The Enterprise is back on course for Risa, when they pick up a distress signal from an alien ship. The distress is relatively minor, a matter of some engine repairs that Trip is able to put into effect quite quickly. The alien ship's commander, Zobral (Clancy Brown), insists on extending his personal hospitality to Archer, who in turn insists on including Trip in his visit to Zobral's desert home.
Everything appears to be exactly as Zobral described. They have a meal, they play a strange volleyball/lacrosse-type game, and they all flatter each other extravagantly. Then T'Pol contacts Archer. It seems a representative of the planet's government has inquired as to why Archer is meeting with Zobral - whom the government has declared a terrorist. Zobral insists to Archer that it is the ruling class that has refused to extend full rights to his people, leaving them no choice but to rebel. Before Archer can disentangle himself, an attack is launched on Zobral's settlement... leaving Archer and Trip out in the middle of the desert, desperately attempting to reach shelter, and leaving T'Pol to attempt a perilous rescue mission before the captain and engineer become casualties of a war that's not their own!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: No good deed goes unpunished. An exaggerated version of Archer's rescue of the Suliban detainees reached Zobral's ears, causing the "terrorist" to seek out Archer as a potential source of aid. Now the captain finds himself stuck in an impossible situation. He knows he cannot do as Zobral wants and fight a war for him. He also recognizes that Zobral is not a man who will take "no" for an answer. In some ways, Archer and Trip might actually have been saved by the attack launched on Zobral's people. Otherwise, I suspect they might have found Zobral difficult to dissuade - or escape from. At the very least, Archer is certainly coming to recognize that even his most benign decisions can have serious consequences.
Trip: Acts as the voice of caution when Archer is half-contemplating Zobral's request, pointing out - quite aptly - that Zobral hadn't been fully honest with them, and urging Archer to "walk away." In the desert, we see that Trip isn't quite as skilled at survival training as Archer, and Archer spends the bulk of the second half of the episode keeping Trip alive.
T'Pol: Once again is left in charge of Enterprise, and does a strong job of navigating a difficult situation, negotiating first with the planet's established government, then - when it becomes clear that the representative has no interest in listening to her - enlisting the aid of Zobral. She and Reed handle Zobral adeptly, attending to his misconceptions about Archer being a great warrior while at the same time shaming him into taking responsibility for Archer's and Trip's well-being. She shows respect for Archer's abilities, labeling him an "excellent starship captain," but is realistic about the risks of first contact. She realizes what Archer is only beginning to - that the captain will need to take a more thoughtful and structured approach than he has done to date.
THOUGHTS
As the end of the season looms, the continuity of the show appears to be getting tighter and tighter. In my last review, I said that I hoped the need for shore leave raised in that episode was not forgotten. Here, we pick up with the Enterprise continuing to its shore leave destination (and getting diverted again). It is good to see that the situation didn't simply reset itself. Although after two diversions, I'm wondering if the next episode will be titled Enterprise III: The Search for Risa.
I'm glad to see that Archer is becoming more and more hesitant about just bungling into other races' problems. Though he is sympathetic to Zobran's plight, he doesn't seriously consider helping him. As soon as he realizes that he's put himself in the middle of a war, his only priority is to get himself and Trip out of there. Kirk or Picard would surely have settled a lasting peace, or at least led the two sides to the first steps toward such a peace, inside 45 easy minutes. For Archer, it's a challenge simply to survive the 45 minutes. The war is left in the exact state it was in prior to his arrival. The only consequence of his visit is that the government in charge of the planet now considers the humans to be potential enemies, due to their association with Zobral.
Clancy Brown gives an effective, if over-the-top, performance as Zobral. If this were a British show, and made a decade or two earlier, the role would be tailor-made for Brian Blessed. Zobral speaks in pronouncements, and is vaguely threatening and imposingly genial by turns. He speaks in a bizarre, pseudo-Arabic accent, just in case anyone missed the modern-day parallels in the story being told. He ultimately comes across as more honorable than his enemies. Then again, we only get to see Zobral's side of the story, with his enemies depicted only in the face of a single, sneering bureaucrat. One can imagine a more ambitious version of this story seeing the Enterprise crew confronted with the after-effects of one of Zobral's attacks, complete with massive civilian casualties. Even so, it is clear that Zobral is not above lying or threatening to get what he wants from Archer - and his first impulse, once he discovers that the stories he has heard of Archer have been strongly exaggerated, is to leave the captain to his fate.
Overall, an interesting episode. Loses a point because the desert scenes with Trip and Archer go on just a bit too long, making the second half of the show a fair bit weaker than the first half. Still, a quite reasonable piece, if not quite as good as the preceding two episodes were.
Rating: 6/10
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