Marauders

These should never get old, but according to some contributors, all plots should be new.

"Seven Samurai" has been done over and over again. There's a good reason for this. It is an intriguing story. To date, there have been two movies credited to Kurosawa. "Seven Samurai," and "The Magnificent Seven."

There are some key differences here. First, no one dies. Second, there are seven bad guys; not good guys. But the premise is largely the same. Bullies are taught a lesson. That's basically it.

It is still entertaining, hero stories generally are. I think it's better than the 6.9, aggregate score, which is why I gave it an eight.

Someone commented that the Klingons aren't very good at tactics. This is ultimately why the Federation eventually prevails.

These are not the first species in the sci-fi world who "scream and then leap," The episode should not be slighted because of it.

It is still an exciting episode. And I doubt anyone wants to see the Klingons represented differently.

Marauders is a pretty typical example of ST: Enterprise. This is no surprise since it hails from the in-house writing team that produced so much of the formulaic stuff from Voyager on-ward. The characters do nothing surprising - sticking within their predefined limits (and therefore failing to develop) and the story, though entirely coherent, doesn't really grab its audience.

Klingons play the role of the heavy in this. The Klingons depicted here are one-dimensional creatures with much less intelligence than those depicted in TOS, TNG and DS9, and are somehow much better understood than they were in the first contact made earlier in the Enterprise series. Another remarkable inconsistency in this episode is the fact that the universal translator appears to be functioning at 100% efficiency and 100% of the time. In fact, it has apparently disappeared - unless the federation has borrowed translator microbes from the crew of Moya on Farscape.

A mining colony populated by undefined aliens - with the sort of minor forehead cosmetics that usually indicates that they are very much like us and also the good guys - is being raided by Klingon marauders and can not fight back. The Enterprise needs some of the material they are mining and can't get enough because of the Klingons. Archer and co to the rescue. Ho hum. Larry Cedar's subtle but excellent performance is the best reason to watch this one.

The crew of the Enterprise help a colony of deuterium miners to stand up for themselves against Klingons swindeling them out of their merchandise. Tucker even becomes friends with a kid as if he's BA.

Enterprise visits a deuterium refinery where the workers are regularly plundered by a group of Klingons.

This episode started off quite well with a decent premise of Archer wanting to help group of innocent people being bullied, but the final act is so laughably bad it drags the whole episode down with it.

The first two acts are perfectly fine, we have the crew sussing out the situation and deciding to help. Then we have a training/siege-preparation montage (something I always enjoy). Lots of nods to The Magnificent Seven with little bit of Shane and a whole lot of The A-Team.

Then we get to the final act where the Klingons come back looking for their deuterium and trouble. What follows is so epically bad it has to be seen. We have more A-Team style action with shots going off and Bat'leth's being swung with absolutely nobody hurt. T'Pol suddenly turns into a ninja version of Vasquez from 'Aliens'. The Klingons (who use a transporter) get trapped by a display of pyrotechnics that would be better suited to the 'Fall of Atlantis' animatronic display at Caesar's Palace. When Archer taps Malcolm Reed on the back for a tactical job well done I was half expecting him to light up a cigar and say "Well done B. A. that was beautiful!"

The reason I have given it a higher rating than it deserves is because to me it is 'so bad its good' to the point of guilty pleasure.

The Enterprise arrives in a colony with a plant of deuterium, but the poor locals only accept to sell 200 liters, under the condition that the crew repairs two pumps. Captain Archer is wondering how the colonist could be so poor trading a valuable good, when a Klingon cruiser with seven crew-members arrives in the planet and they realize that they are marauders. Archer decides to help the colonist to defend the refinery with tactical training and courage.

I liked "Marauders" a lot. The story recalls the original Star Trek series, with Archer, T'Pol, Trip, Reed, Travis and Hoshi having noble participation helping the locals to defend their property instead of attacking the Klingon cruiser with the weapons of the Enterprise. As Captain Archer wisely says, "not giving the fish, but teaching how to fish". My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Saqueadores" ("Marauders")