THE PLOT
An alien probe drops into Earth's orbit, cutting a thick line of destruction that runs from Florida to Venezuala. Enterprise is recalled to Earth to help study the situation.
Their trip back home is interrupted by a visit from the Suliban. Silik takes Archer aboard his ship for a meeting with his contact from the future, who tells Archer that the attack was orchestrated by a rival and carried out by an alien race known as the Xindi. Archer persuades Admiral Forrest to let him chase this lead into an area of space known as the Delphic Expanse. But the Vulcan Ambassador, Soval, warns Archer that previous expeditions into the Expanse have resulted in horrors, and urges him against this course - at the same time ordering T'Pol to leave Enterprise and return to Vulcan for reassignment!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: I've commented in earlier reviews how well Scott Bakula plays anger. Here, we have an episode in which Archer is on a slow burn through the entire run. He isn't actively shouting at people, but there's a definite tension in him in pretty much every scene, even the quieter moments. When Duras continues to attack Enterprise late in the episode, Archer is less inclined to talk and more inclined to resort to his ship's upgraded weaponry than he normally would be - which, along with his vow to Trip to do "whatever is necessary" once inside the Expanse, points to an Archer who's going to be even more volatile than usual in Season Three.
T'Pol: Put in the position of having to decide between her loyalty to the Vulcan High Command and her loyalty to Archer. Previous episodes leave very little doubt as to what choice she will make, but this is where she finally has to choose one, and let the other door close - probably forever.
Trip: Of the three leads, Trip is by far the most human, so it makes sense that he will be the one to have lost somebody in the attack. He gets a couple of very effective scenes with Reed, a quiet one in which he stands at the edge of the crater that was once his home and recalls where his sister's house and the town movie theater were while staring out into nothing, and an angry one in which he snaps at Reed when the other man encourages him to have a memorial service. He can't have such a service - not because of the lack of a body or because his sister "wasn't much into" such things, but because he's not ready to move on. This could lead Trip in an interesting direction in future episodes.
Dr. Phlox: He doesn't share the human characters' emotional reaction to the attack, nor does he have to make any substantial choice as T'Pol does. He stays because he's the ship's doctor, and he knows he will be needed. There's no other pull on his loyalties, so it is not a difficult decision. We do see his loyalty to the ship and his medical ethics when he reacts with evident anger to the Vulcan psychiatrist who is trying to examine Archer under false pretenses in Phlox's sickbay - in many ways, the inverse of the situation Phlox found himself facing in Stigma. He also has a quietly excellent scene with T'Pol, a conversation which pushes T'Pol further toward the decision we all know she will end up making.
THOUGHTS
Enterprise's second season comes to an explosive and surprising climax. I had heard that the second season finale was a change of direction for the too-often directionless series, and this episode certainly lives up to that reputation.
The Expanse opens with a probe dropping into Earth's orbit and cutting a swath of destruction with no warning and no reason given. The casualty figures start high (around a million) and are revised upward throughout the episode. The action takes place over a matter of months, as the regulars prepare for a mission completely unlike the one they have been carrying out. One major character is forced to make a choice about where her loyalties lie, another is given a trauma that will likely impact his future actions. It's the kind of episode that recalls Commander Sinclair's line at the end of Babylon 5's first season finale: "Nothing's the same anymore."
The Expanse works as a change of direction for the series, in that it creates a situation which cannot be simply "gotten over" in an episode or two. Short of going back in time to prevent the attack from ever having taken place (and I will take back every sympathetic word I've ever written about Berman and Braga if that ends up being the resolution), there is no way to hit the "reset" button on this situation. At the same time, it builds on many of the series' ongoing tensions. The Suliban and the Temporal Cold War are touched upon, as are the relations with the Klingsons and the Vulcans. It's not just a shift in direction, it's a shift in direction that uses what has gone before, leaving it all still feeling like part of the same series.
Equally important, it's a genuinely good piece of television. All of the major actors are given at least one scene, with only the terminally underused Hoshi and Mayweather given nothing to do. CGI work is excellent, from the opening attack to the edge of the abyss against which Trip stands while giving Reed a "tour" of his home town, to the expanse itself. The script is well-structured, with the quieter character scenes interspersed with a nicely ominous build-up about The Expanse itself, and some Klingon shenanigans on-hand to provide some action.
This is an episode where pretty much everything works, and I would point to this and Cogenitor being my only "10's" of the season as a suitable response to the "Berman/Braga are the devil!" hysteria within Trek fandom. They have their faults as showrunners, but they remain good television writers, something that fandom seems far too eager to forget far too often.
Rating: 10/10.
An alien probe drops into Earth's orbit, cutting a thick line of destruction that runs from Florida to Venezuala. Enterprise is recalled to Earth to help study the situation.
Their trip back home is interrupted by a visit from the Suliban. Silik takes Archer aboard his ship for a meeting with his contact from the future, who tells Archer that the attack was orchestrated by a rival and carried out by an alien race known as the Xindi. Archer persuades Admiral Forrest to let him chase this lead into an area of space known as the Delphic Expanse. But the Vulcan Ambassador, Soval, warns Archer that previous expeditions into the Expanse have resulted in horrors, and urges him against this course - at the same time ordering T'Pol to leave Enterprise and return to Vulcan for reassignment!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: I've commented in earlier reviews how well Scott Bakula plays anger. Here, we have an episode in which Archer is on a slow burn through the entire run. He isn't actively shouting at people, but there's a definite tension in him in pretty much every scene, even the quieter moments. When Duras continues to attack Enterprise late in the episode, Archer is less inclined to talk and more inclined to resort to his ship's upgraded weaponry than he normally would be - which, along with his vow to Trip to do "whatever is necessary" once inside the Expanse, points to an Archer who's going to be even more volatile than usual in Season Three.
T'Pol: Put in the position of having to decide between her loyalty to the Vulcan High Command and her loyalty to Archer. Previous episodes leave very little doubt as to what choice she will make, but this is where she finally has to choose one, and let the other door close - probably forever.
Trip: Of the three leads, Trip is by far the most human, so it makes sense that he will be the one to have lost somebody in the attack. He gets a couple of very effective scenes with Reed, a quiet one in which he stands at the edge of the crater that was once his home and recalls where his sister's house and the town movie theater were while staring out into nothing, and an angry one in which he snaps at Reed when the other man encourages him to have a memorial service. He can't have such a service - not because of the lack of a body or because his sister "wasn't much into" such things, but because he's not ready to move on. This could lead Trip in an interesting direction in future episodes.
Dr. Phlox: He doesn't share the human characters' emotional reaction to the attack, nor does he have to make any substantial choice as T'Pol does. He stays because he's the ship's doctor, and he knows he will be needed. There's no other pull on his loyalties, so it is not a difficult decision. We do see his loyalty to the ship and his medical ethics when he reacts with evident anger to the Vulcan psychiatrist who is trying to examine Archer under false pretenses in Phlox's sickbay - in many ways, the inverse of the situation Phlox found himself facing in Stigma. He also has a quietly excellent scene with T'Pol, a conversation which pushes T'Pol further toward the decision we all know she will end up making.
THOUGHTS
Enterprise's second season comes to an explosive and surprising climax. I had heard that the second season finale was a change of direction for the too-often directionless series, and this episode certainly lives up to that reputation.
The Expanse opens with a probe dropping into Earth's orbit and cutting a swath of destruction with no warning and no reason given. The casualty figures start high (around a million) and are revised upward throughout the episode. The action takes place over a matter of months, as the regulars prepare for a mission completely unlike the one they have been carrying out. One major character is forced to make a choice about where her loyalties lie, another is given a trauma that will likely impact his future actions. It's the kind of episode that recalls Commander Sinclair's line at the end of Babylon 5's first season finale: "Nothing's the same anymore."
The Expanse works as a change of direction for the series, in that it creates a situation which cannot be simply "gotten over" in an episode or two. Short of going back in time to prevent the attack from ever having taken place (and I will take back every sympathetic word I've ever written about Berman and Braga if that ends up being the resolution), there is no way to hit the "reset" button on this situation. At the same time, it builds on many of the series' ongoing tensions. The Suliban and the Temporal Cold War are touched upon, as are the relations with the Klingsons and the Vulcans. It's not just a shift in direction, it's a shift in direction that uses what has gone before, leaving it all still feeling like part of the same series.
Equally important, it's a genuinely good piece of television. All of the major actors are given at least one scene, with only the terminally underused Hoshi and Mayweather given nothing to do. CGI work is excellent, from the opening attack to the edge of the abyss against which Trip stands while giving Reed a "tour" of his home town, to the expanse itself. The script is well-structured, with the quieter character scenes interspersed with a nicely ominous build-up about The Expanse itself, and some Klingon shenanigans on-hand to provide some action.
This is an episode where pretty much everything works, and I would point to this and Cogenitor being my only "10's" of the season as a suitable response to the "Berman/Braga are the devil!" hysteria within Trek fandom. They have their faults as showrunners, but they remain good television writers, something that fandom seems far too eager to forget far too often.
Rating: 10/10.
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