Paxton (Peter Weller) has gained control of an array on Mars, used to divert comets, and has turned it into a weapon. He has issued a public ultimatum: All non-humans must leave the solar system, or he will begin targetting non-human strongholds, starting with Starfleet Command.
Enterprise has been given orders to destroy the array. But Archer has an alternative plan. He is going to use an approaching comet to camouflage the ship, then send a small team down to the surface to free Trip, T'Pol, and the baby, and to defeat Terra Prime. But Archer hasn't planned for one contigency - a spy aboard his ship!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: Gets to make another really bad speech. I'm not sure whether Scott Bakula is bad at delivering speeches, or whether his stiff delivery of Archer's speeches throughout the series is meant to be a character trait. Either way, "Archer makes a speech" has been reason to cringe from pretty much the very beginning. Much better is his confrontation with Paxton, in which he refuses to rise to the bait when the terrorist uses his father to try to put him off-guard. Archer is much less easily provoked than in the beginning, and remains focused in the face of jibes that would have set the Archer of Broken Bow into an uncontrolled fury.
T'Pol: When she sees the baby, her maternal instincts take over. She becomes fiercely protective, declaring that she will not allow Paxton to harm the child. When the baby's health begins failing, she attempts to use a scan she made of Paxton's DNA to coerce him into letting them go. The attempt fails, but it's a strong effort.
Trip: Connor Trinneer does some excellent acting at the end, bringing real emotion to a scene that could have come across stiffly if badly performed. Trip gets a good episode in general, cannily distracting his guard in what appears to be an attempt at sabotaging the array. His plan goes further than that. He knows Paxton will detect the sabotage, but his real agenda is to smuggle back to his cell a tool that helps him to break out. He meets up with Archer's team, on their way in, and provides valuable help in foiling Paxton's plan.
Reed: For the second time in this 2-parter, Reed makes contact with his former section chief, gaining information that helps Archer to resolve the situation and get Trip and T'Pol out alive. This would seem to put Reed back in the debt of his former employer - something which would probably have been used to interesting effect, if the series had gotten a fifth season.
Mayweather: He does not believe Gannet when she pleads her innocence to him, and insists that the real spy for Terra Prime is a crew member. He accuses her of trying to manipulate him, then heads straight off to pilot the mission. When the shuttlepod becomes the victim of sabotage, Mayweather switches to manual and successfully pilots the shuttle in, grinning at the challenge of flying the ship entirely on his own judgment, with no computer guidance. His joy at this moment is a nice payoff to his talk about the shuttlepod in the first part, a good bit of character writing for someone who usually doesn't get that kind of attention.
Hoshi: With Archer, T'Pol, Trip, Reed, Phlox, and Mayweather all off the ship, command ofEnterprise falls to Hoshi. Which, come to think of it, isn't a bad parallel with Mirror Hoshi's triumph in the last 2-parter. Her growing confidence allows her to trust both Archer and her instincts. She resists pressure to fire on the array, allowing the landing party time to complete the mission. Fortunately, neither the writing nor Linda Park allow her to become Super!Hoshi! She is more confident than the young woman who "jumped at every engine noise," but her underlying fear remains visible even as she exercises her command.
Villain of the Week: The only really new wrinkle added to Paxton is a certain hypocrisy, both in his admiration of the unlamented Col. Green and in his xenophobia. It turns out that he would not have met Col. Green's standards of purity, because it is alien technology that is keeping him alive... a secret he carefully keeps from his followers. Beyond that, Paxton is a fairly shallow character, though he is again given credibility by Peter Weller's performance.
THOUGHTS
The final "real" episode of Enterprise is a good one. This episode is not only a strong conclusion to the Terra Prime arc, it is a very reasonable finale all-around. Writers Manny Coto, Judith Reeves-Stevens, and Garfield Reeves-Stevens were probably aware that this would be the series' last hurrah, and that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga were going to use the very last episode as a button on the franchise rather than as a proper close to this specific series. Thus, they have crafted a script that gives every character a moment - something relatively unusual for Enterprise.
Hoshi gets to be put in charge, Mayweather gets some characterization, Reed makes a deal with his former Section, Phlox gets a steady supporting role, and the three leads all get healthy screen time. This is done without really drawing attention to itself. It's not boxes being checked off - Every character has something to do to advance the specific story. I wish that could have happened more often on this series, but it's nice to see in the crew's final adventure.
I also like that the last major threat the NX-01 must overcome is a group of humans. Star Trek always basically stood for humanity overcoming its own limitations and narrow-mindedness. I tend to believe more in Babylon 5's philosophy: that we'll take all our flaws to the stars with us. But having the Enterprise, in its last proper outing, outwitting and overcoming a group that effectively represents human ignorance is a nice embodiment of this franchise's principles. It's also a good story for a prequel. Sure, violent xenophobia and homegrown terrorism is largely a thing of the past by Kirk's time, let alone Picard's... but Archer still has to deal with the last, desperate attempt by these demagogues to thrust their agenda on humanity through a violent ultimatum.
Terra Prime is a noticeably better episode than Demons, making it this season's only multi-parter whose resolution outshines its set-up. Overall, this is one of the "smaller" feeling multi-parters. But it's also one of the most accomplished, in terms of controlled plotting. All the different components are used, and almost every individual element ends up working, albeit some more strongly than others. Terra Prime also makes Demons a better episode in retrospect, raising the arc as a whole.
Or to put it more succinctly: Good stuff.
Rating: 9/10.
Overall Rating for Terra Prime arc: 8/10.
Previous Episode: Demons
Next Episode: These Are the Voyages
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