The Andorian Incident

Captain Archer decides to drop in uninvited on some Vulcan Monks and their sacred monestary/spa planet. However, they already had some guests...Andorians...the Vulcan's cold war enemy. The Andorians are blue devil humanoid type  beings with some really freaky antennae, the function of which, I haven't yet determined. The Andorians, love kicking butt and the butt they loved to kick the most in this episode was Archer's. Captain Kirk would have been rolling in his grave if he had been born yet watching how Archer took beating after beating without even throwing a punch back. The Andorians, who call humans "pinkskins" take the landing crew hostage while they search the planet for some illegal spying equipment that they believe the Vulcans have on this planet in violation of their treaty. Even though Archer took a good whipping, that didn't slow him down from kind of forcing T'Pol to cuddle with him as the night became colder in their cell. Unfortanutely for T her nasal numbing spray had worn off and she had to endure the full human scent during the whole cuddle session.

Well, turns out the blue devils, whom my wife thought bore an eery resemblence to Billy Idol, were right, the Vulcans had a massive hidden spy station hidden underground. Archer and the Andorian make up and the Andorian said he was in Archer's debt.

The best line of the episode was when the Vulcans were explaining something, Trip said he "was all ears...no offense."

Terra Nova

Some humans left earth and started a new colony on a new planet 70 years ago, back when it took 9 years each way to get to the planet from earth. Something goes wrong on the new planet and the humans forget somehow that they are humans, move underground, eat only "digger meat" and start hating humans, whom they all accuse of speaking "shale". Unexplained was the severe acne and extreme dis-coloring of these "humans".  The fate of these folks had been a bigger mystery than Flight 19 in the Bermuda Triangle, but luckily Archer and his crew, especially the Boomer, who is obsessed with the Terra Nova mystery, got the credit for solving it.

Unexpected

Trip goes over to help an alien ship fix some engines, gets seduced by a lizard humainoid woman and ends up getting himself pregnant. Some Klingons they run into give him the old school advice of moving on and forgetting it, but in this instance, that was of no help and he didn't want to admit to the ultra macho Klingons his situation. They finally track down the lizard girl, she agrees to have the child transfered to "another host" and Trip keeps on steppin'. Trip seemed to be in love with the lizard woman, but both lizard and their offspring are quickly forgotten by Trip. Strange....

Strange New World

Stardate: TBD
The crew go on a camping trip on a planet that is much like earth. The pollen starts making all the humans hallucinate some rock people and T'Pol has to hold it together and save everyone. I wasn't especially impressed with the crosswind landing in which Tucker damages a shuttle craft, but that happens. My favorite part of the episode was when they looked up and found our sun in the sky while telling ghost stories around the campfire.

Fight or Flight

Stardate: Unknown, tbd by the crew
In this episode once again T'Pol recommends strongly that Archer NOT approach a ship disabled out in deep space, where it turns out that all of the alien crew have been murdered and had theri lymphatic fluids harvested (unfortunately no morphing salt buffaloes this time). Archer ignores T'Pol and almost gets everyone killed. Hoshi uses her developing skills to save the crew and overcomes her lack of confidence and fear that she doesn't have the "right stuff" to be a crewmember and overcomes her fear that she was better suited to her former position at the University. Not only did Hoshi find that she is suited for her new environment aboard a starship, she also finds a suitable new environment for her space slug pet.

Broken Bow Parts 1 & 2

Stardate -309952.5
OK, the mission officially begins with my observations on the first Star Trek if we go in Star Trek chronological order (but there is the flashback scene in one of the movies when Dr. Cochran makes the first Warp speed flight I think, but we'll ignore that issue for now and let my navigator worry about that). So anyway, I think the date is like 2150 maybe and it is several years since the first warp flight attracted the attention of the Vulcans and it looks like they invaded us and took over sort of, logically and benignly, sometimes they help us, but they often tell us what to do. The show starts with a good 'ol boy in Oklahoma shooting a Klingon with a Plasma Rifle. Captain Archer then takes the first Star Trek Enterprise (our first Warp 5 capable starship) with his crew to return the wounded Klingon to his people. The Vulcans allow all of this to happen as long as Archer lets T'Pol, an attractive, sarcastic, told you so, logical, science officer, subcommander go on the trip. They have a bunch of adventures out there and at one point Archer threatens to "knock T'Pol on her ass"...hmm this Star Trek series seems to have a sharper edge than the other series, but OK, I'm not watching it from my playpen as I did with the original series in the early 70's. Archer calmed himself down by spending time with this beagle which he brought along. They have some other crew members along as well of course. The doctor is some kind of alien, but he seems competent and friendly enough. As a German teacher I was especially interested in the language/cultural officer Hoshi...she speaks fluent Vulcan (if there is such a language) & Klingon (which makes German look easy). Then there is Trip, the engineer...seems to come from my part of the country (Southwest Missouri/SE Kansas). I will describe the others in future entries. Luckily, their mission, with T'Pol's help is successful and even though she acts like she hates the humans she signs on to be a permanent member of the crew. My favorite part of the show was the young Archer flying his model spaceship with his Dad who gives him the advice "don't be afraid of the wind" which Archer repeats at the end of the show to the Boomer before they foolishly fly directly into an Ion storm instead of going around it, but it was a nice threading of the theme from the beginning to tie things all together at the end and I loved the reference to flying and fearing the wind, especially crosswinds is something with which we pilots often struggle. This series will never match up to the original with Kirk, but it looks entertaining enough.

Mission Log

Stardate: -309958.4
My 5 year mission to watch every Star Trek ever made has begun. I am working in "Star Trek" chronological order and have started with the Enterprise series. I will then rewatch the original series with Captain Kirk, even though I have seen all of these episodes to the point of memorization, then the Star Trek cartoon and that is when it gets a bit tricky, but luckily I have a true Trekkie navigator who will no doubt chart my course in the comment section below.
The Enterprise series looks promising. I always enjoyed Scott Bakula's acting on Quantum Leap. The intro theme song doesn't seem to fit with what I was expecting, but I do enjoy seeing the history of flight go by: The Wright's Flier, Lindbergh landing in Paris, Alan Shephard getting ready to blast off and the Space Shuttle Enterprise that I watched in its test flights back in the 70's.  As a Private Pilot myself (and yes obsessed with all things flying whether they are real or science fiction), I was really impressed with all of these scenes. OK, now to officially launch this mission. Description of Episode 1 to follow: