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Star Trek Enterprise (ENT) Season 4, Part 2

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)

Babel One November 12, 2154: Enterprise is ferrying a Tellarite delegation with Ambassador Gral to peace talks with the Andorians on Babel. On their way through Andorian space Archer picks up Shran and 19 survivors of his cruiser which has been destroyed by the Tellarites, as Shran alleges. Soon Enterprise is attacked too, by what seems to be an Andorian cruiser. But T'Pol finds out that actually the two attacking vessels are one and the same, as is evidenced by the power signature which was identical in both cases. When the ship is found, no one is aware yet that they are dealing with a Romulan prototype vessel. A landing party beams over, but Trip and Malcolm are trapped there after the Romulans have disabled Enterprise's transporter. Meanwhile on Enterprise, Shran and Talas escape from their quarters to interrogate the Tellarites. Archer is just about to deescalate the situation when Talas and one Tellarite are wounded. On Romulus, it is discovered that Trip and Malcolm have found the bridge of the remote-controlled vessel...

The new three-episode mini-arc started with a promising yet not entirely captivating episode. I liked how the established races and their mutual hostilities were brought into play here, without harming continuity. Everything revolved around the genuine and quite intelligent idea of a disguised mystery ship that was meant to trigger interstellar conflicts. The plot bore some surprises, the most obvious being the appearance of the Romulans (although they had to be physically absent as a continuity requirement). I think it was a fine homage to TOS: "Journey to Babel" to show a similar diplomatic conflict on Enterprise too, with the mention of "Babel" being more than just casual name-dropping. On the other hand, this type of stories has been overdone on Enterprise. Archer is playing the mediator almost every time he meets the Vulcans, Andorians, Klingons or Xindi and preferably more than one of them at once. It's certainly a nice trait and it befits the idea of Star Trek, but at some point the repeated attempts to make him a "22nd century Picard" become boring. Maybe this time has come now.
Speaking of clichés, some of them appeared in a different light in this episode. A frequent motive in Trek is that coincidentally one of your opponents is on your bridge, and he will help you defeat one of his ships by pointing out a weak spot. To my amusement this time it didn't succeed, and I wonder if this was purposely conceived as a parody of the cliché. Another thing that didn't work quite as usual was the seductive woman who distracted the guard to escape from the prison. The guy was fortunate enough not really to fall for the trick. He managed to knock down Shran and put up a good fight against Talas until she could disable him. What I almost liked most about the episode was the teaser with Archer and Hoshi rehearsing for their encounter with the Tellarites who use to get into arguments about each and everything. It is always nice if she is allowed to say more than a just occasional lines, and it was really funny.
My principal complaint pertaining to the episode's technology is that the Tellarites would have deserved a new ship and not one of the Arkonians and Xindi-Arboreals to none of which their design may be related. The same goes for the Romulan prototype vessel which is essentially the "Flea ship" from VOY: "The Fight" and looks nothing like a Romulan design. Something that bothered me too is that it would be impossible to control a ship in real time across many light-years (it was mentioned in the episode that it was far outside their territory). Finally, the Romulan city is akin to the one from "Nemesis" but not like the one from TNG and DS9. Still, rather than assuming they are moving their capital forth and back, I am content with the explanation that not everything has to be located in their capital. On a side note note, many of the scenes inside the Romulan drone were filmed with an extreme wide-angle lens. This may have had technical reasons, but most of all it created a creepy claustrophobic atmosphere like rarely before in the series.
Remarkable quote: "There's no rule that says the bridge has to be on top of the ship." (Malcolm)
Remarkable facts: The Kumari was the first ship of her class. She had a complement of 86 of which 19 survived the Romulan attack. -- The Andorians and Tellarites have been feuding for over a century. -- Tellarites regard canines as a delicacy.
Rating: 7

United No date given: Trip and Malcolm disable the warp drive of the Romulan drone. When the Romulans threaten to let Trip die who is stuck in a radiation-poisoned service channel, Malcolm agrees to restore the propulsion system, but only to damage the ship considerably overloading his phase pistol. Meanwhile on Enterprise, Archer and T'Pol are devising a plan to hunt down the enemy vessel, but this would require humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites to cooperate. The alliance is about to fall apart before it can be forged when Talas dies of her injuries. Shran demands revenge, and because he would likely kill his Tellarite opponent in the ritual duel with saw-toothed ice miner tools, Archer steps in as a substitute. Shran nonetheless allows the fight to happen, but it is over when Archer cuts off one of Shran's antennae. The Romulans have regained control of their drone thanks to its self-repair technology, and Reed and Trip are struggling to get to the hull to be beamed out. They escape from a hatch just before the ship goes to warp. The drone makes it back to Romulus where the pilot is disconnected from his remote control interface. He is an Andorian.

"United" was an extraordinarily intelligent and technically almost flawless thriller from the first to almost the last second. Only the "Previously on Star Trek Enterprise" trailer was a bit lacking as it failed to really summarize what had happened last week. Aside from this minor deficiency the episode rather benefited than suffered from being the second of three parts, like already "Cold Station 12" and "Awakening" earlier this season. This may have been the reason for the very fast pace of "United". What will be remembered most is the spectacular action, like Trip's and Malcolm's fight against the remote-controlled drone, the duel between Shran and Archer or the CGI attacks of the Romulan drone. Still, there was enough time for a good deal of nice character interaction, like between Archer and an unusually compassionate T'Pol when the captain was mentally preparing for the duel. Most notably Jeffrey Combs as Shran gave a marvelous Jekyll and Hyde performance throughout the episode that horrified his friend Archer. And even Hoshi and Travis, like already in the two preceding episodes, were conceded a real part in the story. At long last the authors seem to have learned that it doesn't always have to be Archer, T'Pol, Trip or Phlox who come up with ideas (although I wonder why the two didn't spot earlier the paragraph in the Andorian ritual that would allow to end the fight when one contender is disabled).
Just as already “Babel One”, this week's episode made very skillful use of historical references instead of simply rehashing them with different actors. I am thinking of one-dimensional stories like "Oasis", "Judgment" or "Regeneration" to which there is no comparison. Clearly the fight between Archer and his friend Shran was a tip of the hat to TOS: "Amok Time", while the loss of Shran's antenna can be seen as an ironical reference to TOS: "Journey to Babel" where we saw the antenna of a phony Andorian break off. Likewise, several well-known clichés were either avoided or given a new twist. I'm thinking of Talas' death which came more or less unexpected and off screen, not giving her the chance to utter her famous last words, something that I always see as very contrived. Or the scene in which Shran came in to talk about Talas and then challenge the Tellarite murderer, during which it was never really clear whether he would rather pull a knife and kill the guy or offer him a drink to bury their conflict. However, the idea of a sensor grid formed by many ships reminded me a tad too much of TNG: "Redemption" (even more because of the episode's name and the Romulan involvement). Fortunately the sensor grid was not such an important concept here as in the TNG episode, although tying more fleet operations into the story would have emphasized the idea that an alliance was being forged. The only slight annoyance of "United" was the pale-skinned Andorian as the pilot of the RC ship. It was clearly an interesting twist that will be explained later, but as a cliffhanger it leaves a bad taste just due to its similarity to the shock about the pale alien Nazi in "Zero Hour".
Like in "Babel One", the camera movements were fantastic once again. Above all I recollect the scene when Shran rushes to sickbay, with the camera pursuing him. Then, without a cut, it moves to Archer's and Phlox' faces to turn back to Shran and around him while he is screaming "Nooo!". That's what I call perfection. And the CGI sequences with the "camera" following the extremely maneuverable Romulan probe were superb too (if only they had built a new model).
Remarkable quote: "You're good at building things, I'm good at blowing them up." (Malcolm)
Remarkable fact: The Komari, Shran's ship, was named for the first ice cutter to circumnavigate Andoria. -- We see two Remans, for the first time besides "Nemesis".
Rating: 9

The Aenar No date given: An analysis of the Romulan pilot's brain pattern shows that he is an Aenar  - a member of a telepathic Andorian subspecies whose existence was discovered only 50 years ago. Shran and Archer visit the secret Aenar city on Andoria where they hope to find the solution to the puzzle. The pacifist Aenar refuse to cooperate - except for Jhamel, the sister of the pilot whose name is Gareb and who vanished some time ago. After T'Pol has attempted in vain to operate a replica of the so-called telepresence unit that allows to control the Romulan drones, Jhamel succeeds. When two drones are attacking Enterprise, she manages to telepathically contact her brother on Romulus and tell him to end the attack. He is killed by the Romulan Admiral, but it is too late. One of the drones destroys the other one, and Enterprise eliminates the remaining vessel.

I see "The Aenar" as a bit of a disappointment. One reason is that the principal puzzle of the Romulan marauder had been solved in "United", as had been the conflict between Shran and the Tellarites. There was essentially nothing left to do in the final part of the trilogy but to hunt down the drones which didn't strike me as thrilling. It was done almost casually if it had not been for the Aenar siblings who saved the episode from becoming boring. The two were not even particularly strong guest characters. Jhamel's interest for Shran remained at the surface (although I liked their scene in the dark, in the Aeanar city), and Gareb had to remain passive anyway the whole time. Getting rid of them was effortless. Gareb was simply shot by the Romulan admiral, and an unadorned farewell to the sympathetic Jhamel was deemed sufficient. Introducing two new characters and a whole new species was not a brilliant idea anyway as far as the whole trilogy is concerned, but at least it gave "The Aenar" a bit of distinctiveness. The exploration of the motives of the two Romulans (the scientist and the admiral) who had not really been personally involved in the trilogy so far should be seen in the same light.
In spite of everything, I am still surprised how little happened in the 42 minutes of this episode, compared to last week's "United" that was so full of action and drama that it seemed to last twice as long. Obviously more time for character development was left here which found use in some interaction between Archer and Shran as well as between Trip and T'Pol. Trip expressed his concerns that T'Pol was going to try out the telepresence unit, and once again he proved to be bad in explaining that it was out of personal interest and not just because she was a valuable officer.
What I missed too was an interesting revelation in the end, something that would have shed a new light on the Andorians or maybe on the Romulans. Considering that it was the end of the trilogy I am not thinking of yet another cliffhanger, but rather of something to justify a follow-up at a later date (assuming that the decision to cancel the series had not yet been made when the episode was being produced). In any case Tucker's talk with Archer about a possible transfer to the Columbia was a rather poor ending of a great arc. One more point of criticism is that the parallels to motives in "The Forge" are so striking that they seem to come from an automatic plot generator. Just replace the Vulcan Forge with the Andorian ice desert, the electromagnetic storms with a dampening field, the secretive Syranites with the secretive Aenar. It's essentially the same story.
Remarkable facts: The Aenar were discovered by the Andorians only some 50 years ago. There are supposed to be just a few thousand left. -- The Ticonderoga, a cargo vessel, seems to be another victim of the Romulan marauder.
Rating: 6

Affliction November 27th, 2154: Enterprise arrives at Earth to attend the launch of its sister ship Columbia. Trip joins the crew of Columbia. In San Francisco Dr. Phlox is kidnapped and taken to a Klingon colony to find a cure against a virus that is spreading through the Klingon Empire and may cost the lives of millions. The crew of Enterprise figures out that the Rigelians are responsible for abducting Phlox, but the Rigelian freighter is found destroyed in space. Archer discovers that Malcolm Reed has obstructed the investigation by erasing the data in the Rigelian black box. He confines his armory officer who is secretly working for a man named Harris of Section 31 to the brig. Enterprise it attacked by a Klingon vessel and is boarded. One of the intruders can be disabled by the MACOs and is taken to sickbay - he looks almost human although his lifesigns are Klingon. As Dr. Phlox is told the reason for the virus to become dangerous was that it combined with human DNA - more precisely with DNA of Augments that the Klingons were experimenting with to create stronger warriors. One side effect is that the Klingon Augments take over the characteristic smooth foreheads of humans. On Enterprise, it is found that the intruders have sabotaged the propulsion system. Because of an open antimatter regulator the ship has to stay at high warp...

The obsession to explain each and everything in the Trek Universe in this fourth season has hit its peak. Hardly any serious Trek fan would have asked for a solution to the infamous Klingon forehead dilemma on screen, knowing that there used to be the convenient and stunningly simple answer that they were always supposed to look like they do since the first feature film, in accordance with what Roddenberry had in mind. Pondering about the foreheads was fun though, although it has gained a fanboyish aftertaste, considering that casual viewers were frequently coming up with all kinds of far out theories without caring about the facts. We can be glad that the small story arc explains away the problem in a quite elegant and mostly intelligent fashion to everyone's satisfaction. And at least I am glad that the frequent mails along the lines "Didn't you know that they were surgically altered to infiltrate the Federation" will stop.
I didn't like Tucker in this episode and his interaction with T'Pol (or rather lack thereof). Why is the chief engineer suddenly so secretive and abrasive as if he were a totally different character? His complicated relationship with T'Pol can't be the only reason. In any case we have probably never seen a character on Star Trek who did such a bad job separating his personal affairs from his profession and duty. I'm not particularly fond of such sub-plots anyway. It went awry in TNG: "Lessons", and it didn't work here either. And the dream sequence with T'Pol and Trip meeting in a white realm was awful and clearly expendable unless this new telepathic link will play a major role in upcoming episodes. This raises the question why and how Trip will return to Enterprise. It seems like he is coming back just as suddenly and irrationally as he left.
I wasn't really fond of the Reed-Section 31 connection either. Revealing that the armory officer was working for that organization behind Archer's back may have been good for a couple of stories still to come (if the series had not been discontinued). But essentially we have already seen something like that with Bashir on DS9. The story of "Affliction" would have worked without involving Section 31 and definitely without mentioning them, and as we will see in the follow-up Malcolm will resume his position sooner than we might think considering the subversion he is guilty of. On a positive note, Reed is involved into a real conflict with another character for the first time in the series. Hoshi was given two nice scenes, when she defended herself using some Aikido (at least that's what she had mentioned before, I couldn't see a difference between Aikido and other martial arts) and when T'Pol performed her first mind meld with her, revisiting the scene of the kidnapping. Aside from Section 31 there was a lot more name-dropping in the episode, including references to the Orions, Mazarites, Tiburon, Levodian flu and metagenic research. It may have been reduced, but for the most part it created useful consistency.
As T'Pol said, the Columbia is virtually identical to Enterprise. Her larger deflector dish is the only significant difference, at least from the outside. But inside the ship there is the one thing I loathe about the Columbia: the flashing light columns on the bridge where they don't serve any obvious purpose and are just a pain in the neck of Captain Hernandez. Sure, the light columns are a way to establish the perhaps necessary visual difference between the two bridges. But the way they were fabricated they look like an immature fanboyish feature.
Remarkable fact: Enterprise can be pushed up to Warp 5.2, although this speed (obviously above "maximum warp" that Archer had already ordered earlier) can't be maintained for long.
Rating: 6

Divergence No date given: In a daring maneuver Trip is transferred from Columbia to Enterprise where he averts the disaster by performing a cold start of the warp reactor while Columbia is maintaining the warp field. While the Klingon fleet under the command of Fleet Admiral Krell is approaching to eradicate the infected colony, Phlox is struggling to devise a cure for the viral infection, supported by the Klingon scientist Antaak. When they find a remedy that would actually take away the superior abilities from the Klingon Augments, they decide not to tell General K'Vagh who oversees their work. With little time left until the fleet arrives the last four healthy Klingons agree to test four different strains of the antivirus that Phlox has developed of which three are lethal and only one provides a cure. Time ultimately runs out when the Klingons attack and Enterprise and Columbia are being fired on too, against Krell's agreement with Section 31. Archer beams down and allows Phlox to inject the antivirus in his body to speed up the procedure. Then Antaak beams the virus into the Klingon lead ship, forcing Krell and his men to stand down to be healed. The cured Klingons retain their flat foreheads and are said to pass them on to their children.

"Divergence" had some of the best action in the whole series, along with a mostly well thought-out story. Trip's stunt to get from Columbia to Enterprise was the probably most memorable part of "Divergence". Reed quite correctly stated that using the transporter at warp wouldn't be possible. Here we have at least one limit of this technology compared to the 24th century where we have occasionally seen beaming at warp. The principle of merging the warp fields of the two ships was quite correctly explained and shown on screen. The only point of slight criticism is that it was not considered an option using a shuttlepod for the transfer. The whole maneuver was exciting and visually spectacular too. And it ultimately answers the questions why the ventral side of the NX class is so flat and how the design of the Prometheus came to life. ;-) On a related note, obviously the Klingons could beam through even two shields when they transported the canister with the virus to the lead ship of the attacking fleet.
But something illogical keeps bugging me: Wasn't the reason for the hassle in "Affliction" that the antimatter flow regulators couldn't be closed? In other words, the produced power would blow the warp core if the plasma didn't all go into the propulsion system. That's why Archer ordered Mayweather to go to maximum warp and later even in excess of that (Warp 5.2). Conversely, Tucker now insists that the reactor needs to be shut down and restarted after removing the virus while still at warp. As we can witness, after shutting down the reactor the warp field grille goes out almost immediately, meaning that no plasma is flowing through it any longer. If the antimatter regulators automatically go offline too, anything is fine. But in this case it wouldn't have needed Tucker to accomplish that and there would have been no hurry to restart the reactor. Moreover, the warp core, especially when no plasma is flowing anyway, doesn't care whether a starship is at warp or not. If, however, the regulators were independent of the rest of the reactor or couldn't be closed because of the Klingon tampering (that's how it sounded like in "Affliction"), the ship would be destroyed in a huge matter-antimatter explosion the very instant the reactor goes offline. In either case the situation as shown in "Divergence" is inconsistent with "Affliction". Maybe, while overall the continuity between the two episodes was fine, this important technical concept didn't quite make the transition from one writer team (Coto & Sussman) to the other (Reeves-Stevens).
It was an interesting twist, albeit not quite realistic, that Phlox had four strains of the virus and four healthy Klingons left. Perhaps it would have had more impact if Phlox had faced this decision earlier though, with the prospect of one by one of them dying. Another remarkable aspect of the episode was the conflict between the different castes of the Klingon Empire. The motivation of the biologist Antaak reminded me a lot of the scientist in TNG: "Suspicions", as well as of the lawyer in ENT: "Judgment". All of them have in common that they are struggling against a lot of prejudices of the warriors. The interaction between Phlox and both Klingons worked out quite well anyway. Especially after the immediate threat of being executed was taken away from Phlox their discussions greatly contributed to the story. It was only an overly unlikely coincidence that of all Klingons the son of General K'Vagh was captured on Enterprise, especially since he only briefly met his father toward the end. The rest of the character interaction was rather uninspiring. The conversation between Reed and the Klingon in the neighboring cell was dull for the most part, and the whole Section 31 sub-plot captured least of all my interest. I can hardly imagine how Section 31 could become so powerful considering as how naive and toothless Harris presents himself. Trip and T'Pol once again avoided using plain language, with Trip continuing to act out of character (and Connor Trinneer falling short of his talent). I only liked the ironic detail that T'Pol at one point questioned Trip about his dreams the same way normally humans would like to know trivial things from Vulcans.
Something that angered me a bit was that ridges formed on Archer's forehead during the treatment, and that this happened quite suddenly. So does Archer grow new bones (after all it must be bones that are responsible for the Klingon look) in a matter of seconds? We may buy that the virus alters the DNA as on many other occasions in Trek, but showing impossible transformations just for the sake of a visual effect is something the series could easily go without. While the overall treatment of the forehead dilemma was quite skilled like already in "Affliction", I disliked a couple of side notes that were rather contrived. For instance, when Antaak came to Phlox with a proposal for a cure, Phlox said after a quick glance that it would go along with "some minor changes in their appearance" as if it was meant as a broad hint for those who still didn't know that everything was about the famous Klingon forehead mutation. The remark that the children of the cured Klingons would inherit their smooth foreheads was necessary though, while we may want to forget about Phlox' idea that cranial reconstruction would likely become popular (Kor anyone?).
Remarkable sign: The label on the wall between Reed's and the Klingon's cells reads "No entry". As if the prisoners wouldn't know that. ;-)
Rating: 7

Bound December 27th, 2154: After forging a deal with the Orion trader Harrad-Sar, Archer and Reed receive three beautiful slave women as a gift. The three women, Navaar, D'Nesh and Marras, have a disruptive influence on the crew. They begin to seduce the men up to the point of mind control, while women are suffering from headaches. Dr. Phlox finds out that pheromones are responsible for the effect. Only Tucker and T'Pol are immune because a bond has formed between them. When the three Orion women have taken over the bridge and Harrad-Sar arrives to tow away Enterprise as his booty, it turns out that he is under their control as well. Tucker rectifies the situation with a phase pistol. When T'Pol asks Trip to stay aboard, he says that he has already applied for his transfer back to Enterprise.

"Bound in honor" is not what I would call that. As a matter of fact, I don't recall any modern Trek episode with such outspoken sexism. Well, it was hilarious to some point to see an almost authentic TOS drama along the lines of "Mudd's Women" or "Elaan of Troyius" in a technically and artistically enhanced version, as I have to concede. Also, I liked the look and the movements of the Orion girls. I definitely prefer the sight of their scanty costumes (like William Ware Theiss made them for TOS) over the bashful hints of hedonism during TNG ("The Outrageous Okona" being the prime example) or Enterprise's peep shows with contrived naked breasts & bums ("Harbinger"). Still, "Bound" didn't belong in our time, no matter what efforts were taken to update it. It didn't help either that in the outcome the Orion men turned out to be the actual slaves. This ironical twist was too late and too trivial to change anything. Essentially it just made possible T'Pol's joke or whatever it was supposed to be about the Orion women in charge - the one good thing about an otherwise disagreeable species according to her. I sort of liked the joke though because it was at least one fitting TOS homage (reminding us of Spock's closing words in many TOS episodes).
The explanation that the girls are not the slaves makes me wonder anyway why they permit themselves to be showcased on slave markets like we have seen one only recently in "Borderland". Something doesn't work with the explanation, but this is just one problem in an episode that didn't work on the whole. The plot has several holes, but even this shortcoming is surpassed by the general feeling of helplessness among the crew. We have seen so many alien takeovers before in the series and so many situations with the crew on edge, but none of them made Archer, Reed and the others look as dull as in "Bound". So dull that at some point I denied them my sympathy because it was only annoying to see them stumble around, recognize the danger, and then do nothing against it. For the same reason I already utterly disliked "A Night in Sickbay" and "Harbinger".
I haven't figured out yet what part Tucker's rival Kelby was supposed to play except for a scapegoat, because he got laid by one of the women, while Archer and Reed were not (or at least not that we are supposed to know of). It is a major annoyance of the episode that it preserves our heroes' clean records at any rate. In TOS Kelby would have been killed in the course of the episode. Here he gets beaten up and then vanishes somewhere in sickbay or in the brig or wherever else which is just as sorry.
Long-time fans know and appreciate Manny Coto's efforts to fill in every gap he can find in the TOS Universe and to tie TOS and ENT closer together in each single episode than was attempted in the whole previous three seasons combined. Now he has finally gone over the top. The plot of "Bound" is rather a farcical re-enactment of TOS than a homage. The screenplay is full of the clichés, like the lacking security on the ship, T'Pol's immunity because of her Vulcan physiology and even the trick of sending some pulse back through the grappler rope to disable it (the latter rather from Voyager). And as we would not have expected otherwise, Dr. Phlox presents us the precise cause of the whole trouble: It's not a mystery like it will obviously be 100 years later ("The Cage"). No, Orion women are irresistible because of their pheromones. Or maybe midichlorians? It seems to be still a learning process that at some point fans don't want to have each and everything explained.
There is one scene I enjoyed though that I would like to mention. When the ship arrives at the planet and Archer is intoxicated with the pheromones, the camera does a great job to show his dizziness. We can see some pans in unusual directions, like from the side wall to the screen.
Remarkable dialogue: T'Pol: "At least we've learned something about the Orions." - Malcolm: "Yeah, the women are in charge." - T'Pol: "It proves that even the most disagreeable species have some positive attributes."
Remarkable error: Tucker calls Kelby "lieutenant", but Kelby is wearing the same commander pips as Tucker.
Remarkable mentions: Berengaria is a potential site of a starbase. It was surveyed by the Vulcans over 50 years ago and is said to be inhabited by flying reptiles, some reportedly over 200 meters long. ;-) This legend is a homage to TOS: "This Side of the Paradise". -- When Travis was 15, he met some irresistible Deltan women when his father picked them up from their defunct ship.
Rating: 2

In a Mirror, Darkly I/II January 13th, 2155: In the brutal Terran Empire of the Mirror Universe, Commander Archer of the I.S.S. Enterprise mutinies against Captain Forrest. His goal is to take the ship to Tholian space where reportedly an advanced ship is in the hands of the hostile non-humanoid species. A captured Tholian reveals the location of the secret facility when Archer and Phlox apply torture. Not before long Commander T'Pol helps Forrest to regain command. But Archer has locked the helm with an encryption code and Starfleet command approves of Archer's mission. The crew find the U.S.S. Defiant NCC-1764 ready to launch in a drydock. Archer and a small team beam over and seize command of the Federation Starfleet vessel from the future that was lured into an interspatial rift by the Mirror Tholians. Alarmed by a distress call of the prisoner Enterprise is soon surrounded by Tholian vessels and destroyed. Forrest dies on the ship, while the Defiant manages to recover a number of escape pods. A Gorn who was still aboard the Defiant sabotages the ship but Archer hunts down the reptilian. With a vessel more powerful than any other at his avail he breaks down a rebellion of other species against the Empire, including the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. After a disagreement Archer kills Admiral Black. In the meantime T'Pol, Soval of the I.S.S. Avenger and Phlox have forged an alliance against Archer. The Defiant heads for Earth where Archer is going to declare himself the new Emperor. But his mistress Hoshi Sato has poisoned his champagne. In Earth's orbit she introduces herself as Empress to the puzzled Starfleet Command...

I can't tell whether this double feature was rather appealing or appalling. An overkill of cruelty and silliness almost ruined the huge fun of seeing the crew in the colorful TOS uniforms and having a fantastic CGI Defiant perform all the action that was sadly missing in TOS. I thoroughly enjoyed "In a Mirror, Darkly" as solid entertainment, but not without looking back at it with some grievances. To start with, the story and the characters were utter pulp and would usually score close to zero points in my review. While the reason for that lies in the simplistic nature of the Mirror universe and is not primarily the fault of the writer, I would still have expected at least a minimum of characterization. What little was done to elucidate the motives of the Mirror crew was rather contrived -- worst of all the voice in Archer's head which manifested itself as another Archer standing at his side. A very cheap quirk. Yet, although it turned out anything but light-hearted, this is also the reason why I can see it to some degree as a parody which I genuinely enjoyed like most of the previous Mirror Universe installments. The multitude of tongue-in-cheek references, with kind regards from Manny Coto, clearly helped me to take a few things easy that would otherwise have bothered me. Still the story and its very concept was lacking in several respects.
The Mirror Universe has always been enticing as a "what if" scenario. But some questions that we might pose (or are expected to pose) would better remain unanswered. Do we really want to see our characters as tyrannical, faithless and overall inhumane jerks? Does it need a dark nightmare of the future to corroborate how bright the "true" vision of Star Trek is? While the basic idea of an antithetic version of the Federation was a fascinating new concept in TOS: "Mirror, Mirror" the Mirror Universe has gradually lost its impact in the DS9 features that followed 30 years later. DS9: "Through the Looking Glass" was still rather frightening in a positive sense, as it showed humans as the victims of their own former primacy. The way the Mirror Universe was treated in DS9: "Shattered Mirror" and ultimately in "The Emperor's New Cloak", however, it had degraded to an effortless concept of bringing excessive viciousness, comical relief and all kinds of weirdness into an otherwise rather composed TV show. This was possible because the Mirror Universe showed up only once in a while, so it wasn't required to explain too much in terms of continuity. Characters could be killed offat whim and the balance of power considerably shifted on each occasion. Everything is disposable, who cares? All this happened with few to no impact on the characters and the general setting of "our" universe. In this respect the concept of the Mirror Universe has a built-in reset button like other, related motives such as alternate futures or holodeck programs. My concern is not primarily that the Mirror Universe is unrealistic or that the evilness of their Mirror versions could rub off on our characters. It rather lies in the function of the Mirror Universe as a dumping ground for all kinds of ideas that are unthinkable in our universe or, in other words, in normal Star Trek installments.
I would even go as far as calling the whole approach that was taken in the Mirror Universe episodes hypocritical and discriminating. It is a place where nearly all characters are torturing, murdering, betraying one another all the time. There exists not much variation of this basic behavior pattern. It is anything but plausible that a world could work like this and in terms of narrative quality such a setting is prone to produce pulp. Moreover, it makes anything in our universe look good - even the most ruthless Klingon is a nice guy compared to the average Mirror character. The probably most hypocritical aspect ever brought up in the Mirror Universe was the "lesbian fetish" of DS9 (Kira, Leeta). No character in our Trek universe has ever been explicitly shown as homosexual, but in the Mirror Universe exactly this happened quite often and overtly. Keeping in mind what the characters in the Mirror Universe are like, the episodes seem to make up a correlation between homosexuality and criminal predisposition! If there should ever be a gay or lesbian character again we can only hope that it will be done in a decent and not such a defamatory fashion. Fortunately this failing was not continued in "In a Mirror, Darkly". But the light in which "straight" sexuality appeared was not really better.
While it is bound to largely the same problems as other Mirror Universe stories before, there is something exceptional about "In a Mirror, Darkly". The episode entirely takes place in the Mirror Episode, there is not the slightest participation of "our" Enterprise NX-01, except for the historical personnel files from the Defiant that Mirror Archer and Sato read with amusement and astonishment. One might say this is overall for the benefit of continuity, as our universe will not become aware of the existence of the parallel reality until more than a hundred years later. On the other hand, a story that doesn't tell anything about the crew and the mission of our starship is completely pointless in the course of the series. Something like that has been done before with varying success especially on Voyager ("Living Witness", "Course: Oblivion", "11:59"), but it is sad to have such a stagnancy a few weeks before the series ends (much to soon).
Remarkable quote: "Without Vulcan technology the Empire wouldn't be where it is today." (Mirror Archer) -- Read it again, compare it to what "our" Archer always says about the Vulcans and enjoy the sick irony!
The Mirror characters: Captain Forrest commands the I.S.S. Enterprise. Commander Archer is the first officer. T'Pol (with long hair) has much the same role as in our universe. Reed is a MACO major, he invented the torturing booth. Mayweather is a MACO sergeant. Hoshi Sato was Forrest's concubine and becomes Archer's. She used to work in Brazil like in our universe. Trip has a disfigured face because of delta radiation (the make-up is a homage to TOS: "The Menagerie").
Remarkable species: We see a Tholian for the first time since TOS: "The Tholian Web". The look is consistent with Commander Loskene from the TOS episode although I was always convinced that the angular head was just a helmet. The insectoid Tholians are said to have both male and female characteristics.
Remarkable facts: In our universe Hoshi Sato will develop the linguacode translation matrix in her late thirties. Archer is considered to be "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century. Two planets were named after him."
Rating: 7

Demons January 19th, 2155: While the Enterprise crew is attending a meeting of Minister Samuels with alien delegates on Earth, a fatally injured woman stumbles into the conference room warns T'Pol that someone is threatening her life and hands her a lock of hair. To everyone's surprise Phlox finds out that the hair is from a child with Vulcan and human DNA, a girl whose parents are T'Pol and Tucker. The woman whose name was Susan Khouri has been working for an isolationist movement known as "Terra Prime". Phlox' analysis that she used to take a medication against zero-g effects allows the crew to trace back her way. While T'Pol and Trip infiltrate the mining colony Orpheus on Earth's Moon, Mayweather's love interest, the journalist Gannett Brooks, is arrested as a spy working for Terra Prime. On the Moon Trip is invited to join an assembly of Terra Prime supporters. But he and T'Pol are uncovered. Paxton, the owner of Orpheus and leader of Terra Prime, orders the colony which he has transformed to a large starship to lift off and head for Mars. On Mars he takes possession of a verteron weapon and he demands that every alien leave the Sol System...

We may have expected an episode dealing with humans' reactions to aliens rather at the very beginning of Enterprise than at a time just before the series finale when the writers are in a hurry to establish a perspective for the future Federation. In this respect "Demons" was definitely a setback. At times I even felt reminded of the Mirror Universe feature "In a Mirror, Darkly", seeing that "our" world isn't that different in essence. It may be just a minority, but here is a group of humans who are not willing to practice basic tolerance and who strive to ban or ultimately destroy everyone troubling them as "alien". Xenophobia as we sadly know it from our time and as already hinted at in a skillful sub-plot of "Home" is a very dumb type of contempt, largely bereft of a deeper significance. As a motive in a TV drama it facilitates the creation of detestable villains. On the other hand, anything like this is likely to turn into a story full of accordingly cheap clichés. But I won't carry on with my usual rant about TV Nazis at this time. On the contrary, I am pleasantly surprised how realistically "Demons" embeds the issue into the context of the 22nd century. If the plot stunt of the Xindi attack in "The Expanse" had one beneficial impact on the series, it is that it allowed for this week's episode.
As already mentioned (it can't be said often enough) xenophobia is stupid by its very nature. Hordes of xenophobic morons who harass "freaks" for just being different are bad enough, but it becomes horrible when this happens in an organized fashion, authorized by a leader. With Hitler and the Nazis being the most obvious examples in real history. Paxton is meant to be the 22nd century version of such a leader, which is even corroborated by his unveiled admiration of Colonel Green who was apparently responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of radiation victims after World War III -- because Green saw them as "impure". 200 years after Hitler and 100 years after Green, Paxton's plans are in the same bad tradition. Unfortunately Paxton can't make a point beyond the simple statement "I'm a fascist" in this first part of the story. He remains the cliché villain because he doesn't primarily act as an enticer. Instead of manipulating people he rather relies on all kinds of technology like other TV villains before him. Starling from VOY: "Future's End" springs to my mind as a similar character, although the computer tycoon was just greedy. In this one respect I would have hoped for a toned down story in "Demon", one that would have given us more insight into Paxton's methods and his motivation. We can still hope for next week.
Regarding the characters, I wasn't particularly impressed by any of them. But that may have to do with me paying attention to all the details of the story. It wasn't as easy as usual to follow its course. Well, Mayweather had a part too, but I didn't really care, nor did I care about his girl-friend. Their involvement was too superficial so far, and I don't really expect Mayweather to do more next week than steer a shuttlepod to apprehend the villain.
Remarkable quote: "They are extremely precise - though when I'm listening to the Tellarite Ambassador I wish they were a little less precise." (Minister Samuels to Hoshi about the universal translator)
Remarkable facts: The emblem on the floor of the conference hall reads: "Starfleet Command - United Earth Space Probe Agency". The Tellarites, Andorians, Vulcans, Rigelians and Coridanites were present at the conference (although I remember Coridanites from "Shadows of P'Jem" as looking very different).
Rating: 6

Terra Prime January 22nd, 2155: Paxton is targeting Starfleet Command with the verteron array which was initially built to deflect asteroids. In order to knock out the weapon without harming T'Pol, Tucker, the child and the neighboring Utopia Colony, it is necessary to get inside Paxton's ship. Archer, Phlox, Reed and Mayweather follow the path of a comet to the surface of Mars so they remain unnoticed. They manage to overwhelm Paxton just in time. Back on Enterprise, it turns out that Gannett Brooks was not actually a Terra Prime agent, but a young ensign working in shuttle maintenance is found guilty of sabotage in Paxton's name. He commits suicide before Archer's eyes. Phlox discovers that the child who Tucker and T'Pol have named Elizabeth is going to die because Paxton purposely created her with a genetic defect. The doctor says that generally Vulcan and human DNA are compatible.

With the exception of the shuttle ride on the comet's tail and the beautiful takes of the surface of Mars, the second part of the xenophobia arc turned out overall less spectacular than the first one. As I see it, this was mostly not to the episode's disadvantage. Although "Terra Prime" suffered even more from unproductive and unessential plot add-ons, it made up for much of the characterization and interaction that I missed in "Demons". 
Still, I would have expected more from Paxton. T'Pol was refreshingly blunt when she exposed the hypocrisy and self-delusion of the Terra Prime leader. Suffering from the Taggart Syndrome he wouldn't even be alive without a medication developed by aliens. And as it is a form of genetic damage, his role model Colonel Green would have euthanized Paxton. Usually dogmatic leaders don't react at all to such open reproaches except with violence. Paxton at least attempted to evade the dilemma by referring to history: "I'm not the first significant leader who failed to measure up to his own ideals." It was the same with Hitler who looked anything like the blond, athletic and healthy archetype he valued above all. The message is clear: Racism was, is and will always be hypocritical and dishonest. A big lie. Paxton gave more insight into his ideology than last week or felt compelled to do so, but at some point I would have liked him to react on the confrontation with more than just phrases. Not that I knew any of their kind personally, but I doubt that dictators or terrorists talk in private like they do in the public. The contrast between the charismatic leader that Paxton strove to be and the pitiful person he actually was could have been worked out better. Maybe, instead of dying with the vengeful words "Terra Prime forever" on his lips, he might have been apprehended like the weak man that remained without all the helpers and the technology.
The relationship between T'Pol and Tucker saw a small progress at long last, and if only because of the exceptional and sad experience of having a common child who is about to die. Sato (who did a fine job commanding the ship in Archer's absence), Reed and Phlox all had a couple of good scenes too. Bakula, on the other hand, was acting a bit lethargically most of the time. Maybe this was even intentional, to show how Archer is tired of saving the planet all the time? Anyway, to Archer it was palpably primarily a matter of freeing his officers; the parallel between their fathers that Paxton made up was a pathetic attempt to grab his attention, to involve him personally. Like I anticipated, Mayweather was at least allowed to steer the shuttle. His girl-friend, on the other hand, contributed absolutely nothing to the story. The two-parter could have easily gone without this relationship which didn't work out anyway. Speaking of dispensable plot ingredients, the previously nameless ensign who was presented as the culprit is another one.
Remarkable facts: We learn a bit about the colonization of Mars. The verteron array was built to deflect incoming comets. (Well, how unlikely is it that a big comet impacts on Mars just in the hours before the ultimatum runs out?) The terraforming has progressed to a point where no pressure suits are necessary in the lowlands of Mars. We get to see the landing site of Pathfinder which the NASA named "Carl Sagan Memorial Station" in 1997 (the dedication plaque definitely being a later addition).
Crew losses: 1
Rating: 6

These Are The Voyages Stardate 47457.1: Commander Riker is anxiously awaiting the confrontation with Admiral Pressman, his former commanding officer who is responsible for a test of an illegal cloaking device that killed 73 of the crew of the Pegasus. Riker takes a break in the holodeck and he invites Deanna Troi to re-enact the last mission of Enterprise NX-01 prior to being decommissioned. Back in 2161, Shran asked Archer to help him free his abducted daughter. They succeeded, but later the kidnappers boarded the ship. In self-sacrifice Trip blew up a plasma conduit and died. The holoprogram ends with Archer's speech at the founding ceremony of the Federation. Riker decides to let Captain Picard in on the true circumstances of the Pegasus disaster.

Since the very first announcement I was opposed to Enterprise. I was convinced that Berman and Braga were joking when I saw their first list with blatantly stereotypical character drafts, and I thought even more so when the first pictures of the ship cropped up. I believed I would never get accustomed to Series V, much less that it would grow on me. I was wrong. Fortunately, because many single episodes of the first three years and nearly the complete fourth season lived up to the premise and gave us memorable moments of television. Not primarily stuff for nerds or for action fans, but quality entertainment with an attitude. Enterprise had several flaws most of which I had predicted. It may not have been the most original or the most compelling Trek show. But it ultimately proved to be a worthy part of the legacy, as worthy as any of its four predecessors. My heartfelt thanks go to the creative staff, and in particular to Manny Coto, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Mike Sussman who did a terrific job.
However, even a mediocre show wouldn't have deserved to be dumped like this. With an abysmal installment that pretends in its unprecedented self-glorifying fashion to celebrate the series and to unite the fans but actually does quite the contrary. An episode that was hard to endure because of its artificiality and overall irrelevance of dialogues and interaction. I was glad when it was over. I'm trying not to be malicious, but it happened just when Berman and Braga used their privilege as executive producers and came up with a story by themselves.
To start with, "These Are The Voyages" does not actually belong to Star Trek Enterprise. It is a TNG episode, and a very pointless one because it just fills a gap in an existing plot of "The Pegasus" with some trivia. The parallels between Riker's present situation and that of Enterprise NX-01 are awkwardly fabricated at best, and the plausibility how the edutainment could help against Riker's qualms escapes me. Almost nothing that we see of Riker's holodeck program is fully authentic and could depict exactly what happened back in 2161. The long-dead characters on Enterprise NX-01 are reduced to holographic projections and condemned to engage in trifling conversations most of the time. And worse, Archer and the others are not even speaking for themselves, they are just talking the way they are programmed, however correctly the characters themselves and their mission are modeled. This applies especially to their visits to "Chef" Riker's kitchen (as if all the senior officers had sought the chef's advice back in 2161). The weak parallel that is constructed in that the chef is the 22nd century version of a counselor doesn't help to make it in any way more plausible or more relevant. I couldn't even decide which is shoddier: Riker as he creates his own version of history, pulling the chef's character off the hat and interviewing a phony crew. Or rather Riker as a bystander (or should I say voyeur?) of events neither he nor anyone else in the 24th century could and should know so intimately. I don't mean that it is a bad or even immoral idea from the perspective of Riker's time. On the contrary, using the holodeck like this is an intelligent way to seek distraction and also an appropriate means of historical research. I would have loved such a re-enactment as a little tie-in in a genuine TNG episode. But not as a plot outline in a different series, and least of all in its series finale. It's just a holodeck simulation and not anything that is of any significance for the crew of Enterprise NX-01 -- just like the recent Mirror Universe two-parter, only with a poor premise and execution and at the worst possible time. Furthermore, "These Are The Voyages" relates to TNG like "11:59" to Voyager. The reason for my rant is essentially the same in both cases, only that it's much sadder now that a series finale and the preliminary end of Trek on TV is ruined.
I don't know why it was deemed necessary to kill off Trip. Because it was supposed to be realistic considering the ship's dangerous mission? Because it would give the characters in the otherwise straightforward plot some emotional involvement? Because the crew's only visible progress in the years between 2155 and 2161 was getting new patches on their uniforms, and Trip's death would make up for that in a bizarre fashion? Because in every series at least one of the main cast died, and if only temporarily? Because it was a way to say that Enterprise is dead and buried? Anyway, I don't like the whole idea, especially under the given circumstances that it happens on the holodeck and therefore somehow "off-screen". More on a side note, where are the darn security and MACOs after the intruder alert? Trip spends a couple of minutes distracting the gangsters and no one comes to help him. Is this just another inaccuracy of the simulation?
As if the treatment of the Enterprise characters had not yet been bad enough because of the mere premise, there are two particular examples where the episode rides roughshod over them. The first is when Riker "resurrects" Trip who has died a few minutes earlier. Again, Riker has any right to do that; it is his simulation. But how impious can a writer be to play with a character like that, above all Trip with his many fans who are sad about his demise? The second annoyance along the same lines is when Riker ends the holoprogram just when Archer is about to begin his speech as if this part of the story wouldn't matter any longer. Once again it becomes clear that despite the good intention the episode does anything but pay respect to Enterprise. The only part of the show that truly builds a bridge between the different series of the franchise is the very ending, with the visuals of the ships and the voice-overs moving from Picard over Kirk to Archer.
Rick Berman said about "These Are The Voyages": "One of the reasons we did it is we wanted to say kind of a 'thank you' to people who watched not only Enterprise but some of the other shows." On another occasion Brannon Braga called it a "Valentine to all of Star Trek". I doubt that any flavor of fans will cherish the miscarried tribute. I wish it hadn't been made in the first place. "Terra Prime" was not exactly the best installment of the season, but it would have made a far better fitting finale. Although I can just speak for myself, I think in the hearts of the fans the series will have ended one episode earlier.
Remarkable quote: "Here's to the Next Generation." (Archer)
Remarkable facts: The crew of the Pegasus includes Ronald Moore, Dawn Velazquez, Eric Motz, Andy Simonson and Phil Wallace. Moore, Velazquez and Simonson are staff members of Trek series and features, the other two names possibly too. The TNG guest cast consists not only of Marina Sirtis as Deanna, Jonathan Frakes as Riker and Brent Spiner as Data's voice. In addition, Majel Roddenberry speaks the computer voice of the Enterprise-D. Real-life astronauts Mike Fincke and Terry Virts have guest appearances. Finally, Manny Coto can be seen as an admiral attending the ceremony.
Rating: 0

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