Why Wonder Woman Will Age Poorly (A More Thorough Analysis).

| | | The Basics: The more one considers the 2017 cinematic rendition of Wonder Woman, the more troubling the film becomes, especially for fans of the iconic character.


I waited about thirty-seven years for the film Wonder Woman (I'm assuming I was not necessarily a fan for the first couple years of my life). I have been a lifelong fan of the character Wonder Woman and in the last decade, I have actually become much more educated about the character of Princess Diana Of Themyscira. This weekend, I have found myself in an incredibly odd position, though. I rushed right out to see Wonder Woman (and reviewed it here!) on opening day on the biggest screen I could reasonably get to and in the days since, I have read the chatter and tried to interact with people about the film, but I've discovered that the hype machine for the film is still alive and well.

I have been feeling out-of-sorts about the film Wonder Woman because the more I think about the film, the less I liked it. This is a confession I anticipate more people will articulate in the days and weeks ahead and I am pleased, for once, to be well ahead of the curve. When I saw Alien Covenant (reviewed here!), for example, it seemed like people in the audience knew they had just watched a terrible film. When the screening was over, the fans who had rushed out to the earliest possible screening on the 70 ft. tall screen were silent; there was no chatter in the audience and people filed out of the screening like they were leaving a funeral. By contrast, when Wonder Woman ended, people were enthusiastically talking and I left in kind of a daze and felt compelled to ask one viewer, "Did you like that?" Rather than argue, I simply listened to her answer; she was impressed that Patty Jenkins managed to get a movie of that scope made and she was excited about going to see it again.

So, when I came home, I began looking at other people's responses to Wonder Woman and the more conversations I saw about the film, the more I came to believe that people were seeing what they wanted to in the movie, as opposed to what was on the screen. I also came to recognize that there was a strong divide between the people who were fans of the source material - Wonder Woman comic books - and the generic idea of Wonder Woman. But, on every major front - Themyscira as a matriarchal society, Patty Jenkins's direction, Ares as an adversary, and the heroic nature of Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman is not only a disappointment, but a betrayal of the ideas for which the character stands.

It is worth noting, before I delve into each of these aspects, that this article is intended to speak frankly about aspects of the film Wonder Woman and it is intended for people who have seen the film. If one enjoys the way a film unfolds and surprises within it, this is not the article for you who have not seen Wonder Woman. That said . . .

Themyscira

Themyscira is the island of the Amazon warriors and to be fair to writer Allan Heinberg and director Patty Jenkins, the island is fairly well-characterized in Wonder Woman. The Amazons are a mostly warrior culture, though Wonder Woman takes time to pull out a book and have Hippolyta reading to a young Diana.  Viewers see the effects of a Themysciran education later in the film when Diana flawlessly speaks many languages with Sameer. So, Themyscira is a place of military training and education (though, seriously, my next viewing I'm going to be scouring the background for a single Amazon sitting somewhere actually reading a book!), set aside from the world by Zeus to keep it safe from the Ares-corrupted world of mankind.

The problem with Themyscira in Wonder Woman is that the hook is a cheap one and the environment quickly becomes indistinct from the world it is supposed to be separate from.

Themyscira is a matriarchal society that is supposed to be different from the World Of Man. Great. It is populated by women entirely and people there seem generally happy. But, outside of the lack of a Y chromosome on the island, what makes Themyscira different from the rest of the world? The citizens are immortal, there is that. But beyond that . . .

Themyscira is governed by corrupt liars. Themyscira is populated by people motivated by fear who lie to one another to advance their own agendas.

Allow me to clarify those assertions. Themyscira is governed by a corrupt liar. Hippolyta is a liar. She spends decades or centuries lying to Diana both directly and through omission. Hippolyta shares information with Diana about the nature of Themyscira, including the fact that it is the repository of the God Killer. The child Diana assumes that the God Killer is the name of the sword kept in the Amazon's vault of precious things, when Hippolyta and every other Amazon knows that the God Killer is Diana herself. Hippoltya is an authoritarian leader in Wonder Woman; she orders Antiope not to train Diana and viewers are forced to assume that at some point Hippolyta ordered her people not to tell Diana her true nature. None of the women of Themyscira contradict Hippolyta's lie of omission when others know the truth about Diana's true nature. The Amazons lie to Diana.

The other well-developed Amazon in Wonder Woman is Robin Wright's Antiope. Wright does an amazing job of portraying Antiope, but the character only helps to reinforce that Themyscira is fundamentally no different than the world it has been isolated from. Hippolyta orders Antiope not to train Diana in the defensive arts. Antiope does it anyway, under the cover of night and behind Hippolyta's back for (presumably) decades, if not centuries (how immortals age is not clearly chronicled in the film). Antiope wants to be prepared because she wants the Amazons to be able to defend Themsycira for the time when Ares inevitably finds the hidden island. Antiope is afraid of the world and wants to be prepared, so she lies to her government and prepares the God Killer.

So, Themyscira is not actually different from Man's World in Wonder Woman and while there is the valid feminist argument to be made of "here we illustrate that women are no different from men," there is something incredibly unsatisfying about that view being applied to Wonder Woman. First, as a place segregated by the gods, it stands to reason that there ought to be something fundamentally different about Themyscira. Second, embodying Themyscira as "just the same as Man's World" robs the film of the ability to laud the benefits that could be created by a matriarchal society - a lack of prudishness, marriage that does not need a government to enforce it, honest dialogue between the citizens, etc. (all of which are lacking in the film). Finally, from a storytelling perspective, Themyscira being just the same as Man's World undermines the potential to tell Princess Diana's story in a more compelling way. Instead of setting up a reversal where Diana is the last person to get to the realization that she is the God Killer, if she had been raised knowing she was the God Killer, it would give her a strong sense of destiny and purpose in leaving Themyscira. That is the difference between the character being self-motivated and plot-motivated (Diana leaves the island as a reaction to Steve Trevor, regardless, but she would have had greater moral authority in leaving to slay Ares had she been armed with the information of her true nature in advance).

Patty Jenkins's Direction

As I write this, news is breaking that Wonder Woman is now the film that has the highest-grossing box office debut for a film by a female director and, despite my issues with the film, I could not be more thrilled about that. I was especially happy because that meant that Fifty Shades Of Grey no longer has that honor. But, in reading people's thoughts on Wonder Woman, it got me thinking about directors who happen to be female, whose work I enjoyed. Last night, I asked myself "What female directors do you like?" and I was very happy that I instantly was able to name Roxann Dawson and I've been very aware of Robin Wright's episodes of House Of Cards when she directs. But, when I went through my video library, for films - despite having many in my collection that have strong female characters or tell vital stories about women - I discovered I only had The Incredibly True Adventure Of Two Girls In Love (reviewed here!) and Waitress (reviewed here!) that were directed by women. Both of those films are much smaller films than Wonder Woman in terms of scope.

But . . .

. . . visually, they aren't truly twenty years behind Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman. Obviously, the special effects in Wonder Woman are better than films from the late-90s and early 00s, but the direction of Patty Jenkins was one of the ways I felt most isolated in discussing Wonder Woman. Many people seem to be generically lauding the scope of Wonder Woman and praising Patty Jenkins for that. I saw something very different in Wonder Woman: Patty Jenkins seemed very cautious in using the scale, seemed outright terrified in dwelling on key moments and created an entirely derivative battle sequence.

I saw Wonder Woman on big screen and I was very excited about that. It did not take long into Wonder Woman, though, before I started to become troubled by how scale was being misused. How places within the environments of Wonder Woman fit together is very problematic and are not very well presented. Take, for example, the first big encounter in Wonder Woman. Many, if not most, Amazons are watching Diana show off her military training for Hippolyta. Diana inadvertently wounds Antiope and runs away to the cliff where she sees Steve Trevor's plane fall into the sea. That leads the Germans into the waters of Themyscira and the beachfront battle. How those locations fit together is not made clear by Patty Jenkins; we do not get wide shots and clear trails and that leads to a problematic suspension of disbelief.

Are we supposed to believe that no one followed Diana? Is she truly so friendless that none of the Amazons saw her go over the cliff into the water and saw the Germans piercing the veil around Themyscira? If so, why did it take the Amazons so long to get to the beachfront when they were pretty much all in the same place to begin with?! The failure to show the scale and how pieces of the whole fit together is problematic for the storytelling and is not great filmmaking. The best battle sequences hold up because the relation of places for the battle are established and make sense and the Themyscira beach battle is one that crumbles under the most basic scrutiny. Sure, it looks good to have the horses thundering across a beach, but why didn't the Amazons stay on top of the cliff and shoot down the Germans from high above? And, based on the way the battle was filmed, if the Germans had tried to infiltrate the city from the beach, any survivors who tried would have been easily cut down by the attempt as Patty Jenkins showed viewers only one clear way from the beach to the city! In other words, the direction undermines the themes as the Amazons, who have been training for centuries to protect their homeland and have multiple home field advantages, utilize a military strategy that is reckless and invites casualties.

But that problem carries on throughout the film. Jenkins frames rooms so their size, shape, and the relationship between people within the environment is not clear until Diana enters that room or setting. One of the key scenes that has magnitude that is undermined by having such a myopic view of scale is when Diana enters No Man's Land at the front. Diana takes a stand and it is not clear until she starts her stride just how much terrain she must cross or how much weaponry might come to bear upon her. The magnitude of her act is undermined because the potential consequence of it is not made clear in advance. Furthermore, the moment Diana starts taking serious fire, Jenkins is forced to continue cutting back to Steve Trevor and Sameer following and trying to cross No Man's Land as well. This, sadly, becomes almost worthy of parody in that - because the scale of the trenches, No Man's Land and the Front are not made clear - the men who follow Wonder Woman are not cut down by what should be a slew of other guns that could not possibly have been aimed at her along the same vector.

Patty Jenkins also makes a lot of very quick shots that gut the emotional significance of key moments within Wonder Woman. When I think of the two films I have in my collection directed by women, one of the aspects that differentiates them from many of the other films I have is how the directors linger on faces to capture emotions, emotional transitions and actual reactions between characters. Sure, art house films are often more willing to capture clunky human emotions than blockbuster films, but it is hard to see how Patty Jenkins would have taken a hit as a director for attempting to show genuine emotional consequences for the actions within the film. Themyscira is an environment populated by immortals where that has been no evidence of violent death for centuries (since the island was segregated by Zeus). Early in Wonder Woman, at least ten women are killed (albeit some utterly ridiculously like a bullet to the gut that kills an armored woman instantly). How do the Amazon's react? One background Amazon runs forward, screaming in anguish to fall by Antiope's side and lift her head up. I'm pretty sure that before her first tear can actually fall, the shot has changed to Diana and Steve Trevor again. Regardless, that one Amazon's anguish is filmed in a wide shot, so it is part of a much larger tableau. By contrast - even if it was not initially clear and had to be seen many times to understand - when Legolas sees a fellow elf die in The Two Towers (reviewed here!), Peter Jackson lingers on Orlando Bloom's expression of shock, sorrow, and confusion. Jenkins guts almost every major moment of emotional resonance in Wonder Woman by cutting away from characters who are having reactions to the next moment of action.

Finally, there are the battles in Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is a particularly bloodless film, which is nice in that one finally gets a film without anyone getting their throat slashed. But, just as cutting away from emotional moments undermines them, the impact of warfare is completely gutted by making everything bloodless. Diana pins a human to a roof by running him through with her sword, then stands in a room below the sword and there is no blood dripping from it. Really?! So, war is horrible and bad, but people don't really bleed in it, including a woman who is shot such that we see the bullet pierce her and her limp body swinging afterward for several seconds.

The final battle of Wonder Woman is one that seems to be garnering a lot of praise from fans and that has left me especially baffled. I've started playing video games over the last two years and that has truly opened me up to the idea that special effects are truly only special when they are rendered in a way that can be comprehended. I don't like playing video games with other players because I actually derive joy from exploring the virtual environments, walking around and seeing the nooks and crannies that programmers have bothered to develop. So, when the final battle of Wonder Woman is a daring nighttime raid, I felt cheated on two significant fronts. The first is that nighttime battles afford the special effects departments a number of opportunities to absolutely cheat on the special effects. There are numerous moments in the final battle of Wonder Woman where there is a clear light source presented - high light, building on fire, etc. - that allows for the bulk of the screen to be filled with shadow. In other words, detail is lost and the magnitude of the battle gets lost in darkness. That can work exceptionally well to create mood, especially in horror films. In action adventure sequences, it just obscures.

The second disappointing aspect of the final battle of Wonder Woman was very easy to define. It's a daring nighttime raid and a big special effects-driven sequence. When was the last time I saw that in a film based on comic book source material? Oh yeah, the last DC Comics film. Once the home video version is available, I fully expect that someone will do a comparative analysis between the battles from Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice (reviewed here!) and Wonder Woman. But, for those who are inclined to praise it excessively, I would ask, what is the virtue in Patty Jenkins simply replicating a Zack Snyder battle sequence?

The Problematic Nature Of Ares As A Villain

From a storytelling perspective, I was put on-guard the moment Ares was mentioned in Wonder Woman. To be clear, I love the use of Ares as a villain in Wonder Woman graphic novels. The God Of War is a great foil character for Princess Diana. In the books, some of the best, most complicated thematic work has been done by writers who are willing to differentiate Diana from Ares.

Ares, however, is a terrible choice for a villain for Wonder Woman and an atrocious adversary for a period piece.

Handled with adeptness and philosophy, Ares is not a bad Wonder Woman villain, but by the time Ares is mentioned in Wonder Woman, it is pretty clear that the movie is not That Type Of Film. Ares creates two huge problems within Wonder Woman, both of which are borne out in the worst possible way. The first problem is the suspension of disbelief aspect Ares forces into the narrative and how it affects the protagonists, the second problem is the historical aspect of Ares and his influence.

Adding gods to the narrative for what is intended to be a "real world" film creates a true challenge for writers. Wonder Woman is, in many ways, a fish-out-of-water story in which the Fantastic Element (in this case Diana Of Themyscira) is thrust into the entirely recognizable real world. Diana enters the world outside Themyscira with a core belief that Ares is directly responsible for World War I. This sets Diana up to either have the epiphany that she is wrong and Ares is not directly responsible for the war or puts the burden on showing how Ares is orchestrating and feeding off the war.

Wonder Woman falls down because it tries to do both.

Diana fails to identify the mundane personality of Ares correctly, which is fine. But then, of course, Ares is revealed and it turns out he is responsible for World War I. So, we get both actions - Diana has the moment of horror where she believes she is wrong when her first kill does not end the fighting and then Ares is revealed and it turns out he is trying to prolong the war. Wonder Woman then takes a horrible turn that clearly differentiates between those who love the source material and the johnnies-come-lately to the film: Wonder Woman fights Ares. In the books, Wonder Woman realizes in her very first battle that she cannot defeat Ares utilizing a physical confrontation. That makes absolute sense; you can't defeat warfare or the concept of warfare by beating the shit out of it. How did no one in the creative process for the film get to that philosophical truth? The critical fault of using Ares as a villain in a "kill the villain" action adventure film is that the climactic fight ends up being philosophically stupid. But, Allan Heinberg and Patty Jenkins go for it - Wonder Woman slays Ares and we see a German soldier losing the impetus to fight and embrace one of Diana's allies.

That leads to the critical problem of using Ares as a villain for a period piece: If Ares was defeated to end World War I, how the hell did World War II, the Korean War, The Vietnam War, genocides in Africa and Cambodia, and every other military conflict that followed ever happen? Did Wonder Woman just get lazy? Was Wonder Woman unable to find the reincarnation or reconstitution of Ares before those conflicts reached their boiling point? There is a simple fix for Wonder Woman - that Ares acts as a virus that slaying him does not fix, that he has infected the hearts and minds of Men such that even after he is killed his influence lives on - but it is not within the film and utilizing it would force major changes to the DC Comics Cinematic Universe. But, within Wonder Woman, the premise is that Themyscira was segregated from the World Of Mankind to keep it safe from Ares's influence and wars sprung up outside Themyscira because Ares could influence everywhere else. Ares started World War I, Ludendorff and Dr. Maru leap on that, but Ares needs war to continue beyond the initiatives they take, which leads to the climactic battle.

In a contemporary piece, where the consequence of a climactic battle could actually be used to entirely reshape the reality of the cinematic universe, Ares could be a great villain. Wonder Woman could have shepherded humankind into a more enlightened era after destroying Ares. But, alas, making Wonder Woman a World War I period piece puts a burden on the film that makes Ares a virtually impossible adversary to use well.

How Wonder Woman Became Second Fiddle In Her Own Film

Wonder Woman is being hailed by a lot of people as a great example of a strong female character and reading and hearing those arguments has made me wonder what film those people were watching. Diana is headstrong and she has some moments where she stands up to do both her own thing and acts independently of anyone else's wishes. Chief among the actions Princess Diana takes is taking a moral stance to the civilian bombing of the village of Veld by running directly through No Man's Land to decimate the German forces in the area.

But, objectively viewed, Wonder Woman is far more problematic. Steve Trevor has a great role in Wonder Woman and it is easy to see exactly why Chris Pine was excited about the project. While people might want to laud Wonder Woman as a great feminist story wherein an icon steps up to solve problems, that is not what actually happens for the bulk of Wonder Woman. The majority of incidents in Wonder Woman feature Princess Diana haplessly rushing into situations in blind defiance of others or being pulled out of a place by Steve Trevor, who then solves her problems.

Princess Diana speaks many languages, but otherwise she is presented with surprisingly little intelligence. As a fish-out-of-water story, Diana is expected to be ignorant and lacking in assets, that makes sense. But in Wonder Woman, Diana is presented without being particularly resourceful, smart, or articulate. Before Diana ever leaves Themyscira, she takes it upon herself to steal the sword she thinks is the God Killer and run away with Steve Trevor. Wonder Woman features a scene where Hippolyta exerts authoritarian control over the Amazons when she tells her people and Steve Trevor not to leave Themyscira to fight Ares's influence. A character who is ethical, articulate, smart and resourceful would debate the issue. Seriously, why doesn't Diana argue her point and try to persuade any other Amazons to accompany her?

In London, Diana is told "no" more often than anything else. Rather than take the initiative to build her own coalition that she leads, which she reasonably could have done by starting with Etta Candy, she is dragged along through most of the narrative by Steve Trevor. The thing is, Wonder Woman rewards initiative with disaster. Steve Trevor, a tactically-minded spy, attempts to use his skill and intelligence to defeat Ludendorff and Dr. Maru. To do that, Trevor has to infiltrate a German party and all he asks of Diana is for her to stay outside so he can do his job. Diana, "taking the initiative," knocks out a woman in a stunning dress, poorly infiltrates the party (drawing a lot of attention to herself) and sets the Germans off such that the cover is blown for Trevor and the Germans wipe out Veld. Wonder Woman is not so much about a smart character solving problems as a woman forcing herself into situations because she arrogantly believes she knows best at the cost of many people's lives. What kind of message is that?!

But, backtracking, Steve Trevor is given most of the heroic moments of Wonder Woman. Trevor has Dr. Maru's notebook, which is fine and makes sense. But after the set-up, Wonder Woman misses all sorts of opportunities to raise Diana's heroic stature. Diana is literally asleep when Trevor gets the pair to London. Diana starts to assert herself with the British government and military leaders when Trevor extracts them and persuades her to do their own thing. Diana does not leave rooms because she realizes that the men there are bull-headed idiots who aren't actually listening to her, but because Trevor pulls her out, tells her to fight the right battles and tells her the conclusion she didn't get to on her own.

While Steve Trevor has the resources - maps, situational knowledge, and personnel (Sameer, Charlie, and The Chief) - within Man's World and that makes sense, Wonder Woman continues to elevate Trevor at the expense of Diana. In the battle for Veld, for example, Steve Trevor (who witnessed the maneuver once!) moves everyone to the fallen door to launch Diana up to take out the sniper. The difference here is all the difference; here Diana has a moment where she is in the exact same position with all of the same knowledge, tactical experience and observational skills as Steve Trevor and the moment is given to Trevor. Diana has the opportunity to lead and command in a way that will lead to the desired outcome instead of disaster, but instead it is Trevor who once again asserts authority successfully.

Wonder Woman is one of those films that becomes more and more insulting to women the more one deconstructs it. Steve Trevor makes the heroic sacrifice that inspires Diana to take action as a reaction to the most banal form of love (Diana kicks Ares's ass after Trevor sacrifices himself and she has flashbacks to her experiences with Trevor as opposed to, for example, her decades of love for Antiope, who risked everything to train her as an act of love, against her mother's wishes). Even the set-up of Wonder Woman is an insulting form of mansplaining. How? Diana is given the photograph she has (apparently) coveted for almost a century by Bruce Wayne. But why? In Wonder Woman, World War I ends with Diana in Germany mere miles from Veld, the place where the photograph was taken. Everyone in Veld is dead, Diana is in mourning for the just-killed Trevor, and the photograph was taken maybe a day prior? Why wouldn't Diana just go and get the picture?  But, instead of Diana going back to Veld and finding the photograph, she has to delay her gratification until Bruce Wayne provides it almost a hundred years later?! Talk about women being put in positions where they have to be given what they want or deserve instead of being able to take it on their own. This is suppression of women to an almost hyperbolic extent!

Conclusion

Wonder Woman is an amazing character and a great feminist icon; almost none of her complexity, grandeur or intellect transferred to Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman, regardless of the hype or how much Wonder Woman fans and women in general would want to argue otherwise.

For other movie articles, please check out my Film Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Skye’s Storyline Gets Sidetracked By Lady Sif In “Who You Really Are!”

The Good: Decent-enough acting, Good plot progression
The Bad: Subplots seem very soap opera-like, Some troubling character direction
The Basics: “Who You Really Are” adds a new layer to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. without making it feel like the essential characters are actually moving the series forward.


With Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. embedded on television as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is in a unique place to crossover and foreshadow the big film events that Disney/Marvel are unleashing on the world. In its first season, the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed here!) forced a complete change of direction for the series. With the latest episode, “Who You Really Are,” the show sees the return of Lady Sif from the Thor section of the Marvel Universe. Lady Sif appeared in the first season episode “Yes Men” (reviewed here!) and “Who You Really Are” makes direct allusions to that episode. What the episode does not do, alas, is foreshadow effectively into either Ant-Man or The Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

While it picks up after the events of “Aftershocks” (reviewed here!), “Who You Really Are” is much more of a standalone episode than a continuation of the serialized storyline for the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The return of Lady Sif does a decent job of reminding viewers just how broad the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, as if they really needed the reminder. The initial conflict in “Who You Really Are” sets up an interesting concept for fans of the supernatural portion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it has Lady Sif without any knowledge of who she is, despite her being aware that she is an off-worlder from Asgard.

Opening in Faro, Portugal, where Lady Sif walks out of the Mediterranean Sea, looking for Cava, it is clear the Asgard warrior woman has memory loss. Back at Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. cell, Skye and May train with one another. While Fitz interrupts the training and is clearly curious about Skye’s abilities and limits, May breaks up the training when one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives contacts her about Lady Sif’s arrival. Recovering Sif, Coulson convinces her that they are allies and he is there to help. Getting footage of a fight between Sif and Cava, Coulson and his whole team become obsessed with aiding Lady Sif and finding the man she was fighting.

Mockingbird and Skye follow clues that lead them to the idea that the man’s blood causes memory loss. Determining that Cava is actually a Kree (and the name is just a Kree word for “key”), Skye tries to convince Fitz to come clean with Coulson about her altered DNA. Capturing Vin-Tak, the Kree, he claims that he is on the side of good and asks for his truncheon back in order to restore Sif’s memories. It turns out that Vin-Tak is telling the truth about restoring Sif’s memories and when he does, Sif’s mission is laid out as a straightforward recovery mission. Vin-Tak is on Earth to recover the Diviner and when his mission is revealed, the S.H.I.E.L.D. science cell is terrified that they do not have them!

Mixed faintly throughout “Who You Really Are” is the continuing character development of the new characters to join Coulson’t team. While Bobbi Morse has integrated perfectly with the team, Hunter has been on the outside and as Mac and Morse pursue an alternate agenda (which appears to be under the direct orders of Nick Fury), “Who You Really Are” dabbles with letting Hunter into their conspiracy. The plotline, which seems very soap operatic at this point, is likened by Mac as the H.Y.D.R.A. conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s a bit of a tough sell at this point to believe that there are so many secrets within Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. After all, here is a guy who is now in charge of the world’s most effective spy community working for the forces of good against super-scientific, supernatural, and extraterrestrial threats and it is in shambles since it was exposed as a tool of H.Y.D.R.A. In other words, either Coulson is being set up as a complete dupe or the audience is being prepared for a remarkably unsatisfying reversal where Coulson admits that he has been on top of Fitz lying about Skye and Morse and Mac’s secret mission all along.

Within “Who You Really Are,” there is the momentary satisfying moment as Skye’s nature is partially-exposed to May and Coulson. Vin-Tak accuses Skye of being Kree (or partially-Kree) and Lady Sif is convinced then that she is a Kree construct, which leads the episode to degenerate into a pretty typical and obvious fight/chase sequence. Every now and then, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. shakes up the usual action-adventure formula; “Who You Really Are” is not one of the episodes that does that. While the plot progresses, this is an episode where the heroic characters of Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are not the characters that are moving the episode forward. Instead, this is an episode where they react to an entirely external force (Sif and Vin-Tak) and while Skye is somewhat exposed as a result, the revelations are much more externally-derived than as a direct result of the actions of the characters.

Within the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Who You Really Are” becomes the first overt move to introducing the Secret Wars or Secret Invasion plotlines from the Marvel Comic Universe into the Cinematic Universe. The Kree are integral to those plots and that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is bringing them to Earth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has the potential to elevate the importance of the television series within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it has been widely teased that The Avengers is headed toward The Infinity War and the next Captain America film will be Civil War, the idea of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. fighting the Secret Invasion without many of the major Marvel superheroes (or with them only as cameos) is an intriguing concept.

Roxann Dawson does a decent job directing “Who You Really Are,” but none of the actors are given the chance to deliver truly knock-down performances. This is not a big emotional episode as much as it is a plot-focused one. And while not bad, “Who You Really Are” seems more like a tease and an excuse to bring Jaimie Alexander back as Lady Sif than a story that continues the plotlines of the episodes that preceded it. This is a pretty average hour of television.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
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5/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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With A Little More Characterization, Coulson And Garrett’s “Ragtag” Bands Move Toward An Inevitable Conflict!

The Good: Moments of character, Good special effects, Decent acting
The Bad: Nothing exceptional in terms of performances, Fairly dull plot
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. moves towards its first season finale with the “Ragtag” team trying to save the world and working to crush H.Y.D.R.A.


Moving toward its first season finale, “The Beginning Of The End,” Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. created a somewhat predictable movement episode with “Ragtag.” “Ragtag” actually does more than most penultimate episodes in that it smartly works to reveal the character developments that led to the “shocking betrayal” several episodes back. It is impossible to discuss “Ragtag” without some revelations of spy reversal aspects of earlier episodes from the first season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. So, for those looking to go into the first season of the show blind, at this point in the season, you probably should not be reading episode reviews.

Picking up where “Nothing Personal” (reviewed here!) left off, the show is currently splintered into two groups. The main cast of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been reunited and is now working without legal authority or much in the way of equipment. The H.Y.D.R.A. team – Garrett, Ward, Deathlok, and Raina – has The Bus and is regrouping in order to make its next big move.

With the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents regrouping, Coulson and his team are thrilled by Agent Triplett bringing old spy tech his grandparents had kicking around to aid the team. Coulson figures out that the company that has been aiding H.Y.D.R.A. is Cybertek and he plans a mission to infiltrate the company in order to be able to take the fight to H.Y.D.R.A. Meanwhile, the H.Y.D.R.A. team uses Deathlok to make a very public killing of a drug lord in Columbia, as a show of force. En route to Havana, Cuba, the H.Y.D.R.A. Agents consider their next big move now that S.H.I.E.L.D. is out of the way and Garrett begins to suffer from organ failure in relation to his own cybernetic implants.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents discover that Cybertek is surprisingly easy to break into (by applying for jobs at the company), but that the company does not have digital records. In stealing information on the Deathlok program, Coulson learns that Garrett was the original Deathlok. While Ward works to save Garrett’s life and Raina reveals some of the rumors around Skye’s past to Ward, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team learns where H.Y.D.R.A. is stationed and they figure out how they might beat Garrett and Ward. But in trying to find the Bus, Fitz and Simmons are captured and kept aboard the Bus when the H.Y.D.R.A. agents go airborne again. As Garrett has Raina inject him with the synthesized version of the drug that resurrected Coulson, he uses Fitz and Simmons as a loyalty test for Ward. The episode climaxes with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents entering a H.Y.D.R.A. facility . . . with disastrous results and Quinn approaching high-ranking military officers with an offer to sell Centipede/Deathlok supersoldiers to them!

Peppered throughout the episode are flashbacks to fifteen years prior where the younger version of Ward is broken out of juvenile detention by Garrett. The continued delving into Ward’s past, now with Garrett, is used to try to make sense out of how Ward could have been a double agent. We are treated to scenes of how Garrett conditioned Ward to survive (albeit in some pretty hospitable conditions) and how he worked to make him harder. The enhanced character sequences make sense (use Bill Paxton while you have him, is what I think the producers of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. figure!) but they ultimately fail to ground the episode. Ward was a troubled youth, fine. Through flashbacks, we’ve seen how his older brother manipulated him to become a bully. In “Ragtag,” we see how Garrett used the promising young psychopath to advance his own status within H.Y.D.R.A. and S.H.I.E.L.D. But therein lies the problem with the deeper, more layered, version of Ward: he has spent his formative years working for entirely sinister purposes, trying to kill his bully brother, and then being further raised to be a trained killer. With these new layers, there is no compelling reason why he would not promptly and easily dispose of any of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. he encounters.

Instead, the writer of “Ragtag” goes for the safe route: Ward is conflicted now about continuing with H.Y.D.R.A. and going up against Fitz, Simmons, and Coulson’s team. This, sadly, does not make Ward a more interesting character, it just undermines any credibility he ever had as a superspy. Spies have to have some core of loyalty to an organization or country that is immutable; otherwise, they are just rogues or scoundrels who are selling their services to the highest (or most convenient) bidder. A good spy infiltrates – even for years on end – without developing genuine feelings for their target. Ward was with H.Y.D.R.A. for over a decade and for Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. team for less than a year; if he was swayed so easily toward that group of people one has to wonder who he was with before that he did not connect and just how strong his convictions for H.Y.D.R.A. and Garrett were to begin with.

Sadly, “Ragtag” does not give the viewers answers to these questions. Instead, the episode fills in some of the gaps in Ward’s backstory – now that we know his true allegiance, that’s an important development – and it has an obligatory scene with Skye and May that helps set up the inevitable showdown between Skye and Ward that seems to be in the works. Coulson expresses a geeky quality in “Ragtag” that reminds the viewers of his initial characterization (like pre-Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man franchise Coulson) and he gets the best line of the episode (when he initiates a “file transfer” by throwing a filing cabinet out a fourth story window!), but the episode is not at all a Coulson episode.

Even Fitz gets more of a significant moment in “Ragtag” than Coulson does. Fitz continues to hold out hope that Ward is not evil and the events of “Ragtag” should leave the character emotionally shattered (so it will be interesting to see what kind of role Fitz has in the finale).

Servicing two groups of characters leaves Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. as very plot-heavy show that does not afford any of the main cast the chance to give a truly knockout performance. That is not to say that the acting in “Ragtag” is bad (it’s not); all of the performers (even guest actors like Ruth Negga, David Conrad, and B.J. Britt) seem perfectly comfortable with their characters and embody them within their predictable range. No one really steps up to wow the viewers in “Ragtag.”

Ultimately, “Ragtag” is little more than average and the episode moves the characters into place and prepares the viewers for a super-powered Garrett and the potential that the first season finale will have Skye break out a power or ability that fundamentally alters the character . . . and the show. But in “Ragtag,” we’re not there yet.

For other works directed by Roxann Dawson, please visit my reviews of:
“Riddles” - Star Trek: Voyager
“Workforce, Part 2” - Star Trek: Voyager
“The Andorian Incident” - Enterprise
“Vox Sola” - Enterprise
“Dead Stop” - Enterprise
“Dawn” - Enterprise
“Bounty” - Enterprise
“Exile” - Star Trek: Enterprise
“Chosen Realm” - Enterprise
“Doctor’s Orders” - Star Trek: Enterprise
“E2” - Star Trek: Enterprise
“Awakening” - Star Trek: Enterprise
"Eye Spy" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
Thanks!]

5.5/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Better As A Middle Act Than A Compelling Episode On Its Own: “Awakening”

The Good: Some of the guest actors
The Bad: Huge continuity problems, Robert Foxworth’s performance, Light on plot (much better at explaining prior episodes and foreshadowing the next), No real character development
The Basics: “Awakening” is a mediocre episode that finds Archer possessing Surak’s katra and Tucker learning about the Vulcan High Command’s real agenda.


Reconciling the Star Trek: Enterprise Vulcans with the Vulcans seen in the rest of the Star Trek franchise was bound to be a headache for the writers and producers of Star Trek: Enterprise. After all, in Star Trek, Spock had characterized the Vulcan culture of logic as being in place and stable for thousands of years, so the generation before Star Trek - where Star Trek: Enterprise is set – should have had the Vulcans acting exactly as they had been in every other Star Trek series. To try to explain why they weren’t and how they evolved into the familiar Vulcans was the subject of a three-part arc in the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise. The first part was “The Forge” (reviewed here!) and it continued with “Awakening.”

“Awakening” marks the return of T’Pol’s mother, previously seen in “Home” (reviewed here!) and given the nature of the Syrranites (whom T’Les is associated with), it seems strange that T’Les would have been so accommodating over T’Pol’s emotional entanglement with Tucker. “Awakening” illustrates well the problem of executing a prequel with little respect for the original material. With so much information given to Archer about katras and Vulcan culture, the continuity issues the episode creates are huge. Either the concept of katras should not be new to Admiral Kirk in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (reviewed here!) or the Enterprise crew in Star Trek should not have the deeply ingrained belief that Vulcan culture and history has been based in peace and logic for so long. Hell, in “Awakening,” Vulcan shuttles shoot at the StarFleet shuttlepod as a pretty direct act of aggression.

“Awakening” picks up right where “The Forge” left off with the Enterprise at Vulcan investigating the bombing of the Earth embassy there.

With Archer and T’Pol captured by the Syrranites, T’Pol is reunited with her mother in the middle of the Vulcan desert. Having exposed the potential conspiracy surrounding the Earth embassy bombing, Ambassador Soval is relieved of his duties, ostensibly because Administrator V’Las is in on the implication of the Syrranites. Soval warns Tucker that Archer and T’Pol might be in grave danger from V’Las and his forces as they seek to exterminate the Syrranites.

As T’Pol and T’Les discuss what the Syrranites actually believe, Archer finds himself suffering from the effects of the Vulcan mind-meld from when the desert guide died. Archer has visions of Surak and soon T’Pau – the leader-apparent of the Syrranites now that Syrran is dead – confirms that Surak’s katra is in Archer’s head. While T’Pol explains Vulcan mysticism to Archer and Tucker and Soval work to rescue the officers, V’Las prepares an orbital bombardment on the Forge.

For all my appreciation of Robert Foxworth, “Awakening” is not his best performance in the Star Trek franchise. Arguably cast because of the similarities between V’Las and his prior character, Admiral Leyton, Foxworth plays the Vulcan Administrator with a smirk and unvarnished disdain that is anything but logical (or emotionally reserved). While Kara Zediker (T’Pau), Gary Graham (Soval) and Joanna Cassidy (T’Les) all play Vulcans wonderfully in the episode, outside a single moment of shock crossing his face, John Rubinstein plays the scene-stealing Vulcan in “Awakening.” For a guy who played creepy and menacing so perfectly in Angel (reviewed here!), Rubinstein manages to play entirely emotionless incredibly well. His dispassion accents the undertones of anger that Foxworth puts into V’Las and make the Vulcan seem anything but controlled.

Bruce Gray makes his final Star Trek appearance as the vision of Surak and he does a decent job. Any differences between Gray’s interpretation of Surak and the one that appeared in “The Savage Curtain” (reviewed here!) can easily be explained away by the prior on-screen Surak being a figment of Spock’s imagination.

“Awakening” is an exposition-heavy episode. Surprisingly little actually happens in “Awakening;” more time is spent explaining events that have already occurred (the conspiracy surrounding the embassy bombing) and the nature of the Vulcan biology/philosophy. On Vulcan, Archer is told all about Vulcan mysticism and T’Pau attempts to remove the katra from him, but otherwise much of the scenes on Vulcan with Archer and T’Pol are a bunch of people talking about philosophies and comparative religion. On the other plot, little happens as well; Tucker and Phlox exposed the conspiracy in the prior episode. In “Awakening,” they simply find themselves repeatedly blocked by V’Las until V’Las bombards the Forge. Similarly, “Awakening” foreshadows the final part in the arc when Soval reveals V’Las’s agenda in the episode’s final minutes. But, again, within “Awakening,” not much actually happens.

Despite a significant death in the last moments of “Awakening,” the episode is not at all rich in character. Archer is pushed along as the result of – essentially – the ghost inside him and Tucker just proceeds with the investigation until he has only dead ends before him. What could have been a powerful T’Pol episode is stunted by her and her mother’s scenes being used for tremendous amounts of exposition as opposed to actual character growth.

Ultimately, “Awakening” is an episode that works better in the context of its arc, as opposed to a free-standing episode. It does explain the first part well and sets up the final episode in the arc, but does little else.

The three biggest gaffes in “Awakening:”
3. Given the way V’Las act, there should be no prejudice in Star Trek that Vulcans are pacifists,
2. In Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Spock tried to save his katra so it could be returned to a proper receptacle on Vulcan. There is no reason T’Les should not have made a similar attempt,
1. There is no reason whatsoever that T’Pau would sound nothing like she did in “Amok Time” (reviewed here!), yet her dialect is entirely different in “Awakening!”

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Robert Foxworth, please visit my reviews of:
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Transformers
Six Feet Under
“Paradise Lost” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Homefront” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

4.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Oi! Yet ANOTHER Time Travel Episode Of Star Trek: Enterprise Mars “E2!”

The Good: Performances are fine, Special effects, Moments of character
The Bad: Entirely derivative plot, Derivative character elements, Make-up is mediocre
The Basics: “E2” puts the Enterprise in contact with its own descendants in an episode that is far too familiar for fans of the larger Star Trek franchise.


From the moment the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “E2” (“E Squared”) begins with an ancient T’Pol at an undetermined point in the future, it is hard for fans of the show not to feel like the writers and producers had no idea how to tell a coherent story. While the show tightened up quite a bit with its serialized plotline with “The Forgotten” (reviewed here!) and “E2” continues the important plot threads begun in that episode, the narrative divergence with a future timeline (yet another alternate timeline within the Expanse!) is more of an annoyance than a clever technique.

“E2” plays a lot like “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (reviewed here!) and “Children Of Time” (reviewed here!). In fact, the episode has all of the main characters wrestling with the exact conflicts the crew of the Defiant had in “Children Of Time.” The future Odo is swapped with a future T’Pol, but otherwise much of the character story is identical to “Children Of Time,” further diminishing the episode right off the bat.

As the Enterprise approaches a nebula that will bring them to the Xindi Council in time to make a meeting Degra has invited them to, they become wary of a half-dozen Kavalan ships laying in wait for them. Degra and Jannar work to convince the Xindi Primate leader that Archer must be allowed to address the Council when a duplicate of the NX-01 Enterprise appears and insists that Archer reverse course. Lorien, the captain of the alternate Enterprise, and his first officer, Karyn Archer, come aboard when the Enterprise is safe and warns Archer that if they enter the corridor, the ship will be pushed back in time almost one hundred twenty years. After Phlox determines the crewmembers are who they claim to be, T’Pol becomes convinced when Lorien is revealed to be the son of her and Tucker.

As Lorien and Tucker retrofit the Enterprise’s engines so the ship can go Warp 6 for brief intervals, Tucker learns that he died at a relatively young age. Archer tours the older Enterprise where he learns about the races the ship encountered. His granddaughter brings him to meet T’Pol, T’Pol gives Archer a PADD to give to herself while Reed wrestles with the idea that his family line ends on Enterprise. Willing to betray Captain Archer and his Enterprise, Lorien plans to take a vital engine component in order to make it to the rendezvous with Degra and complete the Enterprise’s mission of saving Earth.

“E2” might not be so bad if it were not for just how much it stole from “Children Of Time.” “Children Of Time” is notable for the fact that the episode had Odo (albeit the future Odo) finally revealing his feeling to Kira; “E2” progresses the Tucker/T’Pol relationship in virtually the same way. While the episode references Archer’s being tortured by the Xindi and being asked how many StarFleet ships are in the Expanse, the idea that the alternate Enterprise is the reason for the questions makes little sense. Of course the Xindi would want to know how many StarFleet ships are in the Expanse! They would not ask repeatedly just because they sensed another StarFleet ship there.

What makes less sense is the idea that with the head start the alternate Enterprise has that they could not stop the first Xindi probe from being launched. T’Pol knows the exact colony that manufactured the first probe (thanks to the Xindi Arboreal in “The Shipment,” reviewed here!); why the Enterprise did not simply disrupt the supply chain long before the probe was ever built makes no sense. The vague explanation that Lorien gives for the failure of his mission is utterly insufficient to please fans.

The special effects in “E2” are good, save the make-up effects. The aged version of T’Pol is hardly one of Michael Westmore’s best executions. Jolene Blalock’s performance is little more than slumping over in the make-up and rasping out her lines. Blalock’s more impressive acting comes in the reaction shots to herself. While T’Pol’s age has never been revealed, her older self seems disproportionately older for a Vulcan than she ought to.

Ultimately, “E2” is overly familiar for fans of the Star Trek franchise and what might have been novel to Enterprise fans is thoroughly banal to those with a larger appreciation for the franchise.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with David Andrews, please visit my reviews of:
Dear John
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
Fight Club
A Nightmare On Elm Street

4/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Really?! “Doctor’s Orders” Is A Cheap Retread Of “Bliss” And “One!”

The Good: John Billingsley’s performance, A good moment between Archer and Phlox
The Bad: Entirely derivative plot, Performance/character issues in the latter half come way too quickly for realism
The Basics: “Doctor’s Orders” might have been a fine episode if it were not for the obvious comparison to episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.


Back in the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise, the episode “Oasis” (reviewed here!) featured Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor Rene Auberjonois in a guest role. One of my favorite convention stories was Rene Auberjonois talking about how he reacted to cast members who thought the derivative episode was original and clever. The moment “Doctor’s Orders” began, I wondered why I never heard a similar story from Roxann Dawson. Dawson directed “Doctor’s Orders” and the episode is essentially a remashing together of the Star Trek: Voyager episodes “One” (reviewed here!) and “Bliss” (reviewed here!). It’s entirely possible that Roxann Dawson did not complain about the derivative nature of “Doctor’s Orders” because she was happy to get the work directing or because Dawson’s character B’Elanna Torres had such a minimal role in both episodes that she did not read the rest of the script for those episodes or watch the finished works to know just how much the Star Trek: Enterprise writers were stealing from the Star Trek: Voyager episodes.

Regardless, “Doctor’s Orders” is a mild horror episode of Star Trek: Enterprise and it is unfortunately similar to prior episodes in the Star Trek franchise. Moreover, “Doctor’s Orders” has a premise that seems unfortunately contrived. T’Pol has been a valued confidant of Captain Archer, so the idea that Archer would turn over command to Dr. Phlox is thoroughly formulated as opposed to organic (until the penultimate scene).

En route to Azati Prime, the Enterprise encounters a massive stellar phenomenon that would detour the crew for two weeks. Unwilling to put off their trip for such an amount of time, Dr. Phlox theorizes that he can protect the crew’s neocortexes (which would be disrupted by the spatial anomaly) by inducing a coma for each of the members of the crew. After training in all the key systems, Dr. Phlox assumes command from Archer and puts the Captain into his coma. After spending time with Porthos, walking around naked, and dictating a letter to a colleague, Phlox hears a loud noise and reports to Engineering where he finds a conduit venting.

There, he also finds T’Pol awake and walking around. Despite hearing more noises around the ship, T’Pol, Porthos, and Phlox are supposedly the only life forms still on Enterprise. After having a dinner with T’Pol wherein Phlox admits he is having difficulty with the solitude of the situation (and T’Pol expressing the exact opposite), Phlox sees a life form out one of the windows. T’Pol dismisses the existence of the creature, but Phlox remains certain he saw it. Shortly thereafter, Phlox sees two Xindi Insectoids and the he hallucinates Sato as a zombie. Fearing that he is going crazy, Phlox makes a troubling discovery that causes him to question his judgment.

“Doctor’s Orders” uses a number of traditional horror conceits in order to maintain the suspense surrounding Dr. Phlox and his apparent hallucinations. The horror aspects work far less well than the character elements in “Doctors Orders,” probably because the episode includes important cuts – like Phlox seeing the Xindi Insectoid, but none evident behind him when he thinks one is chasing him and external shots of the Enterprise that do not have any other ships in the area. The character aspects of “Doctor’s Orders” give viewers quite a bit more information on Denobulans and Vulcans.

T’Pol notes that the Vulcans prefer solitude and that the days without the rest of the crew have actually been like a vacation to her. By contrast, Phlox reveals that the highly-social Denobulans like himself find the lack of company torturous. The interplay between the two outsider characters in “Doctor’s Orders” is good and the moment the two realize they are trapped deep within the phenomenon, the character work is instantly compelling.

Unfortunately, that is also the time the episode falls apart. As my wife noted, the episode becomes especially whiny and while it makes sense that T’Pol would be affected by the mysterious space, the rate at which she starts degrading after the ship’s location within the anomaly is way too fast. Jolene Blalock’s performance falls apart in the latter quarter of the episode and while it makes for humorous moments, it does not make a lick of character sense. In fact, the changes in Blalock’s body language makes little rational sense for T’Pol’s character. Even with the ultimate resolution to the episode (the episode has a pretty obvious reversal near the end), the performance aspects Blalock brings to the character do not make sense.

On the other hand, John Billingsley gives a solid performance as Dr. Phlox. As his character comes unglued, Phlox changes his body language and he sells the unsettling nature of the situation more than the music does.

Unfortunately, the reversal near the very end of the episode is much more predictable than surprising and as a result, the episode has a very floppy quality to it. The episode stole from two better episodes and made something dramatically worse.

The three biggest gaffes in “Doctor’s Orders:”
3. Given how Phlox seems to know all about inducing comas through technology and applies that effortlessly in the episode, it seems like someone like in Section 31 would have long ago come up with a standard countermeasure to such devices or technology so it could not be used as a weapon against StarFleet. As such, “Bliss” should never have happened,
2. Given the sophistication of Dr. Phlox’s coma-inducing devices, it seems like StarFleet would have been able to recognize the effects of being forced into comas, like in “Clues” (reviewed here!),
1. If suspended animation or induced comas were a matter of fact in 22nd Century StarFleet, it seems like they would have had far better technology to induce comas in the 24th Century (as opposed to the bulky tubes used in “One.”

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

2.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Star Trek: Enterprise Gets Back On Track With The “Chosen Realm!”

The Good: Good themes, Decent performances
The Bad: Predictable plot, The CG bat is not quite right
The Basics: When the Enterprise is taken hostage by zealots, Star Trek: Enterprise continues the long-running Star Trek theme against organized religion.


Say what you will about Gene Roddenberry’s vision for the Star Trek franchise, but there are few aspects of his vision that have survived like his distrust of organized religion. Roddenberry had surprisingly few episodes of Star Trek that he actually wrote, but one of the first was “The Return Of The Archons” (reviewed here!) and it had a strong correlation between religion and cultism. That connection has been upheld in virtually every incarnation of Star Trek, with cults being very specifically targeted in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “Covenant” (reviewed here!). Star Trek: Enterprise followed in that long tradition when it presented “Chosen Realm.”

“Chosen Realm” is likely to offend those who deny religious hypocrisy and the issues that come with religious belief being taken to the point that one would kill for it. While it might offend some, Star Trek fans are likely to find the episode surprisingly formulaic. There might not be a ton of character development in “Chosen Realm” – Archer is given the choice of one crewmember to kill to save his ship and his choice is fairly obvious – but the episode still flows surprisingly well.

Having discovered a third Sphere in the Expanse, Tucker and Mayweather return to the Enterprise in a Shuttlepod, inadvertently bringing the Triannon with them. Not long after, the Enterprise receives a distress call, while T’Pol is looking over the data concerning the Sphere. The distress call comes from the Triannon, who are a spiritual people who worship the Spheres. At dinner with their leader, Pri’Nam D’Jamat, describes the Expanse as the Chosen Realm, and reveals that he has visited twelve of what he claims are thousands of Spheres. D’Jamat believes the spatial anomalies the Spheres create are the breath of their gods, the Makers. Given how much faster the Enterprise is than the Triannon ship, D’Jamat uses his followers as suicide bombers to take control of the ship.

While Phlox resists being confined to quarters, the Enterprise falls under the influence of D’Jamat. D’Jamat takes control of the Enterprise with a very different mission. He wants to bomb his enemies on Triannon out of existence and he gives Archer a lesser sentence for the crimes he accuses the Captain of. Given a choice of saving his ship at the cost of one life, Archer fools D’Jamat with the transporter and while the invading force is no longer considering him, he and Phlox work to disable the Triannon organic explosives and retake the ship.

Despite feeling like a bottle episode, “Chosen Realm” is a decent chapter in the serialized third season of Star Trek: Enterprise. Written and produced at a time when anti-Muslim sentiments were high in the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks, “Chosen Realm” lacks a sense of subtlety and thematic nuance. The Triannons under D’Jamat’s influence have been fighting a religious war for centuries over one sect’s belief that the Expanse was created in nine days vs. the sect that believes it took ten days. That level of absurdity makes the themes of “Chosen Realm” painfully obvious, though in the long-term the comparison to Christian fundamentalists in America might resonate better than the “religious zealot as terrorist” aspect that was born of post-9/11 paranoia.

On the acting front, “Chosen Realm” is dominated by Scott Bakula and guest star Conor O’Farrell. O’Farrell is a recognizable character actor (in “Chosen Realm” more for his voice than his appearance, as he usually appears with less hair and no prosthetics!) and he has the on-screen gravitas to hold his own opposite Bakula. Bakula continues the portrayal of Archer as a moody, somewhat introspective, captain and O’Farrell plays the opposite as D’Jamat. O’Farrell is able to express zealot passion and anger with his eyes alone and director Roxann Dawson is smart and savvy enough to linger on O’Farrell’s face during key scenes.

“Chosen Realm” is simplistic and it is definitely biased by the times – Indava, one of the Triannons, wants an abortion, which is against the Triannon religion – and heavy-handed (the last shots of the episode are pretty obvious), but the episode is not bad. Fleshing out the beings that live in the Expanse works fairly well in “Chosen Realm” and makes the episode worth watching, though the performances are the biggest selling point.

The two biggest gaffes in “Chosen Realm:”
2. D’Jamat had access to the Enterprise’s computers and prior log entries before Archer bamboozled him with the transporter. As a result, D’Jamat should have been able to see: a. what the transporter was for, b. that the Enterprise had never carried out any executions (much less using the transporter for it), and c. that executing prisoners violated StarFleet beliefs (given that this precedes “The Menagerie,” reviewed here, there would be no crimes that carried the death penalty for StarFleet officers),
1. Once again, Vulcans are actively part of a deception (though T’Pol’s lies in “Chosen Realm” are more lies of omission), which is not a cultural conceit of the Vulcans.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Connor O’Farrell, please visit my reviews of:
Revolution - Season 1
True Blood - Season 5
Flash Of Genius
“Rogue Planet” - Enterprise
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season Four
“Little Green Men” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

6.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Star Trek: Enterprise Does Beauty And The Beast With Death Stars In “Exile!”

The Good: Moments of character, Decent enough acting
The Bad: Some super-cheesy special effects, Predictable plot
The Basics: Hoshi Sato is kept as a captive when a lonely alien offers information on the Xindi and the Enterprise investigates the alien spheres in “Exile.”


The common wisdom in storytelling is that every story has already been told and now, magic in film and television comes by the familiar story being told in an imaginative new way. Unfortunately, in the Star Trek franchise, the last iteration of Trek, Star Trek: Enterprise, lost most of its originality and attempts at cleverness for the bulk of the series. One of the prime examples of how dull Enterprise was in terms of rewriting old words is “Exile.” “Exile” is basically Beauty And The Beast rewritten.

To be fair to “Exile,” the episode actually makes decent use of Hoshi Sato. Sato, like Mayweather, is one of the most neglected characters in Star Trek: Enterprise. In “Exile,” pretty much everything the viewer knows about Hoshi Sato is reiterated: she is nervous about space travel, she is a recluse, and she is a gifted linguist. Ironically, little is added to her character in “Exile” – save that her gifted nature was recognized at a young age by her parents and she was given special tutoring as a result and that she might have a secret crush on Mayweather (did they even have any scenes together in the prior two seasons?!) – but the viewer still feels like Sato is given a good run in the episode.

After Hoshi Sato hallucinates a being that can communicate with her, Phlox and Archer become concerned that Sato might be coming unhinged. As T’Pol locates a probable second sphere in the Expanse and the Enterprise diverts its course to confirm the sphere’s location and get specific readings, Sato is contacted again by the telepathic alien, who shows her images of his home planet. When the alien offers to help Sato find information on the Xindi, Archer redirects the Enterprise to find the planet Sato saw in her mind. On the planet, Archer, Sato, and Reed find the alien Tarquin.

Tarquin agrees to exchange information on the Xindi for Sato’s company if she’ll stay with him while the Enterprise moves on to explore the location of the second sphere. Tarquin begins to read Sato’s mind more and she quickly realizes he is terribly lonely. When Archer and Tucker use a shuttlepod to penetrate the barrier around the sphere, they are able to get more readings on the spheres and almost get stranded. Just as T’Pol realizes how dire the situation within the Expanse actually is, Sato comes to believe that Tarquin will not simply let her go when the Enterprise returns for her.

“Exile” is successful in that it intriguingly teases concepts that continue to resonate for the rest of the season. The moment Tarquin sees Dolim in his vision, the episode relies upon viewers having seen prior episodes, both to understand the significance of the alien and to recall the importance of the sphere from “Anomaly” (reviewed here!). The hunt for the Xindi, information on them and their facilities and capabilities is largely what the third season of Enterprise is about and the b-plot elements, the ones away from Hoshi Sato and the Beauty And The Beast-remake, actually make the unextraordinary episode feel fresher than it actually is.

Tarquin loses a lot of his pathos when director Roxann Dawson plays up his creepiness as opposed to the loneliness that supposedly drives the character. This is unfortunate because it telegraphs the reversal near the end when Sato is given a choice on whether to stay with Tarquin or return to the Enterprise. Despite Tarquin sharing a book that intellectually fascinates Sato, she and Tarquin have little chemistry because Tarquin is not direct or romantic in his advance on Sato, he’s creepy.

“Exile” is also hampered some by the special effects. While the make-up department did a good, though unimaginative, job on Tarquin (he looks an awful lot like a Xindi Reptile), the computer generated effects surrounding the shuttlepod are often miscolored or animated-looking.

Still, it is not enough to completely sink “Exile;” the episode is fair, but not superlative in any way. The episode is essential for the Star Trek Enterprise plot, but it is not remarkable; it is a somewhat creepy take on a classic story made worthwhile for the elements that ignore the main plot as opposed to the primary story it is trying to tell.

The three biggest gaffes in “Exile:”
3. Sato mentions “Medieval Klingon,” a language that seems to only exist in this episode and makes absolutely no sense for her to have knowledge of considering how poor the relations have been between the Klingons and humans and Vulcans,
2. This episode marks the first time that the Expanse is revealed to be an artificial construct. Unfortunately, it undermines literally dozens of other phenomenon, devices, and anomalies explored in the Star Trek universe, most notably the Dyson Sphere in “Relics” (reviewed here!) and V’Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (reviewed here!). The size of those constructs was awed at by the respective Enterprise crews. Did not a single member of the Enterprise or Enterprise-D crew ever read about the Expanse?! ,
1. Considering how early this adventure is in Federation history, Tuvok and Kim should never have been bamboozled in “Alter Ego” (reviewed here!). Given how “Exile” is virtually a rewrite of that episode, Tuvok should have been onto the alien in “Alter Ego” almost instantly.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
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For other works directed by Roxann Dawson, please visit my reviews of:
“Riddles” - Star Trek: Voyager
“Workforce, Part 2” - Star Trek: Voyager
“The Andorian Incident” - Enterprise
“Vox Sola” - Enterprise
“Dead Stop” - Enterprise
“Dawn” - Enterprise
“Bounty” - Enterprise
“Eye Spy” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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