Liked:
The 1000 yard football throws.

The designs for the Nausicaan ships. I'm definetly using some of those design elements in my future lego starfighter designs. One of the smaller Nausicaan ships had kind of a Steamrunner class look to it. The warp engines were attached right on top of the main hull with the bridge between them, but there wasn't a deflector dish hanging off the back ends of the engines.

The story was good.

The transporter was NOT used to save the day.

Dislikes:

Archer suddenly becoming a flower boy and deciding to let the Nausicanns go without so much as a scolding really pissed me off. For god's sake, those people are running around and killing frighter crews and stealing their cargo! If it had been me, I would have laid waste to as much of the Nausicaan base as I could and then I would have given Starfleet the location of the pirate cartel's base so that the can send in a few ships and finish the job. That whole, "Lets not piss off the Nausicaans or they will CONTINUE (notice I didn't use the word, 'start') to kill our people and steal their cargo." message that we got from Maywether and Archer was absolutly idiotic in my humble opinion. They didn't seem to relize that even if they DON'T piss them off, which is something they failed to do for the most part, the Nausicanns will still be killing and stealing. Other than that, I thought it was a good episode.

I swear, if Bernd gives this episode an unfair rating of a 1 or a 2 like he did with the Andorian Incedent.......

[ November 22, 2001: Message edited by: MIB ]

[ November 22, 2001: Message edited by: Harry ]

Unfortunately I think they missed a couple of chances for some really interesting drama. The most obvious of which would be for Archer to get conflicted about what to do with the Nausicaans. I thought his gut reaction when he sees the human ship under attack by the Nausicaans would be to open up on the Nausicaans, and sort it all out later. I mean, he wouldn't do that, but maybe he "belays that order" or something and instead has Hoshi try to raise the ships on coms instead.

I also felt the backstory of the Boomer first officer was a bit much. It reminded me of MIB's false spoilers about the USS Indianpolis scene from Jaws with Robert Shaw (except far less interesting). On the other hand I liked the way the scene was handled where Ryan and Mayweather are sharing Boomer stories. Where Ryan tells him that his parents were on the North Star and it isn't overtly explained what happened right away. I also liked the line "You know that's not what we're saying." where Archer confronts Ryan about the Nausicaan captive. Ryan seemed to consent a bit too easily here and as MIB brought up, I thought he capitulated far too easily at the climax (I think he'd need to be wounded or his buddy would have to be killed before he saw the light). So, I didn't buy a couple of things about Ryan's character, but I thought it was a pretty good episode over all...

[ November 22, 2001: Message edited by: Balaam Xumucane ]

Likes:

T'Pol finally works WITH the crew - not against. We get to see her interact with the young'uns on the freighter .. she's loosening up a bit now... that's good to see.

I loved the Nausican's ships .. they really looked cool.

I liked the history lessons on the Boomers - it was good to see that side of humanity. Real 'Caravan/Gypsy' type stuff ...

Cool facts about more NX-Class ships coming out.. Wonder when they're gonna start announcing deep-space stations.. Starbases.. So that if maintenance is required for the Enterprise they don't have to double-back so far.

Anyone have any idea how far they've gone so far? And in which direction?

Dislikes:

I think that the scenes between Ryan and Mayweather could have been better! The acting was a little iffy and strained - on both of them ... I'll chalk that up to - first season syndrome... but Mayweather seemed to struggle thru all the high-drama scenes.

When it comes to playing the ensign, wide-eyed in the heat of danger .. he's good.. High-Drama .. I felt he struggled thru it all, a little. <-- this is not a major issue for me .. just a little observation.

I agree with Balaam - Ryan gave up too easily at the end. One minute.. he wants to kill them; Mayweather says - their gonna kill you all - he gives up..

And is it just me - or does archer always fight with Torpedoes?? Do they not have a plasma weapon? I'm a little unsure on that!