The Enterprise is dispatching subspace amplifiers, "Echo One" and "Echo Two," in order to communicate with Earth without delays of days and weeks. It is as they dispatch "Echo Two" that they encounter a new alien vessel. Archer attempts to make contact. The ship, however, simply lingers in space for a bit, then flies away.
Not long after, the vessel reappears. It again resists any attempts at communication. But this time, it fires at Enterprise before flying off. With Enterprise's torpedoes not up to the task of fighting off such a clearly advanced alien race, Archer orders the ship to head for home - for upgrading of the weapons as well as general maintenance. Trip and Reed decide to use the time to begin installing plasma cannons, more advanced weapons that had been designed, but not installed prior to the ship leaving home.
This begins a series of attacks, as the alien ship continues to appear and harrass them, each attack growing a bit more brazen than the one before. Now it has become a race: Can Trip and Reed get those plasma cannons online before the alien ship's next attack potentially destroys them all?
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: He does learn! Confronted with a hostile alien with whom he cannot negotiate, and whom he cannot outfight, Archer orders a return to base in order to upgrade their weaponry. He (rightly, in my opinion) questions himself in his decision to launch the ship before it was fully ready. Trip is right to point out that if they hadn't acted quickly, Klaang would have been killed... but there was no sense at all in pushing on with the deep space mission after that, not when several ship's systems were not fully operational. That was a poor decision, and Archer - shaken not only by this attack, but by the sheer number of hostile forces they have faced - seems to finally realize that.
Reed: As with Trip, he does not particularly want to delay their mission for a trip home - a delay that would, presumably, take months (from the trip alone). He has been urging weapons upgrades from the beginning, and both he and Trip jump at the chance to do some tinkering. As the attacks increase, Reed clashes with Trip when he insists on some short cuts, which end up probably saving the ship. A rather forced subplot gives us additional character information... though that additional information basically amounts to Reed being a bit tough to know, and was probably - like the subplot itself - disposable.
Hoshi: When Archer requests that she find out Reed's favorite food for the tactical officer's birthday, Hoshi initially protests her assignment, on the laughably thin grounds that she has actual work to do. Archer, in typical reasonable fashion, then changes his request to an order, leaving both Hoshi and us with a sitcom-level subplot. We do get to see Hoshi's general warmth as she communicates with many of Reed's friends and relatives back home, as well as with other people on the ship. We also see her mounting frustration as she deals with this difficult (and largely stupid) assignment. The subplot is terrible, but Linda Park is quite strong, helping to make some bad scenes watchable.
Villain of the Week: The alien vessel. The aliens are unspeaking, unidentified, and utterly ruthless. T'Pol notes early in the episode that some aliens have motivations to alien to really be guessed at, which appears to be the case here. The series of attacks that they stage, each started and stopped with no apparent reason, create an effective through-line for the episode, particularly in the sequence when the aliens actually board Enterprise to probe a couple of crew members. That we never find out who they are, or why they are attacking, makes them more menacing. As in previous episodes, there seems to be a strong horror influence... again, making this a fairly effective "A" plot.
LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT...
Trip and Reed have the full capability to not only install the plasma cannons, but build them. And over the months that have already elapsed since the mission began... They haven't!?! I'd have thought Reed, in particular, would have made that a priority as soon as he finished getting the torpedoes fully aligned and working. It's nice that an occurrence that they ultimately were able to deal with forced the crew to the realization that their weapons systems were inadequate (which they should have realized after being more or less helpless in Fight or Flight). But it shouldn't have taken an attack to get them to complete an upgrade that they actually knew was available!
I also question why Trip and Reed were so shocked at Archer ordering a return home. Or, for that matter, why they turned back around at the end. Is returning to base intermittently really such a shocking suggestion? Even with Trip and Reed able to get the weapons fully online, what about the other needed overhauls to which Archer refers? Surely that would be even more necessary after a series of attacks? Is the Enterprise expected to just go and go, and never come back home for repairs? I'm not quite following the reasoning here.
THOUGHTS
Lest all of these niggles make me sound overly critical of this episode, I should clarify that I largely enjoyed Silent Enemy. Well, I enjoyed the "A" plot, at least. It was nice to see Archer get some of the cockiness kicked out of him. It was good to see Reed and Trip's characters build through interacting with each other in preparing the plasma cannons (as opposed to the forced characterization of the "B" plot, which was just stupid). The alien attacks were effectively staged and, at one point, rather spooky. I half-expected Archer to find his crewmen hanging upside-down from the ceiling when the aliens boarded. It was well-paced, and quite engrossing. I even liked the lack of explanation.
Unfortunately, the "A" and "B" plots don't fit together at all, or even make a heck of a lot of sense. After the attacks begin, wouldn't there be something for Hoshi to do other than continuing to track down Reed's favorite food? Shouldn't the jumpy Hoshi be getting downright terrified when it becomes clear that the aliens will probably be back to attack again? And again? The "B" plot appears to be occurring in an alternate universe where the "A" plot isn't going on... making it not only a dumb subplot, but a dumb subplot that actively undermines the main body of the episode!
Rating: 6/10. The "A" story has enough meat to make it worth watching. But this script needed one more revision - and the junking of one irrelevant subplot.
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Next Episode: Dear Doctor
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