PREVIOUSLY, ON ENTERPRISE...
Back when I wrote up my Season One overview, I observed my pleasant surprise at how good much of the series was. It had its flaws, notably an overabundance of generic "filler" episodes and a regular character (Mayweather) who just didn't work. But all the non-Mayweather characters worked, and the first season did a suprisingly decent job of juggling a large ensemble so that each of the non-Mayweather characters got an opportunity to shine and to interact with each other. At the same time, potential was created to explore several arcs and to allow the humans to create a genuine place for themselves in an interstellar community.
It wasn't a brilliant first season, but it was a promising one. At the time, I wrote that it had gone through its shakedown run, done its job in showing that the series had potential, and that what was needed now was for it to raise its game in Season Two.
Well, if the mission was for the series to raise its game for its sophomore season... It failed. Utterly.
CHARACTERS, STAY IN YOUR BOXES!
In every significant respect, Season Two is much worse than Season One. The steps it takes don't advance the series or characters much, and in some cases even undermine development that had already occurred.
Nowhere is this more apparent than by looking at the characters. Prior to the season finale, there is only minimal development of the characters of Archer, Trip, and T'Pol, and no development of any of the supporting characters. Archer shows some progress in dealing with alien species, being less rash and judgmental than in Season One. But that was a direction he was already taking by the end of Season One, and nothing new is added to that until Cogenitor - very late in the season. Trip gets a lot of episodes (too many) around the midseason. But rather than advance his character, these episodes just try to let themselves be carried by his easygoing and likable persona. Nothing new is added to Trip's character until (again) Cogenitor. It's all just coasting.
The supporting cast is treated even worse. In the first season, every character worked except for Mayweather, and every character got a chance to interact with the others. In this season, the characters are all kept in boxes. We no longer see Hoshi practicing her linguistics skills in the mess with Phlox or T'Pol, and gone is the development of a mentor relationship between her and T'Pol, with T'Pol teaching her to control her anxieties. In fact, the two get almost no interaction at all. That Hoshi comes across more strongly than Mayweather is entirely down to Linda Park's performance, as she takes every small moment she's given and does as much with it as possible. In terms of scripting, she's in the same, "Don't use until Christmas" box that Mayweather is kept in.
Reed is not treated much better. After an excellent episode in Minefield, he is mostly sidelined and given no interaction with anyone except for Trip. No Reed/Hoshi, Reed/Phlox, or Reed/random crewmember interactions. For that matter, even the Big Three mostly just interact with each other and sometimes Phlox. They're all kept in their boxes. The creators may open up and play with the Archer, T'Pol, and Trip dolls more often than the others, but there is relatively little sense of them being a cohesive crew - something which was not a problem during Season One!
I can only sit here and wonder what happened, that the promising interactions among the regulars have all but ceased in the show's second season, leaving all of the characters flatter as a result.
DIET STORYTELLING: NOW WITH 60% LESS DRAMA!
The season actually starts out promisingly. Shockwave 2 isn't as good as Part One was, but it's still good - and honestly, it's very rare to find a Part 2 of anything that's as good as Part One. Most of the first disc of the DVD set consists of good episodes, and that continues into the second disc. The Minefield/Dead Stop pairing works particularly well, with one episode leading directly into the next, and with good character scenes and good scripts marking both stories.
DIET STORYTELLING: NOW WITH 60% LESS DRAMA!
The season actually starts out promisingly. Shockwave 2 isn't as good as Part One was, but it's still good - and honestly, it's very rare to find a Part 2 of anything that's as good as Part One. Most of the first disc of the DVD set consists of good episodes, and that continues into the second disc. The Minefield/Dead Stop pairing works particularly well, with one episode leading directly into the next, and with good character scenes and good scripts marking both stories.
Then it takes a wrong turn. The entire middle portion of the season is made up of one generic standalone episode after another. A few of these are good episodes, and only a couple of episodes are actively bad. But there are no standouts, and the overall flood of "OK, but ordinary" shows becomes downright soul-sucking after a while. During that midseason patch, it becomes work to move on to the next episode.
Perhaps criticisms from the Continuity Police over Vulcans with their own agendas and too much time-travel scared the writers and producers away from the potentially interesting plot arcs of the Temporal Cold War and the Vulcan/human relations. Instead, we got served a half-season of pap. Nothing in it to make the Continuity Police complain, but nothing in it to make anyone particularly interested in watching more of it either.
LATE IMPROVEMENT
Ironically, the episode that sees things pick up again is probably Stigma, which returns us to the idea of a Vulcan society that has its own agenda, isn't always benevolent, and has become less tolerant of dissenting views than had once been the case. The irony here is that this is the episode that gives T'Pol "Vulcan AIDS" - which should forever change her relationship with the High Command. Instead, T'Pol and her Vulcan AIDS are never even mentioned again, not even in passing by Dr. Phlox, and certainly not by Soval who she meets up with again in the very next episode! I'm not saying that T'Pol should henceforth be defined by her mindmelding disease. But surely it should create repercussions in her relationship with the High Command, and not just be completely forgotten about for the remainder of the season?
Despite that, the episode is a good one, and one which returns Enterprise to its major plot arcs: the Vulcans, the Temporal Cold War, and the Klingons. From here, there are several good episodes, some of them very good. Despite a blip with the wretched Bounty, the season ends with a run of fairly high quality shows. Even without the season finale changing the series' focus, the lift in quality would have made me more optimistic about Season Three. With that change, I find myself actively looking forward to the new season.
The finale is excellent, one of only three great episodes in the season. I like the way the Temporal Cold War is worked into this shift, with Silik being the one to bring the message about the Xindi to Archer. The lead Archer is following comes from an unreliable source. Are the Xindi actually responsible, or is Silik working another agenda? Even if Silik is passing along good information, what price will he exact for helping Archer? And what ramifications might there be for Archer's space battle with the Klingons?
LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
OK, wish list for Season Three. My Season Two wish list went almost entirely unfulfilled, but I live in hope. For Season Three, I would like to see this change of direction embraced. No easy fixes to the dilemma created in The Expanse. Let the story run a good half-season, even a full season. They have gone into a region of space even the Vulcans and Klingons are afraid of. There is no excuse now not to present some truly alien settings and situations. So DROP THE GENERIC RUNAROUNDS!
Perhaps criticisms from the Continuity Police over Vulcans with their own agendas and too much time-travel scared the writers and producers away from the potentially interesting plot arcs of the Temporal Cold War and the Vulcan/human relations. Instead, we got served a half-season of pap. Nothing in it to make the Continuity Police complain, but nothing in it to make anyone particularly interested in watching more of it either.
LATE IMPROVEMENT
Ironically, the episode that sees things pick up again is probably Stigma, which returns us to the idea of a Vulcan society that has its own agenda, isn't always benevolent, and has become less tolerant of dissenting views than had once been the case. The irony here is that this is the episode that gives T'Pol "Vulcan AIDS" - which should forever change her relationship with the High Command. Instead, T'Pol and her Vulcan AIDS are never even mentioned again, not even in passing by Dr. Phlox, and certainly not by Soval who she meets up with again in the very next episode! I'm not saying that T'Pol should henceforth be defined by her mindmelding disease. But surely it should create repercussions in her relationship with the High Command, and not just be completely forgotten about for the remainder of the season?
Despite that, the episode is a good one, and one which returns Enterprise to its major plot arcs: the Vulcans, the Temporal Cold War, and the Klingons. From here, there are several good episodes, some of them very good. Despite a blip with the wretched Bounty, the season ends with a run of fairly high quality shows. Even without the season finale changing the series' focus, the lift in quality would have made me more optimistic about Season Three. With that change, I find myself actively looking forward to the new season.
The finale is excellent, one of only three great episodes in the season. I like the way the Temporal Cold War is worked into this shift, with Silik being the one to bring the message about the Xindi to Archer. The lead Archer is following comes from an unreliable source. Are the Xindi actually responsible, or is Silik working another agenda? Even if Silik is passing along good information, what price will he exact for helping Archer? And what ramifications might there be for Archer's space battle with the Klingons?
LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
OK, wish list for Season Three. My Season Two wish list went almost entirely unfulfilled, but I live in hope. For Season Three, I would like to see this change of direction embraced. No easy fixes to the dilemma created in The Expanse. Let the story run a good half-season, even a full season. They have gone into a region of space even the Vulcans and Klingons are afraid of. There is no excuse now not to present some truly alien settings and situations. So DROP THE GENERIC RUNAROUNDS!
I do want to see Archer and Trip continuing to feel their anger, and to be a bit more willing to use force. But I don't want "force" to be their default, and where it is their default response I want it to blow up in their faces at least once. I want Archer to have to use his mind, not his ship's upgraded weapons systems, to resolve this situation. We saw that probe in the precredit sequence, right? I don't care if Enterprise now has "photonic torpedoes," they are clearly technologically outclassed. Let that be the default situation - a small fish in a big pond, with the crew having to make allies inside the Expanse in order to survive.
Beyond that, I want to see a return to Season One in terms of character interaction. Let us see Archer, Trip, and T'Pol interacting with the supporting cast, and not just in those cast members' spotlight episodes. Hoshi is a potentially very good character, played by a good actress, who has been inexplicably sidelined. Do something with her! And do something new with Mayweather, too. He can't be saving space freighters from pirates within The Expanse, so his spotlight episode will have to have a new plot now, right?
Beyond that, I want to see a return to Season One in terms of character interaction. Let us see Archer, Trip, and T'Pol interacting with the supporting cast, and not just in those cast members' spotlight episodes. Hoshi is a potentially very good character, played by a good actress, who has been inexplicably sidelined. Do something with her! And do something new with Mayweather, too. He can't be saving space freighters from pirates within The Expanse, so his spotlight episode will have to have a new plot now, right?
It also might be a good idea to introduce some recurring characters among the crew. Season One got a boost from Cutler, even if the actress did leave for another series (and then died young sometime later). Create some new recurring characters, maybe even let us see an episode or two from the viewpoint of one of the average, non-command staff crew members. It's hardly a revolutionary concept for an episode, but it might allow us to see new facets of our regulars.
Most of all, I hope Season Three is as much of an improvement as I've heard is the case. The first season was competent but only occasionally more than that, which made it important for Season Two to be better. Instead, Season Two was much worse than Season One. I'm not surprised that viewers jumped ship and mostly never came back. I suspect the show had already passed its point of no return with mainstream viewers, and only got two additional seasons because of the Star Trek label.
Most of all, I hope Season Three is as much of an improvement as I've heard is the case. The first season was competent but only occasionally more than that, which made it important for Season Two to be better. Instead, Season Two was much worse than Season One. I'm not surprised that viewers jumped ship and mostly never came back. I suspect the show had already passed its point of no return with mainstream viewers, and only got two additional seasons because of the Star Trek label.
But I don't care about ratings, and I don't even care that much about a long run. The show has two seasons left. It would be very nice if they were two seasons of good television, and not more generic pap.
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