Star Trek Ent - Season 2 - Episode 08
Star Trek Ent - 2x08 - The Communicator
Originally Aired: 2002-11-13
Synopsis:
Reed and Archer retrieve a communicator left behind on an alien planet, but are captured in the process. [DVD]
Problems
None
Factoids
None
Remarkable Scenes
- Reed: "Captain, my carelessness was inexcusable. I'm prepared for whatever reprimand you feel is appropriate." Archer: "How about 30 years in the brig? Or maybe a good flogging?"
- Trip accidentally cloaking his arm.
- The aliens examining the humans, astonished at their alien physiology.
- T'Pol, Trip, and Travis rescuing Archer and Reed.
My Review
Another fairly unremarkable episode. It was a good idea in the sense that Archer learns another lesson about contaminating cultures, but even that is starting to get a bit old. I suppose it felt so old in this episode because it was only discussed in a limited capacity. An episode with less violence and paranoia and more discussion about consequences for these types of actions would have been a better episode. Even then, we've seen enough of it already. TNG did it to death, for example. Instead though, we got Archer and Reed getting beaten up again and a firefight in the end. Not exactly true to the spirit of Star Trek. T'Pol even admits in the end that they damaged this alien culture. And for what? So Archer could be taught a lesson he's already learned? Well, perhaps I'm wrong. Given the events of this episode, seems he hasn't learned it yet!
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
I thought this episode was entertaining andpretty good overall, for seeing how the Prime Directive had evolved. It had some problems though. The firefight at the end was one of them, it was not believable. The military-trained aliens were such bad shots, while the marksmanship of the Enterprise party had improved greatly since "Marauders". And this was another episode plagued by what I will call "transporter phobia" - once they had located Archer and Reed in their cell why couldn't they just beam them up?
I completely agree with your review on this one. I'm guessing this run of the last 4 episodes is where this show started to lose it's fan base. How could they think this was good Star Trek?
The episode even started out alright (despite the premise relying entirely on Archers incompetence [i.e. high level technology goes in normal pockets] and his failure to ever learn his lesson), but then eventually devolves into another excruciatingly unrealistic shootout at the O.K. Corral.
If I didn't know from having read articles in the past, as well as a comment you left for me in a season 1 episode that the writing gets a lot better later on, I'd be seriously considering giving up on this show.
It's a shame. I really do like the characters in this show, with the exception of Archer (the worst captain ever!). I hope they turn this around soon.
Come on Zorak, Archer has to be a bad captain, there was no training or experience for what does, and before that he was just a test pilot! It is to be expected that he could not compare to Picard or Janeway and the others.