ENT: Harbinger

[Linkara]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/e167.php

I actually REALLY like this episode. Like Chuck said, none of the three plots was really strong enough to hold out on its own, but all three together make it a good case for having a quasi-"Day in the Life" kind of thing with two B-plots while the A-plot advances the overall narrative of the season, showing off that indeed there is a specific species that's manipulating events behind the scenes. There was a bit of implication to it and we had been told that the Xindi were INFORMED of the supposed destruction of their homeworld by humanity, but we didn't know anything about them until now.

While I'm not particularly big on the Trip/T'Pol romance, it was nice to finally get some advancement on it even if T'Pol ended up weaseling out of it. The revelation that would come in a few episodes about the Trellium probably helped explain some of her weirder, more erratic behavior here.

Plus we actually get to have Archer acting like a proper Captain - dressing down Reed and Hayes for their childish squabbling. I was on Hayes side for pretty much the entirety of this storyline since Reed's paranoia about "Taking over ship's security" is ridiculous to the point of paranoia, so it was nice to see Hayes finally knock him on his ass. It's not the strongest storyline in the world, especially with a somewhat weak resolution, but it could have been a lot worse and I just overall enjoyed how things progressed here and Archer getting a chance to act like the one in charge and actually be in the right for it.

[clearspira]

ENT really dropped the ball with Star Trek's first main female Vulcan.

Spock/Tuvok were calm, measured, loyal, intelligent, rational, logical truthful to a fault and considered sex to be shameful or at least something you did not talk about.

T'Pol is racist, judgemental, petty, over-emotional, a druggie, a liar, jealous, and is seemingly ever ready to have sex or engage in obvious foreplay.

Star Trek has a bad track record with women but DAMN.
And the irony is, this is kind of how Spock's wife was presented in Amok Time (minus the sex because female Vulcans didn't Ponn Farr). Then factor in Valeris the traitor and emotional Saavik and it really does seem as if all of our favourite Vulcan traits are male-only.

[CharlesPhipps]

T'Pol is racist, judgemental, petty, over-emotional, a druggie, a liar, jealous, and is seemingly ever ready to have sex or engage in obvious foreplay.

Eh, that's probabaly why she's most ENT's favorite character. Certainly mine.

Very often the dis-likable ones at least have measurable PERSONALITIES.

[Mabus]

Yeah, the episode doesn't gel the three stories very well, otherwise it's a good episode. I think the issue is that each story is too short to be suitable for one episode, so you need to pad the time with other subplot(s) to have an episode.

[Zatman]

ENT really dropped the ball with Star Trek's first main female Vulcan.

Spock/Tuvok were calm, measured, loyal, intelligent, rational, logical truthful to a fault and considered sex to be shameful or at least something you did not talk about.

T'Pol is racist, judgemental, petty, over-emotional, a druggie, a liar, jealous, and is seemingly ever ready to have sex or engage in obvious foreplay.

Star Trek has a bad track record with women but DAMN.
And the irony is, this is kind of how Spock's wife was presented in Amok Time (minus the sex because female Vulcans didn't Ponn Farr). Then factor in Valeris the traitor and emotional Saavik and it really does seem as if all of our favourite Vulcan traits are male-only.

Two key things, for one, from later episodes, we know T'Pol is at this point, using the stored Trellium-D like a drug. Two, while the ENT Vulcans were originally just written this way, the Kir'Shara plot later in season 4 would establish that the Vulcans in ENT had deviated from what Surak had wanted. This is what led to their more war-like state, the High Command, and nearly paranoid spying on the Andorians. After that revelation, Vulcan began the long process of transitioning to the Vulcans we knew and loved from TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY. A lot of that early process is written about in the Enterprise relaunch books.

[BlackoutCreature2]

ENT really dropped the ball with Star Trek's first main female Vulcan.

Spock/Tuvok were calm, measured, loyal, intelligent, rational, logical truthful to a fault and considered sex to be shameful or at least something you did not talk about.

T'Pol is racist, judgemental, petty, over-emotional, a druggie, a liar, jealous, and is seemingly ever ready to have sex or engage in obvious foreplay.

Star Trek has a bad track record with women but DAMN.
And the irony is, this is kind of how Spock's wife was presented in Amok Time (minus the sex because female Vulcans didn't Ponn Farr). Then factor in Valeris the traitor and emotional Saavik and it really does seem as if all of our favourite Vulcan traits are male-only.

Meh, I kinda like the fact that she wasn't a perfect Vulcan and had her own issues she needed to work out. Unfortunately they barely started exploring some personal growth for her before the show got canned.

[stryke]

Eh, that's probabaly why she's most ENT's favorite character. Certainly mine.

Or you could chalk that up to how incredibly lacklustre every other Enterprise character was. At least T'Pol had the transparent 'we're desperately trying to recreate then 7 of 9 magic' thing going for her.

[9ansean]

ENT really dropped the ball with Star Trek's first main female Vulcan.

Spock/Tuvok were calm, measured, loyal, intelligent, rational, logical truthful to a fault and considered sex to be shameful or at least something you did not talk about.

T'Pol is racist, judgemental, petty, over-emotional, a druggie, a liar, jealous, and is seemingly ever ready to have sex or engage in obvious foreplay.

Star Trek has a bad track record with women but DAMN.
And the irony is, this is kind of how Spock's wife was presented in Amok Time (minus the sex because female Vulcans didn't Ponn Farr). Then factor in Valeris the traitor and emotional Saavik and it really does seem as if all of our favourite Vulcan traits are male-only.

It's strange, but while both Archer and T'Pol start off utterly pigheaded in their downgrading of the others species to the point of seaming like they were picked over all the good leaders; I actually sense a little more growth from her earlier on. Even though it's genuinely agreed the series doesn't start to really come together until season three, by season two T'pol already started sounded more balanced. I can't say that I find either character all that appealing, but I'll take her over Archer any day.

The key moment for me was at the end of Shockwave Part 2. Contrast Archer's infamous Gazelle speech with T'Pol's summary to the same audience. He could have merely emphasized how much there's intuitive approach to exploration could benefit all, but had to add a jab at the Vulcan's in the end. She on the other hand does admits her people have been given good reason to be suspicious of humans, but then had the conviction to turn it around and say we haven't exactly been blameless either.

Archer: "...We're going to stumble, make mistakes, I'm sure more than a few, before we find our footing. But we're going to learn from those mistakes. That's what being human is all about. I'm sorry you can't see that."

T'pol: "The concept of learning from one's mistakes shouldn't be difficult for a Vulcan of your wisdom to understand, Ambassador. Our ancestors discovered how to suppress their volatile emotions only after centuries of savage conflict. You spoke of the destruction of the monastery. What about the Vulcan listening post that Captain Archer found there? I would hope that our people have learned from those events that using a sacred sanctuary to spy on others was a dishonourable practice, to say the least. I don't wish to contradict Captain Archer, but learning from one's mistakes is hardly exclusive to humans. Their mission should be allowed to continue."

[Swiftbow]

ENT really dropped the ball with Star Trek's first main female Vulcan.

Spock/Tuvok were calm, measured, loyal, intelligent, rational, logical truthful to a fault and considered sex to be shameful or at least something you did not talk about.

T'Pol is racist, judgemental, petty, over-emotional, a druggie, a liar, jealous, and is seemingly ever ready to have sex or engage in obvious foreplay.

Star Trek has a bad track record with women but DAMN.
And the irony is, this is kind of how Spock's wife was presented in Amok Time (minus the sex because female Vulcans didn't Ponn Farr). Then factor in Valeris the traitor and emotional Saavik and it really does seem as if all of our favourite Vulcan traits are male-only.

Background material for Wrath of Khan indicated that Saavik was half Romulan. Nicholas Meyer directed her to act accordingly. I think she did a good job with it, even if that particular character trait never came up on screen (and rather dropped by Robin Curtis, who played her as a rather straight (and boring) full Vulcan).