Friday, April 6, 2012

4-9. Kir'Shara.

THE PLOT

Archer is now in possession of the Kir'Shara, containing the original teachings of Surak. He, T'Pau, and T'Pol now embark on a new course of action - to bring the artifact into the High Command itself, to get the council to relieve V'las (Robert Foxworth) of his command. But V'las has his guards combing the desert, with orders to eliminate any survivors.

Meanwhile, Trip makes contact with Commander Shran (Jeffrey Combs), hoping to gain his trust to help avert the Vulcan attack on Andoria. Since the information comes from Ambassador Soval, Shran is skeptical, as are his superiors. Before Shran can commit his forces, he has orders to make sure Soval is telling the truth. His method? Beam Soval out of Enterprise undetected, and subject him to torture!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: OK, exactly how is Archer - on an unfamiliar planet, with atmospheric issues that put him at a physical disadvantage - able to fend off multiple Vulcan attackers in hand-to-hand combat? That's not even mentioning the Vulcans' superior physical strength. Archer should be hopelessly winded and exhausted after a minute or so of such fighting, not continuing to hold his own until T'Pau forces him against his will down the desert equivalent of a rabbit hole.  I actually like that Seasons Three and Four have build up Archer's toughness - but he's still a human being, not a superhero, as the writers would do well to remember.

T'Pol: She remains skeptical about the katra, but she defers to Archer even as she voices her doubts.  When she is captured by a Vulcan patrol, she uses her wits to lead them away from the captain and T'Pau.

Trip: Admits questions as to whether he's pursuing the correct course of action. As Reed points out, the Vulcans do have grounds for taking action against the Andorians, though those grounds seem less and less legitimate given any level of scrutiny.

Shran: In the course of peace talks, he came to respect Soval - but he cannot, and will not, take Soval's word about an attack at face value. He does not actually enjoy subjecting the ambassador to a form of torture specifically calculated to work on Vulcans, but he will follow his orders. Once that is done, his respect for Soval only deepens, and it seems possible in the end to envision these two difficult yet formidable men forming an uneasy sort of friendship.

Villain of the Week: Well, at least one question of mine from my last review is answered, as V'las does have reasons beyond simply being a villain to attack Andoria.  Though there are plenty of holes to poke in his justification for a pre-emptive strike, his worries about the Andorians equipping their ships with the superior Xindi technology seem legitimate, at least sufficiently to provide some context to his actions.


THOUGHTS

Following up on that thought, I rather like that this entire chain of events is set in motion as a direct result of the Xindi arc from last season. My own regret about the generally-excellent Xindi season was that it, by necessity, took place in a bubble, largely unaffected by the other events explored in the series' first two seasons.

Now the bubble has broken, its contents spilling out into the pre-existing fabric of the show. Home showed the effects of the Xindi attack, by presenting a human populace much more hostile to aliens than had previously been the case. The Andorians' help in stopping the Xindi weapon has made the Vulcans nervous about their access to leftover technology, which sparks V'las's pre-emptive actions. This 3-part arc may be finally paying off things set up in Seasons One and Two, but the catalyst is the Xindi arc. That is a narrative masterstroke, bundling all these disparate strands of the series together.

T'Pau's final exchange with Archer confirms closure to one of the initial issues of the series: the constricting Vulcan oversight of human progress. The episode also nods at T'Pol's forgotten Pa'Nar Syndrome, even if the perfunctory "cure" is clearly just a case of writer Mike Sussman tying up an annoyingly unaddressed thread.

As a wrap-up to the long-running Vulcan arc, these three episodes are highly sastifying.  Enterprise's Vulcans are brought in line with other Trek Vulcans in a way that remains entirely consistent with earlier Enterprise episodes. As a story in itself, it's a good one, even if the last two parts never quite live up to The Forge. Finally, as a pointer toward future stories, the ending provides a tantalizing glimpse of things to come. In all respects, a highly satisfying arc.


Rating: 8/10.

Overall Rating for the Vulcan arc: 9/10.


Previous Episode: Awakening
Next Episode: Daedalus


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