Online Critics Praise Park In 'Exile'

See Also: 'Exile' Episode Guide

Reviews for last Wednesday night's Enterprise episode, "Exile" generally praise the acting and the strength of Sato but express annoyance at the silly science of the shuttlepod sequences.

• At TrekWeb, O. Deus gave the episode an overall score of 8.0, calling Tarquin the "best guest star of the entire series" and praising Linda Park's "strong, defiant" performance as Sato. He found that the telepathy stretched credulity but praised the continuity and the surprise ending. To read the entire review, visit TrekWeb.

• " If I 'invited' a girl to join me in my Gothic Castle of Solitude and she put on sexy clothes," wrote Chris of Xenoclone's 'Enterprise' Power Rankings, " I'd sure as heck expect she wanted to stay. But alas, Tarquin apparently has as hard of time as I do understanding the intentions of the opposite sex." He thought Tarquin was effectively creepy taking on the personas of Phlox and Archer, but found the shuttlepod plot overly rushed and called "Exile" one of the weakest episodes of the season. The full review is at Xenoclone.

• The Great Link's Michael Marek also said that the "significant flaws" of "Exile" kept the episode from achieving a higher rating than three out of five from him. Marek thought that Sato came across as overly gullible and had numerous problems with the scene on the sphere where the shuttlepod nearly strands Archer and Tucker. For an accounting of the many inconsistencies he found, read the full review here.

• Television Without Pity's Keckler described the episode as "tale as dull as mime" and continued with the Disney parody theme throughout, comparing the episode to Beauty and the Beast "without the singing flatware and dancing wedding china and rollicking good times." Keckler also complained about Park's performance as well as her costumes. For the full review, visit TWoP.

• "This twist on an old children’s classic was handled well by the actors and director," wrote Litsa Guevara of TrekPulse. She praised the characterizations of both Sato and Tarquin as well as the advancement of the Xindi arc. But she thought that the emphasis on seeing Sato through Tarquin's eyes detracted from our seeing the character's development firsthand and felt that the episode seemed more like filler than a critical installment of the season. To learn why she rated "Exile" 3.5 out of 5, read her review here.

• Over at Lower Decks, SpiderMonkee too felt that much of the promise of "Exile" went unfulfilled because of the weak dialogue between Sato and Tarquin. And the "Dude, Where's My Shuttlepod?" scene begged the question, "Does the show still have a scientific advisor? How about Andre Bormanis? He's been a failure as a writer, how about putting him back on the job?" Despite the entertainment value, SpiderMonkee gave "Exile" only a 6.5/10 in the full review.

• Captain Mac at Trek5.com felt that "Hoshi and the Beast" ended without any definitive conclusion and found the storytelling superficial, but praised the B-story concerning the spheres and the special effects. To read more about the 3 out of 5-rated episode, visit Trek5.

• Mike Dunham of Section 31 gave up watching the ninth inning of a baseball playoff game to make sure that he didn't miss the beginning of "Exile", but found the episode disappointing. While pleased finally to get a Sato episode, Dunham felt that the lack of dimension to Tarquin, who turned out to be a predictable villain rather than someone who helped the crew all along, made him unsympathetic and the episode forgettable. Like many reviewers he also complained about the silliness of the shuttlepod falling onto the sphere as well. Read the full review at Section 31 to learn why else he gave the episode a grade of C.

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