I recently came across mention of Quantum's "gazelle speech", and how awful it was. I only have a vague memory of it, so I Googled, and came across many articles of how bad it was -- but no transcript! I did find that the episode was the Season Two opener Shock Wave Part II btw, and I do remember it was suppose to be an inspiring response to Upper Management telling the Enterprise to come home for good. Any help?

I looked through keckler's recap, 'cause I don't really remember it either. Apparently that's a good thing. Here's the excerpt from the recap for that ep:

Gazelles!!! WHY????????? oh WHY??????

Anyway, here in New Zealand they just aired season two's Horizon - you know, the one where Mayweather actually does something! I must say, when Mayweather is in the ship's G-Spot after getting the no-one-saw-it-coming-news that Papaweather passed away my heart sort of skipped a beat. Anthony did a good job considering his character does nothing for the next two seasons.

So I was really happy that "The Andorian Incident" won second place because I think it may be the one episode I hadn't seen before. Well, it's possible that there are a couple more, but this one seems to get referenced a lot, so I kind of felt out of the loop, and now I don't.

Was anyone else a little squicked out when Quantum offered T'Pol half the blanket? Did anyone else laugh when she ended up taking the whole thing?

I finally know why Shran owed Quantum one!

So, did T'Pol ever get used to the human smell completely or has she been using the nasal numbing agent this whole time? Because there are definitely times that she really wouldn't have had the opportunity to use it, and I haven't remembered her complaining about the smell in quite awhile.

You may be the only person who was really glad to see Andorian Incident getting voted in at all, pennyq - or maybe it's just me who thinks there's something rotten in Trekland - but to answer your question, this is just one of many threads dropped as Enterprise went on. The whole smell thing stopped being referred to after...Fallen Hero, IIRC. I think the CRACK WHORAGE took its place.

What I'd like to know is WTF was that in the previews at the top of the ep? Quantum in Kirk's quarters wearing Kirk's uniform?! Is this how we get the big reset button? Quantum leaps into Kirk and erases all mention of Archer and the first Enterprise?

It's like they're trying to make all our heads explode permanently.

I was a little disappointed that The Andorian Incident was second place. I mean, above so many others that were better? Yes, it did start the ball rolling with the Andorians and humans, but still. I was hoping for Cogenitor.

It's amazing how much it bothered me seeing Trip and Archer being such jerks to T'Pol. I know it was supposed to bring the tension and the drama, but it's annoying retrospectively. At least it shows some character growth for Trip. Even Shran got to grow up a bit. He was such a flat villain in that episode. Very glad that he showed up again with a little more personality.

Watching it reminded me of how much I really enjoyed Season 3. I would say that I would watch at least half, if not more, of Season 3 episodes again. I know the Xindi were a huge break from continuity, but it really focused the writing and it helped shape the crew as characters better than the first two seasons had. I wish that the carry-over from the Xindi mission would have been more noticeable than having a complement of MACOs and Archer bossing everyone around. It seems like they're cramming as much as they can in instead of trying to tell a good story, IMO.

I got my vote last week, so I wasn't too disappointed this week. I'm kind of surprised that "The Andorian Incident" got more votes than "Similitude," but in the end, I don't really care what the order is. That, and I'm going to cross my fingers, close my eyes, and have faith that "Twilight" is airing next week.



I agree. I think Coto had a pretty good idea that this was going to be the last season and wanted to repair continuity as best as he could. Don't forget the CRACK WHOREing. That was a carry over from season 3 too.

But, speaking of Quantum's attitude, in "The Andorian Incident," he seemed... well... nicer. He didn't act like an asshole. It was a little surreal.

For anyone who has managed to remain unspoiled so long, this tag: Remember in the TOS episode "The Tholian Web", when Enterprise's sister ship Defiant faded out of existence, just as Kirk was getting rescued? Apparently, in our upcoming Mirror Universe episode, Defiant is going to appear in the Terran Empire of 2153, where Commander Archer, first officer of the ISS Enterprise, is going to lead a mutiny against Captain Forrest, and seize this strage, advanced ship. As for why he puts on the uniform, well...

If Twilight isn't number one, there will be hell to pay. Particularly if the number one ep ends up being A Night in Sickbay.

And Irish Wolf, thanks for the spoiler tag, as I have remained unspoiled and wish to continue to be so. I was looking more for a general reaction from others. Even though I suspect with most it's WTF.

I was disappointed that The Andorian Incident was voted number two as well. It wasn't a bad episode, but definitely not one of the best. IIRC, the writers were still trying set up a relationship b/n Quantum and T'Pol and... no, so I just watched the teaer. I never realized how much, um, padding T'Pol's old uniform had.

I'm stunned that The Andorian Incident made it to the fiinals, seeing as how this is the epi that made my then-boyfriend (and a true Trekkie, not a poser like me) stop watching the entire series. I'm suprised so many people liked it, unless of course, the voting was a sham and TPTB are showing whatever eps they like.

I can't believe how Archer's flip over hair made him look like a little boy. And how, by comparison to 3rd and 4th season, how funny his jokes were. And how much Jolene really grew into T'Pol over several years. It was kind of nice to take a little time travel to remember the 1st season.

That being said, if ANIS makes #1, I'm going on a rampage. (crosses fingers for Twilight).

I wouldn't be surprised if some episode with a scantily clad T'Pol makes #1, which would leave out "ANiS," but leaves us open for Vulcan mind rape.

"A Night From Sickbay" is not in the list of choices people voted on for Fan Favorites. Thank the gods. The fact that the executive producers gave us their top ten to pick from skews this whole thing like a warped weather vane.

Season 1 and 2 episodes left in the running for #1 Favorite: "Dear Doctor," "Shuttlepod One," "Dead Stop," and "Cogenitor." If "Twilight" doesn't make it, I'd be happy with "Shuttlepod One" or "Cogenitor." The remaining choices from Seasons 3 and 4 aren't good enough, IMO.

"The Forge" is apparently one of the remaining choices, so I guess there's an opportunity for some forced melding.

Thank you, dbrugg, for the list. I can live with any of those eps. Cogenitor was a fave, so was Dear Doctor.

I liked the Andorian Incident for reminding me that Archer occasionally does not use his chameleon like qualities to blend into the species of the week, and occasionally suffers for it. He didn't "become" a monk to save the monks, but instead, got his ass brutally kicked for it. Yay!

Have they done "Broken Bow"? I'm kind of surprised that's not a contender.

Well, T'Pol told the other vulcan that "you get used to it" (the smell).

When Shran smashed the communicators to tiny pieces with just one hit from a rock, I thought they must be made by Nokia, since the same thing happens when I drop my cell phone from a height of anything greater than 12".

And I also noticed this last night, small quibble with the writers, why do they expect that an alien species knows that an up and down head movement means yes and a side-to-side head movement means no? Maybe for the Andorians, that could mean "I want to suck your toes" and "Beans, Beans, the magical fruit", respectively.

"Broken Bow" is a two hour episode, so altering the UPN schedule to air it would provide them with a mess.

I think back in Season 1, this was the first episode we saw that suggested a continuous plot that had nothing to do with the Temporal Cold War. The relationship between the Andorians and Vulcans, and how humans affect it was the biggest non-TCW plot thread in the first two seasons. It was an important episode for the series, whether or not it was done well. And how many episodes on the voting list had Shran, who is a fan favorite? Maybe this episode got voted in just for Shran.

Cleo, it's amazing how much you and I agree on when it comes to this show. That's exactly the reason I was glad I finally got to see the episode. It's the first time we meet the Andorians and see their relationship with the Vulcans. Now all the Andorian-Vulcan-Human interactions make a little more sense to me. "The Andorian Incident" has repercussions into season 4. It's the reason Shran helped out with the Xindi (and saved Earth and the galaxy in the process.) It's the reason T'Pol was forced to get married, and it was probably a catalyst for the Syrannites to take over and disband the High Command.

No, it wasn't the best episode by a long shot, and I think they were still trying to get Quantum and T'Pol together, which... ew. And they really didn't do much with Shran's character. But, I'm still glad to have finally seen it and know what they're talking about every time they reference P'Jem.

I went over and voted the first night it was announced, and I thought I remembered A Night in Sickbay as being a choice, mostly because I started pounding my head on my desk over the possibility that it might make the top three, but I could be wrong on that score. I've found pounding one's head on one's desk can really eff up the old memory.

However, judging from the list that was presented, I have suspected all along that TPTB were going to end up sticking in at least one or two that they wanted showcased. And I don't normally do conspiracy theories, but with Bermaga, hell, anything's possible.


Edited because spelling is our friend.

The Andorian Incident was also a surprise for me.

I guess I'm hoping for Dear Doctor as episode #1 (it got my vote at UPN). I don't remember all that much about it, but I do remember that it was the first Enterprise episode that I thought was really good, and which I thought at the time was a sign of good things to come. But that brief moment of promise was never really fulfilled, at least not with any consistency.

ETA: I just looked again at the list of the various episodes up for votes, and I'm even more surprised that the Andorian Incident made the top 3. Dead Stop, Twilight, and Cogenitor were all episodes I'd sooner watch again rather than the Andorian Incident. Maybe the good ones all cancelled each other out, and Andorian Incident snuck in somehow?

So what was number one? My local station pre-empted it for baseball (great game, too. Glad I like baseball, or I might be annoyed.)

Twilight.

Cleo mentioned this in the "The Sky's the Limit: Future of Trek" thread over in the Trek forums.

After having very high hopes for a continuation of what we saw in S3, I have to agree with you, cleo. S4 has been quite the disappointment, to me at least. Yes, continuity was repaired, but it didn't seem to be telling a compelling story like the Xindi arc. I know there are those that disagree, and I'd love to be persuaded otherwise, but I actually looked forward to seeing what was going to happen next last season. The Xindi storyline really provided a necessary backbone or rudder to the season. And with that foundation, they were really able to explore, as well as ENT can, the characters. I appreciated the tension they were living under and I felt compassion when they were mourning their fellow crewmembers. Their dubious decision making made the episodes better. This season, the best episodes were from the Mirror Universe, and while a lot of fun to watch, really don't progress the characters in any real sense.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hubby has already orderes S1 of the DVD's, but I have to say, I am much more looking forward to S3.

This seems only tangentially related to discussion of actual season one episodes, but as the outtakes happened during first season, I'll post this here.

OK I'll cop to owning the season 1 DVDs. If anyone else has them, have you watched the outtakes yet? They're almost the first thing I wanted to see.

My two favorites were the falls. Bakula nearly taking a header off of the raised captain's chair platform, and Keating busting ass coming down that hill both cracked me up, but then, I'm twelve, and people falling is funny. Poor DK -- you can totally see it coming as he picks up speed, and the weariness in his voice when he says, "Yeah, I'm fine" was kind of funny too.

Dane, I'll admit to finally owning them. Took long enough to get here.

Watched "Shuttlepod One" this afternoon because the weather is just dreary and it's one of my favorite episodes. They include one deleted scene where Trip talks about how he and Archer went diving off the Keys. So, I guess it's something they didn't feel the need to mention again until the last frickin' episode. Though in some ways it is a parallel, they only mention it when one of them dies.

But, it kind of got me teary because while Trip and Malcolm are talking, Trip says something like, "I'm pretty hopeful there'll be a Charles Tucker IV." (Do you think they'd call him Quat?) *Sniff* That, and Trip seemed pretty moved to think that Archer was dead, and yet we got none of that from Archer. Rat bastard.

Of course, last night I watched the "Inside Shuttlepod One" and it was lucky there was nothing to throw at the TV. Brannon Braga saying they wanted to get away from space battles and focus on the characters. You know, we would have liked that too, Brannon. Ass.

My favorite outtake (what? S1 was a gift! That's the story I'm sticking to!) is the one where Scott shows up at Jolene's door smoking and holding martinis.

They spent a lot of time on Sh'pod One. Apparently Bermaga were so pleased with themselves that they whore that ep over and over again, which would irritate me more if it wasn't a pretty good ep. I'm suprised they didn't spend more time with Broken Bow, though. Seeing as how that ep sets the tone for most of the series.

I hated the deleted scene from Sh'pod One though. Trip keeps talking about how Archer gets everything right on the first try. I wonder how Bermaga thought that would endear Archer to the fans. I know people who are gifted at things, like math or random trivia, and even their friends hate them a little for that, but Trip just LURVES ARcher all the more for it. *eye roll*

I would have preferred a captain that had flaws he had to over come. Archer had flaws but he never overcame them.

I was pretty impressed w/the first season. I was surprised to find out "Broken Bow" was written by Berga cuz it really was a good start. I guess that once they start w/a good idea, they can't follow through with it, especially when it comes to character development. I'm not surprised to know that they're the ones who wrote Shockwave II. Who cares about gazelles giving birth? When I watched it, I was like "whatever". But now, I don't want to think about it, especially since I'm a girl. Births are disguisting, even though having kids is worth it for most people.

Somewhere during the second season, it got boring so I stopped watching until the MU episodes. But Carbon Creek was the best filler episode of any series.

Can anyone refresh my memory to how T'Pol became first officer? I only remember that it had to do with an incident where Archer was knocked out by a bunch of Suliban.

That would be the dialog of the very first decon scene. I don't blame you if you missed it, because the director was way more interested in the decon gel.

What made those decon scenes so hard to bare...oops "bear"...is that the decon gel is essentially a medical procedure.

The audience is supposed to be titillated watching a treatment of an illness.

Ew. That's just creepy beyond words.

Well, the decon gel *was* very sparkly. I'm distracted by shiny objects myself ... can't blame the director for not paying attention to the dialogue with all that *sparkly* to put on people's bare naked flesh.

Rewatching "Broken Bow" this weekend, I was struck by one thing that I hadn't noticed the last time I saw it:

Archer was always a jerk.

I really thought it was a behavior that had evolved over time. But I think now I was wrong. Maybe I just didn't want it to be true, so I willingly concocted alternate explanations for his jerkiness until I just couldn't explain it away anymore. He was a gigantic jerk to the Vulcans, but he also wasn't particularly nice to anyone else.

And now I can rest.

I caught "Broken Bow" Saturday, too, but I came away reading it a little differently, Cleo. I thought Archer was rather brusque and sharp-edged, but not a complete jerk. Just someone who didn't like bullshit and called the Vulcans on it when they tried to feed some. He needed to have his corners rounded off a bit, but he wasn't completely unlikeable.

All in all, I still like "Broken Bow" second of all the pilots, though it's majorly tempered by the realization that the show never lived up to that potential.

My thoughts exactly! I think I did the same revisionist history thing. It was nice to see T'Pol being a real Vulcan again though. But -- is it just me or were her boobs like twice the size than they were in seasons 3 and 4?

Oh, and was this the paint scratch Trip referred to in Dead Stop?

Yes to both questions, pennyq. The dinners were padded in the first two seasons. No room for padding in the Velour. So was the bum if I recall.

Archer may have had reason to hate Vulcans but he was just as shitty to his friend and commanding officer (Forrest) in that first scene as he was to his enemies. I find that inexcusable. If he's going to be the good guy he should have some loyalties, but the only thing he was ever loyal to was the chip on his shoulder about his own dead daddy.

It also threw me that in "throwing off the yoke of Vulcan Oppression" Archer was set up as a cowboy, a fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy. Later this first season, he devolved into a by the book guy and his fluctuating alliances were just so out of place.

Yeah, they tried to set up Archer as "man of action", by having him cowboy his way in to the meeting with Forrest and the Vulcans over what was going to happen to Klang.

Oh my god -- the decon scene -- I must have blocked out how horribly embarrassing and painful it was. I swear it was worse than the first neuropressure scene. And I've been a Trip/T'Pol shipper since episode 7. Were Bermaga really that desperate to somehow get sex into the series premiere?

How quickly you forget VULCANS IN HEAT!, pennyq (with good reason, of course).

In the series premier? Remember the dancers that ate butterflies? And Archer in his underpants? They wanted to make sure we knew it was a sexy new show. (vomits quietly in corner).

I swear I was yelling at the tv, asking Quantum to put some pants on, for a good 2 minutes. There are certain things I don't need to see. Why did they have to go with the blue tick underoos? Have they never heard of boxers? Do they really think that boxers will go out of style or something in 150 years?

Pennyq, at least he wasn't wearing tighty whities. Oh god, the horror.

In what scene was he in his underwear?

And now I'm having a Galaxy Quest moment: "Oh, of course the shirt has to come off."

After Phlox had applied the coagulating leech to his thigh, Quantum's walking around his quarters, talking to his log about T'Pol, and he's in his blue tick skivvies.

The image is burned on my brain. And not in a good way.

I must be remembering wrong because I remember Quantum in blue grippy style boxers. Short ones, but grippies.

However, in S2 when Reed has Phlox doing physical therapy at the beginning of Dead Stop, I feared for my own eyes as well as Billingsley's. If they tilted the camera just a hair further, I could see all the way to Topeka!

Keckler, I thought you didn't mind Quantum undresssed? Or is that just the black shirt?

I've never liked Quantum undressed. I just like the black shirt -- the more left to the imagination, the sexier it is, for my tastes.

Ah, Imagination! If only Bermaga had any...

Wasn't sure where to put this, but in an article in the Seattle Times, John Billingsley seems to have hit (glancingly) on what went wrong with Enterprise, essentially.

"The show also steered a course away from its ensemble and focused on the Big Three: Archer, T'Pol and Trip."

This is as distinct from TOS, where the show started off being about the Big Three (Kirk, Spock, and McCoy), and gradually expanded to include an ensemble. (Yes, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and most of the others were there from the start - but at first, they were just set dressing for the Big Three to act around...)

As much as I love Trip, I agree this was a big problem. Most of my favorite shows are ensemble. Allows for more richness of character and setting.

That's the PI, Irish Wolf, not the Times. For shame. :)

In addition to his comment about the focus on the big three, I thought it was interesting what he said about the lack of appeal of a Star Trek role to an actor. That as an actor he wants to play a character with more conflict and drama, which doesn't necessarily fit well with the positive Star Trek future, though that positive future appeals to fans.

Hey, I click one on my Favorites, I read what passes for its news, then I click the next, declining to give them any of my money. You're lucky I didn't credit the Olympian! :-)

Still think he was right, though...