Colonel Kira's Left Tit
Bearded Belly of Bajor
I'm thinking that Enterprise is a lot better than I remember, especially considering what's come after. I was just sort of having a case of burnout when it was on and wasn't paying much attention.
Wacky Reviews: Star Trek
- Thread starter CaptainWacky
- Start date
I'm thinking that Enterprise is a lot better than I remember, especially considering what's come after. I was just sort of having a case of burnout when it was on and wasn't paying much attention.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Countdown - The Reptilians have Hoshi and want her to decrypt the weapon's launch codes. Reed tells Hayes about Hawkins being killed by big robot arms. Archer has allies in Black Degra and Sloth Guy. It's hard to care about these nameless guys. We get the "T'Pol has emotions" bit we get in every episode. Hoshi spits on Dolim before she's inserted with mind worms. Archer asks to talk to the Aquatics to win them over to his side. They're slow to answer, because they're obviously based on the Ents. The Aquatics are able to speak in English now, at least. Archer points out that the sphere are turning the expanse into a "transdimensional wasteland" and the Aquatics finally start listening. Hoshi continues to resist the reptiles despite being brain wormed and even tries to throw herself to her death to stop them using her. Trip and T'Pol bicker but she calls him "Trip" when he tries to leave and apologises for being so damn emotional. Dolim argues with the Female Guardian as he wants the Reptilians to be in control of all the Xindi now. Black Degra promises that there will be peace between human and Xindi once the weapon is destroyed.
The Aquatics finally agree to help the Enterprise intercept the weapon, in exchange for Enterprise disabling the spheres. Hoshi is brain squished enough to decrypt the final launch code. Reed wants to be part of the MACO plan to rescue Hoshi as she's a friend. This rubs Hayes the wrong way as he can't help but think that Hawkins would have lived if Hayes had been on the mission. Reed's voice cracks as he says Hawkins was his responsibility. Hayes is satisfied and says they're all friends now. He's obviously going to die! Archer. Trip and T'Pol have dinner and T'Pol admits she's considering joining Starfleet. Enterprise and the good Xindi get into a fight with the weapon and the bad Xindi. Hayes and the MACOs beam over to rescue Hoshi. The Guardians shoot anomalies out of a sphere to help the bad Xindi. An Aquatic ship is destroyed and water comes flying out of it in a cool bit. The transporter's offline so Hayes and Hoshi can't beam over. Hayes heroically has everyone else beamed over before him once the transporter's up and ends up getting shot. The bad Xindi open a vortex and take their weapon to Earth. Hayes dies in Sickbay with Reed at this bedside. I remember at the time a lot of people on TrekBBS thought they were supposed to be IN LOVE but they weren't allowed to show it on screen. T'Pol and Trip have a plan to disabled "Sphere 41" which will conveniently disable them all. Reed makes a speech in front of the MACOs telling them what happened to Hayes. Where are Daniel Dae Kim and the one who was hot for Trip? Archer needs Hoshi with him on his weapon destroying mission even though Phlox warns she could die. The insectoids realise Dolim is a lying scumbag so he kills them (the insectoids feel like a total after thought.)
The three part Xindi focused story before E Squared was good because of the story it told with the Enterprise characters: Archer pushed to the limits and forced to steal from Damar, Trip finally dealing with his grief, T'Pol struggling with her drug addiction. It wasn't good because of the Xindi themselves, as they're just not that interesting. And now that Degra's dead we're left with the totally evil Dolim and...two good guys who don't even have names. The Guardians are lame too. This is a good enough action episode with some big plot developments, and Hoshi gets some good stuff, but it feels pretty empty compared to the previous three parter.
SCORE: 7/10
Zero Hour - The Reptilians have a toast "to evil" with LIVE MICE instead of drinks. Really. The Guardians have another boring conversation in their Prophet-like white space and decide to hit Enterprise with more anomalies. Original! T'Pol and Phlox come up with a way to get through the anomalies. Archer, in Degra's ship, checks in on Hoshi who is having a rough time due to all the brain worms. Actually she's freaking out. He just shouts "pull yourself together" and stuff and somehow it works. Archer wants to go over to the weapon to disable it himself so Daniels (in his stupid rubber suit) pulls him to the future and shows Archer the founding of the Federation. He tells Archer to let Reed sacrifice himself instead so that Archer doesn't die. He says Reed and Hoshi aren't important to future history. WHAT ABOUT REED ALERT? There's more scene setting stuff with T'pol and Phlox then Archer and Hoshi. Dolim arrives at Earth. There's one (unarmed) orbital station around Earth and nothing else. Seems like there should be more? Enterprise flies through the super anomalies and Trip notices he's getting ill. Dolim blows up that one space station. I've made up my mind about Dolim now: he's evil! Guardians beam over to Enterprise and start fucking things up.
Shrane just shows up out of nowhere to help Archer as Degra's ship is no match for the Reptilians. Shran says Archer owes him one now. Archer and Hoshi beam over to the weapon as she's figured out how to disarm it. Some random MACO gets a fight scene with a Reptilian and dies, but then Reed kills the Reptilian. The stuff on Enterprise is still pretty boring: the anomaly's about to kill everyone but Trip manages to disable the Sphere in time. The whole sphere network is destroyed. Archer orders everyone else off the weapon while he stays around to blow it up. Dolim shows up to kick shit out of Archer. Shran blows up Dolim's ship. Archer plants a mine on Dolim's back then remotely detonates it to blow him up in a pretty cool moment. Then Archer slow motion runs away from an explosion to spoil the coolness. T'Pol and Trip bicker over their flaky anomaly sin and T'Pol finally reveals that she's 65 (so no she wasn't her own grandmother in 'Carbon Creek' if you somehow thought that was possible.) Enterprise meets up with Reed and learns that Archer got blown up real good. A huge Aquatic ship swallows up Enterprise to take them home. Black Degra does his usual "there will be peace now!" thing as that's all his character is for. Porthos is sad because Archer died. Enterprise arrives at Earth and everyone's happy to see it. But...there's on Starfleet. HOW STRANGE. No orbital platforms. They've obviously gone back in time I've seen enough Star Trek to understand this. Were the Aquatics taken back in time too? How come they didn't notice? Trip and Travis take a shuttle down but are shot at by World War 2 fighter planes. Archer is alive and in a Nazi field hospital...with a NAZI ALIEN YESSSSS.
It's just all pretty dumb? The climax of a season long arc and it's basically just "blow two things up." The sphere and the weapon. The stuff with the Enterprise flying through yet another anomaly is pretty dull. What happens to the Guardians? They just disappear I guess. The Archer stuff is a little better but it's basically just a lot of shooting then a fake Archer death. Why is Daniels SO WORRIED about Archer dying when he can just pluck Archer out of the timeline whenever he wants? Why is there an ALIEN NAZI at the end? It's pretty stupid! It's an entertaining episode but man it's dumb.
SCORE: 6.5/10
The Aquatics finally agree to help the Enterprise intercept the weapon, in exchange for Enterprise disabling the spheres. Hoshi is brain squished enough to decrypt the final launch code. Reed wants to be part of the MACO plan to rescue Hoshi as she's a friend. This rubs Hayes the wrong way as he can't help but think that Hawkins would have lived if Hayes had been on the mission. Reed's voice cracks as he says Hawkins was his responsibility. Hayes is satisfied and says they're all friends now. He's obviously going to die! Archer. Trip and T'Pol have dinner and T'Pol admits she's considering joining Starfleet. Enterprise and the good Xindi get into a fight with the weapon and the bad Xindi. Hayes and the MACOs beam over to rescue Hoshi. The Guardians shoot anomalies out of a sphere to help the bad Xindi. An Aquatic ship is destroyed and water comes flying out of it in a cool bit. The transporter's offline so Hayes and Hoshi can't beam over. Hayes heroically has everyone else beamed over before him once the transporter's up and ends up getting shot. The bad Xindi open a vortex and take their weapon to Earth. Hayes dies in Sickbay with Reed at this bedside. I remember at the time a lot of people on TrekBBS thought they were supposed to be IN LOVE but they weren't allowed to show it on screen. T'Pol and Trip have a plan to disabled "Sphere 41" which will conveniently disable them all. Reed makes a speech in front of the MACOs telling them what happened to Hayes. Where are Daniel Dae Kim and the one who was hot for Trip? Archer needs Hoshi with him on his weapon destroying mission even though Phlox warns she could die. The insectoids realise Dolim is a lying scumbag so he kills them (the insectoids feel like a total after thought.)
The three part Xindi focused story before E Squared was good because of the story it told with the Enterprise characters: Archer pushed to the limits and forced to steal from Damar, Trip finally dealing with his grief, T'Pol struggling with her drug addiction. It wasn't good because of the Xindi themselves, as they're just not that interesting. And now that Degra's dead we're left with the totally evil Dolim and...two good guys who don't even have names. The Guardians are lame too. This is a good enough action episode with some big plot developments, and Hoshi gets some good stuff, but it feels pretty empty compared to the previous three parter.
SCORE: 7/10
Zero Hour - The Reptilians have a toast "to evil" with LIVE MICE instead of drinks. Really. The Guardians have another boring conversation in their Prophet-like white space and decide to hit Enterprise with more anomalies. Original! T'Pol and Phlox come up with a way to get through the anomalies. Archer, in Degra's ship, checks in on Hoshi who is having a rough time due to all the brain worms. Actually she's freaking out. He just shouts "pull yourself together" and stuff and somehow it works. Archer wants to go over to the weapon to disable it himself so Daniels (in his stupid rubber suit) pulls him to the future and shows Archer the founding of the Federation. He tells Archer to let Reed sacrifice himself instead so that Archer doesn't die. He says Reed and Hoshi aren't important to future history. WHAT ABOUT REED ALERT? There's more scene setting stuff with T'pol and Phlox then Archer and Hoshi. Dolim arrives at Earth. There's one (unarmed) orbital station around Earth and nothing else. Seems like there should be more? Enterprise flies through the super anomalies and Trip notices he's getting ill. Dolim blows up that one space station. I've made up my mind about Dolim now: he's evil! Guardians beam over to Enterprise and start fucking things up.
Shrane just shows up out of nowhere to help Archer as Degra's ship is no match for the Reptilians. Shran says Archer owes him one now. Archer and Hoshi beam over to the weapon as she's figured out how to disarm it. Some random MACO gets a fight scene with a Reptilian and dies, but then Reed kills the Reptilian. The stuff on Enterprise is still pretty boring: the anomaly's about to kill everyone but Trip manages to disable the Sphere in time. The whole sphere network is destroyed. Archer orders everyone else off the weapon while he stays around to blow it up. Dolim shows up to kick shit out of Archer. Shran blows up Dolim's ship. Archer plants a mine on Dolim's back then remotely detonates it to blow him up in a pretty cool moment. Then Archer slow motion runs away from an explosion to spoil the coolness. T'Pol and Trip bicker over their flaky anomaly sin and T'Pol finally reveals that she's 65 (so no she wasn't her own grandmother in 'Carbon Creek' if you somehow thought that was possible.) Enterprise meets up with Reed and learns that Archer got blown up real good. A huge Aquatic ship swallows up Enterprise to take them home. Black Degra does his usual "there will be peace now!" thing as that's all his character is for. Porthos is sad because Archer died. Enterprise arrives at Earth and everyone's happy to see it. But...there's on Starfleet. HOW STRANGE. No orbital platforms. They've obviously gone back in time I've seen enough Star Trek to understand this. Were the Aquatics taken back in time too? How come they didn't notice? Trip and Travis take a shuttle down but are shot at by World War 2 fighter planes. Archer is alive and in a Nazi field hospital...with a NAZI ALIEN YESSSSS.
It's just all pretty dumb? The climax of a season long arc and it's basically just "blow two things up." The sphere and the weapon. The stuff with the Enterprise flying through yet another anomaly is pretty dull. What happens to the Guardians? They just disappear I guess. The Archer stuff is a little better but it's basically just a lot of shooting then a fake Archer death. Why is Daniels SO WORRIED about Archer dying when he can just pluck Archer out of the timeline whenever he wants? Why is there an ALIEN NAZI at the end? It's pretty stupid! It's an entertaining episode but man it's dumb.
SCORE: 6.5/10
SAUSAGEMAN
Registered User
it's so dumb.....
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
THE GOOD SEASON BEGINS
Storm Front: Part 1 - Trip and Travis run away from the planes. Archer's being driven somewhere by Nazis when they're ambushed by resistance fighters in MAFIA HATS. The Enterprise crew listen to a speech by Churchill and Trip yells at T'Pol he doesn't want to hear that time travel in impossible. Silik is sneaking around on the Enterprise because Silik was in season 4 apparently. The alien Nazi leader tells his subordinates that they must find Archer. Trip apologises to T'Pol. Daniels staggers into Sickbay, looking weird! Archer is woken by a woman named Alisha and learns he's in Brooklyn. Phlox discovers that parts of Daniels' body are in different timezones from each other, or something. In the White House, with Nazi flags draped all over it (no comment), alien Nazi shows a regular Nazi film reel of advanced weapons and asks for more resources in exchange. Regular Nazi isn't happy but Alien Nazi offers a plague that will wipe out all non whites too. The mobsters show up at Alisha's house and are mad that one of their own has been taken prisoner by Nazis looking for Archer. Daniels is dying but wakes up to tell T'Pol and Plox that the Temporal Cold War has turned into an all out war and all the sides are trying to change history and it's all a big mess of crap.
Archer asks Alisha about the alien Nazi and she admits she's heard of him. Silik sticks up Trip and they have a fight. Silik wins by going all bendy and stunning Trip, then steals a shuttle. Archers and Alisha are hassled by Nazis who wants to know if he "likes Negroes." The mob takes Archer and Alisha to a guy who has information on the alien Nazis. He arranges a meeting with an alien. Trip and Travis arrive on Earth. They find the shuttle but not Silik. Sal the mobster shoots the alien in the hand and he tells Archer that his people are trapped in the past and are helping the Nazis so the Nazis will help them get home. That old story! Sal executes him. Archer and his Italian American friends are attacked by Nazis and Sal dies (we hardly knew ye!) Nazis find the shuttle but Trip and Travis have set it to blow up. Archer calls the Enterprise on the alien's communicator and T'Pol is obviously happy to hear from him. Vosk (the Nazi alien) arrives just as Archer and Alisha are beamed up to the Enterprise. Hoshi hugs Archer and it's nice. Archer talks to Daniels, who tells him about Vosk, the leader of the most dangerous faction in the Cold War. Sorry, Futurue Guy! Vosk beat Earth in the future, but Daniels says if Archer wins here the war will never happen, which is lucky. Vosk has captured Trip and Travis. Vosk looks at his temporal conduit thing which has Nazi banners hanging above it to remind you that it's an EVIL temporal conduit thing.
It's all very silly but at least it's not boring. Everything moves at a fast pace, Archer and Alisha's interactions are fairly good, Vosk has a good evil voice and there's lots of shooting. Of course the Temporal Cold War is a mess that new showrunner Manny Coto has inherited Berman and Braga and he doesn't manage to make any more sense of it than they did. Why is Daniels a weird time displaced Frankenstein thing? Who knows! I just can't say it was bad though because it was actually a fine silly tv episode.
SCORE: 6/10
Storm Front: Part 2 - The episode begins with a newsreel showing Hitler(!) arrive in New York City to cheering crowds and making a speech about making America great again (no I'm not making a current day political comment, this is literally what he says.) This is a pretty great intro! Vosk continues to clash with his Nazi ally and makes a speech about how his race controls entire world and could erase the Nazis from history. Archer tells Alisha about how humanity has eliminated war in the future but sometimes they still fight aliens. Yeah this is a bit like the scenes between Picard and Lily. Vosk's people are still struggling to get their conduit thing working. Reed reports earlier changes to the timeline, such as Lenin being assassinated in 1916. But stopping Vosk will apparntly fix this too because of trime travel reasons. Vosk calls Archer and says he'll return Trip and Travis if Archer meets with him on Earth. They have a talk in a forest and Trip and Travis are sent home. Vosk says Archer has only heard one side of the story and actually Daniels is the bad guy, manipulating the timeline to serve his own needs. Vosk believes that time travel should be used for the benefit of all. Seems reasonable! He offers to fix the changes to the timeline and send Archer home. All he needs is the resources from Archer's ship. Archer suddenly lunges for Trip back in Sickbay, because it's actually Silik disguised as Trip! Alisha's mobster friend asks her to tell him everything about Archer.
Archer has found a floppy disk with information on Vosk's facility on Silik's person. He thinks Future Guy wants to use Vosk's technology to time travel and he send Vosk to get data on it. Archer chokes Silik wanting to know where Trip is and Silik notes Archr'rs changed. Trip is tied up in Vosk's base. Archer turns down Vosk's offer and Vosk fires at him with a big Nazi space laser. Archer fires back but the time conduit thing is shielded. Silik agrees to help Archer save Trip and blow up Vosk's facility. Silik disguises himself as a human and tells Archer that Vosk once tried to erase the Suliban from existence but Daniels saved them. Archer meets up with Alisha and the nice gangster. Vosk makes an evil speech while Trip hides behind a box. The mob launch an attack on the Nazis while Archer and Silik break into Vosk's facility. Alisha shows up with some other guys and shoots more Nazis. Silik proves himself to Archer by killing some Nazis but then Silik is shot and DIES. His last words are "Future Guy was just some Romulan." Archer runs into Trip, who thinks Archer is Silik in disugise until he sees Silik's dead body. Enterprise enters Earth's atmosphere to bom the facility after Archer gets the shields down. German diverbombers equiped with Vosk's weapons attack the Enterrpise over New York City and, if nothing else, this is a very impressive special effects sequence. The Enterprise blows up Vosk's facility and he says "NOOOOO!" as he dies. Daniels, normal again, appears to Archer and tells him none of the damage Vosk caused happened now. Archer says he wants nothing to do with the Termporal Cold War and Daniels says it's coming to an end anyway. Why? Why would all the other factions stop just because Vosk died? Is Silik still dead if none of this happened or does he just wake up alive in the future? Enterprise is returned to the future and everyone is very happy to see their Earth again. A load of Earth and Vulcan ships show up to fly Enterprise home.
It's about the same as part 1. It's about as good as this story could be, really. Again it's all very stupid, you can tell Coto just wants to get rid of Daniels and the TCW at the end, but I found it fairly decent to watch. Sorry!
SCORE: 6/10
Storm Front: Part 1 - Trip and Travis run away from the planes. Archer's being driven somewhere by Nazis when they're ambushed by resistance fighters in MAFIA HATS. The Enterprise crew listen to a speech by Churchill and Trip yells at T'Pol he doesn't want to hear that time travel in impossible. Silik is sneaking around on the Enterprise because Silik was in season 4 apparently. The alien Nazi leader tells his subordinates that they must find Archer. Trip apologises to T'Pol. Daniels staggers into Sickbay, looking weird! Archer is woken by a woman named Alisha and learns he's in Brooklyn. Phlox discovers that parts of Daniels' body are in different timezones from each other, or something. In the White House, with Nazi flags draped all over it (no comment), alien Nazi shows a regular Nazi film reel of advanced weapons and asks for more resources in exchange. Regular Nazi isn't happy but Alien Nazi offers a plague that will wipe out all non whites too. The mobsters show up at Alisha's house and are mad that one of their own has been taken prisoner by Nazis looking for Archer. Daniels is dying but wakes up to tell T'Pol and Plox that the Temporal Cold War has turned into an all out war and all the sides are trying to change history and it's all a big mess of crap.
Archer asks Alisha about the alien Nazi and she admits she's heard of him. Silik sticks up Trip and they have a fight. Silik wins by going all bendy and stunning Trip, then steals a shuttle. Archers and Alisha are hassled by Nazis who wants to know if he "likes Negroes." The mob takes Archer and Alisha to a guy who has information on the alien Nazis. He arranges a meeting with an alien. Trip and Travis arrive on Earth. They find the shuttle but not Silik. Sal the mobster shoots the alien in the hand and he tells Archer that his people are trapped in the past and are helping the Nazis so the Nazis will help them get home. That old story! Sal executes him. Archer and his Italian American friends are attacked by Nazis and Sal dies (we hardly knew ye!) Nazis find the shuttle but Trip and Travis have set it to blow up. Archer calls the Enterprise on the alien's communicator and T'Pol is obviously happy to hear from him. Vosk (the Nazi alien) arrives just as Archer and Alisha are beamed up to the Enterprise. Hoshi hugs Archer and it's nice. Archer talks to Daniels, who tells him about Vosk, the leader of the most dangerous faction in the Cold War. Sorry, Futurue Guy! Vosk beat Earth in the future, but Daniels says if Archer wins here the war will never happen, which is lucky. Vosk has captured Trip and Travis. Vosk looks at his temporal conduit thing which has Nazi banners hanging above it to remind you that it's an EVIL temporal conduit thing.
It's all very silly but at least it's not boring. Everything moves at a fast pace, Archer and Alisha's interactions are fairly good, Vosk has a good evil voice and there's lots of shooting. Of course the Temporal Cold War is a mess that new showrunner Manny Coto has inherited Berman and Braga and he doesn't manage to make any more sense of it than they did. Why is Daniels a weird time displaced Frankenstein thing? Who knows! I just can't say it was bad though because it was actually a fine silly tv episode.
SCORE: 6/10
Storm Front: Part 2 - The episode begins with a newsreel showing Hitler(!) arrive in New York City to cheering crowds and making a speech about making America great again (no I'm not making a current day political comment, this is literally what he says.) This is a pretty great intro! Vosk continues to clash with his Nazi ally and makes a speech about how his race controls entire world and could erase the Nazis from history. Archer tells Alisha about how humanity has eliminated war in the future but sometimes they still fight aliens. Yeah this is a bit like the scenes between Picard and Lily. Vosk's people are still struggling to get their conduit thing working. Reed reports earlier changes to the timeline, such as Lenin being assassinated in 1916. But stopping Vosk will apparntly fix this too because of trime travel reasons. Vosk calls Archer and says he'll return Trip and Travis if Archer meets with him on Earth. They have a talk in a forest and Trip and Travis are sent home. Vosk says Archer has only heard one side of the story and actually Daniels is the bad guy, manipulating the timeline to serve his own needs. Vosk believes that time travel should be used for the benefit of all. Seems reasonable! He offers to fix the changes to the timeline and send Archer home. All he needs is the resources from Archer's ship. Archer suddenly lunges for Trip back in Sickbay, because it's actually Silik disguised as Trip! Alisha's mobster friend asks her to tell him everything about Archer.
Archer has found a floppy disk with information on Vosk's facility on Silik's person. He thinks Future Guy wants to use Vosk's technology to time travel and he send Vosk to get data on it. Archer chokes Silik wanting to know where Trip is and Silik notes Archr'rs changed. Trip is tied up in Vosk's base. Archer turns down Vosk's offer and Vosk fires at him with a big Nazi space laser. Archer fires back but the time conduit thing is shielded. Silik agrees to help Archer save Trip and blow up Vosk's facility. Silik disguises himself as a human and tells Archer that Vosk once tried to erase the Suliban from existence but Daniels saved them. Archer meets up with Alisha and the nice gangster. Vosk makes an evil speech while Trip hides behind a box. The mob launch an attack on the Nazis while Archer and Silik break into Vosk's facility. Alisha shows up with some other guys and shoots more Nazis. Silik proves himself to Archer by killing some Nazis but then Silik is shot and DIES. His last words are "Future Guy was just some Romulan." Archer runs into Trip, who thinks Archer is Silik in disugise until he sees Silik's dead body. Enterprise enters Earth's atmosphere to bom the facility after Archer gets the shields down. German diverbombers equiped with Vosk's weapons attack the Enterrpise over New York City and, if nothing else, this is a very impressive special effects sequence. The Enterprise blows up Vosk's facility and he says "NOOOOO!" as he dies. Daniels, normal again, appears to Archer and tells him none of the damage Vosk caused happened now. Archer says he wants nothing to do with the Termporal Cold War and Daniels says it's coming to an end anyway. Why? Why would all the other factions stop just because Vosk died? Is Silik still dead if none of this happened or does he just wake up alive in the future? Enterprise is returned to the future and everyone is very happy to see their Earth again. A load of Earth and Vulcan ships show up to fly Enterprise home.
It's about the same as part 1. It's about as good as this story could be, really. Again it's all very stupid, you can tell Coto just wants to get rid of Daniels and the TCW at the end, but I found it fairly decent to watch. Sorry!
SCORE: 6/10
The Question
Eternal
I thought this episode should have ended the way more than one TOS episode did -- with Archer (the Kirk stand-in) and Trip (the McCoy stand-in) just on the bridge chuckling for an uncomfortably extended few seconds while the Vulcan just stands thre looking at them like they're retards.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Home - Archer makes a speech in front of a huge unconvincing CGI crowd. He wants everyone to remember the tweny seven crewmen (and MACOs, right Archer?) who didn't make it back. A woman appraoches Archer at a bar and he congratulates her on her promotion to Captain (as well as asking her if she's seen any good movies lately, "another World War 3 epic" she replies in a CUTE LINE.) T'Pol invites Trip to come to Vulcan with her and visit her mother. Archer visits the USS Columbia (the second NX class ship), which is nearly complete, with Captain Hernandez (the woman.) Archer is debriefed by Starfleet and the Vulcans. Soval is back to being a dick and asks Archer why he let all those Vulcan zombies die in the Delphic Expanse. Because they were zombies, maybe? Archer hits back by saying the Vulcans tried to sabotage the mission and he got more help from the Andorians than he's over had from them. Forrest tells Archer to take a break. Reed warns Phlox that there's been outbreak of xenophobia on Earth since the Xindi attack. Archer goes rock climbinb and Hernandez shows up. Trip and T'Pol arrive on Vulcan and meet her mother T'Les. She reveals she's no longer a teacher at the Science Academy and presents T'Pol with a letter from Koss, the man she was previously arranged to marry. Archer and Hernandez climb rocks and he reccomends she bring some MACOs with her because she'll be seeing a lot of combat on the Columbia. T'Pol and T'Les have a frosty breakfast where T'Pol tells her mother that she's joining Starfleet rather thant he High Command.
Phlox, Reed and Travis have a drink in a bar. A RACIST human (who also happens to be a bad actor) approaches them and suggests Phlox drink somewhere else. A fight breaks out and Phlox puffs his face up like a pufferfish to scare the racists away. This scene is a miss. T'Les reveals to Trip that she knows he and T'Pol are romantically involved. She actually seems okay with Trip, but then Koss shows up. Koss still wants to marry T'Pol. She tells him she's been ill lately but he isn't put off. He says even if it comes to a fight to the death against Trip he'll do it. That's extreme! He tells her that T'Les was actually forced to step down from the Science Academy and he can help her get her job back. He wants T'Pol to stay with him for a year and she'll be free to join Starfleet after that. Archer and Hernandez look at the stars and Archer wonders if if the Vulcans were right and maybe humans should have stayed at home. He think that humans "stirring up trouble" is partly why the Xindi attacked them (it's not though!) He's just feeling bitter after all the deaths. T'Les reveals she was forced out of the Academy after the P'Jem incident, in other words the High Command were mad at T'Pol and took it out on her mother. Archer has a dream where he's attack by Reptillians. He tells Hernandez he came out here to get away from people congratulating him on saving Earth. He still feels guilty for torturing that guy and stealing Damar's warp core. Hernandez kisses him and says she can help him find what he's lost. T'Pol takes Trip to see some big statues and tells him she's agreed to marry Koss. Koss's family have agreed to allow T'Pol to remain on Enterprise for now. Okay, what does Koss get out of this marriage, exactly? Trip storms off. Hernandez asks Archer why they ever stopped seeing each other (because he was her superior officer) and they kiss some more. Hoshi invites Phlox to join the crew for dinner on Earth but Phlox doesn't want to go because of the racists. Archer apologises to Soval, who tells him he now realises he was wrong to oppose Archer's Captaincy of the Enterprise and thanks him for saving everyone from the Sphere Builders. T'Les asks Trip if he's told T'Pol he's in love with her. Trip says he didn't want to influence T'Pol's decision to marry. T'Les is impressed by how noble he is. They both attend the ceremony and they use the same liens from 'Amok Time' so that's nice!
It's a bit like TNG's 'Family' and it's good to see Enterprise slowing down and doing a character episode after all the Xindi and Nazi action. The T'Pol/Trip story is the most successful part. I'm still not entirely sure why Koss wants to marry her when she's just going to go off on a spaceship, maybe we find out later. The Archer stuff is decent. Not as good as Picard's breakdown in 'Family' but it's good to see Archer have a moment of reflection after a crazy season of extremes. The Phlox stuff falls flat for me. The idea is fine, I can believe that some humans would become xenophobic after the Xindi attack. It's the execution that ruins it: just having a racist guy in a bar come up to Phlox and be racist is the most lazy way possible to do the story. Anyway, overall it's a good episode I liked it.
SCORE: 8/10
Borderland - It's J.G. Hertzler playing a Klingon again! Great, I love that guy! Two humans wearing ripped clothes are taken prisoner by him, but they do lots of flippy jumps, beat up the Klingons and...kill Hertzler? Why the fuck did they cast him just for that? "BIG SHOW" is a credited guest star and I laugh out loud at them using that like it's his real name. Archer goes to visit Arik Soong (Brent Spiner, also a notable guest star, I suppose) in prison. He's in prison for stealing "augments" twenty years ago, leftovers from the Eugenics Wars. It's those augments who have now stolen the Klingon Bird of Prey. The Klingon ship was stolen in the "borderland", the area of space between the Klingon Empire and Orion controlled space, somewhere where Soong spent a lot of time. Okay, but why do all the augments wear ripped clothes? The Augment leader Raakin is mad at Malik for stealing the Bird of Prey against his orders. There's also a sexy lady augment Persis who seems to be Raakin's girlfriend but was flirting with Malik a bit. Soong is brought on the newly refitted Enterprise. It has a new Captain's chair. Everything's bluer. T'Pol now wears Starfleet Commander rank pips and Archer presents her with a compass. Phlox and Soong work together. Phlox is fine with genetic engineering but what with redesigning a whole species and repeating the mistakes of the Eugenics Wars. Orions attack the Enterprise and beam nine crewmembers (including T'Pol) away before flying off. Soong knows about the Orions (shouldn't Archer?) and says the nine will be sold into slavery. He can get Archer into the Orion auction market. Persis and Malik do some aggressive kissing. Big Show (as an Orion) sticks T'Pol in a cage with a really nervous (slightly annoying) Ensign.
Soong's codes get he and Archer into the slave market. T'Pol is brought out for the auction and Big Show holds her up like a doll and laughs evily. I like this. She sells for more than his last wife! An Orion slave girl is next to be auctioned and Soong tells Archer of their "innate skills." Persis tells Raakin that Malik is plotting against him. Nervous Ensign is put up for sale next and Big Show warns he'll sell him as food if no one wants him. Archer buys him and Phlox removes the restraining bolt on his neck. Raakim and Malik face off. Persis and others side with Malik, who says he's the strongest. Malik murders Raakim. Archer is now able to disable the restraining bolts in the necks of all the slaves and a slave revolution breaks out. Soong then tases Archer and runs off. T'Pol kicks Big Show in the balls and everyone is beamed away but Soong, who disables his own transponder with his shock stick. But Archer chases Soong and recaptures him. It was all a plan by Soong to escape, he knew what the Orions would do. He just wanted to get to his baby Augments. He uses the fact that Archer's father sufferent from one of those made-up future diseases to argue that his Augments could have cured him. T'Pol assures Trip that she didn't sleep with Koss. Orions attack Enterprise, wanting their slaves back. The Augment Bird of Prey shows up and saves Enterprise. Archer lets them dock, which doesn't seem wise! Malik wants to speak to Soong in exchange for saving them. He says the Augments don't care about humanity because they have surpassed it then attacks Archer, easily getting a hand around his neck. Persis and the others take out the MACOs (yes there's still MACOs in season four! They just never speak!) and break Soong out. Soong and his kids leave (Soong does tell Malik to let Archer go.) Archer tells the Augments that thousands of their brothers and sister are waiting to be born.
It's the start of a three episode arc, so it's pretty slow paced. That isn't a bad thing really as it gives them more time to develop the story and characters. Brent Spiner does a good job playing Soong as an arrogant asshole who isn't exactly evil. The guy playing Malik is reasonably good though I still wonder about the ripped clothing. You could say all the Orion stuff is a pointless diversion, and maybe it is, but it's fun! The slave market feels scary and I love Big Show as the cartoony Orion bad guy. A very good start to the arc.
SCORE: 8.5/10
Phlox, Reed and Travis have a drink in a bar. A RACIST human (who also happens to be a bad actor) approaches them and suggests Phlox drink somewhere else. A fight breaks out and Phlox puffs his face up like a pufferfish to scare the racists away. This scene is a miss. T'Les reveals to Trip that she knows he and T'Pol are romantically involved. She actually seems okay with Trip, but then Koss shows up. Koss still wants to marry T'Pol. She tells him she's been ill lately but he isn't put off. He says even if it comes to a fight to the death against Trip he'll do it. That's extreme! He tells her that T'Les was actually forced to step down from the Science Academy and he can help her get her job back. He wants T'Pol to stay with him for a year and she'll be free to join Starfleet after that. Archer and Hernandez look at the stars and Archer wonders if if the Vulcans were right and maybe humans should have stayed at home. He think that humans "stirring up trouble" is partly why the Xindi attacked them (it's not though!) He's just feeling bitter after all the deaths. T'Les reveals she was forced out of the Academy after the P'Jem incident, in other words the High Command were mad at T'Pol and took it out on her mother. Archer has a dream where he's attack by Reptillians. He tells Hernandez he came out here to get away from people congratulating him on saving Earth. He still feels guilty for torturing that guy and stealing Damar's warp core. Hernandez kisses him and says she can help him find what he's lost. T'Pol takes Trip to see some big statues and tells him she's agreed to marry Koss. Koss's family have agreed to allow T'Pol to remain on Enterprise for now. Okay, what does Koss get out of this marriage, exactly? Trip storms off. Hernandez asks Archer why they ever stopped seeing each other (because he was her superior officer) and they kiss some more. Hoshi invites Phlox to join the crew for dinner on Earth but Phlox doesn't want to go because of the racists. Archer apologises to Soval, who tells him he now realises he was wrong to oppose Archer's Captaincy of the Enterprise and thanks him for saving everyone from the Sphere Builders. T'Les asks Trip if he's told T'Pol he's in love with her. Trip says he didn't want to influence T'Pol's decision to marry. T'Les is impressed by how noble he is. They both attend the ceremony and they use the same liens from 'Amok Time' so that's nice!
It's a bit like TNG's 'Family' and it's good to see Enterprise slowing down and doing a character episode after all the Xindi and Nazi action. The T'Pol/Trip story is the most successful part. I'm still not entirely sure why Koss wants to marry her when she's just going to go off on a spaceship, maybe we find out later. The Archer stuff is decent. Not as good as Picard's breakdown in 'Family' but it's good to see Archer have a moment of reflection after a crazy season of extremes. The Phlox stuff falls flat for me. The idea is fine, I can believe that some humans would become xenophobic after the Xindi attack. It's the execution that ruins it: just having a racist guy in a bar come up to Phlox and be racist is the most lazy way possible to do the story. Anyway, overall it's a good episode I liked it.
SCORE: 8/10
Borderland - It's J.G. Hertzler playing a Klingon again! Great, I love that guy! Two humans wearing ripped clothes are taken prisoner by him, but they do lots of flippy jumps, beat up the Klingons and...kill Hertzler? Why the fuck did they cast him just for that? "BIG SHOW" is a credited guest star and I laugh out loud at them using that like it's his real name. Archer goes to visit Arik Soong (Brent Spiner, also a notable guest star, I suppose) in prison. He's in prison for stealing "augments" twenty years ago, leftovers from the Eugenics Wars. It's those augments who have now stolen the Klingon Bird of Prey. The Klingon ship was stolen in the "borderland", the area of space between the Klingon Empire and Orion controlled space, somewhere where Soong spent a lot of time. Okay, but why do all the augments wear ripped clothes? The Augment leader Raakin is mad at Malik for stealing the Bird of Prey against his orders. There's also a sexy lady augment Persis who seems to be Raakin's girlfriend but was flirting with Malik a bit. Soong is brought on the newly refitted Enterprise. It has a new Captain's chair. Everything's bluer. T'Pol now wears Starfleet Commander rank pips and Archer presents her with a compass. Phlox and Soong work together. Phlox is fine with genetic engineering but what with redesigning a whole species and repeating the mistakes of the Eugenics Wars. Orions attack the Enterprise and beam nine crewmembers (including T'Pol) away before flying off. Soong knows about the Orions (shouldn't Archer?) and says the nine will be sold into slavery. He can get Archer into the Orion auction market. Persis and Malik do some aggressive kissing. Big Show (as an Orion) sticks T'Pol in a cage with a really nervous (slightly annoying) Ensign.
Soong's codes get he and Archer into the slave market. T'Pol is brought out for the auction and Big Show holds her up like a doll and laughs evily. I like this. She sells for more than his last wife! An Orion slave girl is next to be auctioned and Soong tells Archer of their "innate skills." Persis tells Raakin that Malik is plotting against him. Nervous Ensign is put up for sale next and Big Show warns he'll sell him as food if no one wants him. Archer buys him and Phlox removes the restraining bolt on his neck. Raakim and Malik face off. Persis and others side with Malik, who says he's the strongest. Malik murders Raakim. Archer is now able to disable the restraining bolts in the necks of all the slaves and a slave revolution breaks out. Soong then tases Archer and runs off. T'Pol kicks Big Show in the balls and everyone is beamed away but Soong, who disables his own transponder with his shock stick. But Archer chases Soong and recaptures him. It was all a plan by Soong to escape, he knew what the Orions would do. He just wanted to get to his baby Augments. He uses the fact that Archer's father sufferent from one of those made-up future diseases to argue that his Augments could have cured him. T'Pol assures Trip that she didn't sleep with Koss. Orions attack Enterprise, wanting their slaves back. The Augment Bird of Prey shows up and saves Enterprise. Archer lets them dock, which doesn't seem wise! Malik wants to speak to Soong in exchange for saving them. He says the Augments don't care about humanity because they have surpassed it then attacks Archer, easily getting a hand around his neck. Persis and the others take out the MACOs (yes there's still MACOs in season four! They just never speak!) and break Soong out. Soong and his kids leave (Soong does tell Malik to let Archer go.) Archer tells the Augments that thousands of their brothers and sister are waiting to be born.
It's the start of a three episode arc, so it's pretty slow paced. That isn't a bad thing really as it gives them more time to develop the story and characters. Brent Spiner does a good job playing Soong as an arrogant asshole who isn't exactly evil. The guy playing Malik is reasonably good though I still wonder about the ripped clothing. You could say all the Orion stuff is a pointless diversion, and maybe it is, but it's fun! The slave market feels scary and I love Big Show as the cartoony Orion bad guy. A very good start to the arc.
SCORE: 8.5/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Cold Station 12 - The episode starts with a flashback showing Soong teaching the young augments that they are the future. In the present day, Soong and the augments plan a raid on Cold Station 12. Malik suggests killing all the security, Soong says no one is to be killed. Archer, Trip and Reed investigate the planet where Soong raised the augments. Some guy with a knife is hiding in the shadows. He's another augment (complete with ripped clothes) but he just seems scared of the Enterprise crew and not all super smart and ass-kicking. Malik admits to Soong that he killed Raakim, but claims it was self defense and maniuplates Soong's fatherly feelings by crying. Archer learns that the augment they found is named Smike, he has no special abilities, and he was left behind because he'd slow the others down. Malik wonders if Soong should be leading them, while Persis is unhappy he's questioning their father. Archer works out Soong took a load of artificial wombs and is on his way to Cold Station 12 to collect the embryos of thousands of more augments. Archer infroms Phlox that Phlox's friend Doctor Lucas is serving on CS12. Soong and the augments hijack a Denobulan shuttle to get into CS12 and Persis beats up some Starfleet men. Lucas and other scientists are gassed. Archer has dinner with Smike and tries to win him around by telling him about his real parents. Smike got kicked out of the augment's house and has been living alone.
Archer and Phlox talk about the Eugenics Wars. Archer wonders why Earth couldn't make genetic engineering work the way the Denobulans have and if his father's life could have been saved. Lucas claims not to have the code to release the embryos to Soong, who believes him (Malik isn't as sure.) The Enterprise arrives and Soong threatens to kill Lucas with a Klingon disrupter if they get too close. Malik discovers that Lucas did lie about the code. The augments rought up Lucas but he won't give up the code. Malik suggests killing one of Lucas' co-workers with deadly pathogens to make him talk. Soong is against it. He locks another doctor in a chamber and tortures him with science. The Enterprise crew sneak onboard and Phlox cuts the oxygen to the room everyone's in. Lucas still won't give it up and Soong orders Malik to free the doctor. He doesn't do it in time and the guy dies. Archer, Smike and Phlox are captured by the augments as they noticed the oxygen being cut. Soong is surprised to see Smike as the others had told him Smike had died. Archer asks why Soong is so surprised that people who think they're better than everyone else would do something like that. Hoshi has hacked CS12 and Archer gives the order to self destruct it in order to destroy the embryos and the augments. But the augments also have super hacking skills and cancel the self destruct. The augment Bird of Prey (piloted by two black augments who were left on it...err?) attacks the Enterprise. Maliks realises Phlox and Lucas are friends and sticks Phlox in the pathogen chamber. Lucas instantly gives up the code, despite being willing to let the other guy die. I guess he just didn't like him. The augments have the embryos and Smike decides to stay behind rather than go with them. Soong and looks with awe at the unconvincing CGI embryos. Malik decides to steal a deadly pathogen too. Archer and Smike launch a surprise attack but Malik easily beats them up. Malik kills Smike and leaves Archer on the station set to self destruct. Archer climbs down a ladder to stop the destruct (that's the dramatic ending, Archer climbing down the ladder.)
It's another very good episode, more dramatic than the first. Spiner again gets some of the best material as he doesn't want to belive his children have grown up evil (even though it's pretty obvious, really!) The stuff with Lucas is good though I do wonder why he so quickly gives up as soon as Phlox is in danger (I guess it's because he saw the other guy die and knew the augments were really serious this time?) Anyway yeah it's about on the same level as part one.
SCORE: 8.5/10
The Augments - Archer stops the space station exploding (or whatever it was going to do, think it was actually somethign to do with pathogens) by getting himself blown into space and beamed to Sickbay. Soong is angry when Malik tells him Archer is dead. The augments pass into Klingon space so that Enterprise won't follow them. Reed suggests faking a Klingon warp signature. Soong reveals to the augments they're really heading to the Briar Patch (from Star Trek: Insurrection! And Soong came up with the name!) to raise the embryos. Malik brings up the Botany Bay and Khan (Soong says it's just a myth) and says Khan's mistake was running. In private, Soong tells Malik to stop challenging him. He reveals he's trying to modify the embryos to be less aggressive and violent, as he believes there's a defect in the augments. Malik argues they don't know it's a defect. Archer catches up with the Bird of Prey. Soong wants to run as the Enterprise outguns them. Soong drops the Denobulan shuttle pilot (who they had all along I guess) into a planets atomsophere to the Enterprise will be distracted by rescuing her. Malik suggests to Soong that they attack a Klingon planet with the pathogens he stole, starting a war between the Klingons and Starfleet. Soong is of course against this. Malik says Soong isn't the man who raised them. It should be pretty obvious to Soong by now where this is going. Things are still awkward between Trip and T'Pol but he says he's proud of her for what she did. Malik wants to know where Persis (who hasn't done much since part one) stands. He tells her how Soong has altered the embryos to be weaker. The augments mutiny against Soong and lock him up.
The Enterprise is approached by some real Klingons. Archer talks to them through a "translation matrix" pretending to be a Klingon Captain. This feels like a repeat of several scenes from several Star Treks but not as good as Archer isn't as amusing doing this type of stuff. Persis comes to see Soong and reveals she's really on his side. She gets him off the ship on an escape pod (but I thought Klingon ships didn't have escape pods...) Soong goes to the Enterprise. Archer doesn't trust him and thinks this could be some big evil plan. Soong tells him of the stolen viruses and what Malik plans to do. He admits Archer was right about the augments, but says maybe things would have been different if he'd raised them. Archer argues for nature over nurture. Malik tells Persis he knows she freed Soong. She stabs him but he's super strong and wins the fight, killing her. Some Klingons attack Enterprise because they know they're humans. They don't believe Archer about the augment plan because Klingons are dumb. This feels like a waste of time. Enterprise does use the grappler on them to win the fight so that's fun at least. Enterprise arrives at the Klingon planet the augments are attacking. They manage to shoot down the virus-filled torpedo the augments have launched. Soong helps Enterprise defeat the augments in a rather short fight. Malik recreates Khan injured on the Bridge from TWOK. He wants to self destruct and Soong tries to talk him out of it. The Bird of Prey blows up but Malik actually beamed over to Enterprise for one final confrontation with Soong. Archer shoots a hole through Malik's torso to kill him. This whole "Malik is alive!" bit feels anti-climactic. Archer visits Soong and tells him maybe one day they'll use his research to better humanity. Soong says perfecting humanity might not be possible BUT MAYBE CYBERNETICS ARE THE FUTURE. AND MAYBE IT'LL TAKE A GENERATION OR TWO TO PERFECT IT. Okay, I think we get the reference.
It's not as good as the previous two parts (and maybe I overrated part one who knows!) It all feels a bit stretched out and doesn't have much new to add. Soong should have already known Malik was evil from part two. Not sure why Persis didn't just leave with Soong in the escape pod now that I think about it. Malik ultimately isn't that great of a villain because there isn't much to him. That said, I still enjoyed it and the arc on the whole. It's fun action adventure stuff which respects Star Trek's past without being too "HEY LOOK AT THIS REFERENCE"...until that stupid final scene anyway.
SCORE: 7.5/10
Archer and Phlox talk about the Eugenics Wars. Archer wonders why Earth couldn't make genetic engineering work the way the Denobulans have and if his father's life could have been saved. Lucas claims not to have the code to release the embryos to Soong, who believes him (Malik isn't as sure.) The Enterprise arrives and Soong threatens to kill Lucas with a Klingon disrupter if they get too close. Malik discovers that Lucas did lie about the code. The augments rought up Lucas but he won't give up the code. Malik suggests killing one of Lucas' co-workers with deadly pathogens to make him talk. Soong is against it. He locks another doctor in a chamber and tortures him with science. The Enterprise crew sneak onboard and Phlox cuts the oxygen to the room everyone's in. Lucas still won't give it up and Soong orders Malik to free the doctor. He doesn't do it in time and the guy dies. Archer, Smike and Phlox are captured by the augments as they noticed the oxygen being cut. Soong is surprised to see Smike as the others had told him Smike had died. Archer asks why Soong is so surprised that people who think they're better than everyone else would do something like that. Hoshi has hacked CS12 and Archer gives the order to self destruct it in order to destroy the embryos and the augments. But the augments also have super hacking skills and cancel the self destruct. The augment Bird of Prey (piloted by two black augments who were left on it...err?) attacks the Enterprise. Maliks realises Phlox and Lucas are friends and sticks Phlox in the pathogen chamber. Lucas instantly gives up the code, despite being willing to let the other guy die. I guess he just didn't like him. The augments have the embryos and Smike decides to stay behind rather than go with them. Soong and looks with awe at the unconvincing CGI embryos. Malik decides to steal a deadly pathogen too. Archer and Smike launch a surprise attack but Malik easily beats them up. Malik kills Smike and leaves Archer on the station set to self destruct. Archer climbs down a ladder to stop the destruct (that's the dramatic ending, Archer climbing down the ladder.)
It's another very good episode, more dramatic than the first. Spiner again gets some of the best material as he doesn't want to belive his children have grown up evil (even though it's pretty obvious, really!) The stuff with Lucas is good though I do wonder why he so quickly gives up as soon as Phlox is in danger (I guess it's because he saw the other guy die and knew the augments were really serious this time?) Anyway yeah it's about on the same level as part one.
SCORE: 8.5/10
The Augments - Archer stops the space station exploding (or whatever it was going to do, think it was actually somethign to do with pathogens) by getting himself blown into space and beamed to Sickbay. Soong is angry when Malik tells him Archer is dead. The augments pass into Klingon space so that Enterprise won't follow them. Reed suggests faking a Klingon warp signature. Soong reveals to the augments they're really heading to the Briar Patch (from Star Trek: Insurrection! And Soong came up with the name!) to raise the embryos. Malik brings up the Botany Bay and Khan (Soong says it's just a myth) and says Khan's mistake was running. In private, Soong tells Malik to stop challenging him. He reveals he's trying to modify the embryos to be less aggressive and violent, as he believes there's a defect in the augments. Malik argues they don't know it's a defect. Archer catches up with the Bird of Prey. Soong wants to run as the Enterprise outguns them. Soong drops the Denobulan shuttle pilot (who they had all along I guess) into a planets atomsophere to the Enterprise will be distracted by rescuing her. Malik suggests to Soong that they attack a Klingon planet with the pathogens he stole, starting a war between the Klingons and Starfleet. Soong is of course against this. Malik says Soong isn't the man who raised them. It should be pretty obvious to Soong by now where this is going. Things are still awkward between Trip and T'Pol but he says he's proud of her for what she did. Malik wants to know where Persis (who hasn't done much since part one) stands. He tells her how Soong has altered the embryos to be weaker. The augments mutiny against Soong and lock him up.
The Enterprise is approached by some real Klingons. Archer talks to them through a "translation matrix" pretending to be a Klingon Captain. This feels like a repeat of several scenes from several Star Treks but not as good as Archer isn't as amusing doing this type of stuff. Persis comes to see Soong and reveals she's really on his side. She gets him off the ship on an escape pod (but I thought Klingon ships didn't have escape pods...) Soong goes to the Enterprise. Archer doesn't trust him and thinks this could be some big evil plan. Soong tells him of the stolen viruses and what Malik plans to do. He admits Archer was right about the augments, but says maybe things would have been different if he'd raised them. Archer argues for nature over nurture. Malik tells Persis he knows she freed Soong. She stabs him but he's super strong and wins the fight, killing her. Some Klingons attack Enterprise because they know they're humans. They don't believe Archer about the augment plan because Klingons are dumb. This feels like a waste of time. Enterprise does use the grappler on them to win the fight so that's fun at least. Enterprise arrives at the Klingon planet the augments are attacking. They manage to shoot down the virus-filled torpedo the augments have launched. Soong helps Enterprise defeat the augments in a rather short fight. Malik recreates Khan injured on the Bridge from TWOK. He wants to self destruct and Soong tries to talk him out of it. The Bird of Prey blows up but Malik actually beamed over to Enterprise for one final confrontation with Soong. Archer shoots a hole through Malik's torso to kill him. This whole "Malik is alive!" bit feels anti-climactic. Archer visits Soong and tells him maybe one day they'll use his research to better humanity. Soong says perfecting humanity might not be possible BUT MAYBE CYBERNETICS ARE THE FUTURE. AND MAYBE IT'LL TAKE A GENERATION OR TWO TO PERFECT IT. Okay, I think we get the reference.
It's not as good as the previous two parts (and maybe I overrated part one who knows!) It all feels a bit stretched out and doesn't have much new to add. Soong should have already known Malik was evil from part two. Not sure why Persis didn't just leave with Soong in the escape pod now that I think about it. Malik ultimately isn't that great of a villain because there isn't much to him. That said, I still enjoyed it and the arc on the whole. It's fun action adventure stuff which respects Star Trek's past without being too "HEY LOOK AT THIS REFERENCE"...until that stupid final scene anyway.
SCORE: 7.5/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
The Forge - Seventeen years ago, a Vulcan, in a cave on Vulcan, finds a thing and says "Surak." On present day Vulcan, Forrest is in the Earth Embassy talking to Soval. He's there to see if the High Command will finally join Starfleet on missions, but Soval can't answer because he doesn't know either. Soval says that humans are confoudning because they have so many personality traits, unlike other species which seem to only have one defining trait (he pretty much says this!) He admits that humans remind Vulcans of themselves before they controlled their emotions. It's a nice scene between the two, but then a bomb goes off and Forret shoves Soval to safety. The Enterprise crew play basketball (Hoshi in shorts yeah) when T'Pol comes in to tell the of the bombing. Enterprise arrives at Vulcan. 43 are dead, including Forrest. The head of the HIgh Command himself V'Las comes onboard and blames the bombing on either Andorians or a faction named Syrannites (who follow, he says, a corrupted form of Surak's teachings.) Enterprise will investigate the bombing because it was on Earth soil. Reed and Travis (who for some reason is part of the investigation) find another bomb and are beamed away just as it explodes. It had Vulcan DNA on it: the DNA of a Syrannite named T'Pau. The Vulcans take over with trying to find T'Pau. Soval visits Archer over Forrest's coffin and tells him not to trust the High Command and that the Syrannites would have had no reason for bombing Earth's Embassy. Koss (T'Pol's husband) visits T'Pol and tells her that T'Pol's mother has gone on the run because she's a Syrannite. She gives T'Pol a Vulcan IDIC (like from Star Trek!) which T'Pol reveals to Archer contains a map of a Vulcan desert named The Forge. Man this episode is dense with plot. Soval helps Archer and T'Pol beam down to The Forge without the knowledge of the High Command. T'Pol tells Archer that Surak started his great journey here but nobody knows if it really happened as the original copies of his writings are lost (Archer laughs because Surak is just like Jesus!)
Archer and T'Pol are chased by a wild Sehlat (like Spock, T'Pol had one as a pet as a child.) Phlox fins anomalies with the DNA they found on the bomb (but Archer and T'Pol can't be contacted in the desert.) A Vulcan traveller meets Archer and T'Pol. He's walking the paths of Surak and doesn't think Acher is up to the challenge. Archer has a hard time with the heat, but T'Pol is fine with not drinking water or needing sunglasses (inner eyelids!) The traveller keeps testing Archer and says the High Commad don't follow Surak's teachings. There's a "sandfire" and they have to run away from it. Phlox and Trip try to convince Soval to find a Vulcan to mind meld with a comatose human who witnessed the bombing. Soval is convinced by the old "needs of the many" argument like every Vulcan and says he can perform the meld himself. Archer and friends hide in a cave. The Vulcan guy (I wish I'd caught his name but I'm pretty sure he's going to turn out to be Syrann anyway) sees T'Pol's IDIC and tells her where her mother is. Soval performs the meld and sees who brought the bomb in. Syrann (it's him okay) tells T'Pol and Archer that there is a legend among the Syrannites that says that Surak's "Katra" is carried by one of them. Soval confronts V'Las and the person responsible for the bombing, his aide. But V'Las won't listen when he learns of the mind meld as he thinks they're for defiants. The sandfire reaches the cave and stuns T'Pol. Syrann is hit with a fatal blast and forcs a meld on Archer before dying. Soval knows the High Command are behind the bombing but has to return for his hearing before them. Archer and T'Pol head for the Syrannite sanctuary and Archer suddenly has a load of Vulcan knowledge. He leads T'Pol through a cloaked rock and into the sanctuary, where they are captured by Syrannites.
This is the stuff! This is Enterprise using Star Trek continuity to tell a compelling new story. This is the first time the Vulcans on Enterprise actually feel like the Vulcans we've always imagined. It begins to explain away why they were such jerks for the first three seasons. And, as I said, it's a very good story on its own right. It's not just continuity porn, but there's certainly a lot of that (maybe they could have avoided the "needs of the many" line because it's a bit of a cliche now but meh it works.) It feels more like a DS9 episode than the previous three seasons. This is why everyone likes season four!
SCORE: 9.5/10
Awakening - Soval appears before his hearing. T'Las states that his aide turned out to be a Syrannite so they're still responsible for the bombing. And Soval is kicked out of the High Command for being a pervert. Archer and T'Pol meet T'Pau. Archer yells at her for blowing up his Embassy (oh right, he still doesn't know all that other stuff.) T'Pol's mother T'Les admits to T'Pau (these names are going to be annoying to type) that she brought her daughter and Archer there. T'Pau reveals that the Vulcan they met in the desert was Syrann, just as *I* predicted. Soval returns to the Enterprise and tells Trip that Archer and T'Pol are in grave danger as V'Las is determined to wipe out the Syrannites. T'Les tells T'Pol how she lost faith in the HIgh Command and came to the Syrannites for answers. She admits she hoped T'Pol would join the too. Archer has a visioin of Surak (1,800 years ago) who tells him Vulcan was tearing itself apart with war. He says Syrann chose Archer for something. T'Las has found the Syrannite based in the Forge and plans to bomb it. Some others on the High Command aren't reall into that. T'Pau tells Archer that Syrann had Surak's Katra in him and passed it on to Archer. She melds with him to be sure. Trip asks Soval why he's helping as he never fought Soval cared much about humans. He says he actually developed an affinitiy towards humans and Trip says he did a good job of hiding it. T'Pol doesn't believe Katras exist but Archer points out she felt the same way about time travel. T'Las contacts Trip and says the investigation is complete to the Enterprise can leave Vulcan. T'Pau wants to perform the Star Trek 3 ritual on Archer to remove Surak's Katra and put it in her. T'Les thinks T'Pau is just prejudice against humans and they should leave the Katra in Archer as Syrann chose him.
T'Pau tells Archer of the ritual, while T'Les warns of the danger. T'Pau says she'll do it by force if Archer resists. What a bitch. Archer wants it done anyway. T'Pau tries to suck the Katra out with her fingers and it gives Archer another vision. Surak is dying from radiation sickness this time and tells Archer that he can achieve what a Vulcan cannot. Only a human can help the Vulcans find what they have lost. They must find the Kir'Shara, whatever that is. T'Pau says she has failed and Surak has chosen to remain in Archer's noggin. Travis, Reed and a MACO (there's still MACOs, they just never get lines or names now!) try to sneak down to Vulcan in a shuttle. They get into a dogfight with some Vulcan fighters and have to go back to Enterprise. V'Las asks what they were doing and Trip tells him Archer's in the Forge. Soval reveals to V'Las that he's working with Enterprise because he's badass now. T'Pol tells her mother that she's no different from the High Command because she and T'Pau have corrupted Surak's teachings too in order to do stuff like forced Katra extraction. The Syrannites prepare to evacuate and Archer says he can find the Kir'Shara. T'Las argues with the High Command that they should go ahead with the bombing even though it'll kill Archer and permits deadly force to be used against Enterprise. Trip has no choice but to withdraw. Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau travel down into catacombs. The Kir'Shara is...just behind a door. Why did nobody find it before? Surely Syrann would have known where it was if he had Surak's Katra all along? The bombing begins. Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau get out in time as the Syrannite home is blown up. T'Les isn't as lucky and T'Pol finds her fatally wounded. She dies telling T'Pol how proud she's always been of her. Trip asks Soval why the High Command hate the Syrannites so much. Soval says it's because the Syrannites are pacifists and could stop the Vulcans from attacking Andoria. V'Las is planning a pre-emptive strike (kind of feels like Soval should have mentioned this before.) Trip orders Enterprise to set a course for Andoria which means we get Shran next episode!
It's not quite as good as part 1 as it's a bit slower and there's some weird bits in there like the Kir'Shira just sitting behind a door underneath the place where the Syrannites live and none of them ever noticing it. Still though, it's at the top end of Enterprise episodes and I continue to enjoy Soval becoming The Good Vulcan.
SCORE: 9/10
Archer and T'Pol are chased by a wild Sehlat (like Spock, T'Pol had one as a pet as a child.) Phlox fins anomalies with the DNA they found on the bomb (but Archer and T'Pol can't be contacted in the desert.) A Vulcan traveller meets Archer and T'Pol. He's walking the paths of Surak and doesn't think Acher is up to the challenge. Archer has a hard time with the heat, but T'Pol is fine with not drinking water or needing sunglasses (inner eyelids!) The traveller keeps testing Archer and says the High Commad don't follow Surak's teachings. There's a "sandfire" and they have to run away from it. Phlox and Trip try to convince Soval to find a Vulcan to mind meld with a comatose human who witnessed the bombing. Soval is convinced by the old "needs of the many" argument like every Vulcan and says he can perform the meld himself. Archer and friends hide in a cave. The Vulcan guy (I wish I'd caught his name but I'm pretty sure he's going to turn out to be Syrann anyway) sees T'Pol's IDIC and tells her where her mother is. Soval performs the meld and sees who brought the bomb in. Syrann (it's him okay) tells T'Pol and Archer that there is a legend among the Syrannites that says that Surak's "Katra" is carried by one of them. Soval confronts V'Las and the person responsible for the bombing, his aide. But V'Las won't listen when he learns of the mind meld as he thinks they're for defiants. The sandfire reaches the cave and stuns T'Pol. Syrann is hit with a fatal blast and forcs a meld on Archer before dying. Soval knows the High Command are behind the bombing but has to return for his hearing before them. Archer and T'Pol head for the Syrannite sanctuary and Archer suddenly has a load of Vulcan knowledge. He leads T'Pol through a cloaked rock and into the sanctuary, where they are captured by Syrannites.
This is the stuff! This is Enterprise using Star Trek continuity to tell a compelling new story. This is the first time the Vulcans on Enterprise actually feel like the Vulcans we've always imagined. It begins to explain away why they were such jerks for the first three seasons. And, as I said, it's a very good story on its own right. It's not just continuity porn, but there's certainly a lot of that (maybe they could have avoided the "needs of the many" line because it's a bit of a cliche now but meh it works.) It feels more like a DS9 episode than the previous three seasons. This is why everyone likes season four!
SCORE: 9.5/10
Awakening - Soval appears before his hearing. T'Las states that his aide turned out to be a Syrannite so they're still responsible for the bombing. And Soval is kicked out of the High Command for being a pervert. Archer and T'Pol meet T'Pau. Archer yells at her for blowing up his Embassy (oh right, he still doesn't know all that other stuff.) T'Pol's mother T'Les admits to T'Pau (these names are going to be annoying to type) that she brought her daughter and Archer there. T'Pau reveals that the Vulcan they met in the desert was Syrann, just as *I* predicted. Soval returns to the Enterprise and tells Trip that Archer and T'Pol are in grave danger as V'Las is determined to wipe out the Syrannites. T'Les tells T'Pol how she lost faith in the HIgh Command and came to the Syrannites for answers. She admits she hoped T'Pol would join the too. Archer has a visioin of Surak (1,800 years ago) who tells him Vulcan was tearing itself apart with war. He says Syrann chose Archer for something. T'Las has found the Syrannite based in the Forge and plans to bomb it. Some others on the High Command aren't reall into that. T'Pau tells Archer that Syrann had Surak's Katra in him and passed it on to Archer. She melds with him to be sure. Trip asks Soval why he's helping as he never fought Soval cared much about humans. He says he actually developed an affinitiy towards humans and Trip says he did a good job of hiding it. T'Pol doesn't believe Katras exist but Archer points out she felt the same way about time travel. T'Las contacts Trip and says the investigation is complete to the Enterprise can leave Vulcan. T'Pau wants to perform the Star Trek 3 ritual on Archer to remove Surak's Katra and put it in her. T'Les thinks T'Pau is just prejudice against humans and they should leave the Katra in Archer as Syrann chose him.
T'Pau tells Archer of the ritual, while T'Les warns of the danger. T'Pau says she'll do it by force if Archer resists. What a bitch. Archer wants it done anyway. T'Pau tries to suck the Katra out with her fingers and it gives Archer another vision. Surak is dying from radiation sickness this time and tells Archer that he can achieve what a Vulcan cannot. Only a human can help the Vulcans find what they have lost. They must find the Kir'Shara, whatever that is. T'Pau says she has failed and Surak has chosen to remain in Archer's noggin. Travis, Reed and a MACO (there's still MACOs, they just never get lines or names now!) try to sneak down to Vulcan in a shuttle. They get into a dogfight with some Vulcan fighters and have to go back to Enterprise. V'Las asks what they were doing and Trip tells him Archer's in the Forge. Soval reveals to V'Las that he's working with Enterprise because he's badass now. T'Pol tells her mother that she's no different from the High Command because she and T'Pau have corrupted Surak's teachings too in order to do stuff like forced Katra extraction. The Syrannites prepare to evacuate and Archer says he can find the Kir'Shara. T'Las argues with the High Command that they should go ahead with the bombing even though it'll kill Archer and permits deadly force to be used against Enterprise. Trip has no choice but to withdraw. Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau travel down into catacombs. The Kir'Shara is...just behind a door. Why did nobody find it before? Surely Syrann would have known where it was if he had Surak's Katra all along? The bombing begins. Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau get out in time as the Syrannite home is blown up. T'Les isn't as lucky and T'Pol finds her fatally wounded. She dies telling T'Pol how proud she's always been of her. Trip asks Soval why the High Command hate the Syrannites so much. Soval says it's because the Syrannites are pacifists and could stop the Vulcans from attacking Andoria. V'Las is planning a pre-emptive strike (kind of feels like Soval should have mentioned this before.) Trip orders Enterprise to set a course for Andoria which means we get Shran next episode!
It's not quite as good as part 1 as it's a bit slower and there's some weird bits in there like the Kir'Shira just sitting behind a door underneath the place where the Syrannites live and none of them ever noticing it. Still though, it's at the top end of Enterprise episodes and I continue to enjoy Soval becoming The Good Vulcan.
SCORE: 9/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Kir'Shara - V'Las plans his evil invasion of Andoria while the one Vulcan who always objects to his evil continues to object. He claims the Andorians stole the prototype of the Xindi weapon and are going to blow shit up with it. Reed asks Trip why they're headed to Andoria when Starfleet ordered them back to Earth. Trip is going to warn the Andorians, to Hell with his orders! Reed thinks they shouldn't be betraying their Vulcan allies but Trip wants to prevent a war. Trip wants to give the information to Shran and Soval thinks the knows where to find him. Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau make their way through caves with the Kir'Shara (it's a triangle.) Archer knows all about the plans for the war because he has some of Syranns memories. V'Las tells a shifty looking gut to eradicate all the Syrannites, shaken by the idea that they have the Kir'Shara. The Enterprise meets with Shran. He doesn't trust Soval right away, under if he's there as a diversion. He wants to know why Soval would betray his own people. Archer is growing ill because Surak's katra in him. T'Pol wants to get him to a doctor, T'Pau says he needs a priest. They talk about how they miss T'Les. T'Pau had melded with her previously and offers to meld with T'Pol. T'Pol tells her she can't meld because she got mind meld AIDS back when Berman and Braga were in charge and thinks there's no cure. T'Pau explains the disease is caused by improper melding and she can easily correct it. They meld. Shran beams Soval onto a torture chair on his ship. Shran has a machine that will lower Soval's emotion threshold and get the truth out of him. Soval resists the torture and really dosn't know anything. Trip finds out what's happened and plans to get him back. Archer tells T'Pol she could learn a thing or two from the Syrannites. She snaps at him and there's something unconvincing about Jolene Blalock's acting whenever she does these suddenly flashes of anger, in my opinion.
Shran admis he'd come to respect Soval and doesn't like torturing him. Soval (in a lot of pain and overcome with emotions) tells him the story of a Vulcan whose name came to mean "fool" in their language. Some bad Vulcans show up with those shovel weapons from 'Amok Time' and injure T'Pol. Archer and T'Pau kicks some ass but have to dive down a cave slide to escape. Archer is mad that they left T'Pol behind. T'Pol tells the Vulcan bastards that Archer is taking the Kir'Shara to Mount Seleya from Star Trek 3. One of the bastards knows T'Pol from before and is disgusted that she's into terrorism now. Enterprise attacks Shran's ship. Shran isn't willing to fight the humans and sets Soval free. Archer heads off to rescue T'Pol. Shran checks in on Soval as Phlox treats him. He admits he believes Soval now and the Andorian fleet will intercept the Vulcans. Archer and T'Pol ambush the shovel-wielding Vulcans but find that T'Pol has been taken to the High Command. Archer does a nerve pinch. T'Pol is brought before V'Las. Twelve Vulcan ships arrive to face off with Shran's much smaller fleet and the Enterprise. Objecting Vulcan tells V'Las to call off the attack but everyone ignores him like always (what's the point of this guy!) V'Las orders his ships to attack Shran and warns Objection Guy that he'll be arrested if he doesn't shut up He gives the order to attack Enterprise too when Trip tries to help the Andorians. Archer and T'Pau sneak into High Command in cloaks and Objection Guy nerve pinches a guard and pulls a gun on V'Las. I take it back, Objection Guy rules! Archer activates the Kir'Shara and it shows holographic writing. V'Las says it's fake and tries to destroy it but Objection Guy shoots him (he's the real star!) The Vulcan attack is called off as V'Las isn't n charge anymore. T'Pol thanks Koss for helping Archer and T'Pau get into the High Command (oh yeah that was a thing.) He releases her from their marriage. I still don't get what he got out of the marriage? Soval and T'Pau tell Archer there's no more High Command and Earth will stand on its own now. V'Las meets with his boss...A ROMULAN.
It's a very good conclusion. What this three parter does is fix the problems with the Vulcans of the first two seasons by making it look like it was the plan all along to reveal they were actually being corrupted by Romulans. Of course Berman and Braga weren't planning that, they just hated Vulcans or whatever, but it works perfectly as an explanation. And it's a strong story in its own right, it doesn't just feel like a load of continuity porn and retcons. The Soval/Shran stuff is particularly strong, even if it was probably inspired by the Odo/Garak torture scene (and hey there's noething wrong with that!) The weakness of this episode: I still don't think Jolene Blalock is all that good of an actress and it feels werid that there's no more Archer/Surak scenes. We don't really find out why Archer had to carry the Katra and why the Kir'Shara couldn't be explained before (I think we kind of got a reason for the first queston in the previous episode but not the second?) Anyway it's very good the whole show should have been like this, etc.
SCORE: 9/10
Daedelus - Emory Erickson, the invetor of the transporter, is coming to the Enterprise. Trip is very excited, Archer grew up with the guy apparently (there's some clunky exposition.) Erickson's in a wheelchair and his has daughter Danica with him. He's created THE ULTIMATECOMPUTER TRANSPORTER and Archer wonders if he's trying to put him out of a job! Trip wants to talk to T'Pol (who is reading the Kir'Shara) about her mother's death. She says it isn't necessary. The new transporter Emory is working on can transport people between planets and this is a prequel so we know it's going to fail. They bring up the "is the person who comes out of the transporter beam actually a copy?" thing (ask THOMAS RIKER.) Enterprise enters a part of space known as The Barrens where there isn't a star system for a hundred light years. Does that even make sense? Erickson wants to install his new convertor himself despite Trip's objections. Archer and Danica talk about how Erickson hasn't gotten over the death of her brother. Danica and Emory talk about how they have a secret plan they can't trust anyone to know about, including Archer. There's a weird space thing in the armory. It hits a guy (he dies.) T'Pol thinks Emory can help as he's spent a lot of time in The Barrens. Emor and Danica have an argument about her brother who he believes is still alive. Emory begins his first test and beams something further than ever before. Trip tells Archer he thinks Emory is up to something and Archer admits T'Pol has found evidence Emory knows about the weird things.
Another weird thing appears on the ship and smacks T'Pol in the face. This time there's a photograph of the weird thing, it is, of course, Emory's son but all distorted like he's in a transporter beam. Emory finally admits the truth: he's come to the Barrens to bring back his son. He'd tried the super transporter before and let his son test it himself (which is stupid, surely they have organic test material they would use, or at least transport a monkey or a pervert or something.) The son disappeared but Emory thinks they can save him now. He says Starfleet would never have authorised the mission. Why? He doesn't even give a reason! There was literally no reason to lie to Archer other than fake drama. Archer shouts at Trip and T'Pol that they have to try to save the son in a bad scene. Emory and Trip have a boring conversation. Archer and Danica have a boring conversation but at least Porthos is there. Trip is mad at T'Pol for spending all her time reading the bible. Dead son appears again and nearly blows up Emory. Archer still wants to save him and Trip is angry because things keep blowing up. Archer and Emory have another boring talking as this is dragging badly. They try to beam dead son onto the ship again and Emory won't accept that he can't be saved. The acting here is not good. He does manage to beam him over but he just dies aright away. Oops. Emory tells Archer he's fine with being punished for what he die now and at least his daughter will be free. Phlox tells T'Pol she doesn't have the mind meld disease anymore. T'Pol thanks Trip for helping her with her issues. Emory leaves.
It's bad. It's broing. It feels like 'The Ultimate Computer' crossed with that episode where Neelix's dead friends were nearly put together again with the transporter but nowhere near as good as either. Okay maybe Emory thought Starfleet would say no to him, but isn't risk Starfleet's business? Surely they would have tried to rescue his son if he'd just asked? Bill Cobbs gives a weird performance and I didn't really feel much for Emory, which hurts a lot since the episode relies on you liking him. It does feel like a TOS episode...a season 3 TOS episode.
SCORE: 3/10
Shran admis he'd come to respect Soval and doesn't like torturing him. Soval (in a lot of pain and overcome with emotions) tells him the story of a Vulcan whose name came to mean "fool" in their language. Some bad Vulcans show up with those shovel weapons from 'Amok Time' and injure T'Pol. Archer and T'Pau kicks some ass but have to dive down a cave slide to escape. Archer is mad that they left T'Pol behind. T'Pol tells the Vulcan bastards that Archer is taking the Kir'Shara to Mount Seleya from Star Trek 3. One of the bastards knows T'Pol from before and is disgusted that she's into terrorism now. Enterprise attacks Shran's ship. Shran isn't willing to fight the humans and sets Soval free. Archer heads off to rescue T'Pol. Shran checks in on Soval as Phlox treats him. He admits he believes Soval now and the Andorian fleet will intercept the Vulcans. Archer and T'Pol ambush the shovel-wielding Vulcans but find that T'Pol has been taken to the High Command. Archer does a nerve pinch. T'Pol is brought before V'Las. Twelve Vulcan ships arrive to face off with Shran's much smaller fleet and the Enterprise. Objecting Vulcan tells V'Las to call off the attack but everyone ignores him like always (what's the point of this guy!) V'Las orders his ships to attack Shran and warns Objection Guy that he'll be arrested if he doesn't shut up He gives the order to attack Enterprise too when Trip tries to help the Andorians. Archer and T'Pau sneak into High Command in cloaks and Objection Guy nerve pinches a guard and pulls a gun on V'Las. I take it back, Objection Guy rules! Archer activates the Kir'Shara and it shows holographic writing. V'Las says it's fake and tries to destroy it but Objection Guy shoots him (he's the real star!) The Vulcan attack is called off as V'Las isn't n charge anymore. T'Pol thanks Koss for helping Archer and T'Pau get into the High Command (oh yeah that was a thing.) He releases her from their marriage. I still don't get what he got out of the marriage? Soval and T'Pau tell Archer there's no more High Command and Earth will stand on its own now. V'Las meets with his boss...A ROMULAN.
It's a very good conclusion. What this three parter does is fix the problems with the Vulcans of the first two seasons by making it look like it was the plan all along to reveal they were actually being corrupted by Romulans. Of course Berman and Braga weren't planning that, they just hated Vulcans or whatever, but it works perfectly as an explanation. And it's a strong story in its own right, it doesn't just feel like a load of continuity porn and retcons. The Soval/Shran stuff is particularly strong, even if it was probably inspired by the Odo/Garak torture scene (and hey there's noething wrong with that!) The weakness of this episode: I still don't think Jolene Blalock is all that good of an actress and it feels werid that there's no more Archer/Surak scenes. We don't really find out why Archer had to carry the Katra and why the Kir'Shara couldn't be explained before (I think we kind of got a reason for the first queston in the previous episode but not the second?) Anyway it's very good the whole show should have been like this, etc.
SCORE: 9/10
Daedelus - Emory Erickson, the invetor of the transporter, is coming to the Enterprise. Trip is very excited, Archer grew up with the guy apparently (there's some clunky exposition.) Erickson's in a wheelchair and his has daughter Danica with him. He's created THE ULTIMATE
Another weird thing appears on the ship and smacks T'Pol in the face. This time there's a photograph of the weird thing, it is, of course, Emory's son but all distorted like he's in a transporter beam. Emory finally admits the truth: he's come to the Barrens to bring back his son. He'd tried the super transporter before and let his son test it himself (which is stupid, surely they have organic test material they would use, or at least transport a monkey or a pervert or something.) The son disappeared but Emory thinks they can save him now. He says Starfleet would never have authorised the mission. Why? He doesn't even give a reason! There was literally no reason to lie to Archer other than fake drama. Archer shouts at Trip and T'Pol that they have to try to save the son in a bad scene. Emory and Trip have a boring conversation. Archer and Danica have a boring conversation but at least Porthos is there. Trip is mad at T'Pol for spending all her time reading the bible. Dead son appears again and nearly blows up Emory. Archer still wants to save him and Trip is angry because things keep blowing up. Archer and Emory have another boring talking as this is dragging badly. They try to beam dead son onto the ship again and Emory won't accept that he can't be saved. The acting here is not good. He does manage to beam him over but he just dies aright away. Oops. Emory tells Archer he's fine with being punished for what he die now and at least his daughter will be free. Phlox tells T'Pol she doesn't have the mind meld disease anymore. T'Pol thanks Trip for helping her with her issues. Emory leaves.
It's bad. It's broing. It feels like 'The Ultimate Computer' crossed with that episode where Neelix's dead friends were nearly put together again with the transporter but nowhere near as good as either. Okay maybe Emory thought Starfleet would say no to him, but isn't risk Starfleet's business? Surely they would have tried to rescue his son if he'd just asked? Bill Cobbs gives a weird performance and I didn't really feel much for Emory, which hurts a lot since the episode relies on you liking him. It does feel like a TOS episode...a season 3 TOS episode.
SCORE: 3/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Observer Effect - Travis and Reed are playing chess and being weird (the fact that Travis is talking at all is a sign something weird is going on!) It sure sounds like they've both been possessed by aliens and they say someone is about to die soon. Trip and Hoshi are returning from an away mission all dirty when Trip starts coughing uncontrollably. They're sent to decon and it's not long before Hoshi is coughing too. The aliens in Reed and Travis continue to observe: Travis is mildly impressed by the humans but Reed thinks they're nothing special. Cardassians get a name drop. Travis goes to visit Trip and Hoshi and starts asking them autistic questions like "how does this experience compare to previous series illnesses?" Reed asks similar weird questions to Phlox. Trip asks Hoshi if she's seen 'The Andromeda Strain' in another Robert Wise reference that makes me wonder if TMP exists in this universe. Hoshi tells a story about how she ran a dodgy poker game at the Academy and got kicked out. This feels like a pretty big retcon but it's nice character stuff, the kind of thing they should have given Hoshi and the other lesser characters earlier. Phlox thinks Trip and Hoshi only have five hours to live unless he can heal them. Reed tells Travis this might be one of the times when the whole crew dies. Travis keeps trying to argue that Archer is showing worthiness by not giving up on his crewmembers and wants to inhabit other crew to improve their observations (Reed mentions their rule against interference, SOUNDS FAMILIAR.) Trip and Hoshi continue to bond. The aliens jumps into Phlox and T'Pol to creepily stare at them. Archer learns that Klingons previous encountered the virus but killed their crewmmbers rather than find a cure.
Hoshi grows delirious, starts speaking in other languages, and breaks out of decon by hacking the lock ("math is another language" she says which probably doesn't make sense!) She wants to say goodbye to her students in Brazil and tries to break out an airlock but Trip stops her. Phlox has Trip heavily sedate Hoshi to stop her going mad again. He reluctantly sedates himself too. Phlox can kill the virus with radiation but it would be lethal to Trip and Hoshi. Travis alien tells Reed alien that they could save Hoshi and Trip but Reed alien is against it. They jump into Hoshi and Trip's bodies to have a private discussion, which is a nice touch. Phlox notices them awake though and realises something weird is going on. He listens in on them talking about being super advanced aliens. He shows their brainwave patterns to Archer and T'Pol but in a creepy reveal the aliens have already jumped into them. Phlox begs them to help Trip and Hoshi but then just erase his memories instead. Hoshi's conditions worsens so Archer and Phlox enter the decon chamber in EV suits and take her and Trip to Sickbay. Archer takes his suit off to try to save Hoshi and Reed Alien is shocked. He says in eight hundred years no one has ever gone this far once they know it's hopeless. Hoshi still dies anyway. Travis aks what more they'll learn by watching the whole crew die and maybe they should step in. Trip can't be helped either, and Archer only has a few hours himself now that he's exposed. Archer gives T'Po command in an emotional scene. Trip dies shortly after (won't be the last time!) then starts talking again. He tells Archer that he's an Organian and he and his partner are there to observe how different species react to the virus. The other one (the Reed one) goes into Hoshi's body. Archer says he understands why they won't interfere with a species' natural development as he's faced that choice before ('Dear Doctor') but there's no reason they couldn't have warned the humans about the virus. They've lost compassion and empathy as they've evolved into higher beings. The Trip alien is won over but the Hoshi alien stills wants them to die. Archer suggests they experience what it's like to die to understand what it is to be human. Archer, Trip and Hoshi wake up alive, with no memory of what happened. Phlox thinks it's just a miracle cure. The two aliens have a final conversation in Reed and Travis and decide it's time to make first contact with the humans...in five thousand years.
Manny Coto gets most of the praise for season 4, but let's also give some well deserved credit to Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens, the writers of this episode (and 'The Forge' before it.) They were authors of Star Trek books who Coto brought on for season four since they actually know their Star Trek and, it turns out, can write very good episodes of Star Trek (are you listening, CBS All Access?0 This feels like an old school Star Trek episode, complete with original series reference in The Organians, but it also feels fresh, like a new story, not just a rehash of something that's come before. That's quite the achievement. As well as being a very good stoy it features great character stuff for Archer, Trip and Hoshi. Even Anthony Montgomery finally gets stuff to do (ironically not playimg Travis.) Thanks Garfield and Judith!
SCORE: 9/10
Babel One - Shran's ship is all wrecked up and about to explode. He blames it on an Tellerite attack then abandons ship. Archer and Hoshi have a huge argument, with Archer calling her fat! But it's because they're about to meet the Tellerites, a species who thrive on arguing. Hoshi also warns that Tellerites might want to eat Porthos. The Enterprise is taking the Tellerite ambassador to Babel (like in Star Trek!) to settle a trade dispute with the Andorians. Archer instantly tells the ambassador how ugly he is, which impresses him. Archer tells Trip how smelly he is. The Tellerite ambassador wonders if he can trust Archer when he's such good friends with the Andorians. The Enterprise responds to the distress call from Shran's exploded ship. 70 Andorians have died. Shran is of course angry when he learns there's Tellerites on the Enterprise. The Andorian black box shows a Tellerite ship attacking them. The Tellerite ambassador thinks it's all a big fake Andorian plot. Shran and Acher have a drink to remember his lost crew. Shran is glad Talas (the female from a previous episode) survived as he's shagging her now. An Andorian ship shows up and attacks the Enterprise to the confusion of everyone. Shran has to help Enterprise get through the Andorian ship's shields as they're going to kill everyone. But it doesn't work, for some reason! The Tellerite Ambassador argues that the Andorians are now obviously trying to stop the peace talks. Shran thinks it might have been an Andorian ship stolen by the Tellerites and modified and that's why he couldn't get the shields down. The Tellerites have a secret meeting and wonder if Archer is working with the Andorians. T'Pol finds that the power signature (or whatever) of the Tellerite ship that attacked Shran and the Andorian ship that attacked them are the same and they could in fact be the same ship. Shran is angry again!
Archer wonders if the Andorians and Tellerites can ever work together and learns that T'Pol's divorce has come through. We learn who's really behind everything: Romulans. There's some mysterious figure wearing a helmet apparently flying the enemy ship. Enterprise finds the ship seemingly adrift and beams a crew over. The Romulans plan to self destruct rather than let the humans capture their ship. The ship suddenly powers up, with Trip, Reed and some MACOs onboard. It attacks the Enterprise and they have to fly away. The Romulan ship chases, with Trip and Reed trapped on it. Shran tells Talas he wants to torture the Tellerite Ambassador, because that's his solution to everything. T'Pol discovers the ship has something in common with the ship they saw in the Romulan minefield back in season two. Archer wonders if the Romulans are scared of the conference because it could lead to an alliance (A FEDERATION, PERHAPS) between humans, Andorians and Tellerites. Talas tries to seduce a MACO to break her and Shran out of their quarters, but ends up just beating him up. Trip and Reed make their way to the Romulan bridge and talk about T'Pol's divorce (with continuity refernce to Reed saying T'Pol has a nice bum.) Shran and Talas break into the Tellerite room and demand answers. T'Pol and Hoshi learn the Romulan ship has holographic projectors on it which allow it to look like other ships (and it can replicate power signatures and weapons and stuff.) Boy those Romulans had some advanced technology for the time! Archer talks Shran out of shooting up the Tellerites, but then a Tellerite shoots Talas. Trip and Reed finally get to the Bridge and we get the reveal that the ship is actually remotely piloted from the Romulan homeworld.
It's good but I got a bit bored at times. There's just too many scenes of petty arguing and, unlike the previous episode, it does feel like something we've seen before. I like Shran and Combs but I get a bit sick of him never trusting anyone and always just wanting to torture everyone for answers. I'm sick of the Trip/T'Pol story and how we have to get at least one scene touching on it every episode. So she's divorced now, great. Why don't her and Trip just get together? Anyway, it's a good first part of a three episode arc. The story's good enough and it's entertaining on the whole.
SCORE: 8/10
Hoshi grows delirious, starts speaking in other languages, and breaks out of decon by hacking the lock ("math is another language" she says which probably doesn't make sense!) She wants to say goodbye to her students in Brazil and tries to break out an airlock but Trip stops her. Phlox has Trip heavily sedate Hoshi to stop her going mad again. He reluctantly sedates himself too. Phlox can kill the virus with radiation but it would be lethal to Trip and Hoshi. Travis alien tells Reed alien that they could save Hoshi and Trip but Reed alien is against it. They jump into Hoshi and Trip's bodies to have a private discussion, which is a nice touch. Phlox notices them awake though and realises something weird is going on. He listens in on them talking about being super advanced aliens. He shows their brainwave patterns to Archer and T'Pol but in a creepy reveal the aliens have already jumped into them. Phlox begs them to help Trip and Hoshi but then just erase his memories instead. Hoshi's conditions worsens so Archer and Phlox enter the decon chamber in EV suits and take her and Trip to Sickbay. Archer takes his suit off to try to save Hoshi and Reed Alien is shocked. He says in eight hundred years no one has ever gone this far once they know it's hopeless. Hoshi still dies anyway. Travis aks what more they'll learn by watching the whole crew die and maybe they should step in. Trip can't be helped either, and Archer only has a few hours himself now that he's exposed. Archer gives T'Po command in an emotional scene. Trip dies shortly after (won't be the last time!) then starts talking again. He tells Archer that he's an Organian and he and his partner are there to observe how different species react to the virus. The other one (the Reed one) goes into Hoshi's body. Archer says he understands why they won't interfere with a species' natural development as he's faced that choice before ('Dear Doctor') but there's no reason they couldn't have warned the humans about the virus. They've lost compassion and empathy as they've evolved into higher beings. The Trip alien is won over but the Hoshi alien stills wants them to die. Archer suggests they experience what it's like to die to understand what it is to be human. Archer, Trip and Hoshi wake up alive, with no memory of what happened. Phlox thinks it's just a miracle cure. The two aliens have a final conversation in Reed and Travis and decide it's time to make first contact with the humans...in five thousand years.
Manny Coto gets most of the praise for season 4, but let's also give some well deserved credit to Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens, the writers of this episode (and 'The Forge' before it.) They were authors of Star Trek books who Coto brought on for season four since they actually know their Star Trek and, it turns out, can write very good episodes of Star Trek (are you listening, CBS All Access?0 This feels like an old school Star Trek episode, complete with original series reference in The Organians, but it also feels fresh, like a new story, not just a rehash of something that's come before. That's quite the achievement. As well as being a very good stoy it features great character stuff for Archer, Trip and Hoshi. Even Anthony Montgomery finally gets stuff to do (ironically not playimg Travis.) Thanks Garfield and Judith!
SCORE: 9/10
Babel One - Shran's ship is all wrecked up and about to explode. He blames it on an Tellerite attack then abandons ship. Archer and Hoshi have a huge argument, with Archer calling her fat! But it's because they're about to meet the Tellerites, a species who thrive on arguing. Hoshi also warns that Tellerites might want to eat Porthos. The Enterprise is taking the Tellerite ambassador to Babel (like in Star Trek!) to settle a trade dispute with the Andorians. Archer instantly tells the ambassador how ugly he is, which impresses him. Archer tells Trip how smelly he is. The Tellerite ambassador wonders if he can trust Archer when he's such good friends with the Andorians. The Enterprise responds to the distress call from Shran's exploded ship. 70 Andorians have died. Shran is of course angry when he learns there's Tellerites on the Enterprise. The Andorian black box shows a Tellerite ship attacking them. The Tellerite ambassador thinks it's all a big fake Andorian plot. Shran and Acher have a drink to remember his lost crew. Shran is glad Talas (the female from a previous episode) survived as he's shagging her now. An Andorian ship shows up and attacks the Enterprise to the confusion of everyone. Shran has to help Enterprise get through the Andorian ship's shields as they're going to kill everyone. But it doesn't work, for some reason! The Tellerite Ambassador argues that the Andorians are now obviously trying to stop the peace talks. Shran thinks it might have been an Andorian ship stolen by the Tellerites and modified and that's why he couldn't get the shields down. The Tellerites have a secret meeting and wonder if Archer is working with the Andorians. T'Pol finds that the power signature (or whatever) of the Tellerite ship that attacked Shran and the Andorian ship that attacked them are the same and they could in fact be the same ship. Shran is angry again!
Archer wonders if the Andorians and Tellerites can ever work together and learns that T'Pol's divorce has come through. We learn who's really behind everything: Romulans. There's some mysterious figure wearing a helmet apparently flying the enemy ship. Enterprise finds the ship seemingly adrift and beams a crew over. The Romulans plan to self destruct rather than let the humans capture their ship. The ship suddenly powers up, with Trip, Reed and some MACOs onboard. It attacks the Enterprise and they have to fly away. The Romulan ship chases, with Trip and Reed trapped on it. Shran tells Talas he wants to torture the Tellerite Ambassador, because that's his solution to everything. T'Pol discovers the ship has something in common with the ship they saw in the Romulan minefield back in season two. Archer wonders if the Romulans are scared of the conference because it could lead to an alliance (A FEDERATION, PERHAPS) between humans, Andorians and Tellerites. Talas tries to seduce a MACO to break her and Shran out of their quarters, but ends up just beating him up. Trip and Reed make their way to the Romulan bridge and talk about T'Pol's divorce (with continuity refernce to Reed saying T'Pol has a nice bum.) Shran and Talas break into the Tellerite room and demand answers. T'Pol and Hoshi learn the Romulan ship has holographic projectors on it which allow it to look like other ships (and it can replicate power signatures and weapons and stuff.) Boy those Romulans had some advanced technology for the time! Archer talks Shran out of shooting up the Tellerites, but then a Tellerite shoots Talas. Trip and Reed finally get to the Bridge and we get the reveal that the ship is actually remotely piloted from the Romulan homeworld.
It's good but I got a bit bored at times. There's just too many scenes of petty arguing and, unlike the previous episode, it does feel like something we've seen before. I like Shran and Combs but I get a bit sick of him never trusting anyone and always just wanting to torture everyone for answers. I'm sick of the Trip/T'Pol story and how we have to get at least one scene touching on it every episode. So she's divorced now, great. Why don't her and Trip just get together? Anyway, it's a good first part of a three episode arc. The story's good enough and it's entertaining on the whole.
SCORE: 8/10
The Tomtrek
Love Wookiee
I remember people were excited when they saw there was an episode called "Daedalus" because they thought we were finally going to see a Daedalus-class ship but we got this shit instead.
The Question
Eternal
"No Daedalus-class ship for you!" -The Daedalus-Class Ship Nazi From Seinfeld, probably
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
I remember that too.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
United - The Romulans shake Trip and Reed around a bit in the drone. Disguised as the Enterprise, the drone destroys a Rigellian ship. Travis(!) has designed a sensor grid thing to find the drone but it needs 128 ships to win. Shran tells Talas the pistol that shot her was set to kill and she knows there's a chance she'll die of "phase pistol infection." Shran wants to kill some Tellerites. The Romulans talk about how great their drone is (it can even self repair!) They also make sure to use the word "prototype" to "explain" why we never see this super advanced ship that can pretend to be anybody ever again. Archer has Earth and Vulcan ships headed to him but he wants Andorians and Tellerites too. He thinks they can work together if he is in command of both. Archer calls a meeting with Shran and the Tellerite guy. He says they need to act more like humans. Trip manages to shut down the drone's warp power for a moment. He and Reed fuck around with the drone some more so the Romulans poison them into turning the power back on. Shran agrees to work with Archer and admits his people could work with the humans more in the future. Then Talas dies. Trip passes out from Romulan poisoning and Reed has no choice to be turn the warp back on. Shran tells the Tellerite how great Talas was and reveals he's carrying a bottle of her blood around. He tells Archer that if he doesn't get to meet the Tellerite in combat the alliance is finished.
Reed outsmarts the Romulans by leaving an overloading phaser on the drone's bridge. It blows up and knocks the power out as Trip and Reed run away from the explosion. T'Pol and Hoshi tell Archer of the Andorian tradition where they fight to the death with ice tools. The Tellerite has refused to fight. Archer tells Shran that he'll be the substitute for the ambassador and Shran says he'll have to kill him then. Archer updates his will. Hoshi and Travis have one of those "we better give them something to do" scenes they get sometimes where Hoshi is tring to find a loophole for Archer (Travis offers to help.) Hoshi, the Tellerite and Phlox give Archer fighting advice before the duel. They both wear metal gauntles that are chained together during the fight (in a cargo bay.) It's a pretty fun fight scene. Archer chokes Shran with the steel cable between them but Shran won't quit. So Archer chops his antenna on. This ends the fight, so I guess it wasn't a fight to the death at all. Shran feels humiliated but is happy that Archer respected Andorian tradition so everything is settled (I'm sure it's just what Talas would have wanted!) A Romulan senator visits the Romulans in charge of the drone project. The drone attacks Enterprise and Archer finds out Trip and Reed are still alive (wait, how long have they been on the drone without food? Seems like quite a few days have gone by.) Trip and Reed jump out into space (they're wearing spacesuits.) Some Vulcan and other ships show up to save Enterprise. Okay, Reed says he was wearing the spacesuit for three days when he and Trip talk after. Trip puts him on report for disobeying his order to not turn the power back on...no, it's all a jolly jape by Trip! The drone gets away. Archer tells Shran how an Andorian ship saved the crew of a damaged Tellerite ship. Shran and his lover's murderer shake hands. There's a nice shot of Enterprise and all the alien ships. Then we find out the drone was piloted by...an albino Andorian?
There's a lot of fun to be had here. The Archer/Shran fight is silly but just about works. There's plenty of action. I like that the show is actually establishing an alliance between the founding members of the Federation. There's nothing deep here and nothing as good as the Vulcan arc but it's all good Trek fun!
SCORE: 8.5/10
The Aenar - The Romulan senator is mad a the drone team for the faiulure of their mission. But there's a second drone ship ready which will hunt down and destroy Enterprise. T'Pol reports the drone is flown by a telepath and Phlox has found brainwaves of a "highly telepathic" brain flying the ship...and it's a bit like an Andorian brain. Shran reveals the pilot is an Aenar, blind ice-dwellers who wereonly discovered fifty years ago. Trip and T'Pol talk about near death experiences. Archer and Shran arrive at Andoria. They beam down but they have to travel through ice caves because I guess the transporter can't beam them into ice caves. Surely the Andorians must have a transportation system though? Cars or something? The guy in charge of the drone project gets some depth as he tells his co-worker that he used to be a senator but was kicked out of the senate for asking if conquest was the best path for his people. Shran falls down some ice stairs and is impaled on an ice spike. Archer tends to him while an Aenar watches. Phlox is making a telepathic thing to block the Romulan signal and T'Pol volunteers for her brain to be used in it despite Trip's objections. The Aenar turn out to be friendly and take Shran and Archer to their big underground city. The Aenar girl tells Archer that no Aenar uses their powers without consent and asks to enter Archer's mind. She is shocked that an Aenar would pilot the Romulan ship but also knows exactly who it is. Trip and T'Pol have a frosty exchange in the latest of their boring "will they/won't they" scenes.
Another Aenar girl (I don't know their names but this one is hot) goes to visit Shran and apologises for sensing his thoughts when she saw him for the first time. The missing Aenar is her brother. T'Pol is plugged into Phlox's machine and it hurts her brain. The Aenar won't help so Archer and Phlox leave. The cute girl goes with them to find her brother. She uses her powers to detect ICE MAGGOTS. Trip tells Phlox not to let T'Pol use the machine again. He tells Trip to not interefere because he's crazy with love. The head Aenar woman is mad at the cute Aenar girl for going with Archer and Shran and says she's betraying her people. She reads her mind and agrees to let her go because her intentions are honourable or something (this all feels like time wasting.) Cute Aenar girl is plugged into Phlox's machine instead of T'Pol and she's much better at handling it...until something goes wrong. Enterprise finds an Earth cargo ship destroyed by the drone. Shran tells CAG that she was brave for using the machine at all. It's a sweet moment. Enterprise engages the drone. CAG can feel her brother and tries using Phlox's machine again. The second drone arrives and Enterprise gets its ass kicked. CAG gets through to her brother and convinces him to stop the attack. Why is he in control of both drones? Why did the Romulans only kidnap one Aenar? He feels bad for killing so many peope (but not bad enough to refuse to do it, I guess?) The two drones are destroyed and the brother dies on Romulas (there's a subplot where a Romulan scientist is angry that he dies but it's pretty underdeveloped.) Shran leaves. Trip tells Archer he wants to transfer to Colombia because he's so distracted by his love for T'Pol (he doesn't say that part but it's obvious.)
It's pretty weird for a third part, as it almost feels like a separate story? The first two parts are all about forming an alliance between humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellerites. This one it's just Shran helping Archer and the alliance doesn't come up again. The Aenar are...okay. I liked the girl. Her relationship with Shran was nice. The Romulan stuff had one good scene (where the guy talked about being a senator) but was pretty average. The action is okay. It's fine. It's a 7/10 kind of episode.
SCORE: 7/10
Reed outsmarts the Romulans by leaving an overloading phaser on the drone's bridge. It blows up and knocks the power out as Trip and Reed run away from the explosion. T'Pol and Hoshi tell Archer of the Andorian tradition where they fight to the death with ice tools. The Tellerite has refused to fight. Archer tells Shran that he'll be the substitute for the ambassador and Shran says he'll have to kill him then. Archer updates his will. Hoshi and Travis have one of those "we better give them something to do" scenes they get sometimes where Hoshi is tring to find a loophole for Archer (Travis offers to help.) Hoshi, the Tellerite and Phlox give Archer fighting advice before the duel. They both wear metal gauntles that are chained together during the fight (in a cargo bay.) It's a pretty fun fight scene. Archer chokes Shran with the steel cable between them but Shran won't quit. So Archer chops his antenna on. This ends the fight, so I guess it wasn't a fight to the death at all. Shran feels humiliated but is happy that Archer respected Andorian tradition so everything is settled (I'm sure it's just what Talas would have wanted!) A Romulan senator visits the Romulans in charge of the drone project. The drone attacks Enterprise and Archer finds out Trip and Reed are still alive (wait, how long have they been on the drone without food? Seems like quite a few days have gone by.) Trip and Reed jump out into space (they're wearing spacesuits.) Some Vulcan and other ships show up to save Enterprise. Okay, Reed says he was wearing the spacesuit for three days when he and Trip talk after. Trip puts him on report for disobeying his order to not turn the power back on...no, it's all a jolly jape by Trip! The drone gets away. Archer tells Shran how an Andorian ship saved the crew of a damaged Tellerite ship. Shran and his lover's murderer shake hands. There's a nice shot of Enterprise and all the alien ships. Then we find out the drone was piloted by...an albino Andorian?
There's a lot of fun to be had here. The Archer/Shran fight is silly but just about works. There's plenty of action. I like that the show is actually establishing an alliance between the founding members of the Federation. There's nothing deep here and nothing as good as the Vulcan arc but it's all good Trek fun!
SCORE: 8.5/10
The Aenar - The Romulan senator is mad a the drone team for the faiulure of their mission. But there's a second drone ship ready which will hunt down and destroy Enterprise. T'Pol reports the drone is flown by a telepath and Phlox has found brainwaves of a "highly telepathic" brain flying the ship...and it's a bit like an Andorian brain. Shran reveals the pilot is an Aenar, blind ice-dwellers who wereonly discovered fifty years ago. Trip and T'Pol talk about near death experiences. Archer and Shran arrive at Andoria. They beam down but they have to travel through ice caves because I guess the transporter can't beam them into ice caves. Surely the Andorians must have a transportation system though? Cars or something? The guy in charge of the drone project gets some depth as he tells his co-worker that he used to be a senator but was kicked out of the senate for asking if conquest was the best path for his people. Shran falls down some ice stairs and is impaled on an ice spike. Archer tends to him while an Aenar watches. Phlox is making a telepathic thing to block the Romulan signal and T'Pol volunteers for her brain to be used in it despite Trip's objections. The Aenar turn out to be friendly and take Shran and Archer to their big underground city. The Aenar girl tells Archer that no Aenar uses their powers without consent and asks to enter Archer's mind. She is shocked that an Aenar would pilot the Romulan ship but also knows exactly who it is. Trip and T'Pol have a frosty exchange in the latest of their boring "will they/won't they" scenes.
Another Aenar girl (I don't know their names but this one is hot) goes to visit Shran and apologises for sensing his thoughts when she saw him for the first time. The missing Aenar is her brother. T'Pol is plugged into Phlox's machine and it hurts her brain. The Aenar won't help so Archer and Phlox leave. The cute girl goes with them to find her brother. She uses her powers to detect ICE MAGGOTS. Trip tells Phlox not to let T'Pol use the machine again. He tells Trip to not interefere because he's crazy with love. The head Aenar woman is mad at the cute Aenar girl for going with Archer and Shran and says she's betraying her people. She reads her mind and agrees to let her go because her intentions are honourable or something (this all feels like time wasting.) Cute Aenar girl is plugged into Phlox's machine instead of T'Pol and she's much better at handling it...until something goes wrong. Enterprise finds an Earth cargo ship destroyed by the drone. Shran tells CAG that she was brave for using the machine at all. It's a sweet moment. Enterprise engages the drone. CAG can feel her brother and tries using Phlox's machine again. The second drone arrives and Enterprise gets its ass kicked. CAG gets through to her brother and convinces him to stop the attack. Why is he in control of both drones? Why did the Romulans only kidnap one Aenar? He feels bad for killing so many peope (but not bad enough to refuse to do it, I guess?) The two drones are destroyed and the brother dies on Romulas (there's a subplot where a Romulan scientist is angry that he dies but it's pretty underdeveloped.) Shran leaves. Trip tells Archer he wants to transfer to Colombia because he's so distracted by his love for T'Pol (he doesn't say that part but it's obvious.)
It's pretty weird for a third part, as it almost feels like a separate story? The first two parts are all about forming an alliance between humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellerites. This one it's just Shran helping Archer and the alliance doesn't come up again. The Aenar are...okay. I liked the girl. Her relationship with Shran was nice. The Romulan stuff had one good scene (where the guy talked about being a senator) but was pretty average. The action is okay. It's fine. It's a 7/10 kind of episode.
SCORE: 7/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Affliction - Some Klingons strap another Klingon to a chair and inject him with something that makes his forehead go funny. The Enterprise is back at Earth for the launch of Colombia and to say goodbye to Trip. T'Pol asks him if he's leaving because of her and she says no. Hoshi and Phlox are visiting Earth when some aliens kidnap him (Hoshi does kung fu because she mentioned she knows it a couple of episodes ago!) An investigator wonders if the racist from the bar earlier in the season did this and Reed scoffs at her. Trip tells off Seth McFarlane who is an engineer on Colombia. Captain Hermandez tells him to update the Enterprise patch on his uniform to a Colombia one. Archer suggests that T'Pol use a mind meld to help Hoshi remember details of Phlox's kidnapping and says he can "walk her through it" since he knows more about mind melds than her thanks to Surak. Reed does his own investigation but a mysterious man in black asks to meet him. T'Pol helps Hoshi remember that the kidnappers spock Rigellian. Reed meets the man in black (Reed mentions his "Section" WHAT COULD THIS MEAN) who says he has a job for him. Phlox is taken to the Klingons and assigned to work with a Doctor Antaak. (There's also a Klingon general played by Uncle Phil so that's nice.) Antaak explains that a virus threatens to wipe out the Klingons and only Phlox can help. They couldn't just ask him because Klingons are dumb. Hermandez and Trip have dinner and she wonders why he's on her ship. T'Pol and Trip have a weird shared dream. It's a bit stupid.
Enterprise finds that all the Rigellians on the ship that kidnapped Phlox are dead. Reed lies that he can't tell who did it. Phlox is brought a Klingon dying with the virus to study and is disgusted when a Klingon kills him. Reed contacts his Section 31 boss and wants to know why the Klingons killed all those Rigellians. He wants to explain everything to Archer but Section 31 guy says that's dumb. Reed says "I'm being comprimed and I don't like it!" His acting is not great. Klingons attack and board the Enterprise. Klingons...with smooth foreheads. They infect the Enterprise with a virus and shoots some people and MACOs. Enterprise captures a prisoner and everyone's shocked that he's a Klingon with that forehead. Phlox discovers that there's augment DNA in the virus. The Klingons reveal that they were experimenting with augment DNA (captured earlier in the season) to create Klingon supermen. Somehow the augment DNA made the cranial ridges of infected Klingons disolve. Seems unlikely! Hoshi reveals she's having sex dreams about Trip after mind melding with T'Pol. Archer discovers that Reed erased the Rigellian black box and made it look like Orions destroyed the ship instead of Klingons. Archer has Reed sent to the Brig. Archer visits him and Reed says he has obligations that go beyond this ship. Archer tries to guilt him by bringing up his Royal Navy father, but that guy was an asshole. Phlox is making slow progress on the virus and Uncle Phil gives him five days. Antaak thinks they can stabalise the virus and creat Klingon augments. The Colombia launches. Reed talks to the Klingon prisoner, who says Reed is lucky his Captain didn't execute him. Enterprise goes to warp but the computer virus the Klingons infected them with (doesn't seem very Klingon?) threatens to blow up the warp core and kill everyone a lot.
It's part one of two so maybe it's not fair to judge, but I don't think this one is as good as the opening episodes on the other arcs this season. There's lots of stuff going on with Klingons and their foreheads, fucking Trip and T'Pol, and Section 31, but is any of it super compelling? I mean it's all okay. It just didn't make me excited. I also have to point out again that I hate the Trip/T'Pol story? I don't remember hating it first time out but man it's boring. Why does he have to leave the ship? Why didn't they just get together after her divorce (something about her wanting time to read her bible?) I just don't care. Episode watchable.
SCORE: 7/10
Divergence - Colombia is headed to meet the Enterprise so Trip can save them from blowing up. They need to get Trip from one ship to the other at warp and Archer needs Reed's help. Enterprise and Colombia "merge their warp fields" which invovles Colombia flying upside down beneath them. Yes, it's sexual. The ships are tethered together and Trip climbs the tether (at warp) to get to the Enterprise. This feels like the kind of thing you'd see in a J.J. movie. It's a bit silly and probably doesn't make sense but it's entertaining. And it eats up ten minutes of the episode. Trip does something magic to stop the Enterprise exploding. This takes up more time. Uncle Philx tortures Phlox to get him to create augments. Antaak is nicer to him and helps Phlox come up with a way to cure the afflicted (leaving them with smooth foreheads) without turning them into augments. Archer yells at Reed for meeting with Harris (the Section 31 guy) and again I don't find Scott Bakula or Dominic Keating very convincing here. Antaak tells Phlox how his father disowned him for becoming a healer. Smooth heads tell Uncle Phil that Archer killed his son. The High Council are going to blow up the infected colony if Phlox can't cure the virus in three days. He keeps yelling at Phlox and stuff.
Reed asks the Klingon prisoner (Phil's son) if he ever questions how stupid Klingon society is. A smooth head lady asks Uncle Phil how they can ever go home with smooth heads and says she's been feeling human emotions. Archer gets through to Harries who tells him not to interfere before Phlox finishes what he's doing. Phlox has four cures, three are deadly, one will work. Uncle Phil wants him to infect four Klingons to find out which works. Reed tells Archer that Harris told him they needed Phlox to cure the Klingons. Archer's found out about the human DNA in the virus and doesn't trust S31. Reed tells him where he thinks Phlox is. Uncle Phil and Antaak let themselves be injected with one of the cures. Antaak has one of the deadly ones. Harris talks to his Klingon ally who reveals he's just going to destroy Enterprise and Colombia and ignore their deal (whatever the fuck their deal was?) Wow, Section 31 are terrible. Archer arrives to rescue Phlox but he wants to cure everyone first. Phlox shows his cure to the bad Klingon but he's still going to kill everyone roar. Enterprise and Colombia fight some Klingons. Phlox tells Archer he could complee the cure earlier if he had a human host to work with so Archer sits in the famous chair. Archer gets injected and starts growing forehead ridges. Yeah. I'm pretty sure you can't just grow new bones in your forehead that fast. Phlox sends the cure to the bad Klingons but also infects them with the virus so the bad Klingons have to stop attacking while Phlox cures them. Antaak is cure back on Enterprise but left as a smooth head. Millions more Klingons will look like that and pass it on to their children. Until Discovery where they'll all look like Orcs. Harris calls Reed and says everything went according to plan. Did it? I believed that on DS9 but not here.
Remember when Worf said "We do not discuss it with outsiders!" That was good. It was a funny line and a nice way to get viewers to stop asking when Klingons looked different in TOS. It's not a question that needs answered, since we know the answer is "because the make-up wasn't as good in the sixties." This two parter tries to answer that question that doesn't need answered and ends up feeling a bit pointless and silly. The Vulcan three parter managed to tell a story that was compelling in its own right, while also being full of nice continuity references and new details on Vulcan society. This one tells a story that's just decent at best. There's some good stuff here, I kind of liked the tether bit at the start even though it seemed to exist to fill up screentime. Uncle Phil and Antaak were reasonable Klingons who got some decent character moments. The Section 31 stuff is bad though! What was the point of it? What were they even trying to do? It felt like they were just included because people liked them in DS9. At least the episode takes care to never have Archer learn their name and doesn't just have Section 31 openly standing around on the ship and flying their own fleet of starships or something. Imagine a prequel that did that!
SCORE: 6/10
Enterprise finds that all the Rigellians on the ship that kidnapped Phlox are dead. Reed lies that he can't tell who did it. Phlox is brought a Klingon dying with the virus to study and is disgusted when a Klingon kills him. Reed contacts his Section 31 boss and wants to know why the Klingons killed all those Rigellians. He wants to explain everything to Archer but Section 31 guy says that's dumb. Reed says "I'm being comprimed and I don't like it!" His acting is not great. Klingons attack and board the Enterprise. Klingons...with smooth foreheads. They infect the Enterprise with a virus and shoots some people and MACOs. Enterprise captures a prisoner and everyone's shocked that he's a Klingon with that forehead. Phlox discovers that there's augment DNA in the virus. The Klingons reveal that they were experimenting with augment DNA (captured earlier in the season) to create Klingon supermen. Somehow the augment DNA made the cranial ridges of infected Klingons disolve. Seems unlikely! Hoshi reveals she's having sex dreams about Trip after mind melding with T'Pol. Archer discovers that Reed erased the Rigellian black box and made it look like Orions destroyed the ship instead of Klingons. Archer has Reed sent to the Brig. Archer visits him and Reed says he has obligations that go beyond this ship. Archer tries to guilt him by bringing up his Royal Navy father, but that guy was an asshole. Phlox is making slow progress on the virus and Uncle Phil gives him five days. Antaak thinks they can stabalise the virus and creat Klingon augments. The Colombia launches. Reed talks to the Klingon prisoner, who says Reed is lucky his Captain didn't execute him. Enterprise goes to warp but the computer virus the Klingons infected them with (doesn't seem very Klingon?) threatens to blow up the warp core and kill everyone a lot.
It's part one of two so maybe it's not fair to judge, but I don't think this one is as good as the opening episodes on the other arcs this season. There's lots of stuff going on with Klingons and their foreheads, fucking Trip and T'Pol, and Section 31, but is any of it super compelling? I mean it's all okay. It just didn't make me excited. I also have to point out again that I hate the Trip/T'Pol story? I don't remember hating it first time out but man it's boring. Why does he have to leave the ship? Why didn't they just get together after her divorce (something about her wanting time to read her bible?) I just don't care. Episode watchable.
SCORE: 7/10
Divergence - Colombia is headed to meet the Enterprise so Trip can save them from blowing up. They need to get Trip from one ship to the other at warp and Archer needs Reed's help. Enterprise and Colombia "merge their warp fields" which invovles Colombia flying upside down beneath them. Yes, it's sexual. The ships are tethered together and Trip climbs the tether (at warp) to get to the Enterprise. This feels like the kind of thing you'd see in a J.J. movie. It's a bit silly and probably doesn't make sense but it's entertaining. And it eats up ten minutes of the episode. Trip does something magic to stop the Enterprise exploding. This takes up more time. Uncle Philx tortures Phlox to get him to create augments. Antaak is nicer to him and helps Phlox come up with a way to cure the afflicted (leaving them with smooth foreheads) without turning them into augments. Archer yells at Reed for meeting with Harris (the Section 31 guy) and again I don't find Scott Bakula or Dominic Keating very convincing here. Antaak tells Phlox how his father disowned him for becoming a healer. Smooth heads tell Uncle Phil that Archer killed his son. The High Council are going to blow up the infected colony if Phlox can't cure the virus in three days. He keeps yelling at Phlox and stuff.
Reed asks the Klingon prisoner (Phil's son) if he ever questions how stupid Klingon society is. A smooth head lady asks Uncle Phil how they can ever go home with smooth heads and says she's been feeling human emotions. Archer gets through to Harries who tells him not to interfere before Phlox finishes what he's doing. Phlox has four cures, three are deadly, one will work. Uncle Phil wants him to infect four Klingons to find out which works. Reed tells Archer that Harris told him they needed Phlox to cure the Klingons. Archer's found out about the human DNA in the virus and doesn't trust S31. Reed tells him where he thinks Phlox is. Uncle Phil and Antaak let themselves be injected with one of the cures. Antaak has one of the deadly ones. Harris talks to his Klingon ally who reveals he's just going to destroy Enterprise and Colombia and ignore their deal (whatever the fuck their deal was?) Wow, Section 31 are terrible. Archer arrives to rescue Phlox but he wants to cure everyone first. Phlox shows his cure to the bad Klingon but he's still going to kill everyone roar. Enterprise and Colombia fight some Klingons. Phlox tells Archer he could complee the cure earlier if he had a human host to work with so Archer sits in the famous chair. Archer gets injected and starts growing forehead ridges. Yeah. I'm pretty sure you can't just grow new bones in your forehead that fast. Phlox sends the cure to the bad Klingons but also infects them with the virus so the bad Klingons have to stop attacking while Phlox cures them. Antaak is cure back on Enterprise but left as a smooth head. Millions more Klingons will look like that and pass it on to their children. Until Discovery where they'll all look like Orcs. Harris calls Reed and says everything went according to plan. Did it? I believed that on DS9 but not here.
Remember when Worf said "We do not discuss it with outsiders!" That was good. It was a funny line and a nice way to get viewers to stop asking when Klingons looked different in TOS. It's not a question that needs answered, since we know the answer is "because the make-up wasn't as good in the sixties." This two parter tries to answer that question that doesn't need answered and ends up feeling a bit pointless and silly. The Vulcan three parter managed to tell a story that was compelling in its own right, while also being full of nice continuity references and new details on Vulcan society. This one tells a story that's just decent at best. There's some good stuff here, I kind of liked the tether bit at the start even though it seemed to exist to fill up screentime. Uncle Phil and Antaak were reasonable Klingons who got some decent character moments. The Section 31 stuff is bad though! What was the point of it? What were they even trying to do? It felt like they were just included because people liked them in DS9. At least the episode takes care to never have Archer learn their name and doesn't just have Section 31 openly standing around on the ship and flying their own fleet of starships or something. Imagine a prequel that did that!
SCORE: 6/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Bound - An Orion (he's green but looks nothing like the guy from Discovery a few weeks ago) shows up promising an interesting business offer for Archer. He wants to improve relations with the humans. Trip's still on Enterprise helping out (sure) and clashing with the new Chief Engineer (Kelby.) T'Pol asks Trip if he's been having sex dreams about her and he says no. Archer and Reed go to the Orion's shipand he claims to be a friendly pirate. He has three slave girls dance for them and Archer and Reed get all horny. The dance is shot in a quite interesting way by the director so let's give them some credit! Archer tells T'Pol that the Orion has told them of a planet where they can mine for a rare mineral and he's agreed to go there and pay the Orion 10%. He's also given Archer the three slave girls as a gift and Reed shows them around (still wearing their SLAVE BIKINIS.) Reed continues to be horny. T'Pol reports to Archer that the Orion women have been disracting the crew. Red and Mayweather work out intensely to get the Orions out of their heads. Why don't they just wank? Mayweather (with typical terrible acting) talks about meeting Deltan women when he was fifteen. Oneof the Orions visits Kelby and easily takes him away from his work, while female officers silently look on in anger. Hoshi goes to Phlox with a headache but Phlox collapses. He's sleepy/horny. Trip tells Kelby to get back to work and stop being so horny. Kelby refuses so Trip confines him to quarters. Archer visits an Orion and tells her slavery is bad. She says she CHOOSES to have the hots for him and he's fine with that and they kiss.
Enterprise arrives at the mining place and are attacked by a small ship that can't hurt them. Archer, all horny and angry, orders Enterprise to fire on it anyway. Reed refuses to fire. An Orion has sex with Kelby and tell him he's better than Trip. Kelby punches Trip and shuts down the engines. Trip beats him up but the ship's dead in space (again.) Phlox reports Kelby's behaviour is a result of Orion pheremones (that's why he's always sleepy.) Trip and T'Pol are the only people not effected. Archer locks the Orions in the Bring then stupidly goes to question them even though he's still all horny and angry. He nearly lets them out but T'Pol stops them. Trip and T'Pol work together to get the engines working. Trip admits he has been dreaming about T'Pol and that, somehow, makes him immune (T'Pol is immune because she's always fucking immune) to the Orion harlots. The Orion pirate from the start shows up for Archer's head (the Syndicate wants revenge for Archer releasing those slaves back in 'Borderlands' I guess.) He toes the Enterprise with his own evil grappling hook. He then reveals that HE'S the slave, controlled by the Orion women. It's them who control the Orion syndicate! That's why they were in cages earlier in the season! Wait, that makes no sense! The Orion women escape the Brig and come to the Bridge as Archer left men to guard them because he's an idiot. They uses sex pheremones on Archer and Reed but Trip shows up and shoots them. Archer gives the women back to the pirate and lets them go rather than arresting them for space crimes. T'Pol makes a joke and everyone laughs for a full five minutes like the end of a TOS episode except not as funny or charming. Trip tries to get T'Pol to say that she wants him back on the Enterprise. She finally does and he says he'll think about it. She kisses him and he admits he's already asked for a transfer back. Well I guess this means Trip and T'Pol are finally a real couple and if we flashforward six years in a couple of weeks they'll totally still be together!
It's an attempt to make an Original Series type episode. The problem is that it's 2005 not 1965 and Enterprise isn't very good at doing this type of episode (remember 'Precious Cargo'? It was bad!) If it's meant to be a comedy episode it fails by not being funny. If it's meant to be sexy it kind of fails too. The first dance is pretty good and the main Orion girl is hot but watching Archer and Reed get all sweaty and stammering is not sexy. The idea that the Orion women are in charge seems to be an attempt to update this type of story for the 21st century. Except the Orion women still spend the whole episode in their underwear being shot like sex objects. Also just fucking put Trip and T'Pol together. I'm so tired of that.
SCORE: 2.5/10
Enterprise arrives at the mining place and are attacked by a small ship that can't hurt them. Archer, all horny and angry, orders Enterprise to fire on it anyway. Reed refuses to fire. An Orion has sex with Kelby and tell him he's better than Trip. Kelby punches Trip and shuts down the engines. Trip beats him up but the ship's dead in space (again.) Phlox reports Kelby's behaviour is a result of Orion pheremones (that's why he's always sleepy.) Trip and T'Pol are the only people not effected. Archer locks the Orions in the Bring then stupidly goes to question them even though he's still all horny and angry. He nearly lets them out but T'Pol stops them. Trip and T'Pol work together to get the engines working. Trip admits he has been dreaming about T'Pol and that, somehow, makes him immune (T'Pol is immune because she's always fucking immune) to the Orion harlots. The Orion pirate from the start shows up for Archer's head (the Syndicate wants revenge for Archer releasing those slaves back in 'Borderlands' I guess.) He toes the Enterprise with his own evil grappling hook. He then reveals that HE'S the slave, controlled by the Orion women. It's them who control the Orion syndicate! That's why they were in cages earlier in the season! Wait, that makes no sense! The Orion women escape the Brig and come to the Bridge as Archer left men to guard them because he's an idiot. They uses sex pheremones on Archer and Reed but Trip shows up and shoots them. Archer gives the women back to the pirate and lets them go rather than arresting them for space crimes. T'Pol makes a joke and everyone laughs for a full five minutes like the end of a TOS episode except not as funny or charming. Trip tries to get T'Pol to say that she wants him back on the Enterprise. She finally does and he says he'll think about it. She kisses him and he admits he's already asked for a transfer back. Well I guess this means Trip and T'Pol are finally a real couple and if we flashforward six years in a couple of weeks they'll totally still be together!
It's an attempt to make an Original Series type episode. The problem is that it's 2005 not 1965 and Enterprise isn't very good at doing this type of episode (remember 'Precious Cargo'? It was bad!) If it's meant to be a comedy episode it fails by not being funny. If it's meant to be sexy it kind of fails too. The first dance is pretty good and the main Orion girl is hot but watching Archer and Reed get all sweaty and stammering is not sexy. The idea that the Orion women are in charge seems to be an attempt to update this type of story for the 21st century. Except the Orion women still spend the whole episode in their underwear being shot like sex objects. Also just fucking put Trip and T'Pol together. I'm so tired of that.
SCORE: 2.5/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
In A Mirror, Darkly: Part 1 - Wait, it's the end scene of the hit movie Star Trek: First Contact again! But...Zephran Cochrane just shot the Vulcan! Crazy! And then we get the best opening sequence Enterprise ever done. I've posted it before and I'll post it again. We're in the Mirror Universe and Forrest is the Captian of the Enterprise. Reed is torturing a Tellerite in his new Agony Booth. First Officer Archer has information on a new advanced ship spotted in Tholian space, but Forrest doesn't want to go there as he's got a rebellion to squash. Forrest is sleeping with Hoshi and that's not a pairing I ever expected to see. She learns from Forrest that the war is going badly. Archer and Reed (who is an evil MACO here) stage a coup against Forrest and lock him in the Brig. Archer and MACO Travis (lol) take the Bridge from T'Pol and her midriff. Archer tells the crew he's taking the ship into Tholian space (lying that Starfleet ordered it.) Trip has a burned face. Archer reminds T'Pol that all Vulcans are slaves and promotes her to First Officer. He makes Travis head of his personal guard. Porthos is a devil dog. Hoshi comes to see Archer to check on Forrest. She seduces him (they have a history) and tries to stab him, but he stops her and they keep kissing. This is hot not going to lie. The Enterprise captures the pilot of a Tholian ship. Phlox tortures it in the Decon Chamber. The Tholian is a CGI creature and it looks pretty cool. Phlox delights in hurting it as Archer asks for the location of the mysteriious Federation ship. The Tholian sends a distress signal with its crystal body.
Burned up Trip talks to T'Pol about how the warp core is frying his internal organs. It's revealed that he "did her a favour" during her Pon Farr. The Enterprise has a cloaking device and it malfunctions, hurting Trip. Archer beats up Forrest for saying he has no ambition. Archer nearly kills him but stops when Forrest says Hoshi will never forgive him. Reed suspects that Trip sabotaged the cloak himself so Trip is sent to the Agony Booth. Archer thinks Trip is working for some asshole Admiral. Archer (shirtless) and Hoshi (bra) have the sex. Archer now suspects T'Pol is responisble for the sabotage. T'Pol and some Vulcans break Forrest out of the Brig. They take the Bridge, but Archer arrives and tells him he's locked them out of the Helm. Auto-navigation will take the ship into Tholian space. Forrest gives Archer ten hours in the Agony Booth. Forrest makes Archer his First Officer again as Starlfeet are interested in the mystery ship. Archer reveals what he knows about the Mystery Ship: it comes from an alternate universe. He has photos of the mystery ship and it sure looks Constitution Class! AND it's from the future! Maybe if Archer had told Forrest all this before there would have been no reason for the mutiny? Trip is mad at T'Pol and she reveals that she mind melded him into sabotaging the cloak. Trip gets the cloak working again and the Enterprise arrives at the location of the mystery ship. It's the U.S.S. Defiant from 'The Tholian Web', continuity fans! Forrest sends Archer over to take the Defiant (there's aliens detected onboard) then tells T'Pol to make sure Archer doesn't return from the mission. Reed is excited to find a 23rd century phaser. Phlox blows up the Tholian prisoner when it sends another transmission. Archer reaches the Defiant's Bridge. More Tholian ships show up and start weaving a web around the Enterprise. Trip gets the Defiant working (which means the lights come on and we see the Bridge is a perfect original series recreation) as the Enterprise is being beaten up by Tholians. Forrest, who's actually quite noble, orders his crew to escape pods while he stays to fight the Tholians and save his crew. The Enterprise is destroyed by the Tholian Web, leaving Archer and co on the Defiant.
DS9's Mirror Universe episodes weren't actually bad. The first one had a really strong scene for Colm Meaney, the episodes in seasons 3 and 4 had some fun Star Wars references. But they never quite captured the feel of the original mirror universe episode. I think it's because they made the humans good guys again, the rebels fights against an evil empire of Klingons and Cardassians. This episode returns to the original spirit of the mirror universe, that spirit being "humans are bastards." It's just a load of fun! You get a much more entertaining version of Archer, you get Linda Park killing at as Mirror Hoshi, Phlox making a Tholian explode. There's no depth to it or anything and I'm not sure why Archer didn't just show Forrest the photos of the Defiant at the start, but it's still one of the actual best episodes of Enterprise.
SCORE: 9.5/10
In A Mirror, Darkly: Part 2 - Archer gets the Defiant up and running, the weapons last. They destroy the Tholian Web and the station that was holding the Defiant. They pick up the escape pods from the Enterprise. Trip is having a hard time with the Defiant's futuristiic systems and T'Pol wants to take it back to Earth, but Archer wants them on the frontlines fighting in the war. Archer's back in control and he tells T'Pol he should kill her. She tells him she's loyal to Archer now. Archer wears a 23rd century unifrom, much to Hoshi's amusemnt. He reads about the other universe and learns of the Federation. He thinks they're fools. Majel Barrett gets a cameo as the computrer which is cool, as he shows Hoshi her mirror biography. Hoshi then looks up our Archer and reveals what a good and important guy he was. Mirror Archer is disgusted because our Archer wasn't racist enough. Archer hints that he's keeping the Defiant for himself rather than taking it to the Emporer. A crewmember is killed by an unkown attacker. Phlox thinks it's some huge reptillian. Arcber tortures some of the alien prisoners to find out what the reptillian is. Turns out it was their slave master, a Gorn named Slarr. The CGI Gorn has stolen something and says he'll only give it back if Archer lets him leave. Archer wants to hunt him down instead. And now he's having visions of his mirror self telling him he'll finally earn respect for hunting down the Gorn. Archer and Reed try to hunt the Gorn but it's smart and leaves traps and stuff (Reed dies?) Archer and the Gorn have a fight. T'Pol turns up the gravity to stick the Gorn to the floor and Archer shoots it dead.
Reed isn't really dead but Phlox says he could go either way. He and T'Pol talk about the other universe (Shakespeare's plays are the same in the both.) T'Pol tries to talk Phlox around on how good the other universe is. The Defiant saves Admiral Black's ship from Tellerite rebels. Soval is on Black's ship, with a beard. Archer asks Black to give him command of the Defiant. Black says no and Head Archer taunts our Archer into vapourising Black. Archer makes a big speech to the crew to use the Defiant to take control of Starfleet themselves then win the war. T'Pol shows Soval the history of the other universe, trying to convince him to take action against Archer. Soval is a bit cowardly. Archer tells Hoshi he plans to get rid of every non-human on the Defiant as they could be rebels. Except Phlox he's cool (Phlarcher lives.) Archer relieves T'Pol. He returns to Earth and threatens another Admiral with death. T'Pol and Soval try to convince Phlox to join their conspiracy. They talk him around by saying if he saves the Emporer's life he'll get lots of concubines. Hoshi goes to arrest T'Pol and they have a midriff fight and call each other sluts. T'Pol is captured and says humanity will pay...in a few centuries. Soval and Phlox go on with their rebellion without her. Phlox gets power offline and Soval attacks in the other ship. Trip and Phlox have a fight (haven't we all wondered who'd win that one!) Trip fixes the Defiant and Archer blows up Soval's ship. Archer has celebration sex with Hoshi. But she poisions him then makes out with TRAVIS (lol) as he dies. Hoshi takes command and declares herself Empress Sato.
It's not as good part one. Maybe you can have too much of a good thing. I started to get a bit bored of Archer's shouting and evilness. Really the biggest problem is the whole Gorn sequence. It takes up too much time and isn't that good. I understand they were trying to pay homage to one of the most loved TOS aliens, but the CGI wasn't up to the task. They should have just had a man in the rubber suit as the Gorn. That would have been a lot more fun. I do enjoy the episode after that though. I liked how it looks as if T'Pol is going to win but nope, she loses and evil Hoshi becomes evil Emporer. This is a Mirror episode afterall, so why not end with the bad guys winning?
SCORE: 8/10
Burned up Trip talks to T'Pol about how the warp core is frying his internal organs. It's revealed that he "did her a favour" during her Pon Farr. The Enterprise has a cloaking device and it malfunctions, hurting Trip. Archer beats up Forrest for saying he has no ambition. Archer nearly kills him but stops when Forrest says Hoshi will never forgive him. Reed suspects that Trip sabotaged the cloak himself so Trip is sent to the Agony Booth. Archer thinks Trip is working for some asshole Admiral. Archer (shirtless) and Hoshi (bra) have the sex. Archer now suspects T'Pol is responisble for the sabotage. T'Pol and some Vulcans break Forrest out of the Brig. They take the Bridge, but Archer arrives and tells him he's locked them out of the Helm. Auto-navigation will take the ship into Tholian space. Forrest gives Archer ten hours in the Agony Booth. Forrest makes Archer his First Officer again as Starlfeet are interested in the mystery ship. Archer reveals what he knows about the Mystery Ship: it comes from an alternate universe. He has photos of the mystery ship and it sure looks Constitution Class! AND it's from the future! Maybe if Archer had told Forrest all this before there would have been no reason for the mutiny? Trip is mad at T'Pol and she reveals that she mind melded him into sabotaging the cloak. Trip gets the cloak working again and the Enterprise arrives at the location of the mystery ship. It's the U.S.S. Defiant from 'The Tholian Web', continuity fans! Forrest sends Archer over to take the Defiant (there's aliens detected onboard) then tells T'Pol to make sure Archer doesn't return from the mission. Reed is excited to find a 23rd century phaser. Phlox blows up the Tholian prisoner when it sends another transmission. Archer reaches the Defiant's Bridge. More Tholian ships show up and start weaving a web around the Enterprise. Trip gets the Defiant working (which means the lights come on and we see the Bridge is a perfect original series recreation) as the Enterprise is being beaten up by Tholians. Forrest, who's actually quite noble, orders his crew to escape pods while he stays to fight the Tholians and save his crew. The Enterprise is destroyed by the Tholian Web, leaving Archer and co on the Defiant.
DS9's Mirror Universe episodes weren't actually bad. The first one had a really strong scene for Colm Meaney, the episodes in seasons 3 and 4 had some fun Star Wars references. But they never quite captured the feel of the original mirror universe episode. I think it's because they made the humans good guys again, the rebels fights against an evil empire of Klingons and Cardassians. This episode returns to the original spirit of the mirror universe, that spirit being "humans are bastards." It's just a load of fun! You get a much more entertaining version of Archer, you get Linda Park killing at as Mirror Hoshi, Phlox making a Tholian explode. There's no depth to it or anything and I'm not sure why Archer didn't just show Forrest the photos of the Defiant at the start, but it's still one of the actual best episodes of Enterprise.
SCORE: 9.5/10
In A Mirror, Darkly: Part 2 - Archer gets the Defiant up and running, the weapons last. They destroy the Tholian Web and the station that was holding the Defiant. They pick up the escape pods from the Enterprise. Trip is having a hard time with the Defiant's futuristiic systems and T'Pol wants to take it back to Earth, but Archer wants them on the frontlines fighting in the war. Archer's back in control and he tells T'Pol he should kill her. She tells him she's loyal to Archer now. Archer wears a 23rd century unifrom, much to Hoshi's amusemnt. He reads about the other universe and learns of the Federation. He thinks they're fools. Majel Barrett gets a cameo as the computrer which is cool, as he shows Hoshi her mirror biography. Hoshi then looks up our Archer and reveals what a good and important guy he was. Mirror Archer is disgusted because our Archer wasn't racist enough. Archer hints that he's keeping the Defiant for himself rather than taking it to the Emporer. A crewmember is killed by an unkown attacker. Phlox thinks it's some huge reptillian. Arcber tortures some of the alien prisoners to find out what the reptillian is. Turns out it was their slave master, a Gorn named Slarr. The CGI Gorn has stolen something and says he'll only give it back if Archer lets him leave. Archer wants to hunt him down instead. And now he's having visions of his mirror self telling him he'll finally earn respect for hunting down the Gorn. Archer and Reed try to hunt the Gorn but it's smart and leaves traps and stuff (Reed dies?) Archer and the Gorn have a fight. T'Pol turns up the gravity to stick the Gorn to the floor and Archer shoots it dead.
Reed isn't really dead but Phlox says he could go either way. He and T'Pol talk about the other universe (Shakespeare's plays are the same in the both.) T'Pol tries to talk Phlox around on how good the other universe is. The Defiant saves Admiral Black's ship from Tellerite rebels. Soval is on Black's ship, with a beard. Archer asks Black to give him command of the Defiant. Black says no and Head Archer taunts our Archer into vapourising Black. Archer makes a big speech to the crew to use the Defiant to take control of Starfleet themselves then win the war. T'Pol shows Soval the history of the other universe, trying to convince him to take action against Archer. Soval is a bit cowardly. Archer tells Hoshi he plans to get rid of every non-human on the Defiant as they could be rebels. Except Phlox he's cool (Phlarcher lives.) Archer relieves T'Pol. He returns to Earth and threatens another Admiral with death. T'Pol and Soval try to convince Phlox to join their conspiracy. They talk him around by saying if he saves the Emporer's life he'll get lots of concubines. Hoshi goes to arrest T'Pol and they have a midriff fight and call each other sluts. T'Pol is captured and says humanity will pay...in a few centuries. Soval and Phlox go on with their rebellion without her. Phlox gets power offline and Soval attacks in the other ship. Trip and Phlox have a fight (haven't we all wondered who'd win that one!) Trip fixes the Defiant and Archer blows up Soval's ship. Archer has celebration sex with Hoshi. But she poisions him then makes out with TRAVIS (lol) as he dies. Hoshi takes command and declares herself Empress Sato.
It's not as good part one. Maybe you can have too much of a good thing. I started to get a bit bored of Archer's shouting and evilness. Really the biggest problem is the whole Gorn sequence. It takes up too much time and isn't that good. I understand they were trying to pay homage to one of the most loved TOS aliens, but the CGI wasn't up to the task. They should have just had a man in the rubber suit as the Gorn. That would have been a lot more fun. I do enjoy the episode after that though. I liked how it looks as if T'Pol is going to win but nope, she loses and evil Hoshi becomes evil Emporer. This is a Mirror episode afterall, so why not end with the bad guys winning?
SCORE: 8/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Demons - An evil looking guy in a suit (Peter Weller) looks in on a half human/half Vulcan baby. Enterprise is back on Earth where a politician named Samuels (Harry Groener of Buffy and TNG's 'Tin Man') is making a speech before various alien races about forming an alliance. Trip complains that Samuels is taking all the credit for bringing the aliens together. A reporter named Gannett(?) comes over to Travis as they have some kind of history and they wanted to give Travis something to do before the end of the season. A mad woman comes up to T'Pol, says "they're going to kill her!", gives T'Pol some genetic material then dies. Phlox reports it's DNA from the child of Trip and T'Pol. But they don't have a child! T'Pol tells Trip she's never been pregnant but she "knows" the child is real and theirs. Samuels tells Archer they have to keep this quiet because there's been a rise in xenophobia on Earth after the Xindi attack. Reed meets with his Section 31 contact who tells him the mad woman was a member of Terra Prime, a isolationship movement, who defected. Paxton (Weller) checks that his underling hasn't started caring for the baby like the defecting woman did. Archer tells Samuels that he's learned he was once a member of Terra Prime and that's why he wants the whole thing covered up. Samuels says he was only eighteen and made a mistake. But he agrees to help Archer find out more about the baby. "Gannett" (I still don't think that's a real name) visits Travis as she's doing a story on the Enterprise. Montgomery's acting hasn't improved at all in four years. Trip talks to Phlox about the baby. Phlox says there's no reason a human/Vulcan hybrid can't be perfectly healthy.
Paxton watches a speech by Colonel Green and explains to an underling that Green was actually a great man who history has cast out. Green killed hundreds of thousands who were infected by radiation and Paxton says it was for the greater good. Paxton's base is on THE MOON by the way and it's all very Bond villain. Travis and Gannett go into a shuttle and he tells her he prefers them to the transporter. They end up kissing. I have to mention that the acting isn't good again, sorry. It actively hurts the scene. Reed plans to sneak into Paxton's moonbase. Trip and T'Pol want to be on the mission, which is stupid considering they'd surely be recognised by the people who stole their DNA and made a baby out of it. But they go undercover as moon miners anyway and walk around with T'Pol's ears openly displayed (while hunting for racists) and bickering as usual. T'Pol suspects Trip believes she got pregnant and hid the child from him (but they were in The Expanse when they were sleeping together so how would that even be possible?) Travis and Gannett have another painful scene. A guy spots Trip and tries to suss out if Trip is racist against aliens like him. He invites Trip to a racism meeting. Trip attends the meeting while T'Pol follows a lead. Then she gets shot by a Terra Prime guy. Then the guy at Trip's meeting points him out as Command Tucker. Hey turns out it was a huge mistake for the super famous Trip Tucker to go undercover who knew! Archer arrests Gannett for being a Terra Prime spy. The two Terra Prime guys (who I will point out since it was probably an intentional choice are both black guys) bring Trip and T'Pol to Paxton. He apparently knows Trip and T'Pol were lovers as he calls them "Romeo and Juliet." He makes an evil speech about giving Earth back to humanity. Paxton's evil moonbase then FLIES off the moon. Archer questions Gannett and she asks for her lawyer. Paxton's evil moonbase goes to warp "inside the system" which apparently is a big deal evil though we see starships come out of warp inside star systems all the time. They land on Mars and take control of the Verteron Array, whch is used to redirect comets. Paxton announces to the system that he can now fire on any alien ship that enters the system and shoots on the moon to demonstrate his power. He wants all aliens to leave Earth.
It's a good first part despite some stuff I'm not sure about. Like the decision to make Paxton a total Bond villain with an evil base on the moon. Weller does a good job but I feel like it would be more interesting if Paxton presented a less evil face to the world? And if we saw more of what his appeal is to normal Earthers. Instead of seeing why isolationism is gaining popularity on Earth we have all the isolationists off being evil on the moon and it's all very black and white. Also as mentioned above it's really stupid that Trip and T'Pol go "undercover" to a place full of racists who know who they are and the scenes between Travis and Gannett are not good. But it is a good episode, really!
SCORE: 8/10
Terra Prime - Archer and Hoshi can't stop Paxton's evil broadcast. He shows footage of the human/Vulcan baby and we see Samuels, Soval and other aliens watching from Earth. Paxton says the baby is proof of the horrible future awaiting humanity...but actually it's pretty cute? Paxton gives Enterprise a warning shot with the Array. The Andorian Ambassador wonders if Earth was ready to host this conference as protestors are starting to appear outside his embassy. Archer tells Samuels he's going to sneak up on Mars. Paxton lets T'Pol and Trip see their baby. He had an agent on Enterprise who stole their DNA (I guess that agent somehow learned that Trip and T'Pol were doing it?) Reed meets with his Section 31 guy to learn how to sneak up on Mars. Archer tells Samuels how they're going to sneak onto Mars riding a comet before Paxton's deadline is up. Paxton tries to convince T'Pol that her baby will mean the dilution of both their races and extinction. T'Pol says life is change. Enterprise follows behind the comet to get to Mars undetected. Travis visits Gannett and she claims that she works for Starfleet Intelligence. She's on the ship to expose the REAL Terra Prime undercover operative. He doesn't believe her. Archer and Hoshi have a moment where he tells her how far she's come before leaving her in command. Paxton's underling tells Trip he hates Vulcans because they could have interfered and stopped World War 3. Trip attacks him but the guy's huge and easily beats Trip up. Archer, Reed, Phlox and Travis fly to Mars in a shuttle in the comet's tail. Paxton tries to get Trip to help him be able to target Earth with the Array without killing many people. Trip won't help him shoot on Earth. The shuttle runs into trouble and nearly crashes on Mars in a fun action bit.
The shuttle flies by the Carl Sagan memorial where the Mars rover stands in a nice touch while Trip tries to break out of racist prison. T'Pol tells Paxton her baby is ill and she needs to let her take it to Mars hospital. Turns out Paxton is a hypocrite who is receiving Rigellian treatments for a genetic disorder. Paxton claims the baby was doomed to die from the start. Hoshi clashes with Samuels who wants her to fire on the Array. She refuses because she's in command and she's the Empress. Trip breaks out and meets up with Archer and friends. Paxton powers up to fire on Earth as the aliens haven't left and Hoshi reluctantly prepares to fire on the Array. Archer stops Paxton just in time. There's a shoot out and a window is cracked. Paxton makes an evil speech about how humans should conquer the stars. The window cracks and they have a low oxygen fight. Paxton manages to fire the array but Trip's changed the targetting coordinates so it hits the seas. Enterprise heads back to Earth while Trip and T'Pol keep vigil over their dying child. They name their child after Trip's sister Elizabeth. Phlox tells them the condition is genetic and maybe humans and Vulcans shouldn't have babies after all. Travis discovers the shuttle was sabotaed and the evidence points to Kelby, but Kelby points to someone else. A bad actor Ensign points a phaser at Archer then kills himself. Phlox is broken up by the baby dying (it died) and tells Archer he gained another family on Enterprise. Back on Earth, Archer makes a speech in front of Samuels, Soval and all the other alien ambassadors. It's a good speech by Archer standards with no mention of gazelles. He says the next discovery (he's referencing the next series!) doesn't lie in the next star but within us. Everyone claps. Gannett is let ouf of the Brig as she's been vindicated and Travis flies her home in a shuttle. Trip tells T'Pol that he's learned from Phlox that there was a flaw in the technique used to create the baby. Humans and Vulcans CAN have babies. I'm not sure if it's implied here that Paxton intentionally created the baby to die? Trip just says there was a flaw in the cloning process, but Paxton kind of said the baby was doomed to die like he knew? Anyway, it's a nice sad scene between Trip and T'Pol, a pairing I've never actually objected to, just didn't always like the way it was written.
It's better than part one. The action is more exciting and the emotional stuff with the dying baby works really well. Archer's speech is a strong scene and fitting for the last ever episode of Enterprise. The stuff with Gannett is still pointless and I still feel Terra Prime could have been scarier if they weren't so openly evil, but it's a very good finale for Enterprise, probaby about the best they could have done given the circumstances. See you for the next movie!
SCORE: 9/10
Paxton watches a speech by Colonel Green and explains to an underling that Green was actually a great man who history has cast out. Green killed hundreds of thousands who were infected by radiation and Paxton says it was for the greater good. Paxton's base is on THE MOON by the way and it's all very Bond villain. Travis and Gannett go into a shuttle and he tells her he prefers them to the transporter. They end up kissing. I have to mention that the acting isn't good again, sorry. It actively hurts the scene. Reed plans to sneak into Paxton's moonbase. Trip and T'Pol want to be on the mission, which is stupid considering they'd surely be recognised by the people who stole their DNA and made a baby out of it. But they go undercover as moon miners anyway and walk around with T'Pol's ears openly displayed (while hunting for racists) and bickering as usual. T'Pol suspects Trip believes she got pregnant and hid the child from him (but they were in The Expanse when they were sleeping together so how would that even be possible?) Travis and Gannett have another painful scene. A guy spots Trip and tries to suss out if Trip is racist against aliens like him. He invites Trip to a racism meeting. Trip attends the meeting while T'Pol follows a lead. Then she gets shot by a Terra Prime guy. Then the guy at Trip's meeting points him out as Command Tucker. Hey turns out it was a huge mistake for the super famous Trip Tucker to go undercover who knew! Archer arrests Gannett for being a Terra Prime spy. The two Terra Prime guys (who I will point out since it was probably an intentional choice are both black guys) bring Trip and T'Pol to Paxton. He apparently knows Trip and T'Pol were lovers as he calls them "Romeo and Juliet." He makes an evil speech about giving Earth back to humanity. Paxton's evil moonbase then FLIES off the moon. Archer questions Gannett and she asks for her lawyer. Paxton's evil moonbase goes to warp "inside the system" which apparently is a big deal evil though we see starships come out of warp inside star systems all the time. They land on Mars and take control of the Verteron Array, whch is used to redirect comets. Paxton announces to the system that he can now fire on any alien ship that enters the system and shoots on the moon to demonstrate his power. He wants all aliens to leave Earth.
It's a good first part despite some stuff I'm not sure about. Like the decision to make Paxton a total Bond villain with an evil base on the moon. Weller does a good job but I feel like it would be more interesting if Paxton presented a less evil face to the world? And if we saw more of what his appeal is to normal Earthers. Instead of seeing why isolationism is gaining popularity on Earth we have all the isolationists off being evil on the moon and it's all very black and white. Also as mentioned above it's really stupid that Trip and T'Pol go "undercover" to a place full of racists who know who they are and the scenes between Travis and Gannett are not good. But it is a good episode, really!
SCORE: 8/10
Terra Prime - Archer and Hoshi can't stop Paxton's evil broadcast. He shows footage of the human/Vulcan baby and we see Samuels, Soval and other aliens watching from Earth. Paxton says the baby is proof of the horrible future awaiting humanity...but actually it's pretty cute? Paxton gives Enterprise a warning shot with the Array. The Andorian Ambassador wonders if Earth was ready to host this conference as protestors are starting to appear outside his embassy. Archer tells Samuels he's going to sneak up on Mars. Paxton lets T'Pol and Trip see their baby. He had an agent on Enterprise who stole their DNA (I guess that agent somehow learned that Trip and T'Pol were doing it?) Reed meets with his Section 31 guy to learn how to sneak up on Mars. Archer tells Samuels how they're going to sneak onto Mars riding a comet before Paxton's deadline is up. Paxton tries to convince T'Pol that her baby will mean the dilution of both their races and extinction. T'Pol says life is change. Enterprise follows behind the comet to get to Mars undetected. Travis visits Gannett and she claims that she works for Starfleet Intelligence. She's on the ship to expose the REAL Terra Prime undercover operative. He doesn't believe her. Archer and Hoshi have a moment where he tells her how far she's come before leaving her in command. Paxton's underling tells Trip he hates Vulcans because they could have interfered and stopped World War 3. Trip attacks him but the guy's huge and easily beats Trip up. Archer, Reed, Phlox and Travis fly to Mars in a shuttle in the comet's tail. Paxton tries to get Trip to help him be able to target Earth with the Array without killing many people. Trip won't help him shoot on Earth. The shuttle runs into trouble and nearly crashes on Mars in a fun action bit.
The shuttle flies by the Carl Sagan memorial where the Mars rover stands in a nice touch while Trip tries to break out of racist prison. T'Pol tells Paxton her baby is ill and she needs to let her take it to Mars hospital. Turns out Paxton is a hypocrite who is receiving Rigellian treatments for a genetic disorder. Paxton claims the baby was doomed to die from the start. Hoshi clashes with Samuels who wants her to fire on the Array. She refuses because she's in command and she's the Empress. Trip breaks out and meets up with Archer and friends. Paxton powers up to fire on Earth as the aliens haven't left and Hoshi reluctantly prepares to fire on the Array. Archer stops Paxton just in time. There's a shoot out and a window is cracked. Paxton makes an evil speech about how humans should conquer the stars. The window cracks and they have a low oxygen fight. Paxton manages to fire the array but Trip's changed the targetting coordinates so it hits the seas. Enterprise heads back to Earth while Trip and T'Pol keep vigil over their dying child. They name their child after Trip's sister Elizabeth. Phlox tells them the condition is genetic and maybe humans and Vulcans shouldn't have babies after all. Travis discovers the shuttle was sabotaed and the evidence points to Kelby, but Kelby points to someone else. A bad actor Ensign points a phaser at Archer then kills himself. Phlox is broken up by the baby dying (it died) and tells Archer he gained another family on Enterprise. Back on Earth, Archer makes a speech in front of Samuels, Soval and all the other alien ambassadors. It's a good speech by Archer standards with no mention of gazelles. He says the next discovery (he's referencing the next series!) doesn't lie in the next star but within us. Everyone claps. Gannett is let ouf of the Brig as she's been vindicated and Travis flies her home in a shuttle. Trip tells T'Pol that he's learned from Phlox that there was a flaw in the technique used to create the baby. Humans and Vulcans CAN have babies. I'm not sure if it's implied here that Paxton intentionally created the baby to die? Trip just says there was a flaw in the cloning process, but Paxton kind of said the baby was doomed to die like he knew? Anyway, it's a nice sad scene between Trip and T'Pol, a pairing I've never actually objected to, just didn't always like the way it was written.
It's better than part one. The action is more exciting and the emotional stuff with the dying baby works really well. Archer's speech is a strong scene and fitting for the last ever episode of Enterprise. The stuff with Gannett is still pointless and I still feel Terra Prime could have been scarier if they weren't so openly evil, but it's a very good finale for Enterprise, probaby about the best they could have done given the circumstances. See you for the next movie!
SCORE: 9/10
SAUSAGEMAN
Registered User
They really went out on a high note!
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
The deady baby was their poker game.