Bound

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.

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.

I suppose there is going to have to be a bit of levity now and then as the series heads into the home stretch. Archer and the gang are on their way to a meeting to find a new planet for a headquarters. Along the way, a ship full of Orion's shows up. These are the guys that sold several crew members into slavery in a previous episode. Archer and several Enterprise crew member accept the Orion's hospitality and after eating, are treated to some green belly dancers (slaves?) who seem to be able to manipulate men. Three of them are soon made gifts to Archer, who stupidly allows them the run of the ship. Soon they have upset the entire balance of the Starship. All the males on board begin to act like salivating teenagers and begin to compromise the mission. Trip and T'Pol seem to have what it takes to resist these women. Of course, this episode would imply that the crew never learned a thing through all their experiences.

Enterprise takes on board three Orion females.

I enjoyed this one for the focus on Orion people, the relatively silly nature of the plot along with some decent character moments for Trip and T'Pol.

This story I can imagine annoying some people in a similar way to the original series episode Mudd's Women does for its take on femininity. It contains female characters with self worth attributed to their attractiveness, males who can't help but respond to it and a fairly unique take on slavery. Personally I didn't take it too seriously and found it quite fun. The plot unfolds in an unoriginal and predictable way but I've seen far worse on Star Trek.

Accusations of sexism get thrown about, but as much as some people like to pretend times have changed, there are still men in the world who cannot see past a pretty face and women who use this as a weapon. Of course Bound presents a rather outrageous situation, but in principle I've witnessed this type of behaviour first hand in life many times. This doesn't mean all men and women are the same, but it's a fact of life that this dynamic is out there and these type of primal instincts can be very apparent in some people. Hence you see powerful men with trophy wives and a market for mail-order brides. It's sad world but it is the one we live in.

The actresses portraying the Orion females are exploited for their looks and sexual allure, but that's what the part calls for and they do it well, particularly Cyia Batten. The Enterprise regulars are up to their usual standards with only T'Pol an Trip having any decent character moments. Their romance is (for once) worked into a plot quite well.

As with the Andorrians, I enjoyed the focus on a little seen species from the original series and this was a positive.

If you watch it looking for a clever plot or something as politically correct as found in modern day movies you'll be disappointed. For me it is a 6.5/10, but on IMDB I round upwards.