THE PLOT
The Enterprise is making a scientific survey of another of those conveniently uninhabited yet perfectly habitable planets, while its crew prepares to enjoy a bit of shore leave. The vacation is interrupted by the arrival of a Tellarite freighter. Skalaar (Jordan Lund), the Tellarite captain, claims to be familiar with the planet, and offers to be Archer's guide. But once face-to-face with Archer, Skalaar stuns Trip and kidnaps Archer.
It turns out that the Tellarite is a bounty hunter, taking Archer back to the Klingon home world. Though his ship is old, he's cagey enough to deploy counter measures that lead Enterprise off on a false trail. Meanwhile, when the scientific teams are recalled from the surface, T'Pol and Phlox find that they have brought back a contaminant, and must seal themselves in Decon for an extended period. But it soon becomes clear that the contaminant has activated T'Pol's mating instincts.
Yes, that's right. She must have sex or die. (Rolls eyes).
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: Gets captured again. Maybe the security-conscious Reed should take note of how often that happens and put a Lo-Jack on him. He gets to demonstrate his piloting skills again, and in a shocking and unexpected plot development he manages to bond with his captor. He also gets to blast some Klingons (presumably using the "stun" setting). Scott Bakula is perfectly fine throughout, but this is all very tired stuff.
T'Pol: But at least Bakula gets to maintain his dignity. Poor Jolene Blalock gets to spend the episode in her underwear, writhing around on the floor, begging John Billingsley to **** her. Entirely against my initial expectations, I've been generally impressed with Blalock's work on the series. Even here, she does about as well as possible with the wretched material she's given. But her storyline is pure titillation porn. It doesn't help that I've never once in the course of this series found her particularly appealing. Both Hoshi and the late, lamented Cutler are/were far more to my tastes. But even if I thought Blalock was the most beautiful woman since Helen of Troy, the antics she's put through in this episode would have been embarrassing.
Dr. Phlox: The always-excellent John Billingsley again works his magic as Dr. Phlox, managing to infuse a certain dignity into his performance even when T'Pol is writhing around on the floor in front of him. He manages to keep his cool, but Billingsley puts just enough of an edge in Phlox's voice that we can see the stress of this unexpected situation.
Klingons: Archer's purchased jailbreak has irritated the Klingons enough to put a price on his head. As of the end of this episode, Archer has evaded them again, and likely caused irreparable disgrace to the Klingon ship he escaped from and damaged. The trend of each Klingon encounter being slightly more hostile than the one before continues, which seems likely to lead the way toward the eventual war between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire (though I increasingly doubt that such a war will break out during this series' run, more's the pity).
THOUGHTS
The Vulcan mating ritual of pon farr was introduced in Amok Time, the episode that kicked off the second season of TOS and still stands as one of the series' very best episodes. It was an intelligent episode, compellingly scripted and very well-structured, and presented a Vulcan society where logic and ritual managed to meld convincingly while still allowing every guest character featured to have his or her own agenda. It's a bit of television that is still regarded as a classic, and deserves to be.
Bounty treats pon farr as a "B" story whose main purpose is to show off Jolene Blalock smearing herself with gel while wearing as little as the censors will allow. This story was probably the brain child of a Rick Berman and Brannon Braga who were increasingly desperate to try to yank up the show's sagging ratings. It's cynical. Worse, it's badly done. Despite centering around two of the show's strongest characters and actors, this entire plot thread is drivel.
The "A" plot isn't much better. How many times can Archer be taken prisoner before it gets boring? The answer is: However many times (too many) this episode makes. The way in which Archer is kidnapped from his own ship makes Enterprise's security look laughable. Surely the hyper-paranoid Malcolm Reed would have at least one security guard somewhere near the point at which a stranger from a strange ship is going to meet the captain and chief engineer? Couldn't they at least have had Archer get kidnapped from the planet's surface, so as not to make the Enterprise crew look like a bunch of idiots?
The progression of the Archer/Tellarite plot is entirely predictable. There is nothing interesting or compelling about the Tellarite bounty hunter. His rival is a one-dimensional baddie, and his purpose in the episode is just to provide a bit of (not very interesting) action. The ending showcases Archer having a "cunning plan," largely inspired by thin air, which conveniently allows both him and the Tellarite to live happily ever after. Separately, I mean.
With a mostly dull "A" plot and a shockingly bad "B" plot, this is one of Enterprise's very worst episodes. Yes, worse than A Night in Sickbay. Other than some additional development of the Klingons, there really isn't much reason for anyone to subject themselves to this.
Rating: 1/10.
The Enterprise is making a scientific survey of another of those conveniently uninhabited yet perfectly habitable planets, while its crew prepares to enjoy a bit of shore leave. The vacation is interrupted by the arrival of a Tellarite freighter. Skalaar (Jordan Lund), the Tellarite captain, claims to be familiar with the planet, and offers to be Archer's guide. But once face-to-face with Archer, Skalaar stuns Trip and kidnaps Archer.
It turns out that the Tellarite is a bounty hunter, taking Archer back to the Klingon home world. Though his ship is old, he's cagey enough to deploy counter measures that lead Enterprise off on a false trail. Meanwhile, when the scientific teams are recalled from the surface, T'Pol and Phlox find that they have brought back a contaminant, and must seal themselves in Decon for an extended period. But it soon becomes clear that the contaminant has activated T'Pol's mating instincts.
Yes, that's right. She must have sex or die. (Rolls eyes).
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: Gets captured again. Maybe the security-conscious Reed should take note of how often that happens and put a Lo-Jack on him. He gets to demonstrate his piloting skills again, and in a shocking and unexpected plot development he manages to bond with his captor. He also gets to blast some Klingons (presumably using the "stun" setting). Scott Bakula is perfectly fine throughout, but this is all very tired stuff.
T'Pol: But at least Bakula gets to maintain his dignity. Poor Jolene Blalock gets to spend the episode in her underwear, writhing around on the floor, begging John Billingsley to **** her. Entirely against my initial expectations, I've been generally impressed with Blalock's work on the series. Even here, she does about as well as possible with the wretched material she's given. But her storyline is pure titillation porn. It doesn't help that I've never once in the course of this series found her particularly appealing. Both Hoshi and the late, lamented Cutler are/were far more to my tastes. But even if I thought Blalock was the most beautiful woman since Helen of Troy, the antics she's put through in this episode would have been embarrassing.
Dr. Phlox: The always-excellent John Billingsley again works his magic as Dr. Phlox, managing to infuse a certain dignity into his performance even when T'Pol is writhing around on the floor in front of him. He manages to keep his cool, but Billingsley puts just enough of an edge in Phlox's voice that we can see the stress of this unexpected situation.
Klingons: Archer's purchased jailbreak has irritated the Klingons enough to put a price on his head. As of the end of this episode, Archer has evaded them again, and likely caused irreparable disgrace to the Klingon ship he escaped from and damaged. The trend of each Klingon encounter being slightly more hostile than the one before continues, which seems likely to lead the way toward the eventual war between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire (though I increasingly doubt that such a war will break out during this series' run, more's the pity).
THOUGHTS
The Vulcan mating ritual of pon farr was introduced in Amok Time, the episode that kicked off the second season of TOS and still stands as one of the series' very best episodes. It was an intelligent episode, compellingly scripted and very well-structured, and presented a Vulcan society where logic and ritual managed to meld convincingly while still allowing every guest character featured to have his or her own agenda. It's a bit of television that is still regarded as a classic, and deserves to be.
Bounty treats pon farr as a "B" story whose main purpose is to show off Jolene Blalock smearing herself with gel while wearing as little as the censors will allow. This story was probably the brain child of a Rick Berman and Brannon Braga who were increasingly desperate to try to yank up the show's sagging ratings. It's cynical. Worse, it's badly done. Despite centering around two of the show's strongest characters and actors, this entire plot thread is drivel.
The "A" plot isn't much better. How many times can Archer be taken prisoner before it gets boring? The answer is: However many times (too many) this episode makes. The way in which Archer is kidnapped from his own ship makes Enterprise's security look laughable. Surely the hyper-paranoid Malcolm Reed would have at least one security guard somewhere near the point at which a stranger from a strange ship is going to meet the captain and chief engineer? Couldn't they at least have had Archer get kidnapped from the planet's surface, so as not to make the Enterprise crew look like a bunch of idiots?
The progression of the Archer/Tellarite plot is entirely predictable. There is nothing interesting or compelling about the Tellarite bounty hunter. His rival is a one-dimensional baddie, and his purpose in the episode is just to provide a bit of (not very interesting) action. The ending showcases Archer having a "cunning plan," largely inspired by thin air, which conveniently allows both him and the Tellarite to live happily ever after. Separately, I mean.
With a mostly dull "A" plot and a shockingly bad "B" plot, this is one of Enterprise's very worst episodes. Yes, worse than A Night in Sickbay. Other than some additional development of the Klingons, there really isn't much reason for anyone to subject themselves to this.
Rating: 1/10.
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