ENTERPRISE – Season 3 Review
Page 2 of 10murder by Dolim, the Reptilian commander. Livingston’s direction stands-out as does Manny Coto’s writing. We find out the names of the Council members save for the other Primate and the Insectoids. The Insectoids have long, difficult-to-pronounce names. Randy Oglesby (“Degra”) steals the show with his death scene. Scott MacDonald (“Dolim” and who played “Tosk” in DS9’s “Captive Pursuit”) does a pretty good job too at convincing us that he is evil. I was so impressed by Oglesby I have to repost what I said in my review of the episode: “Randy Oglesby has also done an excellent job with his character, Degra. From the startled look on Degra’s face when Dolim stabs him to the horror in his eyes when he realizes that the commander plans to hunt down his wife and children, Oglesby has continued to add great dimension to the character. This is a great death scene, and thanks to having developed the character for several episodes, the writers have made us care about what happens to him. I have to admit I didn’t see it coming. I knew the minute Dolim entered his quarters that things would not go well for Degra but I never thought he’d be murdered. It’s a pity we won’t be seeing him again.”
A
“Anomaly”
“Impulse”
“The Shipment”
“Stratagem”
The second episode of the Xindi arc, “Anomaly” was well-directed by David Straiton and advanced the storyline much. We find out what is causing the *anomalies* (the Spheres) and we see the effects on the crew and the ship. This is where we see that Archer is a changed man. He tortures an Osaarian prisoner to get the information he needs by putting him in an airlock and decompressing it. We also see Trip is having nightmares and Phlox suggest that he see T’Pol for Vulcan neuro-pressure treatments.
“Impulse” would have made a great Hallowe’en episode. It features a host of gruesome Vulcan zombies and a wacked out T’Pol. Jolene Blalock stands out here as does the direction. I liked how the episode was filmed and this is what I said in my review at the time: “The use of what seems to be speeded up and perhaps clipped action scenes along with the strobe lights manages to maintain a perfectly creepy, intense atmosphere.”
“The Shipment” shows us that not all of the Xindi are hell-bent on destroying humans and that they are not evil per se. Gralik, who runs a kemocite factory, goes so far as to sabotage a delivery to the Xindi Council as he doesn’t want to be responsible for the building of a weapon of mass destruction. The lesson here is that you can’t judge a species (or race) by the actions of a few of its members; communication, trust, cooperation and respect for life all stand out as Roddenberry ideals and they are all found here in this very, classic Trek episode.
In “Stratagem” we see that the Xindi-Primate, Degra, is not an evil man. He feels guilt at the deaths of all the humans who died in the first attack on Earth. From my review: “Oglesby plays
