Thoughts on Season Four.

SOME THOUGHTS ON SEASON FOUR

Enterprise's journey comes to an end. So how does its final season stack up?


STAR TREK: "THE PREQUEL"

More than any other season, Season Four of Enterprise actively presents itself as a prequel to Star Trek in general, and the original series in specific. Almost every story of the season ties in with something from the original series. At its best, the season fills in some interesting holes in the fabric of the Star Trek universe. The father of Data's creator (Brent Spiner) is tied together with the augments. The differences between Vulcan society in Enterprise and in the rest of Trek is explained, while tying those differences to the Romulans.  The Romulans are a constant background presence, and we see the beginnings of the buildup to the Romulan war. When it works - which is most of the time - the strong ties to the rest of the franchise create a more cohesive Trek universe, while also creating some highly dramatic stories.

When it doesn't work, mind you, it can feel like desperate fan service. Bound, for example, is a poor episode, and evoking TOS in its style while invoking the Orion slave girls does not make it one bit better. In fact, I suspect a better ship-bound cheapie could have been devised just using the many pieces of the Enterprise universe that have been established over the first three seasons. The Klingon 2-parter is much more enjoyable, and tying the Klingon continuity issues to the Augment arc is an interesting idea. But a part of me simply cannot fully buy into a need to tell a story whose main purpose is to explain variations in Klingon make-up.


STORY-ARCS

Most of this season is divided into story-arcs, a mix of 2-parters and 3-parters. Only a very small number of episodes are standalones. Even one of these, Home, isn't really an episode that stands on its own, as it effectively acts as a prologue to both the Vulcan 3-parter and the Terra Prime 2-parter.

There is much that is good about the long-form storytelling this season opts for. The longer stories allow for more complex stories and for some nice character scenes. Moments such as Reed and Mayweather dealing with a bomb in the ruins of the Earth Embassy on Vulcan simply would not fit into a strict 45-minute story... but there's plenty of room for such a character beat in a 130-minute story.  In addition, by limiting the arcs to two to three episodes each, the main pitfall of the season-long Xindi arc is avoided.  The arcs are long enough to allow for development, but contained enough that getting from beginning to end doesn't feel daunting.

The multi-part stories also allow the show to stretch the budget further. Season Four had a reduced budget, but it largely doesn't show. The Augment arc, the Vulcan arc, and the mirror universe 2-parter feature some of the strongest visuals of the entire series. This does come at a price, in the form of cheap standalones but it's a fair trade-off.

Not everything about the "mini-arc" structure works. The writers have difficulty resolving the 3-part arcs in particular. In every case, the final episode ends up being the weakest. The only one that's significantly "off" is The Aenar, which feels hopelessly rushed and only thinly-connected to the preceding episodes. As I noted in my review, The Aenar really should have been its own 2-parter. But even the season's best arc, the Vulcan story, has a final episode that feels too simplistic after the complexity of the first two parts.


"ALL ARCHER, ALL THE TIME"

Overall, Season Four is a very good season - but with one significant irritant. That irritant's name is Jonathan Archer. I quite liked the characterization of Archer across the first three seasons. He was a basically decent man, but one who vied with some deep character flaws. The Xindi arc saw Archer pushed to his limit, hammered relentlessly over the course of a full season, and that brought out the most interesting facets of both the character and Scott Bakula's performance.

For all three preceding seasons, there was always a balance. Archer was the lead, but he didn't dominate every episode. In this season, that balance disappears almost entirely. Season Four of Star Trek: Enterprise often feels like "The Jonathan Archer Show," which does neither the series nor the character any favors.

Couldn't some of Archer's material have been farmed out to other characters? I can certainly think of one example: As the ship's security chief, it would have made more sense for Reed to have escorted Dr. Soong to the slave auction than Archer. And for three seasons (and the first few episodes of this season), I really liked Archer - so I can only imagine how viewers already sick of him must have reacted!


SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

One advantage of the mini-arc structure is that, even with the show OD'ing on Archer, there's still a decent amount of material left for the supporting cast. The relationship between Trip and T'Pol runs as a sort of constant "B" plot. I do think that Trip's time away from Enterprise was a wasted opportunity, with him rejoining the ship a mere one episode after leaving it... but with the series clearly coming to a close, some rushed elements were probably unavoidable.

In addition to the "Big Three," there's at least a few decent moments sprinkled through the season for everybody. John Billingsley continues to make the most of every moment he gets as Phlox. He gets a substantial amount of focus in the Klingon arc, and he also gets some wonderful scenes as "evil Phlox" during In a Mirror Darkly. Phlox and Hoshi have some good scenes in Home as well as at the start of the Klingon arc, and it might have been interesting to have seen their friendship/potential developing relationship had the series continued.

Hoshi and Mayweather, the series' two most perpetually underused characters, get some strong material in the mirror universe 2-parter. Linda Park, in particular, has a field day with In a Mirror Darkly. Park and Anthony Montgomery also get some strong material in Observer Effect, the only of this year's shipbound standalones that actually works as an episode. Reed gets a steady supporting role across the season, too, particularly when his background with his shadowy old section comes into play in the Klingon arc and the final 2-parter. The season leaves Reed owing his former employers in a big way, something which would likely have been followed up if only the series had survived.


CANCELLED AT THE WRONG TIME

"If only the series had survived" is a running theme in my thoughts on Season Four. Usually, I think that three to four seasons is a perfectly healthy run for a show. But Enterprise was very much in the process of reinventing itself, and was doing so in some interesting ways. With a new showrunner in Manny Coto and a new focus on being a true Trek prequel, this feels almost like the first season of a new show.

A lot of the season lays groundwork for events that would doubtless have paid off in future seasons.  I suspect the series would have continued to build up the Romulans as a threat, and that Starfleet would have gradually become aware of them as such, all on the way to the eventual Romulan War. The season ends with a 2-parter that sees the beginning steps toward a Federation, a movement made with some considerable resistance from elements of humanity. Again, I suspect future seasons would have seen more problems in getting different worlds to really work together as one, and that might have been the basis for some excellent stories.

Watching Season Four, I come to one inescapable conclusion. Enterprise was a series that was cancelled at the exact wrong time.


OVERALL

Some weak final episodes to some of the arcs and the overuse (and misuse) of Archer lead me to not quite liking this season as much as I did Season Three. It's still a very strong season of Star Trek, though, and probably the only season of this show to truly make use of the concept of the series as a prequel.

Some of Enterprise's best moments occur during this season. Also, as with Season Three, it actually achieves a reasonable balance of the non-Archer regulars, with everyone getting something to do. Most of all, there is the sense that important things (within the Trek universe, at least) are happening before your eyes - a sense that wasn't necessarily there in earlier seasons.

Despite a few flaws and a misjudged series finale, a good finish to a series I generally enjoyed a lot more than its reputation would have led me to expect. It's just a shame it didn't get one more season to deliver on some of the seeds planted here.

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4-14. The Aenar.

THE PLOT

With the Tellarites and Andorians having made an alliance for the first time in history, the Romulan mission to destabilize their region of space has backfired badly. But the Romulans have a last push to salvage the situation. A second drone ship is ready. As soon as the first drone is repaired and the pilot is recovered, both ships will launch with a mission to destroy Enterprise!

Meanwhile, T'Pol has traced the drone's brainwave patterns. The closest known match is Andorian, but Shran corrects that statement. The brainwave is actually that of an Aenar, an Andorian subspecies that lives in the coldest part of the planet. Archer and Shran beam down to make contact with the reclusive Aenar, to try to identify the drone pilot. They find Jhamel (Alexandra Lydon), the sister of the Aenar who was abducted by the Romulans. She wants to go with them to help her brother. But the Aenar elders oppose this plan, and are willing to use their telepathic abilities to keep Archer and Shran from finding the way out to return to Enterprise!

CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: A bit less in the foreground in this episode than has been the case, though he and Jeffrey Combs continue to show how well they play opposite each other. Beyond that, Archer is in "captain" mode for the entire episode, with other characters being allowed the spotlight for a change.

T'Pol: Though it's clearly conveyed to the viewers that she still has feelings for Trip, she is determined not to show it. Working closely with Trip on the telepathy chair, she focuses with absolute intensity on the work. She insists on performing multiple experiments to see if the chair works, even when it becomes clear that it isn't safe.

Trip: After the battle with the drones, he discovers that there was a very minor problem with the chair he constructed. He worries that his feelings for T'Pol are distracting him from his work.  This leads to a genuinely very good scene with Archer, which ends the episode on a cliffhanger of a different sort - an emotional one, which leaves us wondering what will happen with Trip now.

Shran: Though he doesn't get anything as intense as the "blood" scene in United, Jeffrey Combs continues to impress. I like the way he plays Shran's loss of balance. Both before and after the accident scene, Combs remembers that he is off-balance and walks just a bit off-kilter, as though constantly dizzy. He is harsh in his dealings with the Aenar, but surprisingly compassionate in his one-on-one conversation with Jhamel. As the episode goes along, seeds are planted for a potential romance with the Aenar girl, one which we probably would have seen blossom had the series survived.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Alexandra Lydon is Jhamel, the Aenar who agrees to go with Archer and Shran to try to help her brother. She seems to know early on that the most she can really do is help to stop him from causing further destruction. She works as a character for two reasons: First, because she is rebelling against her culture, eager to see something beyond the Aenar city. Second, because Lydon is very appealing, and the bond she forms with Shran is convincing even with limited screen time to develop it. Though the Aenar themselves are not particularly interesting, Jhamel, is a character who would have been well worth a return visit.

Romulans: Valdore (Brian Thompson) reflects that all Romulans are soldiers, "from the moment (they) are born." He recalls when he was a senator, how he made the mistake of questioning whether conquest was truly in the best long-term interests of the Empire, and how he was expelled for daring to question. He does not tell that story to evoke sympathy, but as an object lesson: If you're a Romulan, you're a soldier. Forget that at your peril. Refreshingly, this look at the character's more thoughtful side does not result in him abruptly renouncing warfare or anything. He is just as ruthless at the end as he was at the beginning. What the scene does accomplish is to make Valdore into something more than just a 2-dimensional baddie, so that we feel for him when he faces the inevitable price of failure at the end.

THOUGHTS

The conclusion to the "Alliance" arc, The Aenar isn't nearly as good as the two preceding installments. It feels as if there was maybe another episode in here. Perhaps, given that the initial drone plot was resolved last episode, this should have been broken up into two 2-parters, with one or two standalone episodes separating them?

I'd readily trade the likes of Daedalus for more screen time to flesh out the Aenar as a culture. Let Archer and Shran's visit to the Aenar city be a full episode. Have a second episode devoted to the confrontation with the drones. In that way, both plot strands could be effectively explored. As it stands, both end up feeling rushed, with easy resolutions to the problems. The Aenar don't want Jhamel leaving the city? Simple: Jhamel tells them she wants to go, and they say, "Oh, okay then." Trip's jerry-rigged chair could cause brain damage? Simple: Jhamel says, "I want to try again," and everything's fine. The drones are too powerful for Enterprise? Simple... Well, I'll leave off spoiling the end, save to say that it's basically predictable.

There is still a lot to enjoy in The Aenar. It's never dull and it never feels like a throwaway - which immediately puts it ahead of most of Season Two. Mike Vejar's direction is as confident as ever, and the series continues to excel at using CGI to establish genuinely beautiful-looking alien environments. The underground city of the Aenar is downright gorgeous, and would not be visually out of place in a feature film. Finally, it is nice to have an episode in which the emotional center is not Archer, but instead Shran.

It's vaguely unsatisfying, though, and I put that down to the rushed pace and the overall predictability. It's barely a conclusion to the arc, most of which seemed to be concluded at the end of United. It's also not a terribly satisfying episode on its own. There's no sense of jeopardy, and the stakes feel much smaller. It's adequate entertainment, but it could have been and should have been so much better.

Rating: 6/10.

Overall Rating for the "Alliance" arc: 8/10.

Previous Episode: United
Next Episode: Affliction

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4-13. United.

THE PLOT

The Romulan drone's next target is a Rigellian scout ship. It allows the scout to send a distress call before destroying it. Its signal shows the configuration chosen for the Romulans' latest scapegoat: Enterprise herself!

This proves to be a mistake, however.  The incident tips off Archer that the Romulans aren't simply trying to start a war between the Andorians and the Tellarites. They want to destabilize the entire region, probably in preparation for an invasion. T'Pol comes up with a way to scan the entire sector for the drone - but it will require more than 100 ships to put into effect with no gaps. Starfleet can supply some ships, the Vulcans can supply some more. But the only way Archer can complete the grid is with more help. The only hope lies in an alliance that includes both the Tellarites and the Andorians.

But with Shran's girlfriend Talas (Molly Brink) dying in sickbay from a wound inflicted by a Tellarite, it will be very difficult to get him to agree.  Even then, it may be impossible to keep him to that agreement...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Archer's scenes with Shran are the best of the episode. These two characters have developed a great deal of respect for each other over the course of the series, and Scott Bakula and Jeffrey Combs have developed a working relationship that sees each bringing out the best in the other actor. Archer's determination to see the alliance succeed leads him to an action that is potentially foolhardy, though it's hard to fault his logic... provided you accept that the alliance itself is more important than Archer's life, something T'Pol at least doesn't seem inclined to agree with. Good news for Archer, then, that Hoshi and Mayweather are able to come up with a suitable "out."

Trip: Uses his engineering skills to temporarily disable the Romulan drone. The experimental ship's self-repairing abilities and the remote control from the Romulan homeworld thwart his efforts, and place his life in danger. Even then, Trip continues working to disable the ship, largely ignoring the Romulan voice coming over the ship's intercom and directly ordering Reed to do the same.

Reed: His solution to the Romulan-created dilemma of either letting Trip die or giving the Romulans back full control of their weapon is highly effective and totally in-character. It's a perfect Reed solution to a problem: When in doubt, blow it up! As has been true since Shuttlepod One, Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer play well off each other; their scenes are uniformly engaging.

Shran: The scene in which he quietly tells the Tellarite who killed Talas about her, and continues to quietly talk about Andorian tradition after a guardsman is killed, is already a fantastic scene. The quiet anguish and anger is wonderfully played, haunting and a bit unsettling.  Then Combs erupts, screaming out his rage, with no warning between the silence and the fury. His eyes are as hard as his voice as he challenges Archer as much as the Tellarites, demanding Narg meet him in single combat or Archer's historical alliance will be dissolved.

Romulans: We see that the Romulan government is not united behind the drone attacks. A Romulan senator pays a visit to the command center, and demands the attacks be halted - making a not-so-veiled threat involving throwing the commander (Brian Thompson) to the Remans if he continues and things go south.


THOUGHTS

I hate to nit-pick a generally very good episode, but I can't help but wonder at the timeline. The Trip/Reed scenes place the episode as occurring over a 3-day span. But T'Pol informs Archer that it will be weeks before the Earth and Vulcan ships arrive, and I suspect it would be a similar length of time for enough Andorian and Tellarite ships to be available for Archer's plan as well. So how is the full alliance not only put together, but actively on-site, within 3 days? Am I missing something?

Timeline aspects to one side, United is another good episode. It keeps up the momentum Babel One left it with. It also raises the stakes, giving Archer the opportunity to form an alliance that will involve humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites for the first time ever - and then yanking that chance away unless he can find a way to satisfy Shran's bloodlust without the deaths of any Tellarites or Andorians. It's a rather harsh dilemma for Archer, and I tend to agree with the captain that the importance of the alliance probably does outweigh that of a single life.

The alliance makes this arc a critical one, as having these four races working together on a joint operation is clearly marked out as the first step in the journey toward the Federation of Planets. Now that I'm nearing the end of this series, I'm truly regretting its cancellation. It would have been interesting to have seen another season developing more of the steps toward the Federation's official formation, as well as the growing tension with the Romulans. Given their involvement in the Vulcan arc and their involvement here, it seems clear that this we are now watching the prelude to the eventual Romulan War. Leaving me with a feeling that had a fifth season happened, it would have been a very interesting year.

The final shot provides another ending twist. It's not as impressive a surprise as the last episode's, but it's still an effective visual moment. Combined with the overall strength of this arc so far, it has me very much looking forward to the conclusion.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Babel One
Next Episode: The Aenar

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2-3. Minefield.

THE PLOT

While preparing to orbit an uninhabited Class M planet, which Archer thinks might make a decent site for a brief shore leave, the Enterprise triggers a mine. The detonation causes severe damage, though fortunately no fatalities. However, a scan of the ship reveals that a mine is still attached. When Reed goes out to attempt to disarm it, a magnetized spike in the device impales his leg. The pressure of the spike prevents a suit rupture, but he is left trapped on the hull plating.

Archer takes it on himself to go out to help disarm the device and save Reed.  But then the race responsible for the minefield appears. They are a secretive yet militaristic people known as the Romulans. Their audio-only hail to Enterprise is direct and to-the-point: detatch the section of hull plating (and Reed along with it) and leave the star system immediately, or be destroyed.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: It's interesting to contrast Archer when he's attempting to "be friendly" with his crew against Archer in the midst of a crisis. In the precredit sequence, when attempting to put Reed at ease for a friendly breakfast, Archer is ludicrously stiff and self-conscious.  I found myself thinking that Bakula's performance was dreadful here. But once the Enterprise hits the first mine, triggering the crisis, the stiffness vanishes as Archer starts demanding each of his crew to figure out what is going on.

That makes me think that perhaps Bakula's performance wasn't bad in the earlier scenes.  Perhaps it was a conscious acting decision, to show that Archer is most relaxed when working through a situation, and most tense when he has no obstacles to kick against. It is a potentially interesting character trait, and one I hadn't really picked up on before. It would be interesting to know if this was the intent with the character from the beginning (explaining Bakula's moments of artificial stiffness - not a tendency of his work elsewhere), or if the writers of this episode picked up on Bakula's discomfort with certain types of scenes and used it to good effect.

Reed: Speaking of discomfort, Reed's discomfort at having a chatty "breakfast" with the captain is palpable, and one foresees that Archer's planned meal of nothing but small talk would have turned into torture for both men. I fully sympathize with Reed. In cases where your boss/superior isn't actually your friend, it's often preferable to just discuss business with them.

Reed has an excellent episode. We see here that not only does he enjoy blowing things up, but he understands the equally important part of defusing things that might otherwise blow you up. His scenes with Archer are a highlight. As he attempts to talk Archer through disarming the mine, we get more genuine background on Reed than has been presented the entire series to date. We learn of the areas in which he disagrees with Archer's command style, and get to hear Archer's generally well-reasoned responses.

Villain of the Week: The Enterprise gets to be humanity's first contact with the Romulans. Such as it is. The Romulans don't show themselves, of course, thus maintaining continuity.  They aren't really characterized at all, save as "sinister threat." They watch, silent and threatening, and make intermittent demands on the Enterprise, each demand well-timed to increase the urgency of the script.


THOUGHTS

Minefield wastes little time in establishing a serious crisis for the crew, and then gives every character something to do in resolving the crisis. While Reed and Archer bond over a bomb, T'Pol takes command on the bridge, Trip works to detatch the hull plating, Phlox works with the casualties, and an injured Hoshi translates the Romulan messages. Even Mayweather gets a moment to shine as he navigates the minefield, making this probably his best episode to date. I'm genuinely impressed with the script for managing to give every member of the large regular cast a page, while still shining the spotlight on Archer and Reed and developing a genuinely tense situation.

The script does a good job of raising the stakes throughout. First the ship is in the middle of a minefield. Bad, but not unsalvageable. Then, we discover that the ship has an unexploded mine attached. Much worse. Reed gets impaled while trying to defuse the mine.  Worse still.  The Romulans reveal themselves, and demand that the Enterprise leave immediately.  Crisis.  Finally, we discover that there is no way to defuse the mine under any kind of rational deadline.  Essentially hopeless.  From the very beginning, the situation keeps worsening, like a noose tightening around Enterprise.

In fact, even though I quite like both character and actor, I almost wish this had been an "exit episode" for Reed. It would have been a fantastically effective one, forcing Archer into a situation where he tries everything, fails, and ultimately is left with no choice but to allow the death of a crew member. Had the writers/producers gone that route, this episode would almost certainly score a perfect "10" from me. As it stands, it remains a well-constructed exercise in creating tension while building character. I don't entirely buy Archer's final "Hail Mary" plan working - as portrayed, the plan's success seems to require just a bit too much dumb luck.  Still, I'll overlook that and award a strong score.


Rating: 8/10

Previous Episode: Carbon Creek
Next Episode: Dead Stop

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