3-19. Damage.

THE PLOT

Archer has successfully sown in Degra the seeds of distrust toward the reptilians and the Sphere Builders.  The Xindi scientist arranges for Archer to be secretly returned to Enterprise. He leaves Archer with a hidden, coded message, giving him rendezvous coordinates to meet in three days. Unfortunately, the Enterprise has been left badly damaged by the battle with the reptilians. The ship has no warp capability, and will not be able to meet the rendezvous.

Until they intercept a distress signal from an alien ship, which has been damaged by the Expanse's spatial anomalies. They dock with the ship, and Archer tries to barter their Trellium for the aliens' warp coil. When the aliens refuse, Archer finds himself backed into a corner. Negotiating with Degra is his only chance to save Earth, and his only chance to meet with Degra again is to have warp speed. He finds himself faced with a horrible decision: Piracy!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: From the moment the Enterprise docks with the damaged alien ship, Archer is forced into an impossible situation. He needs the aliens' warp coil, and they won't barter for it. When he discovers that he has only a three-day window to make a rendezvous with Degra to potentially stop the weapon, he makes a choice he would at one time have considered unthinkable: he turns to piracy. Scott Bakula excels in the scenes in which Archer reaches this decision and gives the orders, showing the right mix of resolve and self-disgust.

T'Pol: I'm not sure I like the direction T'Pol's character is taken in this episode. The revelation that she has been effectively mainlining heroin (in the form of Trellium) does explain some of her more emotional behavior in recent episodes, particularly her outbursts in Azati Prime. But it feels ham-handed, and is perhaps one plot strand too many in an otherwise excellent episode. At least it is strongly linked with some of the season's early episodes. But for me to fully buy into this subplot, I would have needed to see some build toward it in the midseason. See Dr. Franklin's stim addiction in Babylon 5 for this sort of story done right.

Dr. Phlox: Though very much in the background, he is an important figure in this episode. John Billingsley excels, as usual, making the most of his scenes with Archer and T'Pol. With Archer, he simply listens. When Archer tells him he's going to have to cross another line, Phlox voices his support in a sympathetic, non-judgmental fashion. He does ask Archer what he's going to do, but doesn't press for details when it is clear Archer doesn't want to voice it yet. With T'Pol, he takes a stronger tact, but is still generally non-judgmental and affirms his devotion to confidentiality.

Degra: He clearly trusts the Sphere Builders less and less as this episode goes along, and seems more willing to trust Archer... to the point that he goes to "a lot of trouble" to put Archer back on Enterprise, with a coded rendezvous Archer is clearly meant to find. As Archer notes, it's not so much that Degra has any real faith in the humans as yet.  But he has lost most of his faith in his side, and he clearly has several other members of the Council questioning their plan as well. The Sphere Builder's less-than-convincing response to Degra's questions will likely make at least some of the Council more receptive to Archer, when he finally meets with them.


THOUGHTS

...And another well-written episode, by another of the series' top writers, Phyllis Strong. I've noted this before, but it bears repeating: In Season Three, Enterprise has really put together one of the strongest regular writing teams Trek has ever seen. It's a shame so few people were still interested in watching by this point.

Damage benefits from putting the regulars in a position in which they are beat up and beaten down. Throughout the episode, the ship is practically falling apart around them. They look dirty and tired. Effective makeup, lighting, and acting really help to sell this atmosphere, which boosts the episode considerably.

The title, "Damage," relates to the episode on multiple levels. There's the direct, physical level: The battle at the end of Azati Prime has left the Enterprise badly damaged, to the point that it is still a badly scarred ship at the episode's end. There's T'Pol's emotional damage, reduced to a recovering drug addict. There's the moral damage Archer alludes to, as he realizes just how many lines he's crossed the longer he stays in the Expanse. The marauder's statement way back in Anomaly, about the quality of mercy not surviving the Expanse, seems to be haunting Archer as he sees himself becoming a marauder himself, all because he can see no other choice.

The episode ends with the Enterprise moving on to its rendezvous with Degra, making this feel like the middle installment of a 3-parter. It does, at least, seem like the filler episodes are done, probably for the rest of the season.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Azati Prime
Next Episode: The Forgotten

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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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2-23. Regeneration.

THE PLOT

On Earth, an Arctic research team studies a recently-uncovered find: a large spread of alien debris, dating back about 100 years. Included among the debris, frozen in the ice, are humanoid bodies. The researchers thaw out the bodies, and discover that they are humanoids whose bodies have been enhanced by technology. Within both the bodies and the technology are nanobots which are already at work repairing both the organic and technological components.

By the end of that day, the researchers have vanished along with all traces of the technology and the researchers' transport. Admiral Forrest sends word to Archer when it becomes clear that the transport is heading in their general direction, at seemingly impossible speeds.

By the time the Enterprise encounters the transport, almost all of its functions have been heavily modified. It has weapons, which it uses to attack a Tarkalean freighter. Enterprise manages to fight it off and takes aboard two survivors from the freighter. But the survivors have already been modified, infected with the nanotechnology. When they awaken, they attack the crew, infecting Dr. Phlox and attempting to sabotage the engines before Archer ejects them into space.

Now the ship is in a race to catch up with the runaway transport, whose speed has now increased to levels that puts strain on the Enterprise to match. Phlox is also in a race. If he cannot find a cure for the infection soon, then he will also be "assimilated," a fate which he considers worse than death...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Spends the episode in "crisis" mode, which works very well. Both the episode and Scott Bakula do a good job of starting with intensity, then raising that intensity to an increasingly higher pitch as Archer realizes how truly desperate the situation is. I appreciated Archer's desire to save everyone if possible, and how difficult it was for him to admit that "there's no one we can help" among the assimilated humans and Tarkaleans.

T'Pol: As ever, pragmatic in recognizing the harsh realities that Archer prefers to deny: Namely, that given the rapid and all-consuming nature of the Borg infection, it is probably better to prepare for destroying the transport, rather than simply disabling it.

Dr. Phlox: A major episode for Phlox, who is infected by the Borg technology and left scrambling to find a cure before the infection takes him over. His Denobulan Physiology comes in handy once again, in that the infection has trouble with his immune system. However, the Borg infection is persistent, and Phlox's unique system merely delays the inevitable. He is left to take desperate measures to flush his system of the infection - and gives very clear and vehement instructions on what to do if his attempt fails, because he does not want to "become one of those creatures."

Reed: After observing the energy shields surrounding the assimilated Tarkaleans, he goes to work stubbornly modifying the phase pistols and rifles to strengthen their energy output. He then accompanies Archer onto the transport, putting his modified weaponry to the test.

The Borg: The Borg are probably best remembered for The Best of Both Worlds, when they kicked The Next Generation up a notch and provided one of the definitive season cliffhangers of all time. The Borg were scary, in that they were utterly emotionless and all but unstoppable. As they returned, eventually their return appearances blunted their effectiveness. By the time Voyager turned a Borg into a regular cast member, while the regulars faced the Borg so many times that the Borg Cube practically became a regular in its own right, the once-terrifying villains had all but become a joke.

The good news is, the Borg are scary again in Regeneration. They are back to being implacable and relentless. Their slow awakening in the Arctic is effective, in that we know what the researchers do not - that these frozen bodies are still very, very dangerous. We see the effects of their rapid modification of the transport shuttle they commandeer, and we see them march down Enterprise corridors with no hesitation, even when they begin to be gunned down by Reed's modified weapons. If the encounter continues, the outcome is assured. The Borg will just keep coming, and coming, and coming, and Enterprise will be overwhelmed. The episode is extremely well-directed, with the design of the modified transport interior into a sort of Borg Cube in miniature evoking Hellraiser-in-Space... and doing so far more effectively than the actual "Pinhead in Space" section of Hellraiser Bloodline.


THOUGHTS

As is probably apparent, I enjoyed this episode. A lot. I have no doubt that the Continuity Police had problems with Archer & co. encountering the Borg 200 years before Best of Both Worlds. But I don't particularly care. This was 45 taut, well-acted, well-directed minutes. It's Trek in Aliens mode, with no trace of the social commentary that usually fuels the best of Trek. But for "action/horror Trek," it at least follows that template effectively. I wasn't bored for a single second of this episode, and that in itself is enough for me to squint at continuity niggles (none of which are too all-encompassing anyway), and just enjoy the show for doing a good job at telling a simple action story.

In previous episodes, writers Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong have proved themselves to be the big finds of the second season. Many of the season's strongest episodes have had their names attached, notably Dead Stop and The Catwalk. Their scripts are consistently marked by a real understanding of effective story structure. They know when to slow down to allow a storytelling beat a little extra time, such as the scene in which Hoshi tries to comfort the infected Phlox, who doesn't want her to linger in case he loses control of himself.  They also know when to push the pace for all it's worth. I would be interested in seeing them attempt an episode along the lines of The Breach or Cogenitor - something a little less action driven and a little more issue driven - just to see how they do with a different style of episode. But it can at least be said that these two understand how to do "action Trek" right, without compromising either what makes a good Star Trek story or what makes an effective action story.

One sustained structural beat I enjoyed was the opening Act. The entire first ten minutes is spent with the Arctic research team. This stretch is highly effective. The three researchers are there long enough to feel genuine, and the gradual awakening of the Borg creates tension - particularly when one researcher gets nervous and suggests putting them into cold storage to avoid them regenerating, dangling a moment at which these researchers might potentially avoid their fate.

I also enjoyed the way this episode played with previous/later Borg appearances. The events of the episode occur because of the events of Star Trek: First Contact. Without the Borg debris from the final battle in that movie, there would be no basis for this story... meaning that Picard and the Borg's trip back in time has changed history. But the ending of this episode also leads directly into the Borg invasion of The Best of Both Worlds... meaning that the trip back in time was always part and parcel of Picard's timeline, as it was the events of this episode that apparently started the Borg on its trip toward Earth. Trek sometimes gets accused of being overly enamored of time travel stories. But it has to be said - these kinds of little cyclical paradoxes do help to make time travel stories kind of fun.


Rating: 9/10. About as well-structured as a single-part episode of "action Trek" could reasonably be expected to be.

Previous Episode: Cogenitor

Next Episode: First Flight

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2-16. Future Tense.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise encounters a dead ship, adrift in space, and pulls it into the docking bay to examine it. To the surprise of the entire command crew, the (dead) pilot is human - which should be quite impossible, since no humans have ever been out this far! There are other impossibilities. The ship is bigger on the inside than the outside, and seems to be powered by organic technology. The pilot is not pure human.  He has traces of Vulcan DNA, Terellian DNA, and other species that Phlox cannot even identify. The only conclusion Archer can reach is that both ship and pilot come from the future - which is confirmed by Crewman Daniels' database.

Before Archer can properly decide what to do with this information, the Enterprise finds itself targeted by those who want the ship. The Suliban Cabal wants its technology, to turn the tide of their Temporal Cold War. The Tholians, a xenophobic species with highly advanced technology, also try to lay claim to the ship. With both hostile species determined to gain this prize, Archer finds himself in a desperate race to a rendezvous with a Vulcan battle cruiser.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: For the first time in a while, Archer returns to being stubborn past the point of being reasonable. Once it becomes clear that both the Suliban and the Tholians, both of whom are more advanced than Enterprise, are determined to get hold of the ship, he should be willing to consider destroying it.  It certainly wouldn't be unreasonable to prepare some kind of warhead if the need quickly arises. His desire for answers to the frustrating Temporal Cold War issue overrides his common sense in this instance - something he seems to realize at the end, as he takes upon himself the doubtless bitter task of preparing both an apology to the Vulcan High Command and an expression of gratitude for their help.

T'Pol: In some ways, she's just as unreasonably stubborn as Archer. The Vulcan position is that time travel is impossible, a position which T'Pol describes as "not an opinion," even in the face of the evidence the Temporal Cold War presents. Her recommendation to Archer to destroy the ship is logical, and ends up being proved by what awaits them at the Vulcan ship. But there's a distinct sense that her recommendation is at least partially motivated by a desire to protect herself from evidence that the Vulcan Science Directorate could be (gasp) wrong.

Trip/Reed: These two make an entertaining double act, particularly in the early stages of the episode. Trip's wish to explore the impossible ship contrasts with Reed's urgency for security.  Trip drops a spanner down the ship's shaft to test that the shaft actually is that deep, and not just a hologram. Then he overrides Reed's objections to simply going down the shaft by pointing out that he has to retrieve his tool. The pair also get to experience a time loop together, which foreshadows the time loop in which Reed and Archer later find themselves.

The Tholians: It's been far, far too long since I saw The Tholian Web, so I can't comment on how the ships here match up with the originals. The design is effective, though, as are the clicks and screeches that punctuate the Tholians' communication with Enterprise. I was glad to see how horribly outmatched our heroes are by the Tholians, in both military and technological terms. I've missed that early element of Enterprise, of the humans being near the bottom of the technological food chain.  It's something that's been lost as the show has gone along, and a return to that helps this episode to build tension.


THOUGHTS

Another strong episode, and it's probably no coincidence that it's another one which revisits one of the first season's too-long-neglected running arcs - in this case, that of the Suliban and the Temporal Cold War.The Temporal Cold War episodes tended to be among the stronger episodes of the first season, with Cold Front particularly standing out. Even if the Temporal Cold War was added at the network's insistence, it's interesting, particularly as we receive just a tiny bit more information about it each time it is revisited. It's a heck of a lot more interesting than watching Archer protect miners from Klingon bandits, or other episodes of that ilk.

It also allows the writers to explore some of the Archer/T'Pol character conflict that has so substantially eased since the series began. Season Two Archer, with the horrible exception of A Night in Sickbay, has learned his lessons well and has abandoned much of the pure muleheaded tendencies that made him such a flawed commander in the beginning. This progress has been nicely gradual, almost invisible on an episode-to-episode basis.

Still, the easing of both the stubbornness and the hostility has made Archer a bit more generic than he was at the beginning. By putting him into a situation in which he believes he has a genuine chance to get some answers to questions that have been hanging over him, the writers create a plausible scenario to bring some of that muleheadedness back.  For all the progress both have made, he and T'Pol sometimes do come at situations with directly opposed priorities and agendas.

Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong, whose scripts have been the consistent highlights of Season Two, do it again here. They even manage to layer in some decent character moments. Mayweather and Hoshi are basically set dressing again, but all of the others get at least one or two good scenes. Veteran television director James Whitmore Jr. helms the piece with a confident hand, using lighting to particularly good effect inside the future ship.

It zips along at a good pace, furthers the Temporal Cold War arc, and introduces the humans to the Tholians in a way that keeps the Tholians both mysterious and threatening. In short: it's a good one... though something I can't quite put my finger on keeps it from crossing over into being a great one.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Cease Fire
Next Episode: Canamar

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2-12. The Catwalk.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is orbiting an uninhabited Class M planet that is teaming with plant and animal life (um, technically that doesn't make it "uninhabited," but I'll give them that one). Archer and Trip are looking forward to combining a survey of this world with some needed R & R. Then an alien ship hails them. A deadly radiation storm is on its way. The alien captain recommends they immediately go to Warp Seven to escape the storm. There's only one problem; the Enterprise's maximum speed is Warp Five.

With no choice left but to weather the storm, Archer orders a particularly well-shielded maintenance shaft be converted into temporary quarters to house the entire crew for the duration. "The catwalk" proves to be endurable, if uncomfortable. But when a power surge forces Trip into a radiation suit for a trip to engineering, he discovers that their friendly alien saviors are hiding their own agenda.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Scott Bakula gets some of his best material in a while, as Archer is pushed into a desperate solution to save his crew. I enjoyed the scenes of Archer mingling with the crew, exchanging a few friendly words with his people to try to keep their morale up. Bakula gives a restrained, relaxed, highly likable performance in these scenes. And by pulling back on the "tense captain" mannerisms, he makes Archer's transition to crisis mode in the episode's final act that much more effective.

T'Pol: T'Pol's buried compassion shows itself when she recalls a Vulcan ship's encounter with a similar storm. She observes that the Vulcan ship was "nearly destroyed." Archer, upon researching, discovers that the Vulcan ship was destroyed, with all hands on board. Confronted with this, T'Pol insists that she "remembered incorrectly," not willing to admit that she sidestepped the truth to reduce the crew's fears. We also discover another bit of her background, as she tells Archer of a Vulcan ritual in which she was dumped in the desert and left to survive on her own for ten days. For all her expertise, T'Pol is not comfortable mixing with the general crew, and seems genuinely surprised when Trip says he's glad to see her at the "movie night" at the close of the episode, and invites her to join them for future ones.

Trip: Tripcomes up with the solution for the emergency quarters in the catwalk, enabling the entire crew to survive the storm. His preparations provide one of the series' few good Mayweather scenes as well, as Travis reminds Trip that they will need a toilet - something Trip admits he had not considered. Trip is given the discovery of the alien infiltration. Then, because he has already been exposed, he is unable to directly participate in keeping the warp reactor offline, and is forced to talk T'Pol and Reed through doing what he'd clearly much rather be doing himself.

Reed: Reed is susceptible to motion sickness, but his fear of acknowledging weaknesses leads him to cover this up. His mode of coping is to become extremely snippy and antagonistic, leading to an argument with Trip over the lack of shower facilities in their emergency quarters. He actually seems much more at ease when the alien infiltration is discovered, and he gets to go out into the ship and do something. Reed has no fear of danger, it seems. He's much more afraid of simple human failures, such as motion sickness and body odor, than he is of invading aliens.


THOUGHTS

A big step up from Precious Cargo. Mike Vejar's direction emphasizes the sense of claustrophobia within the catwalk. There are nice little touches, such as the command compartment being just a touch too small so that Archer has difficulty when he attempts to lie down after his circuit of morale-boosting.

The script, by Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong, is well-structured. There is just enough development of the crew simply enduring the storm in the catwalk to allow some strong character moments: Reed's motion sickness, T'Pol's "camping trip," Phlox's enjoyment of the small spaces because they remind him of home. Just as the basic catwalk idea has about run its course, the script takes a turn as Trip discovers that aliens have infiltrated the Enterprise, avoiding this episode simply becoming a large-cast version of Shuttlepod One.

The episode succeeds where so many episodes have failed. There actually is a sense of jeopardy. The episode takes time to show the command crew debating options and preparing for the storm. The cast all play their roles with conviction, and we genuinely believe that the storm is as dangerous as they say it is. When the alien military men invade the ship, the rules for the crew going out have been firmly established. The EVA suits will allow them 22 minutes outside the catwalk. There are only three suits, so a direct confrontation is out of the question. If the aliens get the warp engines fully online, the heat from the warp engines will kill the entire crew.

This leads to a taut climax, in which Archer uses misdirection to trick the alien captain.  Mayweather and Trip convey information to T'Pol and Reed to get the warp reactor offline, while Mayweather steers the ship in accordance with Archer's tactics. As that little summary shows, this allows most of the regulars to get a good share in the climax. Even Mayweather gets at least two good scenes, which is two more than he usually gets.

The CGI of the storm is quite impressive. Archer looks out at the approaching storm early in the episode, remarking that he "never expected it to be beautiful." It is quite beautiful, both when seen in approach and when seen enveloping Enterprise. The episode shows various views of it, with blues and whites predominant, and it works both as spectacle and as threat.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Precious Cargo
Next Episode: Dawn

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