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

Decent Trek western

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 17 October 2020]

Archer, T'Pol and Trip visit a planet with a human civilisation that resembles the historical American west.

The plot is your typical Trek outing seen many times with two races with a bad history that the crew want to help change their ways. This one happens to be set within a Western giving Archer and Trip the opportunity to mosey about in cowboy costumes and get involved in gunfights. There are some good themes explored regarding slavery and overcoming hatred which make it interesting beyond the novelty value of the western genre.

Some of the above might sound pretty poor but it's very well done and is a solid forty minutes of entertainment. Scott Bakula makes a fine Western stranger about town and Connor Trinneer looks to be having fun alongside T'Pol in their period costumes.

When the eventual showdown comes its all very fun with bullets and phaser beams flying everywhere. Malcolm is almost as cool as Doc Holiday under fire.

I like a western, but if you take your Trek very seriously you might struggle with the.concept, particularly as it all happens randomly in the middle of a serialised season.

Enterprise Does a Western a la X-Files

[mstomaso · 8/10 · 16 October 2007]

Residents of a 19th century town straight out of a spaghetti western were abducted by aliens hundreds of years ago and brought to a planet in the expanse to serve as slave labor. By the time Archer and crew get there, they have turned the tables. The Skags (their alien abductors) live in segregated towns and are not allowed to receive an education, and vigilante bullies are permitted to run amok among them. But there is a teacher who wants to change all of this.

Noteworthy for its originality, good cinematography and acting performances, North Star is a solid entry in the Enterprise Catalog. it is also a nice stand-alone break from the Xindi story arc which dominated the 3rd season. It is also another contribution to the series' thematic examination of pre-prime directive space exploration. Fans of TOS might enjoy Archer's Jim Kirk-like approach to the problems he encounters.

Fact-check Those Reviewers!

[ross-30679 · 8/10 · 1 May 2023]

One reviewer wrote "there's absolutely no explanation why this is a western"...except the multiple times it was mentioned that these were humans kidnapped by aliens from Earth in the 19th century. Another reviewer chided the Skags' teacher for claiming the Wright Brothers flew the first successful "flying machine"; more accurately, the first heavier-than-air craft but her 1st graders wouldn't be interested in that distinction. BTW: Santos-Dumont didn't fly his dirigible lighter-that-aircraft until 1898, 115 years after the Montgolfier Brothers first did it. Overall, this "Enterprise" episode is Star Trek's best Western; not a holodeck fantasy or imaginary tale. It felt real, congrats!

A respectable, oddball entry

[sogoodlooking · 7/10 · 22 September 2020]

One of the things Enterprise tended to do better than other ST series was paint believable, detailed pictures of minor characters, such as the school teacher and the sheriff in this episode.

That saves "North Star" from mediocrity, though not by a lot. There's nothing special here, though the gun fight between bullets and phaser is amusing.

Somewhat dissatisfied

[tiealana · 7/10 · 29 February 2016]

I know not everyone loves the side trip that this episode has taken, and personally I like sometimes veering from the normal plot line. The main issue I had with the episode is the inaccuracy with the Wild West atmosphere. No one with any sense of the actual needs of a real horse would ever keep them stabled with full tack on, and to top it off leave a hay hook in the stall with the horse. I understand it's a work of fiction, but I think for the safety of the actors (including the animal ones) and accuracy they should have considered basing some things off of something more than a complete work of fiction. Overall I liked the episode, but was somewhat let down by the end of the show. After the first mistake, I couldn't sit back and really enjoy it. I kept checking it over and over for more slips that they made in the episode. So while I am not upset enough to discourage viewers to skip this episode, I would advise that they not take it too seriously.

Irresistible

[jrarichards · 9/10 · 20 October 2018]

A simple, powerful story given to us straight, and relatively unusually allowing "Enterprise" to pay some homage to the original Star Trek. Your remember how Kirk and co. visited the Nazi Germany planet, the post Soviet-US nuclear war planet, the gangster planet, the Roman Empire planet and the Wild West planet?

Well, here we're back with Archer, Tucker and T'Pol in a Wild West recreated with some verve, but in association with an "alien abduction back in Victorian times" storyline that packs quite a punch with its interesting role-change plot twist, and with the eventual need for Enterprise to reveal itself to human cousins who have made no progress, while those back on Earth have made so much. The reveal allows the episode to end with thought-provoking historical catch-up that is sure to bring a tear to the eye of anyone who "feels" what Trek is all about.

"Enterprise" was always the most workmanlike of the Trek spinoffs, but here we have another Season 3 episode that makes it clear how much can be achieved with a clear-purpose, powerful, ostensibly non-complex story put across by actors that now feel entirely comfortable in their roles. On the guest side, Emily Bergl does just fine as Bethany, while Glenn Morshower as MacReady extracts everything he can from his key role in a touching and effective "just right" performance.

"North Star" is 40 minutes of fun and deep message in equal proportion, and one can't ask for much more than that...

A fistful of phasers

[tomsly-40015 · 7/10 · 31 March 2024]

Of course, in the context of the overarching Xindi story arc, this episode makes little sense. After all, the entire world is on the brink of destruction and the crew of the Enterprise should have better things to do than visit a few humans on a backwater Wild West planet. However, if you ignore this obvious error in reasoning, then this episode is not as bad as some commentators make it out to be.

What bothers many commentators: Why do these humans live like in the Wild West and why haven't they adopted any alien technology from their abductors? First of all, we don't know how they were able to overpower the aliens and break free. Whether, for example, much of the alien technology was destroyed in this attack. After all, they set the spaceship on fire. Maybe their ancestors still used this technology, but couldn't maintain it and eventually it broke and was then forgotten. How many tools and technology from 300 years ago are unknown to us today?

In addition: These people were kidnapped while they were living in the time of the Wild West. It seems plausible that they maintained this way of life. There are no other civilizations on the planet that could have contributed to cultural and technological exchange. You have to remember: When America was settled, many emigrants came from Europe, bringing with them their culture, their religion, new ideas, new inventions and research, and a new way of life to the new world. That's all missing on this planet. The fact that these settlers did not undergo much development does not seem completely unrealistic. Compare that with isolated Japan a few hundred years ago. When the technological revolution was already raging in Europe, Japan still had an agricultural and craft-based feudal society and samurai who fought with swords. It's amazing anyhow how this civilization could make glass. Or ammunition for their weapons. Or how horses made it to this planet.

However, it remains questionable whether 6,000 people who have built a life there, have a family and don't know any other life want to be brought back to Earth and then integrated into society. The children will certainly have no problems, but the adults will certainly feel more alien on their ancestral home planet than on this extra-terrestrial planet.

I'd like to chime in

[tidusbautista · 8/10 · 7 February 2014]

I liked this episode quite a bit. Although I enjoy the Xindi arc, stand alone episodes are nice too. I think the fact that it is a western should let you know from the beginning not to take it too seriously, but that is why I enjoyed it. Like many other episodes, it does wrap up somewhat quickly, but I thought it was a decent ending. It's worth watching if you enjoy westerns, but if you only care about the Xindi story arc you can skip this one without missing anything. I thought it was good though, a lot better than many other stand alone episodes.

I definitely disagree with others' opinion that this is the worst episode of the season, but that is their opinion and that is fine. I just wanted to agree with the first review to balance out the other two reviews.

Teaching Wrong History

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 6 February 2008]

Archer, T'Pol and Trip visit a planet with six thousand humans still living in the Wild West style and one thousand Skagaraans living marginally. They disclose that humans had been abducted three hundred years ago to slave work, but they have reverted the situation and killed most of the Skags. The alien survivors presently does not have right to education and they a loathed by most of the population. When Archer and the teacher Bethany are arrested for teaching Skags, he decides to interfere in the society.

"North Star" is so far the most inconsistent and the worst episode of this Third Season. The story is not original, and Archer violates the principle of not interfering in other societies. Further, the writer shamefully forgets the "Father of Aviation" Alberto Santos-Dumont, the first man to build and fly experimental aircraft, giving the credit to the Wright Brothers. Maybe a side effect of the Delphic Expanse. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Estrela Polar" ("North Star")

Leaves Us with a Few Questions

[Samuel-Shovel · 5/10 · 22 January 2018]

Captain Archer and the crew visit the ole west in the Expanse, finding humans to be living alongside an alien species called the Skagarans on a previously unknown planet. It turns out that the Skagarans kidnapped a group of Western settlers back in the 1800's and planned to use the humans as slave labor. But after a slave uprising freed the humans from their captors, the humans took the upper hand and have controlled the planet ever since. Archer, T'Pol, and Trip attempt to research these colonist firsthand and see if they can reform them and their ideas.

Okay... I have a few questions. 1) If the Skagarans were technologically advanced enough to get a warp-capable ship all the way from their planet in the Expanse to Earth and have high-tech weapons, how in the world did they get overthrown by a bunch of cowboys? 2) After the humans took control, why did they not use a single item of technology, instead sticking to their old customs? You think they would have used the "guns with beams of light" they described to control the Skagarans or researched how they worked and advanced their own technology in some capacity.

These seem like important questions that this episode never addresses. I love a good Western as much as the next guy, but these plot holes staring me in the face in this episode distracted me from the overall plot. The concept itself is a cool one: humans taken from Earth, unbeknownst to the rest of civilization and spirited away to be used as slave labor. I only wish this episode was a bit better and more thought out.

Nice little western Interlude in the Delphic expanse

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 15 August 2022]

I didn't find too many X-Files references though...

It was basically a Star Trek episode in a western setting. But not an imaginary western setting like "specter of the gun", The premise of this would probably be "what if people from the 1800s were uprooted from earth and then brought to an alien planet"?

Unfortunately an alien planet that looked more like Westworld... there should have been alien beasts. A few are referenced, but not shown.

Apparently a group of aliens called The Skagarans kidnapped the wrong people from Tombstone... and the whole thing backfired on them.

This plotline is similar to the Star Trek Voyager episode "the 37s", where more intelligent people had been taken during World War II, including Amelia Earhart. So this episode of Enterprise in the Delphic expanse is a contrast to the episode of Voyager, on the other side of the galaxy in the Delta quadrant.

It is as if these people in the town of Northstar decided to continue living in the 1800s, this is a completely non-progressive society. All of their laws are intended for suppression and for keeping status quo and preventing any kind of progress from occurring. Whereas in "the 37s", the progressive descendants of those kidnapped by aliens for practically the exact same purpose, lived in "three beautiful cities". It is a good contrast to show: similar origins, different fates. Watch both episodes and compare. And it makes you wonder: the aliens in "the 37s", were those also Skagarans, but with a different name? Because the backstory between the two episodes is practically identical.

Archer meets some interesting people, first off there is Deputy Bennings (James Parks, Son of Michael Parks, "Edger McGraw" from Quentin Tarantino films).

That was perfect casting right there. Of course this was another opportunity for Glenn Morshower to play a sheriff.

And Emily Bergl (From the Spielberg-Produced mini series "Taken"), as a girl who does not know her own heritage.

Although this episode does not progress the Xindi story, it is a typical Star Trek episode, Archer finds something on a planet that is offkilter and he figures out a way of making it right without interfering too much.

Except for the gun fight involving the MACOs and Benning's deputies... but that was also good contrast, one group using pistols, the other group using phase pistols and phase rifles with a sniper scope... Shades of Unreal Tournament!

Why??

[michael870268-410-249443 · 4/10 · 21 October 2020]

Xindi on the cusp of destroying earth, millions dead from an attack, a race against time to find them and prevent the end of the human race but time to stop off for an unrelated episode. Surely this filler episode should of been in season 1 or 2.

Probably the best Trek western alonside the TNG Data episode

[cm-54441 · 10/10 · 7 October 2023]

So... I just don't get the low rating of this episode. I know people used to hate on Enterprise just for the sake of it, but this is a very good Trek Western episode.

The story actually makes sense as opposed to the Discovery "human colony on a distant planet". We have aliens who were overthrown by Humans and there is a real conflict here.

Also, the firefight between the Starfleet/MACOs and the cowboys is actually very well done! Archer using the kill setting to blow up the floor from that cowboy standing on that perch was an original take on it, for example.

Also, another proof why people just hate Enterprise just because they have nothing better to do: we have the same "I have the bigger stick" argument in the pilot for Strange New Worlds and people cheer for that episode.

This kind of bias is valid for about 80-90% of the 4 Enterprise seasons...

Horses?

[alexgreenwell13 · 1/10 · 8 September 2019]

Ok. Why did Skags need to go 3 months at warp 5; so far to abduct earthlings to take as slaves. . None a little closer?.What purpose that a mechanised device could not do. But most importantly , how did the horses get there??? Horses ffs

worse episode of the series

[seraphin01 · 3/10 · 30 December 2013]

Well not much to say on this episode, it's just as bad as it sounds In many ways it looks like one of those filler episode in Voyager in those holographic chamber.. Completely useless to the story line, lots of freedom taken from the whole concept of star trek..

Basically it looks like an episode where the staff had a western village and props available and made a story around it, not the other way around..

The acting is such a caricature, Archer just doesn't fit at all in it, maybe Trip would have been a little bit more convincing but his Texan accent is already over the top in the series...

Plus it's supposed to have a moral about forgiving, tolerance etc.. but in the end it kinda sounds wrong, as if the oppressed are the nice and kind white cowboys instead of the black slaves in America or Indians.

So yeah everything looks and sounds wrong in that episode, possibly the worse of the whole enterprise series, especially since Season 3 was getting so good and intense, this just brings back the sad ghosts of voyagers worse episodes.. to be forgiven fast, and can totally be skipped even since you won't miss it for the upcoming episodes

my note: 3/10

Cute Yes, Buy Why?

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 24 March 2017]

As we make our way toward Xindi and their horrors, we suddenly find ourselves in a classic Western. What's the motivation? What's the point in the progression? Anyway, there are two races in a small space on a planet. One is dominant and cruel. The other is the oppressed. They have ties to Earth and have evolved very little. The episode begins with the lynching of one of the oppressed society (called Skags). Archer and the gang infiltrate the town, hoping to keep a low profile. He demands it of them and then becomes the center of attention when he plies his contempt for the baddies. Yes it's entertaining, but it's hardly Star Trek.

I hate cowboy episodes....really, really hate them.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 31 March 2015]

One of the worst episodes of the original "Star Trek" was the one where a group of crew members were magically transported back to the famous O.K. Corral and the big showdown between the Earps and Clantons. I realize that many Trekkies would argue and say that it's a GREAT episode...and I can only assume these folks think every episode is great. But while there were some wonderful shows a few were klunkers--and "Spectre of the Gun" was among the dumbest.

Because of my hatred for this show, I had a strong predisposition to hate "North Star" because it, too, is set in the old west--which makes no sense in the 22nd century. Yet, inexplicably, the landing party find themselves in a nearly identical version of the west. The only big difference is that in addition to humans who live there is another race--one that is hated by these humans. How does all this work out? Do you really care?!

To enjoy Sci-fi, you need to suspend disbelief. However, I really cannot suspend it THAT much!! The idea is absolutely absurd and silly...and is among the worst episodes of season three.

Why but why????

[CzyboutFlix · 3/10 · 8 February 2022]

I love a detour episode but the Zindi are close to finishing a planet killing machine and the away mission to a backwater planet with no redeeming qualities to show us where we've come from. They left too many unanswered questions. Skip this episode. It's really not worth the pain to your senses.

Cowboys vs Aliens

[dting2010 · 4/10 · 3 November 2018]

There's absolutely no explanation for what's happening in this episode. The previous episode had Archer traveling into the future. Now, this episode was seemingly in the wild West. It has made me almost give up watching the rest of the series.

Awful

[MrJamesMoore · 1/10 · 5 November 2023]

Rewatching Entperise and it's not brilliant. Some good episodes but the attitudes expressed don't hold up well in 2023. This isn't one of those episodes, just one of the badly written ones.

Why haven't the humans evolved in 300 years? Use the same tech, wear the same clothes, talk the same. They even know aliens exist and that hasn't changed their ideas? Didn't use any of their tech?

Lucky the planet looks exactly like old West so they could just go about their business as normal.

Then Archer shows up and they don't question it. Oh he comes from the next town that's never existed before. I guess they've haven't explored the planet. Not really human nature I guess. Oh wait...

Why did they even go to the is planet. Earth is under threat of total annihilation. How did human slaves overthrow warp capable aliens? Did the aliens make the old timey revolver guns for them? I know they have to use the old West set on the back lot but couldn't it have been shown at some other time? Nothing makes sense.

And where did the horses come from?