards the Andorian’s plight than the Tellarite’s. I kinda hope the episode draws attention to this.

Suddenly, Enterprise is attacked by the Andorians. They ignore Archer, AND Shran. Things seem fishy. The Andorian ship isn’t acting like an Andorian ship, it has things in the wrong place, it’s been upgraded. My theory is it’s a fake attack by the Romulans or something to stoke war and instability. They step away after a weird power failure, and Enterprise is barely spared. Things are very VERY tense between the Andorians, the Tellarites, AND the Humans. The two sides are starting to distrust the Humans, and Archer is worried that they’re moving too fast in trying to mess with diplomatic affairs like this. I mean, if season 3 is any signs, you really should NOT be doing it yourself, Archer.

They catch up to the ship that attacked them and find it looks… different. Turns out… it’s the Romulans! Ey, I actually called it! God, can you fucking imagine if the Romulans were here the entire series??? Enterprise beams people over to look at it, but then the ship comes alive and attacks them. They leave Reed and Trip behind and try and run. Now Trip and Reed are stuck on the ship, which has no oxygen except for one small room, and they begin to explore while their oxygen lowers. The Romulans find out they’re in there, turn off inertial dampeners, and begin to throw them around. I feel like if inertial dampeners were off, they’d turn into paste. But okay.

Meanwhile, Shran’s girlfriend is hot. Sorry, I was distracted. Shran and his girlfriend decide to break out and confront the Tellarite ambassador. She beats the shit out of a guard while in her underwear. Ahhh, why, it’s like Rick Berman is alive and with us today. They attack the Tellarites, but Archer comes in and convinces Shran that actually, they’re being set up by a third party, and he has proof. Then Shran’s girlfriend is shot anyway by a Tellarite. Well that’s gonna make this awfully hard.

Reed and Malcom enter the ship’s bridge, and then we find out the Romulans aren’t even on the ship.

They’re on Myst 3.

To be continued!

United - ENT 9/10

The Romulan spy ship is still flying around, this time exploding a Rigelian ship while disguised as Enterprise. The Romulans are trying really really hard. Reed and Trip are trying to disrupt them from the inside, which is kinda interesting.

Shit’s lookin’ bad. Warrants are out for Archer’s arrest. Shran’s girlfriend is dying, and she wants Shran to kill Tellarites to avenge her, so he’s PROBABLY not willing to help with peace talks. Archer tries anyway. He labels the Romulan ship “The Marauder”, and claims that them being at their throats is what the Marauder wants. Which is true. Shran is actually eventually good with this plan, UNTIL shis girlfriend dies. Then he’s fucking pissed. Kinda understandably, she died for no reason, but tbh that was also his fault.

Reed and Trip have trouble on the Marauder. The Romulans try to kill them. So they fucking blow it up. Whee!

Shran declares ritualistic combat. He refuses to back down, but imagines Archer will wish him luck, cause hey, if he wins, he will do everything he can to get an alliance with the Humans. But Archer isn’t wishing him luck. Because he’s substituting in, and fighting in the Tellarite’s stead. This is VERY TOS. I actually love this moment, because Shran is kind of devestated? He goes “You can’t do this. I’d have to kill you! I don’t WANT to kill you, you’re my friend!” “Then call it off” “…I can’t…” He’s straining against what’s right, what he wants, and what he thinks he has to do for honor and tradition.

Okay, uh, holy shit….

they gay.

Archer and Shran are gay as fuck here. Like, I can’t even begin to go into how gay this shit is, it’s great.

Archer manages to overwhelm Shran, who is like “I WILL NEVER GIVE UP”. Archer goes wrong answer, swings… cut to commercial. Commercial ends, turns out he just cut off his antennae. That’s fucking great. “THEY TAKE 9 MONTHS TO GROW BACK, YOU ASSHOLE.” But when one fighter is rendered helpless, the fight is over. Archer respected Andorian tradition. The matter is settled.

The temporary alliance finds the Marauder, but they can’t blow it up, that’ll kill Reed and Trip. THey rescue them, but the Marauder gets away. This settles the alliance though, they have a common enemy. And on Romulus, the Marauder gets back, they disconnect the pilot… who is a pale Andorian. DUN DUN DUN!

The Aenar - ENT 7/10

They need to go after the Marauder. They use the scans they have to determine that the ship is piloted by a telepath…. but what kind of telepath? It’s Andorian. Kind of… but not quite. The Andorians look at it and acknowledge it’s Aenar. The Aenar are an offshoot of the Andorian people who were once thought of as a myth. Only a thousand exist now, and they are highly telepathic. They are also highly pacifistic, so the idea that one is killing people is confounding. Shran and Archer go under the Andorian ice to try and find them.

You MAY know the Aenar… Strange New Worlds had one! Hemmer, one of my favorite Trek characters of all time.

Meanwhile, T’Pol is putting herself as risk to test their prototype of the telepathic device. Trip is very unhappy about this cause of their romance, and they are all very awkward about this. Well, this triple parter has been extremely good so far, so it had to fuck something up SOMETIME.

The Aenar city is sick as hell. Shran is injured, and they’re saved the the Aenar, who are friendly and willing to help, but not if it means resorting to violence. They acknowledge that one of their kind, Shreb, disappeared a year ago and might have been abducted. Shreb’s sister, an Aenar named Jhamel, is worried about his brother, and agrees to go with them to try and help. The other Aenar try and stop her, but eventually relent when she makes it clear this is what she wants.

They have a plan, but it’s not clear it’ll work. They will hook Jhamel up to the telepathic device and hack the ships. at first it seems like it might not work, the strain might be too much on her, but she pushes through once they get close to the drone and she senses her brother.

Turns out Gareb was lied to in order to get him to do this. He thought he was the last Aenar. He was being used. He sacrifices himself to blow up a drone ship, and then the Romulans kill him, while Jhamel is connected, so she can see and feel it. Damn ):

But that’s the drones destroyed. Archer destroys the other one. Maybe we should have kept that one as evidence, but whatever. Jhamel and Shran leave, good terms between their people.

Then we get more of this stupid fucking Trip plot. He comes up with a bullshit reason and asks to leave Enterprise. Archer can’t force him to stay, so he leaves. No, stop, please.

Affliction - ENT 6/10

We get a strange cold open with a Klingon guy being tortured. Then we get stuff with Enterprise crew at Earth. Trip is transfered to Enterprise’s sister ship, the Columbia, and we’ll get scenes with him on Columbia. Oh boy, he’s NOT leaving the show, they’re just splitting the show’s attention, lovely. And then Phlox is abducted on Earth. Oh ): Well, they all try and figure out what happened to poor Phlox. Hoshi and T’Pol figure out it was some Rigelians. Meanwhile, Reed is contacted by some dude. His suit seems familiar.

Remember Section 31? The Trek writers sure do. I liked them better when they were basically one dude in DS9 and it was obviously the rambling of a madman. Well, they’re back. And guess what? REED WAS A MEMBER. YEP. HE WAS SECTION 31. HOLY SHIT WHEN I THOUGHT HE COULDN’T BE MORE UNLIKABLE.

Phlox is taken in front of some Klingons. He’s told he’s working to help cure a virus. They couldn’t just ASK him as that’s not the Klingon way. This virus is going to wipe out Klingons, so they need his help. Aight then. I’m sure that’s what’s happening.

And then for some reason, Trip and T’Pol start having psychic dream link connections with each other across space. Holy shit. It’s a fucking Force Dyad.

What the shit???

Enterprise is attackd by… someone. They look Human. But they speak Klingon! I wonder what that’s about :o

Yes, if you were unaware before, this is THAT episode.

We find out what’s happening pretty quickly, as Phlox figures it out. They were trying to make Super Klingons using modified Augment Human DNA. This worked at first, but then they all died in agony. One of them was suffering from flu, which mutated, and made the augmentation airborne. Now everyone’s dying, AND their cranial ridges are dissolving. Yep. Remember that “we do not discuss it with outsiders” scene from DS9? This is what they don’t discuss. We’re solving that little mystery/retcon.

I’m of two minds about this. Sure, it’s handled kinda well, and it’s not unintertaining. But it’s kinda more fun if it’s left up to imagination.

Reed is a fucking shit spy. He tries to stop them from figuring out where Phlox is, and they IMMEDIATELY find out about it. The Klingons that boarded are causing trouble, and make the Enterprise shut down. Dun dun dun, to be continued.

This one was a little more limp than the others tonight, but over all, shockingly good night.