“Hatchery”
Page 6 of 7off their helmets, Archer wouldn’t have been sprayed by the egg sac. Which brings me to why didn’t anyone else get sprayed since others were walking around without helmets? What about taking the dead Xindi back to the ship without checking first if they their bodies might harbor diseases? Reed also mentions that movie nights are on Mondays. I thought they were on Tuesdays. As nits go, I guess they’re not so big but they do stand out.
I like the *previously on Enterprise* flashbacks but they tend to be odd and jumbled up. Usually when they did this sort of thing on DS9 or even TNG, they’d refer to the previous episode. Enterprise’s flashbacks consist of a mishmash of scenes from various episodes and some don’t even seem to relate to the story at hand. Very odd indeed and if they’re trying to make it look like Enterprise is serialized for this Xindi arc, it’s not working. Many of the episodes lately haven’t really been continuous but rather stand alone. Still, they are related to the arc just not serialized which is interesting.
I liked the f/x. I thought the Insectoid babies were cute in a creepy sort of way. When Archer gets stunned by Trip and they run off however I couldn’t help but think cockroaches. In one of my first apartments, I had some and I can tell you that scene made me cringe. It’s something you *never* forget.
The pacing was good and I liked how the scenes got shorter and shorter as time went by. Going back and forth from the Hatchery to the Enterprise added to the buildup to the climax. Still, unfortunately, it was obvious what was going to happen so it didn’t really add much tension or suspense.
Although the music was very much that of the Enterprise show in the sense that it is very identifiable, I found it tired. It was just too dull and standard. If there’s one thing you can say about TOS is that it had memorable music however much it was the same from episode to episode. It had life to it, not so for this episode.
So much for the negative stuff as there are things I liked about the episode. I loved Bakula’s acting and how he was written. He sounded so *Starfleet* in his defense of the Hatchery and why they should save the baby Insectoids. The line where he says what if they were *primate* infants to Trip and would he be so ready to torch them was effective. At that point, he made sense. I liked how he gradually became more and more obsessed till he was obviously out of touch with reality.
This episode reminded me of many other Trek *mutiny* episodes but it had a definite TOS feel to it and that’s great. I could picture Kirk being obsessed this way and wonder how Shatner would have acted these scenes out. I could also see Spock being confined to quarters and McCoy and Scotty trying to make Kirk come to his senses. But it’s interesting here that both Phlox and Trip back down. Having MACOs on board, answering to the Captain, makes a big difference I suppose or does it?
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