Finale 2.0, “These Are The Voyages . . .” Ends Star Trek: Enterprise And Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Good: Interesting retcon for Riker, Inside jokes, Moments of concept
The Bad: Nothing stellar on the plot or character front
The Basics: In a one-shot finale episode, “These Are The Voyages . . .” has an old Star Trek: The Next Generation episode revisited with Star Trek: Enterprise as a Holodeck program within in!


Cut short (or, for those of us who were not fans, finally going off the air after being dragged out for far too long), Star Trek: Enterprise had a surprisingly controversial finale. Instead of ending Star Trek: Enterprise on its own strength, with the logical end point for the series – the founding of the United Federation Of Planets - “These Are The Voyages . . .” (the series finale to Star Trek: Enterprise) concluded with an episode that devoted a decent chunk of time and more in the way of actual character development to Star Trek: The Next Generation! After years living in the shadow of the prior Star Trek series’s, Star Trek: Enterprise surrendered to the probability that no one would ever accept the show the way they fell in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation, the executive producers and writers hedged their bets and essentially created a “lost episode” of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

On the clever front, “These Are The Voyages . . .” occurs within the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Pegasus” (reviewed here!). In that episode, Commander Riker had to make a tough choice. To help him get the emotional strength to make his tough decision, Riker disappears (in this retcon episode) to the Holodeck. Revisiting the final mission of the NX-01 Enterprise, Riker begins to get the inner strength that we are supposed to believe he did not have before that. Go figure.

During the mission to recover the U.S.S. Pegasus, Commander William Riker is troubled. Having encountered Admiral Preston, his former commanding officer, and learned that he plans to continue pursuing illegal military operations with cloaking device technology, Riker finds his loyalties divided. To make the difficult decision as to whether or not to betray his former commander by outing the secret mission the Pegasus was on when it was lost, Riker takes Counselor Troi’s advice and visits the holodeck. There, Riker relives the final mission of the NX-01 Enterprise.

On its way to the signing ceremony for the United Federation Of Planets’s charter, the NX-01 Enterprise is diverted when Shran pops up. Presumed dead for the four years prior, Archer brings Shran aboard and he reveals that his daughter, whom Archer never knew existed, has been kidnapped. Calling in his favor with Archer, Shran and the Enterprise go to the Rigel System to make the trade. Getting his daughter back, Shran returns to the Enterprise. But the raiders who kidnapped Shran’s daughter catch up with the Enterprise and in their zeal to capture Shran, Tucker steps up to protect his captain and his captain’s Andorian ally.

“These Are The Voyages . . .” unfortunately undermines both Star Trek: Enterprise and the character of Commander William T. Riker. Riker has been known to make tough decisions prior to the seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (which is when “The Pegasus” happens). So, the idea that the events of “The Pegasus” are so daunting that he needed to use a mission of the NX-01 Enterprise just to do the right thing is somewhat preposterous. More than that, the two halves of the episode do not really jive. Archer does not make any particularly tough or world-shattering decisions in his half of the plot. And Tucker, who dominates the character front of the Star Trek: Enterprise portion of the episode, makes a fast decision that is no more difficult or different from his other, prior decisions.

As a result, “These Are The Voyages . . .” glosses over most of the Enterprise crew on the character front. T’Pol and Tucker reference their defunct relationship but because the episode happens over five years after the prior episode, “Terra Prime” (reviewed here!), there is a real emotional disconnect in the characters. The idea that Shran has been presumed dead for years and that Archer so quickly accepts his return is an abrupt one. Shran pops back in and given that the Enterprise crew has had some experience with shapeshifters, that Archer just accepts his sudden appearance is as disconnected as the other elements of the story.

“These Are The Voyages . . .” tries to use all of the main cast of Star Trek: Enterprise, but they are glossed over very quickly. Riker taking on the role of Chef is an amusing in-joke (Chef is never actually seen in the series) which gives him access to all of the crewmembers, but with one or two lines each, there is no real depth to the character arc of the episode.

What “These Are The Voyages . . .” ends up being is an episode that brings real closure to the modern Star Trek era; reminding viewers why they loved the Star Trek franchise. It wasn’t Star Trek: Enterprise they loved and, ironically, the finale to the show illustrated that.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other Star Trek finales, please visit my reviews of:
“Turnabout Intruder” - Star Trek
“The Counter-Clock Incident” - Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
“All Good Things . . .” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“What You Leave Behind” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Endgame” - Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Nemesis

4.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Prequel To “Mudd’s Women:” “Bound.”

The Good: Decent effects, Acting is okay
The Bad: Dull plot, Silly reversal, Poor character development
The Basics: Playing off similar concepts to other Star Trek franchise episodes, “Bound” is a disappointing episode that finally focuses on the Orions.


One of the common plotlines in the Star Trek franchise is the “love virus” plotline. The original Star Trek started the tradition with “The Naked Time” (reviewed here!) and the other series’s in the franchise continued that. For Star Trek: Enterprise, the “love virus” episode is “Bound.” “Bound” is notable in that, like “Borderland” (reviewed here!), it features the oft-alluded to, but seldom seen Orions. Unfortunately for fans of the Star Trek franchise, “Bound” features reversals that are less exciting than audacious. Indeed, the concept of Trip Tucker being immune to Orion pheromones is essentially what happened with O’Brien in “Fascination” (reviewed here!).

The Enterprise is sailing toward the Berengaria System when it encounters an Orion vessel. After standing down, both ships are wary of the other, though Archer finally accepts an invitation from the Orion privateer, Harrad-Sar. As part of a negotiation attempting to entice Archer into getting StarFleet to build a magnecite mine, Harrad-Sar gives Archer three Orion women. Their presence aboard the Enterprise is instantly disruptive, with the men distracted by the Orion women. When Sato gets a headache, Doctor Phlox collapses and becomes suspicious of the Orions.

The retcon of the Orions is one of the least disruptive retcons of Star Trek: Enterprise; the Orions and the Orion Syndicate were mostly absent from the Star Trek franchise until late in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Archer tries to tell the Orion woman, Navaar, that the women are not his property. When they arrive at the planet Harrad-Sar wants mined, the ship is attacked by a ship that cannot possibly damage the Enterprise. As Archer becomes more angry and volatile, Phlox diagnoses the crew as suffering from the effects of Orion pheromones. When the Orion endgame becomes evident, T’Pol and Tucker must work together to stop the Orions.

It’s a sweet bit of character that Tucker and T’Pol remain immune to the Orion pheromones due to physiology and emotional connection. The Tucker/T’Pol connection does not advance much in “Bound,” as it is diluted by a subplot involving the new Chief Engineer, Kelby, competing with Tucker. Instead of maturely dealing with their emotions, most of “Bound” has T’Pol fighting her feelings for Tucker in a soap operatic way. The resolution to the character arc is satisfying when it comes in the episode’s final moments.

“Bound” is a pretty average, though somewhat unremarkable, episode. The Alien Of The Week arrives, disrupts life on the Enterprise and before something befalls the entire ship, someone in the crew must stop them. It’s a somewhat droll plot that has been done to death in Star Trek and in “Bound” there’s really nothing new, save the details.

On the performance front, guest stars Cyia Batten, Crystal Allen, and Menina Fortunato do a decent job with belly dancing and moving seductively. Beyond that, the episode’s heavy lifting on the performance front comes from Scott Bakula playing Archer angry (which he does just fine) and Connor Trinneer and Jolene Blalock working to salvage some on-screen chemistry while the writing demands the pair put it off. Blalock’s performance is incredibly erratic and for a Vulcan character immune to the Orion pheromones, her acting is pretty physical throughout the episode, which is unfortunate. She recovers near the episode’s climax, which makes her emotionless delivery of jokes and romantic actions all the more baffling to watch.

Ultimately, “Bound” is all right, but nothing at all extraordinary; it is exactly what one might expect from a “love spell” episode of television and it is notable only in that it is truly the final bottle episode of the series.

The three biggest gaffes in “Bound:”
3. If the men in Orion society are the slaves, Pike should not have made the mistake that the women were slaves decades later,
2. In “This Side Of Paradise” (reviewed here!), Kirk notes that no StarFleet crew had ever mutinied, but Kelby’s actions in “Bound” are mutinous and the sense of conflict in this episode should have led to better protections aboard StarFleet vessels,
1. Given the experience with Orion pheromones in this episode, StarFleet should have developed a vaccine by the time of “The Cage” (reviewed here!), so Pike should not have even been tempted with the vision of an Orion slave woman.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with William Lucking, please check out my reviews of:
“Ties Of Blood And Water” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“The Darkness And The Light” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Shakaar” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’” - The X-Files

5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Rocky Start To The Reboot: “Storm Front” Opens The Fourth Season Of Star Trek: Enterprise!

The Good: Generally decent acting, Good costumes
The Bad: Lacking in character development,
The Basics: Stuck in an alternate timeline, Archer and the crew of the Enterprise tries to survive the destruction of the Expanse and a dramatically different Earth than they recall.


With the inevitable end of the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise with “Zero Hour” (reviewed here!), the long-serialized plot of Star Trek: Enterprise was resolved and left the show looking for a reboot. The fourth season was going to be a time of reboot and given where “Zero Hour” ended, the show was in a pretty deep pit that writer and new executive producer had to dig himself out of. The season premiere was the two-part “Storm Front” and given how so much of the fourth season was to be devoted to realigning the series with the rest of the Star Trek franchise, Manny Coto had three years of bad episodes to undo. To do that, he had to end the Temporal Cold War concept.

Unfortunately, the season premiere, “Storm Front” has so much to undo. Perhaps as a testament to how messed up the Temporal Cold War plotline was, “Storm Front” was forced to continue the Temporal Cold War with a previously-unseen alien race (though it was seen at the climax of the third season). The story is clearly an attempt to put a rest to the Temporal Cold War concept by putting the Enterprise crew in the middle of a time-altered storyline that will force some form of temporal realignment in a way that fixes issues that precede their arrival in the episode. Unfortunately, that means that whatever resolution “Storm Front” is going to bring about will have an external component that has nothing to do with the protagonists of the show. That makes for unfortunately uncompelling television.

With Trip and Mayweather being shot at by spitfires over San Francisco, the crew of Enterprise is left utterly bewildered. Archer wakes up to find himself in the custody of Nazis who think he is an American. At the Nazi headquarters, two aliens realize that Archer is a time-traveler and become concerned because he has been rescued by the Allies. Aboard the Enterprise, Mayweather realizes that the ship has returned to the past, but not the one they remember as there are attacks in Virginia that never occurred in World War II.

When a badly mutated and wounded Daniels appears in Sickbay, Phlox discovers the Temporal Agent is aged and de-aged irregularly, giving him less than a day to live. With Archer learning he is in 1944 Brooklyn, the aliens working with the Nazis try to convince the Nazis to build their futuristic weapons to solidify their advantage over the Allies. When Daniels reveals that the Temporal Cold War has erupted into a full-fledged conflict throughout time and space, the crew of the Enterprise believes it has no home to return to. While trying to repair the Enterprise, Tucker encounters Silik, who steals a shuttlepod. On Earth, Archer works to track down the aliens who are aiding the Nazis.

“Storm Front” has a distinct lack of character development. Captain Archer has spent the past year in a stressful situation day to day, is seriously wounded and yet he ends up in an entirely different place and time without any sense that he is shaken or truly affected by the events that preceded it. In fact, Archer’s presentation in “Storm Front” is very much a reflection of Scott Bakula’s performance. Bakula came back from his hiatus from Star Trek: Enterprise relaxed and refreshed. Unfortunately, that made Archer’s surprisingly laid-back and controlled manner in “Storm Front” seem utterly unrealistic.

In a similar way, Jolene Blalock is not only undone by the make-up (everyone on Enterprise was healed remarkably quickly from their near-complete disintegration in “Zero Hour”); she hardly seems as emotionally conflicted as T’Pol as she did in the prior season’s finale.

“Storm Front” is also loaded up with guest actors and guest characters that keep the focus more on the overall plot than on anything remotely akin to character development. The return of Silik and Daniels and the new enemy, Vosk, create yet another complicated time-travel/alternate universe scenario. Fortunately, given how muddied the plot is – Daniels declares that Vosk is the real enemy in the time war and that his people in the Federation in the future has been utterly defeated – the only way to restore the timeline is to completely undo the Temporal Cold War.

The episode is a long build-up to set up the goal of the second part. In fact, it is so convoluted that it is unclear why Alicia Travers dislikes Archer until the beginning of the next episode! Ultimately, the goal of “Storm Front” is an admirable (if belated and somewhat pointless) one, but it is executed in a mediocre way.

The biggest gaffe in “Storm Front:” Yet another previously unseen alien race is seen that should have had no real ability to reach Earth in the time period in which they are present. Vosk’s race is an uncompelling enemy because viewers have never seen him before and they have no viable belief that his race can succeed in rewriting the time line.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works in which Tom Wright appears, please visit my reviews of:
World Trade Center
Barbershop
“Tuvix” - Star Trek: Voyager

3/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It Has All Been Building To “Zero Hour,” Which Underwhelms

The Good: The acting is fine, Good special effects
The Bad: Surprisingly low tension, No real character development, Plot
The Basics: “Zero Hour” resolves the third season in the most obvious way . . . until it takes a pointless right turn that seems very forced.


The climax of the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise came exactly where the second season finale, “The Expanse” (reviewed here!), promised. As a result, the culmination of the entire season of television – albeit shortened by poor ratings and thus, fewer produced episodes – was something of an anticlimax. Given that Star Trek: Enterprise is a prequel, there was little in the way of surprises the show could do; as a result, the predictability of “Zero Hour” seems obvious and the major surprise of the episode is unfortunately contrived.

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who wrote “Zero Hour,” built up to the episode and it follows directly on the heels of “Countdown” (reviewed here!). The problem with “Zero Hour,” outside the predictability, is that Braga and Berman seem to insist on creating an ending that leads into the fourth season in a way that takes an entirely different direction. Unfortunately, like the whole concept of an alien weapon that is being built to destroy Earth in a prequel, the resolution to the episode sets up another contrived plot that cannot possibly be sustained for an entire season. A time-travel or alternate universe scenario hardly seems as compelling as (I’m sure) Braga and Berman wanted.

While the Xindi Reptilians race toward Earth with the weapon, Archer, Sato, and the allied Xindi are in pursuit of them. Degra encrypted his schematics to the weapon and Archer applies pressure to Sato to break his code, but Sato’s guilt and inexperience leave her largely unable to focus and complete the decryption. Aboard the Enterprise, T’Pol and Tucker prepare to attack Sphere 41, which seems to be the key to knocking out the Sphere network that creates the Expanse. As Archer prepares to board the weapon, he is teleported to a point seven years in the future by Daniels, who tells him that the Captain is integral to the formation of the Federation.

With the distortions around Sphere 41 deeper than before (courtesy of the Sphere Builders panicking), the Enterprise has fifteen minutes inside the field to infiltrate and destroy the Sphere. Archer and Reed are actually excited when they detect that the weapon is now being escorted only by a single ship, Dolim’s. As Dolim attacks Earth’s largest space station, the crew aboard Enterprise begins to disintegrate from the spatial distortion. Disregarding Crewman Daniels’s warning, Archer stays aboard the weapon while Shran provides assistance to save Earth.

“Zero Hour” has a number of technical flaws in addition to its plot predictability and then abrupt plot turn. The Xindi have a technological level well beyond that of the StarFleet crew, which makes the fact that they need the help of the Enterprise to defeat the Xindi Reptilians and the Sphere Builders. While the trip to the future and even the return of the Andorian Shran, last seen in “Proving Ground” (reviewed here!), are unsurprising, the episode twists in its final moments, though it is hardly compelling. The idea that Archer is integral to the founding of the Federation is unsurprising; so when it appears he is lost, the viewer has to really stretch to believe that a Star Trek captain is being killed off.

There is a moment when it appears like “Zero Hour” might actually be clever or impressive on the character front and that is when the episode focuses on Hoshi Sato. Sato is misused yet again as a cryptographer; she is a linguist and has no real talent as a computer cryptographer. It seemed like Braga and Berman might have been clever enough to include the idea that Sato had been programmed by Dolim to stop Archer instead of leave her entirely able to recover from her torture in the prior episodes. Just as Sato easily overcomes her trauma, the character of Dolim is further diminished by the events of “Zero Hour.” Dolim hardly seems menacing or smart in “Zero Hour.”

As well, the Sphere Builders are diminished as well; they appear aboard the Enterprise in a disorganized and inefficient manner. With nine transdimensional beings aboard the Enterprise, there should have been no chance of the Enterprise succeeding. In fact, a minimal disruption in nine of the conduits from either the warp drive or deflector dish should have utterly destroyed the Enterprise; that the Sphere Builders utterly fail, despite suddenly manifesting energy weapons that blast from their hands and dematerializing transdimensional abilities that allow them to walk through walls and stick their hands into the power conduits.

While there are no bad performances in “Zero Hour,” there are no superlative acting moments either. Scott Bakula is downright dull as Archer; he presents Archer with no sense of consequence for his actions. The potential destruction of Earth is presented as blandly as possible by Bakula. Similarly, Sato is presented as entirely whiny – as opposed to traumatized – by Linda Park. Jeffrey Combs makes a powerful return to the program as Shran, which overshadows the emotional uncertainty Jolene Blalock plays as T’Pol. Most of the performances are pretty unimpressive, but the characters are not given much in the way to do to challenge the actors. Furthermore, the M.A.C.O.S. soldier who assists the assault on the Xindi weapon is not one of the ones who has been seen before, so his easily foreshadowed demise has absolutely no emotional impact.

Ultimately, “Zero Hour” finishes the arc of the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise in a thoroughly unremarkable way.

The three biggest gaffes in “Zero Hour:”
3. The Xindi use conduits that are far faster and more efficient than the StarFleet warp drive . . . so how did the Federation develop following “Zero Hour” to be the dominant power in the Quadrant?!,
2. The initial Federation seems larger than the Council seen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (reviewed here!),
1. Tucker’s weapon against the Sphere is a deflector dish pulse; weaponizing the deflector dish did not happen until “The Best Of Both Worlds” (reviewed here!).

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

4.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Key Plot Moment Comes For The Third Season Of Star Trek: Enterprise At “Azati Prime!”

The Good: Some very cool effects, Engaging plot, Good acting
The Bad: Lack of character development, Some effects and performances
The Basics: “Azati Prime” pushes the serialized plot of the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise forward when Archer sees the future and reveals it to Degra.


In the course of virtually every serialized television series, there comes a time when one is either watching or they are not. When that point is reached, the producers usually stop bothering with a review at the beginning of each episode on the assumption that those people who have missed prior episodes will either pick up what they need in the new episode or they should have bothered to watch the prior episodes. With Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s extensive final arc, that point came with the wonderful “Tacking Into The Wind” (reviewed here!). With Star Trek: Enterprise’s season-long arc focused on the Xindi weapon being built in the Expanse and the Enterprise’s search for information on the weapon (and attempts to halt its production), the point the producers figured viewers were watching carefully or had given up was “Azati Prime.”

As a result, “Azati Prime” includes a number of continuity details that reference prior episodes in the arc of the season. This episode takes on faith that viewers know who Degra is and the encounter Archer had with him in “Stratagem” (reviewed here!), as well as how the Enterprise came to have a Xindi Insectoid shuttle in “Hatchery” (reviewed here!). The episode smartly assumes viewers have much more experience with the series by including the return of Temporal Agent Daniels, which helps make the big, significant episode even bigger.

As the Enterprise nears the gas giant around which Azati Prime, the secret Xindi weapons facility is located, it monitors the Xindi ship carrying Degra, the lead scientist working on the weapon, entering the defense perimeter. After Mayweather and Tucker take the Xindi Insectoid shuttle to the water world Azati Prime, the crew learns that the weapon is near completion. Returning to Enterprise, Archer decides to make the one-way trip to destroy the Xindi weapon. Upon deciding to make a suicide run to destroy the weapon, Archer is transported to the distant future. There, he meets with Daniels, who tells him they are on the Enterprise-J, during a crucial battle with the builders of the alien Spheres that created the Expanse. Telling Archer that he absolutely must not die in order for history to go the way it ought, Daniels reveals that the Xindi were merely pawns of the Builders and that in the future, the Federation is working to save the Xindi from their influence (and save the galaxy from them).

When Archer goes on his attack run, Tucker and T’Pol are dismayed when hours go by without yielding demonstrative results. Archer, as it turns out, has been captured by the Xindi Insectoids. Tortured by Reptilian Commander Dolim, Archer uses the opportunity to make contact with Degra. Giving Degra an artifact from Daniels, he tells the Xindi that the Sphere Builders will destroy the Xindi and the Council begins to fracture over the new information. Degra and the leader of the Xindi Primates begin to question Dolim when the Reptiles attack the Enterprise. With T’Pol in command, the Enterprise savaged by the Xindi ships and Archer is left on his own.

For all of the dependency upon seeing prior episodes in this arc, the writers of “Azati Prime” seem to want viewers to forget that “Impulse” (reviewed here!) provided a reason Vulcans suffer within the Expanse. Given that the Enterprise did not use the element that made Vulcans crazy in the Expanse, there is no viable reason why T’Pol would be emotional in this episode.

“Azati Prime” is a pretty generic action-adventure episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. While it is solidly entertaining, it is lacking in any deeper meanings or actual character development. There is a mild cleverness to the way the episode uses information gleaned throughout the rest of the season – most importantly in “Stratagem” and in a way that makes “Carpenter Street” surprisingly relevant – but the episode is strongly lacking in genuine character development. While the plot is pretty tight, none of the characters grow, change or evolve . . .

. . . Except Degra. Degra does not evolve as much as he finally is given the facts that support the underlying humanitarian bent he has been insinuated to have the entire season. Degra is, above all, a patriot. As a result, he will do whatever he can to protect his people and while he has had pangs of guilt before now over killing seven million people – many of whom, he came to realize, would have been innocent children – he lacked the information to make an informed decision that the Xindi were building a horrible weapon for all the wrong reasons. When Archer presents the scientist with credible proof, he revises his plans, but it still fits with the patriotic nature of his character.

Throughout the episode, T’Pol exhibits a fondness for Archer that has not been entirely evident before now. In fact, she pushes Tucker away for no specific reason and there is some frustration for the viewer on his behalf from that character change. It is almost like the writers abruptly decided to give T’Pol a romantic choice between Archer and Tucker and “Azati Prime” poorly throws that concept into the mix.

On the acting front, the guest stars rule “Azati Prime.” While Scott Bakula is wonderful at performing Archer when Archer is tortured by the Xindi, realistically making him both defiant and fatigued, Matt Winston, Scott MacDonald, and Randy Oglesby steal the show. Winston has a single scene and he is saddled with having Daniels deliver a lot of plot exposition. Winston sells that scene by finally making Daniels seem authoritative, in control, and willing to share the crucial information Archer clearly needs. That is a change for the mysterious temporal agent and it works wonderfully for “Azati Prime.” Scott MacDonald, who plays the Xindi Reptilian Commander Dolim, has a history in the Star Trek universe of getting stuck behind a latex mask and Dolim is no exception. However, while MacDonald has always played affable or generally good characters, Dolim is monstrous and angry. As a result, MacDonald gives a very different performance in “Azati Prime” and the menace that he drips into Dolim’s voice plays perfectly and keeps the potentially bland lines he is delivering from seeming at all cliché.

Then there is Randy Oglesby. Oglesby is a wonderful character actor and in “Azati Prime,” the Star Trek franchise finally uses him for a role that requires both intellect and passion . . . without having him play angry. Oglesby makes Degra make a reasonable and emotional transition from scientist working on an abstract problem to an entity who is essentially building a genocidal weapon and understands the magnitude and ethics of that. Degra’s transition in “Azati Prime” works so well because he is pitted in scenes opposite Dolim and Oglesby and MacDonald play off one another remarkably well.

Sadly, Jolene Blalock is given a part for T’Pol to play that makes no sense and the emotional Vulcan is a problem executed with middling acting.

On the plus side, “Azati Prime” features truly breathtaking special effects for an underwater sequence and the final space battle is incredibly rendered (save for the utterly cheesy CG crewmembers who fly out of the holes in the Enterprise). The make-up effects for both Dolim and the wounded Archer are impressive.

But the effects and action are not enough to truly blow the viewer away; “Azati Prime” is entertaining, but not meaningful beyond the limited story being told in this arc. It is enjoyable, but essentially scienc fiction pulp and Star Trek fans tend to want (and deserve) quite a bit more for their buck.

The three biggest gaffes in “Azati Prime:”
3. T’Pol displays emotions in front of Tucker; if humans knew Vulcans had emotions decades before Spock was born, the cultural conceit of Vulcans not possessing emotions would seem to be exceptionally hard to puerpetrate and endure,
2. The Xindi ship seen in this episode looks virtually identical to a Son’a ship in Star Trek: Insurrection (reviewed here!). Given how old the Baku and Son’a were and given how they have no relationship with the Xindi, in the Xindi history in this season, there is no reason the ships should looks alike,
1. Reed describes the Xindi defense perimeter as a “detection grid;” given that the concept existed in this time period (a satellite network creating a defense grid), the idea of the Tachyon net should not have been at all audacious in “Redemption, Part 2” (reviewed here!). In fact, it seems utterly stupid if StarFleet had encountered similar technology in this era that it would take Data to apply it to detecting cloaked Romulan vessels!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Tucker Smallwood, please visit my reviews of:
Traffic
“In The Flesh” - Star Trek: Voyager
“Home” - The X-Files

6.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A New Theme Song, A New Name, “The Xindi” Starts The Third Season With A Stumble.

The Good: Good pacing, Decent plot progression.
The Bad: Little in the way of character development, Continuity issues
The Basics: “The Xindi” opens the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise with enough to keep the viewer interested, but nothing that is at all superlative.


In redefining Star Trek: Enterprise, the executive producers worked to make both substantive and cosmetic changes with the series. On the cosmetic front, the show changed its name to Star Trek: Enterprise (from Enterprise) and the opening theme song was jazzed up. Substantively, “The Xindi” reboots Star Trek: Enterprise with a direct follow-up to “The Expanse” (reviewed here!) and a third season that is heavily serialized. The second episode in the arc is the third season premiere, “The Xindi.”

To its credit, “The Xindi” picks up well-enough with a plot that is engaging enough, though it is pretty much an action-adventure story. There is almost no character development and the acting is nothing exceptional. Instead, this is a building episode and one that adds new information to the storyline without actually giving away the store or feeling much like anything else called Star Trek. The key for a season premiere is to try to get the viewer to keep tuning in and “The Xindi” hardly does that, though it is engaging enough to divert the viewer for the course of the episode.

Six weeks after entering the Expanse, the Enterprise is targeted by the Xindi Council. Aboard Enterprise, Archer is frustrated by how little information the ship has accumulated about the Xindi. Sato gets to know the new military assault commandos brought aboard before the Enterprise left Earth while Archer explores a strange physical anomaly inside the ship with Tucker. Arriving at a mining planet, Archer finds himself and Tucker at the mercy of the foreman who requires a bribe to connect Archer with the Xindi who is living on the planet. After supplying the foreman with liquid platinum, Archer meets with Kessick, the nine-fingered Xindi.

Kessick reveals that he is enslaved on the mining planet and he demands that Archer take him with Enterprise before he will give Archer the location of the Xindi homeworld. While Archer and Tucker work to liberate the Kessick, T’Pol and Reed employ the M.A.C.O.S. to rescue them in advance of a conscription force arriving at the planet to enslave Enterprise’s crew. Kessick reveals that the Xindi have five distinct races, before he betrays Archer. Upon making it back to Enterprise, T’Pol and Tucker attempt to sooth their frayed nerves in advance of the ship arriving at the Xindi homeworld.

“The Xindi” is a mess of substance and sensationalism. For those fans desperate for Jolene Blalock sideboob, the episode is bound to satisfy as T’Pol ends up pointlessly topless in the episode. I’m all for gratuitous nudity, but in “The Xindi,” it’s just stupid; the pretense for getting T’Pol topless is that she needs Tucker to give her a back massage. The thing is, where she wants him to apply pressure is just below the collar of a loose-fitting shirt, so there is no earthly reason for her to remove her top.

On the flip side, the episode starts to flesh out the Xindi both internally and by reputation. Seeing the five Xindi races (two of which are computer generated) well in advance of Kessick telling the viewers what they have seen is an interesting way to go, as is the display of power by the M.A.C.O.S. The M.A.C.O.S. are much more aggressive than the standard security officers in the Star Trek franchise. The rescue scene is pulled off in an impressive way.

The character front of the episode is remarkably barren. Outside Tucker daydreaming about his dead sister and the fact that Reed has some friction with Major Hayes of the M.A.C.O.S., the big character elements in the episode are Archer’s irritability and the fact that T’Pol cannot sleep. That T’Pol cannot sleep is an underwhelming follow-up to the Vulcan chaos shown in “The Expanse.” T’Pol is not going psychotic like the Vulcans were shown in “The Expanse” and given that the Enterprise has been in the Expanse for far longer than those Vulcans were, this seems like a serious oversight.

Otherwise, “The Xindi” is a blasé beginning to the third season. The episode is not bad and Stephen McHattie stumbles through the role of the alien foreman with little room to truly shine, but he lands the creepy alien with the same level of talent he has brought to every other character he has played. His performance stands out amid stiff acting from Connor Trinneer, Scott Bakula, and Dominick Keating. But even McHattie cannot make “The Xindi” into more than it is; a simple action adventure start to a season that struggles to be more than sensationalism at its most mediocre.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Stephen McHattie, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Immortals
2012
Watchmen: Under The Hood
Watchmen
300
The Fountain
A History Of Violence
"In The Pale Moonlight" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The X-Files - "Nesei" / "731"

6/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Enter The Bragaverse With “The Expanse!”

The Good: Good plot development
The Bad: Very light on character development, Stiff acting, Mediocre special effects
The Basics: “The Expanse” resolves the growing Klingon subplot in Enterprise and takes the time to establish the tenants of the third season when Earth is attacked by a mysterious, new, alien race.


Some say that I am way too hard on Enterprise in how I evaluate the show. I say it comes from having standards and a strong knowledge of the Star Trek franchise that allows me to be objectively rate each episode and put it in context of the larger franchise. Usually, trying to put Enterprise - especially early Enterprise episodes in context is a process of discovery by which fans realize just how little the writers and executive producers cared about the rest of the franchise. At the head of that team for Enterprise was Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and by the end of the second season, they were getting desperate to get fans (new or old) to come back and watch Enterprise. With “The Expanse,” Braga and Berman laid the framework for the “fuck you” third season of Star Trek: Enterprise. Under Braga’s creative direction, the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise would be the first one to bear the Star Trek name, but would be entirely detached from the rest of the franchise. In other words, the third season of Enterprise might be decent television, but it is absolutely terrible Star Trek. It could have been fine as Brannon Braga’s own project, but he stuck it in the Star Trek universe and that would pretty much be his last hurrah as a writer/executive producer for the Star Trek franchise. The get into the pocket universe of Brannon Braga’s, the second season ended with “The Expanse.”

And, to be fair to Braga – for all those naysayers who claim I am just blindly prejudiced against Enterprise - “The Expanse” has one big continuity boon. In “Homefront” (reviewed here!) on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Federation President Jarish-Inyo says that there has not been a planetary state of emergency on Earth for two hundred years (a continuity issue in and of itself given that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home occurred roughly one hundred years prior and certainly qualified as a state of emergency for Earth). “The Expanse” actually illustrates the state of emergency on Earth referenced as being about two hundred years before the Changeling bombing of Antwerp. So, intentional or not, Braga and Berman actually aid the overall Star Trek continuity moments before they utterly gut the franchise.

After an alien probe arrives in orbit of and cuts a fiery swath from Florida to Venezuela, the Enterprise is recalled to Earth to investigate. The Klingons offer Duras a chance to regain his honor and command, which puts him on a collision course with Enterprise as it heads home. As information reaches Enterprise about the alien attack – too slow for Trip to learn about the fate of his sister in Florida – it is surrounded by Suliban ships. Archer is abducted and told that the Xindi are behind the attack on Earth and their strike is a preemptive attack because the Xindi have learned about how StarFleet destroyed their homeworld four hundred years in the future. Archer is told by the mysterious humanoid from the future that the Xindi are building a more impressive weapon with which to destroy Earth in the future.

Arriving at the Sol system, Enterprise is attacked by Duras’s Klingon ships. Rescued by humans, Archer makes it back to Earth where Ambassador Soval reveals that the coordinates Archer was given for the Xindi weapon is a three month journey away in the Delphic Expanse, which seems to be a spatial anomaly filled with horrors from which few starships ever return. Using quantum dating, Archer raises questions about the temporal origins of the alien probe. After a psychological examination from a Vulcan doctor, Archer takes on a military team. Phlox decides to stay aboard Enterprise while T’Pol debates defying the Central Command and staying with the ship. Tucker deals, poorly, with the death of his sister as Reed overhauls the Enterprise with photon torpedoes. Ambassador Soval reveals how a Vulcan ship’s crew reacted poorly to the Delphic Expanse, much to the horror of Archer and T’Pol. When T’Pol resigns her commission, Archer allows her to remain on Enterprise, which seems like it might be short-lived as Duras pursues the Enterprise through the perimeter into the Expanse!

“The Expanse” sets up an entire season in a spatial anomaly that was never even alluded to in the rest of the franchise. The macguffin used to convince StarFleet of the truth of Archer’s encounter with beings from the future comes from quantum dating the wreckage of the probe (which self destructs, apparently, for no reason evident). The physics of the quantum dating is ridiculous. Archer deduces that a piece of the wreckage is from the future because it comes up with a negative number. What the writers are hoping the viewer will not understand is how molecular dating works. It is based on decay rates of isotopes within an item. The thing is, a negative number for a decay rate is utterly ridiculous; that would indicate a molecular build-up. Isotopes, elements, and compounds in the future do not have inherently more subatomic particles and the addition of more subatomic particles to a compound would change the molecular compound making it unstable in a way that is physically impossible (which is why, for a simple example, hydrogen has only one electron and not 420 – it could not possibly hold those electrons to its core). So, even if the probe had components from the future inserted into the machine moments before it left the future, the decay rate would indicate that it was only days or hours old (or, by the time Enterprise reached Earth, weeks), not a negative number. If the writers had been careful, they could have easily used any scanner from the future to measure chronoton particles (given that that particle is a well-established Star Trek temporal particle), but Berman and Braga are not that careful.

In fact, much of “The Expanse” is a lesson in carelessness and a preparation for the utter, forthcoming “fuck you!” from Braga and Berman. Tucker’s conversation with Archer about how eager he is to get revenge on the Xindi serves only to prepare viewers for the idea that the Prime Directive will not be an issue for the entire next season. The Delphic Expanse is beyond the bounds of normal physics, filled with hostile aliens whose purpose is to wipe out humanity, so Archer commits to doing anything necessary to stop the Xindi. As Tucker spits out his line about despising the non-interference directive, viewers can almost hear Gene Roddenberry rolling over in his grave.

The character who gets utterly screwed in “The Expanse” is Hoshi Sato. Sato has absolutely no presence in “The Expanse” and Linda Park’s performance is utterly pathetic. When told Earth has been attacked, Park exhibits less emotion as Sato than Jolene Blalock does as T’Pol! But Sato, from the beginning, did not want to be on Enterprise. She was originally conscripted by the Captain to help deal with the Klingon language needs Archer had in “Broken Bow” (reviewed here!). Here, Sato is back on the safety of Earth with absolutely no obligation to continue on Enterprise. That even lip service is not paid to her and her choice as to whether or not to stay on Enterprise is a glaring oversight that reveals just how low a priority the character was.

The special effects in “The Expanse” are notably sloppy. The initial attack by the Xindi probe is visible from space, but in the close up is not cutting a wide-enough blast to actually pull that off. Virtual characters in long shots and real actors on virtual sets look entirely fake. While the space battles are decent, the finer effects are anything but.

“The Expanse” is a set-up episode that, in the process, completely undermines the established characters of Enterprise.

The three biggest gaffes in “The Expanse:”
3. In “Amok Time” (reviewed here!), the idea of Vulcan’s acting passionately and destructively is an audacious notion. Given how Archer, T’Pol, and Forrest all see footage of Vulcans acting homicidal, that such things might stay secret for hundreds of years is ridiculous,
2. The Xindi are yet another alien race who originate in what will be the heart of Federation space that are never before referenced,
1. The Delphic Expanse is similar to any number of spatial phenomenon encountered throughout the Star Trek franchise yet is never once referenced before. Given how integral the mission Enterprise is going on is, humans one hundred and two hundred years later should still have a visceral response to giant spatial phenomenon, like the one in “The Immunity Syndrome” (reviewed here!) as a result of the Xindi attack from the Delphic Expanse.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophmore season here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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“Canamar:” Another Enterprise Prison Episode . . . Blah!

The Good: The acting is all right
The Bad: No real character development, Boring plot, Mediocre effects
The Basics: “Canamar” does little to advance the characters or plot of Enterprise and is the first of a few prison episodes in the second season of the show.


One of the real issues with Enterprise is that the show seems obsessed with creating new alien races that never pop up in any of the other shows or movies in the Star Trek franchise. The worst of those episodes jumble up what ought to be the local population of what will become the Federation without advancing the plot or characters of the show. One of the best examples of that sort of blasé episode is “Canamar.”

“Canamar” features a prison situation that is not at all tense and includes a lousy alien race that seems to be based on the novelty of gluing gummy worms to the bottom of a latex mask! Beyond that, “Canamar” is a predictable, surprisingly boring episode that has the audience being tormented as much as Tucker is!

Opening with Shuttlepod One adrift in space, the crew of Enterprise begins a search for Captain Archer who had been aboard the craft. Checking the log, the crew comes to believe that the Captain and Trip have been captured by the Enolians. The two officers are trapped aboard an Enolian ship headed for Canamar, a penal colony, while the Enterprise runs into administrative roadblocks at K’et Enol. Just as T’Pol secures the release of Archer and Tucker, there is a prisoner riot aboard the Enolian transport.

While Archer pilots the Enolian transport, Trip is annoyed by the prisoner sitting in the seat next to him. When two Enolian warships come after the transport, Trip helps save the transport by venting and igniting the warp plasma. He is reincarcerated, at which time Archer learns that one of the jailbreakers is planning to crash the ship and kill the other prisoners!

“Canamar” is a bottle episode that does not advance the characters. The supposed moral dilemma of the episode is that the prisoners will all be killed by the ringleader of the jailbreak. It is absolutely no surprise that Archer would stand up to try to save lives. The thing is, none of the characters outside Archer and Tucker matter to the viewer, so it is virtually impossible to become invested in the outcome (especially given that the viewers know this is not how two of the main characters are going to be killed off from the series).

This is an episode devoid of character development, but the acting is all right. Sadly, Holmes Osborne who is a great character actor, has his only outing in the Star Trek franchise in the unchallenging role of an Enolian bureaucrat. Osborne does not sink the episode but neither he nor any of the other guest actors actually enhance it.

“Canamar” is one of those rare episodes that is so straightforward and uninspired that it leaves almost no room for analysis. There is nothing incredible about the episode, the acting or the characters in it.

The three biggest gaffes in “Canamar:”
3. The Enolians are another race that is in the heart of what will be Federation space, but is never seen or mentioned in the rest of the franchise,
2. Tucker knocks out a Nausicaan with a single hit. Given how brutish and physically powerful the Nausicaans have been in every other incarnation of Star Trek this is utter b.s.,
1. This is another time when Enterprise utilizes the Nausicaans. Given the region of space, the Orions should have been used instead of the Nausicaans as the Orions were alluded to in the original Star Trek and Nausicaans did not pop up until Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophmore season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Holmes Osborne, please check out my reviews of:
The Box
Meet Bill
Southland Tales
Invasion
A Lot Like Love
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Donnie Darko

1/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Uninspired Opening: Enterprise Kicks Off The Second Season With “Shockwave, Part 2”

The Good: The special effects are adequate?
The Bad: No character development, Lousy plot, Bland acting, Terrible dialogue, Irksome resolution
The Basics: “Shockwave, Part 2” returns Enterprise in one of the least tense, worst-performed, mediocre episodes of the franchise that makes one wonder why the show bothered to return for a second season.


Between the first and second seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise, I found myself in a very odd place. I was a dealer of Star Trek trading cards, making a living off of going to Star Trek conventions and selling Star Trek merchandise, yet I loathed the only active television component of the franchise at that point, Enterprise. But, before the second season premiered, Rittenhouse Archives released its Enterprise Season One trading card set (reviewed here!). I sat and read the backs of all of the trading cards in that set and something weird happened. The trading cards made me feel like I was missing out on something, like perhaps I had given up on Enterprise too soon. So, I decided to go back and give the season premiere of Enterprise’s second season a shot. Sadly, the moment one of the characters opened their mouth to speak, I recalled easily why I had given up on the show. The writing was terrible, the performances defined the word “bland” and the plots were either dull or made no sense in the larger context of the Star Trek franchise.

So, enter “Shockwave, Part 2,” obviously a direct sequel to season one’s cliffhanger “Shockwave” (reviewed here!). The biggest gripe I have about “Shockwave, Part 2” in the context of being a sequel episode is that it fails to resolve the plot that was set up in “Shockwave” in a fundamentally meaningful way. For sure, Captain Archer, who was off the ship at the climax of that episode finds his way back to Enterprise, but how and the way the episode fits into the Temporal Cold War makes no rational sense. The devil, as it always is, is in the details. In “Shockwave,” the time traveling Crewman Daniels notes that the destruction of the colony that triggers the recall of Enterprise was not supposed to happen. The timeline was altered by the Suliban in “Shockwave.” However, rather than restoring the timeline, “Shockwave, Part 2” blithely accepts that the timeline has been altered and simply, in the most mediocre way possible, accepts the consequences of that. So, in analogous terms, “Shockwave, Part 2” is not about punishing the bully on the playground, it is an entire episode focused on whining to the principal about the playground bully. Sure, the bully is stopped, but the behavior is not fundamentally changed.

And really, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, what the hell does it take for StarFleet in the future to go from a Cold War into an active war if not destroying a colony and most of StarFleet on Earth?!

“Shockwave, Part 2” picks up where the first episode left off. Captain Archer has been pulled into the distant future where Daniels gives him plenty of exposition about the way the timeline has been altered. Nothing in the ruins of StarFleet has power, so Archer appears stranded in the distant future. Back in the 22nd Century, Enterprise is surrounded by the Suliban pods and the Suliban commander, Silik, is outraged when Archer – who was to surrender himself to him – does not arrive within the time limit. The Suliban invade Enterprise and discover that Archer is not aboard, but there is an anomalous temporal signature coming from the turbolift Archer took to the shuttle bay.

While the Suliban torture T’Pol for information on Archer’s whereabouts and she steadfastly denies the existence of time travel, Trip, Reed, Phlox, and Hoshi find themselves in lockdown. Using Archer’s communicator, Daniels creates a device that allows Archer to send a hologram of himself back into the past to communicate with T’Pol. Following that, Hoshi is sent on a mission with little obvious purpose save to get her shirt off and Reed recovers a device from Daniels’ quarters before getting captured and tortured, and the inspiring teamwork of the Enterprise crew climaxes in everything returning to the status quo and Enterprise continuing with its mission.

For sure, the purpose of most season premieres is to restore the balance to a show in a way that provides viewers with something familiar and popular. Unfortunately for “Shockwave, Part 2,” Enterprise restores the status quo in the least compelling way possible. First, viewers are asked to believe that with only a communicator from the 22nd Century, Daniels could create a device that could communicate with the past. Second, Silik is undermined as being a villainous badass when he spends almost the entire episode whining about how he has been abandoned by the mysterious stranger from the distant future. Third, the retaking of Enterprise makes the Suliban seem like some of the dumbest villains in the Star Trek franchise . . . so much so that it seems more like a comedy of errors that Enterprise would have been lost to them in the first place. Say what you will about the Kazon in Star Trek: Voyager and Tuvok’s ineptitude at anticipating why they focused their attacks in “Basics” (reviewed here!), but there was at least one badass suicide bomber, a manipulated member of the command staff, and a cunning enemy (Seska) who knew the tactical soft points of the ship. Enterprise is simply surrounded by superior numbers and in “Shockwave, Part 2” we learn they could have gotten away and that the Vulcans are just too damned lazy to care about the ship’s fate.

As for the character development, “Shockwave, Part 2” has none. Daniels tells Archer that he will be important to the Federation, but none of the characters actually develop. T’Pol continues to deny the existence of time travelers, even when she is tortured in a vague but unpleasant way (is she being exsanguinated? Are her bodily fluids being replaced with something else? All we know is there are fluids in clear tubes and after the Suliban’s procedure, she is exhausted. For all we know, they filled her with a high glucose solution and her exhaustion afterwards was her coming off the immense sugar high to crash.

The performances are similarly without note and Jolene Blalock fails to present T’Pol in a convincing manner and Anthony Montgomery regrettably steps on his line early in the episode so badly it is amazing the director did not ask for another take. For an episode that involves a fight to take back a ship and to make sure that Enterprise is allowed to continue on its mission, no one seems particularly invested. It is almost like the cast came back so well rested from their summer hiatus that they slouched through the first episode back and it shows in the worst possible ways with their lackluster acting.

So, in the end, “Shockwave, Part 2” only has special effects that are marginally interesting presented as space battles (the virtual sets or set extensions look worse than some of the original Star Trek’s matte paintings!) that create more tension than any of the actors manage to. This is one of those episodes that is utterly unsatisfying and for fans who waited an entire summer to be returned to their beloved show . . . well, they have my pity.

The three biggest gaffes in “Shockwave, Part 2” are:
3. The Vulcans continue to deny any culpability in their lie about the Vulcan Monastery housing a spy complex in “The Andorian Incident” (reviewed here!). To deny the obvious is illogical; to make Vulcans into liars who shirk any sense of responsibility is just criminal,
2. Daniels and the Temporal Investigations unit of StarFleet do not prevent the Suliban actions that effectively make the Temporal Cold War into an active war,
1. Daniels said that the destruction of the colony did not happen in history as it happened. There is nothing in “Shockwave, Part 2” that undoes the destruction of the colony, so it should have been recorded. This is a huge problem.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophmore season here!
Thanks!]

1/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page where reviews are organized from best to worst episode/movie!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Enterprise Season One Goes Out With A Bang (And A Whimper) With “Shockwave”

The Good: Decent plot, Moments of character, Performances are fine
The Bad: Most of the characters do not develops, Special effects are decidedly mixed
The Basics: When the Enterprise is responsible for a planetary disaster, the ship is recalled until Archer gets fully invested in the Temporal Cold War.


One of my favorite guest stars from the Star Trek franchise once made a pithy remark that her character had been killed on the show . . . so it only guaranteed her two more appearances on the show. I thought that was hilarious, but true. In the Star Trek universe characters seldom stay dead. Enterprise carries on that noble tradition and it is somewhat unsurprising that the first resurrected character is the character who was not native to the Enterprise timeline anyway. Daniels, killed back in “Cold Front” (reviewed here!) reappears in “Shockwave” and his reappearance is one of the least surprising returns in the entire franchise.

“Shockwave” is a Temporal Cold War story that completes the first season of Enterprise and, to be fair, it does it with flair, if not sensibility. In fact, I was thrilled when Captain Archer asks Daniels the sensible question when he finds himself returned to a moment in the past, though the answer is thoroughly disappointing (and makes no real sense). Archer is returned to the past after a key event and it is a moment he remembers from being in it (the day before “Broken Bow,” reviewed here, began the series), but while there, the version of himself from the past is not in the bed he wakes up in. It was remarkably unsatisfying. That said, most of the episode is entertaining and an engaging action adventure episode that is enough to keep watching.

The Enterprise arrives at a Paraagan colony where the crew is given very specific directions on how to enter the atmosphere because the mining colony there creates an elemental byproduct that has the potential to ignite the colony’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, such an ignition does occur, which baffles Reed and the crew because Reed followed all of the procedures he was required to and there were no malfunctions in the vents that might have allowed the plasma to vent and ignite the atmosphere. Archer begins to feel sorry for himself and he is shocked when Admiral Forrest recalls the ship to Earth. The implication is that the ship will be decommissioned and the Vulcans will use the 3600 deaths on the colony to keep humans away from space exploration for the next two decades.

Despite the protestations of T’Pol and Trip, Archer complies with Forrest’s orders . . . until he wakes up back on Earth in the past and meets with Crewman Daniels. Daniels gives him the tools to uncover the truth; that the colony had a cloaked Suliban vessel that caused the colony’s destruction in order to discredit Enterprise and stall human movement into the galaxy. Reacting to that revelation, the Enterprise returns to the colony and goes on the offensive, knocking out the Suliban facility. This, however, draws the ire of the Suliban and their handlers from the future and put the Enterprise into its most dangerous situation yet.

“Shockwave” is notable on the character front in that it systematically gives and takes character from Jonathan Archer. Archer is portrayed well as deeply human in the episode. He is shocked and hurt by the destruction his crew caused and he is legitimately horrified. Unfortunately for him, the only way out of the situation is the plot-based convenience of Crewman Daniels. This undermines Archer in a serious and somewhat debilitating way. Archer is not a cunning captain who pushes the boundaries of what humanity can do or who we are in a crunch: he is a guy who is given all the answers from the future who knows how events are supposed to play out. This makes his part in “Shockwave” particularly unsatisfying.

Similarly, the return of Daniels and the menace of Silik are met with mixed results. Daniels has little purpose other than delivering massive amounts of exposition and actor Matt Winston does that well. The ending to the episode makes little temporal sense, but when talking time travel, there is some element of that to be expected. Winston does fine, but his character in “Shockwave” is not much of a character.

In a similar fashion, the mysterious stranger from the future who is using Silik is undermined some in “Shockwave.” After all, at some point it makes sense to replace the operative who continues to fail you and Silik’s success rate is approaching zero in “Shockwave.” Silik, while he appears appropriately menacing, comes across as little more than a thug middleman in “Shockwave” and that is getting harder to watch. Actor John Fleck does fine with the role he is given, though.

Jolene Blalock, as she usually does, emotes far more as T’Pol than a Vulcan ought to – she plays the Subcommander surprised when Archer agrees to essentially surrender early in the episode and that is an unfortunate performance. Similarly, Connor Trineer plays Trip Tucker as unfortunately dumb and while he has that down pat, it does weaken the character quite a bit.

Scott Bakula emotes well as Archer for the character’s intended range and “Shockwave” is watchable and does what a season finale is supposed to do; it makes the viewer want to know what comes next. The set-up for season two from “Shockwave” is more than adequate to that task.

The three biggest gaffes in “Shockwave:”
3. As a basic element of temporal mechanics, it is utterly absurd that none of the characters – not Daniels or Archer – talk about preventing the destruction of Paraaga II. The moment Daniels acknowledges that the colony was not destroyed in the original trip through the timeline, it is stunningly unimaginative and problematic that none of the characters make that a priority.
2. Yet another new alien race is referenced in Enterprise at what would be the core of the Federation. The Paraagans are not mentioned in any of the subsequent incarnations of Trek, yet here they are at the core of what will become Federation space.
1. The Enterprise crew makes a big deal about the matriarchal society the Paraagans have. Matriarchal societies might not be a particularly big deal, but they are treated as an exceptionally rare anomaly in “Angel One” (reviewed here!). It seems odd that it would be such a novelty to the Enterprise crew (then) if in the past early humans encountered them so early.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the premiere season here!
Thanks!]

5.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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