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

Trip & Zho'Kaan: Best Frienemies

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 15 November 2017]

The Enterprise is exploring a new system and Trip is testing on a shuttlepod when an unidentified craft shoos Trip down. The two crash-land on one of a gas giant's many moons and it's up to the Enterprise and the ship of Arkonians to find the duo before sunrise and the two burn to a crisp.

I have not seen "Enemy Mine" that is being mentioned in so many of the reviews before me. However, this premise is very neat and something I will have to search for in the future. Regarding the ST:E episode, I thought it was okay. It would have been nice if the plot was a more original one but as a stand-alone filler episode, it was one of the better ones.

The struggle between Trip and Zho'Kaan is exciting and interesting. The majority of the episode focuses on them and their back and forth interactions of control. The Vulcans' previous hostile interplay with the Arkonians is a nice added wrinkle to the plot to up the stakes a little a bit. I also think that this is some of the better acting that we've seen out of Connor Trinneer this far. I'm actually coming around to his character a little bit.

Conclusion: While not exactly stellar, this is one of the better Season 2 episodes thus far.

Darmok at Enemy's Janagra?

[chaknuage · 8/10 · 14 December 2018]

I should start out by mentioning this is my first time watching the ENT series. I've seen the rest and read dozens of novellas. That being said, I rather adored this episode. I see that a lot of people calling it regurgitated Enemy Mine and they're not wrong. Even the little pregnancy thing Trip said at the end was a nod to that movie. It's still a well written and intimate episode and I'm a sucker for the 2 strangers/Journey and Return narrative.

"Enemy Mine" Revisited

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 14 January 2008]

While making adaptations to the navigation system of the shuttle pod, Trip is attacked by a minor alien ship and both are forced to land on a moon of a complex system with sixty-two moons. Trip and the alien Zho'Kaan do not have universal translator and struggle against each other. But sooner they realize that they need to join forces to be rescued before the sunrise.

"Dawn" is a good rip-off of the pacifist Wolfgang Petersen's "Enemy Mine", in my opinion one of the best sci-fi ever made, with a strong and powerful message against war. Therefore the episode is good because revisits the first part of the feature displaying the same wonderful message of understanding, union and fraternity. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Amanhecer" ("Dawn")

Enjoyable to watch but not the least bit original.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 27 March 2015]

The episode begins with Trip in the shuttle doing some maintenance in space. Unexpectedly, another small ship arrives and opens fire on him! In trying to escape, he flies towards a nearby planet--and something about the planet makes the engines fail on the shuttle. The same ALSO occurs to the enemy ship. Soon, Trip and this alien are locked in a hand to hand battle on the surface. Can they put aside their differences and anger to somehow work together to escape?

This is the second episode in the Star Trek canon that was basically 'borrowed' (a nice way of saying stolen) from the wonderful movie "Enemy Mine". I love "Enemy Mine" and thought the way it took a very simple story and brought great depth and significance to it was what made it so very, very good. Here, you have the same basic story but because it's only half as long, much of the significant character development is missing. Still good because the plot is good but see "Enemy Mine" instead if you had to choose just one.

Strained Relations

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 18 March 2017]

This is the classic story of two beings who are at war but must depend on one another to survive. Tripp's shuttle is shot down for no reason, other than it is assumed he was trespassing in restricted space. The Enterprise is in contact with the captain of the enemy ship. Most of the episode involves the two combatants trying to figure each other out. There are significant beatings of both members. Tripp needs parts from the other guys ship to put together a communications device. Eventually, a kind of friendship develops between them based on respect and trust. This plot has been done a hundred times, but it is nicely presented here.

better than the average second season episode

[mstomaso · 7/10 · 11 March 2007]

Enterprise is exploring a gas giant with sixty some odd moons. Trip is out testing a new autopilot system on a shuttlenear one of the moons and mostly out of contact due to the moon's sensor and transmission dampening properties. Trip gets into a brief dogfight with an alien patrol vessel and they both go down. An Alien cruiser then approaches Enterprise and the two (now enemy) captains must figure out a way to retrieve their missing crew members and get out of the seemingly inevitable battle that must follow.

This is the third time ST has adapted the plot of 'Enemy Mine' for its own purposes. This time, it mostly works. The alien species is much more interesting than the usual Enterprise addition, and Roxann Dawson's direction is above average for this series.

Worth a watch!

Well made, but unoriginal concept and cliched in parts

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 12 September 2020]

Trip crash lands on a moon and finds himself stuck with an alien visitor

It's a well made episode in the way the plot unfolds and when the characters interact, but unfortunately we've seen this formula before in The Original Series 'Arena" and The Next Generation 'Darmok' episodes. A lot has also been written about its resemblance to the movie 'Enemy Mine'.

The script contains some of the classic Hollywood cliches with Trip uttering such lines as "We gotta get the hell outa here", "Stay with me now" and "Don't you die on me". As you watch you can pretty much predict exactly when these line are about to be dropped.

All actors give decent performances and there are some good fight sequences on display, but we've seen it all before.

It's a 5.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

The least you could do is make the alien look different...

[nvehlyn · 5/10 · 24 June 2017]

...if you wanna rip off enemy mine, that's fine, I guess. But man, they stole the whole doggone plot, turn for turn. The least they could do is come up with a different looking mask for the Enterprise alien. I think they must have just stolen Louis Gossett Jr.'s mask and glued on a nose!

"Enemy Mine" Regurgitated

[CorumJI · 29 July 2011]

This is, as other reviewers have mentioned, another variation of "Enemy Mine", a moderately effective classic of SF. The reason for the low rating is not the mildly derivative nature of the episode, but because it displays all the subtle flaws of the first two seasons of all the revival Star Treks, most notably execrable writing and excessive misuse of "Duh!?!? Why not...?" dramatic points demonstrating an almost complete lack of really obvious escapes not made to enhance so-called "drama", which is why this is *melodrama*, not *drama*....

For this one, we've got several melodramatic macguffins -- things placed there specifically to create drama, which rationally are unlikely. One of them is perhaps vaguely explicable but the others are inexcusable. The first is that the shuttle is out with neither a translator nor, apparently, a hand phaser, which, sorry, ought to be **standard equipment** on ANY shuttle when leaving the confines of the ship -- that this is kind of DUH would be obvious to the Malcolm Reed character even if no one else. After all, it's his job to be slightly paranoid and to expect problems and prepare the ship and its crew to meet them.

That's the excusable problem. The inexcusable ones include the lack of proper survival gear as well as the fact that "we can beam you out, but we can't figure out that we can beam DOWN that survival gear -- including, say, a **environmentally controlled tent** -- which we rather stupidly forgot to include on the shuttle."

Another is the factoid that the alien can't be beamed out. THIS species is too sensitive, apparently. Just a bit conveeeeenyent, if you think about it. So the episode goes on for five more "dramatic" minutes while you're busy looking for something to throw at the screen as a proxy for idiotically incompetent writers and directors.

The first two seasons of all the Star Treks after the original series really, really blow, big time, with regurgitated, hackneyed, and recycled plots and BAD, uber-melodramatic stories. After that they get notably more tolerable.

enemy mine rip off

[blogsg1 · 1/10 · 2 November 2023]

The shameless rip off of enemy mine (1985) even the aliens design is a straight up stolen. This has to be the worst episode of enterprise. Directed by a Star Trek veteran as well. I can't believe they would stoop so low. Some of these episodes are truly incredible only to be followed up by a episodes that boring dire and unimaginative drivel. Or in this case steals from a far superior film made in 1985 and makes a poor job of it. It's a wonder how this series made it to 4 seasons. Alot of this series is just padding for the few good episodes it has. More unpopular than any star trek series before it and after. People hate Star Trek discovery but at least it's more Star Trek than this series despite having just as forgettable as this Star Trek enterprise. I always feel like Star Trek enterprise is more like Star Trek Americans in space. Rather than humans first flight in the farthest reaches in space that it could have been. We get instead americans being very American in space.