ENT - Bound

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Maybe this is a silly question with an obvious answer, but how do you view the review on full screen?

I just hit the fullscreen button in my browser's built-in media viewer. I believe that's supported widely now.

Any chance you could share particularly which browser and hot key you are referring to?

Please see the attached image.

Oh. That's the button that's missing on my and I presume other people's video portal.

[Admiral X]

I'm going to have to disagree with Chuck about his assertion that the writers weren't paying attention to what Trip and T'Pol were saying in the decon chamber in the first episode. I'm pretty sure that the bickering was wholly intentional as a means of setting up sexual tension between them, and what they were doing on screen was just supposed to make that super obvious. I have to admit that it worked for me as I was into that 'ship, and I know I'm hardly alone there. Actually the only real problems I had with that scene was that it really had nothing to do with the plot and is transparently shoe-horned in, and that the decon process makes no sense to me. But I liked the idea so much that when I did my own version of ENT, I changed it a bit and left it in there.

[Admiral X]

Yeah, I can definitely say that me being a Trip/T'Pol 'shipper biased me in the other direction when it came to this episode. For me it was mostly about the dynamic between those two characters, and that they finally stopped beating around the bush and made it official between the two of them. The rest of the episode was admittedly weak, but I kind of liked the fact that Trip got to save the day. I just didn't like that they made basically everyone else worse in order to accomplish that, much as they'd done for Archer for basically the whole rest of the series. I seem to recall thinking that it was a very TOS episode, because they even included the part where the main characters are all joking together at the end.

My own take on the Orions was going to be a lot more horror-inducing, though, as I never took to this "twist."

[clearspira]

I'm going to have to disagree with Chuck about his assertion that the writers weren't paying attention to what Trip and T'Pol were saying in the decon chamber in the first episode. I'm pretty sure that the bickering was wholly intentional as a means of setting up sexual tension between them, and what they were doing on screen was just supposed to make that super obvious. I have to admit that it worked for me as I was into that 'ship, and I know I'm hardly alone there. Actually the only real problems I had with that scene was that it really had nothing to do with the plot and is transparently shoe-horned in, and that the decon process makes no sense to me. But I liked the idea so much that when I did my own version of ENT, I changed it a bit and left it in there.

See, I can't agree with that. T'Pol and Archer also rubbed gel onto each other whilst bickering and they got "Night in Sickbay" dedicated to their ust.

[Admiral X]

Yeah. They shipped those two, too. They even did it a bit with Reed, too. Like they were trying to see which one they liked best or something. Also plenty of fighting going on amongst the fans at the time because of it, too. Actually saw women get into a literal dick-measuring contest between Archer and Trip because of this, so, that was interesting.

[Deledrius]

saw women get into a literal dick-measuring contest

That took me a moment to parse.

[Thebestoftherest]

Yeah. They shipped those two, too. They even did it a bit with Reed, too. Like they were trying to see which one they liked best or something. Also plenty of fighting going on amongst the fans at the time because of it, too. Actually saw women get into a literal dick-measuring contest between Archer and Trip because of this, so, that was interesting.

So many jokes so little time.

[Worffan101]

I'm frankly surprised that Chuck didn't mention the blatant misandry of the script and how it effectively slut-shames most of the male crew and treats them being essentially drugged and sexually assaulted (the script makes it explicit that Orion women produce pheromones that act like date-rape drugs). Then again, MOST sex comedies are loaded with blatant misogyny and misandry both; the idea that "men can't control their sex drives hurr durr" also carries the implication that men inherently cannot withhold consent--which goes even beyond the date-rape in ENT: "Unexpected" where it's "only" never brought up that Trip never consented to sex (which, to Chuck's credit, he mercilessly skewered for the disgusting rape-apologist shit that it was).

Christ, I can't believe that "Bound" came only a couple of years before SVU specifically called out the "men are always up for sex" trope for the rape-apologist shit that it is.

[Worffan101]

Oh, and additionally, let me be the first but certainly not the last to point out that pheromones are the most rapey concept in the history of science fiction. You can add that to the list of other love potions that always seem to be played for comedy and yet are brutally dark if you think about it for any length of time. Especially as ''love potion'' is often a flat out lie: they don't induce love, they are a shortcut to sex and sometimes full on mind rape regardless of the will of the victim.

I'm looking at you ''that episode of The Orville we all hope that Chuck is going to get to one day''.

A friend of mine planned to buy a review of that episode from Chuck. Hopefully it's still on the calendar!

[clearspira]

I'm frankly surprised that Chuck didn't mention the blatant misandry of the script and how it effectively slut-shames most of the male crew and treats them being essentially drugged and sexually assaulted (the script makes it explicit that Orion women produce pheromones that act like date-rape drugs). Then again, MOST sex comedies are loaded with blatant misogyny and misandry both; the idea that "men can't control their sex drives hurr durr" also carries the implication that men inherently cannot withhold consent--which goes even beyond the date-rape in ENT: "Unexpected" where it's "only" never brought up that Trip never consented to sex (which, to Chuck's credit, he mercilessly skewered for the disgusting rape-apologist shit that it was).

Christ, I can't believe that "Bound" came only a couple of years before SVU specifically called out the "men are always up for sex" trope for the rape-apologist shit that it is.

The noughties (or in this case, a nineties legacy franchise masking itself as a noughties piece) were an interesting time in that men were still very much considered people you could rape and have it be funny. ''Enterprise'' itself proved this with the Trip date rape episode where everyone thought it hilarious that he had in fact been raped, but the other property from this era that springs to mind for me is Harry Potter.

And people like to justify the love potion plot with ''ah, but we see with Voldemort how bad they actually are'' but the fact is that the girl who tries to drug Harry (despite Hermione the rules obsessed Prefect knowing all about it BEFORE it happens) gets away cleanly. The Weasley twins are never punished for selling the stuff and bragging about smuggling it into Hogwarts. There is even a scene where Mrs Weasley is giggling about brewing one in her youth. Would she have giggled if she knew what happened to Ron? Probably not the hypocrite.

Things I think are slowly changing, at least people like us are discussing it now and getting heard.