Star Trek Ent - Season 3 - Episode 09
Star Trek Ent - 3x09 - North Star
Originally Aired: 2003-11-12
Synopsis:
When a settlement of humans living a 19th-century Western lifestyle is discovered on a Delphic Expanse planet, Archer and crew set out to learn how they got there. [DVD]
Problems
None
Factoids
- Archer was born in upstate New York and spent most of his life in San Francisco.
Remarkable Scenes
- Trip attempting to ride a horse
- Archer using the transporter in front of all the bewildered townspeople.
- Archer regarding the Skagarans: "They kidnapped the wrong people."
- Archer landing a shuttle in front of the bewildered townspeople.
- The gunfight, and Archer getting shot.
- Reed's "shoot the hostage" trick! Genius!
- Archer won another fight, even after being shot!
My Review
Just when you think that this episode is gonna make some real progress, Bennings starts shooting people randomly! Then again, it's not much of a Western cameo without a gunfight, is it? ;) The action wasn't excessive, only the timing was a bit strange. Then again, the episode was going too well to have the timing get much better. What I liked the most about this episode is the parallel to Voy: The 37s. The society Voyager discovered was a kind of new Earth founded on the other side of the galaxy. Like the people of this episode, the 37s overthrew their oppressors and created an independent society. The 37s though continued to evolve and didn't suffer from the fear mongering that the people of this episode succumbed too. They weren't as advanced as the Federation, but they were pretty advanced. In contrast, this society never grew out of the old west and had to be helped by the crew of Enterprise and eventually others from Earth. My only complaint about this episode is the timing. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Xindi. Why was it done? Between this episode and the last one, we've had two in a row that are technically filler, and we've not even seen very much advancement in the Xindi arc! Time shouldn't be wasted in such fashion. If this episode had been done in season 1 or 2, and it showed us other Earth ships later arriving at this planet helping / relocating these people, it would have been worth more points.
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
An oddly placed episode, considering the urgency of their Xindi mission. I agree that it would have been better suited for the first or second season.
I too liked Reed's "shoot the hostage" trick, but I think they screwed the whole thing up by making the victim T'Pol. As soon as I saw her flailing ineffectively as the cowboy held her at gun point the whole thing lost all believably. C'mon, T'Pol, you're like four times stronger than that guy, trained in crazy-effective Vulcan martial arts, and can knock him unconscious simply by pinching his neck. Maybe stay cool instead of flailing about and you'll remember you're not just a helpless sexpot. Seriously, any other person on this mission would have worked better in that scene. Hell, use one of the nameless female military people if you need it to be a "damsel in distress" situation. But not T'Pol. She should be cool, calm, and kicking cowboy butt.