Oops, sorry. I got mixed up: I was thinking of the episode where the ship's being attacked and all Archer cares about is discovering Malcolm's favourite food in time for his birthday (please tell me that one happened?).
That was the ep I stopped watching ENT at. It was just too damn boring. My boredom was enhanced however by it being aired here at 11pm or later, often not at the time advertised, with tons of sex phone line commercials and always bumped in favor of sports. It was hard to watch it and the search for Malcolm's favorite food for his birthday wasn't doing it any favors.
BUT I WAS WRONG OH SO SO SO SO WRONG.
I eventually d/l'ed it all (don't panic watchers-over-us, I have purchased it on dvd now) and watched it at my leisure. I almost cried at how good some of it was.. I felt so privileged to be watching NEW TREK after a 30 year fandom and so bad that I had once actually dissed it. I loved it.
And even that episode I'm perfectly okay about now. I don't even find it boring. Tame, mild, meh-ish but certainly no travesty. As I recall there were a few good Phlox scenes? And having become a Reed fan later on in the series, especially after that
I now find the scenes with his very weird and distanced parents to be quite cool. Lovely bit of background and all that.