So, we've got Orion slave girls and they are green but let me tell you if they are not the EXACT shade of green that they were in TOS I'm crying foul, protesting outside Paramounts's offices, and denouncing this ENTIRE series as canon fodder because CLEARLY they don't care about the FRANCHISE if they can't even get the exact shade of green right and I would KNOW because I have a TIN of that EXACT shade of GREEN in my dresser DRAWER!

By the way, the news is the Orion slave girls shun Trip. I wonder if it's because he smells like cheese.

In other news, the Orion slave girls think Quantum has a big...ship.

I'm drinking green that night, oh yes I am.

So...no one had anything to say...?

That was pretty bad. Maybe I'm just disappointed because it was such a throwaway ep to come back to. At least the rest of the season will look that much better in comparison.

Part of why it sucked for me? I think I've gotten sick of the well-used plot template that goes "seemingly harmless hot girl(s) infiltrate, seduce main character(s), and turn out to be major threat". Even Firefly did this as early as its fifth episode, but at least then it was one of the funniest episodes of that series and one Saffron was better acted than three Orion slave girls.

I'm on board for the Trip/T'Pol 'ship. Never been incredibly enthusiastic about it, but it's always worked pretty well for me. However, tonight's portion of their storyline kinda made me wanna barf. I did enjoy him messing with her though. That stupid Columbia storyline didn't last as long as it should've. He was entirely offboard Enterprise for, what, maybe one full episode?

There was probably a thing or two said about men and women in this ep, it more than likely wasn't done subtley or skillfully, but I wasn't paying enough attention to notice. I just had the underlying feeling that there was both some strong misogyny and misandry in there (oh but I guess that's all washed away 'cause we have two fairly well-adjusted individuals in a semi-functional relationship in T'Pol & Trip to end the episode).

I wonder what the pheromones do to gay guys and lesbians. Would they experience headaches and attraction, respectively? But this is Trek, so we'll never know.

Wow, what a piece of shit. As I watched I thought, "Thank God they've cancelled this crapoo show so the actors can maybe move on to better gigs. Damn Bermaga for fucking up Star Trek." Yadda yadda yadda. Somebody kill it before it lays a set of Horta-like eggs or squirts me with sulfuric acid. Whichever comes first.

What a crock that the slave women are actually in charge. Please.

That was one ugly green.

Next up, a post-Enterprise project: Brannon Braga's Thong Show.

We tried, but we kept on getting messages from Glark saying, "We want you to have a life so we closed the forums, go away..." Alright there might have been actual maintence issues but I'm still a little on edge. But either way that didn't stop some of us from staying up all night drinking zinfandel and waiting for the forums to open up again!
Anyway I didn't find this episode terrible but what bugged me, just like Kris, was that it used the well worn plot of "not so helpless women take over." I was actually hoping we would find out that the Orion women had no idea how powerful of an influence they had over human males and the entire thing was completely planned by Handarr. That would have been sort of original. By the way I'll admit that I haven't seen more than 10 episodes of TOS so can somebody tell me if the whole "Orion women are really the one's in control" was supposed to be some type of big reveal, or common knowledge to most fans?
Also, if Travis didn't feel useless any time before I bet he did during that battle when the engines were down.



Have you seen next week's TV Guide? There's in article in there about the finale and some of the cast members don't have very kind things to say about it or Berman. Considering most of the fluff pieces TV Guides puts out I was surprised to see that kind of stuff. Here's to hoping the "Mirror" episodes are at least fun, because I've already given up on good or thought provoking.

That was awful.

This may be the single most sexist episode of Trek I have ever seen - and this is Trek we're talking about.

It was like someone crossed "A Night in Sickbay" with "Precious Cargo." And the 7,493 episodes where everyone is drunk/stoned/devolved/whatever.

I yield. If this is the best they can come up with then maybe it's time to move on.

My husband wondered the same thing. You'd think there would be at least one gay person. I really want to believe that in the future, sexual orientation isn't a big deal, and irrelevant to Starfleet. But, then we wouldn't know that Trip is immune to Orions because of his true luuuuurve. (gag retch choke)

Why couldn't someone tell them to put some damned clothes on? They were guests. If you go to a culture that's more conservative, you dress to accomodate them and their beliefs. Come on.

It was a pandering, demeaning, and exploitative ratings grab. Women really rule! That's why they are shipped like animals, locked in cages with shock collars! That happens to the people in power all the time.

It's really hard to watch a show when you have your eyes rolled.

Next week: Bizarroprise! Maybe their captain is nice with a smooth forehead?

Crapola. That was one of the worst episodes I ever seen. Was T'Pol in "heat"? thats what she sounded like, or on drugs.

Did anyone think at the end in sickbay it was almost like a TOS ending? Snide/smartassed remarks directed at the resident Vulcan. It just reminded how Kirk,Spock and McKoy ended most episodes.

T'Pol stops the Captain from freeing the Orion slave girls, but leaves the obviously "intoxicated" guards alone with them?

So Vulcans can share abilities with their mates? Sure, whatever.

Yep, that was just bone-headed, leaving the two MACOs there.

montanaviewer said:


Oh, can someone please post that in the Media thread? Canadians get a different version of TV Guide, so we won't get to read it. It's so rare to see TV stars trash the people running their series, even after it's over. It's sooo deserved in this case. Would be especially interested in seeing what Montgomery has to say. Speaking of Mayweather, even though the heavy grunting and the being out of breath and making him talk scarily were a bit off-putting...niiice beefcake. I think that gym scene was put in there solely to placate the female viewers who would otherwise accuse this episode of completely pandering to the male demographic...which it did, but still.

The Orion slave girls were nice, but their dance went on for way too long. It was like, "ummm...hey writers? Remember the plot? You have a story to tell. Plot?"

so we waited 6 weeks for this?

during the last six weeks there has been a lot of hooplah and rallies and stuff overr the cancellation with groups collecting millions to save the show.

sometimes I think of joining in with these guys...then an episode like this comes along

...is this worth saving?

Beware female sexuality. BEWARE! It's evil! It will enslave you!

You, of course, being heterosexual men because all men are heterosexual in Starfleet, you know. All women are heterosexual, too, and those good, wholesome women will be turned into headachey, lethargic drones accused of jealousy by the rampantly sexual women. Virgin. Whore. Virgin! Whore! Enough already.

I keep waiting for Star Trek to grow up and stop being 12. An immature 12 at that. I guess I'll have to keep on waiting.

Also, now we have a new excuse for T'Pol to be emotional and non-Vulcan. Her crack whore days are done. Now it's her mental bond with Trip. What.ever. Much as I like Trip and the idea of their relationship, I don't like what they're doing with T'Pol to achieve that relationship. Try some creative alternatives that don't fall back on the stale frigid-woman-just-needs-the-right-man-to-thaw-her trope, Bermaga.

This episode insulted my intelligence. It insulted me as a woman. It insulted me as a Trekkie. It was a wasted hour of my life which I will never, ever get back. Not only that, it made me mad. (In case you couldn't tell.)

I felt so bad for Dominic for beiing the designated sexist. Damn, that was ... sad.

I missed about fifteen minutes and missed the Travis-y goodness. Yet, they have some peon from engineering end up on-camera with an Orion "enslaver." I'm indignant on Anthony's behalf.



Word to your whole post, Gilmel.



Wondered about that too, Dang Surly. So glad they're making T'Pol st'pid instead of a crack whore.

I like the Trip/T'Pol ship (but I'd've enjoyed a Hoshi/Trip storyline a little more), but it barely feels organic and totally juvenile this season. ("Say it." "What?" "You want me back on Enterprise." pause.Trip starts to leave. T'Pol caves and says what Trip wants to hear. Reluctantly. Because nothin' says lovin' like reluctance?)

I'll stay to the end, but I've got lowered expectations for next week. I am just hoping for cool goatees.

That was awful in almost every way. Or maybe every way. It wasn't even sexist in a moderately logical way! I kept waiting for T'Pol and Hoshi to just knock out all the men and take over the ship themselves. "The sisters are doing it for themselves!" Sure, the pheromones made the human women headachey and listness, but that seemed far better than having a bunch of mind-whammied horndogs running things. And the Orion women were really in charge all along? Why the elaborate charade? What's the point of being in charge if you have to pretend you're a slave all the time, to the point of being sold in markets like we've seen before?

I used to like Trip and T'pol together but since the beginning of the season I just want to send them back to junior high to work out their immaturity. He's going to put gum in her hair and she's going to accuse him of spreading cooties before season's end, I just know it.

To sum up: Men are a slave to their nads, and women rule through the power of exposed midriffs and Fran Drescher's hair.

Do these people never learn? Every freaking time they bring aliens on their ship and show them around engineering, the freaking aliens take over the ship!! And leaving men to guard the freaking men-enslaving aliens? They deserve to be taken over!! And just ... ewww. // end of rant

Actually, when we realized Trip was immune to FungusChicks, I said, "It's because he's done had a 'ho." And I was right. Sigh. And shouldn't Hoshi have also been immune, if she's sharing their daydreams? (Again -- ewww).

Green NotSlaveOwner: Your reputation precedes you, Captain.

Yeah, everyone knows you're so stupid we can take over your ship by just asking for a tour of engineering.

Can beagles be captains in Trek? Cause I'm thinking Cap'n Porthos sounds pretty good. // guess it wasn't end of rant, after all.

I guess if you are a vegetarian, you would find those Orion strippers attractive. All they did for me was make me crave guacamole. It is nice to see that the Orion's are light years ahead of the Federation when it comes to government-forced boob augmentation surgery on the female populace though.

Can you believe that Enterprise is supposed to be in the same genre as Battlestar Gallactica? I don't think a single person on Enterprise is relatable as a real being, future beings or not. Enterprise is almost a parody of itself at this point. I wonder if Bakula, Blalock and the rest watch BG late at night and drink themselves into a stupor, wondering what might have been.

Oh, and that had to be the least heat generating kiss ever between T'pol and Trip, especially after watching the Orion Strippers practically grinding on the "Main Thrusters" of all the males all episode. Trip got robbed by being immune, it felt like an erectile disfuntion experience instead of a blessing for him.

Yeah. Right. Ok. Trip was cute but that didn't really make up for it. It wasn't so much bad more blah, but then I'm not up on TOS.

I was also expecting more heroics from Hoshi and other women crewmembers. It would have been more satisfying than the T'Pol-Trip stuff that was shoehorned in.

I didn't think it was horrible, just pretty blah. Disappointing episode to air after the "top 3" even if one of those top 3 was also pretty blah, in my opinion.

I suppose it makes sense now that the show's wrapping up to get Trip back on board Enterprise as quickly as possible, but it all looks pretty contrived now.

I agree, like that episode of Stargate where some female Gould used her 'superpheramones' to control all the men and so Sam and all the chicks got all Ramboed up and kicked ass.

Doenst Hoshi now have some kung fu action (that they strangely added to her character after 4 years of her acting like a wimpy wallflower and then never used again)

instead all the women get headaches (helloooo stereoptype) and even T'Pol is too dumb to put a female guard on the grenn chicks right after she saw Archer almost go girl-crazy


I am sorry Manny Coto...hang your head in shame. I think this show was written, acted, edited and directed in the same week that everyone was sending out resumes and doing auditions during the first week of Pilot Season

Exactly, Gilmel, exactly. Hey, Trek writers, there is a difference between bad writing and insulting writing. That was not only insulting to women, it was equally insulting to men. Seriously, writers, while you may think with your nads, most men don't. And gee, isn't it great to know that the only power women have is by offering sex. Wow, guess I went to the wrong school.

And if they knew that men were being affected, why didn't the women on board starting taking over and give a good ass whuppin' to the Orions. Now THAT I would have enjoyed.

And let me once again declare my love for Phlox. The way he resignedly jabbed himself with the hypospray just cracked me up.

And what a waste of one of the last episodes of the season. Thanks, thanks loads. I can only imagine how the cast cringed when they read the script.

As for the Trip/T'Pol 'ship, I have never been on board. However, I thought it was handled very well last season, despite the CRACK WHOREDOM. And, the beginnings of this season, I appreciated Trip supporting T'Pol (at the end) during her marriage. This whole bullshit with him leaving Enterprise and coming back is ridiculous. Way to ruin something that was actually working, writers.

Including Porthos!

And what was Archer going on about, not reporting T'Pol for turning a gun on a crewmember? He was joking, right? She saved his furrowed horny ass!

This was bad. Everyone's already pointed out most of what I wanted to mention. I just remember the scene where Reed is all smug about not taking damage from a science vessel. Now he knows what it's been like to be in a fire fight with Enterprise the last four years.

Assistant engineer Kelby? Shirtless? With Tick boxer shorts? HAWT.

Three orion slave girls? Skanking all over the place? NAWT.

The rest was pure crapola. The whole Tri'Pol thing reeked of fanwanking. I love them together, but that's no excuse for her re-descent back into CRACK WHOREDOM.

What Gilmel said plus:

What a cheesy, stupid, wanna-be-Twilight Zone-y twist. I kept waiting for security to search the Orion chick's quarters. "Hey, this isn't a seduction manual--it's a cookbook!"

And what the hell was with the T'Pol/Trip thing at the end? The only two unaffected by the sexism virus, yet we get this scene to resolve the Columbia storyline. Sheesh. "Tee hee, my boyfriend manipulated me into admitting I want him. He's so dreamy!" What. Ever.

And I know they were going for a TOS-style ending with the standing in a circle in Sickbay thing. But unpack that "joke" and you get an added little bit of ugly. T'Pol says women being in power is a positive thing and all the men find that funny...why, exactly?

Not enough booze in the world.

Mmmm....vanilla vodka=warm fuzzy feelings.

Wait, so this episode wasn't about true love triumphing over all? Huh. I want to know if keckler's head exploded...again!



Hee! That's the only Twilight Zone ep I know!

Except Stargate SG1 did it first. And better, obviously.

I'm glad for the reveal that the women actually run things, because halfway through the episode I was wondering, "If they exhume pheromones, then how come they're slaves? Are Orion men immune?" And believe it or not, it actually makes sense to me that they pose as slaves, because judging by the series all other cultures are patriarchical. All Orion women have done is hone the use of sex as a weapon.

T'Pols decided un-vulcanness would've annoyed me, but since they're cancelled, I'm not going to put in the effort of being annoyed and angry. Now if I was, I would be yelling at the TV, "For Khaless' sake, T'Pol! Tuvok did the eyebrow ten times less emotionally than you and he spent 7 years cooped up with humans!"

What was the point of the Columbia storyline? I mean honestly, just when you think they can't make it any worse... What was the point of all that wasted time, of Captain Hernandez' raging hormones, of the disco lights of dooooom? What?

The final six episodes(as UPN constantly reminds us) and THIS is the best they can do? Moldy chicks with fake boobs? *sigh*
Halfway through the episode, my dad said " Are they supposed to be that naked?" I said "Yes, they were that way in the original episode too."
When Quantum gets excited he still sprays spit everywhere. I don't remember SB having that problem in QL.
When Trip showed up on the bridge and started shooting the guys, why didn't he shoot the women too? That would have stopped them.

You would think so, scarymom, but seeing how sexist and homophobic this episode was, I believe that Bermaga was saying here that Hoshi doesn't share T'Pol's and Trip's immunity to those nasty pheromones because Trip had sex with T'Pol and Hoshi didn't. The mental link between T'Pol and Trip is purely sexual, whereas the link between T'Pol and Hoshi is not. However, in order to keep with continuity, Hoshi should be having all these sexual dreams about Trip, since she does seem to share that aspect of T'Pol's mind. But before this episode, I had the impression that Hoshi was bisexual, open to any sort of relationship, but I guess I was wrong.

The depiction of the Enterprise female crew was really appalling. This episode was a huge letdown and a total waste of time for me.

I agree with all that's been said here. This was a horrible episode that insulted both men and women. I could not believe that Manny Coto wrote this pile of crap, I expect better from him.

I pray that the final episode of ENTERPRISE features the "first" appearance of "Q" who snaps his fingers and vanishes the whole series.

I agree with everyones posts on this terrible episode. It's almost like they wanted to give Keckler something to point out how much this show deserves it's fate.
OK fine I can buy the pheramones makes all males horny plot line but the women get headaches and tired? What no need for chocalate and the desire to watch Titanic again either?
Like everyone has said the females should have kicked ass and taken names but they would mean actually showing women doing something and you can't have that in a ST show. God I hate how ST writers always preach about how non-sexist they are and then they make an episode that makes 7th Heaven look enlighted.

It wasn't the worst Trek episode ever. It wasn't "Spock's Brain" bad. It wasn't Voyager's "Threshold" bad. But it was pretty bad.

Everyone's already mentioned what sucked about it, so I'll try to mention the few things that didn't totally suck. the twist ending was...cute. the TOS moment in sickbay was sort of amusing. The episode was very well directed, I thought; there were some really interesting and unusual shots which kept me interested when I didn't want to pay attention to the plot anymore. But that's about it.

The Orion girls weren't even particularly attractive. Yeesh.

"A Night in Sickbay" and "Precious Cargo" now have competition for worst pile of ca-ca, as they used to call it on QL. And coincidentally, each one has horribly unflattering portrayals of women and men alike. Three of those in one series (and the one that only went four years at that). Then add in "Bounty" and panting T'Pol running around in her drawers. Do they really believe people will watch that shit?

I'm surprised they didn't bust out the decon gel and have the Orion women put on a show. That's what Decon is for, ain't it?

I got the TV Guide issue, but I'm avoiding spoilers. I'll look forward to reading what the actors have to say about their jackass bosses once the series is done.

I have to say that this was worse then "Spock's Brain" and Voyager's "Threshold"--put together. It wasn't campy, it wasn't fun or funny, it didn't even leave me with a "Salamander??" moment. I just wanted bitchslap the frak out of Bermaga. As people pointed upthread, are we to assume that there are no gay or lesbian people on Enterprise? Give me a fucking break.

As Gilmel stated, this episode (hell, this show) has insulted my intelligence as a Trekkie, a gay man, hell, a bipedal creature with a fully functional brain.

This shit makes Voyager look like the pinnacle of Trek (if you ignore DS9, as Bermaga do).

Wow sounds like I dodged a real shit ball of an episode. My BF has a thing for the whole Orion slave woman idea [don't ask] and he didn't say anything about this episode last night. Insulting as a Trekkie, a woman, and a sentient life form, huh? Was The Big Show back as the lead Orion captain, at least, to make it somewhat intresting? Any signs of Porthos? "Throw me a frickin' bone here," to quote Dr. Evil. So should I send Keckler a new brain through her cousin?

That's what bugged me. Why would the Orion women go through an elaborate show of being sold as slaves if they are really in power?

As pointed out above, what about the gays and lesbians? It would've been awesome if Trip wasn't affected because he was really gay all this time. "No, T'Pol, this whole incident has made me real-ahz that Ah don' lahk yew in that way."

That said, I like the Trip'ol ship, and the moment in Sickbay where they were all making fun of T'Pol.

Let's hope the Mirror Universe eps are better. I didn't notice anyone with a beard though.

And as a human! It was insulting to Orions, too!

Something was screwed up with the UPN schedule, and we missed the first 15 minutes. Thank the gods that I only wasted about 30 minutes on this pile of crap.


What was up with all the TOS style plinky cutesy music at the end? Have they had that before?

Heh. For me, second only to the 2 hours in which I saw, "Napoleon Dynamite."

I can't add too much more venom, though I agree with everything that has been said. But, am I the only one that noticed that Orion women are pretty fugly? The main one was OK, but the one that didn't talk or do anything...yikes. Don't you think they would have gone out of their way to get really pretty women if they were going to make a blatantly sexist episode?

Also...someone mentioned something like, "Why can't star trek be enlightened and have gay people in the future...?" I think they answered that all the way back in TNG when Bev totally fell for that Trill guy and then the worm in his belly had to be put into a chick, and Bev was all...."um. sorry. can't deal. maybe humanity will get over this bad feeling someday..."

The only part that made me smile was when Phlox was explaining to Archer, "My sleep cycle is being affected," and he totally jabbed himself in the neck with the hypospray in the middle of his sentence, in a completely drunken fashion. Hys-TER-ical!

Holy crap that was terrible. My husband and I also thought that much of the story that wasn't surrounding the Orionettes was ok, and that any scene without Quantum was better than the rest of the episode. The only thing I could think of at the end of the episode was that the writers were trying to fight with us the ease the pain of seperation.

Yeah that was funny. Phlox is always wonderful.



I don't think so. Maybe they're attempting something new (humour? what is that?) in order to get the fans back.

There are women crewmembers besides T'Pol?

Gytha Ogg said:

Ha!

scarymom, I think it would kinda be awsome if there was a Capt'n Porthos of Starfleet show. But Bermaga would probably be given "creative" control, so I don't want it to happen anytime real soon.

effulgent said:


ITA! That Mr. Billingsley has been overlooked in the Supporting Actor category for the last three or four years is totally unfair. He makes the comedy seem effortless (see above moment) and brings the gravitas with prosthetics to boot! Love him!

I can't believe I'm raising a voice in defence of this episode, but I really didn't find the lack of mention of queer crewmembers and how the pheremones were affecting them to be homophobic. Heterosexist, maybe, but the two are not the same. Still, that was a pretty bad episode.

Word to everyone on the thread complaining about the unbelievable suckiness of this episode. Seriously, when you've come to the point of copying SG1 episodes and doing a bad job of it too, it's time to leave the stage.

The one thing no one's mentioned, though, and one of the few bright points in the episode, is Archer's response when T'Pol calls him to the bridge while he's with the lead Orion - 'Be right there'. We are supposed to assume he had sex with her, right? Guess that's just one more way in which he's inadequate.

I liked the first half of the episode, when I thought that the whole thing was supposed to be a comedy about no one knowing the effect Orion women had on human men. But then it all fell apart.

Even putting aside the sexism, this was a crappy episode. Aliens try to take over the ship, there's a ship-to-ship battle, and they resolve their problems with technobabble.

And then the sexism! The worst part of all the sexism is that the writers couldn't even write the episode to have T'Pol and Hoshi save the day. No, instead they had to make Trip immune so that he could save the day. Why? Just so the hero could be a man? That's appalling.

And as has been pointed out, this isn't even an original idea. Firefly did it. Farscape did it. Hell, Enterprise already did it in "Rajiin", just last season.

The Trip on Columbia subplot was way too short. Given how few episodes are left, you'd think they could have just left him on Columbia but kept coming up with excuses to give him screen time.

My favorite bit was when T'Pol complained to Archer about the inappropriateness of the slave girl's wardrobe. When the woman who's spent the last four years in a sprayed-on catsuit says it's too sexy, you know you're in trouble...

Those pheremones must be really powerful if they turned Reed hetero. Or even made the normally hetero find anything attractive in those skanks. Puke green skin just doesn't make a woman sexier.

None of what the crew did made any sense. Once they realized what the Orions were up to, why didn't the women just shoot them? Having a headache and being listless doesn't make you totally stupid.

Let's face it, ST never has been able to deal with the subject of sex. They are stuck in an early sixties mindset where Rob and Laura slept in separate twin beds (even to my 13 year old mind this was a WTF?) and gays did not exist. Compare the junior high courtship of Trip and T'Pol to Battlestar Gallactica, where a female pilot walks in on you screwing your imaginary girlfriend from the rear and then later tries you out for herself is just par for the course. When Enterprise tries to inject a little sex to boost the ratings it just comes off as awkward at best.

I hate to defend this episode in any way shape or form but maybe there is a simple answer to the gay dilema besides the fact that Bermaga is a total hypocrite I mean. In the movie Love Potion Number 9 Sandra Bullock uses the sex spray to make a gay guy fall in love with her in order to get her insurance lowered. I have just used a bad movie to defend a terrible episode.
Also I hate ST type of TNA. It's not good TNA at all and any adult with cable or a computer can find real porn in about 2 seconds if they want. However it will piss off the people who are looking for family programing. So it's like they are looking for the answer to annoy the most people as possible.

Enterprise was pre-empted for baseball last night, so I had the chance to read some of the comments here before I watched this evening. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that.

Yeah, it sucked. What I'm wondering now is why the Orion women's pherenomes weren't blocked when they were in the Decon chamber. Shouldn't that be pretty much hermetically sealed and super-duper filtered?

I'm afraid next week's total rip-off -- er, excuse me, hommage -- doesn't look any better.

Wow, Coto wrote that piece of dreck? Very sad. I've really enjoyed his past work, but this was...what's the word...shit.



That was the best part of the show. Too bad the episode wasn't a comedy, because that was the only way it could have been saved.



I caught that episode of BSG, and I thought it was rather juvenile, too. (IMHO, of course.) I wonder...since I don't have a great deal of exposure to sci fi, is the genre completely incapable of writing a true relationship? With the exception of The X Files, that is.

Maybe you should lurk more and post less if you're going to be an ass about it.