Investigating a gas giant, the Enterprise launches a probe... and finds a manned ship, wrecked and descending into the atmosphere - which will surely end up destroying the vessel. Reed, T'Pol, and Hoshi are sent in a shuttlecraft to investigate the vessel and see if they can do anything to help. When they arrive, however, they make two discoveries: the ship's crew are all unconscious as the result of a neuro-toxin; and the ship is a Klingon vessel!
A debate over whether to attempt to save the crew or whether to return to Enterprise immediately is forestalled when a Klingon crew member awakens, attacks Reed, and steals the shuttle. Archer manages to intercept the stolen shuttle. But in the meantime, the Klingon vessel has slipped too far into the atmosphere for Enterprise to follow. Now the boarding party must attempt to carry out repairs, deciphering the ship's systems and language as they go, while Archer attempts to find a way to reason with his decidedly unreasonable Klingon "guest."
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: So let me get this straight: The Vulcan database has more than 900 pages about the Klingons. Archer, as he himself observes, has run into the Klingons twice before. Certainly, his last encounter with them should have indicated that a little more research was in order. But only now does he decide it might be a good idea to learn a tiny bit about this extremely aggressive warrior race? Unless we are meant to conclude that Archer is an imbecile (which he isn't), I think I'll put that down to bad writing.
In other respects, Archer comes off quite well in this episode. Though he continues to allow his compassion to supercede his judgment, he also continues to think well on his feet. Once Trip makes his off-the-cuff remark about Archer needing to "think like a Klingon," Archer makes it his business to do just that. He handles himself well opposite both the Klingon woman and the Klingon captain. There's still a sense of blundering (and I hope he remembers his words, "Remind me to stop helping people" at some point), but he continues to show progress over the feckless fool who all but begged the Klingons to blow his ship up in Unexpected.
T'Pol: Aside from a bizarre lapse early in the episode (the Vulcan science officer is the one who thinks that exploring a gas giant is a waste of time?), this is a reasonably strong outing for her. She starts to forge something resembling a bond with Hoshi, helping Hoshi to control her anxiety and promising to teach her self-control once they return to the ship. I hope this is followed up on, as a friendship between the least emotional member of the crew and the most emotional one has the potential to be interesting.
Hoshi: A fair character development episode for Hoshi, far better than Fight or Flight, this sees Hoshi determined to control her anxieties pretty much from the get-go. She knows that her translating skills will be useful on the mission, and puts herself forward to go. She actually does pretty well in controlling her fears for most of the show. By the time she breaks down a bit late in the episode, it is understandable even by T'Pol's rigorous standards.
Reed: Also to be filed under "let me get this straight." We spend the first 10 - 15 minutes of the episode hammering home that Reed has a cold, and that viruses are resilient in space. Then Reed is sent on an away mission, with a contagious cold. (A) No one thinks this is a potentially bad idea? One doesn't have to go all the way to different species to find historical examples of relatively minor viruses from one culture absolutely devastating another culture. (B) This also proves to be entirely irrelevant, with Reed's cold all but forgotten after the first Act. This is a nicely entertaining episode. But as I type up this review, I'm seeing far more clearly how sloppy some of the writing was than when I actually watched it!
Pointless cold subplot aside, Reed also has a decent episode. He proves to be a competent amateur engineer. He also gravitates to his favorite topic - explosions - to find a temporary solution that ends up saving the lives of the Away Team.
THOUGHTS
The "Characters" section already points up several sloppy bits of writing. Reed's cold is pointless, unless something is done with it in later Klingon episodes (which I'd love to see, but I frankly won't hold my breath for). Archer's neglect of the Vulcans' material on Klingons makes him look like far more of a fool than he actually is - as well as, apparently, one hell of a speed reader, to go through a fair chunk of 900 pages in an hour or so! Dr. Phlox's miraculous ability to cure anything by the end of the episode gets another workout, this time to no interesting effect. Yes, there's plenty wrong here.
And you know what? I didn't even think about most of these issues, let alone find myself bothered by them, while watching. That's because, for all of those sloppy bits of writing, this was a well put-together episode. There was genuine jeopardy in the boarding party's dilemma. Every featured character got something to do (well, not Mayweather, but that's largely become a given). Also, we see continued rising tensions between the humans and the Klingons. Each encounter has seen a higher level of conflict between the two species. It isn't hard to see why the humans and Klingons are destined to end up in a war. I just hope that the war begins during this series. I'd love for the Earth/Klingon war to be the result of a blunder on Archer's part. That's probably me hoping for too much, though.
The episode is nicely-directed, with mood and atmosphere pervading the scenes on the Klingon ship. I loved the galley scenes, in particular. Finally, the visual effects are almost movie-level here. I've come to the conclusion that Enterprise is by far the most visually impressive Trek show.
I'm also coming to the conclusion that, despite a few weak episodes and some consistent failings, I rather like this show. Not only is it better than Voyager, I think it's a fair bit better thus far than first (or second) season Next Generation. Barring a collapse into a series of Terra Nova-quality episodes, I think this may end up being my second-favorite Trek spinoff (sorry, it's nowhere near as good as DS9). It's well-made; it's largely well-acted; and if I could wish for it to do more with its concept, it at least seems to be trying. 13 episodes in, and this series is quite far from the disaster it's often been painted as. If only Berman & Braga had given the franchise a couple years' rest to let people actually want a new Trek series again, I suspect this very same series - warts and all - would have gotten a much warmer reception.
Rating: 7/10.
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