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Enterprise (ENT) Season 2, Part 1

Season 1, Part 1 - Part 2 - Season 2, Part 1 - Part 2 - Season 3, Part 1 - Part 2 - Season 4, Part 1 - Part 2

The episode descriptions are given in normal text, my comments in small text. Rating: 0=worst, 10=best (rating system)

Shockwave See ENT season 1, part 2

Carbon Creek April 16, 2152: During the Captain's dinner at the occasion of T'Pol's one-year anniversary aboard the ship, she tells Archer and Tucker about a historical event that must be regarded as the actual first contact between humans and Vulcans. T'Pol's great-grandmother T'Mir belonged to a crew of a Vulcan vessel that was watching the launch of Sputnik in 1957 when it was forced to crash land near the small town of Carbon Creek. The captain was killed in the impact. When the surviving crew members were running out of food supplies, they had to live among the local population. One of them, Mestral, became fond of Earth's culture - and of a woman called Maggie. He decided to stay on Earth, urging his two crewmates to pretend he was dead when a Vulcan ship arrived to retrieve them three months later.

The history of the first human-Velcron contact needs to be rewritten, but more about that later. My apprehension was that this might develop into a second "11:59", a story that had absolutely nothing to do with the series and its characters and, even worse, was just trifling. Well, "Carbon Creek" did not turn out that bad despite its premise. Once I understood how the episode worked, I found it mostly enjoyable. It may be disturbing that, even more than Kate Mulgrew's character in "11:59", T'Mir *is* T'Pol. Maybe her great-grandmother was really like portrayed here, but I think the whole episode rather shows the person she was from T'Pol's perspective. We may accept that she looks just like T'Pol for that matter. So this may be taken as a character-building episode for T'Pol after all. While we know that the incidence has taken place (why else would T'Pol keep an old-fashioned human handbag), every "soft fact" may still be a matter of interpretation. This places the episode somewhere between strict canon and the fairy-tale of "The Haunting of Deck Twelve".
We couldn't expect too much from the premature human-Vulcan first contact. Nevertheless, there should have been more to discover in "Carbon Creek" that was not already widely known. Vulcans stay Vulcans with all their misconceptions and lack of understanding, humans stay humans with their emotional range from love to violence. As already mentioned, T'Mir is T'Pol, and the other two Vulcans are just the two opposite characters needed for such a kind of story. There is a typically contrived climax when Mestral, against T'Mir's and Stron's advice, uses his particle weapon to free his trapped friends in the coal mine. At this time, it is already quite clear how Mestral feels about humans, and it is simply unnecessary that he still needs to prove that. On the other hand, I like how the Vulcans, unlike it has often been the case lately, stay Vulcans here. Even Mestral, who becomes enchanted with Earth's "primitive" culture in a strange fashion, always maintains his Vulcan discipline. It only isn't very exciting. Having three Vulcan characters talk to each other all the time can probably never be exciting. Speaking of characters, none of the regular cast are in the episode except for T'Pol, Archer and Tucker, and the two latter are only good for some trivia and prevent it from becoming a monologue of T'Pol. Well, I missed the rest of the crew and any real connection to the 22nd century, but after all it was better than the dull obsession with the ancestors everyone suddenly had on Voyager in "11:59".
The homage to TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever" is quite obvious when the Vulcans find the clothes line and, what a coincidence, a cap for Mestral just like Spock wore one. The gag that T'Mir puts on the dress backward so that we can see her sexy silhouette even twice, is less successful - well, it's a story by B&B. What I like is the allusion to the Vulcan prejudice that American football is a game to the death ("Fusion") when T'Mir listens to the radio broadcast of a sports match (Americans should forgive me my European ignorance. Like the Vulcans, I have no idea of what sport!). Also, the scene when T'Mir and Mestral enter the bar is great. Even with their ears exposed, they couldn't look more alien to the indigenous people. Still, the humor is overall toned down compared to previous episodes with strange encounters. Just think of DS9: "Little Green Men" which was great, but also very silly - and impossible to do with Vulcans.
There is at least one impact the "Carbon Creek" incident has on the Enterprise universe. T'Pol does have a good deal of interest in her ancestor's adventure on Earth (otherwise she wouldn't keep the bag, she wouldn't have visited the town and she couldn't tell the story by heart) and maybe in Earth's population too. Having more insight in human behavior than most other Vulcans, even those who have spent some time on Earth too, this may explain her recent support for Archer's actions. A nitpick in this respect: "Broken Bow" told us that T'Pol had hardly left the Vulcan compound, not even for sightseeing. Now she says she has gone to Yellowstone and the Carlsbad Caverns too. In addition, note that there are apparently no interesting places to go outside the USA, neither for a visit nor for an emergency landing - well, it's a story by B&B.
Finally, technology-wise, it appeased me that it was regarded impossible and remained impossible to construct a subspace transmitter with Earth's technology. Only one week ago every miracle was still achievable with some simple tinkering.
Remarkable quote: "I need to go now. 'I Love Lucy' is on tonight." (Mestral)
Remarkable facts: T'Pol's age is "classified". I doubt that it will be ever mentioned on screen. -- The distress call was picked up by a Tellarite freighter. -- To raise money for Maggie's son Jack to go to the college, T'Mir sells an invention to a patent office - it's Velcro! Are B&B fans of the Velcrons in Sev Trek? Even more remarkably, Velcro was indeed invented by a man called George de *Mestral*. Wow. Only now I notice that we never had a Vulcan name like that so far.
Rating: 5

Minefield No date given: When entering orbit of a newly discovered Class-M world, Enterprise is hit and heavily damaged by a cloaked mine. Another mine is stuck to the hull and Reed goes out to disarm it. During his effort a spike stretches out from the mine, penetrates his leg and nails it to the ship's hull plate. Archer comes to help Reed, but he might have to let the hull plate float away together with Reed in order to save the ship. In the meantime, Romulan ships appear at the scene, claiming the planet for the Romulan Empire and demanding Enterprise to leave immediately. With no chance left to disarm the mine, Archer removes the spike in Reed's leg, thereby triggering the detonation mechanism. They protect themselves from the explosion hiding behind shuttle hatches.

Romulans! They did it! No! No! No! But wait, it wasn't that terrible. Actually, it was the most thrilling episode in quite a while, full of action and computer-animated eye-candy. It was an essentially simple ticking-bomb plot. But the scenes involving Reed and Archer as they were having breakfast and later disarming the mine were good writing and acting. It was not trivial. It was not foreseeable. While there is a common consensus that the chemistry between Reed and Tucker in "Shuttlepod One" worked out well (I agree about that part), it was simply too tedious and yet overall implausible compared to Reed, Archer and the bomb in "Minefield". Maybe Reed exaggerated in his intention to play the hero, but I think it was absolutely in character. Once again, we could learn a good deal about this underused character, this time about his motivation and his goals. For instance, that he didn't join the Royal Navy because of aquaphobia. I am looking forward to future revelations about him. If only the authors wrote something like that for Mayweather too! Well, Mayweather had at least the scene in which he steered the ship manually out of the minefield, using a joystick (with no fan complaints about the device this time).
There were quite a few annoyances though. The early Romulan ship is overall a nice homage to the TOS Bird-of-Prey, but why must it have much the same sophisticated nacelles as the (uninspiring) Klingon Raptor class? I see the Romulan ship as a "complementary Akiraprise" because here the nacelles are unbecoming and the rest is fitting... The bird painting on the underside is missing as well. The most blatant continuity problem: the cloaking of the Romulan ships. A century later, cloaking will be something new and surprising to the crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701. Like with other technology of the Enterprise Universe too, it is a cheap excuse that this 22nd century cloaking device is just not meant to be as "advanced" as 100 years later. Why in the world did the Romulan ships need cloaking for this story at all? Of course, the mines were cloaked too, but hiding a complete starship is clearly a more difficult task and they could have saved at least that for the 23rd century. The cloak of the ships was obviously even more advanced as they were not revealed by Daniels' beacon. Moreover, the mines didn't need to be Romulan at all. But no, they couldn't go without the cool effect of having enemy ships pop up everywhere and anytime, as overused as it already is in Enterprise.
In addition, there is a problem and also a missed opportunity concerning the name "Romulan". I was really hoping for Archer to come up with that name in a predestination phenomenon, spontaneously correlating the book title "Romulan Empire" from "Shockwave" with the newly discovered aliens. But Hoshi reads the word "Romulan Star Empire" from communication records, and is corrected by T'Pol that it's supposed to be "Romyulans" (although my recording of her line sounds much like "Romyinens", but that's typical of Jolene Blalock's pronunciation). So the Romulans call themselves like that, and so do the Vulcans. No explanation why they live on planets with the apparently indigenous names "Romulus" and "Remus" which, what a coincidence, are also names from Earth's mythology. If not from Archer, it would have been so much more plausible if the Romulans had received their human name because their empire was in two star systems that some Latin lover at an astronomical institute on Earth had called "Romulus" and "Remus". Moreover, the awkward introduction of the name brings up bitter memories of the serious "Rigel" blunder in "Broken Bow". The episode that could have been wouldn't have mentioned the name "Romulans" at all and would have just shown a bird-like ship. And at the very end of the episode, we would have been shown its underside, revealing the characteristic Bird-of-Prey marking. Now that would have been cool! The ultimate question, however, is why there had to be Romulans at all in the episode. Considering that Enterprise had run into aliens far more threatening than this rather patient and forgiving species. The Romulans would have deserved to play more than the role of aliens-of-the-week here. Remember "Fight or Flight" or "Silent Enemy", with the latter being the *perfect* but missed occasion to introduce the Romulans as a real menace?
As usual in action episodes, there were several plot holes. The most obvious one: Why didn't they use the transporter to get Archer and Reed away from the mine that was about to explode? There was no explanation as to why it was not possible. Is the device suddenly considered more risky than the immediate vicinity to the explosion of a mine that could tear a ship into pieces? Stupid! Here we have one more Enterprise paradox. After they were eager to utilize the transporter as soon as 2151, at least 50 years too early, the writers recently avoid using it as if there were an explicit directive to do so. Much of the former continuity is already down the drain when they finally make a 180-degree turn, which impairs the rest of credibility even more. Another problem is how Travis, by just moving the ship and opening the hatch, could retrieve Archer and Reed who had been blown in different directions by the mine blast and who, moreover, should have *considerable* relative velocities to the ship. With Reed's tricorder Enterprise is coming dangerously close to Voyager-age miracle scanning devices that can analyze alien technology that has been completely unknown a few seconds ago and can precisely and without any doubt tell which part of the mine is doing what. Finally, no one is killed in the big mine blast. Are the authors trying to make up for all dead crew members in the four previous series by now never killing anyone? Isn't it ironic that Enterprise, set in the "unsafe" 22nd century is the first Trek series to run for one season without any fatality among the crew?
Remarkable quote: "I would consider letting you amputate but if chef got hold of it, he'd be serving 'roast Reed' for Sunday dinner." (Reed)
Remarkable facts: England makes it to the finals of the Football World Cup 2052 (The world cup should take place in 2050, but maybe it's the women's cup?). -- The ubiquitous tool called "hyperspanner" already exists. -- The mine is using tricobalt explosives. -- Malcolm Reed's great uncle, who was aquaphobic too, served as the Chief Engineer of the submarine HMS Clement. When the vessel hit a mine, he stayed in engineering just as long to allow the crew to leave on the escape pods, and he went down with the ship.
Rating: 6

Dead Stop No date given: Enterprise docks to an automated repair facility of unknown origin where the recent battle damage and Reed's injured leg are being repaired amazingly fast, using advanced replication techniques. Archer's suspicions about the station prove right when Mayweather is seemingly accidentally killed in an area under reconstruction. But Phlox finds out that it was actually an inanimate copy of Mayweather. The ensign is discovered in the station's core, together with other aliens whose brains are used to supplement the computer power. In order to escape, it is necessary to destroy the station. But as Enterprise has left, it already seems to be rebuilding itself... 

"Its origin and purpose, still a total mystery." It was probably wise not to mention who built the repair facility and for what purpose except for self-maintenance it offers its services to any passing ship. Maybe the station was sentient, and destroying it was actually an act of murder? But such ethical questions rather belong to TNG instead to the rude 22nd century where the best solution to pressing problems is a volley of spatial torpedoes. Our crew still has to learn a lot, and I will pardon their misbehavior for now. After all, it marks a difference to the world of Star Trek as it will be in later centuries. Only that it leaves a bit of a bad taste. I also wonder how Archer usually explains such kinds of incidents to Admiral Forrest (and Forrest to the Vulcans).
While it was overall almost as exciting as "Minefield", the plot of "Dead Stop" became thoughtless and predictable at the very moment when Phlox discovered Mayweather's faked death (with a very contrived reasoning). Well, in a way it was reminiscent of the impulsive plot development in TOS, not only because there are some allusions to specific TOS episodes like "Shore Leave" (McCoy's feigned death on the automated planet). Like everything that appears to be generous in the Star Trek Universe, the station in "Dead Stop" is hiding the usual dark secret. Even though I anticipated that, I would have expected a more classy resolution than the station as a simple "brainsucker". It was just not fitting to see alien bodies (among them a Klingon) hanging in an untidy dungeon, seeing how vastly advanced everything else was. Moreover, we have seen so many plots like that, starting with the infamous "Spock's Brain". What I disliked too was how the vastly advanced technology of the station could be eluded with ease, using a quickly devised plan. And while it was at least a part of the plot here, it seems the authors simply can't go without all the cool 24th century technology. It is not only installed on Enterprise itself as regular equipment, but appears in even more sophisticated forms in the hands of aliens in about every second episode. This week's featured technology was the replicator, in a quality that even the Starfleet of the 24th century can only dream of (Imagine how fast a complete ship could be built!). Where is the necessary limit? The continuity buster of the week, however, is the Rigelian fever. 100 years later, it will be deadly and highly infectious (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah"), but here it is rather easy to cure and to confine. Of course, we may explain it in a way that it will mutate to a more dangerous variant, but at some point we become tired of twisted thinking and rather admit that once again a homage wound up as a blatant error.
What I found silly and irresponsible was Trip's and Malcolm's attempt to break into the station's core just out of curiosity. When will these guys finally grow up? As I said, our crew are a bunch of space apprentices. It was also disappointing that for once Mayweather, the overpaid extra, played a small role here, only to be "killed" and forced to be passive for the rest of the episode. Why do the authors ignore the potential of his character?
Remarkable facts: Dr. Phlox employs Regulan bloodworms to heal injuries, but Lt. Reed is anything but fond of them. Once again, there is a mention of Tellarites who are "not the most agreeable species, but they are mostly trustworthy", according to T'Pol. I bet we will see them soon. The Tarkaleans (one of the more prominent yet unseen T-Races) are mentioned too, and rather coincidentally than consciously, there is no problem with them being around at this time in this part of the galaxy.
Remarkable decoration: There is a fascinating piece of decoration in Mayweather's quarters: a miniature of the Nomad probe in its original configuration. This is fitting, as there was another allusion to TOS: "The Changeling", the scene in which Reed was "repaired" by a probe.
Remarkable quote: "Your inquiry was not recognized." (the station's computer voice)
Rating: 5

A Night in Sickbay No date given: On a visit to the Kreetassan homeworld Porthos has picked up a pathogen. The Kreetassans, who are offended because Porthos peed on a sacred tree, refuse to deliver the promised plasma injector and would not help find a cure for the dog. Archer stays up virtually a whole night, worried about his dog and pondering about a possible apology to the Kreetassans. A surgery quickly improvised by Dr. Phlox saves the dog's life. The next day, Archer undergoes a strange apology ritual which pleases the Kreetassans so that they deliver the injector.

Oh my god. Do I have really to review this episode, although it is nothing but a pathetic piece of pulp? Wouldn't it be better to delete all the records and deny its existence? As hard as I may try, there is absolutely nothing enjoyable or otherwise redeeming in it. Half way through the episode I was already incredibly bored, but it unfolded a potential to become still worse with every minute. To start with, everything about "A Night in Sickbay" is extraordinarily trivial. Well, Porthos could die after all, but we know that this wouldn't happen as he sort of belongs to the main cast. Our brave captain has yet again offended someone and is supposed to apologize, so why does this have to take a complete episode this time? Archer's sudden sexual frustration completes the list of plot ingredients. Triviality alone need not be bad. However, three incompatible trivial plots together with the stupid dialogues, the loads of gratuitous sex, the unsuccessful attempts at comedy and the uninspiring role stereotypes make this the probably worst episode of modern Trek.
What was intended to be humorous moments in the episode turned out as awkward as never before in this series and very seldom in Star Trek. Phlox' side note that there is a Denobulan animal resembling a dog and "most of the have one head" was still one of the few funnier examples. Even the Kreetassan apology ritual at the end that may have ridiculed an average episode was less embarrassing than most of the rest. Phlox' messy toenails and his long tongue were just too cheap jokes to be worth commented on. The same goes for the second pee joke in three weeks. When Archer and Phlox desperately tried to catch the bat, I was already sorry that I was watching although I had just nothing better to do. Is this Star Trek, or rather a slapstick flick? Archer's illusions and Freudian slips ("the breast officer of the fleet", haha) sound like they have been penned by teenage fans and not like something that I may expect professional authors to come up with (namely B&B!). The sad climax of bad taste was reached with the dream sequence of Porthos' funeral and Phlox as a priest, followed Archer alone with T'Pol in the decon chamber - I can't remember ever seeing something that contemptible on Star Trek. I was watching the episode on a train, and I was actually worried that someone might have thought it was porn. Most of all I was irritated why Archer was suddenly experiencing sexual attraction to T'Pol just when his dog was ill. If at all, wouldn't he rather feel like that because of boredom and not in a state of emotional stress? Was he troubled about Porthos at all if everything he can think of is sex? The timing makes no sense at all. The characters were out of place and their potential wasted. Most of all Archer with his wet adolescent dreams and his petty ponderings and Phlox with his barefaced nonchalance. They kept annoying each other and the viewers.
Something that needs to be mentioned too is the obtrusive score of the episode. I usually never spend too much attention to what is played in the background, but this was easily the least fitting music I have ever heard on a Star Trek episode. It was obviously supposed to cheer up the dull story in that the pitch and volume was increased several times. But it was almost always totally inappropriate. There was simply no suspense that could have been emphasized when people were just normally talking. Well, the score kept me from falling asleep...
Rating: 0

Marauders No date given: In a remote alien mining colony Archer, T'Pol and Tucker witness how the colonists are oppressed by Klingon marauders. After fighting them once and losing eight lives, they are now intimidated, but Archer eventually convinces them to take their chance. In order to avoid an open conflict with the Klingons, it is necessary to avoid fatalities. Upon their return, the Klingons step into a trap set up by the crew and the settlers. Being overpowered, they are sent back to their ship and told never to come back. 

Mark at Trek5 called this "The Magnificent Seven Lite", but to me it rather seemed like "The A-Team Deluxe". Simple stories need not be the worst ones, and I rather liked the basic idea that is also a homage to TOS: "A Private Little War". The reason why I did not enjoy "Marauders" so much as a whole is because the characters did not touch me, because I failed to see their motivations and I missed much of the necessary plot logic (especially as this plot was so simple). On the bright side, there was some emotional involvement from the part of Trip who met the boy whose father - as he would learn later - had been killed by the Klingons. But that was nothing compared to Kirk in the TOS episode. Archer, in contrast, was very arrogant and insensitive here. Tessic had just told the captain of the futile fight against the Klingons and the eight lives they had lost. As a response, Archer knew nothing better than to praise his own courage and dedication. Archer, who has not lost anyone of his crew so far, who has all the fine weapons and other tech, who has a trained crew. T'Pol showed a new side when she turned out a master of self-defense. I liked that aspect which fits with Vulcan philosophy, and it can compensate for the impression of T'Pol's completely inappropriate snow-white and skin-tight desert outfit, which was this episode's concession to the target group (you guess it, written by B&B). Hoshi had a nice scene when she successfully fired at a hovering training target ball, with nice continuity to her less successful first training in "Sleeping Dogs". The Klingons were just dull. Their transporter (yes, they have one!) must have been misaligned and must have left their brains on the ship. The villagers had the "orphan kid pity factor" on their side, but otherwise they did not strike me as very interesting. Maybe it would have been worth showing them as more ambiguous, and not as the lethargic and helpless victims who need "Action Archer" and "Tank T'Pol" to tell them what to do.
What actually bothered me most was the absence of logic especially in the showdown. So Klingon tactics are "crude", but that of Archer was plain stupid. Why didn't they shoot at the Klingons when these had just beamed down and were all standing together? Why did the crew even expose themselves and the villagers to the extreme danger of a hand-to-hand fight with the Klingons? Don't anyone tell me that a few hours of Vulcan martial arts practice should be sufficient to evade a bat'leth! If it was because they didn't want to kill the Klingons for the sake of peace, I wonder what has happened to the stun setting of the phase pistols. Why all the efforts to move the village, which would have been futile if the Klingons had not followed the villagers to the hills? Much worse, they could have just used their supposed ship weapons to blast away the hills or the village or both, furious as they were. Fortunately, it took the incredibly stupid Klingons several minutes until they could smell the gas and the trap. But who says that they wouldn't return any time, maybe with reinforcements, when they are not expected? They are Klingons, and not Ferengi! Even with Vulcan self-defense techniques and other tricks, the whole plan was ill-conceived and simply irresponsible.
The scientific errors of the episode are severe. First of all, it is just wrong that ordinary deuterium should be a "valuable commodity", as Archer put it. Considering that deuterium could be easily extracted from water, air or maybe from interstellar clouds, why go through all the efforts of mining it on a remote planet? And if the miners really find plain deuterium in the soil, why do they have to "refine" it? It is already a gas, there is no point in chemically refining it. And wouldn't burn deuterium in a blue flame? This leads me to the ultimate crap-of-the-week, the statement, "deuterium can burn almost as hot as plasma, when it's ignited." I almost fell off the chair. Plasma *is* hot deuterium! Of course, there could be other types of plasma as well, but that would be as senseless as saying, "apples are almost as tasty as fruit." Where is Andre Bormanis when he is needed? He could have simply replaced deuterium with yet another newly invented substance, and we would have had no reason to complain.
There is also a big problem with sensor capabilities. In the first season, Enterprise was barely capable of detecting an incoming ship as fast as the eye could already see it. Suddenly, the sensors can distinguish Klingon lifesigns (twelve of them) on a suddenly approaching ship (whereas the Klingons obviously detect nothing!). Now that the ship is already better than the NCC-1701-D, I wonder when the technology will reach the Voyager level and be able to distinguish single lifesigns over dozens of light years.
Remarkable dialogue: "You won't hurt me." - "It's not you I'm worried about." (T'Pol and Mayweather)
Remarkable props: We see several alien weapons, including a Jem'Hadar rifle and a Bajoran rifle, all covered with some dirt and rust, so they are not quite as easy to recognize as anachronistic. The Klingons, on the other hand, have very fitting clumsy disruptors that remind me rather of the TOS version than anything else.
Rating: 3

The Seventh No date given: T'Pol is in charge of apprehending a renegade Vulcan, Menos, who did not return from a covert mission on an alien planet 30 years ago. Against her orders, she asks Archer to join her. They find Menos on a trade outpost and arrest him. T'Pol becomes unusually aggressive and demands that Menos confess his supposed crime of smuggling biotoxins, while Archer is sure that the man is not guilty. It turns out that, on her first mission to retrieve the seven defectors, T'Pol killed one of them, Jossen, on Risa. Suffering from emotional stress, she went to P'Jem for a ritual to forget this incident, but the remorse is now resurfacing. After Menos has escaped just another time, the away team discovers the hiding place on his ship and, finally, the biotoxins.

In Star Trek as we (hopefully) still know it, Vulcans were shown as having no emotions or successfully yet painfully repressing them. Either way, single exceptions of "illogical Vulcans" in a couple of episodes rather corroborated the prevalence of logic in Vulcan society. Since Enterprise, it seems that every single Vulcan belongs to one the following stereotypical groups. First of all, the faithful followers of logic, narrow-minded and arrogant towards lesser species like humans, Vulcans just as Soval and about all other high-ranking representatives. Secondly, the (apparently) smaller number of those who strive to expand their horizon while adhering to logic, like Ambassador V'Lar and lately T'Pol. Thirdly, the amazingly large group of emotionally unbalanced dissenters, including the folks in "Fusion", Mestral in "Carbon Creek" and now Menos and his comrades. Considering how frequently we meet them (in every tenth episode so far!), they are shown as a very relevant group and not a small minority. Moreover, a large percentage of Vulcans seem to be eager to defect, if they are only given the chance. Are the rest of them prisoners on Vulcan? It almost seems so. It is already critical enough that the Enterprise writers, in an obvious lack of fresh ideas, frequently fall back to the idea of "illogical Vulcans". They are just toying with an important rule of Star Trek that, in their short-sighted notion, is nothing more but a cliché - and they don't seem to be aware of destroying it. I could still see a redeeming value in the new revelations about the Vulcan mind and soul. But at some point, I must question whether Vulcans are still credible as aliens at all, considering that they commonly exhibit the full bandwidth of human emotions, and only some rituals keep them from becoming just like us. There appears to be a general misconception that authors write for human actors and thereby unconsciously or unwittingly provide aliens with all the characteristics of humans. Klingons are one of the few lucky alien races that have been allowed to develop a distinct culture and individual behavior. Unfortunately, Vulcans in Star Trek are slowly being demoted to humans with pointed ears, green blood and dry intonation (and the latter only in states of emotional balance).
Aside from the above, I have rather few to say about the episode itself, which left me very unimpressed. Reviewers who value actor performance and character interaction above all, may have had their pleasure with "The Seventh". But in my view the meager idea was simply not worth while getting T'Pol on Cordrazine and jeopardizing the whole Vulcan legacy just another time. Jolene Blalock is great as an actress as I may have said before, and she really looks intimidating when T'Pol gets angry. But as stated above, we should not ignore that T'Pol is a Vulcan and should be treated as such by the writers, as tempting it may seem to exploit other possibilities. This applies to Menos likewise, who was another convincing character, but not a convincing Vulcan. It occurred to me that there was no necessity to make him and the other six Vulcans at all - bearing in mind that he didn't even look like one. There was no real discussion about the Vulcan way in this episode, and T'Pol may have felt remorse about killing any member of any other species likewise.
I didn't like the more technical aspects either. The action sequences were rather crude, the alien outpost reminded me too much of the one we have already seen in "Broken Bow". There is also one obvious technological annoyance: the holographic cloaking. Devices of this kind have become so familiar in Enterprise as even I myself would not have predicted in my worst apprehensions. There was at least one apprehension that did not come true: Unlike Archer and T'Pol talked about even twice, there was no decon scene in the end.
Remarkable quote: "I could polish the handrails in engineering." (Tucker, about what he could do during Archer's absence)
Rating: 2

The Communicator No date given: After an undercover away mission to a pre-warp planet, Reed notices that he lost his communicator there. When they return to retrieve it, Archer and Reed are captured by the regional military. They are mistaken for spies of the declared enemy, the Alliance. When it is discovered that they are not the same species as the planet's population and photos of their shuttlecraft show up, Archer and Reed pretend that they are genetically altered test pilots of a secret test aircraft of the Alliance. They are just about to be executed when they are rescued with the help of the cloaked Suliban pod ship.

As my reviews indicate, I haven't seen anything that could grasp my interest or give me inspiration lately. Once again, here is one that ranks among the least interesting episodes. Only that it was not quite as annoying as "Shadows of P'Jem", not quite as boring as "Oasis" and not quite as mindless as "A Night in Sickbay" that all seemed equally like a waste of time. The beginning of this episode was still charming when Reed discovered that his communicator was missing. Yet, I wonder why some reviewers compared the episode to TOS: "A Piece of the Action", of whose light-heartedness this episode had absolutely nothing in the following. "The Communicator" is a perfect example how the Enterprise authors are tenacious to provide a certain number of episodes with a certain entertainment factor but without too many ramifications and complications. As such, the episode quickly developed to one of Enterprise's usual beating and shooting orgies and lacked the fine tones that have always been one of Star Trek's virtues. The topic of dealing with pre-warp civilizations was discussed only superficially. There was practically no aspect that wouldn't have been covered much more profoundly in episodes like "Dear Doctor". And the much better episode about an alien prison was "Detained". The same applies to the rather casual interaction between Archer and Reed in this episode with respect to "Minefield". "The Communicator" was not a completely hapless episode, as its simple plot worked out nicely. But with hardly anything unique to it and largely without a sense of humor it will only be remembered for either its good deal of violence or for the sub-plot with the Suliban cloaking and Trip Tucker as The Invisible Man (that accounts for a full point). Pick your favorite.
The only really new aspect of the episode was summarized by T'Pol in one sentence: "You don't need technology to contaminate a culture." In this light, I wonder why Archer didn't try to tell the truth. It is easy to anticipate that this incident will give the determination of the military to destroy its enemy a boost. Spreading a rumor can be more detrimental than spreading weapons. Of course, I didn't miss the probably intentional parallel between this planet and the Cold War on mid-20th century Earth. While I agree with the attempt to criticize the paranoia and intolerance in those days on Earth, I wonder why Star Trek frequently creates alien worlds just like in TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon", TNG: "Attached", VOY: "Resistance", among many others, that are in much the same state of their social and political development. This must get boring! Moreover, it is just not fitting to have aliens in the first place, only to give them frequently a society and even specific patterns of behavior that are exactly the same as with humans. Considering how often fans complain about aliens with just a too human look (only with some protruding bones), these are similarities that bother me much more. Like so many times before, there was absolutely nothing alien about this week's aliens. This could have been a time travel episode as well, and they could have worn American or Soviet or Nazi uniforms, but the much better episode of that sort was DS9: "Little Green Man", as silly as it seemed.
Almost needless to mention lately is that the transporter is not used and not even considered an option at any time. It is just as if the technology didn't exist or as if a spell was on it. It is now obvious that there must be a directive to the authors to silently bury the device. Not, as avid fans have pointed out to me, to "maintain consistency and plausibility" (for which it would be much too late). I speculate that Enterprise is meant to stay down to Earth literally, and the possibility to beam up and down at will would only be counterproductive to isolating our heroes in caves or prisons. Concerning the plot logic, only one thing really annoyed me, but this is already a common cliché: Of course, all the devices taken away from Archer and Reed were still in the general's office, and this office was located next to the execution yard, so they could be retrieved much too easily. Another question is why the general wanted to execute Archer and Reed so quickly, and did not even attempt to find out the whereabouts of their "secret aircraft".
Rating: 1

Singularity August 14, 2152: While approaching a black hole in a trinary system, the crew begins to become agitated and obsessed with trivialities instead of caring about their duties. Only T'Pol is unaffected. The reason is radiation coming from within the system. With no more than two hours left until the crew will die, T'Pol's only chance is to navigate the ship through a debris field close to the edge of the black hole. She wakes up Archer who is hardly able to handle the helm, but with help from Reed's newly installed alert protocol the ship finally breaks free.  

Just in case that still proof is needed, this episode strikingly demonstrates that Enterprise authors create many stories entirely from a pool of stereotypes and trivia. First of all, the most overused plot in all of Star Trek and maybe all science fiction in TV, namely "crew acting strangely under alien/radiation influence" is resurrected once again. Knowing TOS: "This Side of Paradise", TOS: "The Naked Time", TNG: "The Naked Now", TNG: "Night Terrors", DS9: "Dramatis Personae", VOY: "Bliss" and finally ENT: "Strange New World", to name only very few episodes along these lines, there is nothing interesting about this idea any longer. No need to mention that, as usual, the situation is life-threatening and that, as usual, one crew member is immune and saves the ship. The fine acting (the best I have seen lately) could compensate for the tiresome plot to some extent. Although it was not new either, I liked how everyone of them discovered his or her personal obsession, be it Hoshi as an avid cook or Dr. Phloxenstein who almost performed an unnecessary brain surgery. Well, only that his helpless and accordingly silent victim was no one else but Ensign Mayweather - it's cliché time.
But on a serious note about the characters: In the first part of the episode I was a bit frustrated how adult people could possibly care that much about trivialities, from the Captain's chair over the name of an alert to cooking recipes - but it didn't surprise me. Rather than that, I was surprised that it was *not* meant to be the normal business on the ship and their normal behavior, but that they were acting under the influence of a strange radiation. Such are my expectations after one and a half seasons of Enterprise (and yes, the episode was ironically less predictable just because of that) . With "A Night in Sickbay" still in fresh memory, my reaction may be allergic, but I think I can't stand so much humor at a time any more. Well, I don't know if it was really more satisfactory that it was not their own will this time, but because of the bad radiation.
On the bright side, the episode had at least good continuity when Phlox mentioned the incident at the repair station to Mayweather. Also, as simple as the whole plot was constructed, as well did it work out. It was largely free of scientific crap, and was quite exciting or frightening at times. It was just the best that could be made of the thin story. Finally, we get to see another Vulcan nerve pinch (when T'Pol saves Travis from the mad doctor), and the first mention that Hoshi, aside from her looks, is of Japanese descent and not your average all-American crew member.
Remarkable quotes: "And Malcolm – don't call it 'battle stations.' Think of something less... aggressive." (Archer), "CARROTS!" (Hoshi, to a crewman)
Remarkable dialogues: "It's the *Captain's* chair. It's just as important as your... Reed alert." - "Reed alert. That's not bad..." (Trip and Malcolm), "How are you feeling?" - "A little tired, but the headache's gone. What'd you do?" - "Very little. Fortunately." (Phlox and Travis)
Rating: 5

Vanishing Point No date given: When a polaric storm approaches the ancient ruins that Tucker and Hoshi are examining, Archer orders the two officers to be beamed up to the ship. Hoshi is to go second. Upon her return she begins to feel dizzy as if her molecules had not been correctly reassembled. After some time she becomes aware that she has become invisible and is declared dead. Hoshi discovers that aliens are apparently planting a bomb to blow up the ship, but her attempts to warn the crew are in vain. Finally, she materializes on the platform and she is told that nothing that happened to her was real. She only spent 8 seconds in the pattern buffer.  

This episode may be reviewed fast and easily. The best to say about it is that thanks to the twist at the end it didn't impair continuity too much. Well, Hoshi may have experienced transporter psychosis long before it should be discovered, but at some point even I am tired of that issue, so never mind. The surprising outcome was also at least a little novelty of the episode. Although I know may fans hate "It was nothing but a dream" episodes, it was absolutely necessary here. Without this outcome it would have scored zero points and even Hoshi couldn't have saved it. Essentially we know the story all too well. With the exception of the last three minutes it was an obvious rip-off of TNG: "The Next Phase", with some elements clearly taken from TNG: "Remember Me". In this respect it was devoid of any originality, even more so than "Strange New World" or "Oasis". Berman & Braga didn't have a hard time writing this at all, as every single aspect of the story had been shown before: the transporter problem, the astonishment of seeing that she has become transparent, the horror of witnessing how she is declared dead, the attempts of communication, even the aliens who are planting a bomb. At least the latter part of the story could have been easily omitted because of its absurdity, but the authors were obviously keen on presenting an exact carbon copy of the popular TNG episode with Geordi and Ro Laren experiencing exactly the same. It doesn't make much of a difference that Hoshi's adventure was only an illusion, as it's simply not possible to make up with an unexpected ending for an episode that fails to present anything exciting and new. "The Andorian Incident" suffered from the same dilemma.
It may be unfair to blame Enterprise for the mistakes made in the previous shows with their frequent transporter malfunctions that would better belong in a time when the transporter was still mysterious. I know it's stupid, but I can't help the feeling that Hoshi somehow knew what would happen to Geordi and Laren two hundred years later. The ideas she had in her mind were those of the 24th century with its weird transporter accidents. Only the tale of the famous "Cyrus Ramsey" who vanished after a transporter test in her fantasy gave her story a somewhat more distinctive background. What is left to say is that I really liked that B&B have discovered the potential of Hoshi's character in this episode. It would have been simply awful if it had been just another Archer/T'Pol show (two characters I'm growing tired of). All three points go to Linda Park who palpably portrayed Hoshi's strange experience, zero to B&B!
Rating: 3

Precious Cargo September 12, 2152: Trip Tucker helps a Retellian freighter with repairs, where he has to free the female passenger in stasis because she is about to suffocate. One of the two Retellians discovers that she is awake, knocks Trip unconscious and leaves with them trapped on his ship. The woman, Kaitaama, is the Kriosian monarch and was held prisoner on the ship. The two manage to release an escape pod and land on a nearby planet. Meanwhile, the other Retellian is interrogated by Archer and T'Pol, who intimidate him by pretending that there are harsh laws on Enterprise. Eventually, a landing party can rescue Trip and Kaitaama.

It is an overall average episode, most of all because we have seen very similar stories so many times before. But fortunately it is not the blatant rehash of TNG: "The Perfect Mate" that we may have expected after reading the synopsis. Only one week after "Vanishing Point" that would have been extremely unwise anyway. On the contrary, "Precious Cargo" goes into a completely different direction than the TNG episode, and the similarities are only superficial. In this light it is rather odd why of all alien species Kaitaama is Kriosian - considering that she is *not* an empathic metamorph like Kamala in the TNG episode. Two women transported in stasis, for completely different reasons, but both are accidentally Kriosian - a species that we otherwise never see. On the other hand, it is nice that Enterprise doesn't always show us new races, but sometimes remembers that there are plenty of them who should be already around.
It is a very lean and straightforward story without attempts to put in too much conflict potential, too much comedy or too much character development at a time. Both the main plot of Trip & Kaitaama and the secondary plot of "evil Archer" and "Terror T'Pol" work out well. The interaction between Trip and the arrogant monarch works out very well. This reminds me much more of TOS: "Elaan of Troyius" than of the TNG episode. I wonder what happened to Vulcans not being able to lie - or is pretending not regarded as lying? And Archer was so rude and aggressive that he didn't really look like he was playing.
It was a cookie-cutter, and two of its clichés were slightly annoying. For once, the episode continues Enterprise's most typical trend of showing characters in various stages of undress (this time it was Trip once again). Secondly, as we know it from other Star Trek series too, there is always a Class-M planet within a few million kilometers if an emergency landing is necessary. Continuity watch: Trip mentions his "first car", and he explicitly states that it is a "four-wheeled vehicle". This implies that wheeled cars are still commonplace in the mid-22nd century. Considering that we would have to give them at least 50 years to become outdated, it is questionable that Kirk is unfamiliar with them and that Harry Kim has not even the slightest idea what a car is. Science: The escape pod shakes when it crosses the subspace threshold, according to Trip. This is a plausible idea, considering that the pod drops out of the warp field created by the freighter.
Remarkable dialogue: "Isn't there any sense of humor where you come from?" - "Only among the commoners... Just joking!" (Trip and Kaitaama)
Remarkable ships: The two alien ships couldn't have been more different. Here the absolutely credible original design of the Retellian freighter with its cargo containers (if the nacelle color were not green, it would have been a perfect candidate for the Earth freighters of the J class). There the Kriosian battlecruiser with its much too easily recognizable design of the overused Akritirian/Ba'neth/Lokirrim ship, completely out of place and time.
Rating: 5

The Catwalk September 18, 2152: When Enterprise is not able to escape a neutronic storm approaching at high warp, the complete crew has to hide in the well-shielded "catwalk" inside the warp nacelles, together with three Takret guests. After a while, Tucker investigates why the matter and antimatter injectors have come online, and he discovers that the Takret military is trying to take over the ship. The three guests are actually deserters, but the military seems to be more interested in the ship. When they are about to power up the warp drive, time is pressing. Archer, claiming that he is the only survivor, threatens to destroy the ship and has Mayweather head for an eddy inside the storm. The Takret soldiers hastily leave the ship.

I liked this episode, although it was basically only a slight variant of the overused "alien takeover" plot - a bit like TNG: "Starship Mine". I wonder if it had been still better if that part of the story had simply been discarded. The unusual situation of the crew inside the warp nacelle was already interesting enough to watch and the most original plot idea (if not the only original idea) since "Minefield". The new catwalk set looked very credible. Fortunately not too much time was spent on fighting and shooting, and I was glad that the situation was resolved relatively quickly and easily without casualties this time. It was an overall light-hearted episode. The Takret were given a bit more profoundness than usual aliens-of-the-week, and there was both good and evil about them. I liked how their commander replayed Archer's logs to learn about the people who were on the ship he had seized (which was, BTW, from February 9th, during the incident with Ambassador V'Lar in "Fallen Hero"). Also, it became obvious that there was not only a conflict between the refugees and the military (although they never even talked to each other in the episode), but also between the commander and the soldiers who were (still) his subordinates and who only grudgingly followed his orders.
With the opportunity of showing an unusual day on board, I may have appreciated to see a bit more character development than usual. But I shouldn't complain, since there was already a good deal of it in the episode. T'Pol stated that the Vulcan ship was "nearly" destroyed, whereas Archer found out that it was lost with all hands in the storm a century earlier. That little lie (once again?) was obviously meant to boost morale. I liked how Archer somehow heeded this hint, walked around and provided moral support to his people. His attempts to convince T'Pol of fraternizing with the crew, however, were awkward as usual. But in character. Everyone of the rest of the crew had a few nice scenes too. Although it created good continuity, I was not quite so lucky that the episode also pointed out their weaknesses once more. There was Hoshi's claustrophobia again (although only in a side note), as well as Reed's nausea. With 12 billion people on one continent on Denobula, the good Dr. Phlox obviously doesn't mind the narrowness of the catwalk. But I wonder if anything in the universe could bother him so much that he would lose his nonchalance (which I think is sort of a weakness too). There were some really cute scenes and a subtle humor in the episode. For instance, when Hoshi, Travis, Malcolm and Trip gambled for food rations. Or the first appearance of the Chef, Enterprise's version of "Mrs. Columbo". We only saw his legs and I doubt that we will ever see more of him.
Unfortunately, it was a tech-heavy episode with some grave errors. The most obvious one was that Archer could see the approaching storm through his window. If the storm was already at high warp, the light would have been even faster! I also wonder why no one inside the nacelles could detect the alien ship. External sensors must have been online, as Mayweather was supposed to navigate through the storm. Furthermore, when Phlox asked about the absorption depth of the alloy (of the nacelle casing), Tucker said that it is "at least 20,000 particles per micron". For once, this wasn't an absorption depth, but, if anything, an absorption coefficient (the reciprocal value of the absorption depth). But the absorption coefficient's unit would be simply "per micron". It does not incorporate a particle count, as it is a material property, thus independent of the particle flow. If Tucker meant to give an absorption rate (under the specific conditions inside the storm), it should have been as "particles per surface area per time". "Particles per micron", however, makes no sense at all. Doug Drexler suggested that the nacelles should be uninhabitable and only accessible in spacesuits, but now life support is easy to set up like anywhere else on the ship. Fortunately, it was explicitly shown that the warp drive needed to be powered down (and it took 20 minutes for a cold start, much like in TOS: "The Naked Time"). Some of the nomenclature was annoying too, as it was avoidable technobabble. Why couldn't the "neutronic storm" simply be an ion storm? Maybe because an FTL phenomenon was needed. At least the term "radiolytic isotopes" could have been completely omitted, simply "radiation" would have sufficed. Finally, the Takret were said to be *immune* to the radiation. This reminds me a lot of Voyager's frequent "inoculations against radiation".
Remarkable dialogue: "You know, there is a bright side to all of this." - "Really?" - "It's bringing the crew closer together. If you forget about the storm outside, this is almost like going on a camping trip." - "Perhaps we can sing a few songs later." (Archer and T'Pol)
Remarkable facts: Enterprise has traveled up to 100 light years away from Earth. Cadets use to call the EV simulator the "vomitorium". The first Vulcan ambassador to Earth was named Solkar. This is presumably Spock's great-grandfather. Over 100 years ago, the Vulcan ship T'Plana was lost with all hands in a class-5 neutronic storm. This T'Plana is obviously not the same ship we have seen in "First Contact". T'Pol once participated in the kas-wahn ritual - surviving in the desert for ten days.
Rating: 6

Dawn No date given: In orbit of a gas giant, Tucker's shuttle is suddenly attacked by a small alien vessel, and he needs to land on one of the moons. The alien, an Arkonian, has to set his vessel down as well. Soon the two are struggling for the emergency transmitter to contact their ships. In the meantime, Archer has made contact with the xenophobic Arkonians who allow Enterprise to stay for a common search mission. The reptilian Arkonian, Zho’Kaan, is beginning to dehydrate on the hot moon. Although he was repeatedly attacked by him, Tucker feels obliged to stay with him until both can be rescued.

How many points would such an unashamed plagiarism deserve? The first half of the story, even several of its details and most obviously the alien makeup are "borrowed" from the movie "Enemy Mine". Well, at least in this respect the episode doesn't deny its origin. But it was definitely no big deal to come up with all this. Isolate two enemies on a planet, let the upper hand alternate, give them some fights, develop subtle and then stronger signs of mutual understanding. Not that we have seen something like this too often (I only recall TNG: "The Enemy" along these lines). But it is just the kind of effortless stories that always work well. If not, the director and the actors would be the ones to blame. But they all performed well and still made the best of it. "Dawn" came at a wrong time, only two episodes after Trip was in a somewhat similar situation in "Precious Cargo". We may have wished to see someone else in his situation, but thinking again, I agree that "everybody's buddy" Trip he was the perfect choice (or rather Connor Trinneer, who always does a great job, although and maybe just because his role is such a straightforward and "life-like" guy).
Considering that technology played a secondary role here, the little bit of technobabble, albeit necessary for the plot, was awkward. It was very contrived that the emergency transmitter didn't work because of those isotopes in the atmosphere, but the incredibly more complicated experimental transporter would. Also, the Arkonian couldn't be beamed because of his physiology, but the transporter doesn't work on a biomolecular basis. Finally, special Arkonian technology (and therefore further cooperation) would be necessary for a shuttle to sustain the environmental conditions. There is not really much else to say about the episode, which neither impressed nor really annoyed me. Only that it was (once again) overly violent. A bit less fighting and a few more amusing scenes between Tucker and Zho'Kaan would have been more fitting.
Final note: Will the writers remember that Shuttlepod One is gone?
Remarkable ships: The Arkonian vessel looks like a great design. Its rounded shapes, together with old-fashioned rocket engines, are a perfect design for an early warp ship. The Arkonian shuttle seemed to be a redress of "Alice".
Rating: 3

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