review-3f

Now we get to the not-so-good episodes. In my review of “Extinction” I said: “Firstly, I have to commend Levar Burton on his direction of this episode considering the material he had to work with. He manages to keep a good pace throughout and his direction of the actors is also noteworthy. I also have to praise Scott Bakula, Linda Park and Dominic Keating for their acting. How they were able to keep a straight face throughout all this is a wonder. Still they don’t come off as ridiculously as one would expect from such characterization. Normally, I would have cringed at the squeaking and alien language spoken by the altered Archer, Reed and Hoshi but they manage to pull it off albeit it is embarrassing to watch at times.” That about sums it up.

I hate Westerns so “North Star” did nothing for me. From the review: “This episode was too much like what we’ve seen before not only in Star Trek but the umpteen Westerns that have been made since God knows when. The episode featured all the cliches that are associated with westerns: the schoolteacher, the saloon, the fist-fights, the shoot-out, the nasty deputy, the lynching, the misguided but good-hearted sheriff, western-style music and so on. Worst than that is the fact that the story was entirely predictable but there are some oddities.”

“Carpenter Street” wasn’t much better: ” In “North Star” we got nearly all the Western movie cliches and here we get *some* of the cop show ones. There’s the prostitute (I was waiting for a pimp to show up); there’s the run down part of town and T’Pol and Archer being taken for and acting like cops. At least we were spared the good cop, bad cop routine although on second thought it might have helped make the episode funnier and better. Again as in “North Star”, we get a serious situation rather than a comedy and that’s a shame simply because both would probably have worked better as comedies with a serious subtext.” Enough said.

“Doctor’s Orders” didn’t fare much better. A hallucinating Dr. Phlox says it all almost: “Maybe it’s because it’s a rehash of yet another Voyager episode called “One” (for others see season one’s “Terra Nova” and Voyager’s “Friendship One”) where Seven and the Doc must pass through a nebula. They are left alone as in this episode to do it as it is dangerous to everyone but the two and Seven hallucinates. Maybe it’s just that there was nothing here to really enjoy other than getting an insight into Phlox’ personality and seeing how bad the T’Pol character could really be written.” And: “Of course, it is a hallucinated T’Pol throughout most of the episode but for a while there I thought she was the real thing. It’s when she began to act goofy that I realized she wasn’t real. Of course, there were other clues as when she didn’t eat with Phlox and didn’t take the phaser from him, amongst other things but I wasn’t sure till she started to act like she was a virtual Pakled.” Boring…

C
“Exile”
“E²”