Orion Slave Girls and Love. It’s a thing apparently. Originally broadcast on April 15. 2005 this is Bound.
The Episode:
Captain’s Starlog December 27, 2154
Archer receives some Orion slave girls as a gift from the Orion syndicate after agreeing to try establishing diplomatic relations between them and Starfleet. Their presence begins to cause problems on board causing crew members to grow hostile toward one another after being near them. Trip and T’Pol are immune because of their psychic link and it soon turns out that the Orions planned this all along. They intended to claim Enterprise and Archer as a prize after the ‘slave’ girls disrupted everything. Turns out that the concept of Slave Women on Orion isn’t exactly true, they are the real masters using their pheromones to control, well, everything. The Enterprise crew, of course stops them and Trip informs T’Pol that he has transferred back to Enterprise on a permeant basis. They kiss and are back together for real now.
Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:
ehhhhhhhh. I don’t know. This really feels like a completely throwaway episode that they kind of ran out of ideas on. I mean, sure, we haven’t really seen much from the Orions but this one just felt rather forced. Plus…Archer taking the Orion Slave Women as gifts was somewhat…inappropriate? I mean sure, he tries to ‘set them free’ but…then he gives in to his, uh, desires? yeah. that’s the word. Sure sure, it was all part of a trap set by the Orion Syndicate but still. Then there is the mental link between T’Pol and Trip….How is this just now popping up in the last few episodes? I mean, if they had this bond, shouldn’t it have been a thing before?
This episode kinda reminds me of The Naked Time (TOS) and The Naked Now (TNG) where the crews are infected with a virus and start acting irrationally. Now, had they connected those together making it so the Orions were using an early version of this virus, that would probably have been much more interesting. Anyway, this is an okay ‘one and done episode’ but not really a ‘good’ episode. It’s just filler and can be skipped with relative ease.
Gleanings and Cool Bits:
- We hear about the Gorn for the first time, so there’s that.
- We also hear about the Deltan’s who will not actually appear until Star Trek the Motion Picture.
- We learn that Orion Women run everything in Orion culture which actually lines up well with Discovery season 3.
Thanks for reading the Retro TV Review, I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you, one episode at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Next Review: In a Mirror, Darkly Parts one and two.
more reviews I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more retro TV goodness check out the rest of the Retro TV Reviews here.
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Late To The Game 11/22/2021
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