4-22. These Are the Voyages...

And so at last, Enterprise's infamous final episode. Will it live down to its reputation?


THE PLOT

It is six years later... and the entire crew is still together, all still at the same posts they've held for roughly a decade now.  Meaning that the story starts with a major plausibility problem. Enterprise is on its way to the signing ceremony for the founding of the Federation, when they receive a message from Shran. He tells Archer that he is calling in the favor he is owed, and will need Enterprise to make a slight diversion in its route.

Shran's child has been kidnapped by some former associates. These criminals believe that he stole something, and are threatening to kill his daughter if he does not return it. Archer agrees to help - but he doesn't count on the high price that will be exacted before this adventure is concluded.

Meanwhile, in the distant future, Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) watches the entire set of events unfold, through the wonders of his Enterprise's holodeck.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: We are told that Archer hates giving speeches. Is that why he's so bad at them? In any case, we see Archer worrying and fussing over this speech in much the same way he worried and fussed over the introduction to his father's biography back in Singularity. He remains a loyal friend, and doesn't even seem to seriously consider rejecting Shran's demand for help. Scott Bakula may have been (understandably) disgruntled about this final episode, but his relaxed performance is actually better than much of the work he's done this season - though I could wish for more of a reaction to some late events.

T'Pol/Trip: In the six years since Terra Prime, they have kept up a neutral working distance. They still work together, but there is no relationship anymore. With reassignment coming up, T'Pol confesses that she is going to miss Trip.  This leads to a nice character moment in which Trip guarantees her that they will not lose touch with each other. With that level of feeling still existing, it seems strange that they would only be having that conversation now, but it does provide one of the episode's better moments.

Shran: Went on to marry Jhamel after the events of The Aenar, and eventually fell in with a criminal crowd after leaving the Imperial Guard. He faked his own death to evade them, which worked for a time. He retains trust in Archer, turning to the "pink-skin" for aid in his hour of need, and the two still work together. There's a sense in the first half of the episode that Shran is probably hiding something... but since Shran disappears from the episode's second half, this never gets any payoff.


THOUGHTS

The above points to one of the biggest problems with These Are the Voyages... There is the groundwork for a decent episode here.  The problems don't come from the basic plot.  A final adventure with Shran, just before attending the founding of the Federation?  Given the limits of a single-episode finale, that's actually not a bad starting premise.  With only one episode to work with, this was never going to be the next All Good Things...  But there's nothing wrong with the central story idea, which had the potential to at least make an enjoyable epilogue.

Then Rick Berman and Brannon Braga added the damn frame.


The story is framed by Riker (Jonathan Frakes) viewing these events in the holodeck while making a difficult decision related to the TNG episode The Pegasus.  The entire story is filtered through his viewpoint. This still didn't have to be disastrous, if the Riker/Troi bits had simply been used as bookends: A short opening scene and a closing scene to act as a button on the franchise would have been fine, had they otherwise left the Enterprise episode to work on its own.

Instead, Riker keeps interrupting the action for filler scenes.  We get pointless scenes of Riker listening to the regulars' confessions while playing the part of "Chef" (who we learn here was something of a counselor to the crew, even though that's never been alluded to in the preceding 97 episodes). Probably a good third of the episode is gobbled up by Riker - leaving inadequate time to properly develop the main story.

The result is inevitable: Dropped threads and abrupt script turns, which gradually sink a potentially decent episode.  There's much build-up to the effect that Shran is hiding something, and this feels in-character for the Andorian. The character's final mention of the episode has Archer implying that he's going to find out Shran's secret and drag it into the light.  But this is never followed up, because Shran disappears from the episode after that scene. 

Also, we are specifically told Shran's enemies cannot go faster than Warp Two.  This is a plot point, one we are given no cause to doubt.  With no explanation, however, they are somehow able to to catch up with Enterprise, and even manage to board the ship. How? Never explained. The aliens are able to do all this to generate an unconvincing crisis that comes out of nowhere, makes no sense, and is resolved (unconvincingly) just a few minutes later.

Add to that the idiocy of setting this story six years after the main series, while at the same time leaving all the characters exactly where they were in Terra Prime.  That's as idiotic as it is unnecessary. If you want a workaround that allows all of these characters to have moved on, but brings them together on the ship, simply throw in a line or two about how they've all been brought back together on their old ship for ceremonial purposes. That would be very plausible - far more so than trying to convince viewers that not a single member of the crew has moved on to anything more in their career (or personal relationships) in a six-year span!

I will say that the kidnapping plot works reasonably well for the first 30 minutes, with the rescue of Shran's daughter being one of the better-directed planetbound action scenes of the season.  Things only truly become dire in the final 15 minutes, when it's clear that the writers are trying to squeeze too much incident into too little time.

Had the Riker material been jettisoned, and the extra time used to flesh out the story, this would likely have been a reasonable final episode.  Speaking for myself, if a "button" was really needed to link Enterprise to the rest of the franchise, I'd have preferred to have seen bookends with an older Archer and T'Pol attending the launch of the TOS Enterprise.You could even have the same melding of the voice-overs (Archer, Kirk, Picard) over the TOS Enterprise in flight. The same thing would be accomplished, without gobbling up a good third of the episode or making the Enterprise regulars guest stars in their own series!

Judged simply as an episode, These Are the Voyages... is very flawed, but far from the worst of the series or even the season.  Judged as a finale, however, it is an almost complete failure, unworthy of the series (let alone the franchise!) it intends to celebrate.


Final Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Terra Prime

Season Four Overview

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

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

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

4-20. Demons.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise crew is attending a conference involving several of the species they have met, with a goal of forming a coalition of worlds. It's an ambitious project. But no sooner has Minister Nathan Samuels (Harry Groener) made his speech than a woman stumbles in, passing a hair sample to T'Pol and telling her that "they're going to kill her." The woman collapses, revealing that she has been shot by a phase pistol.

Phlox tests the hair, and determines that it belongs to a half-human, half-Vulcan infant. The child is identified as being that of Trip and T'Pol - despite the fact that T'Pol has never been pregnant. The dead woman was a member of Terra Prime, a human separatist group that had a resurgence following the Xindi attack. 

With Minister Samuels wanting to keep things quiet, Archer decides that his crew will need to launch their own investigation.  He sends Trip and T'Pol to infiltrate the moonbase that is Terra Prime's headquarters.  But Archer is a step behind, and it all too soon becomes clear that Trip and T'Pol are walking into a trap!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Manny Coto's script showcases his competence as ship's captain: In a public setting, he makes sure that the unenthusiastic Trip knows that he's expected to be on good behavior for the cameras; when the human/Vulcan DNA is explicitly linked to his crew, he uses Reed's Section 31 connection to keep the investigation alive; finally, he adjusts his plans quickly when he learns that he's sent his people into a trap.  All of this is good, giving Archer plenty to do without allowing him to overshadow the entire story, as has been the case too many times this season.

Trip: While I believe his shock at learning of his daughter, his befuddlement over how it might be possible seems odd. Cloning is a scientific possibility now, never mind more than a hundred years hence. His suspicion of T'Pol feels more like a plot device than a natural extension of his established character, and his attempts to infiltrate a separatist group by making a few vaguely xenophobic comments to a random miner seem, frankly, laughable. Not Trip's best episode, despite solid work by Connor Trinneer.

Hot Earth Babe of the Week: Gannet Brooks (Johanna Watts) is an ambitious reporter who shares a history with Mayweather. She uses that history to get herself aboard Enterprise, ostensibly to do a story on the ship from the point-of-view of the crew. It isn't long before she makes it clear that she wants to rekindle her old relationship with Mayweather, sparking doubts in Travis as to whether or not he really wants to continue his time in space.

Pompous Earth Bureaucrat of the Week: Harry Groener, one-time evil mayor of Sunnydale/giant snake, is a serpentine politician again, though this time without the evil.  Minister Samuels is extremely ambitious, which may be just what is called for. His proposed coalition is a clear stepping stone toward the Federation of Planets that will eventually form. But he is self-serving. His speech makes no mention of Enterprise and its crew, reserving all glory for himself. His reluctance to share the Terra Prime investigation with Archer has a connection with a skeleton from his own past, as well.

Villain of the Week: John Frederick Paxton (Peter Weller) is a mining industrialist who acts as the leader of Terra Prime. He was once a student of history. But his studies led him to admire a generally hated genocidal figure from the aftermath of World War III, and his clashes with the accepted view of history led him to turn his back on academia and instead pursue terrorism. Peter Weller plays his scenes with a conviction that helps sell even some of the more ludicrous moments, including his cliffhanger-inducing masterplan to hold the entire solar system hostage with a big freakin' laser (paging Dr. Evil?). I should add that Paxton didn't start seeming ridiculous to me until the moment I began typing this paragraph - which means both script and actor do their job of making his convictions seem credible in-context.


THOUGHTS

The final 2-parter of the series begins, following up on the one remaining loose end from Home - the rising xenophobia on Earth in the wake of the Xindi attack.

Even without a particularly easy-to-spot plot twist, I would have been surprised had Trip and T'Pol been able to successfully infiltrate the mining colony. After all, hasn't it been established as early on as Breaking the Ice that the ship's command staff are effectively celebrities? Their faces would be on the air regularly - something the beginning of the episode reminds us of! Imagine Neil Armstrong trying to infiltrate the mob just after the moon landing. That's basically this plan in a nutshell.

This obvious logic gaffe aside, Demons is a good episode. It perhaps feels a bit padded, with the Gannet/Mayweather material and even the Trip/T'Pol mine infiltration taking up at least twice as much screentime as is actually needed. But it's an interesting story, effectively set up. The story feeds on what we've seen before, particularly in Home.  The episode also benefits from strong production values and effective guest turns by Harry Groener and Peter Weller. 

The success of the full story will entirely depend on Part Two. But as an opening installment, Demons does its job well.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: In a Mirror Darkly, Part II
Next Episode: Terra Prime

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

4-17. Bound.

THE PLOT

Enterprise is investigating a region of space which is a promising site for the first of several proposed Starbases when they come into contact with Harrad-Sar (William Lucking), an Orion privateer. Harrad-Sar offers Archer a deal to smooth relations with the Orion Syndicate, in return for Starfleet's aid in setting up a mining operation. Archer agrees, but Harrad-Sar does have one stipulation: The captain must accept a gift.

The gift comes in the rather fetching form of three Orion slave girls. Their presence on the ship instantly creates disturbances. Male crew members begin disregarding their duties to pay attention to the girls. The female crew members begin reporting headaches. Phlox is able to determine that the Orions' pheremones are causing the disorder... but not before the replacement chief engineer sabotages the engines, leaving Enterprise a stationary target for the returning Harrad-Sar!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: His own newfound pragmatism is what gets him in trouble here. When Harrad-Sar contacts him, he agrees to meet the Orion's terms more readily than he once would have done, largely because he doesn't feel he can pass up an opportunity to mend fences with at least one hostile race. Once he realizes that he is acting under an alien influence, he fights very hard to retain control of himself - though he has much more trouble fighting the effects when face-to-face with the girls than when on the bridge, focusing on his duties.

T'Pol: A sign that Archer is already falling under the influence of the Orion women is that he does not ask T'Pol's advice before accepting Harrad-Sar's offer. T'Pol seems surprised by this, perhaps even a little hurt. As Archer begins behaving irrationally, T'Pol tries to be a supportive Voice of Reason for him. She works well with Trip in dealing with the havoc in Engineering, and the two of them together ultimately save the ship.

Trip: With Archer struggling under the Orion influence, Trip gets cast in the "hero" role this week. Thanks to his mental link with T'Pol, he is the only male on the ship not affected. This doesn't bring him too much relief, however, as it leaves him in the situation of being the sole "adult" in Engineering, having to constantly work to keep his men focused on their duties. 

Hot Alien Space Babes of the Week: The Orion slave girls (Cyia Batten, Crystal Allen, Menina Fortunato) are expertly manipulative. Though Archer initially believes them to be innocents, it is clear to the audience almost instantly that they are using the Enterprise crew for their own ends. A late twist regarding their relationship with their "master" does not particularly come as a surprise.


THOUGHTS

I do have to give credit to the production design of the Orion ship. It's obvious that this season has taken its role as a prequel to TOS very seriously, and the Orion design is very much modeled after the original series' interiors, with the use of color in the lighting, the walls, and even the alien beverages the characters sip. It all makes for a rather neat visual tie-in.

I'm glad to be able to praise that element, because I honestly didn't find much else in Bound that's particularly praiseworthy. The setup is adroitly handled, with all the necessary exposition dealt with quickly and clearly in the opening Act. Once the Orion women are aboard Enterprise, however, things become a lot weaker, with much of the plotting relying on idiocy and convenience. 

When Archer discovers that the Orion women are deliberately working to sabotage his ship and that their pheremones are dangerous to the crew, he puts them in isolation. So far, so sensible. But then, even after directly experiencing that they retain influence through the glass, he leaves... male guards? We've seen, in numerous episodes, that there are plenty of women serving on Enterprise. We also see that the women are less affected by the pheremones. Hoshi and another female officer complain of headaches, and that seems to be about the extent. So why does Archer leave a male guard on duty instead of a female one? Or even just trust to automated security protocols, as he did in Observer Effect? Answer: Because the plot requires the Orion women to get out of the cell, so Archer has to be an idiot to keep the plot moving.

The resolution is also achieved through Technobabble Convenience. After Enterprise is rendered helpless, Trip and T'Pol send a burst of Deux Ex Machina through a grappling wire to disable the other ship. How convenient. Finally, the subplot about Trip's transfer is resolved with equal convenience, lest anything resembling a loose end be left to the next (in-universe) 2-parter.

Perhaps this was cobbled together in a hurry to tie off some character strands once the episode order was cut back from 24 to 22. Perhaps the show's writers simply forgot how to write a good, action-heavy single-parter. Season Four's one-part episodes have largely been much weaker than the multi-part ones. Enterprise has taken several big steps forward in Seasons Three and Four. But when it tries to tell the simple Trek stories that it often managed quite engagingly in its early days, that seems to be one knack this series has lost.


Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Divergence
Next Episode: In a Mirror Darkly

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

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

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise
Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

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

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

4-12. Babel One.

THE PLOT

Enterprise is carrying the Tellarite ambassador to a peace conference on Babel One, where it is hoped that tensions between the Tellarites and the Andorians can be cooled before they escalate into a shooting war. Not long after entering Andorian space, the ship receives a distress call from a familiar source. Shran (Jeffrey Combs)'s ship was attacked by Tellarites, with only 19 of his crew escaping in lifepods.

While taking Shran's wounded crew back to Andoria, the Enterprise is also attacked - by an Andorian ship, whose power signature exactly matches the Tellarite ship that attacked Shran. After fighting off the attacker, Archer decides to pursue to find out how this is possible. But the Tellarites increasingly fear that Archer is siding with his old friend against them, while the Andorians are equally unhappy that he is even considering the Tellarites' claims of innocence.  All of which may just leave the captain with an active time bomb inside his own ship!

CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: The preferred Tellarite interaction is arguing, something Archer clearly enjoys, perhaps a little bit too much.  Once Shran is aboard and the situation becomes complicated with the multiple attacks, apparently from both sides, Archer becomes more thoughtful. In a near-direct reversal of his early Season One persona, he actually wonders aloud to T'Pol if maybe humans are moving too quickly.  He worries that they may lack the experience to play a major role in interstellar diplomacy. It is left to T'Pol to remind him that, given their history with Andoria, the Vulcans are simply not suitable - that in this case, there really is no good alternative to Starfleet involvement.

Trip: His engineering knowledge pays dividends in keeping himself and Reed alive when they are stranded on the alien ship. His general knowledge of how ships work allows him to guide both of them to the bridge, on the simple reasoning that the power conduits will surely end up leading to the bridge. He also recognizes how to use the ship's fuel to resupply the oxygen for their EVA suits.

Hoshi: She's mostly in the background, as usual, but she does get one really good scene in which she gives Archer a quick primer on Tellarite culture. She seems to enjoy giving Archer a "practice argument," probably working out some of her own frustrations in the process.

Shran: The loss of his ship is a blow to his pride, and the loss of so many of his crew is an even harsher blow. Jeffrey Combs does a good job of showing a Shran who is constantly at the brink of violence. From the moment he learns that the Tellarites are on board, he is hissing to Archer to keep them apart, "or there will be bloodshed." His hatred of the Tellarites is as great as his hatred of the Vulcans once was - greater, given the deaths of his crew - and any evidence that the Tellarites may not be responsible bouncess of a high brick wall of pure denial.

THOUGHTS

Babel One is another episode that acts as a prelude to the original series.  Clear groundwork is laid for the founding of the Federation, and much of the script deals with what such an alliance would mean for some of the more aggressive Trek races. The Vulcans and the Andorians have been in the midst of what is essentially a Cold War (with occasional eruptions into a shooting war) for a very long time. The Tellarites and the Andorians are in the same situation. The Vulcans and the humans are allies, but there is plenty of shared resentment between them. This is actually an advantage for certain other races, who don't have to worry about these species combining their strength.

Which brings us to the situation of this episode. In the wake of the unveiling of the Kir'Shara, Vulcan society has begun to shred its more aggressive elements. This has led to a general improvement in relations between Vulcan and Earth, and also between Vulcan and Andoria. Now the Andorians and the Tellarites are beginning talks that might lead to a sustained peace. The conflicts among these races are ending. Now, if you're a race outside that circle, you have to be worried about what it will mean for you if those species all come together. It truly would be something to shift the balance of power.

But it's fragile, with all those old suspicions still there to exploit - which provides the basis for this story.  This could be highly talky stuff... but with Mike Sussman, the series' best action writer, as one of the writers of the opening installment, it turns out to be one of the most exciting and action-intensive episodes of the season. It starts off with the situation and the mystery. Once Enterprise is face-to-face with the enemy ship, the momentum increases exponentially.

The final shot provides a wonderful reveal, a twist ending I genuinely did not see coming. It's a very eye-catching pullback, as well, a reminder of how strong and well-used the CGI has been on this series, and how much it's improved from the early days (which themselves weren't bad at all).

Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Observer Effect
Next Episode: United 

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

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

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads