THE PLOT
The Enterprise has returned to Earth - but its crew find a less than happy homecoming. Archer is grilled by Ambassador Soval (Gary Graham) over his actions on the Vulcan ship he found drifting in The Expanse. When he snaps back at the Ambassador, Admiral Forrest orders him to take some leave - whether he wants it or not.
Meanwhile, T'Pol takes Trip back to Vulcan as her guest. But she also finds a frosty reception waiting for her. Her mother, T'Les (Joanna Cassidy), has been forced to resign from her position at the Vulcan Science Academy, punished by the Vulcan High Command for T'Pol's perceived transgressions. Further adding to T'Pol's problems, Kos, the Vulcan to whom she was promised as a child, has not accepted her refusal of marriage, and is pressing his suit - dangling the prospect of helping T'Pol's mother as an incentive.
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: In Storm Front, he told Silik that he had changed, "and not for the better." Here, we see that he is truly haunted by the deeds he performed within the Expanse: torturing prisoners, stranding a ship of innocent civilians, firing on that Xindi outpost... He has nightmares about battling Xindi Reptilians on Earth, and has possibly even developed a death wish. His relationship with Erika Hernandez (Ada Maris), the captain of the Columbia, seems to have helped him deal with some of his issues. Still, even though he comes back from his "vacation" a bit more composed in dealing with Soval, he's probably (hopefully) right in thinking that he'll never be able to go back to the man he was before the Xindi.
T'Pol: She still expresses interest in pursuing a career in Starfleet, this time to her mother. However, when she learns that her actions have been used to justify her mother's forced retirement, she seriously considers Kos' offer to restore T'Les' position in return for marriage.
Trip: Finally realizes that he is not just attracted to T'Pol, but in love with her. The suddenness of that realization leads him to react poorly when T'Pol tells him that she is planning to marry Kos. After he calms down, he refuses to tell T'Pol the extent of his feelings, even when T'Pol's own mother urges him to. He reasons that she is under enough pressure as it is, and that he would rather support her - even in making a decision he doesn't like - than try to add to the weight already on her.
Dr. Phlox: When confronted with prejudice in the bar he visits with Reed and Mayweather, he tries his usual evasion tactic: absolute, near-bubbly cheerfulness. It's probably generally effective; someone looking to pick a fight would find little pleasure in needling a man who refuses to get offended. But, as Reed has warned him, Earth has changed. In the face of hostility and outright violence, Phlox shows one of his species' instinctive defenses, puffing up to frighten would-be attackers. The drunken bullies run off... but Phlox is left rattled as everyone in the bar, save for his friends, stares at him like some sort of monster.
The Vulcans: Back out of the Expanse, and back to the dysfunction of the Enterprise-era Vulcan society. Soval privately tells Archer that the decisions he made were necessary, and that he rendered a great service to both Earth and Vulcan... but publicly, he subjects Archer to a very harsh cross-examination over the incident with the Selaya, stopping just short of calling Archer a murderer. Why such a divide between his private and public personas? On Vulcan, we see that the High Command has forced an apparently highly-qualified instructor out of the Academy because of her daughter's choices... Something in which I completely fail to see any logic. Finally, we see T'Pol "negotiating" with Kos, to allow her to both marry him and stay with Enterprise. I know there's a Vulcan 3-parter coming later this season. I do wonder, though, if that's going to be enough to resolve all of these plot threads.
THOUGHTS
After resolving the cliffhanger to Space Nazis from Beyond Time!, we finally get the actual fourth season premiere. It's a quiet episode - which is a good thing. After the year of hell in the Expanse, we needed a reflective space to see the impact of Season Three on our characters, and on Earth.
The Enterprise has returned to Earth - but its crew find a less than happy homecoming. Archer is grilled by Ambassador Soval (Gary Graham) over his actions on the Vulcan ship he found drifting in The Expanse. When he snaps back at the Ambassador, Admiral Forrest orders him to take some leave - whether he wants it or not.
Meanwhile, T'Pol takes Trip back to Vulcan as her guest. But she also finds a frosty reception waiting for her. Her mother, T'Les (Joanna Cassidy), has been forced to resign from her position at the Vulcan Science Academy, punished by the Vulcan High Command for T'Pol's perceived transgressions. Further adding to T'Pol's problems, Kos, the Vulcan to whom she was promised as a child, has not accepted her refusal of marriage, and is pressing his suit - dangling the prospect of helping T'Pol's mother as an incentive.
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: In Storm Front, he told Silik that he had changed, "and not for the better." Here, we see that he is truly haunted by the deeds he performed within the Expanse: torturing prisoners, stranding a ship of innocent civilians, firing on that Xindi outpost... He has nightmares about battling Xindi Reptilians on Earth, and has possibly even developed a death wish. His relationship with Erika Hernandez (Ada Maris), the captain of the Columbia, seems to have helped him deal with some of his issues. Still, even though he comes back from his "vacation" a bit more composed in dealing with Soval, he's probably (hopefully) right in thinking that he'll never be able to go back to the man he was before the Xindi.
T'Pol: She still expresses interest in pursuing a career in Starfleet, this time to her mother. However, when she learns that her actions have been used to justify her mother's forced retirement, she seriously considers Kos' offer to restore T'Les' position in return for marriage.
Trip: Finally realizes that he is not just attracted to T'Pol, but in love with her. The suddenness of that realization leads him to react poorly when T'Pol tells him that she is planning to marry Kos. After he calms down, he refuses to tell T'Pol the extent of his feelings, even when T'Pol's own mother urges him to. He reasons that she is under enough pressure as it is, and that he would rather support her - even in making a decision he doesn't like - than try to add to the weight already on her.
Dr. Phlox: When confronted with prejudice in the bar he visits with Reed and Mayweather, he tries his usual evasion tactic: absolute, near-bubbly cheerfulness. It's probably generally effective; someone looking to pick a fight would find little pleasure in needling a man who refuses to get offended. But, as Reed has warned him, Earth has changed. In the face of hostility and outright violence, Phlox shows one of his species' instinctive defenses, puffing up to frighten would-be attackers. The drunken bullies run off... but Phlox is left rattled as everyone in the bar, save for his friends, stares at him like some sort of monster.
The Vulcans: Back out of the Expanse, and back to the dysfunction of the Enterprise-era Vulcan society. Soval privately tells Archer that the decisions he made were necessary, and that he rendered a great service to both Earth and Vulcan... but publicly, he subjects Archer to a very harsh cross-examination over the incident with the Selaya, stopping just short of calling Archer a murderer. Why such a divide between his private and public personas? On Vulcan, we see that the High Command has forced an apparently highly-qualified instructor out of the Academy because of her daughter's choices... Something in which I completely fail to see any logic. Finally, we see T'Pol "negotiating" with Kos, to allow her to both marry him and stay with Enterprise. I know there's a Vulcan 3-parter coming later this season. I do wonder, though, if that's going to be enough to resolve all of these plot threads.
THOUGHTS
After resolving the cliffhanger to Space Nazis from Beyond Time!, we finally get the actual fourth season premiere. It's a quiet episode - which is a good thing. After the year of hell in the Expanse, we needed a reflective space to see the impact of Season Three on our characters, and on Earth.
Archer probably gets the best material. He is much harder-edged than he was at the beginning, talking about the need for weapons upgrades and military personnel. That is very much in keeping with his character direction even in late Season Two, when he was realizing just how many "bad guys" they kept meeting in their explorations. In Erika, Archer interacts with someone very much like he was at the start: full of idealistic energy and naivete. It's initially painful for Archer to be around her, because she reminds him of how much of that idealism has been sanded away by hard realities. It's a character I hope we see again, before the season/series' end.
The "C" plot, with Phlox encountering prejudice in the wake of 9/11... er, the Xindi attack, is more predictable and less interesting. John Billingsley is good, as ever, but I have a difficult time believing that a couple of belligerent drunks in a bar would trigger an instinctive defense that years of genuine crises would not. I'd rather have had Phlox encountering a string of people looking at him uneasily, or not wanting to meet his eyes, or whispering to each other as he walks away. Something more subtle and believable than a cliched bar fight. Ah, well. At least there's a cute tag scene in which Hoshi tries to give Phlox a pep talk into facing down prejudice, then gives up and just promises to bring him back some takeout.
The Vulcan material feels like set-up, and I'm guessing most of the Vulcan scenes from this episode will end up acting as a prologue to the 3-parter later in the season. This subplot does benefit from good performances, particularly by Joanna Cassidy and Connor Trinneer. It also feels like something that naturally follows on from the show's previous direction. It's always nice to have references back to early first-season episodes, just as a reminder that though the tone may have changed substantially, this is still all part of the same series.
An effective piece, all told. I'm glad the series was willing to take an episode to catch up with the Enterprise universe before bringing out any major new stories to tell.
Rating: 8/10.
The "C" plot, with Phlox encountering prejudice in the wake of 9/11... er, the Xindi attack, is more predictable and less interesting. John Billingsley is good, as ever, but I have a difficult time believing that a couple of belligerent drunks in a bar would trigger an instinctive defense that years of genuine crises would not. I'd rather have had Phlox encountering a string of people looking at him uneasily, or not wanting to meet his eyes, or whispering to each other as he walks away. Something more subtle and believable than a cliched bar fight. Ah, well. At least there's a cute tag scene in which Hoshi tries to give Phlox a pep talk into facing down prejudice, then gives up and just promises to bring him back some takeout.
The Vulcan material feels like set-up, and I'm guessing most of the Vulcan scenes from this episode will end up acting as a prologue to the 3-parter later in the season. This subplot does benefit from good performances, particularly by Joanna Cassidy and Connor Trinneer. It also feels like something that naturally follows on from the show's previous direction. It's always nice to have references back to early first-season episodes, just as a reminder that though the tone may have changed substantially, this is still all part of the same series.
An effective piece, all told. I'm glad the series was willing to take an episode to catch up with the Enterprise universe before bringing out any major new stories to tell.
Rating: 8/10.
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