#degra

By Ames

We’ve finally circled this ship back around to continue our show spotlight blog series again! You remember these. The A Star to Steer Her By hosts pick our three favorite minor or one-off characters from a Star Trek series and slap them in this list. We’ve already covered The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, and it’s finally Enterprise’s time to shine!

We give Enterprise a lot of shit on the podcast and in this blog, but it does boast some decent guest characters in its ranks! Some of them we only see in one episode and some of them recur a handful of times, but they all make an impression that proves to be among the highlights of that show. Whether they are laying the groundwork for established lore (this is a prequel series after all) or telling their own stories, these characters almost make Enterprise worth a look. Almost. Check them out below and listen to our discussion on this week’s podcast (get from there to here at 57:53) as you reflect on this long road with us.

12: the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them?

Degra!!! I don't know if he's "unpopular" or not because he's never mentioned and I think most people try to ignore the xindi arc. I love the xindi arc, and Degra's character changing over the course of the season is so special to me. He seems really fleshed out-- we know his children's names, his wife's name, that he grew up worshipping the sphere-builders as gods, and when he listens to the evidence Archer puts in front of him, he changes all that what he believes and makes a 180 trying to get the council to listen. His dedication to science and reason and, most of all, unity, make him special to me. It sucks that he died, but even if he didn't, I don't think the Xindi would've joined the Federation for years and years anyway.

20: Part of canon you found tedious or boring?

I didn't care for the human augment arc in the beginning of season 4. I thought the characters were uncompelling because of how stupid they acted, and i found their designs (outfits, hair, etc) off putting. The main girl augment (I forgot her name, whoops) is a weak character. The main boy augment (also don't care about his name) is petulant, backstabbing, and annoying. Arik Soong was interesting and compelling-- and Brent Spiner's performance was on point as always-- but that did not extend to the augments he created.

Archer: I've been in front of a Klingon tribunal. I can handle a tough room.

Degra:

Archer and his crew’s first choice of interrogation technique upon finding Xindi Oppenheimer is to build an entire flight simulator in order to gaslight him into believing that he’s spent the last 3 years as a POW

. . . just phenomenal