Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 21

Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 21
Season 4 Disk 1

Storm Front Part I & II
Archer wakes up in 1944 a world where the Nazis swept across Europe and took a very
strong foothold in the Americas helped by alien technology provided by a faction fighting
the Temporal Cold War. Daniels critically injured through temporal conflicts offers what he
can to the crew of the Enterprise and together along with Silik (nothing can kill that guy)
they attempt to defeat the aliens and right what went wrong which will reset the timeline.
The show made great use of standing backlot sets and the costuming department as well
a few familiar guest actors and while wrapping up the temporal cold war seemed a little
pat maybe it would be something relatively simple to cause it to collapse in upon itself.

Home
T'Pol returns to Vulcan to visit her mother and she takes Trip along for the ride, well you
know what I mean. Her mother T'Les played by Joanna Cassidy  isn't too happy with
having a human guest but we learn she lost her post thanks to the "scandal" of T'Pol and
the destruction of the monastery.
Meanwhile back on Earth and undercurrent of bigotry has broken out against aliens and
Phlox experiences a distasteful interaction with such men and Archer to has debrief with
Starfleet Command and the Vulcans whilst baring his soul to the new Captain of the
Columbia played by Ada Maris.
A mixed bag but an interesting look at the planet Vulcan more of which we'll see later
in the season and the seeds for the human first backlash.

Borderland
Human augments hijack a Klingon bird of prey and in response the man who helped create
them Dr Arik Soong played by Brent Spiner  is placed on board the Enterprise to search
them out. Upon entering the Borderlands the ship is raided by Orions and a number of crew
taken to be sold as slaves and Soong agrees to help.
However he refuses to help the ship search for his "children" but that is solved when the bird of
prey attacks them and Soong escapes leading his own towards their future and past.
An excellent opener to a three episode mini-arc dealing with augmented humans whose
brethren were responsible for the Eugenics and third world wars and a fantastic role for Brent.

A very strong opening for the final season of Enterprise, ok maybe space Nazis are a little
cliched but the time travel/alternate reality worked well for the show. We got a very good
look at Vulcan as well which is going to pay off and of course the first part of the Eugenic
storyline and introduction of Soong, again big bucket of pay off.

Stargate Marathon XX

Star Trek Marathon XX
Season 3 Disk 6

The Cage

On this disk we have the original pilot of Star Trek in a number of formats, there is the restored version which is fully coloured, an extended version and the original unaired pilot all of which make interesting viewing but I stuck to the restored version with enhanced effects. One thing is for sure the level of production in terms of filming was top notch, this gives the restoration and remastering gurus a superb starting point to provide us with a visual feast in this 4:3 HD image.

The story as you may know begins with the Enterprise commanded by Captain Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) feeling restless after mission which hadn't gone well, the ship receives a distress call and they fling themselves into the void to rescue these people. On arrival they find a crashed ship and some survivors plus a young woman named Vina played by Susan Oliver who immediately captures the attention of Pike who is then kidnapped by aliens and the survivors vanish having been an illusion. What follows is the Talosians trying to "tame" Pike into becoming part of the captive lifeform programme who in turn provide this telepathic alien race with knowledge and entertainment.

The Cage is an excellent piece of science fiction entertainment but can understand why at the time the NBC network wasn't interested in this style of programme but credit where it is due all parties could see the potential in the basic idea of a united human race exploring our galaxy.

Where No Man Has Gone Before

The second pilot is also included on this disk and is very different from The Cage but the core ideals are still there but approached from a slightly different angle ramping up the action and emotion while still retaining a level of sophistication. This time I watched the original version without the enhanced graphics and it still held up well, some of the TV episodes proper really benefited from the new CGI but this pilot didn't. 

Extras

David Gerrold 2009 Convention Coverage

Anthropology of Star Trek

World of Rod Roddenberry

Billy Blackburns Treasure Chest III

To Boldly Go... Season 3

Collectable Trek

Star Treks Impact

Final thoughts on Star Trek the original series are simple, really enjoyed the re-watch and only skipped one episode which is a remarkable ratio given the age and style of the show when compared to the latest televised scifi on offer. Season 1 is probably the strongest but the second season isn't that far behind while the third season has some gems despite the slashing of the budget and change at the helm, I'm certainly not going to condemn anyone involved at the time, they gave us more Star Trek.

The Blu-ray boxset is a thing of beauty, awesome picture and sound quality and the only let down is the packaging itself, cheap and nasty cardboard slips.

Space the Final Frontier,

 these were the voyagers of the Starship Enterprise.

 Next a more reckless style of space travel via the Tardis.