'Singularity' Review Roundup

See Also: 'Singularity' Episode Guide

Most reviewers seem to be in agreement regarding last week's 'Singularity' - a derivative premise, but a well-executed episode.

A roundup of the latest reviews posted online can be found below:

• "'Singularity' is a well told sci-fi oriented second season episode in the vein of 'Dead Stop' with resemblances to the style of the Original Series," wrote O. Deus at TrekWeb. "From its shocking opening, 'Singularity' jettisons Enterprise's often drearily linear storytelling for a series of flashbacks told from the perspective of T'Pol on a ship where the crew is either unconscious or insane. Like the first half of 'Dear Doctor,' the flashbacks serve to give us a sense of how an ordinary day proceeds on Enterprise, which is important on board a starship that far too often seems deserted by all but the regulars." Read more at this page.

• Matt D. at Trek5.com was pleased the episode was deeper than it initially appeared:

  In an unsophisticated analysis 'Singularity' comes off as low-brow melodrama of the Enterprise crew acquiring space-madness by radiation. But that's not the case here. In true Trek tradition Enterprise uses science fiction as an analogy, in this case examining a mental health condition called OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

  In the full review, 'Singularity' was awarded a score of 4 out of 5.

• Despite the lack of originality in the basic premise, Star Trek Hypertext's Jamahl Epsicokhan said he enjoyed 'Singularity' on a "superficial" level. "As such, it's something of a guilty pleasure that I sort of liked on that level. I cannot argue in favor of the premise or the events that arise from it. I can argue in favor of crew weirdness depicted entertainingly. It is what it is, and I guess it's well enough on those terms." He gave the episode 2.5 out of 4 stars in the complete analysis.

• Gisele La Roche at StarfleetCom.Net seemed to thoroughly enjoy the episode, despite the derivative plot.

  I loved the way the characters gradually changed from extremely focused to preoccupied and then obsessed with "trivial matters" as T'Pol puts it. Being stressed out these days, I could really identify with them. You have to feel for T'Pol who tries to tell an uninterested Archer: "The crew's behavior has become erratic even by human standards". Now that's what I call a typical Vulcan understatement.

  In the full review, the episode was awarded an A minus grade.

• "This is a twenty-minute story, stretched into a full episode with scenes of everyone bickering and being annoying!" wrote monkee at monkee's place. "No, I'm being too harsh. At least there was a good reason for their bickering and being annoying! Enterprise sets off to explore a black hole in a trinary star system, but the anomaly is releasing radiation that causes the crew to become obsessed with something trivial going on in their lives at the moment. It doesn't happen all at once, and it's fascinating to watch the transition in each of them. The acting makes this otherwise slow story watchable. It's Trek Lite, but at least it's Trek Lite done well!" To read the complete article, in which 'Singularity' was given a score of 8.5 out of 10, head over to this page.

• Trek 47's Mike thought 'Singularity' was rather ordinary:

  This episode has many elements in common with "The Naked Now," but manages to put enough spin on the subject as to not make it a complete copy. Part of me wishes that they hadn't revealed at the beginning that something was wrong with the crew. I think that the episode would have been more interesting if we didn't outright know that the crew was behaving strangely right from the first. And somebody really needs to straighten out the promo department because they totally did not describe this episode. This episode had nothing in it to keep me guessing until the very end.

  The episode scored 7 out of 10 in the full review.

• "This episode was well done all around," wrote Litsa Guevara at TrekPulse.com. "Chris Black, who wrote 'Fallen Hero' and 'Carbon Creek' also wrote this. His writing seems to be getting better as the seasons progress. Many elements of the story were woven together well and it flowed nicely. Seemingly trivial matters become an obsession with some crewmembers and other matters that are very important take on even bigger significance to others." The episode was given a rating of 4 out of 5 at this page.

• Keckler at Television Without Pity awarded 'Singularity' an A minus grade. Her fourteen-page recap of the episode starts here.

Further information can be found in the Trek Nation episode guide.

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