Star Trek: Enterprise Review – “The Augments”

And now, the conclusion…

The Augments

Cast & Crew

Director: LeVar Burton

Written By: Michael Sussman

Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain
Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief
Engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander
T’Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt.
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi
Sato
John Billingsley
as Dr. Phlox

Guest Cast
Brent Spiner as Dr. Arik Soong
Alec Newman as Malik
Abby Brammell as Persis
Richard Riehle as Jeremy Lucas
Mark Rolston as Captain Magh
Adam Grimes as Lokesh
Kristen Ariza as Augment #1
Dayna Devon as Engineer
J.D. Hall as Klingon Com Voice

Episode Information

Originally Aired: November 12, 2004
Season: Four
Episode: Six
Production: 082

What Happened

Enterprise pursues Arik Soong and his Augments across hostile Klingon space toward a planet where the geneticist intends to go back into isolation and raise an army of genetically engineered superhumans. But Soong’s “children” revolt against him and plan a biological attack upon a Klingon colony, in order to incite retaliation against Earth. More from StarTrek.com

Review

All right! A 3-part arc that was worth watching front-to-back. I mean, you can just see the “Under New Management” sign on every scene. Tightly written, well thought out and just plain worthwhile stuff. Let’s hope the next arc holds up.

High Point

While Soong’s “Cybernetics” speech stands out, I’ll have to go with Archer’s Klingon impersonation.

Low Point

How freaking strong are grappler cables? Daaaaaamn!

The Scores

Originality: Straight forward save-the-world before the nutjob kills them all. 3 out of 6.

Effects: Some good fight scenes and all-around well done effects. 5 out of 6.

Story: Well written and tight. Even manages to throw in a decent scene between Trip and T’Pol to maintain that storyline. 4 out of 6.

Acting: The Augments are better and everyone else is great, especially Spiner who’s having nearly all the fun. 5 out of 6.

Emotional Response: Good humor and tension. I got a smile out of the Briar Patch reference. At least someone’s paying attention. 5 out of 6.

Production: I’d be more impressed with the Augments if they could figure out how to make/repair their own clothes! 3 out of 6

Overall: A standout arc that (I hope) signals new and exciting things for Enterprise. 5 out of 6.

Total: 30 out of 42

Next Week on Enterprise (November 19, 2004)

The Forge

The Earth embassy on Vulcan is bombed, killing 31 humans and 12 Vulcans. Enterprise is called to the planet to help investigate, but the Vulcan High Command already suspects a dissident religious faction known as "Syrrannites." T’Pol learns from her husband Koss that her mother T’Les has been forced into hiding to avoid arrest – because she is a Syrrannite. Koss also brings her a mysterious heirloom containing a map. Believing this is a message from T’Les, T’Pol and Archer set out to follow that map across a treacherous desert, without the High Command’s knowledge.More from StarTrek.com

Additional Notes and Comments

If you’re interested in what’s in TheAngryMob’s review queue, check out my What’s Coming page.

TheAngrymob

21 replies on “Star Trek: Enterprise Review – “The Augments””

  1. underwhelmed
    I have to say, this whole thing felt like a one-hour episode stretched out. I really felt that the last half of the last season (exception the final 2 minutes) was much more exciting and much more engaging, especially since the Klingons forgave Earth in the end. Ugh.

    I guess the Augments weren’t very compelling bad guys. Soong was, though he was redeemed in the end, which spoiled him. And can we give Travis *something* to do besides “Aye captain”?

    • If it sounds like a duck

      I have to say, this whole thing felt like a one-hour episode stretched out.

      And walks like a duck…

      I guess the Augments weren’t very compelling bad guys. Soong was, though he was redeemed in the end, which spoiled him.

      And the reason for that is that they have Brent Spiner: they’re gonna use him as much as they can, stretch stories if they must.
      They saved him for latter too it seems…

      People like him.

  2. Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.
    I can’t believe so many people missed this. The TrekWeb review doesn’t mention it either. There was a great tribute to the TWOK in this episode. At the end after Enterprise blows the Klingon ship’s power, Malik crawls over and turns over another Augment, then goes over to the console just like Khan and hangs on it just like Khan did. I think even some of the camera angles were the same. That was the high point for me.

    The low point came just afterwards when Malik showed up on the Enterprise to get a hole blown through him by Archer. It looked to me like they needed 30 seconds of filler to complete the show, so they wrote that scene. It didn’t even make sense after seeing Malik’s condition in the tribute scene.

    -Avery

    • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

      I can’t believe so many people missed this. The TrekWeb review doesn’t mention it either. There was a great tribute to the TWOK in this episode. At the end after Enterprise blows the Klingon ship’s power, Malik crawls over and turns over another Augment, then goes over to the console just like Khan and hangs on it just like Khan did. I think even some of the camera angles were the same. That was the high point for me.

      You forgot about the half-burned face. I did notice, just somewhere between watching and reviewing I forgot. It was a nice homage piece.

      • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

        You forgot about the half-burned face. I did notice, just somewhere between watching and reviewing I forgot. It was a nice homage piece.

        Yes, I was expecting Malek to start quoting Melville when I saw that ;-) Showing up out of the blue later was kinda odd, though I did think being able to see through the hole in him was a nice touch ;-)

        Personally, I thought Archer pretending to be a Klingon was a low point, I just didn’t believe that Klingons would be that stupid. I was also disappointed that it got wrapped up, as I was expecting an explanation of the start of the klingon war and the feature differences between old series and modern klingons. It’s too early though: earth as it is in Enterprise would be no match whatsoever for the Klingons, and since Worf said “we don’t like to talk about it”, clearly that feature difference is not human caused. Or at least not that they know of.

        I do like the “mini-series story arc” format — they can do the stories justice this way, without requiring everyone to be completely current with the story.

        • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

          … as I was expecting an explanation of the start of the klingon war and the feature differences between old series and modern klingons. It’s too early though: earth as it is in Enterprise would be no match whatsoever for the Klingons, and since Worf said “we don’t like to talk about it”, clearly that feature difference is not human caused. Or at least not that they know of.

          AHHHHHHHH! look, That line was a JOKE, and to be a nit picker, we don’t know exactly what looked different to them, nor what Worf was referring to. Second, there is no difference between “old” and “modern” Klingons. They always had ridges. In the late 60’s the prosthetic makeup technology just wasn’t up to it for the budget they had. I am so sick of hearing Trek fans whine about this. I’m a HUGE Trek fan. I’d MUCH rather see them explain the technology sharing we saw in TOS.

          • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

            … as I was expecting an explanation of the start of the klingon war and the
            feature differences between old series and modern klingons. It’s too early
            though: earth as it is in Enterprise would be no match whatsoever for the
            Klingons, and since Worf said “we don’t like to talk about it”, clearly that
            feature difference is not human caused. Or at least not that they know of.

            AHHHHHHHH! look, That line was a JOKE, and to be a nit picker, we don’t
            know exactly what looked different to them, nor what Worf was referring to.
            Second, there is no difference between “old” and “modern” Klingons. They
            always had ridges.

            Nonsense. They clearly look different, and more importantly they
            behaved differently. There are a number of theories about this.

            I favor the bioengineered hybrid explanation that appeared first in FASA’s Star
            Trek
            roleplaying game and then later in John M. Ford’s excellent The Final
            Reflection
            (which, BTW, I think is the best Trek book there): The
            Klingons we saw in TOS were Klingon/Human hybrids, designed to give a
            tactical advantage to the Klingon Empire against the humans.

            Unfortunately
            these hybrids had a number of the “bad” human traits (that we saw in the
            behavior of
            TOS Klingons and not in TNG Klingons) and had to be put down.

            • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

              … as I was expecting an explanation of the start of the klingon war and the
              feature differences between old series and modern klingons. It’s too early
              though: earth as it is in Enterprise would be no match whatsoever for the
              Klingons, and since Worf said “we don’t like to talk about it”, clearly that
              feature difference is not human caused. Or at least not that they know of.

              AHHHHHHHH! look, That line was a JOKE, and to be a nit picker, we don’t
              know exactly what looked different to them, nor what Worf was referring to.
              Second, there is no difference between “old” and “modern” Klingons. They
              always had ridges.

              Nonsense. They clearly look different, and more importantly they
              behaved differently. There are a number of theories about this.

              I favor the bioengineered hybrid explanation that appeared first in FASA’s Star
              Trek
              roleplaying game and then later in John M. Ford’s excellent The Final
              Reflection
              (which, BTW, I think is the best Trek book there): The
              Klingons we saw in TOS were Klingon/Human hybrids, designed to give a
              tactical advantage to the Klingon Empire against the humans.

              Unfortunately
              these hybrids had a number of the “bad” human traits (that we saw in the
              behavior of
              TOS Klingons and not in TNG Klingons) and had to be put down.

              I find all those really silly. The real reason is in TOS they didn’t have budget for expensive makeup (hence the Vulcan ears as well). When they made The Motion Picture, they couldn’t just have an alien that had no difference between humans. They had more money so they added head ridges. And if you look throughout the years, you’ll see that the ridges change and get more pronounced usually. Heck, just look at Worf’s ridge progression from TNG1 to DS97.

              Worf’s mention “we don’t discuss that with outsiders” in the DS9 trouble with tribbles was just ment as a nod to the fans, an inside joke. If the ridgeless Klingons were cannon, they would have been that way in Enterprise.

              But then again, it’s not like they’re heavy on continuity in the first place….

        • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

          Personally, I thought Archer pretending to be a Klingon was a low point, I just didn’t believe that Klingons would be that stupid. I was also disappointed that it got wrapped up, as I was expecting an explanation of the start of the klingon war and the feature differences between old series and modern klingons. It’s too early though: earth as it is in Enterprise would be no match whatsoever for the Klingons, and since Worf said “we don’t like to talk about it”, clearly that feature difference is not human caused. Or at least not that they know of.

          Compare Archer’s bluff to that of the crew in The Undiscovered Country and you will find that, yes, Klingons are really that stupid or some anamoly destroyed all the cool technology that Sato has at her disposal. Maybe Shatner and Nimoy tried singing into the universal translator . . .

          • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

            Compare Archer’s bluff to that of the crew in The Undiscovered Country and you will find that, yes, Klingons are really that stupid

            Oh, Gawd, I’d forgotten about that. At least that was kinda funny. And the circumstances were just enough different that it was slightly more believable that they could get away with it. Not much, but a little.

            And yeah, I know it’s all about the makeup technology differences, and if they’d just ignored it, it wouldn’t bother me at all, but since worf had that good line, just as well make use of it, as it implies a good story…

            I’d have sworn Khan was quoting from Moby Dick, but now that someone mentions it, I do remember that he specifically mentioned Milton at one point. I’ll have to go watch it again, because I’m still pretty sure it was Moby Dick: chasing your target beyond reason to your own destruction…It would have been amusing to get Ricardo Montalban to play in the movie instead of Patrick Stewart ;-) And good as Patrick Stewart is, I think Ricardo might even have been better at it…

            • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

              Compare Archer’s bluff to that of the crew in The Undiscovered Country and you will find that, yes, Klingons are really that stupid

              Oh, Gawd, I’d forgotten about that. At least that was kinda funny. And the circumstances were just enough different that it was slightly more believable that they could get away with it. Not much, but a little.

              And yeah, I know it’s all about the makeup technology differences, and if they’d just ignored it, it wouldn’t bother me at all, but since worf had that good line, just as well make use of it, as it implies a good story…

              I’d have sworn Khan was quoting from Moby Dick, but now that someone mentions it, I do remember that he specifically mentioned Milton at one point. I’ll have to go watch it again, because I’m still pretty sure it was Moby Dick: chasing your target beyond reason to your own destruction…It would have been amusing to get Ricardo Montalban to play in the movie instead of Patrick Stewart ;-) And good as Patrick Stewart is, I think Ricardo might even have been better at it…

              Well damn! It was Moby Dick! I thought it was Milton because in TOS “Space Seed” Kahn refers to his: “better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven”. So I thought _that_ was his hangup. But “Rath of Kahn” has Kahn as Ahab chasing the “white” Enterprise. Never thought of it that way before.

        • Re: Tribute to The Wrath of Khan.

          You forgot about the half-burned face. I did notice, just somewhere between watching and reviewing I forgot. It was a nice homage piece.

          Yes, I was expecting Malek to start quoting Melville when I saw that ;-) Showing up out of the blue later was kinda odd, though I did think being able to see through the hole in him was a nice touch ;-)

          Personally, I thought Archer pretending to be a Klingon was a low point, I just didn’t believe that Klingons would be that stupid. I was also disappointed that it got wrapped up, as I was expecting an explanation of the start of the klingon war and the feature differences between old series and modern klingons. It’s too early though: earth as it is in Enterprise would be no match whatsoever for the Klingons, and since Worf said “we don’t like to talk about it”, clearly that feature difference is not human caused. Or at least not that they know of.

          I do like the “mini-series story arc” format — they can do the stories justice this way, without requiring everyone to be completely current with the story.

          There really never was a war with the Klingons, though there was a cold war going on for some time. In TOS, a war ALMOST started for real, but then got broken up by another alien race. Then there was a peace treaty between the federation and Klingons that barely held up until a real alliance between the two happened just before TNG.

  3. I liked
    I liked the homage to Wrath of Khan as well. I had this weird “deja vu” feeling when the scene started.

    I liked the mention of robotics at the end, but I think he went a bit overboard, going as far as saying something along the lines that obviously he won’t finish this generation, but maybe 3-4 down the line… I thought this makes it too obvious. I would have rathered a more subtle reference.

    I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but I found similarities with Lore/Data. The first set of augments went wrong, were violent (Lore). Soong then decides to try again and remove the agressiveness for the next generation. They don’t make it of course, but it’s similiar to Noonian’s Data attempt.

    • Re: I liked

      I liked the homage to Wrath of Khan as well. I had this weird “deja vu” feeling when the scene started.

      I liked the mention of robotics at the end, but I think he went a bit overboard, going as far as saying something along the lines that obviously he won’t finish this generation, but maybe 3-4 down the line… I thought this makes it too obvious. I would have rathered a more subtle reference.

      I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but I found similarities with Lore/Data. The first set of augments went wrong, were violent (Lore). Soong then decides to try again and remove the agressiveness for the next generation. They don’t make it of course, but it’s similiar to Noonian’s Data attempt.

      I agree with the comment abour Soong’s last couple of lines. They just felt a little too forced for my liking.

      I didn’t see the Lore/Data reference though, I can see how you’d have put two and two together, but then its all part of the larger ‘playing god’ concept.

      The bit I really didn’t like was when whats-his-face appeared out of nowhere at the end. Did I miss something? How exactly did he get from an exploding Bird of Prey to an overhead conduit directly above Archer and Soong? And is it just me or is anybody else disturbed by the ease in which random people can get onboard Enterprise?

      • Re: I liked

        The bit I really didn’t like was when whats-his-face appeared out of nowhere at the end. Did I miss something? How exactly did he get from an exploding Bird of Prey to an overhead conduit directly above Archer and Soong? And is it just me or is anybody else disturbed by the ease in which random people can get onboard Enterprise?

        I agree. This isn’t a slasher flick where you expect a good scare at the end (or, in this case, a non-scare). It was totally out of place.

    • Re: I liked

      I liked the mention of robotics at the end, but I think he went a bit overboard, going as far as saying something along the lines that obviously he won’t finish this generation, but maybe 3-4 down the line… I thought this makes it too obvious. I would have rathered a more subtle reference.

      I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but I found similarities with Lore/Data. The first set of augments went wrong, were violent (Lore). Soong then decides to try again and remove the agressiveness for the next generation. They don’t make it of course, but it’s similiar to Noonian’s Data attempt.

      I like the Kahn reference too. It hit me right away. I totally agree with the assesment of the last couple lines regarding the “take a generation or two” to complete the cybernetics research. Not quite nuanced enough. Too spoon fed. We got the jist, though. Definitely the right idea. I love how larger story arcs can be tied together like that.

      Good catch w/ the agressive/passive augments Lore/Data comparison! I totally missed that. Even if that was just a coincidence it’s a good point!

  4. Garbage Scow ref
    The refs to TOS were great. But did anyone else catch the ref to TOS Trouble with Tribbles? Scotty keeps the crew from a fist fight with the Klingons, till one of the calls the Enterprise a garbage scow. Archer, in his klingon impersonation, says that the Klingon commander might be commanding a garbage scow if he talked.

    And I was expecting Milton from Malik at the end too. I thought “no too much”, but then “hey Soong did say he left them a lot of books to read…”

    • Re: Escape pod

      Did anyody told us Klingon ships don’t have escape pods?!?!!

      Yea, I found that weird. What use would Klingons have for escape pods? They must be used for critical situations that don’t involve engaging a foe.

      • Re: Escape pod

        Did anyody told us Klingon ships don’t have escape pods?!?!!

        Yea, I found that weird. What use would Klingons have for escape pods? They must be used for critical situations that don’t involve engaging a foe.

        If I remember well, in the episode “Sleeping dogs” Tpol says that Klingon vessels do not have escape pods, because Klingons prefere to die with honor insead escaping!!!

    • Re: Escape pod

      Did anyody told us Klingon ships don’t have escape pods?!?!!

      They probably don’t have toilets either. (Klingons probably have to shit in the air locks. We know they fart in airlocks. … David Gerald)

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