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Enterprise review: "Stratagem".
(Episode 66)
Reviewed by Richard Whettestone.
THE PREMISE: There's some stratageming going on. And the writers frame another story to try to stop viewers from fleeing.
"Stratagem"
Teleplay by Mike Sussman (the usual wanker)
Story by Terry Matalas
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Am I in this one?
Well, first off I lost any suspense myself when I saw part of the ending when I taped it to watch it later, so I knew they were in a fake ship before I even watched it. But then, with a title like ''Stratagem'' and the fact that they're ''claiming'' to be set three years in the future, it wouldn't have been too hard to put two and two together anyway.
If they were to have done the entire episode trying to trick us until the end, it would have still sucked and wasted an hour, so luckily holding off until the closing of Act One is probably the best they could have done with this story to keep the suspense up without making it tedious to watch a second time. But a story like this is a no-win scenario. It's all one big reset button. The only thing of value is the characters gained a little bit of information, but most of that was stuff the viewers had already known for a dozen episodes.
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''We're so creative.''''Yeah. Creative'' ''Yeah.''
And AGAIN with the framing stories? We're averaging one framed story out of every 16 produced. Can't you come up with something good enough to sustain an hour solid all the way through without the desperation of having to jump out of order in order to trick people into thinking it's interesting?
That's at least four framed stories so far, but sadly, three of them were ALL THIS SEASON! Three framed stories within 11 continuous episodes? And the season's only half over!
Episode 66 - "Stratagem"
Episode 62 - "Similitude"
Episode 57 - "Impulse"
Episode 35 - "Singularity"
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I don't have that memory loss virus, do I? Because I just lost three days.
Archer or someone asked what the Xindi crew would think when they couldn't explain their computers being wiped. I think a more reasonable question would be why their clocks say three days have passed.
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Of course our good Doctor Pulaski was the one who engineered the memory-erasing technique, but let's use the fan-created explanation that medical history forgot they once had this ability in Archer's time. God bless obsessed ''Enterprise'' fans for making up implausable excuses to eliminate plot-holes.
Again and again and again and...
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''UPN Wednesday on an all-new Star Trek Enterprise, we lie and trick you into thinking big events are going to happen. Suckers!''
Actual lines from the previews:
''The first shot has been fired in the battle to save Earth.''
I must have missed that scene.
''And a terrifying look at what might be the future.''
Well, technically this wasn't a lie since they said it ''might be''. It wasn't of course, but you couldn't have proven that until you actually watched it.
Next week the ratings ''might go up''. Probably not, but you can't prove that until after next week's episode airs anyway.
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