Star Trek: Enterprise – Season 2 (TVR00015) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
Overview
The second season has hints of temporal stuff throughout, but it starts to get a little grittier with the alien races they encounter. Almost all of them are duplicitous, false friends to the naive and well-being humans.
Episodes That I Liked
The two best episodes of the season are the third and third-last. In EP03, Minefield, the ship is trapped in a Romulan minefield, and Reed has to demonstrate his leadership skills while other ships are closing in. Meanwhile, in EP24, it’s a retrospective episode back to the first ship to break the Warp 2 barrier, and the story of Archer’s chief rival, A.G. Robinson. I rated them both 5/5.
I rated six more EPs as 4/5: EP01 which is the second part of the giant temporal storyline from Season 01’s cliffhanger; EP02 which relates the story of T’Pol’s grandmother having visited Earth years before; EP04 showed that cheap repairs are not always worth their price; EP09 shows weird gravity messing with humans, reminiscent of Naked Now; EP12 has a radioactive storm driving everyone into the center of the ship onto catwalks to survive, despite intruders; and EP16 has another time travel storyline with time machines that have poor timing.
Episodes That Were Watchable
There were a lot of people complaining online about the series in Season 2, and it is not that surprising. I rated twelve episodes, almost half the season as merely good. EP05 showed Phlox’s routine for one night in sickbay; EP06 dealt with bullying marauders; EP07 shows an old job of T’Pol when she worked in security, chasing fugitive Vulcans; EP08 has first contact with a pre-warp civilization, so I guess Bones wasn’t the first to leave his communicator behind; EP10 turns Yoshi into a future Barkley fearful of the transporter; EP11 deals with a stasis pod that everyone wants; EP14 deals with the dangers of mindmelds; EP15 brings Shran back looking for a mediator; EP20 has Travis trying to go home again, without much happiness; EP23 is generously rated 3/5 with time-travelling Borg; EP25 brings bounty hunters looking for Archer; and EP26 introduces the giant storyline for Season 3 which is Earth being attacked by the Xindi for no apparent reason.
Episodes That I Didn’t Like
I really wanted to like some of the six lowest-ranked episodes of the season, all 2/5, but many are pretty derivative. EP13 has Trip bonding with a hostile alien on a planet (Enemy Mine?); EP17 has mutiny on a penal ship (SG1, ST:TOS, ST:TNG, ST:VOY, ST:DS9…?); EP18 has non-corporeal beings wanting to share bodies (ST:TNG?); EP19 has Archer on trial on Cronos (ST:TOS movies?); EP21 has them going spelunking (ST:VOY?); and EP22 deals with gender issues and traditional roles (ST:TNG?). None of the episodes seemed to have anything unique to say.
List of Episodes from Season 2
| S02E01 | Shockwave Pt 2 | Temporal changes are often sweeping | 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪ |
| S02E02 | Carbon Creek | T’Pol’s great GM visited Earth? Cool | 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪ |
| S02E03 | Minefield | M-class planet, mines, and Romulans | 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 |
| S02E04 | Dead Stop | Cheap repairs are not always worth it | 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪ |
| S02E05 | Night in Sickbay | Porthos becomes a star patient | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E06 | Marauders | People need to fight bullying everywhere | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E07 | Seventh | Ooh, T’Pol used to be in security | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E08 | Communicator | Pre-warp civilizations are touchy | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E09 | Singularity | Weird gravity always messes with humans | 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪ |
| S02E10 | Vanishing Point | Yoshi and transporter interruptus | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E11 | Precious Cargo | Get up on wrong side of stasis pod? | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E12 | Catwalk | Storms, crawlspaces and intruders…great | 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪ |
| S02E13 | Dawn | 80s movie plot — Enemy Mine redux | 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪ |
| S02E14 | Stigma | Vulcans fear the spread of mindmelds | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E15 | Cease Fire | Shran wants a mediator, not all agree | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E16 | Future Tense | Time machines have poor timing | 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪ |
| S02E17 | Canamar | Mutiny on the penal ship | 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪ |
| S02E18 | Crossing | Non-corporeal beings want to share bodies | 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪ |
| S02E19 | Judgment | Archer on trial on Cronos? Seems familiar | 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪ |
| S02E20 | Horizon | Travis finds you can’t go home again | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E21 | Breach | Fly across the galaxy and go spelunking | 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪ |
| S02E22 | Cogenitor | Trip helps a 3rd gender slave revolt | 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪ |
| S02E23 | Regeneration | Time-travelling Borg like to travel | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E24 | First Flight | Story of breaking the Warp 2 barrier | 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 |
| S02E25 | Bounty | Tellerite Boba Fett and Jonathan Solo | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
| S02E26 | Expanse | Xindi attack? Let’s visit Delphic Expanse | 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪ |
The Bottom Line
They have their space legs but not very interesting stories.
