Star Trek: Enterprise "Bound" Talkback (SPOILERS)

[Fone Bone]

Sorry, Kolbar but there NEEDS to be a talkback for the final standalone episode of the series.

Star Trek: Enterprise "Bound"

From the TV Guide description:

To seal a pact, an Orion captian persuades Archer to accept a gift of three slave women. But the captain's good-faith gesture has bad results when the trio wreaks havok within the ship. Navaar: Cyia Batten.

I haven't actually seen this yet as they are airing a day late because of a Red Sox game but I will see it tonight and have comments then. The rest of you all can leave comments now!

[AnimatedSnow47]

I thought that it was a very good episode, with some funny moments. The twist that the Orion women are really in control was unexpected, and just a great twist. And, yes, the Orion women were beautiful, even in green makeup! :) The dialogue exchange near the end between Trip/T'Pol/Archer was very TOS-like, and it was good to see the Kelby-engineer thread resolved. Nice reference to the founding of the very first Starbase, and the Gorn Hegemony as well.

[creativerealms]

Bah I did not like it that much.

[SirLemming]

TrekToday.com called this the worst episode ever of all 5 Star Trek shows. Sounds like an overreaction to me.

[creativerealms]

Even though I did not like it it was far from the worst, it was much better then, Threshold, Spock's Brain, A night in Sick Bay, and Shades of Gray, but this would be in my top ten worst.

[Gatomon41]

Was'nt the best Enterprise show, but better than most other voyager and early Enterprise episodes. I liked it.

It's very interesting that Orions are really controled by the women. Could it be the Orions are really matriarchical or are just the ones who pull the strings of power? Also, I wonder if those Orion slave women really are slaves? What if they're spies to expand the Orion's power?

Trip's back, and is now dealing with his realtionship with T'pol. Interesting the two are developing together.

The Orions were way too underdressed. Parental discretion advised.

Not one of the worse, but not one of Trek's best.
I give it a 3 out of 5.

[Fone Bone]

TrekToday.com called this the worst episode ever of all 5 Star Trek shows. Sounds like an overreaction to me.Wow. I actually liked this a lot. This was the first sexualized Enterprise show that didn't seem pandering to the males in the audience (Whoops! Hoshi lost her top!)

I still have a LOT of questions about the Orion Syndicate. While I WAS surprised that the Orion men were the slaves (great twist by the way) I am very curious as to why the Syndicate is run by other aliens and humans in Deep Space Nine's time. (A Simple Investigation et al). I doubt we will EVER find out the answer to that unless there is another series set between the time period of TOS and TNG.

As for the Orion women running things I was delighted at that as that is a thing that turns EVERYTHING we thought we knew about the Orions for FORTY YEARS on it's ear. I love it when retcons make sense (although there ARE SOME discrepencies like why Captain Kirk was never affected like that when he was around Orion women.) But that is the only mistake this episode made with continuity.

Waitaminnit! In Deep Space Nine's time ailen and human MEN were shown as the ones in positions of power in the Syndicate, right? So the women could still be running things, but behind the scenes and using the men as beards! That make PERFECT sense! A retcon that could potentially work out an inconsistancy between TOS and DS9? Sweet!

I loved the idea that Trip, of all people was the only one immune. In the early seasons Trip was always the first one to get possessed and stuff by my recollection and I found it quite amusing that the guy I always thought of as kind of a horndog was basically the only rational male on the ship.

I loved T'Pol kissing him at the end and him jokingly blowing her off, reversing their relationship quite nicely.

A VERY interesting episode with quite a few twists I didn't see coming. That has not happened on Star Trek in a long time. *****.

Back to the Mirror Universe next week! Or rather the first glimpse of it!:anime: :D

[SirLemming]

For the record, since I didn't say it in this thread yet, I also completely disagree with TrekToday.com. I thought this was a very entertaining episode from start to finish. It felt long in a good way.

[Stewie]

It was cheap fun. For the most part, I didn't mind the weak points. I'm with Fone Bone about this not really pandering. It was the first time that Enterprise went for "hot" and didn't get "stupid."
As two women and one man enter decon chamber...Phlox: "Rub this lotion on each other."

But what was with that bit at the very end. T'Pol makes a joke, then her human counterparts make a joke about the fact that she made a joke. Obviously a reference to TOS. But why did they do it? It didn't make sense, It didn't fit. It was just awkward.

So is Archer past his "angry" phase now? He was practically whistling in this episode, and that was before the Orions were on board.

[Squall]

I liked this episode. (I don't know what TrekToday.com is smoking... :) )

We finally get to see the Orions -- both male and female -- and we even get to see their starships, and a glimpse of their culture as well! The Orions have always been tied with the Breen for the "most mentioned, least seldom used" alien species award in all of Star Trek.

Now, maybe in the future we can get an explanation on why they didn't join the Federation, and instead decided to form their own little Syndacite within Federation space? By the end of the 24th Century, they'd been a thorn in the Federation's side for nearly 400 years... (a minor thorn, mind you, but a thorn nonetheless)

The plot twist at the end was brilliant, and lets us know now that the Orions are a matriarchial society, not a patriarchial society, as had previously been assumed... :p It seems that Orion females only like to play the slave for outsiders, to take advantage of them. On the Orion home world, I bet it's a dominatrix heaven! LOL

[Temple Fugate]

Ridiculous. Shameful. And I'm not even talking about the Orion women. This episode proves that, while Manny Coto may be really good at coming up with story ideas, he drops the ball when it comes to penning the details. (note: he wrote this episode)

Things that weren't that great:
Kelby is a 2-D character, written for us to hate. Why not have Trip's replacement be a sensible guy whose eagerness to get the Chief Engineer rank becomes crushed to utter disappointment in a sympathetic way? That way the audience would be forced to choose who to get behind; Trip or Kelby. The way he acts here (especially after being easily seduced) he's just another throwaway guest character.

The end scene in sickbay was an inspired tribute to the Kirk/Spock/McCoy diatribe from TOS. But it missed its mark. First, Malcom is there for no good reason. He contributes little to the scene and becomes the proverbial fourth wheel on the tricycle. T'Pol's sass was amusing, but Archer's delivery wasn't meshing properly. I guess I just wasn't ready to see these four be all buddy-buddy, especially since they usually aren't after a crisis such as the one they just faced.

Mayweather's workout routine was funny...but it was also very creepy to see him almost devastate his muscles just to get the Orions out of his head.

The things that worked:
The Orion women are in control. That revelation was the first of two things that saved this episode from falling into total mediocrity.

Trip and T'Pol's conversation at the very end was possibly the best written dialogue in the entire episode. The kicker (Trip reveals he already transferred back) was the second of two things that saved this episode from falling into total mediocrity.

One last note: The date was Dec. 27, 2154. I really had my hopes up there would be a New Years party. I would think we humans wouldn't get rid of such a festive tradition, especially since Starfleet hasn't yet given up the 12 month callendar in favor of stardates. YES, this demand is very unreasonable, but C'MON! PLEEEEASE???

If they screw up the Mirror Universe, I'm going to be very annoyed.
Star Trek: Enterprise #093: "Bound" - **1/2

[Fone Bone]

Was my UPN affiliate in Boston the only one to show the episode in full-screen? You can really tell it was shot in widescreen especially during the credits.

[90'sCartoonMan]

I really enjoyed this episode, mostly because it was a stand alone, something we haven't gotten in a while.

I was worried at first that the plot would be lost in all the sexuality, but it didn't turn out that way. I, too, enjoyed the twist.

The last few minutes of the episode were a real pleasure, T'Pol, Archer, Trip, it was fun.