{"id":6599,"date":"2017-10-23T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T20:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6599"},"modified":"2017-10-08T17:36:54","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T00:36:54","slug":"mark-watches-enterprise-s04e14-the-aenar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2017\/10\/mark-watches-enterprise-s04e14-the-aenar\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Enterprise’: S04E14 – The Aenar"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of Enterprise<\/i>, Archer visits the Andorian homeworld, and Tucker makes a life-changing decision. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of promise in season four of Enterprise<\/i>, and I appreciate that the show has taken this lovely risk by jumping from one serialized arc to another. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so cool, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a refreshing way to keep the show interesting!<\/p>\n

I just… oh, I just wish that the writers would take these cool ideas and finish<\/i> them??? For some reason, plots or stories are abandoned, left incomplete, or resolved in incomprehensible ways. This has happened multiple times this season, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting frustrating! I want to like this more than I am because I can tell the writers are trying.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Aenar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d contains one of the coolest sets and bits of worldbuilding in the Aenar… to a point. I loved the idea that there was this subspecies on Andoria that had largely been a myth, but had actually built a gigantic underground society far away from the majority of Andorians. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A GREAT PLACE. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a whole lot of conflict here between Shran, Archer, and the Aenar that is all about complicity. WHICH IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE THEMES! The Aenar vote to refuse to get involved in the Romulan attack because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be complicit in this form of violence. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve survived as long as they have by ignoring everyone else, by isolating themselves, by refusing to be anything other than a completely pacifist society. This is a terrible situation, but why should they get involved?<\/p>\n

And this is right around the point where this falls apart for me. I wanted to know more about the Aenar, but Lissian, the temporary leader (THEY ASSIGN TEMPORARY LEADERS, INCREDIBLE), grants Jhamel permission to leave their home to help Enterprise<\/i> because… she read her mind? And her intentions were pure? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all<\/i> it took? So no one else<\/i> ever tried to leave the Aenar compound ever<\/i>?<\/p>\n

But this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the most aggravating thing here. After Jhamel finally makes contact with her missing brother, Gareb, I was preparing myself for an emotional reunion. And just as it was about to become that, I was treated to one of the most confusing writing decisions on this whole show: Gareb reveals that he was convinced by the Romulans that he was the last surviving Aenar, so he just became<\/i> a war machine. I… I literally do not understand this. This is someone who grew up under a lifetime<\/i> of pacifism, who gives that up in order to become one of the most effective mass murderers imaginable, all because… he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s alone? Maybe<\/i>? WHY WOULD THE ROMULANS KIDNAP SOMEONE IF THEY WERE THE SOLE MEMBER OF THEIR SPECIES? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Gareb have doubted what they said because they were so aggressively cruel to him? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like he was ushered into a life of luxury and privilege! He spent his entire time pumped full of drugs and compelled to murder people over and over again. He never questioned what he was told? He dropped a lifetime worth of morality just because what his kidnappers said???<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy it at all. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad<\/i> writing.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I did<\/i> appreciate the ongoing plot between T\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Pol and Tucker, even if the end of this episode gave us something so terribly sad. These two had gotten so<\/i> close to having regular, honest conversations, but T\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Pol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cure and<\/i> annulment have made her into a different person. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no longer in touch with her emotions, and her cold behavior is off-putting. At least I think<\/i> that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what is happening; the show is ambiguous about what might be causing this, so I can only guess.<\/p>\n

The point, though, is that Tucker has had enough. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tried to get T\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Pol to open up. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tried to talk to her. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tried to see if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready to be friends again. And the collision of his feelings and his work life is just too much! Which I get ENTIRELY and COMPLETELY, given that I have also dated in the workplace.<\/p>\n

So… is the show gonna follow-through with this? Will Tucker really<\/i> leave Enterprise<\/i>?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Aenar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"