Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Anomaly (2003) User Reviews

Anomalies and the Osaarians Pirates

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 1 February 2008]

While facing anomalies in the Delphic Expanse that are affecting gravity, the warp drive, shields and weapon but not the life support system, the Enterprise is attacked by Osaarians pirates that rob antimatter fuel, ammunition, food and other supplies, but the security team captures one pirate. Captain Archer follows their track trying to recover their supplies and finds a mysterious sphere with reference about the Xindi culture. In order to get more information about the race, Archer tries to hack the computer of the Osaarian ship and download their database.

The sequel of "Expanse" and "The Xindis" is another episode full of action. Now the Enterprise is feeling stronger effects of the Delphic Expanse that are affecting the engine and many systems. The costumes of T'Pol are more elegant that the one she used in the First and Second Season. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Anomalia" ("Anomaly")

Enterprise builds its first successful story arc

[mstomaso · 8/10 · 15 July 2007]

This is the second episode to fully take place within The Expanse - a region of space which experiences anomalies which alter the laws of physics, and where whole ships full of rational creatures go mad (i.e. vulcans and others). In Anomaly, Archer and company are boarded by highly efficient pirates and stores, supplies, munitions and equipment are stolen. The crew takes one pirate prisoner and locks him up as they try to track the ship on which the others escaped. This pursuit eventually leads to the biggest, most mysterious anomaly they have yet encountered in The Expanse.

This episode is fast-paced, economically directed and scripted, and original. The acting is also a cut above average for Enterprise.

Recommended, but only after seeing The Expanse (season ender for Season 2) and The Xindi (season opener for Season 3).

Yippee--the Captain gets tough!!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 29 March 2015]

While this episode is generally pretty average, one HUGE improvement occurs--you see Captain Archer angry...very, very, very angry. You also see him more than willing to potentially kill a prisoner-- something that wouldn't fit in with the normally super-sweet nature of the show. Considering that in the previous episode they did not just disable a Klingon ship but destroyed it, this all bodes well for season three.

The ship is in some expanse of space that sucks. It has all sorts of weird anomalies and apparently folks traveling there behave pretty nasty. The crew learns that when they are attacked by space pirates and these jerk-faces steal many of the ship's supplies. At first, Archer tries being nice to the one raider they captured but when he realizes that they MUST be successful in their mission in order to save the Earth, he abandons their wienie-ways and he resorts to a bit of good old fashioned torture. Quite exciting and a marked departure from the norm.

War Is Hell!

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 22 March 2017]

When some serious anomalies begin to affect the Enterprise, caused by the Expanse, the ship must go to impulse while repairs are being made. A group of space pirates again board the ship and begin transferring huge amounts of supplies and machinery to their storage area. In the process, one of them gets captured and becomes pivotal to the story. Archer, saddened by the necessity of his mission, uses torture on this man (not that he doesn't deserve it). So, once again, the crew is forced to face all these forces instead of getting on with the severely critical mission. The Enterprise is committed and back in one piece again. There are several nice scenes in this episode. For a time, they are flying blind and must accept the consequences.

Archer Goes Gitmo

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 5 January 2018]

"Anomaly" takes Enterprise deeper into the Expanse as the ship begins to experience... well anomalies. Defenseless, the ship is attacked and raided by Osaarian pirates and the crew is left for dead. The Enterprise must regain their weapons and fuel or else risk the dangers of the Expanse without a lifejacket.

Boy! Archer just gets more and more insufferable by the episode doesn't he? Him and Trip are going over the edge but Archer is becoming cold and jaded very quickly. His torture scene is the complete opposite of the typical Star Trek morality stance seen from a captain. I'm not saying its bad writing, its just disappointing to see Archer behave in this manner. It still makes for good television. War is ugly and the Enterprise is beginning to understand that. Whether this type of plot is right for Star Trek however, remains to be seen in my eyes. We'll see if Archer falls further down the rabbit hole.

The pirate trope is a little played out by this point but I guess you have to eat up episodes somehow. The giant metal sphere was interesting. What's its purpose and origin? An unsettling device to say the least...

Conclusion: It's nice to have a longlasting story arc, this episode furthers this if nothing else.

Enterprise 3.0 - More skin & action

[amexspam · 6/10 · 26 April 2023]

In our last episode we had T'pol topless. In this one we get coed locker room. In both, and going forward, we return to the space western repeat of bad guys, many shootouts, terse and heroic soundbites. What a shame.

I liked the first season because it felt believable. Earthlings were new to deep space, they did not have the most advanced equipment, they sometimes lost the fight, there was a sense of wonderment from the crew in what they were discovering. And they made mistakes. In short, it felt real. But many viewers don't like real, they like bang bang simplistic stories, with nudity if possible.

Action/chase story filled with anomalies and pirates

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 28 September 2020]

Enterprise encounters some strange anomalies affecting everything on board before they are attacked by Osaarian pirates.

Archer and the crew move further into the Dephic expanse and encounter a crew that might hold valuable information relating to the Xindi. Similar to the slightly better previous episode, the testosterone level has gone up several notches along with the amount of background danger-music.

Television changed at the turn of the twenty-first century when it decided to make central characters darker. This episode shows us Archer departing from the traditional Star Trek morals and becoming a more complex leading character who is willing do some damage in order to get the job done. I guess the Trek writers didn't want the show to get left behind so decided to push Archer down the Jack Bauer path. At one point after Archer uses some debatable tactics to obtain information, the camera cuts to a shot of his face looking like a pretty hard-arsed, determined protagonist and I half expected the scene to cut to black and digital clock to appear centre screen counting down the last few seconds of the hour.

I'm not sure if this sits right within the Gene Roddenberry universe, but then again Deep Space Nine had it's moments of complexity. I suppose what shines a spotlight on Enterprise is that is was written during the height of the Bush-era when shows like this and 24 were interpreted as championing war and torture.

Personally, I'm more interested in whether it is a worthwhile 45 minutes of my time or not. I enjoyed the opening sequence and found myself relatively gripped as things unfolded. I don't think it's one I would watch again, but it's definitely worth seeing for plot and character development if you are interested in the overall series narrative.

This Could Have Been...

[create · 4/10 · 22 March 2016]

Not too long after arriving into the Expanse, the crew has become frustrated by the many "Anomalies" - occurrences that have no scientific explanation - that they are experiencing. Of course every space exploration from NASA has run into anomalies, so three years and encountering their first set of anomalies is pretty amazing...Enterprise becomes stranded by a particularly awful round of anomalies, however, and the disabled ship gets attacked by a pirate vessel that steals Enterprise's fuel.

During the attack, one of the pirates is captured, Orgoth the Osarian. Orgoth is a particularly unpleasant capture. Having never met an earthling, he assumes that we don't torture, and he dares Archer to do so, otherwise he won't give him vital information. With this story line originating so soon after the 9/11 attacks, of course Archer obliges.

This is - what? - the fifth pirate episode out of 50 produced? WAY TOO MANY. But this is the problem with this series, the writing wasn't that great. The problem with anomalies and maybe this being the first, or second pirate episode in season one would have made this a stand out episode. This late into it, it just serves as a plot advance technique.

Further, the Producers sold the torture story as realism. Looking back upon it, it just seems lame. Having Orgorth play "torture me, please" isn't realistic, and it just seems that Star Trek was trying to give cover for the Bush Administration's torture policy. If they were reduced to this to try and save the show; pity. If they did this because they agreed with the Bush policy; worse. I didn't know they would use a show to comment on a present political policy situation.

This torture bit mired the show to 2003-2004, and makes it laughable as time goes on.

What a loss!

Enterprise tries to be 24

[bygeahkburchill · 3/10 · 24 January 2013]

Mild Spoiler ahead: Forget all the progress of humanity, let's torture the prisoner. That'll show the Vulcans. In many ways this was a fun episode. Action packed and fast paced with interesting visual effects. On the other hand we see some of the worst character writing since 'Night in Sickbay' with Archer being both a hothead and a prescription-strength asshat. The writers seem to have decided what American's want from TV in 2003 was more angry punishing of anyone who crossed our paths. In fact the entire season seems to be a weak-tea analogy for 9-11 and The-War-Against-Terror. Certainly Gene Roddenberry would have been appalled by the nihilistic vision this version of Star Trek embodies.

Another shoot-out on the OK starship

[larrydearing · 5/10 · 27 April 2023]

Marshall Archer, Festus Tucker, Doc Phlox, Newly Mayweather. And Miss Kittie T'Pol are on the Enterprise Ranch, which is overrun by some bad men who say they were forced into a life of crime. When our space cowboys realize that the strangers have stolen a lot of their supplies, including weapons and grub, they chase the robbers through the badlands, sometimes exchanging shots. Our heroes, of course, are never badly injured. One of the invaders is captured and held prisoner in the camp. The marshall threatens to hurt him if he doesn't reveal what he knows. The captive says that the marshall's morality won't let him do that, but Archer is so devoted to those he protects that he dioes indeed torture the prisoner. Using his information, our cowboys recover their grub & their guns but are still in the badlands. The prisoner, who is allowed to leave, tells the marshall that mercy is not a quality that will serve him well in the wild frontier. The episode concludes with a teaser for the next episode in our thrilling adventure.

This show has had a few episodes that have challenged us to think, but far too many of them are recycled adventure stories that could be adapted to any genre. Where have you gone, Gene Roddenberry? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.