Bound (Star Trek: Enterprise)

Last updated

"Bound"
Star Trek: Enterprise episode
Episode no.Season 4
Episode 17
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Written by Manny Coto
Featured music Jay Chattaway
Production code417
Original air dateApril 15, 2005 (2005-04-15)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
 Previous
"Divergence"
Next 
"In a Mirror, Darkly"
Star Trek: Enterprise season 4
List of episodes

"Bound" is the seventeenth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise , originally broadcast on April 15, 2005. It was written by showrunner Manny Coto, and directed by Allan Kroeker. The episode featured the return of the Orion slave girls, which had been originally seen in the original pilot of Star Trek: The Original Series , "The Cage".

Contents

Set in the 22nd century, the series follows the adventures of the first Starfleet starship Enterprise , registration NX-01. In this episode, three Orion slave girls come on board the ship, and the crew, with the exception of Commander "Trip" Tucker and Commander T'Pol who seem to have a resistant psychic bond, begin acting strangely.

The episode featured the return of Cyia Batten and William Lucking who had both previously appeared in multi-episode parts in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Four time MTV Music Video Award for Choreography winner Travis Payne was brought on board to oversee the extensive choreography for the three actresses playing the Orion women. Each actress went through a four to five-hour make-up process for each day of filming, which required them to be sprayed green. "Bound" received Nielsen ratings of 1.8/3%, and critical reaction was mixed with one reviewer listing it amongst the best episodes of Enterprise while another listed as the worst episode ever of any Star Trek series.

Plot

Enterprise is en route to the Berengarius system, one of the proposed locations for a Starfleet starbase, when it is approached by an Orion Syndicate vessel. Captain Archer is invited to visit the Orion ship by its captain, Harrad-Sar. During the visit, Archer and Lieutenant Reed are entertained by three Orion dancers, Navaar, D'Nesh, and Maras. Archer negotiates with Harrad-Sar and they agree to a joint magnesite mining operation, and at Harrad-Sar's insistence the three slaves are given to him. They return to Enterprise with the slaves and set a course to survey the planet.

En route, the presence of the Orions begins having an effect on the crew: men become increasingly aggressive, while women increasingly suffer from headaches. Navaar focuses her attentions on Archer, while D'Nesh seduces Commander Kelby. Arriving at the planet, a sluggish Archer orders Reed to destroy another ship, but he refuses and it escapes. Kelby meanwhile sabotages the warp drive before Commander Tucker can physically stop him. Afterwards, Doctor Phlox determines that the Orions are producing pheromones, causing the crew's adrenaline levels to spike. Only Commander T'Pol and Tucker remain unaffected, since she is Vulcan and he shares her immunity because of their psychic bond.

The Orions are placed under guard in the decontamination chamber. Harrad-Sar returns in his vessel and attacks the now disabled Enterprise, and then begins to tow it away. He reveals that, in fact, the Syndicate seeks Archer's head, and in this matter he is the slave and the Orion women are his masters. The Orions escape and travel to the Bridge, as do T'Pol and Tucker. Navaar tells Archer to arrest T'Pol, but Tucker stuns all the male crew-members with his phaser, and Tucker and T'Pol disable the Orion ship with a pulse sent from Enterprise's deflector dish. They send the Orions back to their ship, and T'Pol finally admits she would personally like Tucker to return, and he replies that he has already requested a transfer back to Enterprise.

Production

Cyia Batten by David Shankbone.jpg
CrystalAllenCCJuly09.jpg
Menina Fortunato 2007.jpg
Cyia Batten, Crystal Allen and Menina Fortunato portrayed the three Orion slave girls in "Bound"

The Orion slave girls had been introduced in the original Star Trek: The Original Series pilot "The Cage", [1] footage from which was later adapted to appear in the episode "The Menagerie". [2] The make-up was designed by Fred Phillips, which was originally tested on Majel Barrett, [3] before it was applied to Susan Oliver. [4] Cyia Batten, Crystal Allen and Menina Fortunato played the three Orion women in "Bound". Batten had previously appeared as Tora Ziyal, the daughter of Gul Dukat in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the episodes "Indiscretion" and "Return to Grace". [5] [6] She also appeared in "Drive", an episode Star Trek: Voyager , as Irina. [7] William Lucking had appeared as a Bajoran called Furel in three episodes of Deep Space Nine; "Shakaar", [1] "The Darkness and the Light" and "Ties of Blood and Water". [8] [9] Derek Magyar returned as Commander Kelby, following his introduction earlier in the previous episode "Divergence". [1]

Allen recalled The Original Series, and said that she was pleased to be remembered as an Orion slave girl in Enterprise. However, she was not pleased with the make-up process, which took between four and five hours to apply, and required each actress to be sprayed with green make-up over her whole body. [1] [10] Removal of the makeup was via the showers in the Paramount lot's executive gym. The make-up team also needed to apply fake sweat and bruises to other members of the cast to represent the results of the increased aggression shown by them in the episode's plot. [1]

Allan Kroeker, the director of "Bound", had previously directed two episodes earlier in the season, "Storm Front" and "Home". [1] Fortunato praised the director and described the Orions, saying that they "move very slowly, very seductively. I would like to compare us to snakes – we like to slither and creep around, versus a human. So we’re a little sneaky. The three of us are trying to get something accomplished, and each one of us has our target, so to speak, to try to manipulate them to get what we want in the end." [11]

The choreography was overseen by Travis Payne, who had won the MTV Music Video Award for Best Choreography on four occasions and worked with Madonna, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears amongst others. Both Batten and Fortunato were trained dancers, with Batten being a former member of The Pussycat Dolls burlesque dance troupe, while Allen had previously appeared in films such as Maid in Manhattan and television series such as Boston Legal alongside William Shatner. [1] After being cast, Fortunato said that the actresses playing the Orion women were not shown any film footage of the previous appearances of Orion slave girls, but were allowed to see a magazine article about Bobbi Sue Luther appearing as one in the episode "Borderland" in order to demonstrate what the make-up would look like. [11]

Filming began on January 6, 2005 and concluded on January 14. Only six days were used to shoot, with January 10 spent working on choreography for the dance scene and for shooting additional footage for "Divergence". Filming on the earlier episode had also overlapped on the first day of filming. [1] While the actresses playing the Orion women were required on all days, Lucking filmed all his scenes on the final day of shooting. The main cabin of the Orion ship was constructed in full specifically for this episode while the bridge was only a single wall as it was only seen on screen as a viewscreen background. [1]

Reception

"Bound" was first aired in the United States on UPN on April 15, 2005. It received a 1.8/3% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 1.8 percent of all households, and three percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. [12] This was lower than the following episode, where the first installment of the two-part "In a Mirror, Darkly" received ratings of 2.0/3%. [13]

IGN gave the episode three out of five, and said that although it wasn't the best episode, it was moving the series in the right direction, and called it "a decent hour of action-adventure science fiction." [14] Jason Davis of Cinescape gave it a B+ and said "Coto has crafted a script that evokes the ambience of the original while spinning a yarn that keeps even the most ensconced Trek aficionado in suspense." He concludes: "This episode, not to mention this season, is what Enterprise should have been all along." [15] Jamahl Epsicokhan on his website Jammer's Reviews gave "Bound" a score of one out of four, saying that it was "too dumb, too obvious, too boring, and too rooted in gender stereotypes". He said that it was sexist and "the worst episode of Enterprise in more than two years". [16] Michelle Erica Green of TrekNation said that it was the single worst episode of any Star Trek series, including "Spock's Brain". She considered it a statement in misogyny and also thought that it represented a scenario where homosexual characters do not exist. [17] James Hunt of the website Den of Geek listed "Bound" as the fourth best episode of Enterprise, saying that it "found a way to include [the Orion slave girls] in a way that preserved the eye candy and shifted the power in the Orion relationships." [18]

Home media release

"Bound" was released on home media in the United States on November 1, 2005, as part of the season four DVD box set of Enterprise. [19] The Blu-ray edition was released on April 1, 2014. [20]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Production Report: Orion Slave Girls "Bound" for Glory". Star Trek.com. January 24, 2005. Archived from the original on March 3, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  2. Ward, Dayton; Mack, David (March 31, 2011). "Star Trek Re-watch: "The Cage"". Tor.com. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  3. Greenberger (2012): p. 20
  4. Leao, Gustavo (December 26, 2004). "Celebrate 40 Years of The Cage with an Interview with Susan Oliver, the Original Orion Slave Girl". TrekWeb. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  5. "Indiscretion". TrekNation. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  6. Handlen, Zack (February 7, 2013). ""Return To Grace"/"Sons Of Mogh"". The A.V. Club . Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  7. Hines, Edward James (October 25, 2000). "Drive". TrekNation. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  8. "The Darkness and the Light". TrekNation. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  9. "Ties of Blood and Water". TrekNation. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  10. Leao, Gustavo (February 10, 2006). "TrekWeb Interviews Enterprise Orion Slave Girl Crystal Allen". TrekWeb. Archived from the original on February 22, 2006. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  11. 1 2 Cullen, Ian M. (September 5, 2005). "Fortunato On The Physicality Of Orion Slave Girls". Sci Fi Pulse. Archived from the original on September 24, 2005. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  12. "Viewer Verdict Favors NBC Friday". Zap2it. April 16, 2005. Archived from the original on April 17, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  13. "CBS Has Right 'Numb3rs' for Friday Win". Zap2it. April 23, 2005. Archived from the original on April 23, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  14. KJB (Apr 15, 2005). "Trek Report: Bound". IGN .
  15. Jason Davis (April 16, 2005). "STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE - "Bound"". Cinescape . Archived from the original on 2006-06-19. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  16. Epsicokhan, Jamahl. "Star Trek: Enterprise "Bound"". Jammer's Reviews . Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  17. Green, Michelle Erica (April 16, 2005). "Bound". TrekNation . Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  18. Hunt, James (November 4, 2009). "Top 10 Star Trek: Enterprise episodes". Den of Geek. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  19. Douglass Jr., Todd (October 24, 2005). "Star Trek Enterprise – The Complete Fourth Season". DVD Talk. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
  20. "Final Season Enterprise Blu-ray Set Available April 1". StarTrek.com. December 18, 2013. Archived from the original on December 28, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2014.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T'Pol</span> Character in Star Trek

T'Pol is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. Portrayed by Jolene Blalock in the series Star Trek: Enterprise, she is a Vulcan who serves as the science officer aboard the starship Enterprise (NX-01).

"Impulse" is the fifty-seventh episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the fifth episode of season three. The episode was written by story editor Jonathan Fernandez from a story by Fernandez and Terry Matalas. It first aired October 8, 2003 on the UPN network in the United States. The episode was described by Paramount Pictures as "as close to a horror show as Star Trek gets".

"" is the seventy-third episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the twenty-first episode of season three. It first aired on May 5, 2004, on the UPN network in the United States. The episode was the fifth of the season written by Mike Sussman, and it was directed by Star Trek: Voyager alumnus Roxann Dawson, her fourth of the third season.

"Extinction" is the 55th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the third episode of season three. It first aired on September 24, 2003 on the UPN network in the United States. This was the first episode to include the prefix "Star Trek" in the title of the series. Set in the 22nd century just prior to the formation of the United Federation of Planets, the series follows the adventures of Starfleet's first Warp 5 starship, Enterprise, registration NX-01.

Orion (<i>Star Trek</i>) Fictional alien race

The Orions are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid species in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek, making their first appearance in the initial pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Cage". Susan Oliver portrayed the first Orion seen on screen, when her human character Vina was transformed into one, although it was Majel Barrett who underwent the original makeup test. The footage was subsequently used in the two-part episode "The Menagerie". Yvonne Craig, who was considered for the role of Vina, later played an Orion in "Whom Gods Destroy".

Borderland (<i>Star Trek: Enterprise</i>) 4th episode of the 4th season of Star Trek: Enterprise

"Borderland" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It originally aired on October 29, 2004, on UPN. The script was written by Ken LaZebnik, and was directed by David Livingston. The episode featured the first appearance of Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner in Enterprise. It also featured guest appearances by Bobbi Sue Luther and WWE wrestler Big Show.

"Home" is the third episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It first aired on October 22, 2004, on the UPN network in the United States. It was the second episode of the season directed by Allan Kroeker and the first in season four to be written by Michael Sussman.

"Unexpected" is the fifth episode of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and was written by Brannon Braga and Rick Berman. Mike Vejar was the director.

"Breaking the Ice" is the eighth episode of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and was written by Maria Jacquemetton and Andre Jacquemetton. Terry Windell served as director for the episode. The episode was nominated for the 2002 Emmy Award for visual effects.

"Civilization" is the ninth episode of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and was written by Phyllis Strong and Michael Sussman. Mike Vejar served as director for the episode.

"In a Mirror, Darkly" is the eighteenth and nineteenth episodes of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and originally aired on April 22 and 29, 2005. This installment was developed to be a sequel to The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web" and a prequel to "Mirror, Mirror". The decision to set an Enterprise episode in the mirror universe originated with a pitch to enable William Shatner to appear in the series. The teleplays for both parts of the episode were written by Mike Sussman, with Manny Coto contributing the story for the second part.

"Terra Prime" is the 21st episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and originally aired on May 13, 2005. The story was developed by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, along with André Bormanis, and developed into a script by the Reeves-Stevenses and show runner Manny Coto. The episode is the second of a two-part story, which started in "Demons". The episode was directed by Marvin Rush, his second for the series.

"Demons" is the twentieth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and originally aired on May 6, 2005, on UPN. The episode was written by showrunner Manny Coto and directed by LeVar Burton. "Demons" is the first part of a two part story, concluding with "Terra Prime".

"Rajiin" is the 56th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the fourth episode of season three. It first aired on October 1, 2003, on the UPN network in the United States. It was written by Brent V. Friedman and Chris Black from a story idea from Friedman and Paul Brown, and directed by Mike Vejar.

The Expanse (<i>Star Trek: Enterprise</i> episode) 26th episode of the 2nd season of Star Trek: Enterprise

"The Expanse" is the fifty-second episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, the twenty-sixth episode and finale of Season Two. The episode launched a change of direction for the series, starting with a cataclysmic attack on the Star Trek version of Earth and introducing a new alien foe, the Xindi.

"First Flight" is the fiftieth episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the twenty-fourth episode of the second season. It first aired on May 14, 2003, on UPN. It was written by John Shiban and Chris Black, and was directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation actor LeVar Burton.

The Crossing (<i>Star Trek: Enterprise</i>) 18th episode of the 2nd season of Star Trek: Enterprise

"The Crossing" is the forty-fourth episode of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the eighteenth of the second season.

"Canamar" is the forty-third episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the seventeenth of the second season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Seventh</span> 7th episode of the 2nd season of Star Trek: Enterprise

"The Seventh" is the thirty-third episode of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the seventh of the second season. In the Star Trek universe, a spaceship has set out from Earth in the 2100s to explore the galaxy.

References