Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Civilization (2001) User Reviews

First Contact

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 18 November 2007]

The Enterprise finds three different phenomena to research: a supernova; three neutron stars; and a pre-industrial planet with 500 million people. T'Pol is against the exploration of the Akaali planet fearing cultural contamination, but when she scans the Minshara-class planet, she finds a powerful antimatter reactor hidden underground emitting neutrino. Archer, T'Pol, Trip and Hoshi use makeup to resemble the locals and travel to the planet. They meet the pharmacologist Riann and discover that several Akaali have been sick after the arrival of Garos, the owner of an antique shop. Their further investigation discloses that the aggressive race of the Malurians is exploring minerals in the underground, jeopardizing the health of the Akaalis.

In "Civilization", once again Archer uses curiosity against the logic of T'Pol, ignoring her wise advice. However, the menace of the Malurians justifies their action like sheriff and interference in the development of the planet. T'Pol also proves that is a great strategist, using the reactor to defeat the enemy. Archer acts like Captain Kirk, having a first and second contact through a brief romance with Riann. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Civilização" ("Civilization")

What you do when your translator fails

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 19 August 2020]

Archer explores a planet with a pre-industrial society and discovers other visitors have taken already taken an interest.

This episode starts off strongly with a lot of build up and excitement to doing some proper exploration. Unfortunately it doesn't really continue with the same tone. It just evolves into a pretty run of the mill Star Trek episode where the crew go in costume to mingle with another humanoid race and get drawn into a bit of trouble.

As these type of episodes go, it is pretty good. One scene where Archer's universal translator fails is quite memorable and when the plot starts to unfold things do get relatively exciting. Arch definitely channels his inner Captain Kirk in this one during his interaction with the locals. No wonder T'Pol has a difficulty with this level cultural contamination. All with the best of intentions though.

Overall though I would describe it as a missed opportunity to see something different during these early years of Starfleet exploration.

Soaring Over Akaali-fornia

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 15 May 2017]

It seems that Captain Archer and the crew are beginning to grow a little wiser as they spend more time exploring. This time when they find a new planet, at least they have the decency to take T'Pol's advice and go incognito. Fortunate for them that they did decide to go check out what the Akaali are up to since they find something fishy going on.

The Vulcan/human relationship is still a bit odd to me. The humans complain that the Vulcans look over their shoulder a bit too much but, at the end of the episode, we're told that Archer informs the Vulcans of this planet and asks them to check in on it from time to time to see how they are doing. This extends the reach of the Vulcan's oversight even further. Knowing earthlings, realistically, we'd probably want to keep the knowledge of this planet to ourselves and in the future treat it as one of our colonies & extract its precious resources for our material use. But hey, maybe we'll mature in the next 100 years.

This episode's fairly average. Seeing Archer encounter some alien romance is fun, I suppose. It's also nice encountering 2 new races but it's doubtful that we run across the Akaali again anytime soon. I like the character of Riaan, too bad she couldn't come aboard the Enterprise. Noting special about this episode, but not terrible. It also has a sweet stratagem executed by T'Pol.

Side Note: Archer tells Riaan that he often talks to his dog when he's thinking critically. How the hell does Riaan know what a dog is?

Once again, Archer and the gang go blundering in....but with positive results.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 March 2015]

It's obvious on this series that T'Pol is often irritated by how foolhardy the humans can be when it comes to meeting new races. Once again, the ship comes to a planet and Archer insists on landing to at least observe the Akaali. Fortunately, they at least took some of T'Pol's advice to heart and went in disguise. Also fortunate is that the ship DID investigate, as they soon are shocked to find that some other advanced species is on the planet in disguise also--and these beings are NOT particularly nice and don't mind if they kill a few of the Akaali in the process. So it's up to the landing party to right things without alerting the Akaali of their presence.

This is an interesting episode and a great example of the humans doing good because they are just so darned swell. Worth seeing but not among the better episodes.

Good story but wish that we could push them to do better.

[wwcanoer-tech · 8/10 · 11 November 2021]

It's a good story. Difficult to believe that Star Fleet sent them out to explore new worlds without any guidance for meeting new people (and that T'Pol and Archer haven't already discussed this before they even left earth), even if the Prime Directive hasn't formally evolved yet. But, hey, just one of the many things that we must overlook to further explore the Vulcan vs human cultures.

However, I'd like to see the writers take more care when they can. Archer tells Riaan that he talks to his dog but do the Akaali have dogs? That jumped out to me as foolish. Could easily have been the safer "pet". Archer then leans into kiss Riaan so that they blend in. Perhaps fun to have that interplay but in some cultures public displays of affection could be a massive taboo and even land them in jail. Not something that would allow them to blend in! If the writers want to use these events, then while they explore the town we should see a dog and people kissing, so that these things are plausible. They want to show Archer as being a bold risk taker but please give him the intelligence to not be stupid.

Why does Riaan say that she followed the boxes that are dropped in a field and then disappear but later wants to open the box. If she ever say the boxes left alone, she wouldn't hesitate to try to open them! Plus, no way that she wouldn't have stayed up all night watching them. There's no need for this inconsistence. She could simply have stated that "the last three nights, someone has left with boxes and returned empty. I'm here tonight because I want to follow them. Then it would make sense. She's watching the store, sees a pattern and then will investigate that pattern because she wouldn't necessarily follow them the first night that she sees them.

However, if this has happened the last three nights, the ship has been there the last three nights to collect them. Enterprise didn't circle the planet before deciding to orbit? This ship didn't see Enterprise arrive? Enterprise didn't detect their shuttle? Would make more sense if the shop keeper was expecting the humans because his ship saw Enterprise arrive and actively moved to the other side of the planet to avoid it, hoping to remain undetected. However, then they wouldn't have sent their shuttle underneath Enterprise. So, how to have an alien tech reveal? They could simply be placing the crates in a barn, to be beamed or picked up later when their ship arrives. There could be an alien guard who detects them sneaking in and opening the crates. When they open the crates they see shiny space-age boxes with a computer display and lock that she obviously has never seen before. Or there could be other space age equipment in the barn. It would flow a lot more logically.

What did they do with the alien that they uncovered at the box pickup site? Surely they need to securely hide him, or he will alert his ship when he wakes up and they don't want a native discovering a lizard person.

Why is the small reactor on ground level in a wooden house when there's a massive mining high-tech operation below? That didn't make any sense. Cheap because a simple reused prop in a readily available room but why make the mining operation so large?! Try for something more plausible.

With care, the writers could make episodes just as compelling without so many basic incongruencies that are jarring to the viewer.

Once again Trip runs off at the mouth...and suffers no consequences

[txriverotter · 6/10 · 23 August 2021]

This wasn't a bad episode. If you accept that Enterprise is what it is, and just enjoy the story. At least this episode had a good story and interesting plot.

What irks me most about this series as a whole, and Charles "Trip" Tucker, III, in particular, is the way people act towards their superiors and yet never seem to be told off for it.

Here, the Enterprise is about to be blown apart by a ship that has them WAY outgunned, and T'Pol tells Travis "Break orbit" before they're all blown out of the sky. Now, she had a plan; she's not zooming off and leaving Archer high and dry, but bigmouth Trip hollers to "Belay that order" and when T'Pol moves to break orbit anyway, he breaks rank again by telling one of his minions in Engineering to disable the ship on his orders, so that they physically won't be able to go anywhere.

So, thanks a lot Trip. You've made the small gesture but Enterprise is now in itty bitty pieces and everybody's dead, so Archer's gonna have to wait for another launch to get a ride home. But hey, you were super loyal, right?

First off, T'Pol is Trip'e superior. If he wants to question her orders, as Data tells Worf "you do it in private." But Trip handles this as he handles everything, hot-headed, loud and in your face.

Just like the little kid on Rigel IV, just like denying Doc's request for power source to fix EVERYTHING in the timeline to make it right, etc etc. Trip makes the wrong call.

In my opinion he's the worst character in this series, because over the entire arc, he never learns. He's still interfering and breaking rules and laying his moral judgment four seasons in. I could give more examples from many different episodes, but suffice it to say, I find him tiresome and annoying as hell.

I can only imagine one of the Bridge officers on TNG telling the Comms officer to belay one of Riker's orders, then threatening to get everyone killed by disabling the ship. First Riker, then Picard would have broken a foot off in their ass.

The Best of Intentions

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 8 March 2017]

An Earth-like planet is explored by the Enterprise crew. They are doing fine until they come to realize that there are forces at work on the planet that could lead to domination and death. There is some kind of generating device that is capable of great destruction. Archer meets a female scientist. If we wanted to nitpick, we could say it's odd that this woman, except for some facial features, similar to stitches on a baseball, is awfully attractive and earth-human. Archer falls for her. Not only is she physically attractive; she is extremely wise. She also handles their abilities and actions without batting an eye. I would expect a bit more bewilderment as they face off with weapons drawn from someone who lives in a really primitive environment. I guess the prime directive hasn't quite found its way into the vocabulary yet.

Mining for some unknown purpose.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 1 March 2023]

Why are the Malurians mining the Akaali planet? Is it out of greed? Is it out of necessity? I have to admit I am bummed out that there is no answer to that question. The Manurian shopkeeper is a paint by the numbers villian who's motivation to mine the planet is kept from the viewer and lessens my investment in the character as anything but 'the bad guy'.

I do like the idea of juxtaposition of the Malurians and Earthers when it comes to how they deal with the Malurian people.

I wasn't buying the romance with Riann. Maybe if it was Phlox? They share similiar interests in the scientific method.

I wish there was something more to this episode to give the plot some impact power. How about Malurians are mining for something to save there own people? Then Archer is pressed into making a difficult decision? This could have been an illuminating moment for Archer when it comes to first contact procedures or might even give strength to the argument that contact should be made to guide and protect the society from those who would exploit them?

A bit of a light episode with an interesting premise.

A Senior Trekker writes..................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 1 April 2022]

Now I know that not many people will agree with me but this is the type of episode that I like best.

We are shown an alien world that is both strange and familiar, plus some engaging guest actors and fascinating, not-quite-right historical sets and costumes that convey an alien civilisation at an earlier period of development than our own. This forms the backdrop for a story that we've probably seen hundreds of times before: villains from a more advanced race secretly extracting minerals from beneath the feet of the occupants, a female healer who notices that people are becoming sick and searches doggedly for the cause despite her limited scientific knowledge. Oh, and some light snogging for the Captain.

If it looks this good and moves at this brisk pace then I'm happy. Diane DiLascio who played the inquisitive Riann wore the medieval look very well and may have been recognisable for a brief role in Babylon 5. Wade Williams who played the exploitative villain Garos needs little introduction as he has appeared in just about every TV horror series of the last two decades. In this episode, the alien make up was understated to say the least but, as we have have learned before, you just can't have elaborate costumes and prosthetics in the same episode. At least not unless you want it to be followed by two boring-as-hell bottle shows in order to recoup the expenditure.

Now, I'll only say this once and once only (hopefully none of my kids will notice) but.......

........... Scott Bakula is a hell of a lot more sexy than William Shatner ever was. He's much taller, he has more hair, a better physique and ten times the acting range. I also understand he can actually sing. Yes, I just checked it out on YouTube compared to Shatner, Scott's a positive Pavarotti. When called upon to do a bit of smooching on screen there's just a chivalrous pressing of the lips but absolutely none of that lascivious Captain Kirk-style slobber. How the first Star Trek Captain would have survived in today's atmosphere of safe spaces and "intimacy co-ordinators", I've no idea.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.