Enterprise - Episode Review (With Spoilers)

Well, I don't include everything. What would others say if I said it all?

Yes, I remember the music. Not quite as catchy a tune as the Digger song, but it was good. Things to do in dark caves. Think of the acoustics.

 

Episode 7

The Andorian Incident


P'Jem, the 3,000 year-old Vulcan monastery, is a curiosity captain Archer doesn't want to pass up, but he finds more than ancient secrets hidden in the catacombs of the holy site, and a handful of angry Andorians might kill the away team to learn them.

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Spoiler

While Commander Tucker thinks using the Vulcan Starcharts kind of takes the fun out of exploration, Archer points out humans haven't been there yet, and the charts are not perfect or complete since the proto star they discovered last week isn't on any of them. What is, however, is a nearby Vulcan monastery, P'Jem, and maybe it would be a good idea to visit the place. T'Pol tells them about it and says she will research the proper protocols for a visit, and they set course for the place.

After they get there they discover it has been taken over by Andorians who are absolutely convinced their neighboring Vulcans are spying on them with an eye toward the conquest of Andor. The Vulcans flatly reject the accusation, saying they are but simple monks leading a life of quiet contemplation and they shun technology since it is usually disruptive to such pursuits. They suggest the Andorians are just paranoid and suspicious by nature. They have come and looked around before but found nothing, and eventually left. They would have probably done so again, except for Archer and T'Pol, whose presence has somehow convinced the Andorians they are on the right track, so the Vulcan monks blame Archer for the danger they are currently in.

The Andorians are convinced there's a sensor array hidden somewhere there, but they can't find it, and since Archer has a Vulcan first officer, the Andorian commander, Shran, naturally assumes the worst - that the "pink skins" (humans) are in league with the deceitful Vulcans. So commander Shran (lead Andorian and one of my favorite ENT characters) tortures Archer for the information, which, unfortunately, Archer doesn't have, not that Shran believes him.

With Transporter technology (something the Andorians still do not have, it would seem) help from the Enterprise covertly arrives and the recue and landing parties attempt to turn the tables on the Andorians. But during the battle, deep in the catacombs beneath the monastery, a metal portal is uncovered during a firefight, and behind it, a massive sensor array is discovered, exactly as the Andorians suspected was there somewhere. It would seem the Vulcans are a bunch of hypocritical lying bastards.

The sensor array was a surprise to Archer, as well as T'Pol, though the monks obviously knew of it – one of them even turned a phase pistol on Archer in an attempt to keep the secret somehow, but he was knocked out. I'm not sure what he was planning, but it doesn't matter. Archer then ordered T'Pol to scan the complex and then turn over the tricorder to Shran so he would have all the proof he needed to show the Vulcan's were dishonest and had violated their treaty. Shran, realizing he had Archer wrong, tells the captain he is indebted to him. They leave.

Shran, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


The Hidden Sensor Array was massive - and manned, it seemed, so not something any of the monks could have failed to notice during installation.




Jeffrey Combs plays Shran here, but he has also played Brunt, Weyoun, and various other Trek characters. He's quite an actor.


We learn the P'Jem monastery is 3,000 years old, meaning the Vulcans have had space flight for quite some time. Though they may have lost it for a time, or just not used it for a while 2,000 years back after the faction or splinter group that would later become the Romulans left Vulcan behind for destinations unknown (unknown to Vulcan). If records from that war torn era were vague and incomplete, it's a wonder they know as much about P'Jem's origins as they do. Further, they have a statue of Surak there, but that must have been a more recent addition, at least 1,000 years after P'Jem's construction since Surak had not yet been born.

The kohlinar is mentioned, as well as some of the mating practices of the Vulcan race as understood by an Andorian soldier. How he knows so much about them is a mystery.

I like the occasional opinion of Reed that they ought to do things as a standard practice since it would be better, and with our knowledge of TOS, we know many of them will become standard practices. Scanning for ships on approach, and landing parties checking in at regular intervals, for example, are good ideas.

I felt the plan to blow up the face idol instead of shoot the Andorians through the eye and mouth holes was silly and needlessly destructive of an ancient relic. Instead, they blew it up, alerted the Andorians, and gave them time and an avenue of escape. Badly planned, but it worked out for the best, mostly by luck.

Many complained about this story, and how the Vulcans come off as a horribly dishonest pack of liars, quite unlike TOS's Vulcans, but a much larger story regarding early Vulcan will develop during the series that I think does a good job explaining the apparent discrepancy.

I love the Andorians. Great race, the Andorians.


Many feel Humans and Andorians are quite similar in attitude and temperament. Later, one Vulcan ambassador feels the race most like the Vulcans that they have ever found are the Humans. That might mean by the transitive property of racial similarities that Vulcans have much in common with the Andorians. And all of this might mean at least 3 of the 4 founding members of the Federation are fairly similar in many regards - maybe 4 out of 4. I wish they did more with the Tellarites, or could repeat the magic in Discovery with the Tellarites that Enterprise did with the Andorians, but you get what you get.

This story was fun, tense, important, and quite a revelation. I'd give it at least an 8 out of 10.
It might be a 7 out of 10, but Shran adds +1 to all the episodes he's in.



The Andorian Incident Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/07.htm

Next Review: Breaking The Ice

 

Great Review! Will be watching "Fortunate Son" tonight. Still need to shorten the length of the reviews. They kind of tell the whole episode and well - one wouldn't have to watch if you tell the whole story. Just a suggestion. Still you're doing great and I love the photos!

 

I usually leave out tons of details. I'd like to think the teaser and image (before the spoiler) can remind people what the story is about, but if not, the detailed review hits the important points of the main story. But there is always some subplot or side story or a dozen details I'll never hit, even at this length, and people should watch the episode if they want to catch all that.

 

Good idea. Like me there are some new fans to this series. I only heard of this one in January this year! Never knew about it because I was working to keep up living expenses and thought no more Star Trek after Voyager ended. Glad I found this one. It kind of fills in some of the questions from the other series and shows how the earlier explorers dealt with all those different species. Keep up the good work - I'm loving this!!

 

Episode 8

Breaking The Ice


When the Enterprise looses power and the icy grip of space begins to plunge the temperatures aboard to below zero, the ship is suddenly invaded by an army of Snow Vulcans.


Oh, wait. That's a different, Fan Fiction story.

In the real story, Breaking The Ice, the Enterprise discovers a comet containing a rare mineral compound and they attempt to retrieve some of it, but a near-by Vulcan ship is a little too close for Archer's comfort. Are they spying on him? And why did T'Pol get an encrypted message from them? Unless the captain can discover the answers, the humans' relations with the Vulcans and the captain's relations with his first officer might remain icy.

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Spoiler

The Enterprise comes across the largest comet humans (or even Vulcans) have ever discovered, so they get in close for a better look and further discover a rich deposit of the rare mineral, Eisillium. Since not much is known about the mineral, they decided to collect some, but it is too deep for the transporters to get a lock, and therefore Reed and Mayweather will take a shuttle down to the comet, and in space suits, blast a hole to clear the snowy surface and then drill deeper into the comet to collect the sample.

Unexpectedly, theVulcan Ship, The Ti'Mur, shows up, stating they wish to observe – but not the comet.


They wish to watch the Enterprise and study the humans' interest in the comet and watch their operation. Fine with Archer, so he says. But he doesn't trust the Vulcans, thinking like before they are always a little too close-by to be a coincidence and he feels they are spying on the humans. Considering what just happened on P'Jem, who can blame him? And it doesn't help matters that apparently T'Pol received a secret encrypted message from the Ti'Mur. Suspicions grow, and this time we can't blame any pollen.

Archer tells Trip to decrypt T'Pol's message and then he invites the Vulcan captain, Vanik, to dinner, to try to establish better relations (break the ice) or get a better read on what they're really doing there.

Captain Vanik (Played by William Utay).

Phil, you don't really look much like a Vulcan.
Sorry, Boss.


During dinner, in which Vanik is rather rude and disrespectful and doesn't even partake since he ate before he came to dinner, Archer finally has enough of the Vulcan captain's attitude and openly accuses Vanik of spying on them. Vanik dismisses the idea as ludicrous, for if they were, you humans wouldn't know about it, and he suggests that Vulcans are not the enemy, but the humans' own arrogance and inexperience are. When he departs, he seems emotionally agitated and barks something at T'Pol in the Vulcan language right before he leaves. Apparently, there are no universal translators there, so only T'Pol knows what he said.

(I've been told Vanik says something like, "Transfer off this ship quickly, or you'll be a disgraced woman.") He was not exactly unemotional about it.

Unfortunately, the earlier blast on the comet (which destroyed the Vulcan snowman they had made, BTW) began a slow rotation of the space berg that would bring the drill site sunward and the surface would become dangerous. They try to finish up and get off the comet in time, but they fail, and the shuttle and away team fall through the ice into an opening crevasse when they fire up the engines. The Enterprise tries to rescue them with grapplers, but the minerals on the hull are interfering with the magnetic lock. Vanik and the Ti'Mur offer to help with a tractor beam (a technology the Federation does not have yet – it's classified) but Archer turns them down. And the shuttle slides farther into the icy pit. Though the captain doesn't want to give Vanik the satisfaction of humans asking for help, T'Pol points out that's exactly want Vaink wants – for Archer to not ask for help and prove human pride is more important than his crew's safety. Archer considers this and relents, and then asks Vanik for help. The Vulcans easily rescue the shuttle and pull it up and out of there with their tractor beam.

Turns out the private message to T'Pol was from her fiancé's family, demanding she return home for the arranged marriage and spend at least a year with her husband before doing other things. It is implied if she were on a Vulcan ship, they'd have no problem waiting, but since it's just a human ship, she isn't doing anything more important and so she should come home.

T'Pol is disturbed her private message was read, but Trip apologizes and tells her only he has read it – even the captain didn't read it when Trip told him it was just personal family stuff. Later, after Phlox tells T'Pol she needs to discuss her problems with someone, and since Trip already knows about it, she confided in him, thus beginning a more intimate relationship with Trip that will grow in time during the series.

Ultimately, T'Pol refuses to go home, disregarding Vulcan tradition, and adopting Trip's attitude that such a tradition might be less important than her current assignment. Later, in her quarters, she even has a piece of pecan pie (Trip's favorite desert) as another step toward trying something humans might do that Vulcans normally wouldn't.

Since Archer discovered this comet, it is later named Archer's Comet. I have no real idea where it is or what star system, but since it's close enough to a star to give off a tail, it's not in deep space somewhere. Although, Vanik did claim his sensors noted the comet two days prior to Archer finding it and would therefore be its discoverer, the humans apparently call it Archer's comet - (not that Vulcans probably care about such things, or what humans call things, and they may well call it something else, if they even feel the need to refer to it at all).

I liked the episode, of course, but it's not action packed. The tension is only moderate, but we get to see a Vulcan ship and captain and again get the impression the Vulcans in this era are less TOS-like in some ways. We learn more about T'Pol, her family and arrangements and expectations, and see her and Trip get closer (also breaking the ice there). There's broken ice everywhere in this episode. Because the comet visual effects are good (from space, not so much on the surface, IMO) and we she a Vulcan ship, I gave this episode 6.5 out of 10. It would have rated higher, but for the unrealistic effects on the comet's surface, my doubts one could build a snow vulcan out of that stuff (or while in an EV suit) and maybe a few other odds and ends.



Breaking The Ice Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/08.htm

Next Review: Civilization

 

Episode 9

Civilization


A new class-M planet is discovered with about half a billion humanoid inhabitants. Maybe the Enterprise should just study the pre-warp culture from orbit, as T'Pol recommends, but Archer wants a more hands-on human approach to see for themselves. But there's an anomalous neutrino source on the planet, and it shouldn't be there. At all. What could that be?

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Spoiler

Trip and the others tease the captain with some boring astronomical options for potential exploration, holding back a class-M planet as the last option. (Frankly, I'd like to see three neutron stars clustered together, but Archer's more a people-person than I am, so . . . ) Jonathan is surprised and amused they withheld the best option for last, so it's no surprise he sets course for the planet 4+ light years away (which happens to be 78 light years from Earth, FYI).

From orbit they determine the half a billion humanoids are in a pre-industrial culture. According to the acoustic relays, which means Hoshi probably sent a covert probe down low enough to listen to their verbal chattering from orbit, they call themselves the Akaali. Orbital scans can also get images of them, so knowing what they look like, Dr. Phlox does a little Trek instant superficial surgery (or make up?) to disguise Hoshi.

Before they depart, they discover a neutrino source on the planet, which suggests an anti-matter reactor is down there in a place where the inhabitants don't even have indoor plumbing. Archer increases the size of the landing party and they get fixed up and then head down in a shuttle to a nearby remote farm and from there hike in to the city in search of the neutrino source. Turns out it's coming from under an antique or curio shop of sorts. It's closed, so they break in at night and look around and find they can't get past a forcefield, but a mysterious woman, Riaan, is watching them from the shadows.

Riaan (played by Diane DiLascio).


Riaan confronts them with a crossbow and demands to know what's in the crates and why people are getting sick (thinking they work there) but T'Pol arrives and stuns her from behind with a phase pistol. Archer takes her to her home listed on her ID papers. Come morning, they talk and straighten out a few misunderstandings, though she knows Archer is lying to her about some stuff, she trusts him for the most part. She's an apothecary and tells Jon about a sickness in the area that started when that shop opened up 18 months ago. He says he'll try to help.

Archer and Tucker go back to the shop when it opens and through ignorance quickly reveal they are not of that planet, but so also is Garos, the shop owner, revealed to be not of that planet. He's Malurian, he tells them, but Humans and Malurians have never met. He explains he likes the quiet, simple life there so set up shop, but he has nothing to do with any sickness, which he describes as a local virus, and Riaan's accusations are baseless. She just feels better if she can blame someone, and the new arrival is as good as anyone to blame. Before they can inquire further, more customers come in so Archer and Trip leave. They distrust Garos' story since the reactor is way too powerful for the limited use he described.

Garos (played by Wade Williams).


Further investigation reveals the ground water is contaminated with Tetracyanate 622, a toxic, synthetic industrial lubricant, proving Garos was lying. They follow the crates and see a shuttle is picking them up via tractor beam. Someone fires at Archer with a phase beam weapon and Jonathan gets into a hand-to-hand, but finally knocks the guy down and then stuns him when he revives. Pulling off a latex mask, Archer discovers another Malurian, but as they truly look. And since he's with Riaan, the jig is up. Archer totally confesses he's an alien from another planet and explains what he and his ship are doing there.

A Malurian


Archer and Riaan gain access under the shop using some device the captain took from the Malurian he fought, but they can't disable the dampening field or screens protecting the area below right away (they can't read Malurian on the controls). But they discover the Malurians are mining viridium isotopes, typically used in explosives. Archer locks out Garos but they can talk via a view screen, and Garos tells the captain a few thousand Akaali killed by his mining operation won't be missed, so Archer and the woman should leave, but the captain refuses.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise comes under attack from a larger Malurian vessel that had been hiding on the other side of the planet. It is clearly more powerful than they are and they are ordered to leave after claiming captain Archer is already dead.

Archer and Riaan figure out the controls and disable the screens around the reactor on the planet, and the Enterprise beams it up, then beams it over in front of the Malurian ship, where they detonate it with torpedoes. The resulting massive explosion takes the Malurian ship's shields down and they then target and disable their weapons with torpedoes. Finally the Malurian vessel is at the mercy of the Enterprise under the command of T'Pol (despite Trip almost committing mutiny by disobeying T'Pol's orders - until she explains them, which she shouldn't have to do, but she's not really StarFleet and she's a Vulcan, so there's still trust issues there).

A firefight down below between the escaping Archer and Riaan and the pursuing Garos and his men frighten the locals, and it's a stand off until Riaan suggests shooting at an oil streetlamp near where Garos is taking cover, which Archer does, and the resulting explosion knocks Garos and his men down. Archer takes control and forces them off the planet. They are allowed to leave via their own transporter.

Most natives who witnessed the battle are just confused. Only Riaan knows the truth. They remove the mining equipment and give Riaan a cure Phlox made so she can treat the sick. Archer asks the Vulcan high command to keep an eye on the place against the Malurian's return, and then kisses Riaan goodbye.

****************************************

Once again this story glosses over the impossible way the universal translator seems to work almost covertly. I can't figure it out. But during the story it malfunctions for a time and Jonathan only hears gibberish from Riaan until he adjusts his external device while kissing her to avoid talking to her like that. Maybe it transmits something to an implant of his and would explain how he can understand the natives, but I can't figure out how the natives can understand him. Does it read his thoughts and form the alien words in his mind and so he can speak them? Sounds like an implausible device, and if it just translates, then any alien should notice the device is speaking and not the man holding it. Anyway . . .

Though Garos says the Malurians don't know about humans, they do know the Tellarites.

I wouldn't like to judge a whole race by such a small sample size, but if Garos is a good representative of the Malurians, they're a nasty bunch. Or they were. In 2267, the Nomad probe wiped out the Malurian system and its 4 billion inhabitants (TOS: The Changling). I'm not sure what sample size Nomad required to detect imperfection, but whatever it was, the probe decided the Malurians were imperfect and needed to be corrected by sterilization. R.I.P., Malurians, wherever your home stellar system was located.

Aside from the wonky translator and the implausible nature that goes with it to even make this story work, I like most of the rest of it. It was good. I'd give it a 6.5 or even a 7. Sure – space battle, Reed noting what future policies should be, alien contact, and again learning maybe the Vulcans have a point about not contacting a culture too soon, all show up here. I like it.


Civilization Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/09.htm

Next Review: Fortunate Son

 

JRT Starlight -You're doing great!! Tonight's episode for me is "Oasis". Last night was "Aquisition" - the one where some Ferengi tried to rob the "Enterprise" after they put the crew to sleep, only Cmdr. Tucker was alert because he was in Decom in Sick Bay. And he ended up running around in his underwear for awhile!!

 

Thanks, Ellora Dannan. Your support is appreciated, and on this board, necessary to avoid posting too many times a row. But I suppose I can't expect too much activity for a show that is already a dozen years old, however great I think it was.

Episode 10

Fortunate Son


A distress call from the ECS Fortunate compels StarFleet Command to direct the Enterprise to turnabout and investigate why the freighter is not responding to hails. Far closer than the next ship, the NX-01 is only 36 hours away, but will that be quick enough? And what will they find when they get there?

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Spoiler

The ECA (Earth Cargo Authority) regularly runs cargo ships via the ECS (Earth Cargo Services), such as the ECS Horizon (the cargo ship where Travis Mayweather grew up) and the ECS Fortunate, but they are old and slow, taking many months if not years to go from port to port. Some people spend their whole lives on such ships, often raising families and passing the shipping business on to the next generation. Often, these "Boomers" travel in several family groups and share a ship and the work and the slow paced lifestyle that comes with almost lazily drifting between ports at speeds not much better than warp 1.

But times are changing. Newer engines are appearing on the market, and without an upgrade to a warp 3 or better engine, such family owned businesses could soon go broke. And worse, maybe the younger generation isn't as willing to spend their whole lives like that, now that the galaxy is opening up. Runs that normally took years could now be done in months. And there are other ways to live in space - now - like StarFleet Service.

If all that wasn't bad enough, pirates are becoming a greater threat – and the newly encountered race, the Nausicaans, have discovered the slow freighters are easy pickings.

Matthew Ryan joined the crew of the Fortunate after the ECS North Star disaster (not described in detail, but well known to Boomers to have only a few survivors). Since then, Ryan became second in command of the Fortunate, and when the Nausicaans wounded captain Keene, Ryan took over, not to save the ship and bring it safely to port– but to get revenge. Perhaps pirates had something to do with the loss of the North Star and his parents? Whatever the case, he's out for blood and he's willing to cross a line captain Archer wouldn't have believed.

Matthew Ryan played by Lawrence Monoson.


After fending off the initial attack, Ryan took a Nausicaan hostage, and he's been torturing him for information. So when the Enterprise shows up, Ryan hides the Nausicaan from them while Archer's offers of help are cautiously accepted. But soon Archer learns of the Nausicaan prisoner (frickin' ship's sensors can see a lot). Ryan appears to relent and leads Archer's team to a cargo pod, but not the one with the prisoner. Firing a hole in the pod's hull and locking them in, Ryan jettisons that one pod, fires on the Enterprise, and the Fortunate warps away while the Enterprise must rescue the captain's team before they suffocate.


Before the Enterprise can repair its sensor array and find the freighter, Ryan kicks it up a notch and tortures the prisoner more effectively than before. He's becoming desperate.


Eventually, the Nausicaan pirate gives up the location of the pirate ship and its shield frequency, but it turns out it's not one helpless ship, but a whole pirate stronghold and asteroid base of operations, and that isn't really its shield frequency, to boot.


Now Ryan and the Fortunate are seriously out gunned.


Soon, the Nausicaans board the Fortunate again and a firefight starts as they attempt to rescue their captured man.


When the Enterprise arrives, Travis tries to talk sense into Ryan, and Archer tells him he's lost the high ground by taking a prisoner and seeking revenge instead of justice, and he's putting other Boomers in danger of retaliation. The Nausicaan leader threatens them all, but soon realizes the Enterprise is not such as easy mark as a freighter, so he agrees to let them all go if they give up his man. Eventually, Ryan is talked down and releases his prisoner.

After captain Keene recovers, rather than arrest Ryan as Archer recommends, Keene resorts to Boomer tradition, handling things internally, and demotes Ryan from first officer to the lowest ranked guy on the freighter for endangering the ship and crew and for seeking revenge.

Times are changing, he admits, and figures he'll have to upgrade to a warp 3 engine. He thanks Archer and bids him farewell, or something like that.

****************************************

This ill-mannered race was named after a Greek princess in the Odyssey, and the anime princess from the Warriors of the Wind (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind).


Weirdly, the alien race doesn't act much like either of those characters. But Patrick Stewart did lend his voice to one of the main characters, Lord Yupa, in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Lord Yupa. Shall we prepare a party to celebrate your return to the valley?


Make it so.


Captain Keene was also the name of Horatio Hornblower's first captain (Keene of the Justinian) – and Shatner patterned his role of Kirk on the Hornblower character. Not that this is important or intentional. I just happened to know that. So there.


I question the wisdom of transporting kilotons of dilithium ore through space in Star Trek stories. One assumes very little actual dilithium crystals can be obtained from all that ore, and moving stuff around, particularly through space, is bound to be expensive and time consuming. It would be far better to refine it where you mine it and just transport a few pounds of the finished product. Unless, as many things almost appear in Star Trek, moving things is free or nearly so and no actual cost considerations go into anything some authors are willing to jot down. But I admit, the details are vague. It just seems an unlikely cargo to haul through vast distances in space.

I also wonder why such ships really need a crew, thinking automation may be far better for such slow runs, but maybe ship reliability isn't yet what it should be and constant care and maintenance are necessary.

While this is a solid background story, showing off the Boomer culture, and giving us the first look (chronologically) at the Nausicaan race, it's not that thrilling or particularly memorable. YMMV, but I only gave this story a 4.5 out of 10.


Fortunate Son Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/10.htm

Next Review: Cold Front

 

Episode 11

Cold Front


Archer invites some pilgrims aboard the Enterprise, but the disguised Suliban, Silik, is amongst them, and he saves the ship from destruction. Buy why? Daniels, a temporal agent, reveals himself to Archer and explains Silik is up to no good in the temporal cold war, but later Silik claims it's Daniels with the more questionable motives, who just represents another competing faction in the temporal cold war. Who should Archer believe? Silik? Daniels? Or T'Pol, who assures him time travel is just utter non-sense?

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Spoiler

Having failed in his mission to destabilize the Klingon Empire, Silik's master from the future punishes him by removing some of the genetic advancements. But Silik can have them back if he succeeds next time.

The Enterprise detects several ships in a stellar nursery and decides to drop in and get acquainted. Hailing the first ship, the alien captain, Fraddock, is less than friendly, probably thinking it weird anyone would travel in space without a specific job or task to be preformed. He, for example, is being paid for transporting some holy pilgrims who wish to witness The Great Plume of Agosoria inside the stellar nursery. Since captain Fraddock isn't thrilled to meet new people, Archer invites the pilgrims aboard instead, and they happily accept the invitation, sharing their religious beliefs and talking to the strangers from Earth, as well as Doctor Phlox, while they tour the Earth starship.

Agosoria, he's just this guy, you know?


But Silik is disguised and amongst the pilgrims, and he seems to sabotage the ship during the tour. Oddly, it turns out he did something that saves the ship, preventing a cascading antimatter reaction from blowing up the Enterprise. But why?

While Archer and Tucker try to figure out who saved the ship, Archer's steward, Daniels, reveals he's a temporal agent from 900 years in the future and he's looking for the Suliban on board. Of course, if he had found him earlier, the Enterprise would have been vaporized, but Archer let's this pass. Daniels needs help since the Suliban have enhancements that make it harder for him to find them. Perhaps because he's been his trusted steward for quite a while, or because Daniels shows him some impressive future tech, Archer decides to trust Daniels.

T'Pol feels differently since the Vulcan Science Directorate has determined time travel is impossible, and therefore, logically, Daniels is a liar. Archer orders her to assist, regardless, and she complies.

Archer later encounters Silik who claims he saved the ship and he's the good guy – and that Daniels is just representing another competing faction in the cold war and he's lying to Archer about many things. It makes good sense, but for Silik's past history with Archer, so the captain doesn't trust him. Then an unfortunately timed communications from Hoshi reveals who the temporal agent is that Silik is seeking, and Silik stuns the captain with a weapon and goes to kill Daniels - and during the battle in engineering, he apparently succeeds, blowing Daniels apart. But the body pieces vanish.

Archer revives and goes to find Silik had taken Daniels' tech that contained much future information that would give the Suliban a great advantage. He pursues him through the ship, Silik using his remaining genetic enchantments to evade the captain, and Archer using Daniels' phase technology to pass through walls in pursuit. They finally meet and fight and Archer destroys the future tech. Silik warns the captain that Archer may have just endangered his own future, and then he jumps from the ship's open hatch into open space and escapes to a waiting, cloaked Suliban pod. Silik got away, but he failed to acquire the future tech – though he did kill Daniels, so maybe partial success is better than none and his master won't punish him.

Captain Archer has Reed seal Daniels' quarters in case there is more future tech in there, and he wonders what he's going to report to StarFleet Command about everything.

****************************************

I like time travel stories, and this whole temporal cold war scenario that runs through this series is a treat for me (though many others say they despised it). I think Daniels is a fine character, and just as the Federation is an optimistic future outlook, so, too, is Daniels' future 900 years on supposed to be one of wisdom and understanding.

Unless, of course, the Suliban and their future masters in this temporal cold war win. But we can't be certain who will come out on top yet. Only time will tell.

Matt Winston makes his first of 8 appearances as Daniels, a time traveler and/or temporal agent from the 31st century. He seems to be a likeable guy, unlike some other characters I've seen him play.

I'm a tool


John Fleck returns as the Suliban, Silik, first named in this episode, though he has had many roles in Trek.


As a foundational story to the series, I like it, so I gave this a 7, 7.5, maybe even an 8 out of 10. The pilgrims, the alien captain, the temporal cold war, and even the mystery as to why the Suliban faction saved the Enterprise is interesting to me. I want to see more.




Cold Front Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/11.htm

Next Review: Silent Enemy

 

Wow!! have they been giving you trouble about this?? Tonight's epi for me is "Stigma" on Enterprise. That's up to CHAP. 14. already. This is really good. I like the "puns" before the actual storyline. Makes it fun to read!

 

Hey Ellora. I'm glad you're O.K. It's been a while and I was actually beginning to worry a little, but I figured you were busy with holiday prep or such. NP. But yeah, this board has ridden me a few times about posting more than twice in a row, even when the posts were more than a week apart, and even officially reprimanded me that one time despite my last previous post being 10 days old, so I have to be careful.

Episode 12

Silent Enemy


An unknown alien vessel remains silent, their intentions a complete mystery. But soon it becomes quite clear, whatever their intentions, they are not friendly.

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Spoiler

A moderately enlightening story concerning Malcolm Reed and his family background revolves around Hoshi's covert quest to discover what Reed's favorite food is so the captain can surprise him with it for his up coming birthday.

Meanwhile, it's business as usual when the Enterprise drops off a second subspace relay to maintain communications with home.

Echo Two, like Echo One dropped earlier, are subspace amplifiers to speed up and maintain subspace FTL communications with home and friendly ships.


But a mysterious and silent ship appears that dogs the Enterprise, the aliens' true intentions remaining unknown throughout the episode. They won't talk to the Enterprise. And they warp away without a word, but they return and depart more than once, each time coming back with increasing boldness and hostility.

Who are these guys and why won't they talk to us?


The aliens eventually even invade the Enterprise with a small scouting party. Research, sabotage, or something else, their ultimate intentions are never clear, but they seem to be looking for weaknesses. The phase pistols don't seem to impress them much, either, shrugging them off almost as easily as the Borg. But when confronted with greater numbers, the scouting party leaves, and their ship fires on the Enterprise before warping away again, knocking out the Enterprise's warp engines for a couple of days.


Obviously out matched, Archer considers asking the Vulcans for help, but then discovers both Echo subspace relays were destroyed, probably by the hostile aliens, so they can't ask anyone for help.

Archer is frustrated, naturally, and knows while they have phase cannons on board, they were never installed. He decides to head back to Jupiter station so they can be properly installed, though Reed and Tucker figure they can do the job just as well as the pros back home. Archer eventually relents and lets them begin the work. Using their off time and volunteers, the extra manpower makes short work of it and soon they test out their new phase cannon, but something goes wrong.

Holy Cow!


A massive energy surge delivers a blast 10 times greater than anticipated, but it blows out many systems. An alien device is discovered on board that caused the overload, and Archer destroys the device with his phase pistol, but not before warning the spying aliens he and his crew will do whatever it takes to defend the Enterprise. So they repair the systems and just in time, since the Aliens have returned and finally make a demand – surrender your ship – using cobbled together words from Archer's own earlier communications to them.

Archer fires on the aliens, but the phase cannons are weak when working as intended. Archer wants to know how could they blow up so much before but now be so weak? It's explained that before was an accident, and that seriously damaged the ship. He wants to know if they could do it again, deliberately, and Reed says yeah, but they'd take out a couple of decks. Archer prefers losing two decks to surrendering the ship, so he orders them to do it, but Tucker quickly says he thinks they can absorb the recoil and use that energy to strengthen their structural integrity. Amazingly, and in the middle of battle, they quickly reconfigure the necessary components and try again.

Phase Cannon


This time the phase cannons are strong enough to blast through the aliens' shields, and with a follow up of a few torpedoes (too weak before to get past the shields, but now that they're down, the torpedoes should work just fine), the Enterprise seriously damages the alien vessel, and the aliens skitter away at reduced speed. Archer lets them flee, deciding to tend to his own ship's damage rather than pursue the aliens in the Enterprise's damaged condition. And, apparently, those particular aliens were never heard from again, as far as we know.

Captain Archer decides there is no longer any reason to go all the way back home, and Reed says the phase cannons will be back on-line within the hour, and a third phase cannon will be ready for the aft section by tomorrow. So now, maybe, the Enterprise is better prepared for what awaits them.

And so . . . Reed enjoys his surprise "pineapple" birthday cake. Huzzah!

******************************

I'm told these events occur before the events in Cold Front, so they are aired out of order. I'm not sure why that's important.

By my calculations, it should have taken the Enterprise about 8 months to get back to Earth, yet Archer seemed more than willing to go, like it might take only a few weeks, and for something that turns out his crew could do in a short time, it was a bad call and a complete misunderstanding of his crew's capabilities.

The alien motives will always remain a mystery, though later in the series that configuration of ship is used again for the Kovaalan, a species from the Delphic Expanse.

I liked the mysterious aliens and their unknown motives - it might be far more realistic stuff like that happened more often.

However, putting phasers together so quickly, and making them so powerful, almost by accident, and doing it mid combat, and acting mostly like energy is free and comes mysteriously out of nowhere in unexpected quantities, all makes me cringe a bit. Archer said the accidental blast on the asteroid or small moon or whatever took out a mountain the size of McKinley. That's huge. Either he was GREATLY exaggerating the size of the moon mountain, or there is far more energy involved in those phasers than can easily be explained as coming from a matter/antimatter energy source. Are they using up many pounds of antimatter every time they fire their phasers or what?

So things were a little too quick, too easy, too convenient, too free, or the like. I'd guess it should take years to come up with something like that, and special equipment made and fitted to the ship to handle a recoil, or strengthen structural integrity with excess energy, or anything like that, but it works with existing systems just because they need it to, and almost with the flip of a switch. I dunno. It's a little too silly to believe.

While the story was fun, and the background to Reed enlightening, the 7.5 I'd give this story drops to 6 just for the unbelievable way they make phasers so strong almost on the fly. It makes the boys at home who have spent years developing the systems look like morons in comparison. And these are still relatively weak phasers by TOS standards.


Silent Enemy: Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/12.htm

Next Review Dear Doctor

 

Sorry to hear that. They shouldn't be so strict. Some of us are really getting a kick out of these "reviews". Wouldn't it be grand if some of the actors from Enterprise actually see these? Gonna go get some rest. I caught a bug that gave me a bad infections to my eyes, ears & throat. And I have to see a Heart specialist tomorrow (groan). Where's Dr. Phlox when you need him??(LOL)

 

Thanks for these amazing reviews!

Silent Enemy is fairly packed for a bottle episode. I love how naive Archer says "Hello, how are you! We come from Earth. Here's a star map that shows are planet's coordinates!"

There's a good balance of humor, dread, and adventure. There's a good deal of character development for Reed, as well as Tucker, their buddyship, and Hoshi. We meet Malcolm's parents, sister, and friend from back home.

While it may at first seem a little odd that Hoshi would be on a birthday cake mission during this crisis, it helps remind us that there is a lot going on a ship with 80 people, and a many hours of downtime everyday. For instance, they mention that it took 48 hours, w/ round the clock shifts to install the cannons.

Enterprise did a very good job with world building. There's all these little details that give continuity to the series.
Things like:
-Reed's naval heritage(a recurring reference)
-Reed's romantic awkwardness
-Hoshi's love of cooking
-The "Echo" subspace relays(This might be the first mention, but there will be many, many more)
-Captain Duvall(whom we will meet later on)
-Tucker's girlfriend writes him a dear John letter
-The aliens, who will show up again.

I also like that the aliens are nonhumanoid. They're really freaky looking! Their ship is rather generic looking, though.


The closing scene has a TOS vibe to it(Kirk slap's back/everyone laughs/freeze frame/roll credits) that, even though a tad cheesy, always makes me smile.


Eye roll moments:
-When Archer, Trip, Reed, etc, are all disappointed that the aliens "aren't interested" in being friends
-Tucker's speech to the Engineering & Armory crew. I can never take trip seriously as an authoritative figure, or as angry, FSR

 

Episode 13

Dear Doctor

A dying race reaches out into space seeking help for a sickness that is killing them.
Can the Enterprise's dear doctor find a cure for them? Or more importantly, should he?

Read Full Review

Spoiler

We find our dear doctor Phlox composing a letter to a colleague, Jeremy Lucas, an old time friend and fellow doctor in the Interspecies Medical Exchange program. Phlox is describing his daily routine and his time aboard the Enterprise and the difficulties he has encountered, relaying to his human friend his impressions of working with humans.

Doctor Jeremy Lucas
(We'll actually see him in a much later episode, Cold Station 12).


But the Enterprise soon happens upon a drifting STL ship, its two occupants on the verge of death. They, like 3 other of their STL ships, have gone different directions into deep space seeking help, gambling they might find a more advanced race that can find a cure for what's killing them, or die trying.

Valakian Ship


They have met two other warp-capable species, but they couldn't help. The Enterprise is their third encounter (I guess that makes it a close encounter of a third kind, or third time, anyway).

Valakian Pilot played by Chris Rydell


Another Star Trek Family
Chris Rydell is the son of Joanne Linville, who is also the mother of Amy Rydell. Daughter Amy reprises Joanne's role of TOS: The Enterprise Incident's Romulan commander in Star Trek Continues: To Boldly Go, a two-part wrap up episode for the fan made series.

Joanne and daughter Amy.


Being STL ships, naturally they are less than one light year away from their home planet and the Enterprise can easily take them home. They do this, telling the pilot they'll try to help find a cure. When they get there, they discover not one, but two sapient species on the planet Valakia – the dominant Valakians, who are dying, and the Menk, a somewhat less advanced humanoid species the Valakians care for and control and manage, since the Valakians are more advanced and can produce more than the Menk. But they give the Menk what they need to survive and live what seems mostly a subsistence existence, and they do appear to be well treated – sort of like pets, Hoshi remarks. Perhaps they are more like servants, or even slaves, though they are well treated. They don't go into details here, but I suspect to control the Menk population, the Valakians are probably controlling the Menk's reproduction rates, possibly sterilizing most of them. But we can't be sure.

A Menk


The Valakians request that if Archer and his medical staff can't find a cure, to please give them Warp technology so they might better seek it on their own, but the captain knows the Valakians are too technologically unsophisticated to safely handle anti-matter, and it would take a long, long time before they could master it. T'Pol points out the Vulcans helped the humans, and they were still doing that one hundred years later – something Archer always resented – until now when he finally better appreciates the difficulties of just handing over dangerous advanced technology like that, so he refuses to do that.

But Phlox soon uncovers the truth – the Valakians aren't just dying from a contagious disease, but a genetic defect that will doom the Valakian species in approximately two centuries' time, while the Menk are not similarly afflicted with this evolutionary genetic dead end. In fact, they show every promise of becoming the dominant species on that planet.

Phlox asks the captain even if he could find a cure, should they interfere with Nature's evolutionary judgment, so to speak. Archer says doctors do that all the time whenever they cure a sickness, asking Phlox if he expects him to instead choose one species over the other. But by giving the Valakians a cure, he would, in effect, be choosing the Valakians over the Menk.

When he finds it, the doctor even considers withholding the discovery of the cure from the captain, but eventually decides to confess he has found it already, but tells Archer he feels it's wrong to interfere on this level. Phlox even makes a loose analogy to put Archer in the right frame of mind, asking what if advanced aliens had helped Neanderthals along to the detriment and oblivion of Homo Sapiens. With that, and wrestling with the dilemma overnight, the captain eventually agrees and changes his mind. Archer feels they did not come out into Space to impose their human values on everyone or play God. He even suggests StarFleet will probably, one day, come up with some "directive" saying what they can or cannot do out there, foreshadowing the Prime Directive to come.

Not revealing the whole truth to the Valakians, Archer apologizes for not being able to help as much as the Valakians had hoped, but gives them some medicine to mitigate their suffering, though it is not a cure. He tells them if they keep working on it, they might find a cure and he wishes them well. And then they depart.

The doctor wraps up his letter to Lucas, saying he was glad he put his trust in his captain's judgment, and resumes the flirtatious relationship with Elizabeth Cutler and movie night since the revelation he has 3 wives already, and she isn't looking to become #4, isn't a reason not to see each other.

******************************

Someone recently took exception to the analogy the doctor drew between this situation and the Neanderthal/Homo Sapiens competition for dominance over the Earth. His complaint was he felt the analogy was bad since Homo Sapiens didn't actively kill off the Neanderthals, but he felt they were assimilated and/or died from disease rather than from more direct confrontations or competition. My position was the doctor wasn't trying to make an exact analogy or imply, as the episode more or less did elsewhere, that when there are two competing species, one typically kills the other, leaving only one. He only wanted the captain to see the situation in a different light, and that analogy, however loose, does that.

Unlike Earth's Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, the Valakians and Menk appear to be unable to cross breed, apparently being too far apart on the evolutionary tree. So there are differences, this is true.

I personally feel the captain and the doctor made the right decision, but more than a few have told me it was the wrong one. What do you think?

I really liked this episode since it actually does make one contemplate the larger issue about whether we should interfere on that level, and how we might have felt if others had done that to our detriment. For any one wondering about the Prime Directive, or questioning its validity, this is a "must see" episode.

I am very glad captain Archer didn't reveal they found the cure, and why he felt he had to withhold it. If he had, some few Valakians almost certainly would have considered exterminating the Menk and burying the evidence, so if another advanced culture came along in the next 200 years, they wouldn't be similarly morally or ethically conflicted about giving them a cure. However, even giving them medicine to alleviate their suffering might diminish the Valakian's incentive to find a cure in a way, for a painless death isn't as bad as a painful one, and lacking the incentive to avoid that, it's possible they might more quickly accept their painless demise rather than fight a painful one to the bitter end.

Two other warp capable species are mentioned in this episode - the Ferengi, whom we've yet to meet but will, and another, the M'klexa, whom we've never heard of in canon. Being so close to Earth, it often bothers me when new species are introduced that are unfamiliar to all future series, but that's just one of the problems of a prequel series like this. But we never learn what later happened on this planet, or who the M'klexa are, and we never hear from the Valakians or the Menk ever again, despite them being practically just next door.

One should watch for the upcoming episode, Acquisition, when 4 Ferengi try to plunder the Enterprise's equipment and supplies. One of them tells another to do something, to which the other replies, "Do I look like a Menk to you?" or something similar, indicating these are probably the very Ferengi who met the Valakians, and they, too, felt the Valakians treated the Menk like slaves or servants or menials.

Though there isn't really much action, the very concept of deciding what are acceptable levels of interference makes this a compelling and important story, and it's well done. I gave it an 8 out of 10.



Dear Doctor Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/13.htm

Next Review: Sleeping Dogs

 

Very good review as usual. Tonight's episode for me is "Cogenitor"- ponders the question of rights of being a "surrogate" child bearer and not permitted to do anything else even though having the intelligence and ability to learn - as "Trip" discovers. OH and this is one where Malcolm gets the table turned on him regarding being intimate.

 

Episode 14

Sleeping Dogs


While examining a large, gas giant, the Enterprise discovers a ship in distress low in the atmosphere and in a decaying orbit. When they shuttle down to investigate, they discover an unconscious and sick crew of about a dozen Klingons. Stay and attempt to help the crew and the Klingons will probably try to kill them, but leave them behind and they'll almost certainly die – a fate T'Pol believes the Klingons would actually prefer. But before they can decide what to do, one Klingon who hadn't succumbed to sickness makes off with their shuttle, stranding T'Pol, Reed, and Hoshi to their own impending doom.

Read Full Review

Spoiler

Reed is helping Hoshi become better acquainted with the new phase pistols when duty calls and they have to help investigate a class 9 gas giant – something new to the crew since the Sol system doesn't have any that big, but nor do they register faint life signs and power signatures. Those are coming from a ship deep in the atmosphere and in a decaying orbit, so Hoshi, Reed, and T'Pol go down in a shuttle to investigate. There, they discover an unconscious and sick Klingon crew and a damaged ship, a raptor class scout vessel named the Somraw.


T'Pol explains the Klingons will likely kill them if they regain consciousness, but they would find honor in dying at their posts, so she recommends leaving them behind. Reed isn't impressed and has no intentions of leaving them to such a useless fate. But before they can decide what to do, one Klingon female apparently wasn't unconscious, and when she sees the Enterprise trio, she escapes into their shuttlepod and strands them on the Somraw.

The shuttle races away from the planet while sending out an emergency signal calling for help from any Klingon warships in the area, saying an unknown alien vessel has attacked them, meaning the Enterprise. Archer catches the shuttle with the grappler, drags her onto the Enterprise, and has to subdue the woman with phase pistols before she goes down.

Her name is Bu'Kah, and when she regains consciousness in sickbay she immediately becomes insulting, abusive, and demanding. Typical Klingon.


Captain Archers tries to reason with her and asks her for help repairing her ship so he can save his crew, but Bu'Kah accuses him of attacking them, trying to steal their military secrets, and a few other things, refusing to help such a weakling like Archer.

Back on the Somraw, having discarded their bulky spacesuits and stripped down to their long johns for freedom of movement, the trio are trying to repair the ship, but not being engineers they can't repair it, and they've sunk too low for the shuttle to safely reach them, anyway.


Reed finds something called "photon torpedoes" and devises a plan to shoot a few, hoping the shock wave will push them upward. After several attempts, they use all remaining torpedoes in closer proximity in a desperate gamble to gain altitude without destroying themselves, and it works, but not enough to gain much time, and the hull is beginning to buckle.


Meanwhile, doctor Phlox cures the Klingon woman of toxins (from some captured wine the Klingons stole from some Xaratines in a raid). Archer revises his plan, thinking asking for help made him look weak, so instead he threatens Bu'Kah with the shame of refusing help and letting her whole crew die a dishonorable death when she could have saved them. Some of the revealed facts are undeniable, so she relents, finally agreeing to help save her own ship, but they have to take a reinforced shuttle down since it's the only way to get to the Somraw now.

Bu'Kah and Archer come aboard and distribute the cure to her crew before Bu'Kah, an engineer, apparently, begins repairs, and with Archer, Reed, Hoshi, and T'Pol's help, they finish before the Klingons awaken. The Somraw leaves the gas giant behind and Bu'Kah allows captain Archer and his away team to depart, so they return to the Enterprise.


Archer and his team departed before the Klingon crew fully revived, knowing full well what would happen is they stayed behind. And quite true to form, once the Klingon captain takes control back from Bu'Kah, he hails the Enterprise and demands their surrender.


Archer calmly points out he just saved their lives, and besides, the Somraw is seriously damaged, not to mention out of all its torpedoes, so they are currently outgunned. The Klingon captain realizes the truth of this before finally snarling at Archer and breaking off communications. Then the Enterprise high tails it out of there before the approaching Klingon warships make the scene.

And so T'Pol, Hoshi, and Reed can finally spend more time in the relaxing decontamination chamber, finally clean and free of the horrible and offensive odors they were forced to endure while on the Klingon ship with the targs and Klingon cuisine of a somewhat disturbing nature. They even ask the doctor to make sure they are free of contamination and run all the tests a second time, just to make sure, but really just so they can enjoy the quiet spa time longer.


****************************************

One might assume the Klingons always think the worse of everyone since that's exactly what they'd do if the situations were reversed. Despite claiming to value honor, they often don't come off as particularly honorable by human standards, but then lip service and appearances of honor often seem more important to them than actually having honor.

Though we first see photon torpedoes here, Reed didn't (as far as we know) come away with any design specs or insightful information about them, so they stick with spatial torpedoes until season 3, IIRC, when they upgrade to photonic torpedoes, a more primitive form of the photon torpedoes they'll sport by TOS.

With more insight into the Klingons, and the introduction of gagh, we learn Hoshi overcame her initial fears of volunteering for away missions and space suits, that the new phase pistols don't have the problems of particle drift like their earlier weapons, and that Klingons have photon torpedoes already. They are a formidable opponent.

There was nothing glaringly wrong with this episode and I enjoyed the story. I was as appalled as the captain at the Klingons' bad behavior, and proud we humans once again risked our lives to save others in peril - or ashamed we once again impose our values on others, despite what they'd likely want for themselves? Well, the important thing is we once again did it differently than the Vulcans would have. And the mission continues.

I gave this episode a 7 out of 10.

Vaughn Dale Armstrong, Jr. plays another of his 12 characters on Trek. Did you know he played that many characters? In no particular order, can you match the character name and/or episode title to the correct image?


Vaughn Dale Armstrong, Jr. : Actor
Admiral Maxwell Forest ENT: Multiple episodes.
Korris: TNG: "Heart of Glory", "Shades of Gray"
Danar: DS9: "Past Prologue"
Telek R'Mor: VOY: "Eye of the Needle"
Seskal DS9: "When It Rains...", "The Dogs of War"
Two of Nine/Lansor VOY: "Survival Instinct"
Vidiian captain VOY: "Fury"
Alpha Hirogen VOY: "Flesh and Blood"
Korath VOY: "Endgame"
Klingon Captain (Somraw) ENT: "Sleeping Dogs"
Kreetassan Captain ENT: "Vox Sola", "A Night in Sickbay"
Maximilian Forrest ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly"

Sleeping Dogs: Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/15.htm

Next Review: Shadows of P'Jem

 

Episode 15

Shadows of P'Jem


The Vulcan High Command (VHC) is less than pleased when the Andorians bomb the hell out of the Monastery at P'Jem, even breaking off joint operations with StarFleet command since they blame captain Archer, and since Admiral Forest refuses to agree with their assessment. But there is little Forest can do but deliver the bad news to captain Archer – his Vulcan science officer is being recalled by the VHC.

Read Full Review

Spoiler

Ambassador Soval informs admiral Forest of the destruction of the P'Jem sanctuary, blaming the humans' recklessness, and captain Archer in particular, for the entire affair since it was Archer's interference that allowed the Andorians to find the Vulcans' illegal listening post hidden at the ancient monastery.

Forest disagrees, naturally, and feels the Vulcan High Command (VHC) should at least take some of the responsibility, though in truth, he probably feels they deserve the lion's share if not all of it for illegally misusing such a holy site and not alerting their human friends and allies about it so they could have been more careful.

Soval insists captain Gardner would have been better suited to command the Enterprise than the reckless captain Archer, but Forest counters telling him the VHC doesn't make those decisions for StarFleet Command. Soval remarks there was a time when the humans wanted the Vulcans' advice, but apparently that time has passed. With that, ambassador Soval informs admiral Forest that joint operations between the two governments have been suspended.


Later, Forest relays to captain Archer the news, both of them thankful the Andorians at least alerted the monks and intelligence operatives to get out before blasting the place to hell, and so no lives were lost. Moreover, to punish T'Pol for her part in the affair, the VHC is recalling his first officer. Sadly, Archer informs T'Pol of that decision, but she quite characteristically acts like it doesn't bother her and says it is only a logical decision since she has failed to protect Vulcan interests, and that's a large part of the reason she is aboard the Enterprise. The fact even she was unaware of the listening post doesn't seem to impress anyone around there.

But before the Vulcan ship, the Ni'Var, can arrive in two days, captain Archer takes T'Pol on one last mission into the Coridon system, a place the Vulcans have been visiting for years, if for no other official reason than a familiar species, the Vulcans, could introduce the 3+ billion Coridons to the Humans, but mostly since he wants more time to convince T'Pol she should fight the transfer order from the VHC.

Quite unexpectedly, their shuttle is attacked, forced down, and terrorists capture them. The terrorists are a group believing the local government supported by the Vulcans is corrupt.


Trip and the Enterprise crew are quite upset with the local governor for not mentioning their civil war. But to them, they don't consider it a war and felt it wasn't worth mentioning, which is less than helpful. But they're doing everything they can, which amounts to nothing, so Trip knows he has to act first.


Meanwhile, Archer and T'Pol share some rather intimate time together, tied up, trying to escape, and talking about the fallout from P'Jem.


The Ni'Var arrives earlier than expected, demanding to talk to captain Archer, but he's not available, and nor is Sub-commander T'Pol, so Trip confesses they were both kidnapped by terrorists. Captain Sopek finds that "convenient" but Tucker convinces him and tells him the ransom demands, to which the Vulcan captain insists he'll handle the situation since a Vulcan citizen is involved, before cutting off communications with Enterprise.


Reed and Trip find that unacceptable, so after finding the shuttle with sensors they plan an operation to reach it, but are themselves quickly captured – but not by terrorists. They were captured by Andorians, who shouldn't be on Coridon. Want's more, it's Commander Shran and his men. He tells Trip and Malcolm if they had approached the shuttle they would have been killed since it's a trap. After discussing it, they fold the two humans into their own rescue plan since Shran feels compelled to pay captain Archer back for the help he gave them at P'Jem.

The attack goes well, more or less, and Shran and Archer meet.

We're even now, pink skin.


But the Vulcan strike force complicates matters and all hell breaks loose.


Eventually, the terrorists are put down, but not before their leader takes careful aim at the Vulcan captain, Sopek. T'Pol sees this and at the last instant throws herself in front of the shot, saving him, but taking the blast meant for captain Sopek. Though Sopek says they will treat her, Archer insists she is still his crewman and takes her back to the Enterprise's sickbay.


Doctor Phlox delivers the grave news to captains Archer and Sopek – her injuries are severe and she may not survive. Archer asks Sopek to intervene, saying if he told the VHC how she saved his life, they might allow her to stay if she survives. Regardless, it may be days before they know if she'll live and she certainly shouldn't be moved before then, so rather than stick around for days, he agrees to speak on her behalf. After he leaves, the doctor easily revives T'Pol, her injuries apparently not as bad as he let on, but orders her to stay in sickbay for another 24 hours.

T'Pol objects to not being consulted about all this, so Archer says she can still catch captain Sopek bofore he leaves the ship, but she points out she cannot do that without disobeying her doctor's orders, and so T'Pol settles in for some rest and recuperation.

****************************************

While I'm amazed anyone can blame T'Pol, or even Archer, for what happened at P'Jem and logically make it stick, I'm not surprised certain types of higher echelon people are more than willing to try to find a scapegoat for their own shortcomings and failures. But it seems obvious to me if T'Pol didn't know about the listening post, there was little she could have done to help prevent its discovery. Also, blaming Archer for not being able, or even inclined, to cover up Vulcan treaty violations seems over the top as well. Unfortunately, Shran's own violation of the Tau Ceti Accords by being on Coridon doesn't really give him the high ground just because the Vulcan's violated a different (unnamed) treaty first. But had he not, Tucker and Reed and maybe even Archer and T'Pol would have been killed.

We get a better look at the infamous Coridon system, rich in dilithium crystals, made famous in TOS's Journey To Babel, so that's always nice. It's not artificially or clumsily thrust into the mix just as a call back to TOS, and it makes sense, so I always appreciate it when they do it right.

I enjoyed the episode and would give it a 7 out of 10, but Shran adds +1 to any episode he's in, so a good 8 out of 10.


Shadows of P'Jem: Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/14.htm

Next Review - Shuttlepod One

 

Okay, now you're getting better and better. You should have been a writer. You could probably come up with a story or two about any of the Star Trek series!