Enterprise review: "Strange New World".
(Episode 4)

Didn't I tell you in the last episode's review that we would never learn if Archer found the squeak in his floor?

Yes. Yes I did tell you that. And I was right.

Only four hours into the series, and already we have to rely on the same old recycled story of the crew becoming drugged and going crazy/dangerous.

With the original series, we had that great scene where Sulu was swinging his fencing sword at Kirk and refused to let him pass. Then there was Lieutenant Kevin Riley who locks himself in Engineering and sang his favorite Irish song "one more time".

On the Next Generation, not only did we find out Data was fully functional, but so did Tasha. Plus we got to see Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard bounce their mood swings back and forth between acting like children and sexually overdriven teenagers.

While in this drug-induced episode of "Enterprise" we get the great scene of...

Uhm...

Well...

In Gene Roddenberry's original Writer's Bible for The Next Generation, it clearly says that we would on occasion see characters casually wearing baseball caps when they were not in uniform.

This is just one more example of why you didn't need to create an entire prequal series in an attempt to do new things. The idea of baseball caps were always there since before the role of Captain Picard was even cast. But because the current Trek franchise regime chose to ignore all these little elements along the way, whether they were Gene's ideas or other peoples, we now have to sit through an entire prequal series so Berman and Braga can use it as an excuse to make themselves look good by claiming they're now coming up with things they couldn't do before.

The idea of crewmembers wearing baseball caps were always there. Too bad B&B chose to ignore them until they ran out of ideas.

You know you're in trouble when the most entertaining part of the episode was the ghost story told by Mayweather.

We never even learned if it really happened or was just a made-up story Mayweather told to scare the two expendables. It's a shame, too. Because while Voyager failed at haunting stories, and Deep Space 9 never bothered, NexTrek would occasionally do some eery scenes throughout the series.

So, Trip sees a complicated conspiracy involving the Vulcans who clearly can't be trusted, yet Trip takes time out to talk to an hallucination of his old school Vulcan teacher who Trip trusts and begins a conversation with?

Trip calmly trusting the imaginary Vulcan teacher contradicted Trip's mistrust of the Vulcans. Trip's mistrust of the Vulcans and T'Pol contradicts why Trip would hold a calm conversation with his Vulcan teacher instead of holding his phaser on the illusion also.

Well, I'm sure it made sense to the story writers, who happened to be Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.

That poor expendable Ensign. Some rocks and leaves got stuck in the transporter with him and stuck to his skin. It's a good thing Dr. Neelix was so easily able to pick them off and slap some band-aids on him.

Because that's what happens when a transporter malfunctions in mid-transport and the surrounding environment gets caught in the matter beam and merges with your organic material. It sticks to your skin.

While Trip was shouting his insane theories at T'Pol in the cave we could clearly hear an echo.

Except for one line which not only sounded different, but was missing its echo. Clearly it was redubbed in post production in a soundstage. Should have been done better.

While we're on it, if it was spoken so badly they needed to redub it, why didn't anybody notice it when the actor spoke it? I hate to think that with over 500 hours behind them of current Trek, the line was lost because of a technical glitch.

THE SET UP: After T'Pol writes down some stuff in her computer PADD in Vulcan, paranoid Trip takes it from her. T'Pol points out that it is written in Vulcan and he couldn't possibly understand it. Trip tells her that he is going to have Hoshi look at it and translate it for him, to confirm his suspicions that the Vulcans are working against the Enterprise crew.

THE PAY-OFF: Nothing. It's never brought up again.

THE MISSED OPPORTUNITY: Once again another missed opportunity arrises because of the B&B hack regime. Am I the only one who saw a great potential scene here? Trip mistrusts the Vulcans so much that the drug intensified this hallucination. It's been stated numerous times that the crew mistrusts the Vulcans anyway. After all was said and done and the crew were safe and home onboard Enterprise, wouldn't it have made a good scene to have Trip give the PADD to Hoshi to translate anyway, whether T'Pol finds out or not, just so Trip would know for himself and to satisfy his own worries? It would confirm his claims about all the mistrust towards the Vulcans. And if T'Pol found out, it would have been even more dramatic by confirming that this mistrust was always there, not just during the drugged time.

The entire episode was based on heightening this mistrust. What's the point of having the crew mistrust T'Pol and the Vulcans if you're not going to show it? I hate to think the only example here is brought forward by hallucinogenic drugs. Good going, B&B!