Bound

Much as I like scantily clad babes and as much as I believe females can manipulate males by arousal, I doubt the performances in this episode would cause a man to sabotage his ship. These green dancers are not Susan Oliver or Yvonne Craig.

In my personal experience, When truly in love, I saw no other. This held true with Trip.

Green babes needed better acting.

This episode will get some flack for it's portrayal of the seductive Orion women, and no doubt being a red blooded man made me appreciate the episode a whole lot more.

However it's important to note that their sexuality is far from gratuitous (not that sexuality should ever be considered gratuitous, regardless of gender), you can tell from the start that their seduction techniques (both subtle and obvious) are done to perfection in order to influence the males on the Enterprise.

Far from being degrading, these characters obviously embrace their femininity to their benefit (and the benefit of anyone who appreciates their form) and that's refreshing in oh so many ways.

Ah, the early years in the Star Trek universe. When the aliens had different colored skin. Blue like the Andorians or green like the Orions. And as always, the Orion women are particularly highlighted - as you could also see in the Kelvin timeline movies. There seems to be a certain attraction to looking at half-naked green women.

This episode shows in a way that shouldn't be taken entirely seriously who is in charge at the Orions: it's the women and not the men. With their beguiling pheromones, Orion females seem to easily wrap pretty much any male creature around their fingers. This episode shows this uncontrollable attraction better than the LD episode "Something Borrowed, Something Green". There men are just cheap pleasure slaves. In this episode, however, the men are often simply not in control of their emotions and are actually manipulated into following the Orion women's wishes. Basically it's not particularly different from the behavior that men already exhibit - after all, it's often enough for women to dress skimpily to drive men crazy.

But once again one has to doubt Archer's suitability as captain. Although he is aware of the beguiling manipulation effect of the Orion females, he has them guarded by MEN! And of course the three girls manage to get these men to release them with a snap of their fingers. Why didn't he assign female crew members? Apart from a bit of a headache, the effect of their pheromones on other women doesn't seem to have any disadvantages. There are enough women on the ship. Also among the MACOs (speaking of which, what happened to Amanda Cole, who was never seen again?). Or when Archer realizes that he too can't resist the influence of the Orion women: he basically had to hand over his command to T'Pol since she showed no signs of being manipulated. Instead, Archer risks making the wrong decisions as captain in a state of sexual delusion for no reason!

This is a plot-heavy season with multi-episode arcs all over the place. Its weakest episodes are the monster- or villain-of-the-week plots that are probably recycled from earlier series like TNG or TOS. Who knows how many Phase II scripts are still lying around, unproduced, waiting for a good doctoring? This could be any episode of any series of Trek, which is interesting given its place at the tail end of ENT. We've spent 2 seasons watching things develop toward the utopian future of the 23rd and 24th centuries. The Andorians, Vulcans, and Tellarites are canonically the founding species of the Federation so it's gratifying to see their progression toward unification.

Then we get this episode and the Orion slave girls show up. There's really not enough space on the television screen for all the T&A that wants to be on display here. In another format--maybe a differently exploitative one, like pornography or '70s grindhouse cinema--they might have been less intrusive. Plus, we saw T'Pol's bum and have heard people talk about it for 4 seasons now. There's enough skin on display here to give any Puritan whiplash.

This episode hearkens back to the original "Star Trek" pilot--the one with Jeffery Hunter as Captain Pike. In this pilot (later chopped up and re-edited into "The Menagerie"), the Captain is tempted by a green Orion slave girl. Here in "Bound", Captain Archer and his crew come into contact with these Orion ladies--but this time the result is very, very different.

The show begins with a member of the Orion Syndicate who offers to make peace with Earth and go into business with them. To show his sincerity, he gives Archer three lovely (and VERY scantily clad) green slave girls. However, like the Trojan War, you KNOW that this gift isn't what it appears to be...and soon almost everyone on the ship begins acting strangely!

This is a very good episode which will probably annoy some ladies, as the show is much like a male Trekkie's dreams! But it is well made and the twist near the end very nice--so it is worth seeing.