THE PLOT
The Enterprise is preparing to travel through the subspace vortex to make the rendezvous with Degra and the Xindi council, when suddenly a ship appears and hails them. It's a very familiar ship... the Enterprise!
The ship is now much older and visibly held together with make-shift modifications. It's run by the descendants of the current crew. The commander is Lorian (David Andrews), the son of Trip and T'Pol. He informs Archer that when their Enterprise went through the vortex, they were thrown more than 100 years back in time. Once he realized what had happened, the Archer of that Enterprise hatched a multi-generational plan to attempt to stop the first Xindi probe. When that failed, "Plan B" went into effect: Stop the Enterprise from going through the vortex and modify its engines so that it can still make the rendezvous with Degra.
When Archer meets with the T'Pol of that Enterprise, he learns there is a strong chance that the modifications will destroy his ship. Both T'Pols recommend a different modification, one which will eliminate the instability in the subspace corridor. But when Lorian learns of Archer's new plan, he resolves to stop him - by force, if necessary!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: Would probably take Lorian's risk if it were the only option available. But when he learns that there may be a way to stabilize the corridor, he refuses to endanger his ship and crew once given a viable alternative.
T'Pol: Jolene Blalock gets to bury herself under a substantial amount of latex to play a very old version of T'Pol. She does well with the old T'Pol, stooping and including a slight tremor in both her voice and movements. She goes just far enough in playing the character's age without going so far as to become hammy.
Trip: Is clearly interested in developing a relationship with T'Pol, and enjoys meeting his alternative self's son. He shows a great deal of interest in the details of his alternate self's courtship of T'Pol. He also bonds fairly strongly with Lorian, particularly given the short time they have together.
Reed: There's one very strong scene for Reed, as he looks up his alternative self and discovers that he never married. When Hoshi points out that only a third of the crew were women and that there were "bound to be a few bachelors," Reed finds no solace in the thought of being one of them.
Lorian: The captain of the alternative Enterprise is a mix of human emotions and Vulcan reserve. He doesn't suppress his emotions, but he does maintain a certain detachment, which only eases when he bonds with Trip or when he begins feeling desperate late in the episode. He gets an excellent scene opposite Archer, in which we see him as a reflection of Archer - carrying the guilt over not stopping the first Xindi probe, determined to do whatever it takes and "make hard choices" to make sure the mission continues. David Andrews gives a very good performance, making Lorian a memorable guest star in a season that's enjoyed a fair handful of good guest turns.
THOUGHTS
I admit to fearing that E2 would be a last filler episode before the "big" episodes at the end of the season. To a degree, I suppose it was. At the very least, it was a substantially a self-contained piece between the trilogy of episodes preceding it and what I suspect will be another trilogy closing the season. But as soon as I saw the genuinely intriguing teaser, followed by the writer's credit tagging this as the work of the ever-reliable Mike Sussman, I relaxed. A strong opening plus a script by the series' best writer - At that point, I knew that even if this was self-contained, it was at least going to be good.
Sussman's script finds good moments for almost all of the characters. Hoshi and Reed get a nice scene in the heavily-damaged mess room, while Archer and Trip get very good scenes opposite their would-be descendants. The regulars react intelligently to the situation, and even the "action turn" around the midpoint seems justified within the context of the story and the characters.
I also like the ending. By leaving the fate of the second Enterprise up in the air, the show leaves itself a potential asset that could be brought back. Even if it's not (and I suspect it won't be), I kind of like that the show doesn't firmly answer whether this alternative Enterprise was destroyed, was wiped out of existence, or is still out there somewhere.
Rating: 7/10
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