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Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 Episode 10

Fortunate Son

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AIRED: 11/21/01

Enterprise is dispatched by Starfleet Command to assist the Fortunate, a human freight vessel that has been attacked by Nausicaan pirates.

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Archer forces his own brand of human morality<br /> on more people who dont want it

6.1

By dregj, May 21, 2010

The ship responds to a distress call from the ECS Fortunate.

Upon arriving the crew seem nervous at first they refuse all help form starfleet. The reason turns out to be a nausican prisoner

being beaten for information on his friends

and thier defenses.

Once archer discovers this the fortunate departs after crippling enterprise.

The fortunate finds the pirates asteriod base and starts to attack.

but is quickly outgunned and boarded....

What we have here is another episode where

the questionable morality is supposed to be assigned to people other than starfleet.

the vicous pirates repeatedly attack frieghters

and when they respond archer deems them the bad guys

i would have expected any human to have killed the nauscican pirate for his actions

Instead archer poses and preaches his way througth a situation that required a strong leader

maybe post season 3 archer should

have gone back and sorted out the situation properly

leaving the pirate base intact?

did he even report it to starfleet?

A pansey aproach like that probably invites more attacksmoreless
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"Fortunate Son" brings to a boil the preachy writing that would curtail the promise of "Star Trek: Enterprise." Good science fiction has well written underlying themes that add to the plot in subtle ways. This is done crudely.moreless

6.0

By jrgreenmd, May 21, 2010

"Fortunate Son" brings to a boil the preachy writing that would curtail the promise of "Star Trek: Enterprise." Good science fiction has well written underlying themes that add to the plot in subtle ways. This is done crudely.

The conduct of war, treatment of hostages, state response to terrorism, and ethics and value of torture are all current topics at the time of the filming "Star Trek: Enterprise." "Fortunate Son" pits a small crew of a cargo vessel against a group of terrorist raiders. A hostage is taken by the crew ravaged many times in the past. Worthless data is obtained by the novice torturers and a plan falls asunder.

The silliness of the plot has the cargo crew attacking a Star Fleet Captain and his boarding party as Enterprise is along side. The cargo crew is portrayed as one dimensional, reactionary, duplicitous, and unintelligent. This may be how the writers feel about protagonists in the real world, but makes for bad drama.

The episode name "Fortunate Son" and the ships name of the same is reminiscent of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick."

"Fortunate Son" had potential, but it was lost in poor writing. Scripts can explore complex ideas and moral questions, however, the writing must be as thoughtful, wise, intelligent, and with the common sense the topic deserves. "Fortunate Son" was limited by lack of all in the its writing.moreless
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great episode

10

By sfviewer, May 21, 2010

The Enterprise crew is ordered by Starfleet Command to come to the aid of a human freight ship Fortunate. The freighter is constantly being attacked by alien pirates. The crew of the Fortunate is hiding something from the Enterprise when Archer speaks to the commanding officer of the freighter. This is a classic trek episode, it's got an ample amount of space battle to fill up the hour. It's really well made, it's fast paced, it was an enjoyable episode. The writers came up with a good episode, it's got action, drama and mystery. It's a perfect episode for enterprise.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Dominic Keating	Lt. Malcolm Reed
John Billingsley	Dr. Phlox
Jolene Blalock	T'Pol
Connor Trinneer	Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Linda Park	Ensign Hoshi Sato
Anthony Montgomery	Ensign Travis Mayweather

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Lawrence Monoson	First Officer Matthew Ryan	Guest Star
Kieran Mulroney	Shaw	Guest Star
D. Elliot Woods	Nausicaan Prisoner	Guest Star
Vaughn Armstrong	Admiral Forrest	Recurring Role

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- International Airdates
  
  United Kingdom: 04 March 2002 on Sky One
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