4-21. Terra Prime.

THE PLOT

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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4-19. In a Mirror Darkly, Part II.

THE PLOT

Enterprise has been destroyed, but not before Archer has taken control of the Defiant. Once he gets the basic systems on line, he is able to rout the Tholians and then retrieve Enterprise's lifepods. He orders Trip to continue working on the ship's systems as he plots a course to engage the rebels.

Once that is done, Archer decides that he will not give up command of Defiant, not to the admiralty, not even to the emperor himself. He hatches a plan to seize control of the Empire, to take command away from the "criminals, in their offices," and lead from the front, using the starship's enormous power to crush all opposition!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: When they access the historical records aboard Defiant, Archer gets to feel overshadowed by his own, alternative self. Mirror Archer obviously sees himself as a potentially great warrior who has been passed over and marginalized through his whole career. When he sees that his counterpart was made captain of Enterprise from the day it left dock, it is not a validation that he should have been captain - It's a slap in the face that his other self was given that which was denied him. Through the rest of the episode, he has visions of our Archer taunting him with how much better a job he'd have done in the same situation. This is all good stuff, wonderfully written. Unfortunately, my problems with Bakula's performance remain. As in Part One, he seems to overplay everything, spitting out lines that would be more effective simply delivered.

T'Pol: Just like Mirror Spock was very recognizably Spock, just more ruthless, the same is true of Mirror T'Pol. The Vulcans in the Mirror universe appear to have had much the same development, up to the point of first contact with Earth, as the normal universe Vulcans. As a result, they are less warlike and are probably leading the rebellion mainly to save themselves and other non-Terrans from lives of servitude.

Dr. Phlox: John Billingsley gets some more great supporting material, as T'Pol and Soval entice Phlox into participating in their rebellion against Archer. Phlox shows no interest in their political arguments. But Soval reads his weaknesses all too well, striking a nerve that allows Phlox to rationalize helping the rebels. Mirror Phlox continues to differ from our Phlox, notably in his response to an injured crewman. "He could go either way," he says, completely unconcerned as he stuffs his face in the galley.

Hoshi: I think I may just be a little bit in love with Mirror Hoshi. Many of her character traits are recognizably those of our Hoshi. When she reads the records about her counterpart, she identifies with her. She also has a touch of envy over our Hoshi being "remembered for something." Unlike Archer, she doesn't see herself as truly separate from her counterpart, to the point of refusing to allow him to reveal who Hoshi married or how she died.  She continued to use her sexuality as a weapon, leading to a particularly memorable scene near the end. This 2-parter, taken as a whole, is the meatiest role Linda Park has had in the entire series, and she seems to revel in it.


THOUGHTS

Well, I was obviously wrong about the end of First Contact marking the point of divergence. Archer talks about the Terran Empire having "endured for centuries," so that's my private fan theory down the tubes. If a specific point of divergence does exist, it obviously occurred at a much earlier point. Or else it's simply a case of the nature of the two universes just being completely different.

I love the way the episode uses the basic set design and general aesthetic of the original series in such a way that it doesn't come across looking cheap. The CGI model of the Defiant is very faithful to the original series. But with angles and effects shots the original series could never have afforded, the basic design looks amazingly good. There's a particularly good shot in which Defiant is shown alongside an NX-class starship. The digital artists make sure to composite the shot so that Defiant dwarfs the other ship. The clean TOS design looks brighter and more powerful than the NX design, genuinely selling the idea that this is a vastly more advanced vessel.

Unfortunately, Part Two is not as tightly-constructed as Part One was. There's a subplot involving Archer hunting for a Gorn on board the ship.  This comes out of nowhere and connects to nothing - and it takes up most of the first half of the episode!  The CGI Gorn here really isn't an improvement over the rubber suit of Arena, and this entire superfluous strand marks the weakest spot in the two-parter.

Fortunately, the last half of the episode is terrific. With the external threats momentarily taken care of, there is time for the agendas of the various self-serving Mirror characters to return to the fore. The scheming of various factions is highly entertaining. Archer becomes more and more isolated from the other characters, to the point at which almost all of his significant dialogue scenes are opposite Hoshi. The final twist is terrific, and feels perfect as an ending to these two episodes.

Overall, while the narrative is more slapdash than in Part One, the momentum remains high.  Even during the Gorn scenes, the episode is never less than entertaining - and the ending sees it close on a high note.  It's not the near-perfect piece that Part One was, but it's a strong conclusion to a fantastically fun story.


Rating: 8/10.

Overall Rating for In a Mirror Darkly: 9/10.

Previous Episode: In a Mirror Darkly
Next Episode: Demons


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4-18. In a Mirror Darkly.

THE PLOT

The Terran Empire is at war. There have been large-scale rebellions, and the attempts to stamp out the rebels have gone badly. Jonathan Archer, first officer of the I. S. S. Enterprise, has come into possession of certain information which can turn the tide. A Terran ship from an alternate universe has come through a hole in Tholian space. Not only is this ship from a different universe, it is from the future - containing technology the likes of which the Empire can only dream of.

Captain Maximilian Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong) is not willing to take the Enterprise on such a hazardous mission in pursuit of a goal he doesn't believe exists. So Archer stages a mutiny and, with the assistance of Major Reed's security forces, he seizes control of the ship and throws the captain in the brig. But Forrest has his own allies on board, and has no intention of simply accepting Archer's treachery...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Forrest: Vaughn Armstrong returns to the series as Forrest. Of the various mirror universe characters, he is probably the most like his counterpart. Maximilian Forrest rarely comes across as evil. He is clearly devoted to his duty, just as our Forrest was. His relationship with Hoshi appears genuine, to the point that Forrest's life is used as a bargaining chip by Archer to gain her cooperation. He is stern, jealously guarding his command - but in this reality, that is simply a matter of survival. In the battle that ends the episode, we see Forrest retaining his concern for his crew, and his last scene is a proper "hero moment." The return of both Armstrong and his character is welcome, as is seeing him in a lead role for a change.

Archer: Almost all of the regular cast visibly raise their game for this 2-parter. The exception, unfortunately, is Scott Bakula. I've commented many times how well Bakula plays different shades of anger. In this characterization, however, he tromps around with a perpetual scowl. Watching, I found myself far too aware of Scott Bakula acting, while the others seemed to inhabit these dark variants of their normal characters more naturally. I may change my mind in Part Two. But as of Part One, this usually reliable actor is the weak link in the main cast.

Trip: The Trip of this universe has become badly scarred through exposure to a warp engine that is obviously much less well-shielded than our Enterprise's warp engines. He fully expects to die young from exposure to radiation. Some elements of his character are directly inverted. He despises Reed, for instance. He does still lust after T'Pol, but his interest in her is purely carnal, as opposed to the more solicitous attitude of our Trip. Connor Trinneer does a fine job playing a version of Trip that has had all the joy and openness beaten out of him, leaving a hard and bitter man to run the engines.

Dr. Phlox: John Billingsley has always injected a note of something alien, even creepy. Here, he turns up those creepy elements, playing a sadistic Phlox. Whereas our Phlox keeps a menagerie of animals for healing purposes, this variant brutally dissects the animals, apparently for pleasure. We first meet him as he proudly displays his new invention: The Mirror Universe's first Agony Booth. He clearly enjoys placing people inside, and gets great satisfaction from torturing the Tholian for information. I particularly enjoyed Billingsley's delivery of, "Will you kindly die," as he murders the alien. A great, disturbing performance.

Hoshi: After 3 2/3 seasons of being the "good girl," Linda Park must have enjoyed this chance to cut loose. Mirror Hoshi is confidently sexual in a way that our Hoshi has never really been allowed to be, and she has no problem using that sexuality to retain her place of privilege once Archer takes over. She does have the same gifts for language that our Hoshi has, which makes her somebody that Archer needs to have on his side - which also nicely justifies the plot necessity of putting Forrest in the brig, rather than following Reed's suggestion and executing him.


MIRROR UNIVERSE THOUGHTS

OK, let's start with the obvious: The credits. The "mirror credits," presenting the history of humanity's evolving war machine, are a wonderful mirror to the regular "history of exploration" credits. It's a particularly nice touch that they utilize several of the same clips, only now given a different context. My ideal version of these credits would complete the mirroring of the normal ones by using a pop/rock tune, only one with a darker edge (Sympathy for the Devil would seem appropriate, or possibly Paint It Black) - but that would be ridiculously expensive for what amounts to "a neat touch," and the orchestral score used does work well... probably better than the regular credits do.

The episode begins by showing Zefram Cochrane's first contact with the Vulcans. Only this time, the scenario plays out a bit differently. As the Vulcans give their traditional greeting, Cochrane pulls out a gun and shoots the lead Vulcan. Then one of his followers calls on the rest to take everything they can get their hands on. This would appear to be the beginning of the Empire, with stolen Vulcan technology leading Earth out to the stars early, crushing everything in its path.

A scene early in Part One sees Archer speculating as to how things might have played out had Cochrane not shot that Vulcan. This has me thinking that this is intended as the moment of divergence between the two universes. Which raises an interesting question: Is the "Mirror Universe," in which the human race spreads out as lust-driven, power-thirsty conquerors, the actual "default" future, the one that happens with no intervention? Is "our" Star Trek universe, with the upright Kirk, the intellectual Picard, the pragmatic but honorable Sisko - Is that, in fact, simply a parallel possibility, made into reality when Picard and the Borg travelled back in time, with Picard's crew ultimately interfering with Cochrane (and letting him know that the Vulcans were not invaders).

Heck, I could see Daniels and his Temporal Cold War shenanigans manipulating that into happening, just to create the "Federation" future we've seen him be extremely protective of (thus indicating that the "Federation future" is not destined, but actually quite vulnerable).


EPISODE THOUGHTS

In a Mirror Darkly is routinely named as Enterprise's very best. I suspect some of that reputation may come down to it being so different from the rest of the series. With a different tone, a darker set of personalities for our regulars, and in fact a different universe to inhabit, it stands out more readily from the rest of the series than even the best "regular" episodes. But while I might argue against labelling it the objective "best," In a Mirror Darkly is definitely up there. As can be seen from how much I've written already, it is certainly an episode that offers a lot of meat for discussion. In fact, I'm abandoning my usual policy of writing a single review for a 2-parter with one title, simply because a review of both parts together would be prohibitively long.

Acting as both a prequel to Mirror, Mirror and a sequel to The Tholian Web, this 2-parter continues Season 4's strong ties to the original series.  I would highly recommend watching The Tholian Web just before this, as this episode does directly address elements of that episode. We discover that the Tholians (or rather, the "mirror" Tholians) created the hole in space into which the Defiant fell, and did so in order to study and dissect a ship from the future. This also fits with our glimpse of the Tholians in this series' Future Tense, when they also showed a strong interest in technology from the future.

The script is by Mike Sussman, and shows his usual expertise with both structure and momentum. Every character gets a moment, even Mayweather, and every scene advances either the story or the universe. It builds nicely to a very strong climax, with the closing visual virtually guaranteeing that viewers will be hungry for the next installment.


Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Bound
Next Episode: In a Mirror Darkly, Part II

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4-15. Affliction.

THE PLOT

Enterprise returns to Earth for the official launch date of her sister ship, the Columbia - the ship to which Trip is transferring. For the crew, it's an opportunity for some well-deserved leave. Dr. Phlox is in San Francisco with Hoshi, taking in a meal at his favorite Chinese restaurant. The two are just walking back when they are jumped by alien attackers. Hoshi is knocked out while attempting to fight back, but not before she overhears one of the attackers speaking in Rigelian.

Reed has only just begun to investigate the kidnapping when he receives a transmission from Harris (Eric Pierpoint), his old boss.  Harris informs Reed of an important mission, something that must be kept from Archer for security reasons. Dr. Phlox learns of it, too, when he is brought face-to-face with his captors: the Klingons. The Klingons are suffering from a virus that is spreading from world to world. Phlox is tasked with finding a cure. What he learns about the virus, however, may strain his devotion to preserving life.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: The information he gleaned from Surak's katra allows him to talk T'Pol through initiating a mind-meld. I'm sorry, but is that really necessary? In a season that's badly overinflated Archer, do we honestly need him talking the series' regular Vulcan through a Vulcan procedure? When do we hit the episode where Archer parts the Red Sea?  Rant aside, Scott Bakula does well when Archer finally discovers Reed's deceit. A range of emotions, from weariness to disappointment to anger, are evident in his face and voice, and he and Dominic Keating do some first-class acting in this scene.

Reed: From the first season, a part of Reed's characterization has been how distant he is, how difficult he is to know. This episode provides some background which sheds light on that particular established quality. Long before he joined Enterprise, Reed was an agent. Here, he is called back into service, putting him in the position of keeping information from his captain. It is not a comfortable situation for him, as he feels torn between loyalty to Archer and the still-strong dictates of his previous job.

T'Pol: Trip's departure affects her more than she wants to admit. As she attempts to meditate, she makes a telepathic connection to Trip, who is probably pausing in his busy day to think of her. In the midst of her white void of meditation, the two instantly begin to argue, before Trip is snapped out of it by one of his new shipmates. T'Pol also pulls triple-duty. She has to cover for the new chief engineer's learning curve. Then, when Archer begins to suspect Reed of deception, she has to double-check Reed's work and report back to Archer.

Trip: The easygoing Trip of the first season is not the Trip who signs onto Columbia. Trip is strict to the point of harshness with his new crew, working them triple shifts in order to get his new ship's engines working at the level of Enterprise's. By the time he has dinner with his new captain the next day, two of his crew have already requested transfers. He remains very good at his job, and he does get the engines working in time to meet Columbia's accelerated deadline. He even seems to be relaxing into his new post a bit, congratulating one of his new people on a job well done.

Dr. Phlox: Despite his outrage at being kidnapped, he is willing to do what he can to assist the Klingons once he learns of the virus.  He is appalled at the harsh Klingon methods, however, including the execution of infected patients to allow for dissection. When he discovers the true nature of the virus, he is even further outraged, both by what the Klingons attempted to do and by their keeping this from him when he should have been given the information at the outset.  John Billingsley is a good enough actor to keep his performance from being one-note, cranking up the intensity at just the right points and then reverting to a more subdued performance in between the more strongly emotional scenes.

Hoshi: We actually get a demonstration of the fighting skills she mentioned in Observer Effect, as she fights with Phlox's abductors. She's effective, too, kicking the gun right out of one attacker's hand and fending him off. If not for the third attacker, unseen until too late, she and Phlox might well have succeeded in getting away. Her linguistic skills come in useful, first in recognizing that the attackers spoke Rigelian, later in recognizing the prisoner speaking Klingon.

Klingons: They are unwilling to ask for help in dealing with the virus, lest they look weak to their enemies. But kidnapping a skilled doctor? That's no problem. When Phlox wonders why they didn't just kidnap Dr. Soong, who would have been more efficient at mapping genomes, the reply is direct and pragmatic: They tried; Soong was just too heavily guarded. At every turn, the Klingons prove to be ruthless and jealous of their secrets, and it seems evident that they have no intention of letting Phlox leave alive with what he knows.


THOUGHTS

I'll admit to being in the Trek camp that never really felt that an explanation was needed for why TOS Klingons had smooth brows while later Klingons had bumpy ones. It's always seemed obvious to me that the simple makeup of the TOS Klingons was a matter of budget, and that all that ever needed to be addressed on this issue was covered by Worf's, "It is not something we discuss with outsiders," in Trials and Tribbleations.

But if the main reason behind this 2-parter basically amounts to fan service, that doesn't matter to me in the slightest. Based on this first episode, it's going to be a pretty good 2-parter. It incorporates several elements from earlier in the season. The Trip/T'Pol arc follows directly on from The Aenar. The Klingon virus is directly linked to the Augment arc. Capt. Ramirez and the Columbia return from the episode, Home, along with a reference to Phlox's altercation in that episode. It all serves to tie the season together as an extended narrative, something I love when it's done well - and here, at least, it's done extremely well.

The most interesting story strand belongs to Reed. We know him well enough to realize that he's no traitor. But his having worked in intelligence makes sense, actually lending some focus to his characterization early in the series. Being called back into duty, splitting his loyalty between his old superiors and his current one, puts a strain on him which shows in Dominic Keating's performance. When he is caught, and Archer throws him in the brig, he is left to feel helpless as the ship undergoes a new crisis - and he is left unable to assist.

A strong first episode, with some good continuity with the rest of the season, some excellent character work, and some nice touches of intrigue.  The sort of setup episode that leaves one hopeful when anticipating the Part Two payoff.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: The Aenar
Next Episode: Divergence 

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4-11. Observer Effect.

THE PLOT

Reed and Mayweather are not themselves. Literally not themselves, as they have become hosts to alien observers. The aliens are essentially scientists, observing Enterprise like an experiment to see what happens during a crisis.

Trip and Hoshi are on their way back from a planet, and have taken a pathogen with them. They are promptly put into decontamination. Phlox determines that the virus infecting them is silicon-based, and that they only have a few hours to live unless he can develop a cure. Meanwhile, Reed and Mayweather - or the aliens to whom they are playing host - watch, and they wait, and they evaluate the worth of the human race...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Uses every resource at his disposal to try to save Trip and Hoshi. At one point, Klingon debris is detected in the atmosphere.  Archer realizes that the Klingons faced this same issue and destroyed their infected rather than letting them dock. When the alien in Mayweather asks if this is helpful, Archer replies that it at least tells him that he needn't waste time asking if the Klingons have a cure. The alien presses on, wanting to know if Archer would ask the Klingons for a cure if they had one. "On bended knee," Archer replies unhesitantly. When he asks Phlox to work faster, he doesn't say it the way he would have in Season One or early Season Two.  He no longer comes across as an unreasonable and panicked man demanding the impossible. Instead, he says it softly, laying an encouraging hand on Phlox's shoulder.  He knows that his medical officer is doing everything he can and, whatever happens, he isn't going to blame him for the result.

Trip: Shows dedication to his duty, even when faced with his own death. When a feverish Hoshi breaches quarantine, Trip brings her back.  He knows they are "in quarantine for a reason," and does not want to spread the infection to the rest of the crew. He does his best to keep Hoshi's morale up, keeping her talking about languages and her past, even talking a little about his own past. He has faith in Archer, but that doesn't stop him from briefly resisting an order to sedate both Hoshi and himself.

Hoshi: I'm always happy to see a Hoshi-centric episode. It remains a mystery to me why this series so often puts such a ready-made audience identification figure into the background. We learn a bit more about her background here. Her amusement in Season Three's The Council over Archer's brush with being a "bad boy" is echoed as we learn of her own rebellious past, running a floating poker game in the Starfleet Training Center, which got her (temporarily) kicked out. We also get a semi-plausible explanation for how she can learn alien languages so quickly. She's very good at picking out certain universal patterns. This comes into memorable play in the second half of the episode, when a delirious Hoshi overrides the security protocols of the ship, grunting that "math is just another language."

Dr. Phlox: A typically excellent performance by John Billingsley, who showcases Phlox's dedication to his patients. Phlox actually does detect the aliens' presence at one point, leading to a confrontation in which the aliens tell him that they could save his patients but won't. Phlox's disgust with them, and with their intent to wipe his memory of their presence, is palpable.

Aliens of the Week: The aliens inhabiting Reed and Mayweather are closely related to one of TOS' classic episodes. I'm not going to divulge which race, for the benefit of anyone who hasn't already seen it. I will say that it's clear early on that these aliens aren't actually evil. They are simply what the title says: Observers. They know that any ship coming to this world will encounter the infection, and temporarily inhabit hosts on the ship in order to see how each species deals with the situation. The aliens are appropriate to their hosts. Mayweather's is hopeful about the humans, pointing out all the ways in which they behave more compassionately than the Klingons or Cardassians did. Reed's is brutally pragmatic, certain that Archer will eventually order the deaths of Trip and Hoshi or that "this will be one of the times when everybody dies."


THOUGHTS

That was considerably better than Daedalus!

This episode neatly captures the attention in the teaser. It at first seems like a sedate scene of "crew bonding," as Mayweather and Reed play chess. Even their intial lines don't hint at anything wrong, though it would seem strange that Reed wouldn't know how to play a game that would seem to be very much in his line (tactics). Then Mayweather refers to how "they" have such a short lifespan - "they," not "we" - and how predictable chess is with such a limited number of possible outcomes. Even before they refer to their "hosts," it is clear that it is not Reed and Mayweather we are watching, but aliens possessing their bodies. I actually ran this scene back and watched it a second time, just to see how differently it played knowing at the start that these two characters were not actually our regulars. It's a very well-done teaser, setting an ominous tone even before they mention crew deaths.

In its otherwise fairly ordinary (though by no means bad) first season, Enterprise was particularly good at low-key episodes that focused on the ensemble.  It was clear early on that this series tended to stumble most when telling formula Trek stories. That changed with the series' change of tone in Season Three. Seasons Three and Four have seen the series' overall quality blast upward, like a rocket. But a few things have been lost, and the character-based episodes have largely been among those.

This episode, particularly in its scenes between Hoshi and Trip, returns to the series' early strengths. The supporting cast actually are full characters, rather than just props to support the leads and the story arcs. In a season which has thus far sidelined her even more than Season Two did, this, this episode gives Linda Park some of her best material ever on this show.

On the down side, the resolution doesn't fully work. Even though it is built up over the full episode, the final scene between Archer and the two aliens feels quick and easy. It doesn't come out of nowhere - the decision the aliens make has had groundwork laid. It just somehow doesn't convince me that this is what would happen within this set of circumstances.

Still a good episode, though, and a nice recovery from last episode's boring blunder.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Daedalus

Next Episode: Babel One

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3-23. Countdown.

THE PLOT

The Reptilians have taken the Xindi weapon, but they don't have all the codes needed to activate it. What they do have is Hoshi - whose linguistics skills in the Xindi council chamber convinced the Reptilian leader that she will also be able to decrypt the other races' codes. Hoshi initially resists, until all resistance is made useless by the injection of some Wrath of Khan-like parasites directly into her brain.

Archer manages to convince the Aquatics to join the Humanoids and Arboreals in chasing down the weapon and battling the Reptilians and Insectoids. But Archer's newfound alliance may not be strong enough to stop them when the Sphere Builders decide that the time has come to intervene directly!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Scott Bakula shifts his acting gears to "grim determination" and more or less keeps them there for the entire episode. Archer is largely left barking orders or demands from the Enterprise bridge while other characters get the bulk of the action, but his intensity does set the tone and anchor the episode's sense of urgency.

T'Pol/Trip: They continue their awkward progression toward the relationship that their E2 counterparts had before/parallel to them. Trip has noticed T'Pol's more emotional behavior. Though an outburst from her does put him on the defensive, when she admits her turmoil he instantly offers his support.

Reed: Gets another very good episode, particularly in his scenes with Hayes. His emotion following the death of Hawkins is further followed up on, as he confesses to Hayes that he knows that Hawkins was his responsibility. It's an admission that gains him a measure of respect from Hayes, and the two men seem to end this episode as friends.

Hoshi: Tries very hard to resist the Reptilians' attempts to use her to activate the weapon. Even when she is injected with the parasites, she manages to resist long enough to add another layer of encryption to the weapon's arming sequence, further delaying deployment. When this is discovered and a further "procedure" is ordered, she attempts to kill herself - though she hesitates, and the next wave of parasites forestalls all further resistance.

The Xindi: The Reptilians are now the outright villains, allying themselves with the Sphere Builders for the promise that they will be the rulers of the remaining Xindi. Any sense that the leader of the Reptilians still believes that he is acting in self-defense or doing what is right for the Xindi overall is totally abandoned. He is now The Villain, and all he needs is to twirl a mustache and kick a puppy (in Hoshi, he already gets to tie down and torture a damsel in distress) to complete the image.


ZAP THE REDSHIRT!

Major Hayes is brought back, after being barely referenced in the very eventful run of episodes that followed his last appearance. This time, he leads a mission to infiltrate the weapon and retrieve Hoshi. Naturally, he meets a suitably heroic end, complete with John Wayne-style last words of advice to Reed... which advice, as far as I could tell, Reed entirely ignores when putting together his new infiltration squad at the episode's end. Anyway, farewell Major Hayes. I'd like to say I'd miss you, but since you were never more than a 2-dimensional stereotype to start with, I'm afraid I'd by lying.


THOUGHTS

Countdown is not as outstanding an episode as The Council was. The script is less layered, with less of a sense of fully-rounded characters making weighty decisions and misjudgments perfectly in keeping with their nature. It's more of a straight action piece.

That said, it is a very good action piece, particularly once the action really gets going in the second half. The momentum of past episodes is kept running, and events barely pause to allow for breath. A lack of time for reflection and an absence of some of the shaded characterization of some of the previous episodes keep it from being as good as the Azati Prime trilogy or The Council. But in a run of shows that have ranged from "very good" to "outstanding," Countdown shouldn't be dismissed merely for falling on the "good" side of that scale.

The current run of episodes is easily the best Enterprise has seen, it is among the best of Trek - provided, that is, that the finale doesn't blow it.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: The Council

Next Episode: Zero Hour

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3-6. Exile.

THE PLOT

Hoshi is contacted by Tarquin (Maury Sterling), an alien telepath.  Tarquin directs her to the planet on which he lives, alone and isolated, an exile from his own people for the crime of being a telepath. He offers her and Archer a deal. In exchange for a few days of Hoshi's company, he will work with the wreckage of the Xindi weapon to find out all the information his abilities can gather about their plans.

Archer's first instinct is to refuse. He can see all too clearly the "inappropriate" nature of Tarquin's interest in Hoshi. But Hoshi thinks the potential rewards are worth the risk. As Archer and Enterprise take a few days' detour to investigate a region of space where T'Pol is certain they will find a second Sphere, Hoshi is left with Tarquin. It isn't long before she discovers that he wants much more than a few days' respite from his isolation. He wants her to stay permanently - and will do anything in his power to make that happen!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: He can sense all the things wrong with leaving his most vulnerable crew member alone on a deserted planet with Tarquin. But faced with the opportunity to gather more intelligence about the Xindi, he allows Hoshi to take the risk against his own better judgment.

Hoshi: The season's first (probably only) Hoshi-centric episode. As someone who quite likes both character and actress, I always find the Hoshi episodes to be good news. With a believable mix of abilities and neuroses, she's the most human of the supporting cast. This made her chronic underuse in Season Two all the more frustrating to me.  That same underuse was apparently noticed by the writers, who try to explain away her lack of interaction with others by having Tarquin observe that she "feels isolated" on a ship full of other people. I'm not buying it (she interacted plenty during Season One), but given that she's been much better used thus far in Season Three, I'll let them have the retcon.

Despite the Beauty & the Beast allusions littered throughout the episode, I appreciated that the writers never actually have Hoshi develop a bond with Tarquin.  The few scenes in which she lets her guard down a little with him (notably the scene with the psychic-enhancing globe) always end with her raising her guard even more, as he continues to prove himself untrustworthy.

Guest Star of the Week: Maury Sterling is Tarquin, the telepath who tries very hard to form a bond with Hoshi. Refreshingly, he is not evil. He genuinely has no desire to harm anyone. However, he is desperately lonely, and senses a compatible mind in Hoshi - and that makes him dangerous, because he will do just about anything to get Hoshi to stay. He lures her to him by projecting himself as a handsome human male, tries to trick her into staying permanently by projecting himself as Archer, and finally tries to get her to stay under duress. Still, once he calms down, he does honor the terms of his agreement with Hoshi and Archer, and provides some intelligence - though I can't help but wonder if he's holding some back, in hopes of trading more information for more time with the object of his affections.


THOUGHTS

I'm of two minds on breaking up the writing team of Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong. On the one hand, most of Season Two's strongest episodes that weren't written by Berman & Braga were written by them. As a writing team, they worked well collaboratively, and turned out episodes that worked both as good sci-fi action fare and as good Star Trek. On the other hand, their individually-scripted episodes thus far this season have also been effective... and if they're working individually, they should be able to write twice as many episodes.

The Exile is another good episode. As ever, Strong shows a natural aptitude for dramatic structure. Both the "A" plot and the "B" plot are effectively structured, with each scene moving the respective stories forward. Cuts from one story strand to the other are well-judged, with each cutaway coming at a moment that keeps it all feeling like part of a single episode. The Hoshi plot is definitely the "A" plot, but the Archer/Trip plot is given enough time to make an impact.

Direction by Roxann Dawson is effective. She makes good use of CGI effects, both when establishing Tarquin's fairy tale-like palace prison and when landing Archer and Trip on the second sphere. She also uses some practical directing tricks to good effect. A bit in which we jump from "real Phlox" to Tarquin speaking through Phlox" via a 360-degree turn of the camera would not have been outside the abilities of a director in the 1930's, or the 1920's for that matter. But Dawson knows when it's time to use CGI for impact, and when impact can be more successfully achieved by using a simple camera trick. It helps that John Billingsley effectively varies his delivery to make this moment as creepy as possible.

With an effective ending sting which basically acts as a teaser for the next installment of the ongoing Xindi arc, and no overwhelming weaknesses, this is another very strong episode. In Season Two, this would have been among the strongest of the season. In the much-better Season Three, it's still comfortably above average.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Impulse

Next Episode: The Shipment

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3-3. Extinction.

THE PLOT

Following clues from the Xindi database, Enterprise comes to a planet where the crew discovers an abandoned Xindi shuttlecraft. Archer, T'Pol, Reed, and Hoshi go down to the planet to investigate. However, after only a short time on the surface, the three humans undergo a startling transformation - into an entirely different species!

With the three humans' memories and personalities overwritten, T'Pol finds herself having to deal with what are effectively members of an alien race, obsessed with finding their underground city. Meanwhile, Trip pushes Phlox to find a cure to the virus, the key to which may lie in T'Pol's DNA. But when military vessels arrive, their leader insists that those contaminated by the virus must be destroyed.  Now Trip must find a way to stall these new arrivals until Phlox can deliver a solution.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Even though it was Trip who lost a family member, Archer is the one who is so far unable to even begin to shake the impact of the attack. As he observed in The Expanse, he now literally has the weight of the world on his shoulders. It may well be that a day or so of being, essentially, unconscious might have done him some good, as he is in desperate need of a moment's relaxation.

T'Pol: As the only one on the planet's surface not affected by the virus, she gets to act as the voice of reason.  She is also effectively the audience stand-in, discovering what drives the aliens the humans are transformed into. She helps them to evade destruction at the hands of the alien "containment" team.

Trip: As time passes, the anger that's marked Trip since the Xindi assault has faded into the background. The Trip we know is once again recognizable in this episode, which is actually something of a relief. As the wound recedes, Trip's normal persona should re-emerge, and it's good to see him offering "fresh Georgia peaches" to T'Pol and falling back on his instinctive loyalty to Archer. Still, Trip isn't quite the laid-back Southern boy of the first two seasons, as we can see when he's forced to take command for the bulk of the episode. There is no uncertainty in him this time, either in deciding to cut short Phlox's advance study of the planet to lead a team in EVA suits directly after the captain, or in his dealings with the alien commander. If Archer were removed from command for a substantial term, at this point Trip seems like he would actually be very capable of taking over for him.


THOUGHTS

Well, it had to happen. Season Three had to have a crappy filler episode sooner or later. With a jungle set that looks like it was recycled wholesale from Rogue Planet and a fairly standard "virus" plotline, this is by far the weakest and most bog-standard episode the new season has seen yet.

On the plus side, it's still a fair bit better than many of the filler episodes in Season Two. The tone set by The Expanse has been maintained thus far, and is still evident even when running through a stock plot in fairly stock fashion. There is focus and energy to the performances, as well as a sense of the characters existing in a more dangerous universe. The episode gets an extra point or two for the ending, which implies that the virus may actually play in at some point in the future.

The transformed regulars have fun discarding their usual personas for very alien ones. Scott Bakula and Linda Park are particularly good at playing the aliens, altering the way they move as well as their tone of voice. Park is downright eerie in the way she speaks and moves, weaving and twitching and turning her head rapidly, almost bird-like, even when standing still. The performances sell the transformation, make us believe that these are completely different entities.  Together with a good make-up job, this boosts the episode considerably.

Unfortunately, this is a bog-standard filler episode. Running around the recycled jungle set and cave sets probably helped pinch a few budget pennies after the doubtless quite expensive previous two episodes. But for the first time since The Expanse, I was very aware that I was watching a Trek spinoff, and not in a good way.


Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Anomaly

Next Episode: Rajiin

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3-2. Anomaly.

"Mercy is not a quality that will serve you well in the Expanse, Captain!"


THE PLOT

As the Enterprise moves deeper into the Expanse, the spacial anomalies cause greater and greater effects on the ship. When one anomaly costs them both warp and weapons power, they are left temporarily defenseless.

That's when the Osaarians come, using superior transporter technology to beam into the ship and attack, stealing everything they can lay their hands on before running off again. Archer, Trip, and the marines fight back, and capture a prisoner (Robert Rusler). Then, once the ship's engines are operational again, they pursue.

They follow the Osaarians' trail through a cloaking field, and find an ancient Sphere that the pirates are using to store their ill-gotten gains. But this turns from a simple recovery of stolen property into something more when the crew discovers that among the ships these pirates attacked was a Xindi vessel. One which left a lot of information in the Osaarians' database...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Wow. Archer has a scene in this episode that is unlike anything seen from a Star Trek captain in any Trek series or movie before. When he learns of the link between the pirates and the Xindi, all the anger he's been carrying comes out in one fiercely focused and controlled act, as he interrogates his prisoner. In an airlock. While it's decompressing. The scene is startling, because it's completely unlike anything Archer would have been willing to do before. It's also very disturbing, and deliberately so given that we go to commercial on Archer's very grim face at the end of this scene.

Trip: He continues to have difficulty sleeping, and it's now starting to affect his work as he injures himself while making a misjudgment. The ongoing anger of the past two episodes is settling, but leaving in its place a lingering bitterness. The eternally kind and good-humored Trip is now a pessimist, looking on the ship's current mission as "a one-way trip." At least he seems willing to start working with T'Pol regularly to help ease his sleep issues.

Hoshi: Gets a solid supporting role this episode, as she recognizes Xindi symbols among the material in the Sphere. She is also able to download (most of) a Xindi database from the Osaarians' computers.


ZAP THE REDSHIRT!

Enterprise gets its very first confirmed redshirt with Crewman Fuller, killed during the Osaarians' attack. Trip voices his suspicion that though they've been lucky so far in avoiding casualties, Fuller "won't be the last" to die on this mission.


THOUGHTS

Another good show in a run of good shows. It's a shame they waited until the brink of cancellation for this new direction. If they had shifted gears sooner - say, right at the start of Season Two - it might have made a huge difference in how this series is regarded.

As with the last episode, the plot itself is not that far removed from what we had been seeing. Enterprise is attacked by space pirates. Again. But the new setting of The Expanse, and the complications that come with that new setting, make a big difference in how dangerous the situation feels.

There is more excellent CGI here, as the Enterprise passes through a cloaking field to discover the Sphere. The Osaarians may be using it, but they obviously did not create it, nor did they create the cloaking field. The Sphere's presence and properties raise more interesting questions about the Expanse.

The episode ends with Enterprise having gotten more information about the Xindi, and with Archer viewing that information with an obsessed look on his face. With his face reflected in the green lighting, and in light of some of his actions during the episode, the effect is disturbing. This episode shows us that Archer and Enterprise really are willing to do "whatever it takes" in pursuit of their new mission - and there's something just a little bit frightening about that thought


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: The Xindi
Next Episode: Extinction

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2-10. Vanishing Point.

THE PLOT

Hoshi and Trip are investigating ruins on an apparently uninhabited planet, when severe storms lead Archer to call them back up to the surface. With the storms coming too quickly, Archer is forced to retrieve them using the transporter. Trip goes through first, with no problems. But when Hoshi is beamed up, she insists that she doesn't feel right.

Her fears are initially dismissed as simple anxiety, and even she begins to think that she is imagining problems where none actually exist. Her fears are proved right, however - she vanishes, unable to be seen by any of the crew, or even detected by the ship's systems. She watches helplessly as Archer organizes a search party for her, or for any "residue" of her that may be found. Then she discovers aliens from the planet on board, plotting to blow up the ship. But with no way to warn the crew, and no way to interact with the ship, what can she do about it?


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: The captains in other Trek shows often had to deal with losing crew members. Kirk hated losing members of his crew but did so on a regular basis, and was usually up to cracking jokes about whatever situation had been faced by end of episode. Picard, Sisko, and Janeway were also quite able to deal with the loss of crew members. Archer is far less poised. You can see him shut down a little when Phlox tells him that Hoshi has almost certainly been reduced to "sub-cellular residue," almost robotic as he tells Phlox and Trip to adjust sensors to locate the "residue," then retreating to his quarters. Archer hasn't actually faced any crew deaths yet (nor does he in this episode, as it turns out). I'm finding myself very interested in how he will deal with a genuine loss, and hope such an episode does come at some point.

Trip: Spends the first half of the episode dismissing Hoshi's worries, and even using them as an excuse for jocularity. Once Hoshi does vanish, he takes it particularly hard, feeling responsible for her as the senior officer on the planet's surface. In the second half of the episode, when a bit of Hoshi's residue is found, Trip stays behind to address it. His feelings of guilt are complex, as he blames himself for not insisting that Hoshi go first and then blames her for not listening to him when he said it would be safe. A very good scene, extremely well-played.

Hoshi: It's refreshing that despite her growth in confidence since early Season One, Hoshi remains far from fearless. When she is told that she will have to come back to the ship in the transporter, she is terrified. Throughout the first Act, it seems entirely plausible that Hoshi's feeling of "wrongness" is just her own fear at work, as she obsesses over the position of a birthmark and vague feelings that could just as easily be a reaction to exhaustion.

Once it becomes clear that she has truly vanished, she skips fairly quickly from denial to resignation. Only the discovery of the aliens planting bombs spurs her to actively attempt to get the others to notice her. She does manage a few fairly clever ways of trying to attract attention, showing more resourcefulness than the character is generally allowed to demonstrate.


THOUGHTS

Vanishing Point effortlessly held my attention from the first moment. It helps that it centers around Hoshi, a character I've found appealing from the very first episode. Her lack of fearlessness has helped Hoshi seem more real than many of the other characters on the show. It also bewilders me that Jolene Blalock was sold as the "sex symbol" of the show, when Linda Park is quite evidently both more attractive and (much as I've liked Blalock far more than I expected to) a better actress.

In any case, it's an episode that moves along at a nice clip. The first half centers around Hoshi's fears. Filtered through the ending, we see that these really are some of her most deep-rooted fears: that the others don't really notice her, that they don't necessarily consider her an equal part of their group, that her linguistics skills might fail her, that the Universal Translator might replace her usefulness. It's actually pretty good character work, and entirely consistent with what we've seen before.

The second half raises the stakes, both with Hoshi's personal predicament and with the aliens preparing to destroy Enterprise. By the 30 minute mark, it's become one of the most gripping episodes of the season.

Unfortunately, it is badly let down by an ending that doesn't so much resolve the tension as dissolve it. I'll admit that the ending does fit with what we see in the first half of the episode, and does shed additional light on Hoshi as a character. But it does so at the expense of the drama, allowing a gripping episode to fall completely apart in its closing minutes.  It's a badly misjudged conclusion, one that costs the episode at least a full point in my final rating.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Singularity
Next Episode: Precious Cargo

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1-25. Two Days and Two Nights.

THE PLOT

The third time proves to be the charm, as Enterprise finally reaches Risa for its long-overdue shore leave. T'Pol stays aboard to run the ship. Cutler supervises the sickbay as Dr. Phlox takes his needed time to hibernate. Meanwhile, the rest of the command crew head to the planet for very different vacation plans.

Trip and Reed are determined to expand their horizons at a local bar... but their selected one-night-stands have an unexpected surprise for them. Mayweather decides to go climbing on a cliff-face whose slope changes constantly... with predictable consequences. Hoshi decides to just settle in, free of the universal translator, and practice speaking Risan... which catches the eye of an amorous fellow vacationer (Rudolf Martin). Finally, Archer's quiet retreat to a villa overlooking the seaside connects him with an attractive woman (Dey Young)... but as he gets to know her, he discovers that they share a closer connection than he had counted on.


CHARACTERS

Archer: Despite sometimes seeming like the sort of guy who would have been a "frat boy king" in his youth, Archer is not entirely comfortable taking vacations. While Trip and Reed head for a bar to score one-night-stands as fast as possible, Archer decides to take a quiet vacation with his dog, catching up on his reading and watching the stars. He enjoys making a low-key, adult connection with Keyla. However, he cannot turn off his inner starship captain long enough to enjoy her company once she lets slip her own past with the Suliban.

Trip/Reed: The double-act they began in Shuttlepod One continues here. The two actors bounce off each other very well in their ill-fated comic quest to Get Laid Now, and their attempted improvisations ("We're both the captain... We take turns") and their continuing bickering is quite entertaining.  That said, their subplot is easily the most disposable of the episode.

Hoshi: A very relaxed episode for Hoshi.  She seems to be genuinely enjoying herself in every scene, whether practicing her language skills with an older Risan couple or enjoying a vacation romance with the guest star of the week. Linda Park is terrific throughout, and it's nice to see an episode focusing on Hoshi without forcing her to deal with emotional "issues." Linda Park is also quite lovely, and in the "morning after" scene, I felt a touch envious of Rudolf Martin's Ravis.

Phlox: His need for hibernation, mentioned in earlier episodes, becomes a plot point here, when he is effectively incapacitated during a minor medical emergency. John Billingsley is highly entertaining as a semi-irrational, sleep-craving Phlox.  Still, this subplot does beg the question: Given that it's part of Phlox's genetic makeup that he absolutely must hibernate for a certain period each year, surely the ship needs more of a backup medic than the girl who has a crush on him? Lovely to see Cutler again, by the way - though it's a pity that this was apparently her last appearance.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Dey Young is Keyla, Archer's attractive vacation neighbor. At first, she seems to simply be a friendly, somewhat lonely and reclusive woman in early middle age, someone similar enough to Archer in both age and temperament to make a pleasantly low-key, short-term match. Given the innocuous nature of the episode's first half, it actually comes as a surprise when Keyla brings up the Suliban, reminding us of the ongoing arc. Keyla exits leaving us with more questions than answers.  I find myself hoping that we will see her again, if only to see exactly what it is she is up to. Young and Bakula play off each other quite well, so a return appearance would certainly be welcome.


THOUGHTS

Enterprise seems to do very well with character-based episodes. The cast seem to do far better simply interacting in differing settings than when they have to run through Trek formulas. I also can't help but notice that, one episode from the season's end, we are yet to have even have a single "redshirt death." Enterprise may not have been different enough from the Trek formula to stand out in the early 2000's, at the tail end of a glut of Trek spinoffs. But in retrospect, it does have a very different feel than other series, and it seems far more its own show than, say, Voyager did.

There's a definite sense that this ensemble is far more comfortable in their roles than in the early episodes of the series. By this point, every character on the show is working... except Mayweather. I had to laugh when Phlox's reaction to being told there was an emergency involving Mayweather was, "Who?" Even the writers are acknowledging that Mayweather is a nonentity.  The end of this season would have been a fine time to have not only acknowledged that the character didn't work, but also to drop that character (something which I already know didn't happen, but it would have been a good idea).


Rating: 7/10. A quiet, but thoroughly enjoyable, 45 minutes of television.

Previous Episode: Desert Crossing
Next Episode: Shockwave

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