the delphic expanse

So, just to prove we're not all shiny, shiny happy all the time - I thought I'd open a thread about your least favorite episodes.

I think this will be a fun topic to get some lively conversation, as long as everyone respects everyone.

And I'm not evening making this a poll, because it's really quite subjective.

And not liking TATV is such a part of being an Enterprise fan, I had to say "besides TATV" just to keep the conversation diverse.

I'll start:

Rajiin - Despite the nice TnT scenes, Rajiin bothers me a lot because you can't decry sex slavery the way that the episode does and make your central character a sexy, sexy sex slave.The show Deadwood portrayed some sex slaves, and it was hard to watch because the slaves were so degraded and abused. That's how you decry sex slavery. Raijin also violated everyone she scanned - especially T'Pol. And the attack on T'Pol was gratuitous and part of the show's habit of abusing T'Pol that was irksome - and despite the violence of the scene, the early part shows Rajiin being sexually predatory toward T'Pol - so on top of the violence against T'Pol, they throw in an undercurrent of girl/girl action. Not. Cool.

Marauders - This could have been a great, fun episode, and everyone looked great in their away mission outfits. But, the Klingons are toothless. Klingons are supposed to be scary, merciless killers - not comical villains like the Ferengi. You can't defeat them with A-team style shenanigans. I wanted a coda on that thing thing that said those Klingons came back after Enterprise left and killed everyone and burned the colony to the ground. The Klingons killed Kirk's son in STIII just to prove a point. This episode watered down Klingons for no good reason. Kill the Klingons. Or fool them into thinking nothing is there so they won't come back. Don't piss them off.

A tie between "A Night in Sickbay" and "The Seventh."

Sorry, Archer risked an interspecies incident because of his DOG?

And if T'Pol as a V'Shar agent I could believe...if this episode didn't assassinate her character the way it did.

Precious Cargo. It's really the only one of the episodes that I had come back to later in order to watch the whole thing through. Honestly, it's only because Trinneer's a really good actor that I could still enjoy it later.

Fusion is also not one of my favorites because I just couldn't see how T'Pol could be attracted in anyway to Mr. Tall, Dark and Sullen. I rationalize that one as her being far more attracted to the danger (for Vulcans) of experiencing emotion, which is something we see later with the trellium addiction.

ladyrainbow wrote:... Sorry, Archer risked an interspecies incident because of his DOG?

My first thought was that some people are VERY close to their pets... then that just reminded me of Alelou's missing scene where T'Pol talks to Trip about Archer "relationship" with Porthos

ladyrainbow wrote:A tie between "A Night in Sickbay" and "The Seventh."

Sorry, Archer risked an interspecies incident because of his DOG?

Hee! This ep comes up a lot as one of the least favorite by fellow ENT fans, so I'm going to make a confession. It's one of my favorites.

[sheepish look] I just love that episode. With the exception of the underwater-super-technobabble-surgery, which stretched my suspension of disbelief, I loved everything about this one. Up till that point I'd enjoyed every tiny Porthos moment they would give us in an episode and suddenly there was a whole lotta Porthos! But l guess the biggest thing for me, and why I'm so sheepish given ladyrainbow's reaction, is that I would have done the exact same thing as Archer. The Kreetassans were kinda snotty and I'm a huge dog lover; they're a part of my extended family and I really, really, miss having one. When Archer said, "I'll tell you one thing, Sub-Commander. If anything happens to Porthos, I'll be the one watering their Alvera trees." I thought, ME TOO!

LOL.

Confession: I loved the whole look of ANIS - Phlox's bat, the oversensitive aliens, Porthos in a tank. . .it was really a pleasure to watch just for that.

Confession: Also, I'll stick up for Fusion. I liked it as a date rape metaphor that made it completely clear that even if she initially consented, she had every right to put the breaks on things when it went too far. Also, I think it showed a vulnerable side to T'Pol - and she was very adolescent in her initial reaction to Tolaris. Coming from a culture of arranged marriages and never having dated, she didn't recognize the "bad news" vibes that would have been obvious to a woman with more experience. But I did think the episode copped out by not showing us HER reaction and making the ending about Archer.

EntAllat wrote:

ladyrainbow wrote:A tie between "A Night in Sickbay" and "The Seventh."

Sorry, Archer risked an interspecies incident because of his DOG?

Hee! This ep comes up a lot as one of the least favorite by fellow ENT fans, so I'm going to make a confession. It's one of my favorites.

[sheepish look] I just love that episode. With the exception of the underwater-super-technobabble-surgery, which stretched my suspension of disbelief, I loved everything about this one. Up till that point I'd enjoyed every tiny Porthos moment they would give us in an episode and suddenly there was a whole lotta Porthos! But l guess the biggest thing for me, and why I'm so sheepish given ladyrainbow's reaction, is that I would have done the exact same thing as Archer. The Kreetassans were kinda snotty and I'm a huge dog lover; they're a part of my extended family and I really, really, miss having one. When Archer said, "I'll tell you one thing, Sub-Commander. If anything happens to Porthos, I'll be the one watering their Alvera trees." I thought, ME TOO!

LOL.

LOL!

Coming from a pet-lover, I can see your point. Poor Porthos!

But coming from a intercultural communicator, I agreed with that look Trip and T'Pol shared while Archer was shirtless, wearing dreadlocks and with the chainsaw at the end.

That look at the end was priceless!

Episodes I don't like: The Seventh and Raijin are already mentioned (I am still planning a rewrite of the Seventh which makes T'Pols actions actually sense), but I came to dislike Dear Doctor. In light of the fact that Enterprise going in space is changing the world surrounding them, I don't think it makes much sense that Phlox is refusing to give to cure to the disease. I thought it was rather cruel, it wasn't his call to make and the results of not helping maybe bigger then helping.

The second one: Harbinger. Well, to be more specific: the breakfast conversation. That's problably the reason I want to write a rewrite to make sense of it all.

I see a pattern: I like to rewrite episodes I don't like. Which is why is good they are there. So we can rewrite them.

I floated this theory on another board, but I would be serious money that ANIS was inspired by a real incident on the Louis & Clark Voyage. Merriweather Lewis had a dog with him - a Newfoundland named Seaman. Lewis believed very much in good relations with the Native American tribes and along with Clark was a huge promoter of Native rights, but when his dog was stolen during a visit with a village - Lewis marched in shotgun and threatened to have the whole village burned down if they didn't return his dog. They did. Immediately.

Imagine if they had gone with a more literal version of that incident!

Honeybee wrote:Confession: Also, I'll stick up for Fusion. I liked it as a date rape metaphor that made it completely clear that even if she initially consented, she had every right to put the breaks on things when it went too far. Also, I think it showed a vulnerable side to T'Pol - and she was very adolescent in her initial reaction to Tolaris. Coming from a culture of arranged marriages and never having dated, she didn't recognize the "bad news" vibes that would have been obvious to a woman with more experience. But I did think the episode copped out by not showing us HER reaction and making the ending about Archer.

I like that. It was clear to me that a 'date rape' was essentially what was happening but I really like the larger context you've got here. I.e. that she wouldn't have been able to read the signs because of her lack of expereince and the sort of adolescent aspect of her reaction to him. I hadn't thought of it that way.