Online Reviewers Praise 'Anomaly'

See Also: 'Anomaly' Episode Guide

After the Enterprise season premiere failed to convince most reviewers of the show's promised turnaround, last week's "Anomaly" drew overwhelming praise from almost all online critics.

• Gisele La Roche at StarfleetCom.net awarded the episode a full A grade, calling it a "great ensemble show" and praising the character development of Captain Archer. A full summary of the episode as well as her review can be found here.

• Trek5's Captain Mac sounded more than a bit surprised at the quality of the episode:

  Then I watched 'Anomaly.' Boy, was I in for a shock! It rocked! Over-the-top special effects, a great score combined with tight directing and — most importantly — good writing make this episode a winner. I was disappointed that the episode ended, and I haven't said that about a TV series for a long time.

  All this praise added up to a 4/5 rating in the full review.

• O. Deus at TrekWeb compared "Anomaly" to former Trek greats such as "In The Pale Moonlight" and "The Void", saying this was one of the first Enterprise episodes that delivered on the premise of a lonely ship out in deep space. "Archer and Co. have often come off as casual and carefree adventurers guided by a belief that no problem was ever any more than just a temporary inconvenience. 'Anomaly' is one of the few Enterprise episodes (though really the only one since season 2's 'Minefield' arc) that actually shows Enterprise alone and vulnerable in deep space while struggling to survive." The full review can be found here.

• One of the two reviewers who was not so taken by the episode was Section 31's Mike Dunham, who felt that the episode featured "many of the same problems that plagued the first episode." Dunham's main complaint was the lack of attention paid to the secondary characters: "Hoshi at least had a little bit more to do this week, and Mayweather actually had more than two lines in the whole episode. But the fact that I am desperately searching for any improvement, and then calling a slight increase in lines an improvement at all, speaks volume for the state of some of the characters." More problems of the episode can be found by following this link.

• The other online reviewer who seemed to dislike the episode was Keckler at Television Without Pity, although she still awarded the episode a B:

  I'm not in a good mood. The agonizing fact that I have to rewatch this banausic blob of an episode is compounded by the fact that my iBook is in the shop, and by some complicated set-up -- that minimizes visual perception and maximizes back and neck pain -- I have to use my husband's PC. However, I have amended my earlier comment that this episode bored the checked pants off me, because some of the action, though predictable, wasn't that bad. BUT I still think these writers (hereafter referred to as "the poor, stifled writers") produced something that is far from satisfactory. People, I've been inundating myself with second-season Deep Space Nine, first-season The West Wing, and all manner of Farscape this summer -- don't tell me I don't know good TV.

  Keckler's full episode recap can be found here.

• She was one of the few reviewers who already liked "The Xindi," but even Monkee preferred "Anomaly," awarding the episode a 9 out of 10. Her first impression of the episode was of a "strong, coherent story that successfully conveys a sense of danger and desperation" featuring "great special effects." But other aspects of the episode won her over, too, including a successful use of the Archer character, and the long-awaited return of Porthos. For more, read the full review here.

• And finally, if you'd like to see exactly who was responsible for "Anomaly", Psi Phi has posted the episode's full credits here.

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