“Civilization”

Watching for the very first time the Enterprise series, I have to say that I am very dissapointed, the first episodes are rather boring and uninspired, and there is no chance to be compared to Next Generation, or even Voyager.

I hope the episodes get better later.

So, we have an infant civilization, which: (1) Looks anatomically almost exactly like humans, (2) has women who cover their hair, (3) builds houses with red roof tiles, (4) has streetlights using what look like incandescent lightbulbs, (5) uses doors with squeaky hinges.

This is getting really old.

Who cares about the rest of the episode; the above put me off in the first five minutes. Have they NO imagination whatever???

One more, one more: So, El Jefe and whoever-the-guy-with-him-was are cornered by a broad brandishing a weapon. T'Pol sneaks up to her and tasers her, and the "captain" body-slams T'POL with "Was that really necessary?" WTF!?!?! No, Archer, coz usually when you've got someone angry and aggressive pointing a weapon at you threatening to pop you, what you want to do is offer to hug them and talk about their misplaced belligerence, rather than try to neutralize them using a non-lethal method. Dumbass.

I partially agree and partially disagree with Jammer's analysis here. Nothing of substance here? Probably not, but I still found it enjoyable. I understand being anxious for more substance early in the first series, but I don't mind the occasional episode like this.

Not really sure why this is a prime directive matter. It was the other ship that was interfering in the affairs of this world, not Enterprise. They were simply trying to stop that interference, drawing as little attention to themselves as possible.

Just because they didn't end with a trite discussion on ethics doesn't mean they didn't learn something. These are the experiences on which the prime directive was later verbalized.

I fell asleep watching this episode.

Sometimes i just love certain episodes for what they offer,despite their lack of substance

The first time i watched 'civilization' i felt very entertained by solid pacing, a terrific and innovative score by JAY CHATTAWAY, an adorable guest actress, well executed action sequences and, above all, a stunning production design ( watch all the details in the shop).

In my opinion, other TV-Series can't offer even half of the dedication that was put into ENTERPRISE.
And not every single episode has to be a lesson about right or wrong choices, as long as they're entertaining.

ROGUE PLANET for example was boring AND without substance or any kind of productiom value.

'CIVILISATION' will always remain one of my favourite season One episodes

I really have been enjoying this series. Although, yeah, a lot of it is pedestrian trek (which I really like anyway), I am enjoying everything about them being fresh out in space.

But, this episode really fell down. After the final firefight - where are all the people? How are they affected by all this action in the middle of their city? The episode didn't address this at all. They just disappear and that's the end of that. Talk about lazy.

I so wanted to like this episode, but after the intro I paused it and made a little list in my head:

1. if Archer goes down he will meet a woman.
2. the person who ends up helping the away team will be an open-minded genius way ahead of their time.
3. Archer, ever the bumbling fool, will be found out and be seen as a demon/sorcerer/whatever.
4. Oh there's an anti-matter reactor now? So much for the list, this episode already sucks.

Well, 3 out 4 isn't bad. I really hoped that they, for once, wouldn't reveal how super duper awesome advanced they are to the backward yokels, but there was the scene not even half way through.

I liked Chattaway's score. It was the first time I really noticed that they were going for a different tact with the music (and that became especially prominent starting with the third season).

I laughed so hard when Archer kissed Rianne. I saw it as the writers' personal in-joke/homage to TOS times when Kirk would always get the girl. That was my personal interpretation anyway, especially since this was an episode made in the grand tradition of Star Trek-style beam-down-to-the-planet-of-the-week-exploration.

I guess T'Pol is to this show what Worf was to in TNG...the crewmember who says the reasonable thing and immediately gets shouted down by others who need the plot to get going.

This episode is a great example of why I like Star Trek: Enterprise so much. I think the episode was understated and contained great interactions between the characters. The love story was convincing and compelling. Some have complained about the series in general being underwhelming. I instead, find it subtle and restrained, intelligent and sincere. The captain's thoughtful approach really embodies this spirit.

So when the Captain kisses a beautiful Alien woman its a problem?

...only on Enterprise...

Who said the kiss was a problem? I see two mentions more-or-less appreciating the joke.

@Gskunk: If you haven't already seen this video I think you'd appreciate it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=edflm7Hh3hs

Peremensoe,

I read Jammer's reviews.

Jammer: "There's a bit of goofiness here involving a malfunctioning universal translator. Archer must cover up by "spontaneously" kissing Riann."

Jammer: "The romance is based on the whims of scriptwriters (perhaps fulfilling the opening stretch's Archer Must Kiss a Girl quota), not because of characterization or motivation."

Hm. I missed the second bit, read the first as approving.

I thought it was clear that the kiss is meant to be funny, both in the "goofy" context of the moment and as a meta reference to Kirk.

I guess I don't see Kirk's Beautiful Alien Woman dalliances as any less writer-whimsical. I'm not sure why Jammer's looking for more from Archer.

I'm not sure why anyone would require more of Archer throughout the series. They treat him like he is part of an organization that's been around for 100 years... they seem to forget he's the 1st one out here.

Jammer, first of all you are not even getting the facts of the story correct. Riann doesn't invite Archer at T'Pol back, Archer asked to return and when he did he had T'Pol in tow and introduced her as a fellow scientist. And it wasn't the antimatter reactor poisoning the water, it was the drill bits saturated in tetracyonate... As for your review, I think you're being a bit harsh. This episode clearly isn't meant as a prequel to the prime directive, although there are some aspects of that. T'Pol does convince Archer not to make first contact, so Archer rightly decides on an undercover observation mission, especially when they detect the antimatter reactor. Besides, just a few episodes later that writers did put forth a terrific prime directive prequel with "Dear Doctor"... Star Trek episodes don't always have to "make a point", and can just be fun every so often.

I thought this made a strong start and I had anticipated it was heading in a Prime Directive prequel kind of manner given the lack of protocols for handling pre-warp societies. However, after discovering there was a reason to intervene we quickly devolved into a skulking and shooting actioner that left behind any sense of deftness in the handling.

Nevertheless, as an actioner it worked fairly well, even if playing up some major cliches. But even Archer getting the girl had a playful nod to TOS so it's difficult to mark it down too much on that account. 2.5 stars.

Thank you Shannon for saving me some typing.

Soooo.... Archer get's to kiss and alien and she likes it! A homage to TOS of I've ever seen one. :-)

I also thought they were going to more pointedly delve into the Prime Directive thing, but I'm fine they didn't. I probably would have been upset had they thrown that in our faces using this plot.

All in all a fun episode. Glad they involved Hoshi. Linda does a great job with her part here IMO.

Love it when T'Pol stunned that gal!

"ARCHER: Was that necessary?
T'POL: She was armed.
ARCHER: Let's try not to shoot anyone else while we're here, okay?
T'POL: I'll try."

lol

2.5 stars from me.

I felt like this episode was similar to "Thine Own Self" from TNG, but not nearly as compelling. Plus, the reveal of a secret facility hiding underneath a building where there shouldn't be technology was used in "The Adorian Incident" just two episodes prior.
The thing that stuck in my mind the most about this episode was when they took a picture, from space, of one native girl and decided "oh, we can do a little stage makeup and fit right in with these people we know nothing about". I know that they are kinda new to this exploring thing, but that's pretty dumb.

Very nice (***) I really don't understand why people have a problem with life on other M class planets developing like life on earth. Seems logical to me that given similar circumstances you'd get similar results.

Just realized - the Malurians are the same race that gets wiped out by Nomad in TOS "The Changeling".

So let me get this straight - Archer aggravates every hostile alien force known to exist and tells them they're humans from earth? No wonder earth is under constant attack.

I have to preface this by saying that I think enterprise is the best of the star trek series. Mostly due to the acting and the more realistic dialogue.

As for this episode, I thought it was about average for the series. But it was most certainly a precursor of the prime directive. Many of enterprise's episodes were about it, but not explicitly, and I think this would go down in Archer's logs as one of the reasons to have the prime directive. Or at least the way they handled it in the show.

I don't think Picard would have had a problem trying to get rid of the alien on the planet, but not by blatantly telling someone there that they are aliens, but that is only another example of us humans learning to interact with other species. Archer is the first and is basically making it up as he goes along remember.

I give it 2 1/2 stars.

This episode would make it seem that Star Trek's production values have not progressed in 50 years. The crew land on a planet full of 'aliens' who walk, talk, dress, look and live exactly like humans, who drink tea and go to the market and live in nice villages with cobbled streets and houses with doors and windows. In fact, other than two budget-friendly bumps on the natives' foreheads, the planet overall is indistinguishable from Earth.

Coupled with a clumsy and awkward romance theme, this is a really lazy and uninspired installment. A handful of shows in, I'm really warming to the 'earthiness' of the characters. It seems to be the lackluster stories that let the whole thing down.

Since this is my first watch though, I look forward to improvements.

78 light years in less than half a season, with a top speed of Warp 4.5. Hmm...

Something no one has mentioned - this episode was shot the week of September 10-14, 2001. Ring any bells? The actors and crew had a TERRIBLE time working during the 9-11-01 aftermath. Any criticism of the actors should be suspended in totality for this episode.
That aside, I'm fond of this episode but it does have several areas that could be improved:

1) The aliens should have been a LITTLE less humanoid. The parallels are too convenient, but that happens a lot in Trek. They've only got 45 minutes to tell the story so they have to take shortcuts somewhere.

2) The timing seemed off - the actual "time". They've already gone 78 light years? Maybe it should have been 28 or 38, but 78 seems wrong. The other timing: how many hours actually passes and how long is a day on that planet? Seems like Riaan's little cottage had light streaming in whether it was night or day, morning or afternoon. Did Archer hang with her all day until they went to watch the back door of the shop? Maybe that is when they had a little time to flirt or get familiar?

3) T'Pol is jealous. Really jealous. Is this the behavior of a Vulcan, even a slightly emotional one? Spock was half human and didn't make snot remarks to Kirk about his behavior with aliens. She told him to "enjoy your tea" with the venom of a rattlesnake, and I can only attribute that to the director.

4) The writing is predictable, with the exception of the Malurians turning out to be scaled under their masks. That was a cool twist. It was pretty standard, but as Trek goes, I would have liked to see something slightly different happen. Riaan's reaction to the various space age technology was unremarkable.

5) Sets were budget. You can see the wall shake when Bakula jumps up from behind a well to a doorway so he can shoot at the oil lamp, towards the end. Maybe they were just too tired to notice during the shooting - remembering 9-11.

6) Transporting the reactor from the basement to the transporter room, then re-transporting it into orbit in time for the Malurian ship to crash into it. WHAT? Just transport the thing into orbit. Why the need for a stop mid-way inside Enterprise? Ain't that a little, um, DANGEROUS?

7) transitioning at the end. The medicine to cure the people with the disease just showed up, and Archer with it. It's bothersome, again, back to the timing. What happened between destroying the reactor and the morning (?) the liquid arrives.

8) Did Archer spend more time on the planet with Riaan or go back to Enterprise? His lines from the writers were uninspiring - "you bet." I did like the inside easter egg to TOS - a little romance is part of life - indeed, unless we are all test tube babies in 2150, without sex there won't be 10 billion humans on Earth, so it's not unreasonable for Archer to feel close to Riaan if he's spent 5-6 days down there with an intelligent, attractive female, to kiss her goodbye.

This story could have been really developed much better, but I hardly blame the characters, or the cast and crew. Shannon, thanks for saving me MORE typing.
I give it 3 stars and see it for what it is - a plain wrap Trek that shows the crew how interfering might be a bad idea, as a prelude to Dear Doctor where they are asked again for HELP - the Prime Directive is part of Archer's invention. Fans need to stop slamming him for "not being Picard" and take Archer for who Archer is -the first captain of a deep space ship in Starfleet, 8 episodes in, and filmed the week of our 9-11 terrorist attack.

3 stars. Solid if not inspired

Comfortable is how I would describe this episode with a neat little society the crew go undercover to investigate mysterious goings on and team up with a citizen to solve the problem. Nice production too. Nothing remotekyboruginsl but entertaining nonetheless

It is another derivative ok show on surface. Actually quite enjoyable. What I really liked was the captain's attitude. Despite being "pre-industrial", those people are not backward morons. The Doc said it loud and clear: had that scientist be born on earth or Vulcan, she would be very successful. The notion is quite clear: ancient people were NOT less intelligent or capable than modern people, so there is no evident reason for patronizing "pre-industrial" civilizations. Archer did the right thing.
Another blow on the contrived Vulcan "prime directive" policy.

Thought this episode might be an intelligent pre-cursor to the Prime Directive -- not interfering with a pre-warp culture -- but ultimately that didn't pan out and it just became a standard action/adventure with Archer getting a girl. The cultural contamination issue is just left with the girl Riann having seen things that nobody else on her world will believe and the Enterprise crew doesn't do any reflection on what they've been through. Would have been nice at the end to see Archer respond to T'Pol's caution from the start of the episode. So the episode disappoints in that respect.

There wasn't even much of a mystery to unravel. Archer & co. know right off the bat they have to do something about the reactor and it's just a question of mechanics. I suppose it was clever to beam the reactor near the more powerful enemy ship and blow it up to disable the enemy. This is similar to the street battle scene at the end where Riann tells Archer to phaser a street lamp which blows up and KOs the bad guys.

I guess I wonder about Archer just letting the bad guys beam away back to their ship -- he has no authority to do anything to them, but what's stopping them from coming back with another reactor for more mining? What of the case where Star Fleet sees another advanced culture messing with a pre-warp culture? Here, there's no formal PD yet so Archer just takes it upon himself to figure out the mystery of the reactor come hell or high water.

A couple of the scenes with Archer and Riann were silly -- the whole UT not working so Archer kisses Riann (can she not hear the beeping of the device and ask what's going on?) and then there's the yellow/blue button scene...not very intelligent stuff.

Barely 2.5 stars for "Civilization" and it's meaningless title. This is the kind of episode that ENT should do something better with -- make it more intelligent instead of it being so mechanical. The bad guys were stiff, stock villains, but seem to be more advanced than the Enterprise crew, but without the morals to go with it. Not a waste of an hour, however, it was unsatisfying.

One of most common complaints I read in the review is that the episode presents nothing new, which is true in so far that the stories elements have been done to death in all sorts of media. On one hand I feel that the writers should try to come up with new things, one the other hand the older you get and the more stories you read/view/whatever the bigger the chance that they will become boring and predictable. To you that is. People (mostly younger?) who haven't come across to many stories like this yet would probably enjoy this more. While this view may be a little depressing, I wonder what could be done about it other than complaining, blaming the writers, or become apathetic. Look for something new? I don't really know and think this is enough psychology for now. :-)

(too many)

This Trip character is ridiculous. He's quick-tempered, insubordinate, and all around despicable.

I, for one felt this was one of the best Star Trek episodes of all time....including all series renditions. It reminded me a little of "City on the edge of forever" in regards to style. On a trivial note, I agree with John. I never warmed up to Trip's character. I always found him insolent, disrespectful to his superiors, reckless, and acted like an excited high school boy.
Enterprise is my favorite Star Trek series notwithstanding.

The Enterprise crew (especially Archer and Trip) being belligerent idiots is getting very tiring indeed, and we're barely halfway into season one. What's worse is this could have been the episode to actually challenge their gung-ho attitudes, but no, just a shootout and an easy fix. 2 stars.

Oh great just what I want to hear about, a virus that’s killing the inhabitants of a planet. Ended up being a decent episode though. Eight episodes in I’m starting to get the idea that Enterprise has more of a baseline quality to it than the other series. The lows aren’t as low but the highs aren’t as high either. That’s my take away this far at least.

A couple of points not mentioned.

1 What the hell was that insubordination by Trip? He seemed to think he was in control. That kind of thing should have been nailed down by Archer from the start. Is TPol 2nd in command or what? They can’t be deciding this stuff when he’s not there. Poor leadership.

2 Quite the kickass move by TPol, use their own reactor as a weapon. Not seen or suspected anything like that from her, but she’s given zero credit by anyone - no mention by Trip he was wrong or the Captain saying ‘well done’. I mean come on, that was a decent move. I know we’re used to it, but they’re not...

A very good episode! I think I see why it did not do well though from the comments. **And this is not a riff on what others think about the show**:

It seems that a lot of Star Trek fans are comfortable with the "rules" already set down. (eg Humans are civilized, Prime Directive, etc). I would actually be disappointed if Enterprise ran like that! This show shows that exploration is fresh, new and the humans travel is seat of the pants and untried

Also, I applaud the way the episode turned out. Because if there was a bad contamination of culture from Enterprise, THEN it would be foolish of the crew to do it again and again. This way, with bad aliens on the planet doing bad things and our heroes stopping them, it would make sense if Archer and co do this kind of thing again (so that plot isn't shut down the rest of the series). I mean, yes, eventually they (or another 22nd century crew) will do something that will make Starfleet realise that a non-interference policy is prudent. Until then, I can enjoy the show!

I also like the indigenous woman from the planet. Maybe my tastes differ from most, but many of the actresses are not attractive to me, but she is.

I also like that they refrained from bad language this episode. For that and other reasons, this is the last Star Trek series (I mean the last one made) that I watch

@H S Rivney

Point #6: Once again, this is a prequel! In this Enterprise, the crew is afraid of the transporter and barely understand it! They probably didn't know you COULD transport something somewhere else without going on the transporter pad first! Actually, maybe you couldn't (that might be something that isn't invented yet)

I personally think Enterprise did a good job of showing that this is a prequel (especially since the "future" deals with a 1960s show with 1960s effects and a shoestring budget)

You know, though, this really is to be expected. The reason why the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are still being written is that the characters and situations are constantly updated in newer books. *(Bear with me, this is NOT a non sequitur) I have talked to kids about older books like the classic Nancy/Hardys or the Three Investigators, and they can't get over the fact that when the young detectives get in trouble, they can't whip out a cell phone and call for help. Or if Nancy is lost in her roadster, they ask why she didn't use GPS! I don't think a lot of people can put themselves in a time period when reading/watching a story!

I think it must have been VERY hard for the Enterprise writers to show that this prequel really has less technology (and know-how) from a show written in the 1960s, and I think they did a good job of it. I just think that Enterprise came too late. I think that if it were made before Next Generation, it would do as well and have a sucessful 7 years (as the other 3 shows did)

It's the one where Data loses his memory, rewritten by a moron when he was drunk. I found myself thinking about all the other things that could have been done with the money that was spent on this series, and what a monumental waste it is. Maybe the idea is to put us off going into space because of the the stupid asshattery that we will do - the anti-Trekverse!

Paul C said: "Quite the kickass move by TPol, use their own reactor as a weapon."


Yeah, I thought that part was cool, too.

I didn't like this episode much when I first watched it, but it's grown on me a little after a recent re-watch. The sets, music, and lighting were all very good. Bakula had good chemistry with the guest actress.

Not great, but a solid half-hour.

T'Pol: "Prepare to leave orbit on my order."
Trip: "Belay that. Keep this ship right where it is."

"Engineering."
Trip: "Billy, stand by to vent the nacelles on my order."
"Yes sir."
Trip: "We're not going anywhere!"

So Trip tried to raise a mutiny... where's the consequence? It's just forgotten immediately. You'd think trying to overthrow your superior would have adverse effects on your position as chief engineer. Maybe T'Pol is just very lenient, but I wonder how Trip could keep his position after such an extreme display of insubordination.

Archer sure is discovering a lot of secret underground labs.

Trip should have been court martialed for insubordination. As some have noted, Archer should have made clear the chain of command so that such problems wouldn't have had a chance of arising. Trip is one of the more trying characters of the entire franchise.

Why was Archer on the away team? It's a recurrent flaw in so many Trek episodes: the captain should be sending high-ranking well=trained subordinates, not taking the risks involved in being away from his command. He has a ship to look after.

T'Pol can be eminently reasonable, even obviously correct and she gets the smug "oh you're a Vulcan, we're human, you mean nothing" treatment. It's weak writing to just use her as a foil, especially when she has meaningful input to offer.

One of the better aspects of this episode is the performance of Diane DiLascio as Riann. She's one of those versatile actresses who showed up in many series. IMDB lists 26 different series in which she appeared from 1993 to 2007. I think she's the most memorable part of this otherwise ho-hum episode. I remember her and the shot of the sailing ship from orbit. Otherwise it seems we've seen a lot of stories like this in other Trek series before.

As a previous commenter noted, it wasn't very remotekyboruginsl.

What gets me is how stupid archer is. His character is getting on my nerves. He gets upset T’Pol stuns Riann, don’t bother to research the locals, puts Trip on the spot by not predetermining their story when entering the shop for the first time, asks “what about it” when riann mentions the oil lamp during the shooting scene.